Månafossen, Kristiansand & Kontakting!

A project I do at every one of my areas.

This is a project I do at every one of my areas. Since Norway is a very international country, I find the local library's other language sections, and provide copies of the Book of Mormon in each language for that library. And of course tape in a pass-along card in the back. Consider Mo i Rana and Stavanger taken care of!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heisann alle dere!!

Man, I feel like I'm on top of the world right now. Life is awesome! The gospel works! And God makes everything possible! All we usually need is a big reality and perspective check. Thank goodness for the Holy Ghost - that's exactly His job!

Well, last week after emails we drove out to Månafossen.Apparently it's one of the largest waterfalls in Norway, but don't quote me on that. What defines what a large waterfall is anyway? Amount of water? Width? Heighth? I don't know. But regardless, the trip was fun, the hike short and intense (classic Norway!), and the waterfall gorgeous.

Månafossen!

On the way up to Månafossen. Gotta love me some Norwegian valleys.

The Månafossen trail!

Blue Steel and Månafossen ;)

Rainbow! It reminds me of Rainbow Falls in Mammoth :)

My hot companion Elder Levine :P

Throughout the week we had a few dinners at a few families' homes. Stavanger ward has the greatest amount of American families in it out of all the wards in Norway. So we get fed. And we get fed well. One family made us her mission-wide famous Cafe Rio pulled pork. MMM. 

A funny experience at the other family's home began when we arrived a little too early, so dinner wasn't quite ready. So we decided to go out and bonk on some doors. After 3 blanks, we finally ran into this nice Norwegian guy around our age. After explaining the Book of Mormon to him he said "yeah sure! Come on in." After teaching him for a few minutes, he was blown away at the fact that we believe in a living prophet. "Really? A prophet? Alive today??" "Yup, and he speaks in behalf of God for the whole entire world." "I don't believe it." he said. "Well, we'll prove it." was our reply. He soon gave us the keyboard to his giant home theater/computer set-up. Before he knew it, we were listening to President Thomas S. Monson's Sunday morning address "The Race of Life" http://www.lds.org/generalconference/2012/04/

the-race-of-life?lang=eng&media=video. The Spirit filled the room, and we discussed the importance of a living prophet. What a great experience! I also highly recommend having President Monson as a teaching companion :P. But unfortunately, we arrived at our previous dinner appointment quite a bit later than expected. Woops!

On Friday we held splits with Kristiansand - and boy was that amazing! I learned an exCEEDINGLY great amount from Elder Bird! Just different ways to study as a companionship, apply practicals to our studies as well as studying the language. And also organizing an apartment, but that's another story for later.

Train-ride to Kristiansand. Gorgeous!

Can you imagine living in one of these houses with the mountainous regious about you? AH!

Kristiansand is a town built for missionary work. It's not too big, so that people still aren't in a rush and will openly talk with you. And it's not too small, so there's still plenty of people to talk to throughout the day, even until 8 pm! Did I mention the Kristiansand dialect is delicious? The southern dialect is so smooth, squishy and lovable. I even ran into a few fellow Danes (thank you, family heritage!). Our focus on the splits was on teaching people, not lessons and delivering good, applicable commitments. Man, I learned a ton. As well, the 3 hour train ride is some great time to write in your journal and think (of course, after trying to speak to your local Norwegian sitting right next to you. But, to be honest, that's not very common early in the mornings.).

Sadly, the train-ride back was really rainy and cloudy. But you have to have some rain for the beauty, y'know?

As of a week ago we've finally begun trying some experimental contacting. The Book of Mormon 5 minute teach has been hit over the head for over a year now, and people are just turned off by the book right away. Especially in Stavanger (we've had some very good, skilled missionaries at contacting here in Stavanger). So we've decided to take a different approach. Instead, we are contacting people with "Finding Faith in Christ" and "The Restoration" DVDs. They work very well, mainly because the victim isn't having a blue book shoved down their throat. Even better, halfway through the DVD contact, we mention and explain the Book of Mormon anyway, so we get the best of both worlds! Always make contacting light and fun. Some of my favorite contacts are "Hey, have you heard of Jesus Christ?" "Uhh, of course." "Well do you have faith in Him?" "No!" "Well, why not??" and take it from there. Or stopping random people with musical instruments asking them to play for me right then and there. I've realized how much Garrett has gotten into me :P. My all-time favorite, though, is "Do you pray?" and depending on the answer I usually follow up with "Well do you get answers?" and blatantly respond with an exasperated "Why not??" and begin explaining how God loves us, His children, so very much that He wants to answer our prayers. But He won't answer us unless we're willing to listen, and willing to act on the answer ("sincere heart and desire" Moroni 10:3-5). Why else would God have His most-likely favorite phrase scattered throughout our Standard Works? "Ask and ye shall receive. Knock and it shall be opened unto you." 

Do you really believe He MEANT that when He inspired His prophets to write that down?

Of course He did. 

God DOES answer prayers. And He loves us so much that He doesn't always give us the answer right away. Sometimes we grow more; sometimes what WE desire isn't always the most important; and sometimes the Lord's plan is so fine and wonderful we can't comprehend it quite yet. Just be patient, with an open ear and heart. 

We're all walking an agency-based pathway to something far greater and incomprehensibly extraordinary than we can possibly conceive. 

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

Locally picked lettuce and apple. Jarlsberg Norwegian cheese. And some lunchmeat. mmmm. Why didn't I go to weekly saturday farmer's markets before??