April 29, 2014

Yes I'm alive.

Sorry about the delay. Yesterday I didn't really have a pday. Yesterday, we had a way sweet opportunity to do some service for a new convert's parents. We helped ripp down a patio. It was a lot of fun getting a chance to do service especially because it gave us a great opportunity to meet some non members. They were super sweet and this is the first time they've had any sort of contact with the missionaries. Their son joined our church about a year ago and he's getting married in the the oregon temple in July. Looks like a lot of seeds are being planted and maybe after some time they'll be ready to learn about the restored gospel. Today I don't really have a pday either, but I wanted to just take some time to write you and let you know about the week. I wish you could feel how stoked I am right now but since your just reading, you'll just have to imagine it. 

So I was talking with president on saturday letting him know how our little trip up to tromsø went. He was also trying to work our our next zone training up here in trondheim so that he could arrrange to come and interview all the missionaries. After getting everything figured out he adds his " oh and one more thing... pack your bags!" and then leaves me squirming for the whole day on saturday. So then "moves call" comes around the next morning. We all call into a phone conference and then I found out where I'm going next. Drammen. 

So tomorrow I'll be taking a long train ride down to Drammen to be a zone leader down there. There's a million reasons why i'm way pumped to go there:

1. the dialect is sweet

2. its the biggest and most missionary minded ward in Norway

3. I'll be serving with Elder Holden!!

ok so that was just three but I'm sure you can imagine how excited I am. I totally have weird mixed feelings because I wouldn't mind to stay in trondheim for 5 more months. this place has been awesome but I guess I've learned what I've needed to. I feel like I really have done what I was supposed to. Our area and zone are rolling finally so I do feel like I've left the place better than I found it so thats a nice feeling.  

Words cant describe how stoked elder holden and I are to finally work together and tear it up! We've been talking about serving together forever and now its finally time to actually do it. feels like a dream. We're definitely going to work like crazy and I feel strongly that big things will happen. 

Don't have much more on my mind besides that. Trondheim was asewome and Drammen will be insane! Its fun to be as passionate about missionary work as I was about baseball or water polo or surfing or all the other "normal things" I love to do. The church is true, I really do hope that you're all feeling as happy and blessed as I am. Life is a test and yes, you and I are competitive! 

Love you,

Eldste Skinner

April 21, 2014

Helloooo!

Its been a fast week and next week will be even faster. The spring weather has been unreal. Super warm, blue skies, bright until about 9pm, etc. I love it. Pretty soon all the trees will start blooming so I'm pretty stoked to see everything come back to life. We've had a great week here in our zone. We've been really pushing and coming up with ideas to get the work moving forward. I'm learning quickly about how important it is to have a sense of urgency with the work. I'm going to be home in no time and there's all sorts of things I want to get done. Missionary work is a lot different than I imagined. Sometimes I feel like I'm running a little business or commanding a little army up here in the north. There's a huge problem-solving aspect to the work which keeps me constantly studying and thinking about how I can help out Heavenly Father and his work up here. Luckily he's the boss and I'm just his hands. We were really blessed this week even though it was kind of expected that it'd be tough to find people to teach because of easter. We just didn't see the need to make excuses, so we set a plan and worked like crazy and it all worked out. Super blessed. As the days keep on flying by I sometimes forget to stop think and even look back on how much I've grown and learned. I keep learning knew things but it sucks knowing that I still won't know it all by the time my mission is over. Oh well . Just gotta keep going.. no sleeping through the restoration. 

