Happy March! February has been an absolutely fabulous month. I did the monthly totals last night and it blew me away how much success we've had in just a few weeks here in Borås. This last week has been the icing on the cake.
Speaking of cake, last week on P-Day Syster Haynes and I made a Princess Tårta (birthday cake) for our WML's wife because it was her birthday last week. Okay, Syster Haynes made most of it, but I whipped the cream! We got to try some and it was yummy. I kind of learned how to make it, so maybe I'll make some for you some day. That night we were going to drop by Jessica but we had to spend extra time making a new progress record for our meeting, because the beautiful one we made during weekly planning was taken up into heaven to be put on display. It was no coincidence that we couldn't drop by Jessica, because when we saw her on Tuesday night she'd had a crisis, and Monday would have been a bad time to go by her. On Tuesday, though, she was prepared for us to show up with perfect timing and talk about Christ's love. Earlier on Tuesday we went by Anja and her friend Ahmed answered the door. He was there for a visit. He's Muslim but he has a lot of questions about Christianity, so we started teaching him and gave him a Book of Mormon. I had one in Arabic that I'd brought with me for an earlier drop-by who turned out to not be interested. Anja also had another friend over who's met missionaries before, but invited us to come by her house some time as well. We left Anja's house on cloud nine and super stoked. I also ate more Thai food and it was still good. However, I don't like bamboo curry.
We taught Jessica again on Wednesday morning. She's on sick leave so she's got plenty of time to meet, which is great. I mean it's not great that she's sick, of course, but it's great that she can meet. Then David, our new favorite less active member, came and met us at the library. He had his Libro de Mormon tucked away safely in his coat pocket and he's been reading it! He asked us how he can be more active in the ward and how he can help. He also wanted to bring his friend to church and introduce him to us. He's awesome.
On Thursday we went out to Fristad (only about 20 minutes by bus, but the busses don't go too often) and visited Mohamed and Hlimah again, the Afghanistani family. When we got there they had some other visitors from some social society thing so we talked to the girls a bit. We met Zahra, who wasn't there the first time, and got to know her a bit. She's 13, and she loves reading the Bible. So she was excited to have a Book of Mormon. When the parents came back we were all sitting around playing with the three girls. In other words, they love us and we're part of the family. Hlimah has read a little bit of the Book of Mormon, and Mohamed has read a lot! They love it and they pray every day. They couldn't come to church yesterday but we're praying that they'll be able to come this week. Not just that, we're praying that the whole family will be able to be baptized this month. They are super prepared, and the Spirit is so strong in their house, we're going to do everything we can to help them. PLEASE pray for Mohamed, Hlimah, Zahra, Sitara, Sonia, and their brother whose name we haven't quite figured out yet! We love them! When we came back from there, we contacted a guy from China named Eleven. I told him wo de zhong wen bu tai hao (my Chinese isn't very good) but he was really impressed anyway and said it was awesome. :) Luckily he's good at English though. He was interested but was about to get on the bus, so we took the bus with him and taught him about the Book of Mormon on the bus, and got his number of course. We figured we should probably get off the bus and start heading home, but then when we got off the next bus back into the city didn't come for another half hour. So we started walking. On that little path back we contacted every single person we saw, all two of them. One of them was Jan, and he'd met missionaries before and had some questions about our church. We had a super spiritual lesson with him and he was really thankful that we were there and could talk to him. It was really cool to see how God put us on the right path-literally-to help someone.
On Saturday morning I had my first experience with Innebandy (floor ball). It's basically hockey, only you just run around to play. And it's super fun. I had a ton of fun playing it. I even scored a goal once! I'm weird because I like playing left-handed apparently. But they only had right-handed sticks. That's my excuse for why I wasn't too good. The best part of Innebandy was that David came, and he brought his friend Moses. And Moses had read a little bit of the Book of Mormon that he borrowed from Robert. So we taught him about it and gave him his own. They both loved Innebandy and met a lot of ward members, so it was a huge success. They said they'll come next Saturday too, which means that we get to go next Saturday as well!
Yesterday was a great Fast Sunday. I love Sundays, even though they can be stressful. Luckily yesterday turned out not too stressful. We taught Ahmed before church started, and then he stayed for church. Unfortunately, Robert's car broke down, so he wasn't able to come. He was going to bring David and Moses with him, so they couldn't come either. They live in Fritsla, which is clear out there. Our WML lives out there too, so he brought them to innebandy, but he doesn't have room in his car to bring people on Sundays. But they wanted to come to church, so that's a start. We'll hopefully be teaching Robert today. After church we caught a ride with the Baqueros family to their house and had dinner with them in Spanish. Both of us are becoming better and better at Spanish, even if it takes some effort for us to communicate what we're trying to say. On the bus ride back we got some super awesome contacts, so it was definitely worth our time.
I guess I'm eating mom's share of ice cream, because I've been eating enough for the both of us. Swedish ice cream continues to be amazing. Tell Peyton I'm proud of her for dancing like an angel! Sounds like they all did really good. Tell everyone in the studio hi from me and good job! Thanks for always updating me on the family. I love to hear about everything that's going on!
We heard the news about Äldste Bailey this morning over text. There will be a memorial service for him but I'm not sure if all the missionaries will get to go or not. He was one of our zone leaders in the MTC and he was an awesome missionary. We're happy that he'll be able to continue his mission on the other side, and all of us are very thankful for the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It's a tragedy, but I've found that it's given me an even greater desire to share the good news that we have a Savior with the people of Borås. We're praying for the Bailey family as a mission.
Jag älskar alla er! Tack så mycket för ert stöd och böner, samt allt som ni gör för mig. Jag vet att evangeliet är sant och Jesus Kristus är vår Frälsare! Ha en underbar vecka! {I love all of you! Thanks so much for your support and prayers, and all that you do for me. I know the gospel is true and Jesus Christ is our Savior! Have a wonderful week!}
Love, Delaney
