Uke 20: Banking in the Cold

We walked out of the apartment this morning and it was -20 C outside. We took a 3 minute walk to the hair cutting place and i couldn't move/feel my face by the end. Hamar er litt kaldt.

We don't have any investigators here, but that's ok because it has given us plenty of time to bank on doors. This week, we did 24.5 hours of it, and we got some success. We found 3 people who are potential investigators, and got some fun stories out of it:

Shpatim: We banked on one door and the guy there said he was muslim and not interested at all. So we started walking away to the next house when he came out on his front porch and waved us to come back. He said he felt he was being rude and he was sorry. He said it was his duty as a muslim to be kind to people so he invited inside to warm up and gave us some soda and taught us about Islam. until it was prayer time for him and his family. It was very hyggelig. So we left and he said we were welcome back anytime.

A few blocks later... The guy opened the door and said "THE MORMONS!!" (in english). We were pretty confused but we started talking and hes from california and hes here in norway making beer and being a cook for a local restaurant. He was a super chill guy and we talked for a while. He then said he was making dinner and asked us if we wanted to come in for some burgers and fries and homebrewed beer. I was thinking that sounded really awesome after 3 hours of banking in the cold, and we could just respectfully decline the beer. But before i could say yes, Elder Sadler said no. So it was a little awkward, and we left hungry and cold and full of regret. 

There are more but this emails getting long...

Heres some pictures of Elder Sadler and I at the beach/ edge of the lake, and one of my wool gloves after i thought it would be a good idea to put them through the washing machine. Ha det godt!

Uke 19: Service in the Snow

HEI DERE!!

This week was crazy! I live in Hamar now. I had about 6 hours on a train before arriving in Lillestrøm, where we stayed the night with the zone leaders and had district meeting the next day. I have an awesome district this transfer! My companion, Elder Sadler, is really chill and funny so this will be a good transfer i think. After the meeting I got to drive from there to Hamar, which is about 1.5 hours. I had not driven since August so that was a little scary but we arrived safely.

The next 2 days were spent shoveling a ridiculous amount of snow as a service to a couple ladies in the branch here. They both lived across the fjord, between Gjøvik and Lillehammer. According to one of them, this February has had higher snow levels in that area since before they started keeping records in the 1800s. So we had a lot of work to do. Between those 2 houses we spent almost 10 hours in 2 days shoveling over 4 feet of snow off of roofs and patios. Så det var gøy.

Hamar is pretty cold and snowy right now.

The rest of our time this week was spent getting me moved in and unpacked and stuff. Also I finished knitting a tie (: 

When church started there were about 15 people (most of them old). Then an American mormon family of 6 showed up. They were visiting from New York City for skiing in Lillehammer, and we got to translate for them. There are about 100 members in the Hamar area, but 15-20 that come to church. The branch area takes about 5 hours to drive across so travel is an issue for a lot of people. The branch President lives almost 2 hours away.

The weather is still cold and snowy and cloudy so i actually havent seen the sun since i got here but supposedly the sun sets at 5:15.

Heres a video of me pushing a giant chunk of snow off Reiduns roof 

Uke 18: Heading to Hamar!

HALLO ALLE SAMMEN!

Today was the start of a new transfer and this time I am moving! On Wednesday i will be taking a 6 hour train to HAMAR! Thankfully i learned how to knit today so that will give me something to do. My new companion will be Eldste Sadler. Hamar is the most inland area in the Norwegian mission which means its one of the coldest, even though its not too far north (compared to the rest of Norway). I have heard awesome things about it, and I am ready to go! Arendal has been awesome but ive been getting a little area burny, as they say here. The only part im sad about is that i will have to lose my Arendalsk dialect that I have picked up so people can understand me.

Last P-day we almost climbed a mountain caller Einerfjell. We didn't make it to the summit because we ran out of time and had to run back down the whole mountain to catch a bus home. It was pretty cool though and there was lots of snø.

Today, to celebrate our awesome district that we had this transfer, we went to Dyreparken, which is Norway's only zoo! We werent sure if it would be open in the winter but it was, and yes they had all kinds of animals, even though some of them were a little out of their natural climates. It was pretty interesting to see lions and zebras and antelopes and camels walking around in the snow.

I loved a lot of the members in the Arendal branch but i was only able to get a picture with one. His name is Opland, and he is one of my favorites. Hes from Lofoten and he weaves and sells fishing nets for a living. He definitely made me laugh more than any other member so I am glad a got a pic with him, you can gaze upon his Lofotenhet below 

Other than that its been a pretty normal week, but we gained 2 new investigators so that was pretty cool. Next week i will be emailing from Hamar, and my new address will be Halvdansgate 15, 2315 Hamar. 

HA DET BWA​​​​!​​

Uke 17: Skikkelig Parti

2 weeks ago was zone conference in Oslo so that was super awesome! I got to see a lot of good friends and it was skikkelig parti.

Last week i spent more time in Kristiansand than Arendal because of district meeting, splits, and a leadership conference Elder Pfeifer had to travel to Oslo alone for. So I got some quality time with the Kristiansand Elders and got to experience life in a trio. They contacted on one side of the street and i was contacting alone on the other. It was weird.

Last p-day was aight. We went to a big mall. Im not big into shopping so there were other things i wanted to be doing, but it was ok. Today were planning on doing a cool hike at Einerfjellet, so i should have some cool pics next week from that.

Pics from zone conference. I blinked for one of the group pictures