Marie was baptized on Saturday! It was way exciting. There's a whole backstory to every baptism though and I found that out the hard way. Organizing a baptism is more work then it sounds haha.
There is a small amount of paperwork that we have to do for each person being baptized. It really was a small amount, just one sheet of paper. But it's got to be signed by about a billion and a half people. More like 4. But when your strapped for time (which as a missionary, you always are), it can certainly seem like a billion and a half.
Last week, when Marie was interviewed by the zone leaders for her baptism, this paperwork was supposed to be signed by the zone leader who did the interview. Unfortunately it wasn't signed. Elder Davis and I were going over the paper making sure everything was set on Friday, when we realized that it wasn't signed. So that meant we had to drive two hours to Oslo to meet the zone leaders and get it signed. On the way there, we realized we hadn't printed out the program for the baptism yet because the printer in Tønsberg doesn't work. So we figured we'd just type it up real quick while we were in Oslo and get it printed off. Easy Peasy.
Not.
We got the paper signed. That WAS easy peasy. We then got on a computer and started working on the program. We realized right away that this would be tougher then we thought when someone told us that the computer we were working on didn't have Microsoft Word. They call my generation the technology generation, but take away our Microsoft Word and, boy are we hopeless. So it took us a bit longer to get the document lined up so that it would be even...probably about an hour or so. We then tried to print the program.
The computer we were on wasn't hooked up to a color printer, and we had some pictures on the program so we wanted it in color. We emailed the program to ourselves and switched to another computer which was connected to the color printer. We then discovered that our new computer had Microsoft Word, but not the application WE used to make the document. So we couldn't open it. We had to go back to the other computer and save it in a type that could be opened by Word.
So we go back to the color printer computer. We open the document....it works. But the program has been completely changed around. The text and the pictures are all out of place. So we spend a good 15 minutes fixing it. Luckily, it was on Word this time so it wasn't too big of a deal. Finally we are ready to print. Ctrl+P annnnddd......
The printer is out of color ink.
At this point, I'm starting to go nuts. My trainer tries to keep a good face on, but it's bugging him too. We had been working on the dumb thing for 2 hours now with no end in sight haha. So we decide the only thing to do is print the programs in black and white.
Hey it works! 10 minutes later we had 30 fresh new programs printed off. We fold the programs in half, the way they'll be handed out at the baptism....and the picture on the inside is off center. I look at Elder Davis. He looks at me. We look at the program.
"Hey Elder Davis, you see anything wrong with this thing?"
"Nope looks good to me! Let's go home."
Luckily, the baptism went much smoother :) Marie had a great time, we had an investigator family show up unexpectedly to watch, and the Spirit was way strong there.
Unfortunately, now that Marie is baptized, this means we have lost our number 1 investigator! Haha but it's all good. Later that night, we set a baptismal date with one of the other Icelandic sisters, named Loa, for July 2nd. July 6th is transfer day so there's a chance that either Elder Davis or I or both of us could be moving. We both want to be here for that baptism so we are having it the week before. We would actually have it in June, but she is going to be in Iceland until June 27th. So we still need to find someone else to focus on for June.
Luckily, we have a couple other people we've been meeting with. There's a guy named Patrick who is from Poland. He speaks amazing English. He's a way cool guy and we're going to try and set a date with him here soon. He needs a bit more time though I think. We also have the Latvian family who surprised us by showing up for Marie's baptism. We had invited them, but we didn't actually expect them to come, they had said they might be busy. So that was really good, and we're hoping we'll get a few more chances to teach them this week, and hopefully set a baptismal date. And that's a family! :)
So that's kind of been the week. It's amazing, but I'm already almost half way through my first transfer in Norway. 5 more weeks, and I could be moving! Or staying. Who really knows at this point. I'd like to stay in Tønsberg another 9 weeks, the members and the people here are pretty great. But on the other hand, I'd also like to see a bit more of Norway. So ultimately, it'll just have to come down to wherever it is that I'm supposed to be. Someone told me the most important thing is to leave your area stronger then when you came there, and so far I think we've begun to do that. We've still got a lot of work to do for the second half of this transfer though. So we'll see how it goes.
I haven't had time to write any letters yet, but I've got some time today. So I'll try to get those written and sent as soon as possible, especially in reply to some of the emails I've gotten. It's been good to hear from everyone, I hope all is going well!
Talk to ya soon,
Elder Sessions
Monday, May 30, 2011
Week 3? Maybe 4? Who knows at this point...
First off, I just wanna say it really was awesome coming on to my emails and having replies from so many people! I can't reply to them all, but I did get them! And yes, even yours Kristina haha. Definitely one of the highlights for this week.
Last Sunday, my companion and I decided to fast for a little more success this week. We decided that we wanted to have 5 new investigators this week. Just to give some perspective, my first couple of weeks, the most we've had is three. But we knew fasting could help. By Thursday, we had our fifth one. We finished out the week with 7 new investigators! That's 7 new people to teach this week! So this last week was pretty ballin'. Can we say that as missionaries? Ha, we'll find out. Here goes:
Monday (May 16):
We got our first new investigator for the week early this morning, without lifting a finger haha. We got a call from Asdis, who is the one member of the Icelandic family we've been teaching who has been baptized so far. She said that she has a friend who has been telling her she's crazy for being baptized a Mormon. She wanted us to talk to her and just show her that we aren't completely nuts. People can find a lot of false information out there about the LDS church, and it does make it tough sometimes when people think we're Satan worshipers with 50 wives. So we agreed to talk to her without actually expecting too much. We brought a Book of Mormon with us and decided to just talk about it a little bit with her. Asdis had told us that her friend, named Elisa, was atheist. So when we asked her if she was Christian, we expected a No. Turns out, she considers herself Christian haha. We then talked a little bit about the Book of Mormon with her and invited her to Asdis' house for a Family Home Evening later that night. And she came and enjoyed herself. New Investigator #1
Tuesday (May 17):
Norwegian Independence Day. We get arrested if we talk to people about church. Not kidding. So naturally, we went to Oslo to watch the parade haha. That was pretty fun, and there was a ton of people there. Then we went over to the mission president's house for a barbeque. It was nice to have a relaxing day like that. Then it was back to work though.
