Message from Sami: He didn't have as much time to write during December, he was too busy exploring :). So the two from December are the only two he sent us...Onto his January 2nd letter!
Kjære familie og venner
Godt nyttår! I've wondered for the last 12 years when we're gonna start calling it "twenty-twelve" instead of "two thousand twelve." I heard "two thousand twelve" on a member's tv last night, so I guess it's not yet.
As fun as the holiday has been here, I'm so glad it's over. Missionary work is tough when everyone's drunk. No joke. Also doesn't help when all of your investigators ditch town for Christmas haha. But we'll start seeing some peeps again this week so it should be good.
Since we haven't had any investigators in town recently, and finding stinks over the holidays, Elder Bird and I have been doing a lot with the members. We came up with a new member plan where we visit them and share a short spiritual thought which we have prayed about, and then asking them for any suggestions they have for us in missionary work. It's actually kinda cool how this idea came about.
We were at mission conference, and one of the zone leaders made a presentation on how successful his work with members has been. At that point, I was dead stinkin tired of talking to people on the street and getting nothing, so I was willing to try anything. The more I thought about it though, the more it made sense. I think sometimes in our mission there is a stigma that the missionaries have their part of missionary work, the members have theirs, and occasionally we'll come together to get a baptism. But I've realized that the members can and should be involved every step of the way.
The other problem is, members know why missionaries come over. We want referrals. And they're tired of getting asked for them. So I decided we weren't going to ask for referrals. We're gonna ask for places we could contact. Any ideas that they have which could get more people involved in the missionary work. If there is anything WE can do to help THEM in their missionary efforts. And then, we ask the member to pray for us as we go out and knock on doors in their area.
It's worked extremely well so far. All of the spiritual thoughts we've given have been spot on, and the new approach allows the members to be much more open with us, without being afraid that we're going to be barging into their friends' homes. It strengthens the members spiritually, and it has given us some opportunities to talk to new people. It's a work in process, and we haven't seen any new investigators from it yet, but the members are starting to trust us more and I think they'll be more willing to come to us in the future when their friends are ready to meet the missionaries. Last week we had 4 dinner appointments (more than I had had my entire time in Bergen so far), and this next week we have 3 planned with a couple more in the works. So we're being well fed on top of everything else =)
Ane Rebekka gets back to Bergen on Friday. As far as I know she hasn't talked to her family yet about her baptism, that's something she wanted to wait until after the holidays to do. But we'll found out how it goes soon. We dropped Marie. She wasn't interested in anything more than comparing doctrines. And Helene has been in Drammen for 3 weeks now, so hopefully we can meet with her when she gets back. If she's been reading and praying, things could go very well for her when she gets back, because she is also planning on coming to church last we heard.
Well, this may be my last email where I'm confident that I'll be in Bergen for another transfer. We have moves call this Sunday morning. I'm pretty sure I'm staying, but for the first time, I actually don't know for sure haha. If I end up leaving, I'll be pretty bummed, Bergen is definitely the best area in Norway. Plus it would be nice to be here for Ane Rebekka's baptism in February. We'll find out soon!
I wanted to write some other stuff, but I don't have time this week. So I'll save it for next week. It'll be good though ;)
Good week!
Elder Sessions
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