December 29, 2014

'twas a splendid week here in Norway. I've never been more cold in my life though.. its been double digit negatives with plenty of moisture in the air. Christmas was incredible and I felt so loved by the members here in Sandvika. We of course had plenty of food celebrating the norwegian christmas traditions. Its basically still christmas over here so its fun to see how it just keeps dragging out all the way until the new year. Today is the 5th day of Christmas. Christmas eve was the most exciting day for us and the norwegians. Our ward mission leader and his wife invited us over for their very first christmas together. We get to eat classic norwegian ribbe, potetoes, christmas sausages, meat cakes, brussel sprouts, etc. After feasting we moved the tree to the middle of the living room, formed a Whoville circle around the christmas tree, and sang and danced around the christmas tree. Its pretty fun. We then opened up some presents. The ward bought us all sorts of random food and candy so that was really nice. We ended the night playing some card games with the office couple and their family who was visiting. On christmas morning, we went over to the President Evans' home for some of Sister Evans' delicious breakfast. It was all six missionaries in the Sandvika ward plus the senior couples in the area. We shared some stories and got to sing some christmas songs. After breakfast we went sledding. No one got too hurt, besides elder allen who cut up his lip on a frozen tree. Surprisingly it wasn't our jump that hurt him. After sledding we went over to the Silva's for dinner. Brother Silva is brazilian and his wife is norwegian. The dinner was great and then they let us use their computers to skype you guys. It was awesome to see and talk to you guys and it always feels like i'm right at home with you. You all look happy and in shape. On the 26th, we had a fun 2 zone christmas party in Oslo. We went out to some old folks homes to sing christmas carols. It was spiritually intense because there was about 20 of us inside of this hospital type place. I could tell that they old norwegians were loving it, but I honestly think I was loving it more. After caroling, we had a testimony meeting for all of the departing missionaries. I bore my testimony about a lot of different things really but I'd say it was most focused on the power of real intent and the magnitude of the work that we are blessed to be a part of. We then shifted gears and did a white elephant gift exchange. One of my all time favorite things to do. I brought an old weight loss shake mix that some member gave to us and went home with yet another chocolate bar. We also had a talent show which I was dreading because I always think they're awkward. Luckily everyone was in a light mood and nobody was doing anything that was all that serious. Although I was a little hesitant at first, Elder childs, Holden, Allen, and I did this epic rudolph the red nose reindeer performance. Elder Childs brought the talent with the guitar and the singing while the rest of us were on stage singing like a boy band and dancing around. It was pretty funny but it would have been way embarrassing if the missionaries weren't in the right mood. Since then, we've  been spending time delivering some picture and popcorn treats to our members here. The other night we went to give this inactive lady a blessing and there was an unbelievable spirit in her house. I got the strongest prompting that her mother who had her 7th death day when we were there still needed her temple work done. I didn't get the chance to say much about that prompting yet so I need to go back and make sure that gets going. Anyways, time to get back to work. I'm excited to see what else can happen in our area this coming week besides all the new years celebrations. We'll be working hard and on wednesday night we'll hopefully be sipping on some gløgg, eating, listening to the king's speech, and staying up if we can find a member to be with. I remember last year was incredible with all the fireworks. I'm soaking it all in.  

Happy New Year! Godt nytt år!!

Eldste Skinner

December 15, 2014

God Jul!!

It's another mild winter here in Norway so it wierd to think it's christmas soon, but then again when have I ever had a white christmas? I keep having all these weird dreams about being home even though I'm trying not to think about it too much. I've learned a lot about the importance of planning ahead as a missionary so maybe that's why its tough. It sure does sound like you've had a pretty fun week mixed with some rain and interesting food. I've had an awesome week and I feel like I was taught a lot. 

