This has been a busy period of time. I have put the update in a word document to make it easier for me to write it all. If you have difficulty opening the document, let me know and I will paste the text into an email.
We are loving what we do here and the people we are meeting. Service to the Lord is always a pleasure.
love,
mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/nana and granddad/ Elder and Sister Sorensen
Here it is:( picture of the turkey and the first picture of mom on the previous post were part of this update.)
This week has gone - not sure where, but it has gone - and with it the month of November.
We enjoyed a great family home evening with the young single adults on Monday evening, where we talked about temples in the church—beginning with the Tabernacle of the Children of Israel up to the modern temples and their holy purposes. One young lady the sister missionaries are teaching was present, so it was an opportunity to introduce her to temples and their purposes. She plans to be baptized before Christmas.
On Tuesday we held a good district meeting with the missionaries here and the two elders in Alesund joining us by phone. They were very excited, as they have a man scheduled for baptism on Friday.
Wednesday was institute and a lot of preparation for thanksgiving day. Nancy made a simple dinner for Wednesday evening, as she was busy much of the day with preparation for Thursday’s dinner. She felt some frustration, as it seemed that everything she was preparing she was unable to find at least one ingredient, so was having to figure out substitutions. We had a good lesson from the book of Alma, taught by Eli-Christine, then enjoyed time visiting with her and Nadia (one of 2 young single adult young women in the branch).
On Thursday there were 26 at dinner, including 4 missionaries (6 counting us), 3 YSA from the branch, 6 adult members, and 11 friends and investigators--three of whom have baptismal dates set in December. We had ordered a 26 lb turkey, then I was not sure that would be big enough, so I bought another weighing about 10 lb and one of the members brought one weighing about the same--those two never got used. Nancy made about 40 lb of potatoes, salads, casseroles, etc. The sister missionaries brought 3 desserts and another young woman brought a bunch of small size pumpkin pies. Everyone had plenty to eat and took plates away. One of the men who was there is affiliated with the Salvation Army, so I gave him the turkey I had prepared but did not use so they could use it for a dinner tomorrow. The big turkey was too large for our oven, so I had the butcher shop cook it for me. Kristin asked how much that was going to cost and I told her I did not ask, as I had no other choice at that point. I should have asked--the turkey was about $2.00 per pound (I knew that)--the total bill came to a little over $320. But everyone had a good time and it was worth it to see all the chatter that took place during dinner and the fun people had afterward. However, next year we will do smaller turkeys that fit in the oven. Just in case you wonder what a $320. turkey looks like, here is a photo.
On Friday, we had been asked by the mission president (President Johansen) to travel south to the town of Alesund to attend a baptism of a man there. Alesund is a small town about 450km south and west of Trondheim. It was a 40 minute plane ride and we arrived about 11 a.m. and spent the day with the two missionaries serving there, Elders Jordan Hill and Chaz Liddle, helping them with preparations, visiting some of their investigators and even doing some contacting on the streets in town. The baptism took place Friday evening in a swimming pool at a local school. We met in a classroom at the school for a brief program, then crossed the courtyard to the building housing the pool for the baptism. Nancy played the piano for the baptism, as we were meeting in a music classroom and so there was a piano available. All present were delighted that she could play the piano. She also gave a talk (in English) about the covenants and promises associated with baptism. The elders had done a good job preparing and the members had prepared some good food for enjoyment after the baptism. There were 15 people at the baptism, including 5 investigators the elders are teaching. The new member, Robert Diallo, is a doctor practicing in Alesund. He comes from Senegal and is married to a German woman who is also a doctor. They have 2 sons who are currently living in Germany with their maternal grandmother. Robert is very excited to have found the gospel and looks forward to being with his sons at Christmas time and hopes to be able to baptize them. They will be meeting with the missionaries in Hamburg soon.
