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. 

Boden Week 21 - January 29, 2018

Hello!

This is gonna be short! But it was a great week, really! We had splits in Umeå with the zone leaders! I was with the amazing Elder Bringhurst. He is a great friend and a really great role model, I learned a lot from him! 

A few quick stories from the week...

One day, we came home and had about 15 minutes until 9 when we go inside. We started walking down the road and talked with Lina! She was born in Sri Lanka but moved to Sweden as an infant. After asking if we could fill the remaining 2 male roles in her feminine dance club (we gracefully declined), we told her why we are here in Boden and we switched numbers with her! 

We had an old investigator we wanted to go by, but he didn't answer. We knocked his neighbor's doors to find out if he still lived there, and a super sweet lady answered and was so helpful! She called him for us, told us his life history and how he really needed us to visit him, and told us how necessary missionaries were to Sweden! She seemed to really enjoy talking to us and we were so grateful for her help! Another friend in Boden.

Boden Week 20 - January 22, 2018

Hello!

I have been a missionary for 6 months! Crazy!

We were able to teach a lady on Tuesday named Annalee that Äldste Harris and I met on the street a few months back! She was happy to see us again, and the lesson went well. Annalee was previously neighbors with the current president of the Stockholm Sweden Temple, and she remembered that he always said no to coffee and tea! I am so grateful for his good example 20 years ago that left an impression on Annalee! You never know who is watching and remembering!

Boden Week 19 - January 15, 2018 "A Blizzard of Blessings"

Good afternoon!

Another great week in Boden, it actually warmed up a little! We are supposed to have snow every day this week so that will be exciting!

On the bus home from Luleå on Monday, I sat next to the same guy I sat next to a few weeks ago! His name is Cosmos, he's from Nigeria, and this time I gave him a Book of Mormon! (Didn't have one in English last time). He asked me how 'the ministry' was going and we had a great conversation again!

Äldste Erdman is great. We have a lot of the same interests and he has taught me some great things about missionary work! 

We were in the library on Saturday teaching a guy named Saul. During the lesson, we gave him a Book of Mormon in what we thought was his native language (Amharic) but it turns out he can only read Tegrinic. So anyways we had an Amharic Book of Mormon with us, and right after the lesson with Saul this kid named Michael started talking to us! His English was perfect but we found out that he was from Ethiopia, where they speak Amharic, so we were able to give the Book of Mormon to him! Michael seemed really happy to see us, he said he had cousins in the US who had told him about Mormon missionaries! It was cool to be in the right place at the right time and know it!

I was able to give a talk in church this week! It was on charity. I think that talk was fine but the best part was that I learned so much about charity myself in preparation for it! 

Have a great week!

Äldste Francis

To my family...

WHAT A WEEK!

A car, passed exams, President Monson's funeral, and Jazz tickets! Wow!!

About the car... CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT LOOKS SO NICE! I AM SO HAPPY FOR ALL OF YOU! HOW DID YOU FIND THAT? Mama, that car is perfect. It reminds me of us finding the red van! Heavenly Father knew we needed a car, and we found the perfect one after being patient! Both times! I wish I could ride in it or drive it! Have so much fun with the Bluetooth and sunroof and heated seats and hitch and everything else!!!! I am so happy about that!

I am so grateful that Uncle Joe passed, I have been praying for him and I actually asked Äldste Harris to pray with me one time when I thought of him as we were walking to a bus stop. 

Elder Erdman is great, we have become good friends this week. To shovel the snow in Boden, they use construction equipment. They are super efficient, so the roads are never super bad. Sweden takes some of the jobs that either go undone in the US or are done by volunteers in the US and turns them into jobs for people, so there are big teams of people working on the snow after every storm.

Thank you for the email! I am so glad to hear that all is well! The Francis family has received a blizzard of blessings!

Love,

Sam