December 29, 2014

'twas a splendid week here in Norway. I've never been more cold in my life though.. its been double digit negatives with plenty of moisture in the air. Christmas was incredible and I felt so loved by the members here in Sandvika. We of course had plenty of food celebrating the norwegian christmas traditions. Its basically still christmas over here so its fun to see how it just keeps dragging out all the way until the new year. Today is the 5th day of Christmas. Christmas eve was the most exciting day for us and the norwegians. Our ward mission leader and his wife invited us over for their very first christmas together. We get to eat classic norwegian ribbe, potetoes, christmas sausages, meat cakes, brussel sprouts, etc. After feasting we moved the tree to the middle of the living room, formed a Whoville circle around the christmas tree, and sang and danced around the christmas tree. Its pretty fun. We then opened up some presents. The ward bought us all sorts of random food and candy so that was really nice. We ended the night playing some card games with the office couple and their family who was visiting. On christmas morning, we went over to the President Evans' home for some of Sister Evans' delicious breakfast. It was all six missionaries in the Sandvika ward plus the senior couples in the area. We shared some stories and got to sing some christmas songs. After breakfast we went sledding. No one got too hurt, besides elder allen who cut up his lip on a frozen tree. Surprisingly it wasn't our jump that hurt him. After sledding we went over to the Silva's for dinner. Brother Silva is brazilian and his wife is norwegian. The dinner was great and then they let us use their computers to skype you guys. It was awesome to see and talk to you guys and it always feels like i'm right at home with you. You all look happy and in shape. On the 26th, we had a fun 2 zone christmas party in Oslo. We went out to some old folks homes to sing christmas carols. It was spiritually intense because there was about 20 of us inside of this hospital type place. I could tell that they old norwegians were loving it, but I honestly think I was loving it more. After caroling, we had a testimony meeting for all of the departing missionaries. I bore my testimony about a lot of different things really but I'd say it was most focused on the power of real intent and the magnitude of the work that we are blessed to be a part of. We then shifted gears and did a white elephant gift exchange. One of my all time favorite things to do. I brought an old weight loss shake mix that some member gave to us and went home with yet another chocolate bar. We also had a talent show which I was dreading because I always think they're awkward. Luckily everyone was in a light mood and nobody was doing anything that was all that serious. Although I was a little hesitant at first, Elder childs, Holden, Allen, and I did this epic rudolph the red nose reindeer performance. Elder Childs brought the talent with the guitar and the singing while the rest of us were on stage singing like a boy band and dancing around. It was pretty funny but it would have been way embarrassing if the missionaries weren't in the right mood. Since then, we've  been spending time delivering some picture and popcorn treats to our members here. The other night we went to give this inactive lady a blessing and there was an unbelievable spirit in her house. I got the strongest prompting that her mother who had her 7th death day when we were there still needed her temple work done. I didn't get the chance to say much about that prompting yet so I need to go back and make sure that gets going. Anyways, time to get back to work. I'm excited to see what else can happen in our area this coming week besides all the new years celebrations. We'll be working hard and on wednesday night we'll hopefully be sipping on some gløgg, eating, listening to the king's speech, and staying up if we can find a member to be with. I remember last year was incredible with all the fireworks. I'm soaking it all in.  

Happy New Year! Godt nytt år!!

Eldste Skinner

December 15, 2014

God Jul!!

It's another mild winter here in Norway so it wierd to think it's christmas soon, but then again when have I ever had a white christmas? I keep having all these weird dreams about being home even though I'm trying not to think about it too much. I've learned a lot about the importance of planning ahead as a missionary so maybe that's why its tough. It sure does sound like you've had a pretty fun week mixed with some rain and interesting food. I've had an awesome week and I feel like I was taught a lot. 

Our trip to Trondheim was absolutely amazing. It was special because I felt like I was sent up there for a special purpose. I was with Elder Shanklin and we were reliving the glory days of us serving in that same city pretty much exactly a year ago. So on tuesday morning we hit the streets after some great studies. I remember studying chapter 4 in Preach My Gospel which focuses on recognizing and following the spirit. You guys should totally read it. Anyways, so we're out in the streets of Trondheim getting shut down pretty hard like usual but obviously that doesn't shake us. Trying to keep our thoughts positive and in tune with the spirit, we keep going. I then felt like it would be a good idea to start heading towards Solsiden. I wouldn't say it was a super strong prompting, but looking back it was for sure the Holy Ghost telling me something Heavenly father needed me to do. As we were on our way to Solsiden, this kid around the same age as Elder Shanklin and I crossed the street with the perfect timing that allowed us to stop him. Long story short, he was a little bit frustrated with God at the moment because of all the bad days he's had ever since coming up to school in Trondheim. He was pretty humbled and his heart was softened to the point where he agreed to meet with us in the church a couple hours later. In the church, we taught him about the role of Christ and the power of His atonement. He asked us good questions and we were able to give him answers. He definitely felt the spirit which witnessed unto him that what we were teaching about Christ really was the path to peace. He quickly accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon and come to church. He even said he'd be baptized in January if he found out it was true. It was an epic experience of being guided to somebody that the Lord had prepared. He found out when we were on our way to eat a kebab with him that I liked to surf, skate, and  snowboard which helped us become even better friends. I left trondheim feeling pretty accomplished knowing that I loved that city and did my best there. I also learned that there is a difference between talking with people and not to people. 

On thursday, Elder Childs and I got to cruise around with Elder Clarke on his last day in Norway. We went hard in oslo and got to see all sorts of cool things including Holmenkollen (The huge ski jump in Oslo), Vigeland Park, and The Viking Ship Museum. It was nice to relax a little and get our tourist fanny packs and visors on. We ended the day on a more serious note, giving a priesthood blessing to a man who was about to die of prostate cancer. We found out on Sunday that he passed away and the member who is now widowed was grateful that we were there for her. It amazing to be a missionary because we can be guided consantly to people who Heavenly Father needs us to love and serve. Anyone who has a desire to serve God is called to the work.

