Week 28-- God Jul! Merry Christmas!

GOD JUL ALLIHOPA! (Merry Christmas, everyone!)

This week was a ton of fun. 

Äldste Young and I traveled to Stockholm (about an hour train ride) on Wednesday because he had to get papers notarized at the American Embassy. It was cool to go to the US embassy in Stockholm, hear some good ol' American English and get frisked head to toe. 

That night we went to the Young Single Adult, YSA, center downtown Stockholm and grabbed some free pizza and chatted with the YSA's that attend church there. We don't have any young adults in Västerås so it felt nice to chat with people near my own age instead of older people, and free kebab pizza and jul godis (Christmas candy) is always a plus. 

We went right from there to a traditional Swedish event that's called Lucia Concert. They have it every year on the 13th of December in the old Swedish churches all over Sweden. They have a 'Lucia' who is a woman in a white robe with a crown of candles on her head. The lady who was Lucia, at the church we went to, sang super well, and they had a choir which sang Swedish Christmas songs and some American classics too. 

We had a Zone Conference on Thursday where all of the missionaries from the Stockholm zone get together and we had a Christmas program which was sweet. Beautiful music, good Swedish julbord (Christmas table which is basically all the traditional Swedish foods they have at Christmas) with sausage, bread, cheese, potatoes, meatballs, etc. We watched “It's a Wonderful Life” too. It felt way nice to watch a movie ha ha . We can’t go to the movies while on a mission.

Saturday, we had the church Christmas party. Us 4 missionaries sang Rudolph and the First Noel in the program which was fun. A lady in the church came up to me before we sang and gave me a Rudolph light-up sweater to wear, so that was a hit ;) Solid food, fun time with the ward members, Santa made an appearance (which was the 90-year-old man named Fred which I attached a picture of). BTW he's the man, he used to be a pro skier so his apartment is decked out with medals and trophies and he walks around everywhere with two ski poles. He's a Västerås legend!

Äldste Young and I got 800 #lighttheworld cards at the beginning of the month to give out (which is a TON), this is the last week and we've got a few hundred left so we got creative with handing them out. We go around with pepparkakor (gingerbread cookie here, swede's can't resist) and hand them out. This morning we bought a few hundred bags and ribbon and we're going to assemble them tonight and package them with pepperkakor and a card to give to everyone we see in the next 6 days. Wish us luck!

My spiritual thought comes from Luke 12:15which reads *for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth* It's always fun to get presents at Christmas time, but my thought today is the same realization that the Grinch had on the top of Mt. Crumpit, that Christmas isn't about the presents, it's about celebrating Christ's life and enjoying the loved ones we have around us.  I’m getting a little teary eyed.

Love you all! Merry Christmas!

Äldste Gordon

Elder Rylan Robert Gordon

Sweden Stockholm Mission

Enebybergsvägen 38

182 46 Enebyberg 

Sweden

I always love a letter ;)

Our walk to the church building...brrrrrr.