Kick it up a notch

Hey everybody!

Yeah først og fremst I am SO SORRY about last week's update and how it was a lack of updates really... We ended up having to run and didn't get a chance to come back to do more emails... Lame I know but I will do better with this one!

Anyhoo the interesting thing is there is actually not that many updates to give this week. We did have our week PACKED with appointments but every single one fell through. Not going to lie, that was really hard. But this week has taught me the importance of being diligent and has given me a chane to apply what President Uchtdorf talked about being grateful IN our circumstances. Yes it was hard at first when people called or texted us saying they couldn't meet, but looking back I am grateful that the Lord helped me to have an opportunity to step back up and keep going forward. Sure I stumbled quite a few times this week, but that is the beauty of the gospel - I know that Hevaenly Father loves me despite my mistakes and that through the Atonement, I always can get back up.

So every year before Christmas, the mission has a "Read-a-thon" to read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Helaman 13-15, and 3 Nephi to prepare us for the Christmas season. Today in my personal studies I began reading in 3 Nephi. As I was reading about the people seeing the miracle of a night with no darkness and the new star appearing, it mentions in verse 22: "And it came to pass that from this time forth there began to be lyings sent forth among the people, by Satan, to harden their hearts, to the intent that they might not believe in those signs and wonders they have seen..." Despite how big miracles can be, that does not at all make Satan go, "Oh gee, you got me God. I can't do anything to stop people to believe in you and Christ." NOPE. Instead, Satan works even more to try to reverse the process of people believing. But the verse continues:

"but notwithstanding these lyings and deceivings the more part of the people did believe, and were converted unto the Lord."

This verse today taught me two things: 1) Satan is an example about being diligent. We should never give up or slack off because Satan does not. He's on the clock all the time and we should be as well. 2) The Lord's side is ALWAYS the winning side. Despite whatever Satan will do, the Lord is still looking out for each one of us and He will ALWAYS help us.

I know that the Lord is always by our side and He gives us those pep talks RIGHT when we need it most. I am grateful that I know my Savior and that everyday I get to know Him a little bit better. 

Love you all and I hope we will all remember to have an attitude of graditude!

Love,

Søster Buhler

Some Ålesund pics!

Me and my adopted daughter Sister Heywood!!

The sun setting at 2:45pm. Yup it happens

Jeg vet ikkje...

Well, that whole emergency transfer thing happened this week. And it's been AMAZING. Had a great ending to Nordstrand and Ålesund has been off to a wonderful start! Here are some of the highlights of the week:

Nordstrand:

-Met with Svein, Didrik (POWERFUL), Elisabeth, and Tobias (he's back!!)

-Zone Leader Training

-"Friends Never Say Goodbye"

Ålesund:

-Flying..... adventures

-Areabook Miracles!

-Spiritual Thought: Potential

Svein is continuing to progress really well. His life really has brightened up a lot since we began meeting with him! It truly is be small and simple means that the Lord helps His children to recognize how they need the gospel in their lives.

Didrik's lesson was INCREDIBLE. We had a member named Karolina come with us and she was really nervous about it since it was her first lesson being with the missionaries. Before we went it, we said a prayer asking for peace and the guidance we needed in order to help Didrik understand why he needs the Book of Mormon. As we opened up, Didrik began by saying how he read the Bible sections we gave him but he still did not feel convinced that he needed to read the Book of Mormon. I am still not quite sure how this happened, but suddenly both Sister House and I asked him some bold questions. Didrik finally opened and told us the reason he is scared to read the Book of Mormon is because the Bible tells about all these horrible things that happens to our relationship wiht God if we embrace false doctrine. He loves God and does not know what he would do if he lost that precious relationship. We all bore POWERFUL testimony about how the Book of Mormon only brings us closer to God and that God wants him to read it. After that, it was like we were all hit by a spirit tidal wave. IT WAS SO STRONG. After a good ten minutes of just soaking it in, we asked if Didrik felt that. He said yes and that he's had a feeling like this before, but never so strong. This work truly is incomplete without the Spirit. 

So this is REALLY awkward.... my time just dramatically cut down like A LOT so I have to end it here. But I just want you all to know that I love Ålesund and every day I grow to love this work more. No matter where you are, who you talk with, what you do, everything and everyone has INCREDIBLE potential. I haven't even been in Ålesund for a week but I can just feel this place is about to explode! I am so excited to see what the Lord will accomplish here.