After the baptism on Friday evening, the elders asked the counselor in the branch presidency (Lincoln Telford from Logan, UT) if they could take some of the people home, as they would have to make many trips to get everyone home. The Telfords were preparing to leave while the party was still going strong, as he had to go to work at 3 a.m. However, he had two cars in town and said if I wanted to go with them to pick up the other car, we could use that to transport people and then he could get it in the morning. So I went with them to an area about 15 minutes away to pick up the car. I only got lost a couple of times finding my way back to the school, then took Kia and her children home and came back to see who else needed transportation. There were only two women left, Sister Ardal and Sister Sylte. They were both going to go with the elders, but Sister Ardal could not get her feet to bend enough to get into the elder’s small car, so I suggested that we take them home. Sister Sylte lives near where the elders live, so she decided to ride with them to save us some driving and Sister Ardal got in our car. We were driving on the highway toward her house when she said, “I think we missed the turnoff” so I turned around and went back down the highway. It was dark and raining, so it was hard to see landmarks. As I approached each exit, I would read the locations listed for the exit and she would say, “no, I don’t think that is the right one”. Soon I was at the last exit before entering the city center and she still was not certain. At that point, I pulled off to the side of the road, turned on the emergency blinkers and called Elder Liddle and told him of our situation. They came back and led us to her apartment, then we all went home to get some rest (about 10:30 p.m.).
We spent Saturday with Elders Hill and Liddle. They picked us up around 1030 to go to the airport where we picked up a rental car—a VW Passat station wagon—which we will drive to Kristiansund (about 200km north--~ halfway back to Trondheim) on Sunday after church to pick up some materials that have been stored in a member’s home there for some time as well as some things that are stored in a closet in the building they used for meetings when the branch in Kristiansund was active. There are several boxes containing “things” belonging to the church stored in the home of Sister Elsa Sundoy and her health is not good, so her son called President Paulsen in Trondheim and asked if we could move the material out of the house before she passes away and they then have to deal with it in a hurry. Since we were going to be in Alesund, it seemed like an easy solution to have us drive up to Kristiansund and pick up all that we could fit in a car and bring it back to Trondheim. I had hoped for the short 40 minute plane ride back on Sunday afternoon—unfortunately, life is never so simple.
After picking up the car, we took the elders to lunch, then joined them in visiting some of their investigators. We split up for a while because they had 2 appointments at the same time in different locations. Nancy went with Elder Hill and I went with Elder Liddle. We were to meet a young lady at the library at 3 p.m. We arrived about 2:50 and then found that the library closes at 3 on Saturday. The young woman did not show up and did not answer the text message Elder Liddle sent, so we went out on the street and contacted people. The appointment Elder Hill and Nancy went to did not materialize either, so they did some contacting. Nancy said they found a quiet place where they could hold a short prayer and Elder Hill prayed that they “could meet a Norwegian man who could hold the priesthood, as that is what the branch needs”. They finished the prayer, walked out on the street and the first person they talked with was a young Norwegian man. They engaged him in conversation, got his phone number and a commitment for him to meet with the elders next week.
In the evening we visited with Robert and talked about the confirmation and receipt of the Holy Ghost that would occur in Church tomorrow. He is very excited about the path he has entered and looking forward to tomorrow and the future when he will receive the priesthood. After our visit with him, we visited with two investigators, both of whom were at the baptism. Kia is from Burma and has two children, 21 and 14 who were also at the baptism. Her children were not at home tonight, but they both were very interested in the baptism and have been taught by the missionaries over the past few weeks. Donna is from the Philippines, lives here with her father and works as a nurse. She is married and has 2 young children who are home with their father. Her mother is also in the Philippines and helps with care of the children. They all hope that the father and Donna will be able to become secure in their jobs here (he is also a nurse) and soon be able to get the rest of the family to Norway. Both Donna and her father have been meeting with the missionaries and were at Robert’s baptism on Friday. Here is a picture of Nancy with Alesund in the background.
Sunday morning it was snowing and the elders came to our hotel to get us. We split up again, Nancy going with Elder Hill in their car and Elder Liddle going with me so we could pick up people to bring them to church. There were 11 people in church—4 missionaries, Brother and Sister Telford, Sister Ardal, Sister Sylte, Robert, Donna and another young woman the missionaries are teaching (Di Thai) from Thailand. They began with Sunday School and Elder Hill taught a class in English, attended by all except the two Norwegian members and I, and Elder Liddle taught the other one in Norwegian. Nancy attended the English speaking class and said that Donna gave the opening prayer in Tagalog and Di Thai gave the closing prayer in Thai.
