July 22, 2013

Hey Crazy!

I do have to admit.... I think you take the crazy cake for this week :) So GJ! Bra Gjort! Det var dødsbra Altså!

jk.

I really have almost 0 idea what I'm going to say. I know... I'm terrible. I already spent way too much time freaking out at lauren about how awesome her story is :) Make sure she knows how awesome it is that I think it is.... Go Team! As for your weather, I might have to agrue and say that our weather for this week is actually going to be better than yours. It is absolutely nydeligt here right now. Its almost hot even. I almost don't even want to wear my new warm fuzzy sweater around the apartment :) 

K well. You all probably think i'm an apostate bum because all I ever say I feel like is weird random stuff and nothing about what actually is going on.... All you hear is the funny stories where we are walking to the bus by the pond stariing at this guy eating a big subway style sandwhich which.... gets knapped by a bird that swoops down over his shoulder after he takes a bite a flies off with it... THat bird was trailed by about 50 other birds who wanted a piece of that sandwich.... the only sad part was the crying dude with no sandwich, and my crying companion who couldn't breath or move he was laughing so hard.... that was a good boost to get us through that day :)

In other news I had one of the Elders from Bergen on splits with me this week, Elder Gustafson. :) He's a goofball but he was a way funny and chill kid. I'll just say we had a really good day. I actually had a fantastic week this week. I needed to know that the Lord was there and He showed me that. I think in a way the more I become immersed in serving and becoming the best I can be I tend to forget who is actually here helping me. I don't really think I ever had that greenie faith that people talk about so maybe mine is coming in just a little bit late :) It is a really cool experience, to look into yourself and to talk to others about where their faith in God really is. No faith is completely certain. No faith is provable. And it is never enough on it's own. Its really up to us to keep finding ways to become better and see His hand in our lives. One day I can't wait to be able to talk to you about some of the experiences that I've had here. I am actually really truly not that good in a lot of ways, but I think that's what's helped me to grow the most. Is through failure. I had a talk with some of the other missionaries last week where they got me talking a little bit about my experience in Oslo, and it's almost a joke its so funny. Its kinda a sad story, but it's one that means almost more than anything else i've ever experienced. But back to splits, Gustafson had an epifany that i'm actually a real person, and that made his life :) We taught Constantin and Generosa and that was probably one of the coolest teaches ever... She actally understood really well what we were teaching, she prayed, and it was just the perfect setting ever! She has no belief in Christ doesn't like church, but now she loves ours, and understands christ. Its the coolest thing in the world to see! He fell asleep, and constantin locked himself out :) 

We taught scottish guys who got way intense, romanians, guys who believe straight up in aliens, and a muslim who had a straight yelling sesh with burt. Wrong day bro. Du MÅ LESE KURANEN FORSTÅR DU?!?!? it was super funny and annoying :) We ran to busses and trains, coreagraphed a dance to backstreet boys, played signs, painted a house, talked with funny kids. I had an inactive man i just randomly sat with at church and I learned he hadn't been back for 15 years, and just decided by himself he wanted to come back... super cool. What a champ. I miss playing with kids... We have some phillipeno people who just moved here that we actually just barely taught, and we are going to go help them around the city right now. soooo yeah. I'm gonna go now. I feel like i just rambled a bunch anyways. A lot of things I learned and felt this week are too personal to share but it's been really good. 

Even if you don't understand, don't give up. Its interesting. I always thought missionaries just had these rock solid testimonies like: dude, I KNOW this is true... but I don't think I'll ever get to that point here. Sometimes its really easy to believe. More often than not it's a lot harder.  WHen the crap hits the fan and its time to go out sometimes you muster all the courage you can and wonder if you really are alone, or if there is someone there helping you, or if all the people who pray for you are really helping. You just keep striving, keep pushing. Nothing comes all once. God works one step at a time. :) 

I love you so much mom! Have fun painting up the biz!

Love

Christopher  

July 15, 2013

Hey Morami!

I would like to start out by saying...  Preikestolen is totally worth the lack of emails that you get though... so sorry. When we went this time there were two main differences from last time: The first was the scouts.... there were, at least 5 billion scouts on that mountian. So the uncool part is that I don't think there was a single section of the trail we weren't trying to pass up a whole bunch of little kids. so that was annoying. The cool part of that, (thought this isn't point number 2yet) is that that day was the official record for the number of people to hike that mountain in one day :) I'm glad we took the bus, because there was literally nowhere to park! The Cooler part, was that the weather was awesoem! I actually prefer some clouds to give some definition to the sky, but to have a view with a completely blue sky was pretty cool too. :) I'll take that.

