April 8, 2013

Ok OKOK I¨'m soorrryy!! :) wow.. :)
it was only april fools ya know :)

SUPER WEEKEND!!!!

I had planned on doing much worse things and then decided against it so you wouldn't hate me :) Unfortunately today i want to go up to Vestby with the rest of my district since it's our last day together... soo I'm going to have to make this one short mom. sorry :)

but to answer your question We watched all of conference at the Moss chapel... It was... legit. Conference is the best on your mission. We are at teh chapel where all the translating happens so i know all the voices that translate... so cool! We had an invs. come for two of the sessions, and the elders from fstad came up to stay saturday and sunday night with us... we appropriately named it: Super Weekend :) Cause it was super. and great. And a lot of fun. Conference was absolutely incredible. I can't get enough man. Sometimes I don't think i've changed... then. I look back to where I was and how I felt about conference even 6 months ago. It is the world of difference. I don't even know who that was 6 months ago. Its great. Fantastic. president Uchtdorfs preisthood talk was definitely one of my favs and his other one. :) Elder holland man... I feel like I put on a seat belt for all of his talks. its like ok strap in for the ride man. :) Bomb. Absolutely and withouth queestion legit. I think everyone feels just how fiery that guy is though. Also the one by Cardon... bomb. straight up :) I loved the whole thing though. We watched the english in the relief sonc. room but the Sunday aft. we watched in the chapel all by ourselves. We switched the trans. to norwegian a couple of times just for fun :) Anyways

As you may have already picked up, I said this was my last day with my district. Yup. I'm fired. I'm not even going to saprsborg at all either. Nor will Elder Callister ever be my comp. I'm getting sent to Sandnes on the other dødsn' side of norway. Like tomorrow. Burts greenie is coming but Weavers is not, so I'm just getting kicked out altogether. boo. We had a supper fun week together. I was loving life this week. But now i'm gone. Pres threw me a major curveball on that one. So as such i'm no longer DL either :) I must have done a pretty bad job when he came last week ... heh. yup. oh well. You learn right :) Its dumb. ... i'm not happy. I just feel like we are getting a way tight district, and I feel like i know what i'm doing and... nope. denial.

Yeah well.

We can talk more about sandnes later. :)

This week was PACKED. We had tons of fun. We actually had to cancel a ton of stuff to fit everything in this last week. That's a good sign usually :) but woa.... I can't even say it all. Funny story:

Roger.

The end.

Ok just kidding. but really he's a man. ... who came to church.... who wanted us.... to come teach him..... and when....... we got to his house...... you could smell the smoke..... from 2 floors down. (im' singing this in my head right now.) Anyways. Good thing i'm already a second hand smoker otherwise I would have died. He had emptied like 6 pakcs of smokes in like 2 hours... plus 7 bottles of beer. Our clothes have been hanging out the window for days :)

We helped the youth with a missionary activitiy on wednesday and it was hilarious :) And soooper fun. It was soo cool to be able to take a setep back and say wow. I'm a missionary. THis is what we do. Me and burt were just those super pumped super excited missionaries you always see. We love life, and it loves us back.

That family with the 2 boys we had last week INVITED US OVER this week!!!! IT was incredible!!!!!! We had a mission goal to get 60 new invs. this week and just moss and fredrikstad alone got double  what we needed to! It was a great week. Those boys are awesome though I just realized I won't see them ever again. Life is sad sometimes. Yeah well.
We played Badminton

We had a sweet DM where we all felt the spirit way strong, got Kbabs with pineapple and way good saus. WE now have lov to take our suit jackets off All the TIME!!!! yay! ANd we had a way cool member missionary pump up. Just when i know what iæ'm doing i have to leave....

K there is tons more. Incredible Fjord views and epic people, but that's about all i have time for mom :)

 As to emials, I actually print some of them off and read them later. :) THough its always fun to get something in the mail during the week. Either way is fine. just pick. Time isnot a huge issue though :)

I love you so much mom. I'm sorry that a whole bunch of stuff is happening. i'll try my best to be optimistic and show the joy and the love I know I have. :) I truly have learned so much about the atonement though through all of my experiences. Missions are the best. Anywayz. Keep going! I'll talke to you guys from a slightly differnet spot enxt week! Wish me luck! I'm in for a ride.... in a threesome.

Love

Christopher

April 1, 2013

psss... heh heh. Happy aprilsnær! heh he. I didn't tell you what k bab pizza is... heh heh. :)

Hey Mom!!!!

