Jakobsberg Week 28 - August 27, 2018

Hello!

We had zone conference on Tuesday! It was a great training, so many great things were talked about and discussed and I felt like each one was directed to me! One of the focuses this transfer will be the Restoration, and President Youngberg had part of the zone conference be about the Prophet Joseph Smith and his role in the restoration of Jesus Christ's original church. I feel like my testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet has really been strengthened the past few months!! One thing I have been doing that has strengthened that testimony is reading from the new book being published by the Church called Saints. There has been a new chapter from the book in the Liahona each month, and I have loved reading the story of the restoration in the way presented by the new book. It is incredible! I encourage you all to go through it, you can learn more and read it on this link. 

Elder Gordon came to Jakobsberg for splits! It was great to be together again. One cool thing that happened was that on the last house we knocked at the end of the day on Tuesday, we had a super good conversation with a man and his daughter and they said that we could come back sometime! We also got to eat dinner at Ikea with Antonio and Alejandra, it felt just like the good ole days! 

Jakobsberg Week 27 - August 20, 2018

Hej!

This was an awesome week! Elder Barney and I were able to teach quite a few people and set up some return appointments! Pretty fun. We also lead the discussion in Elders Quorum. The topic was the talk from the April 2018 General Conference titled, "Am I a Child of God?" Studying that talk in preparation for the discussion laid the foundation for a really solid week, I felt empowered remembering the divine identity that we share as children of Heavenly Father. We also had interviews with President Youngberg, that is always uplifting! Sorry for this short summary!

I hope that you are all doing well!

This is a picture from the video on lds.org about Sister Reyna Aburto, part 3. Look at the shirts of the dad and son! 

Love,

Äldste Francis

 

Sweden is beautiful!! One of the best parts of the day is the morning run, there are some majestic places around where we live in Stäket.

Jakobsberg Week 26 - August 13, 2018

Another awesome week! Here are a few quick highlights...

I went on splits with the new assistant, Äldste Derr! We went to high school together (Go Darts!!) and it was such an awesome experience to be companions for a day. Elder Derr has a ton of energy and a tangible excitement for missionary work! I learned a lot from him. A few people we talked to recognized us as the Mormons and asked if we were from Salt Lake. Elder Derr and I just turned to each other, smiled, and said "yep!" We are the stereotype. Go Kaysville! Go Darts! Go Mormons!

Guess what happened? Last Sunday, the missionaries in an area called Skövde called and told us about two people they are teaching who actually live in Jakobsberg's ward. The two men, Mark from Hungary and Tommy from northern Sweden, will be getting baptized sometime in September.  Elder Barney and I will get to help teach them through Skype!  These guys came to our ward yesterday and they are awesome. They have been taught by the missionaries in Skövde for about two weeks, and before that they had already learned a ton about the Church and even started listening to Mormon Channel Radio and watching KSL. Miracles happening here!

Jakobsberg Week 25 - August 6, 2018

The first week of a new transfer! To be honest, I think that my love for Jakobsberg just about doubled this week! At first, I was a little unsure of how to feel about staying for a fifth transfer. Plus, it was hard to say hej då to Elder Gordon, we have been working super well together. But it turns out that Elder Barney and I work splendidly together as well, we have had some pretty amazing experiences the past few days!!

First, there is a lady named Nathalie that Elder Gordon and I met on a bus a few weeks ago. We set up a tour of the chapel with her, and Elder Barney and I gave the tour on Thursday. We tried to make it interesting, one of the things we did was play a hymn on the piano for her and and her two kids. At District Council right before the tour we had talked a lot about being bold, and Elder Barney and I had decided to ask Nathalie to be baptized during the tour as an act of boldness! We asked her, and while she didn't say 'yes' we were able to get a better grasp on the things we can teach her to help her progress. We met with her again on Saturday and have another lesson for tomorrow. Miracles happening here!