Garbage Truck on fire

Hello! It has been another good week here in Sundsvall. Lots of good things have been happening! One of the not as good ones was that's it's started to get colder and colder, winter is coming! But autumn is in full swing with leaves changing and everything! Sweden certainly is beautiful!

But I'll get into the week! This week we were able to regain contact with and start to teach a Swedish couple we used to teach again, as well as another family. There was another miracle as well! Last week we went down to a city called Hudiksvall for sacrament meeting and as we did we called anyone in our area book with a phone number who lived down there. One of those people was really positive but couldn't come to church. We were able to set up a lesson with him using Skype, and it was amazing! It turns out that he is actually from the United States, he reads the Book of Mormon and Doctorine and Covanents everyday, and he's the nicest man 25 year old ever. Hopefully we can teach him more and help him progress quickly to baptism!

A few other highlights of this week included being able to sing "Jag är Guds Lilla Barn" (I am a Child of God) with our ward choir, playing volleyball with some people we teach and some members, and a member giving us home made Apple sauce! It wasn't my mom's homemade apple sauce, but it was good!

Oh! We also had a garbage truck right outside of our house catch on fire, so we can out with our fire extinguisher and helped put it out. That was exciting!!

I know that the gospel blesses lives and that this is Gods work. I hope you all have a great week!


Elder Nelson 

Church with 3 members and a new companion!

It's been a little bit of a crazy week, but a really good one. The craziest thing was having a companion go home and getting a new companion (one I'd already had before). It was sad to have Elder Black get on his train to Stockholm and then know he was going to fly home! But things have also been going really well with Elder Baggett after 7 months of not being his companion. It's been a little strange but really fun. We've been working hard finding and doing a bit of teaching as well.

This week we had the opportunity to attend church in a town called Hudiksvall, a place where there is a dependent branch. Church is held there every few months by a member from Sundsvall who drives down. We were invited to come and it was a really good experience. There were 3 members that came from Hudiksvall at church, and my companion and I ran a lot of the meeting. But what was so special to me was that I felt the spirit really strong as I was there, even though there were so few members. It really is true what Christ said.
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Besides that, it has been a nice week. We played some soccer with some ward members and investigators, and that was fun! I'm excited for the upcoming week, and hope it is a good one for you all!


Elder Nelson



Pic 1: Our church on Sunday
Pic 2: Mmmm, that was good chili!

Elder Black goes home, and the same companion again!

Hello! This was my last full week with Elder Black! He takes a train down to Stockholm on Wednesday and then flies back home on Thursday. Its crazy! It truly has been a pleasure to serve with him hese last two transfers, he is an amazig missionary. But we got transfer calls, and there is some pretty unexpected news. I will be staying in Sundsvall, but my companion is going to be Elder Baggett. I was companions with Elder Baggett in Stockholm around 7 months ago. And now I'll be his companion again! It's going to be pretty interesting!

This week was a really good one though. We had some pretty amazing success this week, some of the miracles including finding and teaching a Swedish couple, having 5 investigators come to our Surströmming party, and then having a lot of our Swedish friends we've made coming to church on Sunday to hear Elder Black speak. Its been an awesome week!

We had a surströmming party! Surströmming is fermented herring in a can! And man, it smells pretty nasty. We walked into the room where we were going to eat, and it was so gross! The smell is definitely the worst though. But I ate it and survived!!

Elder Nelson's mom here: Just to add a little extra insight to this fish experience, below is a quote from the letter he sent his Dad today. There are some delightful videos on YouTube if you are interested in watching someone not used to it try to stomach surströmming.

     "It didn't smell too good though. But I didn't throw up or anything! There were a ton of people there from the ward, and most of them were eating it like it was no problem. I saw people eating like a ton of it just with their fork and stuff! I just had a suuuper small piece on a piece of this bread stuff with a bunch of other toppings and other things. It was actually edible, which was surprising after smelling the smell. That was the worst part is say. It smells way bad dad! But it was a fun party at least!" 

It's been a good week though! Life is going well, and this really is God's work. Have a good week everyone!


Elder Nelson

It's now been over a year

This last week, on August 30th, I hit my 1 year mark of being a missionary. It is hard to imagine that I've been a missionary for that long! It has been an amazing year serving in Sweden; I've loved serving here, learning here, and teaching here.

In upcoming news, my companion will be leaving for home next week! This coming weekend I'll found out who my new companion will be. It's pretty exciting but sad to see my companion heading home!

This week has been a really good one though! We were able to teach a lot, and it has been really enjoyable! We've been really blessed with people to teach these last few weeks. An interesting person we've started to meet was someone that we met on the way home from our zone conference in Umeå. It was a 3 hour train ride, and we talked to this guy for the whole time. It was really cool! We answered a ton of his questions and were able to teach him about the restoration. We ended up by getting his facebook and meeting him again on Thursday, this time with his friend. It has been amazing to see how people are placed in our way, prepared to meet and learn about the gospel. This work is God's work!

This coming Saturday out branch will be having a Surströmming eating activity. It is fish (herring) that is pickled, left to rot/ferment, and in a can. It apparently smells horrible and tastes suuuper salty. So if you don't get an email from me next week, it's because I didn't survive!

Have a wonderful week everyone!


Elder Nelson