I love you all and I hope you have a stupendous week!!

Love,

Søster Buhler

Surprise! My first emergency transfer!!!

New Address:
Hellegata 1
6004 Ålesund (There's a little "o" over the a)
Norge 

Hello!! 

Yup as the title probably has given away, I got a very surprising phone call on Saturday. I will be moving to an area called Ålesund. I'm going back north!! Not quite as north as Trondheim, but still in the North Zone. Sister House will continue to serve in Nordstrand but will temporarily be companions with Sister Angerhofer (one of the Sister Training Leaders) for about a week and a half until their new companions come. They will be covering the Nordstrand and Oslo Sisters areas until then so they will be busy, busy, busy!

Here are some highlights of the week:

- Found four new investigators! (Didrik, Lena, Carolina, and Severin)

- Zone Conference: Member Missionary Work

- FOUR PEOPLE CAME TO CHURCH

- Miracle Story: Olaf (No, he's not a snowman. He's actually American).

- Trondheim Update: Two of my investigators got baptized this past weekend!

- Closing: What I've learned in Nordstrand

Didrik and Lena we met while we were bonking/tracting, Carolina was a former, and Severin contacted us on the tram. Quick little summaries:

- Didrik is Norwegian, loves going to concerts, and about 25 years old. Doesn't really have a religion but he mostly relates himself to the Jehovah's Witnesses. He loves the bible with all his heart and is scared to read the Book of Mormon unless he finds something in the Bible that tells him he needs the Book of Mormon. 

- Lena is actually Randa's (the lady we taught back when Sister Chapman was still here) daughter. We went to try to visit with Randa and Lena asnwered the door. She said her mom wasn't home but invited us in to talk. We had a powerful teach about the Holy Ghost and that really clicked with her. We invited her to begin reading the Book of Mormon and pay attention to see if she gets those same feelings she had while talking with us.

- Carolina is about 27 and from Poland. She was dropped before just because the previous sisters had a difficult time getting ahold of her. We tried calling, she asnwered, and she agreed to meet up! She's a super strong Catholic and loves her faith. We've met with her two times now and she's shared that she feels something different about us and the Book of Mormon. Not a bad different, just doesn't know what it is. 

- And Severin. On our way home, this guy keeps staring at us and we were like...."What? Is this for real?" And then he asks us, "Are you Mormon Missionaries?" We ended up talking about how we got called to Norway and a bit about what we do. He agreed to meet up and we got to have a POWERFUL lesson about the Restoration. He had never thought about there being one true church before but he does want to find out if it is true. He's so cool!! 

Had a great Zone Conference with the East and Telemark zones. It was wonderful to see some familiar faces (Elders Taylor, Jensen, and Rice from my MTC group. Along with Sister Olsen my old companion) and meet some new people as well. The stake presidents have asked all the members to get a Preach My Gospel and begin studying it. We did lots of practicals about how we could introduce PMG to members and show them how to use it. What was really cool was right after the conference, we had a member dinner appointment and got to apply what we learned! It was an uplifting experience for all of us and I'm excited to have more visits like it.

Church. WOW IT WAS INTENSE. We had Boguslaw (our newer Polish investigator), Ivan, and Olaf (the miracle guy) come to all three meetings. I was trying to help introduce members to them while also trying to say goodbye to members throughout the meetings. Elisabeth was able to make it to Sacrament meeting too!! She was devastated when she learned that I will be leaving. Before we went in, we talked about it for a few minutes and throughout the meeting, we would turn to each other and be like, "I can't believe I'm/you're leaving!" Ahhhhhhh, sometimes (Ok not sometimes. More like always) it's REALLY hard to say goodbye. Luckily we'll be meeting up again tomorrow!

Miracle Story: While we were waiting to meet up with Øyvind at National Theater (our meetup point), this guy makes eye contact with us and as he's walking away, he holds the eye contact.... He then turns back around, walks up to us, and asks while pointing at my name badge, "What does that say in English?" After we answered, he proceeded to tell us a long but fascinating story. To summarize: He met with missionaries in Hawaii and was baptized this past summer. After making a HUGE career change, he decided to make a brand new start and move over to Norway. During this move he thought that he should try checking out the church and one of his old missionaries contacted him saying he should check the church out in Norway. Sure enough, about 2 days later, he saw us at National Theater. Coincident? I think not!

