Happy late Valentine's Day!!! Well...this week has been as lovely as ever! It has been full of random, fun, awesome, and strange things...along with, of course, wonderful spiritual and uplifting things, too!
Let's see...last p-day, we spent the day in Stan (Stockholm), just exploring the city, climbing on things (as always...after all, I still have to be me!), seeing beautiful, old churches and going to thrift shops!
Then ended the day by spending half an hour trying to find this awesome ice cream place called Pasta och Glass....so good! We finally found it and celebrated my 2-month mark in Sweden there!
The next day, some of our favorite people in the ward, Cristine and Julia, invited us over to do some Yoga!!! It was so fun, and much appreciated and needed!
Then, we went on another beautiful walk with our dear friend Anna and her adorable baby Eden! So, basically a wonderful day!
Then to end it, we went contacting--and saw some members out and went over to talk to them. They had just come out of a bakery, and they just handed us one of their boxes of pastries they had just gotten! They were just like, "Here! Did you know it's Semlor Dag?!" Haha, oh they are just so sweet!
So, they just hand us 2 traditional pastry things...they are these giant cream puffs--so it was basically giant cream puff day in Sweden! Then we went and picked something up from the Mission Office, and ended up having a Semlor party with the new senior couple and the Office Elders there!
Then--time for Splitzies! My second splits out here, and that means one of the STL's came here, and I had to take her around Täby--so I had to know where to go and how to get places! It really freaked me out at first because I had NO idea how to figure out buses and trains--but I soon came to find that it wasn't as bad as I thought, and we did it! I didn't get us lost or anything!
We just had to run to a lot of buses, but, hey--I will get the hang of it soon enough! But, then I guess once you start getting to know an area they take you out! And I hate to say it but my mission momma, Sys. Bateman, is probably leaving me soon :( I'm super sad...let's just say I was sad when we were just separated for 24-hour splits! I left a bunch of notes in her backpack and then had a Marabou chocloate bar waiting for her for when she got back...just because I missed her. But change is all a part of it, I guess!
Then Saturday, we had another dinner night with a member, Jeremie and his son. We have recently just started Saturday dinners at the Church with them! We come up with some weird American thing and make it for them! This week's was Grilled PB&J's!--and they LOVED them!!!
This week, we also got to see the Andrewsons from home! So fun...They came and took us to a Mexican restaurant! Oh, I miss Mexican food!
So, that was fun--and really good to see people from home! Got to talk about good ol' Salinas and all of the good times!
{Systers Banks, Gilles, Bateman and Campbell in front of the Royal Palace in Stockholm, thanks to Pontus!}
And.....VALENTINE'S DAY! Okay, so to end the day, we decided to do one of my favorite things--tracting a 10-story building! So we did--and by the end, we were so tired and sore...then we get to the 1st floor and knock on the door.
This beautiful Syrian couple comes to the door, and we just start talking to them, and then we see that they have a whole meal set out in their living room--so we just talk for a minute and say that we didn't mean to stay long, and that we would let them go...but then they invited us in, and they said, "Please, come join us and taste some of our traditional food from Syria!"
{typical, delicious-looking Syrian meal--courtesy of Google Images!}
OH, they were precious!!! So, we go in, and they go and get all of the plates and utensils and we all sit around all of the food on the floor, and they just serve us--and, oh! It was just so.... I don't even know, just so sweet, and humbling and they were just SO giving! They told us "Happy Valentine's Day", and it truly was! Honestly, I can't think of a better way of celebrating Valentine's Day than sitting on the floor, eating amazing Syrian food with the sweetest couple ever. It truly was perfect!
So, it's been a pretty darn good week! But, I guess I will just leave with a few little things I have been thinking of this week...
{This is what pure joy looks like. The faces of the Systers after the most wonderfully spiritual meeting with one of their very, very favorite people in the whole world}
At the start of the week, I really wanted to try and just be happy! To really try to see the good in everything, and be happy with whatever came my way!
During personal study yesterday, I just found the perfect scripture--very short, very simple, but very good...2 Nephi 5:27:
"And it came to pass that they lived after the manner of happiness." I don't know why I love that so much, but I do! I love that it says that they lived after it....to me, it's like no matter what trial or hardship came their way, they decided to remain happy!
And now for one of the best things I found this week--that just kind of perfectly sums up everything I have been thinking:
"Although “men are, that they might have joy” (2 Ne. 2:25), this does not mean that our lives will be filled only with joy--'for it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things' (2 Ne. 2:11). Happiness is not given to us in a package that we can just open up and consume. Nobody is ever happy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Rather than thinking in terms of a day, we perhaps need to snatch happiness in little pieces, learning to recognize the elements of happiness and then treasuring them while they last.
{pure and absolute joy beyond measure!}
"May I suggest a further requisite in the continuing quest to live happily every hour, every day, every month, and every year of our lives. The golden pathway to happiness is the selfless giving of love—the kind of love that has concern and interest and some measure of charity for every living soul. 
Love is the direct route to the happiness that would enrich and bless our lives and the lives of others. It means that you show love even to your enemies, 'bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you' (Matt. 5:44).
{Syster Banks, Gilles and Campbell--thanks, Pontus!}
"In so doing you will be fulfilling the greater commandment to love God Himself and to enjoy His love. You will soar above the ill winds that blow, above the sordid, the self-defeating, and the bitter. You have the promise that 'your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things'(D&C 88:67). --"Our Search for Happiness"--President James E. Faust
The search for happiness takes time and effort, but there is nothing that can replace it. Being in the state of happiness brings hope, peace and true joy. You can see the Lord's hand in your life and in the lives of others. The Lord qualifies all that He has called. He helps and supports. You all have been called to a certain place, to be with certain people wherever you are and whatever it is that you do. You have been called. Called to lift others, called to share with and serve others as Christ would. One thing I have really come to realize is that the Lord truly knows us all. We are in places and in callings because of who we are and who the Lord knows we can be.
I'll close this week with a thought from Mosiah 4--so amazing and inspiring. When you serve others and lose yourself in the service of God, you will find yourself.
Med Kärlek,
Syster Campbell
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