January 27, 2014

Delaney wrote her email in Swedish today.  Scroll to the bottom for the Google Translate version of her letter.

Kära familj,

Hallå där! Jag tänkte att skriva till er på Svenska, men jag tror inte att jag har tillräckligt tid för att skriva allt som jag vill säga. Vi får se. Det är svårt också eftersom min sinne har mycket Spanska just nu. Jag har för många språk i mitt huvud! President Newell håller med om det. Han kom i tisdags och vi hade intervjuer med honom. Han frågade mig om språket. Om jag förstår allt som händer i Sakramentsmöte, om jag känner mig bra med Svenska, och hur ofta jag använder Spanska. Jag använder Spanska väldigt mycket här och han sade "Perfekt! Så ska vi köpa din biljett till Madrid!" Jag tänkte han skojade men då sade han att han planerar att förflytta mig till "Sveriges Madrid." Förmodligen kommer jag att förflyttas den femte Februari men vi vet inte ännu var nånstans. Ingen medlem här hört talets om "Sveriges Madrid." Men äldsterna sade att församlingen i Borås har bett om systrar missionärer i över ett år, och de har många spansktalande där, så det är en bra gissa. Förflyttningarnas samtal kommer nu på Lördag, så kommer jag att veta innan Måndag när jag skriva till er igen.

Vi har inte haft så många tillfällen att undervisa under den här veckan, men dem undervisningarna som vi har haft var super bra! I måndags, tisdags, onsdags, och torsdags, undervisade vi många medlemmar men ingen som var icke-medlem. Vi har ätit goda middagar hos goda medlemmar ändå! I fredags behövde jag köpa nya boots igen, eftersom mina tidigare boots brytas. (I think that's the word. The zipper broke so they don't zip up anymore.) Jag hade Syster Sjöbloms boots på mig och de var för små och helt dåliga. Så fick jag köpa nya boots i den bäste säsong eftersom de hade 50% rabatt just nu. De här boots jag har nu bör uthärda under resten av min mission. Förhoppningsvis. Tyvärr hade vi helt tillräckligt tid att åka till Haninge Centrum för att köpa dem, eftersom våra två lektioner vi hade bestämt i fredags gick inte. En var Anders, som vi träffade på tåget (inte Anders från Gambia men Anders från Kyrgyzstan) och han behövde jobba istället för sin arbetskamrat. Den andra var Anna från Poland som svarade inte mobilen. Met fredag var jättebra fortfarande! Vi tog tåget till Nynäshamn och undervisade Marie igen. Hon är så snäll och hon läser Mormons Bok varje dag! Hon sade att hon vill gör ändringar i sitt liv och är villig att ta reda på om boken är sann eller inte. Då undervisade vi Juan Carlos. Han har en vän som kommer ifrån Tyskland som var intresserad att lära sig mer om kyrkan, så fick vi en hänvisning! Förhoppningsvis kommer vi att träffa honom nu på fredag. Tyvärr kom Juan Carlos inte till kyrkan igår.

I lördags fick vi utföra dop för döden i templet! Syster Sjöbloms undersökare från Jönköping döptes i söndags före veckan och kom hit till templet, så följde vi med henne. Det var "den näste bäste saken." Det var kul att göra dop i templet igen, och det är särskilt speciellt som en missionär att hjälpa de döden kunna döpas. Mellan jag och Syster Sjöblom gjorde vi fyrtio dop och konfirmation. Det har varit en jättebra vecka! Vi åkte till Ösmo för att undervisa Therese, men hon var inte hemma igen! Vi tittade förbi i måndags och hon sade förlåt att hon var inte hemma före lördag, och lovade att hon skulle vara ledig i lördags. Men det gick inte och vi har inte hört nånting från henne ännu. Siv har inte varit hemma hela veckan, men jag vet inte varför.

Men allt är okej, eftersom igår var söndag och söndag är besten! Vi bad om att Rakamora skulle kunna komma till kyrkan igen eftersom det var den endast plats där vi kanske skulle se honom igen. Men han kom inte. Peter och Hayder kom så hade vi två mindre aktiva medlemmar. Vi satte oss i kapellet när en annan missionär kom och frågade om vi hade en Afrikansk undersökare som skulle komma. Vi visste inte men Bash kom! När vi gick ute och hämtade honom hade han typ fem missionärer omkring honom som hälsade på honom. (Vi har tio missionärer i vår byggnad, och snart kommer att ha tolv!) Bash tyckte om sakraments möte men behövde åka precis efter. Efter kyrkan försökte vi att gå till vår middag, och på vägen pratade vi med nån som heter Besma som kommer ifrån Tunisia. Hon verkligen behövde prata med oss, och bjud oss hemma hos henne just då! Vi kunde inte just då på grund av vår middag, men hon bad oss att ta sitt nummer och bestämma en annan tid att träffas. Hon är förbered. Vi gick i tjugo minuter tills vi insåg att vi hade en fel adress. Vi var sena till middag, men om vi hade gått precis ditt skulle vi inte har träffat Besma. Efter middag undervisade vi...Yahaira! Jag undervisade hela frälsningsplanen på Spanska och Yahaira tänkte det stämmer. Hon vill inte säga ja till dopet tills hon förstår allt som kyrkan innehåller, och känner sig bra om det. Hon sade att hon kommer att be om dopet och hon kommer till kyrkan nu på söndag också. Be för henne, snälla! Hon verkligen behöver det!

