First thing, it seems that I will be staying in Örebro at least until 2014! So I'll be here for Christmas and all that entails =) I've officially been in Örebro for over 6 months now and unless I transfer before January 2nd, it will officially be my longest area on my mission. I can't say that I mind though, I really do love it here. =)
Collins is still up in Boden for his interview and he doesn't know when he will be given tickets to travel back. We're just doing our best to keep his spirits up. He still wants to be baptized, we just don't know if it is feasible to happen before January, but we're praying that an avenue will open for him. He wants it so bad and we know that he's definitely ready for it.
A couple of Moses stories:
We showed him the mormonchannel website and before the next time we met him (about five days later), he had watched half of the Bible videos and about 10 mormonmessages, saying that they were all fantastic videos. It was just funny, because we had planned to share a particular video with him (and we had two other videos as back ups) and he had ended up already seeing all three of the videos! So we went with another thing instead =)
We've been trying to help Moses be able to say Sister Hauglid's name, pretty much since we've started meeting him together. There has been a couple of times where he has guessed her name (these guesses range from Sister Joseph to Sister Hungry). We're mainly trying to prepare him so he can remember which missionaries taught him once we leave haha. We found out last week that even though he has always refused to say Sister Hauglid's name that he does know in fact how to spell it.
We had this funny little imagined scenario which Moses will ask a future missionaries "how are Syster Ryan and Syster H-A-U-G-L-I-D are doing?" but then last week at the end of the lesson Moses just said "Okay Syster Hauglid, you can say the closing prayer now?" before grinning and looking down. He just pulled that one of our nowhere and he's said it a couple of times since then. He even had perfect pronunciation (which is saying something, because even missionaries who have known Syster Hauglid for most of her mission struggle saying her name sometimes.
Now onto more about Christmas traditions in Sweden. First up is Lucia!
Saint Lucia is one of the "bigger" saints in Sweden. Every December 13th is Lucia Day and we had the chance to be able to attend the celebrations in the biggest church here in Örebro (the same church as the concert from last week). I can't say that I know the history of Lucia, but the concert involves a young woman (and her train members) and they are all carrying a candle/torch. The young woman playing Lucia is also wearing a crown of candles. They are all dressed in simple white dresses with a red sash. They sang traditional Swedish songs (including the main Saint Lucia song). Often you can see Swedish women wearing a glitter band on their head, which represents Lucia throughout the rest of the day.
I also was able to get some really cool pictures of the castle at sunrise because it was early enough in the day - of course these pictures were taken around 8:00am in the morning haha. The sun isn't officially up until well after 8:00am and it officially sets (but still light out until an hour or two after) before 2:30pm. It takes some getting used to but, it's still fun. The water and sky of course just looks gorgeous. =)
We had a really nice dinner at the Lohman family yesterday and it included the traditional Swedish Christmas drink Julmust, which we'll have to find at Ikea sometime to have you all try it, just because it is a little bit different. The closest American equivalent is Root Beer and Dr. Pepper, but I actually do like Julmust...so who knows?
A picture of the city at night. You can just find these reflections everywhere! Sometimes it seems like I live in a movie.
A path diverged in the woods.... and it was covered in snow.
But you can find the odd missionary or so making the trek through the snowy woods anyways. And taking pictures of themselves. But the snow did in fact melt.... so who knows if I will actually be able to have a white Christmas after all?
We had the ward Christmas party last Saturday and they had us missionaries do a little skit. It pretty much started out with us saying:
"Christmas time is very exciting for missionaries"
Then we sang this song we wrote (we actually sang this in English)
Deck the halls with Books of Mormon. Fa la la la la la la la la.
Tis the season to be Mormon. Fa la la la la la la la la.
Don we now our suits and dresses. Fa la la la la la la la la la.
Hope we get one thousand lessons. Fa la la la la la la la la.
"But as time goes on, missionaries begin to miss their families and feel sad."
Elder Lundquist sang "I'll Be Home for Christmas" (pretty much we wrote this entire thing so he could sing this song in particular).
"When we remember Christ, we can remember the true meaning of Christmas"
And we sang the first verse of Silent Night in Swedish.
Jultomten (Santa) came and handed out candy to everyone (including us missionaries haha). It was just funny, because it was one of the young adults in the ward (Christian H. for my personal reference) and us missionaries were all dying with laughter when he first came in and we just weren't expecting it.
Elder Lundquist and I did another musical number in Sacrament meeting (Away in the Manger in Swedish). I have officially done a musical number of some sort or another in Sacrament meeting every month that I have been here in Örebro.
Have a great week and Merry Christmas for now!
Love,
Allie
Awesome!
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