Subject: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east
Hello everyone!
I don't have very much time left to write today. I had to get a library card. I have a nice collection now. I have a library card from every area I've been in except Sundsvall, sadly. Well, the big news for today and the reason for the subject line from Amos is that I called president Monday night to make sure going on splits to Örebro this week instead of next week would be ok. He told me that it would be, but that he had a little wrinkle to the plan. There would be a short time missionary coming from Umeå and he wanted me to train her in Göteborg. We'd be living with the other sisters that were already there, Sis Gotberg (from my MTC group) and Sister Hedström, another short time missionary. I was of course really excited, but sad to leave Uppsala so soon, and Sister Dabb and Kiser were a excited but really nervous. They were in the MTC together and have been in Sweden about 4 months. They'll be fine, but it'll be an adventure.
So I spent Tuesday and Wednesday packing when we had free time and trying to keep my head in Uppsala for a couple more days :) On Thursday I went to Örebro to go on splits with Y, the member from El Salvador who had to come here because of problems at home and only sits at home all day because she can't speak the language and her sister works long hours. We picked her up on the way back from district meeting and I showed her how the bus system works and how to get a bus card and how to get to the church. We then went to go visit an almost investigator from El Salvador. They exchanged information and I told Y that they were now her project :) (The daughter only speaks Spanish). We met up with the other sisters and got Y back on the train. It was so much fun being with Sis Porkka again. It was like old times.
On Saturday, the sisters dropped me off in Stockholm with Sis Lundquist, the office secretary who was my companion for the day. I became the 2nd official sister secretary after Sis Wood who did the same thing before going home. It was really fun, but I was feeling really anxious to go out and work by the time I got to Göteborg with Sis Lövgren, my new companion. We stayed at the mission home the night before and that was really fun too. Sorry, this is all really vague because I have no time. We are really excited to be 4 sisters here. That never happens, especially not with two Swedish sisters, so we are excited for the next couple of months. They are both 19, and really excited to be here. Well, take care everyone, I'll tell you about the weather next week!
Sys Max
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Week 44
Subject: Keep Jesus in Your Heart
Dear everyone,
Well, it's been a week. Quite a week. Everything has been picking back up again and we are feeling really excited about this next week. We have a baptism on Saturday for the Mongolian orphan who just moved up to our area. 'His people' as he calls them gave him permission to come to church on his own, and he is really excited about everything. The elders who taught said that when they found him, he had already read the Book of Mormon all the way through and knew it was true. They've been mostly teaching him with the pamphlets since neither his English nor his Swedish are very good. He didn't want translation in church, though, so he must be learning Swedish quickly.
We had a couple of crazy days last week. On Friday we met with two theology students. They were very respectful and open and have recently put their studies on hold because they are exploring the concept of discipleship. We didn't get to talk long about their new plans for the future, but they aren't sure the path they were on was right. More on that next week. We went from them to another Swedish kid who grew up in the Pentecostal church. It was cool hearing him describe the Spirit as that warm feeling you get when you pray sometimes. Also open and pretty cool. Right after we had a lesson on the restoration of the gospel and half of the plan of salvation with a group of mortuary students. Also open, interested, and respectful. 3 for 3! It was great.
On Saturday we went to go visit our new investigator from Cameroon and it went ok. He needs to think about the pre-mortal existence a little more. It was a little too much to swallow. But, when we were done, there was this guy who sat down and asked us who we were and what we were talking about. (We were in the kitchen of a dorm) After we told him he was still really interested in learning more and coming to activities. He and his friend both wanted us to give them a call the next time we'd be back. It was awesome! They are both from Pakistan. Then that night we had a really powerful lesson with another Muslim from Pakistan who wanted to know more about Jesus Christ. He felt something and knew what we were saying was true.
