Slow and Steady. Building up for Bigger Things!

Hello everyone! 

Hope you are all are doing fantastic! Like the title says, this has been a slow week, but a steady one building up to something in the future.

Semhar, one of our investigators, is simply amazing. She is finally taking action to have control over her life instead of letting her past control her. On Monday when we visited her, she told us that she has started repenting and has continued reading in the Book of Mormon and praying. We just struggle finding time to meet because she has to find a new place to move into by the end of the month.

Wednesday we had our district meeting in Hamar which was wonderful. It was about personal accountability and reminding oursleves that while we always have improvement to make, to remember that our Heavenly Father is very happy with us as we try. Sister Johnson and I were able to get a blessing from the elders. It was something I've been needing for awhile now and it felt amazing to receive. I felt the huge pressue I had on myself just disappear and I felt so light! Power of the Priesthood: It does miracles.

Later Wednesday night, we got to visit a potential we had named Michelle. We hadn't met since December becasue she and her boyfriend Thomas were doing lots of traveling. When she saw us through the window she was so excited and said, "Hey! I knew you two girls!" We were able to have a lovely chat and even got to teach her about the Restoration. So wonderful! She will be traveling yet again til Feb 24th, but she wants to teach us some Italian cooking when she returns!

On Friday, we had an appointment cancel on us but we ended up getting to teach a man named Sharrig (spelling sufferes) while we were bonking, about 20 minutes after our appointment cancelled. He wouldn't agree to a another time to meet, but we exchanged contact information to stay in touch as he read the Book of Mormon.

We also had a good lesson with Joe on Friday night. Sadly, we had to move his baptismal date back. We just have to take things slower with him to make sure he's really understanding everything. But every time we meet with him, you can see he gets more excited about baptism!

Saturday, probably my favorite day this past week. There was a baptismal serivce for one of the girls in the ward named Rebekka. She is super sweet! Afterwards we had to run to an appointment which... was alright. He's not veyr willingly to learn. But we had a really great contacting time afterwards! Even though more people called us not-so-nice things, we were able to find some great potentials and got 2 appointments! I also had a cool experience with one guy we talked with. He was walking with his friend and we stopped them. His friend apparently was stopped by sisters before and was being sassy rude with us. Then suddenly the other guy asks, "What happens after we die?" I can't forget the look on his face. He was incredibly sincere as he asked us about what happens after death. It was a powerful experience for me to see that there are people who are seeking truth. The sad part: We didn't get a way to contact him! The OK part: We gave him a mormon.org card with our number. You best believe I'm going to fast and pray to find this guy again!

So this week was chill but it was still good. Next time, we will find out if I stay or go for the next transfer! Tune in next week to find out!

Have a wonderful week and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Take care,

Sister Buhler

Keep Moving Forward

This week has been challenging but also full of little miracles. On Tuesday we FINALLY met this golden potential (the sisters said we were Mormons and he replied, "Cool." No one ever says that!)  named Tor Kristian we've had for months. We couldn't find his address on our GPS because it was a new development but we were able to find the street with the Lord's help and finally met Tor Kristian. Wednesday we had a prompting to call a potential named Moses who would plan a time to meet us, but never show up. When we called him, he said he could meet in 30 minutes. We were able to get a lesson with him right before he left to see a friend. The other small miracles were how members are slowly giving us referrals.

While we had these wonderful little miracles happened, we also had some challenges. Our finding this week was been bad. We let our appointments go over a lot and we didn't have the time to go contacting or tracting. Because of this, our teaching pool has shrunk. We finally sat down and talked about how we haven't been exactly obedient with our appointments. We need the Lord's miracles in our area and the way to receive that help is by exact obedience. We've made a plan with steps we both need to take in order to have exact obedience and we shall test that plan out this week. Wish us luck!

On a positive note, we had a baptismal service for Aurora, the ward secretary's daughter. Joe was able to come! We absolutely loved the spirit that was there. He really loves how baptism is a new beginning. We are still going to have to help him a lot in order for him to reach his baptismal goal on February 8th but he is making progress.

Disney's quote "keep moving forward" as been going through my mind a lot this week. Whether you're a student, a worker, missionary, wherever you in life, we are all climbing the mountian of earthly life. We all go through avalanches, storms, and other hard obstacles. But we also will come across those great moments or beautiful meadows along the way. Those meadows are like the good moments in life. Our Heavenly Father wants us to have joy in this life however we must remember that there is something even better up higher on the mountain. If we want to receive the greatest joy ever, we must keep moving forward. We do so with the gospel of Jesus Christ; Faith in Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receive the Gift of the Holly Ghost, and Endure to the End. Those simple five steps is all that God, our Heavenly Father have asked of us. Once you start those steps, "keep moving forward." There's always something better ahead.

