BlackburnBlazingSweden: Goodbye America ~ HELLO Sweden!!

Hey!! So I only have a few minutes left because I sent so many pictures. So much happened this week! First, we flew out on Monday. The first two legs (to Denver, then to New Jersey) were great. The final leg to Stockholm, we were actually ahead of schedual but that flight was soooo long! It smells so fresh here! I noticed off the bat how good the water is and how clean everything is. Beautiful country! They took us on a tour around Stockholm and we were all SO tired and we had to get some legal stuff taken care of with the visa etc. I was fighting so hard not to sleep.

Here we go!

Talking to our families at the airport

This flight was evil. STILL getting over jet lag.

Sleeping on the long flight!

Arrived in Stockholm ~ With our President and Sister Beckstrand, our District, and other missionaries to greet us.

(Editors note: Upon arrival, he was taken the the City of Stockholm for immigration paperwork and then went to the Church’s Young Single Adult Center for lunch, training, and some "street contacting”. He was then shown some of the city and was taken to the Mission Office and had an orientation (told all the rules :):) The group went to the mission Presidents home (Pres. Beckstrand and his wife), had dinner and stayed the night in their home. Then next day started at 6:30 am for some more training. He was introduced to his companion and trainer, Elder Stoeltzing and will serve for a time with him in the city of Boras, which is south, closer to Denmark. President said, “I would like you to know I have experienced some of my most tangible moments of revelation in the assigning of companionships. I know your son and Elder Stoeltzing will learn much from each other and together will be edified as they labour valiantly, with full purpose of heart and obedience in the service of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”)

Elder Stoeltzing and I ready to kill it in Göteborg, Borås.

The first night we slept at the mission home, and the second day we got our assignment and and met our trainer. My first companion is Elder Jacob Stoeltzing from Carmichael California! haha Funny how we were put together because we knew each other before the mission and he is the only one I know that is serving here right now. We are serving in Göteborg, Borås. So beautiful!

Not much time to talk about all that happend but are settling in and having fun and working hard. One cool thing is musical instruments are approved! My Companion has a guitar and I'm picking up an acoustic bass soon. We do a lot with the two sisters in our town and they are are super cool. We are all from California! Awesome, and they are musicians too so we have had a lot of fun during down time. We will try to incorporate music into our teaching.

Sweden is incredible and the food is amazing. There is cobble stone everywhere and water everywhere and trees everywhere! The language is definatly tough here because of accents and talking really fast but it's coming slowly. We have some good study plans laid out. We have a lot of lessons laid out (appointments with people) this next week and i'ts good because we are both new to this area so we're building it up together.

It’s really nice having Elder Stoeltzing as my companion. We are both really similar and we get along really well and have lots of fun. The dynamic in this mission is great and there was so much that happend this last week and not enough time to write, but I will have more time next week. One thing that I am working on is "opening my mouth". I have really learned that you never know what a person is like. The other day there was this kid siting on a bench and he looked like a punk skater kid that would want nothing to do with the church but we felt like we should talk to him. He was very interested and we got his number and are going to set up a lesson.

Great experiences here and it feels good to be back in the real world and invite others (for real) to come to Christ.

Love you all!