I live in a suburb of Bergen called Paradis. Norway isn't that
big so they don't have really big addresses. :) I mean come on... There
are less people in the country than the state of utah. :) Yes I live in
Paradise :) And I got some letters from Kristy this week so that address
really does work. :)
My life is good :) I really don't have
that much to say really. Hmm. I'll talk about that first. I love being a
district leader. I actually feel like I really know what I'm suppossed
to be doing here and I really feel like I have the opportunity to do a
lot of good things in that respect. There is a lot of things that need
to be done with the ward and with 8 missionaries you kind of need
someone with enough experience to kindof lead out and take the lead on
that. So that's been fun. Its also been fun to really find out how I can
actually help them. I feel like I actually influence people a lot more
now than I did even when I was a zone leader, just because Bergen is the
one big city in Norway that really doesn't get much contact with
anywhere else. And I really almost have more to do here than I did in
stavanger. But it's been super fun, I I've been super grateful for that I
actually have been given some inspiration on
where to actually put my efforts. And the same really applies to my
companion. :) Elder Garrard is a pretty funny kid for as quiet as he is,
but we've really become really good friends, and he's helped me a lot
to finally just kinda go for it. This really is the part of my mission
where time is flying by so much faster than I thought possible, and all
you can do is just try to do everything that you can to be your best. As
a returned missionary in the ward wisely stated: 'You know, you two
really have quite the dynamic companionship. I think it works really
well. He then pointed at me and said: so you must be the disobedient
one' :) yup. Ok not really, but when put side by side with a greenie who
makes salads out of herbal tea and olive oil, because he just has to make a salad, and it just has to
be perfect, I guess I am the one that takes things at a slightly slower
pace. Except when we run. I think we run more uphill than I ever have
in
my life. And we do it pretty fast too :) Thats what you get with 2
rival cross country runners :) (no we don't race, its just that even
taking it slow we are pretty fast :)
In other news, we have made some way
good progress with some of the YSA in the ward. We taught one of the new
converts Bob, who.... I love. I have a straight man crush on the dude.
He speaks this funny version of the oslo dialect where he'll say
something REALLY fast, and then just pause like norwegians do by keeping
a constant tone and then finishing even faster. A lot of the members
dont even catch everything that he says. He went hiking wtih us, we made
food together, and yesterday I went on splits with him to go visit some
inactive YSA. Despite the fact no one answered, and it was pouring
rain, we had a great time skipping rocks at the oceans edge whilst we
waited for the bus. I loved it and had a blast :) We visited another
dood who let us in and we had a way chill talk with him as well. I tuned
his guitar for him (i'm picking up all kinds of fun skills on my
mission :) and we played some music together. We taught
the boyfriend of 4 years of one of the YSA who is an atheist. Not like a
religion hater, but someone who truly believes that we are animals on a
random planet. It was a super interesting teach, and I loved being a
part of it actually. Her testimony was fantastic and he'll probably be
just one of those people that take a little bit of time :)
hmm... What else? I think thats most of
it :) We hiked up a mountain last pday that was super cool. At the top
we were going through the clouds, and up almost a straight up slope all
there was was a big iron rod that wound up the mountain. The cool part
was that you could only see about 20 feet in front of you so more than
half the group you could only hear and not see :) I caught a frog, and
then we ran down the mountain... carefully :)
Evelyn is now a member, and from what
I've heard it was an absolutely incredible experience for them
yesterday. :) .... Yay :D Thats all I have to say about that. My heart
ached to be there, but I was needed here. Literally actually. I'm the
only missionary who can translate, so I ended up translating all three
hours yesterday. It was pretty fun. The little primary program was super
fun, the only problem was that some of those little girls talked
waaaaay to fast and I missed parts here and there. The people on the
recieving end said I did a good job though :)
We had a baptism here on saturday
and we had a super cool experience with one of the nonmember friends
that came. We went in and helped her make food and just talked to her
about things and she almost died i think because she just kept saying
over and over how utrolig flink we are at the språk and she was just
really impressed. :) But afterwords we talked to her and we are teaching
her and her famliy this week after she feeds us homemade pizza! Again,
random cooking skills on the mish that come in handy :) Then to top it
off, Brother Mørklid, (who I will just have to describe later.... he's
just ... fun :) (he's the guy who gives everyone ties if you've heard
about him) came walking down one end of the big hall whistling the western
dueling song, and after he did the first line I just whistled the
second and turned around and we had one of the moments ever just walking
down the hall slowly guns ready whilstling
at each other :) You would have to have been there :)
Life is crazy. I have way too much to do. But I love it all. I'm just enjoying the ride right now :) And doing everything I possibly can
to help everyone here succeed. I've never felt drive and love like this
before in my entire life. I will go and I will do. And when I fail,
I'll just get back up again. Because guess what matthew. It comes back
:)
Love,
Christopher :)
PS.
mom. All I can talk about is skipping rocks :) So painting rocks must
be much cooler. My life would sound cool if you could actually come here
and see how incredible this place is. Its unbelievable. As we
drive around i can't get over it :) To answer that part of your letter
last week. Don't give up on your dream of coming here. :)
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