While we're on the subject of mundane things... it's interesting to be a missionary. Every once in a while on pday I wake up and really don't care to do anything Pdayish, because everything else is jus worth so much more. The farther I get into my mission, the more i realize just how important what we do is, and how hard it will be hard to find meaning in life when I'm not always focused on others and helping them with eternal salvation. Even on a day where you wander around and no one will talk to you the entire day you can still feel like you are doing something that is so important. I know that every missionary says this and everyone else is like: 'no way man' But for realsies... the thought of coming home scares the heck out of me. Mostly for that reason. ANyways that's waaaaay down the eternal pit of blackness that never ends. Secretly I'm never leaving :D

It actually sounds like you guys had a pretty intensical week. Filled with awesomeness though :) I really like your idea of throwing in some extra birthday days! thats a good idea :) I'm totally going to celebrate like a norwegian for the rest of my life so you all are welcome to join along with us! Woot! 

What is a Kbab pizza eh? That is the grand question of the twenty first century of the treasure of a thousand islands of a world lost in a universe of a monkeys eyeball who is eating a bananna...

A kbab pizza is basicalll a kbab on a pizza... :D no lettuce though. That would be gross... heh

My easter was fantastic! ok. well... actually it was really good. There really wasn't a whole lot different. We're missionaries mom :) But I don't think you really understand Moss yet.... In Moss I have a dinner with a member EVERY single night. including easter :) We had really good turkey and this bluberry jello ice cream cream mix.... oohh man so good. They feed us well. :) and this waaay cool famliy invited us over for like 25 minutes so we could do an easter egg hunt led by their little son :) super cute. Norwegians just look for a single egg on their hunt, and its a huge one loaded with candy :) it was super fun. Sidenote: Guess... what?!? I've gained 6 kilo's in moss so far!!! duood that puts me at almost 153 pounds!!! Yess heh heh. anyways. thats mostly because we've been doing P90X every morning :)

This week was really cool too. Sometimes I feel like I should be inparting all this great wisdom because I'm a missionary, but I honestly don't have any :) I don't know anything more than the rest of you. But it is cool to see how much of the atonement I've been able to experience on my mission rather than just learn about. That's probably the one of the coolest things from this week. Friday man... i was done. I woke up and I just knew I just didn't have what it takes that day. I've been having the problem lately of just not feeling adequate. But i remember just getting this super strong feeling that: hey. it's going to be ok. And throughout the next couple days I literally just was carried through and saw things that were huge miracles to me. Friday was a national holiday and literally every store in the country (except for the muslim market :) is closed. But even though there was no one outside, We talked to a lot of people. We even got this girls number in the worst contact i've ever done in my life. It was the first one that day, and my mind was literally blown. It was way cool. On saturday we ate with this member who is crazy, and she was feeding half the ward that night, but her son and grandsons were there and we literally were all laughing histerically after being together for like 40 minutes. It was perfect. I don't even nkow how we did it, but we just clicked wtih them. And they totaly brought out my inner child :) It was super fun. I can't even describe it. i fetched water from the nile... And noah became a missionary that day... anyways it was awesome. We talked with the dad at the end and we can totally go over and talk to them more about the gospel and everything!! it was laweslosm.øe 

This whole being on a mission thing is still kinda a joke but I'm loving it. It's super hard, but at the same time super .... fantastisk. I've learned that no amount of anything I do can do this. It's all up to him. As long as I am willing, he'll show me just how much he can do. I continue to learn a ton about faith and ah! just everything. I'll keep going. I hope you guys have a super awesome break! Tell matthew to send me some more vids! me and my comp thought those were sweet!

Anyways! I love you so much mom! I can't wait to talk to you in like.... a MONTH!!! WOOT!

Love,

Christopher

Ps. IS ANYONE AS EXCITED ABOUT GC AS I AM!?!?! Sorry I didn't really get to that but it's super awesome! 

Antoher random fact aobut moss! it's the translating center for the church into norwegain. So all the GC talks i've been listening to in norwegian I now know the people that are talking! its super cool! The ward is super awesome here. I'm actually getting to know a lot of them really well! K cool well bye!

March 25, 2013

Hey Mom!

What are you talking about you didn't really have anything to say? That is not the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, because I've heard much more ridiculous things on my mission, but that's still pretty ridiculous. I think all people everywhere never feel like there is much exciting going on, but the more you really look at it, the more you can see. :) So never believe that your life is boring mom. Because it's not. And I'm glad your loving it. That's probably the most important thing ever. 