Ni kommer aldrig att gissa vem satte vid oss på tåget hemma då! Det var Marianne, den krammare! (Google translate might not know that, but it's hugger.) Hennes mobil rånats så har vi inte fått kontakt med henne. Men hon har en Mormons Bok hos henne på jobbet och tycker om att läsa när hon är ledig! Det var bäste tidningen! Jag har bett om att se henne på tåget igen innan jag lämnar Västerhaninge och få en kram till, och så fick jag det! Jag visste inte tills vi steg av tåget i Handen, men Petra var också på samma tåget, precis bakom mig! Jag hälsade inte på henne men jag såg henne, och det ar bevisen att hon finnas fortfarande och kanske vi får se henne igen. Jag bokstavligen kunde inte tala på vägen hemma, jag var så överraskad och kände mig så välsignad!

Vi fick undervisa bara tre personer som är icke medlem, men två var Yahaira och Marie, som är våra två undersökare som gör framsteg, och den andra var Marianne på tåget, så jag är lycklig om det. Vi skulle ha givit Yahaira ett dopdatum men hon behöver känna sig mer säkert om dopet innan. Hon kommer att be om det. Inget dopdatum för oss just nu, men vi har fått så mycket framgång här det är omöjligt! Även om man kan inte se det just nu.

Jag kan inte tror att du är så svårt domare för kycklingarna! Men hoppas de slutta att äta ägarna. Var snäll mot hästarna också!

Förlåt att det här brevet är kanske inte så långt som andra breven jag har skickat, men det är verkligen allt som har hänt under veckan. Det skulle vara densamme på engelska också men jag hade det roligt att skriva på svenska. Nu har jag inte tid att översätta, men hoppas ni kan lita på google translate. Förhoppningsvis är min svenska tillräckligt bra att google translate kan förstå!

Jag älskar er! Hoppas ni har en super bra vecka!

Love, Delaney

 

(Det finns ingen bra sätt att säga det på svenska.)

 

 

Courtesy of Google Translate:  (I tried to add my interpretation for clarification, or entertainment.)

 

Hello there ! I thought of writing to you in Swedish, but I do not think I have enough time to write everything I want to say. We'll see. It's hard too because my mind has much Spanish right now. I have too many languages ​​in my head! President Newell agree with that . He arrived on Tuesday and we had interviews with him. He asked me about the language. If I understand everything that happens in Sacrament Meeting, if I feel good with Swedish, and how often I use Spanish . I use Spanish very much here and he said "Perfect! So should we buy your ticket to Madrid! " I thought he was joking but then he said that he plans to move me to "Sweden's Madrid. " Probably, I will move on February 5 but we do not know yet where, somewhere. No member of this century's heard about "Sweden's Madrid. " But the elders said the congregation in Borås have asked for sister missionaries for over a year, and they have many Hispanic there, so it 's a good guess. Moving Årnäs (calls) will come on Saturday, so I will know before Monday when I write to you again .

 

We have not had so many opportunities to teach during this week, but those teachings we have had was super good! On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we taught many members but none of which were non- member . We have been eating good dinners at good members anyway! Last Friday, I needed to buy new boots again, because my previous boots broken. (I think that's the word . The zipper broke so they do not zip up anymore. ), I had Sister Sjöbloms boots on me and they were small and quite poor . So I had to buy new boots in the best season since they had 50 % off right now. These boots I have now should endure for the rest of my mission. Hopefully . Unfortunately we had quite enough time to go to Haninge Centrum to buy them, because our two lessons we had scheduled last Friday did not go. One was Anders, who we met on the train ( not Anders from Gambia but Anders from Kyrgyzstan ) and he needed to work instead of his colleague. The second was Anna from Poland who did not answer the cell phone. But Friday was still great ! We took the train to Nynashamn and taught Marie again . She is so kind and she reads the Book of Mormon every day! She said she wants to make changes in her life and is willing to find out if the book is true or not. Then we taught Juan Carlos. He has a friend who comes from Germany who was interested in learning more about the church, so we got a reference ! Hopefully we will see him this Friday . Unfortunately, Juan Carlos was not to church yesterday.

 

Last Saturday we got to do baptisms for the dead in the temple ! Sister Sjöbloms investigator from Jonkoping was baptized last Sunday before the week and came to the temple, so we went with her. It was "the next best thing . " It was fun to do baptisms in the temple again, and it is particularly special as a missionary to help the dead to be baptized. Between me and Sister Sjöblom we did forty baptisms and confirmations. It 's been a great week! We went to Osmo to teach Therese , but she was not home again! We stopped by on Monday and she said sorry that she was not home before on Saturday, and promised that she would be free on Saturday. But she was not and we have not heard anything from her yet. Siv has not been home all week , but I do not know why .

