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| EPIC! |
Heleissen dokar!
Let's see how much information I can jam into one email in 30 minutes! k ready go!
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| R.A. :) |
This
week was absolutely astoundingly amazing! First off, R.A. was baptized
this Sunday! The whole entire week she has been beaming with excitement -
completely unable to wipe the smile off of her face because she was so
excited to be baptized. I've never seen 8 year-olds even that excited to
be baptized! What an honor, and complete gift from our Father in Heaven
to help her on her way to become like Jesus Christ. As always, the
Spirit fills the room as the ordinance of baptism is performed - hers
was no exception in the least. On top of that, our new Ward Mission
Leader went the extra mile and got her a calling just hours after her
baptism!! Simply unprecedented territory was achieved through such an
effort! R.A. was dancing after church saying "I'm so lucky! I have a
calling!!" - this shows the me the importance of giving our new converts
opportunities to have spiritual experiences and truly feel needed in
the church. The Lord is extremely anxious to bless them - as with all of
us!
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| Us and R.A. - of all times to look away, eh? |
With that awesome event, the rest of the email probably won't be nearly as cool :P
This
past week we had some training meetings in Bergen and Stavanger. This
month we're focusing on Teaching Skills - particularly teaching for
understanding in preparation for lessons, sharing scriptures and asking
inspired questions. We pray that the Lord will use His Spirit to sharpen
us as we all put forth our efforts to become better instruments in His
hands. The greatest way our companionship has found to improve these
skills is by role-playing. And it's just hilarious when you catch your
companion off-guard with a suddent blurt "OK POP-PRACTICAL!" and
suddenly you have to play the part of the investigator or the
missionary. Hahaha. But in teaching, it really really helps. Certain
ideas, lessons or questions will come into our minds as we play the
roles of our investigators or ourselves. The Spirit is able to work
through our role-play and give us the polished lesson necessary to help
our investigators make the next step towards baptism. Isn't the Spirit
just amazing?!
Elder Levine shared with me the best oratorio I've ever heard in my
entire life. Not to over-hype your expectations - but I highly highly
recommend going and listening to the whole thing. It's called The Garden
by Michael McLean and Bryce Neubert. Begin on track one, and listen
through the whole performance. I now understand Christ's atonement on a
new level.
Sometimes during the week we are so exhausted in the evenings that
we can't be bothered to write in our journals. That's why I sometimes
use my voice recorder to record journal entries every once in a while!
However, this must be taken with a grain of salt. One night as I was
recording a journal entry I totally fell asleep and recorded myself
sleeping. Even better, though, was a few nights later when I
subconsciously started praying into the recorder as I was sleeping!
Hahaha! At least I know my subconscious has good habits! Missions are
such funny things. . . .
After a hard day's work and you've been working like a dog (Beatles, anyone?), some pudding hits the spot :P
Speaking of journals, I am reminded of a story by President Thomas
S. Monson when he gave a cancerous 12-year-old girl a blessing. After
giving her the blessing, she handed him a little balloon that said
"You're the best!" on it. He, knowing she'd recover, kept the balloon
for 3 years to give it back to her at another time. Such an act of
kindness is so sweet and endearing! Yet how many of us would have
remembered that girl 3 years down the road in our hectic everyday lives?
My guess is that he wrote it down in his journal. And he was prompted
by the Spirit to hold onto the balloon and give it to her another time.
By journal writing and being sensitive to the Spirit, we can encourage
and uplift the weary souls around us. I've found this help in my mission
by going through my journal and relating to people "hey! A year ago
[such and such] happened. How cool was that??" etc etc. This especially
helped when I called a previous new convert in Mo i Rana who we lost
contact with. It was his birthday, so I called him. Now he's moved to
Trondheim and still very positive! I'm hoping and praying I'll someday
move to Trondheim so I can meet with him again. The Lord works in
mysterious ways!
It is moves week, by the way, and Elder Levine and I are staying
here in Stavanger. We are both extremely grateful that we can stay!! The
members, investigators, new converts, area, district and zone are SO
wonderful we (or at least I :P) never want to leave!!
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| Elder Earl and Elder Bitner. Elder Bitner's leaving to Arendal - I'm going to miss him SO much!! |
A rockin' member gave us some
American peanut butter from the states. MMM.
My district leader back in Mo i Rana Elder Vanderhooft (who served
in Bodø) just left for home. He was such a great example to me of really
focusing on the people around you in a Christ-like manner. He shared
with me some words of wisdom that I feel can apply to anyone's realm of
influence. Wherever you are or whatever state of life you are in, you
can focus on one or two people that you need to help. The Lord placed
you in that realm of influence to help that person. And as you do so,
everything else works out, and the Lord provides for your needs in all
other aspects of the work. This is especially true of missionary work as
we serve and help each other. When you focus on that one person,
investigators seem to pop up everywhere, the Spirit felt more
consistently, and the outpouring of blessings abundant :). Going into
this next transfer, my eyes will be peeled for the people I need to
serve!
The Lord is so merciful to each of us. He loves us unconditionally.
He blesses us conditionally, according to the laws He has established.
It is by obedience to His laws that we can take full advantage of the
opportunities around us. Christ has paid the price, and the tools are in
our hands. Forever do we have reason to rejoice in this Gospel and our
Savior who makes it possible!
p.s. Oh yeah, and we hiked Preikestolen again. One of God's most epic creations.
p.s.s. Mom, don't look at some of these pictures. You may kill me.
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The sun was just PERFECT.
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| There were some drops of water that would float, suspended in the air, with the wind blowing them up the cliff. The sun reflecting off of them looked like stars. It was so cool looking! |
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| Our district (aside from our other sister who wasn't feeling so well that day :( ) |
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| Paradis. |
