Just a brief one to show the same woods in summer, fall and winter! 7 months in one city can let you see it in a different light =) (I've even included the same little pond)
30 January 2015
Örebro Part III
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| I feel like this picture describes our relationship rather well... we had a lot of goofy times together! |
Camille (Syster Hauglid) and I became companions on the 21st of August and we stayed companions until the end of December. A running theme of our companionship was that we always felt that one of us would be transferred at every single opportunity and it just never happened haha. I quite enjoyed our time together (and made one of my best friends for life!) during those four months.
We first welcomed the new elders into the area...(we had an interesting relationship with the elders... but we definitely loved those two haha) Muirbrook and Lundquist (Lundquist was fresh from the MTC)
Our first weekend together ended up being my birthday (we ended up celebrating Camille's birthday during our time together as well). As well as both of our 9 month marks!
So... we had a rather interesting start to our companionship, because two weeks in... on the 3rd of September, we were swinging by some people that used to investigate the church and we came acroos a set of stairs that were in the arrangement of the following diagram I just drew:
Notice that there is something rather odd about that last step? Well... I didn't notice that. At first glance it just appears to be a normal step, but as we know first appearances can be rather deceiving. And this resulted:
It was quite the nice sprained ankle... let's just say that it hurt a little bit. And I couldn't really walk on it. I was on crutches for awhile... but thankfully we had some amazing ward members that took care of us in my moment of clumsiness. It took us about 3 to 4 times as long to walk anywhere during this time... and I was more than a little loopy from all of the pain killers that I had to take. Let's just say that Camille got to know me extremely well, extremely fast haha.
We had the opportunity to see many wonderful people be baptized in the ward during our time together (especially between the two companionships) and I loved seeing the changes that people made in their lives. It was funny that two baptisms that we had with a couple weeks of each other had the completely opposite experience (one was majorly stressful to plan and the other was the smoothest baptism I had on my entire mission). Actually the picture below was taken on the second one (I wish I didn't cause half of Camille's face to be in shadow.. but oh well *shrugs*):
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| District picture: Elders Lundquist, Packer, Johnson, Muirbrook, me and Camille |
We discovered the wonders of speed-walking during October General Conference:
We had various members in the area that were telling us that we should have a prank war between us and the elders. Camille and I knew that if we did such a thing we would not be the victors in the end... retaliation would be harsh. But we still wanted to do something so we came up with the most wonderful idea. We bought 16 KEX bars, two random kid toothbrushes, random Book of Mormon figures, ribbons and somewhere between 50 and 100 notes with random inside jokes. We decided to eat at the restaurant near the elders apartment and then drop the lot in the elders mailbox... well we totally ran into the elders at the restaurant (and covering the fact that we were there to surprise them... haha). But they didn't catch on to us and we were able to drop everything in. Definitely a productive use of a p-day. I say that we won the "prank" war in the end =)
29 January 2015
Örebro Part II
There are so many things that I can post about Örebro that I know that I'm going to just spread out over several entries... First, from Zone Conference in August 2013! This was right before the big transfer I mentioned last time... So here are the Örebro sisters!
One last district picture:
An experience that let me know that those scenes in romantic comedies can actually happen and that sometimes... well I should just explain. It was the third of August, 2013. "Today was hot! Over 30 degrees Celsius (which is only about 90 degrees for those of us here in the States and is nothing to what I experience in Fresno every summer... but it seemed hot haha), which is high for Sweden especially considering just how humid it gets here. We started the day by meeting Moses at the church to show him where football is and he brought 2 friends with him! Football was fun, but most definitely ridiculously hot--I drank both of the water bottles I had brought with me. (apparently the heat really made an impression on me that day haha).
"The other main event of the day was when we went to go see E. We left a little early and waited a little bit at the train station before we started walking to his friend's apartment. When it was 20 minutes after when we were supposed to meet with him and we hadn't heard back from him yet, we sent him a text and he responded back letting us know that he had missed his connecting bus and was running significantly late. We ended up backtracking and meeting him halfway between his friend's place and resecentrum (the central bus station).
"We talked to him for a little bit, trying to figure how he was doing because we knew that he been in the hospital the last few days, though we had no idea why--still don't know for that matter. We tried to answer his questions about baptism for kids and the sacrament and how it was different from communion. As we were finishing our lesson (we were outside sitting on a couple of benches on a dock by the river that runs through the center of town) it started to rain... well sprinkle. I hurried to say a 30 second prayer and by the time I said amen it was pouring. And I mean POURING!!!! We all started running down the street.