I've probably said much across this same point before, but my mission is not even about planting seeds. I thought I was going to come out here to serve the Lord, and lift and strengthen other people. Well... That's not really how it's worked for me. I know that I have helped people, and done what i've needed to do. but it hasn't been at all about what I can do. it's all about what the Lord can do for me and show me. I thought I was going to serve Him, but amidst it all He's done about a million times more for me personally. My mission hasn't been about the people, or even the place or any of that. it's been about how much the Lord can show me just how much He loves me, and how much He can really do that I can't by myself. That's what i'll remember the most. Everything else is awesome. But that's been the best. 

I'm glad you protected dad's poor heart for him. Was he actually like using it while he was talking or was it just sitting there chilliin? You should probably tell Brother Clark so that he doesn't get too much of a heart attack and tell the bishop that our family is insane or soemthing. That wouldn't be good :) Also why is it that Ethan gets to go skiing when i've never actually gone? Thats ridiculous. 

Fun fact about Norway: Everyone Ski's. ALl. people. everywhere. When we visit families and eat with them their 3 year old daughter will ask when they can go skiing. They literally are born with ski's already attatched to their legs. They have a saying for it :) Anyways. its' a shame I can't go as a missionary. That would be a pretty cool way to experience norway.

More news from this week, is that there really isn't that much to say actually. :) We had some funny things happen to us. One night we were out knocking on doors, and this cat just followed us around for like an hour and half. it was suuuper cool. :) We just had this little guardian cat by our side the whole time. i should have named it. it was a way sweet little cat :D And I continue to attract an extraordinary amount of weird crazy people. This one guy called us over while we were walking down the street on saturday, and proceeded to tell us like 15 stories where he had been able to see the future. We literally just sat there and stared at him for like an hour as he talked to us on the street. The only reason I didn't go crazy is because of just how funny his stories were :) Anyways, finally we had to go to get to an appointment and this crazy old man just follows us yelling about how grace exists in everything and that everyone especially Hitler would be saved. Crazy man. Another was an old guy who got on the bus last week and literally just started raging at the bus driver. That doesn't happen in Norway. people don't really yell at each other. But this old guy was just going wild. the whole bus was just staring at him. My favorite part was when he started punching the card reader on the bus... That made me laugh :)

We also had Zone Conference, and I've finally reached the point where some missionaries that i love to death and have gotten to know really well are going home. My Father is going home in a month.... I'm probably not even going to get to see him ever again in Norway whcih is actually really sad. i'm kinda waaay bummed about that one. Zone conference was really good though. It was super trippy to go back to Oslo.... It's cool how I know my way around that city like it was backyard though. My old friend Mr. Goob goes home too. That's just weird. I'll forward the pictures. Unfortunately i'm closing my eyes but other than that I'm looking snazzy rockin the new suit and tie. :D (sorry still dont have pictures of that for you).

In terms of cool things the coolest was some less active work that we did. We had dinner with this one young family that just stopped coming to church because he started building their house, and then after a while it was just easier to not come. It was way cool because something just clicked as we prayed in our hearts and he talked way openly about his testimony and what is missing. before the ward jsut thoght he was completely apostate and that we could only help his wife, but after that visit it was clear he wants the feelings of the spirit agian, he just doesn't feel like doing it all. It was really powerful and really cool. he basically told us he knew that it was true and that there really wasn't anything he could do to deny it and wouldn't try to, he just doesn't want to act on it right now. So we gave him some challenges and taught them about faith, and just tried to help them. It was awesome. We also had chinease food with Sigfried this week :) This guy told us some way cool stories from his mission where he served in Las Vegas and literally just ran everywhere, and planned for like tons of baptisms every week and saw them reach those goals. That was pretty cool to talk to him about. And apparently he finally admited for the first time that he's less active and wants help. Way cool though. he came to church! So yeah we have several families who have agreed to take the missionary lessons again so that'll be really cool. 

Our other invs. Hessein is also doing really well :) We tought him about baptism by showing him all the pictures around the church builiding and that was pereyyty cool (do you like how I don't correct my typing mistakes at all mom?) ;D Andyways. We learned that he actually was in the militia for saddam hussein, but fled the country to become a christian. Way cool guy. i just wish we could speak hsi language. :) The things that guy could tell us. 

Anyways that's about it for now. I can tell you about miracle man and raymond later. They will always be around :) 

Believe in Christ. If you've got nothing else, just hold onto that. He'll help you through the rest. You can be the worst person in the worst place in life, and have it all as long as you truly hold onto Him. Do not fear failure. Nor discouragement. Do your best. :) And love every step you take. 

have a great week alle! Polska in norway begins! Every store in the country will be closed for 3 days this week... so that should be fun. Not really anything else i'm doing though to answer your question mom. Hopefully we'll have our bikes by this week so we can try and visit some families. :D Love you so much!

