Sunrise - Norway style

This morning Nancy got up early to go to the bathroom and said, "look at the sunrise". I had to get the camera and get the picture. This was at 4 am! I don't think it gets dark at all now (have not stayed up to find out), as it is still dusk after midnight and this is at 4, so not much time for darkness in between -- just go from dusk to dawn.

Love,
dad/Gerald/grandpa/Granddad

Week of May 17-23, 2010

We talked with Steve and family earlier tonight and Mom told Tanner that parents cannot tell their kids to come in when the streetlights come on, as it is light so long.  She said she would tell him what time the streetlights come on--it was 11:25 p.m. Everything that was white is now green, it is beautiful here in the spring.

love,

mom and dad/gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/Nana and granddad

Spring Sprung!!  In about a week everything turned green.  Spring is such a beautiful time of year.  We have seen daffodils, tulips and some pansies.  Now it is time to start mowing the lawn at church.  It isn’t very big, but still needs care.

Last Sunday, Caryn, Jim and the kids sang in church.  It was really special to have a “family” sing.  We only have one teenager in the branch and he is the same age as Trenton.  So a “family” is good!  We spent the rest of the day just enjoying Sunday.  Our car is small and can hold five people.  So while they were here we all had a turn riding the bus to town—church is there, 17^th of May parade, etc.  Busses run on a regular basis and are very good transportation here.

Monday was the 17^th of May—a Norwegian celebration similar to the 4^th of July.  It is the day they gained their independence from Denmark.  In the morning we met at the St. Olav statue in the middle of town to watch the children’s parade.  Every school marches—all grades, a band, flag or baton twirlers and a big banner telling what school it is.  

 This parade lasted about an hour and a half.  Then we started walking back to our church, but stopped at the Nidar church (Cathedral) for a sermon and choir concert (something like Music and the Spoken Word).  After,iInstead of going to the church we walked back to the parade area to see the adult parade—which is a lot of groups of people representing clubs, etc walking in the parade.  We saw about half and then left.  We went to the church where we had brought disposable grills (a 9x12 foil pan with briquettes and a grill on top) to BBQ hotdogs.  We had all the trimmings.  We were joined by several of the young single adults and after eating, they stayed and played volleyball.

Tuesday we rented a “rent a wreck” big enough for all of us.  We went to the”Rustkammeret” (Army and Resistance) museum.  Sister Jørgensen arranged this tour for us as the museum hadn’t officially opened yet.  There are 3 floors in the museum-the first floor contains items from medieval the time of the Vikings (900 AD) to the Napoleonic war (1792-1814), the second floor is from the Norwegian-Swedish union (1814-1905)—in opposition to Denmark. The 3^rd floor is memorabilia from the Second World War, especially aspects of the war in mid-Norway.  We opted for the 3^rd floor, as we only had an hour before we had to take Jim to the airport. Jim had to leave this day as there had been more ash cloud from Iceland and he was concerned about getting home to photograph a wedding on Friday (he ended up spending the night in Amsterdam and then arrived safely home).   

  When we returned we bought pizza and went up to Kristiansten Festning (fortress) which was built to protect Trondheim during the Swedish siege in 1718-1719.  The kids enjoyed seeing the cannon here and just being able to run free a little. The fortress provides a beautiful view over the city. From here we went to the other side of town to get a different view of the city.

 

Wednesday morning was souvenir shopping day.  There were several kiosks in the sentrum (city center).  Caryn, Shayla, Marissa and Trenton found things to remember Norway.  Caryn and I went to the grocery store to get food for dinner before institute.  She made fajitas. 

