Date
December 9, 2019
Area
Borås, Sweden
Companion
Äldste Hastriter
Ice Ice Baby
Tjena allihopa! This past week was pretty great. It was filled with more freezing temperatures, icy splits(literally), more Christmas messages with members, and our special christmas zone conference. It was packed and this is the last week of the transfer so next week I will know if I will be leaving Borås or not.
Last Tuesday was some of the craziest weather I have ever experienced in my life. Borås is one of the rainiest places in Sweden(some say it's the rainiest) and I have gotten pretty used to the rain every day although it was a huge change from Utah weather. Anyway it's been really cold and we have gotten some decent snow but last tuesday the weather decided to go -5 degrees Celsius and continue to rain. I didn't realize what kind of problems this had created but it made it so everything was iced over with a sheet of ice. Any surface that had gotten rained on was ice. It was so crazy it just looked like it was wet on the ground but it was 100% thick black ice. They also have this thing where they don't use road salt because this country is so environmentally conscious. They just have big tubs along the roads labels 'Sand' and something will come around and spread it on the roads and walkways. It's really just pea sized gravel that gets spread everywhere. Well those tiny rocks didn't even phase the ice from freezing over it. The ice was also very wet because it was still raining and freezing over. Me and my splits companion shuffled over to the bus stop, trying our best to stay on our feet, when a bus came sliding in to it. I thought the ice was bad last week but this was beyond anything I have ever seen. The bus was completely at the mercy of the slope of the road and was sliding out of control. It was pretty sketchy. When it could finally stop, the bus driver got out, lit a cigarette, and told us and everyone there to start walking because none of the busses were driving that day. Pretty bad news for some missionaries who had a member meal to get to. Instead of calling the members and telling them we couldn't make it that day, I decided to start walking. The members we ate with don't come to church very often because they live a long way from the church and have trouble getting there every sunday. I think we meet with them and share our messages with them more often than they actually can make it to church. Their time with the missionaries is important to them so I figured it would be well worth it, even if we got their late. As we walked slowly, we saw cars sliding off the roads and into each other and getting stuck in ditches and everything was chaos. We even almost got destroyed by some bus that started trying to drive up a hill. It started up the hill but started sliding backwards and sideways until it hit the curb, almost tipping over onto us. Pretty sketchy stuff. There were tons of people who just decided to brave the cold and walk. It was so slippery the entire way down the hill and into town so we walked very carefully and slowly. It was about a 3 mile walk, but it took us a little over 2 hours to finally meet up with the members at the restaurant. The members were incredibly patient which was a blessing. It was pretty crazy because everyone was freaking out and there were emergency vehicles going all over the place. But it continued to rain and ice over. Eventually, the city sent out some emergency road salting vehicles but it was a little late for that. By the time we got to the meal, each of us had a sheet of ice that had frozen over our jackets as well. It was all worth it in the end and we were able to share our Christmas message with the couple that we met with and have a good (late) lunch with them. The day didn't turn out at all how we planned it, but we worked with what we had, talking with people on the sidewalks, wherever we went. There are a lot of times in life where things get so inconvenient and difficult that it seems easiest to give up and try again another time. I know that as we work through all of our trials, God will bless us along the way. We need to remember in our lives that when the rain begins to fall, remember where it falls from and how everything is for our good.
One thing that was kind of funny/unfortunate was we got bamboozled by some referral. We woke up one morning with a referral from Salt Lake! We were pretty excited about that because we have never received one before from Temple Square and we were hopeful that it was going to be a strong investigator. We didn't have time to swing by the person and give them the Book of Mormon that they requested so we just called them later in the day. Apparently the guy was absolutely not interested and his friends were just a couple of guys being dudes and sent his number as a referral. We were pretty bummed about that but I couldn't help but laugh.
We had zone conference again and it wasn't just another normal zone conference. This time, it was a Christmas conference! Out of the few zone conferences that I have been to thus far on the mission, 2 of them have been pretty cool, with a David Archuleta concert and a Christmas Conference. This one was a joint conference as well, so the Malmö zone came up to Göteborg to celebrate with us. I was really looking forward to it because a bunch of my friends from the MTC are in the Malmö zone and I hadn't seen them since we parted ways when we got to Sweden. We also got to do some Christmasy things including watching the movie "It's A Wonderful Life". It was a party seeing all of my old friends getting to spend some time with them at the conference. I love that I am able to serve with all of them and to know that we are here doing the same thing. That goes to all of my other friends who are serving as well. It's been such a blessing in my life and I'm excited to keep pushing the work forward here in Sweden. Love you all!
Äldste Anderton
Photos:
1- Christmas in Stan
2- Me, after my jacket started thawing
3- Some MTC BOIZ
4- The journey(yes I know my hood was covering my face in both but it was cold)
5- MTC BOIZ + one of the sister missionaries
6- Christmas tree photo shoot brought to you by Samsung
7- Dope Christmas ornament we got + some chocolate