September 30, 2013

Hey Morosa! 

K well I don't know quite where to start with this one. I'll probably just go and you'll hop on with me at some point I'm sure. The first crazy thing is that I am training again! Elder Newey... heh. that made me laugh too :) haven't met the kid yet though so we'll see if he actually lives up to his name. That makes child number 4. and 3 grand children. :) If we have a mission conference at christmas again i'm going to have to get a slekt picture with all of my sons and grandsons. :) Anyways. I'm super sad to see Elder Garrard go though. I don't think i've ever just felt so ... on top of things as I have with him. Thats partly just because I came to bergen knowing and believing we would succeed and we did. So that was pretty legit. Though slightly OCD, we got along great together, and earned each others trust on a very deep level I think :) 

Anyways so that is that random news. In other news I love life. I think I have just learned to move forward doing everything that I can in the future, and things have just kinda fallen into place. I can't even really explain it to myself. i can't really explain exactly where I'm at or how I feel, I just.... kinda got lost along the way. Does that make any sense? I can't believe it took me so long to really understand how important all of this is and really just throw myself into it wholeheartedly but at least it happened eventtually. That doesn't mean that it always stays liek that, as things always seem to go up and down but ever since my 'spiritual plummet'... sort of that i had a couple months back, what i've built back up is much strongr, and much... different than it was before. :) 

I like it. 

'And he saw that the seed was good, and the foundation of that very strong' therefore, he did not feel the urge to squish it with his finger like he does with all the random fruit flies in his apt. 

yay. :) 

(really though. I'm at straight war with the Fruit flies... I think I've scared my companion on several occasions. Just recently instead of killing them by the fifties with my hands I decided to take a page out of your book and use a vaccuum. :) much more effective)

I'm also grateful to have had a mother who raised me on salads :) Because honestly there is nothing that tastes more delicious than a salad after almost never making any of them. Last night it was literally like: forget the pizza, the salad is the best part! (it did have avacado and fettecini cheese in it... or at least some sort of really delicous cheese cube :) Serisously though. I just had that random thought. That you really don't get stuff as a kid, but when you're older its like duh, thats why you said don't play video games and eat potato chips all day. Life is worth so much more than that. Sorry. Wierd tangent. 

NO. I am not vegaterian nor will I ever be so. 

ok. wow. some actual stuff that happened. My whole district bossed it up last week. We broke the record for new investigators. All that president said was: how did you do that? it was miracles. and we are all pumped. like. We've had miracles like every day. Get kbabbed in the city, and say a prayer to find out if we should stay or go. get a call and have a member walk up and point out a less active who is across the square. Prayer = instantly answered. me and Garrard contacted: get this: 0 hours last week. And found more people than we had the week before just on Public transport, and random things that happened. So cool. Wednesday I went on splits with Elder collard and we taught Adal this way cool guy. You'll keep hearing more about him. But his story is that he's never had a religion though he's always believed very strongly in God. 3 Days before he met us he got a way strong feeling he needed to go find a church. Then he met us. 2 lessons later he's commited to getting baptized in a month. I was freaking out. of my 

mind.

He asked us and we were the ones who said: yes. yes we can baptize you. Can you say prepared? Yesterday we taught this way cool american kid named max and a whole norwegian family who we found at the baptism. SOOO COOL. She fed us this way good pizza and her 15 year old daughter had invited no less than FIVE of her friends to come talk to the mormon missionaries. IT WAS SOOOO ....... weird. And cool. By the end though we were just outnumbered and outugnned. :) But it still went way good. We also met her 24 year old daughter and they invited us over to dinner at her and her boyfriends house for dinner this week. So that'll be cool. Anyways. it was all legit. Ran into struggling less active ysa randomly on the street that was super cool. anyways. helped a funny pillipino guy move. We are going to teach him and his family too. Anyways. I almost don't have enough time for everything. ...

Thats cool. 

Anyways. i'm going to stop boring you with stories now but generally noted: I'm doing good. And i'm pumped for General Conference. I have by far the best job in the mission. And yup. I hope you guys have a great one! christmas will be here before you know it right?!? heh. time flyr. hly toledo!