The grocery store is a shopping experience here.  Grocery carts require payment to use (but the carts are all returned as people can get their money back).  They have a lot of “not so much”.  They are always stocking the shelves.  Norway does not have big cans, cartons, or boxes of anything.  They do have a lot of prepared foods.  Big potatoes are bought wrapped in foil ready to bake.  Milk is 1.5 liter—the biggest.  Choose the bread you want, take it to the slicer, put it in and when it is sliced you put it on metal arm and slide the plastic sack over it and seal it at the top.  They have many kinds of bread and most of it is hard--similar to American French bread.  The aisles are short.  Mayo is found is the refrigerator section—nothing larger than a pint.  The fruit comes from South America or Spain.  It is very hard to choose meat.  Mostly we buy hamburger or chicken—fresh or frozen.  As you can tell this is Mom, Nancy, Grandma writing.

Wednesday night we had a small group for dinner as the missionaries had already gone to Oslo for an all mission conference.  But we enjoyed dinner and institute.  Caryn’s family enjoyed being with and meeting the people as well as a little sight seeing along the way.

Thursday we all got up at 3:30 am to go to the airport.  We were leaving for Oslo for the mission conference at 6:10 and they were leaving at 6:15 to start for Amsterdam and their journey home.  We left at 4:15 to arrive at the airport by 5am.  We arrived in Oslo at 7am and no one came to pick us up until Gerald called our district leader and he made things happen.  We finally had a ride about 8:30.  As I was helping prepare food for the lunch, two senior sisters were talking about going to dinner that night.  They informed me that all the senior couples were staying overnight and going to dinner that evening together.  Well, that was news to us!  We ended up staying the night.  Gerald did buy us toothbrushes and toothpaste.  We did have an enjoyable evening with the couples following the daylong conference.

Caryn and kids arrived home and so did we about 11 am on Friday.  We spent the day washing, cleaning and taking a nap to recover from the week’s activities.  We went to the church to meet with the sisters and an investigator, but the person did not come.

Saturday we went for sports—volleyball, basketball, table tennis.  Then we had splits with the sisters for their “teaches”.  In the evening we visited a family whose daughter was having a birthday party—we were invited along with the sisters.  When we arrived there were 15 children outside.  I told the sisters there were probably as many parents inside.  Yes there was.  One family was from the branch and they live near by.  The mother is Filipino and the father is Norwegian.  All the people that were there were Filipino women and Norwegian men—about 8 couples.  The house was filled with people, children and toys all over.  Norwegians usually have small roomed homes and then have out buildings to accommodate other things.  We had dinner and birthday cake.

Sunday was a Mission Conference for all of Norway that is outside the Oslo Stake.  It was held in Bergen and was presented to us by video conference. It was a 2 hour session.  It was the first conference like this and the sound-picture quality has room for improvement.  A young man was there who we had seen at church last week.  He joined the church as a teenager and was active for a few years.  He has a class with a member and she brought him to church.  He seems interested in returning to church.  He is the only member in his family.  He wanted a Book of Mormon as his was in Kristiansand—his home town.  This is missionary work that one does not expect but will work.

Two weeks ago there was a new branch president called in Mo I Rana—Bengt Andreasen, who was mostly inactive when we first started going there last October.  He has been attending regularly since about December and is nervous about this call, but will do a great job.  We will be up there again on June 5-6 to help him in his new calling.

We love this work and the people we are privileged to serve with. We have some amazing young missionaries and great young adults. 

Love to all

Mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/Nana and granddad

Week of May 10-16, 2010

Attached is our update for the past week. We are enjoying having Caryn, Jim, Shayla, Marissa and Trenton here this week.

love, 

mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy

 

Spring has come to Norway!!! And with it, we received a visit from the first of our family to make the journey to this beautiful country. 

Monday was a beautiful day and the weather showed strong signs of spring.  We had a good group at Family Home Evening this evening and a good lesson by Robin, one of our young single adults—a returned missionary from the Ukraine. 

On Tuesday, we visited with the Husby’s, an older couple in the branch who live about 25 km south of town in a place called Hommelvik. They are just one block above the fjord and have a wonderful view out to the fjord from the front porch area.  Målfrid is a member of the church, but Ivar is not. They are both in their mid 80’s and enjoy having us visit so they can use their English. He lived and worked in Eastern Canada for many years before they married and she lived in Salt Lake City for many years.  They spend the winters in Spain and have been back now since mid-March.  Although they live some distance from the church, they are both present every Sunday that health permits. 

