BlackburnBlazingSweden: Fall is here but not for long!!

Okizay,

Last P Day hike and fire!

We got to be a part of the Skellefteå district meeting! These are some good missionaries.

This last week was just a blast as well. I will start off by saying how this last p day we went and decided to find a trail and just hike and build a fire! It was way fun but the only problem was that we didn’t really have any dry wood or tinder to get the fire going. So after several failed attempts and many pages ripped out of the back of our planners, we got the fire started! It was a nice p day!

Elder Jämsä and I from splits last week chasing the Northern lights playing our guitars during dinner.

Our very own President and Sister Beckstrand! They love their Max Burger

Other than that it is getting colder and darker everyday. We got the first snow last week, but it quickly melted. We should be getting more snow this week and next. The sun is now setting around 4 o'clock as well. Time to break out the winter jackets! We had to go hard at the beginning of the week because we would be traveling for the weekend going farther north to stay with the Skellefteå Elders for the weekend. It took about an hour and a half to get up there, and we made it in time for their district meeting. Our mission president, President and Sister Beckstrand were there to be a part of the meeting as well. They then took us all out to lunch which was nice!

After lunch, we drove out in the country to do some service for a less active member. We dug around some rocks finding electric lines for her and then we left her with a good message. She told us she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it again.

Later that night we split up and trackted/swung by some people and taught some good lessons. We then spent the night at the Elders apartment and were there for church the next day. There were a total of 4 active members there. It was an experience! They don’t have a pianist so my companion, Elder Jensen, volunteered to play the piano. He rocked it and then we had a musical number together. I sang a song called "Helig är Jorden", but It is only in the Swedish hymn book. So that was fun!

Its fall! (not for long)

Skellefteå Branch! Elder Jensen and I were there to visit this last Sunday. They have a total of 4 member...

Back in Umeå, we had some really cool spiritual stuff that happened earlier in the week. We were on our way to the city to contact right before another appointment and Elder Jensen was in the passenger seat. He looked at me and and said, "I feel we should tract that green apartment building" as we were passing by. I strangely felt like I wanted to as well, so we drove over there to find parking. Nothing super close… (**remember, it’s COLD) But we parked and tracted one half of the building with no success. There were only like 5 people that opened the door then just shut it right after.

As we got to the other half... We said a prayer in our hearts that there had to be a reason why we came here, and there could be someone that would open the door who wanted to talk to us. The second door we knocked on, this man answered the door with a very interested look on his face and we continued to talk with him telling him about the power of our message and how it brings one closer to Christ. He then brought up how he wants to meet again and we gave him a Book of Mormon and taught him what it was about. We switched phone numbers and set up an appointment a few days later.

Worlds largest cheese slicers!!

When we went back, he had totally cleaned up his house and himself and let us in. He is very interested and said he has been wanting to learn about mormons and that he has only heard good things. He explained how he is religious but something is missing and that he had been thinking about it recently when we knocked on his door. We continued to talk and teach him about the restoration and it just made sense to him. We told him about the experience of us feeling we needed to come and talk to someone in this apartment, and his face lit up. We will be working with him more and more.