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
No comments:
Post a Comment
We'd love to hear from you!