Tuesday, December 3, 2013

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  

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