I went on splits with Elder Halverson this week and we had a pretty sweet experience as we tried out some knocking on doors. We were at these apartment like complexes that are indoor where you have to ring their number, wait for them to answer, and then hope that they let you in.. hooked up to a phone and camera and what not. We kept trying a bunch of those but weren't having too much luck. After ringing pretty much all 20 or so buttons, we start heading for the next one. I'm pretty good at making work fun so we were happy even though it was raining and lame. We go to say a prayer and as we're about to pray, this lady was chilling on her porch and asked us who we were looking for. We just said that we were looking for her and then she sorta laughed and said that she thought we were trying to doorbell ditch her. Then she said something like, "well I should probably let you guys in then" but then seemed a little bit hesitant. Earlier that morning I was thinking about how lame it is that sometimes we as missionaries aren't as bold or persistant as we should be. Although I wanted to be really nice and respectful and maybe felt like i didnt really want to intrude, I realized that that was a dumb thing to be thinking. She let us in. And I feel like she let us in because of what  I remembered and learned that same morning. It's important for us as missionaries, and even members, to be bold about what we believe in and be persistant about sharing it. This lady was really nice and ended up feeling the spirit and liking us enough to come back. She's not technically in my area because we were on splits but now halverson and his companion are teaching her and she's thinking about baptism. Pretty sweet. The guidance of the spirit was also a cool lesson I learned there but thats a whole other story. Being guided by the spirit is always the focus for me from now on. I want cool stories like tony samuelson with all of  his different promptings 

Easter here was sweet. Got an easter egg from the senior couple here in Trondheim so you dont need to stress out about my easter basket. I plan on living at home the rest of my life so you can just hook me up with one next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, and the year after that...

haha. thanks for keeping me posted on everything back at home. Always makes me happy. Have a great week.. i'm gonna go and get back out in this wonderful sunshine!

Love you!

Eldste Skinner

April 14, 2014

Hello!

Oslo was pretty sweet this week. We had an awesome meeting with just all the district and zone leaders from all around the mission. We focused on what we can do to help out the mission. I feel like we're really struggling now, even in our zone. We have a crazy goal for baptisms by the end of the year and we are no where near on track. Can be stressful, especially for president. I sometimes wish we could just wander around and not have to worry about reaching goals and hitting certain numbers. I know that numbers do push us to try harder and be as effecient as possible, but its no fun to feel like your struggling even when your trying our best. It also makes it easy to focus on people as numbers rather than real people who need the gospel . Something that I've really been doing lately is focusing on taking action, making plans, setting goals, etc that can get the northern zone going. Here in trondheim, we've really been discussing with elder Halvorsen on how we can boost the teamwork here in Trondheim. Halvorsen is legit. He's the district leader here right now and his grandpa served here in Norway at the same time as grandma joyce. So we're trying to take charge and get the work exploding here. No "sleeping through the revolution" up here.  This city has a lot of potential its just so sad to see how tough it is to get things going. So I'm really just praying and thinking of ideas for how we can hasten the work up here. Leadership isn't something I ever expected to do as a missionary. I had no idea missionary leadership existed. It adds a whole new twist on serving and coming closer to the Lord. I'm grateful for all the dang challenges and responsibilities that come with it. I know its preparing me for a lot in the future so that's something I'm grateful for. 

Stoked for easter! Easter here in Norway is a big deal. It seems like everyone is either hiding at home for a week straight or or going on vacation to some place warm. Norwegians and their freakin holidays. There's been all sorts of sales on the classic Kvik Lunsj so I'm not complaining. You would think that it'd be a great time for having great conversations about christ and his gospel so we're looking forward to see what could happen. We've had some cool experiences this week with being lead by the spirit, which is easily the coolest part of missionary work. There was no huge promptings or anything but we were totally lead to a recent convert who has been skipping out on church lately. We tried catching two busses to head out to this neighborhood where someone had been referred to us. But me somehow managed to miss it twice. Apparently we weren't supposed to go there. So we had the random idea to knock on some doors out in this area where we saw a cool little apartment complex. The wierd thing was that the bus to get out there was already about to leave so we had to turn around and race it to the next stop. So we chase this bus number 4 peter parker style. We get on the bus pretty winded and wet from the rain. As I sat down, I looked around and saw the recent convert that we've been trying to help out. So I jump on over to him and sit by him and we start talking. I could immediately tell that he really did need and want our help. I was super happy that we were led to him. We got to meet with him and help him out with things today.

