Christmas in Norway

Hello family and a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

 

  Well i first want to say how awesome it was to talk to you all! i was almost dreading it because i didnt know how hard it was going to be to say goodbye! saying goodbye once was hard enough and doing it more is just hard! as i pushed the call button my heart pounded i was so nervous i almost past out! As i heard all your voices i had tears strolling down my face and could hardly even talk! it was an incredible moment and i start to realize how much i do miss everyone! when you are out here its crazy that i just try not to think about everything at home its just hard and makes you cry everytime you do it! You never know how much you could miss people back at home until you actually see them for the first time in 6 months! i hope everyone had an incredible christmas and that you all had a great time and had the chance to think about your savior and the price he paid for all of us to give us the oppurtunity to receive eternal life! Talking to everyone really made me think about how incredible families are and i am so greatful to have a big family with neices and nephews running around! how i love all of you and how you make my heart swell with joy! i wont lie being away from the family at Christmas time is not easy at all and it made me miss you all so much! you all are so special to me and to be able to see my whole family was a huge blessing for me! i think about all your kids and how much i love spending time with them and how happy they make me! to all my sisters i love all your kids and that is one thing i miss so much about home is having the kids run all over me taking me with them playing with them laughing and going crazy with them! your kids are great always remember how special they are to you no matter how much you want to wrap your hands on their necks sometime!:) i hope everyone had a great Chirstmas and i love all of you so much!!

   well as far as my christmas went i got a ton of chocolate from the members! thats all me and my comp got was food! the best food you can buy in norway that is! we are set with chocolate for the rest of the mission i swear! well for Chirstmas on the 24th we had the great oppurtunity to spend with the family jacobsen and they made us like a thanksgiving dinner well in a way with turkey and some other norwegain food! it was great!! we had another great oppurtunity to go over to an older couple and spend a couple hours with them as well and we ate a little with them and talked with the daughter who just got back from spain or somewhere and we all together sang Christmas hyms and talked about why we are here on our missions and why it was important and it really helped me see my own reasons for being out here because honestly sometimes you forget why you are here! not meaning i dont work as hard but sometimes you just forget your own personal reasons of why we go on missions! we all have or have had our own reasons of why we want to serve! so the questions is for those who are and have served missions....what was your reason? yea we all want to serve the lord and learn and what not but WHATS THE REAL REASON YOU WENT? my challenge to the men that have or did:) being with that family reallly helped me alot in my own purpose and i thank them so much for that:) later that night we spent a couple more hours with another family and watched them open some gifts and play fifa 12 the soccor game and it was a blast to be there and just feel the love for family! The one thing about Christmas here that is so different from Chirstmas in america is how much more family is important! you dont leave your family for almost a week! you are with them constantly and they just enjoy each others company! Family ONLY! its absolutly incredible with the norwegian people they really are so loving:)

  This past week that really helped me to prepare for Christmas was going to mission conference! we had a great oppurtunity to watch a movie i really have wanted to see for the past six months since mom and dad told me about it! 17 miracles! it just happens to be all about levi savage our great great great great grandfather or maybe one more great i have no idea:) but to watch and see how incredibly small my trials are compared to them just makes me want to press on more and more to be a better missionary to work harder everyday! it strengthened my own testimony watching that and seeing all the trials that were gone through for us! i am so greatful to have watched that movie! we learned alot at the Conference but we watched that movie and it strengthened every one and it stuck out especially to me! it made me really stop and think again! well its not a long email but i hope it raised your Christmas spirit and helpled you in your own testimony as you celebrate(d) chirstmas i hope you all have taken a moment and thought of why we are here and how one single person ( the son of God our lord and savior Jesus Christ) has over come all our trials and sicknesses and pains and our sins and has already forgiven you for them! i love our lord and savior Jesus Christ and i have a testimony of this church and i love this amazing plan he has worked out for us inorder to bring us all back to him! i know pray works i have seen it in my own life work! i love being here and it truly is making me a better person and has helped me already so much andi cant even tell you how much i myself have changed! a mission is the best thing for me right know and i love being here and serving our lord and savior Jesus Christ! i know this church is true! pray for me and help me:) i love you all

  elder farnsworth

Short and Sweet

HELLO FAMILIE AND FRIENDS:)

