OCTOBER Report

GREETINGS FROM NORWAY
OCTOBER REPORT

Dear friends and family. I will try to use this format to get a message out to all of you at one time. We love and appreciate our relationship with each of you and hope through our emails and letters you can come to love the land of Norway and its people as we do.

October has been a busy month for us, as we have been given additional assignments (I guess to make sure we don’t have too much free time for me to longingly look at the water around here and try to figure out how I can get acquainted with the owners of some of the fine boats I see in the harbor). In late September we moved to a lovely apt owned by some members here in Trondheim who have gone to Sweden for 6 months to serve in the temple. When they are finished there, they said they will live in their county home until we are finished here. Our address is:

Elder and Sister Sorensen
Romolslia 19 E
7029 Trondheim
Norway

We have attended a zone conference in Tromsø, a 2 hour flight north of us—and well above the arctic circle, visited the small northern city of Mo I Rana (means Mo in Rana—Rana being the county in which the town of Mo is found) where Nancy had a chance to polish her sacrament meeting talk in Norwegian on the Prophet Noah. Mo is a 7 hour drive or train ride north of Trondheim. Here is a photo looking down the main street of Mo. It was snowing hard when we arrived, but soon cleared. The second pictures is from Tromsø with Sisters Engebretsen and Johnson. It may not show clearly, but the hills in the background are covered with snow (Oct. 2)

We opted to take the train this first time. We have been asked to visit there at least once per month to encourage and support the small branch of the church in that city, as the president has just moved the missionaries out of Mo to concentrate the missionary effort in the larger cities (the elders from Mo moved to Trondheim). We just returned from another zone conference, this time held in the Oslo area, where we were instructed by the first counselor in the Europe Area Presidency, Elder Gerald Causse. Elder Causse is a member of the First Quorum of Seventy and the first General Authority of the Church from France. He was delightful and gave good instruction to all of we missionaries. This conference included all of the missionaries in the mission who are not serving in the Oslo Stake, so there were about 12 missionary pairs, including 2 pairs of sisters.

We also enjoyed a “Mission conference” (similar to a Stake Conference, but we are in the mission, not a stake) where we got to meet the two counselors to President Johansen. Nancy spent from Thursday afternoon that week until Sunday afternoon in the hospital with an infection around her ear—similar to what she had suffered back in Richland in June, in the MTC in August and here in Trondheim in September. While she was in the hospital, they allowed her to leave to attend the meetings on Saturday and Sunday; she just had to return to the hospital to get her IV connected to a bag of penicillin every 6 hours.

We have looked for and found a new apartment for the sisters, as their apartment is being sold, then moved them—making many trips using our small VW Polo. We were able to move everything except a couch, coffee table and two book cases, which one of the members moved in a trailer (a trailer in Norwegian is a til henger—a hanger on). Now that we have 2 elders here also, we are looking for an apartment in the city center area for them, as they are living in the apt we occupied when we first arrived here and it is a ways out of town--not convenient when you do not have a car. We will then get to move them.

Last Saturday, (October 24, we enjoyed a breakfast in our apartment with 4 missionaries, 4 young single adults from the branch and two investigators whom the sisters are teaching—one from China and one from Nigeria. After a breakfast of hash browns, scrambled eggs, fresh strawberries, Norwegian waffles, bread, cheese (brown, goats cheese) and lingon berry jam (a favorite here in Norway), they played some games around the table before all departed to take care of their other duties.

On October 19, I began teaching an early morning seminary class with the one young man in the branch who is of seminary age (15). Since his family lives about an hour and a half out of town, we do seminary via Skype each morning. It has been fun and a good experience for both of us. Occasionally the member who teaches Institute will call (usually about an hour before) and ask if I can teach the institute class that night. She has a young baby and therefore gets interrupted quite a bit in preparation.





Nancy plays the piano about every other week in church, cuts hair for the missionaries and YSA, mends clothing for the same group, cooks dinner for the YSA and others who attend the institute class on Wednesday evenings, makes treats for family home evening on Monday nights (we have found that the people here have never enjoyed the opportunity to taste Rice Krispie treats and they are smitten by them), plus tries to look interested in meetings when she does not understand much of what is being said, smiles a lot and in general is the one the young adult women and ladies in the branch love to get hugs from. She is a mother/grandmother to the missionaries and YSA and a great friend to the members. Her language is coming slowly and she does well with what she understands. She wanted to make scotcharoos and rice krispie treats, but we could not find Rice Krispies and we did not think they would be the same with Corn Flakes. Finally one day I saw some Rice Krispies in a grocery store, so bought two boxes. It is the only store we have found that sells them and we may be the only people who buy them, although I think Nancy has hooked the members on them, so more will be sold in the future.


On Monday this week, sisters Engebretsen and Johnson invited us to a “house warming” so we could see how they have decorated and arranged their new apt. They fed us tacos for lunch, then invited us up to their study area (the apt is on two levels) for dessert, where they surprised me with an apple pie for my birthday.

We are enjoying our experiences here and love the people and the country. Nancy said one good reason to take the train when we travel long distances is because then we are assured of getting there, as I seem to find a better scene to photograph around every turn in the road (and there are many). Below are some of those scenes. Our desire is to fill the chapel with young people so they can marry and raise strong families to build up the church in Norway.


