In other words …congratulations on your birthday!
Week 5 & 6
In Sweden on your birthday, you will be awakened early in the morning to a rousing birthday song and an early breakfast. No need to wait to open presents, you can do it right away! Best of all whether you’re a girl or a boy you will typically get a Princess Cake.
Princess cake (Swedish: prinsesstårta) is a traditional Swedish layer cake or torte consisting of alternating layers of airy sponge cake, pastry cream, and a thick-domed layer of whipped cream. The cake is covered by a layer of rolled marzipan, giving it a smooth, rounded top. As the story goes, there once were three Swedish princesses that loved the cake so much that became a tradition.
We were lucky enough to have the sisters over for dinner on Sister McGuire’s birthday and we celebrated properly.
Adam and Samuel
We are so blessed to have not only one set of sisters right across the street but also a set of elders. We typically have dinner together once a week. I love having them over. It’s wonderful to see their faithfulness and efforts to serve and teach the people of Vasterhaninge and Handen. We often have one or two other of their friends join who are either taking the lessons, have questions or are recent converts. Most of all I love the gospel conversations we have before going are separate ways. I feel the Holy Ghost testify and have a hope that others feel that too. We had dinner prepared for the missionaries last week with Elders Garner and Hellstrand, as well as Sisters Bromley and McGuire. They brought a new Finnish convert, Samuel, and Adam who is from Afghanistan and went to several different countries while seeking asylum. He was finally able to find residence in Sweden. He is Muslim, and is taking the lessons.
Samuel and his family moved from Finland to Sweden when he was two. His dad didn’t want his children to be influenced by the alcohol problem in Finland, so they moved here and for years he was looking for something better in his life. One day he saw two missionaries in white shirts and it was what they were wearing that drew him in. He said to himself, they must be good! He actually whistled at them and didn’t get their attention so he ran after them and asked if they would teach him. He was baptized just last month and is so happy to have found good people to associate with. I am so happy for him. It is so wonderful to have these missionaries, new converts and new people learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our life is full!
Jenni
I had mentioned in an earlier post about meeting Jenni at the train station. We were able to meet her son Leon, who is a sweetheart! He has health challenges and from my understanding has had some brain damage and also continues to have seizures. Jenni frequently tells us that he is her whole world and she will do anything to be able to continue being his mother. She is in a custody dispute and so that has been stressful for her. One evening she invited us over. We weren’t able to get there until about 8pm. I was tired and so was Eric. We really just wanted to stay home that night, but we went. It was on this night that Jenni opened up and asked us about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She said that she had watched the way that we live our lives and she could tell we had been living this way for some time. Integrity is what prompted her to ask us about the gospel. The lightbulb went on in my brain when she said the word integrity. In the MTC they taught us that it would be our integrity that would draw people to us. It’s not what you say as much as the way you live your life. In our last zone conference, President Lake said that just as vital as what you do is who you are. We love having these opportunities to share how we feel about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has been my bedrock foundation for my life and I’m so grateful that I had a family that taught me these gospel truths. We sent her a video and the church’s website. We are praying that she will ‘let God prevail,’ in her life.