BlackburnBlazingSweden: Transfer time!! I'm staying on the Island and getting a new companion.

My home!

Hallå där!

Äldste Jämsä, packing up!

So transfer timeeeeeeee! My companion, Äldste Jämsä, will be leaving the island after 4 months here and will be transferring to a city called, Västerås. It’s actually pretty close to Uppsala, my old city I served in. I will be staying here! In Äldste Jämsäs place, I get my first companion that is NOT from Utah, California, or even America for that matter.. He is an Australian! For those of you who really know me, I just love Australians and love there accents, so I’m pretty stoked. His name is Äldste Scott. Äldste Jämsä will be leaving Gotland on Wednesday morning, taking the morning boat to the mainland. I will stay with the Senior couple all day until my new Autrailian friend comes in at the boat station here in Gotland at about 4:00ish. It’s going to be fun! I have had an awesome 6 weeks here in Gotland and this will forever be the coolest dang place. Äldste Jämsä will be missed. We did some good things together this last transfer and will work hard these last two days. Best of luck to him in Västerås!

Yes, it was as good as it looks!

Nice little Viking village!

BUT! We had some fun and cool things happen this week. Monday was a fun P day. We went to this place where we could jam and make music for free. It was super nice and we made some recordings and stuff. Fun fact ~ Visby, Gotland (the city where I live on Gotland) has the biggest ice cream shop in Europe with over 300 flavors of ice cream and Italian ice cream stuff or what ever it is called!! It just re-opened after being closed for winter and decided we needed to give it a try and see for ourselves how big it was.. You know.. we had to see! So... turns out it was pretty dang big and it really is the biggest ice cream shop in Europe and it tastes really good too haha. Side-note, the owner is in the process of building one in Southern California to try to make it the biggest shop in America, so get ready for that! So that was good. Then President Madden (the president over the branch here in Gotland) decided to take all of us to the ice cream shop. “All of us”, meaning as many new members and their families that could make it. So that was a party!

Saying goodbye to Sadeq

Some sad news. If you remember Sadeq, He was the one that was supposed to be baptized this last weekend. He ended up flying and moving to Germany because of some immigration problems. He might be sent back to Iran which is really bad, but the church's refugee program here in Europe is in the process of helping him. He could really use some prayers.

We finally had some visitors this last week from the Mainland of Sweden! Our truly beloved Zone Leaders in Stockholm. Äldste Bradshaw and Äldste Johnson. I had the opportunity to go on splits with Äldste Bradshaw and I learned a lot from him. He is super good at speaking Swedish and gave me a lot of good tips and help. He will actually be the next assistant to the the president for this next transfer and will do awesome!

One thing I have been studying a lot this last week are the similarities between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. I have made it a goal for myself to read the Swedish Bible and Swedish Book of Mormon all the way through before the end of my mission. I’m starting to see how much it is helping me. I read a scripture in Mormon 7:8-9, and if you don’t get a chance to read it, it’s talking about the Bible and the Book of Mormon and how they stand as witnesses of each other. You will understand one as you come to understand the other and they are of equal importance, both testifying of Christ. I am seeing this happen with me in my own understanding and also seeing how God has acted and done things from the beginning of time, all the way to present day. God is unchanging.

Love you all and have a good week! '

p.s. If you want to send me any mail or love my address is: