Vi bestemmer selv ("We decide")

Below is an article published in a local Norwegian newspaper (NRK) based on interviews NRK writer Marta Hedenstad conducted of Elder Bekker and Elder Sessions. The article is translated below but can be found along with an associated video at the following link. Above is the photo published with the article:

http://p3.no/dokumentar/skuter-karsk-og-kristus/#Mormonere

"It has helped me very much in my life. It has given me a lot of purpose and joy. I have faith in God who has given me hope for a better world.

All over the world there are young men and women who have traveled from their home country to share their teachings of their personal faith with others on missions. For Mormons missions are important, and some of them will come to Norway.

Elder William Bekker comes from Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He is a Mormon and traveled to Norway almost a year ago to proselytize.

Elder David Sessions, who is from Virginia, came to Norway as well as Elder Bekker. Together they tour the streets of Trondheim and tell people about God and the Book of Mormon.

We think the message we have is important, so we go out to share it with others, says Elder Bekker.

Mission Call

Mormons believe that today's Christianity has slipped away from the church as it was when Jesus Christ created it. In 1820, however, Jesus Christ began to restore His Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith who also translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God.

Being a Mormon is not that different from being a Christian. Other common faithful Christians go to church and believe in God. It's the same with us, says Elder Sessions.

The main difference is perhaps the mission. To proselytize is a very important part of the Mormon faith, even more so than it is in the "normal" Christianity.

We decide whether we want to go out on a mission or not. We are not forced. I wanted to go to tell others how I feel and what has helped me in my life, says Elder Bekker. He loves living in Norway.

I like the food. Also, I like the people here. People here are smart and friendly, he said. It was scary at first because it was the first time I was home, but it went well. My grandparents came from Norway, and I like to be here, speak Norwegian and chat with other Norwegians, he said.

Elder Sessions distant relatives are also originally from Norway. He thinks Norwegians are much more open to learn from others than Americans are. He thinks it is exciting to talk to people on the streets of Norway.

You meet so many different people. So many different people from other cultures and you learn so much. It's exciting.

Although people are generally friendly, it can be a lonely time for a missionary. Elder Sessions says that sometimes it is hard to be so far away from family. It is good to have someone to turn to.

The hardest part is being away from family, but we know what we do is important. It makes it easier, says Elder Sessions.

Although it can be lonely sometimes, we missionaries are in this together, which really helps. There are six missionaries in Trondheim, which does exactly the same as us, he said.

And we have members here that we really like to help us very much, added Elder Bekker.

Sharing with others strengthens the belief

When one is young it is not always the feeling that the faith they have grown up in is right for them. Elder Sessions felt that feeling before he decided to proselytize.

There was a time that I did not want to go on a mission. I grew up in the church, but I did not believe in God, he says.

Then there was a change in me, when I began to study the Book of Mormon. And the change was big enough that I wanted to share it with others and help them to get the same chance.

When we as missionaries talk to other about what we share, I see the same change in the person. Being able to share it with them brings me great joy.

Elder Bekker says that being a missionary gives him a lot personally. He says it strengthens their own faith when they see others who accept it.

It means so much to us when we see others accept the gospel. It strengthens our testimony."

26 March 2012

Kjære familie og venner

Well this has definitely been an interesting week! We had a great zone conference and I think our presentation went very well. Elder Bekker and I were able to actually apply the things we talked about with planning and stuff, and we ended up having the best week of our missions. We were talking about it yesterday and we realized that as we planned more specifically, it enabled us to recognize the miracles that happen every day because we better notice the things that are out of the ordinary when we plan.

For example. =)

Last Sunday, Elder Bekker and I talked with a man named Mark. Mark and his wife were taught by the missionaries in Oslo about 10 years ago. The wife really wanted to be baptized, but she didn't want to do it without Mark. Unfortunately, he never felt comfortable enough to be baptized so eventually the missionaries stopped meeting with them. Now they live about 3 hours outside of Trondheim, and last week he was in the city for a business meeting when we met him. Because of the distance, we didn't think we would ever be able to see him again and he wasn't going to be back in Trondheim until the weekend we will be in Oslo in April.