 

But everything 's okay, because yesterday was Sunday and Sunday is the beast!  (Did she mean the best?)  We asked for the Straight Mora could come to church again because it was the only place where we might see him again. But he did not . Peter and Hayder came so we had two less-active members . We sat in the chapel when another missionary came and asked if we had an African investigators to come. We did not know but Bash came! When we went out and picked him up, he had like five missionaries around him who greeted him . (We have ten missionaries in our building, and soon to be twelve !) Bash thought if (maybe liked?) sacrament meeting but needed to go right after . After church we tried to go to our dinner, and on the way we talked to someone named Besma coming from Tunisia . She really needed to talk to us, and invited us home with her ​​right then! We could not just then because of our dinner, but she asked us to take their numbers and determine another time to meet. She is preparing . We walked for twenty minutes until we realized that we had a wrong address. We were late for dinner, but if we had gone just this, we would not have met Besma . After dinner we taught ... Yahaira ! I taught the entire plan of salvation in Spanish and Yahaira thought, that's right. She would not say yes to baptism until she understands everything that the Church contains, and feel good about it. She said she will ask for baptism and she comes to church on Sunday too. Pray for her, please! She really needs it!

 

You'll never guess who sat by us on the train home then! It was Marianne, the hug mare! ( Google translate might not know that, but it's cut . ) Her cell was robbed so we have not had contact with her. But she has a Book of Mormon with her at work and likes to read when she's free ! It was the best magazine (who knows what she meant?  Maybe the best meeting?)! I have asked to see her on the train again before I leave Västerhaninge and get a hug, and I got it! I did not know until we got off the train, but Petra was also on the train, right behind me ! I greeted not with her but I saw her, and there 's evidence that she is still here, and perhaps we 'll see her again . I literally could not talk on the way home, I was so surprised and felt so blessed!

 

We had to teach only three persons who are not members , but two were Yahaira and Marie, who are our two progressing investigators, and the other was Marianne on the train, so I'm happy about it. We would have given Yahaira a baptismal date but she needs to feel more secure about baptism before. She will ask for it. No baptismal date for us right now, but we have had so much success here, it's impossible (incredible?)! Even if you can not see it right now.

 

I can not believe you are so hard a judge for the chickens! But hope they slope to eat owners (stop eating their own eggs). Be kind to the horses too!

 

Sorry this letter is perhaps not as far as other letters I have sent, but it is really all that has happened during the week. It would be the same in English as well but I had fun writing in Swedish. Now I have no time to translate, but I hope you can trust Google Translate. Hopefully my Swedish well enough that Google translate can understand!

 

I love you ! Hope you have a super great week!

 

Delaney

>>> Delaney Smith <delaney.smith@myldsmail.net> 1/27/2014 3:56 AM >>>

Kära familj,

January 20, 2014

Kära familj,

Happy Birthday Dad! It's good to hear that you got treated like royalty and ate Nam Stew and shrimp but not together. I hope. I ate fish balls this week and did NOT enjoy them. It's potentially one of the worst things I've had here. But on the same plate I had red beets and they were delicious! I'll have to add that to my list of things I eat now that I didn't eat before. I've started keeping another list notebook here and that's one of the first lists in it. This week I also ate more cashew chicken than I ever wanted to eat, and deep-fried bananas. And deer jerky! I got the package this week and the jerky is delicious! The funny thing is, a long long time ago before Peyton even got the deer, we were saying it's too bad I wouldn't still be with Syster Sjöblom by the time I got the jerky because she wanted to try it. But she's still here and she thought it was great and says thank you very much!

This week has been full of a lot of people not showing up to their lessons. Including Williant after he called us last Monday to set one up. :( We had lessons fall through with him, Allie, Therese, and Hizkias, all of which were set up beforehand. We also have a lot of people who have flat out stopped answering their phones. So we have a list of people that we're praying to meet on the train sometime again, including Petra, Marianne, Erik, Allie, Williant, Sebastian, and Anders.

It started working right away on Monday night. As you may know, P-Day ends at 6:00 on Monday. We had a hard time deciding what to do last week because we couldn't catch the 6:00 train to Ösmo (to drop by Siv, who wasn't home) but the next one that goes all the way down wasn't until 6:30. So we took the 6:15 to Västerhaninge and waited there for 15 minutes for the Nynäshamn (Ösmo) train, planning to contact people in between. When we got to Västerhaninge, the first person we saw was Sebastian! He was going to Ösmo as well, so we sat with him and read 2 Nephi 31 with him on the train. He's really busy and it's hard to set appointments with him but he was really glad to see us and talk to us. Like I said, Siv wasn't home, but on the train back I contacted Anna from Poland and she wants to meet again, but she was sick last week.

