Syster Vaarola was my next and final companion in Malmö (February 5th to April 16th).
As happens sometimes, with the leaving of Syster Eborn it seemed like the majority of our progressing investigators just disappeared: left the country for vacation, moved, or simply stopped answering our calls. Missionary work comes and goes like that and transfers always seem to be a time that marks change.
We had a sister training meeting up in Göteborg, where we got to meet with half of the sisters in the mission. I love these sort of meetings because it is one of the few times that we can meet with most of the other missionaries and friends. You can see some familiar faces in the group picture to the right from the various areas I served.Malmö had some of the hardest parts of my mission, some of which still affect me to this day and perhaps forever.
On March 3, 2014 we learned that Elder Bailey had been killed in a car accident the night before. You can read more about my thoughts at the time here and here. This was a lot harder on me than I had expected it to be.
Shortly thereafter, the anxieties I had been dealing with cumulated into full-blown panic attacks. The first time I ever had one was while I was in Malmö and once they started they didn't really stop. There was a point where I was having several every day - whenever we were about to leave the apartment, whenever I tried to contact someone on the street, whenever I had to play piano in front of others, and simply whenever anything went wrong (which as a missionary, things rarely ever go exactly as planned haha). It was absolutely terrifying. Every time an attack came along it felt like I was drowning and it was so difficult to come up for air. It was getting to the point where I was wondering if I could even stay in the field because it felt so debilitating for me. Tears would just be streaming down my face as I tried to let it pass so I could regain control of my breathing again. To just ride out each attack. I would continue shaking and be on edge for hours afterwards, often leading me to be susceptible to further attacks. It was definitely difficult to keep going, but I made it through this time.
The worse of it was during the month and a half before I got transferred. Syster Vaarola was fantastic with helping me through. I eventually was able to get to the point where every time I tried to contact someone didn't trigger an attack, but it honestly wasn't really until the middle of April. Panic attacks and anxiety still comes and goes, but I'm no longer in a constant "anxious" state. I might write a more in-depth article on that later on, so that could be something to look forward to.
Even so, I never failed to appreciate the beauty of Sweden. Little things always add up to create something extraordinary. You never know what you might find. For instance:
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| Here is a little pond we found near a church and it was complete with little duck villages! It was the cutest thing seeing these little houses. The water features in my neighborhood remind me a bit of it, just because you can tell that the ducks love living here (as well as the many geese) - guess that's why they keep coming back! |
As companions we spent a lot of time visiting and contacting all of the less-actives in our area. The Malmö ward is one of the larger wards in Sweden with over 600 people listed on the ward rosters. In our area alone we had about 200 people to work with if my memory serves correctly. During my time with Syster Vaarola we were able to finish making it through most of that list, which meant that we travelled extensively to the outer reaches of the ward boundaries (we only didn't make it to a few places where it would take us over 4 hours to travel). We got to see more of the wonderful architecture of Sweden, including this church in Svedala.
Not to say that we didn't have some fun times too! The first time I played laser tag (not counting the at-home equipment that you could buy) was on a p-day for the birthday of a young adult in the ward. I wasn't in last place, but I don't know if saying I was 17th out of around 20 is really all that much of a compliment in the end haha.
We also had an interesting contacting experience. We contacted this one woman who was smoking and asked her what she thought was the meaning of life. She said that we had asked the right person and she begins explaining how she has dealt with a lot of difficult things in her life, when this other lady with her dog (waiting to pick up a pizza) comes over and asks if she heard right that we were talking about the meaning of life. We explained that we were and the first lady continues to explain how she has found the strength to continue living each day, even among years of abuse. The original lady had to leave (we were able to give her a mormon.org card before she left) and we kept talking to the woman with the dog. She was interested in learning more, but didn't want to give us her number--but she was really happy to talk to us.
And then she lets her dog off of his leash so she could show us a couple of his tricks. He was a little skittish because there were way too many interesting things/smells on the street. But he eventually cooperated and showed us his trick of jumping through a loop that she makes with her arms.
And then this guy on a bike with a trailer comes around the corner and the dog immediately starts running and barking. The biker starts pedaling faster and the dog follows him down the street.
Syster Vaarola and I start running after the dog to help catch him--we definitely felt that it would have been our fault if something had happened to the dog. So just imagine this guy on a bike, with a trailer, a crazy barking dog, two sister missionaries in skirts and backpacks sprinting after them, and an older lady speed walking down the street.
Thankfully after rounding the corner, the dog decided to come back and we were able to catch him. We just sprinted down the one block in the end and we were glad that the dog didn't keep going. The owner was certainly grateful. We never did see her again, but at least we were able to save her dog!
We were also able to have a little beach party on p-day with most of the zone to say goodbye to the "senior couple" of the area, the Bybees (who were returning home). Roasted marshmellows and made s'mores with digestive cookies.
We found this graffiti with the elders outside a member's apartment. They were all really excited haha.
We also got iPhones! These were a huge lifesaver - having GPS, Google Translate, Rasit (a Swedish online directory with everyone's addresses) and the entire Gospel Library app were such a help! The phones were locked so we were limited to various apps that they had downloaded for us but we definitely had far more than before. These phones were definitely well-used!
Some classic Malmö pictures of the Turning Torso - one of Malmö's more famous buildings. It was actually in our area, so we walked by/rode on the bus by it rather often. Some of my favorite pictures:
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| Ystad |
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| Right when I learned I would in fact be transferred (we had interviews with President and he told me I was going to be a Sister Training Leader then) |
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