Your Best

Hei Folkens!

This has been another solid week of miracles. Plus some random-ness to keep me on the tops and have some laughs. For example, I've had 5 people on the street come up to me and speak Spanish... Also someone thought I was from the south of France... Yeah guess I have one of those faces?? Anyhoo, Here we go!

- Found five great new investigators

- Updates with Elisabeth, Marcel, and Ivan
- Miracle: Svein in Slottparken (the castle park)

- A former investigator... un-formerized?? 

- Philipinno Fest!

- Spiritual thought - from Zone Leader Training

We found Tobias, Twinkle and Harold, Virginia, and Ali (Yup, like Prince Ali, mighty is he, aliababwa!... Sorry, I couldn't resist).

Tobias is 19, born and raised in Norway. He's parents just went through a divorce and he just bought a Bible to start finding out if God is really there. We had an incredible first teach about the restoration with him and it was cool to see that spark of interest grow into a strong desire to know more about God and Jesus Christ.

Twinkle and Harold actually live down the road from us. We went tracting one night and had a great chat with Twinkle about faith and family history. She's from India and has a Methodist background. We met with her on Monday night and met her husband Harold (he's Norwegian). They asked us what was different about our church and well, we went through the restoration with them. We mainly talked about how God wants everyone to have truth and know it for themselves.

Virginia and Ali are both referrals from a member! So Sister Chapman served in Kristiansand and became very good friends with a member named Aida from the Philllipines. She came to visit a friend in Oslo (Virginia) and met another friend (Ali) at the train station when she arrived. 

Virginia is from the Phillipines and has lived in Norway for about 30 years. She's Catholic but not very active. Aida invited her to come to church and we were able to meet up afterwards to give her a Book of Mormon and explain what it is.

Ali is from Pakistan, grew up Muslim but he believes in Christ. We met him together with Aida and Virginia so he also got a Book of Mormon with a explaination.

UPDATES:

Elisabeth hasn't been feeling very good this past week. But she continues praying and reading everyday. She tells us that she's been getting answers to prayers! 

Marcel is doing great. He is keeping up with his reading and praying. We went over prophets with him and the blessing of having living prophets which he liked.

Ivan was a bit confused with how we teach. He thought we only meet five times and then it's over so we re-explained our purpose as missionaries with him. He understood that we're here to help him gain understanding which he sounded grateful for, bless his soul.

Miracle: Svein

We had some time to contact before an appointment and we ended up in Slottparken. We stopped this man named Svein who at first didn't want to talk with us but, through the help of the Spirit, we said the right things and ended up talking with him for 30 minutes. He's had a lot happen to him the last few days and he's always struggled to believe if God is there because he relies on science. I really cannot remember what I said but by the end of the conversation, he told us that he does actually want to learn. It was so incredible to see how quickly the Holy Ghost worked with Svein's heart to open up more to us.

We contacted a former named Jan Ole who met with the missionaries a few months ago. He's researched other religions and as of now considers himself to be more Buddist. Super nice Norwegian man who travels around the world a lot for his business. We talked about Jesus Christ and read in Alma 7 together. It was a very simple but powerful lesson. He committed to read and pray to specifically know if Christ is his Savior. He also came to church on Sunday and liked it!

And.... We ended up going to a Phillipino party. Like I said before, Aida was visiting Virginia and they ended up throwing a birthday party we got invited to. THERE WAS SO MUCH FOOD. They just kept saying, "eat more eat more, there's plenty" and oh boy I almost exploded. We ended up talking with a guy named Kristofer there about the church. Before we left, he asked if we could meet up to talk more sometime and I ended up getting his number. MIRACLE.

WE had zone leader training last week about giving our best. We watched this clip from a football movie (I think the movie is called Facing Giants). A football team does this drill called "the death crawl" where two players team up, one is carried on the other's back while the other player carries them to the 10 yard mark on their hands and feet, not allowed to have their knees touch the ground. The clip shows how the quaterback was på måte lacking faith that their team would do well. The coach calls him and another player over. The coach asks this quaterback (Brock) to do the death crawl to the 50 meter mark. Brock is uncertain if he could make it but the coach makes him promise to give his best. The coach also blindfolds Brock before he begins. As Brock is starting, the other players are making doubtful comments and the coach is going along with Brock giving him encouragement. As Brock is going, he starts getting tired and the coach starts getting more intense with him. Brock is screaming, "It hurts, I can't go further!" while the coach is screaming back, "Don't you quit on me! Show me your best! Give me your best!" Brock is moving slowly but keeps going forward til he just collaspes. The coach takes off his blindfold and Brock sees that he's in the endzone. 

I remember this clip everyday before I head out the door. It gets me so pumped and motivated to get to work. Whether it's today or later in the future, I hope you will be able to see this clip or even the movie. I love sport movies because they help me to remember that we have a lot more in us than we realize. We go forward with faith everyday to do things. Our Heavenly Father has given us the incredible gift of being able to act for ourselves. Use it and give your best. I did that this past week and have seen the miracles both big and small. Miracles don't just stop, they work according to our faith (Alma 37:40).

I hope you will all make this week a fantastic one.

With great power comes great resonsibilty.

Life is good and the church is true!

Love, 

Søster Buhler