Week 31--- I'm in Skelleftea freezing, but it's beautiful!

Goodbye's are always difficult!

Tjena alla!

This week has been exciting, I got transferred way north to a city called Skellefteå. There's only one area that elders can go that's more north than Skellefteå. I'll explain more about it later.

The last few days in Västerås were crazy, with saying goodbye to people, teaching a few lessons, shopping, etc. I flew out of Stockholm on Wednesday up to Umeå which was an hour and a half flight north. It was nice to be able to speak to the Swedish people on my flight. I’m almost fluent.

I met my new comp Äldste Callor. He comes from Kaysville, UT, has been out on the mission one transfer less than me and has spent 4.5 months here in Skellefteå (it's his first area). He graduated high school 2017, we've got a lot in common. We look at missionary work in the same way too which is nice. We get along really well, it's been a blast so far. We probably stay up too late with the pillow talk but oh well, the boys gotta get to know each other 😎

We've got a car here which is so nice. We drove from Umeå an hour and a half to Skellefteå. The next day we drove further north (1hr 45mins) to Luleå for district meeting with the other 4 missionaries in Norrland (northern section of Sweden). Northern Sweden is beautiful, you could take a picture anywhere and it'd look pretty.

Alrighty, here are the deets on Skellefteå. There is snow everywhere. It's been between 0 and -10 degrees celsius these last few days, wayyy chilly. I'm not in Västerås anymore ha ha when I got off the plane onto the snowy tarmac in Umeå, I coughed at first because it was so cold and dry ha ha 

They have a branch here (basically a ward/congregation that is too small to be a ward), but it's got only 4 active members. I'm pretty sure it's one of the smallest branches in all of Europe. The 4 members are awesome, they are super friendly and welcoming. Since we are so north near the arctic circle, we may get to see the northern lights. Callor has seen them a few times and it's only getting colder heading into January and February so hopefully I can send some pics of it. It's pretty much what I pictured a mission in Sweden would be like. Snow, yellow and red houses, big pretty sky, tons of forests. 

I want to give you an idea of what church is like here. The church building is an old house. We had a fast and testimony meeting (where people can go up and say what they are thankful for or share spiritual stuff) so they just have every member of the branch go up and share their testimony and then it's over. They have an African convert, so I went up with him and translated his testimony to Swedish for the other members, as well as translated the whole meeting for him into English. Solid practice :) 2nd hour of church consisted of us watching the Women's session of general conference in Swedish and then church was over. There is just 2 hours of church here, opposed to a regular three hours.   

Callor and I have devised this master plan to change the missionary work here. It is comprised of making a new system in the phone for tracking new people we find, cleaning out the area book and making a system to help track and bring back less active members. Callor and his trainer Barker did an awesome job of starting the process, so Callor and I are just keeping it goin. Should be good. 

I was able to say goodbye to one of my investigators. He wasn’t feeling real well physically and emotionally.  I had the thought to ask him 'Hur mår du?' which is like how are you doing physically. He broke down crying. This 54 year old man, tough guy, gym rat. He was crying and I lost it, I was crying the whole lesson pretty much.  I felt so sad for his sake, so bad for him, but felt so much love for him too, that's why I was sad. While writing my letter to the mission president, I had a realization that Christ feels the same way, but way deeper when we struggle. Christ is probably crying up there when we go through hard times like that. He feels that way for all of His children. A cool realization, I feel like I understand Christ's role in my life even more now. 

I'm stoked to be up north with Äldste Callor and to get some solid work done.

Love you all! Send me an update on your lives, I love hearing what's goin on with everyone.

Äldste Gordon

My goodbye kebab

Missionaries in Vasteras

Skelleftea, Sweden in the afternoon

My new companion,  Aldste Callor and I, in our new apartment. Bedroom and bathroom upstairs,
kitchen and family room downstairs. Not as big as my last apartment.