Monday, January 5, 2015

God Nytt År!‏

Kjære Familie, 

Woah! I haven't seen you all since like... LAST YEAR!! Bu-dum tsh! :D But Really it's crazy that I've been out for four months! Time is flying!.... I don't like it... 

I guess I'll start with the REALLY big news... I'm getting transferred to Stavanger!!!!! It's a beautiful city, still on the coast, (Who am i kidding... everywhere in Norway is on the coast...), but it's a little more south than Ålesund is.  I'm going to mmiss Ålesund SO much! I felt like I just barely got here and when I finally started getting used to it, I'm leaving! GAH! Søster Buhler and I are especially sad because we really have become best friends.  Like really though, we will definitely be hanging out after I get home! I LOVE THIS SISTA! I don't think I've ever had so much in common with anyone in my entire life!  She loves musicals,.. like the old musicals... a favorite being Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  She is a movie fanatic and can quote movies even better than me!  She loves to sing, she is an amazing artist, and we are also both just.... awkward? But in the best way of course!  I have just loved being her companion!! 

My new companion will be Søster Petersen, one of the sisters from my group.  She has been in Stavanger the whole time, but I will be the Senior Companion.... woah. Yeah, but she is spectacular and I'm so excited to get to know her even better and really get to work down in Stavanger!  I'm pumped!! OOH!! and Søster Haylee Neilsen is coming to Ålesund to take my spot! So I know my city is in good hands :)

Other than that exciting news... We had a miracle week to start off our new year and I'm so excited for 2015!  On Thursday, we met with two former investigators, Karlis and Antra who both come from Latvia.  They have met with the missionaries SO much, then just got busy with their work and couldn't meet anymore. They've been taught all of the lessons (almost) and now just need to get married and get baptized :) 

Friday was weird.  We decided to go through our area book, from the back, and call all of the former investigators to see if they were ready to continue learning about the gospel, and most of the people we called had a really positive response!  At the same time we took our ward list (of about 62 names) and called everyone on that as well.  We ended up filling up Saturday and most of the next week with appointments with both investigators and inactive\less active members.  It took some time, but it was totally worth it!  The next day was full of miracles!  We met first with a former investigator who had decided to bring his friend along.  When we asked him why he brought his friend, he just said, "I don't know, it felt good to bring him!" His friend's name is Daniel and he is SO cool! He doesn't speak very good Norwegian, and VERY little english, so his friend would just translate as we taught both of them.  It was so incredible!

As we left that appointment, we got a call from the Elders in Mo i Rana area, giving us a refferal of someone they had taught, but had now moved to Ålesund.  So we called him, and set an appointment up for later in the week.  We continued to our next appointment with a inactive member named Harald.  Åse Marie had told us that he would usually say he would meet but never show up.  BUT HE CAME!  When we first sat down to visit with him, he asked if Søster Buhler and I liked to sing, because that was the only thing he remembered from church, was that we would sing. We talked with him and found out that he hasn't been to church in over 30 years! So we sang I Need Thee Every Hour in Norwegian and he absolutely loved it. He told us about the missionary that first taught him and how he had wanted to come back to church, but had forgotten about everything.  We actually taught him the first lesson, and it was really cool to see the lightbulbs go off as we taught him about the Restoration.  

Right after he walked out the door, we started putting on our jackets to go to another appointment, when we heard a knock at the door.  We opened it, and this guy walked in.  We assumed it was Omar, the man we were about to go meet with and assumed thathe had just decided to meet us in the church instead.  But after sitting down and talking to him, we found out that it was a man we had given a pass along card to on the street, but he hadn't had time to talk then. He saw the lights were on in the church and decided to come in.  Søster Buhler went to go call Omar and tell him we would be late while Åse Marie and I talked with Chol.  He told us that again he didn't have a lot of time, but that he had grown up Christian, fallen away, and wanted to find truth again.  It was so cool!! I just love seeing from a front row seat how the Lord really does preform miracles today.  Thank you for praying for Søster Buhler and I to find new investigators, because after 3 weeks without one, we found 5 this week!!!! Prayer works eh?? :)

Well family, I guess I'll answer some of your questions before I sign off :) haha! 1. The weather in Ålesund this week has been FREEZING with a 99% chance of dime-sized hail :) so that's exciting! 2. About the picture on facebook, and I'll send one too, Åse Marie gave us nicknames. haha! I'm Søster Love becuase she says that I just love people immediately and I love everyone.  Søster Buhler is Søster Take Your Time, because when we play yatzy, she takes forever to roll! haha!! :) Åse Marie is Søster Powers because....she's just powerful!!

I love you all family!!!! I'll talk to ya next week from STAVANGER!!!!!!

Love, Søster Heywood

p.s. Picture #1- Nicknames Picture #2 - Ålesund with SNØ!
Our Nicknames  

Snow in Alesund

No comments:

Post a Comment