So on Friday we got a call from an old member who lives in Sollefteå (2 hr. from Ö-vik) who wanted a blessing, so thus was planned the transferly visit to Sollefteå! It was super awesome, we listened to 7 talks from President (then Elder) Nelson, saw two mees, and an epic church that was super tall and built 1863.

But anyways, there we were in this old lady's apartment when she says "I know someone from the states who would like to meet you!" Five minutes after calling him we get a knock on the door, and in walks a man, wearing a Lone Peak Football sweatshirt! He's from Alpine Utah, and I knew his sons! I feel like it's safe to say that there are 7 people from Lone Peak in Sweden now, six of which are missionaries, two of which are companions that "just happened" to run into the one non-missionary in the bunch. In Sollefteå at that, no one lives in or visits Sollefteå!

This week we also got to take one of the Polethus with us for the day, and we had a blast! We got some killer glasses-selfies, and got fed some delicious Burmese food when we took him home.

I also ate a pizza with köttfärssås på, it was surprisingly very good. 

To top this great week off, I read a lot of Alma and President Nelson talks! Something I've noticed is that Alma always speaks of the same thing; faith, repentance, and baptism. He reminds me of a Hyrum Smith quote, "Preach the first principles of the Gospel—preach them over again: you will find that day after day new ideas and additional light concerning them will be revealed to you. You can enlarge upon them so as to comprehend them clearly. You will then be able to make them more plainly understood by those [you] teach." Really though, faith and repentance can never be over taught, and if you think that you understand them then you're missing something.

I've had a goal to read every Elder Nelson talk given in General Conference, and boy oh boy do I love him! I've learned a lot about the gospel, faith, families, random public surveys, and facts about the heart! To me he really stands as an example of seeking knowledge and accepting truth wherever it comes, he is a very scientific person and still loves the Savior and has such a strong testimony of His teachings, especially when it comes to the life after this.

Hope you all have a good week!

Äldste Wilson

Good old Familjen Polethu :)

This week was a great one! Life as normal as a Sweden Stockholm Missionary :)

Found this ancient Bible in our church, from the 1800's (possibly). It was litterally like holding a piece of history, and the Swedish was so old! Swedish has changed so much so fast, the text here isn't even the same language. The S's and K's also look like F's, it uses W's instead of V's, it's super epic. The cover is made of wood. 

We also visited the Polethus again, I love that family! Their oldest son died his hair blond, and it's something special alright. He's obsessed with Elder Prososkis hair, so he also asked us to curl it for him. I got a few pictures, and started filming it, but then the youngest daughter got super defensive and wanted to be the one getting filmed, so I did that too :)

Other than that, I also gave a talk in church! I talked about faith, and how awesome it is. Lots of scriptures were used, lots of stories were told, lots of testimony was born, and lots of Cambodians slept. You win some, you loose some.

But the highlight, Zone Conference! The Sweden Stockholm Mission has been selected as one of two missions out side of the US and Canada to get the churches new technology program for missionaries, so we watched training for a long time. But it was so epic! I'm very exited to get new phones and be able to use Facebook to help my investigators, and I love Elder Bednar!

I'll attach some pictures now :)

Ha det gott!

Äldste Wilson

Picasso strikes again! (|] ^~ % }

This week was awesome. The highlight was this tuesday! There is a family that lives in a little place called Eden, about 2 hours away from Ö-vik. We have permission to go and visit them once every six weeks, and last time we ended up not going there, so this was my first time visiting them, and it was awesome! They're named Hans and Larayne Karlsson and they have a "woofer" (A random young European who lives on their farm for a few weeks or months, just to get away from the world and take a pause by working on a historic farm in Northern Sweden) from France named Marie. Their farm is a special one, it's a historic building and they have some special cows that are native to Sweden or something like that, it's super epic. We climbed up ladders perched on boards that some genius had placed so as to negate the 35 degree incline, spread straw in a cow pasture, and pitched a hay mountain for hours and hours. There was so much hay. Like, the four story barn was full, but they needed us to move the mountain, so we pitched four stories of hay. Luckily both Elder Prososki and I have hay allergies, so we both got destroyed. Not sure why that's lucky, but hey, not every companionship shares a similar allergy which they encounter out of season. We also ate some delicious food, like, the best pork chops and mashed potatoes with mushroom, spinach, and carrot I've ever had before. I've decided that once I'm a millionaire I'm going to buy a historic farm in Norrland and eat tasty foods for my retirement.

Other than that, this week was just fulled of hard work! Nothing beats a week full of contacting, tracting, and teaching! We have this one investigator named Alf who loves the gospel, but just doesn't want to stop drinking coffee. It's sad because we cannot help him until he wants to change (Alma 32:27).

On a more positive note, check out Mosiah 4:30 (and 2 Cor. 10:5, Alma 12:14, and D&C 6:36)! May sound really hard, but there's a simple way to make watching those things a habit, it's called Virtue! PMG says:

"Your mind is like a stage in a theater; in the theater of your mind, however, only one actor can be on stage at a time. If the stage is left bare, thoughts of darkness and sin often enter the stage to tempt. But these thoughts have no power if the stage of your mind is occupied by wholesome thoughts, such as a memorized hymn or verse of scripture that you can call upon in a moment of temptation. By controlling the stage of your mind, you can successfully resist persistent urges to yield to temptation and indulge in sin. You can become pure and virtuous." -PMG pg. 119, emphasis added

One very important skill is to know how to displace the thoughts of darkness that come up, but another skill is knowing how to not let your stage get blank! This isn't only important, it's a commandment! See Alma 37:36 and D&C 6:36. Still sound hard? Memorizing a scripture or hymn works! Not only to displace preexisting thoughts, but also as you memorize and practice the scripture, your mind isn't empty. Listen to good music, and focus on the words! Yet another way to make sure your mind isn't empty. Also, avoid bad media! If you're intentionally filling your mind with thoughts of darkness and sin, you'll have a lot harder time using those memorized scriptures correctly.

Anyways, basically I'm just writing this because I can, because I have time, because no one emails me and everyone emails my companion. Well, that's all though.

Hejdå!

Äldste Wilson