In sacrament meeting there was a mixture of English and Norwegian—brother Telford is married to a Norwegian, but has not learned much of the language, so he conducted the meeting in English. Elder Hill confirmed Robert, which was also done in English, because that is the language (other than his mother language) which he understands best. I blessed the sacrament in Norwegian and Sister Sylte gave a talk in Norwegian. Nancy and I were asked to share our testimonies. She spoke English and I spoke Norwegian. After church, we took Sister Ardal to her home (she could recognize landmarks in the daylight and I somewhat knew where I was going), then we began the drive to Kristiansund.
It snowed off and on most of the way (about 3-1/2 hours), but it was a light snow and the roads were mostly clear. When we arrived in Kristiansund, I called a young man who joined the church about a year and a half ago (Robert Huanga). Robert is from Burma. We picked him up at his apartment and he helped load the things from Sister Sundoy’s house into the car. We then visited with the Sundoy’s for a while. He appreciated our visit, as she is getting dementia and he is not able to leave her much, so he appreciates other adult conversation when he can. They are both very good people and we enjoyed our visit. From there we went to the building where they had held church and sorted through things in the storage cabinet, boxing up some things and tossing others and left some things there to be dealt with later. The only thing left of value is a piano, which is better than any of the pianos we have in Trondheim, so we will recommend to Pres. Paulsen that he have it shipped here. Once we were all loaded we returned to our hotel to spend the night and get rest before continuing the drive on Monday.
Monday it was snowing lightly in Kristiansund. We prayed that we would have good weather and clear roads, as we were going to be traveling over some mountains to get back home. The snow continued until we got off the ferry that crossed the fjord about 30 km from Kristiansund. When we left the ferry, we could see blue skies in the direction we were headed. There was no more snow and the roads were clear all the way back to Trondheim. We were grateful that our prayers had been answered.
We had made this drive back in late September, so it was interesting to see it now. Although it was not snowing, it had snowed earlier, so everything along the way was white. It was cold out (we did not pray for heat, just clear weather and roads), so there was frost on all the trees, power lines, etc. making for a beautiful scene.
We arrived home about 12:30 and found the elders at the church, so they helped unload the car, we then returned the rental car and went home to get laundry done to prepare for travel to zone conference in Oslo on Tuesday and Wednesday. That will be another update.
We enjoyed a great family home evening with the young single adults on Monday evening, where we talked about temples in the church—beginning with the Tabernacle of the Children of Israel up to the modern temples and their holy purposes. One young lady the sister missionaries are teaching was present, so it was an opportunity to introduce her to temples and their purposes. She plans to be baptized before Christmas.
On Tuesday we held a good district meeting with the missionaries here and the two elders in Alesund joining us by phone. They were very excited, as they have a man scheduled for baptism on Friday.
Wednesday was institute and a lot of preparation for thanksgiving day. Nancy made a simple dinner for Wednesday evening, as she was busy much of the day with preparation for Thursday’s dinner. She felt some frustration, as it seemed that everything she was preparing she was unable to find at least one ingredient, so was having to figure out substitutions. We had a good lesson from the book of Alma, taught by Eli-Christine, then enjoyed time visiting with her and Nadia (one of 2 young single adult young women in the branch).
On Thursday there were 26 at dinner, including 4 missionaries (6 counting us), 3 YSA from the branch, 6 adult members, and 11 friends and investigators--three of whom have baptismal dates set in December. We had ordered a 26 lb turkey, then I was not sure that would be big enough, so I bought another weighing about 10 lb and one of the members brought one weighing about the same--those two never got used. Nancy made about 40 lb of potatoes, salads, casseroles, etc. The sister missionaries brought 3 desserts and another young woman brought a bunch of small size pumpkin pies. Everyone had plenty to eat and took plates away. One of the men who was there is affiliated with the Salvation Army, so I gave him the turkey I had prepared but did not use so they could use it for a dinner tomorrow. The big turkey was too large for our oven, so I had the butcher shop cook it for me. Kristin asked how much that was going to cost and I told her I did not ask, as I had no other choice at that point. I should have asked--the turkey was about $2.00 per pound (I knew that)--the total bill came to a little over $320. But everyone had a good time and it was worth it to see all the chatter that took place during dinner and the fun people had afterward. However, next year we will do smaller turkeys that fit in the oven. Just in case you wonder what a $320. turkey looks like, here is a photo.
