Jan 10-19, 2011

Attached for your information is our latest report from Trondheim.  We have actually seen some temperatures on the + side of 0 this week, so things are getting a little sloppy, then of course it freezes at night and everything is slippery as can be, but this is a sign that spring can't be too many months away.
This has been another busy week with most of the young single adults having made it back from Christmas vacation by the time we had our activity on Friday evening. Ingrid finally made it back from the U.S. at about midnight on Thursday, after being delayed by snow storms in Atlanta and Amsterdam. The last to return was Alex, who had been in Egypt and made it back on Saturday.
We had our first institute class of the year on Wednesday, with only 3 young adults present due to work and vacations. Nadia, the instructor, is still sick with what seems to be strep throat, so I (Gerald) got to teach the lesson from the Doctrine and Covenants.
On Tuesday evening, we had a video conference with the other couple missionaries working with the Centers for Young Adults in other parts of Norway—Oslo, Bergen, Kristiansand, Stavanger and Tromsø. There is a new couple who just arrived on Tuesday afternoon in time to join the meeting. They are the Hickmans and come from the Salt Lake City area. They will be opening a new Center for Young Adults in Kristiansand. It should be interesting, as neither of them has ever been to Norway before and therefore they speak no Norwegian. This is the same situation with the Springers, who will be replacing us when we return home next month. President Johansen has been trying to rent a building in Kristiansand for the Center and hoped to have it ready before the Hickmans arrived. Unfortunately, religious bias is still alive and well in Kristiansand (the Bible belt of Norway). He had two facilities located (first one, then when it fell through the second) and things were moving along well when the building owners realized this would be used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At that point, the buildings were no longer available for rent.
We don’t often see or talk with the other couples in the mission, so it is fun to get together with them even if it is just on a video conference call for about 90 minutes. Also on the call were President and Sister Johansen (mission president) and President Odd Gjevik, counselor in the District Presidency with responsibility for the young single adults.
An interesting experience from the week. There is still a lot of remodeling work going on in and outside of the building and on Tuesday morning, I noticed a man was welding some reinforcing wire in forms for the new back steps. Some time ago I had noted that the bracket on the basketball rim was cracked and caused the rim to “clang” everytime it was hit by the ball. I thought this would be my opportunity to get it welded free if I could just get it removed and out to him. I borrowed a drill driver from one of the inside workers and got the rim off, but by the time I got outside, the welder was gone. On Wednesday, I joined the elders in teaching a 40 year old man who has been to Church several times. Before they started the lesson, I asked him where he works. He said “for a construction company”. Then clarified that he works in the office, not doing the construction. I asked if he knew any welders and he said yes, so I showed him the cracked rim and asked if he thought he could get it repaired. He said the man owed him some favors, so he was pretty sure he could get it repaired. He took the rim when he left the lesson and called back about 9:30 on Thursday morning to say it was done. He met us at the church later in the day with a repaired rim—very good weld and he had even repainted where it was welded. Friday evening the Springers were here to join us in our trip to Mo I Rana, so with the help of Elder Springer and a few borrowed tools left by the workers, we got the rim reattached for use in sports on Saturday.


On Friday evening the young adults had planned a “welcome back” party for all who had been gone for the Christmas vacation. Mom had those present assist in preparing the ingredients for straw hats, which they enjoy eating.

After dinner, she brought out the ingredients to make “ice cream in a baggie”. Some of them were here when we did this a year ago, but for many it was a new experience and one they enjoyed. Following the ice cream dessert, we cleared away the tables and chairs and held a paper airplane flying contest (for distance). She had asked Elder Whitehead (who is a private pilot) to organize it and it was a lot of fun. He had groups of 4 stand on the front edge of the stage and launch their planes, then the winners of each of the 4 groups had a fly off to determine the ultimate winner. There were two of the finalists whose planes hit the divider between the cultural hall and chapel, so they had to fly again—with the divider open. The winner landed just inside the chapel. Following this we brought out a long rope and they jumped rope, seeing how many they could get in jumping at one time—7 was the best. It was a fun evening with a good group of young people and missionaries.

Saturday morning we were up early to get the train to Mo. The Springers had flown in Friday morning so we could show them the apartment we rented for them and to join us in the trip north. Unfortunately, the elders making their arrangements had found that it was cheaper for them to fly up to Mo than to take the train, even with the stopover in Trondheim. So they caught the airport bus from the train station and we caught the train. They arrived in Mo at about 10 a.m. and we arrived at 2:15 p.m. This was our last trip to visit these faithful members in Mo I Rana and it was emotional to think that we will probably not see most of them again in this life. We have been there once a month (missed two) since October 2009 and because there are so few members there, it has been easy to become acquainted with each of them and their challenges. We marvel at the faithfulness of these members, most now in their mid 70’s to 80’s. The older women are all widows and have various health problems, but health allowing, they are faithfully in attendance each Sunday. They so much desire to have missionaries back full time to help “grow the branch”.
We both talked in church on Sunday, as did the Springers. We both had a hard time concluding our remarks, as we expressed our love and appreciation to these wonderful saints. After Sacrament meeting, they normally have a combined priesthood and relief society meeting, but this time they moved the chairs out of the way and brought in a table which was then set with sandwiches (smøbrød) and cakes—a little farewell lunch. We enjoyed good food and a chance to visit for the next hour before we had to head back to the train station and the Springers headed for the airport for their flight back to Oslo.
When it was time for the train to arrive, there was an announcement that the train was not coming, but there was a bus waiting outside (groan!). What should have been a comfortable 7 hours on the train, with room to stretch out, walk around, visit a dining car and the bathroom if needed, turned out to be 6 hours on a crowded bus (not a greyhound type, but a local bus—no room between seats, no bathroom, bumpy, etc. etc.). When we arrived in Steinkjer (about 2 hours from Trondheim) we caught up with a local train for the remainder of the trip home--arriving at 11:30 p.m. and home at just after midnight. It certainly made our last trip to Mo a memorable one.
As a result, Monday was a day of rest and laundry, followed by our meeting with the young adult council and family home evening. I met the landlord of the apartment the Springers will be renting, paid him for their February rent and picked up keys so we can move the things we will be leaving with them into their apartment.
Tuesday night was moms last choir practice. We had a good District meeting with the missionaries on Tuesday morning, led by Elder Mathews. He is a good leader. Tonight will be institute, so mom is busy today with dinner preparations—burritos.
So this turned out to be a week and a half, but maybe that will make it easier to get the remainder of the week on time come Sunday.
We love each of you and look forward to seeing you soon. We are excited to hear soon about Steve and Rozann’s new baby. Congratulations to Meghan and Paige on their all-state soccer selections.
Love,
Mom and dad/grandma and grandpa/nana and granddad/Gerald and Nancy