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