Small and Simple Things

Hello everyone!!

So grateful to be able to write this week - we had some amazing experiences!  We did a lot of traveling, but it was so rewarding!  On Wednesday, we were in Stavanger for a Zone Conference and that night, we were able to be at a baptismal meeting for the woman whom I have been teaching for over a year!  I have stayed in contact with her, and her special baptism came!  It was an absolutely incredible experience!  I was able to be part of the baptism and it was such a special moment!

We then went up to Trondheim to have another Zone Conference and it was another great meeting.  We are realizing more and more just how special the missionaries are who serve in this Norway Oslo mission!  On one of the nights we were in Trondheim, I had a pretty special experience that I'd like to share:

I was sitting on the bus to drive back to the apartment in Trondheim, when I was wishing that I could talk to someone on the bus about the gospel.  I said a little prayer and asked God if He would set someone next to me and I promised that I would talk to them about the gospel.  About a minute later a girl sat down next to me and I started talking to her right away.  She immediately told me her name and told me that she was in Norway on exchange from Kenya to teach a Bible Study class.  It was very special to be able to share with her about the Book of Mormon.  We use the book along with the Bible because they were both written to strengthen our faith and understanding of Christ.  I asked her if she would be willing to learn more about it - she told me that it was new to her, so I gave her a pass along card and she walked away looking over the card.

It was such a simple but special experience for me to know that God answered my prayer!  I know that He does so by small and simple things.  I am really grateful for my opportunity to grow and to share the gospel with others because I know that special experiences such as baptism lead us back to God.  It was so special to be part of the teaching process, but most of all, baptism!  I really love this work and I know that it's Heavenly Father's work!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Anticipating Elder Bednar's Arrival

This week was absolutely insane!!!

We traveled out to Stavanger to give some training to the missionaries in the West Zone.  The missionaries there had such a good spirit and were so engaged, it made for a great meeting!  After the meeting, we were able to go up Preikestolen with all of the missionaries!  Luckily, I survived the trip again!  That night, I was able to be on a teach with a woman I've been teaching for nearly a year!  She has a baptismal date scheduled for October and we had an incredible lesson with her!  She was concerned about her son being prepared for the baptism.  We knelt in prayer and she explained that she felt that she needed to prepare her son.  The thought came to me that I would invite her to invite her son, as I was getting the words out to her, she immediately said, "I need to invite him!"  I had no doubt that the Spirit was present and that it led her to the same conclusion.  She immediately became overwhelmed by the Spirit.  It was such a powerful moment and we knelt in prayer again to give thanks for the experience we had.  The Lord is incredible!

We then went to Trondheim the next morning to give a training meeting for the missionaries in the North Zone.  Our training has been on our effectiveness of planning, and the missionaries have felt that it has been extremely beneficial to focus on this.  The results from this past week have shown that our mission is on the rise - it becomes better and better with every turn.  The most exciting opportunity we have, is that Elder Bednar will be visiting this country for a special Stake Conference.  He'll then give our mission a special training meeting!  Speaking for the missionaries, "We can hardly wait for him to get here!"

Elder Jones and I have had to prepare many flights, sleeping arrangements, travel plans to and from various locations.  It's been extremely busy, but we've got it all done!  Now we're just hoping that it gets executed correctly!

This work is real.  We all have a Heavenly Father who knows us and loves each and every one of us.  It's up to us to work towards accomplishing His goals.  He wants all of His children to live with Him again, and so, we need to help Him with that work.  I have done everything I can to make that happen here in this country, and I've never been more satisfied with anything in my life.  I hope that everyone can come to experience this happiness!

Back to the Grind

This week was so great to get back into the swing of missionary work!  It was pretty packed with good things.  One of our investigators said she had been smoke-free for 2 days before we met with her!  Another one of our investigators has been reading on the church's website and loving everything she reads.  She told us that she used to be afraid of the gospel and the Bible and everything but now since we have helped her feel the love of the gospel and meet so many great people - she looks forward with hope!  She is such an amazing person and has the greatest smile.  She says it might take her 6 months to 2 years to join the church, she really doesn't know, but I told her I really didn't care how long it took her.  She is reading the Book of Mormon, she is coming to church, she is reading things about Joseph Smith, and you can see the light of the gospel changing her life!  It's unbelievable how it works.

