Dear Family!!
Life is swell. I think I got a sinus infection this week but not to
worry. Syster Werjefelt took good care of me and made me rest and get
medicine. She made fun of me and said she was going to remember me as
the snot lady. I am always amazed by how much snot the body can
produce. SOO many tissues! And Happy thanksgiving!!
We only have a few American families in the ward and so I asked one
of them what they were going to be doing for thanksgiving. They said
they would be celebrating it on Saturday with a few other families in
the ward. After asking I was hoping we would get invited as well… but
no invitation came. I was thinking this might be a not so great
thanksgiving. BUT! Then another family came up and invited us over to
their thanksgiving on Thursday night! Yay!! I don’t know what I would
do without a ward. They really do become your family.
This Sunday our relief society lesson was on a talk from General
Conference called “Ask the Missionaries.” I remember listening to
this talk and thinking.. o boy I am one of those missionaries. The
talk is all about how “the missionaries” are the ones to turn to for
all the questions one can have. It seems that we are the solution to
any problem As I listened to the talk I thought.. I don’t feel like
I can really solve all those problems! Yikes.
So the teacher asked me in the lesson about some of them major
things I had learned on my mission… seeing as I was a missionary
preparing to go home.
I told her that I had learned a lot… One thing in particular was
that I was not sent here to Sweden to just help those who were not a
part of this church. I felt I have been sent here to help many of the
active members.
The teacher had talked about how it was interesting that they had
chosen this talk for the lesson because she felt like it was more
directed towards non-members and less-actives. But when I listened to
it.. many of the situations that Elder Nelson brings up.. are problems
that active members have.
This might not be interesting to all of you.. but I really loved
the lesson.. and moral of the story is USE YOUR MISSIONARIES! Love
them, get to know them and make them a part of your family and then
introduce them to all your friends and extended family
Simon was baptized!! Finally. Our 9 year old little friend has been
sick and lots of other problems that have stopped him from getting
baptized the past month. But this Sunday it all worked out. It was
definitely the calmest and easiest baptism to prepare and it was
really beautiful.
We had some wonderful miracles this week. Simple miracles. It
is funny the blessings I write down in my journal each day. Monday we
went to Lund to have a little thanksgiving party with some of the
elders in near-by areas. We played Frisbee and sand soccer! And we had
planned a fun activity for the evening and invited all of our friends.
Throughout the day we got texts back from them saying.. no I cant
come.. im too busy.. etc. I felt like I usually would start getting
stressed and really worried.. But I have been doing this for quite
some time now and I know Heavenly Father will help it all work out.
And what do you know..! We had a good turn out of people and had a
great evening. Big thanks to our amazing member Hadi!! You all need
to meet Hadi. I told you about him before that he was a muslim
studying here in Sweden from Iran. Syster Vistaunet and Syster Jacobs
were teaching a Chinese member at his school and Hadi was in the
background and heard them talking.. and he was interested to hear more
about Christ and the Bible. So he came up to them and asked them if
he could learn more after they were done teaching. He is now one of
the strongest members I have ever met. And definitely the best
missionary I have ever met. He has introduced us to all his friends
and we have taught many of them.
We also got to FINALLY meet with our cute Vietnamese friend Hang
again! Her schedule has opened up a bit and she invited us over to her
home to have Vietnamese food. It was soo much fun. We had a big bowl
of soup with meet and noodles and ate with chopsticks. Syster
Werjefelt had a rough time eating with chopsticks and they all had a
great laugh watching her try.
Thanksgiving we spent with the wonderful Larsson family. The
wife, Lisa is from UT and she married a wonderful Swedish man, Bert.
They lived in the states for a long time and then moved to Sweden.
Their two kids have mostly lived in Sweden. Lisa doesn’t have any
American relatives here in Sweden.. just Berts family. So she wasn’t
sure if she really wanted to have a big thanksgiving party this year
but her son is on a mission in Wisconsin and she knew how important it
would be to her that someone took in her son for Thanksgiving. So she
said that she threw thanksgiving mostly for us She also invited all
of Berts family for dinner (non of them are members of the church).
It was lots of fun getting to be with a family and especially getting
to know all of these fun Swedish people. Before we had to leave I
just wanted to thank them all.. and I told them about the tradition we
have at home to go around the table and everyone gets a chance to say
what they are thankful for. SO I just told them what I was thankful
for. And then everyone else wanted to join in. It was interesting to
hear what they all said what they were most grateful for… Family.
So family! I have loved being here in Sweden.. it has been an
amazing year filled with lots of wonderful people that I have come to
love. I will miss them a lot. But I have also recognized how MUCH I
LOVE YOU ALL.
LOVE
Syster Schneiber II
No comments:
Post a Comment