Thursday, April 9, 2015

Week 74; April 6, 2015 – A Swedish Easter!

It has been an absolutely fantastic last Easter-week in Sweden! 

We started-off with a pretty relaxed P-day and just shopped a little bit in town. Everything’s pretty well decorated with feathers and stuff all over the place! So, here’s some weird Easter facts about Sweden. In many ways, it’s similar to Easter in America, but the Swede’s have two holiday traditions that are really funny. First, Donald Duck is more popular than Mickey Mouse by a long shot. And second, Chickens and ducks are honored in Sweden as the true mascots of Easter (Påsk is the name for Easter here) and the Easter bunny rarely receives a mention. So, if you ever come to Sweden around this time you'll probably see a lot of chicken paraphernalia. 



Later on Monday, we taught Stefan and the lesson went great. He’s made some major progress by stopping Snus.  

On Tuesday, we had breakfast with Marcus and made some American pancakes! They were great we topped them with syrup, bananas, and bacon! It almost tasted like home! 

The next day we taught Jay about the Book of Mormon. We explained the meaning of the book in more detail and he said reading it would be a huge priority in his life! He's one of the nicest people I've ever worked with and he is genuinely willing to learn and search for the truth. I hope I'll stay longer and watch the progress he makes as he dives deeper into his investigation!

We also taught Stefan latter that night and he continues to make great progress. He said he whole heartedly believes that he'll never buy it again! He also said that he feels like learning about the gospel is like remembering a long lost truth! We we're thrilled when he said this! We'd never taught him that specific gospel truth before. Understanding the gospel is more like remembering than learning. We explained that the Holy Ghost had taught him that! It's been such a blessing every week watching him learn and grow! 


On Thursday we met the new greenies in the district, Elders Johanson and Rudolf-Castleton. They were super fired-up and spoke the best Swedish I've ever heard from a new missionary! They'll be a great addition to the district and they are ready to hit the ground running! 

The weekend was amazing! We went out to the countryside to help José move some firewood and then we had lunch with them. It was an incredible meal! We had stew with this really good cheese sauce and she made homemade bread… It was to die for! Afterward, we drove back and taught Trang and Lassie and ended the day with a little Easter party with Kari! 

Saturday was the best! Easter is usually celebrated on a Saturday in Sweden. Senja and the Bishop had us over for a party and invited a ton of people. We got to meet their friend who was the only Stake President in Belgium! That was a cool experience and their family was awesome! The food was great. Senja made meat and cheese pies that were out-of-this-world good! We were so thankful she gave us the best Easter ever! 

Two Good Eggs!
   
General Conference was incredible as well! I feel completely recharged again… I thought every talk was special. My memory is a little jumbled-up with who said what, but I can't wait to read all the talks again and apply the wonderful lessons I learned to my life! https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-04-0016-how-we-live-our-religion-veme?category=april-2015-general-conference-video-quotes&lang=eng

This was an Easter to remember and I'm so thankful to all the people that made it great! I hope everyone had a great Easter week, and I hope everyone will continue to remember the Savior and all that he has done for us. 

I Love you guys,


Äldste Stoeltzing 

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