Wednesday was spent mainly preparing for company and getting things for Institute dinner in the evening. Nancy made a good beef stew, which is always a favorite of the young people.  This was followed by a very good Institute lesson on chapters 1-6 in the Book of Moroni by Nadia, as Oscar—the regular instructor—had gone to Stockholm to the temple for the week along with a few other members of the branch.

 We originally had a mission conference scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, but that was cancelled, so we were here to greet Caryn, Jim, Shayla, Marissa and Trenton when they arrived at about 12:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. We had told them that they would need to take the bus in to town and that Nadia would meet them there and get them to our apartment and let them in where they could nap until we returned home about 10 p.m. from the conference in Oslo. Since the conference got cancelled (now it will be next Wednesday and Thursday—19^th and 20^th) we were here to meet them.  They were a bit surprised to see us standing there as they came out of the hall from customs.  Even though we were there with the car, most of them still had to take the bus to town as the car was filled with their luggage. I took Jim and Trenton with me in the car and Nancy took the girls on the bus.  We took the luggage home, packed it up the 3 flights of stairs to the apartment and then Jim and Trenton laid down to nap while I went to pick up the others.  They were at the church when I got there, so we were all soon home. After visiting for a while, Caryn, Shayla and Marissa soon joined Jim and Trenton in slumberland.  After they awoke, we went downtown—some by bus, some by car and took a walk around the cathedral, down to the river and around some of the older parts of town, then down to the canal and back up to the main bus stops where Jim and I caught the bus home while the others drove in the car with Nancy.  After having had a nap, they were ready to stay up and see what time it got dark at night. We were in town until about 10 p.m. and it looked like mid afternoon.  Nancy had prepared Chicken noodle soup earlier in the day, which we ate before going to the city in the afternoon, so there was nothing to do when we returned in the evening but eat some ice cream.

On Friday we had made arrangements for Trenton to join Elders Henshaw and Tedrow in being a “missionary for a day” beginning at noon and finished at 3 p.m. The girls joined Sisters West and Molholt for the same time and went out contacting on the streets with them.  At the end of the day, they had all had good experiences.  The elders were impressed with Trenton’s testimony that he shared with a woman they met and brought to the church to teach the first discussion.  The girls also joined the sisters in a couple of “teaches” and enjoyed the opportunity to share their testimonies.

 After picking up the young’uns, Caryn and Nancy took the bus back to the apartment while Jim and I along with the kids went to get Kebabs for dinner. Kebabs are new in Norway since I was here 50 years ago (what isn’t?). I believe they originally come from Turkey but are popular all over Europe now. Sesam has the reputation of being the best in Trondheim and many missionaries say the best in Norway.  They consist of meat (we like the “mix” of beef, chicken and lamb), corn, onions, peppers, lettuce with a special sauce and spices in a pita bread pocket.  We figured they had to experience a kebab while they were here, even though it is not an authentic Norsk meal. It is certainly an authentic missionary and student meal.  Somewhere along the way, we picked up some dry ice to make homemade root beer for the evenings young adult music activity.  Caryn and Jim brought RB extract so we were able to have RB floats for treats at the activity.

Jim and Nancy worked with the young people on some singing tips while Caryn played the piano. The kids joined with the young people in the activity and had an enjoyable time meeting the young people here in Trondheim.

The best we had to make RB in was a 10 gallon plastic bucket. We quickly decided it is not as good as an old fashioned 10 gallon metal milk can, as the lid would “blow off” or deform long before the RB had time to be sufficiently pressurized to get the CO-2 gas in the mixture.  However, it still had RB flavor and tasted good with ice cream.  Our grandkids made sure I knew that it was not on a par with “uncle Bud’s” homemade RB.

After the activity was over, the volleyball  net went up and many stayed to play volleyball for the next hour or two before we all headed home—still in the daylight.