Thanks for all the love and prayers! I'm happy to hear of how we're being blessed. Hope you have a nice week and I'm looking forward to hearing from you again:)

Eldste Skinner

December 8, 2014

Good to hear that you guys made it home safely and had a fun trip in Dallas and Oklahoma! You only have a couple weeks of grindmode and then it'll be another relaxing break for christmas. Hurray for opposition. I remember feeling frustrated and stressed out this week but right now I feel great looking back at an awesome week. Elder Childs and I had all sorts of fun chores and adventures this week.

Our incredible stake president ended up in the hospital for a day or two so we took the opportunity to ask his wife if there was anything we could do to serve him and the family. On monday, we got the opportunity to help out a little bit with the trim/molding in their entry hallway. They have such a beautiful house and they always feed us super fancy soups with oyster and cod and all sorts of seafood stuff. Their soup, which I initially thought would be gross, ended up being delicious. Their house, which I originally thought to be spotless, ended up having some imperfections. Heavenly Father can teach us in interesting ways if we are observant and willing to learn. The stake president was grateful that we could come and help him out and he's totally fine now. 

I conducted my last MLC on wednesday. 15th one! I think it went really well so we should keep things rolling over here in Norway. We talked about some things we could do to help all the young missionaries including some ideas for training in the month of december. Exciting time of the year. 

We're focusing a lot of that HE IS THE GIFT initiative and its been a lot of fun so far. The Christmas season is a great time to be a missionary but the cliche about people being distracted and focused on the wrong things is totally true. Make sure to check out the christmas.mormon.org website and share it with the world. Christ truly is The Gift to us all and its fun to help Him with His great work. 

We spent a ton of time on wednesday after the meeting driving to the airport and down to tønsberg in our mission "creeper" van. I was super pumped though because I got to go see this Luis guy get baptized in Drammen. He even remembered me even though I stopped him and got his number like 4 months ago. So that plus seeing the members in drammen made for an awesome night. ¨

On friday, we spent the day in Oslo with the zoneleaders and it was a lot of fun to be with them. They're super diligent and obedient so it was cool to see what else we could focus on so that we could improve. I feel like we learned alot about the importance of having a pure love for others, as well as being natural and personable in the ways that we teach the gospel. 

Lots of good things happening but I would say the best of all this week happened last night when we taught this norwegian single mother. She's positive and super open to learning about the church and acting upon the answers she recieves from God. She's already read a little in The Book of Mormon and she's working towards baptism in January. Heavenly Father's been challenging us this week but he's also blessing us and keeping us happy at the same time.  

We'll be heading up to trondheim tonight for splits all day tomorrow. Should be fun but our flight leaves soon so I gotta go! Ha det bra! Hope you guys have a great week! Keep working hard and enjoy the christmas season:)

Eldste Skinner

December 1, 2014

Its been another great week despite the stresses that have absolutely nothing to do with missionary work. Life is creeping up on me but I'm pumped and ready to take it on. I've learned a lot here in Norway and I'm just trying to do my best to truly do all that I can before they force me to leave. I'm praying that I can be blessed with more and more people to serve and reach out to. Elder Childs is a solid missionary and we of course get along really well. I'm trying to teach him the ways here in the office but I haven't been here all that long and he's a smart dude so we're basically at the same level. It's fun serving with him because he's down to speak a lot of norwegian and he shares the same frustrations as I do. We carrying on the momentum and making things happen here in Sandvika in an organized, efficient manner.

Everthing with moves this week went fairly smoothly and we were able to make quick adjustments when they weren't. The most exciting part about the week was obviously teaching the gospel though. We had an amazing teach with one of our investigators who's been taking lessons for a while now. We started out by helping him around the yard. It was cold and quickly getting dark (around3pm) and we were doing some sketchy ladder climbing mixed with leaf reaking. He seemed to really appreciate it even though I didn't feel like we did all that much. When we went into to teach him, there was an unreal strong spirit present as his som was bearing testimony and asking him good questions. His son is 15 and a member but hasn't been helping out too much on the lessons as of lately. This time was different though and there were several points when I knew that both the baptize son and our investigator were feeling the spirit. We invited him of course to be baptized but he's still unsure. It's an interesting situation because he's basically already a member who comes to church and lives all the commandments. I just know that him making that first covenant will be a huge step for him for the better so we're trying our best to love and serve him. I pray that he'll someday choose for himself to be baptized. 

We also had this interesting teach with that huge family this week. They've expressed how they've been praying to God that He would send someone to help them. How awesome it is to know that we could be on the Lord's errand that day! I totally feel like they could join the church here in Sandvika but I'm a little worried about their motives behind meeting with us. Elder Holland reminded us of how Christ teaches to "do what we can" for the poor, but I think this family needs a lot of economic help. its sad. Its also frustrating to know that we really are there to help them but not neccessarily in the way that they were asking for. Its interesting how God answers prayers sometimes. Sandvika's now more fun to serve in with all the things we've worked for and been blessed with. 

Drammen's still moving forth as well. I'll be visiting it again this week after Mission Leadership Council on wednesday. There is this Chilean dude Elder Halvorsen and I found together one day while we were out contacting people in the streets. I'm pretty sure we just invited him to come to church and he gave us his number... nothing special. It turns out that he's getting baptized in Drammen this week! He's been super prepared and I'm stoked to hear that some of the "planted seeds" in drammen really are growing! The fruits of labor are the best ever.