Well, as far as funny things this week, I think the only big thing was this guy who started preaching to us by the bathrooms in the train station. He said he was impressed with us because we were wearing skirts. He asked us if we had Jesus in our hearts and when I said yes started preaching to us about how important that was and how to do it. I told him we were missionaries and we gave him our card. "Keep Jesus in your heart!" He told us. I wanted to point out that I do that literally because I was wearing a name tag with His name on it, but I didn't. We saw him the next day on a train station and he said he wanted to read us a scripture that would open my heart in a new way. It was the scripture from Matthew about a man cleaving unto his wife and them becoming one flesh. I tried to show him a scripture from the Book of Mormon and he refused to even touch the book. He started preaching to us on a train full of people about how it was evil to practice polygamy. I asked him if we could do this later and he left us alone. I didn't want to be responsible for being another example to the Swedish people to support their views that religion only causes conflict. He told us he thought it was a sign he had seen us again that he needed to save our souls. Anyway, that's probably pretty standard other places, but i haven't run into here very often.
So, basically, a great week with lots of fun people. Today I'm sitting with Sis Waite, a sister missionary whose husband is gone for the day. She fell and cracked her kneecap on the ice. I hope everyone is doing well and that I haven't forgotten anyone or anything. Love you all!
Syster Maxwell
Dear everyone,
Well, it's been a week. Quite a week. Everything has been picking back up again and we are feeling really excited about this next week. We have a baptism on Saturday for the Mongolian orphan who just moved up to our area. 'His people' as he calls them gave him permission to come to church on his own, and he is really excited about everything. The elders who taught said that when they found him, he had already read the Book of Mormon all the way through and knew it was true. They've been mostly teaching him with the pamphlets since neither his English nor his Swedish are very good. He didn't want translation in church, though, so he must be learning Swedish quickly.
We had a couple of crazy days last week. On Friday we met with two theology students. They were very respectful and open and have recently put their studies on hold because they are exploring the concept of discipleship. We didn't get to talk long about their new plans for the future, but they aren't sure the path they were on was right. More on that next week. We went from them to another Swedish kid who grew up in the Pentecostal church. It was cool hearing him describe the Spirit as that warm feeling you get when you pray sometimes. Also open and pretty cool. Right after we had a lesson on the restoration of the gospel and half of the plan of salvation with a group of mortuary students. Also open, interested, and respectful. 3 for 3! It was great.
On Saturday we went to go visit our new investigator from Cameroon and it went ok. He needs to think about the pre-mortal existence a little more. It was a little too much to swallow. But, when we were done, there was this guy who sat down and asked us who we were and what we were talking about. (We were in the kitchen of a dorm) After we told him he was still really interested in learning more and coming to activities. He and his friend both wanted us to give them a call the next time we'd be back. It was awesome! They are both from Pakistan. Then that night we had a really powerful lesson with another Muslim from Pakistan who wanted to know more about Jesus Christ. He felt something and knew what we were saying was true.
Well, as far as funny things this week, I think the only big thing was this guy who started preaching to us by the bathrooms in the train station. He said he was impressed with us because we were wearing skirts. He asked us if we had Jesus in our hearts and when I said yes started preaching to us about how important that was and how to do it. I told him we were missionaries and we gave him our card. "Keep Jesus in your heart!" He told us. I wanted to point out that I do that literally because I was wearing a name tag with His name on it, but I didn't. We saw him the next day on a train station and he said he wanted to read us a scripture that would open my heart in a new way. It was the scripture from Matthew about a man cleaving unto his wife and them becoming one flesh. I tried to show him a scripture from the Book of Mormon and he refused to even touch the book. He started preaching to us on a train full of people about how it was evil to practice polygamy. I asked him if we could do this later and he left us alone. I didn't want to be responsible for being another example to the Swedish people to support their views that religion only causes conflict. He told us he thought it was a sign he had seen us again that he needed to save our souls. Anyway, that's probably pretty standard other places, but i haven't run into here very often.
So, basically, a great week with lots of fun people. Today I'm sitting with Sis Waite, a sister missionary whose husband is gone for the day. She fell and cracked her kneecap on the ice. I hope everyone is doing well and that I haven't forgotten anyone or anything. Love you all!