Love

Christopher

 

 

Pictures :)

Halloween carving contest

Ummmmm....

Sad missionaries? Contemplative missionaries? Silly missionaries? Yes, that.

September 23, 2013

Hey MOM!!!!!

I'm sooooo happy right now I could explode!!!!!! I literally have nothing to complain about other than the fact my knee hurts because I played dodgeball too hard :) FRee for ALL!!!! Styel :) So thats my story. I have 30 minutes starting now to write you and change. Darn it. You at least will get the idea that i'm happy :) Not stress free, but happy. :)

I'll respondere first :). yes I have a car NOW. I didn't then :) We just borrowed the Broughs (senior couple) car. so pretty. sometimes we drive around with him. All the time we are driving right next to beautiful still water, or through tunnels. No end of fun. I love driving here :) um. yeah. The Broughs got emergency transferred to oslo as of this morning. So for 6 weeks I'm in charge of their car, their apt., their Ysa, their missionaries, and Sisters Broughs beautiful orchid that needs a  good name :) Something elegant. I was crushed. I love them. They cant leave. Especially not now when we actually have some good momentum. in the month or so this district has been in bergen it has been incredible. I've had some of the most powerful spiritual meetings this week. One with the bishop, and with the missionaries, and the broughs, and just knowing how to plow forward. We just get it now. We are going hard in the paint, throwin bows in the lane. :) Its been incredible to feel the whole spirit of the district go up. Soo col. 

so yeah now I have a car for the first time :) Its pretty cool. I can just use it if I want. Yay! 

um. mom. I'll look that up when I have an English hymn book. I can't really look that up here. sorry. :) Id lvoe to. And I'll just make sure that you can norwegian and then you guys will be the only one's whithout a secret hemmelig språk :) heh. anyways. 

yeah. I had a way fun splits with Elder Clarke this week. That was pretty fun. Me and Garrard had like 3 miracles yesterday even though none of our people showed up, through just random things that we were doing we still found people. We havent had any time to contact hardly at all and yet we are still finding tons of way prepared people. This week I had a finding experience like I haven't had since oslo. We prayed and felt led to walk up this street. Amid hundreds of ungdom, we found this one lady who I decided to stop. It started out normal but the she was like: oh yeah, I'm a mormon. ... awkward. This happens especially when you know you don't quite know everyone in the ward. so.... which uh famliy are you a part of? The Johansen famiily she says. But me and my mother havent been to church for a long time. Like ok. cool. now i'm getting a little pumped. you can often find less actives on the street that can be way cool. But then she said. yeah she left like right before I was baptized.... ok. so are you baptized.'

no. 

ok.... uh..... What do you believe in? yeah. i'm christian. But i'm mormon christian... but your not døpt? nope. have you read the book of mormon. Of Course! Thats why i tell people i'm mormon. Cause I really do believe that its true. ok

wait. We tell people why baptism is so important. Well I have time friday at 11.... uh..... okkkk.? (is this a joke?) 

Yup

I met someone who believes they are mormon but isn't baptized, and yup. I just about died. It could not go anywhere, but she was super prepared. That's all I really have to say about that.

There are so many other things. It was a boss week. I have been able to really help the people around me, and I'm seeing it more than ever. Me and Garrard get along great, and I've never had a companionship that i've felt the spirit this constantly. Its like... all the time. United together and with God. the coolest thing for me as a DL is just to be getting straight revelation about how I can help my district even if half of them are sisters. its pretty cool. and super fun. anyways

I love you mom! I need to send some pictures, but you'll get those eventually. my words can only come once. :) 

love,

Christopher

September 16, 2013

Hey momsidile! :)

I live in a suburb of Bergen called Paradis. Norway isn't that big so they don't have really big addresses. :) I mean come on... There are less people in the country than the state of utah. :) Yes I live in Paradise :) And I got some letters from Kristy this week so that address really does work. :) 

