Week 8: God is looking out for me!

Nothing too crazy happened this week, but I am still loving Norway!

Early this week we found 2 people on the street who said they would be intersted to meet with us! One of them blocked our number, but the other seemed genuinely interested so that was awesome to have a little success there. There hasnt been a ton of success with the missionary work so far but that just makes it even better when you do get it. 

On Wednesday we got to travel to Kristiansand for district meeting which was fun. There are 4 missionaries and a senior couple there, and it was cool to go see that city. Its much bigger and busier than Arendal. Eldste Brooks bought me my first Kebab while we were there, which I guess is a big landmark in the timeline of someone's mission here in Norway haha. One of the coolest things about that trip was just the bus ride to get there. It's about an hour and a half and the scenery is absolutely beautiful! I'm pretty 100% sure i got the most beauiful mission in the world.

My Norwegian skills are definitely improving a lot! It is still difficult to understand all the native Norwegians, but it's getting easier every day. My companion, Eldste Brooks, is really good at understanding people so I can rely on him for that quite a bit. Eldste Brooks and I are getting along very well, because we are both very chill people and enjoy working together. I have really good pronunciation and reading skills, but native Norwegians speak a lot faster than what i'm used to hearing, so its good to have Eldste Brooks to help with that.

The weather this week has been fun. It started out warm and with clear skies, but the last few days its pretty much been raining nonstop. I know God is looking out for me because he held back the storms until the day after I got a rainjacket. The weather reminds me of Petersburg very much. The last 3 days it's pretty much been lightly raining nonstop with a few periods of downpours or breaks. I am keeping warm and dry though. I'll buy a warm coat when it gets colder.

And the scenery here is so beautiful! there are trees everywhere, so that's cool but i think a couple of the coolest things with the scenery are 1. There is water everywhere. There are so many islands, and little bays and inlets, and lakes and ponds everywhere and that's really cool to see. 2. The rock formations. Everywhere you go there are just huge chunks of rock and cliffs jutting out of the earth randomly and it looks so cool. If Norway were warmer, it would be the best place in the world to go cliff jumping because of all the huge cliffs and water everywhere.

Something cool i discoved this week: You know I have always loved rice with butter and cinnamon sugar. What you probably didn't know is that is 100% a Norwegian thing! Its called risgrøt here and it's exactly the same as what I ate back home except that you cook the rice by boiling it in milk in a saucepan, so it has more liquid to it. It's about the consistency of oatmeal. It is so good! And that was just kind of another weird little confirmation to me that I was always supposed to come to Norway. So yall should try risgrøt, its awesome.

McDonald's in Norway

Speed bump warning sign!

Crossing a bridge in Kristiansand