10 May- Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all! and to all a good night!

Just kidding. But actually, I should be wishing most of you a good night at this point, as the sun is going down on your corner of the planet.

Life is good here in Örebro. I told Mom and Dad how to say that, so now they can teach everyone else. I remember that "Osorno" was a task for about 18 months until Libbi came home. That is funny. "Stockholm" is easy enough to say, right? "Örebro" means "Penny Bridge" (well, their equivalent of a penny). Kind of a nice little name.

It sure is nice to be home. We have had some crazy traveling this last week. We went to Stockholm (2 hour train) on Wednesday night for a Mission Tour with Europe Area President President Teixeira and then we came back that evening. And then we had Stake Conference in Stockhom again and we went up Saturday night and left Sunday evening. Tedious travel. And especially because yesterday we didn't have a lunch, so we had a bowl of cereal at 6 45 and then had conference and then got on a train and then got home at about 5 15 and were starving and worn out and irritable. But, I got to call my Mom and Dad and Rachel! I was really grateful that the phone and the card worked well. The Lord blessed me a lot. At one point, the phone cut off so I had to try to call again. When I was waiting for like probably 30 seconds for it to connect and ring, I was praying. I was just telling my Heavenly Father thank you that I was able to talk to them for the 20 minutes before. Even if the connection didn't make it again, I would still love Him just the same and obey Him, but if He was willing that would be very very very wonderful to me if I could talk to them more. And then the phone started ringing. It probably sounds more dramatic written out than it really was. I have a testimony though that the Lord hears the prayers of our hearts. I also know that He blesses us when we exercise faith in Him and express faith in Him. Even if He hadn't let me continue to talk to them, it was comforting for me to know and to think through the fact that I had faith enough to get a "no" answer. I hope that makes sense. Pray and have faith and you can be confident in the fact that whatever happens is what is best and that He is with you. He can't be with us if we do not pray. Anyway, I am SO grateful that I got to talk to my family. I love you all so much.

I was happy to hear about the house. more than happy-- more like ecstatic. I love that stuff. I love new beginnings. There is just so much potential! It will be awesome. And I can't wait for my loafers. I also was very glad to hear a hello from Abby and then a hello for Emily too. The rest of you... just kidding. ha I know you care too. There are a few Swedish phrases that can't be translated in my head. Well, that is because I don't like looking things up in the dictionary-- I like to learn things from context. It's way cooler. Am I right? Of course. haha I listen to a talk and learn like 20 new words without a dictionary or anything and then know how to use them! I think that is a huge blessing from the Lord. Anyway, so then I can't really translate directly to English because I just use the word. One of them is "att hälsa." I don't even know how to spell it. It is like to greet someone. If someone says "Oh and tell them hi for me" they just say to hälsa them for them. It is cool. You say it like "hellsa". And when you walk into someone, you don't really start talking to people until you have "hälsa"d them. That means saying "hej" and shaking their hand. Everyone shakes hands here. It is kind of crazy. Even like these gangster-looking kids once. I saw there was like these 6 kids on bikes and they have all these peircings and tatoos and just thinking they are really cool and then another kid that they knew came up to them and they just shook his had to hälsa him. I was like woah. It looked so civilized. It was a real hand shake. That makes it nice at church for investigators. LDS people shake hands, and they already know how.

I taught my companion how to "stand up" on her bike. It was so funny. Not actually standing up, but you know like you stand on the pedals up off the seat with your legs straight? Yeah, she was just like, "how do you do that?" Cause I had been doing that and I was really confused about how she could be confused. She was like, "when you do it, you look so tall. But look at me." She did it and her rumpa (like "roompa" (bottom/behind/bahonkatail in Swedish)) was still practically on the seat and she just looked ridiculous haha. Her head was all high trying to be tall. And then I looked and saw that the pedals were not level and told her to stand on them at the same level and then it worked. It was so funny. She kept being like, "wow you will teach me all the bike tricks!" and I was just like "tricks?" haha so funny. She also thinks it is really cool when I throw my leg over the bike to get off before the bike actually stops moving and then get off when it does. So funny.

The people here are doing good. Tonight we have a teach with Aziz from Egypt. We met him because we gave this other guy a pass-along card and then he must have taken it and then followed after it and asked who we were. He had apparently met with some missionaries before. So, we taught him Friday at the library. He keeps saying how he feels like it is important to search and find the truth and be willing to search because you can't know until you've really searched everything. That is good but that is bad. I hope that he is willing to make a decision to do something about what he learns. But, this could be it! I think it was definitley the Lord who helped him find us again.

I see miracles everyday. Undeniable ones too. It is really amazing. I love my Heavenly Father. Remeber the day I fasted for my contract to sell, Emily and then I magically saw you after your final and you came with me home to get the thing that I had magically forgotten at my apartment that and then you had e-mailed everyone and people were responding and things that hadn't happened before magically started happening with the contract even on like the last day of the semester? That was amazing. And I never would have seen you, Emily, if I hadn't grabbed the wrong binder-- which I never do. So cool. I jsut read about that in my jourmal.

I love you all. I am so grateful for you all, for all you mothers who have taught me so much by just who you are and who you try to be. I love you.

Love,

Syster Sarah Bear Page