Hello Family and Friends!!

 

  What a great week it has been! its been a better week than last week and yet its not that we have had much success but a lot of good experiances! Many times on a mission you see how the lord blesses you and even though its such a simple thing it can raise your spirits to go through out the day! just like last weeks expirance with the old lady, its those types of things that help! same with the people that will actually talk with you at the door and complement you on your fast learning of a language with 100s of dialects! these simple things (even though they wont listen) will make any missionaries day to help you go forward with preching the gospel to everyone! They will all know some day and appoligize is what i say:) and then we laugh and keep going:) since all of our investigators have been baptized besides the two younger children (who live far away and the mother who is a member is so stressed and they are working on moving to oslo which will be better for them in the long run witha ward and friends of encouragement) we are in the process of "filling the funnels" which is the hardest part of missionary work, that being mission work in itself, but we have found people on the street this week but yet end up being potentials that dont go anywhere even though they are so positive and golden on the street it makes you think that they are getting baptized tomorrow and then call the next day and their husband said absolutly not in this house and she says sorry and hangs up...! but like i said before its those moments that count! I remeber after teaching that lady that elder johnson and i after we went around the corner started jumping and going nuts and felt so great about it! haha we all know how those feelings are of encouragement! its most important not to get down but to only keep you levels of spirit high! one way of doing this is listening to uplifting talks by John Bytheway! they will always give you a great laugh and the spirit you need to go back out! one other talk i found by a member giving it to us to listen to is called the converstion of a catholic priest! its an incredible story and i strongly suggest listening to it! its about 1.30 min but its so uplifting!

 

  One thing that did happen this week is we had a training meeting in oslo at least my comp did since he is District leader! i on the other hand got to go out for 6 hours in oslo! contacting in oslo is so awesome! for one its way warmer than Mo I Rana! Tonz of people on street! not to mention crazy people and nice and just a bunch of narko men on street as well! i got the privilige to take out two younger missionaries and show them how to contact? pssh i dont even know how to contact that well sincei have only been in small cities! Although it went so well! in the space of the day we had 4 teaches and two numbers with set appointments and were super interested in seeing us again! i gave out 3 mormons book in the street and had a great time but i have forgotten how fast people in the east of norway speak! it was quite hard for me since i have started picking up a dialect that people in oslo dont like... haha and people in north norway dont like east dialect! its quite funny but good thing its more of my tone and fall than actual words! being with a bunch of younger misionaries reminds me how hard it was for me to understand! i still have a hard time understanding but i get usually 90% on a good day! depending who i am talking with....old or young haha! offering simple words of encouragement and i could tell they were satisfied with what i said:) while in oslo we got there at 12am friday and i couldnt sleep very well and woke up early to get ready and that night got home to Mo at about 11.45 and then a taxi ride home! not alot of sleep this week haha!

 

  well i did have a quite interesting experiance with this week also since we went to sandnessjøen to go see a museum that we were told was great! after waking up early to go see it catch a bus at 7.10 and getting there at 11 and then the bus to the museum left in 2 hrs so we walked around and then got on the buss missed our stop had to go around again finally got to the museum and then it was 3. had 30minutes to look around before our bus back home left! got home at 7.10 that night! it was a very tiring day of bus after bus! rode 10 different busses with 2 ferries to cross to different islands!!

 

  well thinking of a challenge i have come up with this for you all! Read Moroni 10 mainly from verse8 til the end and find all the qualities we are able to achieve in this time of probation! list the ones that you want! list the ones that you have and see how you can abtain these gifts! i know these gifts on the spirit are real! i have experianced some of these!! i hope you all have agreat week and i miss and love you all!!!

 

elder farnsworth!

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!

 

  Well i wont lie...This week has deffinatly been a trying week! we have spent many hours in the rain and snow with almost no teaches! The weather in this past week decided to just go nuts and start snowing then raining for hours and then having hail storms out of now where and just CRAZY WIND!! its made this week pretty intense when it comes to contacting and when there is no one out on the streets we have resorted to finding anything to occupy ourtime! Anything from offering service, extra studies, visiting less actives and new converts even though most of them are out of town so that didnt really work! all of our appointments fall through so we end up trying to do something else! we have done a lot this week in other ways of finding such as offering english classes and yet no one shows up so its hard to hold classes with no one there!

 

  During this week of difficulties we have managed to still have a good time! during the times when it was way slow we decided to start reading Jesus the Christ together and it has really helped our spiritual sides when things are way rough! we have prepared lessons and practiced teaching and studied up on other ways to use time effectivly! we have focused on our spiritual needs when times are not so great and we have seen the difference!

 

  Mo I Rana is deffinatly starting to become more alive even though people wont accept us they are starting to smile at us when we try to talk! its a good booster since for the past 9 weeks people have had there head down! so we have made a goal to see how many people we can make smile aday to keep ourselfs going:) such small things can go a long way and since Elder Johnson and i have been here we have seen the difference in people that we have seen day in and day out have a different look on their face when they see us!! for example norwegains are very to themselfs a lot and do not accept help... even when they need it! one day when we were out in horribly icy weather we came across an old lady that was having a hard time going across the street and i asked if she needed some help and she actually said yes and i had a great little conversation and she went on her way! she still smiles at us when we see her!!:) little things like that will make your day!

 

  well thats our week not anything to exciting but we had a good time anyway! i have been thinking of what to give as a spiritual uplifter for everyone and i thought of this! having some expirances with moral issues with people here in norway i feel inspired to ask you to read a talk( since i cant get enough reading from conferance and i have read through it a couple times now) from President Thomas S. Monson! Dare to stand alone! its such a great talk and my question for all of you is how are you helping yourself be built in the world but not of the world...! random challenge i know but i hope you will learn from it!

