WEEKLY UPDATE
WEEK OF MARCH 8-14
TRONDHEIM, NORWAY
We have had another good week in Trondheim, filled with good experiences with the young single adults, investigators and members here.
On Monday we had a busy day getting things done in the apartment—laundry, vacuuming, shopping, etc. In the evening there were 15 present at family home evening, including 2 investigators and 5 young single adult members—the other 8 being the missionaries. The room is almost filled to capacity with 15 people and it makes us reflect on the first few family home evenings we held here back in August with just the two of us, two sister missionaries and 2 young single adult members. The Lord has truly blessed this small branch. One of the investigators present, Liaqat Rizai from Afghanistan, is planning to be baptized on Saturday.
Tuesday was Nancy’s birthday and she received many birthday greetings from the members here as well as from friends and family at home. She commented that she has never received so many birthday cards as she received this week—and the cards kept coming throughout the week. The first birthday greeting of the day came at 2:45 a.m. via a text message from one of the young single adult women. One of the hazards of working with young single adults is the hours they keep. For the first few weeks we were here, I would turn off the cell phone at night, then realized that this was our only contact method, so have been leaving it on since then and occasionally we get these early morning “greetings”. Anyway, we love Torunn and appreciated her thinking of Nancy so early in the morning and wanting to be the first to wish her a happy birthday. The last greeting of the day came from the Relief Society president (who celebrated her birthday on March 12—the same age as Nancy) at about 10:30 p.m. We enjoyed a good sirloin dinner at EGON, a nice restaurant in downtown Trondhiem.
We had our missionary district meeting as usual on Tuesday morning at 11 and at the end, the sister missionaries brought in a pan of brownies which had been baked by one of the sisters in the branch (Torunn’s mother). Sister Engebretsen also served her a bowl of broccoli with cheese (one of her favorited meals). Later in the afternoon, we picked up our car from the dealership garage (where it has been since Feb. 20). We drove about 3 km to the Hansen’s home to return the empty brownie pan and I left the engine running while Nancy took the pan into the house to visit with Turid and Torunn and I visited with Harald outside, where he was doing some work on Torunn’s car. After 10 or 15 minutes, we went to go into the house and as I got closer to the car I thought “that car sounds awful loud—like an exhaust leak,” I got in to turn it off and noted that the engine temperature light was on. So after visiting for a few minutes more, we returned to the dealership and fortunately, found the service agent still there as they closed at 5 and it was about 5 after. I walked in and he said, “are you back?” “yes, I am back—I’ll trade you for the rental car again.” I explained the problem and left it with him. Sometime during the afternoon, we found time to join the sisters in teaching an investigator, a young student from Turkey.
On Wednesday was Institute. Nancy made chicken noodle soup for dinner—this is a favorite of all who attend and there were 18 present to enjoy the dinner. 15 stayed for institute class. Also on Wednesday evening was a branch council meeting, which I attend representing the missionaries. We leave tired at the end of the day on Monday and Wednesdays but feeling blessed with the good spirit which we enjoy as we meet with the young single adult members and investigators and other branch members and missionaries.
Thursday we met with a 25 year old young man (Hans Christian Moan) who has not been active in the church since he was about 13 and has pretty much been on his own since he was 15. We had a good visit with he and his girlfriend and feel encouraged that we will continue to visit with them. Nancy also met with the sister missionaries and a member (Birgit) to practice a song they will be singing in Church on Sunday.
Friday was a day to catch up again. We did some shopping, I repaired the tread on two stairs in the church going down to the basement rooms and Nancy worked on preparing forms on the computer to help the missionaries become better acquainted with the members. The mission president has asked the missionaries to have a “member book” with member addresses, and basic information so they can more effectively interact with members. So the assignment became Nancy’s to prepare something. While at the mall, I saw a good sale on suits and purchased a new suit plus an extra pair of slacks to match the suit and a pair of gray slacks. They were having a “take 3 pay for 2” sale. I decided my old suit could be given to one of the new converts and help him be dressed in something other than jeans at church.
Friday evening, Nancy met with Torunn and Vera Dahlø to practice a song which they will sing in church the last Sunday of the month. When Nancy and Torun first arrived, they went into the chapel and Nancy sat down at the piano and started to play—there was not a sound from the piano. She opened the top and found that all of the hammers had been removed (she remembered then that Torunn’s dad had told us the piano tuner was working on the piano earlier in the week) to be repaired. They enjoyed a good laugh at their shock, then went to another piano. After they finished practicing at about 8:30, Torunn came home with us and visited until about 11. She needs a little extra attention every once in a while.
Early in the week, we had several days of temperatures up to as much as 6C, so snow was melting and there were large puddles everywhere. On Friday afternoon it started to snow and by Saturday morning , there was about 5” of snow on the ground—on top of the frozen puddles. I awoke early Saturday morning and decided I had better go remove snow from the church parking lot (it is only big enough for 7 cars) as we were having a baptism for Liaqat in the afternoon. Norwegians use large scoops (about 3’ across) to remove snow as opposed to our typical snow shovels. I went to the church and got out the scoop and started working. Just after I started, Harald Myhren—the branch clerk—came out and measured the snow. Then said that there is a firm that is supposed to come remove the snow when there is more than 10 cm. I said, then there is no need for me to do any more? He said, “No, you can continue, they are not all that reliable. Sometimes they come and sometimes they don’t.” It took about an hour and a half and as I was finishing the guy who should be plowing it came by on his 4-wheel drive ATV and did the sidewalk.
