week of Dec 14-20, 2009

We pray that all of you are enjoying this Christmas season. It looks a lot like Christmas here, with snow on the ground and icicles hanging from places where small waterfalls used to be. This has been another delightful week in Norway and we are enjoying our experiences and the people here.

May God bless each of you and your families at this special time of year when we pause to reflect upon the birth of Our Savior.

love,

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

This has been a week of moving. We have made more trips to the airport (Hell) this week than should be allowed.

As we mentioned last week, Sister Johnson and Elder Christensen found out on Sunday that they would be moving on Wednesday—Elder Christensen to Bodø (way north) and Sister Johnson to Oslo. We received two new missionaries on Wednesday, Elder Richardson from Eagle, Idaho and Sister Mølholt from Denmark. Elder Richardson has been out for about a year and Sister Mølholt is brand new, but obviously speaks the language well. More on them later.

The sisters (Engebretsen and Johnson) had told us a few weeks ago that if Sister Johnson was going to be moved, they were going to run up to our apt on Monday morning for breakfast. So they showed up at about 10 a.m. and we enjoyed a good breakfast of scrambled, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, toast, fruit, juices and milk. It was our “farewell” breakfast with Sister Johnson. After we finished breakfast and it was time for them to go back to their apt to get ready for the day (we did drive them back), they both asked if I would give them a priesthood blessing. Which I was happy to do. We have felt like surrogate grandparents for them. In the evening we had a good group—10—at family home evening and Nadia, one of the Young Single Adults, gave a good lesson on service and challenged all of us to do at least one good thing for someone else every day between then and Christmas. The sisters were teaching an investigator, so they were not with us until later. Everyone stayed around for quite a while afterward playing games and visiting. Just before FHE we met with the owner of the new apartment the Elders will be moving into to pick up keys. The apt was going to be rented unfurnished, but he ended up leaving a fair amount of furniture—an almost new couch (which his girlfriend said does not match the new house), a small table and 2 chairs, coffee table, toaster oven and a small book case. That will make the move easier, as the only big things we will need to provide are bunkbeds and a washing machine. The apt is on the 5th floor of the building, near the center of town and has large windows along one wall, which look down into the small boat harbor and beyond to the fjord. It is a stunning view! I was smitten when we first looked at it a couple of months ago and was able to convince the owner that renting to the church would be the best thing he could do, as his renter would never call and say “my check did not come this week, can I pay a little late?” Every month the mission office will make a deposit to his account on the first. Now will come the fun of moving.

On Tuesday, we began moving the elders. Our ward mission leader has a full size Jeep, so I asked if he could help us get bunk beds from IKEA (the place where every body shops), so we went to IKEA and bought bunk beds. They came in a two box set and it was not clear from the description if each box had the contents for one bed or two, so he asked one of the workers and she said we needed two of each box (one large, one smaller), so be bought the 4 boxes, then the big ones did not fit in the car, so we tied them to his roof rack and transported them to the apt. Elders Henshaw and Christensen were there to help with the unloading (fortunately) and it was then that we discovered the elevator was out of service, so they packed all four boxes up five flights of stairs and stacked them outside the door. I opened one of the smaller boxes first and found 4 sections of springs for the beds—enough to do 2 beds, so decided we probably only needed one set of boxes. Elder Christensen and I set up the beds while Nancy and Elder Henshaw went back to their apt to load up suitcases. IKEA did not have mattresses for the beds, so we brought the mattresses from their old apt so they did not have to sleep on springs. We finally got them situated so they could spend the night there—Elder Christensens first and last. While Nancy and Elder Henshaw were picking up some of the last things from the old apt, Elder Christensen and I walked to the nearest store and bought some food for dinner—lapskaus (the Norwegian equivalent of beef stew) and a couple of cans of peaches. We took these to the church and had dinner there.

On Wednesday it was move day. Elder Christensen had to be to the airport by 6 a.m. for a 7 a.m flight to Bodø, so we were up at 4:15 to get them to the airport. We left the two of them at the airport and returned to pick up the sisters and get Sister Johnson to her 8:30 a.m. flight. After dropping her off and saying our goodbyes, we brought Elder Henshaw and Sister Engebretsen back here and fed them breakfast as we waited for the time when Sister Mølholt would arrive at the airport. We met their flights at around 10 a.m. and we transported their luggage while the 4 of them took the bus back to town, where we met them and got the luggage distributed to their apartments. The elevator in the Elders building still did not work, so they got to carry everything up 5 flights. After getting their things dropped in the apartments, both companionships went off to contact people in town and to appointments. There was no delay in getting the new ones started working.

