September 22, 2014

Käre Familj,

Hello from cold, rainy Sweden! Sweden took "first day of autumn" seriously yesterday with lots of rain and wind. Also I started noticing that a lot of leaves have already fallen. Are the leaves changing in Utah yet?

The temple dedication sounds cool. When Elder Bednar was here last week he told us he was going back to Salt Lake in time for that. He toured Germany and all of Scandinavia and I think a few other countries while he was in Europe. It sounded pretty hectic.

Thanks for keeping me updated on mountain biking and scouting and everything else going on at home. It sounds like a fun time! Especially homecoming. I liked the picture mom sent. It sounds like it was a really fun day!

Our week has been good in little old Norrköping. Monday turned out to be a pretty good P-Day. The elders made pretzel bites for Syster Austin. She was really surprised. We played table hockey. It's like foosball only hockey. I scored some goals. But my team still lost. We had fun though.

We taught Mayda again on Tuesday. It's always fun to teach her because she's really open. She read the first four chapters of the Book of Mormon. I think she liked it but she had a lot of questions. Where did the brass plates come from? When did Laban come into the picture? How is he related to Lehi? Why weren't there more copies of the brass plates? We tried to point out the doctrines, like "look at the faith of Nephi as he goes to do this really hard task but puts his trust in the Lord!" We're getting there. Hopefully as she keeps reading she'll feel the Spirit and be able to accept that it's the word of God. It was kind of frustrating because she was like "Well why couldn't God just give the Bible to the people on the American continent?" HE DID, IT'S CALLED THE BOOK OF MORMON. We can't figure out any clearer way to explain it.

Wednesday we had zone training in Södertälje. Our zone is giant now that we went down to only 5 zones. The zone leaders did a good job. We took a "train ride," stopping at obedience and faith until we got to a mountain. Then we talked about the mountains in our lives and how we overcome them. All really spiritual and stuff. Then we hiked up to the top of a mountain (well, the closest thing you can get to a mountain in Sweden) and ate lunch up there. It was a nice view.

Thursday we did an interview with some students who are doing a project on Mormons. They were especially interested in Family Search. And they thought we don't celebrate birthdays. I don't understand why everybody thinks that. It was pretty cool to be able to just sit down and explain our faith and our values. I hope they get a good grade on their project. We invited them to come to church but they didn't. Then on Thursday night we met with Pontus. He's been having a hard time recently so he was glad to meet with us. We had a really spiritual lesson with him addressing his concerns. It was one of those lessons where I can't tell you what I said or why, because it was all the Spirit saying what he needed. There was one point where I was sharing a story about an investigator who ran into anti material and dropped off the face of the planet. In my head I was thinking "why on earth am I sharing this with Pontus right now?" but it felt right, so I continued. After I finished he said "You're right, it is very good that I got baptized. Thank you for sharing that story." I'm still not quite sure how it connects, but he gets it, and that's good enough for me.

The weekend was a little rough and we didn't get many opportunities to teach, try as we might. We spent a solid three hours on Thursday tracting. Nothing. Friday we talked to everyone we could find. Nothing. Saturday we called everyone to get them to church. Nothing. We did visit the Dolmayas on Saturday night and they're doing well. We also visited Lisabeth and she was very worried that I would transfer. (Transfer calls were on Saturday. We didn't get a call.) It's good to know that they want me to stay!

Our VIPs yesterday were Olivia, Nabil, and Pontus. No investigators or less actives came. Neither did Judy or Prossy. That was a bummer. We're going to go Abinadi on them this week and get them to come.

Transfer rumors are that I'll most likely leave Norrköping in the middle of October and go to my dying area. Weird! Syster Byrd is leaving Borås this week and going to Uppsala to be a sister training leader. Syster Miller goes home October 16th. I don't think you'll be able to go to her homecoming because she's from Georgia.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

 

The view from "the mountain"

The Smith's and The Miller's

all in the same district

 

September 15, 2014

Käre Familj,

There's a hundred and six days left of my mission

And school comes along just to end it!

