August 26, 2014

Käre Familj,

Hi! Sorry for the late email. We found out on Saturday that P-Day would have to be postponed because we were going to have interviews in Södertälje yesterday. So we had to switch P-Day to today. I hope it didn't cause too much disappointment or worrying! And I'm glad it meant that I could see first day of school pictures! How did the first day of school go? Do Cody and Peyton like their classes and their teachers so far? Any friends in your classes? Teachers I know? Is Peyton doing Orchestra?

This week has been pretty good I guess. I don't remember it seems like it was a month ago. Having P-Day a day late has really thrown me off. Last Monday we had a pretty laid-back P-Day. We got tacos. They were some good tacos. Then we visited a second hand store and I found a jacket for autumn. You get tired of your jacket really fast here, so you always need a new one. I haven't had to wear it yet, partly because I'm being stubborn and waiting until it's officially Septembrrrrr to put a jacket on. But summer is definitely over here. It's been rainy and a little chilly. Then on Monday night we visited the Dolmayas. They're doing well but it's sad to hear their stories about fleeing Syria. I'm really glad we get to spend time with them though because they have such strong testimonies and so much wisdom about the world!

Tuesday not much happened so I'm going to skip to Wednesday. Wednesday was a crazy but awesome day because we went up to Västerhaninge for Mission Tour! We had four different connecting trains to get there (Norrköping to Katrineholm, to Flemingsberg, to Alvsjö, to Västerhaninge) and the first one was delayed, which caused us to miss our second one and have to wait. Eventually we got to Västerhaninge at 9:55, five minutes before it started. We felt a little sheepish walking into the chapel where everyone was sitting and waiting reverently, but it wasn't our fault! The conference was good. President and Syster Beckstrand spoke, and then Elder and Sister Teixeira did some training. They had a lot of good ideas and things to try. We all came out feeling like we need to repent a lot. I thought I was a pretty obedient missionary...nah, just kidding, I still feel like I'm a pretty obedient missionary. Just one who can be even better.

After the mission tour I left Syster Austin with Syster Klingler and I took off with Syster Hauglid for exchanges in Stockholm Innerstan. (Inner city). I forgot how fast everyone walks in Stockholm! First we met with this guy named Jeffrey from Ghana that the sisters contacted a few months ago. We started talking to him and it turned out he met missionaries before in Jönköping. He said "Yeah, I used to go to the church there all the time. In fact I was even baptized there. But then I lost contact and haven't been able to contact them for a long time." Turns out he's already a member! He thought he wasn't because he hadn't been to church for a long time, but he was happy to find out that he still is! It's always cool when that works out and we find lost sheep. After Jeffrey we taught a couple of guys from...Africa. I forgot where they were from. They were really cool too. They were asking about baptism and what they have to do to be baptized, but then the library closed and we got kicked out! They'll meet again so hopefully that all goes well. Then we went to institute night at the YSA center, and I got to talk to a few of the YSAs from Västerhaninge. That was a cool little surprise. On Thursday we all met up in Södertälje to swap companions again and it was back to good ol' Norrköping. After we finally got back and had some food, we went and taught Prossy. She's doing really well, she's just pretty busy with school and everything.

Friday was a really good day. We taught Cecilia and had somewhat of a breakthrough lesson where she finally opened up. Then we got ice cream to celebrate my one-year-in-Sweden and Syster Austin's one-month-in-Sweden. It was really yummy ice cream of course, because this is Sweden! Then we went and visited Seija whose tiny little dog tried to eat our toes again. After that we went up to Åby (which I realized translates to Riverton! Å is a river and a by is a town!) where we met Pontus and he taught us. He borrowed a PMG from the church last week and he's devouring it! After the lesson we all went up to the Jonsson family for dinner. They're a really awesome family.

