Subject: Boots!
Hey all,
So, I've just spent 40 minutes trying to get grad school stuff organized, so I'll keep this brief. It's strange to have to think about things like "cover letter", "writing sample", and "resume". Ick!!! That's why I came on a mission--to get away from all that! Just kidding. I came because I had nothing better to do. Oh, no, it was because that's what the Lord wanted me to do and I have a testimony. That's right... I'm such a missionary. I can't believe it. :D
Well, the most exciting thing that happened this week was probably getting a decimeter of snow this week. All on Tuesday. During the day. Luckily I wore my boots (I found them in the apartment. They are warm and woolly and wonderful!), but we had sadly decided on biking. We couldn't ride home because the pelting snow made it impossible for Sis Porkka to see (she wears glasses) and difficult for either of us to want to keep going. I rode around a little and had fun slipping in the snow, but mostly we just walked the whole way home from downtown. I think the best part was going into a few Pressbyråns looking to buy a bus card. The first ones didn't have the ones we needed, but we finally got them at the last one. We laughed about the two drenched, mascara smeared missionaries walking into the store carrying bike helmets to buy bus cards. I had mascara all over my face the whole day. Learned me a lesson! Go with the water-proof in the winter.
On Wednesday we had a teach with our new investigator who is schizophrenic. She is really sweet and doing really well right now, but we are not quite sure how to help her understand that the founding of our church didn't happen because of a scheme by aliens. It's a work in progress, and we are taking it slow.
Also, on Saturday, we finally had two guys show up to Swedish class who aren't members and are planning on coming regularly! We had given up hope and were unlocking our bikes to leave when they came walking up and said, "are we in the right place for Swedish class?" Yay! They are from Pakistan and are really nice. I hope they come back!
Anyway, it's been a good week other than losing most of Tuesday to the snow. I don't have any money on my card because I used it all to pay for the bus card. We're hoping the advance (little late now) comes in soon! Sorry, not important for you all to know. I've been reading in Our Heritage this week. It's like a condensed version of The Work and the Glory. Or rather...the Joseph Smith movie. Or maybe history. But the examples of the early saints are really inspiring and it's been enjoyable. Have a great week!
Love,
Syster Maxwell
Monday, November 15, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Week 33
Subject: Sick and tired of being sick and tired…
Hi!
So, the weather warmed up a bit early last week and the temperatures got up to about 10C every day, but we're back to a cold snap. It was -12 degrees Celsius this morning and the frost was still thick at noon. It's amazing! It's November! We were looking at a globe yesterday with a few new members at a family´s house yesterday. I was amazed at how high up Sweden was. I'm on top of the world! Ok, that's terrible...But, it's good to look at a globe every now and then so you can remember how ridiculously out of proportion maps on paper are. Speaking of terrible, my friend, Reid, told me once that I would listen to and enjoy EFY-type music because that's all you've got. I never thought it possible. My fears became reality this week when listening to Michael McLean's song, 'Sick and Tired' from his Mission2BeHappy CD (it's on a sampler we have in the apartment), a rock-a-billy tribute to feeling old and out of shape, and actually thinking to myself, 'Ok, maybe this is alright. It's kind of catchy...' Oh dear. I blame Sis Porkka.
Anyway, this week was long. I don't feel like we did very much. We are going down in people we teach, but can't seem to fill in the gaps yet. We've also been spending a lot of time with A, who still doesn't want to be baptized, but basically wants to be a missionary. We've tried to explain to him he's too old, not baptized, and doesn't even believe in our message... It's very strange. He wants to do something, but won't even come to church! We're going to have to have a serious DTR (define the relationship) this week.
Yesterday was Sis Porkka's birthday, so I made her a freezer cheesecake. She wanted regular cheesecake, but I didn't get the recipe until yesterday. So I'll have to make that some other time. I made her a big sign out of an old sheet which also doubles as a door to our closet now. Door for your birthday! She was excited :) And we put up Christmas lights. It was great :) We then had a surprise dinner with the Svenssons after church and it was lovely. We sang to her in three languages, English, Swedish and Finnish because their son served a mission in Finnish and taught us all. We finished off the day tracting. Hooray!
Well, the elders are here, and we have to go roast sausages over a fire :) We got up this morning and collected wood from the woods and took it back to apartment to melt and dry off. Actually, we took it from huge piles of wood by our apartment building that have been there since I got here. Probably for public use, right? I've heard so many stories from Elders about them getting yelled at for doing un-socially acceptable things that I expected someone to come out of no where and give us a hard time. Nope! It was great. I'll tell you how it went next week if I remember :) Oh! RR set a baptismal date! She is absolutely fantastic!!! Have a great week everyone! Love you all.
Syster Maxwell
Hi!
So, the weather warmed up a bit early last week and the temperatures got up to about 10C every day, but we're back to a cold snap. It was -12 degrees Celsius this morning and the frost was still thick at noon. It's amazing! It's November! We were looking at a globe yesterday with a few new members at a family´s house yesterday. I was amazed at how high up Sweden was. I'm on top of the world! Ok, that's terrible...But, it's good to look at a globe every now and then so you can remember how ridiculously out of proportion maps on paper are. Speaking of terrible, my friend, Reid, told me once that I would listen to and enjoy EFY-type music because that's all you've got. I never thought it possible. My fears became reality this week when listening to Michael McLean's song, 'Sick and Tired' from his Mission2BeHappy CD (it's on a sampler we have in the apartment), a rock-a-billy tribute to feeling old and out of shape, and actually thinking to myself, 'Ok, maybe this is alright. It's kind of catchy...' Oh dear. I blame Sis Porkka.
