Norge! Uke 11

Note from Cecily: I have been keeping track of the weeks since Nick left us, but Nick has consistently counted the weeks from the time he arrived in Norway... maybe the time he feels his life really, truly began! I will adjust accordingly. Week 17 of his mission is week (Uke) 11 of NORWAY!


God Jul alle sammen! Its Christmas and i got stuff to do, like partying, so im gonna try to keep this pretty short. 

Last P-day was by far the best P-day ever! A couple weeks ago i was trying to think of some p-day activities and i saw this place on google maps called Rossefjellet. Its a mountain kinda close to us and there were some cool pics so we decided we had to go. Rossefjellet is kinda out in the middle of nowhere, but theres a tiny town (like 4 buildings) thats pretty close called Reddal. So there arent very many buses that go out there. But I was determined so after a while i figured out how to get there by switching buses 3 or 4 times. We met up with the Elders in our district and went and did this hike. It was probably the most amazing and beautiful hike I had ever done and the view from the top was incredible. I would highly recommend it if you're ever in Norway for some weird reason. After we hiked back down it was about 3:30 and the sun had set so it was getting dark. And there was no bus to take us back because none went back from Reddal after like 1. So we got to walk 12 km back to Grimstad where there was a bus to take us home. It was a lot of walking and it was cold and dark, but it was one of the funnest days of my mission so far!

The rest of the week was good but nothing else super noteworthy happened until yesterday. In church there was a blessing for Daniel and Sandra's new baby. Daniel and Sandra are Italian. And a lot of their italian family came to visit. None of them spoke Norwegian of course, so I got to translate the talks into English to Daniel who could then translate it to Italian for his family. It was super fun and it was one of the most interesting church meetings ive ever had.

Then last night we had Christmas dinner with Dagfinn, Ik Boon, and her Tai hun. Dagfinn was a captian of a ship a long time ago and met Ik Boon when he was in Korea one time and married her. So if you were wondering, no Ik Boon is not a Norwegian name. They made a ton of good traditional Norwegian Christmas food for us like ribbe, and pølser, and it was really good.

Today I will be hanging out with the Fyhn family and skyping home to my family so that will be lit. Merry christmas yall! Hilsen fra Norge!

The view from on top of Rossefjellet

Elder Brooks and I and a Giant Boulder on Rossefjellet

Me walking on a frozen Lake

Week 16: Adventures

Hallo alle sammen!

Im gonna start with last p-day because we had a fun adventure. We were planning a trip to grimstad because Elder Brooks wanted to find this second hand store that was there. Apparently im just awful at transportation. We were supposed to get off the bus along the way to Grimstad and get on a different bus, but i didnt know that. I guess I have gotten too cocky with my bus taking abilities over the last 2-3 months of taking busses every day. So we stayed on the bus too long and by the time i realized our mistake we were miles away from where we wanted to be. So when we realized that, we had a feeling of failure but also we were laughing at ourselves too so it was funny. So we were wondering what we should do when i looked out the window and saw a cool looking mountain. So i we decided to get off the bus right there and climb it. It turned out being really cool and slightly dangerous and cold. I slipped on ice a few times, almost fell off a cliff, and rolled my ankle and pulled a couple muscles. It was super fun though and eventually we made it down and caught a bus back home.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we went on splits with the zone leaders. That was super fun and probably the highlight was tuesday night when I went banking with Elder Wakefield. We banked on one door and a nice younger girl answered but then she said i dont live here and sent out her old Grandpa (we think) who was a crazy preacher from some other church. He grabbed us by the necks and started shaking us telling us we were doing a great job except that we should be sharing the bible with people instead of Mormons Bok. He was very intense and insane and he kept talking about how we have the fire of the holy spirit in us. So that was fun.

On friday we decided to go visit an inactive member who I had never met but Elder Brooks had. Her name is Nuvia and she is from Venezuela. Apparently she got converted and baptized there but the missionaries didnt teach her very well because she knows absolutely nothing about the gospel. She is super nice and chill though and she taught me some spanish. I learned that it is very difficult to learn another language from someone who you can only speak Norwegian with.

