Syster Brink in Sweden: ain't no mountain (but pretty close)

this week has been fun! on monday we took a climb up the highest peak in sundsvall and to the top of the tower on the crest. it was fun! Got lots of great pictures of the little city from above.

monday evening it was really cold and we were out contacting people. my fingers felt like they were solid ice when we started heading home. we were feeling done for the night and pretty good about our contacts. as we were walking by this creepy tunnel we saw this woman walking toward us. we usually don't contact people by the creepy tunnel because, well, it's creepy. but for some reason we stopped this woman. we talked with her and she told us about how lately she's been looking for God but her religion wasn't doing anything for her and she didn't understand it. we told her about the Book of Mormon and she was like, "well maybe i need to read that book!" and we said, "yeah! you should!" and handed the one we were holding to her. she was shocked that it was free and was so excited! she confessed to us that that evening she was actually planning on killing herself at a nearby hotel and she was ready to give up on everything. but for some reason she felt like walking a different way home and ran into two half frozen representatives of Jesus Christ. and to think we were about to let her just walk right past us! we have been texting her all week and it's amazing to see the things that have been changing for her. she told us that meeting us was a sign to her from God and that she is so excited to meet us again!

tuesday morning i woke up to a text from Alex (member from Jönköping) with pictures and videos of my cute family who he went and visited this week. I'm glad he was able to deliver everything safe and sound and that you were all able to have a fun evening with him and Kaleb! later that day we went and did some gardening for an elderly member and taught this crazy guy who thought that the book of mormon musical was church doctrine and would not accept what we said. it was exhausting but it's all in a days work.

cool random picture of some stuff in a souvineer shop

on wednesday we taught this guy that sister taylor met like 3 months ago. his name is abel, and he's from Ethiopia. we taught him the restoration and he told us he wanted to be baptized. I don't know what it is but the baptismal dates seem to be falling from the sky lately. Abel came to church and even brought a friend with him who also said he wanted to be baptized. I'm just gonna say that god is putting the prepared people in our path. it's not anything that sister taylor and i are doing, we're just talking to the people that we see.

i got on this floaty little dock thing and it started floating away from the edge. this is what happens when you go contacting with me.

the rest of the week was just a modgepodge of meeting with less actives, investigators, and contacting people on the street. we have been teaching lots of lessons about the sacrament lately and it's been really cool to step back and think about it. when i first moved to sundsvall the missionary leadership asked us to really focus on sacrament and keeping the sabbath day holy and see if there was anything we could do to understand it more. and then in conference i swear there were like 5 talks about the sacrament! so it's been pretty front focus lately. I've been doing a fair amount of study on it and have been learning lots of good things!

it was elder cragun's birthday, so we threw him a little surprise breakfast party. sisters aren't allowed in elder's apartments, so we ate outside.

friday night we saw the northern lights! i totally spaced bringing my camera and sd card drive (glömsig...) so i can't send the coolest pictures ever. i will have to see if i can get back here sometime today to send them off. sister taylor and i were super excited about them and we set up chairs in front of the kitchen window and wrapped ourselves in blankets and got out a space heater and ate homemade chicken noodle soup while we watched the greatest light show that ever was! there is no way that God doesn't exist because we literally watched Him paint the sky that night, it was amazing. perks of living in norrland.