Sounds like you guys had a fun week! Its super
fun to hang out with extended family. One of the downsides to the
mission but its worth the temporary sacrifice. Sorry to hear that Annika
lost her hamster... If it makes you guys feel any better i'm losing
elder Holden. He's out of here on Wednesday.
Heading to the office for some general authority training haha. Holden
is a legit missionary and its been way fun to absolutely tear it up here
in Drammen. We've put everything we had into this area for the past two
transfers and have not experienced any sort of loss in energy or
determination. The older we're getting on the mission, the more
passionate we get for the work here. We are eternal homies. d oyou think
they do bro-sealings in the temple??
I'm stoked for this next transfer though because of
the hard work thats been put in and the fact that I still get to be a
part of this incredible ward. This area is totally shaping me. My next
comp is someone who I already love and I've probably mentioned to you
guys before. His name is Elder Halvorsen. His grandpa and Grandma Joyce
served in norway at the same time. He was my District leader in
Trondheim. We get along way well and he's super fun to be around and he
loves to work hard like I do. I'm still expecting to see some amazing
things here. Heavenly Father never has stopped blessing me because I've
never stopped showing my faith through my actions. Key principle in life
that gets pounded in my head over and over again. Halversen and I will
do our best here in the Telemark Zone to keep the momentum going. We
need to start baptizing like crazy this next couple of months if we want
to reach our yearly goal. Families are the key and it makes me so happy
to here that one family like the Jacobson can fill up four rows in
church! I hope I can start teaching a family that can replicate that
here in Drammen.
Its been another week with a lot of teaching
situations. Obviously not everyone's interested but its fun to know that
I'm fulfilling my purpose to invite others to come unto Christ and
recieve the restored gospel. We did find quite a lot of people again.
Had some interesting experienced with some full blown muslims. They're
everywhere here. We talked to about 8 at a time one night this week.
This muslim Moses dude with a beautiful white long beard tried to
convert us to islam. He spoke english in book of mormon language saying
things like "and remember my son," and "Wo unto them.." Took it as
another sign that the Book of Mormon is true. They also offered me a 2
month trial of the quaran and the islamic religion. "just try it for two
months and it will change you!" I quickly responded, "I've been doing
this missionary work thing in the name of Christ for 18 months and its
changed me forever." I love this work and all the awesome lessons I
learn. Its a lot of fun and definitely a cultural experience as well.
I'm taking full advantage of all the berries and fruits to keep me going
throughout the day and drinking a bunch of water. I don't remember it
being this hot last summer but I'm not going to complain about it. Its
not fun to be hot or cold so you kinda just have to be grateful and take
advantage of the circumstances you're in.
We have lots of plans for this next week that i'm
excited about! We've been working with the elders quorum to try and help
our investigator move stressfree. He's stilll coming to church and
looking to get baptized on the 2nd. The highlight of the week was
teaching his 18 year old daughter about the restoration and then
inviting her to be baptized as well. She is planning on being baptized 2
weeks after her father if she gets an answer from god that its true. I
love people who are sincere and prepared by heavenly father. I can't
control who's ready to receive the gospel but I can do my best to invite
everyone and its all worth it when you find the ones who are ready. We
had a buzzer beater like find yesterday. We were about to go home but we
figured that we'd just finish the day off in the streets even though
they were pretty dead due to summer. At 8:50
we contacted this norwegain kid who quickly opened up to us that he
really believes in god but isn't too sure about what to do about it.
He's experienced miracles that have kept him alive from certain
sicknesses growing up. We shared a quick lesson with him about Joseph
Smith and invited him to read a pamphlet and pray to know that the
things we're sharing are true. We'll be meeting with him Saturday
to teach him more about Christ's original church and that its been
restored today. As we were teaching him on the street, I felt super
strongly that we really needed to talk to this kid so I'm glad we stayed
dedicated until that last minute. Relentlessness!
We were also on a desperate hunt to come into
contact with this lady we taught last week. She randomly disappeared and
we were praying that we'd find her. So we obviously began with a prayer
and then after about thirty minutes or so we found her house with her
name on the doorbell. Heavenly Father knows when we need his help. He
taught me again that he always has my back especially when I'm humbled
enough to admit it.Another cool experience this week also happened
yesterday. We planned on having a dinner with a member about an hour
after church. It was so cool because they also asked us if there were
any investigators we could bring with. It was awesome becasue they
aren't your average super missionary member family. We ended up taking
one of our investigators from Burundi and a new convert from Uganda with
us. IN no way whatsoever would you think that this sweet norwegain
family history lady and her son mix with these two homies of ours, but
it ended up being incredible. It was a fun dinner and afterwards our
investigator started expressing that he wants to be baptized sooner
rather than later. Members and missionaries need to do stuff like this
more often. Invite the missionaries in R-town to bring some of their
cholo investigators over for dinner!! (take pictures too please) Easy
and fun way to help out with missionary work! Do it!
All sorts of amazing things happen each week. Sorry I
can't share them all. Its a beautiful day here in Drammen and its our
last P-day together so we'll probably go on a district hike or
something. Have an awesome week. I'll try to send some pictures later
on! Love you!
Eldste Skinner
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