Syster Maxwell
Monday, January 17, 2011
Week 43
Subject: The new normal
Hejsan allihopa!
Well, remember last week when I said we were looking forward to a normal week? Nope. We actually got a call that night from president asking us to pack our things and move to Uppsala. There were two sisters going home mid-transfer. One of them had been in a trio in Göteborg, but the other one would be leaving her companion, well, companion-less. I don't think having us double out of Sundsvall and have Elders come instead was really his plan until last minute. The assistants told the Uppsala sisters on Monday-day that Uppsala would probably be closing and Sis Dabb would be moving elsewhere. But last minute moves by a kid who has a date to be baptized may have helped him rethink the decision. Based on the miracles we've seen in the last couple of days, we think the Lord's hand was in it to keep the area open. I'm not going to lie, I never felt totally settled in to Sundsvall. I would absolutely love to go back there, but our first day in Uppsala felt like coming home. I'm back in the Stockholm district and have actually been here a couple times. Unfortunately we missed both the Stockholm and Norrland zone conferences, but President let us listen the afternoon hours of the Norrland zone conference on Saturday via speaker phone. It worked out really well and was so much better than nothing.
So, some awesome things about Uppsala...Swedish class! I love teaching Swedish class and they actually have people who come. Sister Dabb! She was MTC companions with Sister Kiser and is just top notch. 2 Baptismal dates! They had this really awesome kid walk into church on Sunday and ask how he could become a member :) The other one is a Mongolian orphan who was living in Hägersten and then moved up here. We haven't met him yet, but he sounds really nice. The Waites! They are a older missionary couple in charge of the missionary apartments and are living here in Uppsala. They are fantastic. Elder Waite knows a ton about Swedish history, so he offered to take us on a tour one day. Stockholm!!! I'm really excited to be back :) We live about an hour away. The sun! It was shining until 2:30 when we got here!
Anyway, double transferring out was really hectic. Sister Kiser hadn't moved up to this point, so packing took her all day. I packed and took care of everything else for the new elders coming in. I left as much info about the area the people we were working with as I could, but it seemed like we were missing something. It seems like they are getting along alright, though. One of them is Äldste Codling from my MTC group, so that's been fun. A couple in our ward were nice enough to come pick us up at 5:30 in the morning and help us onto the train at 6. The news was so unexpected that most people didn't find out. We went straight to Uppsala and then sent Sister Smith on the train to Stockholm. We've got a lot of work to do here still, but things to do and people to see are just popping up. Sis Dabb is excited to start over and find new people. Anyway. I am so happy to be here. We are going to have so much fun and do good work. I love you all and I know Heavenly Father is mindful of each of his children. His plan is perfect and he orchestrates everything to our best. I have seen that these past few weeks. Take care, everyone!
Sys M
Hejsan allihopa!
Well, remember last week when I said we were looking forward to a normal week? Nope. We actually got a call that night from president asking us to pack our things and move to Uppsala. There were two sisters going home mid-transfer. One of them had been in a trio in Göteborg, but the other one would be leaving her companion, well, companion-less. I don't think having us double out of Sundsvall and have Elders come instead was really his plan until last minute. The assistants told the Uppsala sisters on Monday-day that Uppsala would probably be closing and Sis Dabb would be moving elsewhere. But last minute moves by a kid who has a date to be baptized may have helped him rethink the decision. Based on the miracles we've seen in the last couple of days, we think the Lord's hand was in it to keep the area open. I'm not going to lie, I never felt totally settled in to Sundsvall. I would absolutely love to go back there, but our first day in Uppsala felt like coming home. I'm back in the Stockholm district and have actually been here a couple times. Unfortunately we missed both the Stockholm and Norrland zone conferences, but President let us listen the afternoon hours of the Norrland zone conference on Saturday via speaker phone. It worked out really well and was so much better than nothing.
