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
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