Gutten min skal til Alta! (My Boy's Leavin' for Alta!)

Kjære alle sammen!

Looking back at the past week, I catch myself thinking "Wow, a whole week went by already." Then 3 minutes later I think "Man, it's only been a week? That was forever ago!" Yet again, the mission throws you a warped sense of time. Ahh, but "sånn er livet!" ("such is life!")

Sunday morning moves call came around - and Elder Schulz and I huddled around our phone in a conference call. Huge changes are happening in the Norway Mission right now - especially by the fact that 17 sisters just barely arrived in addition to only the 14 sisters currently serving. Some sister missionaries who have been out for only 3 weeks are now training the brand new arrivals! It's crazy! But very exciting for the Norway Mission!! Another change was that our mission of usually 3 zones (North, East and West) has now been split into 4 (North, East, West and Telemark, or in other words, Central/Southern). Thank goodness, too. The East zone has had a very unbalanced number of areas to take care of in comparison to the North and West. But there I went digressing about Norwegian mission organization . . . . I think it's cool and exciting. Man, I love this mission. But anyway.

The announcement came that "gutten min" ("my boy") Elder Schulz, who began his mission with me, will be leaving me! His next area of assignment will be the land of the midnight sun - Alta. Yes that's right, Elder Schulz will be the northernmost missionary in the entire world along with his new companion. I have a lot of mixed feelings regarding our transfer ending - I've come to really enjoy serving with him. He's taught me more lessons on being teachable, willing, humble and filled with faith than any other individual I've met on my mission. Not to mention his intensely thorough project on finding and developing every Christ-like attribute and their possible interconnections with one another. Regardless, however, of his questions and concerns, the answer will probably show up in the book of Hebrews (Sorry everyone, inside joke. Every time he gets a super cool idea or revelation - it always seems to stem from the book of Hebrews :P). Elder Schulz, I know you'll be reading this, so at least you'll get a kick out of that :). I'm going to miss him though. And I know it's going to continue to be an epic ride of a mission for him. Luckily for me, I can keep up on his blog oneldsteschulz.com!

As for more projects completed this week, on Friday, May 24th, Elder Schulz and I spoke no English to each other the entire day - 100% Norwegian. I've always wanted to achieve that goal - and it seemed that Elder Schulz was the only one brave enough to truly commit and accomplish it. We felt awesome afterward! Another project completed this week was our donation of multiple language copies of the Book of Mormon to the local library.

This is what happens when we have to go pick up our package of new copies of the Book of Mormon a few miles away. Hello sore shoulders.

Since Norway is such a mixture of cultures and languages from the entire world - making the Book of Mormon available to everyone in their languages will be a valuable resource for sparking interest in these foreigners.

This is what happens when we have to go pick up our package of new copies of the Book of Mormon a few miles away. Hello sore shoulders.

As for spiritual experiences this week, the family that came to church last week met with us. They come from a Buddhist, non-christian background, so approaching their lesson was very different from our usual run-of-the-mill lesson. The mother in the family is particularly spiritually sensitive: "When I read in the Book of Mormon, I feel enlightened as if someone is teaching me." After we explained our basic doctrines regarding God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, she understood that it was the Holy Ghost assisting her to understand the Book of Mormon. We also discussed the doctrine regarding eternal families, and how we can be eternally linked to our forefathers. This struck a deep chord in her as she began to express her closeness to her family and other relatives. I shared an experience about how sometimes I feel my grandfather nearby - who passed away 8 years ago. She turned to us and said "I can tell that your ancestors are helping you - you have a light with you as if someone is helping you." She is certainly a prepared, spiritually sensitive woman. It was also a testimony to me of the role of family history work and the Spirit of Elijah.

We all can feel an added measure of God's Spirit as we come closer to our families (1 Nephi 5:16-17). Try it out for yourself! https://familysearch.org/

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

P.S. Oh yeah, and here in Haugesund, Elder Callister will be joining me. He was in my district back in Oslo, as well as when I served in Tromsø. We go pretty far back - so we're excited to serve together!!

Syttende Mai! (Seventeenth of May!)

Some flowers on a rainy day :)

I apologize that for the past two weeks there have been no emails -

Poor bunader :(

last week our "preparation day" (our day off) was moved back from Monday (as usual) to Friday the 17th.  We weren't allowed to proselyte(on 17. Mai, so we took it as our day to clean, prepare and then go
celebrate the holiday with our fellow Norwegians!