Sounds like you all had a great thanksgiving. It would've been cool to be with uncle derek and daniel and all the cousins! I had an awesome Thanksgiving week here in Norway. We're about to head to Oslo for our second american thanksgiving dinner! The first one was hosted by the missionary couple here in sandvika for the whole ward and this one will be hosted by another missionary couple in Oslo. I'm grateful for you guys being so faithful and patient with me. I feel the love.. thank you so much! I can't believe its already December. Still no real snow here in Norway and the norwegians don't know what to do with themselves. I hope you guys have a great week!

Love,

Eldste Skinner

November 24, 2014

Hey fam!

Sorry for the lame email but I've been filling out my application for BYU and BYUI. Stressful, but I ran around all morning so it was alright. We had an epic turkey bowl here in Sandvika for Pday. The oslo and drammen districts came in for some good old american football. No one got hurt but i'm already sore in my legs. The application has been pretty easy and my essays are now on president's desk ready to get edited and picked apart. I'll send you the essays if you guys are curious in reading them. 

This week was awesome but the weekend was for sure the best. We had a huge project of getting things planned out for moves week this wednesday so that used up quite a bit of time. Luckily, we were well planned out and therefore had some time to do some finding and teaching. Heavenly Father blessed us as we went out with "real intent".  

We found this family by some strange miracle. I still have no idea as to why we went and knocked on some doors in this one area but we persisted and found this family with 5 kids. We're going back on tuesday to teach them and help the mom iron some clothes haha.  Its kind of lame though because we forgot that we needed to help President Evans pick up new incoming missionaries from the airport at that time... so now we have to reschedule some things. Men sånn er det! Gotta love the work! We got the rewarded Ikea meatball meal we promised ourselves for finding some new investigators that day. (if we didn't we'd have to eat ikea hotdogs instead).

Sunday was an insane 18 hour day. not exactly a day of rest. We woke up and had "moves call" to announce where everyone was getting transfered to. After Studies, we were on our way out to the church when I got a text asking if I could give a talk on chapter 6 of PMG "developing christ like attributes". So the Spirit helped me out quite a bit on that one and I think it ended up being better than I could've planned out (Doctrine and Covenants 84:85). We also taught the Young Men about the importance of hard work. After church we had some awesome teaches with new people and people who apparently weren't all that positive before. Once again, Heavenly Father has our backs and is helping us out because he sees that we're trying our best. We stayed up way late last night pumped about the week and finished writing up the "moves Gameplan full of logistical type of information for the missionaries. Fun fun fun! Elder Holden's leaving me on Wednesday to finish his mission out of the office. So that means my new and last companion will be Elder Childs. Wednesday marked the beginning of my last transfer! 

Hope you're having a relatively stressfree vacation. Thanks for all the cool pictures. Love you guys!

Eldste Skinner

November 17, 2014

buenos dias!

We're getting some good momentum here in Sandvika. I'm grateful for the gift of profesy and how solutions always come when you ask in faith. On Saturday morning we invited some of the youth to play some sports with us in the church. Although there wasn't too many that came, it was a lot of fun to run around playing free-for-all soccer and dodgeball. No one got killed so it was successful. Time spent with youth is always a good thing.

This week I got to go on splits with the Zoneleaders in Oslo. It was my first time getting to experience missionary work in Norways biggest city. I had a lot of fun and it was for sure nice to be able to get out of the office for a whole day. We had tuna for lunch and salmon for dinner. We visited this lady that the elders found a while back who turned out to be an inactive member from San Diego. She's lived in Norway for a while now and isn't looking to come back any time soon. I positive that she was feeling the spirit as we were talking though, so that gave us a great environment to be bold and bear testimony. She was a cool and I think she liked us too! I couldn't believe how many people live in Oslo! It was just endless flows of people from all over the world. I felt like I never stopped talking the whole day. Streets, doosteps, trolleys, bustops, you name it... We were straight spitting truth, constantly switching back and forth from norwegian to english. We worked hard. It was insane. It was fun. 

We've had some awesome dinner appointments this week with our members here in Sandvika.  We've been trying really hard to make our dinner appointments more productive and spiritual. So we've been working on having natural converstations with solid inspired questions to ask. One night we went to eat with one of our investigators who is married to an active member who served her mission in Brazil. We got her to start sharing some amazing miracle stories from her mission which got her feeling the spirit as well as everyone else at the table. We could tell that our investigator never heard of these stories before and it seemed as if the visit had a whole different feel to it compared to some of the previous ones. The spirit was way stronger and everyone left feeling spiritually pumped up. We also visited the Brown family. He's a pilot in the US Airforce and they made us some delicious square pizza ("like you used to always make us in monterey" haha). We had a great time with them and that was another productive dinner because we had purpose and didn't feel like we were there to just take a break and waste time. I'm hoping that we're helping out the members here in Sandvika as we're trying to make some progress. It feels as if we're trying to steer this huge ship. I most likely won't see the results of anything we do but luckily there should be some good missionaries that follow us.

We got to eat dinner (and wash dishes) at the mission home on thursday night with the departing missionaries. It was sad to see them go, especially knowing that our group is next. We made several trips to oslo and back, trying to get everyone and their stuff where it needed to be. Eventually we drove everyone to the airport, checked their bags, and then sent them off. President was teasing Elder Holden and I because he knew we were next.

We had stake conference this week as well which made it my last stake conference as a missionary. It was incredible and I got to see a lot of my old friends from Trondheim and fredrikstad. So that's was pretty random update on what went down this week. This work is still fun but unfortunately you guys only get to read about the things that pop into my mind as I try to remember everything that happened. Thanks for all the love and prayers. I pray for you guys too! Have a great week traveling around:) Don't forget to take pictures and stuff.

Love,

Eldste Niklas Skinner

November 10, 2014

Maybe if I switch up the fonts this email will be more exciting for you to read!!

