Thursday, July 6 2017

woohoo one week closer till norway!! Jeg er så spente for norge! Jeg tenke at Norge skall være kjempe flott. Og jeg kan ikke vente å snakke med norfolk fordi jeg har mye kjærlighet for dem. lol i cannot think of anything else to say.

not a ton of things happened this week, but it was still fun! I am obsessed w my mission.

1-We were teaching Erelend (the investigator(brother leighton) that made us cry) again and we were teaching him about the book of mormon/holy ghost and he told us that he finished the book of mormon and prayed but didn't get an answer but as soon as he said amen his friend called him and told him he should read the book of mormon again and slower (since he was reading like 50 pages a day) and see what god would have him learn. We told him that that was an answer to his prayer. but he said he didn't want to pray again because he felt like an idiot since god did not answer him with the answer he was expecting. But he shared a scripture from the bom that talks about how everyone can pray and then we THOUGHT he told us that he felt like he was a heathen and something was stopping him from praying. So i told him to read 2N 32 before we come back, but it turns out he was saying that he changed his mind and felt something PUSHING him to pray - lol we could have helped him know it was the holy ghost haha but instead we were teaching him about repentence. funnny funny. In our next lesson with him we decided to teach him about baptism because if he is baptized he can have the holy ghost with him always and he said he wanted that. So Sister Mumford accidentally told him that we could follow jesus christ's example by DOPING instead of being baptized (dopt/dapt).

So that was funny too. RIP erelend. He is such a cool investigator though. i love him even though he is fake.

2-We got to have a Freedom Devotional which was cool and then watch the stadium of fire fireworks. Not as good as our family's tradition, but at least it was something. I saw the planes fly over and saw all the hot air balloons so at least felt like a little part of our celebration was w me. I also hurt my thumb way bad in volleyball so I had an ice bag but when it melted we had a little water fight so that was a good celebration also. Attatched is a pic of me and my bff from new zealand. she dressed festive even tho she doesnt like it here that much ahhaha

3- We got to skype with our first norwegian yesterday and it was so cool!! I loved it so much. When we skyped her she had 4 missionaries over for meals and they were all so fun and i cannot wait to go to norway. i hope i get to serve in tromset or tromso idk what it is called lol. but it looks so beautiful and she was so nice. apparently she is like the member momma of norway.

4-I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting on sunday and i pretty much just said, "I am grateful to have a god who is mindful of me. This week has been really hard for me as i have realized that my testimony was more of a why-not-believe testimony than a i-know testimony. I decided to change it and i have prayed for simply confirmations like "do you exist?" "do you know me?" "can you hear me?" etc. I got no answers back like i was needing so i felt really discouraged. But as i was walking through lunch on thursday I felt like i should go talk to Pres/Sister Weidman. They invited me into their office later and Sister weidman gave me a quote that was exactly what i needed. It said: "Even so, the Lord has made no secret of the fact that He intends to try the faith and the patience of His Saints. (See Mosiah 23:21.) We mortals are so quick to forget the Lord: “And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions … they will not rememberhim.” (Hel. 12:3.) However, the Lord knows our bearing capacity, both as to coping and to comprehending, and He will not give us more to bear than we can manage at the moment, though to us it may seem otherwise. (See D&C50:40; D&C 78:18.) Just as no temptations will come to us from which we cannot escape or which we cannot bear, we will not be given more trials than we can sustain. (See 1 Cor. 10:13.) Therefore, given the aforementioned grand and overarching reasons to rejoice, can we not “be of good cheer in spite of stress and circumstance? President Brigham Young said of a geographical destination, “This is the place.” Of God’s plan of salvation, with its developmental destination, it can be said, “This is the process”! President Young, who knew something about trial and tribulation but also of man’s high destiny, said that the Lord lets us pass through these experiences that we might become true friends of God. By developing our individual capacities, wisely exercising our agency, and trusting God—including when we feel forsaken and alone—then we can, said President Young, learn to be “righteous in the dark.”. I am grateful to have a god that trusts me enough to make good decisions without him letting me know he is right by me. I am grateful to have a god who gives me just enough hope each day to keep me going, but not enough to keep me complacent." I felt stupid sharing it, but i have had 3 elders and 2 sisters comeup to me and thank for being "brave enough to share it" because they feel the same way and thought they were completely alone. A ton of other elders have come up to me and given me words of advice and encouragement. I was talking to Elder Horuch (danish missionary) and I asked him how he KNEW becuase when he bore his testimony he literally glew. He looked at me like I was an idiot and told me that all of the elders talk about how i glow. he said that it is so easy for everyone to see the love i have for the gospel and how much i want to love all of the missionaries. He said even though i might not feel like my testimony is A1 rn everyone else can see it in action and its incredible. So that was cool.

5-I found Cole Lambournes look alike (lol) i finally got up the courage to ask for a pic after spending every day on the volleyball court with him. Also me and Sister Wheeler said RIP bc our hearts r locked so we made shirts for ourselves. We like them, adults do not. They say they are not chirstlike. They are right. But we have to have fun in some way. Also notice the boy with glasses in the yellow shirt - he looks like anndy sannberg from hotrod. He is the funniest kid i have ever met. 

That is all. It is a cool week. BUT 11 days until NORGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kjærlighet,

Søster Horrocks