Saturday turned out pretty good too. We hadn't seen Lisabeth for a while so we stopped by and she let us in and as we were taking off our shoes she just said "I've missed you guys!" and gave us a big hug. Then she made us hot chocolate because we were all wet from the rain. The first time Syster Austin met Lisabeth she gave us ice cream because it was so hot outside. We've progressed to hot chocolate now which means it's really official-summer is over. Then we got to teach Olivia. I cannot tell you enough times how AMAZING Olivia is. We didn't even see her mom this time, but WE WILL MEET HER TOMORROW. We're starting to get a little nervous because the baptism is now less than two weeks away, but it WILL happen!

On Sunday Syster Austin gave a really great talk in Sacrament Meeting about the Atonement. I still haven't actually spoken in church my whole mission...knock on wood! We also used the ward's new translation system for the first time, so I translated into English in the microphone and Olivia and Prossy listened to the headphones. It worked great! And it was so much less annoying than trying to whisper it into their ears! Our VIPs were Olivia, Prossy (who Olivia actually picked up to come to church with her), and Pontus. I was really sad that the Dolmayas didn't come to enjoy the English translation. I feel like I did a pretty good job of translating. Way better than when I would try to translate into Spanish in Borås! After church we went by Awet, because she said she would come and didn't. We ended up crashing her party and getting fed some really good Eritrean food.

Yesterday we went to Södertälje (third time in three weeks) for our interviews with President. We found out on Saturday that we were going to have interviews in Södertälje yesterday and thus we'd have to reschedule P-Day. It was pretty annoying because it ended up taking us out of proselyting for longer than P-Day would have only we weren't able to do anything that we need to get done on P-Day. We left at 9:00 to get to Södertälje for our 11:30 interviews, which ended up happening at 12:15 because they were running late because the zone leaders in Södertälje forgot to leave the key to the chapel so the assistants had to go through Västerhaninge where the zone leaders were cleaning the temple to get the key to the chapel. This caused us to miss our 13:16 train home. The next train wasn't until 14:39 but that was a more expensive train and wouldn't accept our tickets for the earlier train, so we had to wait until the 15:10 train back to Norrköping. We waited at the Södertälje train station until 16:25 when the train actually came, and got home right at 18:00. We still had time to go by Oxana and set up an appointment for Wednesday, and then we went to the Dolmayas again.

I'm really excited to see Cody's wisdom teeth video. I'd also like to see some of those selfies.

What songs is Peyton choreographing to for clogging? How many classes is she doing?

Well, I hope you guys have a great week! Have fun with school and everything! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

 

 

Big surprise, but it's a picture of us with our ice cream! Happy one year/one month in Sweden to us! Syster Austin got a Dumle shake and I got saffron, coconut, and marzipan with whipped cream on mine. Mums!

 

 

August 18, 2014

Käre Familj,

Wow, it sounds like you've had a super fun week. So much fun it hurts, maybe? :( I know how you feel about being old. Just last night I was laying there in bed when I suddenly realized my back hurt all over. I pondered for a while trying to figure out if that was normal and I just hadn't noticed, or what. Just a long day of carrying around a backpack and knocking doors. :) At least it was a backpack and not a sidebag! I hate to ask the obvious question, but if the water was so nice, how did mom have such a fantastic crash? Good job honking the train from the wakeboard too. I bet that was entertaining. It also sounds like you had fun at the sommarstuga. (That's what Swedes call their summer hideaways. It sounds more ritzy than a cabin. But I think they just all have cabins in the country.) 

You definitely need to take a video of Cody after his wisdom teeth come out so I can watch it later. I think people have the most wisdom then because it's still flowing out of the holes where the teeth were keeping it in. Maybe he'll think he's a crab. Or maybe he'll speak in tongues! I vote Swedish. Make sure you have a lot of potato pearls ready! 

Thanks for telling me all about your week. I guess it was good enough that I can tell you a little about my week too. After emailing last week we took a train out to Linköping where we got Subway and went to Gamla Linköping. It was kind of like Pioneer Village. They'd brought in old original buildings from around Linköping and turned them into museums, and there were actors who talked about the stuff and everything. It was pretty cool. We also got really good ice cream there. (Our P-Day plans seem to revolve around where we can find the best ice cream. We're trying to convince the elders to go to Söderköping for the ice cream there. It's pretty good.) Then we came back and visited Awet, who, it turns out, had tried to come to church the week before that. But she was late and we were all in class and somebody told her we weren't there. I think there must have been some misunderstanding or something, but I felt really bad. She said she'd come to church this week but she texted yesterday and said her kids were sick. Then after that we went and visited Cecilia.