On Friday, we had been asked by the mission president (President Johansen) to travel south to the town of Alesund to attend a baptism of a man there. Alesund is a small town about 450km south and west of Trondheim. It was a 40 minute plane ride and we arrived about 11 a.m. and spent the day with the two missionaries serving there, Elders Jordan Hill and Chaz Liddle, helping them with preparations, visiting some of their investigators and even doing some contacting on the streets in town. The baptism took place Friday evening in a swimming pool at a local school. We met in a classroom at the school for a brief program, then crossed the courtyard to the building housing the pool for the baptism. Nancy played the piano for the baptism, as we were meeting in a music classroom and so there was a piano available. All present were delighted that she could play the piano. She also gave a talk (in English) about the covenants and promises associated with baptism. The elders had done a good job preparing and the members had prepared some good food for enjoyment after the baptism. There were 15 people at the baptism, including 5 investigators the elders are teaching. The new member, Robert Diallo, is a doctor practicing in Alesund. He comes from Senegal and is married to a German woman who is also a doctor. They have 2 sons who are currently living in Germany with their maternal grandmother. Robert is very excited to have found the gospel and looks forward to being with his sons at Christmas time and hopes to be able to baptize them. They will be meeting with the missionaries in Hamburg soon.
After the baptism on Friday evening, the elders asked the counselor in the branch presidency (Lincoln Telford from Logan, UT) if they could take some of the people home, as they would have to make many trips to get everyone home. The Telfords were preparing to leave while the party was still going strong, as he had to go to work at 3 a.m. However, he had two cars in town and said if I wanted to go with them to pick up the other car, we could use that to transport people and then he could get it in the morning. So I went with them to an area about 15 minutes away to pick up the car. I only got lost a couple of times finding my way back to the school, then took Kia and her children home and came back to see who else needed transportation. There were only two women left, Sister Ardal and Sister Sylte. They were both going to go with the elders, but Sister Ardal could not get her feet to bend enough to get into the elder’s small car, so I suggested that we take them home. Sister Sylte lives near where the elders live, so she decided to ride with them to save us some driving and Sister Ardal got in our car. We were driving on the highway toward her house when she said, “I think we missed the turnoff” so I turned around and went back down the highway. It was dark and raining, so it was hard to see landmarks. As I approached each exit, I would read the locations listed for the exit and she would say, “no, I don’t think that is the right one”. Soon I was at the last exit before entering the city center and she still was not certain. At that point, I pulled off to the side of the road, turned on the emergency blinkers and called Elder Liddle and told him of our situation. They came back and led us to her apartment, then we all went home to get some rest (about 10:30 p.m.).
We spent Saturday with Elders Hill and Liddle. They picked us up around 1030 to go to the airport where we picked up a rental car—a VW Passat station wagon—which we will drive to Kristiansund (about 200km north--~ halfway back to Trondheim) on Sunday after church to pick up some materials that have been stored in a member’s home there for some time as well as some things that are stored in a closet in the building they used for meetings when the branch in Kristiansund was active. There are several boxes containing “things” belonging to the church stored in the home of Sister Elsa Sundoy and her health is not good, so her son called President Paulsen in Trondheim and asked if we could move the material out of the house before she passes away and they then have to deal with it in a hurry. Since we were going to be in Alesund, it seemed like an easy solution to have us drive up to Kristiansund and pick up all that we could fit in a car and bring it back to Trondheim. I had hoped for the short 40 minute plane ride back on Sunday afternoon—unfortunately, life is never so simple.
After picking up the car, we took the elders to lunch, then joined them in visiting some of their investigators. We split up for a while because they had 2 appointments at the same time in different locations. Nancy went with Elder Hill and I went with Elder Liddle. We were to meet a young lady at the library at 3 p.m. We arrived about 2:50 and then found that the library closes at 3 on Saturday. The young woman did not show up and did not answer the text message Elder Liddle sent, so we went out on the street and contacted people. The appointment Elder Hill and Nancy went to did not materialize either, so they did some contacting. Nancy said they found a quiet place where they could hold a short prayer and Elder Hill prayed that they “could meet a Norwegian man who could hold the priesthood, as that is what the branch needs”. They finished the prayer, walked out on the street and the first person they talked with was a young Norwegian man. They engaged him in conversation, got his phone number and a commitment for him to meet with the elders next week.
