Swedish or Not?

All right, people, I've been putting this off for forever, but after as many months as I've been out, I've decided that it would be fun to send you a little email, because it's amazing what things are Swedish that people have no idea about but use all the time, and other things people think are super Swedish that Swedes just kind of blink at. So, here's the list: Swedish or Not.

ABBA: Very Swedish. For those of you unaware, ABBA made it big in the 70's by winning a competition called Eurovision. They are all from Sweden, and for a while, they were Sweden's biggest industry.

Swedish Fish: Not Swedish. At least not the little gummy candies we eat all the time in the States. While Swedes like their fish AND their gummy candy (that can be fish-shaped at times), most Swedes have no idea Americans even eat a candy with the word 'Swedish' on the label.

IKEA: This one surprised me that people didn't get it; the entire store is blue and yellow! Of course it's Swedish! And after living in Swedish apartments, just the entire thing is one big lesson on Sweden and it's culture and their ability to cram their entire lives into a tiny little apartment.

H&M: The official name of this store is Hennes och Mauritz, and the headquarters is located in Stockholm. It's also a super Swedish store, and one I've definitely fallen in love with- thank heavens I won't leave it behind when I go home!

The Swedish Chef:  Very American. Also, it's not quite worth it to give it it's own point, but the Swedish Chef's accent is very definitely a Muppet and not a Swedish thing; Swede's actual speak very good, intelligible English.

'The Final Countdown' by Europe: Yup, Swedish again. The band started in Stockholm.

Ace of Base: Anyone who knows any of their songs from the 90's (The Sign, for example) knows more Swedish music.

'All I Ever Wanted' by Basshunter: Swedish!

'Young Folks' by Peter, Björn, and John: Swedish. Fantastic song.

Other Swedish Bands: Icona Pop, Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, Roxette, The Cardigans, Robyn, Rebecca and Fiona, and First Aid Kit, to name a few. 

Crepes: The French steal credit for it, but if you ask the Swedes, Swedish Pancakes are the original crepe.

Smorgasbord: Smörgåsbord. Every large gathering, the Swedes always have a table set up of a modge-podge of foods that you can pick and choose from.

Thor: He's Norse. Meaning Scandinavian. Meaning, the Thor legends spread over Sweden and Norway, and parts of Denmark too.

Swiss Army Knives: NOT Swedish. I can't tell you how many people have told me to buy an army knife.

Swiss Cheese: Also not Swedish. While Swedes's have fantastic cheese, it's not particularly famous for a certain holey cheese.

Swiss Chocolate: Also Swiss. Meaning, also not Swedish. Although, Sweden does have some REALLY good chocolate.

Swiss: I regret to inform everyone that Swiss is not a language, and I do not speak it. Not even a little bit.

Switzerland: This one is definitely not Swedish. It's a small country located between France and Germany, while Sweden is at the Northern end of Scandinavia. 

Volvo and SAAB: Originally created here in Sweden. Very Swedish.

Spotifiy: Mycket Svensk. Swedes are very proud of this one.

Skype: Also Swedish. Thank you, Sweden, for letting me talk to my family twice a year.

This has been 'Swedish or Not?' We hope you've learned something or at the very least, gotten a bit of a laugh.

Mvh

Syster Maxwell

Våren Kommer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, goodness, this has been an amazing week of tender mercies and miracles, for which I am so grateful. First and foremost, spring has come to Sweden. It finally got above 40 F this past week, so I shed my big winter coat, went to a lighter jacket and have enjoyed taking it off when the sun is out and shining. Sweden has turned me into a sun worshiper, and so anytime the sun comes out, I do the exact same thing the Swedes do, which is take off as many layers as possible and turn to face the sun with my eyes closed and just enjoy the warmth and feel so insanely grateful to my Heavenly Father that I can be there to experience it. 

