P.'s Dåp! (P.'s Baptism!)

 Polar Bear snow sculptures in town!

 A seal at the Polaria museum we went to today! Mmm. Whiskers.

Starfish at the museum!!

Kjære alle dåkker!

Uff da. This was one crazy week - let me tell you! To put it briefly, we've had a lot of things going on in our area that I haven't really mentioned until now - so here's the update :)

Late last transfer with Elder Strange we received a call from our member Sister Bennett. "There's a man who has just moved back to Norway and he wants to be baptized. So I gave him your number so he could contact you." Ahh just great. How promising is that? After Elder Strange left, and Elder Badger arrived, we began working hard in the area in order to keep the area going. It was difficult, at first, but with much prayer and work we started to see some fruits of our labors. The most surprising of which was a week later when we received a call from P.: "Hey, I've been investigating the church now for 14 years, and now I'm ready to be baptized." Say what?? Norwegian missionaries have learned to be skeptical when such a surprising event arises. Though, after a long conversation, and a run through Preach My Gospel, P. was golder than gold. A man with a rock solid testimony, waiting for the leaves to change the right color and enter into the waters of baptism.

Then we started figuring out how to baptize this man! He lives on a teeny island north of Kirkenes, so a call to President was necessary. To make a long story short, and days worth of phone-tag played, President said "Alright. Let's get him some plane tickets." Pretty soon, we were scrambling to get plane tickets, sleeping arrangements, swimming pools rented out, members and investigators invited, member dinners arranged and records updated and approved for the baptism. We were sure that our plans would go perfectly, and it would turn into a wonderfully huge event for the Tromsø branch!

The baptismal font :)

"Enter ye in at the strait gate" :)

Early on the morning of the baptism, however, we got a call from one of our two priesthood holders: "I got the flu last night. I've been throwing up the whole night, and have an extremely high fever. I can't make it to thebaptism, or the church service today. I'm so sorry!" Well, that was one of our two priesthood holders down. At least we had one more, our Branch President, in order to witness the baptism. . . . and then we received a call from him, "I woke up with a herniated disc this morning. I am in so much pain I can hardly move." What! There's got to be something we can do in order to see this baptism performed. After much prayer and effort, our Branch President just decided to take some medicine and tough it out. And tough it out he did - he painfully drove the whole icy/rainy road out to the swimming pool where we had the baptism. The weather was so bad, that no other members or investigators showed up. So the baptismal meeting ended up being the four of us - the branch President, Elder Badger, P. and myself. And what a neat, heart-felt experience that was, helping P. enter into a covenant with God so that God's Spirit could be with him, always.

The whole baptismal meeting!

What a witness to us that we certainly have an adversary attempting to foil and disrupt God's work here in Northern Norway. Not on God's watch! Through faith and humility, all weaknesses can become strong. (Ether 12:27)

A quote from President Monson struck me this week: "If you feel that you do not yet have the depth of testimony you would wish, I admonish you to work to achieve such a testimony. If it is strong and deep, labor to keep it that way." I love how President Monson uses the word "labor" when referring to maintaining a strong testimony. President Johansen, about a year ago, shared with us some insights regarding keeping a testimony strong. "Faith in Jesus Christ has a short shelf-life. It spoils quickly, and must be replenished frequently and consistently." And it is through consistent, diligent obedience that we are able to preserve a polished, warm testimony!

I love you all!

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

P.S. Thank you Sister Hazen for the wonderful package! It arrived safely and intact :) The oil vial is AMAZING. Thank you so very much!!

In the Ice Ocean Cathedral!

Can you see Him?

The acoustics on that organ have got to be amazing.

 - The exquisite, perfectly assembled Norwegian Missionary favorite: hot dog complete with potato salad, brown cheese, fried onions and a potato wrap. No need to fear, it comes with loads of vegetables and fruits on the side. :P

Trondheim Splits, Begravelser, Vitnesbyrd og Sommarøy (Trondheim Splits, Funerals, Testimonies and Sommarøy)

Mornings by candlelight :D

"Kjære alle sammen! For en dag!!" ("Dear everyone! What a day!!") - as Elder Badger would say :P

This is a bar near the church.It says "Tromsøs
Eldste Pub" which means Tromsø's
Oldest Pub.  We like it because it's our
(the Eldste's) pub ;)

First and foremost, yesterday was the anniversary of my sister's birth - and some congratulations are in order! Happy Birthday Lara!! I hope that the celebrations and festivities went smoothly, wonderfully and relatively un-chaotically :). I love you, sis!