Unfortunately I don't really remember anything from last week so I can't really update you about it.... Here. I'll engage the Hukommelse.... OH! Last week was awsesome! I may have mentioned the youth mtc thing that we did but I would like to reiterate how cool that was. We had two hours with all of them to teach them and work with them and it was super cool. Unfortunately becasue me and elder burt were in Oslo last week, and were super busy the rest of the week, we didn't have a whole bunch of time to plan anything. The good news is that missionary work is pretty easy for me to talk about so when they all just stared at me like I was supposed to know what was going on... I just went for it. I guess since i'm such an oldie they all expect me to be able to do that now :) Um... I feel like i'm boring you... What else was exciting... OH! That couple that came last week to church came again! And we went bowling with them this week :) I've definately lsot my bowling skill however... sad day :) Yeah well. Neither of them had bowled before, so after explaining the rules they just went for it. Whats awesome is she's a rather shy person. In fact thats why the missionaries haven't been able to get her to come to church before. But when she started beating all the old guys they were playing with she started exclaiming things in her funny norwegian that were hilaroius. She either fikk masse, eller bare litt. :) Good times. We are teaching them while i'm on splits with a new missionary and going for baptism. Its going to be epic :)

This week we held zone confrences is Stavanger and Bergen, and it actually was pretty cool. its interesting the dynamic of the entire mission right now because it is quickly becoming super SUPER young. Us older missionaries are quickly become those that are supposed to be experts at teaching and at the language. I'll be in the top 10 oldest missionaries in a month.... And i'm only halfway. That's crazy. We played a funny game where we had a funny scavanger hunt around the church, and I got frowned at :) Thursday we were out knocking on doors and we ended up having someone point us to this group of rekkehus, or town houses basically, and this funny guy named Olav answered the door. He was really opptatt with a lot of things, and he doesn't like jdubs. I don't really remember what I was going to say about him... other than it was nice to have someone who despite being against churches whould stop and talk to us about what he believed and why he believed it :) Unfortunately I forgot my happy book so those are most of the things I can pull of the top of my head rigth now.. :)

I also realized if I end up with Elder burt again, which is completely likely since I don't really have anywhere else that he can send me, I will ahve spent half my mission with 2 companions. I love them both though. Yesterday the Sisters got me talking about some of my funny experiences from oslo, and I just went for several minutes... I guess I don't really have anyone I can just talk to like that anymore.... But it was cool to think about my time there. There are some experiences I will always remember very clearly, and the feelings associatied with them. Hmmm good times. :) Sometimes I wonder how I've ended up like I am.

I would say that my midlife crisis is over. Lest I forget it takes a lot out of me to go out and try my absolute best every single day despite all the negative influences around, but somehow you just keep going. I don't know if I never felt stress before my mission or if I just didn't deal with it, but I've definitely learned how to keep myself more balanced, thought that doesnt mean it happens overnight. The beginning of this week was hard. And the decision to completely not care what other people thought about what I was doing was the only thing that took me out of it. I think too many missionaries and people get caught up in impressing people, rather than just becoming that sincerely and not worrying about what they think. I've probalby dealt with different aspects of the same problem a million times so far.  Anyways. wow more ranting. i can't even rant about anything. the more I learn the less I think I know... crazy right?

ANyways. I love you guys. Americans are awesome. ANd so much different. We have a famliy that just moved from america and I think they're crazy. But I think I would have thought they were completely normal a year ago... That's whats weird. They also think we don't get fed tacos... heh. we shouldn't have told them. That would have made it more funny :) Also, can someone tell Elder burt to stop spraying this nasty oily 'good' smelling stuff.... One spray will get me out of the room. He sprayed it straight for like a minute. I had to leave the appt. And when I came back all the floors were covered in oil... 'bleh. 

If anyone needs a boost at any time, go read joseph smith history and the first vision. There is something there that doesn't exist anywhere else.

Have a spendexical Oink!

Love,

Christopher

June 24, 2013

Heh Hei Momsworms!

