September 30, 2013

Hallooooo!

I'm grateful for the North. Its a cool place to be in both senses of the word. It is still way hard but I guess challenges keep things interesting. Eldste Gunther and I scrounged some kroner$ together and bought some cheapish Ice cream this week at a special grocery store about an hour and a half walk away. The Ice Cream was totally fine when we eventually pulled it out of the backpack after a long day. Cold weather isn't always bad. I've been really staying away from junk food lately but its been pretty unintentional, mostly because we cant afford extra food. I've had maybe 2 sodas in the past 6 week transfer and it was the first time we bought Ice Cream. I have noticed that Its way easier to wake up when you eat healthier, but at the same time harder to sleep because your not in a fat and sugar coma.  We've been having to fend for ourselves up here for meals although we do sometimes eat with the branch president on sundays and mission leader every two weeks or so. And that one asian food experience that will probably not happen again... I would really like to learn how to make more real food so maybe you could send me some recipes for easy but good stuff. Maybe my next companion will be a master chef but, then again, that might make him kind of merkelig. 

I'll get Elder Sperry on Wednesday and say goodbye to Elder Gunther (he's going even further north, we were cracking up). I am excited to help out another missionary. Its tough but I would say that I do feel like I have the right personality for it. I know that its hard for every missionary to start out their mission, especially up here in Narvik. Its like the same homesickness of the first couple days of the MTC but times 5. You feel like you're back to square one. But like all change.. you eventually settle in and the homesickness goes away especially as you "lose yourself" in the work. I'm excited for Cade to get out on his mission. I really am worried about my other homies tom and chris and cesar though but I know they'll do what's right. I haven't heard from the Franco's in a while. Tell them I say hi and want to talk to them. 

Work here has gone well this week but is still going slowly. we're working hard and feeling good about ourselves at the end of each day. This whole mission is really struggling with baptisms this year and we're now a totally young mission. Its been crazy to see the impact of President Monson's announcement and its definitely affecting me with these assignments to leadership while still young. I think we'll have 99 missionaries on wednesday and it will stay right under a hundred for probably my whole mission. Its an exciting time to be a missionary and I'm hoping to find those families and individuals here who are seeking for truth (whether they know it or not). I know i might not get a ton of baptism but i feel confident that there's my premortal buddies out there waiting for me to find them. I feel confidents that Baptisms will come. We've been stuck doing a lot of knocking on doors and street contacting which is frustrating because it the least effective. There doesn't seem to be another way that I can think of. Maybe something will come to me. Im focusing on stretching my vocabulary and being a more organized missionary (I am still a clean freak so im not talking about physical stuff). Organization and planning of my time will really help me work most effective even though there's not much to plan for other than going out and trying to talk to people haha. 

This week we were knocking and had our first German Shepherd dog experience. I outran Gunther though so it was all good.  Somehow he managed to not get bitten. It was legitly scary and i'm not one to be afraid of dogs at all. We were cracking up afterwards. Mission life is ridiculous. 

This morning we went fishing and I caught three tiny fish. Two with just a hook and no bait. How dumb is that? I'm still thinking of some parallel with this and missionary work. Hasn't come to me yet but maybe it has to do with simplicity. I'm excited for General conference next week although I'll only be able to watch maybe one of the sessions live. I've come to love general conference talks on the mission and im excited for a new batch.

Good job with taking care of your overworked situation, I know its a hard thing to do. Especially for you. Wish I could come and help you out.

 Don't forget that you can always have the opportunity to change (although I hope you don't change too much..). Richard G Scott says "we become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day.." Something I like to keep in mind. We have the choice to be or become what we want to be. I realize that I have the choice to choose happiness over depression, hardwork over laziness, optimism over pessimism, etc. I'm grateful for all of your guys' love and support. it makes it easier to serve a mission. The church is true and I hope you all will be having an awesome week! do me a favor and watch this funny retro BYU video together this week. this kid is the original Napolean Dynamite. It is so dumb and awesome, dad and patrik will love it especially... http://www.mormonchannel.org/films?v=1757851064001 :)

Elsker dere, Vi Prates!

Eldste Skinner

1/3 complete! - September 23, 2013

Helloooo!

