Hej på er!
This was quite the blast. Really fun time.
To start off, I drove the car! I hadn't driven since early July of 2017 so it's been nearly a year and a half. That enough would have made things a little sketchy but the sketchiness was compounded by the darkness, the snow-covered roads (they don't salt things here so there's snow and ice all over the roads), the non-reflective paint they use on the street, and a handful of weird traffic laws I had yet to familiarize myself with. Luckily, no accidents were caused and nothing was hurt except my pride.
Knocking doors in -24 degrees Celsius is quite the experience although Sunday morning was colder with the coldest temperature yet this season: -27 (that's -17 for all of you following along in Farenheit). Today and yesterday are a little warmer and honestly, -17°C (1°F) feels quite balmy after spending a couple days in the minus twenties.
This week, we were also able to go to a Santa Lucia concert which was a really cool experience. I was in Sweden last year too, but we didn't have an opportunity to go unfortunately. Basically, it's a Christmas concert in a church and the choir stands behind a young girl who has a ring of candles on her head. They sing some traditional songs but also assorted Christmas carols. Apparently the tradition dates back to one Saint Lucia who would bring food to Christians hiding in catacombs and she would light the way with a wreath of candles. I think she was martyred as a result. Really sad, but it's really quite heartwarming how much the Swedish Christmas season is so centered on light.
Christ really is the light of the world. He lights our lives like nothing else can when we let him in and learn to know Him. We were talking to a man at his door yesterday who wasn't religious. He spent a couple minutes--in which he unwittingly paraphrased the words of the Savior in the New Testament at least twice--talking about how he's a good person and how treats people kindly and how he doesn't steal or abuse his wife and kids or anything and asked us why it wasn't enough for him to be a good person.
Just because we have a couple candles throughout the room does not mean electric ceiling lights would not light it better. I was really thankful that I had the personal experience necessary to be able to stand at his door and testify that Jesus Christ adds far more to life than can be gained by simply being a good person. A personal relationship with the Savior fills every nook and cranny of an otherwise dark world.
Have a great week!
Love,
Äldste Cummings
1. Met this kid while volunteering at the Red Cross. Made my day.
2. When what you thought were the hymn numbers are actually the digits to their Venmo number for accepting donations.
3. "This girl is on fire" -Alicia Keys
4. My breath froze to my name-tag
5. This is one angry icicle.
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