Heyyyy!

The dream team has been guaranteed another 8 weeks at least together. We started an new transfer and we're happy about all the momentum we've been blessed with. Over and over again in the scriptures its says that Heavenly Father will reward us and strengthen us according to our faith. We still have the faith and expectations that bigs things will happen and they're aready happening. makes it easier to make things continue to happen. In our area right now we have 4 investigators with baptismal dates next month and thats only scratching the surface of what we're capable of. Elder Holden and I are alike in many ways but one thing that helps us be a dream time is that we never settle. There's always one more family to be found, one more person to fit into our schedule, one more person that can come to church. Maybe its being greedy but I'd call it relentlessness. We can always do better and go even harder. Going through the motions and having just average results isn't enough for us. There is no time to waste, we 're in the business of helping people come unto christ which is the only way to true peace and exhaltation. We can't just settle with one or two people to work with. Heavenly Father has given us this hunger and we got to feed it.  We've been super blessed with opportunities to teach people and help them feel the spirit. I 've never been in a companionship with more energy and unity. Although, we're not perfect at all, we teach with power and its awesome to see how people can change when the open up their hearts to the spirit. I am definitely convinced that its not just Elder Holden and I who are just good at finding and convincing people to believe in the message of the restoration. The spirit is doing it all. We're just trying to see what the Lord can do through us. He has called us to the work and I'm just grateful that He has put this trust in us. Its a two way deal; He needs us and we need Him. Luckily we're promised his guidance as we put our hearts into the work, refrain from idleness, and engage ourselves in this great cause. The spirit keeps me pumped up. No need to hold back and try to conserve energy, president encourages me to put the pedal to the metal so I'm going for it. I'll probably be coming home on a stretcher. Have an oxygen tank ready for me at the airport. takk!

So happy that its summer time. I discovered a grill in our attic so I've taken it upon myself to become a grillmaster. We made some homemade jalepeno burgers the other week and they weren't bad, but I know how to make them better next time. I'm kinda teaching myself as I go but its kind of hard when you don't have youtube or enough time in the day (we'd rather be doing bigger and better things).

Super stoked that we have such a great zone. Last week we went on splits twice which kept us from our own area for a little bit but it was all worth it. I want to see every companionship enjoying their mission as much as I am. Its fun to work hard and make things happen. I wish we could all chose to be this happy and enjoy this awesome adventure in this incredible country. this life is "our four minutes" and our missions are even shorter than that. I'm not going to let my four minutes suck.

I'm happy that you guys are all doing well at home. I know that the gospel truly does bless our family. Super grateful that you and dad are faithful members of the church  and such great examples of hard work and endurance. Keep it up! Once we get in motion, we tend to stay in motion. Its like inertia... "look it up on eBay or something" haha:)

Love you!!

Eldste Skinner

May 19, 2014

I'm sunburnt and exhausted from that sweet birthday party we had for norway on Saturday. The weather was absolutley perfect. best weather this year so far and and its staying really nice. So on saturday we spent norways bicentennial in its capital city (Oslo). Its was insane. I am super bless to experience it again in oslo. this time was even crazier than last time. Way more people and way more flags. I had a way fun time because I like people watching and being out in the sun so it was sweet. I got to chill right outside of the kings palace but I spent most of my time roaming the streets of oslo with Elder Weaver and Holden. It was pretty sad because it was my second and last syttende mai on the mission. trying to figure out how I can still keep coming back... 

After the parades and partying we tooked the packed trolly to the mission home. We had to zones there so there was about 30 or so missionaries barbequeing and playing games at the mission home. We ate some hotdogs and sloppy joes and potatoe salad and all that classic stuff. We started a game of dodgeball between the east and telemark zones and of course our telemark zone dominated. It was a lot of fun and president chilled on the patio and watched us basically destroy his backyard. I'm sure he was pretty amazed to see us in a non missionary environment. Elder Holden and I had a lot of fun playing around with other missionaries. It was a way cool way to build up friendships and get to know eachother a little better. Everyone here on the mission is awesome and its fun to do normal things with them.  

So that was fun to be able to have that whole day to do things besides just missionary work. By the end of the day we were missing the work and ready to get back at it. Although it was fun to run around in the sun and destroy other elders with a dodgeball, it didn't compare to the joys we've been experiencing with the work here in drammen.

We had another great week with finding some prepared people and we're having plenty of things to do. We're being smart with our time and really trying to not waste any of it. We've been seeing some great blessings and that have come according to our faith and works. I know that Heavenly father is pleased with us and blessing us with the energy we need to stay pumped. We're being dedicated to finding families and those who have been prepared for us. I love weach morning when I can wake up and dive into the book of mormon for a part of my studies and just get a huge energy boost from the spirit. I like the promise that the lord gave to oliver cowdery in doctrine and covenants section 24. "And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength such as is not known among men." I know that the spirit has been keeping me pumped. I heard in the last conference that if we need energy we can plug into the spiritual power of prayer and scripture study. Sounds like Patrik could tell you which talk that was haha but its something that I've learned is true. 

its been a great week and i'm grateful that you guys are still writing me even though melissa's more new and probably more exciting. Have an awesome week! ha det godt :)

Love,

Eldste Skinner

Drammen! - May 5, 2014

Holyyyyyy...

my life has been changed. Still can't really describe how much new energy and stokedness has been poured upon me. I feel like Ive been prepared my whole mission to serve here in Drammen. Elder Holden and I are expecting amazing things to happen here and they already have. I took a forever long train ride that became even longer because of alll the delays. Had to keep borrowing peoples phones so that I could let the elders know I needed to be picked up late. Ended up getting off the train in Drammen about 2 hours behind schedule. Elder Gunther and Holden were waiting for me at the train station. Once we loaded up all my belongings into the car (I'm driving again!) and started driving home we could finally feel that this transfer call wasn't just a dream. I hasn't felt real at all and it still doesn't.

HAd my first sunday here yesterday and this ward is straight up huge. I'd say bigger than the ramona oaks ward but maybe not. Tons of families and a bunch of legit youth. I've never actually had youth to work to be around. I met this one chill kid who's 15 and likes to shred and also got to run into some kid I knew from fredrikstad. The ward mission leader is a beast. His wife from california and ended up living there for a couple of years. He moved back to norway to build up the church.  He loves baseball. His team is the angels and yesterday I heard how badly the padres are sucking. We play baseball every tuesday so I'm super excited for that. What are the chances of that happening? the bishop here is 29 and is also legit! We were with both of them to meet up with the ysa to have a missionary work "kick off". These guys are great examples for me and get me even more pumped to be out here.

Elder Holden and I are straight feeling like we've been prepared from the spirit world to come out here and tear it up together. Never have I ever been more full of faith and energy to go out and share the gospel. We have some unreal energy and excitement that we're trying to spread through the whole zone.

Anyways, I can just keep blabbing on about how sweet missionary work is. Something I can feel super passionate about and convey to others when I talk to them and work with them but its tough to type into words. All we're doing right now is focusing on being urgent, following the spirit as find and teach, and being bold and self assured in the message that we 're sharing. Its something that I've been trying to focus my scripture study on. This is literally the dream team united in the heart of the missionary work in Norway. I don't know what could be better. I'll definitely look back on this time as the highlight of my life so I'm just soaking it in.

Sorry about a rough week. It'll just help you enjoy this week which will be way better. Love you! See you on Sunday:)

Eldste Skinner

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