BlackburnBlazingSweden: Travel, snow, and wild reindeer in the forest!

In Stockholm after MLC

Hey everybody!

I’m back emailing now :) Missed last week, as these last few weeks have been crazy busy. It has covered me traveling all the way down to Stockholm for a MLC meeting (leadership council), and then all the way up to Skellteå and Boden to work with the wonderful missionaries up there.

The meeting down in Stockholm was great and we set up some goals for the new year. We came back and worked hard for the week and then drove up to Skelleteå to be a part of the District meeting and work the the Elders there. Elders Wilson and Hainsworth. We Stayed in Skellefteå from Saturday to Sunday.

Skellteå and Luleå District meeting

Once a transfer we go to church in Skellefteå where there are four members that come every Sunday. We go there to speak and help out. I was working with Elder Wilson. He is a stud of a missionary and we had a good time. Talked to a lot of good people on the street and tracting, and also had some cool experiences following the spirit and finding some new positive people for them to teach.

The Elders up in Boden.

We drove up to a city called Boden on Sunday night. It’s near the top of Sweden. We stayed the night on Sunday and Monday, and drove home on Tuesday afternoon. We had a pretty epic p day! We were driving down the road and I saw some heads move in a big white field of snow. It was a group of Reindeer! Wild ones! So we pulled over to take some cool pics but I will send those next week. We had a really good time with the Elders up there as well. I was with Elder Carter. He is a new missionary and I learned a lot from him, He does not seem like a new missionary at all. He knows what he is doing! So we worked very hard and taught some good lessons.

Elder Carter!

After splits.. We had to make the long trek back home in our car, which was a four hour drive back down to Umeå. So that called for a lot of "pump up" Mormon Tabernacle Choir and EFY songs. Gotta stay awake and alert somehow! I also have the company of my awesome French companion. We have fun together on these long trips.

Cruising through the woods

Nice pretty frozen lake behind us

What was so cool about this week though is that two investigators we are teaching are getting baptized this Saturday! A husband and wife from Iran. We have been teaching them for a month now and they know the gospel is true. The cool thing with them is that you take it back to a few months when I was companions with Elder Jensen here in Umeå. We were walking to a dinner appointment, hurrying so we wouldn't be late but I felt we should stop and talk to a certain family that was walking by and Elder Jensen did as well. We stopped them and showed them the Christmas video the church put out this year and then we gave them a Book of Mormon in Persian.

We got the Dads number to keep in touch to set up a lesson. He talked to us on the phone and said he wasn’t interested but he had two friends that might be. That’s when this couple who is being baptized this weekend called us. They called and said they got our number from their friends (the family we stopped on the street) and want to meet. We have been meeting with them from then on.

The spirit is real! Something I have learned is to act on a spiritual promptings immediately. Don’t hesitate, because blessings come. You might not see it in the small picture... But there is a plan and organization to everything in this plan that we are living in. Including finding people who are prepared for the gospel. Everyone of us can play a part.

Love you all, and have a good week!

Äldste Blackburn