The big news this week has been that airplanes began to fly again throughout Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, so missionaries in Norway moved to their assigned new locations on Wednesday as planned and those who were being released actually got to travel home. For us, it was to see Elder Bartholomew travel to Kristiansand to become a senior companion. Elder Tedrow arrived here at about noon to replace him. Elder Tedrow is from Springville, UT and his family is good friends with Stephanie’s parents. He arrived in Norway back in mid-February and has been serving in Stavanger. Sister Engebretsen returned to Provo and home and family (arrived safe and sound but several hours late) and Sister West, from England came to replace her serving with Sister Molholt. Sister West has been in Norway for about a year and has most recently served in Bergen after the first 4 months in Oslo. We were sad to see the “old” ones leave, but happy to welcome the new.
We have spent a fair amount of time this week with the moves. President Johansen held a conference call with all the missionaries on Monday night at 10 p.m. and told them that the flights were beginning to occur, so he planned to go forward with the moves as scheduled (even though on Sunday morning he had said they probably would not be occurring until the new missionaries from the MTC arrived). Sister Engebretsen had been assuming she had another month to serve, so had not been making preparations to go home. On Tuesday night, we picked her and Sister Molholt up in the student housing area at about 9:30 p.m. and helped her get things packed. We put her two large suitcases in the car and took them with us at about 12:30 a.m. and were to pick the sisters up again at 5 a.m. to get her to the airport. At about 4:20, Sister Engebretsen called and said, “I can’t find my wallet anywhere, it must be in one of the suitcases.” Nancy had packed the larger of the two and was certain it was not there, but Sis Engebretsen had started packing the smaller of the two before she finished, so she told me where it might be and I went to the car (it is now dawn at that time of day) and sure enough, it was where she said it might be—crisis avoided. We got her to the airport (no tickets on the way to Hell) and watched her through security then returned home for breakfast and preparation for the day. We spent the day as Sis Molholt’s companions. We taught a young woman they have been meeting with for the past couple of weeks. Nina is a student and comes from Stavanger. She is been coming to church and other activities and is very delightful. After that, it was begin preparations for Institute dinner while Sis Molholt taught with some of the members as her companion. After institute, we took Sis Molholt to the airport to meet Sis West on a 9:00 p.m. flight from Bergen. By the time we got back to our apt it was about 11 p.m. Having only had about 3 hours sleep Tuesday night, we were ready for a good night’s sleep.
On Thursday, since the weather is much better now, we drove out to Meråker (about 1-1/2 hour out of town) to visit a member whom we have not visited for a few months, then stopped to visit another older couple on the way back to town. They recently returned from their winter in Spain.
Friday was such a beautiful day we decided to go for a walk. Nadia, one of our young adults, was enjoying the sunshine and reading. So we joined her on the bench and soaked up a little sun.
Friday evening we had a “cooking night” with the Young single adults and missionaries. They all like the chicken noodle soup Nancy makes (thanks to Stephanie for the recipe) so she thought it would be good to teach them to make it. She had all the ingredients in the kitchen, with instructions for preparation of each ingredient taped to the front of the cupboard doors. This way 2 or 3 could work together on each part and then put it all together to cook. She also had ingredients and instructions for rice krispie treats and 3 of the young men prepared them. After the dinner was cooked, it was served and we all enjoyed a tasty dinner. There were 26 present, including about 6 investigators. After dinner, they made dessert—ice cream made in zip-lock baggies—It was fun and tasty. After all the ice cream had been made and eaten, they cleared the tables and set up the volleyball net and played volleyball. The last of the group finished playing at about 10:30 and we went home happy and tired. The evening was a very big success!!
Saturday was busy with sports with the young single adults, after which we took the sisters to visit a member who lives near us—Jan-Erik Carlsen—who was celebrating his 78th birthday. Nancy had made rice krispie treats, which has become one of his favorites. Then it was back to the church to meet Terje Dorr so we could once again make a trip to the Trondhiem fjord for an “ice bath”. This time we were joined by Corrie, a young woman from the Netherlands who will be baptized next Saturday. She loves to swim and when I mentioned to her during the week that I had accompanied Terje there the previous Saturday, she said she would like to do that. So like the tradition of diving into the Columbia on New Year’s Day, which started with Alison and I, this event appears to be growing. I told several of the young single adults that we would go swimming in the fjord next New Year’s day. After we came out of the water and had climbed the stairs up to the top deck, Corrie said, “shall we do it again?” So it was back down the steps and dive in once more.
Saturday evening we joined the sisters as they taught two investigators—Torgeorge and Nina. We watched a church video about the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was very good and the Spirit was strong. While Nancy practiced the piano afterward for a while, I vacuumed the building and then we headed home for dinner. We had to go to the store for something and on the way passed a McDonalds. She said some French fries sounded good, so we got in the drive thru. They were advertising a new (at least to us) chicken, bacon and onion sandwich, which sounded good, so that was dinner. We have stopped at McDonalds once before to buy a milkshake. It is not something we do often, as a meal costs about $15.00 for each of us.
Today was a beautiful day (still is) with warm sun and a wonderful spirit in church. There were 81 people in church today, including 15 investigators. It is exciting to see the growth that is occurring here. When we arrived last fall, the attendance was between 40 and 50. We feel blessed to be here and witness the exciting things that are happening with the church in Norway. We have great young missionaries, supportive members and people who are interested in learning more about Jesus Christ and His gospel.
We pray that all is well with each of you.
Love,
Mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/Nana and granddad
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