Äldste Nathan Sirrine: June 4, 2018 Livin' the summer life of Stockholm

Playing Kubb (a Swedish game) at the picnic

The Beach

This week we got to spend a lot of time serving and being with members. We helped two members move, and then we had a ward picnic at the beach! There were a lot of people at the beach, and everybody was in a swimsuit, so we felt pretty out of place in our white shirts and ties... The funny thing is that I have gotten so used to being out of place that I didn't even notice how weird we looked until one of the other missionaries said something about it. The good news is that we made it pretty easy for all those who came to find the ward because we were the only group with five guys in white shirts (the other companionship in the area is a trio). We were blessed with great weather, which I have been told is very unusual for this time of year. We have had the warmest May on record (it's been about 84 degrees) and yesterday was the first time it's rained since I got to Stockholm, so it's been about a

Hiking to the ward picnic

month. Apparently it's actually been warmer here in Sweden than anywhere else in Europe, including the popular vacation destination of Spain. We've definitely been enjoying the nice weather and sun while we have it! Currently the sun goes down at 10 pm and comes back up at 3:50 am, which is pretty crazy. Sometimes it makes it tough to keep track of time when you're out working at 8:30 and the sun is still up and bright...

Yesterday at church our bishopric was reorganized. We have fantastic members in the ward, and the new bishopric is absolutely amazing. The only way I can accurately describe how excited I am to be working with them is to say that they are truly the "Dream Team". I know without a doubt that the Lord has called each one of them at this time for a specific reason, and each of them has a love for missionary work that will truly help to build the kingdom of God here in Stockholm.

We had Zone Conference this week, and the highlight was definitely watching The Lion King. Yes, we watched the Lion King. To be fair, it was only a five minute segment, the part where Simba sees Mufasa in the sky, but we were asked to identify every gospel principle we saw and then to think how it applies to us. It was actually an incredible activity that taught me a surprising amount about the gospel, and I would highly recommend it to all.

Apparently Erik owns

a samurai sword

Last week we got to teach a new investigator, Erik. We met him while contacting, which was a miracle in it's truest sense. We had gone out that day doing our very best to follow the guidance of the spirit, and were about to talk to someone else when we saw him sitting on a bench and felt the prompting to talk with him instead. We did so, and our conversation led to an opportunity to teach him this past week. We met him at his apartment, and it turns out he really likes yoga (he's taught himself for the past six years) so he taught us proper posture and we sat on the floor as we taught him. We were pretty surprised to find out he had already read the first two chapters of the Book of Mormon and said he had "complete faith in the book". He really liked our lesson, and yesterday we got a text from him saying he would appreciate to meet us again, so we're teaching him again tonight.

Äldste Sirrine