May God bless you in all that you do,
love,
Elder and Sister Sorensen/mom and Dad/Gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa
Week of December 28, 2009-January 3, 2010
Trondheim, Norway
Like all the others, this week has gone by way too fast. We arrived at the Trondheim station from Mo I Rana at about 7:30 on Monday morning after a long train ride through the night. The train was packed, no empty seats and we were lucky enough to get 2 of the 6 seats in the car that did not recline (“bulkhead seats”). There had been a couple of inches of snow in Trondheim since we left, so I had to uncover the car before we could return home. Once home, it was time to get the laundry in and take a nap (after a good breakfast). The rest of the day was pretty slow as we cleaned the apt and made preparations for Family Home Evening. Many of the young single adults have gone out of town for the holidays, so there were only 2 of them at FHE, plus Harald Myhren (branch clerk), an investigator (Metei, from Iran) and the missionaries. We had a good lesson and then enjoyed playing some games.
We had been invited to “middag” (mid day-dinner) on Monday by Turid Hansen last week, but she called on Sunday and said she had to take care of her mother on Monday and could we do it another day. That worked out well, as we were too tired to go visit on Monday afternoon.
We had our district meeting on Tuesday morning, after which we had pizza for lunch with the elders and sisters. This has become a tradition that they all enjoy. We then went to IKEA to buy some things that we still needed for the elders apartment. Here is a view from their apt in the daytime.
We planned to spend New Year’s eve at the church from 8-midnight with the missionaries, young singles and investigators, so much of Wednesday was spent shopping for the food for the evening on Thursday. Everything closes at 1 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, so we could not let things wait to the last minute. I found that one of the tires on the car was low Tuesday afternoon and was lucky enough to find a tire shop open and they did a repair for me—at no cost!!
New Year’s Eve we had been told is a time of fireworks all over town and the place to be is on the bridge near the cathedral. We had a group of 10—Sisters Engebretsen and Molholt, Elders Henshaw and Richardson, Harald Myhren, Shina Elegbede, Zeng Zhau, Nadia Haugen and the two of us. Harald is the branch clerk (62 years old, never married) and he is always at the church, so he gets invited to everything we do. We enjoyed chips, dips, salsa, open face sandwiches (smørbrød) with meat, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, and rice krispie treats. After eating (and while snacking) some played “Farkle” a new game Kristin sent for Christmas (the package arrived on the 30th) while others played “nertz”. Sister Engebretsen likes this game as much as Nancy does, so they were trying to teach Shina (from Nigeria) and Zeng (from China) the intricacies of the game. I don’t think they were too successful. Finally at about 1145 we walked to the bridge to enjoy fireworks to usher in the New Year. There were quite a few people there already, many who had been celebrating for some time already, and they may not remember the midnight hour. The fireworks were great—just like a 4th of July at home only they were going off everywhere. There was a main display sponsored by the city, but some of the ones being shot off by citizens were almost as impressive. We headed back to the church at about 1230 and started taking people home. We finally got to bed around 2 a.m. so we could wake in the morning to have breakfast for the missionaries here at 8. Here is a picture of New Year’s eve and breakfast. We enjoyed Norwegian waffles and some enjoyed them with ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream, while others were more traditional—eating them with brown cheese and jam.
In the early afternoon on New Year’s Day we went to the church where Nancy and Nadia defrosted and cleaned the refrigerator and cleaned the kitchen drawers. I kept busy by repairing the ping pong table and tightening up screws on the stackable chairs in the cultural hall and the out reach room. A couple of week ago, Elder Henshaw sat on a chair and it sounded like it cracked, so after he stood up and sat down again, I watched the bottom of the seat and sure enough, it was cracked, so we put it away so I could repair it later. I got that one glued back together earlier in the week and noted that several others had loose screws in various places. So on New Year’s day I celebrated by tightening screws on the chairs (58 chairs with 10 screws each). At about 3:30, the missionaries and several investigators plus Shine showed up and we ate some more, then played games and visited for several hours before everyone left to go home.
On Friday evening we visited a less active man and his non-member wife and 10 year old daughter. They come from India and have been in Norway for about 17 years. He joined the church before he met his wife. We had a nice visit with them and invited them to church on Sunday (they did not make it).
Saturday was sports with the missionaries and young single adults at the church from noon to 2 p.m. There were 8, including 4 young missionaries, Shine, Metei and a Chinese student who is a friend of one of the YSA. The sisters had seen him on the street a couple of days earlier and invited him to come join us. Since there was an uneven number, I “had” to play.
Today (Sunday) Nancy and I taught the English speaking Gospel Doctrine class, which turned out to be the Gospel Principles class, as there were 6 investigators, one recent convert (Shine), 4 missionaries and Nadia. The investigators were from Nigeria, Iran, Palestine, the Philippines and Norway. All were Christian except the man from Palestine, who is Muslim. Nancy also played the organ in church, so her talents were well used today.
