God Jul!

December 22, 2013

God jul!

I never know how to begin my emails but i'm glad you like them! its tough for me to remember all that has happened this week.. its all been a blur. I do want to get better at emailing so that all the people who read the blog actually have something interesting to read.

This week has consisted some obvious christmas fun. We got eat dinner with our MMK and help his family make christmas candy and decorate the Christmas tree. The tree's here are different.. sorta dinky but I like them. The tree was decorated with good taste. You would approve mom. I love christmas and it blows my mind how fast the 25th has come around. Its also nice not having to worry about whether or not i'm getting that skateboard, or whatever I used to ask for. I know I was way uptight with making sure I secured myself presents. I also remember always wanting to be surpirsed.. I wasn't a peeker thats for sure. I still love being surprised. I also still love going after things I want and figuring our how it can happen. "Heyy, if we put our money together.." that kind of stuff. Christmas is so much fun! This is my first Christmas away from home i've noticed but i'm not feeling homesick at all. We're treated well here in trondheim so I cant complain. I'll need to make sure those elders in the rest of the lonelier spots are ok though. Here in Norway, christmas isn't just a 2 day thing. They drag it out for about 5 days so its way sweet. they've got the right idea. Missionary work this week will be tough for finding but I'm excited to spend time with some members and experience a Norwegian christmas. This morning we had the classic grøtt, rice porridge. I didn't win the prize by finding the almond though:/ ate that bland stuff for nothing! Haha I also tried some pickled herring on bread, had to experience it. Not bad but I didn't go asking for more. Tomorrow we'll see what sort of weird food pops up. I'm so excited but at the same time it comes so fast that it still feels like it shouldn't be Christmas time already. 

I can't wait to Skype you all on Wednesday. It'll be fun and then maybe you'll feel more updated:) come prepared with your questions, comments, concerns, jokes, whatever!!

Merry Christmas! Love you!

Eldste Skinner 

p.s. here's a picture from another baptism we had in the district on saturday :) Missionary work.. gotta love it!!

December 16, 2013

kjære alle sammen!

Well this week was super crazy.. I don't even know where to begin. Tore did get baptized and the meeting went great. So awesome. All the stressful preparation was worth it. Its a true miracle to find some Norwegian dude on the streets, start teaching him and then see him be baptized. Amazing and I'm grateful for the spirit that unquestionably did all the work.

We had an awesome Zone leader training meeting. We conducted it but president did all the teaching, its was way inspirational. He talked about how missionary life is a lot like climbing Mt. Everest. So true.

We had a freaking Hurricane this week in Trondheim!! It was super intense. Happened in the afternoon after ZLT, while all the missionaries were at the airport trying to get back to their areas. There was absolutely no chance of any planes coming in or landing so they all came back to spend the night. So we had 18 elders in our apartment that night.. so fun but the apartment is back to filthiness. no worries though, it was great for all of us to spend time together. It was actually really crazy because from like 6 to 9, everyone in the city was ordered by the police to stay inside. Apparently the first time in the history of trondheim. the winds were said to be about 35 m/s and up to 50 in some places. So as we all chilled in the church we set up a projector and watch Monsters inc. president said it was cool. We didn't want to risk playing indoor hockey and trashing the church/some elder's face. It was so weird to see a disney movie.. super entertaining, I was sucked in.

With  president, we meet with him in a meeting in Oslo at the beginning of every month as ZL's. Every missionary is interviewed 1 on 1 as often as occasion will allow. We were all interviewed when he came this week. For the most part though we talk to him on the phone and every missionary sends emails every P-day to fill him in. President Evans is awesome!

That christmas concert was embarrassing but super fun. I dont think any of the Norwegians or old people understood what was going on. It was funny to us and the americans in the crowd. We did it in English because we were asked to. We really didn't haven't any time to prepare anything because of this week's craziness.

We went to IKEA this morning and I quickly realized how much I am like you. I was completely overwhelmed and almost bought some covers for my dyna blanket but I chickened out. The pattern I was given when I came into norway wasn't exactly my first choice.. almost but a fun one today. Maybe I'll go back. The Ikea is pretty much the same here and I'm sure they have the same products. We got some cheap food afterwards as well, only place I've eaten in norway with free refills. I also saw those gingerbread houses that I remember annika wanting last year.. It all reminded me of home. Although I would say that I enjoy it a lot more now than I used to. I was also in H&M today.. that was a nightmare, the one here in Theim is way nicer than any other ones I've been to. The Christmas shopping is insane here and our apartment is right in the center of all of it. This city is my favorite and we're slowly finding some cool people to teach the gospel to.

I think i'm starting to get sick.. i took some dayquil and i'm still able to eat so its not too bad. I think this crazy week just wiped me out. So many different crazy things happened this week with a baptism included. Its been a completely different type of missionary week. I'm so grateful for the mission life and the christmas feel up here in trondheim. Eat some gløgg and pepperkaker! We're thinking about getting a apartment christmas card send out.. We'll see what happens. Love you so much, thank you for working hard and being so supportive. setter stor pris på det. Have an awesome week!

Eldste Skinner

Still loving Norway - December 9, 2013

Hellooo!