Love to all,
Elder and Sister Sorensen

YSA BREAKFAST-TRONDHEIM

Here are some pictures of our breakfast with the missionaries, YSA and some investigators held in our apartment on Saturday, October 24.

Family update: 10/25/09

Reply to email sent on 10/24/09: Gug, happy birthday. Hope all is well. it sounds like you are really enjoying yourselves. I leave tomorrow for Phoenix for the mens senior baseball world series. I am also been invited to go to Cuba in february to play for 7-10 days against various cuba senior teams. should be a ball but we will probably not win much. they are nuts over baseball. Carol is not allowed to come with since we are not allowed to go to cuba except these exchange type things which only allow the players. Love you both. arlo

(side note): alison and Jeff are hoping to go see Arlo play!


Steven and Rozann family update: 10/25/09

Sunday, October 25, 2009

We celebrated birthdays today—Tanner turning 10 and Shay turning 2.  (I’m very grateful that Tanner doesn’t feel bitter about sharing his birthday.  I guess he’s shared his birthday with Grandpa Sorensen since he was born so it’s not new.)  If anyone mentions his birthday, he tells them how he shares his birthday with his sister and grandpa too.  I guess he’s pretty proud of that.

The kids also had their primary program today.  They all did very, very well.  I was just so impressed at how well they did.  Ashley really impressed me by learning a very difficult part and saying it perfectly.  What was even more impressive is that she learned her part almost entirely of her own efforts.  I started to help her learn it and then was about to re-write it frustrated that they gave so many big words to a 7-year-old, but she went off and read it over and over until she had it memorized.

Her part was, “The proclamation also states that, ‘Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live.  Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.’”  Pretty impressive.

Tanner and Brianna have been practicing hymns and primary songs for piano lessons (and their teacher is the primary pianist), so she had them play prelude music before sacrament meeting.  They both received a lot of compliments.  I think Tanner caught their attention particularly because he played a couple hymns.  One lady leaned over to me and said, “He plays like a man.”  I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, but she said men play with a heavier sound.  Another elderly gentleman called this afternoon intending to ask Steve if Tanner could slip out of primary for a few minutes each Sunday to play the piano for priesthood opening exercises.  J  The gentleman conducts the music acapella and thought it would be so nice to have a pianist to accompany the songs.  I kind of avoided his proposition and left that to Steve to handle, but I told him he would certainly be available in two years when he turns 12. 

The same gentleman also asked Steve in reference to Tanner “Is he precocious?”  Hello!  What is that?  Who uses that word in regular English?  Steve could only think of Mary Poppins’ song, “If you say it loud enough you’ll always sound precocious, Supercalifragilistic…”  but that didn’t help to define the meaning.  This evening we had to look up the word in the dictionary.  It means developed or matured to a point beyond that which is normal for the age.  That’s a pretty good word, but I’m not sure the man was using the word correctly either.  I guess we learned something new today.

Anyway, we continue with the usual routine and fall sports—football and soccer.  Tanner’s football team just finished their regular season games and played their first playoff game yesterday.  They lost 13-7 in a very close game.  His highlights included recovering a fumble and a touchdown-saving tackle.

Brianna must have eaten her Wheaties yesterday (although none of our kids would have any clue what that means).  Their team was down 3-1 going into the fourth quarter when her coach put her in as forward.  Brianna moaned because she wanted to play defense and then went out and hounded the other team all quarter long … scoring five goals to help her team win.  It was her team’s third win of the season and the other team’s first loss.

This afternoon Shay was not happy with me that I woke her up from a late nap.  I tried to cheer her up by asking if she wanted to make her cake with me.  That got her attention and she was pacified.  She chose a chocolate cake, and I got the batter mixed in a bowl.  She started fussing and asking for a cup.  I couldn’t figure out why.  She wasn’t pleased with her Sippy cup in front of her and insisted on a cup.  I finally figured that she wanted a cup so I could pour some of the batter in it for her.  I explained that I wouldn’t get a cup, but I would give her a taste.  I pulled a spoon out of the drawer and gave her a taste.  I put the dirty spoon in the sink and turned around to see her with another spoon from the drawer.  I gave her one more taste and put the spoon in the sink.  As I was saying, “No more” she had her hand halfway in the drawer sneaking another spoon out.  She tried to move ever so slowly with such an innocent look on her face so I wouldn’t see that she was pulling another spoon out.  I tried to fight the spoon thing and then conceded by giving her a little dab in a bowl with a spoon.  Luckily, by the time that was gone, I had the batter poured into the pan and she was pleased to lick the whisk.

Anyway, we’re keeping busy.  Steve was excited to purchase a road bike (the kind that you pedalJ) last weekend.  He and two other guys got bikes and are riding a couple days a week.  He says he’ll be ready for the Boy Scout mini-triathlon coming up in April.

Better get to bed.

Love,
Rozann and family
Pictures from Rozann: Brianna's 8th birthday/baptism, soccer/football games, Shay (2)/Tanner(10) birthday

Gratulere med Dagen, Norwegians say it too.....

