Syster Brink in Sweden: "The Birds"

Last P-Day we were going to try to feed the ducks again. It didn't work. We threw in some bread and the ducks got it. And then I looked up and the sky was filled with seagulls. I couldn't even see the sun. It was just a wall of these crazy white birds trying to get the bread that was meant for the ducks. And then they started swooping at us. It was straight out of Alfred Hitchcock's Birds. I was terrified that I'd lose my eyes or something. They followed us for a good ½ kilometer. It was the scariest thing ever. Next time we try to feed ducks, we're not going to the ocean.

We did FHE with Pres. Jusinski's family and it was super fun. We watched a video of a guy doing sign language to music so deaf people could enjoy the songs and it was hilarious.

On St. Patricks day we made sure to wear some green. We taught Gun Britt a practice lesson and she gave us some saft and cookies. All day people were feeding us and giving us stuff to drink and I was dying. Sweden doesn't do public bathrooms. So I had to wait until 7 to go to the church for activity night.

On wednesday we were going to try to go to Bergkvara and Kalmar. But then everything fell through. Mim Ariel is in the hospital in a coma as of Tuesday night. We're praying for her so hard over here. She is the sweetest person ever.

We decided to go back to Karlskrona and do a whole bunch of swing bys and made some cookies. Remember Lena? The less active woman we walked for like 30 minutes to visit my first week here? We were so optomistic and then she didn't let us in? We swung by her again. With cookies. Turns out she doesn't like cookies. And she doesn't like missionaries either apparently.

Thursday we had district meeting in Kristianstad. After that we taught Martha. She is the sweetest. She worries so much for her children here. They don't have good influences with their friends and she just wants them to stay strong in their faith. She told us that her daughter is having some serious doubts about God and we just keep coming over to visit.

On Friday we went to Ronneby and taught a new investigator named Emad. He told us he was from turkey so we brought him a Turkish BoM. He's actually not from Turkey. He's from Syria. And he speaks Arabic. But we had a really great Restoration lesson with him and he's super positive.

Sigrid and Robert picked us up from Ronneby for our temple trip. We stayed the night in Malmö with the sisters and helped them with their sports night. I played innebandy for the first time and holy cow Swedes know how to play innebandy. I got welts from taking innebandy balls to the legs. It was also African night so I ate fufu. It was super interesting. But I liked it. There was also this really cute little 2 year old in the Malmö ward that wore my nametag the entire night. It was hard becoming Syster Brink again because she just wanted to have it for the rest of her life.

Saturday we went to the Köpenhamn (Copenhagen) temple!!!! We drove over the longest bridge of my life and through a tunnel that spanned for miles. We waited for Irene and Maria to show up and do baptisms with them but they weren't able to make it :( So we ended up doing a session. It was all in Swedish and the video was SUPER old. And I loved every single minute of it. I totally understood everything everyone was saying too. The thing about the Denmark temple is that it looks super small on the outside, but once you get inside the building expands or something. It was so beautiful!!! I'm never going to forget it.

We also met some Danish missionaries. They were having a baptism at the chapel right behind the temple. It was so fun seeing other scandinavian missionaries. We tried to speak to eachother in Danish and Swedish and they understood us but we couldn't understand them. It was really funny :)

Yesterday felt like the first time I've been to church in ages. Irene got called to the Primary Presidency!!! She got up and shared a beautiful testimony about her conversion. Lina got her patriarchal blessing. She is the coolest kid ever. I want her to serve in the Sweden Stockholm Mission so I can be her comp.

Paulina had a birthday party for her kids after church and we went over to support. It was super funny because it was us and the elders and like ten little 5 year olds. She gave us each like a quarter of the cake and it was really good but it was a lot of cake.

Then we took the elders with us to swing by one of our GU's (old investigator) Mohammed. Because he's a single man we aren't able to teach him in his apartment without another person. It was interesting teaching with the elders. But Mohammed liked it I think. We were able to get to the bottom of things and say that the only way he can really know anything for sure is if he prays and asks God about it.

After that Syster Allred and I went to teach Deo. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. He has SO MANY QUESTIONS. I love teaching him but sometimes I wish we could just get through a lesson. He's super positive though and he's still progressing.

Well. That's all for this week I guess. I hope you all are doing great!!! I'm challenging all of you to talk to a friend about the church. I doesn't have to be a long discussion at all. Just tell them a little about why you're a mormon. Statistically, it takes 7 positive contacts for someone to start investigating the church. So be one of those positive contacts :)

Ha det så bra!!!

Syster Janessa Brink