I had someone tell me last night that my Facebook has been blown up by Happy Birthdays. I dunno whether to be happy or insulted....did that many people not realize I've been gone from Facebook for 8 months!? Haha no worries, I'll thank everyone in 15 months =p
So yeah. I'm 20. I was thinking about that the other day. This physical body I'm walking around in has been running for 20 years now. Does anyone realize how LONG that is!? 20 years ago, the FIRST Bush was President, and Apple computers looked closer to something from an old James Bond movie rather than the iPads we've got now. I mean jeez, imagine a 20 year old apple (the fruit) or a 20 year old computer. No one wants those!
That's alright. I had a mini pre mid life crisis haha. All the parents and grandparents reading this right now are patting me on the head and saying "That's ok sonny, give it another 20 years" It is a nice feeling to not be a teenager anymore though, I have to say. I've been telling people I'm "almost 20" for 6 months now haha.
So this week has been insane! I got old, my companion got better, a reporter got a ton of pictures of me, and we all got a ton of new people to teach. I think I'll explain each of those in turn. ;)
So yes, Elder Bird is now better. I'm actually sending this email to him too, so here's his shout out haha. He finally got off his deathbed on Thursday and went out with the AP's that day. He still gets tired quicker, but he's not coughing anymore so that's good. There's a Norwegian saying that I absolutely love. "Han er frisk som en fisk" which means, "He's a fresh as a fish" Isn't that a great image!? Anyways, the two of us finally getting together worked out really well, and in combination with the Assistants, we were able to add a bunch of people to our teaching pool.
That just reminded me. I have a huge announcement for those who have been following the epic saga of Ane Rebeka. She set a baptismal date with us! She is the one who has the family who is not fond of the church. She has really taken off the last few weeks, especially since she attended Jan and Kent's baptism. She finally decided she's going to tell her family she'll get baptized. So February 11th is the date to circle on your calenders. I'm way stoked for this one. I just hope that the Lord lets me stay in Bergen for one more transfer, cause that's halfway through the next one.
The reporter. Some crazy guy with a camera got it into his head that my life is interesting and that he wanted to follow me around and take pictures of it. Haha not so bad, but we have had a freelance reporter who is doing a project on the lifestyle of mormon missionaries and Elder Perry, the district leader, and I were obligatorily volunteered to be the ones in the spotlight. It's been kinda interesting, but he's been in on a couple of lessons that we've taught to people this week, and it's been funny how his chair slowly comes closer to the table during the course of each lesson. By the end, he's usually listening intently. In fact, he's actually been in on every single lesson that we teach as missionaries, and he's talking about coming to a baptismal service this weekend. For not being an investigator, he's sure showing a lot of progress haha.
New people to teach. Ah yes. Well actually, as far as new progressing investigators, there's only two. Ane Rebeka (who wasn't really progressing, but still positive) and a guy named Thomas. He's pretty cool and he came to church yesterday. Luckily, Bergen has an awesome YSA program which just sucks people in. So he's been pretty positive with the teaches we've had with him since Friday, but it'll be fun to see him try and resist the hugs from Pilar (RM from Peru), the chillaxity of Arju (RM from England), or the straightforward honesty of Renata (another YSA I threw in here to make the sentence sound complete.)
Elder Perry and I had an awesome teach with Marie while on splits on Wednesday. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she agreed with everything we taught! Unfortunately, I don't think she realized that by agreeing with us she was going against the things that her church actually teaches, but I didn't know how to tell her without offending her. So Pilar, who used to be Catholic, has used her secret weapon of hugs and Facebook to pull her in and she's planning on talking to her about stuff. It's a little different, less threatening maybe, coming from someone other than a missionary.
Helene also met with us again and she completely understood the authority issue, which is what we missed with her last time. She didn't understand how our church was any different and so we had to explain our belief that the authority to baptize and administer other sacred ordinances was lost after the apostles, and was brought back with Joseph Smith. Proof of that being an answer of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It clicked with her, and she had no problems setting another appointment with us to hear more. She didn't want to come to church, but she did invite us to her church service, and I was definitely down. It wasn't the first Pentecostal service I had been to, but this one was aimed more at university aged students and it started out exactly like a rock concert haha. They had a nice message at the end as well. It's always fun to see how other churches work from the inside.
It was funny, I actually celebrated Thanksgiving more here than I did at home. Well, it may have actually even out....no football game =( but I did get two full Thanksgiving dinners! The institute dinner for the YSA's was a turkey dinner, and then we had dinner with a member on Thursday for legit Thanksgiving.
This email turned out to be very long. But we had a ton of stuff going on this week, and I felt like I hadn't written a lot in a while. So if you've made it to this point without falling asleep, I congratulate you =)
Til next week!
Elder Sessions
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