Week 3: Full of Surprises

Guess who came to speak at our devotional last week? Can you guess? Here's a clue for you: It was one of the twelve apostles.... Ok, it was Dallin H. Oaks. HOW COOL IS THAT? He and Sister Oaks talked about the importance of developing Heavenly Father's love for everyone and serving as Christ would. I would tell you more if I were able to take notes but I wasn't. I was way too absorbed by the talks. And the shock, but mainly how fantastic those talks were.

We have a new investigator along with Marita. His name is Frederik, 26, working on his master's degree in business, and works for an oil company. He used to be Christian but doesn't go to church anymore and he found the missionaries while on vacation and asked to ask with us. Pretty cool right? As we were getting to know him a little better, I felt a connection with him. I don't know why yet, but I feel that the two of us are very similar. I'm really excited to see how he will progress.

We are making some progress with Marita. At first, she struggled to accept the idea that there is a God. She's read the Bible for school and learned about the different religions but religion has never played a role in her life. We shared some scriptures with her about the Book of Mormon while I shared a personal experience with her. Our main goal was to teach her that God lets us know He's there is numerous ways as reminders that He is there. We challenged her to try to pray out loud and she said she would. Here's hoping!

In class... Well, lots of fun things have been going on. The other district's teacher has been sick so we combine the two Norwegian districts together a lot. Brother Bartholomew enjoys teasing the other elders and they enjoy giving him a difficult time. It's quite hilarious to watch. Oh, we also learned a funny story about him. When you say "fireants" when Brother Bartholomew is in the room, he gives you the most evil glare I have ever seen. Since he's such a jolly person it felt so strange to see him that angry. It was like we walked into the Twilight zone for 15 minutes. The longest 15 minutes of my life. Even when all of that happened, it just made me love and appreciate how fun and caring our teachers are. I really do have th greatest teachers ever. They're the best!

We had our first visit to the TRC (Teaching Resource Center). Our two volunteers were fantastic! One was Sister Kelly and she gave us yummy cookies while giving us compliments like a tsunami wave. They just kept on coming (the complimetns. Not the cookies. Sadly.)! The other we call "bestmor" which means grandma. She is from Norway and served a mission in England. She was super sweet. At first, I was so nervous to go into the TRC since I had no idea what to expect. They just told us to prepare a lesson. We never taught our lesson, but we did get to talk in Norwegian which was cool. I keep surprising myself with how fast I'm learning Norwegian. I keep thinking I'm doing so bad, but then I realize, "Hey, I can actually have a conversation!" It's a great feeling.

For those of you who know how much I love Disney, you'll be happy to hear that  I'm living up to my Disney guru title. This week the Elders asked me to write down the lyircs for "I'll Make A Man Out Of You," "A Girl Worth Fighting For," and "Part of Your World." Then we all busted out singing into not only Disney but other songs too. We sang some country (Rascal Flatts, Zach Brown Band, Keith Urban, etc.), classics (Journey, Bon Jovi, Queen, etc.) and so on. Sister Robbins hadn't heard of Bohemian Rhapsody before so the elders and I held a mini Queen concert for her. It was pretty fantastic. Also, last night the sisters and I back in our dorms had a pretty awesome Disney karaoke session. Oh yeah!


That about wraps it up for the week. Hope you all have a stupendous day!

Take care,
Sister Buhler

 Our Norwegian Districts

Last Day with Sister Frampton, Eldste Bodine, and Eldste Reber

And here is the drawing y'all have been waiting for. The Ninjornans - Ninja Mormons!

The following are companionship pictures of the elders

The review game!

 Our district at the temple

 Elders being silly...

My friend, Peterson shimai (sister in Japanese) from my Japanese class at BYU!

With Elder Ashton! He's Zach's from from Pasco!!!

Week 2 at the MTC

Greetings folks!

So what I have finally been able to accept this week. The MTC blows your mind. From what you learn in classes, from fellow missionaries, even from random quotes on the projection screen, it blows my mind. I just hope my mind will be able to reassemble itself before I go out into the field. That would help me out a lot.

I have been able to see lots of people in the cafeteria I used to work with! It's always fun to see a familiar face. And I'm still trying really hard to not always go into work zone when I enter the cafeteria. Last Thursday, I started to stalk chairs. It's bad. Habits die hard people.

We finished teaching Annette last week. Our last lesson with here was PHENOMENAL. We asked her to pray about being baptized. She said she wasn't sure because she was scared she would lose her friends and family if she got baptized. We all bore our testimonies and shared experiences of how having the gospel in our lives helped us greatly. The spirit was just overflowing. It was AWESOME. After that, Annette said she would be baptized!! Oh my goodness, it felt amazing to hear her say that!

And guess what? The next day, Annette becomes our teacher for the afternoons. At first it was so weird because we established a missionary/investigator bond and now we are working to create a student/teacher bond. We're all slowly adjusting to it.

In class we have two new investigators. One is Marita, she's 19, in her last year of high school, and has heard a lot about the church and wants to cut through the rumors and find out what is the truth. The another is Frederik, 26, was a Christian, knew a Mormon in high school, working and studying business, and met the missionaries while on vacation. We have only taught Marita so far. Yeah, that was a rough first lesson. We all were getting different promptings from the spirit with which direction to take the lesson from and somehow managed to bring it all together. It was bad. Luckily, we have those to help[ us improve so now we know how to prepare ourselves for the next lesson and also for Frederik!