Tuesday we helped Cie-Cie clean up her apartment to move. She moved on Wednesday down to Södertälje, so we'll be making sure the missionaries there get ahold of her. She likes our ward though so she said she'll still try to come. Then we came back to Västerhaninge to wait for Allie but he didn't come. Later he texted us and said he'd been called in to work. He's a really sweet guy and he works a lot, but he's really sincere and really wants to learn more. He lives in Jordbro though, so the zone leaders are going to start teaching him instead. If they can ever set up an appointment with him. Also on Tuesday we found out that the supplies we've been trying to order for four months had actually been delivered and the elders took them back to their apartment on accident. We were starting to feel forgotten because we've been ordering Polish Book of Mormons since my third or fourth week here and hadn't gotten any. I may or may not have chewed out the office elders about it...then an hour later our elders showed up with our stuff. Then on Thursday we got two more boxes full of Book of Mormons in Swedish, Polish, and Arabic. That night was when I got the package with the jerky and other goods in it, so it felt like Christmas all over again, complete with snow this time. Except when Williant didn't show up to his lesson...

Friday, though, was a GREAT day! First we got up early to get on the 6:00 train because we were invited to attend seminary at 6:30. They were talking about missionary work. I can't say I really miss early morning seminary but it was cool to go again. We had breakfast at the church with the (three) seminary students. Rice porridge with raspberry jam. It was yummy! Friday afternoon we went and taught Marie and she LOVES the Book of Mormon! We wrote our testimonies in the front of hers this time because she asked us to. She agrees with everything we say and she's really committed to reading the whole Book of Mormon. I've seen God working with her a lot in the last five months we've been here. She even has Sundays off now...which is really convenient, if you know what I mean. I just love her and love teaching her! We also taught Juan Carlos and on the train ride down we taught a guy from Kyrgyzstan named Anders. (Different Anders than the one from Gambia.) He was really interested and he texted us last night to say he could meet this Friday morning!

On Saturday Siv still wasn't home. Therese wasn't home either, even though last week she invited us to come back and teach her about the Restoration! So we tracted the buildings around Therese's apartment. Nobody was interested. We tried calling Sebastian and Williant, because they both live in Ösmo, but Sebastian said he was busy and Williant didn't answer. Then we were waiting for the train back to Västerhaninge and Sebastian came off the train that had just come from Stockholm! So we talked to him and invited him to church of course. When we got on the train, Williant was sitting there with his girlfriend! Luckily I'd grabbed a Libro de Mormon in case we got to teach Yahaira that night, so I gave it to him. His girlfriend (Monique, also from Bolivia) asked what it was so we explained it to both of them. At least, I did, because she only spoke Spanish. She was really interested too, and made sure that we had Williant's number, and they said maybe they would come to church! There was a ward party Saturday night, a "Julgransplundring." Christmas tree plundring. We ate cinnamon rolls and pepperkakor and danced around the Christmas tree. The missionaries were asked to do a part in the program so we sang Jingle Bells, but Syster Sjöblom did a really funny bass line. They loved it. One member said she'll have to invite us over for dinner so we can sing it again because her boys loved it so much. We were hoping to teach Yahaira that night but she's still been busy between work and her mom being in the hospital. But she stopped by Blanca's apartment on her way home (she lives just upstairs) and said that maybe we can meet next Saturday. So she still wants to meet!

Church was great! We had five VIPs! Four less active members (Peter, Juan Carlos, Gunilla, and Hayder) and an investigator. And you'd never guess which one it was. Did I ever tell you about Rockamorah? I contacted him on the train a few months ago first, then again a couple weeks ago. The second time I talked to him he said, out of the blue "I think I'll come to your church on the nineteenth." I forgot about it until I saw him on the train platform in Västerhaninge yesterday morning. He came! And we had a Book of Mormon in Tagalog just for him. Good thing I alphetized the Book of Mormons we have at the church so I knew right where to find it. We gave it to him and told him about it, and he was devouring it right from 1 Nephi 1. I think he enjoyed Sacrament meeting even though it went a little long. He was really excited that he could keep the Book of Mormon and I think he'll read it! He said he might come again next week, which I hope he does because he still wouldn't give us his number. So if he doesn't come to church, he'll go on the list of people to pray that we meet again on the trains.

It's hard to believe how many miracles we experience every day and how involved Heavenly Father is in this work. It's amazing when I look back over the week to see how many times the little decisions we make are really guided by the Holy Ghost so we can be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.

Have a great week and do something fun for Martin Luther King day! Jag älskar er!

 

Love, Delaney

PS-I'd send pictures but they're on Syster Sjöblom's camera. But thanks for the pictures you sent! I can't believe that Cody and Peyton are growing up...they're not allowed to do that

Love, Delaney

January 13, 2014

Kära familj,

Hello! Thanks for the funny stories you always include when you email me. I especially liked the one about likening the scriptures. That's always a favorite past-time around our apartment. Speaking of Cody, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CODY! I've been thinking all week about Cody turning 17 and it's the weirdest thing ever. By the time I'm home he'll be practically 18 and that is not okay! I hope you guys all get to do something fun today. I just thought "that's nice that his birthday is on P-Day so it will be a good day." But Monday's are kind of the opposite of P-Day when you're a regular person. There's an ad on the trains that says "För varje Mondag morgon finns en Lördag kväll." (For every Monday morning there's a Saturday night) and it has a bunch of people partying. I always laugh at it because for missionaries it's more like for every Saturday night there's a Monday morning. Thank goodness!