 

  its a truly interesting experiance to say that there is no snow anywere to be found on the ground right now....its colder than utah from what i have heard and Christmas is this coming saturday and sunday! saturday if your a norwegian:) its going to be a completely new experiance being with someone i hardly know on Christmas and not being with my family but these people have deffinitely become my own family! even on JULAFTEN which is the 24th we have to split between 3 families and its going to be so hard! 3 dinners....but whats new with that thats basically everyday;) but all the members want us to be with them and they are all asking for the missionaries to come and see them and eat and sometimes you just cant fit everyone! you have to pick and choose especially in a ward thats no different than living in utah for the most part! so we have a christmas tree at the church and they are putting a bunch of gifts under it for us!!! how cool is that!  i am way excited for that! its going to be way cool!

 

  well this is not going to be the longest letter since i dont really have pday this week and next week because of the mission conference we have on the 22 23 and then we have 24 25 and we need to keep filling the pool for the new year with more and more investigators! we are so excited to work towards our new goals which are set very high especially for norway but we are working hard and we are starting to get more investigators! as we go out and contact people we are finding more everyday even if we are only out for maybe 2 hours we have been finding usually about three people that set up a another time to meet! weather that falls through is another story;)

 

   well this week has been maily finding and teaching our 3 main investigators and doing service! we have been working on painting this ladies house and its not the cleanest house.....hadnt been cleaned in about 13 years.... atleast more than picking up and doing dishes and some vaccuming but other than that there was like a 1/4 inch of grease in the kitchen and it was nasty had to take that off before we started painting! i have figured out that i love painting and its way relaxing and finding out that i can understand most of what she was saying to me helped me feel way good:) but here kitchen is down painting it took awhile but its done and we start after Christmas on painting the rest of the downstairs:) i have had a lot of good experiances with just being happy lately! when you are wanting to go out and talk to people and just have a good attitude about things it makes a huge difference!! cant say i am amazing at the language or that i understand everything but when you go out and show the lord with a smile that you want to work he will open up the heavens and pour you out a blessing just like he says he will in mal.! the lord watches over us all and wants to help us but like i have said before you have to show him the sincerity of what you want to do! we have been finding people and its so great! we went from having 26 people investigating to 3.... so its a little drop and finding is what we have todo to help get our hopes up to make our goals as a mission:) i love this work and i am learning more and more everyday! i love reading mormons book and the inspiration it gives to me as i read it and i study! i know how true this gospel is and it makes complete sense! i love being a missionary! i love norway and its people! i am so thankful for the atonement i have a chance to use everyday in my life and its only through our lord and savior jesus christ that we have this amazing oppurtunity to live with our father in heaven again someday! i cant wait to talk you all well if your family members....sorry everyone else! but my love and regards go out to everyone during this special Christmas season! remember Jesus Christ and his Atonement and how we can use it everyday:) i miss you all and have a great week! keep up the work at home and i hope the light of chirst can infuence your Chirstmas:) LOVE YOU!!!

 

Eldste Farnsworth:):)

We Got Snow!

hello hello family:):)

 well as i have been sitting here reading through all the emails i have gotten and the main question is always about the weather? let me be quite blunt with you its freaking hot here! i have been lying to you and its way hot......OK that's just the biggest lie!! this week had a new experience with this white stuff that falls from the sky....SNOW!!! we got three inches i think on Tuesday? then again on thrusday! that was so so cool! as my last companion explained it to me he said its like wooville from the Grinch! my oh my was he right! seriously snow here is just different here and it truly is magical! its so cool! well with snow comes cold weather but it really didn't effect me! i couldn't get over the fact of how amazing snow in Norway was and it kept my spirits high while contacting! what better thing to do then go out contacting in snow and show that we are committed and see the lord work miracles right before us and blessed us with two new investigators!! one is a guy from IRAN who is a newly baptized christian and the other a J DUB but yet the nicest one i have ever met! doesn't argue with us but has quite enough to say about 7th day Adventists....its actually quite funny, he seriously dogs on them! hopefully all will go well with them and i know that it will as we follow the spirit:) i will say i hope you all can come here and see the snow and be here for Christmas!

