September 12-2009

It is Saturday, September 12. We have had a good week even though it seems that it has rained every day--at least some part of the day. If it is not raining, wait an hour or so and it will. On Sunday after church one of the members asked me if we would like to move into their apartment while we are here. They plan to go to Sweden for about 6 months to be near the temple in Stockholm, then will stay at a country home they have in a place called Henden (that is also their family name--his great grandfather settled the area). We went to look at it on Monday afternoon (and she fed us a very delicious chicken dinner). The apartment has 2 bedrooms (although they will use the one we don't to store their personal things they are not taking with them), a den, bath, living room, dining room, kitchen and laundry room (complete with washer and a dryer--which not many homes here have). The only problem is it is on the 3rd floor of the apartment building and there is no elevator, so mom will get her exercise. The balcony on the east side looks out to a hill and on the west (bedroom side) the windows look out to the fjord, although there are so many trees that you can't see the water. They will leave it completely furnished, including internet and we will be paying approximately $250 a month less than we pay now for our one room cabin. Lets see--do we want to move??? We will be moving in this coming week.

On Tuesday we went to visit a young couple who live about 60km out of town, it took about an hour to drive and the drive was beautiful. We went through 5 tunnels on the way (norwegians would rather tunnel through a hill than cut it down. The longest tunnel on this trip was about 2700 meters (about 1-3/4 miles). The girl is a member of about 5 years and her boyfriend is not a member. They have darling 2-1/2 year old twin daughters. We had a great visit with them and will return in the next week or two to visit again and teach him more of the gospel. Last week we visited with a young phillipine man who has not been to church for about 7 years, we invited him to come on Sunday--and he did!! It was great to see him here and we hope we can keep him coming.

On Tuesday this coming week (the 15th) we will travel to Kristiansund--about 125 km south, but about a 4 hour drive. Roads in Norway do not have very high speed limits--the highest we have seen is 100km/hr (60 mph) and normally the limit is 70km/hr. This does allow time to enjoy the scenery. We are told that the drive to Kristiansund is very lovely. This is the southern end of the Trondheim branch. In another week or so, we will head to the northern end (hopefully before the snow falls).

We meet with the young single adults every Monday night at 7 for family home evening and then they usually stay around until about 10 to play games--table games or ping-pong. On Wednesday nights we are here (at what is called the 'Outreach Center' in the church building) at 6 p.m for a dinner with those who attend the institute class at 7. After institute, some will hang around to play games until 9:30 or 10. Can you tell that we don't keep the same hours as the young missionaries? There are only a few active young single adults in the branch. There was a group of about 10-12 last year, but most graduated and moved on to other areas to further their education or to go to work. One who was still here moved last week to Drammen (south) and she was the one who told me last week that she had bought water skis and wanted to learn how to ski. I need to get her back here! We are also assigned to home teach and visit teach less active members, many of whom live some distance from Trondheim, so we keep very busy and travel a lot. We are not limited in the miles we can put on our car like the young missionaries are (those few who have them). There are two young sister missionaries here, Sister Johnson from Burley, ID and Sister Engebretsen from Provo (grew up in Philidelphia). They are great workers and we enjoy our association with them. Sister Johnson is a water skier, so we have plans already to visit her family in Burley when we return home to ski on the Snake river with them. Her dad is a dentist and they have a nice ski boat.

We have been enjoying a day of sports (ping-pong) today at the church. There were only two men, the sisters and the two of us. It is raining too much to want to do anything outside.

We are loving it here and appreciate all of the family at home for your support and encouragement. Being here makes us appreciate all the more the family we have at home.

Love,
mom and dad/Eldste og Søster Sørensen