Baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Barbara got baptized!!!!!! I really wanted to go and President said I could, but it was too expensive and we had a lesson that night. But I heard it was amazing. Syster Kimball said she bore her testimony and it was really powerful and she just had a glow about her. :) ALSO, Jerry is getting baptized on the 25th and now Danl has a baptismal date. I hope you remember me talking about these people.. Gävle is just blowing up. I am really sad I am not there anymore. Also, Markus (the football player), that came to church right before I left told Syster Kimball "I feel this tingly feeling, I have never felt it before!" I am really sad I am not there... but good things are happening! Also, happy 4th!!!!!! I hope it was really good! I missed having fireworks. We had a great time with the American families here though! There 4 American families in our ward and everyone is just obsessed with this ward haha. It's really fun, and crazy diverse. Our bishop is German, 1st counselor is Chilean, and 2nd counselor is American. I dropped a hint hard that I wouldn't be mad if that couple made us those Chilean hot pockets.... (empanadas?) and he said he'd have us over and make us some. :) And the Pence's are going to pick up their son from Salt Lake who has been serving in Santiago as well. Weird connections haha. 

Training is awesome. Sister Jackson is perfect. Seriously. She is so cute. She is super calm and sarcastic and fun. She isn't scared to speak Swedish even when she knows it's not perfect (unlike me in my greenie days) and she is patient in how much she understands. She is so excited about the work and willing to try new things. She is a great teacher and has a powerful testimony. I could keep going and going. It's not even been hard because she's so great. I really hope I am being patient and loving enough because I know I felt so dumb when I got here. She knows more about Swedish culture than me and she shows me stuff all the time haha. We know where we are going most of the time and if we don't we just ask someone. I don't know why I freaked out so much... Haha. 

But on the other hand, the work needs some serious help. We got dropped this week and we really only have one progressive investigator here, and that's Katrina. We met with her and she is down for keeping commitments and living the commandments but she doesn't know if God exists. And Karl, from Syria, told us he believes in the Book of Mormon but can't live the commandments we have. We met a few people this week and received some referrals so I hope they go somewhere! 

We had a zone meeting on the Book of Mormon. They brought up the talk "Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon" (read it) and I got this strong feeling that we should invite everyone in our ward to A) if they haven't read the Book of Mormon, read it and B) if they have, to give one away to a friend. So we started doing that. The members are really excited about it! And we are going to teach English and try to find people that way. 

There is an American guy here that is seriously so funny. We were playing soccer and someone kicked the ball but it missed the goal but he just yelled, "TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!" I lost it haha. Also, there is this corner where people perform and there was an ASIAN doing MICHAEL JACKSON. It was amazing. 

Oh, and look up "Gamla stan" in Stockholm and I live like 3 minutes on a subway from there! Tell me what you think. :)  (Here's a picture of Gamla stan in Alyssa's area)

Love you guys! Have a great week! Also, don't forget to tell me about exciting things in the news there, whether church or national! I like knowing what's happening! 

Love,

Syster Alyssa Stetler