Thursday, December 26, 2013
God Jul-Christmas in Sweden
Monday, December 16, 2013
Misc Pictures Dec 2013
Lucia
Hey Everybody!
So, I suppose first off, I can follow up a bit to last week's email. One week ago, I mentioned that there was quite a bit of snow on the ground (and there was a few inches). I thought that it was probably here to stay and that it would probably be nice and white for a few months. But I proved to be very wrong, and no more than two days later (likely less), the snow was completely melted. So, now everything is back to normal, which I think is kind of too bad, and it's just been raining a lot instead.
In other news, this week there were a number of holiday festivities! First, on Friday we celebrated Lucia, which I guess is a holiday about some Italian saint (?). I'm not entirely sure why it's a large part of Swedish culture, but stores sold a lot of Luciabullar (which are sort of like rolls with saffron and raisins), and on Thursday and Friday the state churches had a few choral productions, where they would sing traditional Lucia songs. Unfortunately, we weren't able to figure out where to get tickets before they were sold out of tickets, so we weren't able to go to that, but instead we found a Lucia production that required no tickets in a park in the city. As it turns out, it was a preschool that was doing their own Lucia show, so the choir wasn't quite as good, but the kids were still pretty dang cute. It was a bit unexpected, but still pretty fun.
The following day, Friday, we had a branch Christmas party, a Julbord (lots of traditional food in sort of a buffet style). The party ended up being sort of a large pot-luck, but everything tasted pretty good. There were a lot of more traditional foods, such as ham, sausage, Christmas bread, and Julmust (Christmas soda?), as well as a few other interesting options, including curry rice and some hummus dishes (mostly from S's family, so middle eastern dishes). The four missionary's also sung a musical number (Nu Tandas Tusen Juleljus and Silent night-in Swedish) , and the Stake President played guitar and read a poem. Our investigator Marie came also. All in all, it was a lot of fun, and there was plenty of food left over, which the branch ate after church the next day and then we inherited after that).
Aside from that, the week has been pretty good, but fairly ordinary. We've been out doing the usual thing (finding, teaching, etc.). It's been a good week, I'd say.
Hope everything is well with you guys!
Traditional St. Lucia girl
Monday, December 9, 2013
Snow
Hey Everyone!
This week has been good. All in all, it's mostly been pretty ordinary (just doing the stuff we usually do), but good. It's been fun because it's getting closer to Christmas, so a bunch of Christmas decorations are appearing all over the city and members are starting to invite us over for dinners and such (both of which are very fun). There's a lot of more American Christmas decorations in the city, like lights and such, but also there's a few more that we wouldn't see back in the states. I think the most prominant are rows of lights that people put in their windows (they look like candles, and they probably originally were). Honestly, they look kind of like menorahs, but it's pretty cool because just about every window has one lit. Also, a lot of people have an illuminated star in their window as well. I should really try to get a picture of some.
We did have our first snow storm this year, we have recieved maybe two to three inches of snow so far. The storm started on Saturday, so it's been pretty cool. The snow has been exceptionally light and powdery, which is cool. It doesn't pack very well, but it would probably be great for snowboarding... in a year or so. But still!
And we've been invited to a fair number of member's houses. It seems like in the last week or two we've been over to three or four member's houses (which is quite a lot for a small branch in Sweden). It's been a lot of fun, we've had a really good time talking with them and playing with some of their kids. Additionally, we've already been invited over to two more members this week and I think some more next week. It should be good.
Aside from that, things have been pretty good here. We went to a Zone Training this week in Södertälje, which was kind of nice. At training they talked about serving others and such during the Christmas season. It was pretty good. Additionally, I went of exchanges with Elder Gray (one of the Elders in the district) this week, and that went well, though we mostly just swung by people. We did have a chance to go to a neat museum in the city for a language study, that was cool.
Overall, it was a pretty good week. I hope everything is going well with you all back home!
Love you all!
Eli
ps. I have my camera today, but I'm afraid I don't have any card reader or adapter or what have you, so pictures will have to wait until next week. But I'll have them!
Monday, December 2, 2013
Christmas Season Starts
Hey Everyone!
I'm glad to hear that everything is going well with you all back in California and Utah! It sounds like you all had a pretty good reunion-ish thing in Utah; I bet it would have been a lot of fun.
Things have been going well here. I feel like theres been a few things that have happened over the course of the week that have been pretty interesting.
On Monday and Tuesday (and some on Wednesday) we were able to help some of our branch members pack up and move out. It turns out that three people were moving, two are heading to Kopperberg (about an hour or two away), and another is heading down to Holland. So we spend quite a bit of time carrying boxes, furniture, appliances, etc down to trailers and cars so that they could get on their way. It was nice to be able to help them, but I'm going to miss them, they were all very nice people. Actually, as it turns out, S may not have actually left yet (we got a text from him this morning), but he will be leaving shortly. He's a really nice guy.
On Thursday we had a little "Thanksgiving" meal with one of the American families in the branch. We ended up getting Mongolian food, but it was an all-you-can-eat buffet, so it was kind of like Thanksgiving. Either way, it tasted really good and it as nice being able to talk some with them. It was a good evening. Actually, it was a really good evening, because right before we met with a bunch of other branch members for branch council, and immediately afterward we went to a really cool less active family, the P's. It was nice.
I suppose that in general we've been able to meet with quite a few branch members this week. Aside from moving people and an Asian thanksgiving, we also were able to have dinner with R, the Branch President's, family, as well as later in the week with M (the Stake President's) family. It was all very enjoyable; they're super nice families. And the K's have really cute, funny little kids. It was a lot of fun.
Also, earlier this week we went to a choral concert by the Swedish Church (because one of our investigators was performing in it). It was a really cool performance, and a lot of the music that they sang reminded me a lot of the kind I used to sing (or listen to) in Madrigal Dinner. A very old but beautiful sound. It reminded me a lot of the Dinner, and made me feel like it's almost time for Christmas. Also, Christmas lights and decorations are appearing all over the city and people are starting the stock on traditional Christmas food (which I'm still not entirely sure what is traditionally eaten; I'll find out). It should be a good holiday season.
A statue in the city with Kloister Kyrka in the background
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