Our trip to Trondheim was absolutely amazing. It was special because I felt like I was sent up there for a special purpose. I was with Elder Shanklin and we were reliving the glory days of us serving in that same city pretty much exactly a year ago. So on tuesday morning we hit the streets after some great studies. I remember studying chapter 4 in Preach My Gospel which focuses on recognizing and following the spirit. You guys should totally read it. Anyways, so we're out in the streets of Trondheim getting shut down pretty hard like usual but obviously that doesn't shake us. Trying to keep our thoughts positive and in tune with the spirit, we keep going. I then felt like it would be a good idea to start heading towards Solsiden. I wouldn't say it was a super strong prompting, but looking back it was for sure the Holy Ghost telling me something Heavenly father needed me to do. As we were on our way to Solsiden, this kid around the same age as Elder Shanklin and I crossed the street with the perfect timing that allowed us to stop him. Long story short, he was a little bit frustrated with God at the moment because of all the bad days he's had ever since coming up to school in Trondheim. He was pretty humbled and his heart was softened to the point where he agreed to meet with us in the church a couple hours later. In the church, we taught him about the role of Christ and the power of His atonement. He asked us good questions and we were able to give him answers. He definitely felt the spirit which witnessed unto him that what we were teaching about Christ really was the path to peace. He quickly accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon and come to church. He even said he'd be baptized in January if he found out it was true. It was an epic experience of being guided to somebody that the Lord had prepared. He found out when we were on our way to eat a kebab with him that I liked to surf, skate, and  snowboard which helped us become even better friends. I left trondheim feeling pretty accomplished knowing that I loved that city and did my best there. I also learned that there is a difference between talking with people and not to people. 

On thursday, Elder Childs and I got to cruise around with Elder Clarke on his last day in Norway. We went hard in oslo and got to see all sorts of cool things including Holmenkollen (The huge ski jump in Oslo), Vigeland Park, and The Viking Ship Museum. It was nice to relax a little and get our tourist fanny packs and visors on. We ended the day on a more serious note, giving a priesthood blessing to a man who was about to die of prostate cancer. We found out on Sunday that he passed away and the member who is now widowed was grateful that we were there for her. It amazing to be a missionary because we can be guided consantly to people who Heavenly Father needs us to love and serve. Anyone who has a desire to serve God is called to the work.

Thanks for all the love and prayers! I'm happy to hear of how we're being blessed. Hope you have a nice week and I'm looking forward to hearing from you again:)

Eldste Skinner

December 8, 2014

Good to hear that you guys made it home safely and had a fun trip in Dallas and Oklahoma! You only have a couple weeks of grindmode and then it'll be another relaxing break for christmas. Hurray for opposition. I remember feeling frustrated and stressed out this week but right now I feel great looking back at an awesome week. Elder Childs and I had all sorts of fun chores and adventures this week.

Our incredible stake president ended up in the hospital for a day or two so we took the opportunity to ask his wife if there was anything we could do to serve him and the family. On monday, we got the opportunity to help out a little bit with the trim/molding in their entry hallway. They have such a beautiful house and they always feed us super fancy soups with oyster and cod and all sorts of seafood stuff. Their soup, which I initially thought would be gross, ended up being delicious. Their house, which I originally thought to be spotless, ended up having some imperfections. Heavenly Father can teach us in interesting ways if we are observant and willing to learn. The stake president was grateful that we could come and help him out and he's totally fine now. 

I conducted my last MLC on wednesday. 15th one! I think it went really well so we should keep things rolling over here in Norway. We talked about some things we could do to help all the young missionaries including some ideas for training in the month of december. Exciting time of the year. 

We're focusing a lot of that HE IS THE GIFT initiative and its been a lot of fun so far. The Christmas season is a great time to be a missionary but the cliche about people being distracted and focused on the wrong things is totally true. Make sure to check out the christmas.mormon.org website and share it with the world. Christ truly is The Gift to us all and its fun to help Him with His great work. 

We spent a ton of time on wednesday after the meeting driving to the airport and down to tønsberg in our mission "creeper" van. I was super pumped though because I got to go see this Luis guy get baptized in Drammen. He even remembered me even though I stopped him and got his number like 4 months ago. So that plus seeing the members in drammen made for an awesome night. ¨

On friday, we spent the day in Oslo with the zoneleaders and it was a lot of fun to be with them. They're super diligent and obedient so it was cool to see what else we could focus on so that we could improve. I feel like we learned alot about the importance of having a pure love for others, as well as being natural and personable in the ways that we teach the gospel. 

