Oh How Swede It Is!: THE ICE HOTEL

The Northern Lights! Soooo beautiful!

hej på er

So this has been the coolest week of my life. I realize that I have said this in like....every email concerning the Arctic Circle, but this one took the cake. For reals. I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!

On Tuesday, we got to go to the Stockholm temple with the MLC (mission leadership council, so all the STLs and Zone Leaders). I love the temple and my friends! It was really nice just to sit down and feel at home for a second. We did a session in English, and I literally felt like I was in Provo and would go out to 70 degree weather. It was like 55 when we went out, so I was still happy, but it was an awesome day! There is a Viking graveyard really close to the temple, so after we got to walk around there and eat lunch. Nothing like eating by my Viking homies ;)

Syster Mod, Syster Spencer & Syster Powell at the Stockholm temple

Then we flew straight from the temple to LULEÅ! I love that place :) I had a little bit of PTSD when we got off the plane because there was snow and it was dark, and I had flashbacks of the coldest winter of my life....but then we saw Stet and things were good :) It was so fun to hang out with Stetler again!! I love her soooo much!

Erin and her companion, Syster Maxwell

We woke up early Wednesday morning and drove with the Tolleys and the elders alllllll the way up to Kiruna! It's like a 4 hour drive, and worth every minute. We made a quick stop at the Arctic Circle sign (#round3holla) and went straight to the Ice Hotel!! I think the guide told us it was the first ice hotel to ever be built? We got to go in every room and take lots of pictures and watch ice get harvested from the river...I was dying. The whole time. IT WAS AWESOME. We drank out of cups made of ice, and I felt so cool. Like seriously. Everyone put Kiruna on your bucket list. Worth every second!! We had so much fun, and we got to see the Northern Lights really well both nights we were in Luleå too. It was the best I have ever seen them! Green and blue and completely covering the sky!

Harvesting ice. This really is like the movie Frozen!

Everything in this hotel is made out of ice! Even the chandeliers!

You really can spend the night here for about $480 US/night. Anyone?

Drinking out of glasses made of ice.......of course!

The doors are made with reindeer fur and antlers!

More Northern Lights. The lights were so bright because there was a huge geomagnetic storm.

And on Thursday we came home and did missionary work. Haha I swear I do that stuff too! We actually had a really cool experience with a less active. Her name is Helena, and she was baptized about a year and a half ago. We taught her on Friday morning, and she talked all about her doubts about the church and her struggle to come. We brought Sister Hawley, one of the senior missionaries in our ward, and she was very firm about how Helena needed to come back to church. I was worried we were scaring her, but on Sunday Helena was there and ready to listen! We had a super good sacrament meeting, and then she asked if she could talk to us and Sister Hawley after. She told us that she "had a revelation" during sacrament that all of these trials and doubts are for her good in the long run, and Heavenly Father is watching out for her. I just kind of looked at her dumbfounded....usually less actives are so hard to work with, but all we had to do with Helena was get her to church once! She said she wanted to keep meeting and now has the temple as a goal. It was so cool!! Sometimes you just come in at the right time as missionaries. It feeeeeels good :)

We've also been meeting with Sireh, who is praying about baptism now! She has only missed one week of church since we started meeting with her. She is just my bestie now haha and she is so smart. She is doing like this saving mission in Rwanda or Uganda....I get African countries missions mixed up. But she has an internship with the UN or something like that to bring peace to African countries. Sireh is just Christlike without even knowing she is. Haha I wish I was more like that!

Fun facts:

-people actually sleep in the ice hotel. #wut

-we are going to stockholm for pday today and eating at the only mexican restaurant in sweden that is actually good. cherish cafe rio for me you guys

-i got to teach young womens by myself yesterday (we went on splits with ward members) and it was TERRIFYING. i can't do anything by myself anymore...hahah. but the lesson was good!

looooooove you guys :) have a good week!!!

xoxoxox syster mod