Slaptastic... Such a good word :) Thats the kind of word I need to be using in my everyday life except for the fact that this week I won't be speaking any english... (except for with people that only speak that :)) I've kinda done something like it before but really never all the way like this week... We'll see how it goes(or lasts :)

Sometimes I am amazed by the little details some people can remember... like this for example. I don't ever remember telling anyone that I had bought an african mask from him :) I will admit it is super cool but I don't even remember telling you guys about it. Anyways. That said i'm not quite sure how you wanted me to know that your aunt went to south africa. Sorry on that one. :) Det visste ikke jeg :) Its cool that she got some stuff like that. I personally think that it's super cool. 

As for Jdub. Its short for 'J' 'W' but you just say 'J' Dub for shortelse :) Like... Dubble U... but just dub.... anyone? No ok. Well they are at least dubbed the J because they are so stinking delirous :) (sorry, I didn't have any good adjectives for J :) No matthew this has nothing to do with dub step. :) though that would be hilarious if he was a jdub. I doubt they would allow that though :) In retrospect, They can be really nice too :) I think it's hilarious to get stopped by some of their proselyting people :) and there have been a few i've gotten to be friends with. Collins = no-friendy bueno though :) And he's dropped :) And were now teaching his friend :) Kiso :) That kids chill out of his mind :) Just a cool kid. 

A little more about our week is that it was weird. I'm doing really well actually :) I learned I need a testimony that isn't based upon the amount that other people are converted and much more based upon how much it has converted me. :) Somthing I'd prolly only learn if i'm actually trying to help other people get a testimony of the same thing that I know to be true. In a weird way though, I would describe my overall feeling as the one you get when you ride wicked at Lagoon. Right after you've shot up you get to the very top, and at that short moment at the top you realize a couple of things: Life is good especially when life includes the people that you love, who may or may not be sitting right next to you in the particular instance in which I am remembering this :) The scenery is awesome :) But at the same time you get this awesomely weird feeling inside your stomach where everything just kinds of lifts up and almost feels like there is no real ground or reality any more. You are flying, standing still, and falling all in the same instant. That is how I feel :) 

As a short sidenote, what I mean about midlife crisis, is much like that :) I think I meant that it was my life inside a life (or the mission life) midlife crisis :) Does that make any sense? Mostly in the way that on a mission I am not perfect. Its really hard. I miss you guys a bunch of bannanas. But every single day is so fulfiling. With the nature of the call comes a sense of resposiblity and understanding about what all this (pretend i'm waving my hands wildly around in a jerky and yet really determined fashion pointing at everything at once) actually means that I never want to go away. I think of the day I leave and I almost want to deny it. Not even because I dont want to go home because if I said that I would be lying... I just don't want to lose the closeness to my savior. This new higher plane of living I've found I never want to go away. I feel myself stretching all the time, and I never want to fall back to who I was before. I don't have to worry about this too much yet, but when I go home, to be able to get there in one solid emotional and spiritual piece, I'm going to have to realize it wont quite be the way it was. 

*Short Sidenote Over*

This weekend was super fun. Siri said the weatherman said it was supposed to rain, and so did my pet rat jimmy, but despite all that we went out and played soccer frisbee and volleyball anyways. :) When I got here sport was cool but over time we've built it a ton so there are actually a good number of investigators and less actives that come now. Turned out to be a really cool thing to do. :) After that I beatboxed to song where you have three people singing all at the same time, and it was way trippy and cool. (that was by the way with the sisters while we were waiting for the bus) Constantin thought it was awesome though some of the other people waiting for the buss probably thought we were a bit strange :) Then I made the sisters dinner :) yay for meatball sandwhiches! (we were there to protect them from crazy muslims actually... :) oh and we had taught this crazy italian philosopher guy who didn't believe in absolute truth... well. anyways it was pretty intense. :) I had my game cap on :) ok actually it wasn't really intense. This guy is pretty much just weird and crazy and funny :) Yeah well. Anyways back to the first train of thought after all that we went the stephensons for... the entire night til 12 :) It was awesome. Now before you all freak out I did have permission to do this. It was Santansaften which is the longest day of the year.... so we got permission to spend the night with members. I should have already told you about this family, its anita and her daughters (the crazy one who reminds me of Julie) and it was super fun. The bishops sons were also there with some other people and amongst all of them, I think there was more prodigy youth musical talent in one room than i've ever seen in my life :) All of them could just bust out songs if you would name one. it was ridiculous. and super cool. Ps. I have videos of all almost the entire weekend. 