Thanks for another awesome email. Life's been crazy up here and a little stressful at times but not in a negative way. Still loving Norway.. I think its impossible for me not to love. Its been pretty cold lately but that's no surprise really. We've been really blessed in our district and zone lately in case you didn't know. Right now our zone has 16 baptismal dates and 12 of them come from right here in my district. Our district has more baptismal dates that the other zones do. Completely wild. We've been way blessed with these unheard of numbers. President has just been blown away. I'm not sure why heavenly father started giving us all these awesome people but its a miracle.

Shanklin and I have a baptism on Saturday with a Norwegian guy named Tore. He's a chill 27 year old dude and he's basically a member already with all the activities and church gatherings he's coming to. He might know more members than I do. He's readily accepting all the commandments including the word of wisdom and law of tithing. Our only concern is with the law of chastity because of the homosexual thing, he asked a lot of questions about that. Everyone is liberal here so they sometimes assume that our stance on marriage between only men and women means that we hate gay people. Obviously that's not true and I think he understands that as well, so it looks all good.

 We've planned a pretty awesome baptismal program and came up with a system of getting a bunch of members to come.. basically just give assignments to certain members so they have to. Its genius. We're giving every auxiliary a way to contribute. Administrating is key to ministering. This ward has really opened its eyes to missionary work but we still got a long way to go.

We sat down with our bishop and missionary leader and discussed next year, our goals and stuff. Its awesome to be able to work with such great priesthood leaders.

I had to give a talk yesterday. It was supposed to be next week but they called me on Saturday and said they needed me this week. Its was about Christ and how he is our light. It was pretty good but I hardly had any time to prepare. Especially with all the other mission stuff to take care of. This week is going to be crazy busy. We have a 3 hour zone leader training meeting this week as well with president coming to town. Luckily Elder Jones and I aren't teaching all of it because president wants to teach as well. I love learning from older and wiser people who really know the gospel on a deeper level.

This week after our awesome meeting in the cozy christmas decorated mission home, I had yet another flight story. I have bad luck when it comes to having smooth flights but that's OK because cool stories come from it. No hotel this time but we did get about 40 bucks(got me two slices of pizza..cool). What happened was our plane home from oslo took off but then wasn't able to land in trondheim because the runway was frozen.. so we did some extra flying to kill time as they tried de-icing the runway. They weren't able to get the runway cleared so we ended up turning around and going back to oslo. It was a long night. Eventually we got on another flight to trondheim and managed one of the sketchiest landings ever. You would think that norway would have this whole winter travel thing figured out by now. But I'm not complaining with all these flights that im getting. I'm just hoping all of our missionaries will be able to make it down here to trondheim this week. Those poor brethren up there in the dark arctic circle...

I also had a learning experience last night. We visited these newly wed members at their house. It was spotlessly clean, nice furniture (no kids yet). we talked with them and then taught them them the doctrine of christ as we sipped on some glogg and ate pudding. It was perfect. At the end I felt prompted to give the husband a blessing but thought about the dang bus we were about to miss.. so i IGNORED it!! So LAME. I talked with elder Shanklin about it afterwards and he told me that he ignored the same prompting as well. That was the worst feeling ever so we quickly repented and gave the member a call. We told him that we "forgot" to offer him a blessing when we were at his house. He told us that he could really use one since he's been stressing over his exams. Heavenly Father taught me something that night being the interesting teacher he is. Never again do I want to ignore spiritual promptings. It feels terrible.

So its been a pretty great week! I hope you all are getting excited for the most wonderful time of the year:) have a fun week with work and look forward to those precious days off! Hard work is always worth it in the end! Love you!

Eldste Skinner

December 2, 2013

Hello hello!

Although I wasn't home to join in on all those fun american festivities it was a great week. We actually had a thanksgiving dinner on saturday. We are blessed to have a senior couple here in trondheim and she is an awesome cook. So on saturday we put together a thanksgiving dinner with the ward and all of our investigators. Totally fun and there must've been about 80 who showed up all together. Tons of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pies, salads, and all that sort of stuff. A bunch of food and we're still eating the leftovers out of the church's fridge. I did not miss out. Christmas is here in Trondheim. As of 5 o'clock last night, the local christmas tree and lights are all a go. Its different than america though, doesn't feel as extravagant.. more simple decorations but still way awesome. Plenty of advent calenders so don't feel like you have to send one. There's really not anything I need in particular. The only thing I'd want would maybe be some old spice fiji and afterhours..but I'm fine with the euro deodorant here as well. Church was great although I had to teach the second hour because i'm not busy enough. It was awesome though because the spirit was there and everyone was participating. I also bore my testimony even though I wasn't planning on doing it. Bigger crowd here in Trondheim than Narvik haha. Always feels good to go up and share what you know to be true. I've learned that if your heart is pounding because you're nervous to get up that usually means that you really need to get up there. Nike just do it.

The missionary work is going pretty well. we're just having a tough time finding people on the streets who will make time to meet up. I hate to say the classic christmas line but... people are too busy with christmas to hear about Christ and his church. There's also a ton of students heading home after finals so its pretty frustrating. We had a pretty cool miracle happen this week. way cool and way simple. Praying works.

