Running stairs

It has been a good week and the days just flew by!

So on Tuesday we decided to accomplish a goal of Elder Udeji's and get some good excercise, so we got up at 5am and hopped on the train to Kungsbacka. Right next to the church there is a water tower type building on the top of a large hill and a lot of stairs leafing up to it. 185 stairs to be exact. So, we went there and ran up and down those stairs a couple of times with a member in the ward. It was beautiful up there and some good excercise, but it destroyed my legs haha! We're hoping to go do it again tomorrow!

Gothia Cup was last week and we kept seeing foreign teams which was interesting. We asked someone how many teams had come to play, and we were told it was 1686 teams!

Besides that we had interviews with President, played soccer with a lot of people, started teaching some new people, and met someone that looked a lot like President Nelson as we were out knocking. Lots of good things!

I want to end this just by talking about a scripture that stood out to me this week. In a companionship study while on exchanges we thought about some good answers for people that casually believe in spirits and that stuff but not God. We eventually started talking with each other about coming to know the Creator. I read in Acts 17 where Paul teaches the Athenians and says,

"For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you."

The amazing thing about the Gospel is that we know who God is and how to come to know the creator. Continue to take the time to do so, it really makes a difference.


Elder Nelson

Gothia Cup

Wow, the week has just flown by. And they don't stop going fast! It has been a good and busy one. But here are a few quick highlights!

This week we were able to have a stake picnic activity in our area. We went to a cool castle by the oceanside and ate some good food. The best part about it all was that I got to see a lot of members I had once known when I was in Västra Frölunda. It was really fun!

The second highlight also has to do with a dinner we had. On Sunday we had dinner with a member and his family. What made this dinner special had to do with the dad. The father in the family is a relatively famous singer in Sweden. He and his brothers won the Eurovision music competition quite a while back (a big international singing competition that takes place every year with most European countries as well as others. It's pretty famous, you can look it up)! His name is Louis Herrey and he's an awesome solid member here. It was cool to meet a famous person (famous in Sweden at least)!

Otherwise we were teaching several lessons, doing a bit of service, and finding people. One of the highlight lessons was someone we taught while tracting that lived in a beautiful house way up on a hillside overlooking the ocean. It was pretty awe inspiring! Things are going well with the work.

This last week I was looking under General Conference in the Gospel library app and found a section called missionary work that has over 300 talks. I started at the earliest talks given and read several of them from the 1970s. It was inspiring to hear some of the missionary stories shared! And it reminded me of some of the amazing experiences I've been able to have as a missionary in Sweden. I just want to say that I am grateful for this opportunity and have been really blessed by it!

I hope everyone has a really great week!


Elder Nelson


Oh, we also have a thing in Kungsbacka called Gothia Cup which is the world's largest tournament for youth soccer, so that's cool too! We've seen teams from Brazil, Spain, Thailand, and a few other countries as well as Sweden. It's pretty sweet!

Svung

Oh wow, what a week! It has been a pretty packed week with lots to do! Here are some of the main highlights.

Firstly, I had to get all moved out of Helsingborg and on over to Kungsbacka. It was really sad to be saying goodbye to the people and city I'd been with for almost 6 months! Helsingborg is a fantastic place! On Wednesday morning (after a slight train delay) I hopped on a train heading up the Western coast of Sweden and traveled almost all the way to Gothenberg. It was a fairly smooth travel and transfer except for one of my bags has now almost officially died for good. Haha, I hope it'll live long enough to be able to take me back to the States! But it has been great here in Kungsbacka so far!

A main highlight of the week definitely came on Thursday. Almost all the missionaries in the Gotherburg zone were invited to come to Alingsås and help out with Svung. Svung in essentially a nationwide version of youth conference where they rent out a school and all the youth in Sweden come together and have activities for several days. We got to visit there and go out with the youth in groups and do lots of different kinds of service to the people in the city (such as giving flowers to people, taking cookies to the police station, helping people pack up groceries, giving stuffed animals to kids on the street, and so on). It was great to be out doing service with them and to strengthen them! One of the best parts to me was being able to see youth from all 5 of my previous areas there. It felt so good to see them all!

There is a lot I could talk about, but I want to end talking about one specific thing. Before leaving Helsingborg I was able to visit several members and people we had taught. In the process of doing this we got the opportunity to visit a man that is being taught and teach him one last time. At the end of the lesson he asked us to give him a blessing (we had taught him about that the previous week) so we gave him one. It was such an amazing blessing from God that I had been able to see how far this person had come and really feel the joy of this work. God cares about His children.

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week!



Elder Nelson

Moving to Kungsbacka

Well, transfer time has come once again. After 4 transfers of bring in Helsingborg I'll be transferring to Kungsbacka! It'll be really sad to leaving Helsingborg though, im really going to miss the city and all the people here. But I am excited for Kungsbacka! I've been there on splits a few times because it is right next to my old area in Gothenberg. It'll be cool!

It's been a good week though. We were able to have a little summer party with some people in the ward which was really fun. Besides that, we've taught a bit, had an activity with the young adults, and also visited several inactive members. Things are going well there!

Today for my last P Day in Helsingborg we went out to a place called Kullaberg. It's a kind if peninsula thing North of Helsingborg that was seriously amazing. I'd never seen such large cliffs and waves in Sweden and it was gorgeous! I'll make sure to attach some pictures even though they can't fully capture how it was.

Well, I don't have a ton of time but I do want to just say that there is a peace and strength that comes into life as we follow God. The small things like sincere daily prayer and scripture study truly do make a difference. Have a fantastic week!


Elder Nelson

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