Tuesday we started tracting a place called Smedby. It's all these little houses right by each other, and it's got actual Swedes living there. I like tracting there better because they know Swedish and I'm not good enough at Arabic yet to tract in other places. Also, since it's houses, it's not nearly as hot and sweaty as tracting apartment buildings. But since they're so close together, it's still really effective! After our little tracting stund we had church time. Family History was fun. Then we visited Oxana, a less active member from Moldova. We've been trying to meet her since I came to Norrköping but she's been busy, but we finally made an appointment with her and got to know her. She's really awesome and sweet. We made pasta salad for dinner, which we do at least once a week, usually on Tuesday because that's when we have the most vegetables to put in it. Then we had our YSA night where we planned the activities for the rest of the year, basically. Everyone had some good ideas. Kubb (that game with the wooden cubes that you try to knock over), culture nights (Syria for Judy, Uganda for Prossy and Alex, and America for the missionaries!), and other fun stuff that I can't remember off the top of my head.

On Wednesday morning we went up to Södertälje for zone training. When we have things like that kind of far away, we have to order train tickets over the phone. I was designated to order the tickets for the whole district this time (Norrköping and Linköping) since the Linköping elders have a tendency of missing zone training on account of forgetting to get train tickets. So I ordered our tickets there and back on Monday and they were ready to go on Wednesday. Our train there was delayed so we were a little late, but the zone training was really good. We got a pep talk from Michael Jordan in Space Jam. Since we were late starting, we were a little late ending. Which meant that we were cutting it close to catch our train home. We booked it out of there as soon as the training was over to catch a bus back to the big train station in Södertälje where we'd take our train from. We would have caught the bus except the bus stop was not well marked, so we were waiting at the wrong place and watched the bus drive by. I checked the phone again which confirmed my fear, that there was no way we were catching our train. But I remembered at some point seeing a possible bus that might come through a different bus stop that we might be able to catch instead. So we herded the elders to the bus stop over there, only to find out we'd missed the bus by four minutes. I was starting to get really anxious when I looked up and noticed we were at a train station. Not the one we needed to be at, but there were trains going to the main station that would get us there faster than the bus. We went over to check it out and found that none of the trains going that direction would get us there in time. Södertälje is close enough to Stockholm that it was the same train system I used to use all the time in Västerhaninge, so I kind of knew what I was dealing with here. I noticed that there was a train going to Marsta (North) that would take us through Flemingsberg where our original train from Södertälje would have taken us and we'd switch trains to another one going back to Norrköping. That probably makes no sense. But anyway, it turned out we could take the train from there and get to Flemingsberg just in time to catch our train home, so we did. When we were on the train platform in Flemingsberg and found out that it really was going to work, I was just in shock that after all that, we were going to make it. Of course it was the Holy Ghost helping us find our way the whole time, because that's what the Holy Ghost does, isn't it? Helps us make it home. I used that story a lot during the rest of the week whenever we talked about the Holy Ghost. Then that night we decided to stop by Prossy and she'd just gotten home, then we decided to drop by the Dolmayas (Judy, Chris, and Nabil) and it turned out they'd just gotten home as well. Good thing we did the right order! They were all happy to see us of course.

 

Thursday the spårvagns were all powerless so we WALKED a LOT, because we had an appointment with Kirsi on the very south end of our area, and then with Jasmine on the north end. I'm thankful for spårvagns! Thursday night we were going to meet Pontus at the church, but as we were catching the spårvagn (they got up and running by the evening) to go to the church, Pontus was getting off of it, so we found out that he was running behind and still needed to go grocery shopping. We helped him find his things and carried his bags and still got to teach him. He said while he was on the spårvagn he was hoping we'd be at the stop so he could tell us he didn't have time to meet us at the church.