Anyway, this week was long. I don't feel like we did very much. We are going down in people we teach, but can't seem to fill in the gaps yet. We've also been spending a lot of time with A, who still doesn't want to be baptized, but basically wants to be a missionary. We've tried to explain to him he's too old, not baptized, and doesn't even believe in our message... It's very strange. He wants to do something, but won't even come to church! We're going to have to have a serious DTR (define the relationship) this week.
Yesterday was Sis Porkka's birthday, so I made her a freezer cheesecake. She wanted regular cheesecake, but I didn't get the recipe until yesterday. So I'll have to make that some other time. I made her a big sign out of an old sheet which also doubles as a door to our closet now. Door for your birthday! She was excited :) And we put up Christmas lights. It was great :) We then had a surprise dinner with the Svenssons after church and it was lovely. We sang to her in three languages, English, Swedish and Finnish because their son served a mission in Finnish and taught us all. We finished off the day tracting. Hooray!
Well, the elders are here, and we have to go roast sausages over a fire :) We got up this morning and collected wood from the woods and took it back to apartment to melt and dry off. Actually, we took it from huge piles of wood by our apartment building that have been there since I got here. Probably for public use, right? I've heard so many stories from Elders about them getting yelled at for doing un-socially acceptable things that I expected someone to come out of no where and give us a hard time. Nope! It was great. I'll tell you how it went next week if I remember :) Oh! RR set a baptismal date! She is absolutely fantastic!!! Have a great week everyone! Love you all.
Syster Maxwell
Monday, November 1, 2010
Week 32
Subject: Up an hour of sleep and feeling great!
Hejsan,
Nothing funny happened this week, but it was an ok week as far as I remember. We've started trying to take A to families' houses so he can actually feel the Spirit. Last week was wonderful. We took him to Family Home Evening at the Svenssons last minute and it was fantastic. We actually invited him to come before we had anyone lined up to host us, so we were kind of nervous about the whole thing. We finally got a hold of Brother Svensson at about 5:30 and A was already on his way towards the church. I kept thinking about mom's story about grandpa and not being able to sleep over because she didn't ask him first. But, the only problem we had was we had told him an hour earlier than they would be ready for us, so we went to eat something before. He paid for us and it felt oddly like a date. FHE was great though and he was really impressed by their family and actually stayed longer than half an hour :)
On Tuesday we had zone conference. It was marvelous. I sliced 6 bell peppers and my team won General Conference Jeopardy :) Pres Anderson ok'd applying to grad school, so I'll try to get that done as soon as I can.
Wednesday was a good day, but left a bad taste in our mouths. Thursday was also kind of blah, but we had a couple of teaches and got the Swedish Class flyers in Swedish done and printed out. Now we just have to get people to come.
Friday was just fine. We had a teach with H from Nigeria who also came to church yesterday. He's really interested but feels too nervous to study the Book of Mormon. He's trying to learn Swedish and has been waiting a year to receive a response about his status in the country. He hasn't heard anything yet.
On Saturday we went to Arboga to meet the member from El Salvador who, turns out, is running away from gang violence that she accidently and innocently got swept up in. She was so active in the church back home and had her mission papers all done except for the medical part. There are a couple of nurses in the ward here that we hope can help with that, but the bishop isn't sure about sending her out from here. She probably could leave from El Salvador if she just went for a weekend and then left again. Right now she is just sitting at home during the day doing nothing. We thought it would be so fun to have her come and stay with us for awhile and be like our full time ward missionary. Only problem is she only speaks Spanish, but we could teach her Swedish or English real fast...maybe :)
Yesterday we went to an awkward dinner with 4 young adults at one of their parents’ house. The mom is no longer a member of the Church and two of his sisters who aren't members anymore either came with a boyfriend. They were all lovely people, but we got stuck there longer than we'd planned and really had nothing to say to anyone except the mom who is studying Somalian and loves foreign grammar. I told her a little about K'iche' and that was the extent of my contribution to any conversation except to confirm or deny details about American culture. It was Halloween yesterday and they don't really celebrate it here, but there are some that have tried to get it going. They have parties and some kids try trick or treating. It was so funny to hear them tell about trying to explain to people what they were doing! They would say trick or treat (in Swedish) and no one would get it. "What do you all want?" They said that one guy actually said trick and so they pulled a tame trick on him and he got mad. Anyway, you had to be there, but it was funny.
Also, there is a missionary from Örebro going to the Pocatello, ID mission next week if he gets his visa. I wasn't sure if the Lee's actually live in that mission or not, but I gave him their info just in case. If you meet an Elder Edvinsson, take good care of him! He's really cool and reminds me a little of Brian. I think it's his hair (think pre-mission). Also, there is an Elder Lindquist who is in the MTC right now and will be in the Salt Lake City mission. Again, I have no idea what that entails as far as boundaries go, but if any of you Salt Lake people happen to see him ever, tell him hi and that he's awesome!
