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)