Do you know your primary songs to be able to read the title?! :) Oct 25th is shared by 3 special people in our family: Dad, Tanner (Steven's oldest son) and Shay (Steven's youngest girl).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD (aka husband, grandpa, Elder, Gug, uncle, brother, brother-in-law, friend - did I miss any?!), TANNER and SHAY!!!! :)

Email received on 10/22 entitled: Dry suits: why? Because my Richland Siblings were going skiing for Dad's birthday and needed the drysuits.....yet they'll go swim on Christmas day and/or New Years - who really is crazy enough to do that?! :)

The only thing I know for sure is that I did not bring the dry suits to Norway with me.  They are folded up in large ziploc bags and should be down stairs somewhere. Seems that  may have put them in the storage room, but not sure.

Our day has gone quite well. I started by teaching seminary to our one student via skype, then mom hemmed a skirt for one of the sister missionaries, then we went shopping. The sister missionaries like to jog in the mornings, so I said a week or two ago, "why don't you jog up to our apartment some morning and I will cook breakfast."  they thought that was a good idea, so they then started asking, "who else can we invite?"  So I think the breakfast crowd for Saturday morning is up to about 10 and counting--4 missionaries, 4 young single adults from the branch, two students the sisters have been teaching the gospel to--and they are still trying to find others. This apt will be packed if all come---and we hope they do.It will be a "twin lakes" breakfast with a norwegian twist.

After shopping, we came home and put the groceries away, then went to visit an older couple in the branch (she is a member, he is not) who live in a place called Hommelvik--about 15 miles out of town. They are right close to the fjord and it was a beautiful day, so the scenery was spectacular. She had made dinner "fårikål" (pronounced for i coal)--lamb in cabbage--It is a traditional Norwegian dinner, boiled lamb and boiled cabbage. The couple will be leaving on November 14 to go to Spain for the winter (Norwegian equivalent of going to Arizona or Florida for the winter. Then on the way home we stopped at the hospital where I had visited yesterday. I had received a text message (yes I receve them and even send some) from one of our members yesterday morning asking if we could visit her sister and her husband. He is in the hospital with lung cancer. I stopped there yesterday with one of the young elders and visited for a while. The husband was sleeping soundly all the time we were there, so we just talked with his wife.  She is from the Philippines and he is Norwegian.  She said his outlook did not appear too promising as the cancer has also moved to his brain. She was pretty distraught, he had just recently retired and they had plans to do many things, but now it appears that he may not live much longer. After we talked for a while, I asked her if she would like a blessing. She said, I'm catholic, will you do that for me. I told her that her religion did not matter, if she would like, we would be happy to give the blessing--which we did.  Anyway when we arrived there at about 8 tonight, he was sleeping soundly and the nurse said she had gone back to the hotel (the hospital owns and operates a hotel right next door for those who have family in the hospital). We then stopped by the church and talked with the sisters who were there doing some planning for tomorrow.   Then we finally came home to get ready for seminary class tomorow--so we can start all over again. Oh yes, i almost forgot, we found an apartment down town for the elders to move to.

love, 

dad

Saturday - Oct 24th

The two sister missionaries here in Trondheim go out and jog (actually they run) every morning--about 5 or 6 miles. One day a few weeks ago, I said "why don't your run up to our apartment one saturday and I will fix you breakfast?"  So they thought that would be a good idea and then said "it would be fun if we could get all the young single adults (YSA)  and some of our investigators there also--can we invite them?"  Sure, why not.  So today, we had 4 missionaries (2 elders and 2 sisters), 4 YSA from the branch and two investigators-one from China and one from Nigeria here for breakfast. We fixed hash browns, scrambled eggs, Norwegian waffles, bread, cheeze, jam, fresh strawberries, orange juice and milk.  The elders arrived about 45 minutes early, so they helped by cleaning off the patio chairs so we could bring them in, cracked and stirred the eggs and mixed the waffle batter. After breakfast, Sister Engebretsen and Nadia Haugen (our only YSA girl) came out of the den with a plate of cookies with 8 candles (7 +1=71). When they were lighting the candles in the den, they set off the fire alarm in the room--oops!  They all sang happy birthday in norwegian (Sister Engebretsen and Nadia did the little dance that goes with it). Sister Engebretsen had made the attached card which she had everyone sign (some chinese and some Tagalog included-one of our YSA is from the Philippines)..She said "how do you like the swim suit, complete with missionary name tag?" I told her that was pretty special and noted that the driver also had a name tag. She said, "yeah that's me, I figured if you could break the rules, so can I."

The young man from the philippines (Jonjie) has not been active for several years, but is coming quite regular and enjoys the association. It is his younger brother whom I am teaching seminary via Skype.  He told us that he would be playing his guitar and singing at a filippino halloween fest this evening and invited us to come. So Nancy and I went at 4 p.m with the two elders and enjoyed some good filippino cooking, then when it was time for Jonjie to perform, we went and picked up the sisters and brought them to listen along with one of the norwegian YSA young men.  We all had a good time visiting, as Jonjie's mother and 2 brothers were there as well as another filippino woman who is a member and is married to a norwegian. We also met several other norwegians married to filippino women whom we visited with.

The weather the past 4 days has been absolutely gorgeous, clear blue skies and crisp fall air. The leaves around town have all turned and are quickly falling.

We are enjoying the people we are meeting here and all that we are able to do.  We were excited to have so many here for breakfast today and to see them getting well acquainted with each other. After breakfast, they all stayed for about an hour and played games at the table, then all headed for the bus to get back to the day's activities.

