So some super awesome stuff happened this week.
1: There's this old-er crazy drunk that we run into fairly often on the spårvagn who is super funny. He shows us pictures that he takes from his apartment of the sky and tries to sell them to us because there are weird animals and shapes in the clouds. He also keeps a pair of nunchuks in his jackets inside pocket because the thinks the government is out to get him (and, as the Swedish government, it really is, just not the way he's thinking), so one day we get in the front of the spårvagn and he's sitting in the back and we see him and give him a wave and all that good stuff, then he gets off at the next stop, runs up to our window, taps on it, pulls out his nunckuks and starts waving them all over the place. It was super funny, this older Swede making the funniest face imaginable, just going to town on the air infront of his face. He's ends up hitting himself in the face, pretty hard, but kept on going at it until the spårvagn left, at which point he grabbed the other end, clapped the two ends together, and made a (what was supposed to be) intimidating gesture to us. It was hilarious. Love the guy.
2: We also tracked an island this week, so that was special! Turns out, kebab on islands is better than most kebab. Also turns out that people that live on islands are not big fans of religion. Also turns out that a while back some missionaries tracked that island but didn't keep a tracking record of it. But it was a cool experience, and we did help some people out, and did eat some really good kebab.
3: We had this one baptism with an older lady named Ann-Charlott, and it turns out that she can't hold her breath! So I'm the one baptizing her and we do it the first time like a normal baptism, but she goes under the water, freaks out, and her foot comes up. I pick her back up (I didn't see the foot, so I think it's all good) and she's crying, hugs me, gets out of the fount and falls on the sisters, and I'm all like "Wow, she's so happy" but then I realize that it's not a happy cry, and she's not hugging the sisters but they're carrying her back into the bathroom. Turns out, she has never held her breath before, so she just kept on breathing like normal under the water, got a bunch of water in her lungs, had a panic attack and an asthma attack, and was pretty distraught. So there she was, crying in the bathroom while I'm standing in the fount because she has to get baptized again because of the foot thing, and the sisters and a member are trying to get her to go back and actually get baptized. 10 minutes later she comes back and we spend a long time where she's just trying to dunk herself while I'm holder her but it's just not happening. Eventually my companion puts on some white cloths and comes on in, and he starts trying to teach her how to hold her breath (she kept saying if she goes under water she'll get water in her mouth, didn't get that you can close your mouth under water. Also didn't get that you can breath in, wait, then breath out). Eventually we end up with Elder Harrell (Who was actually a serf-teacher in high school) holding her suspended in the water under the legs and lower back (when Princess Buttercup jumps into Andre the Giants arms at the end of The Princess Bride) while I'm holding her hand and upper back, and together we baptize her. Once again though, she breaths in water, panics, kicks, and a foot comes out. So she gets out of the fount again, talks to the sisters again, and comes back in for a third time. So this time we try the same pose, but instead of doing a normal squat next to her I'm squatting on my right leg, and reaching across her feet with the left leg so they don't fly out. If I were to make this pose without holding a person I'd look like a ninja. Anyways, after some more time teacher her how to hold her breath ("Breath in, hold it, no, ugh. You didn't wait again. You have to breath in then not breath out, like this *example of holding your breath* OK. You try again" x a number very, very high) and agreeing to just go straight down we baptized her again, but as we pushed her down she hit the bottom and the top of her head was still two inches above the water, but as Elder Harrell and I awkwardly squatted there praying hard, a tiny wave of water came and barely covered her head, but cover her head it did! So we both ripped her out of the water, she stood up, and was 100% OK, said it felt good, thanked us for helping her get baptized, and walked out of the fount no problem. In total, Elder Harrell was in the font for an hour, and I was in the font for an hour and a half. That is a very long time. And the thing is, we had taught her that we baptize by immersion, and had gone through several practice baptisms before with her and all she said was "I'm not a very good swimmer", I just don't think that she understood that going underwater means not breathing in because she's literally never in her 57 years of life not been breathing in or out. Very strange, and definitely an experience never to be forgotten. I was squatting for well over an hour. My thighs are now almost as good as my calves, they are definitely one area of me that has grown.
Picture time!
Other then that, I guess I could take some time to talk about goals. You see, setting goals is very important, but even more so is developing the habits necessary to obtain them. As a missionary we set lots of numerical goals, but we also have time every night to reflect upon the day and upon our personal goals. These nightly reflections (Which I take when writing in my journal) are great ways to make sure we are always striving to become better, and from these moments we can evaluate our efforts to accomplish the goals we have set and adjust plans accordingly. So that's a fun fact of the day.