We had a good lesson in Institute on Wednesday night, taught by Eli-Christine and there was a good group of YSA present, including Shina and Xin who were baptized the past two Saturdays and a young man from Iran whom the elders have been teaching. This was our last institute class until the New Year. Nancy prepared chicken noodle soup for dinner and it was a big hit again and banana bread muffins for dessert.

Thursday morning, Elder Henshaw had to fly to Alesund to do a baptismal interview with a young woman there who is being baptized next Monday, so we were up early to drop him at the airport and pick up Elder Gardner (the companion from Alesund) who will work with Elder Richardson for the day. We brought them back and fed them breakfast before taking them to the Elders apartment. Elder Henshaw will return on Friday morning and Elder Gardner will return to Alesund.

Thursday was Sister Mølholts birthday (22) so I had asked Sister Engebretsen on Wednesday evening if they wanted to go out to lunch to celebrate and if so where. She did not know what sister Mølholt liked, so while we were chatting at institute, I asked her what her favorite food was. The answer: “Crispy chicken sandwich from Burger King” There are two BKs in town, so that will be easy to do. Sister Engebretsen wanted to surprise her, so she suggested that we drive by the street where they used to live at about noon on Thursday and they would be contacting people there. We saw them on the street Thursday at noon, asked if they wanted a ride somewhere and Sis Engebretsen said, “yes, we need to go to the church”. As we were driving down one of the main streets, I saw the BK and asked if they had eaten lunch yet and they replied no, so I said, “here is a BK, how about we stop here?” Sister Mølholt said, “oh that’s my favorite place to eat!” The 3 of them went in while I found a parking place and then I joined them. After ordering, Sis Engebretsen got 4 BK crowns and we took pictures of sister Mølholts first birthday party in Norway. Later in the evening, I emailed the pictures to her parents. Sister Mølholt was an amateur boxer for 12 years before giving it up to come on a mission. She was not just a boxer, but a world champion for 3 years and Danish National champion for several others. She hopes to compete for Denmark in the 2012 Olympics. Here is a Youtube video of her in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ7H7hJsDBc She is small, but as you can see packs a large whallop. She fought at 46kg (~101 lb). She is as good a missionary as she was a boxer.

We then went shopping for a number of other things the Elders need to live—like pots and pans, dishtowels, lamps, etc. and then met them at their apt so they could pack it all up. Fortunately, the elevator was now working.

In the evening we went to visit a less active family with the sisters where we met with the mother (Iris) and their 5 children plus a neighbor girl. We showed a short video on Christ and the children were all very attentive during this time. Nancy made a pan full of Rice Krispie treats which Iris and the children had loved when she gave them a few last week and they were delighted to have a full pan of them. We had prayer and then went go drop off a figure from a nativity to a family (the sisters have been doing the “12 days of Christmas” with a nativity set, leaving a piece of the nativity and a small note each night on the door step. This will conclude on Christmas eve with the last piece, the baby Jesus). After we dropped them at the home of a young Chinese man they are teaching and we went home.

On Friday we were at the airport at 8 to send Elder Gardner back to Alesund and pick up Elder Henshaw. He arrived about 45 minutes after Elder Gardner left, so we waited at the airport. Nancy stayed home from this trip to bake banana bread to take to some of the people we visit.

Catharina Bjørnevåg (the owner of the hungry rabbit) told us when we visited last week that she was going to be doing a presentation on Friday of some of her sculptures at her art school in Trondheim, so we told her we would attend. It took a while to find the building—I met a lot of nice people as I was trying to find it. When we arrived, she was doing her presentation, so we stood outside the room (it was small and already full) and listened at the open door as she discussed her project and answered questions from colleagues. After the presentation we spent some time visiting with her and looking at her work. She is talented (for all we know about art). Her desire is to move to NYC and pursue her sculpting dream.

After the presentation, we drove out to Kattem (about 15 minutes) to visit with the Reardons and take them some banana bread. We were on the other side of town from where we would normally drive out there, so decided to see if our “Tom-Tom” (GPS) could find a better route than the way I would have gone. We saw some interesting scenery along the way (or at least would have had it not been dark and snowing). We traveled roads I would have enjoyed in the summer, but wondered about in a snow storm. We finally reached a point where we recognized the surroundings, but it was an interesting journey. We will have to try it again in the summer if we can remember where we were.