We love all of you and miss you, but we would not trade this time for anything. We are enjoying talking to and teaching those who are not members about the restored gospel. It is exciting to see the light in their eyes when they hear of Joseph Smith's vision and learn of the book of mormon.

We hope Tanner and Shay have as good a birthday as I have had.

Love,

mom and dad/gerald and nancy/elder and sister Sorensen

PS: tried to add the card the Sisters made, but can't get it to add on. I'll figure something out so you can see it - it's awesome! thank you for resending it Dad - I finally got it to work! love ya and Happy birthday! - alison and fam :)

Hunt Family update - sent 10/25/09

Sunday, October 25, 2009
Happy Birthday to dad, Tanner & Shay. We ate plenty of treats for you today. Dallin’s making me stay up to watch a movie with him – The Mountain of the Lord, so I thought I’d type a Hunt Family update…

We had our primary program today. It was so wonderful. I would love to have them once a month. I was particularly impressed as our primary presidency has only been called about 6 weeks ago. They pulled it off well. Elizabeth accompanied a violinist and the primary singing “I Am A Child of God”. She did a beautiful job.

We got to visit with Brendan on Skype today. It’s fun to be able to see him and see and hear the boys in the background messing around and laughing. He’s supposed to come home this weekend for a visit. The girls don’t know it yet – it’ll be a surprise for them. A young man who lives nearby was planning to come home this weekend and his mom said he could come as long as he filled his car – I think he’s succeeded – 5 people in a small car. Brendan hopes we will let him take his car back to college with him, but no luck…He’s enjoying school, his roommates and friends. He went to General Conference with friends and enjoyed it very much.

Dallin has learned an important lesson this year as he’s mowed lawns – men and women do things differently. I tell him if he’s learned nothing else, that will be a valuable lesson for him. Sometimes we see eye-to-eye and sometimes we have our differences, but we’ve spent some quality time mowing lawns together. He says, “Mom, I’ll be glad when I can drive myself – then I can make the lawn mowing decisions”. I assure him that I’ll be glad when he can drive himself too – then I won’t have to mow lawns – works for me. I’ve enjoyed the time with him. He likes to drive whenever he can, of course. Dallin starts teaching piano lessons to a little girl this week. Should be a good job for him…

Aubrey’s just finished cross country – she improved about 4 minutes from her original time and really enjoyed the socialness of it all as well. She starts tutoring a little boy this week. She likes to babysit and had three calls to sit last night. She’s done well in school and I love that she enjoys cooking in the kitchen. I love those Young Women goals that ask the girls to cook a meal. She cooked a meal for extra credit for home ec last week – she only has 99% in there. I’ll take the cooking help anyday.

Elizabeth and Calla have been playing soccer. Calla scored 5 goals yesterday – she was a scoring machine. We keep waiting for Elizabeth to score, but it’s tough to score from the defense position. She definitely saves her team from being scored on – a great save yesterday. The girls are playing a piano duet coming up and Elizabeth is also accompanying a group of girls singing in a few weeks – Calla will be one of the girls singing. I love to hear them work together. Jonathan & I took Calla to dinner the other night – it was her birthday dinner, which we never took her to, which is fine because she wanted to go to “Cinco de Mayo”, which, in my opinion, isn’t a good place to on “Cinco de Mayo”. So 10/24 seemed like a good day. We sit down to order and Calla wants…a hamburger. It was a teaching moment – when we’re at a Mexican restaurant, order Mexican food.

Elizabeth’s school teacher has breast cancer. She is teaching the children things they will always remember, things they can’t learn from a book. They will forever be cancer supporters, more compassionate and have a better knowledge of chemo, cancer, radiation, etc.

Jonathan seems to be enjoying his new job. The office seems to work more “regular” hours than Jonathan has in the past. So I suggested that Jonathan “do as they do” and come home earlier than normal. I thought maybe I’d have dinner on the table at 5:15 p.m. and if he wasn’t home, he’d have to eat cold dinner. Then I realized that wouldn’t work because he often eats cold dinner and doesn’t mind. Dad suggested putting ice cream on the table for him. So sure enough, I put ice cream on the table at 5:15 and he was home to eat it before it melted. I can get used to that. He was called as a high counselor recently and gave his first talk – in his parents ward. I told him not to say that it was his first talk and nobody would even notice. The Bishop introduced Jonathan as a new high counselor member and said, “I think this is his first talk…” so I guess Jonathan didn’t need to say anything else.

I’m doing just groovy. I held a vinyl lettering open house this weekend – I usually do it about once or twice a year. This one was the best turn out. Calla, especially, loves to help me with cashiering, putting things away, etc. It’s fun for us all and of course, always ends up with pizza. I’ve been enjoying exercising, lunching with friends and trying to keep up with the household – the usual.
Love to each of you…

FUN TIMES

Email sent 10/20

I just have to share with you some of the good things that are happening here. Last night we had family home evening with the young single adults and a young man (22) who has not been active since he was about 14 came and brought his guitar. We played some games for a while, then I asked him to play some songs so we could "sing along". He had a great time playing and the missionaries joined in the singing, I am sure he will be back.  On Sunday I spoke with the mother and younger brother (15) of this same young man and asked if he would be willing to do seminary every morning with me on Skype (they live about 1-1/2 hours from town). He seemed excited about it, so I checked with the mother Sunday night and they got set up on Skype. We were to meet at 6:30 in the morning. On Monday morning, I got up and turned the computer on, but he was not on line. I waited, but he did not show. I sent an email to them and got a reply back that he had slept in. This morning he was ready at 6:30 and we had a good lesson. Tomorrow I have to take one of the missionaries to the airport early, so Nancy will teach (she looks forward to the early hour).

