Hello! Thanks for the updates on everyone. It sounds like it was a great July 4th week. There were no fireworks here, which was kind of sad. But we did have our Meet and Greet with the Beckstrands that day and everyone wore red white and blue. Well, a lot of people did anyway. So we sort of celebrated, but not really. I'm loving my new backpack. It's the best. Simply not being a side bag makes it a wonderful backpack. We're also greatly enjoying having our phone again. Dad, I can't even imagine serving with no phone at all. How did you get information from the mission and everything? How did you get in touch with the zone leaders and the mission president? The cool thing about Norrköping is, people here actually answer their phones and make appointments.
It's the best! I think it's funny that you're telling me about FIFA. Sweden cares a lot about it, so it's hard not to know what's going on. We were walking home right after Brazil beat Chile and there were so many disappointed Chileans coming out of Taco Bar. One of them came and asked us if we knew where the ATM was. After he walked away we realized that he had just lost a bet. I've heard that it's crazy to be a missionary in Brazil right now. I think I'm rooting for Netherlands, because Nabil (Judy's dad) is rooting for them and he's really smart. Nabil's family is the best. He was baptized in November after he just walked into the church looking for the truth. Then Judy was just baptized a few weeks ago. They also have another daughter named Chris who's 14 and she's also super awesome. They're one of those families that you go in to try and uplift them but you come out feeling more uplifted yourself.
Pontus' baptism was great! He showed up early so he could just be there and feel the Spirit beforehand. There was about 25 members there, which is pretty good for this ward. So he had a lot of support. The talks were both really good. It was Pia, the institute teacher in the ward, and Henrik, the 2nd councillor in the bishopric who also drives Pontus to church on Sundays. It was great that none of the talks was done by missionaries! That's ward support. The musical number went well even though my music was falling off the piano. I could still read it, thank goodness! Äldste Gray baptized him and when he came up out of the water he started jumping for joy. It was a really spiritual moment. He shared his testimony afterward and he talked about the first time he met the sisters. He heard them on the bus talking about the gospel and went and asked them about it. Then he talked about the night when he prayed about the Book of Mormon. He got three answers: That the book itself is true, that the people who wrote it were true prophets, and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. After the service we had refreshments. We brought carrots and cucumbers and dip and grapes, and the elders made kladkaka and snickerdoodles. Pontus was never without a member to talk to and the ward was all so happy for him! He was confirmed yesterday by David Jonsson, the one who had us and Pontus over to dinner a few weeks ago. Pontus is rock solid and he's already invited his friends to learn about the church. We're meeting one of them on Wednesday!
The next big thing that happened this week was the Meet and Greet with the Beckstrands. They are really cool people! But you already knew that. They introduced themselves and they were really relaxed and funny. We didn't have interviews or anything because it was a pretty short zonference (we had much more total travel time than actual zone conference time) but we all got to shake their hands. When I shook President Beckstrand's hand he said "Syster Smith...it's Delaney, right?" That was kind of a shock. I heard they've been following all the blogs that missionaries here have had, so they probably know a lot about me. It was cool to get to meet them!
On Saturday we taught Olivia. She is an awesome girl. We sat down and she just said "I didn't understand the Sunday School lesson on Sunday." She follows up with herself before we can even say anything! So we went over the priesthood with her, because that's what Sunday School was about. We gave her a Gospel Principles book a few weeks ago and she's been reading out of it. When we asked what she's been reading about lately she said "baptism." She still wants to be baptized, so she made a goal for September 6th. She came to church yesterday and stayed for all three hours. I went to Young Women with her (I didn't realize this but I miss Young Women!) and she shared her experience with feeling the Holy Ghost in Sacrament Meeting the week before. We read some scriptures in Swedish so she wrote them down to read later in English. She's really spiritual and really receptive to the Spirit, and she's motivated to follow through on the things we ask her to do.
This week we also baked cookies with Prossy and Alex (new converts) and we made Tinga (Mexican food!) with them on Saturday. We helped Cecilia move in to her new apartment by building an Ikea bookshelf with her. I taught a guy on the train the restoration. It was the train back to Stockholm central from zone conference so it was packed with missionaries, but I still ended up by a random guy and taught him. It was scary because all these other missionaries were totally listening to me. But I felt like I did a good job. Lots of other stuff probably happened too, sorry I've just been so bad at including better details... It's been a great week! I hope you all have a wonderful week as well!
Jag älskar er!
Love,
Delaney
Delaney, Pontus & Sister Miller
Delaney and Kiley
Delaney and Kiley
Prossy, Kiley and Delaney eating Tinga
Chess on P-day
Sis. Sjoblom (Delaney's Trainer) who goes home
at the end of July
