Baptism at the Baptist Church

Hei dokke!

It's a brand new year and it's a good life! Super short explaination about the tite- The Kristiansund elders told us how they were trying to find a place to baptize one of their investigators. They saw the Baptist church was open so they thought they'd try to ask. They got permission to use their baptismal font! So... there's gonna be a baptism at the Baptist church! Anyhoo, lots to talk about so I'll just cut to the chase:

-TRANSFERS: I'm getting a new ledsager!

-First Day of 2015: Miracle - Karlis og Antra

-Tender Mercy from the Lord: Omar

-Guess what? MORE MIRACLES! (Can't think of a short/cool way so sorry, buuut you'll have to read this section to find out why it's so miraculous!)

-Spiritual Thought from 1 Samuel

Yesterday was our moves call and Søster Heywood will be leaving to serve in Stavanger. We shed a few (Ok, more like a flood) of tears when we heard this. Mainly due to excitement for each other and sadness that they are breaking up a beautiful friendship. We've bonded so much over the last eight weeks together, but this friendship will be one to last for forever.

I will be serving with a Søster Haylee Nielsen. Don't know a whole lot about her but ou'll get the 411 next week!

New Year's day was a dead day. We were out by noon and...... nobody was out. We ended up walking outside of the city and finding more people out there and had a good faith walk to find people. As we were coming back, I thought we should try visiting some formers (Karlis and Antra who I met with when the Sister Training Leaders came). They were home! Both of them were super tired from the night before but they were so kind and welcoming. We were not there for too long (they REALLY needed to sleep, they kept dosing off. Poor things) but we were able to follow up with their Book of Mormon reading and they are in 1 Nephi 5! I was so happy that they are putting in the effort desite their crazy chef lives! We got an apointment with them for next week and I'm just so excited!

The little tender mercy: I called Trondheim to get a number for a member to help with translation and the sister was like, "Hey Omar was your convert right?"

"Yeah... Why do you ask?"

"Oh, he's right here. Do you want to talk with him?"

"Wait, what? Of course!"

Oh my goodness it was so fun to hear from Omar! He's doing good and he's just so happy. I love how happy he is now! My heart can't take the joy! They were having a ward activity which was why they were all together. Oh, It was just so good to hear how happy Omar is from himself!

Big Miracle day on Saturday!

Åse Marie planned to help us out the entire day and so we booked appointments back to back to back. The first one was with a former wwe found in the area book named Jean Claude. As he walks up to us, we see another man with him. Jean Claude tells us this is Daniel his roommate and he had invited him to come along. Uh, Ok! We did a how to begin teaching with them to find out about their beliefs and get to know them. Jean Claude grew up Catholic but is not active. Thinks that everyone is good as long as they are good. Daniel doesn't speak much English or Norwegian so Jean Claude did the translating for us. Daniel is from Congo and is a very strong Christian. We gave a short lesson about the Book of Mormon and gave them one to prepare for the next time when we talk about why we have it. Daniel was super excited and because he is Jean Claude's roommate, I think he'll help him get excited about it too.

We then met with this inactive member named Harold Hågensen who no one knew about. It was a miracle he had even showed up because apparently no one met with him before because he would never show up to appointments. He is such a sweet old man! He hasnt come to church for over 30 years and because of that, he's forgotten a lot. We ended up going through the Restoration with him because he expressed how concerned he was about not knowing which church is true. He has a questioning soul and just the look in his eyes were priceless. It was powerful to see in his eyes that he had found the truth. We invited him to read Moroni 10 and to pray and God if this church is true to which he promised he would.

That apointment ran late so we were hurrying to get going to the next one when someone knocks on the church door. I opened the door and this man comes in. Uh, what? We tell hi to make himself comfortable thinking it was our next appointment. Turns out, it was a potential that Søster Heywood and I talked to weeks ago. He saw the lights were on and thought why not? I went into the other room to call our next apointment to let him know we're running late. Søster Heywood and Åse Marie get to know him and this is what they told me what happened:

Åse Marie: Do you have a personal faith?

Chol (the potential): Yeah I grew up Christian but I'm not really attached to that. I'm kind of exploring other religions now.

Søster Heywood: So you're searching if there is a true church then?

Chol: Yeah, you could say that.

WHOA. Since we had to run to the other appointment, it was a short lesson with the Book of Mormon. We exchanged numbers and he said he's come to church! DOUBLE WHOA!

By the end of the day we had 3 new investigators (that last appointment ended up not coming, but hey the other appointments came through!) and 2 referrals contacted (Mo i Rana, another area gave us a referral). I love being a missionary!!!

To close, I would like to share what I learned from 1 Samuel during the week. In 1 Samuel 14-15 the Lord tells Samuel the prophet that Saul is no longer meant to be king. This was heartbreaking for Samuel to hear and throughout these chapters, he's mourning for Saul and how he didn't fulfill his potential. In chapter 16 the Lord comes to Samuel and says, "How ong wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons (1 Sam 16:1)."

When I first read that I had this thought come to my head, "Why do you cry about the past when the Lord has already planned and set things in motion for even better things to come?"

It was a subtle but powerful lesson for me as I begin this new year. 2014 was a great one and I'll admit I was sad that a lot of those good memories came to an end, BUT that doens't mean the good times are over. "Just when I start thinking it's as good as it can get, this crazy life does smething just to let me know I haven't seen anything yet." 

I hope we all are excited for the great times that await us in 2015. I don't know what will happen but I do know that my Heavenly Father has helped me get this far and He will help me to go even further.

Love you all and have a superb week!

Take care,

Søster Buhler