Other things this week: it was bittersweet, but Tuesday was my last zone conference. It was so great to see so many of the friends that I've made in the last year and half, but more than that, I'm so grateful that I went to that conference and could literally feel my spiritual bucket being filled as every question and concern I've felt in the last few weeks was answered during that conference. Seriously, everything from 'how do I feel the spirit more in my life' to 'what do I do when I'm not wearing a name tag anymore,' and beyond. One thing I definitely learned from the conference is that our Heavenly Father knows each of us and our needs so much better than we even know it ourselves, and literally, all we have to do is ask, and he will bless us as much as he can in any way possible.

The blessings continued as I got to go on splits with Gubbängen right after the conference with Sister Allen and Sister Nielson, which was so much fun, both to see them and to see an old area. We got to visit for a while with one of my old investigators who got baptized while I was in Gubbängen- the first baptism of my mission, and I still think about him often and worry/wonder about how he's doing. Well, I'm done worrying. Meeting with him, it was amazing to see how much he's grown in the last year and how absolutely he believes in the gospel as he bore testimony to us about why he believes in  God and Christ and their plan for us and wrapped up the lesson asking for a few Book of Mormons to pass out to his friends when they asked about his 'new' religion. It was such a strength to me to see how deep his conversion has gone and to see how much love he has for the church and the gospel. 

Otherwise, here in Uppsala, we've definitely seen some blessings this week as we've been able to meet with a few new investigators and have begun seeing them become interested in meeting more and really try to develop a faith. We've got one girl from Gambia who has the most sincere desire to learn more, and has been telling us how she's recognizing the spirit and how good it feels every time we meet or that she comes to church. We've also got a sweet Swedish girl who's investigating more because of a member boyfriend. She's still somewhat skeptical about a lot of stuff, but she also has a want to know more, and she's willing to try just about anything, for which I'm very grateful.

Sunday was great for a few reasons; Fontana, who was baptized last Saturday, got the Aaronic priesthood. Guys, he still absolutely glows with the new testimony he's found. It's amazing to see the change in him in the last few weeks and to see how much happiness and light the gospel has brought into his life. I feel so grateful to have been here to see it happen. 

We also had an amazing lesson all about faith that I'm so grateful I was there in Sunday School for. Sometimes it's a little too easy to get caught up in the routine of missionary life and to realize that even the smallest, most basic prinicples of the gospel still have a lot to teach us. For me, it was just an amazing reminder that faith is an action, and that it doesn't just happen- you have to actively choose it and work for it each and every day. It is a lifestyle, and not just a part of life; it literally can change everything about you, your outlook, and your circumstance if you'll just let it work a change in your heart. I'm so grateful for the faith I have and continue to build on and for the chance that I have to share that with others.

I love you all, and I hope you have a splendiforous week!

Kramar

Syster Maxwell

Baptism! Gotta dop 'em all!

Oh, goodness, the past week, the past week. It's been a crazy good week, and we've been running back and forth from Uppsala to Stockholm more times than I care to count. Pretty much all day Tuesday we were in leadership meetings just learning more about what President Beckstrand's goals for the mission are and how we can help to carry that out to the mission, which was great. 

Right after that we got to head out on splits, which was a bit of an interesting experience this time. I got to go out with a greenie who had quite literally been in Sweden only a week. It really made me reflect A LOT on what that was like. It seems like it was both forever ago and not so long ago that I was a wide-eyed greenie who literally had no idea what was going on or what anyone around here was saying. I had so many hopes and dreams for my mission, and while not all of them have come true (for example: convert all of Sweden. The population is still largely aethiest and Muslim despite my best efforts), I feel like my Heavenly Father has instead given me something so much better than I ever could have thought of as a greenie, and that's the knowledge that the gospel is true (and I had better know that after as many times as people have told me I'm crazy or brainwashed) and that our Heavenly Father really does have a plan to bring each and every one of us home to Him again if we can only accept his Son's sacrifice and and do our best. 

Let's see, the past week was good but kind of slow. Getting sick kind of forced us to take it a little slow for a few days, and we're still trying to figure out how to build up our teaching pool because............ WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!! It was seriously the coolest thing I've seen all week/month/year. It's seriously been amazing to see the change the gospel has made in this investigator's life- not in anything big or obvious, but he literally glows with the light of the gospel, and he has become different as he's gotten himself outside his normal comfort zone and made commitments and steps towards his Heavenly Father.

