Kjære familie og venner

It's an exciting time in Norway. We just got a second stake and our mission president is already talking about a 3rd. He's already got it planned and everything haha. I definitely don't think it will take us 35 years like it did last time. In order to show that the mission is serious about building that 3rd stake, President Johansen made some changes in the missionary areas. He opened a second area down in Tønsberg, my good ol' greenie area =) Now there are 4 missionaries working on that one branch of 25 people, because Tønsberg growing into a ward is a huge part of President's plan for a 3rd stake. In order to have enough missionaries for that, the second elder's area in Trondheim was closed.

Which means more work for me! haha

One of the investigators who was being taught by the other elders is a Chinese man named Yongqing. We met with him on Saturday and set a baptismal date for the 2nd of June. So that's pretty exciting. We had a dinner party at a members house later that night and he really enjoyed himself. Then, he came to church the next day and seemed to be really excited. We'll be meeting with him again on Wednesday. The hardest part is the language barrier. He can understand English pretty well, he just has a hard time expressing himself in english. So we have a chinese member who lives in Oslo that is going to skype in for our teaching appointments with him. so that'll be fun haha.

Elder Peterson seems to be enjoying himself here. It's his first transfer as a zone leader so it's been fun for me as well haha. He was a district leader down in Kristiansand, in the south of Norway, so the weather has also been an adjustment for him. He says he lives about 2 hours away from Coon Rapids, where mom used to live.

Fun fact, which your email actually just reminded me of. One of the AP's this transfer is named Elder Tarver from Austin, Texas. When we were in Oslo for the Norway Conference, we stayed at the AP's apartment for that weekend and I got to talking with Elder Tarver about Texas. The cool thing is that he was actually a part of the exact same performance that I was back when the San Antonio Temple was dedicated. The Austin stakes were also a part of the practice we had the week before the performance at that high school football field down in San Antonio. So that was a cool little "small world moment"

We've got a pretty normal week ahead of us though. President Johansen is coming to Trondheim tomorrow for a specialized training meeting. Elder Peterson and I are presenting there. Other than that abnormality, we'll just be meeting with some people for the first time and getting some return appointments. You know, normal stuff =P

Good luck to everyone who's starting exam season =) Kinda glad I don't have to worry about that for a few more semesters, haha

We'll talk
Elder Session