Wrong actually. We planned out exactly where we wanted to walk for contacting on Saturday night. By Sunday evening, we had been just about all over the city. We chose to walk down a back street because we were out of Books of Mormon and we didn't want to meet too many people without having one haha. Lo and behold, we met Mark coming off a bus from his place 3 hours away on this backstreet. He was in town for another business meeting. Out of all the streets in Trondheim we walked down the exact one Mark was going to walk down after traveling three hours on a bus on the way to his hotel. He's only here for a day and I still don't know how we are going to meet with him, but if God is going to go out of his way to have us meet this man, obviously he wants us to do something with him.

That was only one of the many mini miracles we had this week. I guess some people could call that a coincidence, but I'm gonna take all the miracles I can get here =)

It was a good week, now we just need to maintain it. Fernanda passed her baptismal interview yesterday so we're excited for that one. She'll be baptized this weekend right before General Conference...also another thing I'm excited for. President Johansen said our eyes should be glued to the tube and our pens to the paper throughout that entire conference, so I just thought I'd pass that advice along to everyone else. If we believe we really have a prophet and apostles on the earth today, we'd be plain stupid to not write down the things they say that apply to us.

Have a good week everyone!
Elder Sessions

19 March 2012

Kjære familie og venner,

I feel like a missionary again.

It was a hard two months. I didn't have a motivated companion so not a whole lot of work was getting done. But fortunately, I'm with a great companion now, one who I happen to already know how to work with pretty well. We learned how to be missionaries together haha. So we'll work hard and have fun doing it. It's like last transfer never happened.

Elder Bekker and I have talked a lot about goals this week. Mainly it's because we're giving a presentation in zone conference on Friday about planning. But, it's also the start of a new transfer, so of course we want to make some goals for ourselves as well.

So this is our basic outline we were thinking of for our presentation. It'd be cool to hear what you all think, even if I won't get the feedback until after we've already given it =P But the biggest thing the mission seems to be struggling with right now is filling up our "funnels" with new people to teach. Basically, finding. I know it's different in other areas of the world, but at least here in Norway, most of our finding is done through contacting on the street. We do our member work of course, but any spare time we have during the day usually goes to some form of street contacting. The problem with that is we are a very young mission right now, and missionaries are getting washed out, cause the streets are tough. Really tough. We had a sister missionary just get moved here from a state-side mission due to health issues, and she cracked after getting "Nei-takked" (no thanks) three times in a row on the street. Her companion had to explain to her that we get "nei-takked" all day to find that one person who is interested. I dunno what happens in the other missions, but I guess Norwegian missionaries are pretty battle-hardened street contacters in comparison.

So that's the problem. Part of the solution we're going to talk about is better nightly planning. Instead of saying, "Ok Elder, we've got lunch at 12, dinner at 6, and contacting before and after meal times. Cool, done planning, say a prayer, let's play guitar", we want them to actually plan those hours of contacting. Plan where we are going to go, and then make goals for each individual hour slot of the day. It's cool because one of the goals Elder Bekker and I have for the transfer is to give out 200 copies of the Book of Mormon this transfer. That's 3 books a day, give or take the days where we won't have time to go contacting. So one of the things we can plan at night is how many books we are going to give out in the first hour, the second hour, and so forth.

The better we plan something and the more specific goals we set, the more likely we are to have success. And that goes with anything in our lives, not just missionary work. If I set a goal to make a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, but I don't set any specific goals along the way, ie get two slices of bread, spread the peanut butter, etc, then I'm just setting myself up for failure. Ok maybe that's a bad example, everyone can make a PB&J, but just think how many New Years Resolutions are thrown out the window on January 2nd, because someone didn't set a goal to keep that resolution for that day, rather than just that year.

