Well, another week has come and gone here in beautiful, wet, dark, and somewhat snowy Sweden. Yup, that's right, SNOW. But we'll touch on that more later.
Let's see.... well, last week was fun in a special way. We got to go on splits, so Sister Allen stayed here, and I went up to Stockholm for the day. First off, I find it extremely funny that essentially every week since coming back to this side of the mission, I've been in Stockholm, and that's pretty much how things are going to stay until Christmas time. Great, right? But going on splits, I realized as well how grateful I am to be in Norrköping and that I haven't just spent my entire mission floating around Stockholm like my trainer thought I would. It is an absolutely beautiful city, and I will always love it because I spent essentially half my mission there, but at this point, I am more than happy getting to know a little bit of the rest of Sweden now. And just wait and see; just because I said that they're going to send me up to Luleå after I'm done training Sister Allen.
It's also nice to realize that things are finally starting to pick up a little here in Norrköping and that the we're finally getting past the effects of doubling in where everyone the sisters before us worked with are suddenly terrified to answer their phones or seem to be on a permanent vacation. I'm so excited to see what we can continue to accomplish here in Norrköping in the next few weeks and months! As it is, this week, we were able to meet with a pair of Ny Omvänds from Uganda who've been essentially impossible to get in contact with over the phone and to get to know them just a little better, along with a few other less actives who we've been essentially stalking trying to figure out how we could possibly meet with them. (Joke. Missionaries don't stalk people. Except for when they avoid us. And even then, not really ;) )
So, this week was also exciting because it finally snowed. Do you like my use of the word 'finally'? In early November, it 'finally' snowed. We woke up on Thursday morning to see that the area around our apartment had turned completly white, and as we went into Linköping for district meeting, the snow just continued down there. Seriously, it just got me excited. Like, last winter wasn't as white as I'd been expecting, so right now, I've got a little bit higher hopes for the coming winter that we'll actually be able to have a white christmas and such (Speaking of Christmas, did you know it's coming? Do you know who's excited? This girl, right here!). Sadly, the snow only really lasted for Thursday and part of Friday, and now it's all completely gone except for a few piles here and there, but still, I've got hopes.
Do you want to know what conclusion I've come to this week? They should send a bunch of missionaries who speak Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Kurdish, and Syrian to Sweden. Seriously! A knowledge of Swedish is a must if you're going to communicate with people over here, but in the last week, we've met with and taught a number of people who speak those languages who are so ready for the gospel if they could just understand it! And it's so heartbreaking when you can tell a concept is hard for them to understand and you don't have the capability to help them overcome it because both your knowledge of the language and theirs are so limited. It makes me very grateful for the language of the Spirit, because without it, I know that our message couldn't make it through to many of the people that we teach, and our simple words alone don't have the power to touch hearts in a way nearly as powerful as the Spirit.
I love you all tons, and I hope that you have a great week!
Love,
Syster Maxwell
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