Ya, I walked on a lot of dead yellow leaves in the pouring rain this week! The mountains are capped with snow as of last night. Seasons are awesome hahah. I'm terrified and there is a possibility that I'll need boots but we'll worry about later. According to other missionaries I shouldn't need boots. I am totally freaking out though because President called me last thursday, telling me that I'm training again next transfer. So I'm already losing my "son" after only six weeks which is a bummer because we were getting along and working hard. This mission is just so young and we have another big group coming in. I'll be staying here in Narvik... and to up the intensity and toughness I've been called as District Leader as well. What in the world, my mission continually turns out to be more challenging and stressful than I could ever have imagined. I'm still looking at it like an adventure though and loving the missionary life and challenges that get thrown my way. My mission is definitely personal to me and my growth. Heavenly father must really see something in me and there was a reason I came into this mission when I did. I still feel so young but I guess I'm old in comparison. (Today is my 1/3 mark by the way). Its scary to think about all the added pressures coming my way along with the cold dark winter, but I wont be here forever so I might as well enjoy it and leave with no regrets.

We've been meeting some way cool people and sharing the message of the restoration but we're having trouble getting people to want to continually meet with us and progress towards baptism and conversion. We'll keep trying though. Its so sad to see all these people who are absolutely not interested but I'll keep searching for the one who is. It only takes one, right? We met a cool family from syria who didn't know any norwegian and about 5 english words (4 if you don't count "obama"). They really wanted to talk to us and they were super friendly. I learned some arabic as they fed us chocolate. We're going back with a cake and a Book of Mormon in arabic this week.

I had a cool experience at church yesterday. There is an 8 boy in this ward and he was baptised by his dad on saturday. I was picked to give him the Holy Ghost yesterday. That was awesome.. first time for everything. I also sang a duet.. what the freak. The North mannn... church lasted about an hour and 45 minutes. I am absolutely just living up this whole missionary experience up here. Its an experience that wont last forever... I hope. 

I passed my license test on Wednesday but I was ever more stoked to drive the Mazda 6 again. Very well could have been the last time I drive until I come home with the amount of cars vs missionaries here. Everything that I owned in my wallet was EXACTLY enough money to pay for it.. another mission story haha. Luckily there was a sale on the top-ramen so I could survive these past couple of days haha. Thanks for putting that money on we just grabbed some groceries with it. Food up here is way more expensive up here than the already expensive food down in civilization, but on the plus side the tap water is the same price and way better. You couldn't find better cold water fresh out the tap anywhere in the world. 

My camera is just a cheap walmart one but its all i need and I'm happy with it. Gunther has a GoPro and we have some fun with that. Cameras and filming is cool but way expensive and hard to stick to unless you really like taking pictures of yourselves or you have an interesting life where you travel a lot. I remember patrik having a lot of friends who were into photo and filming. Poor poor wyatt. He was always a part of our family ever since we picked him up from that swap meet thing in monterey. I remember getting a pink tool box that day and going to a primary activity afterwards. He turned out to be a great dog and I will miss him. I'm glad that dad is finally taking time out doing something fun with Brian. Vacation is good and is something they cherish over here in Norway. Good job with the diet mom. Keep up the good work and self motivation. Thanks for writing me every week! something I get to look forward to! Have an awesome week, I'll be working hard and having fun.

Love you, 

Eldste Skinner

September 16, 2013

Its been another week and hasn't gone by too slow. We're really trying to stay busy and we were blessed to find some people who were at least willing to hear our message. We had a pretty cool experience while we were out knocking on Tuesday. I though to try this student housing place just to check it out and felt like it was worth a shot. We were starting to get pretty tired from walking around all day and it was almost time for dinner. We knocked on a this random door and to my amazement we were invited in after about 30 seconds of introducing ourselves. She was a younger woman from Ghana here studying some type of engineering (there's a college here). She says she's totally new to christianity and being a muslim didn't feel right to her. She goes to a local jesus freak church here in Narvik and has been thinking alot about baptism lately. We taught her the restoration and she said it seemed to make sense. The Book of Mormon is something she's hopefully reading right now to find out if what we are telling her is true. She accepted what we call a "soft" baptismal commitment when we asked her if she'd be baptised after she found out that our church is the true church of Jesus Christ. She said of course. The spirit was so strong and Elder Gunther and I were so blown away with how much the spirit was guiding and helping us out. Its moments like that when you walk away from the appointment filled with true joy. I love being lead to people who are actually prepared. We walked home feeling so happy and I found a cherry coke to celebrate with. Unfortunately not every hour of our day is like that though. I have really focused on the principle that happiness is a choice. although I'm not in a super fun area I'm looking for happiness while serving here, not just waiting for the happiness that I think will come when I leave. You've gotta enjoy and live up everyday.. especially on the mission. We only have 2 years and I'm nearly a third of the way done already. Scary. 

