Jakobsberg Week 23 - July 23, 2018

Hello Again! 

It hasn't rained here basically the whole summer. I guess the skies were saving up, though, because on Saturday it poured on us on the way home! We began biking right as the storm started and we were soaked all the way through to the end. It was awesome!

On Friday, we headed to one of the cities in our area called Barkarby. We went by the home of a member in the ward but they must have been gone, and we had about 30 minutes until our bus came. We decided to start walking and contacting people for 15 minutes and then to turn around and contact 15 minutes back to the bus. A car had stalled in the middle of the road, so we were able to help push it to the side of the road. After that, Elder Gordon and I felt like we had done what we needed to do in Barkarby. 

We continued walking and I felt like we should be on the other side of the road where there was a pond. We crossed the road and continued walking. We began talking with the only person in sight, and after walking and talking for a few minutes he invited us in to his house. We told him and his brother a little about the Book of Mormon and about the church. We were getting up to leave but their mom had just finished making lunch, so we ate some really cool Arabic food with them. The man ended up giving us a ride home and we met him the next day in the church! Also, the sisters called and said that one of the people they teach who is getting baptized soon saw us pushing the stalled car, they said that she was thrilled to see us doing that because "that's what this church is all about!" Elder Gordon and I feel pretty good about that trip to Barkarby, I am glad that we followed the Spirit.

One of the pictures is of a man we talked to, he recently turned 100 years old! We didn't believe him until he showed us his ID card.

While tracting on Saturday, a few people offered us water, berries from their yard, and even ice cream. It was quite fun! Below is a picture of one of the berries we ate, I believe it is a gooseberry. We had a really good conversation with the owner of the gooseberry bush. Apparently she has a friend that lives across the street from the temple in Stockholm.  

We played basketball in Gubbängen today for p-day! I've never been a huge fan of basketball, probably because I didn't really grow up playing it, but I made the first shot of the game! It ended up being super fun, we also played a game called chair soccer. We had a great time seeing other Stockholm missionaries there, President Youngberg was one of them! Elder Butler was also there, it definitely does not feel like a year ago that we were shooting hoops at the MTC gym together...

 Näckrosen is the stop Elder Petersen and I used to always get on at! That seems like a long time ago! (We have since moved apartments and are almost never at that station)

Remember how I almost gave a talk in church last week? I actually got to give it this week. I talked mostly about receiving personal revelation. I referred to President Russell M. Nelson's most recent General Conference talk where he talked about how necessary it is and will be in coming days for us to recieve personal revelation in our lives. The two main points I shared were that we need to be able to pray with real intent and that we need to be willing to act on the inspiration we receive. Those are two things that I have been trying to do, and I have seen an increase in my spirituality and strength to my testimony as I've done them! 

Have a great week!

Äldste Francis