LOvEsiEs!

Christopher

March 18, 2013

Dearsest Momsicle,

As to answer your question: The only thing I really want for my birthday is small portable harddrive. Nothing fancy. Nothing expensive. Got it?! But There is tons of stuff that I could put on it and memories I want to be able to save. If not then maybe I can steal it from all my companions after we get home. But I would definately use it now. There are sweet old norsk movies, and some new ones that would be legit :) ANyways. Other thann that..... I just bought myself a suit. DOOD I got that and 2 norwegian ties for less than 100 bucks. The ties were like 4 bucks a pop and they are awesome. ANd the suit looks la-git. :D so I'm gonna count that as most of my birfday :) I'm running out of room in my suitcases to carry stoff around rapidly so ... yeah. :) just sos you knows. 

Mom. I love my mission to death. I can't get enough. I can't even explain how much I want to hold onto every single memory and every single thing I learn. I think my problem recently is that I've jsut been stressing because i'm not sure if I'm really getting everything out of it that I can when really the mission just changes you. Little bit each day, you are never quite the same person you were the day before. I really felt this week like we knew what we were doing and I felt all teh cool um... opplæring ... training! i got in oslo was awesome! Moss is a way small town but despite how many people know who we are and what we do, I know that you just have to show faith, and go out with the right attitude and you will find people :) it's been way awesome to see the changes happening in us, our area, the ward, and just the mission in general. 

Last night we went over to an older couple who have some relation like unto a grandchild of someone in the churhc. It was way cool and we are probably going to be going over there a lot. Have you heard of Lefse bofere?! Dude. Its like this Norwegian ahh... bread stuff. sooo good. She is such funny little Norsk great grandma. :) Her dialect is funny too. Speaking of Norsk, the ward releif society president here did a rap on an m and m song this week. :) Hilarious. We have been listening to it today. Norwegian is awesome. I just love hearing people speak it! Especially since half the time I know what they're saying now! woot! 

We also did another Gatestand this week... or street stand :) We had a bunch of members come and it was hilarious. There was also a guy advertising massaches... uh no idea how to spell that.... at the same time. We were laughing with him A: Because his accent was just hilarious. It's like the British style norwegain :) B: because apparently people were getting confused because they thought that he was advertising massashes from Jesus... it was hilarious. We ate fantastic Norwegian waffles and gave them out free on the street. It was super fun :) 

Me and Elder Burt are having the times of our lives right now :) I taught him California speed and he loves it. It's been super intense and awesome. He had a birthday and we ate K-bab pizza with French fries on top... it was sooooo good :) HMM Deilig! We are actually going to record our first two weeks journal entry on a recorder tonight together :) I'm super stoked. Craziest things ever have happened. This week we were just out on the street, and this suuuuper old guy, who probably hasn't cleaned anythign on his entire body for a few years, stops on the street and in super old norwegian asked us for a smoke... Keep in mind that this man was the MOST drunk man I've ever seen in my life. There are no words to describe... Then he just sat there claiming we were his best friends and just started tipping towards us and me and burt both just jumped back and just stared at each other... He stuck out thes way gross looking hands and said he wanted a klem. Klems are norwegain hugs that involve pressing the cheeks together.... yes we did it. No we have no idea what or who that man was..... I'm pretty sure we're scarred for life... But hey. We're his friends right? 

Speaking of friends me and Burt were laughing this week about how we probably would have judged each other hardcore in real life, and even before we really met, and how theres almost no way we would have been friends. But here, in moss of all places, We literally have gelled instantly. it¨s the coolest thing ever. We are pretty much dominating here. In terms of being happy and being righteous mom, it is impossible to be happy and unrightoues. So I hope I'm being righteous. We are literally doing everything we can to be better and do better. I have felt in all the teaches that we had this week the Lord guiding what I say and what I do. Apparently Elder Burt has never actually taught an atheist before.... thats funny because in oslo when we were teaching every day, they were all atheists. :) And now in moss we have several who are atheists :) I think I just attract them or something. 

I love the small town feel here in moss though. its way cool to actually see members of the churhc around, and even cooler to get to know some of the people just on the street. So thats cool :) um.... I'm running out of stoof to say. Oh! Being a DL is way cool actually. Its just fun to get to know the guys in our district a little better and really focus on them. I hold a district meeting for an hour an half every week so that'll be fun. I I think my one last week went ok :) I'll just do what I can right. also call them regularly and help move info up and down the chain, and do baptismal interviews and stuffs like that. (Remember that guy that I found in oslo who was golden and wanted to get baptised? he's in my district now! I would interview him for baptism!) Yesterday I also had 10 minutes to prepare a 10 minute talk in Norwegian... super cool. I'm definatly getting better at tlaking on the kick, withouth notes, though I still feel like it wasn't all that good :) 

Man. We had more experiences where we were led right to a door, picked it knocked, and then kept going until we found another. It is just incredible how much the lord has helped us. anyways.