Først og fremst så er jeg glad i dere! Thanks for that awesome package you sent me. I can tell you guys know exactly what I like. I was so stoked get some american halloween candy and some old spice Fiji. I cant wait to try on my new Vans shirt as well. I love it. Of course, I'm already putting my bookmarks to good use. You are the best. 

As always this week was awesome with all of its ups and downs. I was fortunate enough to get to spend a day with Elder Halvorsen and Nielson in my former beloved kingdom of Drammen a.k.a D-CiTY. It was so fun to get to see my friends over there. It was snowing that day so I got to see Drammen in a different light. I also got some snowdriving experience. Holden was probably more sketched out than I was but that was a new, fun experience. I got to do some language study/ kebab pizza eating with Marcus although he mostly made me miss snowboarding. I also got to eat dinner with the Brownlees (mission leader who had me pitch). They made ham because they knew I liked it as well as some delicious cinnabon cinnamon rolls. They're currently working on getting this family invited to come to a christmas concert at the church. I paid my favorite muslim barber a short visit and he chopped me up way nicely. I also got to help one of the kids Elder Halvorsen and I baptized, write his first talk. Remi is now working on sharing the gospel with his friends and family members. So many good things are happening in Drammen and its cool to see the work continue to go forward over there. I'll admit that sometimes it makes me so frustrated and jealous that I'm not over there anymore. Holden and I vent to eachother all the time about it.  I know we are needed here and we're working on some out of the box methods to get some energy and excitement flowing here in Sandvika as well. 

As a mission we're really trying to focus on serving, loving, and working with the members because we know thats the only way we'll get to see some real growth here in Norway. We're blessed to have a lot of support from the two stake presidents who are encouraging the members to study Preach My Gospel. So basically we're just visiting the members and inviting them to study PMG so they can get excited and fearless about missionary work. Hopefully we can start getting some solid referrals.

It's amazing to see what truly converted and even consecrated members can do. We had a baptism here in the ward on sunday for a 13 year old girl the sisters have been teaching. Her mom has recently been reactivated and made it a point to make this baptism epic. Long story short, she invited like 3 non member families to come to the baptism. Despite pictures being taken during the ordinance mixed with clapping and screaming directly following, it was a pretty sweet missionary opportunity. 

I don't have a whole lot of time left but I'm trying not to think about that too much. I'm happy and still loving missionary work. It's most fun and rewarding when I go 110 percent. Our area is still hard to get going but I'm grateful that its a little bit of a challenge that Elder Holden and I can handle. We put the passion in the work to avoid the pains of knowing we could've performed better. We have a lot of fun too. 

Hope you all have an awesome week. We're headed to IKEA to get some cheap food and furniture! should be a sweet P day.. Love you :)

Eldste Skinner

October 27, 2014

I love missionary work. Here's a little run down of how the week went other than the hours spent in front of a computer screen booking plane tickets and doing other not so exciting office oddjobs.

The week started with a weak attempt to go whale watching. We ended up tossing a frisbee around and watching the sisters almost get attacked by angry swans. Equally satisfying. After the Pday was over we headed over to our mission leader's house for some family home evening and a little run down on how things are done here in Sandvika. He's pretty new and about the same age as I am. He served a mission in Colorado and has just recently gotten married. He's a boss. I'm been blessed a lot on my mission with ward mission leaders who take their calls seriously. He's newer at it but its hard to tell. He likes to get input from us so we can incorporate the things we learned from past areas that have worked. Since Holden and I just came from Drammen we're basically trying to replicate the machine that that ward was (with some minor adjustments, of course).

Elder Holden and I spent quite a bit of time really trying to organize and consolidate our own area here in Sandvika. It feels amazing to get a good solid feel for what's going good in our area, what our focuses need to be, and how we need to repent about the way we do things. Over and over again, we realize that the trick to being a successful missionary is measured by our commitment to find, teach, and baptize in an organized manner. We also find that our success is measured by our ability to inspire others (members, missionaries, etc.) to do the same; find, teach, and baptize. We like to do things out of the box and show faith in out of the box ways.

The thing that I love about serving with Elder Holden besides the fact that we naturally have fun together is seeing his desire to be successful. Its contagious and its something that has definitely worn off on me. Both of us want more than anything to be successful. We know the pains of doing the wrong things and love the joy that comes from repentance. We get stoked from working hard and seeing what Heavenly Father can do through us. We understand that we're not just here to "be on a mission". 

We had a sweet experience getting asked by the sisters to give a blessing to one of their investigators this week. It was super special because this investigator was a totally normal, sweet, norwegian teenager. She was obviously a little hesitant to get a blessing but the sisters prayed that the spirit would convince her to be ok with it. The spirit worked and then we got called up to meet them at the church. I was able to give that blessing and it was a way powerful, yet simple experience. Representing Christ and bearing his priesthood to bless others is the best. 

Welppp, there's been a lot of rain this week. Elder holden and I had a "one more house" story. Basically we wanted to say we experienced it so we ended up knocking on doors one night even though we're the number one haters on spending too much time knocking on doors because of its weirdness and ineffectiveness. So we went around one night saying the mission story classic "well elder, let's get this last one before we head home." We probably said it about 30 times until we finally found "the one". We found this way solid dude that I'm feeling pretty confident will get baptized. He's norwegian and has recently become super intersted in christianity. He wants to visit Jerusalem and stuff. He's looking for the truth but doesn't exactly know what it is or where to find it. At the end of the day, we were grateful that we tried "one more house".

Next week we'll be touring it up Zone Conference style. We'll be flying west to Stavanger and then north to Trondheim. So we'll be leaving tuesday night and getting home friday night. I'm pretty pumped to go spread some energy and passion about member missionary work. Should be sweet! 

