Brännboll and just a good week

I honestly can't believe that July has just about rounded up! It is hard to believe. But some exciting news, we got transfer calls this week! Nothing actually exciting is happening to me or my companion, we are both staying the same. So I'll be his companion for the rest of his time as a missionary because he's going home in September. It'll be a really good transfer though! Things have been really good this last week, and it's still mostly been hot and sunny most days. It is such wonderful weather compared to how the winter was, I am loving it!

The week was nice though! Our branch had an activity where we played a game called brännboll. It is kind of like baseball, but a little more simple than that. I'm not sure if the name exists in english, maybe ''burn ball'' or something like that? In any case, it was really fun, and I learned that I am not super good at brännboll, but it was still really fun! We had some investigators there, and it was a really fun way to get to know the branch better and just play some sports!

We went to a candy store to just see what was there, and it was huuuuge! I'll send a picture, it was pretty awesome!

Well, besides that we did some teaching, some finding, some service, a lot of pretty normal stuff. It was all good though, and some of out investigators have been progressing really well! Life in general is good, and we are blessed with many miracles!

Have a great week everyone! The Gospel is perfect and God is good.



Elder Nelson



Pic 1: the ocean!
Pic 2: the candy shop
Pic 3: Elder Nelson

WIldfires and waterfights

It has been a hot week! We've now not had rain for several weeks, and it's been all sun and super humid! People are saying it's the hottest it's been here in as long as they can remember. And the dryness has not been good for Sweden either! From what I've been told by ward members and others, there are at least 40 wildfires in Sweden right now, and it's a big problem. Help has come in from Poland, Italy, and Norway at least (someone told me that some help was sent from Canada, but I don't know if that's true). So when it finally rained a bit on Saturday and Sunday, it was very welcomed! But it looks like we're back to the hot humid sun for the rest of the week ahead. I can't say I expected it to me in the 80's and so humid when I got called to Sweden!

But besides soaking in the sun, the week has been a good one! Many people have still been on vacations, so the teaching has slowed down for the moment, so that has left us a lot of good time to find! Some good things have been happening though, including being able to teach a Swedish family about Familjen ett tillkännagivande för världen (the family a proclamation to the world). They loved it, and we have since been able to come back and teach them more! There have been many other miracles happening as well.

We also helped to organize an activity with the youth and it was water war/competition thing. We got everything all ready for them and my companion and I were planning on changing into other clothes so that our nicer clothes (white shirts and ties) didn't get ruined. But right as it was starting, one thing led to another and I'd been hit with a water balloon! So the need to change cloths was eliminated and my the end of the evening my white shirt, tie, and pants were soaked. So that was fun!

Things besides that are going well, nothing too crazy happened though. Have a fantastic week everyone!


Elder Nelson


Pic 1: View from a members roof after service
Pic 2: Pretty much the first sunset-like thing I've seen in a few months!
Pic 3: If you imagine the fence isn't there, its a beautiful view

Umeå workovers and zone conference

It's been quite the busy week! A warm week as well! I'm not sure the temperatures exactly, but having sunlight from waking up until bedtime certainly does keep things kinda warm! But besides that, some really good things have happened this week!

We got to go on exchanges and then have a zone conference in Umeå. It is a city around 3 hours north of us by train ride. It was a beautiful city and was fun to be with the zone leaders up there, and to see some friends of mine at the zone conference. All the missionaries here are amazing people! I'm in the Norrland zone, and it covers from Sundsvall all the way up to the top of the country in the arctic circle. We also are the smallest zone, with only 5 areas and 16 total missionaries. So it was a smaller zone conference, but inspiring nonetheless. Our mission president and his wife are just spiritual, inspired, and guided people, it is a pleasure to hear from them. Umeå and my time there was really good, I learned a lot, and it was a beautiful city!

We got the chance to do some service on Saturday, and we helped a family in our ward move. Their home's area was amazing though! Ill have to send a picture because it was gorgeous up there!

I've been able to understand and appreciate the sacrament and the importance of it more as I've been on a mission. But recently I have really been feeling the strength that comes from trying to focus on the Savior and renewing our covenants each Sunday. What a wonderful chance it is to start again, refocus our thoughts on the Savior, and recieve strength for the coming week. As we sung the sacrament hymn yesterday, it really hit me just how important it really it! I know as we focus on the Savior and try to live up to our covenants, that we can recieve strength and the Sabbath really can be a delight!