I'll stop boring you with all this random stuff that probably means nothing to you, but its awesome. I hope things keep going well for you mom. Just know that your son is having the time of his life right now. And also remember that he loves you more than anything else in the world. There is only one thing that trumps missionary work. And that's family :) That means you. So once I'm home I'll actually be able to convice you of that.

I love you tons! Talk to you soon! AHHHH I'm soo excited for GC!!!!!

Love 

Christopher

Ps. I honestly have no idea what missionary work will be like during easter... never been here during it before :)

March 11, 2013

Dude.

Sorry that's not a very good way to start a letter to my mother but I feel like it is appropriate for how pumped I am right now. Like just way pumped. Best week ever. Officially. Unfortunately for both of us we have almost no time to email, cause we just barely got to the church here, after flying down an hill covered with the slipperiest ice i've ever seen. I'm sittering here with my superest awesome companion eldste Burt, eating marshmallows, and listening to Zelda music :D Ok wooa. I have way too much energy. Way too much has happendd.

I unfortunately didn't even get to write in my journal about the entire last week until today. thats how busy we've been. 

dude dang it I have way too much I could say! I love sushi! Elly doesn't though. That's ok cause he's up in Narvik with my favorite man ever :) I'm excited to see how he's doing. Tuesday, we went and saw Laila one last time. Shes the cake lady :) sorry eller kake means, or cake. I was just trying to get you to look up some norwegian cake. Look up BløtKake if you can. it means moist cake. sorry I'lll try and get better at translatilng the wierd things I say sometims. :)  guess what everyone!!! I can now email anyone I want. (outside of mission boundaries) So just let me know how things are going! And I may or may have time to send things back. If you prefer handwritten I can do that too... just let me know! :) 

I was way sad to see my greenie go. I don't think I realized just how much fun it was to train him until he was gone. It was pretty much one of the coolest experiences ever. He is a way cool kid and he'll end up being a way good missionary. Wednesday was the weirderst best hardest day of my whole ever. I hugged my greenie goodbye that morning, only to see Kim running up to me. Finally the Zl's got there so I went inside with him and talked with him for like.... 5 hours. Then we went and got food. I'm not sure if you know this but I could talk about a convo. with Kim for all day. Especially one that long. My last feelings were just it was so cool how he talked about how much he loved getting to know me. all his friends hate me, because I steal all of his free tiem. :) He is one of the those people whether he eventualy gets baptized or not he will be one of my best friends for life. We jsut talked about everyting and to be honest thats just how I worked with him, and how he worked with me. It was sooo cool. With no companion I just got to spend time with the coolest guy ever. And just talk. I absolutely lvoed it. I love him. Best last day ever. Then Andre came all the way from Drøbak just to take me back to his house to have one last time with his family. Again. Best thing ever. 

It was soo cool to be with their family and jsut talk to them about everything that had happend. the Growth that I saw in myself and them samtidig was just incredible. Sooo cool. Kristoffer Anderson made fun of my girlfriend. I may be a missionary but whooo. It's going down man. :) its alright. You should invite Kristy over when Andre comes. Then she could meet him! so cool! He wants to meet her :)  Saying goodbye to him was literally the worst thing ever. Short of leaving all of you. It was way cool. He was sooo nice to me. Best experience ever. 

When I got on the train the next day and it was leading out of oslo it was super weird as I saw all the places I had been and remembered all the things that I had done. When I got off Elder Burt gave me a big hug and we were instantly jelled. Like. it was weird. He reminds me a lot of Kaleb actually if that makes any sensse. He's jsut a way cool guy. He had a hard time with his last companion so when we came together it was just instatnly awesome. He says he can't put into words just how right this little comp. is but he knows that it is. His greenie prolly wont get here for another few weeks so i'll have a chance to get to know moss pretty well. To answer you question about whether or not they feed me the answer is there is no better place in Norway to be fed. Moss is a town of about 30000 but about 200 of those are members. The ward is huge, and all of them are super young families. I felt like I was back in a Utah wrad ysteersday. It was weird. There are way too many of them. I am super way weirded out by how small this place is, but destpite that we have jsut had a balst and have foudn some way cool people. 