Does our ward have elders now instead of sisters? How many wards or stakes do they cover? There's an RM here who just got back from a SLC mission and it sounds like a whole different world. They got referrals and baptized weekly. I think I've mentioned before the kind of shock we have if we ever get a referral. It's cool that the new mission president has a Swedish last name. There are lots of last names that I didn't even realize were Swedish until I came here. I keep thinking of random people in the neighborhood and realizing they've got Swedish names. (Sandstroms for example.) Don't worry dad, I thought your pork loin hoagie sounded yummy. We had actual beef this week for the first time in ages. It was so delicious I could cry. Syster Sjöblom and I snarffed that for sure.

It finally snowed here! And I think it's here to stay. Everything is suddenly much less dark and people are kind of happy when you talk to them. It's pretty great. I'll send some pictures. It also got cold. Not too cold, not colder than it was in Utah at this time last year, but still. I actually wore my hat for the first time, and I'm using my alpaca gloves again.

I guess you probably want to hear about my week. It's been good. Things are starting to look up. I mean, we ate beef-how much more could we ask for, right? We also had wild boar again. That was Monday night for dinner with a member. Her less active daughter was there with her friend (again) so we got a member present lesson that we weren't expecting. The friend's not actually investigating the church but she listens to the lessons we give anyway. We're letting the Spirit work on her and mostly showing them that we're real people. When we were planning for Tuesday we were at a loss for what to do because we didn't have any lessons set up between our member lunch and our member dinner. (Only in Västerhaninge does that happen.) Finally we decided to go down to Nynäshamn and visit Marie and see if we could get a referral from her, since she has lots of friends. So we went by but she was pretty busy working-we just visit her at the cafe where she works. While we were there we met her friend Erin from Australia, just for a few minutes. Marie is great because when her friends come in she always says "these are the Mormon girls from America. They came to share what they believe!" Erin didn't know what Mormons were so we showed her a Book of Mormon and talked a little about the church, but she didn't stick around more than two minutes. When she left, Marie told us that she was going back to Australia on Saturday but that she's very religious. She said "It's too bad you girls didn't meet her sooner because I think she'd have loved it." (This is precisely why we went to get a referral from her in the first place.) We had a few minutes before we were going to go teach Cie-Cie (who we called when we got to Nynäshamn and she could meet after about an hour) so I wrote my testimony in a Book of Mormon and we asked Marie to give it to Erin when she came back to pick up her bracelets. I didn't think much of it other than good for those Australia missionaries and I hope they find her there. So then we went and taught Cie-Cie which went really well. We came back for our member dinner (delicious pizza!) and then we were supposed to have a lesson with Bash at the church but he didn't show up. When we finally got hold of him he said he'd been too tired and just got home.

On Wednesday we were finally desperate enough that we went tracting. We've already dropped by everyone in our area and we're working with everyone who will let us. We'd already called everyone in the phone and in the area book. We had nothing left than to tract. We went to Ösmo and got to work. Most people are not interested but at least they didn't seem offended that we were there. We met one guy who said he believes in God but he also believes in UFOs and aliens who he talks to occasionally. Maybe he'll read the Book of Mormon we gave him sometime when he's sober. We had a good contact on the way to where we tracted at least. If nothing else we've been able to tell members we've been reduced to knocking on doors, so maybe they'll start recognizing their duty to find people for the missionaries to teach. We had ward council that night which was actually really great, so it ended on a good note.

We were so excited on Thursday because we had a lesson set up with Allie and we had a member come and it was going to be great. But he didn't show up and he wasn't answering his phone. We felt bad for the member who came, but at least she understood because she just got home from her mission. It was cool to talk to her about her mission and what she did and stuff. She had cool stories. She was in Estonia. After waiting for a while for him we went to Nynäshamn and dropped by Frida, one of the less actives who's really positive but hasn't been answering. The Primary president gave us something to give her son from the stake, so we had an excuse to drop by her instead of just that she wasn't answering her phone. Turns out she'd texted us and we just hadn't received it, but she wants to meet again once they're done renovating their apartment. It's kind of nice that transfers are coming up because we can tell people it has to be in the next three weeks or else who knows where we'll be. (Except we just found out from Äldste Markus that there will be transfers next week to prepare for training...)

I don't know why I bother writing about the weekdays when the weekends are usually so much better. Friday was a great day. We went back down to Nynäshamn and dropped by Marie again to see how it went giving the book to Erin. She said that Erin was excited and said she would read it and thanks so much. Lucky Australia! But then she said that she (Marie) had also read what I wrote and loved it. AND SHE STARTED READING THE BOOK OF MORMON! I was dumbstruck and had to ask her to repeat herself when she said she'd started reading the book and she really liked it. (Needless to say, we've given Marie the Book of Mormon already.) She asked if we would write in hers as well and said that next time we come down we can text her so she can remember to bring it and we can discuss it. Marie is investigating. I can't even count how many little miracles and promptings led to that, but it's really amazing. I know that's one of the reasons that Syster Sjöblom and I have been here together for so long, because we've had enough time to develop the kind of friendship with Marie that she needed in order to actually start reading the Book of Mormon. I just can't wait to see where it goes from here! We taught Juan Carlos at the library and it was one of the best lessons. Again, because Syster Sjöblom and I have been here so long, people are starting to get really comfortable with us and see us as their friends. Juan Carlos asked a lot of really good questions that we could answer and it was a good lesson. We committed him to come to church, which we do every week but he hasn't come for a couple of months. But we committed him to pray about it and we prayed all weekend that he would be able to come. Then we came back to the church to teach Hizkias, someone who we contacted months ago who could finally meet. He was great! He's from Ethiopia and he doesn't live in our area, but he'll be yet another great referral for other missionaries.

