Haninge Week 4 - October 8, 2018

Hello!

The first big event of this week was zone conference! We traveled down to the Gubbängen chapel and were able to learn about some great new ways for us to improve as missionaries. One of my favorite parts was when Sister Youngberg had a turn to teach us. She told us about a District Conference that she and President were able to attend up in Umeå. Elder Massimo de Feo of the Seventy was at the conference and had three messages: 1) Remember the first great commandment before exercising the second, 2) Bless people, every one, every moment, in every way, 3) In order to minister in a holier way, be holier ministers. Sister Youngberg did a great job of connecting Elder de Feo's messages to missionary work. Zone conference is the best. At the end of each conference, the missionaries headed home at the end of the transfer all bear their testimonies. It is powerful to see, it's also strange that elders and sisters that I feel close to are on their way to the next chapter of life!

We planted flowers at the Sweden Stockholm Temple on Wednesday! I was there six months ago planting flowers, it was fun to have the opportunity again! The flowers we planted this time were supposed to be more cold-weather hardy. We planted a lot of a flower called Ljung, it was a nice purple color. Planting flowers on the temple grounds was an amazing experience, it was so fun to see other missionaries whom I love and to be so close to the House of the Lord.

After planting flowers, Elder Hansen and I headed back to our chapel in Handen to teach Linnea, Lennart, and Irene! We taught them the restoration with Brother Ahl. They each received a copy of the Book of Mormon and seem excited to meet again! 

Splits in Södertälje! I was with Elder Buchanan, one of the zone leaders, on Thursday. When I got to Sweden a year ago, I replaced Elder Buchanan in Boden. Now, he has one transfer left and I had the privilege of being on exchanges with him! We had a really fun time talking and serving. One fun part of splits is seeing other missionary apartments. The apartment in Södertälje is super nice but also super small! The kitchen, study room, bedroom, and all of the other rooms are combined into one room. Elder Hansen and I are lucky to live where we do!

General conference was amazing... It was especially fun to watch it with some of our friends who are learning about the church, some recent converts, and some members. One of the recent converts we watched a session with is Mary who was baptized in Handen a few months ago. We watched the session at the chapel in Västerhaninge which is right next door to the temple, so before the session began we were able to walk around the temple grounds with Mary. It was great to be there, and one of the funny comments Mary made was, "can I please live here at the temple??" She had a special feeling there, and the hope is that we will be doing baptisms for the dead with her this week.

I really hope that you have all enjoyed the wonderful conference! Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Francis

One of these pictures is of Elder Harris on a stationary bike. The other man in the picture is someone that we met in Boden exactly a year ago, I had this crazy experience of seeing him here in Handen this week!! We told him the address of the church here, hopefully he comes!