Anyway, that's the news. I'm working on patience this week. Turns out I still don't have any. Sigh. Daylight savings ended this week (or rather summer time), so it's dark at 5 now. We are looking forward to Guy Fawkes Day and Sis Porkka's birthday this week. We'll probably have to burn something. It's tradition! (Not in Sweden...)
Love you all!
Syster Maxwell
Hejsan,
Nothing funny happened this week, but it was an ok week as far as I remember. We've started trying to take A to families' houses so he can actually feel the Spirit. Last week was wonderful. We took him to Family Home Evening at the Svenssons last minute and it was fantastic. We actually invited him to come before we had anyone lined up to host us, so we were kind of nervous about the whole thing. We finally got a hold of Brother Svensson at about 5:30 and A was already on his way towards the church. I kept thinking about mom's story about grandpa and not being able to sleep over because she didn't ask him first. But, the only problem we had was we had told him an hour earlier than they would be ready for us, so we went to eat something before. He paid for us and it felt oddly like a date. FHE was great though and he was really impressed by their family and actually stayed longer than half an hour :)
On Tuesday we had zone conference. It was marvelous. I sliced 6 bell peppers and my team won General Conference Jeopardy :) Pres Anderson ok'd applying to grad school, so I'll try to get that done as soon as I can.
Wednesday was a good day, but left a bad taste in our mouths. Thursday was also kind of blah, but we had a couple of teaches and got the Swedish Class flyers in Swedish done and printed out. Now we just have to get people to come.
Friday was just fine. We had a teach with H from Nigeria who also came to church yesterday. He's really interested but feels too nervous to study the Book of Mormon. He's trying to learn Swedish and has been waiting a year to receive a response about his status in the country. He hasn't heard anything yet.
On Saturday we went to Arboga to meet the member from El Salvador who, turns out, is running away from gang violence that she accidently and innocently got swept up in. She was so active in the church back home and had her mission papers all done except for the medical part. There are a couple of nurses in the ward here that we hope can help with that, but the bishop isn't sure about sending her out from here. She probably could leave from El Salvador if she just went for a weekend and then left again. Right now she is just sitting at home during the day doing nothing. We thought it would be so fun to have her come and stay with us for awhile and be like our full time ward missionary. Only problem is she only speaks Spanish, but we could teach her Swedish or English real fast...maybe :)
Yesterday we went to an awkward dinner with 4 young adults at one of their parents’ house. The mom is no longer a member of the Church and two of his sisters who aren't members anymore either came with a boyfriend. They were all lovely people, but we got stuck there longer than we'd planned and really had nothing to say to anyone except the mom who is studying Somalian and loves foreign grammar. I told her a little about K'iche' and that was the extent of my contribution to any conversation except to confirm or deny details about American culture. It was Halloween yesterday and they don't really celebrate it here, but there are some that have tried to get it going. They have parties and some kids try trick or treating. It was so funny to hear them tell about trying to explain to people what they were doing! They would say trick or treat (in Swedish) and no one would get it. "What do you all want?" They said that one guy actually said trick and so they pulled a tame trick on him and he got mad. Anyway, you had to be there, but it was funny.
Also, there is a missionary from Örebro going to the Pocatello, ID mission next week if he gets his visa. I wasn't sure if the Lee's actually live in that mission or not, but I gave him their info just in case. If you meet an Elder Edvinsson, take good care of him! He's really cool and reminds me a little of Brian. I think it's his hair (think pre-mission). Also, there is an Elder Lindquist who is in the MTC right now and will be in the Salt Lake City mission. Again, I have no idea what that entails as far as boundaries go, but if any of you Salt Lake people happen to see him ever, tell him hi and that he's awesome!
Anyway, that's the news. I'm working on patience this week. Turns out I still don't have any. Sigh. Daylight savings ended this week (or rather summer time), so it's dark at 5 now. We are looking forward to Guy Fawkes Day and Sis Porkka's birthday this week. We'll probably have to burn something. It's tradition! (Not in Sweden...)
Love you all!
Syster Maxwell
Monday, October 25, 2010
Week 31
Subject: Chocolate Croissants Make Any Day Better
Hello family,
The weather is good today. Sunny and chilly. It snowed twice this week. Once on Thursday night and on Sunday morning, but the snow all melted by the end of the day. The ground and roads have a layer of icy frost every morning and Sis Porkka is starting to complain that it's getting too slippery for us to be riding bikes still, but I'm holding firm. I'm not ready to give up the bikes. Not until the snow really comes.
This week we broke up with the 7th day Adventists. They said it's been nice, but our beliefs are just too different. Oh well. It was mutual at least. He plays the mandolin and let me play twinkle twinkle little star on it. :) Thanks mom!
I also went to IKEA for the first time ever this week. It was very exciting. We got the 16 SEK plate of potatoes and meatballs with a member who took us to a teach. It was everything I'd ever dreamed of.
It's been really interesting being able to watch the immigration process from this end. We found out that one of our recent converts got a negative response to his application last week. He was kicked out of Swedish classes, but is still looking for work. He had approval for that before, but we can't tell if he still has approval for that or not. He won't really tell us. All he said was that he was going to be doing this whole thing a different way. He'd look for work and then be able to apply again in 4 years. But, without Swedish, he won't be able to get a job very easily, so we'll see how that goes down.
