Monday was our missionary volley ball tournament so that was a lot of fun. We took a train out to Södertälje and played volleyball for about 4-5 hours on P-day. A lot of us were still pretty pale from no sunlight in winter and then always wearing proselyting clothes every day but just about everybody left a few shades redder than when they got there. It was a lot of fun. We then came home. It was kind of crazy though.
We got invited to Family Home Evening with the Bishop's family and so there was a bus that left at 6:20, we got off our train at 6:06, ran to our bikes that we had parked at the station, biked home, changed into a white shirt and slacks, and then biked back in time to catch the bus with a less active we were bringing with. It was pretty crazy. We got to Söderköping okay though and the Bishop and his family took us to this place called Smultronstället which is literally an ice cream restaurant. Not a restaurant that also has ice cream but literally the entire menu is ice cream. They had some crazy looking ice cream and they could get pretty big too. It was delicious! We also walked up a big hill and got a beautiful view of Söderköping.
Photos from Hike to Söderköping
On Tuesday one of our lessons didn't show up so we did family history for a little while at the church. We then biked to meet one of our investigators and had a super good lesson with him. We then biked back to the church to meet one of our recent converts. We had a great lesson with him. We then had to go buy food because we didn't have time the day before so we bought food, biked home, then biked all the way back and past the church for a member meal. The next day Elder Olson estimated that we had biked for about 2 hours the whole day just trying to get back and forth everywhere. We could kind of feel it.
Wednesday we met in the morning with one of the kids in the ward. He is 9 but wasn't baptized when he was 8 so we have to teach him now before he can be baptized. He wants to though and it was pretty fun being able to teach him, we'll be meeting with him quite a bit over the next few weeks. We met with Nils-Erik and had a great lesson with him. It's so awesome to see how he has such a strong personal testimony of the church, and he just hit his one month mark! We also had a lesson with another recent convert and we saw a hedgehog on the way there! We talked about the article "The Faithful High Councilor" from the June Liahona with her. It's a super good article. We came home and called a whole bunch of people trying to get lessons set up without a ton of success but we went out for the last 15 minutes of the day and on our way home we ran into 3 African guys who asked us if we were the Mormons. Apparently one of them had visited one of the chapels in Stockholm so that was fun. We managed to get all 3 of their numbers and we are going to try to meet them this week.
Thursday was district meeting which went well. It was in Linköping so we then traveled back and had a lesson with an investigator before riding a bus out to Finspång to meet another investigator that just moved from Linköping. It was funny though because on our way back we missed our bus and so we just walked into a nearby kebab place and we ran into two teenagers we had just sat next to on the spårvagn the day before. It was funny and we said hello. We then finally caught our bus home after that.
Friday was Midsommar! It was a non-proselyting day for us so we got invited to the family gathering for one of the families that makes up roughly half the ward here in Norrköping. There were about 42 people there, it was wild! It felt kind of weird not having to leave to go make it back for a lesson somewhere. We had all sorts of food and we went to a nearby church to see them put up the Midsummer pole and dance around it. It was fun to just kind of rest for a day.
Saturday we had a P-day schedule so we took it easy. We went to the church and played some pingpong. Walked around the city for awhile but all of the stores were still closed. It's kind of interesting how Swedes actually close down everything for Midsummer. Almost nothing was open while everyone was at home or visiting family, the streets are practically empty. We listened to a few talks and then we went and visited a member, we had a really good lesson on likening the scriptures to ourselves and seeing how they can have personal application. It was a really awesome lesson and it kind of helped me remember why I love the scriptures. They were written and preserved for us to be able to read, learn from, and apply to our own lives and when we do so they become more meaningful. Try to read this week from the scriptures and see how the scriptures can apply to your life and see how your studies change.
Yesterday we had church which went really well. We had a great Sacrament meeting and second and third hour were also really good. It was pretty crowded with everyone's extended family also in town, the chapel was almost completely full! We also had a member meal right after which was fun. We then came home and did our weekly planning.
P.S. I know this week seemed like a big party but I promise we also worked hard 
- Elder Ashford
Midsommar Photos!
These pictures were from when they carried in the pole and put it up.
Next set of photos with everyone dancing around the pole and
then of course Elder Olson and I needed a picture(s) with it.
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