So this week I also had the opportunity to drive a new dream car of mine. Have you seen the new new Mazda 6's!?! I got to drive one! Don't be too jealous. Oh my goodness, I was in heaven as I was taking my practice driving test. My new snack right now is yogurt with a bunch of granola(musli) mixed in it. For some reason milk is always hurting my stomach so I just use some way good yogurts instead. 

Yesterday I branch had a stake(mission) conference down in Bodø. We were left to fend for ourselves because we didn't have church to go to. We thought it would be fun to go to the catholic church because apparently the preacher has met the missionaries before. We also have a friend/investigator who sings in the choir. What a freaking cultural experience that was. I don't want to say anything bad about the Catholic church. It was "different" and made me really appreciate the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The preacher and a couple people were totally nice and friendly to us and I'm sure the rest of the people were just wondering what in the world was going on.  Later on yesterday we ate with these two girls who are members here going to school. They are originally from Thailand.. Yikes. Needless to say I had fish. It turned out to not be too bad though.. they did a good job covering up the fishiness of it. I tried everything and i'm pretty sure they had some time of grinded up fish scales with chili powder as well as shrimp/bugs. I ate it all although It felt like I was on FearFactor. We also had this weird asian fruit.. Durians?? I didn't know asia had completely different types of fruits. This one we had wasn't good at all but it was fun to try out. 

We had our first district meeting this week. It was over the phone but next week we're trying to do it on skype instead because It was pretty difficult and frustrating. All sorts of weird things happen as a missionary in the north. It honestly feels like we're not even part of the mission any more. For real. Its insane.. elder Gunther and I talk about it all the time.. we feel so out of contact with not only the rest of the world, but the rest of the mission. Its a blessing though because we feel so strongly that we are the Lord's missionaries and solely reporting to him.

Thats cool that you got to go on a nice long road trip. I swear I was just in Melissa's situation. That was two years ago to give you an idea of how fast 2 years flies by. I think Utah is a cool place but I wouldn't complain if you and dad stayed in San Diego (not necessarily Ramona but that's cool too). I want us to all live close together in the future. If I have to end up living in Utah or Idaho, I still want to be able to come back to San Diego as much as possible. Poor wyatt's about to die. Make sure to take pictures to remember our buddy. Thats a funny story about Michael. Did you see the tons of pictures I put on Dropbox? They're all super random but I figured it'd be nice for you to look at. Pyry and Pamela sent me a package of chocolate and a drawing from jakob:) So sweet. Jakob was literally just born when I saw him last. I'll make sure to send them a letter back as soon as possible. Try to enjoy your week of work without dying in that ridiculous heat. 

Love you!

Eldste Skinner

September 9, 2013

You ended that email perfectly. I truly always want to be perfect and its so frustrating, Lately its just been really tough to grasp the fact that im not a perfect missionary. I'm not as good at the language as I want to be, not as good as a teacher as I want to be, the list can go on and on. I also am fully aware and constantly reminded by the spirit that I never give myself enough credit either. This week has been another humbling week, but I had an amazing experience. We had a lesson with this norwegian dude who some missionaries contacted on the bus several months back. I randomly decided to call this dude and told him we wanted to meet up with him.. half expecting him to say no. He agreed to meet with us last thursday but I don't think he was necessarily too excited. So we went over there and he had some chip and candy out for us and was offering us drinks and stuff. Totally nice dude. We started talking, did our whole getto know him, explain our purpose thing and then went on with teaching the Restoration. It definitely wasn't flawless but he seemed to be sort of understanding it. When we got to the book of mormon, I felt prompted to have him read the last 2 paragraphs of the intro out loud. I also for one reason or the other (i guess i could say I was prompted) I afterwards paused and then asked what Hit him. It was a question I've never really asked or phrased before in Norwegian. It was no coincidence that I asked that question. He was totally describing the spirit and was taken back on the feelings that were "hitting" him. He was feeling the spirit so strongly. Something he never felt before especially from just reading a couple of sentences. The Spirit was so strong that I  felt like it was quite literally right there with us. It was a way cool experience for Elder Gunther and I because it really brought this work into reality. I know that the spirit has our back up here in Narvik, especially when we're doing our best to find, teach and baptise. Although we didn't give the most smooth or perfect lesson, by any means, it didn't matter because the spirit was right there with us. I'm grateful that we're not alone.

