BlackburnBlazingSweden: Traveling north, a huge city, a new companion, and a HUGE apartment.

The last wave... On to a new city.

The "goodbye" at the bus station from Borås.

Hey!

I'm in love with Uppsala!! :) It is so beautiful here and massive. I haven’t gotten any pictures of the city yet but it is so big! I feel like I’m in New York or something. Super busy streets and lots of people. Total change of scene! Before I left Borås I said goodbye to everyone and got pictures with them. It was cool to see everyone one last time. Also sang with two other guys on Sunday ~ A Swedish version of “I Need Thee Every Hour.” It was an accapella barbershop arrangement. Super fun!I

Liking my new home :)

I left Wednesday at 11:00am to take a bus to Göteborg, then got on a train to Stockholm Central Station. From there I took a train to Uppsala. I would say the hardest part was hauling around my luggage! I had my bass (gutiar), two suit cases and my backpack and had to come up with a system to get them on and off trains because my bass is so big and tall that I cant wear it on the train (haha) so I kind of had to maneuver my self around.

Äldste Johnson, my new companion, picked me up and he’s super cool. He´s from Sandy Utah and is an incredibly smart scientist and competitive ultimate Frisbee player. Super hard working and is an awesome District leader as well. We have two other Elders in our apartment ~ Äldste Walker and Äldste Bailey. They are both awesome. Every night is a party. :) I actually served with Äldste Walker in my last district in Göteborg. Everyone in the apartment is really obedient to the rules and are hard workers.

District meeting in Gävle and we found
this wonderful creature.

OUR APPARTMENT IS HUGE! I´ll just say a few cool things about it. We have a dish washer! Usually missionaries here don’t have such a luxury… We have a real piano! Our neighbors must love us. :) AND the best right here…. a Sauna….. that’s right! We have an apartment sauna and it is amazing!!

Literally the biggest majority of people that live near us are students and we get so many lesson appointments! There are a lot of atheists but it’s cool because many of them are into science, which is Äldste Johnsons specialty. The ward (congregation) here is pretty tiny compared to Borås. There are about 40 members that attend church but the church here is spreading fast. There were two baptisms here these last few months. The members are SO SOLID. I love it, and they are super welcoming. They found out I am a musician so they recruited me to play the piano for Priesthood on Sundays. Elder Bailey and I are both going to switch off every Sunday and just learn a song every week. I did it yesterday and it was super fun. We have a total of 8 missionaries in our ward! 4 elders, 2 sisters, and a senior couple. We are hoping the work will go fast here. We are ready to go hard this transfer and see miracles happen!

Another thing that is helping me is that three days a week we only speak Swedish... all day. We did it Sunday and it was awesome. I’m feeling a lot better and can understand people for the most part now which is pretty cool.

Love you all!! We should have some cool things that will happen next week!

Äldste Blackburn