Vinger! (Wings!)

 Haugesund 

Heisann!!

Oh me oh my where to begin?! I guess I'll start off by answering tons of questions from my parents:

• Training is awesome. After a year and a half of very "old" companions, it is a HUGE surprise, and breath of fresh air, to have a new missionary bearing fiery testimony to you every 5-10 minutes through everyday conversation. I've completely forgotten so many things about the transition to Norway:
  How incredibly cool it is that we now speak in a different language. How awesome it is that we're talking with real people, instead of MTC investigators. How obsessed we were before the mission to drink in every last thing about the Norwegian culture. The list goes on and on! To put it honestly: I need Elder Schulz just as much, if not more, than he needs me. The Lord's blessings indeed.
• Our apartment is really nice. Nicer than Tromsø, actually. 2 bedroom, and good sized kitchen and eating room. Though, due to the Norwegian tradition of not tearing down old homes, we have 0 insulation and heaters going constantly and it's STILL cold. Brr. Good thing we're going to be hitting summertime pretty soon. And (for Dad) the Mission Office couple finds the apartments for us, and sends us missionaries out to inspect and choose them. Our apartment in Haugesund has been the same apartment for over 8 years now. I'm surprised it's in such good shape! Only, covered in old missionary clothes that we're cleaning up as we go.
• The Branch here in Haugesund has been itching to receive missionaries for the past 9 months. We are desperately needed, and loved here in the branch. It's a wonderful feeling. There's primary classes to be taught, talks to be given, testimonies to be born, pianos to be played, knees to steady and hands to lift. So far, our plan for the area is to meet all of the active membership within 1 week, and all of the less-active membership within 3-4 weeks, while finding investigators on the way. We feel inspired to do so, so the Lord is on our side :D
• There are so many things that just so happened to line up perfectly here in Haugesund that the work just plain feels delicious. I love it!

Elder Schulz is my trainee! A fiery trainee, at that, from the Ogden area. As President Evans said "Well, at the very least you both have very musical backgrounds to keep you both unified", but our similarities go much further beyond that. He plays the oboe and piano, and can sing very well. We begin companionship study with a hymn every day :). We get overtones like crazy, it's cool!! We're similar in musical and choices in other media. We're very similar in our perspectives of how to work an area and build relationships. As well, he's very motivated to learn the language, which just makes my heart grin with joy! He's keeping me nice and toasty with his work ethic and testimony, and I'm loving every second of it.

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson


p.s. no pics from Haugesund yet! We haven't stopped for breath quite yet . . . . :]

R. who we met back in November. Love that guy!

AJ who just received the Aaronic Priesthood and doing wonderfully!

Chi. who's stuck with us for so long! 

And our favorite smiley A. :D