  To answer the last question is what is Christmas in Norway like? well its a party of course! there are way more days to celebrate and it is really going to be interesting to see what its going to be like! so tomorrow is the 13th and has something to do with Sweden and Norway and so we are waking up early and going to the state church to see what the commotion is all about:) then also JUL which is Christmas here is celebrated on the 24th! but they celebrate 23th so the EVE of JUL also the 24th 25th which is the first day of JUL also they celebrate the 26th the second day of christmas and then they have the in between time til new years which is also celebrated but not quite sure how yet ill let you know as i celebrate it:) then they celebrate new years of course and then they celebrate the 4th of Jan which is called Juletre which is literally means christmas tree and its a big family event and really big in the church as well:) Norwegian JUL food is amazing! we have been eating it lately and it is quite good! along with chocolate which i need to send to you all:) so that's basically what its like here in Norway just a party:) from what i am told i am not sure how it works but we will be with members on 24th and 25th and probably the 26th i am not sure if we go out or what not because its only a time to be with family? i am not fully aware of what is going to happen!

   well this week has definably been a good week and we have been having our time filled up more than we know some how and then its hard to get to all our appointments on time! its funny we start our day off with almost nothing and figure we are going to be finding all day but people call us and meet or need help with something so we are always busy! Although since last week we lost most of our investigators we still have a lot of finding to do! we are working hard though me and my companion and everything will work out as long as we strive to work harder everyday and make good goals that will help us to achieve our goals! now to mention goals... we found out our mission goals for this next year well one of them anyway! our baptismal goal is 100 before July!! now keep in mind how big of goal this is seeing that our final numbers will be around 130 for this whole year! we have been promised that we can make this goal and i fully agree! The lords light is over Norway! as we push for this we can do miracles and we need miracles as missionaries everyday! we are so blessed to have most of our whole society in the church of jesus christ of latter day saints that pray for us! we have basically one chance in life to be prayed for this much and i have said it before but its a HUGE blessing!:) i love being a missionary its so fun and by no small mean is it easy! trust me i struggle everyday! i know i am here for a reason! that reason i am not always so sure about but i keep looking for it everyday:) its so disappointing when investigators just dont see the point in getting baptized no matter how you try to help them they see no problem with living there life how it is because they are necessarily doing anthing wrong!  its so hard! as we keep loving them and trying to figure out to help them find one point that will apply to them its not an easy task but there is a way:)!

    One thing i decided to study this week thanks to MOM was something we all have to much of which is charity....ok false i deffinitely could use some help on it:) so i devoted a day to helping me study charity and love! one thing i have been good at i think is loving people around me! i get along with basically everyone and can talk to anyone! which is why i have no problem going door to door and telling people about the messege we share...on the other hand my companion hates that!:) but as i have studied and learned its not only loving them but its what else we can offer them! its finding the meaning of charity to ourselfs and what we have to offer others in helping our father in heaven`s children find there way to him once more! i have a golden oppurtunity everyday to give this to everyone and its my duty to give of myself a little more to achieve this goal! charity is not easy but as said in moroni 7 that it will be well with him who has it in the last day!

