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.