We had a few first lessons with people this week--one with a Swedish lady who has had a number of run ins with spirits and things which has made her feel crazy. We tried to assure her that there are other things that exist out there (things unseen), so she doesn't need to be so worried and instead accept the gospel :) That probably sounds weird, but I guess you had to be there. We also had a first lesson in Spanish with a girl who really didn't know why we were coming. She's from El Salvador. We've had so many run ins with people from El Salvador in the past couple of weeks it's starting to seem like it's not a coincidence. It makes me thing of Gerhardt and how we are all working together as missionaries. It doesn't matter if you are in Sweden or El Salvador. It's all connected.
We also had a really cool teach with A, the one trying to quit snus, at the bishop's house. We watched the restoration and he said that he believed that it happened and it just went straight to his heart. We explained that was the Holy Ghost and tried to get him to see that since he believed it was true he should do something about it. He didn't get it (coughbaptismcough). Guess we should have been more clear. Whoops! I'm still working on that.
On Thursday we missed two trains and a bus. One was my fault, the other was Sis Porkka's, so we're even. Not such a happy day except for a chocolate croissant and Pizza Hut.
Friday and the weekend were lovely! On Friday we had a teach with D and got him ready for his baptism. Then we had a teach with E, a recent convert who is having a really hard time right now, but is hanging onto the gospel as much as he can. He is from Sierra Leone and has been a great friend to the Africans that have been getting baptized. We asked him to baptize D last Sunday and he was so honored! And the teach on Friday was so sweet! The Spirit was so strong as he bore testimony that he felt worthy and ready to perform the ordinance and was still so honored. I can't really do it justice to describe how wonderful it was to be there and then to see them both in white. It was a beautiful baptism and he did a great job. Everyone thought it was great.
Sunday went well too and I baked bread for an investigator who basically said, don't call me, I'll call you, but I like her as a friend, so I wasn't willing to accept that :) The bread was an experiment, but it turned out nicely. We attached a nice note and an excerpt from the last general relief society meeting. Hope she liked it!
Well, I think that's it. I found out this week that it's tradition to eat pea soup and pancakes on Thursdays in Sweden.
Have a good week!
Syster Maxwell
Hello family,
The weather is good today. Sunny and chilly. It snowed twice this week. Once on Thursday night and on Sunday morning, but the snow all melted by the end of the day. The ground and roads have a layer of icy frost every morning and Sis Porkka is starting to complain that it's getting too slippery for us to be riding bikes still, but I'm holding firm. I'm not ready to give up the bikes. Not until the snow really comes.
This week we broke up with the 7th day Adventists. They said it's been nice, but our beliefs are just too different. Oh well. It was mutual at least. He plays the mandolin and let me play twinkle twinkle little star on it. :) Thanks mom!
I also went to IKEA for the first time ever this week. It was very exciting. We got the 16 SEK plate of potatoes and meatballs with a member who took us to a teach. It was everything I'd ever dreamed of.
It's been really interesting being able to watch the immigration process from this end. We found out that one of our recent converts got a negative response to his application last week. He was kicked out of Swedish classes, but is still looking for work. He had approval for that before, but we can't tell if he still has approval for that or not. He won't really tell us. All he said was that he was going to be doing this whole thing a different way. He'd look for work and then be able to apply again in 4 years. But, without Swedish, he won't be able to get a job very easily, so we'll see how that goes down.
We had a few first lessons with people this week--one with a Swedish lady who has had a number of run ins with spirits and things which has made her feel crazy. We tried to assure her that there are other things that exist out there (things unseen), so she doesn't need to be so worried and instead accept the gospel :) That probably sounds weird, but I guess you had to be there. We also had a first lesson in Spanish with a girl who really didn't know why we were coming. She's from El Salvador. We've had so many run ins with people from El Salvador in the past couple of weeks it's starting to seem like it's not a coincidence. It makes me thing of Gerhardt and how we are all working together as missionaries. It doesn't matter if you are in Sweden or El Salvador. It's all connected.
We also had a really cool teach with A, the one trying to quit snus, at the bishop's house. We watched the restoration and he said that he believed that it happened and it just went straight to his heart. We explained that was the Holy Ghost and tried to get him to see that since he believed it was true he should do something about it. He didn't get it (coughbaptismcough). Guess we should have been more clear. Whoops! I'm still working on that.
On Thursday we missed two trains and a bus. One was my fault, the other was Sis Porkka's, so we're even. Not such a happy day except for a chocolate croissant and Pizza Hut.
Friday and the weekend were lovely! On Friday we had a teach with D and got him ready for his baptism. Then we had a teach with E, a recent convert who is having a really hard time right now, but is hanging onto the gospel as much as he can. He is from Sierra Leone and has been a great friend to the Africans that have been getting baptized. We asked him to baptize D last Sunday and he was so honored! And the teach on Friday was so sweet! The Spirit was so strong as he bore testimony that he felt worthy and ready to perform the ordinance and was still so honored. I can't really do it justice to describe how wonderful it was to be there and then to see them both in white. It was a beautiful baptism and he did a great job. Everyone thought it was great.
Sunday went well too and I baked bread for an investigator who basically said, don't call me, I'll call you, but I like her as a friend, so I wasn't willing to accept that :) The bread was an experiment, but it turned out nicely. We attached a nice note and an excerpt from the last general relief society meeting. Hope she liked it!