The cool thing with setting goals in missionary work is that the Lord has promised to help us meet them. How can the Lord help us if we don't set goals and then ask him for help in meeting those goals? The more specific help we ask for, the more specific help we receive. That goes for anyone you ask help of, including God. As missionaries in Norway get better at setting goals and then following through on their part of the deal by giving all of their efforts to achieve it, they'll start to see the miracles as they receive help from the Lord. No one is going to get washed out contacting on the street if they are seeing miracles and being successful.

So that's our presentation. At least that was our theory, but Elder Bekker and I decided we needed to put it to the test. Saturday night, we planned our contacting hours after church. In the three hours between lunch and dinner, we planned where we were going to go and we planned to teach three people and give them a copy of the Book of Mormon, each. The reason why that is normally looked upon as a sign of mental insanity, is because we were going to be contacting in Trondheim, Norway on a Sunday afternoon. You could drop a nuclear bomb in the center of Trondheim and not kill anyone except the Mormon missionaries. But hey, Elder Bekker and I were together in the MTC and we're slightly overconfident in our abilities. Or we have faith or something, I haven't really decided yet.

We walk out of the church after lunch and into a winter apocalypse. No joke, straight blizzard outside. I'm still slightly sick, as I have been all week, and I must admit I'm not really in the mood for this shindig right now. But we set the goal and we didn't want to look stupid trying to explain this concept in zone conference on Friday so we set off. Lo and behold, it really worked. We only gave away one book but we did talk to three way cool people, and had fantastic (long) teaches with them right there on the streets of Cold and Snowy, Norway. Call it coincidence, but I'm totally telling that story on Friday =)

I feel like I haven't had an email like this in a while. Feels good. I'm back in the game haha.

Oh yeah cool news flash. President Johansen confirmed that we'll be having a mission conference next month on the 20th. Which means all the missionaries will get to be in Oslo for the giant Norway conference that weekend, where they are going to form a new stake. Our mission conference will also most likely be presided over by the Area Presidency, which is fun. The coolest part though, is it'll be a nice little reunion with all the people from the first year of my mission in Tønsberg and Bergen, since most of them will be at the conference as well. So that's pretty exciting.

Anyways, I think that's all for this week. Happy St. Patricks day...I wore a green tie =)
Elder Sessions

Long lost Bergen pictures

These are some pictures that I don't think were ever posted on the blog from the time that Elder Sessions was in Bergen (Aug-Dec)

12 March 2012

Kjære familie og venner

Well nothing too exciting happened this week. I did go to zone leader conference on Wednesday in the mission office. That was pretty fun. We pretty much spent all day sitting at this round table type thing having a discussion about the needs of the mission with President Johansen. So that was an interesting start to my zone leader stuff.

We talked about the Norway-wide conference that we'll be having in April. We're hoping that we can get permission from the Area Presidency for the missionaries to attend that, which would mean another mission conference, most likely with the Elder Kopishke, the Area President presiding. But we haven't gotten approval for that just yet, so we'll see. We also talked about the zone conference we're gonna have next week. All in all, Elder Bekker and I have to plan a presentation for the leadership training meeting on Friday, a presentation for zone conference next week, and be ready to present at a possible mission conference next month. We also gotta be on top of the people in our zone and take care of our own area. Man, I'm not even technically a zone leader yet and I'm busy haha. It'll be fun though.

My area is being whitewashed by the same Elder who whitewashed my last area in Bergen. Elder Knudson took over for me there and now he is coming here as the new district leader. I feel like he's following me around Norway cleaning up my messes haha. Never actually worked with the guy though other than the tour I gave him of Bergen. So it'll be nice to actually get to know the poor man. Fun fact: our grandmothers know each other.

Well President Johansen was here today and he took the district out for lunch. Elder Bekker and I asked him about the conference in April and all he would say is that he can't announce anything until after General Conference at the end of the month. I'm not too sure what that means, but I'll be keeping an extra eye/ear out for mentions of Norway in there. Dunno if they'll actually announce anything, but it would be cool.

Other than that, just been a normal last week of the transfer. Nhat and Trinh didn't come to church this week. Not sure why, but they're the only ones we're working with right now. We taught quite a few people on the streets last week, just didn't get too many new appointments.