Yesterday was the day where you burn stuff and unfortunately it was pretty much hailing on us. But hey we were there anyway! Basically the tradition is to just build the biggest bonfire ever and light it that night. You can cook hotdogs if you want and play games cause its light pretty much the whole time. this is a tradition that probably goes back to the vikings when they would celebrate their precious sun :) Speaking of vikings for pday last week we went and found an old viking sacrificial altar whcih was awesome and then sacrificed some people! Then we went and found an old ww2 bunker down by the beach! It was pretty much awesome. ANyways I feel like i'm just rambling now. IN other news I've been adopted by a philipeno mom who we helped move, became a professional barber as dubbed by Constantin and more. :) 

I mentioned a little about having it a little rough this week which is true, but what is a life without some rough as well? It was mostly just a combination of weirdness and some of the people we had high hopes for not really going anywhere... yet :) I am doing as much as I can to stay positive, and to really become the person I need to be. I may not be very good at butting into other peoples business, but I can definitely at least take care of my own. :) And I will say that with all the youth and familes we met with this week I know that I'm doing what i'm supposed to :) I think in this particular case I didn't even really know what the problem was, let alone how to fix it :) So all there is to do is just move forward, and trust deeply that everything will work itself out. 

OK. well that was probably too much. So i'm gonna bounce now :) But have a great week mom. I would like you to envision me passing out. While that isn't what happened when I saw your painting, its probably what should have happened. I must just be immune somehow :) Even in an entire week I don't think I coould paint a platypus on a octupus if all I had was a leaf. Question: have you ever painted anything Norwayish?

I love you sooo much!

Love

Christopher

Ps. Of course you would know someone tightroped the grand canyon :) 

June 17, 2013

Hey Mom!

I could say it really doesn't matter how long your emails are, but you probably wouldn't listen to me anyways :) So thank you :) Usually since the week before, my life would have hit an up and down rollercoaster like 3 times over but actually this week I have been able to stay quite constant. I still feel pressure, but I can deal with it now. :) So thank you for your prayers mom. I have been made to match the challenge at hand, and miracles are falling from the sky at an incredible rate :) The only night I really didn't have a good sleep was saturday night and that was because of the crazy drunk people partying all night. Literally they were still rocking out by like 8 in the morning. I was not a happy camper that morning :) Other than that I have been sleeping quite well :) .. Even though its only dary for like 4 hours in the night... So I go to sleep in and wake up in light :) its kinda funny! Norways bonfire holdiay comes up this week! tHats where we get to go light a bonfire because its the longest day in Norway! Woot! 

In terms of others stuff, I would like to say that I have been broken on my mission mom. I know that some people get a lot more stiff on their missions, and.... I've done the opposite. So that one definately makees the list :D I guess it's just been my lot in life to be with very different missionaries than myslef. Almost every one of my companions has had the worst most immature potty \ I would have thought you were retarded in high school humors, and I've grown to really like it. :) I've grown a certain liking for Coke and... yup :) Thats about all I have to say about that :) I think the mission is supposed to make you better but I'm getting exposed to like everything and going downhill pretty fast :) My Judgement factor has also broken... judging people doesn't really work. ... like ever. I used to think I didn't but I did. ANd yup I'm going to stop confusing you :) 

As for driving! I practiced for the first time in like a year this week woot! And the lady wants me to take the test in a stickshift. In norway youhave to get a special liscence to drive stick :) sooo. yup. Its weird though. They do the brake before clutch and it just goes against every natural reaction in my whole body. So I had to get used to that. so no I don't have a car. I'm just getting my liscence. :) There are a few areas that have cars though... mostly up north and inland  :) On the west (WITH ALL THE AWESOME FJORDS!) you're exactly right... it makees no sense to have a car. :) so none of us do :) in the EAst they do though .

OK! wow. I don't have time. but i'll throw in my 2 cents for this week anyways! This week was epic. like for realsies. 