Thanks for writing me and making me feel loved. Hope you guys have a great week. Sorry its halloween time. I'm excited for your guys' Thanksgiving vacation. Sounds fun. Love you!

Eldste Skinner

October 13, 2014

What's up!?

I'm stoked to hear that things are going well at home. We need to make sure to truly enjoy all of our blessings. I love hearing from all of you!

I'll probably never get to see Meet the Mormons here in Norway, but luckily I've met some of the sickest members here in Drammen. I know that God loves me simply because he sent me to Drammen. The last 6 months have absolutely flown by and I'm so grateful for the hard work that was put in. No regrets. We'll be having another baptism on Saturday with our 19 year old investigator from Angola. I'll be out of here by saturday but I'll still be able to come back and see him get baptized. He's an awesome kid and he has the strongest desires to repent and change his life. I'm super grateful I got to see the atonement work through him. He realized where his life was heading with the certain bad habits he had. It's amazing to look back to the day we were guided to him as he was playing basketball in the park. Ever since that day, he's been saying the most golden things ever and really wanting to have "light" and true happiness like we do. He's taking responsibility for his own life and he's already being blessed for it. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father prepares people for us to find who are looking for truth without even fully realizing it. I'm grateful for the changes that I've made in my life that have helped me to be happy and influence other to be happy as well. Missionary work is fun and if anyone has the chance of serving a mission, they should do it.  

We've been having some of the most positive experiences this week teaching our investigators. Especially the one's who are under the age of 20. There is nothing better than teaching legit people who have sincere questions and want to learn. We had a great Zone Leader Training this past week and we focused on asking inspired questions and teaching for understanding. Halvorsen and I have been thinking a lot lately about how crucial it is to clearly state gospel truths and be able to use analogies to better help our investigators understand truth. We've also been beating ourselves up for all the dumb questions we ask during teaches. Just in this past week we've had several different spiritual teaches as a result of making simple changes. We're realizing how fun it can be to teach people the gospel by the spirit in a way that they can understand.  We have some awesome young investigators and I'm excited to see how different their lives will be as a result of living the gospel compared to others around them. The universal atonement has changed my life and will change others too. 

So I only have 2 transfers left but there's still plenty of gas in the tank. I think I get progressively more stoked for the work as time goes on.  I'm sad to leave Homeboy Halvy and this Drammen dynasty but I knew it needed to end at some point. The mission continues to be an adventure and God continues to blow my mind. Elder Holden and I will be reunited in the office. The Dream Team lives on.. should be a pretty interesting experience. 

hope you all have an awesome week! I love you guys!

Eldste Skinner

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

September 20, 2014

hello!!

I'm so happy to hear about all the good things going on at home. Sounds like you guys are working really hard but still giving yourselves some time to have fun. Its so hard to find the balance but for mental and physical health reasons its crucial to make the decision to take it easy when needed. This week has been nuts. Never before have I been so busy with teaching. Heavenly Father blessed us so much this week and I'm grateful that I'm only a little bit sick after all the work this week. I need to get better at sleeping and eating so that will be on the to do list for the week. 

Our meeting in Tønsberg was pretty sweet. We reviewed a lot of all these golden nuggets we got from the conferences with Elder Dyches and Elder Bednar. I realized how crucial it is for us to be converted unto the lord. Heavenly Father looks on the heart and know's when we're really doing our best to be dedicated to sharing his gospel. It's frustrating to make mistakes and still have an imperfect performance even after you desire with all your heart to do good and have no desire to do evil. I would love to see what we as a church could do if we were all truly converted and anxiously engaged in this work. The lord is hastening it.. we just need to do our part to keep up with it. Its exciting to be a part of the "new generation".. big things will happen as we put our faith into action with some energy. At the meeting we also really tried to focus on teaching by the spirit. We worked on simplifying, verifying, asking inspired questions and testifying as part of this and later went on to have one of the most insane weeks of teaching in our zone. So there's some good energy right now in Telemark. The only complaint about the meeting was that I had a sore throat and body aches the whole time. This is partly due to the fact that we had the AP's visit us the day before on tuesday. So Holden and I were reunited and all four of us absolutely tore it up in the city. We had a lot of fun. It was good to come back at the end of the day to see all that we had accomplished. This work is fun but sometimes it takes a toll on my body. My week was better than planned though. 

We're also having some incredible experiences with one of our 18 year old investigators. He's been getting invited over to dinner from this topnotch family in the ward who happens to come from the same country as him. We had some solid teaches and he want's to find the truth so badly its hurts. When we met him he was catholic turned atheist and now he's telling us about how badly he want's to repent and be "holy". It almost seems like he's messing with us because he's that positive. He's been super prepared by Heavenly Father and is just begging for commandments to start living. He's already accepted living the law of chastity. all he wants is some direction. Amazing to see how mature and thoughtful he is. Its also cool to see how quick he is to realize that what the world views as happiness isn't happiness at all. He says he want's to be like us and have that true joy that comes from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm super grateful for the restored gospel and that I've been blessed enough to have accepted it. It kills me to see people totally understand what we have to offer but then just see them shut it down or turn it away. I think sometimes its too obvious that this church is Christ's church and maybe it causes people to think that its too good to be true. Like dad would say "[others]can't find truth even if it was stapled to their forehead". This work sure is a fun and frustrating adventure. I'm loving it. Hope you all have an awesome week:) 

Love you,

Eldste Skinner

September 15, 2014

I know my mission is fun because P-day is never my favorite day of the week. I am super grateful for all the wonderful emails I get every week! I love my friends and family and am happy to hear that you're all doing so well. Righteous living brings blessings and happiness every time.

