What To Expect When You're Expecting

toasted cheese and jam
- most delicious thing on the planet!

Well, the lesson I've learned this week is that a mission is about as unpredictable as Utah Weather. Seriously! Expect the unexpected! I've decided I'm now done guessing what the office is going to do with me for the next five months or so, because every time I think I've got things figured out, they spring something new on me!

This week's news goes something like this: on Wednesday, President Beckstrand called to inform Syster DeMille and me that we would BOTH be training. So, then, we were left untilSaturday to wonder and ponder who would be staying in Borås to train, and who would be headed somewhere new to double in with their greenie. Seriously, knowing a transfer call is coming is the worst thing in the world, because you spend the whole day on edge waiting for a call from SOMEONE in the mission leadership (they keep changing up who calls- the assistants, the zone leaders, President Beckstrand....) and wondering what crazy thing they're going to pull out of a hat that changes your entire life for the next few weeks or months. So, my crazy news is that after just three weeks of being back in Borås finishing Sister DeMille's training, they are sending me to Norrköping with a greenie of my very own. I have no idea what my baby girl is named, I just know that her plane is landing in Stockholm tomorrow morning sometime, and that we'll then be continuing on to Norrköping on Wednesday, and Sister DeMille will be coming back here with her daughter. So what do you expect when you're expecting a brand new baby girl? The unexpected. 

So, as for my last week in Borås, it's been great. We were blessed a lot this week with the lessons we were able to get. On Tuesday, we went to our investigator's apartment, and she told us she'd forgotten and had a guest over who wasn't feeling at all well. Later that day, she called us to say the time we'd set up for later that week didn't work, and invited us over then and there, and we had a great lesson about why Joseph Smith is necessary. 

We also were blessed in being able to go by a few less actives this week. I remember one we went by was completely wasted after a party at her house the night before. Her speech was pretty slurred as she was talking with us, but she was also a lot more open than usual, which was a bonus. She was talking to us about a dream she'd had where she came back to church and it felt SO GOOD to be back- she knows she wants to come back, but it's just getting her to remember that when she's a little more sober. Halfway through the lesson, someone started shouting from the bedroom out to us- apparently one of her friends had spent the night without either of them really being aware, and she kept a running commentary going throughout the entire lesson. And I'm still not entirely sure, but I think they may have said that there was another friend of theirs sleeping in the bathroom. The strange things that happen!

Going around to say goodbye has been hard- especially given that I am still working on saying hello to some members of the ward. I do feel a little better though, the bishop was calling me 'Borås' ping pong ball' yesterday, and the ward's been joking they'll see me again in three months when I'm done training. Whether or not that happens that I'm lucky enough to come to Borås a third time, we'll see, but in any case, I'm so grateful for the time I've had here to learn to love and serve the ward and carry so much into the rest of my missionary work. 

And, yeah, there's my week- no worries, I'll have plenty of fun stories for y'all next week about heading into Stockholm to pick up my greenie (bring on the T-Central gypsies!) and doubling into Norrköping. Until then, I love you all, and I miss you like a fat kid misses cake! Have a fantastic week!

Med kärlek,

Syster Maxwell