TENDER MERCIES

Well, hello!

This week consisted of:

--Getting baklava from our investigators who work at a baklava factory.

--Splits with my "daughter", Eunice--also known as Syster Howlett--which was just wonderful and so fun to be back together!  I just adore that girl!  Well okej, so we had the coolest splits.  It was initially planned that I would go with her companion and that I would stay here in Södertälje, but then the morning of splits, I just really got this strong impression that I needed to go with Sister Howlett.  And that's what we did. 

So, I spent the day in Hägersten with my daughter!  But the fates and all just seemed to align, and that was the day they were assigned to help clean the Temple!  So I got to go clean the Temple with min lilla grönsak, and we spent the next 4 hours cleaning the Celestial Room.  It was such an amazing experience.

--That was definitely one of the biggest highlights of my week!  Cleaning the Celestial Room with my sweet Sister Howlett--and then I got to teach again with her, and it was just a sweet little tender mercy!  Oh!  And she was just precious--she woke up early so that when I got up she had turned on these Christmas lights that were wrapped around the bed, and then she turned on the Christmas music, and it was just a dream to wake up to!  It was quite possibly the greatest way I have ever woken up!

--Well, later that day as I returned home, Sys. Anderson and I were off to go to a member's house for dinner.  So, we set off on our journey, and there are people along the way so we stop and talk...and we talked apparently just a little too long.  We missed our train by literally 10 seconds!   Waited 15 minutes for the next one.  Our phone died, and didn't have directions thereto the house.   I had written them down, but that was for the other way and with the train that we had just missed.  So we were just on our own. 

We got to the general area and started going.  We were walking and asking people all around.  We stopped all of these old ladies on their way to some dance party class--it was really funny!   Well...I'll just try to sum up this night really quick:

Syster Anderson slipped while trying to talk to people.  We were walking all over to try to find the entrances to these buildings, and so somehow we end up scaling the side of this mountain.  Okay--well, mountains don't exist here.  It was just a hill.  So were climbing up--in skirts, mind you--and not to mention this is in a forest.  Well, Sys. Anderson is right above me, and I am just begging her not to fall or slip or else I was going down with her!  

We get to the top...and there is a fence.  So I climb it, and thankfully didn't even rip my tights!  Then Sys. Anderson is just examining all of the possible ways she can try to make it over and I am just standing there cracking up at the creative ways she is coming up with--and yet the one she came down to was taking a couple steps back, getting a running start, and then hopping over.  Yeah.  It went just as well as you just imagined it. 

She got the running start, jumped--halfway cleared the fence--rolled over the rest of the fence, and then just landed on her side and was up in a second and just started running down the hill!  I said, "Wait, are you okay?", and she just said, "Yeah, come on--the dinner is getting cold!"  Hahaha!  I couldn't run at that point--I would just take a couple of steps and then stop, because apparently you can't run when you're laughing too hard! 

Eventually, we ended up finally finding the house--and right as we are walking up to the house, Sys. Anderson just says: "Oh, yeah--they moved last week!"  I just stood there for a second and then started laughing.  There really is nothing better to do.   It really was one of the most interesting nights!

Now that took a lot longer than I thought it would! 

--Alrighty then!   The next two days had splits with Västerhaninge--which is where the Temple is--so I got to see it all week!

--Then Stake Conference with the Stockholm South Stake!

{the beautiful new chapel in Södertälje}

Investigator Story.  So we have the most amazing investigator right now--he is precious--and we have just been having the greatest time teaching him.  He is living in a camp about 2 hours away from Södertälje, and yet still comes to Church with us every Sunday.  He loves learning about Christ and reading from the Book of Mormon. 

We have been teaching him in English--he's pretty good at English, but not really for Church words!  So, its been fun.  We have actually gotten to skype Elders in California for translation lessons, so that has been really cool!  There are only 4 Arabic-speaking missionaries in the world right now, and that is NOT enough!!!!  Haha!  But, we are very grateful for the ones we do have!  

We also use one of the Elders' investigators to translate.  It's been great--we asked the Elders, "Hey, do you think_____could help us translate the Law of Tithing?"  They just said, "Yeah-- we haven't taught it to her yet, but go ahead!"   Haha!  So, that was fun and it went really well!

Well,  this week we also taught him the Law of Chastity--and these lessons are just over the phone, since he lives so far away-- so while Sys. Anderson was talking, I was busy writing quotes because it was just too funny!  First off, she says:  "Today we are talking about the Law of Chastity", and he just says, "What is that?"  Exactly!   We're getting to it....

And then she explained that we don't have sex until marriage--and our Finnish Elder was walking by at that point, and in a joking, Finnish way just says, "Why not?"  We started dying, and had to put the phone on mute until we stopped laughing and then closed the door and luckily he didn't hear. 

Well, that's all probably funnier when you know the people--but it was pretty funny!  And this was coming from the Elder that always stresses the importance of PMG (Preach My Gospel) and the white handbook (guidebook for missionaries), and then he just randomly says that--the last thing we were ever expecting! 

Then Sys. Anderson was mentioning how pornography was bad, and she said, "do you know what that is?", he said, "yeah." And then I shook my head and said "he is not going to know what that is".  So she said, "do you want me to send the translation for the word?", and he just quietly says..."maybe....." Again it probably doesn't sound as funny as it was, but he just at first kept saying, yes, he knew what something meant--and then when asked about translation and he would say "maybe!"  

Then, at the end of the lesson--with many other fun moments in between--we asked if he liked chocolate or cookies to see what we could make for him and he just said, "No--no really chocolate...no, but it's fine..."  "Okay what do you like?", we asked him.   "Um..... potatis!  I like potatis and popcorn!  I don't eat sweety!"  Hahaha!  Oh, he is just the cutest human in the world! 

Well...after all of these funny stories, we just were on the phone with him last night and found out he is moving into the far, far up north COLD land!  And he's moving Friday!!!  We were/are devistated!  We are still trying to see what we can do, but it is so sad!  But there is not too much we can do......

I would love for you all to read the talk "What Are You Thinking", by Elder W. Craig Zwick, given in April 2014.  I found it months ago, and I really liked it--but thenI found it again this morning, and I just love it now!  It is such a good reminder to just try to love and understand people.  Just anyone and everyone, because we never know what they are going through. 

One of the Elders recently was talking about how nobody does something for no reason. When we get mad or irritated at other people's actions, it is just because we are not taking the time to try to understand why they are doing something.  It is a really great talk though, and I highly recommend you all read it and try applying it too...or else it's kind of pointless reading it!  But do it, because it's good!

I love you all.

Med Kärlek,

Syster Campbell