And there's the week. It's not a lot (Hopefully there's more to tell you guys next week!), but it really was a good week. I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Kramar!

Syster Maxwell

I'll See You in Some Hour!

Well, it's been another fabulous week here in the Uppsala. It's a little weird to realize I've already been here as long as I have. It's actually just a little freaky. Last week I sent Sister Bass home to Utah, and I got Sister Modersitzki in her place, which has been so fun. She's super cute, and she's hardworking, but still chill and knows how to have fun. I'm so excited to see what we'll get to do together here in Uppsala for the next few weeks. 

Okay, so we'll back up to Monday and Tuesday before Sister Bass left. We spent most of the time saying goodbye to people. I also discovered the American store down in Stan, and I'm in love. They had large jars of JIF peanut-butter that I think I might go back for today. Along with Reeses Puffs. And every flavor of Pop-tart ever known to mankind. And a SHRINE to Jello. It was HEAVEN. And Tuesday was spent going around to a lot of members and saying goodbye. It was a lot of fun and A LOT of food. There was one family it was really fun to go to. While they made tacos (I'm still waiting for an American taco with cheddar cheese and guacamole, but these were still pretty good), we got to play with their daughters and I somehow ended up giving pony rides. For the record, that is NOT an easy job in a skirt, but it was so fun to get to spend some time with that family and get to know them better.Tuesday night we SUCCESSFULLY lit a paper boat on fire and sent it down the river and off to Valhalla before Bass left on Wednesday.

Wednesday and Thursday were kind of crazy just getting everyone settled and then having district meeting and then going on splits with Gävle. It was super fun to get to work with those sisters and get to know them better. 

Friday was another knitting night (yay! I'm getting so good, it's crazy. We get enough train time that it's worth it to have something to do besides just calling people. It gets old after an hour or so). Saturday we went to a few different appointments and did our weekly planning. While we were in Stan last week contacting, we were walking through Stora Torget and we heard this guy shout across the square in English to his girlfriend, 'I'll see you in some hour!' I died laughing. Generally speaking, everyone here is so good at speaking English, but sometimes things come out just a little funny (for the record, no judging me if I speak like them when I get home!!).

Sunday........ Sunday was interesting. First time I've missed a Sunday my entire mission. I woke up in the middle of the night and just got sick. Like, ew. No. But I am so grateful for all the love and support I got from my companion, the senior couples here in Uppsala, the elders, and the Lord who I'm SURE was keeping me from getting any sicker and was taking care of me. Seriously, I've been the most spoiled sister missionary ever known to Sweden for the last 36 hours. I've also decided I'm never EVER taking another sick day on my mission. It was frustrating. I got sick the day after weekly planning, so a lot of area book and calling people was taken care of, so I sat in bed and watched the D&C visual resources and read an entire Ensign and a few chapters of Jesus the Christ while occasionally getting up to walk the tiny area of our apartment to keep from going completely crazy. And the whole day I was just stressing over who had been at church and who we'd needed to talk to and whether or not they were being taken care of and wanting to go out and do stuff. So, I've decided I'll never get sick ever again. There's just too much to get done, and far too little time to do it.

I love you all so much, don't get sick (it seriously sucks), and I miss you tons!

Kramar!

Syster Maxwell 

They Call Me Killer

Hejsan allihoppa!

Well, it's been a crazy good week here in the Uppsala. Little weird. It's Bass' last week, so here goes 'killing' (sending home) a companion ROUND 3.  After September, I thought my killing days were over, but they managed to pull this one out last second. Oh well, after this, my list of possible victims comes to a big fat zero, so my 'killing sprees' are over.  Terrible, right? Oh well. It's been so much fun getting to serve with her for the last seven weeks (it seriously feels like it's been two or three weeks and not seven!), and I'm going to miss her. Oh well. So, the new comp gets in Wednesday, and then it's back to missionary work as usual!

