Jakobsberg Week 5 - March 19, 2018

Hello!

A great week!  

On the bus home from district meeting, a whole class of school kids got on and they were speaking American English! You have no idea how funny it sounds to hear little kids speaking perfect English until you haven't heard it for a while! Anyways, I asked the little girl who sat next to me where they were all from. She said that they were with the international school in Stockholm on their way to go swimming, and she said she was from Colorado! I said that I was from Utah, and she said, "Wow! That's where my grandparents and cousins live!" I somehow knew right away that she was LDS, and I showed her my nametag She got so excited and said, "I go to that church, too!" She goes to a different ward in Stockholm. 

I was on splits AGAIN in the office! There are 3 missionaries there right now, and since Elder Petersen is the district leader he has been taking each one on splits in our area which means that I go to the office! It was fun to be there again and to be part of a tri-pan. Tracting was fun, too, I don't think that most people realized that there was a third person standing behind the door. 

We are moving next week on Tuesday! The contract on our current apartment will run out in a few days. The new apartment will be in Kallhäll, closer to our church. I havn't seen it yet but Elder Petersen and I are both so excited! 

Jakobsberg Week 4 - March 12, 2018

Hello!

This week was rather busy! It started off with a great zone conference in Gubbängen! We learned that our mission will be becoming a "technology mission" which means that each missionary will have their own Samsung phone and we will be able to use apps like Facebook, AreaBook, and others to help with missionary work! Each companionship in the mission shares an iPhone right now, so those will be replaced by the Samsungs. The first half of zone conference was watching training videos on how to use the phones for missionary work. It was by President Bednar and everything he said was absolutly amazing! The work of the Lord is continuing to progress and we will be able to reach so many more people now! Our mission is excited for the change! The new phones will come next zone conference. 

After zone conference, I started splits with one of the zone leaders, Äldste Martineau! He is from Kaysville, too, and loves Davis High. We had a great time talking about teachers, classes, and people that we remembered. We also met a great man from Croatia on the tunnelbana. We talked to him for a long time about families and even passed up our stop so that we could keep talking to im. Hopefully we can meet him again soon!

Thursday was weekly planning! We also met with a man who called us and asked if he could learn more about our church. It was cool to teach him, he already knew a ton from what he had read on the Church's website. He also had some interesting questions that stemmed from his research on non-Church web pages. 

Splits happened again on Saturday! I went to the office to be with Äldste Liljenquist and Äldste Jarmin. The third companon in their trio, Äldste Harper, came to Jakobsberg. It was fun to be in the office and to get some of the "inside knowledge" on the new phones. 

We handed out copies of Mormons Bok at The Book of Mormon Musical again! It was fun for people to realize that we were real missionaries. Elder Petersen and I talked to two ladies that came to Stockholm specifically to see the musical again, they had seen it together in England. One was from France and the other from west Sweden. They were happy to receive the real book and to talk to us about being missionaries! 

Elder Petersen and I got to teach Gospel Principles yesterday at church!. We taught the first lesson, "Our Heavenly Father." It was so great to prepare for the lesson and to ponder on the amazing knowledge that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us, who we can trust, who reveals his will to prophets and to us personally, who is perfect, who does answer prayers, and who wants us to come back to Him someday! I am grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ who makes that possible!

Ha det så jättebra!

Äldste Francis

These library computers are strange... I can't figure out how to send pictures as an attachment but you can open this and see them with Word! Hopefully.

Jakobsberg Week 3 - March 5, 2018

Hello again! Happy March!

Stockholm has been snowy this week! It felt more like Boden on Wednesday, the wind makes things a lot colder! The sun is out more and more, it's up by the time we wake up!

Stockholm is really fun. I have seen president about the same amount, he is in a different ward. I have not met Jakub's dad yet, but Jakub came to Jakobsberg ward yesterday! I completely forgot to take a picture but it was so fun to sit by him in sacrament meeting and know that he was a member!

Jakobsberg Week 2 - February 25, 2018

Hello! Stockholm is still awesome.

We had the best ward council meeting ever on Tuesday! The Bishop is really motivated to have members help less active members come to church again. He had a whole PowerPoint presentation made and it was really prefessional!

I wish you could all meet the people in this ward! I love them all so much already. The elders quorum president is named Samuel, he is from Nigeria. I have had a few fun conversations with him. He is trying to learn Swedish still so we translate for him during the Church meetings. 

Splits! I was with Elder Harper, one of the office elders! It was so cool. We ordered hotels and a rental car for President, filled orders, and did other office work. It was fun to see a new side of missionary work and to see some of the behind the scenes stuff!

Jakobsberg week 1 - February 19, 2018

Stockholm is awesome!

So is Elder Petersen! 

But it was hard to leave Boden... I love that place! Here are a few thoughts from my last day there:

Boden Week 23 - February 12, 2018

What a week!

Jakub's baptism! It went so smoothly! Äldste Erdman and I got to sing "Narmare, Gud, till dig" (Nearer, My God, to Thee) and Jakub was baptized by Brother Palm. About 25 people came and there was a 'fika' afterwards. What a cool experience! Jakub was confirmed a member of the church yesterday.

Boden Week 22 - February 5, 2018

Hello!

There are a few rather large paragraphs this week... Varsågod!

Mission conference! we had the great opportunity to fly to Stockholm and learn from Elder Johnson of the Seventy. He is in the area presidency for Europe. It was so great to hear from him and his wife. You could tell that they were really great people. They had the best stories and missionary advice.

Jakub! Our investigator Jakub will be baptized this Saturday the 10th! Emmanuel Palm, a great member in the branch, is going to baptize him. Here's the quick backstory on Jakub: In September, Äldste Harris and I were street contacting in the dark near our apartment by a store called Coop. We were just stopping everyone the Lord put in our path (something Elder Harris does very well even when Elder Francis is not feeling it) and we began to talk to a 19 year old guy with white skinny jeans from Stockholm. We talked about faith and in the end switched numbers with him. We tried for a month to get a meeting set up and finally did. Elder Harris and Elder Callor met with him on splits one evening. It almost didn't work out because Jakub could only meet after like 7 (when everything in Sweden is already closed). But, thanks to Elder Harris' persistence, they met at a little restaurant in stan.