Monday, September 11 2017

I have never been more tired in my life. This past week was unreal. Our bodies, minds, spirits, everything were so drained all week long. It was super crazy to see how hard it was to just walk up the next hill to the next house, how much determination it took to knock on one more door. But we made it! And now another week is down in the books.

1- We hiked Himakånå last monday. AKA The House Wife. We went with three members of our grenn and it was so fun! the sun was out the whole entire time and the view was great! of course, to complete the experience, we drove the one hour drive in the RV. Such a special treat. Today we are hiking the tallest waterfall in Norway. But by the time you read this I will be home and proselyting again.

2- WE ATE MAC AND CHEESE FOR LUNCH. something so simple, but wow. i have missed mac and cheese. i do not know why they do not sell it in norway!!

3- RAIN. It poured rain every day all day pretty much after monday. We had to knock on a ton of doors every day and we were sooo soaked. I do not know how I was that wet! We got back to the city from a members house, missed our bus, and had to walk home in the pouring rain and pitch black. It took an hour and we were even more tired than we were before hahaha. who knew it was possible. It was fun though because we read eachothers futures.

4- we ate dinner with a phillipino family who does English. They asked me to say a prayer in english and it might have been the hardest thing i have ever done hahaha. I kept saying norwegain words and could not even remember how to pray in english. I will have to practice that before I come home.

5- We were walking down the street on wednesday and one of our member friends saw us on the street. She was with all of her friends. When we waved at her she just acted like we were invisible. OUCH. That is the first time that that has EVER happened to me. It is okay though, the same thing happened to Jesus so I was standing with a pretty perfect person by side.

6- We were contacting in a park and the same guy who distracted me last week when I met that guy from houston came up. He started talking to us and then one of the most known drug addicts in Haugesund came and started to talking to us also. The first man helped us communicate with him and I felt so safe with him there. Then he left and we were alone with the scary man.

He was kind of yelling and saying a lot of very scary things and all of the norwegains walking past were so confused. I had a feeling to ask him if we could say a prayer with him. So Søster Earl prayed right there in the middle of the square for him. After the prayer he was bawling and he was so grateful. He calmed down a lot and walked away. Later that day when he was with his friends on a bench he waved to us. Wooho. The people you meet.

7- I was sitting on a bus on friday and I tried to talk to this man from Syria. He told me he could not understand anything I was saying and that he does not really know english or norwegian. I did not want to just settle with letting him get by without having the chance to hear the gospel. I said a prayer for Heavenly Father to help me know what to say. I felt my heart burn, my mouth open. I had the thought to open my mouth and it will be filled. I was sure I had received the gift of tongues and that I was about to talk to this man in syrian. I decided to test it out. I did not want to look back one day and have Heavenly Father tell me he gave me the gift and I doubted. So I opened my mouth, said something along the lines of "shjfdsh sjdhfjksdh sjhfuehjka ksjdifje" and waited for him to respond. When he did not respond,

I looked out the window and pretended like i did not say anything. I was not going to give up. I prayed again. Had the same prompting. My mouth literally began to open. I was too embarrassed, I settled for a smile. I do not know if he understood anything I said, maybe he did. Maybe it changed his life. But also, maybe it was just a test from heavenly father. Or maybe he just needed a good laugh and knew I needed one too. 

8- We were going to the church to eat dinner on friday and as I put the key in the door we had a very dark feeling come over us. We knew we either had to run inside and lock the door asap or go out and talk to people. We decided to go out. We saw a police car drive past and that calmed our spirits.

We decided to keep walking a little bit more. As we walked, everyone rejected us. We finally decided that it was safe to go to the church so we turned around. As soon as we turned around, I saw a boy. I knew I needed to talk to him. I had a huge brainfart, could not think of how to start the conversation so I just blurted out "Do you think God exists?" He answered, told us how hard his life has been in the past year, said it was either evidence that God exists or that his experiences confirmed he did not. Søster Earl did an amazing job of helping him understand Gods plan. It is so cool how Heavenly Father can guide people to eachother without taking away the agency of any of them.

9-we contacted in Knapphus on saturday.

It is just a little town an hour away where the man who built a lot of stuff for early mormon temples comes from. It was fun because we studied språk in a gas station to split up the 3 hours of knocking doors. It was awesome though because although no one was interested, we got let in one house and another lady gave us norwegain apples!!!

10- yesterday we went to a members after church so that another member could use their kitchen. He taught us how to make Persian food. We felt bad because we wasted a lot of time (we were there from 3 until 8 pm!!) but it was so yummy!!! It was so cool to experience his cutlure. I smell like persian food now though so that is sad haha. Still very fun though. I love norway. We were all from different countries. so special to learn so much.

All in all, life is so good. Still many trials, but so is life. God really is in the details. He really does care about me. He really does have a plan for me. A plan for Norway. A plan for mankind. I am so eager to participate in his plan. I want to be a front-row, pencil sharpened-notebook out participant. Someone he can always rely on the be eager to answer and learn. Someone he can know will keep trying when the course gets rough. SOmeone he can count on to help others on the way. But most of all, someone who is patient in his syllabus-aware of what is expected but willing to put in the work to get the reward.

I LOVE NORWAY. I LOVE MY MISSION. Every second is worth it. Even when i am terrified or tired or compeltely daunted. Life is good.

LOVE YOU