BlackburnBlazingSweden: Arabic, Swedish, Soccer and of course music! :)

Okejjjj,

We found civilization in Stockholm! :D

So sooo much stuff has happened this week! We had a good last P day last Monday. Elder Jämsä bought a guitar and he is super good. It’s fun to have him sarinade me to sleep.:) Here in Visby, there is this place that they have for the community that is free (It’s like a community center with activities, etc.), and we went there with a new member and some investigators. We saw that they had a big music room so we went in and played guitars and sang some songs of repentance. :) That was fun. There were all of these kids taking videos and pictures... paparazzi some times… So that was fun! The next day we went to a high school and taught a class for an hour. We ended the class by playing and singing “Come Thou Fount” to them.

Us singing the song of repentance.

Getting off this Island to civilization!

Thursday is when the real action started. We got our travel tickets a for a conference we had in the city of Västerhaninge. Before that, we went to the refugee camp and played soccer with a bunch of kids, then we left and drove to the boat. We then drove ONTO the boat for a 3 hour trip to Nynäsham to then drive to Västerhaninge. We got to the church in Västerhaninge to play more soccer with the ward, and then went and stayed the night with some other missionaries. We had a great zone training and I learned a lot! I got to see a bunch of people I hadn’t seen for a while and it was nice being in civilization again as well!

That Friday after the conference, our boat did not leave until 8:00pm, so we had a lot of time. By the time we got on the boat and then got home, it was after midnight. We were super tired but it was worth it. We have a big zone conference in two weeks so we will be going back there then. It was fun to drive in Stockholm!

Yesterday was really cool. I was asked to speak in sacrament meeting, and there was a representative from the church in our stake (several congregations make up a “stake”) that was visiting who had a talk as well. He knew that half of our branch was Persian, so he prepaired something amazing! He had a member prepare his talk in Persian, English and Swedish! He called me and new Persian member up to the podium. The leader from the Stake would say a paragraph in Swedish, then I would say a paragraph in English, then our Persian friend would say a paragraph in Persian. So cool! I have actually learned a lot of Arabic and Persian since I have been here to communicate. Elder Jämsä and I really only speak Swedish when we are together, with members, or if we are talking to people on the street. BUT we are trying to spend as much time as possible with these guys because they will all be leaving Gotland Island soon when tourist season comes up. They will be scattered around Sweden. They are some of the strongest members I know!

Something I shared when I gave my talk this last Sunday was about the importance of leaving our comfort zones to grow. Some times it’s scary to leave what you are comfortable with and it might seem awkward at first but it is for you to become better. It is needed to grow. Sometimes in life, we get thrown curve balls and it changes everything. We just need to realize that the Lord knows how far we can go and won’t push us farther than we can handle. He just wants to help us grow and be the best that He knows we can be!

Well today, we are going to this little island right above Gotland called , Fåröj. We will do some exploration. Time to go!

Have a good week :)

Äldste Blackburn