So basically we have this one investigator who accepted a baptismal date and loves jesus and all that good stuff. He's from Afghanistan and we call him "the one armed bandit"(TOAB). He's awesome but I haven't been able to teach him since being here. He apparently just fell off the face of the earth. We tried calling him but... nothing. So then Shanklin remembers him showing them his neighborhood (completely random) on Google maps.. no one knows why. Unfortunately they didn't write down the address or anything so we just hoped that it would be saved on the recent searches or something. this was about a month ago so that didn't work. It was hopeless and we had no idea how we were going to a hold of this dude. Well we found him. This is our story as told by Elder Shanklin, enjoy:

TOAB is a gangster man... However he went to Oslo right as Elder Leighton left and Skinner and I havent been able to get a hold of him. Boo. Well one day we decided to have a 'hunt for TOAB day'. We spent some time on the computer trying to creep stalk him. We called Elder Leighton to get info on his address. He showed us his house on Google maps before so for a time we attempted to hack into the churches computer history in order to recover the search that was made. We even called the office to see if they could track our phone bill and give us the number of a phone he called from one time. Crazy stuff. I vaguely recognized a street name in the area I knew he lived so Skinner and I just decided to go out there and find him. So we miss the first bus to his area and have to wait and extra 4 minutes. When we get there we waste some time trying houses and before long we just end up walking around. We felt so ineffective. Elder Skinner fell to his knees and proclaimed 'Man, its gonna take a freaking miracle to find this dude'. So we said a prayer, in the middle of this frozen tundra, asking God to give us a miracle. We felt prompted to try this house that had 7 Russian names on the mailbox, nothing came out of it except some creepy Russian dude answering the door with his pants half on. So we walked around some more and I saw a totally sketchy looking mailbox that had like 40 immigrant style names written all over it. So we decided to try it, why not, we could end up meeting TOAB or we could walk in on a terrorist gathering. As a missionary you just take your chances. So we walked to these two doors and at the first one this Asian dude tells us off and we ask him if he knows anyone named John who lives in the other section of this house. He says he doesn't know but then out of nowhere he just reaches through and opens the door for us. Let us go right in. Uhhhh, okay thanks man. So it's possible we are currently in somebodies house. Like imagine if you walked into your house one day and two missionaries were knocking on your bedroom door, and then your bathroom door, and then the laundry room door. That was us. Then out of nowhere we hear someone come up the stairs and I'm thinking 'yep, this is the end, only moments till I get to meet Jesus'. Skinner is laughing because he can tell I am freaking out a little, and then.....TOAB COMES WALKING UP THE STAIRS (with a bag of lutefisk...?). Ladies and gentleman...'nough said. God had a plan. From the missed bus, to the Russian guy, to the Asian dude, God was in complete control. Anyone who claims coincidence can just stop reading my letters...okay well maybe not but let's be real. So sick, got him back on board, turns out he left his phone in Oslo and had to get a new one. Elder Skinner and I were speechless walking out of that apartment thing. TOAB returns in style!

True Story. God answers prays and it was the exact miracle we asked for after doing all that we could. He ended up leaving losing his phone in Oslo and was happy to see us again. We're teaching him on wednesday but i'll actually be flying down to the mission home in Oslo for another meeting. Time is flying by like no other, according to my calculations...

3 days in Trondheim, Norway = 3 minutes in Colstrip, Montana

Anyways, We're all going to play that indoor hockey "innebandi" game. things are super crazy over here and I'm surviving this hard work. Having fun and enjoying the christmas season! Still working on cleaning the apartment and getting our decorations up. I'm sure that's your next project too:) Have an awesome week! Love you all! Let me know if there's anything you're dying to know that I'm maybe forgetting to mention.

Eldste Skinner

November 25, 2013

Halllllloooooo,

Thank you so much mom for that email. It was exactly what I needed and its pretty obvious that Heavenly Father shows his love to us by giving us our families. Your email pretty much just spot on matched what i'm going through right now. To me that's just 100 percent proof that God is real and that the Holy Ghost let you know exactly what was happening to your son here on the other side of the world. How awesome is that. Its so sad for me to meet all these people who are so caught up in science and technology that they see no need for God anymore. This city is pretty tough as far as work goes. There is a lot of people who are absolutely not interested and will even be mentally attacking at times. It doesn't get to me though because I just move on to the next person and the next and the next until I find the one who is prepared and ready. Its such a miracle to cross paths with these certain people.

We are currently teaching this one guy who was found in the city. He's a 27 Norwegian dude. Totally quite and shy but not at all the same time. He's coming to church and all sorts of activities which is awesome because its like he's already a member. We just have to teach him, help him understand what he's getting into and have the spirit testify to him that this is true. He doesn't doubt it but at the same time doesn't know for sure. We got a new investigator with a baptism date. She is from Czech and we were referred to her by a member because she's a cleaner lady and wants to learn the language. So we've been teaching her bits and pieces of the language and then last time the missionaries gave her a Book of Mormon. This last week we taught language for a little and then brought up the gospel in a smooth and almost sneaky way. I asked her how much she's been able to read and she said only 25 pages. We were stoked (normal people dont read that much in a week) and eventually invited her to be baptized on the 21st of December. She said she would if she knew that it was all true. We're just worried that work will keep her from coming to church although she would love to come and make new friends.

