Happy New Year!

Today is the last day of 2018, bring it on 2019! Woohoo!

Well, this last week was Christmas and Christmas Eve! In Sweden Christmas is celebrated on the 24th so we were with a member family most of the day then and it was way fun! Some Swedish tradition highlights were Kalle Anka (pretty much everyone in the country watched a 1 hour old 60s Donald duck show at 3 pm. Pretty good!), the Julbord (traditional Swedish food, like ham, fish, meatballs, potatoes, cabbage, eggs, and so on), and Santa coming (he comes on the 24th here in Sweden). It was awesome and way fun! We were with other members a lot of the following 2 days as well, and it was all a blast. We were also able to watch The Incredible 2, and that was way fun!

As for the rest of the week, we spent time with member, some time going by other people, and a lot of time in the scriptures. We were given 2 extra hours of study time each day and were challenged to read all the scriptures cited under the topic "Jesus Christ" in the topical guide. If anyone was wondering, it's around 15 pages of citations to other scriptures in the topical guide! But it has been a wonderful experience and I've learned so much in these last few days! That is something I'd encourage you all to do. As you are preparing for the New Years and New Years resolutions, get to know the Savior better and include him in the coming year. Joy and success come as we do so!

Have a wonderful (and safe) New Years Eve! And I'll write again in 2019!


Elder Nelson

Merry Christmas!

Elder Nelson's Mom here: this was sent on Christmas Eve but I forgot to post it.

Merry Christmas!

In Sweden, Christmas is actually celebrated on Christmas Eve, so the festivities are about to be in full swing!

We were able to go to an amusement part called Liseberg last P Day and look at all the lights and the Christmas market they had, it was beautiful!

There are lights everywhere. Most of the windows have these little candle things or giant lighted stars, and it has helped to make the dark more enjoyable. The Swedish people know how to do Winter and Christmas!

Our ward also had a really big Christmas sacrament meeting/concert that was wonderful and thoroughly brought in the Christmas spirit. The ward was also so kind to us and gave us a lot of presents! The amount of candy I will end up eating from their gifts should probably remained unstated!

We have had the opportunity to talk to and teach many people about Christ recently. The promise of Christmas really is "Peace on Earth, goodwill towards men". The gift offered to us in this season is the invitation to find peace through Christ. He can change lives and make them full of joy and meaning. I am so grateful for the opportunity to testify of Him this Christmas time. Make him a part of your Christmas season!

Merry Christmas everyone!



Elder Nelson

Lucia, Christmas Conference, giant Cinnamon Rolls... Christmas is almost here!

Ok, it's been a great week! I'm going strait into it!

We had a celebration for something called Santa Lucia this last week. Basicall6 it's this giant concert with people singing holding candles with one person having a ton of candles in their hair. It was awesome, definitely one of my favourite Swedish Christmas traditions!

We had our Christmas Zone Conference this week and it was awesome! It was combined with the Malmö zone, which meant we had about 40 or 50 missionaries all together. And it meant that we had a total of 12 elders staying at our apartment the night before it! Which was fun! Then the actual zone conference turned out really good and was all focused on Christ. And we got to watch a movie, "It's a Wonderful Life". Who could've asked for a better Christmas Conference!

Today we went to a place called Haga in Gothenberg, and found a little cafe that has GIANT cinnamon rolls! It was pretty awesome! And tonight we will be going to a Christmas market as well!

Christmas is coming up this next week. We as a mission will be (trying) to read all the citations to Jesus Christ found in the topical guide during the time between Christmas and New Years. As we come closer to Christ, we will find more joy, peace, and strength then we can find anywhere else. Our goal is to come closer to Christ during this time, and that is what I would invite you all to do as well. Find a way to come closer to His during this time that celebrates His birth.

Merry Christmas!



Elder Nelson

Happy December *turns up the christmas music*

Steven Nelson
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2:45 AM (20 hours ago)
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I hope that everyone has had a great December so far! Keep up the good ''Light the World'' work out there! We received transfer calls last week and I'll be staying, but my companion moved all the way up to Boden, the furthest north mission area in Sweden. It's going to be chilly up there! I got a new companion whose name is Elder Moss and units been really good so far! He's one transfer older than me in the mission and is a great guy and we've been working hard!

It's warmed up a bit since a week and a half ago which has felt nice. It was well below 0 C then but now its back up some. But a small lake near our apartment froze and we noticed after it had warmed up again and it has started to melt. So of course my companion (back with Elder Cummings) felt the need to stand on it! And it luckily didn't break but it didn't seem to far off! I was able to snag a picture of him on the melty ice which was cool!

Several weeks back I mentioned a crazy coincidence when we met someone who had been on a foreign exchange in Colorado a looong time ago. Well, we've kept some contact with them and were able to have dinner with them last week! It was awesome. We got to know them a lot better, had a fun time, and were able to teach about the church and Jesus Christ as well. It was so good! And they said they'd try to come to the Christmas party which we had on Saturday and they did come for a little while! It's been good so far and I'm excited for how it'll keep going!

That leads me to the Christmas party though! It was suuuper good! We set up tons of decorations and lights everywhere and it was beautiful! We had the classic Swedish "Julbord" which is the normal food eaten at Christmas and did other traditions as well such as singing and dancing around the Christmas tree. Overall it was a lot of fun and a success!

Ok, well have a great week! Make sure to keep up with the Light the World initiative! As Christ says while visiting the Nephites:
''Therefore let your lights so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is is heaven.''
So go out there and be a light! Because really when it comes down to it, that's what the gospel is!



Elder Nelson