I received a new companion this week, Elder Lane.  He is a young guy from Arizona.  Very good kid and pretty entertaining!  Yesterday he bore his testimony in church and said, "Jeg elsker store medlemmer" which in English translates to "I love big members" - he had a good laugh afterwards! He's a very awesome guy and really willing to work.

My old companion was moved up to Trondheim to be companions with my old MTC companion, Elder Skinner.  Elder Skinner is a beast of a missionary and is tearing it up in Trondheim right now.  I was hoping he was going to be my companion a couple transfers ago.  Hopefully someday we'll be joined up and get to tear up a city together!

As for my old companion Elder Stookey, he was an awesome companion.  We were able to experience a ton of different miracles and amazing opportunities!  It was so much fun to serve with him and as I called him the night he moved to Trondheim - one of the things he said to me was, "Keep changing kids' lives."  It was the best thing I could have heard.

The west zone is going to explode soon.  Our district is really starting to produce, as we had 5 investigators in church and more visitors!  It's been an incredible ride to see the progression of this work in this area and throughout Norway.  Someday soon this place will be pumping out some impressive miracles!  They are already starting to flow and I'm so grateful to be part of it!

I know that faith is something that is real.  When we exercise it with faith in Jesus Christ and God, we can experience many miracles.  I am approaching 1 year as a missionary and I have never felt more refined and grateful for any other thing in my life.  I know this is the best use of time any individual can spend - bringing about happiness for our brothers and sisters.  I love this work and hope that everyone gets to experience the love our Heavenly Father has for each one of us!  I hope everyone gets to experience some of that light this week!

Miracles in Our Travels

Hello everyone!!

This week was pretty incredible.  We flew into Tromsø on Wednesday morning to go on splits and perform some missionary business.  At our arrival, there were then 6 missionaries serving in Tromsø.  It was pretty cool to be in that cluster of missionaries.  We were able to do some contacting on the streets.  Tromsø is a beautiful city - it has a lot of nice people and some tourists.  It's really cool just to go out and talk to people on the streets. As strange as it might seem, it's a huge blessing to be a part of.  In Alta, there aren't as many people to go out and speak with, so in a big city it's a little more fun.

The next morning, we flew into Trondheim to be part of some splits the day before Zone Conference.  That day we probably did 4-hours of contacting around the city of Trondheim.  That is another beautiful, beautiful city.  A lot of really awesome people and a ton of students there at the university.  It is one of the largest Atheist places in the world (it might be the world's largest, if I'm not mistaken), but it is so cool to talk to people about how they established their belief in certain things.  The greatest blessing is that even when people claim to be Atheist, they still believe in a higher power.  They just have not heard the truth of all things.  As we go around and contact people, we are able to piece a little bit of the puzzle of this existence together for them - they then thank us and we part ways.  Often times missionaries like to call it 'planting seeds'.  It's just really satisfying to see people getting a little portion of the truth and them being grateful for it.  This life is hard enough, but once we understand we are children of a Supreme Being who loves us and cares about us - life becomes a little bit more enjoyable.

We also had interviews with our president that night and Zone Conference the following day.  As I was speaking with the Mission President's wife, I received a call from my old area - Sandnes.  They were searching for some addresses that we had found people who had shown some interest in our message. As we got to talking about other people, there was a woman we found contacting one day.  As we approached the woman that day, we had the world's biggest smiles.  I remember thinking to myself, "why am I smiling so big?"  The woman also asked us the same thing (our Ward Mission Leader used to call my companion and I his 'smiling assassins').  She was with her daughter walking on the street when we stopped them - smiling - asked her if she had heard of the Book of Mormon.  She was surprised and told us that she had found the book on the street one day!  It was laying on a ledge and she took it home with her.  We asked if he could teach her about it, she agreed, but would be on vacation for 5-weeks.  So, the update was that she was reading the Book of Mormon and praying - she also brought a friend on their first teach.  They are both reading and praying.  It was very satisfying to be part of that mini-miracle.

