July 29, 2013

Another great week in Norway and it sounds like you all had fun with the Schramms. Its been another really warm week although it did rain for a day with thunder and lightning storms. It was so epic. I lost my good old trainer today.. Elder Weaver is moving to be a Zone Leader in Drammen. Im gonna miss my "father". He was a great example and we will shredd together after the mission. So now I've got fredrikstad in my hands. Pretty crazy. For the next 3 weeks i'll be in a trio and we got Halden back as part of our area. I should be training in 3 weeks, probably still in Fredrikstad. So I'll be in the same situation as those 2 elders in ramona, except i'll try to make it look like I know what im doing. So much pressure but im ready for the growth.

 So these two elders... One is from Suprise, AZ and he is your typical, textbook greenie who's into show choir. He's been in norway for 2 months now and he keeps me totally entertained. hahaha he's legit. My other comp we just picked up from the train station. He's been out for about 21 months now and he's from rexburg! I dont know too much about him but he seems pretty cool. 

During the week we've had some great teaches with our investigator from Congo and the Polish dude with a prothetic leg. We've also had some other teaches but those our most positive right now. The poor polish guy has been stressing out looking for a place to rent, so we taught him about prayer the other day and now he's calling us all happy and excited. Apparently God has answered his prayer. BOOM!

We put together a way fun ward activity this week at a local beach park place. We had a huge water fight with water balloons, squirt guns, and buckets. There was also volleyball. We grilled hot dogs, steaks, and all sorts of good stuff. It was so much fun and we all got drenched. All the kids loved it. Great success. 

Today I spent most of my morning cleaning up the apartment and organizing all my stuff. So, don't worry. you're not the only one who has to clean up everyonce in a while :) Laundry and washing dishes can be kind of relaxing if you do it right. But then again, we dont have all the fun, entertaining, and distracting things to be doing instead. 

Thats cool that you guys got rid of cox. I hope that all works out and Patrik can still game it up. Annika is crazy and I hope she doesn't crack her head open on the concrete. Trampolines are the thing over here in norway. Kids love them. I've might have already said that. The poor driveway has officially gone white trash though but i understand there was no where else to put it. :) Kinda random, but I found out from a norwegian firsthand that you can work 14 days out of a month at a gas station and make the equivelent of 3000 dollars!!! Working part time at a gas station.

 Anyways, Im so excited for you to travel to Finland! You're gonna love it. I'm assuming the weather's the same for the most part right now. I cant believe max and Zack are back. " years goes by soooo fast its crazy. As for right now I fel like I still have a long ways to go though. But its totally all right, Im taking everyday as it comes and trying to make the best of it through relationships, hard work and learning. Its a great life! I love you all! Kos dere videre!

Eldste Niklas Skinner

6 months!

yo yo yo alle sammen,

Its been a really great week of missionary work. We've been teaching that lady from the congo, and we've also picked up some way positive investigators. We were knocking on some doors and were totally led to the bulgarians from the language class. The same dude who is looking for a job and played us the bag pipes is now officially my homie. I love that guy and especially now that I found out that he was a professional snowboarder for a couple of years. He said he's not Xgames good but he still can definately shred. WHich is why he lived in Switzerland and is now here in Norway. He's the man, I gotta convert him so we can shred after the mission. His name is Ivan and he's about 28. Another bulgarian who lives in the same complex is really interested in having us teach her. She talked with missionaries in bulgaria some 18 years ago. She LOVES us and told us basically how she feels the spirit whenever we're around. She's a sweet lady named Veronika. We just gave the Book of mormon last night and we're going back on wednesday to teach the Restoration.

While walking home pretty late one night and came to find that the bridge to get to our house was up for the night, and we couldn't cross it. So we had to take a little detour past all the bars and restaurants at about 9:50 on a still bright saturday night. Some dude from Poland waved us over and totally wanted to hear what we're all about. He was most likely drunk and I was tired and we were late getting home, so usually I'd just ignore him and keep walking. But we stopped and set up a time to meet with him the next day, half expecting that he wouldn't remember. He turns out to actuallt be way positive. So we met him on Friday, gave him a Book of Mormon on Saturday and he said he wanted to come to church with us on Sunday. SO yesterday we took him to church adn taught him the restoration and asked him how he feels about baptism. He told us he'll be baptised wehen he finds out the Book of Mormon is true. perfect! He's such a cool jittery dude, who lost his leg in a car acccident. So know he has a prosthetic leg and works in that work industry.