My life is good :) I really don't have that much to say really. Hmm. I'll talk about that first. I love being a district leader. I actually feel like I really know what I'm suppossed to be doing here and I really feel like I have the opportunity to do a lot of good things in that respect. There is a lot of things that need to be done with the ward and with 8 missionaries you kind of need someone with enough experience to kindof lead out and take the lead on that. So that's been fun. Its also been fun to really find out how I can actually help them. I feel like I actually influence people a lot more now than I did even when I was a zone leader, just because Bergen is the one big city in Norway that really doesn't get much contact with anywhere else. And I really almost have more to do here than I did in stavanger. But it's been super fun, I I've been super grateful for that I actually have been given some inspiration on where to actually put my efforts. And the same really applies to my companion. :) Elder Garrard is a pretty funny kid for as quiet as he is, but we've really become really good friends, and he's helped me a lot to finally just kinda go for it. This really is the part of my mission where time is flying by so much faster than I thought possible, and all you can do is just try to do everything that you can to be your best. As a returned missionary in the ward wisely stated: 'You know, you two really have quite the dynamic companionship. I think it works really well. He then pointed at me and said: so you must be the disobedient one' :) yup. Ok not really, but when put side by side with a greenie who makes salads out of herbal tea and olive oil, because he just has to make a salad, and it just has to be perfect, I guess I am the one that takes things at a slightly slower pace. Except when we run. I think we run more uphill than I ever have in my life. And we do it pretty fast too :) Thats what you get with 2 rival cross country runners :) (no we don't race, its just that even taking it slow we are pretty fast :)

In other news, we have made some way good progress with some of the YSA in the ward. We taught one of the new converts Bob, who.... I love. I have a straight man crush on the dude. He speaks this funny version of the oslo dialect where he'll say something REALLY fast, and then just pause like norwegians do by keeping a constant tone and then finishing even faster. A lot of the members dont even catch everything that he says. He went hiking wtih us, we made food together, and yesterday I went on splits with him to go visit some inactive YSA. Despite the fact no one answered, and it was pouring rain, we had a great time skipping rocks at the oceans edge whilst we waited for the bus. I loved it and had a blast :) We visited another dood who let us in and we had a way chill talk with him as well. I tuned his guitar for him (i'm picking up all kinds of fun skills on my mission :) and we played some music together. We taught the boyfriend of 4 years of one of the YSA who is an atheist. Not like a religion hater, but someone who truly believes that we are animals on a random planet. It was a super interesting teach, and I loved being a part of it actually. Her testimony was fantastic and he'll probably be just one of those people that take a little bit of time :) 

hmm... What else? I think thats most of it :) We hiked up a mountain last pday that was super cool. At the top we were going through the clouds, and up almost a straight up slope all there was was a big iron rod that wound up the mountain. The cool part was that you could only see about 20 feet in front of you so more than half the group you could only hear and not see :) I caught a frog, and then we ran down the mountain... carefully :) 

Evelyn is now a member, and from what I've heard it was an absolutely incredible experience for them yesterday. :) .... Yay :D Thats all I have to say about that. My heart ached to be there, but I was needed here. Literally actually. I'm the only missionary who can translate, so I ended up translating all three hours yesterday. It was pretty fun. The little primary program was super fun, the only problem was that some of those little girls talked waaaaay to fast and I missed parts here and there. The people on the recieving end said I did a good job though :) 

We had a baptism here on saturday and we had a super cool experience with one of the nonmember friends that came. We went in and helped her make food and just talked to her about things and she almost died i think because she just kept saying over and over how utrolig flink we are at the språk and she was just really impressed. :) But afterwords we talked to her and we are teaching her and her famliy this week after she feeds us homemade pizza! Again, random cooking skills on the mish that come in handy :) Then to top it off, Brother Mørklid, (who I will just have to describe later.... he's just ... fun :) (he's the guy who gives everyone ties if you've heard about him) came walking down one end of the big hall whistling the western dueling song, and after he did the first line I just whistled the second and turned around and we had one of the moments ever just walking down the hall slowly guns ready whilstling at each other :) You would have to have been there :) 

Life is crazy. I have way too much to do. But I love it all. I'm just enjoying the ride right now :) And doing everything I possibly can to help everyone here succeed. I've never felt drive and love like this before in my entire life. I will go and I will do. And when I fail, I'll just get back up again. Because guess what matthew. It comes back :)

Love,

Christopher :)

PS. mom. All I can talk about is skipping rocks :) So painting rocks must be much cooler. My life would sound cool if you could actually come here and see how incredible this place is. Its unbelievable. As we drive around i can't get over it :)  To answer that part of your letter last week. Don't give up on your dream of coming here. :)

September 9, 2013

Heh, Momps. I could do this all day :)

Anyways, Ill just read you letter later today. We are going to hike one of the mountains that surrounds bergen today so that should be pretty fun. And besides I don't really know what to say anyways. 

