Jakobsberg Week 17 - June 11, 2018

Hello! 

This week went by quickly as usual and lots of great things happened as usual!

Elder Gordon and I got to help clean the temple on Friday! We were there for about 3 hours. It was wonderful to be in the Lord's House again. They are doing some pretty big renovations inside and out, the Temple is well cared for! 

The ward had a "Grillfest" on Saturday. It was super fun! None of the missionaries knew that you were supposed to bring your own meat, but it didn't end up being a problem since 3 families brought extra "for the missionaries." The fest was on the lawn outside of the church and it felt like home! Two of our investigators, Simeon and Sajad, were able to come. 

Tracting lately has been really fun! We have been working closer to where we live and focusing on having better conversations with people. In the area we are currently working, there have been about 10 people that have been willing to have us come back and talk more with them. That is pretty unusual for both Elder Gordon and I! One cool conversation that we had was with a teenage boy who moved here with his family from China a few years ago. Somehow, we ended up showing him the "Mormon Beliefs" video about life after death. (You can see the video here.) At the end of the video, he was super excited and said, "it's 100% positive!" That was the most true thing I heard all week! The Plan of Salvation is 100% positive, and it was cool to see that even someone who is not a member of the Church recognized the happiness in God's great plan. 

Have a happy week!

Äldste Francis

Jakobsberg Week 16 - June 4, 2018

Hejsan! 

It was pretty hot again this week, unheard of for Sweden in May! There was a huge downpour tracting last night, it was a good relief from the sun. This week has been full of great experiences, being a missionary is the best!

Zone conference was this week. It was cool to see Elder Petersen again, it was strange having him there and not being his companion! It sounds like he is doing great up in Borlänge. Zone conference  is always a boost, my favorite part was when we discused the talk that Elder Renlund gave to Sweden a few weeks ago about doubt and faith.

Jakobsberg Week 15 - May 28, 2018

Hejsan!

Happy Swedish Mother's Day and Memorial Day!

I loved reading the email about the exciting week you had in Texas! I receive strength when I read about the amazing things that we are blessed with because of Papa's goodness. It sounds like the relative race is going well! I am excited to see all of the pictures and to here what everyone did. 

I am doing well here! Elder Gordon and I are very motivated to reach our transfer goals. We have goals for how many lessons we want to reach, potential investigators we want to receive, new investigators we want to get, how many people we want in sacrament meeting, and how many baptismal dates we want. I have set these types of goals for my whole mission, but this transfer Elder Gordon has shown me how to remember the goals we have throughout the 6 weeks. It has been really cool to see us making progress the last few weeks, we have been meeting weekly goals so far and it is empowering. I am really grateful for Elder Gordon, he is an answer to prayer. We both feel like exciting things are happening in Jakobsberg and in the Church in general. We are truly a part of the 'hastening' that the prophets have prophesied of for generations. I loved reading the email from you this week, our whole family is a part of the hastening! 

'The Lord is extending the Saints’ understanding, Restoring their judges and all as at first. The knowledge and power of God are expanding; The veil o’er the earth is beginning to burst.

Jakobsberg Week 14 - May 21, 2018

It's hot here! For May/mig, at least! The trees in front of the church were covered in blossoms for a few days and lots of people were taking pictures of them. I got one, too! It has been a fantastic week.

A few fun events...

We did service at a member's house, his name is Andre! We helped him load a trailer and got to hear about some of the cool songs he has written. 

On Wednesday, I went on splits with Elder Marineau again! It was fun to talk about Davis things. While we were tracting, we met two brothers that invited us back to tell them about the Restoration! Elder Gordon and I taught them the next day and they were really excited to read the Book of Mormon.

Jakobsberg Week 13 - May 14, 2018

Hello!

Transfers this week! I am now companions with Elder Gordon. He is from Seattle, Washington and has been here one transfer longer than me. We have had a blast the past few days! On the first day we were together, we went over to one of our neighbor's houses and mowed their lawn. We have become really good friends with them, the husband is from Greece and his wife is from Finland. It was fun to mow a lawn again!

Jakobsberg Week 12 - May 7, 2018

Tjena!

This week was good! I know I say that every week, and every week it is true! I also don't know how else to begin.

Elder Petersen and I have been doing lots of finding work this week! On Saturday, we went to Bromma to try to contact a referral that we received. They were not home, but we got to knock the doors of some really nice houses! They were right on the edge of the shoreline and you could see evergreens all around. Sweden is beautiful! 

I was on splits with Elder Berlin (one of the assistants) on Wednesday. It was awesome! We stopped by the house of a person they had tracted into a few days ago. We had a great conversation about family history work. Elder Berlin was able to find the man's ancestors already on the FamilySearch app. What an amazing tool! Now that we have phones, I have been doing some family history work myself during free time! I have loved learning more about my ancestors. I encourage you all to read Elder Renlund's most recent General Conference talk. There are some amazing promises made to us if we do the important work of finding our ancestors.

Jakobsberg Week 11 ~ May 1, 2018

Hello!

This week was so good.

On Thursday evening, we traveled to Gubbängen to pick up our phones, then on Friday morning was zone conference. The first half was all about learning how to use an app on the phones that now serves as both our planner and Area Book! It was crazy. We will be spending time over the next few months transferring paper teaching records onto the phone. Also, we use Facebook now! It is a tool for reaching out to those we teach.