Midsommar and Koenigsegg

We'll, it was a really awesome week! A bunch of cool stuff happened, so here it is!

First of all, we celebrated Midsommar, the traditional Swedish holiday on Summer Solstice. It was full of the normal festivities like dancing around the Midsommar pole and eating a lot of traditional Swedish food. We got to celebrate and dance at a pretty awesome castle called Örenäs and then my companion and I were able to help carry the Midsommar pole and place it. It was pretty awesome and I felt really cool walking with it as hundreds of people were cheering and clapping. It was a great Midsommar!

Another super cool thing was that we were able to visit the Koenigsegg car factory that is located in our area. They only make 15 or so cars a year but they are some of the fastest and most expensive cars that can be bought. We didn't have a tour atranfdd or anything, we just kinda showed up and were able to get let in and talk with some people there. Turns out one of them is a member of the church actually! It was super cool.

While we were out there in the city of Ängelholm we decided to stop and check out an airplane museum that was next to the car factory there. That was really interesting too!

There were some good miracles and experiences we had this week but one was pretty special. We were walking down the street of a nearby city on Saturday. As we were doing so, a person on a bike biked across an intersection and happened to look back at us and then the person swung over to talk with us. It turned out to be a member that recently moved here from another country and had been in church a few weeks ago. He told us about how his friend he had come with had to return home so now he's completely alone here without knowing the language. We were able to h3lp him out a bit, explain some things he needed for a bus card, and to get his co tact situation so we could get in contact with him later and help get him to church. It wad a gander mercy that showed that he was being watched over and helped when he needed it. It was good to be a part of that.

Anyways, have a great week!


Elder Nelson

Summer is really starting with Midsommer this week

With Summer really setting in things are going well! In face, most things are really good besides the pollen in the air which seems intent on waging war with me and my allergies! Here's how the week was!

On Tuesday we had a YSA and Young men/young woman activity playing mini golf by the beach. So that was really fun and then we had some special visitors, a previous Elder in the mission named Elder Berlin and his family came on vacation and were there playing with us. Elder Berlin was my AP when I was a relatively new missionary so it was cool to see him! And although I didn't win at mini golf, we all had a good time together!

It's been an interesting experimental week with food. Firstly we made an apple pie because we were given a ton of apples (the pie turned out way well). Then we ended up spontaneously making butter! I'd always been told that I shouldn't whip cream too long or else it would become butter, but while using cream to make something else we decided to give it a shot. And it turned out well and tasted good! It's like normal butter haha! The last thing we made was called Flygande Jacob (flying jacob). It was interesting. Imagine chicken with bananas on top covered in cream mixed with chill sauce. And then bacon and peanuts on top. Sounds way nasty, I know! But apparently it is some kind of Swedish dish (not super common, but I've met several people who'd heard of it). Haha, I wasn't exactly the biggest fan but at least I can say I tried it!

I also went on exchanges this week with Elder Cummings, a previous companion of mine. He goes home in around 2 weeks and it was really strange to be with him one last time before he goes home. It's weird that some things come to an end.

I don't have much time, but I do want to just say that I'm grateful for this time I have to be a missionary and try to help the work of the Lord go forward. Things are going well and I'm enjoying everything out here!

Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

(no subject)

Hello!

It's been a nice week! There were a couple nice highlights and here they are.

It got really warm and sunny this last week and we were able to go to a park with someone that had previously met missionaries and toss around a frisbee then take a seat in the grass and have a lesson. It felt wonderful to just be out there in the nice weather! The bad part about it was that half of me was in the sun and the other half was in the shade so I had one really red sunburned arm and the other one was not at all. I looked kinda goofy!

This week was graduation for the high school students in Sweden. What that involves is that everyone dresses up (guys in suit me and ties and girls in white dresses) with white sailor hats on and just kind of drive around crazily and have parties. So that was cool to see!

On Saturday we had some things fall through during the day and it was a little disappointing to have some of the lessons planned not happen. But we did have an appointment set up in the evening and went there. We were welcomed and seated as a couch that had around 6 other guys our age there that were relatives to the man we were there to visit. It turns out it was kind of a family gathering so in total we got to talk to the grandpa, the original man and his two brothers, and then around 6 of their children. It was super cool honestly, and it felt good to be able to teach and explain our message to so many people in one setting. The message of the restoration and how we can know it is true is a powerful message.

Have a good week!


Elder Nelson

(no subject)

It has been a good week here in Helsingborg, Sweden. It's starting to appoach the "hot and sunny" stage of Summer here and the humidity isn't helping! But it is beautiful with the greenery and seeing Denmark over the reflective ocean. Its a beautiful place!

This week we had the opportunity to go by many returning members either with ward members but also just stopping by. There were some good things that happened and we were able to get in contact with a lot of good people. We hope to start working regularly with some of them and helping them come back to church.

Yesterday Helsingborg's soccer team and Malmö's soccer team played each other, and apparently they're rivals. We were in the train station in the evening and when we walked out, there was tons of police cars and then just crowds of people kinda running around in the distance. Come to find out there were a bunch of fights that were taking place. So that was interesting!

As part of visiting so many returning members this week we were able to visit and give a total of 4 people the sacrament who can't make it to church anymore. It was a reminder to me how important the sacrament really is and the difference it makes to regularly be remembering the Savior. It is something I think we can all be better at remembering the importance of. It is a wonderful opportunity.

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week. Take care out there!


Elder Nelson