Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Høst ferie, kaldere og farger, sonekonferansen, D.!, pepperkaker og Drammens første stavskonferanse! (Fall break, colder and colors, zone conference, D.!, ginger snaps, and Drammen's first stake conference!

Stavanger, of course!
Hei!

Ok I have 15 minutes. Ready go!

It's fall break here in Norway! Everyone gets a week off - and the weather has been gorgeously brisk. Bright blue skies, and a nippy wind. The colors make it all worth it.
Red, yellow, green oh my!
Winter is definitely coming on - and we're pretty excited. We've already busted out the Christmas music in our apartment (Halloween isn't generally celebrated here in Norway . . . .)

On Wednesday, President Evans came down and gave us a big push for going from good to great! We
Our weekly planning session battle plans!!
were all spiritually uplifted and enriched from the experience. A big presentation was given on contacting on the street as yourself, not as a robot. We, as children of our Heavenly Father, have been given certain personality traits, and have experienced certain things in our lives that make us more effective in the areas in which we serve. Therefore - use those gifts God has given you in your missionary work! I know there are few missions that actually go out on the street for most hours in the day (Norway is one of them), but use your God-given talents in any possible way you can!! Also at the conference, the sisters in our group gave their burnimonies (or in other words, their final testimonies at a zone conference before returning home.) Our MTC district's sisters are going home already?! I was super surprised. But just seeing the growth that we have all made - in amazingly positive ways - is a testimony to me of missions. The Spirit was warm and comforting through the testimony meeting. The Lord's work is on the earth!

Our investigator D., who had the neat General Conference experience has been doing awesomely this week. We had him over at a member's home for dinner, and they all happened to speak the same
Norwegian language studies (I'll have to explain later)
language! Norway has to be one of the few countries where you have so many language barriers. Here you have people from all over the world trying to find a better way of life by moving to Norway - and it's full of Philippinos, Africans, Spaniards, Brazilians, Americans, Iranians, Chinese and the list goes on. Especially here in Stavanger. So when we have a member who speaks the same language as your investigator, it helps a LOT. D. has been progressing very well - and despite the language barrier, he's got some deep, well thought out, sincere questions. Those types of questions are candy for missionaries :)
Our pepperkaker bins beginning to pile up :D
Pepperkaker are ginger snaps in Norway. They come out every Christmas time. And they are amazing. And our apartment has busted through 9 bins so far. After 3 days since we began. We're trying to see how many we can go through before the season's over. Hahaha - they're so good!!

The Drammen Stake had its first stake conference this past weekend! A historical event indeed. The Lord has established Zion in western Norway :). It was a wonderful experience - they even received a patriarch! What a great strength to all of the members and new converts here in western Norway. As well, our Bishop here in Stavanger spoke in
Personal study journals (topic, chronological, and meetings)
Stake Conference and gave us missionaries a shout out. It was hilarious, because he made one of our inside jokes 10x funnier. Our inside joke is that everyone knows one of our investigators as "the doctor" and hardly remembers his real name at all. As if his title as "doctor" gives him credibility to investigate the church or something. Haha. Anyway, in the bishop's talk he mentioned how we all prepared for general conference and how the doctor was scrambling with his notes because of the answers he was receiving to his questions. Haha! 

This gospel, as well as this church, is true! It is a bright shining ray of hope in this ever darkening world (taken literally here in Norway!). My testimony of missionary work grows every day because I continually realize how much it has changed me, and continues to change me, on my eternal progression, eventually leading back to my Heavenly Father. Pray for God's love - and He will fill you to the brim :D

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson


A deadly duo for confounding false doctrine :) - used extremely frequently