We had a way awesome experience with the youth at a indoor beach party activity (snow is dumping outside). We have about 4 youth but the activity had about 16 or so non members! what the heck! is was awesome to see so many people inside the church socializing and playing games with us. We had investigators come as well. We played dodgeball and no one in Norway knows how to properly throw a ball. They looked at me as if I was from another planet. USA baby. It was a lot of fun and really made me love the youth of the church!! I want to do all that I can to help them out. I know its tough, especially in Norway.

This week Elder Jones and I had the idea to gather the whole zone together via google hangout to present what we want to accomplish before the end of the year. It was stressful with all the inevitable technical difficulties of getting 10 companionships and their branch presidents on at the same time. It was also way scary for me because I have all these missionaries and branch presidents staring me down wondering if I really know what I'm doing. I need to have more confidence I've decided and I feel like I'm constantly not where I want to be. I've also come to the conclusion that I don't want to be just a good missionary, but just an absolute stud in the church. Here in Trondheim I' surrounded by a 28 year old bishop and a 26 year old mission leader who are just on a different level of member in the church. I want to be like them and just have that determination and ability to influence others like that. General authority status. I want to be on that level. I got some work to do... haha. But luckily I have this opportunity on the mission to learn and grow.

Try not to worry too much about the house. I can totally picture what going on right now. Enjoy everything this week! enjoy your day off. We'll be having a thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. Have fun! tell everyone hi and that I'm still loving Norway. I'm busy and time is flying by and of course im living in the present and enjoying this opportunity to live in an awesome city. I'd also love some pictures! Anyway, thanks for all the love and support. I am truly grateful for the motivational emails every week. Love you!

Eldste Skinner  

Zone Leader in Trondheim! - November 18, 2013

Hello!

Trondheim (trond- like owned and -heim like time) No complaints whatsoever about this city.

What an insane week. Leaving narvik was exactly as rainy as it was when I came in to the place. I miss that area a lot but I would day I love the city way more. There is so many people here in Trondheim (trond- like owned and -heim like time) and its just so much more fast paced. The dialect here is a little hard to understand but I'll just need a week or so to adjust. Everytime you move its like a different language. I'm comfortable with my language skills but I'm really trying to strech them so I can get a greater variety if things to say and ways to say them. I'm excited for  this area because I finally get to use it a lot more than my last area hardly anyone besides english speakers would talk to us. I love the language and oviously Im not fluent and somedays are just rougher than others but for the most part I feel fine about it. I still do have those humbling moments which just keep pushing me to be better.

So we have this big apartment in the city that we share. There's four of us. I'm with elder Shanklin and he's been here for about 3 months. He's from missouri and we get along great. He's pretty funny and and we're always laughing. Closest match to matt moffitt on this mission. He's a awesome missionary too and I'm just happy I don't have to worry about him and that he can share the responsibilty of this area with me. I don't feel like I have to do it all with him. So grateful. My Zoneleader companion is training. It's kind of confusing. We have an awesome ward but there not doing to hot with working with us at the moments but we've got some plans cooking up. We have no joke the best ward mission leader in Norway if not europe if not the world. He is an absolute perfect example of someone who magnifies his calling. I'm so greatful for him. I love being around other missionaries and members. It feel like a legit army of god.

On a side note, I'm dying over how nasty the apartment is. Probably hasn't been cleaned in years. Its not that bad and I've been slowly doing little things here and there but its pretty bad. I wish I had time to power clean it but I honestly never have time. Its hard enough to get to bed on time. I'm surviving though and trying not to be too stressed out about it, we did some cleaning for a little bit today and then bought groceries. Elder Shanklin cant eat gluten though so we have to buy some things seperately but that was easy. So much more food doen here and it seems to be cheaper and last longer. Christmas is in the air with the julebrus and peperkaker(thin gingerbread cookies). Julebrus is a christmas soda that different breweries from different cities in norway make. Its pretty classic norway. So ya christmas is sneaking in and I'm super excited even though I won't be home with you guys. We'll end up coming together as missionaries at some point in between christmas and new years to have some fun.

Im my area we have two investigators with a baptismal date but I haven't really met with them yet to see how progressed they are. Its funny because for the most part I was just as busy in Narvik as they seem to be here. Hopefully I can start really being busy with appointments and people to baptise before the end of the year. My new job is stressful and eventhough I'm not dealing with the isolation and boringness of Narvik, I would say this new area is harder. I'm still happy though and eventually i'll make the adjustment and realize how much I grew. I just am so new to everything and its kind of overwhelming right now but eventually things will start flowing. Change is always tough but i'll quickly adjust. This city is so awesome though. I don't know a whole lot about this place but It has an amazing cathedral and there's a ton of atheist students here. Plenty of people to talk to at any given timee of day. Perfect. Its still dark but Its a city so its no big deal. I got out of narvik in perfect timing ( i think the sun goes behind the mountain there today, never to be seen until sometime in february or march).

So basically I'm doing great and I know I'll really love this area and time will fly by. I'm happy to hear dad is still shredding the gnar, that's one of the few things i miss but it'll be there for me when I get back. Patrik is a teacher's quorum president? that's way awesome I hope he will really try to get the less active kids to come back, I'm assuming there's a few. With the whole mutual thing can patrik find a good friend to bring along? that will make it more fun for him and give the missionaries some smiles as well. Just my thoughts. If the activities are lame, plan different ones. I remember we always got to pick and if we didn't pick something fun then it was our own fault.