On saturday they did a talentaften, or talent show, and it was legit. Super funny. Way cool activity, just super chill :) to give you an idea of just how big food is to these people I think me and Burt got asked at least 30 different times whky we didn't have food in our hands. :)

 it's been way different here. I feel like I almost don't even know how to do missionary work here, and there are way too many people in the ward for me to keep track of. But we have experienced tons of miracles, and had the most fun ever along the way. There really hasn't been a still moment for us. There is always someone to move, help lay concrete, or stop randomly on the street. we've preayed a lot and felt like there would be someone at the talent show to find, and sure enough, there was a norwegian lady who said she felt the spirit way strong in the activity and said she would love to hear about the gospel. She also said she never would have let us in. :) Woa. Miracle. Referrals.... dude. :)

There is a man who has been coming to church for 3 weeks but only speask persian. Miracle = happened. Less active gone for a year randomly shows yesterday speaking persian. Woa. appt. on saturday. We can do this! 

K I gott gooooo sorry!!!! I lvoe you all! I can't say enough. The lord is helping me way more than I can even realize. Me and my companion are on fire right now. Literally. We are loving life, and each other. And we are witnesses to how much he loves us. I'll tell you more about being a DL later. it's crazy man. but fun :) 

I hope that you all have just as much fun as I'm having! I wish I could write more!

Loves!!!

Christopher!

PS DUUDDE MOM! I GOT GLASSES I CAN SEE! THEY ONLY COSTED LIKE 15 BUCKS TOOOO. WOAAAAA.!!! PICS LATER!

PPS DOOOOOOOODE I LOVE NORSK SUITES!!!! I GOT ONE FOR 500 KROWNS!!! THATS LIKE 80 BUCKS!!!!!! FOR THE BEST LOOKING SUTIE EVER ITS SOOO BOSSS!!!!!! PICS LATER AND WOS..

March 4, 2013

Hi, everybody!  This is a really great letter.  I just thought I would clarify who a couple of the people are, because when I talked to Dave about it he didn't have them all straight.  Kim is the investigator that Christopher has been teaching since last fall, and he is the atheist/psychiatrist who is in his forties.  Andre is Matthew's age, and his father is not a member. 

Hope you enjoy it.

Love, Rosana/Mom

Mom,

Unfortunately, I have noooo time. I will throw down everything I can in 20 minutes and then I've got to go.

Basically this week was incredible. As to the jist of wats happeneing this week, there are visa problems, so I'm actually going to serve in Moss for a couple weeks before I go to Sarpsborg. I'll talk more about Sarpsborg later but it's a tiny little town right by Fredrikstad that I will be opening up for the first time. They already have bought the apt. and everything but my district is just missing it's two greenies so i'll be in Moss for a few weeks. As for postage, just send everything there for now. When I move suddenly I'll let you know and I'll just get the mail from Moss at District meetings.  And yes, I am now the District Leader of what he calls the østfold. Basically everything to the sout east of oslo will be in my district. I will have 2 new greenies, and it should be way fun. We'll be the youngest district in the mission, with the youngest District Leader :P  My thoughts on that are basically... yeah well... ok. If that's what you want me to do. It would have been nice to have a little break, but hey that has never and will never be my lot in life. :D

This week was incredible. Basically the pinnacle of my mission, and the coolest miracles ever happened. But I can't tell them all. We got in with a less active member which was super uber cool. We are now teaching his girlfriend, and that was way fun. Wednesday we went on splits, and I loved Elder Peterson. He was absolutely what I needed right at that point in time. He has no idea but he really helped me a lot. I had felt like I wasn't good enough for a little bit, and as we worked hard together, we also had some time to just chat. it was cool. No time. 

Thursday was really hard. We had 3 people cancel on us but finally the last one who was an old man i've been teaching since october finally said he'd come to church. And that he had developed a faith in christ from meeting with us. Seemingly out of nowhere things were going really well with him. He said he had thought a lot about our visit which had been like a month ago and he had really deepened his his knowledge of the Book of Mormon and had a desire to read it. The spirit had softened his heart. It was incredible to see how the spirit had taken him from someone who refused to pray, refused to come to church, and refused churches in general. We almost dropped him, but almost out of nowhere he just started to get it. It was me an member that went to teach him and it was really fun. I decided what I was going to teach... during the opening prayer. :) And it went awesome. We worked really well together and it was boss. That's all I have to say about it. And very rewarding. He came to church and it was absolutely awesome. He changed. I wish I had more time to talk about this one, but watching the whole process, makes it all the more real for me. I know that it's real. 

