A week of adventure including pizza! :)

Heyyy!!! 

So, This week was full of adventure and fun times.  It started out with a fun time with the missionaries in Stockholm.  We decided to go and do some exploring in a city called Vaxholm.  It’s pretty much an island, with a big castle fortress in the middle of the water and you have to take a boat to get to it.  We all had so much fun exploring and taking awesome pictures.  I took some cool ones with my other camera, and I’ll send those another day.  It was an awesome Castle and a cool experience.  

Just like old times!

After that we continued with the week and went hard!  Some funny/cool things that happened this last week was that there was a man that texted us a while ago wanting to meet us saying that we talked to him on the street a while ago.. And that he has a present for us.. hahaha  So we thought.. Ya its probably a Quran! And believe it or not.. It was!!  We met him and we swapped books.  We gave him a Book of Mormon in Arabic and a chapter to read.  He then gave us a few different books but gave me a Quran!  So thats cool haha. Gotta respect all of the different faiths! 

The last district meeting of this transfer and we wrote a song for our Assistant, Äldste Bradshaw, who is going home soon!

Another funny thing is that there are a lot of drunk people here and they are all hilarious.  So on our way to church yesterday… there was this very drunk and dirty man that came up to us and complimented our ties and was touching them and such.  We were just laughing and slowing trying  to back away haha.  Then he petted my companions cheek!  Every one around us was laughing. Then he left us for a few minutes and then came back and petted my companions cheek again hahaha!  You had to be there... but he was so gone.. We have the Word of Wisdom for reason! 

About to hit up Vaxholm.

A cool spiritual thing that happened this week..  We were on our way home later at night after teaching a lesson, and didnt have the chance to eat dinner yet.  So we were on the train and the girl sitting across from me was talking on the phone about Pizza and then I had the strongest desire to eat pizza!!  She hung up and I asked her where a good pizza place was.  She didn’t really know but I went on to bring up the gospel.  She wasnt really interested, but she gave me the idea of pizza!!  So we went on a hunt for a good place and found one near our apartment.  Went inside and there were two Persian guys working. (I love Persians) So I started to talk to them in the little Persian I know, and then the conversation switched back to Swedish haha and they asked why we are in Sweden. 

We then brought up the gospel and they were very interested, especially one of the guys.  We were teaching the first lesson to them as they were making our pizzas haha. They were so into it.  We sat down and ate our food and then we went back to the counter to give them our plates and we started to teach them again!  We are even meeting one tonight!  It’s cool how the spirit can lead you place…even if it’s just for dinner.  Every opportunity is a teaching opportunity for a missionary! 

Love you all and have a good week! :) 

Äldste Blackburn

Doing some service!

Äldste Weaver, our Zone Leader, on splits here in Jakobsberg eating with one of the coolest families!

My companion has been out on his mission for a year!! So we celebrated by going to mexican food in stockholm for dinner.

Sister Matwaychuks Birthday!!!! :):):)

More Birthday action for Sister Matwaychuk. We wrote a song/rap for her about her home Canada.

Mission life...

HALLLLÅÅ 

Our district!!

Sorry guys this one will be extremely short because I’m getting kicked off the computer after some time, and then we are going to an island to check it out and hike around a castle. Fun stuff! 

But one cool thing that happened this last week was with a man from Iraq that I talked to on the street last night.  It was later at night.. right before we were going home but we still had some time to talk to people..  So I saw this guy and went to talk to him.  As we started talking to each other.. more and more I could tell what this man needed to hear and the words I was saying just came out with out thinking.  I really tried to think about him and his needs.  As we continued to talk he expressed how this has been somthing he has been looking for and that he needs more joy, direction, and love in his life.  He felt there was somthing missing.. But I seemed to know that before he said it.  When he said that.. It made me realize that God really does love everyone of his children and wants to give everyone a chance to hear about  and be close to Him.  This contact turned into a 45 minute lesson.  He’s wanting to meet again and to really learn more.  

On splits with the Office Elders. This would make a really good band picture.

I know we as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ are called by a God to do is work. I see that everyday!

Love you all and have a good week!! 

Äldste Blackburn

The power of Gods love...

We hate each other. :)

Cali Burger for District Lunch. It was actually pretty good! Elder Bailey standing in the middle is from another District. He just had to come a crash the party.

Our new friend that we teach. That sign up top describes him perfectly "Bro"

I know I say every week is a good one but I only say it because its true!  There are good things that happen during the weeks that really can make it great. This last P day, we just walked around in Stockholm in the rain and had some fun doing that.  As the week went on, we had a new guy that we met with.  His name is Natanel and he's from Africa.  He is really cool and wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon.  We set up an appointment and sat down on the grass by a train station and taught him the first lesson.  He is a Christian and wants to get back into things and sees something different with us and wants to learn more.  We when began talking, one point I like to hit on with refugees and people from other countries is how we have a Father in Heaven who loves us so much.  We ask them if they still love there family that live in there home country even though they live far away from each other.  They say yes, and we compare that to how our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ feel about every one of us AND more.  So the lesson went well and we invited him to be baptized on a certain date next month if he reads, prays, meets with us, and then gets an answer.  He said, "why not!" 

Being treated like kings from our African friends making us dinner. Yes those are grapes and cheese on a plate that they gave to us. I tried to get my comp to feed me some but he wouldnt :( ALSO hes wearing lady slippers.

African Spicy Fu Fu! (this weird fluffy potato grain mixture you eat with your hands and meat with a special sauce.. This meet was ox and cow tail) It was spicy!!

We then taught him how to pray and he closed the lesson with a prayer and felt really good after it.  We were then going to leave to go to a party at a (church) members home with a bunch of the new members here in the Jakobsberg ward (congregation).  So we thought... Maybe we could invite him.. So we asked and again he said... "why not!"  We had a great time with him and he became friends with some of the new members, played fun games together, and ate some real American hamburgers.  :)

American Pancake party over at a members house after church! perfect way to break the fast :)

Down in the subway getting ready for our P day morning run!

Stockholm on P day!

One last cool experience I had this last week was with a guy we taught yesterday.  We were in Stockholm two days ago for another ward activity.  After, we stayed in the city and “contacted” (meeting people on  the streets) for a bit.  While splitting up from my companion, I contacted two guys from the Ukraine.  Only one barely spoke English and only enough to to say that he wanted to meet us and wanted to get the Book of Mormon.  He was going to come to church yesterday but there was a problem with the trains so later that night we were trying to meet up and find him.  We called a member here in Jakobsberg who speaks Russian and did a group call with him to find where he was so we could give him the Book of Mormon.  Throughout the day we were texting each other thought google translate, and he was talking about how this is what he has been looking for and that this could be the light at the end of his tunnel.  So we were determined to give him the book.  We found him later in the night, and then called the Russian member and he translated for us for about 5 minutes and taught him more about the Book of Mormon. He is very positive and wants to read it and learn more.  He is going back to his home land on Thursday and it would be awesome if we could refer him to the missionaries there.  We are meeting him today and Wednesday and will teach him with translation.  It's cool that you can even find the gospel on vacation!

Love you all :)

Äldste Blackburn

The city we live in! Its getting darker and darker everyday!