We've been blessed with some awesome people this week and I am so grateful to help them out, and share what I know is true with them. We have a ton of other potentials as well who we're working on meeting with and getting them to feel the spirit!

We had the asssistants come this week for contacting splits. We basically went around the city and learned what to do and what not to do while finding people. It was pretty helpful to get some insights from more experienced missionaries. They were impressed with my language skills and I really have been trying to step up my studies in order to become a legendary speaker. The more work I put in to improving my skills the more the gift of tongues will help me. One Idea that I have is to get a digital voice recorder so that I can record norwegians speaking and put general conference talks on as well. I think it will help. So maybe you can find one of those cheap online on ebay or craigslist and send it to me when you are in Finland.

I am happy to hear that you guys are all doing good and that the Schramms are coming to visit. Its been pretty warm here lately and yess everyone's on their summer vacation. I've been sweating all week and its only 28. You poor people. Thank you for taking care of that Xbox live thing.. its been autorenewing and stuff like that so hopefully you guys called them or something. Im glad to hear Patrik is wearing my clothes and I really hope he gets that hair cut. Everyone has that hair cut here. Super Euro. I think its sick. Just flow it on the top and chop it on the back and sides. He she get it.  I dont know about bleached though. I am being good and having fun. You all do the same. Remember CPR: Church, Pray, Read.

Love you all!

Eldste Niklas Skinner

July 15, 2013

Where did you read the article about the dress code changes? I've been dying for something like this to happen! I really think that a little bit more style wont hurt the missionary work. Thats an awesome story about the missionaries in Ramona, I wish I felt the same promptings. They sound like they're awesome... make sure you dont feed them too early on monday if thats they're Pday. Today we have a dinner at 4 so our P day gets cut way short:/ its alright though.. Im grateful for dinners. We're gonna go to gamlebyen today which is where 2 missionaries were thrown into jail way back in the 1850's I believe. My area is old!

 We've been trying find like crazy and it never really ends up being as effective as we plan for. One day we really wanted to find people, especially families, so we knocked on doors from 12 to 8 pm. It was intense and we did end up finding some potentials, so that was good. One of them we taught on tuesday. She is from the Congo and has 2 kids and a husband from Serbia. She was way awesome and has a strong faith in christ. She will come to know that the book of mormon is true, and then hopefully things will go from there. We will see. It was cool because we had our 17 year summer missionary with us so he was able to experience a good lesson. His name was Simon and he has lived in Norway for 4 years. He was born in Nigeria and then lived in Canada. He was a cool kid and he still wants to go on a mission after a week with us so thats good. 

Waiting at a busstop about to go home for dinner after knocking some doors in a neighborhood, we met a funny italian dude who spoke norwegian/english. He kept telling us about how he has the voice of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Michael Bolton, Frank Sinatra, and guys like that. I wanted to ask him to sing to us, but he just went ahead and started belting out these love songs at the busstop. It was totally entertaining. He wasn't drunk or on drugs or anything either. Legendary dude!

Some Bulgarians from our language class talked to us for a while the other day about "how tough it is to be a Bulgarian". The one dude who does all the talking in english, has been looking all over for a job or volunteer work but cant find anything. Poor dude. After talking and talking (bulgarians love to talk, no matter what language) he showed us his sick cultural bagpipe. It was a way ancient bulgarian instrument but I cant remember what its called. Hopefully we can help this dude and his family learn the language and start teaching them the gospel in the near future. 

So things are going great over here.. has been nice and sunny 23c for about 12 days straight. Everyone is out boating or on vacation somewhere. I have come to find out that church attendence is terrible in the summer. So the ward consisted of mainly misionaries yesterday haha. Its so wierd and different compared to church back home.

Thanks for another awesome and informative email:) I really appreciate it. Thats so exciting that your coming up to Finland in August! You'll pretty much be right next door. Life is great over here in Scandinavia! Love you!

