Well friends, it's just climbing into September and I already cracked and I have winter tights on. We were going as long as we could without having to do that and now all 4 sisters in our apartment are wearing winter tights and sweaters haha! It has been another great week so I'm just going to jump right in:)
Monday
Last Monday Sister Stolp and I were traveling to MLC in Oslo with Elder Hansen and Elder Cole and that was just funny! We were cracking up and laughing over all sorts of things! Then Sister Stolp and I stayed at the Hill's and we had cereal and banana bread and then talked to President and Sister Hill before we went to bed! I have seriously been blessed with the greatest mission president and mission president's wife in the entire world! They are sooo awesome!
Tuesday
Today was MLC and that is a 6 hour long meeting! We went over a lot of different things in the mission like splits and zone focuses and then Sister Stolp and I did a presentation about the importance of addressing families in contacting....so we talked about that and it went really well! I learned a lot and have new things that I can apply in my missionary work... so that's exciting! We then traveled home and then ate dinner when we got there!
Wednesday
Today we hada WebEx with our entire mission and had announcements.... and the new missionaries introduced themselves. It's crazy how young our mission is!! There have been 46 missionaries that have gone home since July.... so more than half of our mission are new missionaries. Crazy! But it's a fun time! We then had District Meeting and we talked about the last part of the Plan of Salvation and how to connect before conversion! It was really good! Then we had our personal study and then we had a couple of appointments but both of them cancelled.... so we were out on the streets contacting!
Thursday
Today we had a lesson with a potential that we found on the street and that lesson lasted about 30 minutes if that. We were prepared to teach them and we had started on the first point.... but there was already a language barrier and he had brought a friend with him... and then suddenly they just looked at us and said, "Can we go now?" and I told them that they could and they took the Book of Mormon and the pamphlet and just left. So that was an interesting lesson. Then we contacted and we went and taught our friend who is the atheist (I taught him before with Sister Bennett) and we had an awesome lesson with him! We taught him the last part of the Restoration and he said that he was ready to now read and get back into the swing of things.... because it had been a long time since we had met with him. But I told him that there was a reason that he kept meeting with us, that there was something that kept pulling him back.... and he agreed with that and told us that he wants to find out if there is a God.... and then he's supposed to be coming to church on Sunday!! SCORE!!! Then we were back out on the streets and calling through potentials.... and this whole week we were getting appointments from the phone left and right!
Friday
Today we had a lesson with a NEW INVESTIGATOR woo woo! We met him on the street last week and he is an atheist. We also seem to find the people who don't believe in God at all haha! But we taught him the Restoration and he was just taking everything in...really well for being an atheist! He had lots of questions about things that pertained to the Plan of Salvation so we are meeting with him again this coming week....but we committed him to read 2 Nephi 2 and 9 and within a couple hours of the appointment he had read both chapters and texted us a summary of what he had learned! WHAT?! That's awesome!!! So I'm way excited about him! Sister Hatch keeps saying, "He's going to be baptized!" and I can totally see that happening so I'm pumped to see his progress! Then we were back out on the streets and then we played volleyball for sport and out of my 14 months on a mission, that was the best I have ever done in sport. "Perhaps faith isn't faith until it has been tried" hahaha! Kidding! But it was fun to actually feel like I could play haha!
Saturday
Today we were going to have a lesson at 9am but they forgot so they didn't show up...and then we were supposed to have another lesson and they also didn't come.... so we went home and called through the area book and this week in total we have gotten 8 appointments from potentials in the phone or in the area book so that has been super sweet!!! We then had our study and then did weekly planning and that took up just about the rest of the day!
Sunday
Today we had church and I just love church! One of the new converts told us that he was playing football so he couldn't come to church.... and so we had multiple people from the ward texting him to say they were excited to see him there and all of that and then HE CAME!!! I was so excited! Gotta keep these new converts strong and grounded! So that was exciting! We then went banking around our neighborhood and we were not having any success... but we were praying that we would follow the Spirit and be led to someone who needed the gospel and even though we didn't find them while banking... it was on the street right after....and she had said that the past couple of years she had wanted to learn more about people like us and had actually sought people like us out (people who claimed they were Christians and actually lived differently than everyone else). It was so cool because at the beginning she didn't want to listen to us and I immediately started testifying of the Book of Mormon and she went silent... and it ended up being like a 5 minute conversation and her wanting to meet! Prepared soul!!!! God WILL put people in our path, or He WILL put us in other people's paths. It was awesome!
This past week I was thinking of something that I wanted to talk about in my email... but I totally forgot what that was:))haha... so instead I'm going to just share something else that I learned. When the Savior invites us to "come" and "follow" Him then "coming" requires sacrifice on our part but to "follow" means to live the law of consecration of being able to align your will with the Lord's and do whatever you can in your power to be able to help His work move forward. As a missionary, that is what we do every single day.. but I hope that I have been able to be a missionary to people at home too. This gospel means the world to me and I can't imagine my life without it. It is REAL. Sometimes I just sit and think about that fact that this is all REAL and it blows my mind. How incredible is that! I'm so blessed and I thank God every day that I have this gospel in my life. GOD IS GOOD!
Love you all lots and miss you tons!
Pictures from the hike to Ulrikken...this time in nice weather
From Bergen and where she usually is contacting
Pictures from MCL in Oslo....thanks to Sis. Hill who takes amazing pictures!!!
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