The bus ride back from Mo I Rana last Sunday left mom with a sore back for most of the week, but she still managed to make dinner for Institute on Wednesday. We enjoyed a good lesson on Section 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants after dinner. Somehow even though the class is over at 8, we never get out of the building until 9:30 or 10. There always seems to be a lot to talk about with young adults.
We spent time with the Husby’s on Friday. His health has improved quite a bit since he was released from the hospital several weeks ago. We enjoyed a nice lunch with them and then watched the church film “Legacy”.
Work in the church building makes it difficult for the missionaries to find a quiet place to teach and it does not appear that the work will be finished anytime soon. It was initially to begin in August and finish before Christmas. Work finally began the end of October and they were still saying it would be finished the end of January. Now they say the end of March. I have kept a good photo record of the process and was hoping to be able to see the completion, but I think that is wishful thinking.
Mom spent some time on Thursday evening with a less active woman in the branch helping her get started with “family search indexing”. Right now the only thing she does is sing in the choir, so hopefully the spirit of family history work will move her to be more faithful in attending church and enjoying the blessings of the gospel. While she was doing that, I joined two of the elders as they taught a beginning Norwegian class to a group of about 13 students from such diverse places as Italy, Honduras, Tanzania, Seattle, Vancouver B.C, Chile, Ghana and Angola.
Saturday we enjoyed a couple of hours of sports in the cultural hall with a good group of young adults, after which I joined Elders Gardner and Carmichael in teaching one of their investigators.
Today (Sunday) we had a good group of members and investigators in attendance at church. There are three women who only come once a month because of the distance they must travel to get to Trondheim (4 hours for one and 2 hours for the other 2). All 3 were here at the same time today, plus a young man (Robert) who lives in Kristiansund (a 4 hour boat ride). Robert arrived at about 6 on Saturday evening, had dinner with Erik and Eli-Kristine Paulsen (former branch president who has just returned from 6 months studying in New Zealand), then Erik brought him to our apartment where he and I talked about the priesthood and the temple. He has been a member for about 2 years now and is a priest, but because he has not been able to get to church very often, has not yet received the Melchizedek Priesthood. We have encouraged him to come here once a month so he can be taught more and can show the branch president that he is ready to be ordained an Elder. This is the second time he has been here since we arrived. The first time was in September when we brought him back from Kristiansund with us. He seems to be committed to coming once a month now.
During English Sunday School class the teacher divided the class into small groups to read and discuss various scriptures and then present their findings to the class. We have been using the gospel principles manual and “Signs of the Second Coming” was the topic. One group (consisting of a missionary, an investigator and Robert) had “coming forth of the Book or Mormon” as their topic. When asked to share their thoughts, Brad, (the investigator-first time at church) got up to explain their discussion. He did a great job and everyone was surprised! All the missionaries had pounding hearts and huge grins! It was his choice to give their response.
After church we watched a rebroadcast of the young adult fireside from 2 weeks ago. Elder Christoffersen talked about taking each day—one day at a time. We have had difficulties watching these “streaming videos” in the past because we were only connected through a wireless network and it was not fast enough. Our branch technical specialist fixed a broken connection for the internet on Saturday and we now get the full benefit of a high speed internet. At the conclusion of the fireside, mom had prepared a dinner for the young adults and missionaries. When dinner was over, I took Robert to the boat so he could return home. We then spent time visiting with some of the young adults and then found our way home.
This week we have had lots of rain. The temperature for most of the week has been on the + side of 0 and today hit a high of 7 C (~45F). With the mounds of snow and ice that are everywhere, there is lots of water running everywhere and sidewalks and parking lots are VERY slippery, with a layer of water on top of the ice. So far we have been lucky enough to not fall—slipped several times, but have not hit the ground. We hold each other up!
For those who have wanted to know when we will speak in church upon our return, we now have two dates. Since our ward was divided a few months ago, we have been asked to speak in the Cottonwood ward (our ward) on Sunday, February 20. We will then speak in the new Duportail Ward on the 27th. Both meetings start at 9 a.m with Cottonwood meeting in the Paradise building in West Richland and Duportail ward meeting in the Richland Stake Center.
We are being asked a lot “are you excited to be going home”? Yes, we are, but we are sad to leave behind so many good friends here. Some of whom we know we will not see again in this life. Having email, facebook and Skype will make the separation a little easier.
We love each of you and look forward to seeing you soon.
Mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/Grandma and grandpa/Nana and granddad
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