Hello everyone!
I like my mission. It's nice. I came to that conclusion this week. It gets dark now by 4 pm. And isn't fully light until after 8 sometime. It's hard to tell because it's been cloudy the whole week. It's been snowing again. I was surprised when Dad said you all are still enjoying the fall colors. At least the people in Utah understand. This week we woke up one morning and the air was thick with frozen mist. I guess it's comparable to being in a freezer. Over the course of the morning, everything grew icy, spikey hair. It was crazy! The bikes even looked like they'd turned punk. There were little spikes all over the seats, handle bars, and wheels. I've never seen anything like it before. Sis Porkka thought it was really cool and rare as well, so that's saying something. Most winter things are ho hum for her.
Anyway, this has been a good week. We had sharpening on Tuesday, which was fun. Sis Porkka finally got her birthday packages, so she knows her mother loves her after all and Elder Shear got a 30 lb Christmas package. He started opening his Christmas presents right there. I think he would have eaten the marshmallow (that's a reference to Elder Uchtdorf's Continue in Patience talk).
On Wednesday we met with JC, the one who got baptized in March, and reconfirmed that he doesn't have a testimony of the restored gospel. At all. I kept wanting to ask him why he got baptized, but I already knew the answer. The sisters who found him were both very pretty and he's proposed to a lot of the sisters who have been here. We've escaped the topic until now, but he asked us at the end of the lesson what we are looking for in a man. We both emphasized being a good priesthood holder and having a testimony. I wish he would just understand that if he followed what we taught him, he'd be someone a good Mormon girl would want to marry. Sigh.
On Thursday we told A we weren't going to meet with him anymore, but he's very welcome to come to activities and such. He didn't seem so broken up about it, surprisingly.
On Friday we went up to the middle of nowhere to visit R and Al. Then we had to walk back. Al came with us, so it was enjoyable, but took an hour to get to civilization again. Never again.
On Saturday we had 7 people at our Swedish class!! Hooray! They are all from Pakistan and so very nice. The next day was Stake Conference, so we went that night and stayed at the mission home because there are no trains in the morning. It was lovely to sit around and talk with President and Sister Anderson and the Rasmussens, a new older couple who just got here. Stake Conference was nice. We sang in the choir. On the way back we got a ride with the Keanns. A half American family who drive their RV around to such events. They are fascinating to me. I've never met anyone like Brother Keann. I'm sure other people in his situation exist, but I just don't know. It's fascinating because he's American. His wife understands and can speak English. His children can speak English, but they speak Swedish at home. He speaks only Swedish to us. He just seems Swedish now. This probably betrays how terribly...um...something I am, but I would just have assumed they would make English their lingua franca. I don't know. It's not a big deal, but I just think it's interesting.
Anyway, after that we visited B about an hour out of Örebro and missed our bus because of the Latvian-Estonian-German-Russian 77 year old man who talked nonstop for an hour. He kept making lewd comments I didn't understand, so I had to be careful what I smiled and nodded about. He was there with his Finnish wife who can barely walk and seemed to be in pain and on the verge of tears the whole time. He was talking the whole time about his wives over the years and his escapades as a sailor. Sis Porkka described the whole experience as being in a Russian novel or a Samuel Beckett play and was existentialism embodied. Especially missing the bus. The next one came two hours later, so we went back to B's and ended up talking about why she left the church, her desires to come back, her illnesses and her fear of water. It turned out ok.
Well, another P-day almost over. I tried fixing my suitcase this morning. It might work, but I'm in the process of failing at the moment. I'll let you know how it went. This letter is always too long! I hope you all have a great week. Happy Thanksgiving! The church is true.
Syster Maxwell
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