First Baptism!

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