Lots of good things happening but I would say the best of all this week happened last night when we taught this norwegian single mother. She's positive and super open to learning about the church and acting upon the answers she recieves from God. She's already read a little in The Book of Mormon and she's working towards baptism in January. Heavenly Father's been challenging us this week but he's also blessing us and keeping us happy at the same time.  

We'll be heading up to trondheim tonight for splits all day tomorrow. Should be fun but our flight leaves soon so I gotta go! Ha det bra! Hope you guys have a great week! Keep working hard and enjoy the christmas season:)

Eldste Skinner

December 1, 2014

Its been another great week despite the stresses that have absolutely nothing to do with missionary work. Life is creeping up on me but I'm pumped and ready to take it on. I've learned a lot here in Norway and I'm just trying to do my best to truly do all that I can before they force me to leave. I'm praying that I can be blessed with more and more people to serve and reach out to. Elder Childs is a solid missionary and we of course get along really well. I'm trying to teach him the ways here in the office but I haven't been here all that long and he's a smart dude so we're basically at the same level. It's fun serving with him because he's down to speak a lot of norwegian and he shares the same frustrations as I do. We carrying on the momentum and making things happen here in Sandvika in an organized, efficient manner.

Everthing with moves this week went fairly smoothly and we were able to make quick adjustments when they weren't. The most exciting part about the week was obviously teaching the gospel though. We had an amazing teach with one of our investigators who's been taking lessons for a while now. We started out by helping him around the yard. It was cold and quickly getting dark (around3pm) and we were doing some sketchy ladder climbing mixed with leaf reaking. He seemed to really appreciate it even though I didn't feel like we did all that much. When we went into to teach him, there was an unreal strong spirit present as his som was bearing testimony and asking him good questions. His son is 15 and a member but hasn't been helping out too much on the lessons as of lately. This time was different though and there were several points when I knew that both the baptize son and our investigator were feeling the spirit. We invited him of course to be baptized but he's still unsure. It's an interesting situation because he's basically already a member who comes to church and lives all the commandments. I just know that him making that first covenant will be a huge step for him for the better so we're trying our best to love and serve him. I pray that he'll someday choose for himself to be baptized. 

We also had this interesting teach with that huge family this week. They've expressed how they've been praying to God that He would send someone to help them. How awesome it is to know that we could be on the Lord's errand that day! I totally feel like they could join the church here in Sandvika but I'm a little worried about their motives behind meeting with us. Elder Holland reminded us of how Christ teaches to "do what we can" for the poor, but I think this family needs a lot of economic help. its sad. Its also frustrating to know that we really are there to help them but not neccessarily in the way that they were asking for. Its interesting how God answers prayers sometimes. Sandvika's now more fun to serve in with all the things we've worked for and been blessed with. 

Drammen's still moving forth as well. I'll be visiting it again this week after Mission Leadership Council on wednesday. There is this Chilean dude Elder Halvorsen and I found together one day while we were out contacting people in the streets. I'm pretty sure we just invited him to come to church and he gave us his number... nothing special. It turns out that he's getting baptized in Drammen this week! He's been super prepared and I'm stoked to hear that some of the "planted seeds" in drammen really are growing! The fruits of labor are the best ever.

Sounds like you all had a great thanksgiving. It would've been cool to be with uncle derek and daniel and all the cousins! I had an awesome Thanksgiving week here in Norway. We're about to head to Oslo for our second american thanksgiving dinner! The first one was hosted by the missionary couple here in sandvika for the whole ward and this one will be hosted by another missionary couple in Oslo. I'm grateful for you guys being so faithful and patient with me. I feel the love.. thank you so much! I can't believe its already December. Still no real snow here in Norway and the norwegians don't know what to do with themselves. I hope you guys have a great week!

Love,

Eldste Skinner

November 24, 2014

Hey fam!