On Saturday, the kids joined the missionaries and young adults for sports in the church cultural hall—basketball and volleyball. At noon, we met Inger Jørgensen for a trip out to her old family farm in Selbu, about an hour drive from Trondheim. On the way, we passed through the town of Hell (means Luck in Norsk) where we had to take pictures to show that they have been there and back.  Inger’s farm has been in the family since the 1700’s and has several out buildings that contain old tools, clothing and farm equipment. Jim had a good time with his camera.  While there, Trenton made a fire in the old wood stove so we had some warmth, as the place has been closed up since the start of winter.  We had a lunch of “trønder Sodd” which is a soup of sorts containing vegetables, beef or mutton and small meat balls.  On the way home, we traveled a different route than we had taken out and traveled along two large lakes, Selbu sea and Jonsvatnet. Nancy and I had been to Jonsvatnet last fall and I had some pictures of the lake, but I thought what I saw at the time was all there was to it. It turns out that we saw only a very small part of the lake. It is beautiful and very picturesque.  Clear water and on the day we were driving very calm and flat.  However, it turns out that it is the drinking water source for Trondheim, so there is no boating or swimming allowed—except rowboats (and maybe sailboats?)

 On the way home, Inger had called a bakery to ask about some Selbu Lefse (a moist flat bread).  The owner said they were closed, but he would be working around outside so just stop by and he would open up for us.  We have eaten lefse quite a bit before, but this was better than most of what we buy in the grocery stores.  Jim and Caryn also enjoyed lefse.

Nancy has introduced the family to Norway vanilla sauce, which I thoroughly enjoyed as a young missionary on ripsbær (red currents).  Nancy has found it is enjoyable on just about anything.  When we eat canned peaches, she has vanilla sauce, I use the juice.  If we have fresh strawberries or any other fresh fruits, they get vanilla sauce. I think she has even tried vanilla sauce on vanilla sauce and enjoyed it. Anyway, Caryn now asks for vanilla sauce on whatever we are serving for dessert.

We have also introduced them to “risengrøt”, a kind of rice pudding/cereal.  It is best when served warm with sugar and cinnamon. However, Norwegians also like it cold with a red sauce on it. The warm variety is our regular breakfast, but I take a break on Saturdays and have eggs and hash browns.

Sunday (today) we enjoyed a good day in church and Jim, Caryn, Shayla, Marissa and Trenton sang in Sacrament meeting. They sang “love is spoken here” and did a very good job.  After church we returned home and most “crashed” for a couple of hours after dinner. Nancy made an authentic Norsk dinner of meatballs, boiled potatoes and red cabbage.

We managed to get in a little missionary work along the way before the family showed up, but after that it was pretty much vacation except when we had activities with the young adults.

We are grateful to be here and now some of the family has gained a bit of a glimpse of why we enjoy it so much.

Tomorrow is May 17, which is Norway’s Constitution Day (1814). It is a very big celebration throughout the country. Both men and women dress in their national dress and every school child marches in parades.  After the children parades, the drum and bugle corps from various organizations march and on and on. It is a great day for celebrating Norwegian freedom.  We cherish our freedoms and pray that we will continue to enjoy these freedoms.

Love,

Mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/Nana and granddad

THEY ARRIVED!

 Caryn, Jim, Shayla, Marissa and Trenton all arrived safely this afternoon. They got on all the flights they needed and even arrived here about 15 minutes early. Now the men are taking naps while the girls look around.

Trenton, Marissa, Jim, Caryn, Shayla

Week of May 3-9, 2010

Attached for your information is our report for the past week. We are enjoying success in missionary work here in Trondheim and also spring weather.  Hope all of you mothers had a wonderful day yesterday. Nancy received skype visits with most of our children, which always brightens the day.

love,

mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/Grandma and grandpa/Nana and granddad

(Happy birthday to Mom!)