I just got the update that Sharifi and Hem back in Trondheim got baptized!!! Oh mah goodness I cannot explain how happy I was to hear that!! Just comes to show that no matter what happens, people continue to make progress and the Lord's work keeps moving forward :)

I feel a whole mix of different emotions, as does happen every time you move from an area I suppose. My goodness I have learned so much during my time here in Nordstrand. I would have to say that Nordstrand has been the turning point in my mission. It is where it finally clicked for me that: Heavenly Father loves me and is proud of me, I can speak Norwegian, big miracles happen, and something that I already knew but has definitely solidified is the testimony that we are not alone in this work. And of course I am super grateful for the time I have had together with Sister House. She truly is so wonderful and I know that she will keep on doing miraculous wonders here in the Nordstrand area. 

-District picture at the opera house
- Me and Cecilie (a super awesome YSA)
- Sister House doing her model walk by the water

 Oslo Fjord. No big deal
My name tag with the Oslo Fjord in the back
The graves lighted with candles, the camera does no justice for how beautiful it really was.

This is something I would always see on the way home. Thought it was way cool.
I drew my Romerike district as the cast of Frozen! (Me/Else, Årsnes/Kristoff, Jensen/Sven, Vause/Olaf, Johnson/Anne, and Hall/Hanes)

Arise

Hello!

Now that Halloween is over, the Christmas stuff is all coming out! IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME - Sorry, I will hold off with that. For now ;) 

It's been a solid week of finding here in the Nordstrand area. Here are some of the highlights:

-New investigators: Svein, Lena, Idris, and Boguslaw

-Splits with the Sister Training Leaders

-Halloween!

-Little Reunion: Sister House and Anya

-Sunday adventures: Spanish night

-Spiritual Thought: To rise

All the investigators we found this week are so incredible! Svein and Lena especially are powerful examples to me of people that are seeking the truth but just didn't know where they could find it. And now they have begun their journey and I am so excited for them!

On Friday we went on Splits with the Sister Training Leaders which was pretty fun! It ended up being cut short to to tings getting mixed around, but it was a solid day just the same.

Halloween was pretty fun! We went to the Institute dinner and had some fun with the YSA, what great people :) We got to judge costumes and eat some really good creepy looking food. I just love people's creavitity!!

So something exciting happened this week, Sister House got to meet up with an old friend named Anya. Anya was an exchange student in Park City and they got to enjoy some catching up. We also had a really good teach about the Book of Mormon and learning about God. She was excited to get a Book of Mormon and meeting up with us again! 

So yesterday we went out to try getting back in contact with this referral named Jacqueline (whose from Chile). She really is super sweet and we got to enjoy some small chit chat about how much we love the scriptures. She then told us some members (who are less-active) lived right across from her, and we were like, "Sayeth whaaat?" So, of course, we went to say hello to them while we were in the area. When the mom (Carolina, also from Chile) answered the door, she was so excited and hurried us in. We ended up having a great teach about testimony and how we receive one. Afterwards, she asked if we could come back again to have a Chilean dinner together, bless her sweet soul. 

And one of the best funny parts: Both Jacquelin and Carolina asked me if I was from South America. No matter how many times I hear that, it's still a knee slapper.

Spiritual Thought: I came across 2 Nephi 9 this week during studies. One of my all time favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon is in this chapter, verse 7:

7 Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.

Because of the Savior's Atonement, there is always the possibility to rise up. There are no last chances because the Atonement always allows us to receive new chances. It even blesses us with the enabling power to successfully achieve those chances we are blessed with.

Have a wonderful week and get ready to get into the full swing of the most wonderful time of the year!

Love,

Søster Buhler

Halloween decorations and food!! Ate some fingers and toes (breadsticks, I haven't gone cannibal).

Some costumes!

Garrett - a zombie astronaut 

Anders - Wolverine!

Sigrid - Red Riding Hood!

Dina - The Mad Hatter

Katerine - Lion queen

Elin - a skeleton (check out that awesome make-up!!)

  

  Rodrigo - Gladiator/Captain Moroni

 Me - Oh how I've missed my crazy hats