17. Mai, for those of you who didn't get the low-down from last year's
celebration, is Norway's national independence day! It is normally
celebrated with parades, the gorgeous traditional Norwegian dress
"bunader", Norwegian flags and expressions of "Gratulerer med dagen!"

The Norwegian flag!

(literally translates to "Congratulations with the day!", which also
happens to be the same expression used for "Happy Birthday!). Since we
were in western Norway, it was only tradition that it should rain on
17. Mai. But don't worry, everyone brought ponchoes to cover their
beautiful bunader. As per tradition, we watched the barnetog (child
parade) put on by all of the local schools, and the folketog (people
parade) put on by all of the local groups and organizations. The
russetog (Russ parade) was forbidden for us missionaries to take part
in, so instead we grilled food and played Phase 10 with some members
:).

Oh yes and before I forget, Happy Birthday Dad, Duncan and Elder
Matthew Putnam :)! You are all excellent examples of what a priesthood
holder ought to be. I love you all!

As for other events this week, we've been prioritizing our efforts

between members and investigators a lot. Our members are extremely

valuable to us, and since our arrival here, we have been able to stabilize and strengthen them. However, now they seem to be doing well on their own, and so it's our duty to now step back a little bit and let them continue progressing, while we go out and find new investigators. All of our investigators dropped us last week, so it's time to go find some 

The parades in town

new ones. Indeed, like Elder Hazen and Elder Woo in China, we've been going out to find some of God's prepared children!

 Tåkelurfabrikken - The fog horn factory :)

This is not to say that we've dropped our members completely, not in the least. One such less-active member that we've worked with for 2 and a half months, finally came back to church two weeks ago! And
earlier last week she asked "is it okay if I bring a family tochurch?" Umm. That's only the very question we want every member in the entire church to ask the missionaries! So we had an additional 4
people show up to church  - making it a total 33 in church on Sunday! For Haugesund, that's astounding compared to our average of15! We have also been assigned to teach the Primary every Sunday (as
of a few  months ago), so it was one crazy Primary class with 8 kids for us to shepherd. Whew! Add crowd-control to the list of things you learn on a mission.

 Skudenes - J. took us on a trip to see one of Norway's oldest cities.
Some of these houses were built in the 1700s

Recently while out on the street people have asked how old we are. One ten-year-old kid even made the mistake of asking if Elder Schulz (my trainee) was my dad. The nerve of some people! Haha - I'm only
kidding. Poor Elder Schulz though. I remember in Mo i Rana that everyone thought I was 15. At least now people think I'm 19. Elder Schulz: "No, little boy, I'm 19. He's 21." "Hæ??" You've got to love little kids.

Teaching this week has primarily consisted of new convert lessons,
reading in the Book of Mormon together for understanding, and helping K. (from the Stavanger days) get immersed in, and begin to understand,
Isaiah.

After a drought of no service projects the whole entire winter - we
finally were given some service to do by our neighbors! It was a
glorious day. They asked us to mow their lawn and insert wooden posts in their yard. I almost went into shock as my nostrils filled with the scent of freshly cut grass, and my slightly obsessive-compulsiveartist within me emerged through the trim, neat patterns on the grass. Needless to say, I love yard work. Yeah, you heard me right, Mom. I love yard work. Our neighbor was pretty hilarious at the end: "Wow you guys are really nice, why won't people talk with you more often?"   That's a really good question! We're trying!! "By the way my father in Bergen could use some help in his yard, too. Are there missionaries in
Bergen??" You bet there are. What blessings indeed!

 Skudenes bay!

With regards to studies, two projects were completed this week. The
first of which was a goal to read the entire Norwegian Book of Mormon
(Mormons Bok) out loud, underlining and defining every confusing
word/phrase. I began that project back in the MTC, August 2011.
Finally we made it to Moroni 10 this past week. Woo! The second
project was to translate my entire patriarchal blessing into the
Norwegian language. That was a very neat experience as different
words, phrases and expressions were translated, giving me added
insight to what the Lord meant in my patriarchal blessing. I highly
recommend doing such a project to all of you foreign-speaking
missionaries :).

