Week
63: January 19, 2015 – The Metropolis of Malmö!
Wow,
this has been one of the best weeks of my mission! The work in Halmstad is
going really well! We did our best this week and the Lord has blessed us
so much!
The week started great!
After our P-day we went to dinner with the Bishop’s family. They are the
best people in the world! The ward here is tiny, but the two of them are
fantastic! They make you feel like family right away!
Tuesday was great as
well. We visited another member that was just as fantastic! Her name is
Karin. We've been visiting her a lot because she fell and broke her knee,
but she's probably the toughest person I know. She broke it less than a
week ago and she’s already walking on it. In fact, she's so determined to
recover quickly, you can barely tell she just had a major injury. Anyway, she
is a super positive person and she also helped me feel super welcome here. Later
that day we visited a member by the name of Paula who is just starting to come
back. She had some questions about prayer, so we did our best to help her
understand her challenges associated with prayer. It was a really good lesson
and it gave us a lot to prepare for our next meeting.
The following day, we
held “open church” and we made tacos with Marcus, one of our investigators. That
night we visited another less-active lady. She used to be in a traveling
jazz band called The Five Swedes. We played guitar together then we listened
to her stories about her old band.
Thursday was our zone
training meeting. Finally, after months of waiting I got the opportunity
to go to Sweden’s southern metropolis of Malmö. I've wanted to see it my
whole mission and it was awesome! The training was super good. Elders
Barker and Krebs presented goal setting messages and taught us about becoming united
as a zone to find and prepare at least three people for baptism before the end
of the next transfer.
After our training, I
got to go on splits in Malmö! It was awesome, I went with Elder Krebs and
we taught four times during our half-day together. We literally had no down
time! The best lesson we taught was with a guy from Gaza. He had an
amazing story about how he became a Christian and how he made his way to
Sweden. He had some concerns with the Book of Mormon, but we clarified them
and shared our testimonies. At the end, he committed to read and pray
about the Book of Mormon! Next we went to a member’s house and ate African
food, it was a bit different, but it was super good! It was beef in a
traditional spicy sauce. It was a chunky dark brown sauce, that didn't look
like much, but it packed a punch and had a great spicy, tangy sort of flavor.
We ended the night
teaching a less-active member that spoke a very old version of the Skånish dialect. Many
people consider modern Skånish one of the hardest dialects to understand in
Sweden because of the Danish influence on it. Old Skånish was next to
impossible to understand, but fortunately we brought a member that had lived
there his whole life and he covered for us. Elder Krebs understood most of it,
but next to actually hearing real Danish, this was the hardest Swedish dialect I've
ever heard.
The next day we got to
have lunch at one of the best Pizzeria’s in Sweden, Lamari's, and it was quite
an experience! The kebab meat was incredible. I was honestly expecting a
little more because the place was pretty talked-up, but it was still
potentially the best pizza I've had in Sweden. We've found a place in
Halmstad, however, that gives it a run for its money, Cleopatra's. The kebab
isn't quite as good there, but the sauce is world class! After lunch we did another
open church, unfortunately Elder Krebs got sick. We think the African food
caught up to him. Later, we went to a lady the Sister missionaries were working
with and we gave her a blessing. We ended the evening with sports night
with innebandi (Floorball) and soccer. My team didn't do so well, but it was
super fun anyway.
We switched back with
our regular companions the next day and Elder Cushing said his time with Elder
Barker went fantastic. They found a new investigator named Mulay from Eritrea,
the small country between Ethiopia and Sudan. They'd also taught a ton of
lessons in Halmstad, so things went great. We taught a few more discussions
and ended the week with 20 lessons! It was a fantastic week and things are
really moving forward with in this area!
Love you guys!
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