love,
mom and dad/gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/nana and granddad
WEEK OF MARCH 1-7, 2010
TRONDHEIM, NORWAY
It is now Monday morning after a very busy, but fulfilling week. We had a wonderful Family Home Evening last Monday with the young single adults. There were 15 in attendance, including a young Vietnamese girl whom Elders Johnson and Spencer had met just a few hours earlier. For the first few months we were holding FHE with the young adults, I (Gerald) gave the lesson each week and Nancy provided the refreshments. Then we decided things don’t work that way with a family, so a couple of months ago we held a “family council” at FHE and talked about rotating assignments for the FHE. Nancy put together a FHE assignment chart and at the start of each meeting, we make assignments for the next week. The evenings have been much more educational and entertaining since then and we do not feel stressed about what to do or prepare.
On Tuesday evening, we visited with Åsta and Eirik and their twin daughters, Emma and Victoria. It was a very good and spiritual lesson on the restoration of the Priesthood. Eirik asked before we left what the treat was that we brought to them before Christmas (Rice Krispie Treats) as he really liked them and would like the recipe. We decided next time we visit we will take the ingredients and Nancy will help him make them. They are a lovely young couple and we see a lot of change in the time we have been visiting. They are holding family prayer with their daughters now and reading the scriptures. The biggest problem is thy live an hour out of town and Eirik is doing a lot of remodeling on their home, so now that there is some daylight after he gets home from work, he spends that time outside working on the house, as well as Saturdays and Sundays. Somehow we know the Lord will help them make the decision to become involved in the church. When we returned from there at about 8:30, we went to a small theater in town to see a presentation that Catherina had been working on for the past several weeks. She too has come a long way in her activity in the church since we first met her back in October.
On Wednesday, we enjoyed a good dinner before Institute, prepared by Egil, one of the YSA. Egil was a cook on a ship for the past few years and made a very tasty lasagna. After dinner, Nadia gave a great lesson from 3 Nephi 12-14. There were 3 investigators present and they enjoyed the evening. At the branch council meeting earlier in the evening, we had a good discussion about creating a branch mission plan and I was able to make some helpful suggestions based on things we had learned from President Belnap in the Kennewick mission a few years ago.
On Thursday morning, I picked up President Johansen at the airport and brought him to the Church, where he was to interview Liaqat for baptism. Liaqat is a young man from Afghanistan who came to church one family home evening with a friend who had been meeting with Elders Henshaw and Richardson because he had nothing else to do that night. He became acquainted with the members and other missionaries and has been a regular participant in FHE, activities and Church meetings since. He has been taught by the elders and will be baptized this coming Saturday. While he was here, the President interviewed all of the missionaries as well as doing temple recommend interviews for a number of members. He picked one of the most beautiful days we have had for several weeks. The sky was clear blue and the sun was shining all day and the temperature even got close to zero. His visit was all too short and I took him back to the airport at about 4 p.m. He wanted to know what he could do for us and I said, “just leave us here in Trondheim.” This summer we will lose two couples—the Arnesens who are in the mission office and the Thomas’s who are over the YSA Outreach Center in Oslo. That is a large and wonderful facility—in a separate building from the church buildings and would be considered the “plum” assignment in YSA centers. When we first saw it and then a day later saw what we had to work with in Trondheim, I thought how nice it would be to be in Oslo. But now that we have been here for a few months, we have come to love these young people and the other members here and could not imagine leaving to go serve elsewhere. We realize once again that it is the people that are important, not the facilities.
On Friday, we had our district meeting with the missionaries, then enjoyed a pizza lunch before we went to visit the Reardons, a less active couple in the branch. James is from Scotland and Vibeke (Becky) is from Norway, but they lived in Scotland for a number of years. After our visit with them, it was a stop at the store to buy treats for a YSA activity in the evening. The YSA leaders had decided a week ago that they wanted to have an evening of unstructured activities without the young missionaries, where they could get together with the investigators and new members to become better acquainted. We had a group of 11 (including us), including 2 non-members and one of the recent converts. They had a great time together and we think the evening provided the kind of bonding they were hoping for.