The same thing happened on Saturday where our member came to the member-present lesson but the investigator didn't. Williant forgot and wasn't answering his phone. BUT he just called ten minutes ago while I was writing this and set up for Thursday. Please pray for him! We went down to Ösmo again Saturday afternoon and taught Therese again. She told us we're always welcome to drop by especially when she's home on Saturday afternoons. So it's basically going to be a weekly thing, hopefully. We read 2 Nephi 31 with her and she loved it. She can tell the Book of Mormon is true scripture. She asked us what the difference is between our church and the Catholic church. It was perfect because we weren't sure how we would transition between friendly visits with a message to actually teaching her the lessons. But next Saturday we'll start with the Restoration and it will be great!

And CHURCH! We had two women who said they would come, but we've never actually met either of them. One was contacted two months ago by other missionaries and the other was contacted a couple weeks ago by the zone leaders. We waited by the train station for them but they didn't show up. So we went to church. One of our less active members, Peter, got a calling to be a primary teacher, which is going to be perfect for him. I thought he was our only VIP until after sacrament meeting when I saw Juan Carlos was there! We went to go talk to him when a missionary couple cornered us and gave us their Swedish Liahona since they can't read it. We were fighting through the crowd to get to Juan Carlos again when someone from the Primary Presidency asked us to teach a primary class because they were four teachers short. We said okay and that we could be there by the end of opening exercises. We finally got to Juan Carlos who wanted to have a lesson but we had to teach primary first, so he said he would wait. One of the members was helping him fix his laptop anyway. That was funny, we walked up and heard "Americans!" They needed help finding the underscore on the American keyboard. On our way to primary someone from Relief Society asked us to lead and play the opening and closing songs. So we taught Primary using the liahona we got, then we did the opening song in Relief Society, taught Juan Carlos, and were back in Relief Society in time for the closing song. Hectic! Good thing there were no investigators there...except I'd rather have investigators. Then we went to dinner and it was good and we ate cheesecake and ice cream, then we went to Miriam's (member) birthday party where we ate more cake and desserts and a lot of sweets. It was kind of weird to be there because I'm 19 and she's turning 32 but she loves the missionaries and it meant a lot to her. And her non-member friend was there too so it was a good contact.

Phew. It was a good week. This week is going to be great too! We actually already have some things set up, including Allie and Williant, and Cie-Cie and Therese. Yahaira is still doing well but hasn't been able to meet because her mom has been sick. We left her cookies on Saturday. She wants to meet this Saturday. Please pray for her as well!

I'm out of time. Have a great week! I love you all!

Love, Delaney

 

 

 

                                                           A Church in Nynashamn

                                                        A Church in Stockholm

 

                                                    Stockholm Temple in Vasterhaninge



                                               

                                                                         January 2014

 

 

January 6, 2014

Kära familj,

Yes. I am now a senior companion and probably will be for the rest of my mission. President Newell doesn't really like the whole senior and junior companion thing, so basically everyone who's not in training is a co-senior companion. In other words, Syster Sjöblom is still here, we're just co-senior companions. It doesn't really make a difference with us because it's not like she ever used "senior companion" to do anything. In other words, nothing's changed. We're both still in Västerhaninge. However there are rumors that the mission has been looking at a couple more apartments in the area so we might move into a 2-man instead of living with all four of us here. That would be a couple weeks away still. It's possible that the transfer was delayed because Syster Sjöblom was sick (she was definitely too sick to move) but now we'll just wait for the new missionaries to come the first week of February. One of us will probably be transferred then, and the other of us will be here for a really long time.

But enough of transfer rumors. (That's the only thing we have to entertain ourselves sometimes). Are the kids as excited to go back to school as mom is? GUESS WHAT! I ate pizza yesterday and it tasted like Cafe Rio. Best pizza ever. They do pizza a little differently here. This one had tomato sauce, cheese, red and yellow peppers, ground korv (it's like...pork I think. Kind of like hot dogs. Think Oscar Meyer truck...), mushrooms, and I think it had onions on it too. It was super good. Especially because it was fast Sunday. I also really miss Cafe Rio.

