Hey, Rich! I'm so glad you wrote - today's the Swedish Father's Day. So... GRATTIS PA FARS DAG! ( That's the Swedish equivalent of 'Happy Father's Day' - you probably figured that out.)
Thanks for your input for our investigators (their names are Stellan and Eva). The really crazy thing is that they already know about all this stuff. They know about the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and baptism cleansing our sins, they know this is the only way, and they know about eternal marriage, and the Celestial Kingdom, and all the rest. But they just won't do it. They've gotten it into their heads that being a member of the church is too hard somehow, so they're waiting for God to change His mind or something. We just can't seem to get them to understand that they'll be waiting forever for that. You'd think they would've figured it out at some point in the last 42 years...
On the plus side, we set up a baptismal date for another investigator last night. He's an African immigrant going to school here. His name's Tobias. He and his roommate are super excited about the gospel. They've been studying the Bible on their own for years, and they're absolutely ready to join the church and take off. Tobias's baptism is set in 2 weeks, and hopefully we'll be making it a double-baptism. (His roommate's been out of town, so we're still waiting for him to confirm that he'd also like to get baptized that day.)
The weather's insane! A week ago, it was fall. Now it's thoroughly winter. Tuesday night, we saw some flurries starting to fall as we went to bed. When we woke up Wednesday morning, there was almost a foot of snow on the ground, and it snows a little more every day. I'm so happy with my boots and my goose down coat right now. Thank you for taking care of those things for me. The other thing that's saving me from frost bite, funnily enough, is the fact that I'm so far north. In the north, the areas are bigger. (My companion and I are the only missionaries in an area almost the size of Utah.) Thus, we get cars. The missionaries in the southern cities have to rough it through the winter on bikes or walking. So it turns out, going north was a great blessing for me. I still can't drive a stick shift, and now that it's snowing and icy, it's not really safe for me to learn. So I'm REALLY banking on my next companion know how to drive a stick (my current companion goes home in 3 weeks, so I'm definitely getting a new companion soon).
Your other question was about daylight - the sun's up around 9 or 10, and starts setting around 3. At least, we think it does. We haven't actually seen the sun through the clouds for a few weeks. I hope the clouds don't stay all winter. If they go away, we might get to see the Northern Lights eventually! Another funny thing about the sky here - the stars are all in the wrong places. the North Star is actually straight up, instead of to the north. It took me almost 2 weeks to find it.
I need to go so we can buy groceries and take care of our chores. (P-day is the busiest, fastest day of the week.) Tell Mom that I love her and missed her this week. Take care, and write me again. I'm glad I got to hear from you. Thanks for your prayers and your support. It really does make all the difference.
Love,
Syster Hillary Kiser
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