I agree-Spring is beautiful. There are blossoms and flowers and green grass to be found everywhere here! According to one of the elders who was here in Borås last year, there's nothing more beautiful than Borås in the Spring!
This week has been HARD. I guess after having such an awesome week last week (you know, Lamech getting baptized and everything) we were in for a tough week. We called everyone we could think of trying to get appointments. But then even when people did make appointments, most of them didn't show up. We had no less than 16 cancellations during the week. It was pretty humbling.
On Monday we were all too worn out to go to Göteborg like we'd planned, so we just hung out around Borås. We got more Indian food and ate it in the sun by the river.Then we shopped a little, made bread, ate treats, and pretty much just relaxed. We needed it. Have I ever mentioned that everything here is really expensive! I paid 125:- (that's the sign for crowns) for a bottle of contact solution-that's about 20 bucks! The Indian food was also very expensive, as is every other food place here. Basically any real food costs 10 dollars or more, usually more like fifteen. Even a plain old hamburger from McDonald's is about a buck fifty and a double cheeseburger is three dollars. It's ridiculous!
On Tuesday we taught this guy named Sean. He's from New Zealand so he has a really cool accent. And he says "mate" about every fifth word. We asked what he would do if he knew the Book of Mormon was true and he said "Well I'd become a Mormon in about six seconds, mate!" (Read it with the accent, it's better.) It was kind of intimidating to teach him though because he pays very close attention to the words you say, so you have to say exactly what you mean. We were supposed to teach him again this weekend but he cancelled because he had to go to Göteborg.
We basically spent all day on Wednesday riding busses. That's what it felt like anyway. We took a bus to teach a lady named Erika that we'd met the day before. We had literally just gotten to her door and rang the doorbell when she called us and cancelled because she was running errands and had too much to do that day. So we rode the bus back home to eat lunch. Then we took another bus to Viskafors to teach a lady named Gul-Maj. She wasn't home. So we took the bus back and ate dinner. At least when we have all these bus trips we can talk to people and try to find more people to teach. We did get to teach Masoume with help from Mojgan. She's still waiting to receive her answer and we're going to have to push her baptismal date a little further out so she can have more time to prepare. It's hard because we can't really teach her without a translator. Well we can, she actually understands a lot of Swedish, but she doesn't tell us when she doesn't understand, so we need a translator. After Masoume we ran for the bus and went to the Engelbrektssons house to teach Lamech about the Priesthood. He is so great! He spends an hour every night watching the Mormon Channel. We watched a Mormon Message with him while we waited for the bus home and he loved it.
Thursday was my halfway mark-crazy! I celebrated by going on exchanges with Syster Richins! We all met up in Ulricehamn around 10 in the morning and then she came back with me. We taught Erika-it actually went through that time-and it was really good. Even though her 18 month old son was pretty distracting, the Spirit was strong and she said she'll start reading the Book of Mormon. We also taught Annika, a member who's been going through a hard time, and it was a really awesome lesson. I learned a lot from Syster Richins about how to teach. We were going to have a lesson with the Trejos but they cancelled, and so did the other two people we were supposed to teach. We called a guy that Syster Richins had just contacted who said he was pretty free and set up an appointment with him for later that night, so then we had two hours. We ate dinner at McDonald's to celebrate my halfway mark then we went to one of the appointments we'd had even though he'd cancelled. It was weird because he called and left a message saying that we could still come by and drop off the Book of Mormon with his wife. So we went with the Book of Mormon and then he was home but he wouldn't let us in. Then we came back to meet the guy we'd just set up an appointment with but he didn't show up. I don't know how you can forget about something you'd decided on just two hours earlier. We were waiting for a bus and I was trying to figure out what we could do for the next two hours before 9:00 because our plans and backup plans had all fallen through when all of a sudden a seagull left a huge present right on Syster Richins' head! Her reaction: "Eew! Eew! Take a picture, take a picture!" So we went home so that Syster Richins could get cleaned up and went through the area book looking for people to teach. We actually did get a tentative appointment set up with one of the old investigators, so it was good. We laughed about it all night. Oh, the miracles of exchanges...