In the mornings during gym time, we usually play volleyball. It's always so hilarious. The elders are so funny to watch as they tease each other. I keep diving for the ball (when we're not allowed to dive) so I try to cover it by going into a dance pose. Yeah, I got the moves like Jagger. Not. But we have a blast while getting in a workout.

The Dutch missionaries, Sister Frampton, Elder Bodine, and Elder Reber all left this week. It was both sad but exciting to see them all head out to the field. We exchanged emails to keep in touch which is nice. Crazy to think that will be me in a few weeks. But I still have lots to learn before then.

One last thing, so when we have spare moments, the elders and us sisters like to doodle on the chalkboards. The elders saw my doodles of the sisters and asked me to draw them. So next week, you'll be able to see the finished product. I'm pretty excited about it!

Well, that about sums up this week.

Till next time!

 Soster Frampton and I matching!

 The Elders!

The Sosters!

Hallo Folk!

Greetings from the Missionary Training Center (MTC)! How has everybody been? Did you all watch conference this past weekend? It was absolutely wonderful, I loved it so much. If you haven't watched it, you really should. It will change your life in one way or another.

Where to begin? Guess I'll start with my first day here. I was dropped off my old roomies at BYU (go cougs!), dropped my luggage off at my dorm, picked up my books, and was sent to a computer lab to do this welcome orientation. Afterwards I went into my new classroom with my teacher speaking Norwegian to us. Peculiar thing, I was not freaking out that he was just speaking Norwegian to us. Guess I have a Japanese classes to thank you that. Plus our teacher is so animated and plays charades with us so it makes it fun to learn!

We were off to dinner and I saw five people that I knew as soon as I entered in the cafeteria. So awesome!

After dinner, all the new missionaries wend to a teaching experience where we taught three investigators. Yeah, they really do have you going right off the bat. Intense. But it was a big eye opener to just everything the MTC and the mission are about for me. When we sang "We Are As The Army of Helaman" the original line in the chorus is "And we will be the Lord's missionaries" but was changed to "And we ARE NOW the Lord's missionaries" Singing that line made everything official for me. Since then, I have been feeling wonderful.

Our schedule for last week was pretty fun. We worked out in the morning, we're the last group to eat meals so the cafeteria is pretty empty by the time we get there, we're teaching an investigator named Annette. and we've had workshops and of course, General Conference. I met my zone and branch (same thing pretty much). Really, we are all so different from one another but somehow we all just click. It's so amusingly amazing!

The Norwegian is coming along. Slowly but surely. I can give the first lesson briefly, bear my testimony, and pray. My companions think it's crazy how many languages I've learned and keep telling people, "Yeah, Norwegian is her twelfth language." It's not FYI. It's my seventh technically. Yeah.

As mentioned earlier, my companions and I have been teaching an investigator names Annette. She grew up atheist but recently discovered Christ and wants to become a better person. The fist time we saw her, we gave her a brief explanation about how the Book of Mormon helps us come closer to Christ which she really liked. She asked about who Joesph Smith was and we told her that we would answer her question next time.

The second time we saw her, we talked about Christ's Ministry, The Great Apostasy, and mainly the First Vision for the restoration. It was a bit more crazy this time because we tried asking Annette more questions and allowing her to talk more when we still don't completely understand Norwegian. She asked how do we know that Joesph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I started to say that I prayed then suddenly, WHAM. The spirit hit me so strongly. I told her I prayed and the Holy Ghost came into my heart and confirmed it. It was powerfully simple.

Well that's all for now. Till next time and remember:

Life is good when you let Christ in.

Soster Buhler

                                             Companions and Norway flag!!!

 Me with my missionary tag!!! It's Official!!!

Soster Robbins, Soster Campbell, and I

 Me, Soster Henderson, Soster Frampton (our trainer), Soster Campbell, and Soster Robbins

 Charise (Sister Jensen) and I

 Studying... with a photo bomb :P

 Eldste Reber, Soster Frampton, and Aldeste Bodine (going to Sweden)

 Studying oh so hard..... Yeah

They stole my camera... That's our district leader and his companion.

Hana updated her address at MTC:

Sister Maria Anne Hana Buhler
NOV11 NOR-OSL
2011 N. 900 E. Unit 250
Provo, UT 84602

Please write to her and ALL the missionaries you know!

Thank you so much!
from Hana's mom

The time has come!

I'm currently amazed by two things: 1) It's already October and 2) today is my report day. Whoa.

Also GENERAL CONFERENCE is this weekend. You all should listen to it, it truly is wonderful. You can watch it on tv, online at lds.org, listen to it on the radio, you've got options so take advantage of them :)

I really have been on an excited high since I got on the plane yesterday. So excited I had to take melatonin to help me go to sleep last night. Thank you inventor of melatonin, you rock.

As my last day in the outside world before I go into the MTC, I get to hang out with my old roomies before they drop me off. I'm so joyful to have been able to see their beautiful faces again!

After today I will become limited to updating once a week but I shall do my best to actually update once a week for you fantastic people.

Have a wonderful day!

Here was a view from the plane. I thought it was pretty so I took a picture. Sunsets are amazing.