I'll prolly start by talking about how legit stavanger still is :) jk, but really that place is straight the best. The Haugens my adopted grandparents(senior couple missionaries) came up and I straight flipped out with joy. They were telling me about all the things that have been happening in stavanger and is pretty much legit. Evelyn and sven are getting DØPT!!! This weeek!!! YEsss!!! she made it! Another guy I taught is gettting baptized in two weeks, and Christian this sweet swedish cagefighter super nice quiet guy also said he wants to get baptized. .... REally. I want do die from joy with thta place. 

On a more spiritual note, I had a very interesting thought about all that. In Stavanger by the end, I loved everyone missionary and member and investigator alike, I probably prayed harder for them than anyone else in my entire life. By the end it was almost just a plea of, I don't even care if i'm a part of it, just let them succeed! just  help them. In a way I had made a promise with God which was, Help these people, and I don't even have to be here to see it, or have anything to do with it. Leaving was the hardest thing in the world. It tore me apart. but in a way more real than ever before, God answered my prayer. Or the prayers that I said all the time. I thought that was kinda cool :)

Bergen is a pretty cool place too :) We are teaching some way cool people. A greek kid named Achilleas came to chuch just randomly yesterday which is pretty much like the best thing ever. Super cool :) We taught a guy named paul, who was completely enthralled by the book of mormon musical and just couldnt resist the urge to actually talk to us and get one :) We are starting to get to know the members a lot more which is sweet, and things are just doing better. I also feel more awake and more energized than I have in probably 7 or 8 months. So the iron pills are definatly helping with that :) My companion is super cool to actually. We have developed a way good relationship where we just learn a lot from each other and we are probably more focused than I've ever been before on my whole mission. He's kinda like some of the kids I used to hang out with before who were just super smart and didn't quite knnow what to do with it :) He really enjoys all the times that I just analyze situations and people around us. Apparently I've gotten really good at that. Takk for det eldste Anderson :) 

Really though. I don't have too much exciting to say, other than that a gay guy tried to squish my kbab this week :) Or that we missed our bus because it went into a secret underground tunnel. and then got lost walking around in the rain for about an hour with our completely soaked little map :) fun times. :) 

ANywyas. Have a great week. I might add some responses later to whatever you say but we'll see. I love you sooo much! 

love,

Christopher :)

September 2, 2013

HEy Momsawhimsicle! (have I used that one before?)

Yeah... let's talk stream of thaught thats like going to be 10 times worse. because I have tons of thoughts that could get acroos but 0 time. unfortunately none of the missionaries can get library cards yet becasue they haven't gotten their information so we have 8 missionaries that have to use the one computer in the church, so unfortunately I really don't have that much time at all today. I don't even really know where you want me to start either... I don't have time to go back and look at all the questions you asked me from last week so if I miss anything just let me know and I'll get to it next week. 

I have to start out with honesty.... Stavanger is the best. Looking back I love that place with my whole heart and soul. I miss it way more than I've ever missed anything ever before, and this was definitely the hardest move that I've ever had, short of maybe coming on the mission to begin with. I loved everything about that place. I loved every single member in that ward, and the group of missionaries that we had there is by far beyond anything that I've ever experienced anywhere else. We had more inside jokes, and supported each other more than I've ever felt ever. It was fantastic. That last day was soooo bittersweet. The bishop had us over for a final supper, as did our mission leader and constantin and generosa. just as a random tidbit, the lady things went awesome with, Evelyn apparently has gotten even better. Only word to describe her is straight bosslike :) She's holding onto this despite TOns of opposition. Its crazy. SHE's soooo cool though!!!! AHH. I was reading through my happy book from stavanger and there were so many good memories in there I thought I was going to die of joy. and sadness because i'm gone.... We had the biggest smackdowns ever with constantin and generosa but she still didn't set a date before I left. There was nothing more I could have done. They bought me a way cool tie though and I'll definitely send a whole bunch of pics when I get the time! 