On Friday I ate an empanada from a guy from Chile. We walked through the market they were having for our lunch hour. We also got delicious gourmet chocolate balls to try. Then we taught Lena, a less active member who's never home and won't make appointments. She was actually home. That was a miracle.

The best part of Saturday was having a pizza night with Olivia. She starts school today so we wanted to do something fun with her to end the summer. We were supposed to talk to her mom but she was tired and sick and didn't want to then. So we'll talk to her about the baptism next week. After her mom left the room Olivia said "I WILL be baptized in September." So keep praying for her mom to have an open heart, please!

Yesterday we had ward conference, so there were a bunch of stake people there. I got to see a few people from Västerhaninge, since I'm back in the Stockholm South stake again! It was a really good conference. Olivia came, and Lisabeth who is now considered active. All of our new converts were out of town. :( Then after church we had ward dinner, and it was pasta salad, so Syster Austin and I were in heaven! They gave us leftovers so we don't have to make it tomorrow.

This week we have mission tour in Västerhaninge so Elder Texeira will be there. It should be really good. Then I'm going on exchanges with Syster Haugglid in Stockholm, while Syster Klingler comes to Norrköping! That will be fun too!

Have a wonderful last week of summer! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

 

Delaney's District eating ice cream.

Delaney's ice cream was lemon sorbet and pina colada and salt almond

in case you were wondering. 

 

 

 

August 11, 2014

Subject line of email:  I'll be home for Christmas


If only over Skype.

Käre familj,

If you're wondering about the kind of depressing subject line this week, it's actually not depressing at all. I got my release date this week. I basically will be home for Christmas because it will still be the Christmas season. Maybe you already found out from the mission office or Facebook or something, but my release date is December 30th! I think school starts the next week, so you might not see me much. I guess it's getting to that time where we have to start figuring all that out. It's been so weird all week knowing when I'm going home, but don't worry, I'm focusing on the work.

The week has been really good. We've had a lot of people cancel or not even show up, but that's missionary work. At least the good parts have been really good. Our Family History hour on Tuesday was super great because I was finding Launa's family and there were actually things to find! It was super cool. It was one of the best Family History hours of my mission and I can't wait to do more tomorrow!

Pontus wanted to get more involved so we asked him to help us teach the YSA institute night on Tuesday night. He shared a personal experience about conversion and then we read Paul's conversion story in Acts 9. It's just been Pontus and Judy for the last month or so, but I think the other YSAs will start coming again after summer. They're just all on vacation right now.

On Wednesday we went down to scenic Söderköping where Syster Austin had her first run-in with less-friendly evangelists from...well, they never actually told us which group they were representing. They saw us at the Söderköping bus station, came over to us, and said "Do you know who Jesus is?" and as soon as they saw our Mormons Bok they said "Oh, Mormons!" and immediately started rattling off Bible verses to bash. We weren't bashing back of course, partly because we couldn't get a word in edgewise. They kept asserting that they just wanted to hear our opinions about it, but then they wouldn't let us speak. FINALLY our bus came so as we were running to catch our bus they shouted after us "I strongly encourage you to read the Bible!" That was quite the flustering experience and we got some laughs on the bus ride back to Norrköping about how ridiculous they were and how we couldn't even figure out what point they were trying to prove.

