1 October

Kjære familie og venner

We have 8 missionaries in Oslo right now. The city isn't divided up into areas for each of the companionships, so we're all responsible for everything within the ward boundaries. Which means, with Elder Lillywhite and I living in Sandvika with the Assistants, we actually live outside of our own area since that is a part of the Sandvika ward. So that's fun, I remember the first time we rode the subway out to the apartment and I saw the Oslo city limit signs I was like, uhh...do we need to call for permission for this? Cause normally we can't leave our area without permission. But hey, I do what I want right? =)

This weekend we set up a street stand in Oslo sentrum. Some may remember back when I was in Bergen we would take chalk and draw the Plan of Salvation out on the ground in the middle of the city. Well, we did it in Oslo. Among the 8 missionaries, we walked 40 people through the drawing in 3 hours. We handed out 30 copies of the Book of Mormon. Elder Lillywhite and I taught 9. So that was cool. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get any phone numbers although I did give a book to a Russian guy who said he would call us. So we'll see. I went on splits with the new Oslo Elders this week and Elder Anderson, the senior companion, and I did a bit of contacting on the street. We talked to a guy from Portugal who wants us to come visit him sometime this week. So that's good cause we really need some people to visit haha. Reynaldo hasn't answered his phone for about a week, so that was kinda sad. We dropped Devinder cause he just didn't seem to be all that interested. 

I had a big district last transfer. This transfer, it's even bigger. 18 missionaries in the district in a mission with 57 total. So I'm pretty busy with exchanges. In order to get on splits with everyone I'll have to go twice a week, at least. That's prolly not gonna happen, so I guess I'll have to skip over some missionaries. It's definitely the best way to do the district leader thing haha. 

Well, this week we're going to visit that Portuguese man and a less active man named Jonny who has asked us to teach him the missionary lessons. Then there's General Conference this weekend. So that's exciting. My last time watching in on the mission, so gotta hope it's a good one. The week after that is our zone conferences. The week after that is stake conference. The week after that, we are having a mission conference and President Teixeira, the Area President is coming. And then it's Halloween. So October is pretty much gone and then suddenly I have two weeks and the end of this transfer. 

Busy month. As usual, right? =)

Vi snakkes!

Eldste Sessions

PS. couple pictures. one of our dinner with a Chinese member here. Another is a companionship picture which is going to hang on the ward bulletin board so the members know who we are.

24 September

Kjære familie og venner

Hey everyone! We moved in with the Assistants this week. Took us about two days to get finished with that, mainly because we had appointments and things in between it all. With transfers and moving and everything, we didn't have a whole ton of time to do any proselyting. We did have a couple of appointments with a man from India named Devinder. After our last appointment with him on Saturday, I'm not too sure how interested he actually is, so we'll probably end up dropping him soon unless he starts showing some progress.

I had another baptismal interview with a woman down south in Fredrikstad this week. She is from Iraq, and she moved to Norway with her two daughters about 10 years ago, mainly because they grew up as Christians. Iraq is not exactly the easiest place to do that. So they ended up here. Her two daughters actually live in Oslo, and one of them, Roya,  has come to Institute a couple of weeks in a row now. She likes it, and we've been able to answer some of her questions about the church. I'm hoping that with Roya's mom getting baptized, that will help her to be interested in actually sitting down and meeting with us, which she hasn't wanted to do just yet. So we'll see, but I don't expect anything to happen with that for at least a few more weeks. But there is definitely potential there.

We just heard the other day that we are going to have another mission conference next month. I'm pretty lucky that I'm getting 3 in only a year, it's pretty unusual, especially since it's so expensive to travel in Norway. Elder Teixeira, the Area President is coming to do a mission tour, so everyone is going to be flying into Oslo for a two day conference. Mission conferences are nice because it's a great opportunity to get to see everyone again. This may be my last chance to see a couple missionaries before I head home, so I'm excited for that. 

And, of course, there's always General Conference as well. That's a good time. Couple more weeks for that. We're crossing our fingers for a Norwegian temple to be announced! It's not likely to happen for quite a while actually, but I can't wait until that day. =)

Well, we're hoping we can get out this week and do some good finding. Tonight we're heading to a less active member's house who wants us to teach him and his son the missionary lessons. So that'll be fun. He also mentioned a friend who had a couple of questions about the church, so it'd be nice to get a referral out of it as well.

Til next week!

Eldste Sessions

17 September

Kjære familie og venner

Well we just had our moves call this morning....nothing is changing. I'm staying as district leader with Elder Lillywhite in Oslo. But, we are moving into the Assistants apartment in Sandvika because they opened a new Elders area in Oslo and they are taking our apartment. So that'll be fun, Elder Bekker is still an Assistant so I'll be living with him again haha. I was really looking forward to a change of companion or area, but it'll have to wait another 2 months. For now, I'm just glad I can keep working with what we have in Oslo. 

Reynaldo is coming back to Oslo this week. His boss called him in to work. So, I'm not exactly sure what's happening there haha. He's doing a nice little mission tour. He went first to Tromsø for a couple of days, then all the ways north in Hammerfest, and now he is in Bodø on his way back to Oslo. Hopefully we can meet with him this week and get him settled before he darts off somewhere else. 

We don't really have much else going for us right now. The member work is tough here and we haven't had a whole lot of time to get out and contact on the streets recently. Jonathan has been busy this week...we weren't able to visit him. So we're pretty dead. But there are good things happening and I think it's important to just focus on that rather than what is not happening. There is a less active man who has asked us to begin meeting with us to help him come back. So we're excited about that one. 

Last P day, the elders in Oslo got ahold of some matching shirts and we all wore them. So there's a picture. It was pretty funny haha. 

Love

Elder Sessions