Jared will probably appreciate this picture:
We've began implementing Church "open hours" in our mission about 2 months ago. We been trying to think of ideas to see how we can get people to want to come in, so we made this sign that we stick outside the church whenever we're there. It says "The church is open! We can help you with family history. Welcome in! Tuesdays and Wednesdays 10 a.m. until 6 p.m" This is apparently what my whiteboard handwriting looks like haha.
We traveled up to Uppsala for Zone Training and we got to take a zone picture. (Stockholm North!)
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| Stockholm North Zone |
From left to right, back row: Elder Johnson (who was in my MTC district and is now in my current district), Elder Lindquist (who's Swedish), Syster Land (who was just transferred into the Zone), Syster Allen, Syster Kalt, Syster and Elder Davis, me, Elder Lundquist (in my district, obviously), Syster Hauglid (I think I might have mentioned her at some point or another haha), Syster Byrd, Syster and Elder Sorensen (they were once the mission president couple in another mission).
middle row: Elder Barnes, Elder Allsop (one of our zone leaders), Elder Miller, Elder Bailey (in my district now), and Elder Schroeder (who is now in Örebro with Elder Lundquist)
front row: Elder Orr and Elder Haddon (the other zone leader).
After zone training we walked to where we were going to have lunch (A Swedish fast food place called Max Burger, which I really do like), and it started to snow. They were some of the biggest snowflakes that I have ever seen. They were bigger than the size of a half-dollar. This pictures don't really do it justice, but it was my first "real" snow of the season. The pictures just kept getting progressively blurry as it snowed harder, but you can still get the same general effect.
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Zone walking to Max Burger 
Uppsala has one of the largest churches in Sweden and it is super pretty and cool looking. We had the chance to go inside for a few minutes, so I will just include some of my favorite pictures
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The Newells gave all of the missionaries advent calendars and I noticed this quirky little detail. Here's Santa, looking jolly. Notice the positioning of the dogs, Christmas tree, bag, etc.
And then I saw that there was this picture included on the wall of the building in the scene (ignore my hand): And it's the exact same scene. Advent inception?
Of course since it's Europe, the chocolate is actually good in the calendar =) So I've been having a countdown to Christmas like a little kid =)
We had the chance to go to a yearly concert here in Örebro in front of the Swedish Churches. There were a ton of people there and it was very cold mind you, with the snow. But they sang a variety of Chrismas songs in both English and Swedish. I was able to record some of it, so maybe you will be able to see a little bit of it later. =)
A couple of more pictures of the snow, including one of the church.
In other news, they officially opened the Northern most part of Sweden for sisters to work in (Luleå) so I can literally go to every corner of Sweden right now.
Collins is gone for the week for an interview with immigration, but we hope to be able to move up his baptismal date to this month. (Which will make him really happy, if he's able to do that).
Another investigator came to sacrament meeting again yesterday, but she's still very busy so it is hard to meet with her. We hope she can come to the Ward Christmas Party this weekend.
An old investigator that we recently came into contact with is definitely very interested in the church. We need to help her develop relationships with members in Örebro that are strong in the church (most of her member friends are either inactive or left the church).
Moses didn't come to church yesterday because of the weather. (But he is willing to meet with us even with the snow, he isn't just going to hibernate for the winter, which is what he originally said he would do). It was just was snowing to hard and since he has been having trouble with his bike, he couldn't come. We've been emphasizing the importance of reading the Book of Mormon every day and he finally agreed to do it (to get us to stop asking him haha). Last Thursday we had meet him and then we ending up meeting him again on Friday (we like meeting him twice a week and those happened to be the two days he could meet) and he said that he read from the Book of Mormon Thursday night, but that he didn't understand.
"Well I read Mormon 8:40-41, and I just didn't get it."
Then I asked, how he decided to read those particular verses.
"I just opened the book randomly and read those two."
He had read, "40 Yea, why do ye build up your secret abominations to get gain, and cause that widows should mourn before the Lord, and also orphans to mourn before the Lord, and also the blood of their fathers and their husbands to cry unto the Lord from the ground, for vengeance upon your heads?
41 Behold, the sword of vengeance hangeth over you; and the time soon cometh that he avengeth the blood of the saints upon you, for he will not suffer their cries any longer."
Thankfully we had just been talking about how the Lord allows bad things happen to good people so that the wicked could be judged, but it was just funny.
It reminds of a story I had heard in the MTC. There was a set of missions that were teaching a person that they had just met and they wanted to explain that the Lord will provide a way for us to follow his commandments, so they went and shared 1 Nephi 3:7. The person they were teaching, seemed to be a little frightened and said "No thanks". It wasn't until later (since they had shared the scripture in another language) that they realized that they had in fact shared 3 Nephi 3:7 which reads "Or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us—not our slaves, but our brethren and partners of all our substance."
A bit of a different message.
I hope you all are doing well!
Love,
Allie
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