Eldste Skinner

July 8, 2013

(part 1)
HEy mom! today Im in OSLO! mann oh man I love the city. So fast paced and stylish. Pray that I get transferred here some day haha. We're all going to play some ultimate frisbee as a zone for Pday! Its been super beautiful and summery here the past couple of days although it rained on the 3rd and 4th of july. Scandinavian Summers! I'll try to see if I can email you later tonight. Im totally in a rush.. I just wanted to send something out so you didn't think I forgot about you. haha

Love Your Son, 

Eldste skinner

 

(part 2)

This has been another quick week with all sorts of walking. Our poor buddy from Oslo has done a lot of walking around with us, but we've had some good teaches. Our investigators still have a long way to go, but there's nothing wrong with that. 4th of July wasn't too exciting but it was still a great day.. we started our language class. 5 Bulgarians came and 3 Filipinos came! We went through the basics and it was way fun. Eventually we're going to have the native members help us out. It was great to have non members in our church and curious to learn from us... eventually it will lead into gospel teaching opportunities I think. Today I was in Oslo because we wanted to put together a zone ultimate frisbee activity before a leadership training meeting. Sorry this email is kinda lame. I've been working hard and trying to help out my companion. The language is coming... but then when I get too confident im quickly humbled. Its a fun process. My teacher from the MTC is in Norway so I got to see him today too. I'm so grateful to be here in norway. I'm so grateful to have some an awesome family as well.The gospel is true and will continue to bless our lives if we stå på!
LOVE YOU!

Eldste Skinner

July 1, 2013

Sounds like an awesome week! I'm so excited for Cade and Aaron! Those are some awesome mission calls! All I can say to them is "Welcome to Gods Army". I love those two and they're going to do great. I bet Ethans wedding was awesome and a lot of people came.. thats way sweet! 

We went up to Moss to watch that broadcast on missionary work. WOW. I was so pumped to hear all those talks and the music and videos were awesome too. Holland is amazing even when he's just conducting. The spirit really testifies that everything their saying about how missionary work should be done, is in fact true. Knocking on doors is old school and a waste of time most of the time. We have all these missionaries out in the field and there is so much potential. We really cant do it alone though.. the members play an even bigger part in the gathering of Israel. I wish that we could just show that broadcast in perfect norwegian in sacrament meeeting. I was really bummed because not a single member from our ward was there. So sad. We have a great ward and they do want to help but they just dont really know how/ go to the meetings that teach them how. It can be frustrating but we'll do our best to help and teach them. I really like the analogy perry used with little kids playing soccer. We all need to be better at recognizing our own specific roles and working together to fulfill our common purpose, building up the Lord's kingdom. 

This week has been really tiring and most of it was spent under an umbrella. We are trying to find new investigators to work with.. preferably families so we've done a  lot of knocking. Knocking is only good because I can practice my norwegian but it is pretty much a big waste of time when you do it day after day. We did find some cool people and got them even more curious about life. All of our investigators right now are in the early stages of conversion, like we're teaching them how to pray and stuff like that. Its great, but its a long process. 

We're starting a norwegian language class this week so we've been putting up flyers... we've been getting calls so hopefully it turns about to be a fun way to meet people. We're doing norwegian class because there are a lot of foreigners here who want to learn the language and most of them have a basic foundation of english for us to work with. We'll see how it goes. While putting up flyers we were totally being led by the spirit without knowing it, We met a sweet muslim family, a recent convert who we lost contact with, and a former investigator who wants us to come by sometime. We were definately put into other's paths that day.. it was almost creepy. So blessed. 

I had a practice driving test this week with a traffic school. they wanted to make sure I didn't need a ton driving classes before my license test. It was So much fun to drive a nice new car. It was some 4 door hyundai hatchback. I swear the manuel cars these days are pretty much impossible to stall, so smooth and so much fun. I have my driving test on August 29th. I chose to do it manuel just for fun and here in Norway you have to take it manuel in order to be able to drive both manuel and auto. All the cars are automatic on the mission but you never know what will happen. 

Nothing too crazy happened this week, I've just been physically exhausted from all the walking. I'm still alive and thriving in norway. Its a great place, I am so lucky! I need to send better pictures to you guys. I'll work on that.. its just hard because I have so many. Try not to die in the heat. Happy 4th of July!! Take pictures!  I love you all, tell everyone I say hi.

Eldste Niklas Anton Skinner