The next day, Thursday, we ducked into the mall next to our house on our way home to get a candy bar for Cecilia who we were going to "Heart attack" later that evening. (We've had a hard time getting in contact with her and chocolate always softens people up!) All of a sudden we see the same two guys, and they come straight for us and ask, again, if we know who Jesus is. We didn't want to stop and talk but they said "Don't worry, we're not here to argue today." So they realize that the day before that's exactly what they were trying to do. I think we must not have been very good at hiding our distress at seeing them again, and the one guy said "We're not trying to hunt you down or anything." Then his friend piped in, "But we could." There was an awkward silence as we tried to figure out how on earth you respond to that, so the first guy broke it by asking us "Do you have any pain in your body?" I don't know about you but I thought it was a bit of a non sequitur. Turns out they were in the mall praying for people who had pain. Any thought we had of "Maybe they're just nice guys who are prepared for the truth as soon as we share it with them" fled and we just wanted to get out of there. Later we decided we should have said "Only a pain in the neck!" But we're too polite for that of course. Anyway, so then their third friend showed up and introduced himself to us. He's friends with the Stake President of the Stockholm Stake and asked if we knew him. They were all appalled that we hadn't met the PRESIDENT. We explained that we're in the Stockholm South Stake. Anyway, then the newcomer asked what parish we were with so we said the Church of Jesus Christ but he said "No, I mean...what mission?" I think he was trying to ask what ward. Before we could respond the other one said "No, they're not missionaries, they're just...Wait, why are you in Sweden?" (We'd said the day before that we were from America.) So we told him we were missionaries and he was shocked. "Wait, you don't have to have the priesthood to be a missionary?" Instead of going all Dallin H. Oaks on him and explaining Priesthood keys and authority, we just said no. He was speechless. I was satisfied to have thwarted him. And we took the opportunity to take our leave. Later that evening on our way to drop by the less active, we saw them AGAIN waiting for the spårvagn. Luckily they didn't see us this time and there was no incident. All in all it was pretty hilarious and a huge testimony builder for me because of how quickly the Spirit left as soon as they opened their mouths. We haven't seen them since, thank goodness.

On Wednesday night Olivia came over to Prossy's house and we taught her there, along with Prossy and Prossy's friend Justine. Justine has met a lot of missionaries at Prossy's house, but this time we gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to start reading it. She was really excited about it. She lives in Motalla, which is a ways away from Linköping (Linköping's area) but the elders go there sometimes and she said she would like to meet with them and learn more. So that was cool. We watched President Monson's conference talk (Love, the Essence of the Gospel) with them and they all loved it. Olivia literally jumps for joy whenever you so much as say the word baptism and she studies about it like every day. She could probably quote that chapter in the Gospel Principles book from memory. We taught her again on Saturday and we were supposed to talk to her mom about getting permission for Olivia to be baptized in September, but her mom was sleeping. We're going to talk to her on Wednesday instead. On Saturday when we taught Olivia we had her write for herself a list of the reasons why she wants to be baptized. I think it will help her if her mom asks her about it. It's just weird because her mom doesn't have any problem with the baptism itself, in fact she wants Olivia to be baptized. She just wants her to wait. Whatever happens, I know it will be God's will and God's timing. But we'll do our best to help her understand on Wednesday.

Olivia was our only VIP in church yesterday. Pontus couldn't come, which is too bad because the whole meeting was all about the Priesthood. I think both times he's missed church, they've talked about the Priesthood in Sacrament Meeting. Maria and Lisabeth were both feeling sick. Johnson is MIA. After church we had yummy dinner with the Klungseths (Lisabeth's son and his family). 

Sounds like it's been another great week for you guys as well. I'm especially jealous that you all got to go to Wicked. Not fair. The garden sounds really yummy all around. I think I'd like summer squash now. Also, tell Harrison congratulations on getting his mission call! That's super exciting! Do you know if Savannah or Cassidy or anyone else is thinking of going on a mission?

I hope you are currently having fun at the cabin! Send pictures and let me know how it was! Is this Taryn's first time at the cabin? I hope she doesn't get locked in the outhouse...that's not a fun experience.

Well, have another wonderful week! I really appreciate your emails and letters too, probably even more than you appreciate mine, if you can believe it. End this summer with a bang!

Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

PS-My other ideas for subject lines this week were "America in 2014?!?!" and "The hunter becomes the hunted."

 

 

Eating ice cream in Soderkoping

 

Line to get into the ice cream restaurant.  Luckily you can get

normal cones and stuff without having to wait in line.

