It's already almost March!

Not gonna lie, this month has felt like it has flown by! It's nearly March, which means that Spring is around the corner. Haha, it doesn't feel like it when I'm outside, but I believe that it is coming! It still feels like winter is in full swing. It snowed a good amount more, and it has been getting pretty cold everyday. However, it is staying lighter for longer now, and that does feel really nice! But yeah, this week has been really good and we saw some really cool miracles!

Earlier this last week, Tuesday I think, we had been tracting for a while. I was trying to keep a good attitude, but it has been a really long day with not much progressing. And we now had been tracting for a long time, it was cold, it was dark, and we hadn't had any success. We then knocked on the last door that we were going to do before we could go back to the apartment and call some people and have dinner. So we knocked on the door and a woman answered who wasn't very interested. But we kept on talking to her about a random topic, I think some kind of service she had done. And eventually she invited us in to have some water, and we kept talking. She then asked us a bit more about our church and what we do, and she was genuinely interested. We then taught the restoration to her, she was engaged, and everything went well. It was a super cool experience that was especially sweet because the positive teaching experience came after we had been working on it all day. It was the typical "last door" story, but it was true in this case! It was an awesome miracle for us!

I expanded my horizons this week. So we miscalculated how much bread we had left when we shopped last week. So we ran out part way through the week! Haha, so I took the responsibility to bake us some! So I made a loaf of bread, and let's just say it didn't turn out perfectly... but it wasn't bad! I guess you can call me chef Nelson now!

We have also been teaching a few other people, but someone that is really positive is a French foreign exchange student and the older Swedish woman she lives with. We have met with them often and it has been going really well! Last lesson the Swedish woman had her son and his family over as well, and that was really cool. The son and his family don't live in our area, but we are trying to get them in contact with the missionaries in their area. It has been a pretty good week teaching!

I think that's all the things of note for the week. Life keeps going on in Borlänge! Have a good week everyone. Keep being the good examples and the lights that you all are! It really does make a difference!


Äldste Nelson


Pic 1: A member bought us breakfast at Ikea, and it was super good!
Pic 2: Elder Waters and I!
Pic 3: It's pretty snowy still
Pic 4: My Bread!

Welcome to the Bro-Länge

Another week has now come and gone, but this time I'm writing you from Borlänge instead of Stockholm! Which may not sound like a big change to you, but it is definitely not the same type of city! So Borlänge is a smallish city of 52,000 people, and it took a little bit of adjustment when coming from Stockholm, a city of well over 1,000,000. But, things have been going well! Apart from the change of size, I also got a pretty bad cold when I came here, so I'm hoping that isn't some sort of warning for me! All jokes aside, I think I am really going to like it here once I get used to it. The ward is super kind and nice, it is a beautiful area (there are actually ski resorts all around, it's lame we can't go!), and the work is progressing well. It'll be interesting to see how it all goes!

This week I tried to learn as much as I could about the area, and it was cool because I learned how it it is. It is huge! I'll put a picture of a map on this email so you can see, but it definitely isn't small in geographical size!

So the work is going pretty well out here! We have an investigator who was referred by a member who we teach pretty regularly, and then several other investigators besides her. We taught an interesting lesson yesterday too. It was a lesson to an older Swedish woman and a French foreign exchange student that lives with her, and then it was all in English because it was the only language they both spoke. It felt like a pretty odd scenario to me, but it was actually a great lesson. Even though there was a little bit of a langauge barrier, we were still able to teach them about Christ and the Book of Mormon, and it was so cool to see the understanding when they grasped what the Book of Mormon actually is. It was a good experience!

Ok, I've got a quick but only kinda funny story. So on Thursday we had to go to Gävle (like 1.5 hours away) for a meeting, and we had to catch the train 8:08 in the morning. And I was feeling pretty sick that morning and so was a little behind schedule and took a little bit of a long shower. So when I was ready to leave I looked at the clock and saw it was 7:50-7:55. And the walk to the station normally takes about 20-25 minutes. So by the time we actually got out the door, it was around 7:55 and we only had 13 minutes, so we ran. And keep in mind that I was feeling pretty sick, and also that is is pretty snowy and cold. So we run the whole way there, and my throats isn't feeling so good. So we sprint the last 100 meters to get to the train, and it is 8:06. We get there just in time to see that the train time was delayed. By almost an hour! So we ran the whole way and it made my sickness feel pretty bad when we didn't even have to! But yeah, that's my story!

We'll, I think that's all I've got this week. I hope you all have a good week!