 

We will begin with the end of the week-Sunday, as it is most fresh in our minds. It seems that by Sunday, the early part of the week becomes pretty much a blur.  Sunday was, of course, Mother’s Day in the U.S. (it was Feb. 14 in Norway) so even though there were no flowers or talks in church about mothers, we still had time to reflect on the blessings of wonderful mothers in our lives. We are both thankful for mothers who were home when we needed them, who taught good values by the way they lived as well as the words they said and who served The Lord in whatever capacity they were called to do so.

We are grateful for all of you mothers on this mailing list who are caring for your families and making a difference in your homes and communities.  Many of the problems in America today are the result of a system that believes women make no contribution to society unless they are gainfully employed in the world of work outside of the home.  We strongly agree with the words of President Harald B. Lee who said, "The most important of the Lord's work that you will ever do will be the work that you do within the walls of your own home." And also that great statement by President David O. McKay: "No other success can compensate for failure in the home.”  We are grateful for all of you mothers who recognize the value of your contribution to family, church, community and nation as you work with your children. We love you.

As it was mother’s day, it was also an opportunity for the young missionaries to call home (one of only 2 days in the year when they are allowed to do so, the other being Christmas). We took the laptop to the church and set it up in a small classroom after our church meetings so the missionaries could call home on Skype and have an opportunity to see as well as talk with their mothers (and other family members).  The computer was kept busy as the missionaries, one after another, spent time with their families.

We had scheduled to watch the Church Educational System fireside broadcast (which was live last week) after church yesterday. First we would have a dinner, then watch the broadcast.  On Sunday morning, I checked online to see how long the broadcast was—only to find that it was not yet on the internet. So then it was quickly find something that could fit the group. It was not hard, with the many good conference talks and other material that is available. We chose a talk by Elder Gregory Schwitzer from the last General conference on making good judgments in life. Since it was in the Sunday afternoon session (and that session came on at 10 p.m. here) not many had seen it yet.  We enjoyed his counsel on how to judge wisely.

Sunday also was the first time that two of our recent converts gave talks in church. Shina (from Nigeria) and Benildo (from Mozambique) spoke in Sacrament meeting on the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ, respectively. It was exciting to listen to them share their testimonies on these two important subjects. They spoke in English and one of the branch members translated to Norsk. Generally, talks are in Norsk and one of the missionaries or branch members translates to English for those who do not speak Norsk. That system uses earphones, but to go the other way requires that the translator stand at the podium by the side of the speaker.  We were proud of both of these young men for the sincere testimonies they bore and their poise in giving their first talk in Sacrament meeting.

As long as I am working backward, I will continue. On Saturday was the baptism of Justice Quame-Amaglo from Ghana.  Justice is a student here and has been meeting with the sister missionaries for quite some time. The first thing he came to was an Institute class and we were all impressed with his knowledge of the Bible and his willingness to participate even though he did not know anyone there.  He lives not far from the temple in Accra, so we have given his name to Gaye and Bud and given him their names so he can contact them when he returns home in June.  It is exciting to see these young people come to Norway to gain a secular education and along the way find the spiritual truths of the Gospel.  At the close of the baptism meeting on Saturday, the Branch President said, “you thought you were coming to Norway to gain an education, but you really came here to find the Gospel so you can bless your family.”

Now I’ll go back to the start of the week. We had a well attended family home evening on Monday evening and enjoyed activities with the young singles afterward.  On Tuesday morning, we got in the car and headed to Oslo to pick up our new car.  There are two primary routes to Oslo from Trondheim, one through Gudbrandsdalen and the other  through Østerdalen.  We had been the Gudbrandsdalen route when we drove from Oslo in August, so decided to try the other.  We had beautiful weather in Trondheim when we began and it remained that way until we got within about 80 km of Oslo when it started to rain and snow. Fortunately that did not last very long and we arrived in time to pick up the car before going to spend the night at the mission home with President and Sister Johansen.  The trip down was a little quicker than through Gudbrandsdalen, mainly because the scenery is not quite so spectacular and we did not have to stop to take photos.