This week began with a visit by the zone leaders from Trondheim up to Tromsø. Bodø and Narvik missionaries also hopped in for the occasion. For the first time ever, our meeting was held in 100% Norwegian (a new request by our Mission President). At first, we were rather skeptical how the meeting would go, with the new and the more senior missionaries trying to express themselves to each other in the mission language. To be honest, many of us expected to come on the mission and speak the language 100% of the time, but were rather disappointed when us Norwegian missionaries speak just about as much Norwegian as a state-side foreign speaking missionary does (only as occasions permit). However, as a testimony to our President's request, the Spirit filled the room, and we were all able to adequately express ourselves, and feel understood, in our little Tromsø chapel. It was a neat experience, and much credit is due to our awesome zone leaders (Elder Bird and Elder Chancellor!), and most importantly, the Spirit Itself.

After which, Elder Chancellor and I hopped on a plane for Trondheim. Due to flight/travel arrangements, it occurs all too frequently that our splits run rather short. As was the case, yet again, this time. Though, despite our circumstances, much was learned. Elder Chancellor has an special love for the people that I wish I had. It is remarkable. Much remains for me to learn, to say the very least. The investigator we taught, J., has a very rough past, and still has no specific persuasion or belief in God. Despite all this, he is still a very kind, very open, and especially open-minded man. Testifying to him of the reality of answers that come through the Book of Mormon was particularly remarkable. We wrote cards together with a line in the center, and on the left side wrote: "What only God can do" and on the right side wrote: "What I can do", and began reading commandments and invitations with attached specific blessings. It built my faith, seeing a newcomer to faith, begin to experience the depths and breadths of faith. Faith is a hope for things not seen. But with a list of promised blessings, it becomes starkly clear what TO see through faith.

Elverhøy Church

Our smiley member A.'s brother passed away last week, and so we joined him at the funeral at the Elverhøy Church. Norwegian funerals are neat things. Generally sorrowful, though always garnished with hope through repeated verses from the New Testament (I am the Resurrection and the Life -John 11:25. For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son - John 3:16, etc). When A.'s words were read from the pulpit "En siste hilsen" ("A last greeting"), A. became quite perturbed. "Det skulle ikke stå sånn." ("It shouldn't have read that way. That was wrong."). Of course, because as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints know, and as my friends at BYU would say: "the righteous never need say good-bye! Only see you later" :) 

On Friday, our wonderful Swedish family had us over yet again for a delicious meal - this time with our investigator A.! (different A. - I apologize for the confusion!). Elder Badger and I were confused and lost as to what our investigator needed at this time. He's a nut we don't know exactly how to crack quite yet. Normally, we share a short spiritual thought and commitment at the end of our member meals. For some reason, though, the usual scripture and encouragement didn't seem like the best idea. After much pondering and praying (and awesome revelation books!), we decided to hold a testimony meeting for all of us. We knew that our investigator had a testimony of a few of the principles of the gospel, so it seemed appropriate for us all to bear our testimonies of the truths that have been revealed to us individually. It seemed rather different to have our own investigator bear testimony to US of the truths he has received, but let me tell you, we knew for a fact at the end of that meeting that that was the Lord's will. The Spirit filled the room, and each of our hearts were touched by the testimonies born (some with decades of growth, some less). 

As for today, Elder Badger and I finally had some stunning weather outside to go and do something exciting :D. Enjoy the pictures of our trip out to Sommarøy!

 Sommarøy's backyard :]

Hiking on Sommarøy

 Elder Badger for the deep left field save!!

 Elder Johnson for the High School Musical reunion!

Sommarøy - Johnson Conquered

Sommarøy - Badger Dominated

"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." - Ether 12:4

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

Elder Badger achieved his quest to successfully deliver A.'s mail
 to the retractable fish-smelling grocery bag! Delightful!