So the obvious problem when you're in this position

Is finding a good way to spend it...

Like maybe:

Building up Zion

By strengthening members

And helping testimonies formin'.

Discovering families that want to be sealed,

And giving away Books of Mormon!

Planning baptisms,

Using the gift of tongues,

And knocking on doors in the rain!

Setting up goals and plans,

Contacting Syrians,

And driving the Elders insane!

As you can see there's a whole lot of work to do,

But miracles haven't ceased!

All this and more is gonna be in store

Before I get released!

All this and more is already in store

Before I get released!

I've been waiting months to be at this point in my mission so I could write this song. It's just too bad P-Day isn't on Wednesday when there are 104 days left. While I was coming up with the song Syster Austin said "Whoa...you only have a summer vacation left." That is not long enough!

Things are going well here in little old Norrköping! It's funny because Norrköping is the biggest city I've served in, but it's the smallest area (the area split is totally unequal) and the smallest ward. And it's not even that big of a city, or that small of a ward. I'm just a little city, big ward kind of missionary I guess.

One of the exciting things that happened on Tuesday was, I found a family! Of Swedes! Granted, they lived in the 1800s. Remember how Launa is letting me help her with her Swedish family history work? Well, on Tuesday I found her ancestor's whole family in a church book, so I found his three siblings and his parents. Is that cool or what?! It came with about the same amount of excitement as finding a family to teach. Family History in Sweden is really awesome because they took very detailed records. It's just sometimes hard to read.

Also on Tuesday we taught Mayda again. She's really funny, and I think she's more open than she lets on. She has a bunch of questions, especially how the Bible and Book of Mormon go together, but she seems to accept our answers. At least she accepts that it's something worth thinking about. She might be a tough one, but she's really close to the Spirit, so I have high hopes for her!

Tuesday night we got to attend a broadcast for all the women in Europe. Elder and Sister Bednar talked, as well as Elder and Sister Teixeira and Elder and Sister Kearon from Europe's Area Presidency. They showed it in the Norrköping chapel for us. It was really inspiring, especially to see what they said specifically to women in Europe.

The real highlight of the week was on Thursday when we went up to Stockholm for the conference with Elder Bednar. The Kearons were there too. They were all very inspiring to listen to, and I learned so much. I learned a lot from the way Elder Bednar taught us. He didn't just stand up there and lecture for hours. He led a discussion with all of us missionaries. First we discussed the talks that he asked us to read in advance. Then we discussed what we were noticing about the pattern of discussion he was using. So he taught us how to teach by the way he taught us how to teach. Then he opened it up for questions. It was just awesome. So much inspiration. So many ways I can be a better missionary and teacher.

That night when we were back in Norrköping with contacted a girl and her mom. They were from Serbia and the girl knew Swedish and translated for her mom. We told them who we were and that our church was just down the street and they asked if they could come see it. So we gave them a tour of the church and also happened to have the Restoration film with us in Serbian, so we watched that with them. They seemed pretty interested in it and said they'd come back on Saturday for a Serbian Book of Mormon, but they didn't. It was a cool experience though.

Saturday was Syster Austin's 21st birthday. She's officially old enough to be a real sister missionary! We made pizza on Friday night to celebrate. Then on Saturday we had lunch at Taco Bar (the best tacos I've had in Sweden for sure), and everyone cancelled on us or just didn't show up. So...that was a bummer of a birthday. But we were tracting that night and these two little girls were following us around watching us, so we got them to sing Happy Birthday in Swedish. (Ja må hon leva.) Then we came home and had Princess Tårta that we bought from the grocery store. And I wrapped the packages that her family sent. Later today we're going to have a mini birthday party for her and Äldste Miller, whose birthday was also on Saturday. We made yummy bars for Äldste Miller (they turned out really well, I think!) and the elders are going to bring a surprise treat for Syster Austin too.