Tuesday we had a planned teach with a Jehovahs Witness (referall from our invs.) with Constanin. When we got there, he had brought a friend who is learning norwegian with him and then Collins (JW) had a freind with him as well. So there were 6 of us sitting around one table in the library... and then the awesomeness began. He started arguing with us. Apparantly I was the nice patient one so he kept trying to convince me but it was completely retarded. So the polish kid Constantin brought started asking me questions. ANd before collins could get in I just started teaching him (cause I was actually strategically positioned to block him off) So while Burt distracted the Jdub, I taught Kamil a first lesson. By the time I got to Collins's friend and started to get to know him, Collins and Burt were straight yelling at each other. If we weren't 6 dudes around a table we prolly would have been thrown out :) So while they were doing that, I learned that his friend Kiso was from Sri lanka, was catholic, and missed his church, and really liked everything I had said to Kamil. I through down neccesity of authoratative baptism in front of Constantin, and at the end Collins wanted to meet again, I told him no, and then said but hey Kiso can we meet with you? Sure. ... way sweet :) Thanks for the referall collins. Ha det bra :) IT was awesome. One of the coolest teaches I've ever had. Burt was flaming afterwords, and I was bubbling like a balloon. I had had a way spiritual teach with 3 other people while Burt and a Jdub were yelling at each other. QUite fun actually :) 

Wednesday was Zone Conference which I really don't have that much to say about. Apparantly I was supposed to prepare some intro to a practical that I ended up just winging, but I think it went really well :) We met the coolest chilliest muslim ever,,, like really... he was chill out of his mind. So cool :) Thursday we fixed a bike with Alastair and then he took us to the SUPER expensive sea food buffet again. Taught Kamil again with Constantin and it was just awesome. Then I drove, and then.... 

Friday ended up being a really cool day when I felt like I should give one of the former members we are working with a call and he said it must have been straight revalation that I called him. It was just a good convo. with him. He is soooo hard ot understand htough. Stavangersk is the worst dialect. I like it... but its hard. Especially when some people put way more throat into it than they need to. Saturday we had a whooole bunch of people show up to play soccer, and then we ate fried rice... who knew I could make that :) 

In other news, I had a short freak out as I hit what i'm going to call my other life mid life crisis. :) Sometimes im dead and want to just relax. But right now I just feel chill and like I love life whether i'm being pushed donw or whether i'm just getting carried along my way. Its not possible for me to feel bad about what i'm doing here, so in a way i really don't want this to end. But that's ok. I have a long way left. I'm not even to the halfway point yet. whoo. I'm still ok :) Missions are just awesome. MIne is 0 of what I thought it would be. Its 10 times better. That's all I have to say about it. When I share experiences, you prolly don't realize just how cool it is to see the Lord lead you to do the things you need to do. We have like 15 solid people we are working with now. only noine of them has anything to do with me or the work I did. And you probably don't realize how much I freaked out when someone ACTUALLY CALLED ME!!! LIke... I gave him a card. He ran off.... and then called me the next day!!!!!! OH BABY!!! I*M SOOOSOYS STOKED!!!! Best voice message ever!!!! WE are meeting with him in an hour... sooo cool!!! It's unheard of to have someone actually call the number on your card.... woa.

ANyways. My week was great. There is so much more.Last note.... 

MOm. I apologize for not saying:

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BIRTHDAY PACKAGE!!!! WOOOOOOTTT!!! I love it. Your easter candy is legit. mmmmmmm..... butterfigner eggs kill me. and kit kats.... and mmmm... thank you. ANd the harddvrive is the best! thank you THank you thank you! ANyways. I gotta go now! but I love you all so much! 

Love,

Christopher

June 10, 2013

Well Momsie,

As much as you tell me about what's going on, it still doesn't feel real... ;) So sorry if that bursts your bubble. I see pictures of home and it might as well be a joke :) But that's ok. I've given up the thought that life is normal or stable or anything. I just kinda go with it and take every day as it comes :)

You will be pleased to know mom that long before I read what you said about what I would tell dad about his email, that is exactly what I said... I got owned on that one :) You had me picked out way to well on that one. The thing is today I don't have so much time because we are going to go 'pratice driving' *cough cough* around the countryside :) Cause.... NOrway blows my mind... But! I also really do need some practice for the test. It is not uncommon for missionaries to fail their driving test so I don't really have any intention of falilng mine, and I haven't driven for a year... A YEAR I haven't touched the wheel... I actually kinda miss it alot. ITs alright though. I enjoy the methods of transportaiion we have here. :D Yea for no 4000 krown speeding tickets! (that's not a joke)

