BlackburnBlazingSweden: Incredible week! :)

Hi everyone!

Elder Bentson, my "son" in the middle
is the Elder I trained. He is up in the
good old North in Skellefteå right now!

It’s crazy to think I have been writing these letters for almost two years now and some of you have been reading every week. Thank for your love and support. Every day is full of not only new adventures but also the missionary grind... Meaning going out and talking to everyone you see on the street and working all day while not letting off the throttle. In this.. there is a goal to teach people about what has helped me the most in my life. A lot of these things can’t be explained through an email.. but it is something that one actually needs to go out and experience. Just want to shout out to all my past companions and missionaries I have had a chance to work with. They are those who have helped teach me many things and skills involved in this work. Couldn't do it without them and most importantly.. the Lord.

My last French companion,
Elder Baquedano. Love that man.

This week was a special one because we were privileged to have a "Mission Tour" taught by President Kearon who is the area authority over the church in Europe. It was one of the coolest trainings I have been a part of. He is so inspired and real! He's a convert (not born into a family who are members of the church) and is from England. He talked a lot about the importance of being "real" with people in general but also as a full time missionary. He "threw down" on our personal testimony of Christ and the reason why we are on our missions. He talked about "Stop worrying, and just work." Sometimes we get caught up in little things about the work or get stressed.. We need to focus on the basics as well as our testimony and just work. No point in getting stressed or worked up about things nor would our Heavenly Father want us to. There were a lot of good things that he talked about and I took a lot of notes haha.

Elders Adcox and Lee, real studs.

Elder Carter! Good to see him again.
He is still killin it all the way up in Boden.

I also had the opportunity to have a one-on-one interview with him! I asked him some good questions and it was a cool experience. We also sang a cool arrangement of "How Great Thou Art" that my companion, Elder Barnes arranged before the mission. It was a great week!

We taught a new investigator. She is from the Philippines, and is about 30 years old. She was actually taught by the missionaries about six months ago and was even was working towards baptism but she dropped off for some personal reasons and recently decided to come to church. We taught her this last week and she said how she has been hearing a voice telling her to come back to this church. So she did and while there, she felt the holy ghost so strong and began to cry. She was even crying when we were teaching and testifying to her. She seriously asked us this question… "Why is it that I feel this warm feeling so strong here, and not in other churches?" So we went on teaching her and needless to say she is one of the most prepared people EVER. So she accepted a date for baptism to work toward.

To the left on the bottom of the field is a big
formation of rocks, which is viking boat grave.

A lot of good stuff happened this week and we are continuing to go hard. Stake conference was great.. and the song we sang went well. Today, we are having a great p day! Just got back from some Viking ruins and burial grounds. Hope everything is going well with everyone!

Ha en bra vecka!

(have a nice week)

Med kärlek

(with love)

Äldste Blackburn