Wednesday (May 18):
Well, we had our Norwegian class tonight. There's a group of Latvians that we've been teaching for about a month now, and after the Norwegian lesson, we told them that we'd like to tell them a little bit about our church. Considering they'd been sitting in the chapel twice a week for the past month, we thought they might be slightly curious. They accepted, and one of them said he would bring his wife next time as well. So that was three Latvians to add to the growing list of new investigators. I believe that's 4!
Thursday (May 19):
We had met a couple Spanish ladies out on the street, last week I think. Today, we went to their house to teach them. Turns out, they don't speak a lick of English or Norwegian. And high school spanish suddenly seemed a billion years ago. So that was fun trying to teach with hand motions and spanish-sounding grunts. We did set up another appointment though! I think....I'm not actually sure which day is which in Spanish, but we're gonna call it Thursday and see what happens. Hopefully with Google Translate next time. Hey, that's investigator #5!
Friday (May 20):
Our Zone Leaders, who are two missionaries put in charge of a group of missionaries called a zone (you might remember I was a zone leader in the MTC), came to Tønsberg on Thursday night, and I went with one of them back to Oslo, while the other stayed with my companion in Tønsberg. So I had the opportunity to go out in the capitol to contact people. We had a couple of teaches too, and that was pretty fun. One of them is literally a genius in a bum's body. He's been promised a research job at a hospital or something, he just has to learn Norwegian first. So he's basically on the street until he passes a Norwegian test. But he's been taught by the missionaries and this past Saturday he was actually baptized. So I was there on his last teach before he became a member. He's a way cool guy, and I sure hope he gets that Norwegian down soon haha. By the time I got back to Tønsberg Friday night, Elder Davis was teaching the Latvians like we had promised. I went in for the second half of the lesson and we invited them to come to church on Sunday. They accepted, and the wife of the other guy was also there with their son! So that was another investigator! I also found out that Elder Davis and the zone leader had found someone else named Iesha to teach while I was in Oslo. So that was Investigator #7 for the week.
Saturday (May 21):
We didn't have a whole lot of time to work today because we had a meeting with the mission president in Drammen about an hour away. And it lasted pretty much all afternoon. But it was really great because he went over all the little things we could do with our planning and organization, in order to better involve the church members here with the missionary work, and just keep better track of stuff in general. That was pretty much exactly what we needed to do with Tønsberg. We haven't been real organized and it's been a small issue sometimes. But we've taken today to get stuff sorted out and I'm pretty sure it's gonna help alot.
Sunday (May 22):
Marie, the woman with the baptismal date, came to church again today. So that's three times and she now qualifies officially for baptism. Really no surprise there, she's been ready for a while, I think. So this Saturday, I'll have my first baptism! Woo! haha. That'll be fun to write about. The Latvians didn't come to church, but that really was our fault. We normally call people to remind them about church, cause honestly they'll just forget to come. But we didn't have their number. There's that organization we were missing. But it's all good, we'll see them on Wednesday for Norsk Class and get the number from them then. I also blessed the sacrament for the first time in Norwegian. I've done it in English a million times, but it's quite a different experience to do it in a foreign language. I don't think I butchered it too bad though. Later that night, Elder Davis and I sat down and made ourselves a chart with our main investigators and the seven days of the week. We planned to have some kind of contact with them every day, either from us visiting them, calling them, or having a member call them. This way, we've got it all lined up neatly, and we can make sure that they know we really are thinking about them even when we aren't around. Plus, it will get the members more involved and hopefully, they can make some friends too.
So we'll see how that works out this week. I'm pretty excited haha.
This isn't a reply to my red-headed little sister, but if it were I would say that I'm super stoked to get those letters :)
Haha alright, good week for everyone! Talk to ya soon.
Elder Sessions
Last Sunday, my companion and I decided to fast for a little more success this week. We decided that we wanted to have 5 new investigators this week. Just to give some perspective, my first couple of weeks, the most we've had is three. But we knew fasting could help. By Thursday, we had our fifth one. We finished out the week with 7 new investigators! That's 7 new people to teach this week! So this last week was pretty ballin'. Can we say that as missionaries? Ha, we'll find out. Here goes:
Monday (May 16):
We got our first new investigator for the week early this morning, without lifting a finger haha. We got a call from Asdis, who is the one member of the Icelandic family we've been teaching who has been baptized so far. She said that she has a friend who has been telling her she's crazy for being baptized a Mormon. She wanted us to talk to her and just show her that we aren't completely nuts. People can find a lot of false information out there about the LDS church, and it does make it tough sometimes when people think we're Satan worshipers with 50 wives. So we agreed to talk to her without actually expecting too much. We brought a Book of Mormon with us and decided to just talk about it a little bit with her. Asdis had told us that her friend, named Elisa, was atheist. So when we asked her if she was Christian, we expected a No. Turns out, she considers herself Christian haha. We then talked a little bit about the Book of Mormon with her and invited her to Asdis' house for a Family Home Evening later that night. And she came and enjoyed herself. New Investigator #1
Tuesday (May 17):
Norwegian Independence Day. We get arrested if we talk to people about church. Not kidding. So naturally, we went to Oslo to watch the parade haha. That was pretty fun, and there was a ton of people there. Then we went over to the mission president's house for a barbeque. It was nice to have a relaxing day like that. Then it was back to work though.
Wednesday (May 18):
Well, we had our Norwegian class tonight. There's a group of Latvians that we've been teaching for about a month now, and after the Norwegian lesson, we told them that we'd like to tell them a little bit about our church. Considering they'd been sitting in the chapel twice a week for the past month, we thought they might be slightly curious. They accepted, and one of them said he would bring his wife next time as well. So that was three Latvians to add to the growing list of new investigators. I believe that's 4!
Thursday (May 19):
We had met a couple Spanish ladies out on the street, last week I think. Today, we went to their house to teach them. Turns out, they don't speak a lick of English or Norwegian. And high school spanish suddenly seemed a billion years ago. So that was fun trying to teach with hand motions and spanish-sounding grunts. We did set up another appointment though! I think....I'm not actually sure which day is which in Spanish, but we're gonna call it Thursday and see what happens. Hopefully with Google Translate next time. Hey, that's investigator #5!