As for my life... Its kindof really exciting and boring all at the same time :) I legitamtely haven't had time to really write in my journal about it. I'll write one morning about the week before, and not even get through one day, not neccassarily because I have loads to say but more becasue I don't have any time, (and I fall asleep) :P So with that pattern I really haven't been able to keep up yet. But there are lots of cool things that keep happening. The biggest change this week was with Constanitn. We were helping him with language in the library when he saw  one of his aftrican buddies and introduced us to his friend Collins. Collins was playing it pretty smooth, and starting asking some probing questions... So we answered and then constatin just said: Hey, why don't we set up an appointment to meet later because right now I need their help :) So later that week, we met with a Jehovahs witness dude along with our own investigator playing as the 'member' :) it was hilarious. Constantin was busting the questions out, and busting out the Joseph Smith and the Restoration pamphlets on this guy. When we visited hime and his wife last night it was so interesting becasue we asked him if he believed that God and Christ came down and visited this boy Joseph smith and he believed it 100 %. It was incredible. He still doesn't know how to not be catholic, but the more he is with our church the more he likes it. He says he has one foot with christ and one foot with the catholics. A very interesting way to state that :) He is soo cool though :) He just cracks up over the funniest stuff, and when he gives the best bro high fives ever it makes a cool cuppy sound :) His wife wants to learn though. So hopefully that goes well :) 

I went on splits with my good old friend Elder Callister (half companion from Sarpsborg) and that was super fun. We met with the Jdub, met with Gian this super crazy awesome dancing phillipino guy, and talked to some other people. We planned for our training meetings this week, gave a bunch of training, and somehow still had enough time go out and find people :) We had this funny italian guy come to church who had some weird fundamentalist views. He was cool though. Other than that, I had a whole bunch of way cool conversations this week, with companoins and friends. The stress finally bubbled over and somehow I can still feel all the pressure, but I feel at peace. With every new challenge I can just feel myself growing under the weight of it. For as much as I don't like being a leader sometimes, you learn to deal with really interesting problems that bring out the worst and best parts of your character all at the same time. :) 

I am a terrible person because I disagree with a few things. One thing I learned I disagree with is our rule to constantly be with someone alllllllll the time. ON thursday I had a couple hours while we waited for our companions to switch back, and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed that alone time. I would almost consider it a neccessary part of dealing with the stress and everything that piles up in life. It really helped me to get to this state of perfect peace and of a what you coould possibly call a bright hope :) I'm glad it's stuck around. 

OTher than that, I don't really have a whole lot to say. My life is weird. I'm broken, and so not broken at the same time :) I kinda like it :) Keep havin an awesome summer! ... and um.....

well. Trying to express love over an email is always awkward... :D

love,

Christopher

June 3, 2013

HEy Mom!

I'm glad Kristy showed you some of those pictures. I felt like death and wanted a nap so I only gave them to her, but today I'll make you a deal and send some more :) Do I really look older...? I haven't been gone for that long :) 

As for Preikestolen, Pictures are cool but don't do it justice for just how awesome it was to actually be up there. The rain left just in time so that we could see everything before we went down. It was sooooo coool! :)   I took some of the sisters backpacks and was still hopping around like a jack in the box. .  It's about an hour and a hlaf at our pace, and a little over 2 hours at the sisters pace :) 

As for Burt being my companion I'm pretty excited. I would say that there is a really good dynamic between the two of us. We teach differently but the same, and are really able to cover what the other doesn't have. However, what was cool in Moss was how much we grew together and that's not something that will just magically be recreated. So it will be fun. But different. And I can basicallly gurantee we are going to end up as one of each others favorite companions on the mission. Especially since they kicked Chancellor out so fast, we'll probably have the whole summer to just ... Do it. LETS GO!

THat said, moves has never been harder for me than it was this week... actually I take that back, leaving Anderson was harder. But this one was surprisingly very hard. I had 0 desire to leave elder Chancellor. In a few short weeks, had really drawn a connection with him that feels like it got ripped away super prematurely. With being sick, and him not wanting to leave, the time before wednesday was really hard, and quite draining. Then the whole rest of the week was just a mess, and now we have 2 zone conferences in a row... (dont ask me why... i dont know)... it'll be fun. I love going to Bergen, so I can't complain too much. just our topic this time is really hard to make interesting, or even to do in the hele tatt. (at all) 

Despite how I felt, Thursday I woke up feeling more sick than I ever have on my mission. With all this new stress and responsiblity, and sickness, I was not too happy. But I fought through it. :) And through studies I learned some really cool things about prayer, and how to make your prayers meaningful. It has a lot to do with what your honest desires are. If you pray for what you honestly sincerely want, that prayer will mean the world to you and you can feel that it gets answered. The rest of the day was awesome. We had a member call us with a refferal who wanted help moving and they ended up being super cool. WE had a cool pump up session with all the youth that night, showed the poor three new sisters and burt around stavanger, and finally had an hour phone call from one of the former members here who said is 110% convinced of the church and will do everything he can to get baptized. 