On Wednesday morning, we were eating breakfast with the Johansens when his phone rang. It was a carpet cleaning crew coming to clean their downstairs carpets. After they arrived, President Johansen went to let them in and show them where to work. When he came back upstairs, he said, “this crew comes from Denmark and when one of them asked where I was from, I replied, Salt Lake City, Utah. He said, ‘I am from American Fork’.”  We went downstairs shortly after to pack our things out to the car and a young man was there getting set to operate the carpet cleaner. He was a nice looking young man, with red hair. Nancy asked if he was from Utah and he said, “no, my grandfather is.”  She asked, “what is your grandfather’s name?”  “Kenneth Anderson”. She said, “and is your grandmother’s name Marian?”  “Yes, do you know them?”  His grandfather, Ken Anderson and I, graduated from BYU together in 1966. He was married to a Danish girl at the time and after graduation he worked back east for about 6 years, then she wanted to go back to Denmark, so they moved to Denmark about 40 years ago.  I have not seen Ken since the day we graduated. When he returned from moving their truck, we had a good reunion for a few minutes before we had to leave. He would not have been in Oslo except one of the employees had gotten sick the day before and was not able to make the trip, so when his grandson asked what he should do, Ken said he would come along and help. I don’t know how Nancy remembers all of these names and people, (I remember Ken, but could not have told you his wife’s name) but am glad she does. This is a photo of Ken and I with our new car in the background.

We drove home through Gudbrandsdalen, which is probably one of the most beautiful valleys (dal means valley) in the world. So of course the trip home took a little longer than the trip down, but we enjoyed every stop.  We stopped in a small town called “Sør-Fron” (South Fron) and saw a pretty church on the hill on the edge of town, so we stopped to take a few pictures and look around.  I tried the front door to see if we could look inside, but it was locked. As we were preparing to leave, a man approached the front steps with keys in his hand. I asked if he was the priest there and he said, no, he was the organist and was coming to practice. He said if we wanted to look around, he would let us in so we could do so. We came in and he went upstairs to the organ and began to practice. The church was built in 1787 and is of different architecture than most of the churches we have seen here. We had not been inside long before Nancy was going up the small staircase to where the organ is. She stood by and watched the organist (Kjell) play until he finished the piece he was working on, then commented on the organ and asked, “can I play it?”  Of cours he said yes, so she had an opportunity to sit and play for a few minutes. She was kind of struggling with the piece he had been playing, so he picked up a hymn book and asked, “do you know ‘Abide with me’?”  He then turned to that page and set the book in front of her and she played.  Kjell had lived and studied in Denmark for several years and had met missionaries there and had received a Book of Mormon, so we encouraged him to read it.  Here is Nancy as the organist in the Sør-Fron Church.

The rest of the trip was beautiful and interrupted by stops to get the next picture. We finally arrived home at about 9:30 in the evening. The nice thing about traveling at this time of year is that it was still daylight when we arrived. The days are getting longer and in another month or so, we will not experience any darkness at night—just go from dusk to dawn.  Here is a picture of the inside of the Sør-Fron Church taken from the organ area.  The building is built in an octagonal shape.

 On Thursday, President Johansen flew in to do his interviews with the young missionaries, so I picked him up at the airport in the morning and returned him in the afternoon. We both agreed that when we return home, we will probably find a quiet stretch of highway where we will drive VERY fast to get rid of all the pent up frustration of driving no faster than 60 mph (and most of the time less than 50) on Norwegian highways.  The trip to Oslo is about 300 miles and for most of the trip the speed limit is 80 km/hr (48 mph).  In addition to cameras to record those who speed, there are stretches where they monitor your average speed between two cameras. So one cannot slow down for the camera and then speed up before the next.  So we just drive slow and enjoy the scenery.

On Thursday evening and Friday we visited a few of the less active members who live out of town and that brought us back to Saturday and the baptism of Justice.  Such is a week in the life of a senior missionary couple.  Wonderful experiences and lots of interesting things to do with great people..

