Uke 76: A Solid Week of Missionary Work!

Hei dåkker!

This week flew by! We had zone conference on Wednesday here in Stavanger, and that was awesome. President Tew and his wife came the day before so they could spend p-day with us and the Stavanger missionaries. We did a cool hike called Dalsnuten that gives you a great view over the Sandnes-Stavanger area and lots of islands and mountains. The weather was clear so we could almost see Haugesund, my previous area, on the other side of the fjord. Conference the next day was great as always, I got to see a lot of homies and be uplifted by some good presentations from Pres and other missionaries.

The rest of the week was filled with lots of teaching, institute class, and a baptism! The Stavanger Elders have been working with a couple boys for the last few months and they both got baptised on Saturday so that was awesome! The next day, a man Elder Barnes and I recently started teaching came to church and liked it a lot. He wants to keep coming and bring his family! So the missionary work is going well here in the Stavanger ward!

Yesterday, we sent on splits with the Stavanger Elders and that was good too. I was with Elder Parrish for the day and it was pretty fun. It was probably the least busy day I have had since I moved here, so we did a lot of street contacting, but we did have 1 appointment with an awesome Hungarian guy! We had a great discussion and we were able to answer a lot of his questions.

Uke 75: Just a Spot of Sunshine

God morgen!

Funny story of the week:

We were waiting at a bus stop one day when a man named Cato approached us and said he has died 14 times and met Jesus several of those times. He explained that the reason why he was able to come back from the dead 14 times was because his name is almost like "cat" and cats have many lives. I know that sounds absurd, but if you saw the man, you might believe it...

We were really busy this week and taught a lot of people. We visited a koselig little town called Bryne and my comp bought a pineapple. We also took a couple trips to Egersund to visit an old man and an awesome family from the Philippines so that was cool! We played soccer and half the people there, including me, got injured somehow. It was really fun though and it didn't rain this time.

But did rain last p-day... We were planning on doing a hike but the precipitation was forferdelig so we had to cancel that. It was dumping a mixture of rain and giant slushy snowflake things, so we had another not so awesome p-day but I'm pretty sure this one will be better because there is not a cloud in the sky today! Being in western Norway this whole winter has given me a much greater appreciation of nice weather 

I didn't get many pictures this week either but here are a couple from one of the days when we had sunshine!

MVH Chaboi Eldste Spencer 

God Bless America (and Norway)

Uke 74: So many members!!! :)

God morgen!

It has been a busy but fun week! On p-day, we visited a pretty cool monument called Sverd I Fjell, and explored Stavanger with the other missionaries. It wasn't super super exciting but det går bra. We are planning on going on a good hike today so we're excited for that!

I gave a talk on sunday about how our testimonies can strengthen others and it went really well. I got lots of compliments on my Norwegian afterwards. I am still speaking Haugesund-dialect which is pretty close to Stavangersk, so people seem to like that here.

It is awesome being around so many members here compared to all my other areas. This is actually my first unit that has multiple active YSA, and lots of young people. We spend quite a lot of time with the young people and that's fun! Also there are a lot of Americans in this ward which is awesome. There is one family from Texas which is awesome, and very American. I miss americans. I have gotten a lot more patriotic in the last 1.5 years.

The rest of the week, we were very busy with appointments pretty much every day. We travelled to a town called Egersund on one day to visit a nice old man that likes talking to the missionaries and learning about the church. Another day, we visited a member who I met several times while I was in Haugesund, and he is a bro. He is from the Philippines so he's funny and friendly and makes really good food. Those were the teaching highlights of last week. We have a ton of appointments lined up for this week too. (:

We also played soccer in the rain for 1.5 hours and that was awesome! I was really really bad at soccer at the beginning of my mission but I have played quite a lot since then so I am a little better now. My companion is from England so he is obviously really flink. Everyone was soaked by the end but everyone had a great time so there were no complaints.

That's it for this week, ha de bra docker #stavagoisc

Oh, and here is my new address:

Nicholas Spencer

Langgata 2A #203

4306 Sandnes

Uke 73: Picking up the pace

This was a pretty exciting week for me! I sent my companion home, moved to Sandnes, got a new companion, learned some Norwegian sign language, attended church in a ward for the first time in 1.5 years, and learned self defence from a terrifying Scottish man, among other things. 

Sandnes has been pretty awesome so far. Things are a lot busier here than in Haugesund, and all of my previous areas. We have had multiple things going on pretty much every day since we got here. My comp also moved to Sandnes this week, so both of us are new here and we don't quite know what is going on all the time or how things work here. So it has been an adventure!

There are a lot of ward activities going on here. There is a Norwegian language class that the missionaries teach because there are a lot of Americans here. There is a sign language class taught by a deaf member, and there are YSA activities every week. This time, it was a self defence class taught by David. He is the terrifying Scottish man I mentioned aboveI now know about 10 ways to escape/subdue the attacker if someone is choking me or threatening me with a knife or gun. So that was pretty fun. Except for the parts when David uses you to demonstrate a move, then it's just scary.

This is a really good area for people who like hikes so I am excited for that too! The weather was awesome on Wednesday and Thursday when I got here, but since then it's just been cloudy all the time. It's been a long winter for me, I can't wait for summer! I cant figure out how to do pictures on this computer, Ill figure it out before next week (:

Have a good week yall!