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