October 8, 2012

Hi Peoples of the United states where I am not!

I hope all of you had a blast at conference like we did! This week was full of more craziness, and also a lot more understanding for me. So far, to be honest I hadn't the foggiest idea what was going on around me :) To be honest it's really impossible to describe just how everything is, so i'm just glad that i'm finally starting to get used to it! In general I feel more directed, and I know more of who I am and what I can contribute even now. Despite my desires to be filled with faith, it was really hard when everything around you just gave you a headache, and was so different than what you expected. Now however I feel much more comfortable with all the missionaries around me (who are all awesome) and everyone I get to work with. (the only bad part is that the other 5 elders in oslo are going home soon which means that I'm the youngest and least experienced by a lot)

This week was full of more ups and downs, but I'd say a lot more ups than downs. I was introduced to my first Jehovahs witness teach this week. The whole experience was just kinda funny. We planned to meet him at the library at noon after we went to a funeral, so we took to T-bane, (subway) to Mæjorstuen, and waited for him there. When he got there he called us and told us that the library wouldnt want us to meet there, so we pretty much were like, yeah sure we'll do whatever. Also he was bringing his finance. So we hopped in his car and he drove us pretty much outside of Oslo, to a little kafe. From there they pretty much tried to teach us and convince us that we were wrong for like 3 hours. I was just smiling. By the end they were extremely agitated. I was happy because I actually just smiled and bore testimony, and they couldnt really say anything. It was just like raw greenie testimony vs. them. Go team. The gospel is true. As I have been studying the scriptures and as we watched General Conference, the Gospel has come alive to me more than it ever has before. As I have studied with my companion it has just become clear how bulletproof the church is. They can send 19 (now 18 year old) boys out who dont know absolutely anything and it works. It's awesome because it's true! It's like oh yeah, right. you don't have nothing against us. Despite what I know spiritually, Everything makes sense. As we combine our spiritual knowledge and experiences with the witness of the Book of Mormon, and the testimony of living prophets, we can know without a doubt that this gospel is true. (dont worry i'm still a long ways away from this) Anyways, they offered to give us a ride home but we were like heck no we have public transportation. Ha det! Unfortuneatly we had no idea where the flip we were. And it was pouring rain. What's ironic is we were about 50 feet away from realizing where we were but we didnt realize that until saturday. So we pulled out a little map and finally came to the conclusion that there was no way we were going to be able to figure it out. All we knew is that we were too far west of the city center. So we wandered around until we found a bus station, and whilst Elder anderson planned on taking a bus farther away before we could take a t-bane back I found a trykk we couldd take ( an overground city train thingy) (super cool) so we wandered around some more and finally found it and got back soaking wet. In all I think we were gone for like 5 hours. Effective: probably not. Fun: Definately :) I'll never forget what it feels like to just be standing in the middle of the rain with Elder Anderson, just laughing because you have no peiling where the heck you are.

Anyways Conference was the BESST! So we watched the saturday morning, and the two sunday sessions live. This means our schedule was as follows. 6-8 saturday was sat morn. sunday 11-1 priesthood, 2-4 sat afternoon, 6-8 sunday morn and then we got permission to stay up last night to watch sun afternoon live too! woot! I would like to point out that conference was the beessst! It is also super exciting to be a missionary for this one! Holy Smokes!!!! 18 and 19!!! DUDUE! Being here with a bunch of missionaries was awesome! We projected that Norway will prolly get a ton more sisters (because they are actually allowed to come here) and less elders. But in total over the world there could be like 100,000 missionaries soon. I'm so pumped! Also they changed mtc length by 30%. you might think this doesnt affect you or me because hey I'm already done with that. Well your wrong. All of you. :) I didn't tell any of you this because you would all murder me, but my projected release date was about August 18 ish 2014. This means I literally would not live at home before college again. This happens because transfers in norway are 9 weeks exactly. Do the math and you end up either a month early or a month late of 24 months. And they almost always keep missionaries for an extra month.

BUT. Now they will have to change transfers in some way because new missionaries will be coming ever 6 weeks instead of 9. New game plan entirely. (all of the older missionaries are really excited to hear what happens about this. Im more of a meh, I pretty much still have an eternity) anyways. So it doesn't really change anything for you. I guess. Because you prolly thought I was coming home on time. But hey now I probably am! In other news... The food they fed us for conference was divine. Really you get so used to frozen pizza and eggs that anything else that is real food is heavenly. yum. Cornbread. (Our limited budget in Norway comes out to about 5 dollars a day for food) (which isnt a lot when a liter of milk costs 3 dollars)(and a pack of ramen costs like 1) anyways. I'm poor in Norway! But I love it! Ooh more questions! Send them to me! P.s. Mail takes a long time to get here. Next week will be a month, and I still have not recieved a letter that was sent after I sent my first email. Anyways!

I love you all! The church is true! Thank you for all the love and support!