Hope you guys have a good week!
Elder Sessions

5 March 2012

Kjære familie og venner

Well we had a pretty busy week this week. Trondheim branch had a party on Friday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the branch being here. So it was a pretty big shindig and President Johansen came for it and everything. That was fun, the missionaries played waiter for the night, serving the food for the members and things. Then, we got to eat the leftovers haha. Pretty good time to spend with the members.

Well, Trondheim is going to have two baptisms this next week. Neither of them will be Inara. She told her father that she intended to be baptized after he left, and he flipped. He has people watching her to make sure we don't come in contact with her through telephone or anything. So it's pretty frustrating that the man is so hard hearted, but there really isn't much we can do. I just wish he would let his 30 year old daughter make her own decisions. In any case, she won't be baptized this week, and we've stopped meeting with her for now.

Other than that, the only people we're still teaching is Nhat and Trinh, the vietnamese couple. They weren't able to come to the party or church this Sunday, because their son got sick, but we'll be meeting with them sometime this week again.

So wasn't such a good week for missionary work. On the bright side, the zone leader area here in Trondheim got 3 baptismal dates for March. So that's what I'll be transferring into on March 14th, but it's a little disappointing to be leaving an area so empty. Hopefully we can find someone this week for the new missionaries who will be moving here in a week and a half.

I've got my first zone leader council with President Johansen on Wednesday. So we'll be spending the day in Oslo there. Pretty excited for that one, don't really know what to expect though. It still feels weird to become a zone leader and actually be one of the older missionaries here.

I had a bit of an epiphany last night as I was writing in my journal. It's been a tough transfer as far as my companionship. Don't need to go into details, but I realized as hard as it can be to get along sometimes, we have a unique opportunity to be stuck for 9 weeks with all kinds of different people. For better or for worse. We can either take the chance to learn how to work with different kinds of people, or spend 9 weeks trying not to kill each other. Let's just say I've decided to try and make some changes over the last week and a half of this transfer haha.

Gotta send a special thanks to the Ryder family for their generosity. I also finally got their christmas package. Not a fan of this Norwegian postal service. But hey, the beef jerky tasted fantastic, I had to fight off my companion in order to have any for myself. Also thanks to the Spence family for the Mac and Cheese special delivery. Can't say there's too much of it left anymore, but hey, it tasted great =)

That's pretty much the week I've had. Things are looking good for this next transfer, I'm pretty excited.

Love you all
Elder Sessions

27 February 2012

Kjære familie og venner,

Well, this is my last email on "this" side of my mission. By my next email, I'll be over the hill...my year mark is March 2nd, on Friday!

We met with Inara last Tuesday, and she asked Gjermund, a recent convert, to be the one to baptize her. We're going to have a returned missionary who served in Russia to do the confirmation, because Inara speaks Russian, and it'd be cool for her to hear it in her own language.

Inara was taught by the missionaries about a year ago, but they ended up dropping her because of the difficulties with her father. In December of this year, she was again contacted by Elder Strange and his previous companion, so we've been teaching her for about two and a half months now. She'll be coming to the church for her first time tonight, for Family Home Evening, since her father left last night.

We also taught a nice newlywed couple from Vietnam this week. They seemed to be pretty positive, especially the wife. She said she was really curious to learn about what we believe. We're going to try and go for a baptismal date the next time we meet with them this week. So hopefully that will turn out well.

So that's who we are working with right now. It's exciting times in Norway right now. Originally, the Stavanger district had a conference planned for all of Western Norway in April. That has now been changed to a country-wide conference in Oslo. We don't know for sure, because nothing has been confirmed yet, but most people believe it's because we'll finally be getting a second stake in Norway. So it's exciting for that reason, and also because we could potentially have another Mission Conference if we get the approval for that weekend in April to attend the Norwegian conference. And those are always fun =)

I got the email about Great Grandpa Hanson. I remember when I lived in Idaho we would go and visit him every now and then. It was always fun, and he always seemed to be in a good mood. He and Grandpa Hanson would occasionally race to see who could fall asleep on the couch the fastest. I'm pretty sure most times it ended up being a tie. I remember going there one time right after he had just gotten his cell phone. Poor guy said he didn't know how to use it. We explained it to him though =) I'll definitely miss those visits when I get back to Rexburg next year.