Love to all of you,

Mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/Nana and granddad

New car

We drove to Oslo on Tuesday and picked up a new car which we drove back to Trondheim on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the new car is also a VW Polo and although new is still small. I was hoping for a Passat or someting in the large sedan class, but no such luck. The trip was beautiful and uneventful.

 On the way back we stopped to look at an old church (1767) that was near the roadway. The door was locked, but as I was preparing to leave the front steps, a man came up with keys in his hand and I asked if he was the priest here. He said no, he was the organist and was coming to practice, but if we wanted to look around we were welcome to do so. So we went in and looked around while he practiced a bit. Mom climbed the stairs to where the organ was, watched him for a few minutes, then when he finished the piece he was practicing, she started talking with him about the organ. This of course led to "may I play it", which he allowed her to do. She struggled a bit playing the piece he had been playing then he asked if she knew "abide with me". He found that hymn for her and she played it.  It made her day to be able to play this organ. The church is old, but the organ was installed in 1995. A beautiful pipe organ.

 When we were getting ready to leave the Johansen's home (MIssion president) yesterday morning, some men came to clean their carpets. After showing them in, Pres. Johansen came into the kitchen and said, "the carpet cleaner is from Denmark and when I told him I was from the US, he asked where and I said, 'Salt Lake City'.  He said, 'I am from American Fork'."  Mom saw one of the fellows and he had red hair, she asked if he was from America and he said, no, but my grandfather is, he just went to move the truck. She asked what his name was and he said, "Ken Andersen". She said, "Is your grandmother Marian?"  He said, "Yes". We knew them at BYU, Ken graduated in Mechanical engineering with me. We had a nice reunion when he came back in. It is amazing how small the world is. Ken was from Denmark and after graduating worked for about 5 years in the US, then went back to Denmark. He has had a Chemdry franchise for many years, and it is now in the 3rd generation of his family. He was there yesterday because someone else was sick and could not make the trip.

Here is the new car and the new organist for the Sør-Fron Kirke. 

love, 

dad

Trondheim Fjord--2nd time

We so enjoyed the dip in the trondheim fjord, that we decided to do it again the next Saturday (April 24). This time, Terji Dorr and I were joined by Corrie Dam, a young woman who has been meeting with the sister missionaries for the past few months. Corrie comes from The Netherlands and likes to swim, so when I mentioned that I had been in the fjord, she said she would like to come if we do it again. I replied, "we are doing it next Saturday". So she brought her swim suit when she came down to play sports on Saturday and afterward, the 4 of us (Nancy as photographer) made our way back down to the Sjobadet. As we got back on the deck, Corrie said "shall we do it again?" So we proceeded back down to "do it again". The water seemed colder the second time in, perhaps because it penetrated deeper? I think you can tell the the picture on the bottom is "before" and on the top, "after".

April 26-May 2, 2010

Note:  This has been another fabulous week in Trondheim. Spring can't decide if it's here or not, we have moments of sunshine followed by snow showers, but at least snow is not staying around. Love, mom and dad/gerald and nancy

We will start in the middle of the week, as the most noteworthy events took place from there.

On Wednesday, the branch was participating in a community wide clean up campaign to spruce up the city in preparation for May 17 (Norway’s Constitution Day, dating from 1814). We were originally scheduled to clean up an area around the “domkirken” (Cathedral) in the center of town. The Cathedral (Nidarsdomen) was begun in the 1300’s and finished sometime in the 1700’s. To be assigned to clean up here was a big deal, as previously the church had been assigned some obscure section of roadway well away from the center of town.  However, on Monday we received an email from the Branch President saying that due to a miscommunication in the city, someone had already cleaned up that area around the cathedral, so we were assigned to a small park across the river from the church.  We had 30 “Mormon Helping Hands” vests and that was not enough for all the people who were there to assist. We made quick work of the cleanup and then went to the church to enjoy pizza and pop.  It was a wonderful activity and the people from the park department were very impressed with the number of people and the amount of work that was accomplished in a short period of time (about 2 hours).  The missionaries had several investigators who came and assisted.  This project replaced our institute dinner and lesson for the week, but since we had held class a few weeks ago when there was a spring vacation scheduled and since none of our young people were going anywhere, they opted to hold class that night, so we were a lesson ahead of the schedule.  Several of the young single adults stayed after to watch “the Emperor’s New Groove” after the young missionaries went home.