This week was really special. We had our friend Eladi (Safari) get baptized on Saturday. Elder Holden got to come back and  baptize him. We were the ones that found him through a New convert in the ward way back in June I think. Its amazing to see how prideful and not positive he was in the beginning haha. He came up to me after the baptism and told me that "I won". I told him it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the Spirit. Then he said, "true.. but it was the spirit through you." That was really touching to hear. Eladi is a man of faith a great example to me of someone who trusts in the Lord and waits for his "arm to be revealed". Without getting too personal he's been waiting on some government support for over three months now. Its been something he's brought up at just about every lesson we had with him. We felt bad for the homie but there wasn't much we could do other than invite him to fast and pray and keep the commandments. We promised him over and over again that if he put the kingdom of god first that everything would work out. Uncoincidentally, the second he comes home from his baptism, he checks his mailbox and gets exactly what he's been waiting for. I know that the promises found in Matthew 6 and 3 Nephi 13 really are true, every time. If we "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all things shall be added unto [us]"

We also had a super great week of finding and have found two more new people who want to get baptized in October. Its amazing to see no shortage of blessings or miracles as I continue to be passionate with the work here. I'm constantly trying my best and not trying to beat myself up too much when I'm not as perfect as I wish. I'm having a lot of fun trying to improve my abilities to teach with the spirit so that I can help others find this strait and narrow path. 

Hope you all have a nice week this week! We'll be doing some training this week in Tønsberg based on what we've be blessed to learn this past couple weeks from Elder Bednar and Elder Dyches. We'll hopefully be prompted by the spirit during our discussions to come up with some concrete principles we can start applying in the zone! It'll be another  fun week:) Love you!

Eldste Skinner

September 8, 2014

HELLO!

Another incredible week over here in Norway. Elder Bednar was passionate and pulling at my heart strings all day yesterday. Never in my life have I been so spiritually edified in my life. It was a life changing sort of day. We drove up to Oslo early sunday morning and had a 2 hour double stake (whole country) conference. It was awesome to see all the members I've served around before and obviously hear Bednar speak. The spirit was so thick I could taste it.. even tried to take pictures but everything was blurry. But for real there was nothing else that could get the members here in norway more pumped up to do missionary work. It was cool because he made missionary work seem so simple and easy (like it is) and I'm personally pretty stoked to see the growth that was promised here in Norway. He talked about the churches in Africa and how there's been complaints that theirs not enough time for any sort of talks during sacrament meeting because of all the confirmations and priesthood ordinations. Elder Bednar thinks that's awesome and he said that he'll come back to norway in no later than 5 years and see the same things happening here in this country. It's insane to be able to be a part of this.. really wish I could do this forever. Elder Bednar also met with us a missionaries in the Oslo stake center. The whole entire mission was gathered from all over the country and we got to get 3 special hours with an Apostle of the Lord. I will never forget how amazing that was, I woke up this morning thinking it was a dream. I'm so happy I have my notes of impressions as well as the whole thing recorded. Elder Bednar is my favorite and I really learned a lot from the way he taught and asked inspired questions (letting the spirit teach). Wish I could start the mission over again and have this sort of skill. 

Anyways, this week was also incredible with finding some more positive people. I'm really stoked about this baptism we'll be having this weekend. So we got quite a bit to do and effective planning is going to be crucial as always. I'm grateful for the true joy that comes from really living the gospel and being "engaged in a good cause". Have an awesome week with the non norwegain fall weather. We have to go buy a new washer today and take care of some other not so fun stuff. Talk to you later.. Love you!

Eldste Skinner

September 1, 2014

Yo Yo Yo.

Elder Bednar is coming to Oslo on Sunday so we're getting stoked out of our minds here in Norway. The work is seriously hastening here in Norway. This past week went pretty well here in our area. We had an awesome member teach with this family. We brought a youth on the teach and he seemed like he liked it. We taught the Pan of Salvation and invited them to be baptized. They haven't yet gotten a for sure answer if Joseph Smith is a prophet yet but they are willing to be baptized on the 20th of September if they get an answer before then. I know they will because they have openly stated that they are "truth seekers". Nuts! I don't know how we're getting so blessed here. I've really liked the quote that Melissa sent last week... "Pray like everything depends on The Lord, work like everything depends on you." This is super true and its something I can say that I've lived by without even hearing this quote before. There is power in prayer. If we need to receive guidance or answers, all we need to do is "ask, seek, and knock". I know Heavenly Father answers sincere prayers and that he can immediately help us through any sort of trials or worries we have.

Right now i'm pretty worried about the zone and the mission. We are having pretty decent weeks and cool things are happening. The only problem though is that we all can't seem to find people who are legit. People who really have a desire to make appointment and progress towards baptism. Its a never ending problem here in Norway and its drives me crazy sometimes. Us as missionaries though know what it is that we need to do (work with the members) we just need to do it. We can't just keep doing the same things and start expecting different results. We're way short of our yearly baptismal goal and time is running out. Sometimes I feel like one of a select few who are actually concerned about this. Anyways, Heavenly Father knows my concerns and I'm sure everything is going to work out. I have know doubt that miracles can happen when I really dedicate myself to this work. I've already been seeing it and have been doing my best to help others "catch the vision" as well.  

I'm super grateful for you guys. I love all the things I hear about the happs at home. I'm hoping you are all enjoying life at school or at work. Thank you mom (and dad) for being such good examples of hard workers. I know working doesn't sound too fun when you're chillin at home or just waking up but as soon as you pray and get up and going it really can be a lot of fun if you let it. Once you get started it can be hard to stop though so try your best to schedule time that can give you a good balance. I'm grateful for all the planning and organizing skills I learn as a missionary. I'm grateful for the gospel and the opportunity I have to lose myself. It gives me an opportunity to see what the Lord will do with me each day. Everyday is a different crazy adventure. 