Thanks for the email. I'm really focusing on doing all these things cheerfully even though its tough right now. Its totally a miss stressed out leadership mixed with excitement for being in a cool place with people to baptise. Let me know If you have any specific questions.. Happy thanksgiving! Be thankful for the restored gospel and warmish weather. Love you!

Eldste Skinner

Trondheim! November 11, 2013

Narvik is doing awesome. I'm gonna miss this little place. Mostly because of the incredibly strong members, beautiful nature, and my own personal growth. This area wasn't easy but it also wasn't that hard either. Heavenly father has had my back ever since I got here and its great knowing that I worked hard up here. I got to meet and teach some awesome people and I hope the missionaries after with me will be able to enjoy the fruits of my labors and maybe do even better. Church yesterday had about 9 people and we lost our red cross building for the day so we ended up meeting in an office building behind the hospital. Gotta love it, the spirit was the same. 

This week was epic. We had a zone training meeting in trondheim so we got to fly down there and stay the night. I love trondheim. On the way back, we couldn't land at the airport in Bodø (connection) because the landing strip lights went out and the airport was closed down. So we got stranded in another tiny little airport and had no possibility of getting home to narvik that night. Classic Northern missionary adventure, I was cracking up although president didn't think it was as funny when I called him to tell him the news. So this situation seemed way inconvenient but I think heavenly father just wanted to bless us like crazy. First in the form of free pizza and soda at the airport, then in the form of a free hotel in bodø once we finally were able to land there. This hotel was super nice. It felt like a mini vacation especially with the american style bathtub and free breakfast the next day. It was such a miracle.. kind of hard to describe in just a few sentences. I learned a lot of symbolic lessons from this trip that are worthy of conference talks. (In case you were wondering, I do keep a journal and haven't missed a single day.) I can't wait to just tell people all this stories some day. Emailing them just isn't as fun or effective.

We found a dude this week who used to be a member in africa but now goes to the catholic church. He basically wrote him self out because he doesn't want the lds church to do anything for him. Welfare is just a form of luring people into the church, he says. There might be a little more to it but we're looking to get him back to the straight and narrow that he once found. Satan just pulls people for the weirdest most random things sometimes, its so sad. 

So I found out where I'm going on wednesday and I'm absolutely stoked. I'm going to Trondheim to serve as a Zone Leader and a district leader. Holy moly i'm going to the 3rd largest city in Norway. Dad also told me this is where grandma served most of her mission so that gives me chills. She'll continue to be round about me but in her own old area. Its a dream come true. I'm serving with Elder Jones who is also from southern california. He's from the group before me and been here for a little over a year. I'll actually be serving with elder shanklin though more regularly. The way the mission is set up right now is that we're too young to have the zone leaders serve together full time so we're split up with younger companions to finish training them. I'm really anxious and a little nervous but I know I can do it. I'm mostly nervous because of responsibilty of not only my area but the success of the whole northern zone of the mission. It will be stressful and i'll be super busy but i'm here to work hard and do whatever is needed for heavenly fathers children in this part of the world. I've come to know a lot about myself yes but, I'm still developing and constantly learning. I would say that I need to get better at recognizing my own personal skills and attributes. Maybe you can help me out. 

I'm jealous that you guys are bbqing that late at night in november. Its dark and cold up here. less and less time with sun up and its eventually going to disappear. Luckily I'll be a little warmer but still north enough to see northern lights in Trondheim. I haven't heard about that book by the way but it sounds like you should read it. right now the mission is reading the 4 gospeøs and 3 nephi 11. Focusing on the life of christ with christmas coming up. Have a nice veterans day! Hope patrik keeps shreddin the gnar.. oh how I miss being active. Love you all so much, cant wait to hear from you next week:)

Eldste Niklas Skinner

November 4, 2013

Heiii alle sammen, 

Weeks are flying by right now. I spent wednesday in Oslo for a meeting and then 2 half days in Bodø. Flew a lot this week and barely made some of my flights. Learned some lessos about being on time to the airport. I am super lucky to travel all around and see all these places and meet all sorts of cool people. I am nervous for my next step but I know its going to help me out for future leadership callings in church and in the workforce. I am still a missionary and I really just want to keep doing the Lord's work to the best of my abilities. I still know I've been called here for my growth but more importantly the growth of heavenly fathers kingdom. We've been working hard in this gnarly narvik area, especially in this one area with a  lot of students from around the world who haven't heard about the gospel. We figured we'd go to wherever people will listen to us and we've been able to teach some great lessons. The only bummer is that they are students so they wont neccessarily help out the branch or church here in Norway. They're also busy with studying as well. 

The meeting I had in Oslo was way wierd. Its a totally different type of missionary work and I feel added pressures. I know I'm going to be busy and stressing out with added responsibilities and accountabilty. I also need to find the time to still do missionary work strengthening my investigators I meet as well. My goal is to do all this cheerfully and with a smile on my face. Its still feels unreal that this is happening but I guess its because I care about missionary work and i was ready for it (although historically young). 

Today we went to a war museum here in Narvik. It was pretty neat. Its insane to think about the history of this poor little town and all the warships that have sunk in the fjords here. We bought a new frying pan because ours was just too old and sticky. Going to be able to make some pankakes and and stuff now. Can you maybe send me that lettuja/crepes recipe. I know its simple but I dont know what it is exactly. This last sunday we had fish with President Nyman and I pounded it down like it was nothing and even went for seconds. It was actually good salmon and I was amazed at myself for not flinching when I saw it. 

