Church

Cobblestones! These rocks were used (possibly back even to the Vikings) to fill up the bottom of a boat after unloading goods afar after a voyage. A certain amount of weight is needed in the lower part of the ship in order for it to maintain balance (think Vasa ship...) so they would load rocks into the lower decks. But when the got back home and had goods to fill the bottom of the boat again, they would just dump the rocks on Stockholm and then leave. Eventually these rocks were used to create cobblestone streets. It's cool to think that these rocks have sailed across oceans to get here. And now I'm walkin' all over them!

So it's Söndag (Sunday) so we went to church! We rode the tunnelbana for an hour in order to get there! Crazy. At church, we found out that we're in the same ward as both our Swedish teacher (and her husband) and our humanities professor (and his family)! It was a pleasant surprise. The other students who are studying abroad through BYU live in a different part of Stockholm, so they are in a different ward. It's a big city.

The ward was smaller, but still wonderful (it was a regular family ward, not a YSA). The members seem very dedicated. I think it would be harder to remain active in Europe than in the US. Going to church isn't nearly as common as it is in the States. It was fast Sunday, so members were bearing their testimonies. We did have translation headphones (which the elder from England was voicing. he's pretty funny. "We will now sing hymn number 157... er, whatever hymn that is.") but after the first testimony, I just wanted full Swedish immersion, so I took them out. It was hard! I don't understand much. I can catch "Jesu Kristi," "bröder, systrar," and "och," which means "and." I can catch that one almost every time!

For Sunday school, the singles go technically have their own class, but it's combined with the investigators class! And it was in English today, since more than half the class were native english speakers. Yay!

Relief society was awesome! it was mostly in Swedish, but then we broke into groups, and our group was speaking english! We met a lovely older lady named Monica who has pretty much traveled the world, raised 7 righteous kids and practically started the church in stockholm. Amazing. We got some recipe ideas from her, which was great!

We were invited to dinner by the nicest girl in Sweden. Her name is Mara, and she's actually from the states, but works in Sweden. Also, she speaks like 5 languages so watch out! She's amazing. And an amazing cook! But on the way to her apartment we totally missed our bus connection and almost left Stockholm, going the completely wrong direction! Eeep, but we made it back okay. It just took like two hours instead of 45 minutes. :) Good thing we're all pretty easygoing girls. Dinner was a delicious Quiche, and the sister missionaries were over also! They are fantastic. I really like them, though it's a little strange being older/the same age as them.

I didn't get a picture of anything today but here's what I drew in my journal today (I still need to color things in..):

The bus stop. 

Notes from dinner.

The tunnelbanan signage. I love the exit signs here.