Well, I think that's it. I found out this week that it's tradition to eat pea soup and pancakes on Thursdays in Sweden.
Have a good week!
Syster Maxwell
Monday, October 18, 2010
Week 30
Subject: And really bad eggs!
Family!
So, this week has gone by faster. Sis Porkka is starting to adjust and get to know everyone, but she still doesn't know the way around which I keep forgetting and give her a hard time and then I realize she's only been here a little over two weeks and has only been to the place we are going once. Oops! It's ok. She's lived in England forever so she doesn't get offended by teasing. :) Many of the African investigators and new members have complained that I don't speak very clearly, so Sis Porkka is teaching me to talk proper. For example, we were practicing the phrase, "I cahn't get the bottle from the attic. It's hahlf pahst," with all the t's properly. It reminds me of those days I used to pronounce the t's in the word button. I don't remember why I did that.
Sis Porkka always has a blank CD, a plastic bag, and a bar of chocolate in her bag. She's prepared for all types of emergencies.
Well, the fall is starting to draw to a close. I don't know if I mentioned going to Svampen last week. It's a mushroom-shaped water tower in Örebro which has a restaurant and deck up top. We went and took pictures of the terribly disappointing fall colors. It was exciting.
Everything went as normal this week. We got the mission standard this week with 21 teaches and 10 of those being with a member. That was exciting. We made our pie extra buttery to celebrate. Don't worry, I also found this week that I weigh less than when I was a junior in high school, so no worries there (for now). Anyway, one of those teaches with a member was with the wife of an inactive lawyer. She speaks mostly French and a little Swedish, so we decided to read from the gospel principles book. We randomly selected a chapter number, and it happened to be honesty that we prepared that morning for them. He actually decided to sit in and defensively asked if his profession was breaking the commandments because they tell people to not tell the whole truth so they can win. I can't remember what we said, but we just repeated what it said in the book. He left a few minutes later saying he felt sick. Oh well, she liked the lesson at least! Luckily I don't think very quickly in situations like that else I might have started in on how his job is to help deal justice and correctly represent a person, etc, etc, etc.
The other teaches with a member worth writing about are two we had on Saturday with the recent convert who is notorious for liking the sisters and doesn't fully grasp the concept of restored gospel and has a new concern every time we teach him. We couldn't get anyone else to go with us, so we had to turn to him. The first teach we had he seemed bent on sabotaging us. He broke the word of wisdom in front of us and started a whole conversation about the benefits of substances we don't use with a man who we've only taught the first lesson. Argh! Then he went off on how the Garden of Eden has been proven to be in Iran. We were short on time, so we had to cut him off. It was so sad! He enjoyed the whole experience though :) In the second teach he wasn't so bad and only invited someone who is clearly too old to go to young single adult activities to come and be with. Oh well!
Well, we're all set for the baptism this week. There is a sad lack of enthusiasm from the ward, but hopefully people will come. Well, that's it for today. We have to run off to a teach. There have been a number of rapes in the area of late, so our investigator wants us to come visit her and get home before dark. Hope everyone is well! Love you!
Syster Maxwell
Family!
So, this week has gone by faster. Sis Porkka is starting to adjust and get to know everyone, but she still doesn't know the way around which I keep forgetting and give her a hard time and then I realize she's only been here a little over two weeks and has only been to the place we are going once. Oops! It's ok. She's lived in England forever so she doesn't get offended by teasing. :) Many of the African investigators and new members have complained that I don't speak very clearly, so Sis Porkka is teaching me to talk proper. For example, we were practicing the phrase, "I cahn't get the bottle from the attic. It's hahlf pahst," with all the t's properly. It reminds me of those days I used to pronounce the t's in the word button. I don't remember why I did that.
Sis Porkka always has a blank CD, a plastic bag, and a bar of chocolate in her bag. She's prepared for all types of emergencies.
Well, the fall is starting to draw to a close. I don't know if I mentioned going to Svampen last week. It's a mushroom-shaped water tower in Örebro which has a restaurant and deck up top. We went and took pictures of the terribly disappointing fall colors. It was exciting.
Everything went as normal this week. We got the mission standard this week with 21 teaches and 10 of those being with a member. That was exciting. We made our pie extra buttery to celebrate. Don't worry, I also found this week that I weigh less than when I was a junior in high school, so no worries there (for now). Anyway, one of those teaches with a member was with the wife of an inactive lawyer. She speaks mostly French and a little Swedish, so we decided to read from the gospel principles book. We randomly selected a chapter number, and it happened to be honesty that we prepared that morning for them. He actually decided to sit in and defensively asked if his profession was breaking the commandments because they tell people to not tell the whole truth so they can win. I can't remember what we said, but we just repeated what it said in the book. He left a few minutes later saying he felt sick. Oh well, she liked the lesson at least! Luckily I don't think very quickly in situations like that else I might have started in on how his job is to help deal justice and correctly represent a person, etc, etc, etc.
