Dec 31, 2018 Christmas is good. Christmas as a missionary is better.

Glimpses of winter in Umeå

Our Christmas here in Umeå was fantastic! We spent Christmas Eve with a member, Daniel, who somehow knows everything about Swedish traditions and was more than willing to share with us :) Most people have traditions, but they've become such a normal part of life that it's difficult for them to describe exactly what they are or what makes them different but Daniel explained them in a detailed way that helped us understand them a lot better. We had the traditional Swedish Christmas foods (called Julbord) and had permission from our mission president to watch Kalle Anka. Kalle Anka is Donald Duck, and for some reason that even Daniel doesn't know, every single household in Sweden tunes in at exactly 3 PM on Christmas Eve to watch it every year.

Outside of the Swedish church for Julotta

On Christmas day, we were invited by an older couple in our ward, the Karlssons, to go to Julotta

The Karlssons. 

They're basically my Swedish grandparents :)

with them. Julotta is the Swedish Church's Christmas program they hold at 8 AM Christmas morning with lots of music. We got there early to get a good seat, and when I looked behind me I realized two things. First, the place was completely packed. Second, I'm really young. I'm pretty sure that we were the only people in the entire church under the age of 65... Apparently kids aren't too excited about going to church early Christmas Morning. The program was really neat, and we then had breakfast with the Karlssons and spent the morning with them.


Christmas evening was spent at the Lövgrens house with lots of food and games along with a break to skype our families :)

The Lövgrens

The day after Christmas was really neat as well! We got with a member family to a nursing home where we sang Christmas songs in different locations of the facility for about an hour and a half. The people there really enjoyed it, but I don't think they could have enjoyed it more than I did.

Singing at the retirement home with the Carlssons

Here's a cool miracle that happened this week!A couple days ago we got a referral from Elder Francis of a man by the name of Gerald. Elder Francis had met him up in Boden a year ago, and the man was interested in meeting the missionaries, but he forgot to do send the referral despite meaning and wanting to. He was recently reading in his journal from a year ago, and realized he had never referred him, so he decided he would give it a shot. We got the referral and went to his house, hoping he would still be interested in learning more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite being over a year since he had been contacted on the street, the man was happy to see us and didn't seem to think the long time gap was weird at all. He then explained to us that they actually live in Denmark, but come to visit for a week for Christmas. We mentioned that we could help him get in contact with the missionaries in Denmark, and he was eager to exchange the needed information to do so. We also gave him a Book of Mormon and referred him to the church's website. Talk about God's timing! The missionaries found him up in Boden while he was only visiting for a couple of days, and then a year later happen to remember the occasion through reading a journal entry and then we visit them during the few short days they are actually here in Sweden.

I've also been loving the winter wonderland here! We've had a bunch of snow recently with temperatures of -6 degrees Fahrenheit to keep it around :) Also, fun fact, the sun rises here at 9:30 am and sets at 1:45 pm (yep, I've pretty much forgotten what the sun looks like because we hardly ever see it...), so we have lots of time to admire the Christmas lights!!

Äldste Sirrine