That's all I've got going on this week! See you on the "other" side =)
Elder Sessions

20 February 2012

Kjære familie og venner

Trondheim is the biggest city in the zone since we are a part of the North zone where only the eskimos live. Just kidding, there are no eskimos in Norway. But there ARE reindeer. Unfortunately, I'm too far south to see those. Anyways, because we're the biggest city (with 6 missionaries), zone conference was held right here in our chapel. So that was nice and convenient. Some of the missionaries had to get on flights at like 6:30am to get here on time. But not me =)

President Johansen talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how that can make us better missionaries. He started out by asking us what it was that Jesus Christ's atonement and grace does for us. I thought I was gonna get some brownie points so I answered:

"He made it possible for us to receive grace so long as we do everything we can do to follow him. He'll make up the difference for us."

And he replied:
"That is absolutely, 100%....wrong."

Bummer.

He said something interesting though. No matter what we do in this life, no matter how closely we follow the commandments, we will never begin paying Jesus Christ back for what he did for us. The gospel and the commandments and this life will never be about doing everything we can to follow him. We do everything we can to follow him....in order to change ourselves. That's what this life is about. It's about becoming the person we have the potential to be. The Atonement and the Gospel is what enables us to do that.

So no matter what my problems are, no matter what I've done wrong, I can always change...because of the Atonement. We shouldn't follow the commandments so we can pay Christ back or to show him that we can be perfect, because we will never be able to do that. We should follow the commandments because we love Him and we want to become like Him. Because he is our ultimate example of who we can be. The Atonement, ultimately, is about change.

President later said he did like my answer, though. So that was a little comforting =P

Being district leader is fun. Stressful. There are only 8 missionaries in my district (6 in Trondheim, including 2 zone leaders, and 2 in Ålesund), but it's actually the largest missionary district in Norway. We're a tiny mission haha. It always crazy to hear stories from other missions, things are SO different. One of my previous companions received a letter from a missionary in Bolivia who was complaining about how they had ONLY gotten 183 baptisms as a mission that month. In 2011, the Norway Oslo mission had 128. All year. And that is the highest number of baptisms, EVER. Our goal as a mission is to have 100 baptisms by June 30th. Some members think President Johansen is nuts. He is, but in a good way haha. He's got a lot of faith, and he's lifted Norway much higher than anyone ever believed it could be.

Another exciting thing which happened at zone conference: President Johansen told me he is planning on making me a zone leader right here in Trondheim next transfer. That would put me with my MTC companion Elder Bekker, for the second time. He is currently zone leader right now, so it's been fun having him in the district, and now we're both pretty stoked to be working together in a little over 3 weeks. He and I had some pretty good times in the MTC, and every time I go on splits with him we have a nice little reminiscing session haha. The best part of it all is, I wouldn't have to move apartments!

Anyways, in other news, Elder Strange and I got a baptismal date this week with a girl named Inara. I can't remember if I've talked about her before. But, her father is not a huge fan of religion. So he's been a huge roadblock, because he's got a huge personality. So even though Inara is in her 30's, he has been keeping her from coming to church since we started meeting with her. But he has only been on visit here in Norway, and he is going back home next week. Inara has said that she wants to come to church after that, and that she wants to be baptized. So we set a date for March 10th. It was pretty exciting. So we'll be working with her more this week and next, getting her prepared for baptism.

I got a letter from a good friend Alexa this past week. She was married since I've been on my mission. So I look at the envelope and it says "Alexa Staples" I'm just like, who the flip is Alexa Staples? I don't know an Alexa Staples....then it clicked. Used to be Alexa Levesque haha. So it just makes me wonder, how many of my other friends are gonna have different last names by the time I get home!? Just found out another one of my cousins has been engaged, but his name won't change, so more power to him. He goes by the same name as me too, so go get 'em Dave! At least I was able to be there for Heather's wedding...heck, I opened my mission call at it. Lysa can just wait until my homecoming weekend and I'll steal the spotlight from her too. =P Haha ok ferdig med det... <---- norwegian.

