sea2swe: November 14th - Northern Lights Spotting

Good morning Vietnam!!! Well my first week up here in Skellefteå has come and gone and it was a quick one despite all the Swedes laughing at America after the election. My new companion is Elder Mecham, here's a brief bio:

-talented photographer with a big camera. Expect some nice pics

-from Springdale, Arkansas

-very outdoorsy

-loves music

-been on a mission for almost a year and a half and in Skellefteå one transfer

It's been so fun cause Elder Mecham's an experienced missionary so we just go to town and we're both on the same page and it's been so great! Skellefteå (pronounced "Shu-left-eo") is the smallest branch in Sweden with a whopping five members! Well, seven including missionaries.

I was greeted in Skellefteå with a miracle, you ready for this one? So the sunday before I came up here was fast sunday right? So the ENTIRE DISTRICT (like a stake but smaller) of Norrland, all missionaries and members, fasted for the little branch of Skellefteå. In walks Alexander to the picture. One of the members, Ivar, has a personal asssistant named Alexander. A nice, quiet Swedish guy in his 20's. He reads the Book of Mormon to Ivar whenever he visits him and had taken a Book himself and had read the whole thing. Elder Mecham and Thacker asked him when they were at Ivar's if he'd like to meet sometime. He agreed and so my first day in the area we met Alexander, taught him the Restoration and he took it so well that we invited him to be baptized. Alexander accepted and is now scheduled for the 10th of December!!

Otherwise we've been doing lots of finding work and showing me around the city. We also had district conference with all of Norrland so we slept over in Umeå saturday night and saw President and Sister Beckstrand and lots of other missionaries and members on sunday. It was a beautiful meeting, Ivar and Alexander came, and I received a confirmation of my being in Norrland during the meeting.

Our district consists of the Luleå sisters and Boden Elders, we're the most northern district in the mission. The closest area is a two hour bus ride away.

I saw the northern lights!!!!! They weren't that strong but still it was my first time. As we were biking back from a member's house in the evening we saw them on the horizon, green streaks across the sky. So beautiful. I feel blessed to be in this beautiful part of the world and wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world doing anything else right now.

Much love,

Äldste Hainsworth