LOVE YOU ALL!! have a great week and cant wait to hear from you all!!!

 

 eldste Farnsworth!! 

Another Awesome Week!!

 Hello everyone and Familie!!:)

 

  How is everyone there in utah? heard that it has been pretty warm and of and on weather snowing raining and what ever else it will! i will only add the same witness but yet in Norway! it was 8c outside the otherday and it felt great! the next day it was cold and we got 2inches of snow and the next day was rainy and crazy ice rink slippery! fell multiple times and sometimes right when i got back up again! bruised elbows and tailbone anyone!!?:) as far as weather goes here its crazy! its 0 right now and sunny! the sun has come up a lot in the last couple of day! it was light outside a little when we woke up this morning and we could see the sun on the mountains at 9! its only getting lighter and lighter everyday! good thing i will be in Mo I Rana for a while! found out last week on monday that elder johnson and i will be staying together another transfer and we will be making havoc here for another 9 weeks:) so i still have another good 41/2 months here! i will get to see the midnight sun here in the north! ill get to keep strengthening the branch here! it only gets better the longer missionaries are here! havent topped more than 12 in church but its been consistent with about 2-8? big range i know but its getting better:)

 

  we have had some Very interesting experiance in this past week! not that we had alot but we did have a lot of fun! well we have gone to selfors which is about a 40 minute walk 1-2 times a day so we have got our walking in this week thats forsure! on solid ice or with 3 inches of rain coming down the street! days where its been sunny and days where its blowing us off the bridge and days where we are soaked going into investigators homes!:) good ting they are always so nice....the ones that let us in that is haha!:) so we have been working on knocking this area for the past 8 week! we finally finished the whole left side and are working on the right side! we found 3 investigators out of the hundreds of doors we have knocked on!:) you can see the numbers are about 80 to 1 usually...haha so it takes awhile but we were never told that everyone will be willing to listen at all! it takes effort to find and hours of searching in norway that is to find people! its a very different mission than in america or even other europian countries! so the crazy experiance that we had was with the absolute last door on the left side! a kid answers the door and we ask if we can talk to the owner of the house....a kid with his shirt off comes to the door and we tell him why we were there and he invited us in! 4 boys come out of random places in the house and come down and listen...some with just boxers and some with out shirts and it was quite funny i thought it was a joke! little did i know that they all wanted to listen and sat down and listen and participated the whole lesson! we ended up coming the next two days as well and teaching them! out of all of them which we taught which was (7) all together through the teaching sessions we ended up getting 3 numbers to come back!! how the lord blesses us! we have seen blessings this week with them and teaching them the restored gospel! we have been strickly obediant and you can always get more and more obedient and we made an effort to be out right when pday finished at six so out the door a 1 before and being like the ride of the valkyries! so watch out Norway!;)

 

  well we have basically been finding all week and going through the hard times just makes you be humble on your mission! its not easy at all when you feel like nothing is happening but the lord is testing us and seeing if we will keep turning back to him to lead us! He is preparing people but we have to go through the process to find them! everyday we are out walking the baron streets of Mo talking to the same people everyday. sometimes enduring is what we need the most! i have seen that and i have gone through it and will continue to go through it! its part of a mission haha:) since we finished our area book and have kept trying the people who didnt answer or told us they were busy we ended up knocking in to one of them yesterday! a Very nice penticostal lady! she has been busy but has wanted us to come over and actually offered us a ride to come meet with her when she had time! she has had some amazing experianced with angles and other very cool experiances! she took mormons book and was very greatful for that! she will be interesting to teach! for any of you that are familiar with pinsy people here is a very common statement..... ARE YOU SAVED? HAVE YOU FOUND JESUS YET(just like in forest gump?) IS YOUR FAMILY SAVED? HALELUYA CAN I GET AN AMEN!! praying with her was a great experiance and we ALL had to offer a prayer! it was very funny! it was a great experiance and she was actually quite open so we will be going back this week and see if she read what we gave her:)

 

 The lord is preparing people in Norway and in all parts of the world! its not easy all the time but thats a mission its not suppose to be simple or easy! or it wouldnt be called a "MISSION!" same as it would be if you were in the army a mission is something you endeavor to overcome or to finish a task! i am so greatful for the tasks i have been given and how humlbling they have been and continue to only be more humbling everytime! i would not be out here if i didnt know that this is Gods true church or else i could be doing other things to use my time, but since i know its true i devote myself in learning and envelope myself with the gospel to be a better teacher and missionary everyday! the lord has big things instore for all of us but its upp to uss to increace our knowledge! he wont force it upon us! we have our free agency! i read a great talk this past week acouple of times in fact Waiting upon the Lord: Thy Will Be Done by Robert D. Hales! another about waiting upon the lord is by Quinten L. Cook which is marvelous The Songs They Could Not Sing! and he is a quote from that talk --3. See Boyd K. Packer, “The Play and the Plan” (Church Educational System fireside for young adults, May 7, 1995), 3: “In mortality, we are like one who enters a theater just as the curtain goes up on the second act. We have missed Act 1. … ‘And they all lived happily ever after’ is never written into the second act. That line belongs in the third act when the mysteries are solved and everything is put right.” See also Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience (1979), 37: “God … sees the beginning from the end. … The arithmetic … is something we mortals cannot comprehend. We cannot do the sums because we do not have all the numbers. We are locked in the dimension of time and are contained within the tight perspectives of this second estate.” this second estate is not ment to be a perfect life but we need to go through it and test us! my challenge for you all is to read these two talks and answer the questions...how am i dealing with my waiting in hard times? also why do bad things happen to good people?

 

  well ihope you all have a great week and strive to wait upon the lord and do all that is necessary to go forward! i love you all and i hope you all have a great week!!