On Friday afternoon, we attended the wedding of one of our sisters who has been less active for several years, but has been coming pretty regularly since we began visiting her back in November.  She has been living with her boy friend for about 10 years and they have 4 children.  She decided a few weeks ago to plan the wedding and let him know when he arrived at the court house.  To make a long story short, he was standing on the steps of the courthouse when we arrived, waiting for her to arrive. I think he had figured out by this time that he was to be the groom—that it was not someone elses wedding they had been invited to. When I asked him about it, he said, “it was quite a surprise”!  All of their children were there, including her 14 year old daughter from a previous marriage, who lives with her father in Tonsberg and several relatives and friends.  It was an exciting day for all and we were pleased that she had finally made the decision to marry.

That evening, we had a bowling activity with the young single adults.  We set up 3 “lanes” in the cultural hall and used pop bottles and water bottles as pins (a little water in the bottom for ballast) and some small soft soccer balls for bowling balls. There were 5 teams of 3, with 3 teams bowling (only 5 frames to a game), and the other two as pin setters and cheer leaders.  Each team had a chance to bowl on each lane, and then there were prizes for everyone at the end—along with scotcharoos and drinks. 

 

The real highlight of the week was the baptism of Corrie Dam on Saturday afternoon. Corrie is a student from The Netherlands who is working on a masters in microbiology and working on a thesis project in a lab at the hospital near the church.  She has been meeting with the missionaries since sometime in November. Her parents were not very excited (to say the least) when she first told them a few months ago that she was studying the gospel with the missionaries. However they have realized it is something she believes in and it is m aking her happy, so they wanted to be here to support her. They arrived on Friday afternoon and we met them at the church after our bowling activity and Corrie and her parents spent the weekend at our apartment.  We had a good chance to visit with them and talk about the gospel with them and enjoyed getting acquainted with them. They were touched by the spirit in the baptism and again today when she was confirmed a member of the church in sacrament meeting. I had the opportunity to confirm her.  After church they returned to our apartment for a light meal, then we took them to the airport and returned Corrie to her apartment. She was pleased to have her parents here to participate in this important event and they were pleased to see that she has so many good friends and is well cared for.  Hopefully missionaries in The Netherlands will have an opportunity to share the gospel with them.  

 To close out the day, we were able to “skype” with Sister Engebretsen for about 30 minutes this evening before she had to get ready for church. She had just finished talking on Skype with Corrie for about 45 minutes.  She got a job at the MTC teaching Norwegian, and started school at BYU last week, so she has not had much time for a transition from missionary life to “civilian” life, but seems to be doing well.

We are so grateful for the opportunity to be here and to share the gospel and our love with the wonderful young people and the older ones as well. It is amazing to watch the way people change as they gain a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Shina, who was the first baptism we witnessed here in Trondheim last December, shared his testimony yesterday at Corrie’s baptism. It was amazing to compare him yesterday with the young man we met back in November.  Today he taught a gospel principles class in Sunday School.

We are driving to Oslo on Tuesday to pick up a new car and will be returning to Trondheim on Wednesday. We had planned to stop in the town of Skjåk on our way back to visit with Erna Skogset, a woman I became acquainted with when I was in Oslo in 1960. We visited with her briefly when we were here in 2005.  I just received an email from her son informing me that she passed away 2 weeks ago.  We knew that she was not in good health, as she had Parkinson’s disease when we were here 5 years ago and we have talked on the phone a little over the past few months, but we were hopeful that we would be able to see her one more time before she passed away. 

We are grateful for each of you—our children, grandchildren, siblings and friends and pray that God will continue to bless you in all that you do. Never forget that we love you.

Love,

Mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/Nana and granddad