Friday (May 20):
Our Zone Leaders, who are two missionaries put in charge of a group of missionaries called a zone (you might remember I was a zone leader in the MTC), came to Tønsberg on Thursday night, and I went with one of them back to Oslo, while the other stayed with my companion in Tønsberg. So I had the opportunity to go out in the capitol to contact people. We had a couple of teaches too, and that was pretty fun. One of them is literally a genius in a bum's body. He's been promised a research job at a hospital or something, he just has to learn Norwegian first. So he's basically on the street until he passes a Norwegian test. But he's been taught by the missionaries and this past Saturday he was actually baptized. So I was there on his last teach before he became a member. He's a way cool guy, and I sure hope he gets that Norwegian down soon haha. By the time I got back to Tønsberg Friday night, Elder Davis was teaching the Latvians like we had promised. I went in for the second half of the lesson and we invited them to come to church on Sunday. They accepted, and the wife of the other guy was also there with their son! So that was another investigator! I also found out that Elder Davis and the zone leader had found someone else named Iesha to teach while I was in Oslo. So that was Investigator #7 for the week.
Saturday (May 21):
We didn't have a whole lot of time to work today because we had a meeting with the mission president in Drammen about an hour away. And it lasted pretty much all afternoon. But it was really great because he went over all the little things we could do with our planning and organization, in order to better involve the church members here with the missionary work, and just keep better track of stuff in general. That was pretty much exactly what we needed to do with Tønsberg. We haven't been real organized and it's been a small issue sometimes. But we've taken today to get stuff sorted out and I'm pretty sure it's gonna help alot.
Sunday (May 22):
Marie, the woman with the baptismal date, came to church again today. So that's three times and she now qualifies officially for baptism. Really no surprise there, she's been ready for a while, I think. So this Saturday, I'll have my first baptism! Woo! haha. That'll be fun to write about. The Latvians didn't come to church, but that really was our fault. We normally call people to remind them about church, cause honestly they'll just forget to come. But we didn't have their number. There's that organization we were missing. But it's all good, we'll see them on Wednesday for Norsk Class and get the number from them then. I also blessed the sacrament for the first time in Norwegian. I've done it in English a million times, but it's quite a different experience to do it in a foreign language. I don't think I butchered it too bad though. Later that night, Elder Davis and I sat down and made ourselves a chart with our main investigators and the seven days of the week. We planned to have some kind of contact with them every day, either from us visiting them, calling them, or having a member call them. This way, we've got it all lined up neatly, and we can make sure that they know we really are thinking about them even when we aren't around. Plus, it will get the members more involved and hopefully, they can make some friends too.
So we'll see how that works out this week. I'm pretty excited haha.
This isn't a reply to my red-headed little sister, but if it were I would say that I'm super stoked to get those letters :)
Haha alright, good week for everyone! Talk to ya soon.
Elder Sessions
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Week 2!
Date: Mon, 16 May 2011 13:11:55 +0200
Subject: Week 2
From: jeremy.sessions@myldsmail.net
To: dlovesjds@hotmail.com
Dear Family,
I think it's a great idea to talk to the neighbours. With that much contact with the church, chances are they have at least a curiousity in what it's all about. Inviting them over to learn more from the missionaries and dinner of course, is a non invasive way you can introduce them to it. Most people understand that the missionaries spend their days explaining the church in simple terms to other people, so they wouldn't feel too put off by simply learning about the beliefs. They could then make their own decision to hear more of the lessons.
That's funny about Elder Robbins actually. He spoke to us in the MTC while I was there. A couple of times, in fact. He had some really interesting talks, so that was always good.
We had a sort of down week this week. With Daniel and Robin, Robin was definitely the more interested of the two. Daniel never really wanted to talk with us, but his was the only number we had. We tried to get Robin's but it never worked out. When we called them on Friday, Daniel said he'd call when he was ready to meet. Which in translation means, "Don't count on it." We're not sure if that's coming from both of them or just Daniel but we'll stop by when we're in their village on Saturday to see if they have time to talk.
As for Joy, we were a little late to our appointment with her because we had district meeting that morning two hours away. So when we got there, she was too busy to meet. Plus she told us that she didn't believe in the Book of Mormon so if we meet with her, we aren't allowed to share scripture from it. She quoted that Revelations scripture at us that says we shouldn't add anything after it. It's interesting because Revelations was actually written before some of the other letters in the New Testament, and then later placed at the end of the Bible. So that scripture is saying we shouldn't add unauthorized scripture to the book of Revelations. There is also another scripture in the BEGINNING of the Bible that says the same thing, but most people ignore that one. But we've got another appointment with her this Saturday, so maybe we can change her mind.
Marie's baptism date was moved to the 28th, which we kinda figured would happen. She had been sick for a couple of weeks and missed church, so she hasn't been there three times yet, which is the minimum for convert baptisms. She went to church yesterday though, and really enjoyed it. It was branch conference and so the stake presidency was here from Oslo and they spoke to us. She also met with a lot of the members, and told everyone who talked to her about her baptism on the 28th haha. So she's pretty excited.
The Icelandic family hasn't really gone anywhere this week. We've gone over there a couple of times but we really didn't make much progress with them. The 13-year-old did say that she wanted to be baptized, but she has to ask her father who is still in Iceland first. Rosa, the mom, is still smoking and she actually seemed to be avoiding our lessons. So we'll see.
That's pretty much it. Joaquim didn't show up for our appointment with him. And our numbers went down this week. They are still higher then they have been in the past in Tonsberg but we are hoping for more, definitely. We're pretty sure we're going to have a better week this week.
But that's all folks. Hope everything is still good there. I didn't get an email from Darien or Sami this week. Just a side note, anyone can email me, even non family members. The only ones I can reply to are family though.
BLOG:
Title: Week 2!
The theme scripture for this week has definitely been Ether 12:6. It talks about how we "receive no witness until after the trial of our faith." I'm not really looking for a witness or a testimony, so much as we're looking for just some people to teach! Haha it's been way fun, I've never been told by so many random people that I need to read the Bible more and be saved. It's been harder this week, but me and Elder Davis have talked a lot about how we just need to keep on keeping on and things will get better. And we know they will because we know this stuff works. We've seen how the truth has blessed a lot of people's lives, and it's just a matter of inviting as many as we can to find out for themselves too.
