No Place Like Norway: Abundantly Victorious

Hallo Alle Sammen!

Another beautiful and solid week here in the windy city of Ålesund! We were blessed with a suprise snow fall yesterday which is always spennede! Onto this week's highlights:

-Less Active Visits: Winnie, Lincoln, Ragnild, Simon, and Ciprian
-Updates with Paul!
-AP Workshop in Trondheim
-Birthday Surprise!
-On a random note: The Date (no not that kind)
-Spiritual Thought: Abundantly Victorious

This week ended up being a less active focus which is always a blast! Winnie is starting to get the Spirit back into her home as she's been reading the scriptures and praying again. Her sadness is becoming joy and it's just so good to see her smile grow each time we visit her!
Lincoln is a fellow American living here in Norway with his wife Kristina from the Ukraine. They live WAY out so we don't get to visit them very often but it was still so fun!
Ragnild was feeling super sick when we came over so we kept the visit really short so she could get back to bed. We shared a quick thought about what we had learned from personal studies that morning and we gave her a little notebook for her to use as a study journal. She was so surprised and happy to get that little present. She said that we came right at the time she needed us to be there. I hope she feels better soon!
When we went to visit Simon, he was babysitting his friend's kids. They were so adorable speaking Russian. What's really random is I can't speak any Russian but I could understand what the kids would be talking about. Random? Anyhoo, we had a good discussion about our gift of free agency while enjoying some home made Russian soup!
Ciprian is a less active that no one really knew about so we decided to try calling him. He answered and said we could meet up! We got to know one another better (He's originally from Romania, lived in Sweden for about 10 years, and has lived in Norway ever since. He's divorced and has one 12 year old daughter) and read together from Moroni 10.
Something that I've been noticing lately is how much these less actives are opening up more and more. Most of the less actives is not all would not even answer their phones before. Now they not only answer their phones but are meeting up with us! The Spirit is really working with people's hearts!

Paul is doing good! We got to read together with him and he's growing in his curiousity to hear about what makes this church unique from other Christian churches. Right now, he's still hesitant about accepting to be baptized because he's worried about what his family will think. But he's still wanting to meet up and since he does have that desire, I can see that potential inside of him :)

We had a really cool workshop about finding. For all you missionaries out there you're probably like, "We've heard this so much!" BUT IT WAS REALLY COOL. We focused on the importance of ACTUALLY talking with people. Before as a mission we had the habit of stopping people by saying, "Hi we're missionaries..." But we're throwing that out the window. These people can see our nametags so we're going to cut down to the chase - our purpose of inviting and helping others to come unto Christ. We did a lot of practicals of being observant to people/looking for clues and really listening to what people say. Ah! It was just so cool and I'm pumped!!
I also got to see some old faces from Trondheim which was precious! Ah my heart!

Yesterday was Liv's birthday so after church we went over to her house to deliever a cake and sing Happy Birthday! She loved it so much :)

Super Random note buuuuuut I'll just say it and move on: I got my release date of April 2nd. Yup. My release has a date now. AH. Ok, moving on now.

Spiritual Thought: This week I was reading in Romans 8. If you haven't read that chapter lately, I would highly recommend it. It's a power chapter for sure! Anyways, In this chapter, I came across a verse and in the footnote there was a word translated to "adundantly victorious." (Sorry for the technical difficulties but for some reason the lds.org webstie isn't loading :( sad day). Throughout my mission I have seen the power of the Atonement in my life and others. Because of our Savior's Atonement, it's WAY more than just possible to overcome hardships. We can always come off conqueor. ALWAYS.

Yeah it's a shorter update this week but that doesn't change the fact that each and every one of you are the greatest! Have a wonderful week, just keep swimming, hakuna matata, you can fly, and remember a dream is a wish your heart makes!

Love,
Søster Buhler