Yesterday our VIPs were Olivia and Lisabeth (even though she's active now.) Olivia's doing great. We hadn't seen her since church last week but she said school's going well. We're only going to meet her on Sundays now because her mom wants her to focus on school during the week and help at home on Saturdays. If it was any new convert other than Olivia, I might worry, but Olivia is rock solid.

Pontus is back from Poland and he had a great time there. He went to church there on Sunday and he went to a single adults activity as well. He's also reading Preach My Gospel and he loves it. He wasn't at church yesterday though. Not sure why.

If you extend the kitchen to the east, what are you going to do with the crabapple tree? Can you replant it somewhere else?

I haven't met or heard of the Östheds. You only really meet the senior couples if you serve with them.

Francois didn't come to church yesterday. He said he would but didn't show up. Kind of like all the other lessons we tried to plan with him. I think he might be less busy now that elections are over. Mona called us to let us know she would be in the hospital until the beginning of October. :( But she still wants to meet after that! We passed Lyudmylo off to the elders since she's out in Nyköping which is in their area, and we don't want to go out there. She's willing to meet at the train station so they don't even need to worry about finding someone to come to her house with them.

Ultimate Mountain Biking sounds fun but hard and dangerous. I think we'll skip that idea for a sport this P-Day. I think we're going to play Kubb if we can find the set.

Thanks for the updates, even if you think you had a boring week! Have a wonderful week this week too! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

September 8, 2014

Käre Familj,

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.

 

September 1, 2014

Käre familj,

Hello! Happy Labor Day! Sounds like you're having a fun Labor Day weekend at the cabin! Is it really that cold? I'm glad you love me enough to sit in the cold four wheeler on top of the mountain just to send me an email. :) And I can't believe you took down the tree in the porch! Is anything going to be the same when I get back?

So, the good news is, WE GOT THE SIGNATURE! In other words, the baptism is a GO! Olivia is so excited for it, and the ward is pretty excited as well. Especially the Young Women. They've been great at fellowshipping Olivia and being her friends. They're going to sing a musical number at the baptism.

Even though P-Day last week was on Tuesday so it's been a kind of shorter week, it's still felt long. Syster Austin and I are exhausted. She sure is a hard worker! I'm glad, because it makes life more fun when you're working hard. And we've been busy with stuff to do all week! So busy that sometimes we look at our planners and there's so many lessons scheduled we hardly even have time to eat. (Don't worry, we still eat.) It would be nice if some of these people we had all these appointments with were investigators, but the members need strength too.

Tuesday evening we had our YSA activity where we made and ate a Syrian dish called "idge". I'm sure that's not how it's spelled but that's what it sounds like. It's the Arabic letter "j". It was really yummy food but I'm not sure how to describe it because we don't have Couscous in America...at least that I was aware of. It's like a cross between rice and pasta. The closest I can think of to compare it to is those little frog-eye noodles. It was that with tomato sauce and onion, cilantro, and lemon. Judy taught us how to make it. Jasmine and Pontus also came. While we were at the church we also helped Pontus check in to his flight online. He went to Poland for the week. One of the most important items on his agenda was to go to church on Sunday! I hope it worked out and he made it!

I had written in my planner on Wednesday "Today we will get permission from Olivia's mom for her to be baptized or so help me..." Good thing I didn't finish it because we actually didn't on Wednesday. Her mom called us and said she'd had to work and she was tired. I was starting to panic because we couldn't keep postponing it, but she said we could come on Thursday instead. We were on our way to the train station to see Pontus off for his trip. The longer I'm on a mission, the more I'm thankful to have a family so that when I go on a trip it's not just the missionaries from the ward there to see me off. He got safely onto his train and was on his way. Then we had some extra time since we weren't going to Olivia's anymore, and we decided it was time to find Mona. Remember Mona? She was a really positive investigator that Syster Austin and I taught her first week here. She was excited to come to church and everything, but she suddenly just disappeared and stopped answering the phone. So we took matters into our own hands. We knew she lived somewhere in Ljura close to Olivia, so we started tracting until we found her! She was happy to see us, if not a little surprised, but it turns out she's still interested in meeting! She'd just gotten really sick and she'd been in the hospital. We set up a meeting with her for tonight but she called yesterday and said she was going to the hospital again and she'll be there for the next week. But she also said "I'll call as soon as I'm out of the hospital because I really want to continue studying with you!" Before we even asked her about it. I still feel really good about her. On Wednesday night we had dinner with the Erikssons. Sister Eriksson is the Relief Society president. They have five boys and she's pregnant with twins. We had a fun lesson where we divided into two teams and each team got an object that they had to relate to the gospel. The boys had fun, even though they first wanted to relate the apple to the shape of some of the people in church... Boys will be boys.