Friday was way cool. I talked with an inactive for about an hour on friday night. I just broke down and said alright dude. lets get real here. why'd you leave? When we got to the end of that conversation, I wanted some silver bullet, something I could say that would convince him, but in the end all he said was God is not important to me. Having the most friends is. And I don't have that in the church. it was a reallly cool conversation and I know that he walked away from it differently than he started, but it was cool. I almost stole the assistants investigator on accident too. :D 

On sunday, I was soooo sad to leave. I couldn't stand to say goodbye to some of those people. but. Hey. Keep going :) Kim left town so he couldn't come to church but as he knew I was leaving he came back early so we could take him to dinner with us to Andre's family. It was sooo. Awesome. After church we took andre and had a companionship study with him where we planned probably the most important teach I've ever had on my mission. As we studied together, I could feel that the Lord was putting that lesson together. There were scriptures which I normally don't use, and things we talked about which I had never done before. All of us were super stoked and before we left we said a kneeling prayer and then ran out of the center guns blazing, and epic Motab music playing in the background. (of our minds) ...(ok maybe just me=) 

We met kim, he ran around, and we took a taxi. 

The Rosenkilde family was the best. It's was super awesome and super fantastic. Samtidig. I remember going downstairs to get my scriptures, and just thinking.... This is my mission. This is what I've been waiting for for 19 years. In the words of Book of Mormon Prophets, The great importance of the salvation of souls weighed upon my mind. It was awesome. The lesson was not eloquent. At all. Nor did I ask good questions, explain things perfectly, or keep it short enough. But there was such an incredibly awesome spirit there you could have touched it in the air. I felt the prayers of many poured into that moment. The last hurrah with Kim. The last shot for me in Oslo. The farewell. It was the coolest experience you could ever have. You are teaching him and Andre's dad is also there. You can feel the power of God manifest in the spirit that was there. He said to me, you're weird man. I've talked to Andre about this. It's like you glow or something.... with weirdness. :) I don't remember exactly how I did it but we committed him to be baptized, and read and pray every day, and he said yes. April 20. duoood. Dang. I'm leaving... :( But I gave it everything i've got. I hope it was enough. I'll just throw in my 2 mites man :) The Sisters can keep cruising in their ship with tons of dates. I got Kim. There was so much more. He looked over at me on the bus home and said: you realize what you just asked me to do? Yes kim. Yes I do.

We destroyed it. It was sooo much awesomeness. I can't even describe it. Pray for Kim. He has to get an answer. He blames his whole life on me up to the point I found him. I know he will.

Many new andventures ahead! so excited! Love you all! Missions Are the BEST! DUDE! 

Loves!

Christopher

FjordVeien 18 

1532 Moss

Norge :) 

Ps. ooh mom! learn to make something norwegian! Cake! Eller Kake. 

February 28, 2013

Hey Mom,

I'm offended :) Let me show you my reasoning for being in the 'sixties'... I was companions with Elder Anderson for 18 weeks, slightly over 4 months. I was in the MTC, for 9, and I've been with Elder Ellsworth for 6... I've had a weekly planner with 9 weeks in it to count. So do the math with me. 18 + 9 + 6 = 33. Did you follow me? good. now here I did make a mistake. I subtracted from 100 and not 104, but thats ok because my release date is actually two weeks early. that would make 69 all told :) I hit my 1\3 mark in just a couple of weeks, sooooooooooo stop counting for me :) I don't want to think about it :) It was only an estimation anyway!!!!

In other news, I.... am leaving Oslo. I can't really express or describe exactly how I feel about this. I'm excited. President told me that I'm opening a brand new area with a super gamel... old missionary (that I might be killing) so that will be way different and way fun. THat means small town time. But I feel super jipped that I only get to train for 6 weeks. It seems way too short of a time. Right now our area is having more success than I've ever seen before on my mission, and I feel like I really have a good grasp on everything here. I can't really share every single experience that I've had over the last week in the kind of detail I would like so you are just going to have to settle for the few things I have time to tell you :) 

