A.'s Dåp :)

Goin' on a hike! Goin' on a hike!

Some ruins we hiked by today. Cloudy cloudy.

Kjære dere,

So much has happened. Where to start?

A. was baptized this past Saturday, and we had a good turnout  as well! She really enjoyed herself, and the meeting certainly had a special spirit about it. The Holy Ghost seems to affect everyone a little differently. For some, it makes them cry. For others, it's a very warm fuzzy feeling in the chest. And then for others it may just give you a feeling to be quiet . . . because everything is just so peaceful. The latter seemed to be A.'s reaction. The Spirit is a spirit of peace, and of joy. What an honor it was to see her enter into a covenant with the Lord. Our God is Wonderful.

We are all on our way to become more like our perfect Heavenly Father. Baptism is a step on that path. Another step in that path is the development of Christ-like attributes. These attributes are gifts from God, that we are privileged to be granted by our studying, application and development of such. In my mission, I've made it a tradition that on the first of every month, during personal study, I would take all of the self-evaluations found in Preach My Gospel. One of those self-evaluations is that of Christ-like attributes. It was extremely interesting this past week because the two attributes I've struggled with my entire mission have suddenly switched to two completely different ones. Needless to say, I have changed immensely due to this mission, and it seems to only stack up multipliers of change as we near a not-too-far-distant end.

Our primary lesson on missionary work turned into a portrait of us :)

My previous companions Elder Godfrey and Elder Levine both returned home last weekend. I absolutely loved serving with both of them, and will always treasure our camaraderie and friendship. Elder Godfrey's "dying" words to me were "Set some goals that you want to accomplish before the end. And do everything you can to achieve them." Since then, I've been so fired up on goals and plans and achieving them, I feel like I'm back at the MTC! Preach my Gospel activities to finish, copies of the Book of Mormon to translate, a new missionary to get up and running 100% independently, an area to get up to standard, and a district to get up to standard as well. Give this man Mountains to Climb!! I love life.

Other cool things this week include Elder Schulz talking in his sleep for two nights straight - in Norwegian!! Ahh, just like my trainer Elder Passey used to do every night. As well, one of my goals I've had since the beginning of my mission has been to translate my Patriarchal Blessing completely into Norwegian. I've always felt that there would be hidden meanings and patterns within my blessing through translating it to a different language, and sure enough, there are. And I've only begun translating it. What a great wonder our Lord's plan is!

"Give me Mountains to Climb, Give me Rivers to Cross!" - Mountains to Climb by Erin Thomas

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

Haugesund

Temecula Root Beer. I never thought I'd see it on Norwegian soil.

 Yeah that's my town!