Norway's Hurricane!‏

Hallo alle!

        Before Hurricane 

Of all places, I would least expect Norway to receive a hurricane! Us missionaries do not know the extent of damages along the coast, but we in Mo i Rana received the worst of it. Our whole Saturday was foiled! But! Just to be studs, we contacted for 15 minutes; with no one outside of course. Haha! The wind and rain was at least bearable. We received word of 60 ft. waves washing up the shore and mountainsides of the coast. Whew! I really hope those on the coast are OK.

Well, this past week was Thanksgiving! Our Mission President sent out a wonderful letter concerning

After Hurricane

the benefits of gratitude. And with so many things that could, and do, get us down, true gratitude can really pick you up. That is a wonderful trait to have. To paraphrase President Monson: If ingratitude be one of the greatest sins (according to D&C 59:21), then gratitude takes its place next to the greatest of virtues. Gratitude really puts our minds in perspective in our true relationship to God. Gratitude then benefits US more than it benefits God. How much more we should be grateful!

To answer a few questions my Mom sent me:

The language is coming along just fine! Unfortunately, despite amazing language studies in the morning, the extent to which we could speak throughout the day is rarely used past a departing "ha det bra!" or "ha en finn dag!" And so when we do end up speaking with people, I'm confronted with many words that I recognize and understand; yet they don't make sense as a whole. These are just your usual new-language woes I suppose :P.

It's cold!

There are two Norwegian missionaries actually out here in Norway with us. Most the the Norwegian missionaries serve in England, and I know of one other in Washington D.C. Sadly one of our missionaries here will be leaving for Puerto Rico to serve the rest of his mission there! We will only have one pretty soon. But I've met Elder Torjesen and he's one of my favorite people I've thus far met!

Elder Olsen has been here in Mo i Rana for 12 weeks. We're doing everything we can here! The members here are rockstars. Jan-Erik is a convert of many years, who doesn't speak very much English. The funny part is that he has recently remarried a woman from Utah who doesn't speak very much Norwegian. And I thought sustaining relationships was difficult enough without a language barrier! Haha - they're wonderful. Roseane was recently baptized; a wonderful woman who loves the truth that she has found. We're still teaching her and her family.

Is Mo i Rana pretty? Well, according to American

This is how we pray at night - warming our dynes!

standards, yes this place is gorgeous! According to Norwegian standards, yeah this place is fine. hehe! However, do we receive enough sunlight to see it? Hardly. 3 weeks no direct sun so far! Woo! (we do what we can to make things fun here :P) There was
one midafternoon at sunset that Elder Olsen and I just had to look over the fjord. It was an brilliant color of yellow, in the sky and on the water. Gorgeous!

Sorry Dad, no northern lights yet. Especially with how much rain we've received you'd think I'd have brought it with me from Bergen. Sheesh! Hopefully this next week is clear so we can see some northern lights.

Thank you all so so so so much for your love and support! Your prayers keep me going! I am incredibly grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who leads and guides this work both collectively and individually. This gospel is true, and it works! I love you all!

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

What we were "forced to do" during the hurricane.