So that was pretty much the highlight of the week, especially because we fasted to find a new investigator that week who would be baptised by the end of the year. We spent wednesday in trondheim and that was an adventure. Long story short, our connecting flight's plane hit a bird as it landed so we ended up being stranded in the airport for 2 hours as they did a safety inspection. So we ended up being way late to our short meeting in trondheim but we got a service check to blow like the equivalent of 50 bucks in food at the airport haha. once we finally made it from te airport to the church, it was time to catch the bus back to the airport to go back home.So we were literally in our meeting in trondheim for maybe 30 minutes! It was so frustrating. Especially with blue skies and the big city teasing me. 

     I really hope you aren't suffering in too much pain and that everything will end up all right with your health. Don't get too broken by the time I get back. I 'm excited for all the siblings and all the new things happening. Know that I love you all. Have a great week. Thanks for all the love and support. 

Eldste Skinner

September 2, 2013

Hello Family and everyone else!

Its been another great week here in Narvik although its only been a couple of days since I've emailed you. Narvik is a tough area but I'm not complaining. I signed up to work hard and Heavenly Father has been helping us out. We've been walking like crazy. I don't know how much exactly but definitely more than I ever have in my life. And the whole city is filled with hills! So i'm getting those skinny euro legs and sleeping like a rock at night. Its tough work right now, but it doesn't really make sense to use the buses around here and I have't even figured out the schedule yet. We've had some opportunities to teach though which is good. We're focusing on trying back the people who the past missionaries knocked into and were told to come back. Some of them are way positive and we've gotten some new investigators already. No one super duper golden and positive yet but who knows what the spirit can do. Its nice that our message of the gospel is true and don't have to be "selling" something not all that important. I love how I can just refer back to the Book of Mormon in ever situation and have them get their own personal answer that the church is true. The Church is so true! I had an awesome experience on Sunday at church. Just us and 4 others. The testimony meeting was so awesome and  the spirit was so powerful. Just because we aren't the most popular church in town doesn't mean that its not true. The spirit confirms how real the restoration is. 

We've had some amazing weather these past days and have met some pretty cool people. We now have a homie from Nepal and another asian dude who studied at UCSD. So stereotypical!  It was nice to talk about home with him. I'm not thinking he's too interested in religion but we're meeting with him anyway. I've been surprising myself with how bold and persistent I've been with people on the streets. I try to do it in a loving manner of course but I don't take the first couple of no's for an answer. So thats something that has changed with me lately as far as missionary grind mode goes. I'm sooo happy and blessed that we have our own personal computer. It is so nice to listen to conference talks during lunch and dinner. I'm learning a lot from the general authorities but mostly Holland, Eyring, Uchtdorf, and Bednar. I love them and I come across new favorites constantly. Can't wait for October conference. 

Thanks for keeping me posted on the happenings at home. It really makes me appreciate the weather up here now. I still hate the heat with a passion. I'm so stoked that patrik is getting jacked and scoring goals. I hope he is loving it. 

Things are definitely tough up here. My companion is pretty homesick (totally normal). Missionary work is mentally tough. But i'm doing my best to do the work cheerfully and help him out. Its not my fault that he's homesick though... ithink. We're not miserable though, and heavenly father is answering our prayers. We fasted on Sunday to find a new investigator who will be baptised by the end of year. I have faith that this will happen. So exciting. I love Norway. I am so lucky to be here to serve the Lord. It feels good to say that I really am trying my best and working to make my best better everyday. Love you all. I'm going to send you some pictures of this gnarly hike we did today.

Eldste Niklas Anton Skinner