Week 26-- Light The World this Christmas

#ettjusforvarlden- #lighttheworld

Tjena tjena!!

This week went by fast but it feels like not much happened. I'll throw in some quick highlights but thought it'd be cool to tell a little about what Sweden is like!

This week we started the #ettljusförvärlden (#lighttheworld) program which has been fun. There's a calendar that has one thing Christ did and then some ideas of how we can do that also for that specific day, it changes every day. So, check that out on mormon.org and try it. I guarantee you'll feel happy and enjoy Christmas even more when you take time to serve those around you that you love. 

For the first light the world day, it was to serve someone in whichever way you could. So, after a lesson in the apartment building next to us, Äldste Young saw this man we talk to named D who delivers newspaper. He comes from Uganda and I've talked to him a decent amount since I've been in Västerås. He always talks about how hard the newspaper company works him and sometimes he works a few days straight. So, we ran over and helped him deliver the papers for a section of the building, and D was just laughing and enjoying himself the whole time which felt really good. (Check the pic I sent too, that's D). Cool experience just brightening his day by helping him with his work load. 

We decided to take dinner at this burger place here in Sweden called Max Burger which is pretty solid, I also sent a pic of that. I mention this because we rarely eat out ha ha. Young and I are pretty frugal guys so we mainly eat peanut butter toast with bananas, peanut butter and bananas, oatmeal, sandwiches, pyttipanna (a frozen potato, sausage and egg thing) or some cereal.

Here's a few facts about Sweden I learned recently/thought to include:

There are no sports in school or college. If you play handball, or fotboll, or Innebandy (floorball) it's always through a club team. Innebandy and fotboll (soccer) are pretty popular here.

During Christmas in Sweden, they have a few special foods they break out. They have a soda drink called JulMust (yule moost). I have no idea what the flavor is, kind of like a cola I would say. But they only sell it during Christmas (julmust) and Easter and Swedes go berserk over it. Honestly, it's alright. 

They also have these gingerbread cookies called Pepparkakor which aren't really gingerbread and they're way good. They're everywhere. Äldste Young and I bought them to try like a month ago and we blew through a whole box in a few study stunds (sessions) ha ha 

It gets light here at like 8.30 and dark by 3, and the sun doesn't come out much. I saw the sun I think 2 times last week for an hour at a time. It's pretty cloudy here. The weather affects the swedes quite a bit, they don't go out much when it's dark so they just chill at home and go to bed way early. 

I had a cool spiritual experience this week. Äldste Young and I didn't have anyone who said they could come to church, so we prayed that someone random would come. The next day this girl named R came to church and she'd never met the missionaries before. She was in Idaho Falls as an exchange student for a year (whatta adventure) and lived with a Mormon family, so she went off and on to church with them. She came back 3.5 years ago and felt like she wanted to come this weekend.

Prayers get answered when we ask in faith. I read this scripture in the Book of Mormon, book of Enos Chapter 1:15. “Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it.” Most things that we ask God for in faith, in the name of Christ, will be given (in His own time). 

Jag älskar er! Ha det bra den här veckan! ( I love you! Have a great week!)

Aldste Gordon

David from Uganda

Yum!! Burgers and a milkshake, American style.