The other teaches with a member worth writing about are two we had on Saturday with the recent convert who is notorious for liking the sisters and doesn't fully grasp the concept of restored gospel and has a new concern every time we teach him. We couldn't get anyone else to go with us, so we had to turn to him. The first teach we had he seemed bent on sabotaging us. He broke the word of wisdom in front of us and started a whole conversation about the benefits of substances we don't use with a man who we've only taught the first lesson. Argh! Then he went off on how the Garden of Eden has been proven to be in Iran. We were short on time, so we had to cut him off. It was so sad! He enjoyed the whole experience though :) In the second teach he wasn't so bad and only invited someone who is clearly too old to go to young single adult activities to come and be with. Oh well!
Well, we're all set for the baptism this week. There is a sad lack of enthusiasm from the ward, but hopefully people will come. Well, that's it for today. We have to run off to a teach. There have been a number of rapes in the area of late, so our investigator wants us to come visit her and get home before dark. Hope everyone is well! Love you!
Syster Maxwell
Monday, October 11, 2010
Week 29
Subject: The Joy of Missionary Work
Hello friends and family.
I am well. This was an incredibly long week.
Love,
Syster Maxwell
(next email)
Subject: PS
No really...Tuesday feels like an eternity ago. I do remember that it was a really long day, but it was busy and fun. I introduced Sis Porkka to all of our favorites and we had a teach with RR, our Chinese investigator who studies at the University and her friend G. People kept poking their heads in and once they saw we were reading the scriptures, G would invite them in. At one point there were 6 people besides us. It was quite the party. It's hard to teach to a person's needs when they are all from different religious backgrounds and cultures. RR loves the Book of Mormon, though and came to church on Sunday! She's always so happy and it was fun to have her with us in Relief Society. She's our age, so she's also a good friend.
On Wednesday we cajoled A to fast with us on Sunday. We told him we would all start at 6 and go until 6 the next day. "Without anything?!" he said. "And what time is church, 6 pm?" "No, 11am," we replied. "You all are going to kill me!" was his perplexed reply. He did it, though, but he didn't come to church. He tried to come to the recent convert/investigator dinner afterwards, but Sis Porkka was in a bad mood and wouldn't tell him how to get there. No church, no dinner! He has already cut back more than planned for on the snus, so he's doing great. We just have to get him to activities before 2 pm.
After that we tried to get to the 7th Day Adventists' house. I'd never led the way there before, so that was an adventure. I got us completely turned around and she had to come get us. But on the way we asked a few people for directions. The first people were three people who we saw walking out of the park. I could tell they were drunk and told Sis Porkka not to ask them. She obviously didn't hear me because she immediately asked them for directions. While the two ladies were trying to direct us toward the street, the older gentleman came up to me and tried to grab me. I protested and he told me to hold still. I did so he would stop making a fuss, and I could get away, but he tried to grab my face and give me a kiss. I think he was going for my cheek, but still.... I pulled away, and Sis Porkka also immediately came to the rescue and scolded him, "No, no, no!!!" He was wondering what the big deal was and one of the ladies said, "Not them. They're Mormons!" or something to that effect. It was pretty funny and silly. I wouldn't like that as a non-missionary either.
The teach with the 7th Day Adventists was interesting. They basically said that they can't accept the Book of Mormon because the Bible makes no mention anywhere of a person being both a spirit and a body. We gave them as much evidence as we could think of, but he always said the words meant something else. Typical. So, we thought that was over. We read parts of 2 Nephi 33 together and bore testimony of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon and left expecting that to be that, but they called a couple days later to set up an appointment! Sis Porkka has taught 7th Day Adventists before and just doesn't know what to do with them. We'll see how it goes.
We keep finding English speakers to teach. On Sunday the English speakers outnumbered the Swedish speakers in the Gospel Principles class. There were five of them and there was one more that meant to come, but got lost on the way. It was ridiculous.
Anyway, the rest is just the same, finding, teaching, seeing them slip away or being frustrated by lack of progress. It's hard to understand why some people keep meeting with us even though they don't want to read, pray, or go to church.
Well, it's getting colder, so we've switched to long underwear, socks and tights already. The Jul Must (a popular Christmas soda) is already in stores and some people have started putting lights in their windows. I also have found that a person can't get Jimmy Dean sausage here, meaning the kind that you can fry up. Also, there is no vanilla extract, only vanilla sugar which is basically powdered sugar with vanilla flavoring. Also, Sister Porkka said that inviting yourself over for dinner isn't a weird thing, but just dropping by to visit is. You can drop by, but don't take your shoes off and expect to stay. I'm trying to remember cultural things I haven't shared thus far. Anything anyone wants to know about? Well, have a great week. Hope you all are doing what you should be.
Love,
Syster Maxwell
Hello friends and family.
I am well. This was an incredibly long week.
Love,
Syster Maxwell
(next email)
Subject: PS
No really...Tuesday feels like an eternity ago. I do remember that it was a really long day, but it was busy and fun. I introduced Sis Porkka to all of our favorites and we had a teach with RR, our Chinese investigator who studies at the University and her friend G. People kept poking their heads in and once they saw we were reading the scriptures, G would invite them in. At one point there were 6 people besides us. It was quite the party. It's hard to teach to a person's needs when they are all from different religious backgrounds and cultures. RR loves the Book of Mormon, though and came to church on Sunday! She's always so happy and it was fun to have her with us in Relief Society. She's our age, so she's also a good friend.