The baptism was a great experience. Liaqat speaks some English but next to no Norsk, so the baptismal program was all done in English. The opening prayer was given by Victor who was just baptized in mid-January. Victor is from Nigeria and gave a very sincere and beautiful prayer to start the meeting. I think his first in a group setting. Harald Myhren gave a talk—his first in English. He speaks English quite well, but is always hesitant to use it, especially in a group setting where there are many Norwegians present. In Institute and FHE, we generally give lessons and conduct the business in English because of the many non-Norwegians who are present and all of the YSA speak good English (Harald is 62 years old). Harald wrote his talk in Norsk and Elder Henshaw translated it for him. As Elder Henshaw was trying to convince him that he could do it in English, Nancy said, “you speak better English than I do Norsk, so if I give my talks in Norsk, you can surely do this in English.” He agreed and gave a very good talk. After the baptism, Sister Kimo, a member from the Philippines, had made a nice meal of Filipino food to feed all those who were present.
I had given my old suit and a white shirt to Elder Henshaw and told him to give them to Victor or Liaqat, whomever they would fit. They fit Victor and after the baptism he came upstairs to the dinner wearing his “new” suit and white shirt. He was excited! Came in and gave me a big hug and a “thank you”. He looked good!
On Sunday morning, I noted that it had snowed about 4” in the night, so the parking lot would be buried in snow again. So I went to the church early to shovel snow once more. I went downstairs where the snow scoop and shovel are kept, only to find—nothing. I looked throughout the building with no luck, then woke the branch president to ask if he knew where they may have gone? Would someone borrow them to do their home driveway or sidewalks? No, he did not think so and he did not know where they could be. As I stood on the front steps of the church trying to figure out what I could do, I saw what appeared to be the top half of the handle to a scoop sticking out of the snot along side of an apartment building across the street. I walked over and pulled it out of the snow (it was sitting on dry ground, so had not been used all winter, so I did not think they would mind if I borrowed it for an hour or so. I told Nancy when I came home that it was nice that the Lord provided a way for me to carryout the work I had decided to do. It reminded me of the story of Abraham and Isaac and how Abraham found a ram in the bushes to use for his sacrifice. The Lord provided me with a snow scoop.
Nancy had to be at church at 10 to practice the piano with those who were singing in Sacrament meeting (all of the young missionaries plus Birgit), so I took her in, picking up the sisters on the way and then went to pick up Victor and Liaqat to bring them to church. Victor looked great in his new suit with a white shirt and tie.
Nancy played the piano for Relief Society, as well as the organ in Sacrament meeting and accompanied the special musical number, so she got a good workout. After Priesthood meeting, I took Shina to pick up one of his friends who wanted to come to church. Then returned to teach a temple preparation class for Sister Kimo and an older brother, John Hansen (80). They are both excited to be preparing to go to the temple this summer. Sister Kimo will travel to the Philippines to attend the temple in Cebu when it is completed and John will be going to Stockholm.
After church we had dinner with the young single adults and then watched the YSA fireside broadcast of Elder Rasband’s talk to the young single adults last week. We had 19 to dinner and 15 who stayed for the broadcast. Afterward, we visited with two of the YSA (Nadia and Oscar) and Harald Myhren for about an hour before taking the sister missionaries to deliver cupcakes to some of the members and investigators. The first place they wanted to go was to Sarah Jordan. Sarah lives up a fairly steep hill on a small dirt road. I told them I was not sure we would make it all the way to her house. We got within about 200 yards of the house before the wheels started to spin, so they walked the rest of the way, delivered the cupcakes and I backed down to where the road had a fork. I backed up into one part of it and proceeded to pull forward to head back down the hill, when I went into a ditch and was stuck. The sisters thought hey could push, so they got in front of the car and as Sister Molholt took a step off toward the middle of the car, she stepped into snow about up to her chest and almost disappeared. About that time, Sarah called and asked if we needed help—I said yes. Her husband came down with their 4-wheel drive car and a tow rope and got us out. I told him that perhaps he needed to accompany us out to the main road, to make sure I would make it up the next hill, which he did, but we did not need anymore assistance. This was our first time being stuck in the snow, so I guess we have done well so far—however, winter is not over yet.
At the end of some days, we ask ourselves if we have done any missionary work (teaching the gospel) and have to conclude that there are many ways to do missionary work and not all of them involve sitting in someone’s living room teaching a lesson. We are seeing progress with the young people we work with and have some members attending who have not been to church for some time, so when we look at the bigger picture, we realize we are doing some good. We love the people here. The snow is a pain it times, but everything is so beautiful that it is not possible to dislike it. We just have to say “we are in Norway, what do you expect?”
We send our love to all of you and express our love for the Savior, Jesus Christ. We are mindful each day of the great privilege we have to have such a wonderful family and friends.
Love to all,
Mom and dad/grandma and grandpa/nana and granddad/Gerald and Nancy
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