Eldste Skinner

August 25, 2014

Another Crazy week here in D-city. I love being here in Drammen and I feel at home here. I'm grateful that I was needed to come here. This ward never gets old and the cities big enough for me to keep exploring and finding people. This definitely is the place to be on the mission. Yesterday there were a lot of changes made and our bishopric got even younger. Our homie Daniel got called to be the second counselor and he's like 24 years old. Heavenly Father is hastening his work and I'm grateful to be in a ward that's completely on board to help us out here. 

My mission leader asked me this week if I could do some service this week. He needed me to be a starting pitcher on Tuesday. That was pretty fun and a lot of good missionary opportunities came out of that. It was funny because I ended up just wearing some ghetto nikes, some sweat pants and a snap back. Brought some heat. It was fun. But not as much fun as teaching and being led by the spirit.  

One of the highlights form this week was meeting with James, who was baptized earlier this month. I was blown away with how solid this guy is! He's loving life and really wants to share the gospel with others. We read a little bit from Preach My Gospel chapter 1 about how hard Satan is trying to destroy the family. Its something that is so easy to see in this world today. I'm grateful that the gospel has helped us stay happy and together. 

We had our workshop in Tønsberg this week and I think it went pretty well. I really got a lot out of it and I've improved a lot in my abilities to set goals and make plans to make more things happen. The day after the meeting, Elder Halvorsen and I had one of our most productive planning sessions ever. Consequently, we'll be way busy this week and we're getting excited to see our friends progress closer and closer to baptism. We got another baptismal date with one of our investigators and he came to church. The portuguese speaking mom is still looking good for her baptismal date. We also had a really awesome teach with this family of four as well. So we ended up having a bunch in church this week. Its so awesome to see hard work pay off. We've been going like crazy to stay organized and on top of things. 

Elder Halvorsen and I went crazy this weekend. There was a huge river festival so we pretty much were contacting people in a carnival/swapmeet type of environment. Lot of distractions but we were led to all sorts of people we needed to find. Our ward also had its own stand, so we got to have some people come up to us with some questions although most of the people came for the free waffles we were making. 

It's sad to see summer go but I'm sure fall will be a lot of fun as well. Hope you guys have an awesome week with work and school and what not. Love you!

Eldste Skinner

August 18, 2014

Had some pretty gnarly experineces this week! We had that incredible teach on monday and the week continued getting better. We only had like 3 real days in our area so it was a little wierd and took me our of my groove but it was still way good and we were able to have some solid teaches this week. We also had a beastly planning session that helped is keep track of all our peeps. Its tough though because the only definite thing with planning as a missionary is that it wont go according to plans. Its all good though because the spirit has helps us out and keeps us doing the lord's will. I love be a missionary still. This week was incredible because we took a Pday in Oslo. It was unfortunately a little rainy but we still had a good time playing all sorts of different sports form ultimate frisbee to capture the flag. There was a ton of missionaries so it was a little tough for us to get every one on the same page but I hope they all had a good time. My favorite part of the day though was getting to cruise around oslo. I didn't end up buying anything but I saw alot of cool suits and clothes. I was looking for some amazing deals but I didn't find anything. I'm pretty good at resisting unlike Elder Halvorsen. So the Pday in Oslo was pretty sweet.

 I ended up staying the night in Sandvika in Elder Holdens apartment. We were also working in the evening time so we got to go on splits. I worked with Elder Crook from oregon and we had some good experiences finding and teaching 2 people that night. We were in a competition of who could teach most in an hour and so we won some american Lucky Charms.. (why did I ever think that stuff was good??) Its super fun to go all over Norway and work with different missionaries and be constantly guided to people to share the gospel with no matter what city your in.

 I was super pumped for the conference with Elder Dyches the next day. He had two different meetings and they were super spiritual. The first was focused on responsibility and leadership. I'd say the second one was more broad and all over the place but there were all sorts of important principles of planning and teaching that were really helpful. He was a mission president in oregon and so he had all sorts of insights as to how we could improve as a mission. I got all sorts of good stuff lot out of those meetings and i'm excited to start applying what I learned so that I can keep getting better and better as a missionary.

On saturday we drove down to Porsgrunn for some splits there and to do a baptismal interview for one of their investigators. It was a lot of fun being down there. Elder Cheney is from las Vegas and is incredible at beatboxing, he's also played a computer game called Runescape for a total elapsed time of a year and a half. Thats a lot of hours. Kids these days... I'm super happy he's on a mission, hopefully he and elder Ankenman had some fun with us and learned alot. 

Cool story of the week. We were knocking on doors and almost done with the day. As we were walking back to the car I felt prompted to knock on one more door as we passed it. So we turned around and ended up talking to this skeptical norwegian guy at his doorstep. I was really bold and persistant with him (what we were focusing on) and he eventually begin to be curious and really didn't have a reason to not learn... so he let us in. I thought it was going to be one of those miracle stories you read about in the ensign but the dude's wife kicked us out in about 15 seconds. Not cool. Funny story though.

This week we're going to be doing a training meeting again in Tønsberg. So I'll be leading a lot of discussion on how we can change the game here in Norway and keep going forward.  We're constantly refining and adjusting. The training meeting will be like 6 hours long with a split focus on planning and working with members. We'll try to make it fun and spiritually uplifting. Sorry you guys aren't missionaries here in Norway getting to be a part of this. Anyways, I'm sure my life sounds super boring to you guys right now but.. its not. Always good things happening, make sure to ask me about them when I get back. haha. Love you guys. Keep working hard, have fun at work and school.

Here's a picture of me and Elder Matti Jouttenus.. he knows the Friströms:)

Eldste Skinner

August 11, 2014

HELLO SWEET FAM!