On Wednesday we cajoled A to fast with us on Sunday. We told him we would all start at 6 and go until 6 the next day. "Without anything?!" he said. "And what time is church, 6 pm?" "No, 11am," we replied. "You all are going to kill me!" was his perplexed reply. He did it, though, but he didn't come to church. He tried to come to the recent convert/investigator dinner afterwards, but Sis Porkka was in a bad mood and wouldn't tell him how to get there. No church, no dinner! He has already cut back more than planned for on the snus, so he's doing great. We just have to get him to activities before 2 pm.
After that we tried to get to the 7th Day Adventists' house. I'd never led the way there before, so that was an adventure. I got us completely turned around and she had to come get us. But on the way we asked a few people for directions. The first people were three people who we saw walking out of the park. I could tell they were drunk and told Sis Porkka not to ask them. She obviously didn't hear me because she immediately asked them for directions. While the two ladies were trying to direct us toward the street, the older gentleman came up to me and tried to grab me. I protested and he told me to hold still. I did so he would stop making a fuss, and I could get away, but he tried to grab my face and give me a kiss. I think he was going for my cheek, but still.... I pulled away, and Sis Porkka also immediately came to the rescue and scolded him, "No, no, no!!!" He was wondering what the big deal was and one of the ladies said, "Not them. They're Mormons!" or something to that effect. It was pretty funny and silly. I wouldn't like that as a non-missionary either.
The teach with the 7th Day Adventists was interesting. They basically said that they can't accept the Book of Mormon because the Bible makes no mention anywhere of a person being both a spirit and a body. We gave them as much evidence as we could think of, but he always said the words meant something else. Typical. So, we thought that was over. We read parts of 2 Nephi 33 together and bore testimony of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon and left expecting that to be that, but they called a couple days later to set up an appointment! Sis Porkka has taught 7th Day Adventists before and just doesn't know what to do with them. We'll see how it goes.
We keep finding English speakers to teach. On Sunday the English speakers outnumbered the Swedish speakers in the Gospel Principles class. There were five of them and there was one more that meant to come, but got lost on the way. It was ridiculous.
Anyway, the rest is just the same, finding, teaching, seeing them slip away or being frustrated by lack of progress. It's hard to understand why some people keep meeting with us even though they don't want to read, pray, or go to church.
Well, it's getting colder, so we've switched to long underwear, socks and tights already. The Jul Must (a popular Christmas soda) is already in stores and some people have started putting lights in their windows. I also have found that a person can't get Jimmy Dean sausage here, meaning the kind that you can fry up. Also, there is no vanilla extract, only vanilla sugar which is basically powdered sugar with vanilla flavoring. Also, Sister Porkka said that inviting yourself over for dinner isn't a weird thing, but just dropping by to visit is. You can drop by, but don't take your shoes off and expect to stay. I'm trying to remember cultural things I haven't shared thus far. Anything anyone wants to know about? Well, have a great week. Hope you all are doing what you should be.
Love,
Syster Maxwell
Monday, October 4, 2010
Week 28
Subject: The Moose are Everywhere!
Hello everyone,
So, we finally got Sis Robinson settled, packed, and saying her goodbyes. We are supposed to make a transition report every transfer with appointments for the next 10 days all lined up, but it was hard to make appointments with people and give them commitments to follow up with next time when Sis Robinson was lining up appointments for when her and her family came through. We had general conference this weekend, though, so we were able to make it over the hump.
Going back to Wednesday afternoon, we started cleaning and planted tulips in the back yard. We really hope we planted them not too deep and not too shallow so that they actually come up next spring. We thought it was a nice touch to finish off our garden-themed transfer which ended up consisting of getting stung by a lot of stinging nettle, making a lot of raspberry pies, adventures in composting, and then buying a house plant. We finished off P-Day by going into downtown and going to a lot of different shops to try to find scrapbooking things for Sis Robinson. We visited a couple more people that evening and then finished up the night cleaning. We got in bed at 11:15 and got up at 4:45. Yuck. We took the 6 am train to Stockholm because Sis Robinson wanted to go to the temple one last time without her family there. We missed the 9am session we were aiming for, so we had to wait until the 10am, but a couple of the elders who were also going home joined it, so that was fun. We spent a couple hours at the ring afterwards. It really seems like someone official would tell us we needed to disperse. There are a lot of missionaries there and we were right in the way of a huge Levi's display/advertisement. Sorry travelers of Stockholm! How will you get your jeans now? There were a lot of new missionaries and my MTC companion, Sis Page, is training one of the new sisters. Elders Gardner and Bloomfield who were also in the MTC with me will be training as well. That's weird.
Anyway, it's me and Sis Porkka now. She's a lot of fun and quite different from Sis Robinson, and more like me in certain ways. We think the same about a number of things particularly household things and cultural (and pop culture) references. It's lovely. I think the transfer is going to be grand. I hope we continue to see the miracles we saw last transfer.
On Friday we met with D, our next baptismal candidate and taught him chess in our extra time before we had to catch the bus. Then we met A, who has the tobacco addiction and got him to make a plan for quitting. He was excited about it, but basically refused to live the rest of the Word of Wisdom in the process despite our promises that he would have extra strength as he tried to live a commandment of the Lord. I had actually wanted to stop teaching him if he hadn't wanted to do the program, but he set up his own program which will last for 6 weeks. Oh dear! We decided that maybe helping him stop snusing will be our community service for the month, if anything. He came to General Conference though, but just doesn't seem to be soaking anything in. He often buys us yummy nectar-y stuff made with goijy or something, (some super fruit), so that's a plus.
