Uke 50: I love this place!

IT SNOWED LAST NIGHT!!!!!  We didn't get snow on the ground at home but the mountains around the fjord got quite a bit and it looks beautiful! Elder Memmott and I have recently been getting really excited for winter so we are super happy about this. We are both wearing our Norwegian sweaters and we've been listening to Christmas music all morning haha. It might be bad that we're celebrating Christmas already in September but oh well... I don't think I'll get burned out by December 

We got to travel to Oslo for a couple days this week for a conference with all the other missionaries in North and East Norway. I got to see a lot of awesome missionaries I haven't got to see in while so that was fun! It was special because Elder Sabin came to our conference, who does something with leadership of all the European missions. There wasn't really a specific clear-cut topic he talked about, he was just generally inspiring and said lots of good stuff about missionary work.

A few days later, we got to take a trip to Havøysund! It is one of the northernmost towns in the world and it was cool! There is a family that lives up there that are members of the church so we wanted to visit them. They have 4 kids from 6-14 and they are all super funny and awesome and so is the mom. She made some deilig salmon and potatoes for us, and then we had a koselig kveld and went on a small hike with them before we took the long drive home (3 hours). On the drive that night we had northern lights to guide us home and I just realized how much I love this place!

I gave a talk in church on Sunday about how to prepare for general conference, which is coming up in a couple weeks. I found an article in a church magazine about it, and that's kind of what I based it on. If we want to get something out of the conference, it's important that we don't just passively listen. We should think of questions or concerns we have beforehand, and then try to learn as much about those topics as possible by listening and writing downs your thoughts and things the prophet and apostles say about it. We should focus on what they teach us about Christ and the scriptures. And lastly, we need to take what we heard and learned and remember it and hopefully apply it as much as possible in our life. I have heard there will be some exciting changes to certain things made this conference, so I'm looking forward to it!

I hope yall have a great week! Hilsen frå Noreg!

Uke 49: A Great Week

God Morgen!

We have recently been meeting with a young man named Filip who is an active member and youth pastor at the Pinse church (I think its the Pentecostal church in English) in Alta. He is a super chill and nice guy, like probably the chillest and nicest studly young man I have ever met. He isn't really super interested in being converting and switching churches but he is open to and agrees with most of our teachings and likes talking about theology. So we have gotten pretty close with Filip, and this week he actually invited us to come to a Pinse young adult activity with him! So on Tuesday night we got to go with him to somebody's house and meet other christian young adults and it was actually awesome haha. In all of the branches of the church I have been in in Norway, there are no young adults so it's nice to finally meet some haha even if they are Pinses 

Then a few days later we got to meet with the other person we are teaching, Inger. She is an interesting Sami lady who might not be 100% there but she believes this church is true and loves the Book of Mormon and wants to get baptized! There are just a couple little things we need to work out first so we will see how it goes.

Also this week we went on another hike with Johan, a non-active member of the church here. We went to a mountain called Ulvehenget, and I was getting some skikkelige fall vibes. The leaves are changing color and it's starting to get a little chilly now so I'm excited for that! I got a cold winter and a hot summer in Hamar and it looks like I will be getting another awesome cold winter this year if I stay here for a few more months!

Other than all that stuff, we did some more member work here, tried to find some new people to teach, took a trip to Hammerfest, and took care of the huskies for a day!

I hope all of yall had a great week as well! Ha det bra!

Uke 48: Spending Time with the People

BIFF!

We had another great week in Alta, but I don't have a lot of super interesting stuff to write about so this email will be kinda short. We have been trying to meet all the members of the church up here and invite them to come to church and stuff, so we got contact with a few of them, On Wednesday we met and went bowling with a non-active member named Johan and that was fun! Then on Friday we went on a hike with him on a mountain called Dønnevarre and that was awesome! It can get a little lonely up here in Alta sometimes so we're trying to spend as much time with people as possible. Banking on doors for 6 hours is fine but I think we are doing a lot more good here by strengthening members and being friendly and getting to know people.

Last night we saw the northern lights!!!! We saw them a little bit for the first time a couple nights ago, but last night was incredible!!!!! My camera can't pick them up very well but Elder Memmott's can pretty well so I got some pictures from him

Uke 47: Time with the Tews

Hey dokker it was a crazy week! 

The car finally got fixed so last Wednesday, Elder Memmott and I got to go to Nordkapp (the most northern point in Europe), and that was amazing! It was a long drive but it was worth it to be able to go to the top of the world. We saw lots of reindeer and beautiful fjords and mountains, and the arctic ocean 

The next day, the missionaries came up from Tromsø to do splits with us. I got to have an awesome splits with both of the Tromsø boys, especially with Elder Aland who i was in the MTC with. We had some adventures to say the least.

After splits was over, we picked up the mission President and his wife from the airport. They flew up to visit Alta for their first time ever, and they loved it! They loved the city and the members and church went really well while they were here because we had a lot of less active members there and a visitor for a total of 15! That's the most people Alta has had in church in a long long time because we usually have 6. The Tews stayed here in Alta for a few days, and they just left today after we went on a p-day hike with them. They are so awesome and it was great having them here with us. They are doing a great job being involved personally with the missionaries and each missionary area in Norway.

The weather was perfect the whole time they were here, the only thing that could have been better was if we got to see Northern lights. The forecast said we would but we didn't ): I will have plenty more time up here though and we should start seeing them soon, so I can't get impatient.

We went on a hike with the Tews this morning and went to a museum and looked at rock carvings that are thousands of years old. It was koselig

I'm writing this letter a little later in the day than I usually do because we just got done teaching a high school class about our church. It was a little weird being back in a high school but it was really fun! Young people seem a lot more willing to talk to us and they had a lot of good questions.