Monday we had a super fun member meal with a family before they went on vacation. We also had a fun lesson with one of our other members as well.
Tuesday we taught Alvin, the 9 year-old, at the church and it went super well. He's great! We then had 10 minutes to get from the church to the station and be on our bus. (keep in mind it takes ten minutes to bike to the station and we would still need to lock our bikes) We raced through the city and as we near the station we see our bus start to pull out. The number 40, a big double-decker and our only ride out to Finspång. It gets caught a little bit in the morning traffic and so Elder Olson and I continue our furious pedaling to the next bus stop where we know it is headed. We find some nearby bike racks, locked the bikes, and rushed out to the stop in time to make the bikes. Mission accomplished. We were both a little out of breath so I believe that counted as our cardio for the day. We took the bus out to Finspång where we had a great lesson with some investigators on the Plan of Salvation. We finally came home and lunch afterwards (we didn't have to run for the bus this time). We had another great member meal with another family in the ward which was pretty fun. On our way back we got a call from the Linköping Elders, they were stranded at the Norrköping train station. They had been on their way back from splits when there was a train accident further up on the tracks and their train had to return to Norrköping until the track could be cleared. They were stuck there for a few hours. When we got back to Norrköping we kept them company for a little while until we could determine that they would actually have a train to be able to get home.
Wednesday we met Alvin and his mom again and finished teaching him the rest of the lessons, he's a stud. Seriously. We also met with a nice older lady and helped her with her computer and she fed us lunch which was awesome. We met with Ahed, who is our investigator who comes to church every week and we got a baptismal date with him! That was super exciting. We also met another investigator and she bought us some ice cream. We had dinner and then went tracting. One of the doors we knocked, the lady wasn't interested to learn more but was super nice and gave us some chocolate. Tender mercy of the Lord right there. We then got home and, in the words of the senior couple in charge of the apartments, had a "wardrobe malfunction". He reached in his dresser and bumped the back of it. The back popped off leaving the rest of the dresser unstable and so the shelves fell down and the whole thing started to lean. It was kind of a shock but kind of funny.
Thursday we started the day early. It was district meeting and it was our District Leader's birthday too, and it was the last district meeting of the transfer so the Katrineholm Elders just got here early and then we blew up a whole bunch of balloons and made a cake for the birthday boy. It was pretty fun, not gonna lie. We met with a member and had a lesson with her which was fun.
Friday was a super fun day. The Apartment couple came and fixed Elder Olson's wardrobe and then reinforced the other ones just to be safe. We then went and met a member who drove us to Pizza Hut for a lunch buffet. He then was nice enough to drive us all the way out to Nyköping so we wouldn't need to take a train there. We had a fantastic lesson with a member there. We then went to another member family there and we had dinner with them and then we had an awesome lesson. We talked about how the family is central to the Plan of Salvation and then we talked about The Family: A Proclamation To The World. It was a super great lesson and the husband started to cry a little. He told us how thankful he was for all that we did for him and his family by visiting every week. It reminded him a lot about his own mission and the families he would always visit and his love for them. It was special moment, especially since while we hadn't received transfer calls, we kind of assumed Elder Olson would be transferring.
Saturday we got our transfer calls. I'm doubling out again! It's crazy! I doubled out of Helsingborg and I guess I did a good job because now I'm doing it again! Elder Olson is headed to Västra Frölunda and I am off to Vendelsö. It's in southern Stockholm. It's kind of cool though because that's where Elder Murtonen, my trainer, was trained.
We then left to go to a ward activity. It was a blast, Ahed came and we got to play a bunch of games and get some pictures with bunch of the ward members before we left. We then went to Finspång and met our investigators there again before coming back and meeting Wenjain. Wenjain is the best. He's a 4 foot Chinese man who is super funny. We had one last lesson with him before we leave. We watched one of the videos from the Mormon channel from an event called Hope Works. It's basically like a Ted Talk. One of them is super funny while being super insightful and is called "Humans, We have a problem". Go check it out.
Sunday we had church. We got to bear our testimonies before we left which was awesome. A lot of the ward members said they're going to miss us. We went home and did studies after church and then came back and began writing up our area notes for the missionaries coming in.
I am so grateful for the time I have spent in Norrköping. It has been absolutely phenomenal here. I love the people here and I have loved the work. I have seen the Lord's hand in the work and the work is progressing. I have no doubts about that. The Lord has a plan and apparently I'm needed in Vendelsö and I am excited to see where this next adventure leads!
--Elder Ashford
Pictures are of:
the front door of the church with all of the birthday balloons.
Then a couple with various members of the ward.
Then there is a picture with all of our district at lunch together.
finally there are a couple of pictures one night in Norrköping because it is super pretty.
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