Well, it has been a good week and we have seen a lot of miracles taking place. The church is true! I hope you all have a wonderful week!


Äldste Nelson



Pics: Me at a lake, the ocean, and part of the property near the house we helped move

4th of July and World Cup!!!

Hello family and friends!

It has been a good week, and a lot of stuff has happened! Life has been good, and we had several really special things this week, and here they are!

Sweden made it to the quarter finals for the World Cup! And some exciting news came with it. Our whole mission got permission from our mission president to watch the game with Sweden VS England if we watched with members or investigators! It was awesome! So we went to the home of one of the members who was having a little party at his home, and it was super fun! We may have lost (at least we didn't get beaten too bad) but we got to watch the game and spend some really good time with members! Heja Sverige!

It was the 4th of July this week! And there luckily is a family in our branch and the mom of the family is from the US. So they invited us over to have a 4th of July barbeque with them. It was really fun, and it felt good to eat hotdogs and hamburgers with them. America is pretty awesome! Earlier in the day though, we were invited to go and meet a recent convert near the ocean, right on a rocky beach. We went, and he actually brought us watermelon, and we ate that right next to the ocean. It was beautiful!

Earlier this transfer, probably around 3 weeks ago, we were street contacting people in the downtown on Sundsvall. As we were leaving for the night, someone ran up to us and asked if we were Mormons. He said he had a friend that wanted to meet us, but only took a card and left. Then yesterday (Sunday) we were about to leave church, and the man we gave a card to called us. After 3 weeks, he called and asked if we could meet his friend, we said yes, and he said he and his friend would come to the church right then. So he came with his friend, and it turns out that it was an inactive member of the church who has moved to Sundsvall from Gotland but didn't know the church was here. It was an amazing little miracle of how we got in contact with him again! And, on top of that, we have will now be meeting the friend who first took the card. It was a tender little miracle we saw this week.

I see many small miracles everyday as I try to do what I can where I've been assigned. God knows us, knows our efforts, and will bless us as we do what we can. It is a pleasure to be serving the Lord in Sweden!

Have a wonderful week everyone!


Elder Nelson

How is it already July!!!

Ok, this month seemed to just fly on by! It's already July! Speaking of July, happy 4th of July to all my American friends!! Go America! This week has been a good one, and we actually spent a lot of the day orienteering (someone whose door we knocked on told us all about it and gave us a compass and map) so we don't really have much time. It was fun and everything, but I'm kind of crunched on time now, so I am going to just jump into the week!

This week has been a good one for teaching! For example, on Tuesday we were able to teach two lessons to two different Swedish families as well as arranged to have dinner with a less active family in the ward. It was super good! Things have been working out really well this week, even us setting up a baptismal date with the girlfriend of a recent convert in the ward. We did learn though that she currently lives in another area, so we sent her to the missionaries there to be taught. It was a really good week overall, and lots of progress has been made.

We had a cool little miracle that took place starting last Monday. We were leaving the library where we had emailed for a time, and someone yelled out (in English), ''Are you guys Mormons''? We proceeded to talk to him for a few minutes in Swedish (I still don't know why he first talked to us in English) and he was pretty interested. So we invited him to come see the church sometime, and asked when it would work. He told us that it would work to do it right then, so we just hopped on a bus with him, and showed him the church and taught a lesson. It was awesome! We then met him again on Thursday and taught him again. It was a really cool little miracle that just came into our path, and led into a really good teaching experience.

We had a recent convert invite us over for dinner this last week, and he fed us a full feast pretty much! He moved here from the middle east, and gave us a full meal. It was actually really good, although I have no idea what it is called. The member just kept giving us more food though! Evertime we said we had enough or pretty much ate anything of it, he would just pile more food onto our plates! It was really good though, and an interesting experience!

Well that is a lot of what happened this week. It has been a good one and we have definitely seen miracles happening here. I know that they happen in everyone's lives if we take the chance to acknowledge that they have happened and see the hand of the Lord in our lives. Have a wonderful week everyone!


Elder Nelson