Well, Elder Strange is done getting his head shaved, so we're outta here. Look forward to hearing from ya'll next week =)
Elder Sessions

13 February 2012

Kjære familie og venner

Ane Rebekka was baptized on Saturday! I wasn't able to be there for it, but she sent me a few pictures so I'll send those on too. I talked to her on the phone Saturday night and she said she felt fantastic. So that was awesome.

I went on splits this week with Elder Argyle. He was a greenie my first transfer in Bergen, so that was fun to get back together with him. He's currently in Ålesund, which is a part of my district, so he flew up to Trondheim, and Elder Strange flew to Ålesund. We had a couple of way good days, spent the whole time out on the street contacting and found a couple of cool people.

We still weren't able to get them to come to church, but hopefully we'll be able to see some good progress with them over the next week. Other than that, Elder Strange and I are just out contacting to find some other people that we can teach.

We'll have zone conference this week on Thursday. It's a bit of a relief for me cause it means I don't have to organize a district meeting this week haha. It's a nice break, plus I've heard that President Johansen has one heck of a talk planned for us. So I'm excited for that one.

That's all for this week. Happy Birthday to Cody on Friday!

Love,
Elder Sessions

30 January 2012

Kjære familie og venner,

Most of my mission so far has been spent in areas that don't have a whole lot going on in terms of progressing investigators. Apparently the Lord feels like I can handle that particular challenge, cause he keeps putting me in those situations haha. The streak continued this week.

We're just having trouble getting any real traction with the people we're teaching. Hungdai hasn't met with us since the first time we taught him and gave him a Book of Mormon and we haven't had an investigator in church since I came to Trondheim. It's frustrating, but there are flashes of potential as well. A Filipino girl named Jemai was supposed to come to church Sunday, but wasn't able to due to an angry aunt. Not really sure what happened there, but apparently she really wants to come. So we'll see how that goes.

A man on the street the other day objected when I told him that I knew Christ's church was back on the earth again. He said, "You can never KNOW anything about religion." The funny thing was, this man believed in God and described himself as a Christian.

At first glance, I simply rejected what that man said. He just didn't know what he was talking about. I felt I had thoroughly defeated him when he dispensed all of his arguments and finally just had to walk away when he ran out of things to say. Because of that, I decided he just couldn't be right in saying that I didn't really know, I just believed. But it kept bugging me.

Luckily, God knows what we're thinking about and he knows what's bugging us. So over the last couple of days, I've felt like my faith has become strengthened in several aspects of the gospel to the point where I really do know. Through teaches with investigators, a temple preparation class on Sunday, and in watching the Joseph Smith movie with someone yesterday, the thought entered into my mind that I really did know AND believe all of those things. The Plan of Salvation, temples, and Joseph Smith. It's hard to describe, because I don't think I even realized that we could reach that point in our faith. But I honestly feel like, at this point, I could never deny the things I know to be true.

It's not that easy though. We can't ever get away from the things we're supposed to do, no matter how sure we are that we know. That man had one thing right. I may not know to the point where I could ever become complacent in my knowledge. But I can believe enough to use the word "know" =)

I'm just glad I belong to a church where it's ok to say I know it's true. How much security and comfort comes from having a true faith in what you believe? In saying that you know that what you believe is true?

Even if I'm wrong, at least I'll die secure in my beliefs. At least I'll die happy.

but don't hold your breath, nay-sayers

23 January 2012

Kjære familie og venner,

We saw the Northern lights last night! I managed to get a couple of pictures of it. I don't really have a bucket list, but if I had one, seeing the Northern lights would be on it and I would have just scratched it out! There's also a few pictures of the city of Trondheim in the daytime from the roof of our apartment building, including Nidaros cathedral which is the biggest cathedral in Norway.