On Friday we had zone training in Göteborg, so we went there first thing in the morning. It was a good zone training. After zone training we had interviews with President Newell. Most people have really long interviews but mine always end up being like three minutes or less. We didn't get home until about six o'clock (it's okay, though, because our six o'clock lesson cancelled) so we dropped by Ulrika (not home) and then this family from Romania that we've taught a few times. He gave us the Book of Mormon back and wished us a nice life. :/ We did have another lesson with Masoume, and it went really well.
My planner on Saturday looks crazy because there's so many things crossed out and written over because SO MANY PEOPLE CANCELLED ON US! After calling everybody and weekly planning, we finally went out looking for someone to teach. We even went tracting but nobody let us in. One lady said we could come back next week. We decided to go by this girl, Frida, who we tracted into about 2 months ago and she was actually home and let us in, so we got to teach her and her sister the Plan of Salvation. That was a miracle. Then we taught the Trejos and then Lamech. Thank goodness for Lamech-he doesn't cancel on us. He bore his testimony to us about the Book of Mormon and he said "I love this book. And I'm going to keep reading it and keep loving it!"
Yesterday was CRAZY. We went early to meet this girl, Anastasia, who's really positive. As we were waiting for the bus, she texted us to say that she couldn't come because her daughter got sick. It was really disappointing. So we went to church where I was dragged around (literally, they grab my hand and pull me around) by members to help them translate how to sew a dress out of a t-shirt into spanish and things like that. Finally Relief Society started and I realized why it's called RELIEF society. Then it was time for Sunday School. We went on splits with some women in the ward so I could teach Spanish Sunday School while Syster Haynes taught Persian Sunday School for Masoume, and we hoped that someone would take care of Lamech in Swedish Sunday School since we couldn't offer English Sunday School. Spanish Sunday School went great. I'd ask a question and they'd answer but I'd have no idea what they said so they'd all just start discussing about it. That's what we're going for, right? Gospel discussion? We did get through all the steps of repentance so I think it was a success. Luckily Brother Trejos was a bishop in Ecuador so I can count on him to teach true doctrine and help the Baqueros when they're confused. Sacrament meeting was very interesting. They almost forgot to confirm Lamech. The bishop got through all the announcements and started the sacrament and Syster Haynes and I were panicking because we didn't know if he'd forgotten. I had talked to him right before church about it so we didn't think he would forget. (Funny story-I asked the Bishop if he would be part of the circle for the confirmation and he thought I was asking if I could be part of it. We both got pretty confused. My Swedish is really bad on Sundays.) But then the Björn, who was going to do the confirmation went up and talked to the bishop and they did the confirmation right after the sacrament. It was really great. Lamech came back and sat by me and said "That's GOOD!" Haha. He's going to Africa on Thursday to visit his mom and he promised he's going to discuss the Book of Mormon with her! Once he was confirmed we went out to help Masoume get connected to the real Persian Sunday School class over Skype, run by Mojgan. I ended up having to sit with her in the foyer as she listened to the class over the phone, trying to calm down her CRAZY eight year old daughter Helia. By the end we felt like all the members were pretty annoyed at us because she was riling up all the other kids and everyone was just running around. When we left the church Syster Haynes felt like something was wrong because I think I had some look on my face like "I can't handle one more person talking to me!" because that's how I felt. We went home for dinner and she made me listen to this Relaxation CD that Syster Newell gave to everyone in the mission. Breathe in relaxation, breathe out tension and stuff like that. It actually helped. We also ate soup and then I had some ice cream too to help calm down.
The rest of our plans on Sunday also cancelled, including Mohamed and Hlimah. So we dropped by these two women that the elders had contacted who said we could come by. One of them, Britt-Marie, already had a Book of Mormon and seems to have read a lot of it. We read from it with her and had a great lesson and got a referral and a return appointment. So it was worth it. The other woman was a Jehovah's Witness.
This week is looking much more promising! Everyone's off for Easter so hopefully that means they'll be able to meet! Have fun on your cruise and have a great Easter! Remember to think of Christ's resurrection and how incredible of a gift it is to us. It's the greatest miracle that's ever happened!
Jag älskar alla er!
Love, Delaney
PS-Happy birthday Matty!
PPS-The spanish emails are very helpful, so you can keep writing them en espanol! :D
Delaney and Syster Richins on splits
Eating at McDonalds to celebrate half way mark of mission
Spring flowers that seem to have appeared overnight