On Saturday we had the branch Christmas party and that was super fun! There was a lot of good food and Ylva Stulen insisted that the missionaries take all the leftovers. So now we have all of our meals for the next week (it was a lot of food). The next day i gave another sacrament meeting talk on nestekjærlighet. It doesnt have a direct english translation but its like loving others / charity. I talked a little about service and for an example i talked about picking pears at the church welfare farm back in Oregon.

Thats about it for the week, so God Jul og ha det bra dere!

Bilder:​​

 Tower pt. 2   @Nominaijah

Grimstad Kirke / the view from the spontaneous hike we took on pday

Elder Brooks got to be Julenissen at the branch Christmas party

Week 15: Christmas Service

Hei dere!

The highlight of this week was definitely Christmas conference. All of the missionaries from the west and the south parts of Norway met up in Oslo for a conference. We had a talent show, practiced some missionary contacting strategies, did funny skits, and I got to see a lot of my MTC district which was the best part.

Other than that it was a very slow week. Last p-day i went shopping in the biggest mall in Scandinavia, so that was cool mostly just to say i ve done it. Im not really super into shopping but as far as shopping goes it was pretty good i guess.

Its snowing more and getting colder. Also theres a lot of ice but i am proud to say i have only slipped and fallen on it twice since coming to Norway. I am very excited about christmas. by the end of this week the snow had melted away again but yesterday it started again and came back stronger. It is very festive here. Aside from all the lights and decorations up around the city, here are some other christmas traditions here: they actually did do a pretty big christmas market thing but it was only for one day. there are a couple other stands that are always up selling christmas stuff and sweaters and reindeer pelts og sånt. In december they ring the church bells a lot. People eat pinekjøtt which is a special type of meat from lamb. There have been some people out from some other church handing out merry christmas card things inviting people to think about jesus and come to church. Most Norwegians are part of the state church and know about Jesus but very very very few are active or believe in God.

Oh also another highlight!!!! We got to do service!!!!!!!!!!!! I have said in a previous email that Norwegians in general pretty much never accept service. I shared a story about the one guy who said we could help change his car tire but he was actually just messing with us. Unless you count that, this week was the first time someone has let us serve them. One day when we were contacting, we walked by the barbershop where an inactive lady in our branch works. We thought we would go in and say hi if she wasnt busy. She wasn't, so we went in and chatted with her for a bit. She was putting up christmas decorations and we asked if we could help and she said yes! So we spent the next hour or two there tying christmas ornaments to threads and then pinning them to the ceiling. It was super fun! She gave us cookies and tea and she is super nice and friendly.

Thats about it for the week. Ha det bra

Bildene

 a super pretty mini fjord i saw on a bus ride

Big Christmas tree in the middle of town

The gågate

More gågate

our slightly ghetto Christmas tree

Week 14: Excited for Christmas!

Hallo alle sammen!

The highlight of this week was probably just how excited i and everyone else in Norway are about Christmas! These Nordmenn take Christmas very seriously and they have been putting up more and more decorations and lights around the city every day. I dont actually have any good pictures of it but ill get some next week. Saturday night there was a Christmas parade put on i think by the marching band at the high school. They marched around the streets playing Christmas music and handing out Julenissen hats (basically santa claus hats). It was supe festive and fun and awesome and i think this is a norwegian christmas thing, but there are people setting up little booths selling roasted almonds with this sugary stuff on it and its really good. Christmas is so amazing here! I kinda regret not taking pictures but oh well.

Another highlight was going on splits with Elder Martineau from Kristiansand. He just recently moved down to K-Sand from Alta (the furthest north missionary area in the world) so he had lots of stories. He is really chill and funny so that was a really fun day, and we got 2 new potential investigators together. In Alta it gets down to -40 C in the winter. He said up there its so cold that you just go numb and cant feel it. Here its not cold enough to make you numb, just cold.

It snowed again this week, and this time it stuck and didnt get rained away so its been super pretty and white everywhere and theres icicles and its awesome. And now i have a warm scarf and hat so i can be out and appreciate it even more.

Not much else interesting happened this week. Merry Christmas / God Jul!

Frozen lake the day after it snowed

Sunrise

Sunset

Eldste Nick Spencer

Strømsbuveien 7 I

4836 Arendal