That's the best part about missionary work. We can't force anyone to do anything, and we don't want to. All we can and should do is tell others as much as we can about HOW to find out whether this church is true or not, and then invite them to do it by reading the Book of Mormon and praying to ask if it's true. Beyond that, it's up to them. It's definitely disappointing for us when they choose not to even try, but that really is their choice.
I hope I can keep that perspective my whole mission. It makes things a lot easier. But like everyone else, I tend to lose sight of it sometimes, especially when things are hard haha. But you learn and move on I guess :)
Ok so here's the week:
Tuesday (May 11): Today, we spent a lot of time in the city finding people to teach. We found a couple of people who we taught right there on the street, but I don't know if they were all that interested. At least they listened! Later that night, we went to visit with Asdis who was baptized in March. We taught a lesson to her and talked for a while. She's way strong in her testimony. She managed to get a hold of one of our missionary handbooks at some point she she's taken to quoting rules at us when she feels we aren't following them exactly haha. It's always good to have someone keeping you on your toes.
Wenesday (May 12): Today we had an appointment with someone who is an inactive member that we're trying to help come back to church. She is way nice and she really wants to come back, but she has a smoking problem. We talked with her about how the Atonement really can help her get rid of her addiction. It went pretty well and she came to church on Sunday so that was good. We also stopped by a kebab shop in Horton. There's a Greek man who runs it and he was way fun. It's really great the reactions that we get just from the badges we wear. People talk to us about the craziest things! I didn't understand too much...it was sort of a mixture of Greek and really bad Norwegian, but at one point I think he said we are all nothing but a group of really smart animals. So that was fun haha. He was a nice guy, and he makes a heck of a kebab.
Thursday (May 12): My companion had to go to Oslo for some leadership training, so I was in a city called Drammen today, on splits with another missionary. It was a lot of fun, because Drammen is a semi-major city in Norway which is definitely quite a bit bigger then little old Tønsberg haha. It was fun to contact people in a big city like that. After a day in Drammen, though, Elder Davis was back and we were back in Tønsberg that night. It still amazes me how busy we stay ha.
Friday (May 13): We helped to move one of the member families in Tønsberg this morning. It was kind of sad, there were about 8 members of the family which is about a third of the branch that comes to church! Haha but we'll just have to find a family to replace them. Later that night, the branch had a Talentaften, which is a Talent Show. They wanted the missionaries to do a 5 minute thing. They asked before I was in Tønsberg so I actually had no say in the manner haha. Elder Davis and I did a purposely bad translation from English to Norwegian of a letter. It turned out pretty funny. We were a little worried about that haha. To say that you are full after eating in Norwegian, you say jeg er mett. However, you can also say jeg er full, but that means I am drunk haha. Many a missionary has made that mistake. But that was probably the highlight of our translation.
Saturday (May 14): We had a district meeting with a couple of other missionaries in a town called Skien today. It's about a two hour drive away, so the night before we drove over there and stayed the night in their apartment. After the district meeting we came back to Tønsberg. By the time we got back, we had missed an appointment with Joy, who we met one of my first days here. She was too busy to meet with us on Saturday, but she did invite us back next Saturday. She wasn't as positive as she was the last time we met, but we're glad we are still able to teach her. We met with Marie later that night who will be baptized this month! We had to move the baptismal date to the 28th instead of next Saturday because she's had a lot going on, but she is still way excited, and so are we :)
Sunday (May 15): Marie came to church! That was fun and she really seemed to enjoy it. The members were really nice to her and she told everyone she spoke to about her baptism on the 28th. Haha it was pretty funny. After church we met with a member named Kjell who was actually taught by one of my teachers in the MTC. It was pretty cool, he had me sign this Book of Mormon which has been signed by every missionary who has ever taught him and one of the first names on there was Elder Burns. I knew him as Brother Burns in the MTC haha. It's cool cause I'm pretty sure his first area on his mission was Tønsberg too. So everyone here knows him lol. But in case he reads this....Kjell says Hallo haha
And that's the week! Anyone who wants to can email me at jeremy.sessions@myldsmail.net
I can't actually reply to anyone but family, but it is better then having to wait to hear from everyone for the letters to get all the ways to Norway lol.
Hope everyone had a good week!
Elder Sessions
Subject: Week 2
From: jeremy.sessions@myldsmail.net
To: dlovesjds@hotmail.com
Dear Family,
I think it's a great idea to talk to the neighbours. With that much contact with the church, chances are they have at least a curiousity in what it's all about. Inviting them over to learn more from the missionaries and dinner of course, is a non invasive way you can introduce them to it. Most people understand that the missionaries spend their days explaining the church in simple terms to other people, so they wouldn't feel too put off by simply learning about the beliefs. They could then make their own decision to hear more of the lessons.
That's funny about Elder Robbins actually. He spoke to us in the MTC while I was there. A couple of times, in fact. He had some really interesting talks, so that was always good.
We had a sort of down week this week. With Daniel and Robin, Robin was definitely the more interested of the two. Daniel never really wanted to talk with us, but his was the only number we had. We tried to get Robin's but it never worked out. When we called them on Friday, Daniel said he'd call when he was ready to meet. Which in translation means, "Don't count on it." We're not sure if that's coming from both of them or just Daniel but we'll stop by when we're in their village on Saturday to see if they have time to talk.
As for Joy, we were a little late to our appointment with her because we had district meeting that morning two hours away. So when we got there, she was too busy to meet. Plus she told us that she didn't believe in the Book of Mormon so if we meet with her, we aren't allowed to share scripture from it. She quoted that Revelations scripture at us that says we shouldn't add anything after it. It's interesting because Revelations was actually written before some of the other letters in the New Testament, and then later placed at the end of the Bible. So that scripture is saying we shouldn't add unauthorized scripture to the book of Revelations. There is also another scripture in the BEGINNING of the Bible that says the same thing, but most people ignore that one. But we've got another appointment with her this Saturday, so maybe we can change her mind.