 

Here are a couple of photos for you enjoyment.

Love,

mom and dad/gerald and nancy/Elder and Sister Sorensen

LIFE IN TRONDHEIM

Nancy was in the hospital from Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon. They let her out to attend the mission conference meetings on Saturday and Sunday, just had to be back to get her fix of penicillin every 6 hours. The conference was good, and we had the opportunity to meet the counselors in the mission presidency--one from Drammen and one from Bergen. They are both very good teachers of the gospel and gave good talks. I got called on to bear my testimony in the Sunday meeting.This was a great conference and there were more than the normal numbers in attendance. I counted 65, including 4 investigators and a less active couple.

During the week, we went to dinner and a teaching appointment with the sisters to a young couple (Sverre and Tamsyn). They are both retired professional snowboarders, she is from NY (Ithaca) and he is from Norway. They met at a snowboard competition and now here they are afte about 7 years of marriage. They live in a lovely log home (with sod roof) near a beautiful lake called Jonsvatnet. I had to stop and take pictures as we crossed the lake at one point on a bridge.

We have been busy moving the sisters from one apt to another and looking for a new apt for the elders, as the place where they are living (our original apt) is quite a ways out for missionaries without a car.

Pictures are from Jonsvatnet and of sister Johnson, Nancy and Sister Johansen (MP wife) and Nancy and I in front of the Sisters apt building.

Email sent 10/18/09:

Nancy was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon. Hopefully she will not be visiting there any time again in the near future. The hospital system has been interesting. All of the doctors and nurses have been very kind and helpful and professional.  On Saturday and Sunday we were having our mission conference, and mom was to play the organ, so she told the doctor she needed to be at church at from 3:30 to 5:30 and 6:30 to 8:30 on Saturday and from 11-2 on Sunday. He said, OK, just get your IV before you leave Saturday early, come back  between the meetings for another refill and get your dose before you leave on Sunday morning, then return after. She still had the needle for the IV in her arm, but covered it with a long sleeve sweater and no one knew that she was an escapee from the hospital.

When she went back on Sunday afternoon, the doctor told her that she was now free to go home and take the pills he prescribed.

We had a great conference and enjoyed getting to know the counselors in the mission presidency. I had the opportunity to bear my testimony in the sunday session. I was translating for mom and told her that he announced that they wanted her to bear her testimony, but she understood enough to know that he said Eldste Sorensen, not Soster sorensen.

Love,

mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/Elder and Sister Sorensen/grandma and grandpa

TRIP TO MO I RANA

A couple of weeks ago, President Johansen decided to move the two elders out of the small northern town of Mo I Rana (Mo in Rana). When he did, he asked us to travel there once per month to visit, encourage and assist the small branch (about 25 people on the branch roster with about 10 active). We made our first trip the weekend of October 10-12, traveling by train on Saturday (7 hours), arriving at about 2:30 p.m. The snow was falling hard and heavy when we got off the train. We were met by the branch president Jan-Erik Granaas (60 years old, never married). Fortunately, it stopped snowing shortly after we got in the car and the sky was clear the rest of the weekend. We went first to the home of Sister Anna Aasheim (85 year old widow, joined the church back in the 70's), this is where we would spend the night Saturday and Sunday. We visited with her for a while, then went to visit some other members (all widows in their 80s) and returned to Sister Aasheim's where we enjoyed a light meal with her, visited for a while, then went downstairs to bed. The room was pretty cold, but the bed was warm. We slept well, then got up in the morning for breakfast with Sis Aasheim and prepared for church. President Granaas picked us all up and took us to the church. When we arrived, there was one other car there, driven by a sister Rannveig Flataas (57 year old, husband not member). She had two other 80+ year old sisters with her. We went in and President Granaas and I got the sacrament table prepared. Mom figured out how to work the keyboard and began to play hymns for prelude. When it was time to start the meeting, there were 6 of us present. During the sacrament hymn, a young mother and her 3 children (6, 3 and 2) arrived. Mom played the piano and I led the opening hymn. Nobody led the sacrament hymn, as I was preparing the sacrament. I blessed the sacrament and the BP passed it.

After the sacrament, mom gave her talk on Noah in Norwegian and did a good job, her norwegian has improved since she first gave the talk a couple of weeks ago in Trondheim. She will have an opportunity to speak in church at least once per month when we go to Mo. I gave a talk on blessings we enjoy as a result of the restoration of the gospel. This is (I think) the first time I have given a talk in many years where I did not spend part of the time before speaking revising my talk because a previous speaker used something I had planned or had taken too much time and I had to decide what to leave out. I don't think I will have that problem with mom as my companion.

After sacrament meeting, we held a combined priesthood and relief society lesson, while mom went with Bonnie (the young mother) to hold primary with Bonnie's 3 children. Bonnie's husband is a member, but was not at church today. For those of you who don't like a 3 hour block of church time on Sunday, move to Mo, they only meet for 2 hours.