So, this week has been great. I've discovered it's a bird-eat-bird-world out there quite literally. There's a little patch of forest we walk through behind our apartment on the way to the church, and the other day (there's deer that live in there. Just like home!), and as we were walking up, we noticed a bunch of feathers on the ground. At first I thought, 'molting bird' and then we realized it was like, more feathers than any bird sheds when molting, and that it was the big feathers, and then we realized there was blood on the ice. So, we walked into the forest like, 'what the heck' and got down into the trees just in time to see a large bird fly away with a small bird dangling from it's feet, leaving behind all sorts of feathers and blood and other nastiness. Thank you, Sweden, for working so hard to protect nature that it literally lives and dies in your backyard.

We also held a funeral for Bass at district meeting. I made a paper-boat and tried to set it on fire in a giant pot of water so it could float off to Valhalla and she could have a proper viking funeral, but the paper wouldn't hold a flame, so it ended up getting singed around the edges and then sinking to the bottom instead.  We might try to reenact this with a more desirable result (such as the boat actually catching on fire and not sinking like a rock). We'll see.

In news not related to dead or dying things, it's been a great week for missionary work. Our investigator, Fontana, is still making leaps and bounds towards baptism, and we're hoping to see that happen in the next few weeks. We also got to meet with a few TU's this who were pretty positive. It's been a huge blessing, and I'm so grateful to finally see the work picking back up. It's fair to say it's taken us this long to get us out of the Christmas rut of everybody leaving or just not being interested. I blame it less on the holidays and more on the lack of sunlight, but in any case, it's been wonderful to see people starting to open up a little more and be more and more willing to stop and talk with us or give us a number so we can call and set up a lesson for the week. 

I love you all, and I miss you like a fat kid misses cake. 

Kramar! 

Syster Maxwell

Going off the Rails on a Crazy Train

Hej hej!

Well, another week come and gone. And like, it was a crazy week. We have been pretty much everywhere possible this week, and it was SOOO FUN. Like,Tuesday was crazy just because we were all over Uppsala and then were rushing like mad for a train up to Sundsvall that night, which, luckily, we made it to in time.

And that train ride.... we got put in a four-seater with one of the sweetest old men you'll ever meet.  He was VERY talkative. Like, the entire three-hour ride, he would have talked to us if we could have heard him well enough over the sound of the train. I think he still is convinced that we're JW's, and as sweet as he was, he wouldn't let us get off the train without giving us both chocolate bars, a few crowns, and trying to convince us that we should go to Max burger with him once we got off the train. Never fear, we just went on to the sisters' apartment, but I got off that train thinking there was no way I would ever have a crazier train ride (I was wrong).

Splits went great up there, we have great sisters up in Sundsvall, I made the amazing discovery after 16 months that chicken nuggets exist in Sweden, and it was so cool to get to see a little more of the area, but it was on the way back..... oj. Like, Friday and Saturday are party days in Sweden. Apparently Wednesday was the mid-week party to make it through to the weekend. We got on the train at 6:00, and that entire train ride, we were sitting in view of the bistro car, and I just stopped counting how many people were going back and forth with alcohol that night. Like, by the end of an hour, the people ahead of us were speaking the loudest, most slurred Skånish I've ever heard, and I lived in Malmö in the summer! I'm still not sure if it was the lurching of the train or the effects of alcohol, but most people walking past us to and from the bistro were NOT walking in a straight line, and I think the highlight of the night is when one man stopped to wait in front of the bathroom with a large 'Out of Order' sign on the front and started singing at the top of his lungs. Not necessarily what I envisioned when I opened my call, but roligt none the less.

And then the day after that, we went out to Borlängefor district meeting, and since we were already that far out there, we got to take a little detour to the Dala häst factory and see them actually making the beautiful things. Guys, they are so freaking talented. Like, while sitting talking to people in both english and swedish, they're just carving away and painting those things like it's no big deal, and meanwhile, the horses come out SO BEAUTIFUL.