Marie's baptism date was moved to the 28th, which we kinda figured would happen. She had been sick for a couple of weeks and missed church, so she hasn't been there three times yet, which is the minimum for convert baptisms. She went to church yesterday though, and really enjoyed it. It was branch conference and so the stake presidency was here from Oslo and they spoke to us. She also met with a lot of the members, and told everyone who talked to her about her baptism on the 28th haha. So she's pretty excited.
The Icelandic family hasn't really gone anywhere this week. We've gone over there a couple of times but we really didn't make much progress with them. The 13-year-old did say that she wanted to be baptized, but she has to ask her father who is still in Iceland first. Rosa, the mom, is still smoking and she actually seemed to be avoiding our lessons. So we'll see.
That's pretty much it. Joaquim didn't show up for our appointment with him. And our numbers went down this week. They are still higher then they have been in the past in Tonsberg but we are hoping for more, definitely. We're pretty sure we're going to have a better week this week.
But that's all folks. Hope everything is still good there. I didn't get an email from Darien or Sami this week. Just a side note, anyone can email me, even non family members. The only ones I can reply to are family though.
BLOG:
Title: Week 2!
The theme scripture for this week has definitely been Ether 12:6. It talks about how we "receive no witness until after the trial of our faith." I'm not really looking for a witness or a testimony, so much as we're looking for just some people to teach! Haha it's been way fun, I've never been told by so many random people that I need to read the Bible more and be saved. It's been harder this week, but me and Elder Davis have talked a lot about how we just need to keep on keeping on and things will get better. And we know they will because we know this stuff works. We've seen how the truth has blessed a lot of people's lives, and it's just a matter of inviting as many as we can to find out for themselves too.
That's the best part about missionary work. We can't force anyone to do anything, and we don't want to. All we can and should do is tell others as much as we can about HOW to find out whether this church is true or not, and then invite them to do it by reading the Book of Mormon and praying to ask if it's true. Beyond that, it's up to them. It's definitely disappointing for us when they choose not to even try, but that really is their choice.
I hope I can keep that perspective my whole mission. It makes things a lot easier. But like everyone else, I tend to lose sight of it sometimes, especially when things are hard haha. But you learn and move on I guess :)
Ok so here's the week:
Tuesday (May 11): Today, we spent a lot of time in the city finding people to teach. We found a couple of people who we taught right there on the street, but I don't know if they were all that interested. At least they listened! Later that night, we went to visit with Asdis who was baptized in March. We taught a lesson to her and talked for a while. She's way strong in her testimony. She managed to get a hold of one of our missionary handbooks at some point she she's taken to quoting rules at us when she feels we aren't following them exactly haha. It's always good to have someone keeping you on your toes.
Wenesday (May 12): Today we had an appointment with someone who is an inactive member that we're trying to help come back to church. She is way nice and she really wants to come back, but she has a smoking problem. We talked with her about how the Atonement really can help her get rid of her addiction. It went pretty well and she came to church on Sunday so that was good. We also stopped by a kebab shop in Horton. There's a Greek man who runs it and he was way fun. It's really great the reactions that we get just from the badges we wear. People talk to us about the craziest things! I didn't understand too much...it was sort of a mixture of Greek and really bad Norwegian, but at one point I think he said we are all nothing but a group of really smart animals. So that was fun haha. He was a nice guy, and he makes a heck of a kebab.
Thursday (May 12): My companion had to go to Oslo for some leadership training, so I was in a city called Drammen today, on splits with another missionary. It was a lot of fun, because Drammen is a semi-major city in Norway which is definitely quite a bit bigger then little old Tønsberg haha. It was fun to contact people in a big city like that. After a day in Drammen, though, Elder Davis was back and we were back in Tønsberg that night. It still amazes me how busy we stay ha.
Friday (May 13): We helped to move one of the member families in Tønsberg this morning. It was kind of sad, there were about 8 members of the family which is about a third of the branch that comes to church! Haha but we'll just have to find a family to replace them. Later that night, the branch had a Talentaften, which is a Talent Show. They wanted the missionaries to do a 5 minute thing. They asked before I was in Tønsberg so I actually had no say in the manner haha. Elder Davis and I did a purposely bad translation from English to Norwegian of a letter. It turned out pretty funny. We were a little worried about that haha. To say that you are full after eating in Norwegian, you say jeg er mett. However, you can also say jeg er full, but that means I am drunk haha. Many a missionary has made that mistake. But that was probably the highlight of our translation.
Saturday (May 14): We had a district meeting with a couple of other missionaries in a town called Skien today. It's about a two hour drive away, so the night before we drove over there and stayed the night in their apartment. After the district meeting we came back to Tønsberg. By the time we got back, we had missed an appointment with Joy, who we met one of my first days here. She was too busy to meet with us on Saturday, but she did invite us back next Saturday. She wasn't as positive as she was the last time we met, but we're glad we are still able to teach her. We met with Marie later that night who will be baptized this month! We had to move the baptismal date to the 28th instead of next Saturday because she's had a lot going on, but she is still way excited, and so are we :)
Sunday (May 15): Marie came to church! That was fun and she really seemed to enjoy it. The members were really nice to her and she told everyone she spoke to about her baptism on the 28th. Haha it was pretty funny. After church we met with a member named Kjell who was actually taught by one of my teachers in the MTC. It was pretty cool, he had me sign this Book of Mormon which has been signed by every missionary who has ever taught him and one of the first names on there was Elder Burns. I knew him as Brother Burns in the MTC haha. It's cool cause I'm pretty sure his first area on his mission was Tønsberg too. So everyone here knows him lol. But in case he reads this....Kjell says Hallo haha
And that's the week! Anyone who wants to can email me at jeremy.sessions@myldsmail.net
I can't actually reply to anyone but family, but it is better then having to wait to hear from everyone for the letters to get all the ways to Norway lol.
Hope everyone had a good week!
Elder Sessions
Vilkommen til Norge!
It's been forever since I've been able to do a blog post! Over a week actually. Mainly that's cause I finally made the move to Norway and my P-days changed to Monday. So keep an eye out on Mondays from now on.
Ok so it's been pretty busy this week, and I've lost track of the days without time to write down what I've done each day. Plus I'm short on time so it won't be as organized this week.