After church, President Granaas took the 3 widows home (Rannveig had to leave after sacrament meeting), then came back to pick us up--Bonnie and her kids walked home. We then went to visit a man the elders had been teaching and discussed the Book of Mormon and encouraged him to quit smoking, invited him to come to church next week. He said he has "social anxiety" and does not do well in crowds. I asked if he was uncomfortable with the 3 of us visiting with him and he said, "No". I told him that there were only a few more people at church, so he should be able to do well there.

 

We then went to Sis. Aasheim's home for dinner, then to visit a less active member family about a 45 minute drive out of town. The husband is norwegian, his wife (young enough to be his daughter) is from the Philippines and they have a 5 year old son. We had a pleasant visit with them and encouraged them to come to church. They have lived in the Philippines for about 7 years and returned to Norway about a year ago. The wife (Mila) was very active in the church at home and misses the associations here, so hopefully we can encourage Frans to begin coming back to church with his family.

We spent the night again at Sister Aasheim, then took a cab to the train station for an 8:20 a.m. trip back to Trondheim. The trip back was as beautiful as the trip up, but we were on the other side of the train, so we saw rivers, towns, forest and mountains whereas we saw mostly fjords on the way up, with mountains in the distance. On the train a man got on at one of the first stops after we did and I heard him speaking english, so when he came near where we were to get a cup of coffee from the vending machine, I got up and talked with him. His name is James Parker and he is from Nashville TN. He said he has been coming to Norway for about the past 5 years and is writing a novel about some events in northern Norway during the 2nd world war. We enjoyed visiting as he would come to the vending machine during the trip. He said he was familiar with the church and had talked with missionaries before.

It was raining when we arrived in Trondheim (surprise!), but it was nice to be home again.

Hospital time - update 10/16/09

Yesterday morning when she woke up, mom had some swelling around her right ear (always left side before). I called the doctor we have been assigned to and they were able to get her an appointment at 2 p..m.  We went there, he examined her, reviewed the report from her previous hospital stay and the last visit with him (about 2 weeks ago for a follow up to the hospital stay) and then called an ear, nose, throat specialist at the hospital to request that he look at her today to determine the proper course of action. That meeting was set for 4 pm.  We went to the church for a while where she took a short nap while I went to get the car washed. You would think that when it rains every day cars could not get dirty, but that is not the case. The whole bottom half of the car looked brown instead of gray. When I returned, we went to the Dr. appointment at the hospital. After about 1/2 hour wait, the dr saw her.  He was very thorough in his exam, cleaned her ears and was about to order a prescription for penicillin and send her home, but said he wanted to check her blood before deciding on that, so he took us upstairs (all the office help in this area of the hospital had gone home at 3:30). The nurse there took the samples and said the results should be back to the dr in about 1/2 hour (this was about 6 p.m.). So we went downstairs, got a piece of pizza from the 7-11 in the lobby and sat down to wait--and wait.  Finally about 8:30 the doctor came and got us--he had been called in to do a surgery after he left us upstairs.  He looked at the blood results and said the white count was a little low, but thought they could work with that with some medicines.  He wrote the prescriptions and came over to give them to me, looked at her face and said, "I think that swelling has gotten more than when I examined you earlier".  After some further examination, he said, "I know you want to go home, but I think the best thing for you is to put you in the hospital for a day or two so we can attack this infection more aggressively."  So he got the nurse who had taken the blood samples to come down and we went back upstairs where she was given a room (with a view) and the nurse prepared an IV for her dinner.  I came home to get the necessities for her stay and then returned to the hospital to find a doctor working to get an IV in her hand (two nurses had attempted and failed, the doctor was an anethiesiologist).  He worked for a while and finally got the IV in (she told them she had hard veins to find, I think they believe her).  I stayed around for a while, then left her to get some sleep and I came home to do the same.  An interesting fact:  our visit to her doctor cost 238Nkr (divide by 6 for $). It cost me 179Nkr to wash and vacuum the car.  We are getting well acquainted with the norwegian healthcare system, and so far (other than the waits--which i guess happens everywhere) we have been impressed. The doctors and nurses have all been very thorough and accommodating. Most speak very good english, but occasionally the doctors will look at me and say something in norwegian to get the english translation. I have normally been able to provide the correct response.  I have seldom been present in her doctor visits in the past, but am always present now.

 

I am about to have some breakfast and then go to the hospital--breakfast for her will be at 8:30, so I will arrive shortly after she has eaten.  We have mission conference this Saturday and Sunday (like stake conf but with the mission president) The mission president and wife will be staying with us on Saturday night, so mom is anxious to get out of the hospital no later than Sat morning. 

 

Love, Dad

Alison Family update 10/11

If you haven't been reading our blog our facebook, which I'm guessing is alot of you...here's our update.