 

I also had a cool experience this week with 30 highschool students. We had a whole freaking class of 18 year olds come into the church on tuesday to come and learn ad ask questions.. Obviously it was there teacher that set it up but it was a sweet experience. We all met in the chapel and us misisonaries stood up front to present a little history about the restoration of god's truth and christ's gospel. It went really well. Not really sure how much they cared but I definaitely felt the spirit as we were teaching. Who knows who was actually listening. Afterwards they asked us all sorts of questions about what we believe in. I was amazed that they actually had like 20 plus questions to ask. Of course we got the classic questions about polygamy and gays and all that good stuff. We were able to confidently answer all their questions. We also gave them a tour around the church and offered them some books of mormon and baked goods. It was a pretty cool experience although I was of course a little nervous at first. Its tough to teach kids that are pretty much the same age and mostly don't even believe in god. The promise that the holy ghost will fill your mouth with the words to say definitley proved to be true. 

The mission is still legit. Thanks for all the love and support. I really am working my hardest and trying to enjoy this experience as much as possible.

Have a happy easter! Love you:)

Eldste Skinner

April 7, 2014

I loved that snowboarding talk obviously. Some of the talks by the 70 on sunday afternoon were legit as well. Conference felt like christmas and I'm sad its over. Can't wait for the Liahona's to come so I can start studying them. Got a lot of things I want to start working on now!! I only have one more conference as a missionary and then I 'll be on the normal member side  having to worry about all this craziness out there in the world. I'm happy for this mission experience which Is helping me to be ready to be a strong priesthood holding husband and father. Crazy to think about how fast that will come up. My testimony was seriously strengthened hearing from the talks at conference. Its so true about how fast the world is changing and how easily and acceptable it is to break some of gods serious commandments. How did satan gain so much influence? pretty messed up. Luckily we have the truth of the gospel (and the blessings that come along with it) on the earth today which can keep us safe in our "4 minutes" to perform. 

This week was pretty eventful. We were fed this week by an awesome family here in Trondheim. The wife is a member and from texas. She made us some yummy chili and peach cobbler. The next day elder clarke and I woke up really early. I climbed out of my ikea bunk bed around 420 and then ran to catch the train to the airport. The train ride is only about 35 minutes and the flight from Trondheim to Oslo is a little over an hour or so. When we fly, we just have the Assistants book the flights and they give us the reference codes. I've been saving all my boarding passes and its stacking up pretty high. On the plane we sat next to this miner dude from Ireland who was on his way to a mine to sweden. We find out that he works with the husband to the member we ate peach cobbler with. Small world, probably not a coincidence. We get talking to him about pretty much everything and found out that he has young kids and a wife.. it was actually his anniversary and he had to ditch them again for work. Pretty sad. He told us that miners have one of the highest divorce rates most likely due to the fact that they're always gone for extended periods of time. I was super stoked to be able to tell this dude about the wonderful message of the gospel and how it can bless our families. So I open my mouth and start letting the words fly and.. the homeboy didn't want anything to do with it:( Quickly told me to change the subject. Very open to not wanting to hear anything about "religion". Sometimes missionary work is the most sad and frustrating thing ever. Other times its awesome. Made friends with a homeboy from Jamaica while waiting for the bus. We were chest bumping within 3 minutes. I hope we all realize how blessed we are to be members of the church. Its so awesome when good things happen while sharing the gospel. Greatest joy. the members here in Norway are super faithful and have inspiring stories that get me pumped. Reading about Tony Samuelson gets me pumped. I know there's still people here waiting for me. Trying to get out there and make a difference. I was grateful to be able to teach and find some awesome humble people this week. We even had some investigators including old grandma come to the baptism we had this weekend in the ward. 

Good luck with everything this week! I'll be praying for you mom. Don't want you to get too worked up or stressed out with work. I really wish I could come and help you load those totes so you wouldn't have to do it. I know that Heavenly father looks upon our hearts and therefore he recognizes when we really are trying our best. Keep working hard and he'll take care of you. No need to worry. Just be happy:)

Love you!!

Here's some pics you can laugh at and enjoy. No this isn't what I do all day.. haha