sea2swe: December 19th - Winter Solstice

God Jul allihopa! This week I shipped Elder Mecham off. It was pretty heartbreaking. We hadn't heard from Alexander our most positive investigator for a week and a half, didn't answer our calls or anything. Elder Mecham's been through a lot with him so he really wanted to say bye but didn't get the chance. On wednesday morning Elder Mecham and I are out at the bus station with all his luggage around 8 am to ship him off to the airport to fly to Stockholm and guess who walks in front of us? Alexander. We call out and say hi to him and he looks over at us and gives us an unenthusiastic head nod and hey back then keeps walking. Worst part of a mission has got to be learning to love people then having to leave them or being pushed away by them.

Wow sorry to start things off like that but a lot of good has come as one door closes and more are opened! I got my new companion and things have been really awesome! We hit the ground running and have acquired some new investigators this week from contacting the streets of Skellefteå. Oh yeah my comp is Elder Wilson, here's the brief bio:

-from Firestone, Colorado

-did jazz band and can play piano for the branch here

-in the same group as Elder Scott my son

-has been all over Sweden now

-can grow a beard in like 2 hours

Today...

Sunrise: 9:41

Sunset: 13:26

Winter solstice is in two days then we'll finally get some more light up in here! I'm excited!

We taught this older Swedish man named Carl last night who has the brightest blue eyes I've ever seen and white wispy hair to complement them. He rambled on and on about anything and everything from evolution to astronomy to foreign affairs but Elder Wilson and I managed to show him a chapter in the Book of Mormon and challenge him to read and pray about it in the pauses. This guy was really interesting, he painted a painting of Bach's 4th symphony. Like that was the picture in his mind when he listened to it. It was very abstract. I also have learned I don't like being a wall for being to bounce their own sound off of back to themselves.

Have a very merry Christmas! Can't wait to skype with the fam on sunday :)

Much love,

Äldste Hainsworth