So pretty much, I didn't get a ton of time here in Uppsala, but what time we did have was fantastic. We've finally started building up our teaching pool a little, and so we have one investigator who's so close to baptism, and it's so fantastic to see the change in him since I came here a few weeks ago. He literally looks different. There is light in his face, and he is so much more alive in so many ways. Guys, it is so crazy to see what a blessing, a light, and a joy the gospel can be to people, and I love that I get to be here to see it. We've also started working with a woman from Mexico who is absolutely amazing. Like, the sweetest woman I've ever met, and she really has a desire to come closer to the Savior.

Otherwise, life is great. Like, seriously, the sun is starting to come back out. I have gained a solid testimony out here on my mission that a little light can go a long way. After several months of just not seeing the sun, it's crazy how much just 10 minutes of sunlight can lift and change your day, and I think it's so applicable to the work we're out here to do. We NEED to have that light the gospel brings into our lives, even if all we get at different periods is a brief glimpse of sun before it goes back behind the clouds of trials and temptations. And I can feel the difference it makes each and every day as I realize the sun is starting to come up before studies, and setting around 5:00 rather than coming up as I'm leaving after companionship study, and starting to go down an hour or two after lunch.

So, there's my week! Love y'all! Stay classy!

Kramar

Syster Maxwell

Happy Love Month! a.k.a. February....

Hejsan!

Well, it literally hasn't stopped snowing in Uppsala since Friday night. But, lest any of you think that I'm experiencing that freezing Swedish winter everyone warned me about when I was coming out, it's been sitting right around freezing the entire time, so there's only about 4 inches of snow to show for it, and walking around, I feel like my big coat and gloves are an option rather than a necessity. But, on the plus side, my white winter finally came. In February! 

This past week was really good. We're still putting a really big emphasis on finding work.

I know that there are people here in Uppsala who are ready and waiting for the gospel right now, but, we're going through a trial of both faith and patience before we can find them. So, we swing by everyone on every list, call them, and then talk to literally everyone we see. And repeat. And repeat again. There's a quote that comes to mind- 'insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.' The difference here is that essentially everyone I've ever taught has been found through this exact same process, so I know it's not insanity, it's just.... taking longer than usual right now. We'll blame it on the snow.

However, lest things sound all gloom and doom, things have actually gone well with the people we've met with in the last week. The investigator we've been focusing on has been making huge progress, and right now, we're just helping him to overcome his last few issues before baptism. We were hoping he'd be ready by last weekend, but when it came out that he still had a few things to work through, we decided to post-pone the baptism. However, I know how much he wants it, and I know that since coming to Uppsala 5 weeks ago, I've seen a change in him, and that, even though he may not be ready this very instant, it will come. So, we're going to continue meeting with him.

We've also been working with a few ny omvänds and less actives, and they're all doing really well. It's amazing to see the difference having friends in the ward can make for people, and really, I do feel like we've got a great ward here who are fantastic about helping new people and very missionary-minded in that when someone they don't recognize comes in, they go talk to them and take care of them. It really is such a blessing!

Otherwise.... we went to the ward knitting night on Friday, which was super fun! We had a few less active members who came, and it was great getting to see them interact with the ward, and in the meantime, learn a little more about knitting. Like, I'm very aware I sound like an old grandma as I say this, but it seems like everyone here can knit, and they make these beautiful scandinavian patterns, and ultimately, I've decided I want to get that good. I'm not sure when, given that as missionaries, we don't have a ton of time to just sit and knit to our hearts content, but one day, I'll be freakin' good.

And outside of that, really, I just feel in so many ways this past week that I've gotten the chance to see a little bit more of how much our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of his children. Not necessarily in any specific instance, but just generally speaking and in my studies, I feel like my faith that everything our Heavenly Father does is out of love for his children and their well-being has been strengthened so much this past week. He DOES love us so much more than we can understand, and while there are things we don't always understand about the gospel or about why things happen in life, we can rest assured that there is a kind and loving Heavenly Father guiding us along who knows and understands everything.

So, there's this past week! Love you all tons! 

Syster Maxwell