We left Oct 2nd on a trip that was the least bit dull. First stop was Flagstaff at 28 degrees at 5:30 am!!!!!! BRRRRRRRRRRRR! That means we left Laveen at 3:30 am.....yes we're crazy, but had to be there for game time at 7 pm.We carpooled with our friends the Beckers and it was adventurous...after several bathroom stops, we finally got going on our way to Kanab. I was sleeping peacefully until Jeff startled me and proceeded to tell me a police officer was now coming to be our friend....in the middle of nowhere. He pulled us over and also our friends who were behind us. Both got tickets and he was nice enough to lower the fee. Still Jeff and Geoff Becker are not a good combo: cars break, tires get flat and cell phones are damaged when these two get together.
We made it to my aunts house, hung out for a little bit and headed to the game while our kids played with new cousins. The game was cold and we were 3 rows from the top of the stadium. Still a great time and BYU won, what more could we ask for? The children in front of us were scared of Jeff and his brother Steven for constantly yelling at the refs, the BYU kicker and Utah State fans - as if anyone of them could hear them.
The next night we stayed with Jeff's other brother Nathan and Mandy at their new house - so fun! Thanks for letting us crash - the kids had a great time with more cousins and are always excited to see everyone! Mandy and I watched a movie while the men went to Priesthood session and the kids watched a movie downstairs. It was perfect - thank you!

Headed home the next day - Sunday and that was a long trip

Tuesday after we returned, (Lea had fall break this past week), at least one of us has been sick. Lucas was first and only for a day, then me for 3 days. Sunday (today) is the first day I have eaten since Thursday and am down 6 lbs. wahoo! Abbey has had a high fever since Friday night and we spent Saturday night at Good Night Pediatrics with about 40 other parents and sick kids. Turns out she has Type A/swine flu......so oink, oink to us. :) We caught it early enough, they gave us a prescription for Tamiflu to lessen the fever and other symptoms of clear runny nose and rapid breathing. Luckily Jeff and Lea have not gotten sick and hopefully will not, but at least now we know what we're looking for.

Lea started soccer last week, but since we went to Provo/Salt Lake for the BYU game and General Conference, we missed the first practice. We missed the 2nd practice Friday because we were busy being sick. Jeff took Lea to her first game yesterday (Saturday) and well, it was less than fantastic..... I stayed with Abbey for obvious reasons. Lea's team only got the ball past mid-field 1 time.....looks like we could use some help from Meghan and Paige! Last year, there were 2 boys on Lea's team who were really aggressive and wanted to take the ball and sometimes run with it - one would pick up the ball and carry it to the goal - seems he should sign up football instead, but they were great and scored a lot of goals for Lea's team. The boys at least follow the ball, the girls stand around chatting, playing with their hair or staring at the clouds. :) It was the first game, there's time to improve.
She also has a loose tooth, quickly followed by the next tooth that has already pushed through behind the barely-loose, loose tooth. We'll see how that goes as we head to the dentist this week.

Lucas is his usual crazy self, climbing, jumping, crashing, throwing, pushing and tackling anything and anyone in sight. That pretty much sums up what he does.

Abbey well she's been sick so isn't quite herself, but she is a very sweet, loving, feisty little girl. She's not afraid to take charge of a toy she wants from Lea or Lucas. It's every kid for themselves now that there's 3.

Jeff is the same - busy working and commuting, being stake clerk, trying to lose weight by Christmas then more by next summer. He's joined with Geoff Becker to lose 20 lbs by Christmas and then with his brother Steven to lose another 20 lbs by next summer. Now everyone knows and can check up with him. :)

I try to maintain my sanity at home and working with the Activity Day age girls in our ward (8-11 year olds).Enjoying the cooler weather and the fantastic winters here!

Love,
alison, jeff, lea, lucas and abbey :)

Conference on Norway time

Hello to all of you!!

 

Today is General Conference Sunday.  However, Dad has gone to Priesthood meeting which is 11am today.  Yesterday at 4pm was the Relief Society Broadcast at the church (I had already watched it on the  computer) and at 6pm was the live Saturday morning session.  Today at 2pm is the Saturday afternoon session and at 6pm is the Sunday morning.  I guess we can watch the Sunday afternoon on the computer at 10pm.  "A little bit different"

 

On Friday we went to Tromso for zone conference.  It is up in the arctic circle.  They already have snow about half  way down the mountains.  We went street tracting and it was CHILLY.  This next weekend we are traveling to Mo I Rana.  The missionaries haven't had much succes there for a year.   So the elders are moving here to Trondheim and we are to go there once a month--7 hour train ride--go up on Saturday and return Sunday or Monday depending on the amount of visiting we can get done.  There are about 20 members there, but only five or six attend meetings.

 

In Trondheim about 50-60 attend meetings each week.  When we talked with the other branches, we realize how MANY we have.  Our branch mileage wise woulod cover from Ellensburg to Spokane to Hermiston.  Several people come once a month because it is so far.  We have one Aaronic Priesthood age and no young Women.  The Primary varies from 1 to maybe 10 depending on the week.  There are about 15 under 50 yrs old who are active.

 

The sisters are teaching a young man from Ghana and he said that conference last night was WONDERFUL.  A girl from Uganda--a roommate of someone  they are teaching wanted to come to conference and she thought it was great.  Not many of the investigators are Norwegian.  Many people speak their native language, Norwegian and English.  They say the classes at the university are taught in English. 

 

In contrast when Dad was here as a missionary, all spoke Norwegian and there were hardly any immigrants.  Now there are many immigrants and if they plan to live here they have to take 300 hours of Norwegian language.

 

We have started wearing our winter (expensive)  coats.  Norwegians are hardy people.  They walk, ride bikes or mopeds, push carriages with babies snuggled inside.  They just dress for the weather and go.

