A new area and companion! This week has been extremely exciting.
I spent a lot of Monday and Tuesday saying farewell to some fast friends in Haninge. Elder Burns and I had our weekly language study with a young man in the ward, Jacob, whom we have become close with. It was strange to be saying hej då to another wonderful area! On Tuesday evening, another member came by and dropped off American fishy crackers and root beer. So many people to miss! I left the Vendelsö apartment for the last time on Wednesday morning. It was sad to leave the washer and dryer, the cool second floor loft, and all of the nice member meals.
I took the pendeltåg to Stockholm (another last) and then caught another train. It took about four and a half hours to travel down to Växjö. The journey was magical. Our train rushed through miles of frosty forest, past picturesque lakes and towns, and gave me a glimpse of some of God's greatest handiwork. According to the man in the seat next to me, I saw the most beautiful scenes that Sweden has to offer. I believe him!
And now I am here. I have loved all of my areas: Boden, Jakobsberg, and Haninge; but Växjö is unlike anything I have ever experienced before! I was not expecting to leave Haninge, but ever since I heard that I would be moving here my excitement has only grown. Växjö is wonderful! It is the greenest (environmentally) city in all of Europe. It is also the rainiest area in Sweden. The branch here is the smallest church unit I have served in and a real contrast to Haninge. I already love all of the members! Yesterday, fourteen of them attended, two of the people we are teaching, plus us. It was wonderful. Someone from the stake was supposed to come and speak, but they got sick. I was asked to give a talk instead and to introduce myself.
And now to the paragraph about my new companion: Elder Nicholas Buckley. The first fun fact about Elder Buckley is that he is the missionary I replaced when I went to Haninge, so I have now followed him here to Växjö. He wears glasses and is actually fairly tall. We have had a great time these past few days! Elder Buckley just completed training a new missionary (who headed up to Skellefteå) and he has been on his mission six weeks longer than I have. He grew up in Seattle (Duvall), Washington and has three siblings. One of them is younger than he is and is currently serving in Argentina.
One of our goals this week was to begin teaching five new people. We were able to find two of those people on Saturday but still needed three more. Elder Buckley and I both knew that they were out there. After church yesterday, we knew we had a few hours to find them and we set out work. With no luck! We got on the bus home, kept talking to people, and still nothing. We try not to be focused so much on the numbers, but our goal had felt so inspired! We were about 100 meters from the apartment when we started talking to two young adults. After a great conversation, they both agreed to meet with us on Thursday! Elder Buckley and I were ecstatic. For a person to count as someone we teach, we need to have taught them something, have a time set up to teach again, and have extended a commitment. We were able to do all of those things with them and felt blessed to have found four of the five we had set the goal to find!
About ten seconds later, we met another man! After another amazing conversation, we also set up a time to meet with him, gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon (in English, he's an American!!) and pretty much floated to the door of our apartment. Elder Buckley and I felt amazed! We reached a goal we had felt inspired to set up, literally at the last possible second and after being truly diligent.
During the talk I gave in church yesterday, I told the story of how my Great Grandpa Francis was lost on his way back from school one day and said a prayer to our Heavenly Father for assistance. He got up from that prayer and was surprised to find a horse next to him. He mounted the answer to his prayer and commanded, "horse, take me home!" The stallion did so and was never seen again! Grandpa Francis received divine help that day, and during my talk I linked that to how our Heavenly Father provides us with divine assistance on our journey back to Him. I talked specifically about how He has provided us with prophets and the Holy Ghost as guides for us. I testify that these two tools, prophets and the Holy Ghost, are two of our biggest blessings on the journey back to His presence.
Have a wonderful week!
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