Halloweeen here was pretty lame. Kids celebrate it here but it wasn't anything relatively close to the states. This week we got our hands on some thin plastic buttsledds. they were like 5 bucks and we used them for the icy downhill neighborhoods. We'd slide from house to house and it was a much more fun and efficient use of time. Way more effecient than a bike or a car. all the ice is now melted though. It was nice while it lasted. So things are going pretty good with me over here. Really happy that Im in this country. Christmas stuff is starting to fill up the stores. Crazyyy. 

Anyways great things are happening up here in Narvik. Elder sperry is going to turn into a legend. Its still cold up here and dark by about 3 or so now. Its quickly getting darker and darker. Its humid cold but at least its not windy. Our investigator came to church and we're working on meeting all these people we teach more than once. The church is true whether people chose to act upon the spirit or not. 

Good job being a good sport and dressing up for halloween. I don't really miss that holiday too much but its always fun to have candy and be with good people. Thanks for being so loving and hard working. This life is the time for men to prepare their labors.. right? have fun, Love you!

Eldste Skinner

October 28, 2013

It was another scary fast week for me too which i'm thankful for. We got a lot of things accomplished this week and we're consistently finding people to teach. Just struggling to find people to keep teaching. Our investigator with a baptismal date is having problems coming to church because he likes to party on friday and saturday. Its super frustrating. One day this week we taught someone from china, nigeria, and iran all in one day. Yesterday we had an awesome day at church though. President and sister Evans came for a visit. They both gave talks in Norwegian. We finally had a dude come to church and he seems to be way positive and open to finding the truth. He's from ethiopia and we just found him on saturday.  We found him as we walked up to an appointment which ended up cancelling.. again. We told him a little bit about our church and gave him a book of mormon in norwegian. He said he was really interested and wanted to know where our church is and all that. We promised him a book in amharic as well. It was so cool to actually see him there. When we got to church he had already been there for about an hour and was talking to sister evans. We switched the clocks back saturday night so that lead to a lot of confusion for some people. At church we also had a one of our newer members bring him daughter and son in law with their baby. So we had 3 nonmembers in church as well as president and sister evans. It was a whopping 18 or so people. I didn't know what to do with myself. 

It was also nice because we got to spend some time with president evans on saturday. He wanted to interview us as well as go out and do some street contacting. Its so nice to see people from the outside world. We tried sharing the gospel with some people on the streets for about an hour with president. It was just another hour out on the streets but we had president evans tagging along. My main goal for him was just to not have him slip. This city is super slippery. Slippery ice everywhere. Its pretty ridiculous how frozen over everything is. Haven't fallen yet but its pretty much inevitable. President survived and was really impressed with our apartment. We are so blessed to have a nice warm place to stay. We of course did a panic clean that morning, not that it was really that dirty. I still don't like living like a pig. I passed my interview and president told me how impressed he's been that i've been able to perform and have a good attitude. He came to narvik with some huge news for me.

On november 13th i'll be moving to a new area with a new assignment. President told me he wants me to be a Zone leader. I'm freaking out because that's a huge responsibility to take on. It feel like a dinky freshman on the varsity baseball team. Apparently this is where I'm needed though. I am just totally humbled and excited for this change. All i'm going to do is keep being myself and trying my best. I'm about to get to a full on city although he won't tell me where yet. I think I know where and who i'll be with but i'm not going to say anything yet. Pretty crazy. So that was a huge surprise to say the least. I keep getting these assignments and am in no way seeking them. I'm just trying to be good. It's amazing to see what my mission story is becoming and it is truly preparing me for the future. 

Its also weird because "the fruit" of all this work that i've put into the city to find, teach and prepare people for baptism isn't going to be enjoyed by me. Oh well, i'll accept my role i guess. I only have a couple weeks left here and I want to get more of our investigators geared for baptism with dates before I leave. 

On a lighter note, that KICK black liqourice (from Turku, Finland) is bomb. I tried it one day just for fun because it was cheap. I'm sure you've had some but maybe forgot about it. I saw this kid absolutely fly down this icy hill on a sled straight into a fence. I dont really know what he was thinking. Kids these days... 

When we were knocking on some doors, we knocked into this totally american family. It was crazy. the mom and the three little girls all spoke english and I guess her husband is from sacramento. He's a doctor here in Narvik and I really want to go meet this fellow californian. For patrik's birthday we made brownies. Haven't made brownies in forever and totally reminded me of us as kids fighting over the batter in the bowl and spoon. I hope patrik had an awesome birthday, I was thinking about him. I am also thinking about how fast time has gone. Its already halloween again. I remember going up to LA with Todd senior for that solar panel project and then finishing up and coming home for trunk or treat like it was yesterday. I hope all the Johnson's are doing good. Please tell them hi for me. 

Anyways I can't think of really anything else to write. I'm happy hear about cesar's mission call. He's actually going. Wow I really pray he doesn't give up. Salt lake would be a cool place to serve because of all the cool families you'd get to work with. No knocking on doors for hours up there. He'll be perfect up there. I also heard they have ipads and all things cool. Keep supporting him!

