Monday, August 14 2017

A mission is hard, creds to all who have gone before me. Good luck to all who are after me

. But, it has to be a refiners fire because this is what makes us Gods yanno. Anyways, it also is a refiners fire because I got a third degree burn. HAHA. But, it is okay bc it did not hurt that bad. I might need a skin graff....who knows lol. we will find out tomorrow. BUT LITERALLY LOOK AT THESE PICS. WHERE DO I LIVE?! IF YOU GUESSED HEAVEN YOU MIGHT BE RIGHT!! But now to the week:

1- We went to stavanger by ferri for zone conference. On the boat i was grumpy hahaha and i was like God you need to help me be happy because I do not want feel grumpy. Next thing I knew, a family who was wearing LACROSSE GEAR sat down a few tables away. I went and talked to them and they were from america just dropping their son off for college. WOW. what are the odds that a lacrosse playing family would be on the same ferri as me exactly when I needed it? Who knows. But it was quite a blessing.

2- I decided to (thanks grandpa) Be ALL IN. Well more all in than i already was. So wednesday I woke up and relied on HF to help me do it. buuut, our investigator wrote us off. So i was sad and i was like what dude. But then, one of our potentials called US and assked to meet us in an hour - which was the same time as our other lesson. We already had a member coming for the lesson so it worked out great! He has not gotten back to us, but it was a cool blessing for the day hahaha.

3- At zone conference we learned that our mission is just a whole bunch of 5 minute friends. They told us to never underestimate the power of 5 minute friendships. They can be and are eternal. That was really cool.

We also learned about how we are like pencils - we have to do 5 things in order to be the best pencil ever. 1-you must let yourself be used in someone elses hands 2-you will need to be sharpened from time to time 3-every mistake can be erased 4-what matters most is what is on the inside 5-no matter what the surface is, you must always make your mark. That was a pretty good metaphor i thought.

4- I pretty much was sacrament meeting yesterday. I led the music, said the opening prayer, and sang a song (in norwegian). HAHA. It was so funny. But no one even thought it was weird. I did. but you do what you have to do.

5- A cool thought...when you reach for the sacrament you reach for the savior. Just like the woman who reached for the saviors robe. If we reach for the sacrament with complete faith that he can and will heal us, he will.

The sacrament is the most sacred part of our week. I have come to look forward to taking the sacrament so much. As I see the tray winding through our congregation of fifteen people, I am so excited for my turn to come.

6- I HAD GIRL TALK IN NORWAY WITH A NORWEGIAN SPEAKING NORWEGIAN. That was fun. Who would have ever guessed that? Not me.

7- We had splits this week and Søster Love (the hudsons backyard neighbor) was my comp for a day. She could not believe my norwegian and would not stop talking about how impressed she was with how I was myself and not a cookie cut missionary. WOW. that was cool. It was awesome to hear that. I heard her lean over to my companion at night and say "Shes a good one." haha that made me feel good.

8- We took cookies to a ton of people of saturday...flat pancake burnt cookies, but still cookies. norwegians hearts melt if you give them cookies. never forget that.

9- my gren (branch) is the best. Honestly idk how i am so lucky to be in haugesund. we had a cozy saturday night (supposed to be around the fire but it was raining of course) with most of the gren. they are honestly just like family. they are so supportive and look out for us so much. They are all so grateful for us because we love haugesund. I guess haugesund was like the area people dreaded going to before we got here. LOL they were wrong. like yeah, we do not get a lot of people to talk to us. but we do our best and that is enough.

10- i fly to oslo tonight to see all of my mtc district again. and then on saturday we are traveling to stavanger to hike Prekestølen. Look it up. Be jealous. I am haha.

11- An elder in the mission field (eldste wakefield) grandparents email me every single week multiple times. it is so funny. i bet i get more emails from them than he does hahaha. RIP 2 him.

That is all i can really remember. Norway is cool. It is beautiful. It is hard of course, but it is fine. I am convinced that finishing my mission will be the hardest thing i have ever done...but the most rewarding. I know that without søster earl as my companion i would not be even close to as good as i am right now. she is the best. her little californian smile is always expressing gratitude for everything. she is very selfless and never acts like anything is wrong. i am convinced she is literally a ball of sunshine. But i love her so much. 

Love you all too. Thanks for the prayers and support. I love reading the emails every week. We can all go on a norwegain cruise in 2. that would be fun. hahaha.

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