 

August 4, 2014

Käre Familj,

I always get so excited getting your emails! Especially with a subject line like that. I say 100% yes to Sweden in 2015. But you probably knew that. June would be the perfect time to be here because it will be warm and light. Even if that means we might have to give up a lake powell trip... And you can count all the money saved by not buying me a meal when you eat out and put that toward the trip too. We do have to eat out a few times before then because I need to go to Cafe Rio and La Casita. And Five Guys.

Syster Austin is from the Ammon 18 ward in IF. She said she doesn't think she knows Kurt. I just almost typed Syster Awesome because she is awesome! We're having a blast together!

Dad, I knew you would be excited for my new salmon tastes. Doesn't Matt like salmon as well? We can definitely put one on the grill next time we BBQ.

I would definitely LOVE to help Nicole (and anyone else) find Swedish lines in family history! It's easier to find Swedish people in Sweden because we have access to the church books, which has basically everybody recorded. So yeah, just let me know who to look for and where and I'm on it! It's all the same redemptive work, regardless of which side of the veil it's on!

The work's been a bit slower here this week, but it's going. We've had a lot of people cancel on us, or worse just not show up without saying anything, but that's to be expected. Monday for P-Day we went to Linköping where we visited domkyrkan, the second largest church in Sweden. There were a lot of cool murals and stuff. We also had some kebab pizza so Syster Austin could try her first kebab. She liked it. And it's not even that good of kebab this far north. Kebab gets better the further south you go. So it's best in Malmö. Then we played frisbee. Team America was beating Team Europe when Syster Austin and I had to leave to catch our train back. We went by Prossy so she could meet Syster Austin before going to a week-long camp. Prossy is the best! She told us that Olivia had been there helping her with her laundry. Olivia is also the best. Then after that we had dinner with the Åström family, who are super awesome. We're working with their daughter, Jasmine, who's recently started coming back into activity.

Tuesday was pretty good. We spent a good deal of our church time calling people and trying to get things set up. We got a lot set up, but not a lot of it actually happened. We met with Pontus at the church before the YSA activity. He was pretty upset about things and worried about whether he was ready to receive the Priesthood. The elders were there and they gave him a blessing. Then we had our activity where Judy shared a story about repentance. It went pretty well.

On Wednesday we met with a previous investigator named Svevim. She's from Turkey and she already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon, even though she prefers the Bible. The sisters decided she needed a break shortly before I got here, so I'd never heard of her. But since our phone was lost and replaced, some things weren't updated so she was listed in there as an investigator. So we'll see if some new faces will be what she needs to start progressing. Then that afternoon we taught Judy and Chris at the church. We went through the Plan of Salvation-literally. We started in the nursery where we talked about pre-mortal life, then we walked through other rooms for all the other parts of the plan, ending in the chapel for the Celestial Kingdom. Judy is super solid and she was explaining to Chris all about the need for Joseph Smith and the restoration of the Priesthood. When Chris asked about infant baptism, Judy said "We can read about it in Moroni 8, right?" She's the bomb. Then we got to teach Olivia that evening, making it a great day! Olivia is so ready for baptism, we just have to get her mom on board. Her mom wants her to be baptized, but she wants Olivia to wait until the rest of her siblings can come here from Uganda. Please pray for Olivia and for her mom! Because Olivia really wants to be baptized, and because of immigration we really have no idea when her siblings can come here.

Speaking of immigration, I got the information for renewing my visa this week. I can't believe I've been in Sweden almost a year now! That's crazy.

Thursday we went by Anne-Sofi since she hadn't been in church. She was so cute and happy to see us. I asked if she could help me find Edmund Samuel Anderson and she's super excited to be able to help me! Yesterday she let me know she'd been through all the church books in A and B (whatever that means) but hadn't found him yet. Twenty-seven letters to go! Thursday night we taught Pontus and he was feeling much better. (That's how the week usually seems to go I've noticed.) He'd found the parable in 1 Corinthians 12 where it talks about us all being part of the same body and that we need all the parts. It was exactly what he needed. Thank goodness.