So, some awesome things about Uppsala...Swedish class! I love teaching Swedish class and they actually have people who come. Sister Dabb! She was MTC companions with Sister Kiser and is just top notch. 2 Baptismal dates! They had this really awesome kid walk into church on Sunday and ask how he could become a member :) The other one is a Mongolian orphan who was living in Hägersten and then moved up here. We haven't met him yet, but he sounds really nice. The Waites! They are a older missionary couple in charge of the missionary apartments and are living here in Uppsala. They are fantastic. Elder Waite knows a ton about Swedish history, so he offered to take us on a tour one day. Stockholm!!! I'm really excited to be back :) We live about an hour away. The sun! It was shining until 2:30 when we got here!
Anyway, double transferring out was really hectic. Sister Kiser hadn't moved up to this point, so packing took her all day. I packed and took care of everything else for the new elders coming in. I left as much info about the area the people we were working with as I could, but it seemed like we were missing something. It seems like they are getting along alright, though. One of them is Äldste Codling from my MTC group, so that's been fun. A couple in our ward were nice enough to come pick us up at 5:30 in the morning and help us onto the train at 6. The news was so unexpected that most people didn't find out. We went straight to Uppsala and then sent Sister Smith on the train to Stockholm. We've got a lot of work to do here still, but things to do and people to see are just popping up. Sis Dabb is excited to start over and find new people. Anyway. I am so happy to be here. We are going to have so much fun and do good work. I love you all and I know Heavenly Father is mindful of each of his children. His plan is perfect and he orchestrates everything to our best. I have seen that these past few weeks. Take care, everyone!
Sys M
Week 42
10 January 2011
Subject: The Lord giveth…and the Lord taketh away.
Hejsan allihopa!
Don't worry, no one was injured. But, we'll get back to that later. First, the weather. It's been absolutely wonderful this week with temperatures hovering right below 0. But, that means we've gotten tons of wet snow. The only up-side is being able to throw snowballs at Sister Kiser. And that I can go hatless again without feeling like my ears are being frost bitten. Down south I hear they've been getting rain and slushy snow, like Utah, right grandma?
We almost had the first normal week of the transfer without a holiday or something bad happening. We did a lot of tracting this week. And contacting. Everyone's trying to get pumped up during the post holiday let down, so we are having a zone Book of Mormon contest to see how many Book of Mormons we can give out. We are leading right now with 8.6. The .6 is one of those mini Book of Mormons that one of our investigators wanted for her baby. We'll only count it if it means not losing :) The prize is being able to eat at zone conference if we beat the zone leaders. The also said they'd be the winners' slaves for the day. I don't know what good that would do anyone. We've talked to some really nice people who I hope the missionaries contact again or that they meet a member at some point. We also got chewed out yesterday by a lady who thinks us going around trying to change everyone's religion is absolutely despicable. There's a lot I could say about that, but I won't. I told her we just offer what we have to people because it makes us happy and it's up to them to choose to accept it or not. Sigh.
We got some sad news on Thursday. One of the elders in our district has to go home for medical reasons. He has a really big infection and is only not in pain when he's laying down. He is on the plane home today. We were very sad as was he.
On Friday I was told by a member that the lady I contacted who was really positive and I could tell felt something as we talked to her was just being nice and nothing would ever come of it. (she didn't give us her number or want to meet). Thank you for you positive support. I am aware she probably won't just show up to church next week, but you never know what might happen down the road. The lesson taken from this is please don't pop missionaries' bubbles. We take what we can get and have faith the Lord will take care of the rest. Thank you.
On Sunday we had 8 investigators in church! Two in Hudiksvall with me and 6 up in Sundsvall with Sis Kiser. She didn't know what to do with herself. It sounds like everything went really well.