But first of all, my flights to Norway. That was kinda the biggest thing haha. We found out the Friday after my last blog post that the rest of my district would not be coming to Norway the next Monday. I was the only one to receive my visa...which is weird cause my application had been turned in for only 8 weeks. Everyone else's had been there for about 4 months. So I'm not too sure how that happened actually. So unfortunately, I would be traveling alone ha. Elder Bekker was not happy about staying in the MTC for another week or however long it took to get his visa. But he's over it by now I'm sure....(last I heard, they were still in the MTC and will probably get to Norway this week)
So early Monday morning, the other three missionaries took me to the travel office to see me off. 36 (or so) hours later, I was in Oslo, Norway. It was a little iffy for a bit if I was going to get there on time - my first flight to Dallas was delayed, and then I missed my flight to England. Luckily, there was another flight into Heathrow about two hours later so I was still able to make my connection flight from London to Oslo, literally by the skin of my teeth. I got to the gate right as they were going to close the doors.
So finally, around 5pm local time on Tuesday, I made it to Norway. I met President Johanssen. He's shorter then I expected, and I'm not just saying that haha. He's way awesome though, and hilarious. We went to the mission office in Oslo for an orientation and then to the mission HOME about 30 minutes away for a dinner and sleep. The dinner was delicious. Norwegian seafood is literally the best in the world hands down. We are certainly well fed here haha.
About 6 o'clock the next morning (so we're on Wednesday now I think?), I was picked up by a group of missionaries to go back into Oslo and meet my first companion. His name's Elder Davis and he's from Las Vegas. We live in a semi-small town called Tønsberg which is about 2 hours southwest of Oslo. The area we are responsible for is pretty big. I'm not sure how big in terms of miles and stuff but we have a car so that's a clue that it's one of the bigger areas in Norway.
After we arrived in Tønsberg, we dropped off my stuff at our apartment....thing. Haha and then we were off contacting in the city. We talked to a ton of people about the Book of Mormon. My Norwegian was terrible and I was pretty sure they taught me the wrong language in the MTC. I didn't have a clue what anyone was saying lol. But I said my part, and Elder Davis pretty much responded to anything they said. I've started to understand a lot more now, I think my ears are "adjusting." We did meet one person on the street there named Joy. She didn't have a whole lot of time and she didn't speak Norwegian, but she gave us her address and asked us to come by later on talk to her more about the Book of Mormon. More on her later.
Later that night I had my first real teach as a missionary. Luckily it was in English haha. It was with a family who have been meeting with the missionaries here for about 3 months now. One of the daughters is baptized, and we're still teaching the mom and two of the other sisters. They're really fun and they even let us use their computers last night to skype our families for Mother's Day. We're still holding out hope that the rest of the family will make the decision to be baptized soon. They know the church is true, they just don't feel they are quite ready yet. Luckily, we're pretty patient :)
Elder Davis has been in Tønsberg for three months already, so luckily he knows all of the people we're teaching right now. We've got one lady named Marie who has a baptismal date set for May 21. We also have a couple guys named Robin and Daniel who they met last week, before I got here. We taught Robin the other night and he's really cool. He has really been searching for the truth for a long time. There are three churches in his little village, called Andebu (which means "duck town" haha) and he's been to all three. He said there is one priest for all three of the churches and each time he teaches in a different church, he teaches different doctrine. Robin said that didn't make any sense and he also said he didn't know how so many religions have come out of ONE book, the Bible. Shouldn't there be ONE truth, like it says in Ephesians 4:5? We told him that was the purpose of the Book of Mormon. It clarifies a lot of what is in the Bible and makes it so that you can't twist one verse fifty different ways. It's like having two witnesses in court. It's much harder for lawyers to twist the testimony of two people rather then one. Robin has definitely been prepared by the Lord to hear the truth, so we're excited for that.
We also met with Joy yesterday. We gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read and pray to ask God if it was true. The Spirit was way strong there, and she said that she would. We set up another appointment with her for this Saturday, so that will be fun.
There's a couple of other people we've also met. We met a young guy named Joaquim who was really interested. And tons of other people too. Tønsberg has been a dead area for a very long time, so it's really exciting for us. We hope that we can set up the foundation to really help the church grow in this area.
So there's a ton of stuff going on right now haha. There's so much more I could talk about but I really don't have time. I'll just say that the more I learn about the Book of Mormon and how it really applies to everyone in the world, the more it's confirmed to me that it's true and very important. It's awesome to know that the stuff they teach us in the MTC actually works with real people. I guess that's because it's true :)
One quick note. I've got my Norwegian address here if you want to send me mail (yes please :p).
Elder J David Sessions
Slagsveien 38
3117 Tønsberg
Norway
And Sami will update the Norwegian address on the side of the blog too. This is the only address I can get mail from so I don't need the MTC one or the mission office one there anymore.
Well, that's all for this week! I hope everyone's still doing well. Can't wait to hear from you all.
Love,
Elder Sessions
Ok so it's been pretty busy this week, and I've lost track of the days without time to write down what I've done each day. Plus I'm short on time so it won't be as organized this week.
But first of all, my flights to Norway. That was kinda the biggest thing haha. We found out the Friday after my last blog post that the rest of my district would not be coming to Norway the next Monday. I was the only one to receive my visa...which is weird cause my application had been turned in for only 8 weeks. Everyone else's had been there for about 4 months. So I'm not too sure how that happened actually. So unfortunately, I would be traveling alone ha. Elder Bekker was not happy about staying in the MTC for another week or however long it took to get his visa. But he's over it by now I'm sure....(last I heard, they were still in the MTC and will probably get to Norway this week)
So early Monday morning, the other three missionaries took me to the travel office to see me off. 36 (or so) hours later, I was in Oslo, Norway. It was a little iffy for a bit if I was going to get there on time - my first flight to Dallas was delayed, and then I missed my flight to England. Luckily, there was another flight into Heathrow about two hours later so I was still able to make my connection flight from London to Oslo, literally by the skin of my teeth. I got to the gate right as they were going to close the doors.