 

Yesterday I made rice krispie treats for after RS broadcast.  They were excited to be eating something NEW.  What is this?  Is it like rice cakes?  Is this American food?  You never know what will happen when cooking.  I have had a hard time cooking.  What I would make at home, we can't find the ingredients and what they have here I have a hard time making it work--so I guess I will just make rice krispie treats for the rest of our mission

 

This is frustrating to type because it will go for a little bit and then stop especially when sending email--any suggestions why this happen?!?!??!

More news from home

Well, tomorrow (Wednesday 9/30) is the day, 9:30 am Meghan will have her ACL Replaced.  Anxious, nervous, and a little scared.  I’ll have my cell phone with me if you want to call, scheduled 90 minutes to 2 hours just in case.

Ryan

509-521-4061

*She tore it at soccer practice while Ryan, Cheri and the boys were at the Fair. Kraig was also at the fair when Ryan called - they drove together to pick up Meghan. She will not play for the rest of soccer season - the team will miss her. She's an excellent player!

 

 

Rozann/Steven update:

Hello there,

Thought I would send out a note letting you know what we’re up to.

Steve: busy with work, coaching football, completing church responsibilities, taking another exam which is to be finished by this Saturday, researching road bikes in hopes of buying one, viewing YouTube videos about barefoot skiing, and more.

Rozann: busy with the office and various tasks there, keeping up with kids’ homework and sports schedules, planning cub scouts for the 8 and 9 year olds, canning over 100 quarts of peaches, organizing a super craft day, and trying to find the handbook for parenting.  J

Tanner: life revolves around football.  In his words, “play football, eat, sleep, and repeat.”  His afterschool conversation consists of the great plays, interceptions, or touchdowns he made during recess football games.  He also plays on the Pop Warner 7-10 year-old team.  They played their 4^th game this last Saturday—they play on the high school football field (when they play at home).  They tied 13-13.  He plays cornerback on defense and tackle on offense.  He is gaining confidence in tackling.  He’s anxious to catch the ball or run the ball but hasn’t convinced the coaches that he can do that yet.  If he could forget everything else in life and just play sports, he would be happy.

Brianna: recently told me that her favorite two words are “read” and “book”.  Like Tanner, she is taking piano lessons and doing very well.  She is playing soccer this season, and is one of the oldest on the team.  In their first game she didn’t score any goals and the team got beat pretty badly.  In the second game, she did score a goal and afterwards told her coach, “Do you know why I scored a goal?”  Her coach (a friend of ours) was prepping herself, expecting to hear praise for her good coaching skills.  Brianna’s response: “Because I practiced with my dad.”  J

Ashley: is doing well in first grade and is good about doing her homework and reading each day to me.  Steve challenged the kids to read their scriptures 5 minutes a day, so she reads the Book of Mormon Stories to me each morning as I get lunches ready.  She is learning the Spalding phonemes, which really helps in sounding out bigger words.  She is also playing soccer on the same team as Brianna.

Shay: keeps everyone in line, often saying “Mommy sit” when I pour my bowl of cereal or “Mommy’s turn” when I need to do the same thing as her.  She’s learned to scream real well when one of her siblings is trying to take something from her, but is usually very easy going and content.  She waves from her car seat to the older three as we drop them off at school and yells their name in glee as we pick them up.  I am afraid I am doing something wrong when she climbs up on my bed, relaxes against a pillow, and says, “Tee Tee, Mommy?” … meaning she wants to watch TV.  She loves to take a shower and often tries to pull off her clothes so she can get in when I’m showering, and she loves to play outside and “jump, jump” on the trampoline.  Today in church I was holding her in my arms rocking her, when she pointed up to my nose and repeated over and over, “booger in yu nose.”  Luckily she was talking very quietly, and she had a pacifier in her mouth.  You can be sure that I checked to see if she knew what she was talking about … not quite sure.

Anyway, this is what keeps each of us busy every week with a few variations here and there.  Hope all is well in your family.

Love,

Rozann and family

Wed 9/23 - another story for this trip

Yesterday we drove to Kristiansund--about 220Km (130 mi) to visit some members who live there. It is about a 4 hour drive, although we took longer because I stopped several times to take photos of the beautiful scenery. The batteries in both cameras died about 1/2 way there, so the last half of the trip went faster than the first.  We had to take a ferry across the fjord at one point (about 20 minutes) and then drove in a tunnel under the fjord in another spot--the tunnel is 5.1Km long (about 3 mi). It makes you feel a little funny when you know you are under the fjord and there is water dripping from the roof onto the windshield throughout the trip.  We had good visits with the members, spent the night in a hotel in the middle of town and returned today. It rained for a good portion of the trip both ways and at times when we were in Kristiansund, it just poured.  Thank goodness we were inside at those times. When we got out to go to one house, the wind was really blowing hard. The house was on a hill not far from the sea. 

 

We are at the church now waiting for dinner with those who come to institute.  We eat at 6, have a lesson from 7-8 and then some stay and play games until 9 or 10.  One of the members was just here to pick up the sisters to go teach a lesson. He is a teacher and we were asking him how he likes teaching. His response: I am like a cow in high pasture grass--I am udderly tickled.

 

Love,

Gerald and Nancy/Mom and Dad/Elder and Sister Sorensen