Syster Brink in Sweden: : Många ändrar (Many Changes)

HEJ HEJ HEJ FAMILJ!!!!

I'll start where I left off last week!

Wednesday, December 10

We went to the temple and I took S. Giles and S. Adamson to do their first sealings!!! It was sooo great! The sealer was awesome! One of the temple workers had like 600 names to do and it was way cool being able to help him with all of them! We ate dinner at the temple and one of the temple workers in the cafeteria knew swedish! So we talked to him for a little while and ate some real food (MTC food is not nice to my stomache) We also got new Dutchies!!! 4 elders and 2 sisters. They're so fun! On their first night the elders we're trying to get into the sister's residence because they were lost hahaha

Thursday, December 11

We had TRC and got to teach Sister Kerr (she's like 60 and she's from sweden) She is sooo cute!! I got the box with the rosemary bread and the awesome christmas glasses :) My district was in awe with them! They've never seen anything like that before! Thursday was kind of rough for us, and there wasn't really a reason why. It was just kind of a hard day. I got a blessing from Äldste Larson, and it was really helpful. It's so nice to know that I can get a blessing literally anytime I need it. The Äldster (elders) are such good guys and it's great to give them the opportunity to use their preisthood. We were able to teach each other in english on thursday night and it was seriously so cool! I honestly don't remember what I said, but the gift of tongues is not limited to different languages.

Friday, December 12

The life cereal in the cafeteria is what keeps me going. It was brother Sagers' birthday so we celebrated a little bit with the other swedish district :) He knows Justin so that's cool! I ran into the MTC president, President Nally in the salad line and we were able to chat for a little bit.

Saturday, December 13

We decided to commit Marc to baptism. We've been teaching him for a couple weeks now, and when I was able to extend the invitation he was all for it!! So excited for him even though he's not a real investigator! Brother Whitworth was so funny on saturday night. He's got this great Kramer impersonation, we just fell apart. It was seriously such a great night

Sunday, December 14

While the district and zone leaders were in the morning branch meeting I told some of the elders about where we live. It was so nice to be able to think about home for a little while and draw a little floor plan of the house and just remember being there. I haven't had much time to think about home but having those few minutes was just the greatest. It snowed a little but it didn't stay for very long. I feel like I'm in A Year Without A Santa Claus where it doesn't snow and heat miser is controlling the weather. This is literally the weirdest winter I've ever seen in my life. I want everybody to start praying for a white christmas PLEASE. In sacrament meeting my district sang the musical number Bliv Kvar hos Mig, Det Afton Är (abide with me, tis eventide) and it was sooooo good! It's such a beautiful song, especially in swedish! For sunday night devotional we had BYU Men's Chorus and they were awesome!

Monday, December 15

We did service and cleaned out the bathrooms in our big meeting building. The MTC is probably the only place in the world where the men's room is bigger than the women's room. The elders could probably fit a few couches in their bathroom if they wanted to. My district made a goal to speak only swedish on mondays and thursdays and let me tell you, it's hard. It definitely showed me how much I can say in swedish, and that was really cool, but I also realized how much I still don't know! We invited Nilla to be baptized as well. She knows the church is true and she wants to get baptized but she said no because her family is all catholic and she's worried about what they would think. We're working on that.

Tuesday, December 16

I got my hair trimmed and it feels so good to not have all those split ends! We taught Haydar and invited him to be baptized and he was all in!! He asked if he could be baptized before saturday! We've gotta get him into an appointment with the bishop, but I couldn't be happier for him! Even though the investigators aren't real I love seeing the difference between when we first started teaching Haydar and last night when we invited him to be baptized. I'm so excited to get to sweden and help people realize that they are children of God and there is hope for them! Our tuesday devotional was awesome. Per G. Malm of the seventy spoke to us and he's from SWEDEN!!! It was such a great devotional! He talked a lot about the gathering of Israel and preparing for the second coming through missionary work. After the devotional we were able to meet with him and some of his children and grandchildren for a few minutes. The three grandkids that were there were named Phillip(10), Klara(9), and Gustav(7). They spoke such good swedish I was like, "I'm sorry I'm totally slaughtering your beautiful language." They were just the cutest kids ever!! And Per G. Malm was awesome too! He came and chatted with us for a little and I seriously love the guy.

Wednesday, December 17

Today we moved from our residence in 17M to 3M. The mass exodus was brought about by the construction happening right next to our building. Our new roommates are the two dutch sisters! We got assigned to clean the temple on new years eve!!! I'm so excited! I keep thinking about what dad said about cleaning the chandeliers in the DC temple :) We also got asked to participate in the workshop for new missionaries tonight called People and You Purpose. It was the highlight of my first week here (when we met Chad the atheist) and I'm so so so happy to be able to do it again!!

Finally, I have some really awesome news for you guys :) The MTC tries to make holidays really special, and up until this week we thought we weren't going to be able to talk to our families on Christmas... BUT: I will be able to call home on Christmas Day between 3:15 and 5:15 and talk to you guys for 30 minutes :) I'm so excited to let you hear my swedish!! I'm so excited to talk to you! I think I'm going to call mom's cell phone, that way if ya'll are out of the house (like at grandma's or grandpa's or something) I can still reach you :) 30 minutes isn't a very long time, but it's a great christmas present from the MTC!

I Love you sooo much!!! Har en bra veckor!!

Love, Syster Brink