Sorry for the lame email but I've been filling out my application for BYU and BYUI. Stressful, but I ran around all morning so it was alright. We had an epic turkey bowl here in Sandvika for Pday. The oslo and drammen districts came in for some good old american football. No one got hurt but i'm already sore in my legs. The application has been pretty easy and my essays are now on president's desk ready to get edited and picked apart. I'll send you the essays if you guys are curious in reading them. 

This week was awesome but the weekend was for sure the best. We had a huge project of getting things planned out for moves week this wednesday so that used up quite a bit of time. Luckily, we were well planned out and therefore had some time to do some finding and teaching. Heavenly Father blessed us as we went out with "real intent".  

We found this family by some strange miracle. I still have no idea as to why we went and knocked on some doors in this one area but we persisted and found this family with 5 kids. We're going back on tuesday to teach them and help the mom iron some clothes haha.  Its kind of lame though because we forgot that we needed to help President Evans pick up new incoming missionaries from the airport at that time... so now we have to reschedule some things. Men sånn er det! Gotta love the work! We got the rewarded Ikea meatball meal we promised ourselves for finding some new investigators that day. (if we didn't we'd have to eat ikea hotdogs instead).

Sunday was an insane 18 hour day. not exactly a day of rest. We woke up and had "moves call" to announce where everyone was getting transfered to. After Studies, we were on our way out to the church when I got a text asking if I could give a talk on chapter 6 of PMG "developing christ like attributes". So the Spirit helped me out quite a bit on that one and I think it ended up being better than I could've planned out (Doctrine and Covenants 84:85). We also taught the Young Men about the importance of hard work. After church we had some awesome teaches with new people and people who apparently weren't all that positive before. Once again, Heavenly Father has our backs and is helping us out because he sees that we're trying our best. We stayed up way late last night pumped about the week and finished writing up the "moves Gameplan full of logistical type of information for the missionaries. Fun fun fun! Elder Holden's leaving me on Wednesday to finish his mission out of the office. So that means my new and last companion will be Elder Childs. Wednesday marked the beginning of my last transfer! 

Hope you're having a relatively stressfree vacation. Thanks for all the cool pictures. Love you guys!

Eldste Skinner

November 17, 2014

buenos dias!

We're getting some good momentum here in Sandvika. I'm grateful for the gift of profesy and how solutions always come when you ask in faith. On Saturday morning we invited some of the youth to play some sports with us in the church. Although there wasn't too many that came, it was a lot of fun to run around playing free-for-all soccer and dodgeball. No one got killed so it was successful. Time spent with youth is always a good thing.

This week I got to go on splits with the Zoneleaders in Oslo. It was my first time getting to experience missionary work in Norways biggest city. I had a lot of fun and it was for sure nice to be able to get out of the office for a whole day. We had tuna for lunch and salmon for dinner. We visited this lady that the elders found a while back who turned out to be an inactive member from San Diego. She's lived in Norway for a while now and isn't looking to come back any time soon. I positive that she was feeling the spirit as we were talking though, so that gave us a great environment to be bold and bear testimony. She was a cool and I think she liked us too! I couldn't believe how many people live in Oslo! It was just endless flows of people from all over the world. I felt like I never stopped talking the whole day. Streets, doosteps, trolleys, bustops, you name it... We were straight spitting truth, constantly switching back and forth from norwegian to english. We worked hard. It was insane. It was fun. 

We've had some awesome dinner appointments this week with our members here in Sandvika.  We've been trying really hard to make our dinner appointments more productive and spiritual. So we've been working on having natural converstations with solid inspired questions to ask. One night we went to eat with one of our investigators who is married to an active member who served her mission in Brazil. We got her to start sharing some amazing miracle stories from her mission which got her feeling the spirit as well as everyone else at the table. We could tell that our investigator never heard of these stories before and it seemed as if the visit had a whole different feel to it compared to some of the previous ones. The spirit was way stronger and everyone left feeling spiritually pumped up. We also visited the Brown family. He's a pilot in the US Airforce and they made us some delicious square pizza ("like you used to always make us in monterey" haha). We had a great time with them and that was another productive dinner because we had purpose and didn't feel like we were there to just take a break and waste time. I'm hoping that we're helping out the members here in Sandvika as we're trying to make some progress. It feels as if we're trying to steer this huge ship. I most likely won't see the results of anything we do but luckily there should be some good missionaries that follow us.