Well I thought Bergen was cold. Trondheim is even more north of Bergen. North enough to see the Northern lights, I guess. The branch is about half the size of Bergen. There's some pretty cool members here though, it'll be fun to work with them the next few weeks.

Elder Strange is from Provo. He's one transfer behind me, so he'll be out 10 months at the end of this transfer in March. He's been in Trondheim for 2 months now.

I went on a trip to Ålesund this weekend to do a baptismal interview. Ålesund is a 1 hour flight away, and they're in our district. It was pretty cool, Ålesund is a tiny city, reminds me a lot of Tønsberg. We contacted pretty much all day and found a girl who seemed pretty positive. They're gonna meet with her again this week. I also did my first ever baptismal interview and it went pretty well. She passed, and I think I passed too haha.

Other than that, Elder Strange and I have just been visiting members and finding. We talked to one guy this week that we're gonna continue teaching, named Hungdai. When we taught him yesterday, he accepted a soft baptismal commitment, which means he said he would be baptized if he received an answer that the church is true. I don't put a whole lot of weight on that, since it's pretty logical to say yes to that question, but it's a positive step nonetheless. We'll meet with him again this week and see how that goes.

Other than that, it's been a pretty boring week actually. Well not boring, cause nothing is boring here, but there just wasn't anything overly spectacular that happened. I guess sometimes you have weeks like that, no matter what you're doing.

16 January 2012

Kjære familie og venner!

I hate moving. Like for realz. You gotta pack, then carry all your stuff around the airport, then all around Oslo, then back to the airport, then through Trondheim, and then when you get home, you gotta unpack everything! At least, you do if you're me, haha. I must admit, I have yet to finish the whole "unpacking" part, but I'm sure I'll get it done soon.

This week was nuts. Monday and Tuesday was spent packing and getting ready to leave Bergen. Elder Bird and I got out for a little bit of contacting and things on Tuesday, but pretty much we were stuck cleaning our apartment and stuff like that. Elder Bird shipped out of Bergen on Wednesday morning, and I played tour guide for the new missionaries all day Wednesday. Helped them check into the city and stuff. It was weird, for the first time, I was the oldest missionary in the city.

Wednesday night, I finally flew out of Bergen....and to Oslo. I thought I was moving to Trondheim? Yes, that's true. But we had a training meeting for mission leaders on Thursday in Oslo. So I spent the night in Oslo at Elder Perry's new apartment, that was fun. He moved from Bergen to Oslo as a district leader, so we weren't separated for too long =P But, alas, Thursday night came and I got on a flight from Oslo to Trondheim. Two days after transfers started, I was finally in my new area.

First impression: Trondheim is cold. Colder than Bergen at least. The market place is one giant ice skating rink. Not because they made it into an ice skating rink, but because Mother Nature did.

Second impression: I could actually end up liking this place. I had my doubts after spending 4 months in Paradise, (no joke, that's what the suburb of Bergen which I lived in, was called) but the members here are all amazing so far. We're a little low on the investigators right now, actually we've got none haha, so I'm looking forward to getting to know some of the members like we did in Bergen. It seems like the Trondheim branch is really supportive of the missionary work, which is good to see.

Third impression: Being a district leader is harder than it looks. I spend most of my nights on the phone with other members of the district. I never realized how much time Elder Perry actually spent on the phone over there in Bergen. But it's cool, cause I get to know the other missionaries and their investigators really well. So this will be a fun transfer.

Elder Strange is a cool dude. He's from Utah. Surprise =P We'll have a good time, but we've got our work cut out for us if we're gonna see some success this transfer. But I'm excited.

My family goes to all the cool places when I'm not around. I've wanted to go to DisneyWorld my whole life, but I never had the chance. (Disneyland Paris does NOT count. Mickey doesn't know how to speak French, everyone knows that!) Lo and behold, they went to DisneyWorld this week, without me. That's ok, I'm in Norway =)

Have a good week!
Elder Sessions