Friday we taught Awet again where she said that she will not leave the Orthodox church. At least I think that's what she meant. She doesn't have the best Swedish. She didn't show up at church yesterday so we're thinking we'll give her a break for a bit. Then we taught Kirsi, who you would never know was less active because she has the best insights and thinks about the gospel all the time. She took us to lunch right after. She's a super sweet lady.

Saturday was pretty hard because we had four different lessons scheduled during our three hour church block and not a single one of them showed up. Judy came to help translate with an Arabic speaker so at least we got to teach Judy. So that was a hard point. Especially because it's so hot in the church (Sweden doesn't believe in air conditioning because they usually don't need it.) and since it was so hot, the alarm was going off. So we were there for three hours just listening to it beep and there was nothing to be done about it. At least we got to teach Olivia on Saturday night. It was all worth it for that. I just can't tell you enough how amazing Olivia is.

She's so amazing that she was in church yesterday, even though her parents wanted to go to the lake. She told them she had to go to church, so they didn't leave until after church. I was so proud of her. And she was fasting about her baptism. She told us "I've been fasting and I don't feel anything." At first this was worrisome until we realized that she meant she didn't feel hunger. We asked and double checked that she was feeling the Spirit and she was. Sunday school was held in Swenglish because it was the missionaries, Olivia, Pontus, and Kirsi. It was a little annoying but manageable. Pontus and Kirsi were perfect to be sitting next to each other because Kirsi could look up the scriptures for Pontus, and therefore feel like she was needed there. Kirsi also had a lot of awesome insights to share in Relief Society.

One of the best parts of the week was right after church when Pontus received the Priesthood and was ordained to a Priest! He was beaming and he's so excited to contribute even more to the growth of the ward.

We also had Anne-Sofi (recently reactivated) and Maria Kojo (still a little less-active) there yesterday. Johnson is in Stockholm and we haven't heard from him. He doesn't really have a permanent address I think. The missionaries in Stockholm haven't been able to get ahold of him either. So we'll see how his baptismal plans come along. More than likely it will be postponed, but you never know.

We had dinner with the Vuorinen family after church, and it was the best. They are the cutest little family with four little kids, all with a ton of energy. And they love to play with the missionaries. The younger girl, Nelly, (I think she's like...four or five) was being a monster and trying to eat me. There was nothing I could to do dissuade her. "I taste like dirt!" "I like dirt!" "Don't eat me, I taste bad! Eat Äldste Stoeltzing, he tastes like candy!" "I like bad!" Then she told me I was eaten so I was dead for a while until she came back to eat me again. You know how fast Sunday is.

Yeah, so it's been a good week. We contacted A LOT of people. Broke my previous contacting record with 145 contacts, an average of over 20 per day. We were determined to meet at least one of our goals! We talked to many unfriendly, rude, and generally unpleasant people, but also a few nice ones and gave away some Book of Mormons and got some new potential investigators. So that was good.

 

Also, if you get a chance will you say thank-you to Diane & family, Lori, Grandma Wilson, and Butch & Karen for their recent letters! I wish I had time to write back to all of them!

Thanks for the updates on how your week has been! I love hearing about biking, book-cliffsing, dancing, gardening, serving, and especially missionary-ing! (To missionary is actually a verb in Swedish. It's one of my favorites.) Keep up the great work! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

 

 

I forgot to say, you might have noticed my watch tan-line in that picture, and thus my lack of a watch. I woke up on Sunday morning and it was 6:15 so I was happy to get another 15 minutes of sleep. Then I woke up again and it was still 6:15 so I figured I'd read it wrong the first time and went back to sleep. When it was still 6:15 the next time I woke up I figured something was up and finally checked the phone. So...we might have slept in on Sunday. But I always count it as a tender mercy from the Lord when it wasn't our fault. My watch battery died. But since I've worn that watch every day for the last year, it's really dirty so I decided to just get a new watch. So don't worry, I got a new one today. It was killing me all day yesterday to not know what time it was!

 

At the Interactive Science Park - dressed as scientists

Judy wrote their names in Arabic

Sis. Austin's first kabob pizza

 

Finding out her greenie will be Sis. Austin