Oh, How Swede It Is!: Spider Infestation

Letter sent September 5, 2016:

Dried apples

Hey!

This week has absolutely flown by.

First and foremost the outside of our apartment is infested with massive spiders and they just build their webs outside our windows and stare at us all the time. I don't like them. And they are seriously HUGE. We close our little window coverings and at night the spiders massive body shadows just shine through the fabric. You can't escape them. I feel like I am getting a taste of a 3rd world mission. Grateful to be in Sweden.

We also like to watch the lady who lives across the street from us. Not in a creepy way. More like a friendly-neighbor-who-also-lives-on-the-second-floor kind of way. She always watches tv and waters her plants. We've only seen her tv off once. We've decided her name is probably Kerstin. And we were absolutely losing our minds because Kerstin was eating dinner with a never before seen man yesterday. Our lives are sometimes without excitement so we live vicariously through Kerstin.

On Tuesday we went up to Göteborg to spend part of Tuesday and Wednesday with them. I got to spend our time there with Syster Barrett!! We finally got to be companions for a day and I had so much fun! She is a fantastic missionary. She's always calling out to people who are a little farther away than normal, like across the street in a park, to talk to them and tell them that we're missionaries. So bold. she also listens to the spirit a lot as she talks to people on the street. I don't know how to explain it but she just has the calm quiet presence. I learned a lot from being with her. We taught a couple of their investigators together. We tried to help one of them set up a baptismal date as a goal but he was just really scared and unsure. We finally got him to say a prayer with us in the lesson, which is something he hadn't done up to this point. I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have about God and who He is and that I don't have to be afraid of talking to Him. I know that He listens and cares.

On Thursday we went to the church and had a lady in the ward, Lena, help us with family history. Well, mostly she just helped me. BUT HOLY COW IT WAS SO FUN. I was like get me home so I can just do family history all day long haha. It just was a great time because they have all the Swedish death books and birth and confirmation and marriage records downloaded on the computers here which makes everything so much easier. It was nice doing it with an actual Swedish person because she is super good at reading the names and knowing what the towns say when it's hard to read. We found a bunch of people that need to be baptized and then found other information that made it so we can do more sealings of people that were already found (probs by grandma). But like. Okay. People have been saying for years that family history is actually fun and now I believe them. Also turns out grandma hasn't done everything like I thought.

We also talked to lots of people on the street and then that night we visited the sweetest family in the ward. They have a little 7 year old boy and he explained in great detail how to play this church game from america. All the cards are Book of Mormon characters and you fight against each other. Possibly like pokemon or something? I don't know. But they all have different strength levels and it was pretty fun.

Then Friday we had district meeting. Then afterwards we traveled over to Kristianstad to go on splits with the sisters that are serving there. I got to stay in Kristianstad with Syster Howlett! We got to help set up for a wedding and clean the church and then talk to tons of people on the street. Syster Howlett is incredible. She just does everything she can as best as she can and lets God take care of the rest. A great example of faith and diligence. Also every member in their branch keeps giving them masses of apples. So we dried a bunch of them at night. Almost as good as Grandma May's (actually not even close to as good).

Then Saturday we switched back and Syster Jackson and I taught our first sit down lesson to an investigator together! Woooo! We taught this young girl (20's) who we met on the street during the week. She brought her fiance along so we taught them both about the restoration of the gospel. We're meeting with them again this week and are excited to see how it goes.

Yesterday church was fab because I didn't have to sing in the choir. Also because of other reasons such as that it was fast and testimony meeting and I love hearing people bear their testimonies. Also got to take the sacrament. Also got to wear sister Jackson's coziest sweater on the planet. Good day.

Älskar er!

Syster May