So finally, around 5pm local time on Tuesday, I made it to Norway. I met President Johanssen. He's shorter then I expected, and I'm not just saying that haha. He's way awesome though, and hilarious. We went to the mission office in Oslo for an orientation and then to the mission HOME about 30 minutes away for a dinner and sleep. The dinner was delicious. Norwegian seafood is literally the best in the world hands down. We are certainly well fed here haha.
About 6 o'clock the next morning (so we're on Wednesday now I think?), I was picked up by a group of missionaries to go back into Oslo and meet my first companion. His name's Elder Davis and he's from Las Vegas. We live in a semi-small town called Tønsberg which is about 2 hours southwest of Oslo. The area we are responsible for is pretty big. I'm not sure how big in terms of miles and stuff but we have a car so that's a clue that it's one of the bigger areas in Norway.
After we arrived in Tønsberg, we dropped off my stuff at our apartment....thing. Haha and then we were off contacting in the city. We talked to a ton of people about the Book of Mormon. My Norwegian was terrible and I was pretty sure they taught me the wrong language in the MTC. I didn't have a clue what anyone was saying lol. But I said my part, and Elder Davis pretty much responded to anything they said. I've started to understand a lot more now, I think my ears are "adjusting." We did meet one person on the street there named Joy. She didn't have a whole lot of time and she didn't speak Norwegian, but she gave us her address and asked us to come by later on talk to her more about the Book of Mormon. More on her later.
Later that night I had my first real teach as a missionary. Luckily it was in English haha. It was with a family who have been meeting with the missionaries here for about 3 months now. One of the daughters is baptized, and we're still teaching the mom and two of the other sisters. They're really fun and they even let us use their computers last night to skype our families for Mother's Day. We're still holding out hope that the rest of the family will make the decision to be baptized soon. They know the church is true, they just don't feel they are quite ready yet. Luckily, we're pretty patient :)
Elder Davis has been in Tønsberg for three months already, so luckily he knows all of the people we're teaching right now. We've got one lady named Marie who has a baptismal date set for May 21. We also have a couple guys named Robin and Daniel who they met last week, before I got here. We taught Robin the other night and he's really cool. He has really been searching for the truth for a long time. There are three churches in his little village, called Andebu (which means "duck town" haha) and he's been to all three. He said there is one priest for all three of the churches and each time he teaches in a different church, he teaches different doctrine. Robin said that didn't make any sense and he also said he didn't know how so many religions have come out of ONE book, the Bible. Shouldn't there be ONE truth, like it says in Ephesians 4:5? We told him that was the purpose of the Book of Mormon. It clarifies a lot of what is in the Bible and makes it so that you can't twist one verse fifty different ways. It's like having two witnesses in court. It's much harder for lawyers to twist the testimony of two people rather then one. Robin has definitely been prepared by the Lord to hear the truth, so we're excited for that.
We also met with Joy yesterday. We gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read and pray to ask God if it was true. The Spirit was way strong there, and she said that she would. We set up another appointment with her for this Saturday, so that will be fun.
There's a couple of other people we've also met. We met a young guy named Joaquim who was really interested. And tons of other people too. Tønsberg has been a dead area for a very long time, so it's really exciting for us. We hope that we can set up the foundation to really help the church grow in this area.
So there's a ton of stuff going on right now haha. There's so much more I could talk about but I really don't have time. I'll just say that the more I learn about the Book of Mormon and how it really applies to everyone in the world, the more it's confirmed to me that it's true and very important. It's awesome to know that the stuff they teach us in the MTC actually works with real people. I guess that's because it's true :)
One quick note. I've got my Norwegian address here if you want to send me mail (yes please :p).
Elder J David Sessions
Slagsveien 38
3117 Tønsberg
Norway
And Sami will update the Norwegian address on the side of the blog too. This is the only address I can get mail from so I don't need the MTC one or the mission office one there anymore.
Well, that's all for this week! I hope everyone's still doing well. Can't wait to hear from you all.
Love,
Elder Sessions
Monday, May 2, 2011
Last Week in the MTC!! -Sorry its Late!!-
Thursday: So today, I learned a little thing about obedience. One of the rules we are expected to follow is to not write letters except on Preparation Day once a week. Usually, this is too much of a problem, except for when I get letters that I've been waiting for on Wednesday night....after my Preparation time has ended. Then I can't write a response until the following Wednesday. This happened last week haha. I got a letter from a friend that I really really really wanted to answer. The purpose behind the rule is so that we don't concentrate on letters we are getting throughout the week, and more on our work. At first I told myself that since I would have a missionary purpose in answering that letter, that it wasn't really breaking the spirit of the rule because I wouldn't be getting away from my work, technically. I was really that if I waited to answer the letter until today, that I would miss out on a lot of things happening with this person. I came to realize that I needed to trust that Heavenly Father would take care of my friend, and that he knew what he was doing. If I broke the rule, and wrote the reply to the letter right away, that wouldn't be showing a whole lot of faith or obedience. So I decided to wait. Definitely was hard though. On another note, we also decided which pokemon each of the missionaries in my district would be if we were pokemon. I was Zapdos, my companion was Dragonite, Sister Fredrickson was Mew, and Sister Ray was Lapras. It's sad, I know haha.
Friday: Today, we did something called specific contacting. This means that before we go out and meet people, we pray for inspiration and write down a description of a person that we think we will meet and the message we feel they will need. It gets very specific, for example, my companion and I said we were going to find a short Elder wearing a red tie who is going on a mission somewhere in the States. We really had to have faith that we would find someone like that. Turns out we did! We found an Elder who exactly matched that description and gave him a message. The Sisters in our district had an even more amazing experience though. They said they would find an Elder with a blue tie, dark hair, standing outside of the gym. They went to the gym and found this Elder. They gave him a message about how his family would be blessed while he was on his mission, and he didn't need to worry. He started crying. He said that he had just found out that his mom had cancer and he had really been worrying about it. Their message gave him a lot of comfort. That totally blew my mind when they told us that story.
Saturday: Today we taught our investigator named Kristopher. He's the one who has a priest who told him that the mormon missionaries are sent from the devil and the Book of Mormon is a devil's book. Real Christian attitude right? Anyways, we taught him about the Plan of Salvation. Where we came from, why we are here and where we are going after this life. He had trouble with it before and so it was important to help him understand that if he had questions he could ask! He said he really liked how in the Church you can ask questions about anything, without being scolded for it, just like it says you can in James 1:5. We committed him to baptism and he said yes! So awesome.