Take care,
Sister Buhler

Life has Ups and Downs

This week has had some ups and downs. But the ups have been incredible. Rebecca, one of our investigators, has had her family and a friend join us when we teach her. Since we more people now when we teach her, we need to start over so everyone's on the same page but I'm so happy to finally be able to teach a family! We found a new investigator named Veronique who was a service referal from a less-active we work with. Service: It's simply powerful. We've also been able to find two great potentials named Nina and Tommy. Nina did a 180 when she talked with us. At first she refused to talk with us but then we gave her a momron.org card then we ended up talking for a good ten minutes. Tommy doesn't have much religious knowledge but he is really curious about Christanity. 

And this week was our first mission coordination meeting with our new ward misison leader, Paul. Oh my goodness I was so excited to work with him. He has so much drive to get the work moving in his ward and I'm thankful that he also believes that this ward has great potential. There are going to be big changes happening. Last but not least, Joe has accepted to be baptized on February 8th!! I could not stop smiling and I kept telling him how excited his Heavenly Father is because of that choice he's made. We will be meeting with him A LOT to help him meet that goal and I can see it happening. The best part is that Joe is also very excited for it as well.

On the down side, finding this week was rough. People were ridiculously sassy with us and they would refuse to let us talk. And we've been dumped aka dropped by one of our investigators, Hanne. Don't get too sad though, it was mutual. Hanne is still trying to find her standing with the bible and her primary focus is to read the bible to be more familiar with it. She still wants to stay in touch with us, but she just wasn't ready yet. It's sad but it's comforting that she still has ways to contact the church even after Sister Johnson and I leave. 

So even though there were some down this week, the ups that happened this week conquer over them. Just comes to show that yes we do have trials and hardships throughout life but when you take the time to step back and really look at your life, you'll see that the blessings from our Heavenly Father always outnumber the hard times.

Remember to count your blessings and I hope you have a great week!

Take care,

Søster Buhler

Pictures: So I had my first kebab this week. It was not so great but Sister Johnson and I still enjoyed the experience.

 And I discovered we have a katana in our apartment. So I had some fun taking pictures with it :P

2014-New Start

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Sorry it's late but I hope the thought still counts. Anyhoo, some great tings ahve happened this week!

New Year's Eve was a blast (literally)!! Søster Johnson and I stayed up playing card games and wanted for the fireworks to go off. You know all the fanyc fireworks they use for firework shows? People can just buy those willy nilly here. So we had some legit fireworks going off EVERYWHERE. It felt like a warzone being in our basement apartment, smoke in the air, explosions, all that fun stuff. It was the best!

New Year's day we got to visit Poala, a less-active we work with. We talked about the blessings of going to Church with her and how going to Chruch would help her son Adrian. Poala complains that Adrian is a huge handful but we just kept on encouraging her. And she came to Church! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

On Friday we had transfers. Elder Nielson has left us and in exchange Elder Årsnes came. He actually grew up in the Romerike ward which is fun. He is also our new district leader which is exciting! It's gonna be a fun transfer.
Also something pretty exciting happened for a very moments. I got a call from President asking about my Japanese. The sister in Bergen had some Japanese investigators and President asked me to help them. When I called Bergen, they explained that their two investigators are going to be moving back to Japan and they wanted to know how strong the church was over there, So it wasn't so much as a language question they have, but that's awesome to know that my Japanese language knowledge could be used here in Norway!

Saturday we had  our ward Juletrefest. It's a Norwegian party where you sing and dance around the Christmas tree. Yes, just like what the whos do in whoville. It was awesome! We also played lots of games and ate Boller (Norwegian bread pastry, THE BEST). Semhar, one of our investigators, was able to come!! She had a great time and some members talked with her throughout the the activity. Excellent!

Sunday lots of fun things happened: As mentioned earlier, Poala came to church! At the beginning of sacrament, Adrian was starting to cry and I prayed  like crazy that Adrian would be good so Poala could have a good experience at church. After that, Adrian stopped crying and was so good for the entire meeting. I helped to keep him entertained so Poala could listen to the members share their testimonies. I was very grateful that Heavenly Father answered my prayer so quickly so Poala could have a good experience at church.
We visited Mary, a member in the ward. She is super sweet and always has fascinating stories about her genealogy and the church. After we shared our message, she gave us belated Christmas presents of Norwegian goods to eat and Nissens (Santa Clauses). We never leave Mary's without her giving us something, she's too good to us.
Also we got to visit Semhar! She wasn't feeling good so she couldn't come to church so we swung by to visit. We visited her before Mary's but Søster Johnson left her nametag at Semhar's. So after we left Mary's we went back to Semhar's and we ended up having dinner together. It was so fun! Oh mah goodness, Semhar is just the greatest and sweetest gal ever!

2014 has been off to a great start and I feel that this year is going to be so wonderful!! I hope you have a fantastic new year and remember to write down your new year resolutions! A goal not written down is just a wish.

Take care,
Søster Buhler

 Our ward members gave us so many presents!

 Our Christmas Tree

 Christmas presents from my family!

We made pancakes! Yum!

 Christmas soda called julebrus!

 My MTC siblings I saw at Mission Conference

 Our P-day hiking adventure! We went to try to find a place called "pile of rocks" we didn't find it... but we still had a great time :) I hope these pictures make up for last week!

 

 Our Christmas Eve Dinner