Free balloons at the grocery store? Heck to the yes.

"Are thems the northern lights?!?"

Samisk Uka! (The Sami Week!)

Our lovely, daily-scoured mail box ;] 

Frost this morning!

Hallo hallo hallo!

Hopefully Brother Swede's bounteous collection of beautiful photos made it on here. After a year of only seeing my own photos, it was a shock to realize what a nice camera could do. Wish we had that puppy on top of Preikestolen! Wow!!

Tromsø by night (or day . . . depending on the season)

And add some Northern Lights!

Elder Badger's first view of some amazing Northern Lights!

This week was Sami Week! For those of you uninformed, February 6th is the National Sami Day - to celebrate the people, culture and traditions of the Sami people. For those of you even further uninformed (myself included, before the mission!) the Sami people is the people native to Northern Scandinavia before the European and Western civilizations began industrializing and bringing technology so far north. To put it short, they are to the Oslo-citizen as an American Indian would be to a New Yorker. 

 The Sami Festival Official Opening Remarks (in costume!)

"take the picture. Just take the picture . . ."

Sorta. Regardless, their culture is a beautiful display of how to survive so far north - in style! Things that will give away the Sami culture in a heartbeat: plain, bright colors of blue, red and yellow; reindeer skin boots and hats; blonde hair, blue eyes, high cheek bones, and normally shorter than 5' 6" ("They're like blonde asians!" - Elder Johnson); and reindeer herding. This week also included the Sami Reindeer-Lassoing and Reindeer-Sled racing competitions - right in the middle of Tromsø city!  Just think: we were within a few hundred meters of the Reindeer-Lassoing and Reindeer-Sled world champions!! Haha. What a blast. 

Reindeer!Here's a picture of our District Meetings over Google Hangout. Elder Badger strongly dislikes Skype/Google. Hangout district meetings - but trust me, it's a LOT better than a district meeting over the phone!!

Narvik District Meeting! - Welcome to the Narvik District!

Other than that, we have been getting appointments like nobody's business! Sadly, though, most of these appointments have been with people who live 2+ hours away from Tromsø city. :(. To remedy that, we trade skype information for appointments later during the week. Please pray that they keep their commitments and progress throughout the week, regardless of our physical presence. This presents a whole new dimension of challenges for getting the Spirit present, committing them, following up, and obtaining return appointments. We desperately need more missionaries here in the Northern cities.

As for finding methods, our language class has been doing really well. We get Poles, Lithuanians, Morroccans, Spaniards and Bulgarians showing up all the time. It produced one person in church this past week :). Though, unfortunately, our Branch President, and First Counselor were both feeling under the weather. As a result Elder Badger got his first experience in a sacrament meeting, run completely by missionaries :D. We had a wonderful, spiritually uplifting time. This branch will continue to grow, though, regardless of some empty days once in a while!

Tromsø's Dynamic Duo :]

As for other finding methods, we were thinking of doing piano lessons. Our Mission President is all for it. Does anyone know of some free piano lesson materials available online? That would really help us.

Thank you all so much for your continued love and support :). We appreciate the prayers, the thoughts and the letters oh so very much. 

May God Be With You Until We Meet Again! (A Tromsø branch hymn favorite!)

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

Warming ourselves up with some delicious rooibos herbal tea :D

Giant icicles!

Icicle + Duo combo!

Mountains and Lake!  Beautiful!!!

On my birthday, playing with li'l Swede :D

The country-renowned store for best lefser -
Lefsekjerringa "The Lefse Hag"

Elder Badger striking a pose!
"Mmm good!" he says 

A. surprised us with some cut up lefser - MMM!

"Skjerpe Våpnene!" ("Sharpen the Weapons!")

Mountain.

Mountains and lake! 

 the SUN! We completely forgot what it's like to have full sunlight on your face. Whew.

Hej!

