Feb 8-14, 2010

Dear Family and Friends:

February 8 -14, 2010 – We are a little late this week.  On Saturday we went to Mo I Rana for church on Sunday.  We leave at 7 am on Saturday and should return home Sunday 10:30pm.  It is a 7 hour train ride.  On the return trip two railroad cars came for about a 4 car load of people.  There were skiers everywhere with all their gear.  They sent them on a bus, but there still were too many people.  About an hour into the ride we had to change to a bus as there was a train stalled on the tracks---sssoooo an hour and a half bus ride and then on a regular train and then a pleasant ride the rest of the way home.  When we go to Mo, I play the keyboard for church and give a talk in Norwegian.  Tithing was the branch president’s request.  Gerald talked on the Old Testament as they do not do Sunday School.  The branch president teaches RS/Priesthood.  There were 11 at church and then the family left.  So for RS and PH there were 3 sisters, the branch president and us.  We will go again sometime in March.  Since all the elders are gone from the north, we will need to visit another branch in Bodø occasionally.  Mo is like going as far as Burley to church.  Bodø is as far as going to Utah for church.  We think we will fly to Bodø

The mission has had some reorganization.  We had a North Zone, South Zone and Oslo (Stake) Zone.  Now we have a West Zone and an East Zone.  There aren’t any elders north of our area now.  There is a couple in Tromsø.  They moved all the elders to larger areas to build up the church.  Oslo is the only stake in Norway.  The mission president wants to have two stakes in Norway.  The plan is to strengthen the West Zone.  West Zone covers a lot of area—Trondheim, Bergen and Stavanger are the larger cities.  Also Kristiansand on the South is in the West Zone.

The president called a couple of weeks ago and said that we would have two additional elders in Trondheim as a result of closing the north area, so could we please find them an apartment—in 10 days.  We already have found apartments for the current sisters and elders.  We are getting to be apartment hunters—but we know what to look for—CLEAN! (with an elevator)  Along with finding apartments we have to buy furniture for them—bunk beds, study table, lamp, washing machine, to name a few things.  IKEA of Sweden is the place of choice to shop here.  It is amazing how much we can fit into a compact sedan.

So apartment hunting and shopping, traveling to Mo, district meeting, FHE, dinner and Institute and visiting a few less actives took all week.  The weeks just seem fly by. 

Here is a photo of the train on the return trip Sunday.
Love to all,
Mom and Dad/ Grandpa and Grandma/ Nancy and Gerald