Hi! Thanks for the hunting recap. That's cool that Cody got a shot at a deer! How did the deer end up there, did it just walk out in front of him? We got a new missionary in Norrköping this week, Äldste Trotter, and he hunts too. Don't worry, we already talked hunting. He's from Salem (UT) and likes to hunt mule deer behind his house but hasn't hit any. He did get a big elk (320-330) up Spanish Fork canyon.
Good job mountain biking, Peyton! The pictures look really cool. I hope it was fun and not just a lot of hard work. We haven't used the bikes much lately because the spårvagns started going much more often after summer ended, so now we can get places faster.
I'm going to cut to the best part of the week, which was Olivia's baptism on Saturday! The veckoskörden said it would be on Sunday because when we called and told the zone leaders about getting the date, we told them in Swedish what the date was. And I guess their Swedish isn't quite as good? It's said the seventh the whole time, but it was really always meant to be the sixth. The baptism was great. We spent all week planning and preparing for it. First we called every priesthood holder and their dog to find someone to baptize her. It seemed that everyone who knew they could come had some physical limitation that prevented them from performing a baptism (even the elders!) and everyone else couldn't commit to coming. When we did finally find someone, he got sick. She originally asked for Bishop to baptize her, but there was a conference in Denmark this weekend for all the bishops and stake presidents in Scandinavia. So the only Priesthood holder she even knew was out of town. She knows all the young women, but that didn't really help this situation. But we finally found someone who could do it. We had everything ready on Saturday and lots of members were starting to show up, we were just missing Olivia. She had texted us earlier that day to ask when she should come and we told her 5:30. 5:30 came, then 5:45, and around 5:50 we were starting to get really worried. Finally at 5:55 she came hurrying into the church. I should point out that usually Olivia's there sitting in the chapel about 20 minutes before church even starts. So this was uncommon for her. But she did come, and that's the important thing. She was so excited! The service went really well. Prossy gave a talk about baptism, then I gave a talk about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Then the young women sang a musical number. The baptism itself went great. I was really glad we ended up with Brother Vuorinen to perform the baptism. For some reason this ward always forgets witnesses, but the ward mission leader, Björn, and Äldste Miller remembered just in time to get up to the font and witness it. Then we came back to the chapel, she was welcomed into the ward, and we had a lot of yummy refreshments. The young women made kladdkaka, coocies, and apple cake, and we made oatmeal cookies. The elders brought carrots. Two of Prossy's friends came to the baptism as well, and they really liked it. The elders in Linköping have started working with one of them and she's really positive. The Norrköping elders also had an investigator there. Kirsi came and she was so sweet and nice to Olivia and even brought her a gift. And Maria Kojo was there with her (less active) daughter Amanda. And a lot of other ward members-she had so much support! It was a wonderful baptism. And about time.
Yesterday was her confirmation. It was also a bit of a nail-biter because Olivia didn't come until the second verse of the Sacrament Hymn. But she was there, and Äldste Lindquist confirmed her and she was feeling great! The young women are going to have their New Beginnings thing in a few weeks to welcome Olivia as their one and only Laurel. We're going to try to get her mom to come, but she'll probably be either working or tired as usual. But we're trying!
Our other VIP in church yesterday was this investigator named Francois. We've been trying to meet with him for a while now but he always cancels on us. But on Saturday when he canceled on us we invited him to come to church, and he showed up! We taught him the Restoration in Sunday School and when we were talking about prophets he asked "So who's the prophet now?" He seems pretty open and ready to act, it's just a question of meeting with him... But it was nice to have an investigator in church still. We were worried that now that Olivia's baptized, we'll never have investigators in sacrament meeting again!
We also taught a woman named Lyudmylo this week. She's from Ukraine and she lives out in Nyköping, which is quite a ways outside of Norrköping. She was actually a member referral from a member who lives out on Gotland. They've never actually met in person, but they play those online word games together and started talking about families and then about the church. There are missionary opportunities in the most random places! They're everywhere!
We haven't met with Mona again yet. She's supposed to be in the hospital until tomorrow. But she told us to make sure and give her a call tomorrow because she still wants to keep meeting! So we're excited and hoping she feels better soon.
Pontus is supposed to be back from Poland but we haven't heard anything from him yet. He wasn't in church yesterday but I can imagine he wanted to take a little rest after his trip. He's not from Poland, he's Swedish, but he likes Poland. He's been there once before and said it was a really good experience, so he wanted to go back. He's a daredevil in his own way because he wanted to travel by himself to Poland for a week basically just to see how well he could handle everything. We're really hoping everything went okay, and we're glad he's got the gift of the Holy Ghost now to help him on his way. I'm sure we'll see him again soon.
We haven't seen Mayda again since we last taught her a week ago Sunday. We were supposed to meet her tonight but she texted us this morning and rescheduled to tomorrow. I think it will go well, though. I studied really hard this morning to be able to address her question about how Joseph Smith could see God. Good thing the Bible has so many other examples of people seeing God. I finally understand now why Acts 7:55-56 is scripture mastery. I'm starting to understand about all the Scripture Mastery scriptures now. They are SO helpful in missionary work!
The sun will go down at 7:35 tonight. It's weird that it gets dark now. We came out of a lesson last night around 8:45 and I was like "Oh no, we must be so late!" But we got in the door right at 9:00. The dark just makes it seem later than it is. I've also forgotten how different it is contacting people in the dark. You feel much more creepy...but also I think people listen more often after dark. Don't ask me why-maybe they don't see our name tags. Or they can tell this really is something important and worth stopping for. We had quite a few positive contacts last night on our way home. It does get a little chilly when the sun goes down though, but everyone's telling us it's uncharacteristically warm for September. Also it's apple season, so those delicious Swedish apples are everywhere again! (I'm actually eating one right now!)
On Thursday we have a special zone conference where Elder Bednar will be speaking. We're all a little scared he's going to cry repentance...but I'm sure it will be really good!
Syster Austin and I are wiped out after the baptism, so we're taking it easy this P-Day. I have to get a new pencil, and we need to get reflectors since it gets dark now, but that's about the only thing on our agenda for the day.
Thanks for all the updates. Have a wonderful week everyone! Jag älskar er!
Love, Delaney
Delaney, Olivia, Syster Austin
Olivia's baptism
Delaney golfed only 8 over par which was 2nd place.
She says she's apparently a better golfer than bowler :)
Fun mini golfing on p-day with the district.