One special experience happened yesterday as I was reading through
some family stories. My relative back in the 1830s/1840s, John Tanner
was miraculously healed and converted in the course of very few days
by two missionaries, Elder Jared Carter and Elder Simeon Carter. As I
related this story to Elder Schulz, he said "Oh you mean Elders Jared
and Simeon Carter from the Doctrine and Covenants?" Umm. What?? Lo and
behold, the very missionaries who baptized my forefather are the same
missionaries mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants sections 52, 75,
79, 94 and 102. Family history is awesome!!

Section 79 was particularly meaningful, as it was written directly to
Elder Jared Carter.

 "1 Verily I say unto you, that it is my will that my servant Jared
Carter should go again into the eastern countries, from place to
place, and from city to city, in the power of the ordination wherewith
he has been ordained, proclaiming glad tidings of great joy, even the
everlasting gospel.

 2 And I will send upon him the Comforter, which shall teach him the
truth and the way whither he shall go;

 3 And inasmuch as he is faithful, I will crown him again with sheaves.

 4 Wherefore, let your heart be glad, my servant Jared Carter, and
fear not, saith your Lord, even Jesus Christ. Amen."

It's interesting to note that I, among thousands of other relatives to
John Tanner, am one of those "sheaves" promised in verse 3. As well as
the work and fruits which the Lord has given me in Norway.

Blessed be the name of our God!

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

Wakin' up for a run :)

The gateway to Djupedalen! (Djupedalsporten)

Elder Schulz biking on top of the Djupedalen dam

Djupedalen lake :)

Here's a picture of A.'s baptism :).

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!

Forandring. (Change.)

Baaa . . . This picture describes Haugesund pretty well.

10 kroner ($2 USD) ties each? Yes please!

Kjære dere!

Well, as of Friday last week, only two members confirmed that they were actually coming to A.'s baptism. A. turned to us immediately after informing her of this news and said "Then can we hold it next week? I don't want to have an empty baptism!" After talking it over with her, the risks thereof, and talking with President Evans, and the members, we decided to move her date for May the 4th (Yes, Star Wars Speech Impediment Day :). On Sunday, she was really excitedly talking with all the members about her baptism this upcoming Saturday. Woo! Baptisms never happen smoothly, though. At least not in Norway. Never. We'll be tenaciously keeping daily contact with everyone to make sure those blessings of the Lord are secured for A.

I don't even know if I've given a background story on her though. A. was found in the area book, under the former investigators section. She was originally found by my trainer Elder Passey back in 2011! She had all of the lessons pretty much down, as we reviewed them with her. The timing wasn't quite right back then, though. Now that a reconnection has been made with the missionaries, she's been super excited to enter into the waters of baptism. All we did was call at the right time. The Lord's blessings are indeed over Haugesund branch :).

On Sunday, she sat us down and began discussing a concern about how difficult it is to "fit in" in the church. The lesson that day in church was on the role and importance of the family - and as a single, seeing all of the happy families around you, it can be extremely difficult to feel like you "fit in". Really the only place I've seen singles thrive is at Brigham Young University. And BYU is the greatest of all exceptions in this world. Otherwise, all social units fail to adequately meet the social, emotional and spiritual needs of individuals, all except for the divinely appointed unit of the family.

The Lord gave us the organization of the family so that we can learn, grow and develop those characteristics to become like our Heavenly Father. I remember in my own family, being the very youngest, I loved nothing more than bugging and irritating my brother. I loved him to death, and all I wanted was his attention! Gratefully, from that, I've learned how to gain attention from others in an appropriate manner. Likewise, I'm sure his abilities for patience and love have improved since then, too! In a family, we are (or ought to be) together so often that we are given daily opportunities to extend a helping hand, forgive, love and serve. It is 

 Krosshaug (Cross Mound)

the laboratory for the development of our individual and collective perfection. All selfish, natural and base wants, desires and passions are presented plainly before us in the family. It is then our responsibility to purge them from ourselves through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, which requires a great deal of practice, personal effort, practice, self-evaluation, practice, cooperation, practice, prayer, practice, forgiveness, practice, repentance and did I mention practice? Indeed, practice does make perfect.

Though, from an investigator's perspective, the whole idea of a family may seem extremely unfair. "My parents never loved me" one investigator may say. "I was abandoned when I was a kid" another may say. And that's hardly the tip of the iceberg - not even mentioning the presence of neglect, selfishness, abuse and addictions causing physical, emotional, spiritual and social damage that can potentially take a lifetime to remedy.