In the evening we visited with Robert and talked about the confirmation and receipt of the Holy Ghost that would occur in Church tomorrow. He is very excited about the path he has entered and looking forward to tomorrow and the future when he will receive the priesthood. After our visit with him, we visited with two investigators, both of whom were at the baptism. Kia is from Burma and has two children, 21 and 14 who were also at the baptism. Her children were not at home tonight, but they both were very interested in the baptism and have been taught by the missionaries over the past few weeks. Donna is from the Philippines, lives here with her father and works as a nurse. She is married and has 2 young children who are home with their father. Her mother is also in the Philippines and helps with care of the children. They all hope that the father and Donna will be able to become secure in their jobs here (he is also a nurse) and soon be able to get the rest of the family to Norway. Both Donna and her father have been meeting with the missionaries and were at Robert’s baptism on Friday. Here is a picture of Nancy with Alesund in the background.
Sunday morning it was snowing and the elders came to our hotel to get us. We split up again, Nancy going with Elder Hill in their car and Elder Liddle going with me so we could pick up people to bring them to church. There were 11 people in church—4 missionaries, Brother and Sister Telford, Sister Ardal, Sister Sylte, Robert, Donna and another young woman the missionaries are teaching (Di Thai) from Thailand. They began with Sunday School and Elder Hill taught a class in English, attended by all except the two Norwegian members and I, and Elder Liddle taught the other one in Norwegian. Nancy attended the English speaking class and said that Donna gave the opening prayer in Tagalog and Di Thai gave the closing prayer in Thai.
In sacrament meeting there was a mixture of English and Norwegian—brother Telford is married to a Norwegian, but has not learned much of the language, so he conducted the meeting in English. Elder Hill confirmed Robert, which was also done in English, because that is the language (other than his mother language) which he understands best. I blessed the sacrament in Norwegian and Sister Sylte gave a talk in Norwegian. Nancy and I were asked to share our testimonies. She spoke English and I spoke Norwegian. After church, we took Sister Ardal to her home (she could recognize landmarks in the daylight and I somewhat knew where I was going), then we began the drive to Kristiansund.
It snowed off and on most of the way (about 3-1/2 hours), but it was a light snow and the roads were mostly clear. When we arrived in Kristiansund, I called a young man who joined the church about a year and a half ago (Robert Huanga). Robert is from Burma. We picked him up at his apartment and he helped load the things from Sister Sundoy’s house into the car. We then visited with the Sundoy’s for a while. He appreciated our visit, as she is getting dementia and he is not able to leave her much, so he appreciates other adult conversation when he can. They are both very good people and we enjoyed our visit. From there we went to the building where they had held church and sorted through things in the storage cabinet, boxing up some things and tossing others and left some things there to be dealt with later. The only thing left of value is a piano, which is better than any of the pianos we have in Trondheim, so we will recommend to Pres. Paulsen that he have it shipped here. Once we were all loaded we returned to our hotel to spend the night and get rest before continuing the drive on Monday.
Monday it was snowing lightly in Kristiansund. We prayed that we would have good weather and clear roads, as we were going to be traveling over some mountains to get back home. The snow continued until we got off the ferry that crossed the fjord about 30 km from Kristiansund. When we left the ferry, we could see blue skies in the direction we were headed. There was no more snow and the roads were clear all the way back to Trondheim. We were grateful that our prayers had been answered.
We had made this drive back in late September, so it was interesting to see it now. Although it was not snowing, it had snowed earlier, so everything along the way was white. It was cold out (we did not pray for heat, just clear weather and roads), so there was frost on all the trees, power lines, etc. making for a beautiful scene.
We arrived home about 12:30 and found the elders at the church, so they helped unload the car, we then returned the rental car and went home to get laundry done to prepare for travel to zone conference in Oslo on Tuesday and Wednesday. That will be another update.
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