Happy National Sweden Day! Well, this week has been really great! First off, Sarah got baptized! Ahh! I heard it was wonderful. She was baptized on Saturday then was confirmed on Sunday. The program was really great, there were talks given by Elder Hawkins and Nina (who was the member who helped us teach her). There was a musical number and then Elder Bliss baptized her. Elder Bliss was the Elder who had helped to teaching her. He was just in Stockholm so he was able to attend the baptism. She apparently made her own baptismal dress, which is classic of her! XD It looks like a really pretty dress! Anyway, I actually got an email from her today. She thanked me and talked about how wonderful it felt. This makes me very happy. It was such a great opportunity to be able to teach her. She was so prepared; I have never seen the Spirit so strong before in a person. I am very happy for her commitment to be a disciple of Christ. It makes me reflect on my own promises with God. I am so grateful for the restored gospel in my life. To know that I can have the Spirit with me at all times. It's just Awesome!
On Thursday night we traveled to Malmö for Zone Training, Malmö is on the very tip of the country and is next to Denmark. In fact, you can see Denmark from the Coast of Malmö which was cool. Malmö is a very pretty city. It is kind of a mix between Denmark and Sweden. The dialect there is very funny too. They speak Swedish but it's kind of mixed with Danish sounding things. So when I talk with people I can understand what they are saying, but I just think it sounds funny. It kind of sounds like they are talking in a baby voice to me. Haha! The Zone training was great; it was on getting our new members/less-actives to the Temple. So that was pretty good. I got to see a lot of missionaries there that I hadn't seen in a while there. It was good to see them.
Well Thursday morning I woke up as usual, got ready, and started studying. Then my arm was really itchy, and I looked at my arm and saw a bunch of little red dots. Well I tried not to scratch them, but then my legs got itchy as well. My companion had the same red dots on only his arms that were itchy too. So we called Sister Beckstrand later that day, and she said that she thought that we might have bedbugs, well sure enough we went home and found a bedbug... So we had to bag all of our clothes, take off all the sheets and call the apartment manager. That wasn't too fun. It's caused rashes/red dots to go all over my arms and legs... and face. But it's all been going away now. just drinking a lot of water and trying not to scratch anything. I also sleep on the floor last night, because we haven't gotten new beds yet. But other than that it was a good week.
I was thinking about how I had graduated over a year ago, can you believe it?! I feel like it was only a few months ago that I left for my mission. Crazy how time flies. I don't really know how to describe how you pronounce Växjö. it's like [Vekwa]. The "w" makes the "wh" Sound like the wind. haha. Have a good week!
Swedish Word of the Week:
Dop - Baptism
Pictures:
First Sarah with Elder Bliss at her baptism!
Me by the dock in Malmö, if you look really close you can see Denmark on the horizon.
Another photo from Malmö
My arm after the bedbugs