Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Rock formations, impressions, and praying in faith

Rock in the shape of a dog... woooo..
So this last week was awesome/sick(not meaning cool sick).. 

It started off awesome!  Last monday was our preporation day and we decided to go drive to the top of Gotland Island and then take a fairy to another island called FårÖ.  This isalnd was awesome but on the way up we made a bunch of other stops.  We went with President Madden (The president of our little group of members here in Gotland) and three new members here.  We stoped by a lot of famous historical super old sights.  

Having fun on these
natural jungle gyms
Along the Island there are several really cool rock formations from fossilized coral after the Ice age.  These massive rock forms are all around the island of Gotland and FårÖ and was just Gorgeous!  There are some cool stories behind a lot of them dating back to Viking times and the Baltic sea is just beautiful.  So we had fun exploring and driving up and around the northern part of the islands.  We took tons of pics and I’m assuming that not all of them will be posted but I made the decision that I want my honey moon here haha…. Or in Iceland. Either will work!  haha.  So that was a good day!

Something awesome that happened was Äldste Jämsä and I both had the impression to call this guy that they used to meet with. He actually loved the discussions that Äldste Jämsä and his old companion gave him and he had gotten a powerful answer that it is right and that the Book of Mormon is true.  He is a refugee from Afghanistan and has only lived here for 4 months.  When he got the answer that the Book of Mormon was true he wanted to change his name so he opened up the Book of Mormon and pointed to a name and said he wanted that to be his new name!  It was "Nephi!" haha and he wants to legally change it.  So that fun... But as time went on.. not baptized yet, he was getting negative pressure from friends about being a Christian.  So his friends came out one day and told the Elders that he wasn’t interested anymore and he told them that as well... Ok.. Well now this last week is when we had the impression to contact him again.  We met with him and had a Persian translator on the phone and the first thing he asked us is “When can I be baptized?"  We were a little taken back but we talked to him for a while about what had happened last time with his friends and he told us everything that I just wrote.  We then talked with him about baptism for a bit and why it is important to make sure he has the right intentions and is wanting to get baptized for the right reasons..  He is really ready and sincere!  We scheduled his baptism to be this next Saturday in the Baltic Sea and it’s going to be awesome!  So excited for that :)

Big rock formations.. wooooo.
So onto the sick part of the week, Elder Jämsä has been pretty sick this last week and it has not been to fun for him.  We just really want to go out and work but we have been needing to take it easy these last several days. He has a really bad flu and might be going to the doctor soon to get some medication.  With him being sick, I have had a while to think and study this last week!  I thought a lot about how easy it is to get in a repetition of things, such as prayers and all of that good stuff.  Especially when asking for things and saying what you are grateful for.  Well I had the realization that I have been doing just that.  That right there.. getting into a repetition is not how you will come to see success or progression.  I need to constantly be checking my self, and if I want help with something from Heavenly Father, I need to REALLY ask with all of my heart. Otherwise I’m not really asking in faith. 

Love you all and hope you have a great Easter weekend!
#hallelujah (check out the new Easter video made by the church at LDS.org) 

Äldste Blackburn

More rock formations


Its a very flat island! There are only about 400 people that live on FårÖ


Being daring

Viking graves!

FårÖ!



Viking graves!


THAT SUNSET.

Climbed up on this bad boy to get this picture. (Baltic Sea below)

 This beach is covered with little fossilized shells that date back to the ice age and jung fru rock is behind me.

If look on that GPS, we were on that top island in Fårö  
and then the one under it is Gotland

Jungfru rock! There is a really cool story behind that one. Don't have time to write it but it is a love story. <3

Little fishing village in FårÖ

No comments:

Post a Comment