Oh, How Swede It Is!: You've been reassigned to labor in the....

Bronwen's email sent December 2, 2015:

Okay wow. Crazy that I have to talk about Thanksgiving in this email. That seems like an actual eternity ago. Thanksgiving morning we went and did additional study in our classroom until like 7:45 and then went and ate breakfast real fast so we could go wait in line for good seats for the devotional. It was SO COLD. Worth it though. The speaker was Dallin H. Oaks. His family was there with him and they did 4 musical numbers. Jenny Oaks Baker played for us in 3 of them. She's so good and it was so pretty. When Elder Oaks went up to the pulpit for the first time after the MTC president introduced him, his wife came up with him. He was like, "The MTC president isn't giving us enough credit. We actually have 41 grandchildren!" And then his wife leaned over to the mic and was like, "And two pregnancies with us today!"It was probably a "you had to be there" moment but the way it came out was so funny and Elder Oaks just started cracking up and his whole body was shaking.

At the beginning of his talk he was talking about how Thanksgiving started and he read a quote from George Washington and then he said, "I wish we could hear such marvelous declarations from our current national leaders." lol. wrecked by an apostle. The final musical number was him and his family singing a Thanksgiving hymn and (dare I say this about an apostles family) it was actually bad. It made him seem so much more real. He's just a normal guy with a family who laughs and can't sing.

We watched 17 Miracles on thanksgiving also. Good thing I was wearing a rain jacket to repel all the tears that kept dumping out of my eyeballs.

We did a service project with Feeding Children Everywhere. We made a ton of little meals for families. We made an MTC record of 357,000 meals. Holla. I am a professional salt measurer.

Then that night we had another devotional with mostly just musical numbers and little mormon messages. We watched David Archuleta's "glorious" music video so like HAPPY thanksgiving indeed.

Good thing Thanksgiving was so good because the next day me and Syster Davis actually taught the worst lesson of our lives. If I was an investigator I would probably have said goodbye missionerer. sionara. At the begining we were asking Hunter what she had done that day and she said nothing and we were like oh those are the best days. And then Syster Davis was like, "yeahhh Netflix and chill is my fav." I'm pretty sure the Holy Ghost peaced out at that point. So basically Netflix is wrecking me even when I can't watch it every 2 seconds.

The next day, Saturday, the actual coolest thing of my MTC life happened though. So, I get to be an investigator for Syster Hall and Syster Campbell. We all had to make up investigator profiles based on someone that we know and then they teach us just like a normal investigator. So Saturday was the second time that they were teaching me. During the first lesson they had taught me about the Holy Ghost and prayer and had challenged me to pray to God and ask him to feel the spirit. So, right before the lesson on Saturday, I knelt down in the classroom and prayed. Like I really was the investigator. I just asked to feel the spirit. And i waited for a while but I didn't feel anything. So then when the systrar came they asked me if I had done it and I told them I had but that I hadn't felt any different afterwards. Then later in the lesson as they were teaching about Joseph Smith's first vision I was completely overcome by the spirit. Like, I was faking being an investigator. I've heard the Joseph Smith story a thousand times. I lost my mind and was just sobbing. (Unfortunately I didn't have my rain jacket on this time) Sorry this is so missionaryish but like HOLY COW. It was so incredible. God really will answer our prayers. He answered mine to feel the spirit. Even though it was sort of fake. He's going to answer the people in Sweden's prayers. And I know that he'll answer your prayers.

Sunday I accompanied the Icelandic elders in sacrament meeting while they sang Joy to the World in Icelandic. Apparently over in Iceland they sing Joy to the World at the actual speed of light and if you sing it any slower then...well I don't know what happens. But it's unacceptable to sing it slow/at a normal tempo there. My days of mom saying, "you have to play your songs 3 times each before you can be done practicing"and then racing through every song came in handy because boy, can I play Joy to the World fast.

It snowed on Sunday! We were all so cold on our temple walk. I could not even handle it. So like, 90% sure I'll be an ice statue in a week.

Which reminds me...we got our travel plans! And we haven't been reassigned!(yet) We still could. I guess the elders that were here before us also got their travel plans to Sweden but then a few days before they left they all got new travel plans to places int he U.S. So hoping our visas are here. We leave December 7th (AKA MONDAY) at 3:30am. All that us sisters talk about is what things we're going to have to abandon at the MTC or send home because of the weight restrictions. We are going to be walking around the airports as giant marshmallows so we can wear all our heavy winter stuff.

The Icelandic Elders and Søster Ogaard left Monday morning. We all got up at 3:20am to go to the travel office with Søster Ogaard and say goodbye. I can't believe that will be us in a few days! Also it's going to be such a struggle because the elevators weren't working when we went to with Søster Ogaard and we live on the 4th floor so getting luggage out is going to be a nightmare.

Yesterday I had an experience that I've never had before in my life. I walked upstairs to the classrooms and Eldste Messer was like, "Syster May, how are you so tan?" Pretty sure he confused wind chill and frostbite with tan-ness but like hey I'll take it.

Oh, so in case you were wondering about my choir days...they continued this week. Yeah I don't know why either. So yesterday we went to choir early so that we could sit by Äldste Nielsen and Wilson and have good seats at the front. Brilliant. Then like 20 minutes into practice these choir ladies were like, "Can you 2 move back here actually?" LITERALLY TO THE BACK ROW. We would have been teeny little pin heads on the screen when we sang. Plus we couldn't even sit with our friends. Not even worth it. So we gave our music to the sister sitting next to us and then booked it up the bleacher stairs. We didn't have to book it up that many stairs though because, remember, we got moved to the very back. The mean choir ladies were like are you coming back? But let me tell you, we were on a mission to get out of the asap so we had no time to respond. That, my friends, is how you successfully escape choir.

Also this past week one night part of my dream was in Swedish so I would say I'm fluent at this point.

Wow we started packing this morning and it looks like an actual tornado has blasted our room apart. Everything is everywhere. Tay, I need you to sneak in here to be my packer again. I tried to fold everything so nice but I'm just mediocre.

Only 4 more days at the MTC! Where has the time gone.

Kärlek,

Syster May