Haninge Week 14 - December 17, 2018

God Jul!

Christmas is upon us! I absolutely love this time of year in Sweden. Some snow came during the week, and that made it seem like the season was here for real. One difference between Christmas here and Christmas in America is that everyone seems to like white lights. In America, there are so many houses with colorful Christmas lights. Here, most people have white lights and stars and candles in the windows, So so beautiful! Sometimes I feel like I'm walking around in an Ikea magazine.

One of these is of a wooden bird. It is a fairly common door knocker here, you pull the string at the bottom and the woodpecker knocks on the door.

On Tuesday evening, we had dinner with the bishop in the Handen ward. During planning, Elder Burns and I had planned to be near his house before the dinner so that we could do some finding work there. As we were there in what we thought was the area of his house, we looked up the travel to his house so that we would know how long we had to find. To our surprise, Google Maps said that his house was a half hour away. We were confused but didn't know the area very well so we trusted Google. On the bus ride to the dinner, we met the coolest guy! His name is Daniel. 

Elder Burns and I had an awesome conversation with him about random things and then turned it to the Book of Mormon. Our stop was coming soon, so we quickly exchanged contact information with him. We didn't need to worry, though, because he was actually going to the same stop as us. We kept talking as we walked away from the bus stop, and he kept walking and talking with us all the way to bishop's house. He even met bishop at the door. After the member meal, bishop drove Elder Burns and I to the church. On the ride there, we realized that in our finding session before the dinner we had in reality been minutes away from walking to Bishop's house. Somehow, Google Maps had us take a different, much longer route to the house and because of that we were able to meet Daniel! It was awesome.

Another picture is of someone's friend that posted on Facebook about the flashmob. They didn't know anything about it, just experienced a pleasant surprise! PS a video of the flashmob should be coming out soon... 

We were in a Flashmob this week! Here in Stockholm, the place where all of the trains and subways come together, the central station, is called T-Central. Elder Burns and I and probably 150 other members were all there on Wednesday evening pretending to be travelers waiting for various trains. At exactly 6 pm, our ward mission leader Brother Österlund began singing a solo in the middle of the station. He began singing a Swedish Christmas carol called "Nu tändes tusen Juleljus." He sang the first verse alone and probably looked pretty crazy.

During the second, third, and fourth verses, the rest of us stood up and joined in the singing. Within one minute, the whole station had gone silent and everyone was listening to the singing. After the first song, we all sang "Stilla Natt" (Silent Night). It was so beautiful and spiritual. Elder Burns and I memorized the words to both songs to be ready for the flashmob and they have been running through my head all week! It was so fun to be part of a big surprise event that helped people to feel the true Spirit of Christmas. 

I was on splits with Elder Simmons on Thursday! He is from Wyoming and we have a few mutual friends. We have even been to the same Boy Scout camp, Camp Buffalo Bill in Cody, Wyoming! He has almost as many good memories from there as I do. We had a great time talking to each other and to other people together. One of those people was Max. We began talking with him, and the conversation went the way it normally does. Then, Max started answering all of the normal questions with abnormal responses! He explained that he has always thought that the fact that we exist must be more than luck and that God must exist. He said that he recently began reading the Bible and that he feels inspired by it. Elder Simmons and I were overjoyed! Just like in the case with Daniel, we ended up getting off at the same bus stop and continuing a good conversation. It is so humbling to see that God not only exists but that He influences our lives! I have seen it so many times over the past week and months. God leads us to people or He leads them to us.

Elder Burns and I visited Central Stockholm again today. It was so Christmasy! There was new-fallen, pure-white snow everywhere and tons of lights. We had a great time visiting the Christmas market and some other fun places. 

Merry Christmas!

Äldste Francis