The other great miracle this week happened to us this past Friday night.  We had to leave the Zone Conference a bit early to catch our flight back to Alta.  Had we missed the flight, we'd be stuck in Trondheim until Monday - no more flights up there.  As we got to the airport, we found that our flight plans were from Trondheim down to Oslo - from Olso we would fly to Tromsø and Alta. We were a bit surprised, but no big deal.  As we got on our flight in Oslo to Tromsø/Alta, we sat next to a woman who immediately began speaking with us.  She noticed our badges and expressed that she had spoken with missionaries earlier in the airport and that it was a surprise to be sitting next to us.  The next 2-3 hours were spent talking to this woman, Ada.  She was incredible.  Very prepared to hear the message and often times as we spoke to her she would be saying, "I am listening very closely to what you are saying now."  I felt the need to invite her to church (she was only going to be in Alta for the weekend). As Sunday came, she came to church!  I sat next to her all church (our church attendance was 4 out of 10 people were not members!).  It was an excellent couple hours of church!  At the conclusion of the meetings, I turned and asked her how she liked church.  She responded, "I have a lot to think about."

It was incredible to be part of that miracle!  At first we didn't know why we were flying Trondheim - Oslo - Tromsø - Alta, but we did it.  As we did it, we were able to take part in the Lord's work.  He is the master of the work. He controls all of this.  Now I will always stay in contact with Ada throughout my mission.  Wherever I move to, I will let her know.  She also has a son who is 24.  She is surprised that we do this work.  Two years of sacrifice, but to do it so that others can have the some knowledge and blessings that we have.  It is a special experience to be part of the Lord's work - we are absolutely an instrument in His hands.

I hope everyone can have the experience to feel the love the Lord has for His children by taking part in any form of service.  I know we are all needed to bless the lives of one another.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Conference and Technological Advances in the Church

Hello everyone!

After General Conference, there really is nothing much I can say spiritually, other than watch and listen to the talks given at this October's General Conference on LDS.org.  There are living prophets that live on this Earth, they lead The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  They speak every 6-months and bear messages that are the word of God.  If anyone takes the time to listen, I can promise that they offer answers to questions that many of us wonder.  It's very unique to be a member of this church and to be blessed with the opportunity to listen to those talks.

This past week was a busy one.  We set up the church for conference - we had to move the computer and set it up on the tv there.  It's pretty special to be a missionary in Northern Norway.  There are many pioneers here in the North.  Through technology they are beginning a new age of pioneering.  Shortly, we will be receiving a computer here, with a conference camera.  All the churches here in Northern Norway will have these items.  We'll be able to Skype one another and broadcast talks given in the various meeting houses.  We'll be able to communicate more effectively, and we missionaries will be able to hold meetings easier.  It's a very exciting time to see the pioneering age of technology take shape.  I am part of it first-hand!

This really is the work of the Lord.  The truthfulness of the gospel is found in our church.  As a missionary, we don't just kill time for 2 years to walk around and put down good community service on a resume.  It's the real deal.  We labor to bring people in and to help them receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  As the President of the church said yesterday, "The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the penetrating light that shines through the darkness of life."  That is what it is.  We labor so that others can receive the light and knowledge of the truth.  Where did we come from, why are we here, where are we going . . . With this perspective in mind, we are able to teach and expound on the gospel to allow others to receive a surety that they will someday come back to a Heavenly Father who truly loves us as individuals.  The truth has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.  That church continues to progress on this Earth today.  I am extremely gateful to be a missionary for this church.  I hope everyone has the chance to take a look at General Conference!

This week we will be traveling to Tromsø to be on splits and perform a baptismal interview.  We will then go down to zone conference in Trondheim and then come back here to Alta.  An exciting week to look forward too!  I hope everyone has an excellent week!