Love you all. Keep it up with work. thanks for the love and support. Less than 2 months until christmas and then we can skype. 

HA det

bra,

Eldste Skinner

 

Snow and Northern Lights! - October 21, 2013

This week was a turn around. our numbers were up and we had some way awesome teaches. Right after I sent my email last week we went out and met with an investigator who's been getting worked on by the spirit. He brought up baptism and we invited him to be baptised on November 9th if he's ready by then. I think we're to push it back a little but its nice to at least have someone thinking about baptism. We've been able to meet with several people this week and have some spiritual teaches. This week was say faster and happier than the week before and we hope and plan to keep it rolling up here. This week has been insane. I saw the northern lights and got to watch them for about 5 minutes right outside our apartment window. They weren't super amazing yet but still way cool to see. they'll start getting more vivid and colorful as the weather gets colder and colder i guess. So that was pretty cool. The next day It snowed. Snow is officially here in Narvik and its here to stay. Everything is white. I don't know how much exactly but Elder sperry says its was about 6 inches. Seems like a lot to me. Everything is white including the roads. I am still enjoying it and am not planning on getting tired of it yet. It makes this area super pretty with the snow covered mountains and trees. We were trekking about 2 miles to this neighborhood in the snow to get to this one investigators house. Luckily she was home and we taught an awesome lesson. On the way back I made friends with these neighborhood kids playing in the snow. They kindly let me bomb down there street on one of their sleds. As we were walking back home in the dark with snow dumping I was thinking about how this is exactly what I pictured serving in Norway would be like. Im very grateful that i'm able to be warm and I hope that doesn't change. At the very least we can crank the heat all we want in our apartment which is something. I'm incredibly grateful for that.  We had an epic experience with a huge bag of recyclables. I consider it a miracle. There was a huge bag of plastic bottles on the side of the road that must have fallen off the back of a recycling truck. Long story short. After no one claimed it as it sat on the side of the road for hours we finally decided to do some nightly community. We took the bag that was heavier than my companion and took it to the grocery store (this is where you take recycleables). We walked out with 240 crowns. That was a tender mercy. basically the same thing as finding 40 bucks on the side of the road. We bought a liter of milk with that money... (:

So this week was a pretty happy week. Conducted my first district meeting and gave another talk on sunday. Its nice to be busy up here with things to do up here and really makes time fly. The trick is just figuring out how we can stay busy with things to do and limiting the long days of wandering around in the empty streets. 

Thanks for all those recipes. I hope to find those ingredients. I know we have pretty much everything between all the stores up here I just dont know how much it will cost. We made BLT's today and they were yummy and easy. I made lasagna this week for the first time. it was from a box so it wasn't that impressive or as good as yours. Still good though. Thanks for all your love and support. It really makes a difference. I don't what you guys to think I'm dying up here. If anything i'm dying to work but frustrated with not a whole lot to work with. Heavenly Father is helping Elder Sperry and I out though and Im just taking some of my final breaths of sunlight. President and sister Evans are coming up here on Saturday because they want to spend some time with us. They must realize that its pretty lonely up here. 

October 18, 2013

This has been a trying week. Haven't had a long week like that in a while. But other than that all is good and I really fine and won't let this area beat me up. We had a nice zone conference in trondheim on friday so that was a great way to get refocused. It was also nice to get back into a city and away from windy and rainy weather. It has literally been wet and at least drizzling everyday this week, except for our day in trondheim! haha. We had all sorts of people saying that they could meet us at a specific time and place but then never end up showing up. Never have I been "Kebabed" more times in a single week of my mission. It really made me wonder why heavenly father was making it so tough for us this past week. My patient and diligence has really been tried. Last night though we received a tender mercy in the form of two texts that came within 15 minutes of each other. We have 2 dinner appointments! Not quite referrals or baptismal dates but I took it as a blessing that heavenly father would prompt those members to invite us over for dinner. We also had some awesome lessons this week and found three new investigators. Looking back, we really did awesome, although the week seemed like disappointment after disappointment. Right now our biggest struggle is getting people to keep commitments and be progressing towards baptism. I truly feel that elder sperry and I will baptise as long as we do everything we can and have faith that it can happen. There are enough people up here and in surrounding areas that I find it hard to believe that there is not at least one who i'm supposed to find teach and baptise up here. I don't want to leave until I baptise. I know baptisms aren't everything but I'm also a missionary send to this awesome country to share the restored gospel (baptism included). if I dont even expect to baptise it more than likely wont even happen. If I dont baptise, then that's ok too as long as I can know that that it was the lords will and not because of my lack of faith or laziness.