This weekend was great, especially after the holidays. I feel bad about it, but I am SO GLAD to be done with the holidays. Now we can get stuff done. I think I said on Thursday in my email that we already had two member-present lessons scheduled that night. Obviously that night was great! First Williant came and we taught him. Turns out he's from Bolivia! He's probably around 20 years old, and he's been in Sweden for 6 years so his Swedish is pretty good. Definitely better than my Spanish, so we taught in Swedish. Although I did use Spanish a few times to clarify things. Here's the really embarassing thing-we didn't have a Libro De Mormon to give to him! Luckily we had a member there who pointed out the obvious solution, that he could just download it on his phone. As missionaries we were like "oh yeah, I forgot about phones..." So she helped him get the Gospel Library app in Spanish so he can start reading. We committed him to start reading it on the train on the way home (to Ösmo) and also to come to church on Sunday where we could give him a hard copy also. He's great! Then we went home with the member for dinner. She has a less active daughter who was there with her three friends, so we taught them an introduction to the Book of Mormon. They aren't necessarily interested as of yet, but at least now they can say something about the Mormons if somebody asked. Dinner was good too, we had älg!

On Friday we had an appointment with Bash but he got called in to work. Then we had a meeting with our ward mission leader at one, and we were supposed to teach Aberash at two. Luckily Aberash rescheduled right before because our ward mission leader showed up at two o'clock on the dot. We're working on developing a new ward mission plan. It makes me pretty sad that I'd never even heard of a ward mission plan before my mission. I think it would have really helped me prepare if I'd been more involved in the missionary work at home. A lot of times when we talk to members we realize that they don't even know what their role in missionary work is, or even what missionary work is. But anyway, after we discussed ward mission plans with him, we took the train to Nynäshamn for our usual Friday night in town. We had a great lesson with Juan Carlos-what a great guy! He's still waiting to hear from Äldste Riley. I don't think we were in Nynäshamn for even a whole hour because we just taught the one lesson then hopped back on the train. We came back to Västerhaninge and taught Aberash, a sweet lady from Ethiopia who we met a couple weeks ago when we helped her find the right train. We had a great lesson with her too, and gave her a Book of Mormon in Amharic. She wants to meet again sometime this week and then we'll refer her to the Gubbängen missionaries because she doesn't live in our area.

Saturday was an amazing day. It was one of those days where we were like "Oh yeah, God's in charge of this and He's got it all under control." We were supposed to teach Sebastian that morning but he ended up having to help some friend of his. So we did family history for an hour, which I've missed these last few weeks. It's crazy how many ancestors we have. And then I think about the fact that my children will have twice as many ancestors as I do and I feel bad for them trying to do their own family history. I've been trying to combine duplicates because there are a lot of people in there who are all the same person. This week I worked on the Mowrey family. I think that was their name. I'm not even sure where I found them...I think somewhere in Grandpa Wilson's lines. After family history-ing we went down to our favorite little town of Ösmo! We dropped by Louise-no answer. Knocked on Siv's door-no answer there either. Well, shoot. Then there's always the question: so why are we here? We decided we'd drop by Therese because we haven't heard from her in a while. We knocked, she answered and invited us in. She's doing great and she loved our visit. She agreed with everything we said about prayer and about the Book of Mormon. It's just a question of getting her to actually read it. She invited us over to drop by any time (which we already invited ourselves to do anyway...) but said that she's usually home on Saturdays, so I think we'll do the same thing next week. During the closing prayer her phone started ringing, so she checked it afterward and it was Louise! (They're good friends.) We checked our phone and she'd called us too, so we called her and found out that she was home then, and she invited us over for fika. I love when we get to see Louise. She was baptized last February and she has such a strong testimony. She strengthens us more than we strengthen her. She's the best. We weren't about to leave Ösmo without trying Siv one more time and this time she was home! We had a great lesson with her too where we talked about the Book of Mormon and being patient with receiving knowledge. She gave us yummy chocolates too. And she said she would come to church on Sunday.

Well, she didn't come to church. But we can't blame her this week. There was some sort of power outage with the trains yesterday morning, so they didn't run between Västerhaninge and Nynäshamn. This was a problem because our investigators live between Västerhaninge and Nynäshamn. We called everyone but few of them answered. Louise caught the bus so she still made it, but unfortunately we didn't have any other VIPs in church yesterday. Church was really great though! I'm excited to study the Old Testament in Sunday School. I think I'm going to try and find a nicer Swedish bible, because the one they gave us in the MTC is literally a brick. I don't want to lug it to church on Sundays... In Sweden they don't have quadruple combinations like the English ones, because it's against the law to put other books in the same volume as the Bible or something. So you have to have a separate Swedish bible.

I texted Yahaira earlier to ask when she can meet. She said we can meet this week, so hopefully it all works out and nobody's sick this time... Cie-Cie hasn't been feeling well so we haven't been able to teach her. Same with Dennis. We still haven't met him because the zone leaders couldn't meet him on Friday because he was sick. So we'll see how that works out. Bash and Sebastian both called us to wish us a happy New Year last week, so at least they still like us. We're trying to meet them. Erik doesn't answer the phone but we'll probably see him on the train one of these days. Same with Petra. We haven't seen Marianne for a while either-I miss her hugs. We also have Allie, who said he should be free this week so we're going to give him a call and hopefully teach him tomorrow.