Saturday was the baptism of Trond Soligard, a 45 year old Norwegian man who has studied the gospel with missionaries for several years, but never felt the need to give up smoking and commit to join the church. The sister missionaries have been teaching him since we arrived in August and they finally got him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Voila!! He decided to give up smoking and committed to be baptized. Nancy played the piano for the singing and I gave the closing prayer. It was a very spiritual meeting and his wife and daughter were there to catch the spirit of it all.

On Friday evening, Sister Engebretsen said she had talked with Shina, the young man from Nigeria who was baptized two weeks ago, and his best friend from Nigeria (who is now going to school in Stavenger, Norway) came to visit him for a few days and had been really giving him a hard time after hearing that he had joined the church. She wanted to know if I would go and meet with them (Shina and his friend) to try to answer some of his questions. I called Shina, that evening but did not get an answer and did not leave a message. Saturday morning, I was thinking about him and decided to send a text message (I am getting pretty good with those). I got about 2 words written when the phone rang and it was Shina. We talked for a bit and he asked if we could come at 1 p.m. to meet with his friend. He then sent a text to the sisters and asked if they could come also. We picked up the sisters and went to his apartment where we sat and discussed things for about 2 hours. His friend was, in his words, “dogmatic about there cannot be any other book like the Bible”. So no matter what we said, he came back to this point. I told him that that is where he and Shina were different, Shina had listened to what the sisters had taught him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and had prayed to find out if it was true and the Holy Ghost had testified to him that it was true. Being “dogmatic” would not allow him to even consider asking God if it was true. He had told Shina that if they could not agree on something so fundamental as religion, then he did not know how they could continue their friendship. This hurt Shina deeply, so I tried to explain to him that friendship should not be dependent on agreement on religion or anything else. I used examples of friends I have who are not of our faith, but are still good friends. He did not see how that could be possible for him. We parted on friendly terms, but there had been no movement on his part.

On Sunday morning, Shina called to say that he invited his friend to come to church with him today, but he refused, saying he could not come to a church that believes there could be a book of scripture in addition to the Bible. He was not sure what to do. He was to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and be ordained a Priest today, but he did not want to just leave his friend in the apartment. I told him that I would just say, “this is something very important to me and I would like to have you be there to support me, but if you choose not to, I do need to go.” I told him this may be hard and if he wanted, we could come and pick him up. He said he would come on the bus. Just before the start of priesthood (our first meeting), he sent a text and said he needed to reconsider my offer, as he had been talking with his friend and missed the bus. I replied that I would be there in a few minutes and went to pick him up. He came alone and had a good feeling during the meetings. After Sacrament meeting, I conferred the priesthood on him and ordained him a Priest. We had talked about the priesthood offices on the trip back to church and he was anxious to receive the priesthood.

There were 6 investigators at church Sunday. Most of them speak some language other than Norwegian as their mother tongue and very little Norwegian, so all the missionaries translate the meetings—except Nancy, but she played the piano in Relief Society and Sacrament meeting and taught a gospel doctrine class in English, so her talents are well used.

On Saturday afternoon, Jeffrey Stevens had called and told me his wife, Trina, was in the hospital in Orkanger (about 45 km away). She had become dizzy and nauseated on Friday and was admitted to the hospital that afternoon. They had done CAT scans but had not found anything conclusive. They first thought maybe a stroke, then perhaps a small blood clot. I asked if he wanted us to come out that evening and if she would like a blessing. He said he thought there was no need to come out right away, but if we could come tomorrow or Monday, they would appreciate it. So we made plans to travel to Orkanger after church on Sunday. I called after church and he told me she was feeling better today and would appreciate our visit. He would not be there, as he had to get back and go to work this evening. We had a pleasant drive, found the hospital and had a good visit with Trina. Before we left, I asked if she would like a blessing and she said yes. It is wonderful to be able to use the priesthood to help people in times of need.

We returned home and tried to find something for dinner (at 9:30). Missionary life is good, and we especially appreciate this time of year where much of the world pauses to reflect on the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are happy to be here and share His message with the good people of Norway (and many other countries whom we meet here).

Our love and Christmas greetings to all of you.

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