Bergen as a city is legit. My first few days there were........ I won't really say how bad they were. They were just very unenjoyable. Turns out i've had Anemia for months, and I came down with a virus right when I got here that basically plummeted my physical, spiritual, and emotional state into a horrible spiral that hit rock bottom on saturday where I couldn't even hold my head up and stay awake enough to eat my food. It was not a fun experience. And I wasn't in the position to deal with my new companion who is great but is a little too anxious, or zealous is the word I might use. Overall, 0 of the people that were in our area before have wanted to meet with us again, so we have started from straight ground 0. Nothing. Really. there were so many emotions connected to this moves... I can't even begin to describe them. But in all it was not fun, and I didn't feel competent or like I could do anything. 

Monday we flew to Trondheim, and the first good moment and shining ray of hope was when I saw Elder Holden, who was my companion back in sandnes. We straight ran from one end of the church to the other and tackled each other in the best hug in the world. Missionary hugs usually don't do it for me. That one was more like both of us had had such a hard time since leaving and coming back together was the best thing ever. Seeing our whole district again was awesome. We had almost 50 misionaries in that city contacting that night, and playing 4 different sports at this one field right in sentrum. Literally the place was flooded. Supper fun. That was where my spirits finally started to feel a ltitle bit better again. I heard the voice that is Elder Whetten finally talking in the back of my head cheering me on again. Shortly said, The next day was incredible. Elder Kearon is a straight boss of the world. I needed that so badly, and the Iron pills that i got from sister Pace. Starting Wednesday life got a million times better. 

We started implementing plans on how we were going to work with the bishop and the youth, and me being the only one over like 6 months in norway was the one leading out on all of thesse. Its interesting to have such a young group of missionaries here. OH!" to answer your questions, we all stayed in the elders apt for mish conf. The sisters got hotels.... yup. We fit 36 missionaries on the FLOOR that night. it was insane. I didn't personally take any pictures but I should have. I didn't feel so good....  anyways. our district is cool though. We found some way cool people through our language class, and actually this week was my most successful week in terms of just straight finding new people to teach which was cool considering we were gone for two days. Ok wee

I gotta wrap this up soon.. .ahhh there's so much. We drove to this one members house who lives like an hour away though, and it was the coolest drive ever. there is no other city in norway or in the world quite like bergen. Its amazing. SUch a cool city. ANd I feel so much better. I will say shortly that me and my companion are near perfect for each other. or at least as a trainer and a greenie. I find myself more and more like elder anderson. Which is ok because I worship him :) So things are going much better. I haven't felt this awake with so much energy in months.... 

Thank you so much for the loves. I don't really feel like there was that much spiritual in there, other than I just loved loving stavanger. That was one thing I learned. I had no idea how much I would come to love that place. I'll send pictures when I can. Until then ... have fun! sounds like Gavin is still awesome, and the matthew is still crazy. Alt er i orden. :) I love yo so much mom! 

have a great week!

Love,

Christopher

ps. time.... is FLYING. Holy smokes. They weren't kidding. time just flies. its weird.

August 19, 2013

Oi Mumsicle!

First off. The only people we work with are not drunks or atheists. See story below :) That said, we work with a lot of drunks and atheists :) 

That picture was with a troll named Hildor who guards our path to the church thank you very much! Recently Hildor has been causing some problems though... :)

I will try and get everything I have to say for today in today's email because i move to bergen on wednesday and next monday and tuesday I will be in trondheim and wont get on for emails until tuesday night and then only for a short amount of time since the mission conference is happenening there :) This next week is going to blow the worlds mind though. Bergen is almost getting completely whitewashed, with 7 new missionaries completely unfamiliar with bergen, 3 of which are completely new to norway. that makes 8 total plus the Broughs who are the senior couple there. So my next week is going to be next to insane :) should be fun. Bergen has been struggling a ton so this will be a really cool oppporunity to see if we can do anything to help.