Elder Nelson


Pic 1: My new companion, Elder Waters, and I
Pic 2: It's a beautiful area (and super snowy)
Pic 3: Here is a map of our area, out of the whole country of Sweden

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My time has come, they're kicking me out of Stockholm! It is going to be so crazy to leave my birthplace (mission wise- not in actuality). But yeah, it'll definitely be an interesting change. So yeah, I am going to be transferred on Wednesday to a city called Borlänge. It is a much smaller town than Stockholm about 2 1/2 hours North and West from here. I don't know a ton about it, but it sounds like fun (and also colder and darker right now, but that's no problem for me!)

But I'm not focusing about that right now because until Wednesday I'm still in Stockholm! So yes, the work is going well. We've just been working with the people who we had before, and done some finding work too. For example, we were outside Tuesday evening for a few hours, the bad thing is that it was so cold then! Haha, by the end I definitely couldn't feel a lot of my face! But it was good, and we have been doing some good things!

We also went on splits with the district leader this week and it was pretty awesome! We saw a bunch of little miracles like some super prepared people we met and a cool service opportunity. We got to do the ol' classic service of helping an older woman carry her groceries, and that was fun! The best part was that she then said she would come to church and sounded really positive and interested. It was good!

So I'm going to tell a quick funny story. Ok, so my companion and I had to go to the doctor for a quick appointment on Thursday. The doctor spoke English with us, but she wasn't perfect by any means, but we could communicate just fine. Also, keep in mind that the Swedish word for recipe and prescription are the same word. Anyways, she tells us at the end of the appointment that if we want, we can go down to the pharmacy and pick up our "recipe". Then she proceeded to explain about the recipe and how often the medicine from the recipe should be taken. Only by the 3rd or 4th time she called it a recipe did I understand that she was referring to a prescription, and I thought it was really funny. There's my story!

Anyways, I'm excited for transfers to see how it all goes. Oh, and my companion here is Stockholm is being made district leader, so that is really cool too! Have a good week everyone!


Äldste Nelson


Pic 1-2: We were on a cool bridge near the palace
Pic 3: I found a train named Nelson!!
Pic 4: My comp and I :)

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Hello February!

Good morning, I hope that the last week has been great for everybody! It's been good out here, so I think that I will just jump into the week!

We have mission tour this week! Mission tour is basically like a normal zone conference where missionaries have a big training meeting, but this time there were 3 zones meeting all at once. And a general authority comes and visits the mission! So we had about 3/5 of all the missionaries in Sweden come to Stockholm, and President Johnson (the President of the Europe area presidency) came too. It was really cool! In fact, our apartment was chosen to be checked by President Johnson, so that was actually pretty freaky. But man, this apartment was looking so fresh and clean by the time he got here! But overall this mission tour was really fun and I learned a lot!

There is a little bit of a funny story to accompany mission tour. So we had all the elders from Norrland (basically the whole upper half of Sweden) come down for the conference. And as they were about to return on their train, they heard all the trains were being cancelled! It turns out that a huge snow storm was dropping around 70 cm of snow up there! So what ended up happening is that some of the missionaries had to stay in our apartment with us. And keep in mind that our apartment is pretty small! We have one room that is a combined bedroom, study room, living/dining room, and kitchen. Then a separate bathroom. It is not big! But we had 6 elders sleep here one night! Basically someone slept on 2 chairs pushed together, 2 people slept on mattresses on the ground, 2 slept on the bunk bed, and then the last person just slept on the ground. It was certainly cozy! But they are now back to Sundsvall (that's the city they were from) and the about 2 meters of snow that are up there, so that's good!

We had a really cool success story this week. Our ward mission leader asked us to go visit a family in the ward who is a part member family. So the dad is an inactive member and the rest of the family aren't members at all. So we took a bus out there (we may or may not have gotten lost on the way out there... I'll take the blame on that one) and eventually arrived. But what was really cool was how happy and receptive the family was! We knocked, and when the door opened, we were invited right in. It turned out that they were having a birthday party for their youngest son, and the mom actually invited us to stay. They were such a nice family and they asked if we could come by again! It is pretty amazing that they did that because they haven't had contact from the church in a long time, but they all were still very positive. It was a little miracle that helped brighten the week!:)

We'll, I think that's mostly it for the week. It's been a good one, and I have high hopes for this upcoming week! In fact, transfer calls are this weekend, and seeing that I could potentially be moved out of Stockholm, I'm pretty nervous! But it should be good, and I'm looking forward to everything! Have a good week everyone!

Elder Nelson

Elder Nelson's Mom here:  Elder Nelson did not send any pictures this week.  The following were on the Swedish Missionary Mom's FB page in the last week or so. The first two are the missionaries helping to clean an apartment.  I think the third is a group that were all together in the MTC, but I'm not 100% sure.