We didn't get a P-day today because of this conference we got coming up on friday. We'll be on Oslo and we're going to take the opportunity to gather up two zones for a joined preparation day over there. I'm way excited for this conference coming up though. Elder Dyches from the area presidency will be coming to crack the whip on us (I HOPE). So... sorry this email wont be too intense or interesting but then again none of them really are that cool. I'm sure you know the painful it is to think about what to write. (insert sentence that talks about how fast time goes by here).

My week was great, we had a lot of awesome opportunities to work with members and of course to find. We've been absolute insane here in Drammen. Just planning and organizing everything has been the biggest beast. You learn a lot of skills on the mission.

We had a way sweet day even though it was relatively disappointing compared to what we had planned. Still had some amazing member teaches. We met with one of our investigators from Angola and she is insanely positive! She speaks Portuguese and we brought a Spanish speaking RM on the teach along with her husband. All I heard was a lot of "aqui.. la casa.. burrito..si.. iglesia.. " I think the only thing I said the entire lesson was "Will you get baptized on August 30th?" She said yes. Drammen's turning into the Brazil of Europe.

Have a great week! I'm loving it here in Norway. No complaints!

Love you!

Eldste Skinner

August 4, 2014

Well... it only took me 18 months to realize that my baptismal pants haven't been hemed.

This week has been way fun. We did end up baptizing James on saturday and it was really cool because I was the one that got to baptize. Wasn't really expected but I'm super grateful that I got the opportunity. It was super intense to be in that baptismal font and obviously the spirit was super strong. All the prayers and fasting were answered and James was excited and ready to be baptized. I'm super stoked for this guy and the opportunity that he's getting to start fresh. If we ever get jealous of this people with fresh starts just remember repentance and the importance of the sacrament. Jame's going to be a great member and will help a lot of other people come into the church as well. 

I'm hoping to have plenty of more opportunities before I come home. This week has just been full of blessings that just keep coming my way. My hard work is paying off. This past week also ended up being an incredible week of finding here in our area. I'm super grateful that elder Halvorsen is patient with my tendencies to work maybe even too hard at times. Today was an incredible day. This ward here in Drammen is just loving us. Today we got hooked up with so much protein and stuff for working out so I'm going to try to get yoked and get baptisms at the same time. We got it from the 2nd counselor who works with health and fitness stuff. It was literally like Christmas with all the stuff he gave us. 

Today, we also went bowling with bishop. He's been sick of us doing "lame" things on Pday like taking hikes. I personally don't mind the awesome hikes here but he says that hiking is for 60 year old men. I was pretty impressed about how well i bowled. Not sure where the skill came from but I was getting strikes and spares pretty consistantly. 

I learned that the trick to consistently bowling strikes comes from realizing how your doing it in the first place and then constantly replicating the same motions. If necessary you can make some minor adjustments. This compares a lot to missionary work and life for me right here in drammen. I've been pretty consistent with my ability to find and teach and I'm realizing what it is that is making me have some success. The work doesn't always go the way I want but I feel pretty really pumped up that Im getting a lot out of my mission as a result of putting a lot into it. 

Glad that everything went well for sweet sweet annie. Have a nice week!! Love you guys..

Eldste Skinner

July 28, 2014

To start out this email i'm going to first address this whole summer weather situation. It sucked. There is a reason why i'm not in brazil or one of the hot areas around the world. I'm not sure if there were any records set but this is definitely an abnormal summer here in drammen at least. I'm getting the sickest tan lines you could imagine though. Been taking advantage of the tasty Norwegian water and produce. Yesterday at sacrament meeting we had some gnarly thunder storms and lightning strikes literally right outside the church. It was interesting because the second the primary kids went up to sing, it stopped completely and then immediately resumed afterwards for the next speaker. Weather is fun and keeps things interesting. 

Its been a pretty tough week though around the mission. Hopefully people will start coming back from vacation so we can build up some more momentum that we've been trying so hard to hang on to.

 Focusing on the positives though, We had one of our investigators decide they wanted to get baptized in September. So as of right now, we have 4 who are lined up to get baptized in august and September. We're really blessed and working on getting more but we really need to do our best to help these people who are committed to be fully ready for it. We'll be having a baptism this Saturday (assuming everything works out) with our liberian guy. He's a humble, sincere and honest guy and he really appreciated the help moving this week. We're stressing a little because we're not able to meet with him as much as we'd like to because of his busy work schedule. We'll have to wait until the day before the baptism before we find out if its actually going to happen. So we'll just be praying like crazy that all the planning we're going to have to put into the baptismal meeting will make for a solid baptismal meeting with him actually being baptized. Fun stuff! I have faith that everything will work out.

Homeboy Holden is gone and so its been a pain to get adjusted to the change. The good thing though is that Elder Halvorsen and I work equally as hard. Hopefully we'll get to see the same sort of dream team magic here in Drammen and the Telemark zone. Halvorsen and I are way too much a like though, its almost like we're brothers. Always thinking the same thoughts. I like working with him because we can joke around with each other even when we're stressed out of our minds wondering why in the world nobody wants to listen to us! 

I'm so happy to hear about all the cool things going on at home.  Sounds like a lot of friends and family are having really cool missionary experiences and I hope you guys are too. Did you invite the cholos over yet? haha. Great to hear that you're getting that new job-opp! You'll do great but if you're anything like me then you're probably questioning and doubting that haha. Just pray sincerely and constantly and even on your knees when you can. I promise you'll know what you have to do and then be blessed with the focus and energy to do it. Create a vision and then some plans on how you can achieve it. Short term and long term goals and all that good stuff. Its exciting to have change come around so that you can repent and start new habits. Missionary work really isn't all that different from any other type of work. Instead of money though you get some sort of weird satisfaction and joy that isn't explainable yet far better. Love you! have a great week! snakkes neste uke

Eldste Skinner