Monday, August 15, 2016

An AMAZING week!

Hallå Hallå!
Elder Dean is going to kill it in Lund.

Transfers!!!  I’m staying in Jakobsberg, and my companion Elder Dean is transferring down to the bottom of Sweden to the city of Lund!  Way pumped for him!  Some other big news I’m pumped for.. Remember Elder Scott?  The Australian companion I had on Gotland for a while?  He’s transferring off the island and coming to Stockholm so we will see each other quite a bit again!!  haha.  We will have some fun. I’m getting a new companion and his name is Elder Hatch.  Don’t know much about him but he sounds cool!  Either way we will go hard together. 

Elder Liddle!! hes going home in a few days! Best of luck to that guy!
Elder Bailey!!! Good old times
This last P-day was one to remember... We had the opportunity (and permission) to go to a professional soccer game and it was Stockholm's team vs. Göteborgs team.  It was so epic and was so fun!  We went with pretty much our whole zone. The Assistants, the POs, the Zone Leaders.. and most everyone.  I never thought I could get so into a soccer game haha, but Swedish football fans sure know how to get pumped and crazy!  There will probably be more pics to come but for now I just have these.. haha.  So that was really fun and a good start to the week. 

Elder Dean and I went really hard last few weeks and so we were blessed with a lot of people to teach and almost everyday was packed with lessons.  We also got a baptismal date with a girl from Africa.  She has a very strong faith and is really liking what we teach and the spirit she feels from it. 

We also had something cool happen to us... Sweden has beggars on the streets but most are not Swedish... They are Romanian and they don't speak Swedish or English.  So we saw one of these Romanians talking with a friend on the street holding a bag of bottles he found.  We tried talking to him but only his friend could speak a little Swedish so we could communicate a bit with both of them.  We told him who we were, what we do and how we have a book for him in Romanian for free that will help us come closer to God.  He became really excited and we set up a day and time to meet.  They day came and about 30 minutes before the appointment, he calls and checks to see if we are still good to meet in broken Swedish.  We said yes and went to go meet him.  We were having some thoughts and doubts about it because we have had experiences before where in the end they just ask for money from the church or us or whatever... But we still had hope and were excited to meet!  

He didn’t show up at the time and place we chose and we tried calling him a few times and his phone didn’t work. 
So we saw another Romanian kid about our age sitting on the lawn with a bag of cans and we thought.. “Well, we have this Romanian Book of Mormon... Lets give it to him!"  We walked up to him and showed him the book, and he said the name of the guy we were supposed to meet and made it clear in broken Swedish/hand signals that he is the son of the guy we had the appointment with! 
Ward grill party!
So we took out our phone (google translate) and started teaching him about the Book of Mormon and let him read the Introduction in Romanian.  As he was reading... One by one came a total of 7 other Romanians including the Dad we were supposed to meet with.  So here we were... Elder Dean and I teaching 8 Romanians who are all family... on a grass hill teaching through google translate.  They are very christian and want to find a church.  They loved the Book of Mormon and the Dad really loved it.  They might live in Sweden perminatley, (they usually come here to beg for a few months then go back to Romania) but now they have contact with the church and they could join the church in Romania or here if they stay.  We closed with a prayer and there we were again in the middle of a park kneeling and in prayer with this Romanian family.  That was a cool experience.

Church was also crazy!  Both talks in sacrament were not in Swedish (one in English, and one in Mongolian) so I had to prepare translations and stand up at the pulpit and translate into Swedish for the ward (congrigation).  That was also a cool experience!  Then I sang in Sacrament meeting, Närmare Gud till Dig.  ("Nearer my God to Thee.”)  It was a good sunday!

Our investigator Musi was also baptized this last weekend!  I was blessed with the opportunity to baptize him and Elder Dean to Confirm him the next day.  The change in a person after they are baptized and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost is unreal.  The Gospel is true!

Ha det så bra!
Äldste Blackburn
On our way to watch Stockholm's soccer team destroy Göteborgs team.
We can finally see the sun set now!

The Tele2 soccer arena!



YAAAAAAA Stockholm!!!!!

One of the guys we teach gave us a bunch of ABBA cds haha

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