Gott Nytt År!! Happy 2018!!
The past two weeks have been really exciting! I will start by telling about the Thursday before Christmas, where us and the Luleå sisters got to help with a service project at the church. We loaded up food bags with traditional Swedish Christmas food! There was ham, Julmust, meatballs, and much more! We had a great time preparing the 120 bags of food for people in the area to have a nice Christmas! Oh yeah! That day was the shortest day of the year! The sun was up at 10:03 and set at 12:59, which was so cool to experience. We get more and more sunlight each day now!
The day after the service project, we had dinner with a member in the branch here named Syster Ulander! Two recent converts, DJ Tosin and Precious Johnson, came with their investigator friend Alula. It was a really great dinner, and we got to watch 'The Restoration' with Alula. He has been to church twice now and has a copy of the Book of Mormon in his native language, Amharic (He is from Ethiopia).
It was so great to have Julafton, Christmas Eve, on a Sunday! We only had Sacrament meeting and were able to listen to some great musical numbers the whole time. Elder Harris, the sisters, and I also got to sing 'Oh Come, All Ye Faithful' in Swedish and English. I had a solo on the second verse!
Christmas Eve is Sweden's big day of celebration and President Youngberg encouraged us to spend it with members and not proselyte. We got to be with the Tapawnis, an older couple in the branch. There was so much food! We ate, talked, and watched traditional Swedish 'Kalle Anka' (a compilation of old Disney movie clips that Sweden has been broadcasting on Christmas Eve at 3 pm for the past 50 years or so).
Perhaps the most memorable part for me was when Brother Tapawni invited us in to the living room, we all sat in a circle, and then expressed what we were grateful for one by one as we passed around a glowing candle. The Tapawnis explained that they did that because they saw a family on an American Christmas movie do it and wanted us to do something American together. It's not a tradition I've had before, but I will do it for the rest of my life!
Christmas Day was also spectacular! Elder Harris and I had a great time unwrapping gifts in the morning and then driving down to Luleå to call our families! It was so wonderful to see everyone that I love and to feel like I was at home for a few minutes!
We had Christmas dinner at the Näslund's home. On the way, we got to drive across the ice road! There is a road across the lake that is only open during the winter when the laze is frozen. Scary but so cool! A memorable Christmas Day.
One quick story... As Elder Harris and I were street contacting on the day after Christmas, we began talking to a man pushing a baby stroller! We began walking with him in the direction of our apartment and quickly became great friends! He is from the Philippines, and I was able to sing a song with him that my dad taught me from his mission there! He said that in the Philippines, he had seen many LDS missionaries and that their Tagalog is very good! He also used to live across the street from an LDS chapel. The coolest part of the conversation was when we found out that he lives in Umeå and is practically neighbors with the Zone Leaders down there! It was a witness to me that there are people in our path that are placed there for us to talk to.
Transfer calls came yesterday! Elder Harris will be moving down to Karlskrona to be companions with my MTC companion Elder Wayment! Over the past 17.5 weeks, I have become close, close friends with Elder Harris. I will miss him. He has taught me so many things and we have been through so many experiences together. My new companion will be Elder Erdman, and I will tell all about him next week!
I loved reading the email from everyone and hearing what they received for Christmas!
Elder Harris and I love watching the trek video! I point out everyone I know and we always pause the movie when Emma or Sariah make the shot! We love the music, too, except we mute 'Cotton Eye Joe!' Thank you again for all of the wonderful, thoughtful gifts... Avi's cookie cutter and the flashlight from Emma and all of the fun fun things!
The Northern Lights have probably been out more times than I have been able to see them because we are always in by 9. I have heard that they are more frequent during January and February, though. We never really know when they will come.
ALSO we just watched our family Christmas movie from this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy guacamole! That was the best one yet! I thought that it was amazing! There was great filming and acting and the storyline was so cool! We loved the dancers and how the whole theme was going to Bethlehem!!!!!!!!!!! Wonderful job! Elder Harris thinks that we have the coolest family ever (and so do I!) Great job! It makes me so happy and so sad! Everyone is growing up!
I read the whole Book of Mormon in 7 days! Elder Harris and I read out loud to each other for 3.5 hours each day, switching off every page column. It is an experience I can never forget and it has caused me to see the Book of Mormon in a completely new light. I feel like I am much more familiar with the people, places, prophets, battles, sermons, epistles, miracles, and the whole story line in general of this record. As I read, I highlighted every time a name of Jesus the Christ was written. The Book of Mormon truly is a testament of Him. It was very rare for a page not to mention one of the many names of Christ. I have to say that my hands down favorite part of the Book of Mormon is when Jesus Christ comes to the people of the Americas. As Elder Harris and I read these chapters, the Spirit was unmistakably strong in our little apartment. I couldn't help but cry as Jesus 'took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.' The Book of Mormon is true.
I am excited for 2018! Tell everyone Happy New Year from Sweden!
Äldste Francis
More fun notes from Elder Harris:
We had some cool miracles this week. Even though we were reading the Book of Mormon a lot we still had time top do some finding work :)
Miracle 1: Out tracting in an apartment building a man opened up whose name was Kenth Ek. At first he seemed a little peeved that we had disturbed his evening, but I saw his name on the door and we started talking about how I have Swedish family with the name Ek. He opened up let us in, and we set up a return appointment. We met him again on Saturday, described the basics of our message, he talked a lot about his past, and he said he's ready to listen to our message now! He said he'll read through the Restoration pamphlet before our next visit :)
Miracle 2: We were out tracting in a nice neighborhood, with little success. When we came up to the door we were about to knock I said to Äldste Francis; "I just don't know how we are going to get into the hearts of these people." Äldste Francis knocked and started a discussion with the middle aged man who had opened the door. To my astonishment, he let us in! At first he thought we were JW, then he thought we were Amish, but we finally cleared it up and answered some good questions. He invited us back for this week, can't wait to talk again!
For New Years Eve the Skellefteå elders were able to come up, we went to go see a laser show at 5:00 but it ended 5 minutes after we got there. Apparently is started at 4:30.. But the were playing ABBA's "Happy New Year" so that brought back some Saturday morning memories :)
Afterwards we went to the Näslund families house for dinner and fun, it was a blast. They are some of my favorite people in Sweden. It was sad to say goodbye.
Wait, Äldste Harris, you had to say goodbye???
Oh yeah, we had transfer calls!
I am leaving my favorite area and my best friend, (Äldste Francis) and going to Karlskrona!
Karlskrona is at almost the very bottom of Sweden, apparently they had 40 F degree weather last week. I'm going to go be with Äldste Francis' MTC companion, Äldste Wayment. I am way excited, but also sad. These 6 months in Boden and 4 months with Äldste Francis swept by way to fast, I have learned so much. Wow I'm going to miss it here.
Äldste Francis is getting a stud, Äldste Erdman, they are going to do great.
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