October 6, 2014

Started the week off with some scary hording experiences and then ended it with a spiritual pump up by my main man Elder Bednar! We stayed up late just to watch him. I cant tell if Elder Bednar is my number 1 favorite but he's way good. I love his boldness and his ability to teach clearly and powerfully. I'm trying to teach like him. Sometimes I feel like our teaches are super strong and powerful, but other times I end up feeling like a greeny again. Its kinda interesting. I've noticed that its the investigators sincerity and willingness to learn that makes all the difference. We're going to be doing another ZLT this week and we'll be focusing in on teaching. Hopefully we can all start teaching with the power of the spirit like the apostles... or at least be improving. It makes me sad to think about how little time I have left but I know the growing doesn't stop when I'm released. Missionary work is fun!

Back to the hording experience. Poor poor bishop and elders quorum president. I don't think they knew what they were getting in to and it makes me sad to see them being the ones doing everything. We helped them out on Monday. This lady in the ward moved and we ended up spending way too much time loading bags of junk into a trailer rather than the dumpster. Once again, organization is the key to success... cleanliness is next to godliness. Simplicity, minimalism, etc.

We had a fun experience this week going to Kongsberg for some splits action. We really wanted to find someone who owned a van so that they could drive themselves, as well as other investigators to church (Kongsberg is about 40 minutes away from drammen). We ended up teaching some pretty positive people including a cool guy from Liberia who knows James (who we baptized a while back). He really seemed to be looking for truth. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he really seemed sincerely interested to read and pray to ask god for some guidance. Its amazing to see the difference in interest level for people. 100 percent of the people who are really looking for truth and showing faith through praying, reading, and coming to church get answers. The trick is just finding people who are open and hungry to know. At the end of the day we were totally led to this couple from palestine. The woman was really interested in learning when we knocked on the door but we couldn't come in because she was home alone. After briefly teaching her a little bit about the Book of Mormon she became more and more interested and accepted a return appointment for the next day when her boyfriend would be home. As we were leaving we saw this palestinian dude who was in fact her boyfriend driving up the hill in a red volkswagen van! We were stoked. 

One of our rare and hard to come by norwegian investigators has been getting pounded by the spirit lately. We've seen some amazing progress and its interesting to see his facial and body expressions during and after teaches. He's currently in the faze where he know's it true and its starting to make him feel uncomfortable because of the change ahead. He's a super cool and funny dude that uses bigger english words than I do.  We've also had some great experiences bringing our investigators to dinner appointments. The work continues to go forward.

Halvy cut my hair and it's chopped up.. not looking too good but I'm just telling the kids its hipster. Yesterday I went out contacting and saw 3 kids with the exact same haircut. Speaking of which, it was super insane to see all the thick americans and their crazy wierd hairdoes on tv. Yikes... I think I'll stay here. Maybe I'll ask President for the "3 month find-a-wife extension pack".

Anyways, I'm enjoying my last couple of breaths here in Drammen. I've had some pretty interesting interviews lately and I'm not too excited to leave after next week. Hope you guys have an awesome week. Apply what you learned from general conference... we all need to be personally converted to face what lies ahead.  

Jeg elsker dere!

Eldste Skinner

September 29, 2014

What's up guys!?

I'm happy and not too stressed out. Elder Bednar told us that if we're not having fun doing the work, then we need to repent about the way we're doing the work. I'm having a lot of fun despite the upsets and frustrations that occasionally come. We had a big surprise this week when one of the elders in our apartment randomly decided to go home after being out for over a year. It was sad and out of no where but its put us into a trio here in Drammen. So now we are cruising around in 3. Its pretty awkward sometimes but we quickly realized the advantages that it has. We've been able to do several different things at once that we could never do before. Like contact people on the streets and call up members and investigators at the same time. So ya, now I have 2 companions.. Homeboy Halverson and now the new homie Elder Taylor. Everyday has just been a sun up sun down, no track of time, so busy, freak fest but as I look over the week there were some cool things that happened.

Here in our zone, we had a huge focus on inviting people to be baptized and we hit our goal right at the last minute last night. Its fun to see what we can accomplish as missionaries when we're passionate, having fun and focused. Last night we taught this Norwegian girl and it was cool to see how open she was even though her friends weren't at all. She's looking to be baptized in November and seemed pretty committed to pray about it last night. I'm grateful for the night and day difference between those who live the gospel and those who don't. Mosiah 2:41.

On Saturday we were invited to a wedding! It was one of our reactivated members and his non member wife. I don't really know them all that well but they are a super cool couple and it was awesome to see our homie get married even though its not the popular choice to make here in Norway. His wife is really sweet and has been learning about the church. After things start settling down, we're going to give them a call because I want to get to know them. I feel like I'm going to move in about to weeks. In my interview with president I could feel it but of course he didn't tell me where. Oh well, I'll just keep grinding here in Drammen and find out what's next in a week or two. Its going to be a tough transition to leave D-city but I'm excited to see where God needs me next.

Our building in Drammen is getting cleaned up a bit, I wouldn't exactly call it remodeling but at any rate, its closed. So yesterday we had church in Sandvika. All the members and our investigators drove about 20 minutes towards Oslo to meet in the church building there. Not as many people were there but it was an awesome sacrament meeting. Our new Convert James gave a talk on tithing and he got passionate. The bishopric was trying to hold back the giggles the whole time. It was so good and not boring at all. Straight from the heart. I can see him as a future bishop in the drammen 2nd ward in a couple of years. It feels good to see him still going strong. Makes me feel like I'm making a difference.

I'll be heading to mission leadership counsel again on wednesday so I'm always excited to  go to the mission home to counsel it up and eat some good food prepped by sister Evans. I'm also stoked out of my mind to hear from Elder Bednar and the other giants this weekend at general conference. Lots a fun things to do this week and cool people to teach. I can't say that there's enough time in the week to do everything I would like but I guess that's better than being bored and wondering what I can do. Please know that I love you and am super grateful for all your love back. I can feel it. Have a great week!

Snakkes neste uke,

Eldste Skinner