We got to eat dinner (and wash dishes) at the mission home on thursday night with the departing missionaries. It was sad to see them go, especially knowing that our group is next. We made several trips to oslo and back, trying to get everyone and their stuff where it needed to be. Eventually we drove everyone to the airport, checked their bags, and then sent them off. President was teasing Elder Holden and I because he knew we were next.

We had stake conference this week as well which made it my last stake conference as a missionary. It was incredible and I got to see a lot of my old friends from Trondheim and fredrikstad. So that's was pretty random update on what went down this week. This work is still fun but unfortunately you guys only get to read about the things that pop into my mind as I try to remember everything that happened. Thanks for all the love and prayers. I pray for you guys too! Have a great week traveling around:) Don't forget to take pictures and stuff.

Love,

Eldste Niklas Skinner

November 10, 2014

Maybe if I switch up the fonts this email will be more exciting for you to read!!

Først og fremst så er jeg glad i dere! Thanks for that awesome package you sent me. I can tell you guys know exactly what I like. I was so stoked get some american halloween candy and some old spice Fiji. I cant wait to try on my new Vans shirt as well. I love it. Of course, I'm already putting my bookmarks to good use. You are the best. 

As always this week was awesome with all of its ups and downs. I was fortunate enough to get to spend a day with Elder Halvorsen and Nielson in my former beloved kingdom of Drammen a.k.a D-CiTY. It was so fun to get to see my friends over there. It was snowing that day so I got to see Drammen in a different light. I also got some snowdriving experience. Holden was probably more sketched out than I was but that was a new, fun experience. I got to do some language study/ kebab pizza eating with Marcus although he mostly made me miss snowboarding. I also got to eat dinner with the Brownlees (mission leader who had me pitch). They made ham because they knew I liked it as well as some delicious cinnabon cinnamon rolls. They're currently working on getting this family invited to come to a christmas concert at the church. I paid my favorite muslim barber a short visit and he chopped me up way nicely. I also got to help one of the kids Elder Halvorsen and I baptized, write his first talk. Remi is now working on sharing the gospel with his friends and family members. So many good things are happening in Drammen and its cool to see the work continue to go forward over there. I'll admit that sometimes it makes me so frustrated and jealous that I'm not over there anymore. Holden and I vent to eachother all the time about it.  I know we are needed here and we're working on some out of the box methods to get some energy and excitement flowing here in Sandvika as well. 

As a mission we're really trying to focus on serving, loving, and working with the members because we know thats the only way we'll get to see some real growth here in Norway. We're blessed to have a lot of support from the two stake presidents who are encouraging the members to study Preach My Gospel. So basically we're just visiting the members and inviting them to study PMG so they can get excited and fearless about missionary work. Hopefully we can start getting some solid referrals.

It's amazing to see what truly converted and even consecrated members can do. We had a baptism here in the ward on sunday for a 13 year old girl the sisters have been teaching. Her mom has recently been reactivated and made it a point to make this baptism epic. Long story short, she invited like 3 non member families to come to the baptism. Despite pictures being taken during the ordinance mixed with clapping and screaming directly following, it was a pretty sweet missionary opportunity. 

I don't have a whole lot of time left but I'm trying not to think about that too much. I'm happy and still loving missionary work. It's most fun and rewarding when I go 110 percent. Our area is still hard to get going but I'm grateful that its a little bit of a challenge that Elder Holden and I can handle. We put the passion in the work to avoid the pains of knowing we could've performed better. We have a lot of fun too. 

Hope you all have an awesome week. We're headed to IKEA to get some cheap food and furniture! should be a sweet P day.. Love you :)

Eldste Skinner