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| Raspberries and Åkrefjorden! |
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| Me and Åkrefjorden |
Heleisen alle dere!
To
start off, I will express my gratitude for the direction of our
modern-day prophets to have us be a record-keeping people. With
everything that has happened the past two weeks, I would hardly be able
to recall only a handful of things if it had not been for the records
that have been kept. On the other hand, we have a dilemma of time and me
writing this email. We'll see how far I can get :D.
Us Elders here in Stavanger cover the Haugesund area. Haugesund
usually has missionaries, but for reasons not reasonably explainable,
they do not at this time. Elder Williams and I took a ferry, and enjoyed
the scenic view :).
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| View off of the bridge in Haugesund |
The western part of Norway is really the most
scenic in my opinion. We even had a few minutes to think to and from
Haugesund. It was also where my MTC companion served as a new missionary
- there's just a whole bunch of connections I have to this place. It
was beautiful and a wonderful experience!
We strengthened the members there as best we could by driving around
with the Branch President to some less-active families. It is tough to
be a member in Norway - particularly because of the distances people
live away from each other. The Branch President here is a rock-solid
member from Finland. I am blown away at his example and faithfulness
despite the trials set before him. That is a testimony to me of the
importance of daily and family prayer, scripture study and church
attendance! His whole family was really sweet too :). After visiting
with him, we took a member out to dinner at Egon's (a common pizza
restaurant in Norway). We all had a blast!
On Sunday, we administered the sacrament and gave talks in Church.
Ahh, it brought back memories of Mo i Rana all over again. And yet, the
members are faithful through and through just like Mo. After our
meeting, we had some time before our return ferry back to Stavanger, so
our Branch President wanted to talk over a few things and drive us to a
waterfall in the area.
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| A 7.4 km tunnel to Langfossen |
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| Elder Williams and I at Langfossen :) |
Langfossen is the widest and most beautiful
waterfall I've ever seen! Wild raspberries were also
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| Raspberries and Åkrefjorden! |
around the
waterfall. Yes, they were delicious.
P-Day came around, and we decided to hike Kjerag.Many people told
us it was closed; other people (and the weather) said it would rain. But
we took the 2 hour drive anyway, listening to General Conference in
Norwegian (personal, companionship, and language study all in one!! ;).
We also seriously prayed that it would not rain while we were there.
Once we arrived, the clouds were large and ominous. The view off of
Øygardstøl (a viewpoint, and trailhead for Kjerag) down the Lysefjord
was stunning.
The hike was 10k round-trip and worth every step - chain
railings and all!
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| The trail up Kjerag |
We even had a snowy trail at the very top, protected
by the shadows of the cracks of the mountain.
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| Snowy trail! |
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| The Stavanger District (the sisters couldn't make it :( ) |
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| Avast! A sheep! |
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| That's Øygardstøl (the look off point we were at). |
It was an absolutely
extraordinary experience! Once we arrived back at our car, we had to
drive the 27 hairpin road
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| The 27 hairpin turns |
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| The 27 hairpin turns on our GPS :P |
down to the bottom of Lysefjorden, just to say
the we did it. And we were extremely grateful we did -because the
feeling of being at the very bottom of a gigantic fjord with jutting
mountain-sides thousands of meters above you is one irreplaceable
feeling :D. After the drive home, we were so exhausted and out of time
for emails, we could only take a few minutes to write a quick note.
That's why we couldn't email last week.
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| Lysefjorden. Pictures don't do justice. Period. |
During the next week we had a meeting with the Mission President
regarding how the whole mission will be trained. From the Mission
President down to the individual companionship is a monthly theme that
we will focus on - general enough for the whole mission, but will be
boiled down and specific enough down to the individual companionship.
We're super excited for it - the only trick is to implement it. A
mission has so many different facets to it. And each facet can be
experienced in so many different ways - I feel like the past two months
I've learned from more facets than I have my whole mission. From
leadership experience, to getting along with your companion. From
finding people on the street, to building strong relationships with
members. And now we're going through this transformative phase with our
new Mission President - we are in for an experience that is completely
unprecedented! I am so grateful to be a part of this, despite the daily
rough patches. Looking back, I hardly remember the rough parts. The good
parts are packaged away to be relived again and again :). Two years
serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and our fellow brothers and
sisters is truly the best gift God can give to a 19 year old kid. It's
tougher than everything else I've experienced, but it is more valuable
to me than anything I could possibly possess.
Our Lord and Savior lives. He redeemed us from the terrible effects
of sin and weakness. We can take advantage of this redemption by
remembering the Christ. Alma 33:20-22 (thank you for the reference,
Mom!). Remember that it is by small and simple things that the salvation
of souls is brought to pass. Alma 37:5-7. There are no big decisions in
life. By focusing on the small, everyday decisions, the big decisions
are either taken care of, or our Heavenly Father will see us through it.
It is up to us to counsel with Him regarding His will and plan for us
by reading the scriptures, praying and attending church. And this plan
is the key to true happiness. I've tried it myself.
-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson
P.S. Thank you Tanner and
Christine for your emails - I am extremely appreciative despite my
inability to respond or express myself!
