February!!

There is a car under all that snow! Wow!

Hi!! :)

Yay February!! It's the month of love <3 :) This week has been really really good. We have actually gotten to a point where we have too much to do and not enough time to do it....As a missionary, that is the best thing EVER. I love being busy :)

So Henrik was supposed to be baptized this Saturday, but unfortunately it's not going to happen :( In case you didn't know, the Word of Wisdom is really hard. I don't blame him one bit! We are planning on meeting with him tomorrow, and hopefully we will be able to move the date to a better day :) I am just so impressed with his progress already! He went from believing in absolutely nothing to believing in God in just a few short months. That's cool. Haha I know that probably sounds very slow for the people that served their missions in....well, anywhere but here, but Sweden is a difficult mission, and we take all the progress we can get ;) I know Henrik is going to get baptized one day! Just all in the Lord's timing :)

We have a super cool new investigator named Theresa! We met her through a member in the branch, and she is super positive. She came to all three hours of church yesterday too! She calls herself a seeker, and is very curious about the church and how everyone gained their faith in God. On Saturday, she invited us and the elders to go to a hockey game. It was the BEST. The first hockey game that I went to in Sweden was in Gävle, and I was a greenie. Aka I did not understand one thing that was said. Haha! But this time was awesome!! I could join in on all the cheers, and we stood in a place that looked like the student section at an Lone Peak game. #knight4life :) That is the loudest I have seen Swedes ever be...hahah drunk and raucous and all sorts of fun! Luleå played Örebro, and lost 30 seconds into overtime/sudden death. It was a bummer, but it was still a blast :) Theresa was a little scared to ask us to come, because she was afraid that Mormons couldn't do stuff like that. She also asked if we ate bacon in our religion. YES AND PROUDLY *insert American flag emoji*

Having a great time at the hockey game with Theresa.

We had dinner at a member's house this week and watched the talk His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox. If you haven't seen/heard/read this talk, dooooo it! It is a BYU devotional (#cougar4lifetoo) and it rocks. Brother Wilcox was my Mission Prep teacher at BYU, and he taught me a lot about how to put Christ first in missionary work. His Grace is Sufficient just explains more about how Christ sacrificed everything for us, and how we can always put our faith and trust in him. I am so grateful for my Savior and the opportunity I have every day to testify of him! I know I say this all the time, but coolest. job. ever. Seriously. (Also hardest, but it's chill)

How would you like to dig out after a Swedish snowstorm? ;)

FUN FACTS:

-It has not stopped snowing all week....we have maybe 4-ish feet of snow? They have been trucking the snow out of Luleå because there is no place to put it. Hahah. Most drifts are taller than me!

-I have switched my Swedish to Norrlandska. There are super distinct accents in every part of Sweden, and the accent they have up here in Norrland is so cool. Like seven (sju) in Stockholm would be pronounced hwoo (kinda..if you said it really fast..haha), but here in Norrland you pronounce it shoo. I like it :)

-We met Americans this week who were visiting for a soccer tournament. When they asked what we were doing up here and we said we lived here, their reply was ".............why?" Hahahaha. It is too cold!

Love you all!! xoxoxo Erin

This beaver is made out of ice. It's also an ice slide! No kidding!

So. Much. Snow.

Syster Stetler in the snow bank.

Playing "Down by the Banks" with the Primary kids.