On Saturday it was our sports day and we had a good turnout of young people. They played “inebande” (floor hockey) in the cultural hall—set up a chair at each end of the floor as the goal (ball has to go through the chair legs) and go at it. There were 9 people to start, so they had three 3-man teams and the losing team was replaced by the one on the sidelines after 2 goals against. Then a couple of others arrived so it became five 2-man teams with a new team rotating in after a goal had been scored. This is fast paced and there were a few bruises on Sunday. I had purchased some new hockey sticks a few weeks ago and they played last week and broke 2 of the 3 new ones (they were a cheap set), so then I bought 2 new ones, paying more for one stick than I had paid for the 3. They withstood the events of at least one Saturday.
On Sunday we enjoyed a wonderful fast and testimony meeting. Nancy played the piano for relief society and also played the organ in Sacrament meeting. I taught a temple preparation class in Sunday School and blessed the sacrament in Sacrament meeting. In priesthood meeting when they were making assignments for the sacrament, I asked Shino if he was ready to bless the Sacrament. He said, “can I do it in English?” After some discussion, it was decided it would be better if he did it “på Norsk”. So after class, we went through it a couple of times, then Robin (our YSA president) took him in the chapel, where they went through it a few more times. Shina is from Nigeria and joined the church on Dec. 5 last year. In January, he performed the baptism of Benildo and for the past couple of weeks he has passed the sacrament. He did a wonderful job blessing the sacrament and the members complimented him afterward on his good Norwegian. There were 5 investigators at church, including one lady whom Elder Johnson had met on the street in front of the church just before the start of Sacrament meeting. He was waiting for someone else and began a conversation with this woman and invited her to join us for church—and she did!
Nancy bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting and shared her feelings for the gospel and the members here. Benildo, a convert in January from Mozambique also bore his testimony and shared his feelings on how much his life has changed since he first met the missionaries. He has a wife and 2 young children at home and will return there in June. He shares the gospel with his wife over the internet and can’t wait to attend church with them when he returns. He said his wife called him one day and said she was sick. He told her he would pray for her. She called back the next day and told him she was better.
We invited Nadia and Corrie (non-member from The Netherlands) to dinner after church and had an enjoyable afternoon with them. They have become great friends and Corrie is doing well as she studies the gospel with the sisters. She is planning to sing in church with Nadia and the sisters in a few weeks.
After we took Nadia and Corrie to their apartments, we picked up Elders Henshaw and Bartholomew and went to visit an older (88) member (Alf Andersen) who is in a rest home. We enjoyed sharing the sacrament with him and spent time sharing thoughts and mostly listening while he talked. It was clear that he does not get a lot of visitors other than his wife, as he talked almost non-stop the entire time we were there. He is missing most of the fingers on his right hand and I asked what had happened. He said he was a machinist on a fishing boat many years ago and got his hand caught in some machinery. He said, “I had to borrow a knife from the cook to cut off the remainder of the fingers to make it a clean removal. You have to do some strange things when you are out to sea.”
I almost forgot—the weather! It snowed a little on Saturday night, but the temperature never dipped below zero during the night. On Sunday it was positive all day long and reached a high of +6. It stayed positive through the night and is +5 this morning. This has been desired for some time, but now things are very slick as the snow on top melts but the 3 or 4 inches of ice underneath in most of the walking areas is very slippery. We think spring may be on the way!!!
We love the young people as well as the older members we meet here in Trondheim. It is wonderful to see the changes in those who accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. Being here makes us all the more mindful of the great blessing our families have been in our lives and how much we love each of you. We miss you, but would not want to be anywhere else at this time. The young people here all speak of our children as though they know each of you personally, they have seen so many pictures and heard stories of your lives.
May God continue to bless each of you with all that you need to enjoy happiness.
Love,
Mom and dad/grandma and grandpa/Nana and granddad/Gerald and Nancy
No comments:
Post a Comment
We'd love to hear from you!