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