We're going to Stockholm again today so Syster Sjöblom can buy some new boots. The ones she's wearing now are super glued together. I'm not planning on buying anything. But I am excited to get your package with jerky in it! Way back when you said we wouldn't get it until after Christmas, I told Syster Sjöblom too bad we wouldn't get it until after one of us was transferred. But it's beginning to look like we'll still be together to enjoy venison jerky together. Haha. She'll be excited. She really likes venison and she says she makes a mean elk roast.

I'm glad you liked the musical numbers! I liked them too. Say hi to everyone and have a wonderful week!

Love, Delaney

January 2, 2014

Kära Familj,

Gott nytt år!! I can't believe 2014 is already upon us! New Year's Eve was fun. I didn't expect I'd do more party hopping on my mission than I ever did at home. But between Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Years Eve, I've been to lots of parties. Tame ones of course. But first, the moment you've all been waiting for, my area is...still Nynäshamn! And my companion is...Syster Sjöblom! Yes, we're still together. I'm the only sister in my group who's still with her trainer. I'm just special like that. Actually we think there might have been plans to transfer her, but since she was sick, it would have been really hard on everyone if she was transferred. So we're still here. She's still a little sick but she's feeling much better. In fact she's feeling well enough that we probably could have gotten a lot done except for the fact that nobody wants to meet this week. We respect that I guess and let them have their holiday before we interrupt their lives to bring them the life-changing news that Christ is the Savior of the World. No big deal. In other words, we haven't done much teaching lately.

We were going to drop by Siv and Louise on Monday, but we had district meeting at a moment's notice. Then we came home because Syster Sjöblom is still sick and had to rest. So I cleaned the apartment in order to prepare for Syster Clouse to come. We also said hej då to Syster Larson, who was transferred to Kungsbacka. I miss her already, but Syster Clouse is pretty cool. Tuesday was New Year's Eve, so the Tolleys got permission to have a Sister Study Day. We came over and studied pizza and chips, then we watched Ephraim's Rescue (approved by President, of course!). Great movie! After that we left for Jordbro where all the missionaries in the area (six elders and four sisters) were invited to Mary's. Mary is in Handen's ward and she's from the Philippines. We've heard all about her parties from the other missionaries, so we weren't about to miss our chance to attend. Her son Alex has Down Syndrome and loves missionaries, so we're all pals. Mary herself is a recent convert and she gives so many referrals. Handen is lucky to have her. She cooks for an army-good thing, because missionaries eat like an army. It was great! We took the 11:30 train back to Handen (it's like a two minute train ride) then we listened to fireworks from our balcony to bring in the new year. It sounded like we were being bombed. The fireworks did not end or even take a pause. Sweden is excited for 2014. We couldn't see most of them because our balcony faces the inside of the apartment complex, but the sound itself was pretty exciting. Yesterday, New Years Day, was a red day. Basically there's too much chance of running into drunks or crashing someone's party, so they don't want us to proselyte. The other missionaries probably thought it was great to have a restful day of sorts. (I called it Yearly Planning. You need a whole day for those sorts of things.) However, I've been in that situation for a couple of weeks now and I am done with being in the apartment not teaching. Luckily, Syster Sjöblom's feeling better and we already have two member present lessons scheduled for later today, and two lessons scheduled tomorrow. Today it's Williant, an immigrant from somewhere who lives in our area. The other sisters contacted him and gave us his number, so I really don't know anything about him except that he has pretty good Swedish. Then we're going to dinner at Linda's where her less active daughter Amanda (Swedish, just turned 17) will be there with two non-member friends. We're excited for that. Tomorrow we're teaching Bash whose name still doesn't rhyme with ash, and Aberash from Ethiopia who we contacted a couple weeks ago when we helped her find the right train. So the rest of the week will be much better.

I forgot that you haven't heard about the weekend yet. Saturday I went on exchanges in the morning with Syster Christison so that we could teach their investigator and then ours. Theirs was Jamal, who's been coming to church for quite some time but has some concerns about baptism. Then we taught Eskinder and it went great! His question was what makes this church different from the other Christian churches, so we taught the Restoration and it went really well. He doesn't live in our area so we referred him to the missionaries in Gubbängen. I love giving great referrals like that! Sunday we had basically another Christmas program with music and talks and such, but I wasn't a part of it this time. It was good though. We didn't have any investigators there but we had some less actives and they enjoyed it I think.

Yahaira won't be home this weekend but she wants to meet next week. At least I'm pretty sure that's what the text said. The Spanish dictionary is really helping! We gave Miriam, the other Peruvian, to the elders because Äldste Ahlström speaks better Spanish than me, and they're working a lot with Alba, who is Miriam's fellowshipper. Hopefully we'll meet Dennis in the next few days-he's the investigator with a baptismal date that the zone leaders told us about, who lives in Ösmo. They're going to set up an appointment with him that we can all come to so they can hand him off to us. I'm really excited to meet him! We're also hopefully meeting Sebastian on Saturday, and Allie next week. So...it should be interesting.

We'll have P-Day again on Monday so I'll be expecting another email about the weekend! I'm excited to see pictures of Taryn's dress especially. Have a great weekend! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

 

New Year's Eve 2013