Anyways, I will blow your guys' minds when I tell you that instead of making a bbq chicken sandwich I used tuna. So crazy and It honestly tasted the same. Going to do it more often. We bought some different foods this week to try out all though those recipes you sent me blank/ non existent. Today we went on a nature walk. Everything was pretty neat. Fond a cool lake and a waterfall that overlooked the fjords. Saw plenty of rainbows with snowy mountain caps in the distance. Tried knocking on the door at the end of the rainbow but they said "Nei Takk". I really wish I could fully capture how awesome the nature is up here. I can send pictures but mostly you're just going to have to take my word for it. My ripcurl watch died this week but I took it to get fixed today. Probably spent way to much but It was cheaper than buying a new one and seemed reasonable enough for me. I also was way blessed with some thrift store come ups this week. At the bodø apartment I inherited a pair of free black boots. they were left behind by a homeward missionary. fit me perfectly, they are really fashionable and I feel like a soldier but i'm stoked. So happy I don't have to ask for money to buy stinking boots. I also came up on some other nice stuff so I feel set for winter. Although I was in H&M today and saw some awesome scarfs! It cold up here but im not freezing at least yet. I'm not starving either. I'm taking advantage of all the pastries, dairies and all that good stuff that norway has to offer. Really trying to try as much different things as possible. I'm living in norway and sometimes I forget how awesome that is. Luckily we walk a lot up here so I can in somewhat good shape. Elder Sperry and I are getting along and he doesn't do anything that bugs me. We're both laid back and easygoing which can be kind of boring sometimes. I'm really surprised at how he can just hang in and wake up day after day with some of these long days we've had. He's a great companion and I'm happy to serve with him. 

Well sorry if that was kind of lame and random. Gotta go to our dinner appointment: (that's weird to say) I'm excited to go eat food I didn't have to cook and not worry about cleaning up after myself.. Although I'll of course I'll be a good boy and offer to help with the dishes and what not. Hope you are all happy and have have an awesome week. Thanks for writing me. LEt me know if you have any specific questions or anything like that. That church is true and heavenly father really is watching over us, aware of what we're going through. Love you!

Eldste Skin

October 7, 2013

Heiii :) 

Ya its tough. But I don't like focusing on that. I'm grateful to serve here and gain these experiences. Thanks for being understanding and supportive. General conference is amazing on the mission. I feel like such a celebrity in the church. All the prayers and talks were focused on Missionary work, Families, and of course the atonement of Jesus Christ. Truly Heavenly father wants us all to have happy families and to be good missionaries. Pretty simple. I hope that you guys are going to follow the promptings and instruction received from Ballard's amazing saturday afternoon talk. Help out the missionaries, pray for opportunities to share the gospel and don't be afraid! I wish I served in a more "ideal" environment for sharing the gospel by working with members. But I'm up here doing the same not as effective thing thats been done for about 160 years. It's pretty difficult and makes for some long days. I know we'll find those who are prepared as we keep following promptings and are working hard and obediently. Its just a little bit of a slower process. We found a totally cool african guy this week and taught him about the restoration and how it can help him come closer to God. He speaks 5 languages and has dreads. He's never heard about the restoration and seems pretty excited about it. He's hopefully been reading the Book of mormon in Swahili. We'll find out this afternoon. 

My greenie is from Pleasant Grove, Utah. Back to back utah kids fresh out of high school. I call them kids because they seem so young but that doesn't mean that they're not awesome. I really ended up liking Elder Gunther so I was sad to see him go even more north (tromsø) just after 6 weeks. Elder Holden is a DL in Alta so we're both the DL's way up here in santa's territory. But we're obviously in different districts and never get to see each other except for weekly skype meetings. We will have zone conference in Trondheim this thursday. I wish I could baptise as much as I fly. So now elder Sperry and I are getting used to each other. We'll get along great. He's a lot more timid and shy. Not very talkative yet, but time will change that hopefully. I need someone to talk to up here or I'll go even more crazy. He worked at subway and was in band in high school. He also played some city baseball. Its a tough responsibility to train especially since they have never lived away from home before. Naturally, most of the work load (from cooking to teaching) ends up on my shoulders. But at the same time he's just as stressed out wondering what the heck he just got himself into up here. So, I'd say i've done a pretty good job at managing stress thanks to prayers. I really just want to help out Elder Sperry. Make him feel comfortable and included, and at the same time work on my personal skills that still need improvement as well. Its stressful and complicated to think about. Basically, I just want to be good and righteous and try to have fun. 

I trying to read the book of mormon in Norwegian in these 6 weeks. The book of mormon is awesome and I get different insights every time I read it. The comfort is always there as well. This week has been frustrating for me because of all this confusion and contention among people regarding religion. I've been frustrated towards churches who prevent people we come into contact to from hearing the truthfulness of the restoration. My testimony of the church has really grown here in Narvik. I know the gospel has been restored and I try to share this in a matter that doesn't add to the confusion. Some people just really don't see the need for a true church and are fine with where they're at now. As I was reading after a frustrating day of dealing with stuff like this, I was finishing up in 1 Nephi which talks about all these churches that will come forth(1nephi22:23). I was almost creeped out about how much the end of that chapter applied to what I faced that day. There is something special about reading the scriptures, especially the book of mormon. I am grateful to be a missionary on the lords errand to gather his sheep. It can be totally frustrating to present "the good news"to His children and have them not even care. I can only imagine how Heavenly Father that must feel to Heavenly Father. All I can do is extend the best invitation I can and let others use their agency. 

Thank you so much for filling me in with the week. Its funny how every week is different but the same at the same time. Same thing goes for me I guess. Thanks for the food Ideas. The recipes email you sent me was just completely blank though, I dont know what happened. I've been dying for more variety with meals. Thanks for asking about the card as well. You can get me a new one if you want but will it still be a free college acct? i don't really know. Take everyday as it comes and make the best to enjoy it. Thanks for being so hard working. I love you and hope everyone has a nice week.