Cool story this week. Last week we got a referral from the mission office. It was a guy named Torbjørn who had found the church website and ordered a Book of Mormon and a missionary visit. The problem was that he lives almost halfway in between here and Stavanger, which means it would be an hour and a half to two hours for us to drive there. So we decided to wait until this week when we knew we would be traveling to Stavanger for a training meeting, and then we could visit him on the way back home.
Well, turns out that wasn't good enough for him. On Friday night, we were at our apartment eating dinner. The Arendal Elders were with us for a YSA activity in Kristiansand that night. One of them was talking about some pictures he wanted to stop and take on the way home from Stavanger. I told him that we didn't have time because we had to stop and visit this guy on the way back. Right around the same time we got a call from Elder Cressal, the senior couple who serves in the Institute center here. He said there was a guy who walked into the center with some questions about the Church. This happens occasionally...usually they're under the influence or something. So I wasn't too excited about it at first.
We get to the center and start talking to this guy. He wasn't socially awkward and he wasn't drunk. In fact, he seemed pretty normal...a 20-something year old Norwegian guy. He starts telling us his story, and we recognized it...he was the referral from last week. He convinced one of his friends to drive him all the ways into the city and somehow found the address for the institute center so that he could meet with us.
We answered his questions and gave him the Book of Mormon and DVD that he had ordered. He committed to preparing himself for baptism and we set up an appointment to visit him on Tuesday after our meeting in Stavanger...as originally planned. The really cool part of this story is how he found the church website. He had never heard of Mormons before...or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for that matter. One day, he was listening to some music and thinking about life when he heard a voice say the word "mormon." He didn't have a clue what a mormon was or what it meant...so he Googled it. (Go figure haha) It eventually led him to our website.
We were pretty excited about that. Then, I received some more good news. A man that Elder Peterson and I had contacted and taught in Trondheim was baptized this weekend...Jan Peder. We taught him the lessons and committed him to baptism....then he disappeared. I moved to Oslo and Elder Peterson never heard from him again. In January, the missionaries in Trondheim found his number on our old teaching record and called him up. This time he was ready. I had the chance to talk to him on the phone last night and was pleased to hear that he remembered the first missionaries =) We had a good conversation and I congratulated him....and gave him my Facebook of course haha.
That was my week. Nicole and Nancy both weren't able to come to church yesterday despite our invitations. Torbjørn doesn't have a car for the moment, so it's a bit tough for him living so far away. But we're going to talk with him about that tomorrow night. He has already expressed a desire to make the drive to Kristiansand once he can get his own car. So we'll see.
Elder Rasmussen and I have been having fun going geocaching on P-days. We've found some pretty cool places in the area that we wouldn't have gone to otherwise, and I've got a couple really cool pictures. I forgot my camera at the apartment, so I'll have to throw them on here later before I send the email.
Have a great week!
Elder Sessions
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