Valborg

Dear Family,

Well...not so much news from this week. Wednesday we taught Presley for the last time. We didn't know this until...last Wednesday, but he's moving to Holland in 2 days. So our investigator pool just got cut in half. Also...he's not getting baptized. Whoot. But we're still working hard. This is a great area and there are prepared sons and daughters of God waiting here. Friday was super fun. April 30 is a holiday, sort of. It's called Valborg (vahlbory) and it's a celebration of Spring! Pretty much they just have a HUGE bonfire and barbeque. There's a family in our ward who does this every year so we were able to go out there and celebrate. We're only allowed to celebrate Valborg if there's a ward activity because public celebrations are NOT appropriate for missionaries. But it was insane all day Friday. People started drinking and partying at about 7 in the morning and were going all night. Seriously. We bought earplugs so we could sleep because we live in like the party zone. It's not dangerous, just loud. Saturday was actually a national holiday and proselyting was completely useless both Friday and Saturday. I swear people were drunk for 2 days straight. And if you asked them what they were celebrating they probably couldn't tell you...sad but true. Most people here don't even know what Christmas is for. Anyway we went to help a family in the ward move on Saturday. The wife is pregnant and the husband may or may not be active. Not sure, but because of the ward's service, he came to church yesterday and bore his testimony for the first time in years! It was such an amazing testimony too! Saturday afternoon we taught Roshan again. I really think he believes what we've been teaching. Actually I'm pretty sure he KNOWS it's true. He says that he needs time...I hate time. Time kills investigators and their testimonies. But he's really progressing. After Roshan we went to Malmö for an African culture night they were having there. It was SO fun and they had quite a few investigators there. We couldn't get any there...we were just representing the institute. But they had African food--this stuff called fufu, chicken, cow tail (just tastes like beef...go figure) and rice. It was all really good. I guess some of the African investigators there were really impressed, especially by the Restoration video they showed, and said that they wanted to be baptized! Too bad none of them were ours...Yesterday was probably one of my favorite mission Sundays. We had a really awesome fast & testimony meeting. This is a great ward. I sat in the meeting yesterday and it hit me that it's almost a year since I came to Sweden. I thought about how much things have changed. I've changed a lot. My testimony has grown and I've made lifelong friends. That never would've happened if I hadn't come here. So mom, thanks for making me get on the plane! I had to go up and bear my testimony. We got to help out in the young men/young women Sunday school class after sacrament meeting and as we were leaving the class one of the counselors in the primary come up looking very desperate and goes, "Sisters! Does one of you play the piano?!" Long story short, we got to go to primary yesterday and it was a BLAST! I played the piano and directed singing time for senior primary. We actually were asked last week to give talks in primary so it was very convenient that we were there. After church we went and ate at the Wiklöf family's and it was great. They're such a wonderful and rare family. They have 5 children and all 5 of them are active in the church. That's so uncommon in Sweden! After the Wiklöfs' we went out with a YSA and knocked doors. That's always so awkward. Sister Sumner thinks so too. Every time we knock on a door she just stands and laughs until the door is opened. We didn't really have much success last night. Actually I'm really sick of getting doors shut in our faces. We've had a really hard time finding new people to teach and it's really hard not to get discouraged. The YSA we took ou last night did give us some really great tips though. Please just pray that we will be able to find people to teach. Pray that I won't be chicken and that I'll be able to talk to people. Pray that Sister Sumner won't worry about her Swedish. She's actually very good, it's just so hard when you're new because you have no idea how to express yourself so you just sit quiet because you don't want to sound stupid. So please pray for us and pray for Lund. I love this city and I'm so happy to be here. This transfer is going by so fast!! We're already in the 6th week! CRAZY!!! We have another mission tour on Wednesday and it's in GÖTEBORG!!!! I'm so excited to get to go back there even if it's just a day. I'm also really excited about this mission tour. It's with Elder Texeira (I don't know how to spell that...) is speaking and it'll be super good. As far as calling home goes, I can call at 9:00 no problem. We'll probably have to turn down some dinners. This ward is really great at having us over. But I'm SO EXCITED to talk to you guys!!!!! GAH!!!! I'M LIKE CRYING THINKING ABOUT IT!!!!! And dad, I don't need another calling card. The one I bought in December still has like 16 hours or something on it and it's good until December. So I'm good. It sounds like things are great there. I can't believe the post-prom drama. I don't remember high school being that dramatic...but then again I wasn't exactly the most popular girl...I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you all on Sunday! I love you so much!!

Love,
Syster Coleman