I'll start with Thursday. Thursday was a day. That's about all I have to say about it. :) President told us that I'm leaving and I didn't really like that. Then on the streets not a single person was even nice to us, so I was nearly done. I then got a text from Rakel (the woman who had read the BoM who me and Elder Anderson had found... one of my coolest spiritual experiences) saying that she didn't really think any of this was for her. I've tried to ask her why but I've completely lost contact. So I was having a hard time. But we prayed more than ever before, and we prayed specifically that we could see miracles that day. To that point, things really hadn't gone our way. I was in a 'oslo can burn' sort of mood, but we kept going. And what happened that night was one of the best things ever. Sadi the man that we have been teaching for about a month, had us over and we started talking about baptism. I mentioned it and the second I did he leaned forward on his chair just a little, and asked: What is that? So we told him. He grew up muslim but since had lost his faith in God entirely. So we explained very simply Christ and His Atonement and finally commited him to baptism. E. Ellsworth did a great job with the commitment, and to what I still can't understand, he said yes. I talked to him a little bit more, and talked to him about what he was commiting to but he said he understood and really wanted that. This had been a man who the week before had tried to drop us. Who we thought was lost altogether. And now this. Me and Elly didn't know what to do. We walked back to the train in half shock, amazement, excitement, and extreme fear. Went home, I beat him at a couple more games of chess after we broke out the bottle of Julebrus we had been saving just for this occasion, and I just remember looking across him going: oh man.... I did not expect that at all. What next man? Worst day ever, turned miracle. 

The next day we met with another really positive investigator who we've been trying to meet with for a couple weeks, and we met in the middle of the Oslo Train station, and had a really good discussion. He said he would read, pray, everything. He also had grown up in a muslim culture but didn't believe in it. He said Christ was the way, he just didn't know how to get to that... Ok. Greit. Cool We can help you with that :) Sweet you'll come to church... Awesome. That night we went to Laila's and had a way fun time. (She's the nice little old norwegian lady we visit and she gives us cake :D mmmmm cake ) Great day. New cool investigators. People saying they were coming to church... It was looking to be the best week by far we'd ever had. Look out sisters. We're comin for ya :) 

Back down again. Saturday I felt super sick. Not feeling well. We weekly planned but it took ffooooorrever. All our appts. cancelled. We practiced calling Sadi because we had to get him to church. When Ellsworth called Sadi answered... and said he's done. Doesn't want to understand. Says he felt way good when we were there, but that he just didn't want to change. Really liked us, and had felt something, but said he just had no desire. I really tried to talk to him with all the energy of my soul, and he just said no. I committed him to pray but we haven't been able to get in contact with him since. At that point we had one person who was coming to church. All the others cancelled on us. Defeated, Elly tried to make koolaid. Unfortunatly he's never done this before. So he takes two small packets and pours them into one glass. when he tastes it he spits in all over the place. I then inform him that for the amount of powder you just did you need 2 cups of sugar and 4 quarts of water... he had one small glass. It was disgusting. We didn't even have any sugar. Throwing in the towel man. :) In all honesty it was really hard but not quite as hard as it was with Anderson. Me and elly still had quite a bit of good going for us. But it still sucked. :) 

That night we had the worst planning session ever :) We made some stupid joke about making a key indicator for hours spent recieving dream hours and I was just laughing and crying samtidig. Then out of nowhere our phone buzzes. I pick it up and it's Kim. We had invited him to dinner with us with the Rosenkilde's but he hadn't answered, and he said he had been super busy before. but he answered for teh first time in about 2 weeks and said sure! he said yes! unfortunatly we had to reschedule it so it would work for him, but the cool part is we invited him to church and he said yes.... he said yes! no way! Begin Dance Sequence...

Next day, we have several appt.s and two people coming to church, but we get texts from both that they are either very late or can't come... come on. Throw us a bone here man. Can something pleast just be normal? Anyways. Kim came. and we talked with him for forever after church. We rode home together, and Andre had helped us the whole time. After Kim left at about 5 we invited him to come eat with us, so we went back to the center and made food together. It was the funnest thing ever. I love that kid. All of our other investigators that day k'babed or dropped us... We got dropped by a lot this week....

When I think about Oslo, I will remember the growth, my companions, and the people. So much has happened. I love it all sooooo much! It hasn't hit me at all that I will be leaving soon. Oh well. THat's still a ways away! I have way good time again! Just the thought of having to leave makes me sad though. That's just a few stories from this week. There are so many more, and a lot that don't even get in my journal. but that's ok :) I feel good about everything. ANd this week is going to be awesome. We have a dinner with Kim and the Rosenkilde's planned with other way cool stuff. I'm pumped! Let me at em! I'll prolly talk more next week about leaving pains... maybe not :) 

I love you guys sooooo much! Enjoy all the fun new toys you guys are getting! I'm going to go get some supa' slik norsk bukser. (slacks) I'm pumped. Also the weather here is suuper nice. it's like 1 degree! yeay! and I can see the sky for the first time in months! yeay! I've been too long already. sooo good luck! That's my life sort of!

Love you all soooo much!

Christopher :D

ps. Sorry ... ahem.... ahhhh ahem. ya... I'm leaving oslo. so not doin briller here. Mayber later. (glasses)