   well disappointment comes and goes on a mission and as far as baptisms i have had none yet but i dont see that as anything to big i have been here for three months! its no mexican mission where you baptize and forget all the people you baptize......just kidding calm down:) but its deffinably just different! but once you make a friend here they will be friends for life! that is true! i am so thankful to be here in norway and to serve the lord our God! i love being a missionary and i have gained a great love for the scriptures as i learn more and more everyday i learn to love them more and more:) i have a strong testimony on prayer and answers! HE WILL ANSWER YOUR PRAYERS WHEN YOU PUT FORTH THE EFFORT AND LISTEN! i know that Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer and through him we can be saved through his mercy and by our own works! i love this gospel with all my heart and i hope you all have a great week! my love and prayers go out to all of you:)'

ELDSTE FARNSWORTH

Cold in Norway

Heisann Familie og venner

 

well how is everyone? how is the weather back home in the promised land? well Norway update... its getting COLD! its been about the same tempeture everday but its been an interesting year here, seeing that we havent got snow and last year they got snow in october and already had a ton of snow and it was already -20c everyday! so its deffinatly not that yet! its been about anywhere from 8+c to -6c in the past week! so its up and down and cant make up its mind! its been quite rainy and wet so i wouldnt doubt that snow is coming soon! i love it here and there is so much todo here in MOSS! we are seeing our efforts start to increase and we are also seeing our trials being laid before us in huge amounts this past week! not a lot has happened this week and the lord has deffinatly been testing us to the edge of every trial! seeing if we will break or keep moving! i have never been pushed to limits as i have this week and there is only more to come....its comes with the package of being a missionary! As we push forward in the work the lord does bless us and will put everything in line after he test us! as in Ether 12:6 we all know its after the trial of our faith that the lord will bless us and later on in verse 27 thats says i"If men come unto me i will show unto them their weakness. i give unto men weakness that they may be humble and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me for if they humble themselves before me and have faith in me then will i make weak things become strong unto them!" now its this scripture that has become one of my favorite scriptures and has helped me through so much as i have been out here!

  well this week like i said has been a stuggeling week and we have lost A LOT OF PEOPLE! let me just tell you a little quick story and it begins like this... when you pray for things the lord will give you trials right...right! i prayed for patience.....the next morning we lost half of our investigaters....i told my companion i prayed for patience and for oppertunities to excersize that faith.... he said great what have you done! the story goes dont pray for patience! no im kidding its what needed to happen anyway we need to get people that are really going to investigate and not eternal investigators and the lord knows what will be better for us even though we dont see the whole puzzle he does and he knows what will fit into place and how it will fit into place! oh how the lord will test us and try us! i know that as we try our best and follow the rules with nøyaktighet that we will be blessed and the lord will see our efforts towards him and will put people in our path!

   its quite sad to say that i am now not what is considered a "GREENIE" since our transfers are 9 weeks you are considered ONE til the end of 3 months is whats said! so today is my end of an extra hour of studies and now i am a normal missionary! what a said day! well i would like to say that the language is deffinatly getting better and that i am starting to understand more and more everyday! its only the speaking part that is still hard to make a correct sentence even though i still could care less if i am grammaticaly correct i just speak and for the most part i say things mostly correct its just there are better  ways of saying it! so thats they update of the language!

  Me and elder Lillywhite are having a great time together and we are living by the law! literally and it is one day going to pay off and we are not going to give up! we will show the lord how committed we really are and MOSS is not going to know what hit them when we have a bunch of things going on and they cant even keep up:) i pray for that to happen!

  Well to be honest i dont have much to say so i will give you all an awesome challenge to help enlighten your week and try to bring the spirit into your life!i want all who read this to read Ether 12! to go through it and find the challenges that we have in life and to go through them with the strength of the lord! to have charity this week because in moroni 7:47 it says all will be well with those who have charity at the last days! strive to have the spirit with you! pray to have missionary experiances and to be able to share the gospel to friends and families we know who are not in the church or are less active! as we do this the lord will bless our efforts! i love and miss you all and sorry for the short letter! next week will be a better letter i promise that:) i hope you all have a great week and follow up on this little challenge! miss and love you all!

 

eldste farnsworth!!