I guess the big news of the week was that we wrecked the car on Saturday. I guess technically it's my fault since I was driving, but if you go by the missionary driving safety video it was both of our faults. We were driving to Hudiksvall and about 5 km outside of it we both fell asleep. I had registered that I still had my hat and scarf on and that the music was turned off and that Sis Kiser was already starting to doze off, but by the time I thought to myself, "I'm getting drowsy, I should drink some water," I was already past the point of logical thought to do anything about it. We were very lucky though. There were no cars passing on the other side and none right behind. A metal divider started right after we hit the side, so we swerved to miss it and hit the back right tire on the sign that marks where it starts. Then we pinballed back and forth between the dividers a few times until we regained control. This was all accompanied by the sound of shattering glass which was actually the bottles of frozen water in the back of the car, so the damage wasn't as bad as it sounded. The car drove straight when the wheel was pointed to about 2 o'clock and it was difficult to get it to respond. It drove well enough that we were able to take the next exit which was where we wanted to get off anyway. There was a bit of body damage, but it seemed like most of the damage was with the axels and alignment. We called the mission office and then went to our teaching appointment. The irony is we were on our way to meet a man who won't let us come visit him when it's snowing outside because his first wife died in a car accident on a snowy day. The weather on Saturday was perfectly clear. Even more ironic. We left the car at the train station and took the train back to Sundsvall. The next day we came down of course for sacrament meeting and Pres. Stegeby from the District Presidency took one look at it and decided he'd drive it back (it's an hour and a half away). When he called later that night he'd said it's been really hard to drive. Anyway, that's the sad news. I'm still trying to figure out what the lesson really is from all this. I really don't know why it happened. Oh well. I know we were protected at least. I feel really bad about it still.
So, we are back to taking the bus for awhile. Well, it's been an interesting week. Maybe next week will be normal again. Or maybe this is the new normal? I love you all and I know the Lord is taking care of us.
Syster Maxwell
Subject: The Lord giveth…and the Lord taketh away.
Hejsan allihopa!
Don't worry, no one was injured. But, we'll get back to that later. First, the weather. It's been absolutely wonderful this week with temperatures hovering right below 0. But, that means we've gotten tons of wet snow. The only up-side is being able to throw snowballs at Sister Kiser. And that I can go hatless again without feeling like my ears are being frost bitten. Down south I hear they've been getting rain and slushy snow, like Utah, right grandma?
We almost had the first normal week of the transfer without a holiday or something bad happening. We did a lot of tracting this week. And contacting. Everyone's trying to get pumped up during the post holiday let down, so we are having a zone Book of Mormon contest to see how many Book of Mormons we can give out. We are leading right now with 8.6. The .6 is one of those mini Book of Mormons that one of our investigators wanted for her baby. We'll only count it if it means not losing :) The prize is being able to eat at zone conference if we beat the zone leaders. The also said they'd be the winners' slaves for the day. I don't know what good that would do anyone. We've talked to some really nice people who I hope the missionaries contact again or that they meet a member at some point. We also got chewed out yesterday by a lady who thinks us going around trying to change everyone's religion is absolutely despicable. There's a lot I could say about that, but I won't. I told her we just offer what we have to people because it makes us happy and it's up to them to choose to accept it or not. Sigh.
We got some sad news on Thursday. One of the elders in our district has to go home for medical reasons. He has a really big infection and is only not in pain when he's laying down. He is on the plane home today. We were very sad as was he.
On Friday I was told by a member that the lady I contacted who was really positive and I could tell felt something as we talked to her was just being nice and nothing would ever come of it. (she didn't give us her number or want to meet). Thank you for you positive support. I am aware she probably won't just show up to church next week, but you never know what might happen down the road. The lesson taken from this is please don't pop missionaries' bubbles. We take what we can get and have faith the Lord will take care of the rest. Thank you.
On Sunday we had 8 investigators in church! Two in Hudiksvall with me and 6 up in Sundsvall with Sis Kiser. She didn't know what to do with herself. It sounds like everything went really well.