Calls like that are not super normal. :) 

We flew into Oslo again on friday, watched a kid tackle a girl playing volleyball on saturday, and I met with our sweet berudian guy again last night. Saturday we met with the cooolest norwegain atheist who is sincere and honest and prepared and AHHHH! This morning I woke up feeling better than I did all last week so thats a good thing. I really need to not be sick anymore. WIth 20 new sisters in the mission now, the mission is 40% sisters and more than half of those are new. 

On a very personal level, the lessons I am learning are becoming more confusing, and more clear at the same time. :) I'm learning how to write down how I feel a lot better, but at the same time, I look at the last 3 months since I left oslo (DUDE ITS ONLY BEEN 3 MONTHS!!?!?!) And I've learned and grown so much I couldn't even tell you. THis week was Persistence. I'm not allowed to give up now. I feel more exhausted in a 'life force' kind of sense than ever before, but I can't give in...I can never give up. No matter what you feel, you need to get up, deal with the problems of the day, fight to do your best to be creative and loving and christlike, and then when you sleep terribly you go again. 

I don't really know what it is about a mission that is so specail yet, but there is something different here. LIke I know we are here to help people, but sometimes I feel like the Lord has other things in mind. ANyways. I just love you enough to wish I could share what I feel with exactness. Unfortunatlely, i'm a lazy 20 year old who wants to go play basketball and sleep, and try and get ready for another week. ANd it's kindof really hard anyways. Thank you so much for what you shared mom :) Despite every challenge and every weakness, I know we can all make it :) Have a fantastical week!

Christopher

May 27, 2013

Momsyie,

If I gave a bloomin' sunflower about how long your emails are then that.... would be ridiculous. :) You can say as little or as much as you want and i'll still just say whatever it is i'm going to say :) If you start stressing out about saying the right things, then i'm going to start stressing... which isn't good. I like just being able to email whatever the heck I want for as long as I want because I'm just talking to my mother who I know loves me no matter who I am or what I'm doing. so sorry for the short email. the goodside to boring pdays is that you'll get longer letters. the downside to really awesome pdays is that you haven't nearly any time at all. For example: Last pday was my favorite so far. Or I guess you could say the friday and that one. There is nothing like really experiencing norway like that. Super cool :) So I apologize for the shortness, but short of being as short as Matthew, I really had to keep that letter short otherwise, I may have shorted the rules, and President would have had to be short with me. To make up for it, I sent matthew a really long letter this week :)

And as for what to put in emails, I still 95% of the time walk up to the computer screen with absolutely no idea with what i'm going to say. I have this image ingrained in my brain of some lady in our ward who talked about watching what her son said over the course of two years and how she could see him change from being him to being a missionary. I think i must either be not cool enough, or too goofy, cause I don't think that's neccessarily how mine have been. But that's just one of those things you learn here, is that there is not point in worrying about it. :) One of the coolest things I have learned, is the feeling you get from knowing that the Lord has prepared every step of the way for you. When you feel like you're not good enough, you can either find something to change all the time, or you can realize that your path of life, from the second you pray and ask for help, is exactly where the Lord meant you to be. The atonement has so much more meaning than just covering up mistakes. It means the reassurance that you actually are good enough. :) As I look back a little I realize that during the times I thought I was struggling I really was doing fine. I was learning helping and doing exactly what I was intended to do.

That said, I am soooo excited to be feeling better again. When I moved from Moss to Sandnes, that was probably one of the most challenging times so far. to live on the floor with nothing to do while you don't really feel wanted is a great way to spend the time you set aside to serve the Lord instead of being at home with the ones who love you and care about you. But hey. I grew a ton. :) And being with Chancellor has been awesome :D I say has been, because he's leaving this week... I'm feel like i'm getting totally jipped of a companion, but there isn't much I can do about it at this point :) We actually got to be really good friends really fast, and we have had a lot of cool things to do here. So since he's leaving, I get to train the next ZL who will be coming... who is....

