Monday, June 25, 2012

St. Han's Aften (St. Han's Eve)



Streets of Oslo! Toward National Theater
 Norwegian clouds - need I say more??
Heisann dere!

Whew, it sure has been an interesting week!

It rained last P-Day, so we borrowed the senior couple's car to go and check out some outlet malls near Moss. They reminded me of the malls over in Lake Elsinore. However, I never saw a price tag of 3000 kroner ($600 USD) for a simple rain-jacket back home. Whew! The brands here in Norway are really cool, but extremely pricey. Bergan's, Norrøna, Moods of Norway, Helly Hansen - super cool! I got a 10 dollar bright orange Helly Hansen running coat.
Langøyene

R., since she was baptized, decided to move into a completely new apartment. We helped her build her bed, chairs, tables and drawers from Ikea. Ikea's great! It's a lot like building legos back at home :)

 Streets of Oslo! And the Tram system.
I saw a wild jellyfish for my first time in my life this week! I just wish I had a net to go jellyfishin' with.

A wild jellyfish!







The biggest part of this week was St. Han's Aften. To you Americans, it's the summer solstice. The longest day of daylight of the year. And here in Norway, it doesn't get dark at all! Us missionaries were allowed to stay up until past midnight to enjoy the sun :). Yet, of course, we must wake up at 6:30 am regardless. So this is what we did for St. Han's Aften!:

The weather was very off and on throughout the day (as usual in Norway), and so the Elders' Quorum canceled the activity over at Ekeberg park (quite far from Oslo's center).
 Ekeberg Park and the ever-changing weather!
However, one member still wanted to go with us and get as many people as possible. We brought our one-time grills and grilled some vegetables and meats - and it turned out nicely! Our member wisely turned to us and said "I don't think anyone's coming. We should check the next time the bus goes by." So we did, and we only had 3 minutes until the final bus would drive back to the city center! We sprinted back, cleaned up everything and barely made the bus :)

For the evening, the sisters and we had a fantastic idea to take ferries to the islands all night and watch the bonfires along the beaches.
On the ferry!
Elder Godfrey and I :)
THAT was a fantastic idea. We were bummed that no one else could come - because it was beautiful!!
Bonfires

Even extremely late at night, it was still rather light. I can only imagine how bright it was up in Mo i Rana! I called them up, and they were hiking a mountain in full sunlight, at 11 pm! So cool!! Then we took a walk around Oslo in the height of its night-life on Saturday night. We could probably talk with more people at night! There were many people out. We even ran into some exchange students from SDSU, one of them being from Murrieta (next to my hometown), so we had a nice conversation! "You guys are SO social." said the sisters. Haha.
Bonfires!
Bonfires!
After all of that excitement, it was rather painful waking up early on Sunday morning! But Sunday's meetings were uplifting and refreshing. The Holy Ghost is always available to those who look for it in our church services. And what a refreshing experience it is. A wonderful family had all of the missionaries and new converts over for a barbecue, then Elder Godfrey and I ran an errand up to Hamar!

Up in Hamar, we spent the night and took care of a few things. I really like that quaint, little town! It's apparently the coldest city in Norway to serve in, due to how far inland it is located.
Stange kebab!
The legendary "Stange" kebab is located only near Hamar's area, so we took a little detour over to the best kebab in all of Norway (according to any missionary who has tried it). I'll be honest, it was fantastic! 

Another big part of this week was our final interviews with President Johansen before he returns home. There was specific advice for life and future service in the Lord's hands specifically given to me in that interview. I have been so incredibly blessed by the example of President Johansen. He has transformed Norway. The members are now much more motivated to take part in the conversion process of investigators, our relationships as missionaries and members are strengthened, and the numbers of those converted have literally doubled since President Johansen has put forth his efforts into this mission. He truly received and acted on revelation for this mission. And this week we'll meet our new mission president: President Evans! We are ready and excited to see the wonderful miracles, as well as re-transformation, of the Norway Mission these coming months.

One point of doctrine that I would like to make absolutely clear before I end my letter: the true priesthood authority of God can only be found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After Christ and the Apostles died, the priesthood authority was not able to be passed on to succeeding generations by the laying on of hands due to many reasons. The presiding priesthood authority was absent. Revelation ceased, doctrinal misunderstanding arose and led to corruption. We see great men in history who tried to reform the church, but none had that authority to restore it anew. That is why our loving Heavenly Father reached out again by calling, once again, a prophet, Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith had God's authority given to him by Peter, James and John - some of Christ's original apostles. Ordained men in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can trace their authority back to Joseph Smith, and thus back to Jesus Christ. Therefore, the authority is conferred upon us. And it is up to us to receive power within the priesthood by righteous living. http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/the-powers-of-heaven?lang=eng - An Apostle of the Lord can explain it better than I can.

The Lord loves us, and is willing to help us. Through prayer, you can know this too!



-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

Me and the Stortinget which is literally "The Big Thing" but is actually the Parliament building
 Streets of Oslo! And the King's Castle.
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Cruise ship on the Oslo bay :)







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