the bridge over troubled waters

well as of now we have gotten into our routine which is very nice but i kinda wish it was fuller. I ve been helping out with a band the school started to play at the highschool dance and thats alot of fun but we practice for like four hours a day so that gets rather tiresome. Next week is english camp where we take some of the kids to a camp nearbye and they are only to speak english and they learn about the world and poverty and things like that. Im pretty excited for that because we have the seventh graders and they seem to really enjoy talking to us so im not worried about them giving us any trouble or not speaking at all. Cabin fever sometimes takes over at night when its been dark so long we think we should go to be but its still early so im trying to learn to keep myself occupied. I have the feeling i will do alot of reading while i am here which isnt a bad thing. the weather here has actualy been pretty nice, only like an inch of snow and its been in the teens to the thirtys lately (farienheit). Random note but since we have much spare time in the evenings i had the thought that love is the greatest feeling and the next greatest would be the feeling of contentment. In peace,
-Samuel J. Miller

into the great wide open

well i know i havent written in here lately but nothing has really changed to much. We still are going to school talking to the kids, some still lie others talk alot and some dont talk at all. We just got back from watching the new james bond movie so it was kinda nice to sit in a theater again. We are slowly learning A LITTLE swedish. we as a team are slight aggrivated by how kunskupens hus ( the place next to the school where we learn) teaches. its more filling out books rather then learning how to say things and hold a conversation. Grottan is going well, some of the immagrants from afganistan asked us if we could have it twice a week because they like and there isnt much to do. An interesting fact or tibit i learned the other day from an older kid is that we arent like the other teams, he mentioned that when he came to grottan the teams would usualy end up asking why they werent christian and trying to convert them. I am very thankful that i am not asked to do that with the children. Evangilizing has many different faces and i think simply talking at people is one of the most uneffective and egotistical ways of describing gods love and want to follow them. We should lead by example not a "do as i say" method. I feel kind of lonely at times because in all honesty we dont know if what the kids tell us during the classes are true and we ve had instances where some of the ninth graders were making fun of us because we dont know swedish. I sometimes feel like we are treated with distane for simply being foreign. I just feel that them lying to us is like directing a blind person into traffic. Its taking advantage of someone who already feels insecure about not being familiar with their surroundings. Im sorry i am ranting about small vexations i have with encounters we have had. Almost all people here are rather nice to us or at the very least polite. Well im going to finish watching the simpsons on the computer so good night and keep me in your prayers as you are in mine.
-Samuel j.
p.s. the title is a tom petty song i know