In terms of me, the pattern still stands that my last week in every area is straight awesome. Everytime I've left an area we had just gotten a baptismal date and the same goes for this week. I just have to tell you about Evelyn first. We taught her on saturday about the restoration and the plan of salvation and it blew my mind. She said over and over, I'm ready for this. This feels so right for me. She had had a faith in christ and lost it during her teenage years like most kids in Norway. After 10 years she met a friend who was an inactive member of our church and spoke with him about the gospel. She began realizing she knew something was there and wanted to follow what she wanted regarding faith. She realized the world teaches so heavily to rely on the brain rather than the heart. In my studies that very morning I realized that our feelings and our heart are what make us human, and children of God. Any robot can think, learn, and reason to no end: Ever learning, never coming to a knowledge of the truth. (2 TIm 3) :) I know I can't really explain my personal experiences in any way that is interesting, but it was just an incredible experience to meet someone who God had been preparing their entire lives. And when she decided to come to church, she was ready. She committed to be baptized on the 15th and though I won't be here to see it, she will follow through with that. :) She has such an incredible spirit and it was so cool to see her as we talked about joseph smith and the book of mormon, she looked anxious and finally just pointed at the book I was holding, and said: can I see that yet? .... of course you can. :) Testimonies were powerful and she cried through much of the whole thing. If we hadn't run to the church and I was sweating so much, I probably would have cried too. It was soo cool though. Daniel Kidøy her friend who told her about a church that taught all the things she had been personally recieving revalation about on her own, is also coming to church now, along with another friend who also wants to be baptized. The whole story is just pretty cool :) 

After church we had the biggest throwdown of love I've ever had on my entire mission. We talked with Constantin and Generosa just in the empty cultural hall about baptism and we went suuuuper bold and really tried to help her understand how important it was that she ask God, not her sister, about whether she should get baptized. Constantin came up big and said: if it is something you want to do then do it. Don't fear. So constantin do you want to be baptized? Yes of course I do. I don't even have enough time before I move to meet with everyone that wants to meet with us but we are going to their house on tuesday night and following up on their praying about setting a date. They will make it :) Someday they will. But she is ready. She understand christ now, and she loves church. Now she just needs to make the decision to follow him. :) After that we went to the Sande's house and ate dinner together. We had a wonderful lesson about the Holy ghost. The saddest part was when she learned I was leaving you could tell she was super sad about it.  I have been teaching her almost my entire time here and it has been so incredible to be with her and constantin. Seeing people grow is one of the most amazing things ever :) 

In other random news, after Menighetsråd we had this super random guy we contacted like 2 months ago showed up to church while we were getting ready to go home and eat but we ended up teaching him instead, and commiting him to come to church :) woot! monday we taught a guy in the middle of the biggest rainstorm i've ever seen where we were stuck under a tree for an hour.  it was funny to see all the people  huddled around thee pond sheltering themselves from the rain :) Tueday we taught the nicest quietest swedish cagefighter in existence :) Dude. His swedish was awesome :) And aside from our teach with Evelyn, it was probably one of my most spiritual teaches ever. All that practicing paid off as we were able to make it super personal and super meaningful. I choked up in that one too. It was amazing. Wednesday I got to see my son Ellsworth and Chancellor again at a training meeting in oslo :) Me and ellsworth and Holden (he's my daughter) are training at the same time. Which means I get another son and two grandsons at the same time :) super cool! 

If you haven't gotten the picture yet this week was awesome. ITs the first week I've ever gotten thiiiisss close to actually reaching ALL of my goals :) And we set some pretty high ones cause we knew this week was going to be awesome. It was super cool. We ninja karateied some flies, watched the tour de fjord bike race in the middle of stavanger sentrum, and played intense uno. 

My heart is done with leaving places. I still have like forever left and i'm already done with leaving. When some of the youth learned that we were leaving it was just super sad. Stavanger has been one of the best places ever :) I had this random thought though mom, that i'm going to love being home, just because the relationships you have there are sooo precious. I don't think you realize that until you go out and you don't have it for a long time. When you have it again there is nothing better :) I feel more than ever that my family really are my best friends in the whole world ever :) 

Since I wont be able to say much next week, I love you all! Go kick some life's butt! 

loves!

Elder Christopher Whetten