I guess the big news of the week was that we wrecked the car on Saturday. I guess technically it's my fault since I was driving, but if you go by the missionary driving safety video it was both of our faults. We were driving to Hudiksvall and about 5 km outside of it we both fell asleep. I had registered that I still had my hat and scarf on and that the music was turned off and that Sis Kiser was already starting to doze off, but by the time I thought to myself, "I'm getting drowsy, I should drink some water," I was already past the point of logical thought to do anything about it. We were very lucky though. There were no cars passing on the other side and none right behind. A metal divider started right after we hit the side, so we swerved to miss it and hit the back right tire on the sign that marks where it starts. Then we pinballed back and forth between the dividers a few times until we regained control. This was all accompanied by the sound of shattering glass which was actually the bottles of frozen water in the back of the car, so the damage wasn't as bad as it sounded. The car drove straight when the wheel was pointed to about 2 o'clock and it was difficult to get it to respond. It drove well enough that we were able to take the next exit which was where we wanted to get off anyway. There was a bit of body damage, but it seemed like most of the damage was with the axels and alignment. We called the mission office and then went to our teaching appointment. The irony is we were on our way to meet a man who won't let us come visit him when it's snowing outside because his first wife died in a car accident on a snowy day. The weather on Saturday was perfectly clear. Even more ironic. We left the car at the train station and took the train back to Sundsvall. The next day we came down of course for sacrament meeting and Pres. Stegeby from the District Presidency took one look at it and decided he'd drive it back (it's an hour and a half away). When he called later that night he'd said it's been really hard to drive. Anyway, that's the sad news. I'm still trying to figure out what the lesson really is from all this. I really don't know why it happened. Oh well. I know we were protected at least. I feel really bad about it still.
So, we are back to taking the bus for awhile. Well, it's been an interesting week. Maybe next week will be normal again. Or maybe this is the new normal? I love you all and I know the Lord is taking care of us.
Syster Maxwell
Monday, January 3, 2011
Week 41
3 January 2011
Subject: Narnia is lovely this time of year. All that snow.
Hello dear family,
I got the packet from Grandma Win this week. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! This was a good week. It was relatively warm--between -10 and -4 all week! Nothing much else exciting in weather news. We were driving to Örnsköldsvik on Thursday for District Meeting and the entire scene was shades of gray, blue, and white. It was beautiful. The sky was a light blue and fairly matched the landscape.
We've found a few more people to teach this week. One man comes from Greece, another from Colombia originally, and another from Sierra Leone. We also contacted a lady who was interested from somewhere else in Africa. We were very blessed. Hopefully our appointments will go through with them.
The stories this week are all sad it seems. New converts who are still without a home. I think I mentioned before about the one guy who was sleeping in the train station, but since has been moving from hotel to hotel, living off their charity while he waits for a job. The other recent convert whose apartment burned should be getting a place for the next couple of months, so that's happy. There's a less active whose kids we are teaching who is married to a lady in Colombia. He hasn't been able to get ahold of her for over 2 months. The last time he talked to her, she said there was no money for food and she'd have to sell her phone. He said I don't know if I have a wife left :( We finally met with a 14 year old girl who has started imitating her father's own apathy towards church right now. That seems to be so common. People are sorry after they come back and their grown children have no faith. I also met this girl who is a champion belly dancer of her age group back in Azerbaijan (sp?). She was really nice and I hear she was really positive about learning about the church, but we can't teach her because her dad doesn't like us. He's nice when we are just visiting, though. They got a negative on their application for residency and might have to move back soon. They made us 'juice' out of coke syrup. Flat coke. Yum!
New Year's Eve was really fun. We went home and did weekly planning. There had been fireworks going off sporadically throughout the evening, but about 9 they started going off all over town. We have a view of the city, so we could see a good number of them. The coolest thing we saw was these little bags with some kind of ignited something or other that would rise up somewhere in the city and float away to better places. We have no idea what they were still, some kind of mini hot air balloon contraption. We asked someone at church and they said they thought it was a Finnish tradition. We forgot to ask the Finns in the ward...so maybe I'll let you know next week.