Shine was baptized on December 5 and has struggled a bit because of discussions he has had with his best friend from Nigeria (who is also studying in Norway—Stavanger) and some anti-LDS information he gave to him. We have talked several times to answer his questions and reassure him that he has made the right decision. On Friday he went with the elders to teach a young man who is also from Nigeria. Shine told him that this (being baptized) was the best decision he has made. He told him of some of the struggles he has had and his concern that his family may disown him, but he said, “it is all worth it”. Earlier in the week Sister Engebretsen had told him to check out the BYU-Idaho website, he did and found an article about a young student there who is from Nigeria. The young man was not a member of the church when he began school, but has since joined the church. He and Shine have communicated through facebook and it has done a world of good for Shine to see that there are others from his country that are making the same choice and finding the same happiness that he has as well as facing some of the same challenges.
This next week will get back to more of what is “normal”—whatever that is. Tonight we are taking Nadia to the train station at 10 p.m. so she can take the night train to Oslo. Tomorrow she will fly to the US, where she will spend a week with the Christensens (a couple who were here about 4 years ago) in Gilbert, AZ, then fly to Utah where she will spend a week with Sister Engebretsens family, then back to AZ for a week before returning home. She has been counting the days for weeks now. She served a mission on Temple Square, but had to come home in her first year due to illness. We will miss her for the 3 weeks she will be gone, but she will return very excited about her experiences. We have given her phone numbers for Alison and Steve in case she has a few minutes to visit.
We are grateful to be here in Norway working with the wonderful people here to help introduce them to the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. What a blessing it is in our lives and we know that the Lord is blessing our family and friends while we are away.
Love,
Mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/nana and granddad/Elder and Sister Sorensen
Trondheim, Norway
Like all the others, this week has gone by way too fast. We arrived at the Trondheim station from Mo I Rana at about 7:30 on Monday morning after a long train ride through the night. The train was packed, no empty seats and we were lucky enough to get 2 of the 6 seats in the car that did not recline (“bulkhead seats”). There had been a couple of inches of snow in Trondheim since we left, so I had to uncover the car before we could return home. Once home, it was time to get the laundry in and take a nap (after a good breakfast). The rest of the day was pretty slow as we cleaned the apt and made preparations for Family Home Evening. Many of the young single adults have gone out of town for the holidays, so there were only 2 of them at FHE, plus Harald Myhren (branch clerk), an investigator (Metei, from Iran) and the missionaries. We had a good lesson and then enjoyed playing some games.
We had been invited to “middag” (mid day-dinner) on Monday by Turid Hansen last week, but she called on Sunday and said she had to take care of her mother on Monday and could we do it another day. That worked out well, as we were too tired to go visit on Monday afternoon.
We had our district meeting on Tuesday morning, after which we had pizza for lunch with the elders and sisters. This has become a tradition that they all enjoy. We then went to IKEA to buy some things that we still needed for the elders apartment. Here is a view from their apt in the daytime.
On Friday evening we visited a less active man and his non-member wife and 10 year old daughter. They come from India and have been in Norway for about 17 years. He joined the church before he met his wife. We had a nice visit with them and invited them to church on Sunday (they did not make it).
Saturday was sports with the missionaries and young single adults at the church from noon to 2 p.m. There were 8, including 4 young missionaries, Shine, Metei and a Chinese student who is a friend of one of the YSA. The sisters had seen him on the street a couple of days earlier and invited him to come join us. Since there was an uneven number, I “had” to play.
Today (Sunday) Nancy and I taught the English speaking Gospel Doctrine class, which turned out to be the Gospel Principles class, as there were 6 investigators, one recent convert (Shine), 4 missionaries and Nadia. The investigators were from Nigeria, Iran, Palestine, the Philippines and Norway. All were Christian except the man from Palestine, who is Muslim. Nancy also played the organ in church, so her talents were well used today.
Shine was baptized on December 5 and has struggled a bit because of discussions he has had with his best friend from Nigeria (who is also studying in Norway—Stavanger) and some anti-LDS information he gave to him. We have talked several times to answer his questions and reassure him that he has made the right decision. On Friday he went with the elders to teach a young man who is also from Nigeria. Shine told him that this (being baptized) was the best decision he has made. He told him of some of the struggles he has had and his concern that his family may disown him, but he said, “it is all worth it”. Earlier in the week Sister Engebretsen had told him to check out the BYU-Idaho website, he did and found an article about a young student there who is from Nigeria. The young man was not a member of the church when he began school, but has since joined the church. He and Shine have communicated through facebook and it has done a world of good for Shine to see that there are others from his country that are making the same choice and finding the same happiness that he has as well as facing some of the same challenges.
This next week will get back to more of what is “normal”—whatever that is. Tonight we are taking Nadia to the train station at 10 p.m. so she can take the night train to Oslo. Tomorrow she will fly to the US, where she will spend a week with the Christensens (a couple who were here about 4 years ago) in Gilbert, AZ, then fly to Utah where she will spend a week with Sister Engebretsens family, then back to AZ for a week before returning home. She has been counting the days for weeks now. She served a mission on Temple Square, but had to come home in her first year due to illness. We will miss her for the 3 weeks she will be gone, but she will return very excited about her experiences. We have given her phone numbers for Alison and Steve in case she has a few minutes to visit.
We are grateful to be here in Norway working with the wonderful people here to help introduce them to the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. What a blessing it is in our lives and we know that the Lord is blessing our family and friends while we are away.
Love,
Mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/nana and granddad/Elder and Sister Sorensen
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