Thursday was one of those busy pack-a-lunch kind of days, and we got a lot done. The most important part was meeting with Olivia's mom. Finally. She wanted to go over all the commandments that Olivia was committing to follow, so we explained everything to her. At first we were afraid she'd have a problem with the word of wisdom, but she thought it was fine as long as Olivia was ready to follow it. Olivia, Syster Austin and I were all ready to shout when her mom finally signed the form and it was a done deal.

Friday we met with Lisabeth, and she invited her non-member daughter and grandson along. It was really fun to meet them. Her daughter lives in Spain so they were excited to hear that I knew a little Spanish. Lisabeth was an awesome member missionary. We'd been just talking and getting to know them when she just goes "Look what I learned from the Book of Mormon this week!" and pulls out her Book of Mormon to show them. Eva, her daughter, knows all about the church. The grandson, Kristoffer, had only read one chapter of the Book of Mormon before. He said he read a chapter about llamas. We were all really confused until we figured out he'd read the story about Ammon defending the kings flocks. I guess he thought they were llamas. We started telling the story from the beginning, with Lehi and Nephi in Jerusalem, and he seemed pretty interested, especially when I said "And that's all just in the first four chapters!" They all came to church yesterday and Kristoffer got a Libro De Mormon there.

Our other VIPs in church were Olivia and Maria Kojo. She hasn't been in church recently because she's been really sick, but she's feeling a little better now. After church we had dinner with the Ståhlbergs, who just got back from a 3 week vacation in the states. They loved the whole thing but they said Zions was too hot so they didn't do any hiking there. We'd had dinner there the week before their vacation as well and I told them they had to go to Cabellas. They loved it. It was so fun to hear about everywhere they went and what they thought was weird about America. They said they went cereal shopping and everyone got to pick their own cereal, and they went to Ross in every city they came to. They even saw all three members of the First Presidency during their stay in Salt Lake!

After dinner, we went to visit a woman named Mayda. She was a mormon.org referral, and she's learned a little about the church online and asked for a missionary visit to learn more. She's a really sweet girl from Syria. It was a little hard to teach her because she really knows her Bible, but she seems really sincere and said she'll start reading the Book of Mormon. So we FINALLY got a new investigator!

We also got a referral this week from a member on Gotland (the big island off the East coast of Sweden) for a lady who lives in Nyköping. It's quite a ways out there so we couldn't make it there this week, but we have an appointment to meet her tomorrow. She sounds pretty positive as well.

Cody's schedule sounds hard. But stats is always fun. I'm glad Peyton has Miss Caughey for health! She is really nice. (She's the one in parent teacher conference who said that I "radiate goodness" or something. I'm sure she'll say the same about Peyton!) And San Francisco for orchestra tour sounds awesome as well!

Keep saving up for Sweden! Just to put in perspective how expensive things are here: a dollar menu McDouble costs about three dollars here, and instead of a five dollar footlong at Subway you can get a five dollar six-inch. So, yeah...save save save!

Thanks for all the updates! Have a wonderful week! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

 

YSA activity - eating idge

 

 A door we saw while we were finding Mona. It says "Best Doorbell. If your errand includes God, fire extinguishers, coconut balls, or TVs, I propose that we save everybody's time by you skipping this door."

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.