Right  by Harald Haarfagre's Monument :)

I have been really caught up on this thought, while at the same time being exposed to an onslaught of own weaknesses and random lacking of motivation this week. One day was particularly difficult as I pondered "what is to be done with this world, and myself? There are far too many challenges and mountains before us to overcome." While thus pondering, an Elder Jeffrey R. Holland talk was going on in the background. Whether from the talk, or it may have just been in the Holy Ghost directly, the words entered into my mind "You can change." As my mind caught hold upon this thought, it infected my thoughts like a mind virus. Every moment I get down on myself, I can grasp the thought "I can change", and suddenly my being fills with hope and a strong presence of the Holy Ghost.

It reminds me of a story of an old man standing on a giant, dry coral reef covered in millions upon millions of starfish, when the ocean's tide had recently suddenly dropped. Knowing that these millions of starfish would 

soon die outside of water, he would pick up one by one and throw them all the way out into the ocean. A young man approached the man and said "Old man, what is the point in even trying? There are millions of starfish out here destined to die - what difference does it make?" Filled with emotion, with an arm sore and tired from throwing so many starfish, the old man looked the young man in the eyes, picked up another starfish and threw another one in the sea. "It made a difference for that one." And again, picking up and throwing another starfish - "And for that one."

It is exactly the same in our daily efforts and striving towards perfection in a seemingly never-ending struggle of repentance and personal conversion. It is the exact same in our efforts to create the perfect atmosphere and relationship for our families.

Don't ever forget: "I can change." and: "It made a difference for that one."

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

J.'s Dåp! (J.'s Baptism!)

Down in Stavanger this week, I saw S. and R.A. again after many months away - their love and service fill me with joy!

Helleis! (Mmm. Stavanger dialect.)

This week was amazing! Pretty much like every week here in Norway (at least during the summer ;).

If any of you remember back when I served in Stavanger last year, I would come to Haugesund about once per month to support the branch/perform any missionary duties in the area. One of the men that we met with frequently back then, J., made his way to the waters of baptism this past weekend. This man has been attending church faithfully for the past 9 months straight - longer than any other investigator I've ever worked closely with. He has a solid understanding of the church and its doctrines, in addition to a searing, missionary testimony obtained through the witness of the Holy Ghost. My favorite quotes from him go somewhat along the lines of: "If any church read and followed the teachings in the Bible, they would recognize that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints follows the Bible best." "This car right here - *as he pats his car* - is a missionary car. Where we off to next?" and "Elder Schulz, I'm going to teach you such good and thick Haugesund dialect that people in Northern Norway won't be able to understand you." (sorry for those of you who don't get it). J. was on cloud nine the whole weekend. The brightness in his eyes could have lit up the whole room. 

 J. with Branch President and us!

If that wasn't enough of a spiritual feast in and of itself, our goal of numbers of people present in church was obliterated from a goal of 25 by an astounding 31. Of course, having the mission president, his wife and the senior couple visiting from Stavanger helped out a ton - but without them that's still above our goal! We were richly blessed by an outpouring of the Spirit, particularly through the sacrament (that "ultimate warm fuzzy" :). 

Finally, after a few weeks of summarizing and organizing my notes from General Conference, I realized just how clearly their messages complemented and orchestrated one with another. According to my notes and revelation it boiled down to 7 talks on praying for, seeking after and performing unselfish service; 6 talks on being obedient to the will of the Lord; 6 talks on establishing stabilizing, strengthening traditions within the home; 4 talks on using the home and the sacrament in order to anchor our families to the Atonement; 4 talks on being not afraid/not fearing, be of good cheer/be at peace. That's not everything, of course, but it gave me a general direction as to where I need to focus these next 6 months. I hope you all received your personal revelation you're entitled to for these next six months, too. If not, go get a pen and paper, say a prayer and log onto gc.lds.org right away!!

Elder Schulz, icing his foot from walking so
much :). "I just can't be bothered to
wipe up the water afterwards - a bag is much more convenient!"

This work is the Lord's work. We are but mere instruments in His hands to perform His holy will. I know that without Him, I would not be able to function physically, emotionally or spiritually in any good or righteous manner. Without Him, we are nothing. With Him, we can become the beings He has created us to become - filled with power, love, understanding, peace, direction and purpose beyond our current abilities to comprehend, let alone even achieve. 

"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9

-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

The Haugesund State Church . . . we finally got to see the inside :)