Sunday: Today was a pretty normal Sunday in the MTC. In the devotional at night, there was a Elder from Hungary who played a special musical number on the organ. Best. Organ. Performance. Ever. I didn't know it was humanly possible to move your fingers and your legs in opposite directions at that speed. We gave him a standing ovation afterwards. It was fun haha.
Monday: Today we taught Steiner, who is the brother of our other investigator Frederick. He hasn't wanted to be preached to but he said that we could come by and talk with him as long as it wasn't about religion. We agreed to that, and a couple of days ago, we shoveled his driveway and left him a note and pamphlet, just to soften him up a bit =p We asked if he had time to talk today and he let us in to chat, with the condition that it wasn't about religion. That didn't last long. We're missionaries and our whole life is religion, so once he asked us about ourselves, we of course casually brought it up. He said that he really was interested in what we had to say, but he was afraid to change. We told him that everything would be completely up to him and he didn't have to change if he really didn't want to. He agreed to let us teach him the lessons as long as his brother was also there. We, of course, agreed....and invited him to church ha.
Tuesday: So last week, Elder Richard G Scott came. This week, it was Elder Dallen H Oaks, another one of the apostles. Not a bad way to finish off the MTC, with two apostles speaking to us. His talk was definitely different from Elder Scott's. He had a very organized, topic by topic talk and Elder Scott didn't even have anything written down. They were both spectacular to hear though. Elder Oaks talked about little things we can do to improve ourselves as representatives of Christ, and it was really interesting to hear how the littlest things can have the biggest effect.
So that was this week. I leave for NORWAY on Monday morning!! It's so exciting, and weird to think that I'll be talking to REAL people about all this stuff I've been learning in less then a week! I'm way excited to get back to Europe though, I miss it haha. We have a layover in London too, so I'm stoked to just BE in England again, even if we can't see anyone or leave the airport.
If you want to write me anytime after this week, you have to use the Norwegian address which should be on my blog. I'll send it to my sister just in case it isn't, but I'm almost sure I put it on there before I left. In fact, Sami could take the Utah address off now. I'll get a specific street address for where I'll actually be living in Norway once I get there so email I'll have that. The address that is there now is the mission home in Oslo, but we can use that for mail for right now.
Anyways, hope everything is awesome for everyone! Next email will be from the other side of the world! Haha great.
Love,
Elder Sessions
Friday: Today, we did something called specific contacting. This means that before we go out and meet people, we pray for inspiration and write down a description of a person that we think we will meet and the message we feel they will need. It gets very specific, for example, my companion and I said we were going to find a short Elder wearing a red tie who is going on a mission somewhere in the States. We really had to have faith that we would find someone like that. Turns out we did! We found an Elder who exactly matched that description and gave him a message. The Sisters in our district had an even more amazing experience though. They said they would find an Elder with a blue tie, dark hair, standing outside of the gym. They went to the gym and found this Elder. They gave him a message about how his family would be blessed while he was on his mission, and he didn't need to worry. He started crying. He said that he had just found out that his mom had cancer and he had really been worrying about it. Their message gave him a lot of comfort. That totally blew my mind when they told us that story.
Saturday: Today we taught our investigator named Kristopher. He's the one who has a priest who told him that the mormon missionaries are sent from the devil and the Book of Mormon is a devil's book. Real Christian attitude right? Anyways, we taught him about the Plan of Salvation. Where we came from, why we are here and where we are going after this life. He had trouble with it before and so it was important to help him understand that if he had questions he could ask! He said he really liked how in the Church you can ask questions about anything, without being scolded for it, just like it says you can in James 1:5. We committed him to baptism and he said yes! So awesome.
Sunday: Today was a pretty normal Sunday in the MTC. In the devotional at night, there was a Elder from Hungary who played a special musical number on the organ. Best. Organ. Performance. Ever. I didn't know it was humanly possible to move your fingers and your legs in opposite directions at that speed. We gave him a standing ovation afterwards. It was fun haha.
Monday: Today we taught Steiner, who is the brother of our other investigator Frederick. He hasn't wanted to be preached to but he said that we could come by and talk with him as long as it wasn't about religion. We agreed to that, and a couple of days ago, we shoveled his driveway and left him a note and pamphlet, just to soften him up a bit =p We asked if he had time to talk today and he let us in to chat, with the condition that it wasn't about religion. That didn't last long. We're missionaries and our whole life is religion, so once he asked us about ourselves, we of course casually brought it up. He said that he really was interested in what we had to say, but he was afraid to change. We told him that everything would be completely up to him and he didn't have to change if he really didn't want to. He agreed to let us teach him the lessons as long as his brother was also there. We, of course, agreed....and invited him to church ha.
Tuesday: So last week, Elder Richard G Scott came. This week, it was Elder Dallen H Oaks, another one of the apostles. Not a bad way to finish off the MTC, with two apostles speaking to us. His talk was definitely different from Elder Scott's. He had a very organized, topic by topic talk and Elder Scott didn't even have anything written down. They were both spectacular to hear though. Elder Oaks talked about little things we can do to improve ourselves as representatives of Christ, and it was really interesting to hear how the littlest things can have the biggest effect.
So that was this week. I leave for NORWAY on Monday morning!! It's so exciting, and weird to think that I'll be talking to REAL people about all this stuff I've been learning in less then a week! I'm way excited to get back to Europe though, I miss it haha. We have a layover in London too, so I'm stoked to just BE in England again, even if we can't see anyone or leave the airport.
If you want to write me anytime after this week, you have to use the Norwegian address which should be on my blog. I'll send it to my sister just in case it isn't, but I'm almost sure I put it on there before I left. In fact, Sami could take the Utah address off now. I'll get a specific street address for where I'll actually be living in Norway once I get there so email I'll have that. The address that is there now is the mission home in Oslo, but we can use that for mail for right now.
Anyways, hope everything is awesome for everyone! Next email will be from the other side of the world! Haha great.
Love,
Elder Sessions
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