#27 Food, food and more food....

Hei Hei and God Jul fra Asker!!!

So this week literally FLEW by! My companion and I are all confused about what day it even is, because time has not been a thing this past week!  CRAZY!  We had a phenomenal week and I was loving every second just like I do every week!

Monday

So last week I told you guys that we had gotten up early and taught seminary, so after that we were going to go and get breakfast, but we got stuck in traffic, so that didn't happen:(  After emailing we went and got pizza at some run down place in Sandvika, but it was actually really good!  Then we went back to the church and played a little volleyball, basketball and that was about it!  But it was fun nonetheless! We had a dinner appointment with the elders and some members in our ward. We had lasagna... and ice cream for dessert!  It was so much fun!

Tuesday

Today we had planned to contact all day, but then things kept coming up, so we only were able to contact for a little bit!  While we waited to get some more Christmas cards to hand out, we found 2 referrals that we had gotten online!  So we drove out to meet them, and it turns out it's 2 or 3 guys that are doing a school project about Mormons! They figured that it would probably be a good idea to just ask the Mormons themselves!!:)  Not many people think that way, so we were pretty impressed! We will be meeting with them this coming week!  Then we got stuck in traffic on the way to go contacting... so we decided to go and try another referral that we had gotten from the missionary couple in Stavanger. They were not home,  so we decided to bank until we had to go to our new convert's appointment.  So we began banking and we had a gospel conversation with the first 4 people that we talked to!!  We kept pulling  Plan of Salvation pamphlets out of our backpack... and these people were the nicest people I have ever met while banking!  Every time the door closed my companion and I were just like "WOW! We decided to stay in that neighborhood and just go down the street. We thought that everyone would be nice like that...but nope!:)  These people slammed doors one after another and there was one person that we talked to that told us, "Poor you!" and then had a little rant and then said "Poor you!" once again.  Plus it was frigid cold...like so cold to the point where it's almost painful!  But we continued to bank:))!  Then we went to our convert's house and she had made us dinner!  We taught her about the temple and it was a great lesson!  She is an awesome member and is soaking up information and new things like a sponge!  

Wednesday

Today was the day of my driving lesson!  It wasn't even my test and I was nervous!  But we went to the driving school and then we drove for about 45 minutes!  So when you are in the car, they just tell you what place to go to and then you have to find the sign and then follow it... and that's all they tell you!  Obviously since it was my lesson he was pointing out things here and there so that was good!  He said that it went really well and then I'll have a "warm up" hour before my test next week, and then I'll take the driving test after that!  Talk about being terrified!  And apparently he told me the wrong date so my test is actually the 23rd! Today was the day of contacting. We were in Sandvika sentrum talking to people and we met a guy who was not happy to hear what we had to say and continued to tell us how we wrong we were:). After that we went and visited an elderly woman in our ward and talked to her about Christmas and her Christmas traditions and it was so fun!!!  I love hearing other people's stories!  She gave us hot chocolate, krumkaker and clementines and then gave us Firkløver (chocolate) when we left!  She is the sweetest lady and we had so much fun visiting her! We went back out to contact and it was seriously so, so cold!! Once again we weren't having much success with people wanting to talk to us, but we did meet some people that we very friendly, and at that point we just wanted someone to talk to us!  But we did have one big success...we met one guy that actually wants to meet with us this coming week so that's super exciting!  So we could be getting a new investigator!!:)) Then we taught our investigator and we talked to him about testimonies and watched the apostles give their testimonies of Christ!  It was a great lesson!  It went super well and he responded to it really well too!  

Thursday

Today we had District Meeting and it was our first District Meeting with only us 4 missionaries!  We were just laughing at the fact that it was so small, but we talked about the commitments that President Hill had asked us about at Zone Conference and our zone leader shared a talk called, "The Fourth Missionary".  Really good!!  Then we did role plays and tried to resolve the "investigators" concerns. We also had District Lunch, but my companion and I didn't eat much, because we were going to our investigator's house and we knew we were eating there!  So we went to our invetigator's house and had pizza, salt and pepper chips and then she opened  this huge cupboard that was literally filled with chocolate bars! We got to pick one of those too!  We visited with her for a little bit and then we began talking about peace and how she can find that through prayer and having faith.  It was an awesome lesson!  She was sharing her thoughts on it all, we were sharing personal experiences and scriptures and it was just a phenomenal lesson... but then the greatest thing happened...she told us how she prays morning and night and how it's becoming a routine!  SHE'S PRAYING!!!! I was so so excited!!!!! Baby steps!!!! Then after that lesson we went and picked up the Elders from their appointment and they went with us to our 10 year old investigator. We taught her about Joseph Smith and we showed her the Restoration video... but she got bored really fast so we tried all sorts of methods... but she understands the information which is good!  Then we played a few games with her and then headed off to our other appointment!

Friday

Today we went up north to see one of our investigators. She had actually reached out to us and asked when we could come up so that was awesome! So we taught her about the temple and temple work and we said how baptism is one of those smaller goals that needs to be met before the temple.... so we got a baptismal date!! It's all the way in June because she wants to be baptized outside in running water... but I think it's great that it's in June, because then there is enough time for her to prepare and be ready for it!  Later we met with one of our new investigators. Right before we even started our lesson,  he told us that today would be the last visit.  We had planned to teach the Plan of Salvation...but with his comment... we asked him why this would be the last time and the reasons that he was dropping us. We ended with that he was always welcome to come to church and that if he had any questions about the gospel or the church in general, then we would be more than happy to help him and that those in the ward would do the same.  Then that was that!

Saturday

We played soccer, did Weekly Planning and then headed to the church so we could prepare some stuff that we we were going to use to decorate a less active's door. Unfortunately the place where she lives was closed, so we went back to the church instead and helped one of the members clean the church. So we helped him with that and then the rest of it went really fast!  The elders said that there was a Texas BBQ place over by where they used to live and none of us had eaten dinner... so that's where we went and oh my goodness... it was like America!!!  We showed up and there were Texas flags all over the place and then we went inside and the menus were in English...and there was country music!!  They even had Mac & Cheese!!  So that was our dinner and it was AMAZING!! It was heaven!!

Sunday

Today we had church and it was fantastic!  Great lessons and talks in all the classes! We had a dinner appointment with a family in the ward... and I absolutely love that family!  They are fantastic!! We went and had lasagna with them and then we went with them in the "fakkeltoget" which is a Norwegian tradition that you walk in a parade basically... carrying these huge torches..they do it for all sorts of things.  They did it in their neighborhood and walked to a daycare.... there they had peppekaker (gingerbread cookies) and saft (juice) and gløgg (Norwegian Christmas drink)... Santa came and gave candy to all the kids!  It was a lot of fun and it was fun to be a part of something that is such a big tradition with them!  We came back and had ice cream for dessert and shared a Christmas video called "What shall we give?" on Mormon channel.We had another appointment right after with the elders with another member.  We got to know him and his family... and then we had more food and gløgg and peppekaker... and then we sang some traditional Christmas songs and it was a lot of fun!! ( On a side note, they have this dog and it's literally like a fluff ball..it looked like the one in the Proposal and oh my gosh it was the cutest dog I have ever seen) Then that took up our whole day! 

Monday

Today we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and that was fantastic!  Then now we're emailing and we are going to Bærums Verk today to see the Christmas decorations so I'll be taking more pictures!! 

Love you all lots and miss you tons!!!  Have a very Merry Christmas and God Jul from Norway:))


Thanks to Sis.Hill...There are some pictures from where Kylee goes up north
Pepperkaker
Gløgg
Kylee in "fakkeltog"