"Sharpen the Weapons!" is a phrase that Brother Swede (as I'll call him ;) has been using this past week. Since this area isn't the largest of areas, and neither Brother Swede, nor we, will be staying in this area permanently, and since we have the necessary resources, and we want to help our awesome Branch President as much as possible, we decided to take upon ourselves the project of updating and clearing out the church records for Tromsø branch! The member list being one of the many "weapons" we have to progress the church here in Tromsø.

It surprises me how many facets of missionary work there are. This week we learned a lot about the church's record-keeping and secretarial programs. Excellent experiences for future service opportunities, for sure! We've kinda felt like detectives, secretaries, door salesmen, and missionaries all in one week! 

Boy did we find some icicles. Try 50 feet tall. 

As for the miracles this week, I'd say the best ones we've had is actually FINDING these people who don't have a street address on the list whatsoever. Just a huge landmark, or other identifying indicator, tells us that we're in the right area. Time after time, we arrive at the huge landmark, and find only a handful of houses in the area. The first door we bonk on "Hey, do you know where the L. family lives?" "Well you've arrived!" Are you serious?? The chances of us coming to the right place, right when we planned that we would arrive, and that the families were even HOME - is nothing short of a miracle. Different reactions we received from these members were fascinating: "Yeah, we live too far away to get to church, but we are still strong in our faith!" to "Yeah, I was baptized when I was 8 years old, and haven't had much contact with the church since. Feel free to come fishing with us during the summer, though - anytime!" It's really really neat. And helps us find opportunities to strengthen their faith, and invite their friends and family to learn as well! Ahh it's been a great week :)

"This is the happiest I've ever been on my entire mission!" exclaims Elder Badger. "Wow. I'm sorry." comes the sarcastic reply from Elder Johnson. *sigh* we don't know what to do with one another :)

One of the reasons we're so up and happy, is because we get a call from our 80+ year old member A. Every. Single. Day. "Good weather today, eh boys?" "Yup, another beautiful day, indeed, A.!" He has the thickest, thickest, Northern-Norwegian fisherman dialect I have ever heard. No really, I couldn't understand more than 1-2 words the first time I spoke with him over the phone. 

Our smiley friend A., in his traditional location "kan dokker hente mæ posten??" (can you guys get my mail?) *throws a fish-smelling grocery bag at us*

Tonefall all over the place, Northern-Norwegian chopping off parts of words incessantly, and a very specific vocabulary regarding fish and whale meats, it's been one heck of a trip to understand him. But we love him, because we know he likes having us over to talk "with" (more like "at") us regarding few, specific topics: politics, excruciatingly high fish-meat prices ("eventyr, helt eventyr, vettu!"), the weather, World War II, and a man by the name of "Gundersen" who baptized him approximately 20 years ago. "Where do you come from, Elder Badger?" "Utah." "Oh do you know Gundersen?" "Uhh . . . no." Oh yeah, the best part of it all, is that his house always smells like fish, thanks to some dried fish-skins he has in the front entryway. We think they are for fending off the local yetis. 

*upchuck*

This is a text we got earlier this week from Chi. "Hey guys. I need to get the Melchizedek priesthood. - Chi." Chi. is one of the new converts we've been meeting with frequently. At our meeting "Chi. what made you think of and send that text?" "I don't know, man. I was just thinking about it, and I felt really strongly about it." Wow! The Spirit is certainly working through him. He is a stunning example of being so strong with hardly any support around him. If I could be as faithful as Chi., I'd be set for the rest of my life :)

Visiting with some members, and an adorable dog :D 

Well, it's been an amazing week. And I think it's because we've taken our studies super seriously this week. Personal, companionship and language studies have all just been on fire this whole week. We love love LOVE studies. One quote I loved this week was from Elder Neal A. Maxwell, "Satan need not to get everyone to be like Cain or Judas . . . He only needs able men . . . to see themselves as sophisticated neutrals." (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/what-shall-a-man-give-in-exchange-for-his-soul?lang=eng#21-10491_000_25gay)

In this day and age, we can no longer have "neutrals", sophisticated, ignorant, apathetic, lazy or otherwise. 

This is the work of the Lord, and it shall go forth!

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

Local ice-scraping experts agree, the name-tag is the best way to go.

Awesome shadow cast by the mountains, onto CLOUDS!

Lake and sun!