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
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