"Are you taking the bus? " ...We don't know.. uh bye!!!" (Very articulate when we are sprinting through the pouring rain haha). Syster Gambles and I quickly realized we had missed the nearest bus by 4 minutes and that the next one wouldn't be coming for nearly an hour so we decided to walk home in the POURING RAIN because we were already all the way soaked through (because OF COURSE we didn't have ANY jackets or umbrellas... or thought to plan ahead or anything). It poured for about 15 minutes before it lessened to a more normal rain. We did arrive back at our apartment about 45 minutes after we started. There was lots of thunder and lightning involved... and we decided to make cookies to celebrate surviving the journey."
But really when you least expect it, it can start pouring rain without any notice whatsoever. We decided it could have a been a good scene in a romantic comedy--if we weren't missionaries and if we were with love interests. It made for a very memorable lesson nonetheless.
To round off this entry: Adam's baptism!
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| Me, Syster Gambles, Syster Hauglid (my future companion... we just didn't know that yet!) and Syster Miller! We all had our golden nuggets which represented various people that we were working with. We needed to "summon those nuggets" and take care of them to the fullest and help them to the the fullest! Beautiful Uppsala! |
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| ZONE PICTURE!!!! Elders Packer, and Tietjen, Syster Hauglid, Elder Hanson, me, Syster Gambles, Syster Allen, Elder Keele, Elder Larson, (Elder Hitch and Nieminen in front), Elder Floyd, Elder Pehrson, Syster Anderson, Elder Ogaard, Syster Miller and Syster Davis (Elder Davis was taking the picture). Taking care of those nuggets! "Summon the freaking nugget!" haha |
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| Elder Nieminen and Elder Larson (our zone leaders and actually not a part of the district, but came for district meeting). Syster Hauglid, me, Syster Miller and Syster Gambles. In front: Elder Packer and Elder Tietjen |
An experience that let me know that those scenes in romantic comedies can actually happen and that sometimes... well I should just explain. It was the third of August, 2013. "Today was hot! Over 30 degrees Celsius (which is only about 90 degrees for those of us here in the States and is nothing to what I experience in Fresno every summer... but it seemed hot haha), which is high for Sweden especially considering just how humid it gets here. We started the day by meeting Moses at the church to show him where football is and he brought 2 friends with him! Football was fun, but most definitely ridiculously hot--I drank both of the water bottles I had brought with me. (apparently the heat really made an impression on me that day haha).
"The other main event of the day was when we went to go see E. We left a little early and waited a little bit at the train station before we started walking to his friend's apartment. When it was 20 minutes after when we were supposed to meet with him and we hadn't heard back from him yet, we sent him a text and he responded back letting us know that he had missed his connecting bus and was running significantly late. We ended up backtracking and meeting him halfway between his friend's place and resecentrum (the central bus station).
"We talked to him for a little bit, trying to figure how he was doing because we knew that he been in the hospital the last few days, though we had no idea why--still don't know for that matter. We tried to answer his questions about baptism for kids and the sacrament and how it was different from communion. As we were finishing our lesson (we were outside sitting on a couple of benches on a dock by the river that runs through the center of town) it started to rain... well sprinkle. I hurried to say a 30 second prayer and by the time I said amen it was pouring. And I mean POURING!!!! We all started running down the street.
"Are you taking the bus? " ...We don't know.. uh bye!!!" (Very articulate when we are sprinting through the pouring rain haha). Syster Gambles and I quickly realized we had missed the nearest bus by 4 minutes and that the next one wouldn't be coming for nearly an hour so we decided to walk home in the POURING RAIN because we were already all the way soaked through (because OF COURSE we didn't have ANY jackets or umbrellas... or thought to plan ahead or anything). It poured for about 15 minutes before it lessened to a more normal rain. We did arrive back at our apartment about 45 minutes after we started. There was lots of thunder and lightning involved... and we decided to make cookies to celebrate surviving the journey."
But really when you least expect it, it can start pouring rain without any notice whatsoever. We decided it could have a been a good scene in a romantic comedy--if we weren't missionaries and if we were with love interests. It made for a very memorable lesson nonetheless.
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| Pre-drenching haha.. |
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| My little interpretation of us walking through the rain |
To round off this entry: Adam's baptism!
I'm sad to say that I don't really have any pictures of me and Adam on that day (I was busy playing piano during the group photos) but it was really just one of those feel-good, Spirit filled baptisms. I remember being so happy for him and feeling that he was so ready to take this step. The primary song, When I Am Baptized, always comes to mind when I think of this day:
I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain
And ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.
I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.
I know that when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away,
And I can be forgiven and improve myself each day.
I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again
~Nita Dale Milner
You can listen to this song here:
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