You really should stop worrying so much about the lengths of your emails. :) Trust me, even your shortest one is above average of what a lot of people get. I don't mind that we like talking to each other a lot but you definately shouldnt worry about it. :) I'm sorry that you had to get a nasty cold right now :) Hang in there, and know that I'll go extra hard, and pray for you this week. As a fun little fact, it was norwegain mothers day last week. Sooo HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!! That's the benefit of having a son serving in a foreign country right? You get to have two mothers days!!!! unfortunately we only get to skype once though :)
In other news! We have a member here Myren who is a super good friend of mine now who has been giving us daily updates to the olympics :) And don't tell anyone but I watched the norwegian vs. canada curling game while I was at the airport on my way to bodø. :) It was cool. It stinks that i've now missed 2 olymips in a row, especially cause the winter olympics are huge for norway. Apparently Norway won the olympics in Salt lake :) WHo knew? :) I miss it though. We played a little hand curling game a couple weeks ago which was super cool because I got to learn the rules and its a super cool game. Even the little table top one got me super into it :) Thats stinks that they are taking president nielson out right before I get home, because now I have no idea who I'll be coming back to. But what the heck right? doesnt make a huge difference who I end up talking to.
I guess I'll tell you a little about my spazztastical week. It was really good considering we were gone for like 4 days of it. But we are still struggling to find someone who is really positive and will really progress. We have had some cool people who seemed way cool on the first teach, but then nothing seemed to click after that. So that has been frustrating. maybe I just got over excited about things to begin with. It was cool to actually have the appointments we had go through and actually be able to teach people :) We had some cool miracles at the end of the week and were able to pull out some new investigators but it was still a little rough. One cool thing is I got to see my third baptism ever though! The sisters were teaching... or I guess the ward really was teaching a chinease woman named silu who got baptized on saturday and it was pretty cool to be able to see that. While we were sitting down by the font listening to the acutally meeting, (we were super bummed because none of the like 6 peopel who said they would be coming were able to come) but as we were sitting I got a pretty strong feeling to go upstairs and check to see if anyone was there. I clearly haven't learned my lesson completely because at first I ignored it, but then I did it, we left, and found one of the other elders investigators just about to leave who had been sitting in the chapel. We were able to talk with her and it ended up being really cool and a huge blessing for them cause they thought no one had come either. But it was weird to get that for their investigator... I guess i'm entilted to revalation for all the people investigating the church. It was a cool experience though. I really have had a lot of those this week. Just knowing who to call and wehre to go... and yeah. its been cool. We're still working on getting just the right people though. I feel like i'm being led more and more and more, and that I get crazy spriitual direction every single day when we go outside, and yet, i'm tired as heck, and we still just cant help these people get all the way... Its frustrating. Mostly just to keep throwing in more and more, and just pray something happens. I do have to say though, after all is said and done, that is what gives oyou the besty feeling at the end of the day.
The highlight of the week was DEFINATELY our trip to Bodø and Narvik though. We are in essense like traveling leaders for like the entire north of Norway, and at this point i've almost seen everything. Its super cool. Intresting note, we had our zone leader training twice, once in trondhiem, and once of all the people way north, and the first one we did didn't click at all. like at all. It was bad. I had one of the wierdest hardest days that day. I couldnt focus on anything and i felt super sick, and i didn't feel like our meeting had flowed at all. me and elder skinner couldn't figure it out. More tired than ever we got on the plane to bodø the next morning and I was just praying that the people who came to that one who be able to get what they needed out of it. I started out feeling terrible, and all at once I got this HUGE boost of energy, and I knew what to say. The whole second meeting went waay better, we just let it flow, took tons of time to let people practice and talk it out, and my whole idea about baptism and how improtant it is got changed by that meeting. In a way I feel like it is trying to throw me up against a wall again, but i'm cool with that. lets go. :)
After that, we played werewolves, (because these poor missionaries have no human interaction other than people saying nei takk) and then we 14 misisonaries hit the streets of the tiny town of bodø and went haam. As a backdrop to this, you should know I've been praying for weeks to know what to do to help the elders in bodø. They haven't had anything... at all. I don't even blame them. Because i've been there. In a sense you just need someone to give you the energy and the faith boost you need to say, look! you can find these people! I know that they're there!!! aahhhh! I wish i had known these things sooner. Even in the smallest litle podunk town ever, god still has people prepared for you. God definatley answered my prayer. There was only one tiny little main street to go contacting on so I took my grandson elder reber and we just went straight spirit banking. of the 10 or so people we contacted we got like 4 numbers in like 45 minutes. and a couple of appointments set up. By anyones standards it was unreal. ANd it always happens eventually! I just want to scream at the world: We can do this! Don't give up. I don't want anyone to just give up! Its the hardest thing in the world, but also the most rewarding. By far. You have no idea how happy I was when elder rowe (my grand daughter) called me the next day more excited than i've ever seen that kid. I just want them sooo badly to succeed. And they can. This whole week was full of miracles for everyone in the north.
Then we took a plane and spent the next 2 nights in Narvik with elder halverson and crook. It was super fun! I discovered my favorite chocolate ever! and I played with a toy helicopter, and saw tons of more miracles, had a suuuper fun time with those elders and just loved life and wore myself to the ground. Narvik has been the town of my dreams ever since elder anderson went there its always been the place i wanted to go :)
its really small
But despite that fact, after eating a way good lunch, we hit the streets and contacting down the one little highway with a grand total of 2 street lights on it . And it was awesome. After contacting some cool norwegian kids, I wasn't feelin it anymore so we prayed, crossed the bridge, found another cool norwegian kid, and followed the spirit. WE walked for probably 10 minutes (keep in mind this whole town has been knocked to the ground probably 20 times in the last 5 years) but we just went and I ended up turning down this street and just stopping. I had this feeling to go left, but the weird thing is that it was just the back of someones house and this weird little driveway thing. But hey. We went anyway :) and knocked the houses on the street over and found a way cool norwegain lady with a family and got a number and time to come back. Unreal cool. Then we walked back and had dinner. :) After I made them my famous smoothies and we listened to music that makes you fall asleep, me and elder crook went to go try this tryback past the overhang stadium, and it was super fun cause we got to this really icy hill thingy (ps it had just rained and then frozen soooo, imagine a place well over the arctic circle covered with ice) and there was a walking path going down that was suuuuper slik ice with no dirt or gravel on it. so i went to tthe top and said to my companion, if I die, I die with honor. And stepped onto it and started sliding down.
Proud to say i stayed on my feet the whole run and landed the jump at the bottom :)
The lady next to the door we were supposed to try ended up talking to me for about 10 minutes and we had a super cool conversation where I just talked super openly and helped someone to get into our shoes as missionaries. Maybe just to help them realize we aren't like scary or evil people but that we are really just there to help. It was a huge testimony for me at least. :) Basically this whole week was fuuuulll lto the brim with those. mOst weeks are, but i have a little bit more time to talk today. ;)
WE went and hade institutt with the 4 branch members and it wassss sooo cool. I love the spirit up there. THosse people have to be so strong to do what they do. I can't imagine being in such a small place with no families and almost no support at all. agk. Anyways. it was cool to experience that small branch feel. On sunday, the only person in the congregation in narvik was thier investigator. Pretty funny :)
Ok. whoo. aNyways. it was fantastic. by the end of that one day, we had chalked up 5 appointments and 15 numbers. Thats unreal. That would be better than most of my days in trondheim, wait cut that, I think that might be the most successs ever.
K well I need to go now. I love you mom! Have a fantastic week! I'll be praying my guts out for you.
Love,
Christopher