Last night I was calling some former investigators and called one guy who said he was going to be getting married in Cuba this spring (which is why he can't meet with us now...go figure) and I asked him if he can speak Spanish. He said yes and I told him I could too. I was done and going to hang up, but he asked me about why I could speak Spanish, so we chatted for awhile in Spanish. It was fun. Maybe he'll remember that the next time the missionaries call him :)
This week I was told for the third time that I look like Princess Viktoria, the crown princess of Sweden, and the one who just got married, so I am accepting it as true. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the first two times were both at Stake Conference. Elder Herrey, father of the famous Herreys, told me I looked like her and then later the assistants told me they had decided that I looked like her the night before. I was quite flattered. I'll have to buy one of her books.
Anyway, the work is picking up. The last month has felt like we were driving in thick snow (figuratively), so it's nice that the new year is finally here. I can't think of anything else. I love being a missionary and I'm grateful for the chance to be here. I love you all. Good luck going back to work and school. That's always the worst, but it'll be fine once you get your head wet.
Syster Maxwell
Subject: Narnia is lovely this time of year. All that snow.
Hello dear family,
I got the packet from Grandma Win this week. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! This was a good week. It was relatively warm--between -10 and -4 all week! Nothing much else exciting in weather news. We were driving to Örnsköldsvik on Thursday for District Meeting and the entire scene was shades of gray, blue, and white. It was beautiful. The sky was a light blue and fairly matched the landscape.
We've found a few more people to teach this week. One man comes from Greece, another from Colombia originally, and another from Sierra Leone. We also contacted a lady who was interested from somewhere else in Africa. We were very blessed. Hopefully our appointments will go through with them.
The stories this week are all sad it seems. New converts who are still without a home. I think I mentioned before about the one guy who was sleeping in the train station, but since has been moving from hotel to hotel, living off their charity while he waits for a job. The other recent convert whose apartment burned should be getting a place for the next couple of months, so that's happy. There's a less active whose kids we are teaching who is married to a lady in Colombia. He hasn't been able to get ahold of her for over 2 months. The last time he talked to her, she said there was no money for food and she'd have to sell her phone. He said I don't know if I have a wife left :( We finally met with a 14 year old girl who has started imitating her father's own apathy towards church right now. That seems to be so common. People are sorry after they come back and their grown children have no faith. I also met this girl who is a champion belly dancer of her age group back in Azerbaijan (sp?). She was really nice and I hear she was really positive about learning about the church, but we can't teach her because her dad doesn't like us. He's nice when we are just visiting, though. They got a negative on their application for residency and might have to move back soon. They made us 'juice' out of coke syrup. Flat coke. Yum!
New Year's Eve was really fun. We went home and did weekly planning. There had been fireworks going off sporadically throughout the evening, but about 9 they started going off all over town. We have a view of the city, so we could see a good number of them. The coolest thing we saw was these little bags with some kind of ignited something or other that would rise up somewhere in the city and float away to better places. We have no idea what they were still, some kind of mini hot air balloon contraption. We asked someone at church and they said they thought it was a Finnish tradition. We forgot to ask the Finns in the ward...so maybe I'll let you know next week.
Last night I was calling some former investigators and called one guy who said he was going to be getting married in Cuba this spring (which is why he can't meet with us now...go figure) and I asked him if he can speak Spanish. He said yes and I told him I could too. I was done and going to hang up, but he asked me about why I could speak Spanish, so we chatted for awhile in Spanish. It was fun. Maybe he'll remember that the next time the missionaries call him :)
This week I was told for the third time that I look like Princess Viktoria, the crown princess of Sweden, and the one who just got married, so I am accepting it as true. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the first two times were both at Stake Conference. Elder Herrey, father of the famous Herreys, told me I looked like her and then later the assistants told me they had decided that I looked like her the night before. I was quite flattered. I'll have to buy one of her books.
Anyway, the work is picking up. The last month has felt like we were driving in thick snow (figuratively), so it's nice that the new year is finally here. I can't think of anything else. I love being a missionary and I'm grateful for the chance to be here. I love you all. Good luck going back to work and school. That's always the worst, but it'll be fine once you get your head wet.
Syster Maxwell
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