We had a cool thing happen on Friday before that teach. We were walking down the street, and this guy stopped us and asked us in English if we knew the place he was going to buy good boots. Uh....no idea. Turns out he's a trucker from everywhere and nowhere and drives from Denmark to Sweden all the time. He had hit a moose the day before and was getting his truck repaired. He described in great detail the demise of the poor creature. It was really sad. But...he's also a former member of the church. Got kicked out, he said. We told him that general conference was this weekend and he said he'd come if he could. Turned out he could! After the Relief Society session, we biked to a nearby store to meet him. He came rolling up in his head tractor and we showed him the way to the church on our bikes. That was the first time I've had to outbike a big rig. It was so funny, seeing him pull his cab into the church parking lot. It was great! He really liked the conference and seems to want to make steps back.
Anyway, conference was fantastic. I think I got the most out of it than any other one I've seen before because I actually wrote down my questions and studied my notes after. Imagine that! Well, I hope you all enjoyed it too. We are going to watch the last session now. Also, we bought horse and moose sandwich meat today at the store. It's hunting season! Funny thing about the horse meat is that it's labeled 'hamburger meat', but if you look at the label, it's definitely horse. Sad! It was good though. And the moose was terrifically tender. Mmmm! Well, I love you all! Have a good week!
Sys Max
Hello everyone,
So, we finally got Sis Robinson settled, packed, and saying her goodbyes. We are supposed to make a transition report every transfer with appointments for the next 10 days all lined up, but it was hard to make appointments with people and give them commitments to follow up with next time when Sis Robinson was lining up appointments for when her and her family came through. We had general conference this weekend, though, so we were able to make it over the hump.
Going back to Wednesday afternoon, we started cleaning and planted tulips in the back yard. We really hope we planted them not too deep and not too shallow so that they actually come up next spring. We thought it was a nice touch to finish off our garden-themed transfer which ended up consisting of getting stung by a lot of stinging nettle, making a lot of raspberry pies, adventures in composting, and then buying a house plant. We finished off P-Day by going into downtown and going to a lot of different shops to try to find scrapbooking things for Sis Robinson. We visited a couple more people that evening and then finished up the night cleaning. We got in bed at 11:15 and got up at 4:45. Yuck. We took the 6 am train to Stockholm because Sis Robinson wanted to go to the temple one last time without her family there. We missed the 9am session we were aiming for, so we had to wait until the 10am, but a couple of the elders who were also going home joined it, so that was fun. We spent a couple hours at the ring afterwards. It really seems like someone official would tell us we needed to disperse. There are a lot of missionaries there and we were right in the way of a huge Levi's display/advertisement. Sorry travelers of Stockholm! How will you get your jeans now? There were a lot of new missionaries and my MTC companion, Sis Page, is training one of the new sisters. Elders Gardner and Bloomfield who were also in the MTC with me will be training as well. That's weird.
Anyway, it's me and Sis Porkka now. She's a lot of fun and quite different from Sis Robinson, and more like me in certain ways. We think the same about a number of things particularly household things and cultural (and pop culture) references. It's lovely. I think the transfer is going to be grand. I hope we continue to see the miracles we saw last transfer.
On Friday we met with D, our next baptismal candidate and taught him chess in our extra time before we had to catch the bus. Then we met A, who has the tobacco addiction and got him to make a plan for quitting. He was excited about it, but basically refused to live the rest of the Word of Wisdom in the process despite our promises that he would have extra strength as he tried to live a commandment of the Lord. I had actually wanted to stop teaching him if he hadn't wanted to do the program, but he set up his own program which will last for 6 weeks. Oh dear! We decided that maybe helping him stop snusing will be our community service for the month, if anything. He came to General Conference though, but just doesn't seem to be soaking anything in. He often buys us yummy nectar-y stuff made with goijy or something, (some super fruit), so that's a plus.
We had a cool thing happen on Friday before that teach. We were walking down the street, and this guy stopped us and asked us in English if we knew the place he was going to buy good boots. Uh....no idea. Turns out he's a trucker from everywhere and nowhere and drives from Denmark to Sweden all the time. He had hit a moose the day before and was getting his truck repaired. He described in great detail the demise of the poor creature. It was really sad. But...he's also a former member of the church. Got kicked out, he said. We told him that general conference was this weekend and he said he'd come if he could. Turned out he could! After the Relief Society session, we biked to a nearby store to meet him. He came rolling up in his head tractor and we showed him the way to the church on our bikes. That was the first time I've had to outbike a big rig. It was so funny, seeing him pull his cab into the church parking lot. It was great! He really liked the conference and seems to want to make steps back.
Anyway, conference was fantastic. I think I got the most out of it than any other one I've seen before because I actually wrote down my questions and studied my notes after. Imagine that! Well, I hope you all enjoyed it too. We are going to watch the last session now. Also, we bought horse and moose sandwich meat today at the store. It's hunting season! Funny thing about the horse meat is that it's labeled 'hamburger meat', but if you look at the label, it's definitely horse. Sad! It was good though. And the moose was terrifically tender. Mmmm! Well, I love you all! Have a good week!
Sys Max
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