Elder Burt. :)

Woot! It's going to be awesome. The man I destroyed Moss with is coming to paradise! To be my fellow ZL! heh.. it's going to be fun :) I'll miss Chancellor though. I'm sick of all these changes. I just want somehting to stay the same for once. I guess I should have appreciated more the chance I got to stay in Oslo with Anderson so long more. Because really... that was awesome. Coolest expererience ever :)

I have a confession to make: I have been coveting all of my pictures on purpose... because they are awesome.... You really have to get the story behind a lot of them to get the whole meaning, so while I'll send some home, I won't send them all :) I'll get on the other compy though and send a few though once i'm done here.

In terms of this last few weeks, We have been meeting with an african guy and his wife from Berundi who is super cool, and gave me a LEGIT looking african mask. The fed us food and their apt. felt like aftrica it was soo hot in there :) He is such a suave guy though :) he hiked preikestolen with us on monday and loved it, and he has been coming to church, and he has a testimony of the church. We just need to get the catholic out of him somehow. We help This scottish former member guy put a door on upsidedown, cleaned his basement, and put a faulty basketball hoop. This guy is awesome... he's about fifty, and he talks at LITERALLY 4 times the speed of any normal human being, in a scootish accent that i'm only starting to get used to :) our ward mission leadeer is also scottish, only he was in the military as a trained killer :) He treats us like we're his squardron and that we have to grab every guy off the street and dunk em' in the water :) It's pretty legit. He told us about some War Toture methods he's gone through for real before, and gave a self defense class where he started stabbing his wife with a fake knife :) The man is awesome. His wife is just as crazy though :) We go to a cycling class every once in a while and she just straight yells at us in norweiganin to go harder. Its awesome. If you ever come to stavanger, or I come back, they have already offered to take us in and give us a place to sleep :) Way cool family.

I flew to Oslo for a leadership training meeting last week, and i'm flying out again this week for Zone leader Council, and then the week after that is Zone conferance, and before I know it The summer will be over and ahhhh!

I should say a little about Preikestolen.... it was about a 2 hour hike up, and we drove onto a ferry that took us over the fjord to get us there but the whole way there I thought I must be drooling. It was so amazing. Preikestolen lies on the Lysefjord, which is one of the most famous in Norway. You'll see why when you see some pictures. I've never seen anything like it :) It was raining the whole way up which was actually kinda fun (and dangerous) and when we got to the top I got to be mr. photagrapher (and i'm really proud of some of my pictures) and then the sun came out and we hiked down. We drove around the fjord to get home a different way and by this time it was clear blue skies and i'm pretty sure we all were dying of joy as we drove home. Then we threw Holden inthe back and drove around some round abouts :)

MOm. When I write in my journal I feel like it's never good enough. I can't capture my feelings in words. Mind you, I actually am getting slighlty more poetic and cool at parts, I simply can't do it. This week was stressful, tiring, magical, thoughtful, sickness, chill, fun, patience inducing, and everything. I'm trying to do everything I can, and sometimes it's easy to look at the results and there isn't a whole lot to show for everything that you've done. The coolest experiences are often the most simple. When i went back to oslo, just sitting in the center I was at every day for six months just brought back those emotions that were so specific to how life was training and with Elder Anderson. THough you can't describe it, I look at how much i've changed even in the few short months since i've been in oslo, and the change is huge. I continue to learn so much, and I wishh I could hold it all in my brain. Anyways.

Enough babbling! The only reason you would have a norweigain flag at a zoo... no idea :) The only cool animals native to norway I know of are some sort of giant forest cat and regnsdyr.... reindeer. I like panda bears too :) If you were an animal, what would you be? Oooh, or if you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

K well... this has been a really short email. Hopefully i'll have more time to write you next week :) Once things settle down a bit that should be good. Course, i'm the only one in stavanger not getting moved out, so i'm going to have to help a lot of new missionaries get to know this place and get around, when I've only been here for like 3 weeks :) Should be fun. I have no idea what i'm doing man. Just going to town. thats what. playing fetch with dogs on the pier.... so pretty. Cool guy too :)

I love you tons mom! Continue to have it well there up in Seattle!

Love

Christopher