New Companion

11/17/14

Hei Familie!!!

This week has been insaaane! Søster Shaw is back in the US (super weird...) and my new companion is Søster Buhler!! The goodbye with Søster Shaw wasn't hard until I walked away and felt completely alone.  I had about a half hour to wait at the airport until Søster Buhler came.  It was super weird being without a companion for a little while... But yeah! I miss Søster Shaw like crazy! She is just incredible! Søster Buhler is from Washington and Oregon and she is half Japanese.  She LOVES quoting movies with me so that's pretty much spectacular, and she has such a love for missionary work.  She has been on her mission a little over a year and has served in Romerike, Oslo, and Trondheim.  We decided to use some of our finding time this week to go through the area book and call any previous investigators that we didn't know and just by doing that, we found 3 new investigators for this week!  Crazy things happening here in Ålesund.

Let's see... to answer some questions...Food!  The food here is AMAZING!!! We are never short on Norwegian chocolate, and yes I have eaten a lot of seafood!  Søster Buhler actually is an incredible cook so I'm lucky! Maybe she can teach me a thing or two eh?  The only treats I can think of write now that I miss from home are pumpkin cookies (of course) :) I always miss the pumpkin cookies! OOH! And I did finally come up with something that I would LOVE to have for this Christmas.  Lately I've been really wanting to listen to that Alabama Christmas CD (or cds... I think we have two...) So maybe a burned copy of those?  But that's about all I can think of :) haha!! 

Right now we are teaching a couple from Iceland, Thomas and Margarett.  They are super cool!! Thomas we have actually been teaching for a while, and he has really not much background as far as religion.  He asked a couple weeks ago if he could bring his girlfriend to one of our meetings and we were like... uh.... OF COURSE! haha!  She has a Christian background and is really interested in learning about our church! Thomas especially needs help right now taking a step and praying and reading the Book of Mormon.  He is a young kid (18\19ish) and he isn't much of a reader, so that's a step that's hard for him. 

A couple days before Søster Shaw left, we met a girl on the street named Iveta who comes from Slovakia.  That's one really cool thing about Ålesund... There are SO many people from all over the world! Anyway, we had a lesson with Iveta this week, and she told us that she usually never would talk to people on the street especially about religion.  She told us that she had had some Jehovahs Witnesses talk to her before and always got a scared feeling.  Then she told us "When I talked to you two girls, I didn't feel scared. I felt good."  It was so cool to see how the Spirit really works to soften the hearts of whoever we talk to so they can be open to this incredible message!  She grew up in the Catholic church, but REALLY doesn't like it.  We gave Iveta a Book of Mormon in her language, and asked her to pray abou it, and we'll hopefully be meeting with her again next week.  

Steinar has been telling us that he would like to read a little more in the Book of Mormon before he sets up a time to meet again with us.  He is really taking this seriously and wants to be sure before he continues, so keep him in your prayers as well!

One of our investigators, Oddney, (actually a former investigator who likes coming to the knitting activities we have) came to church on Sunday!! I was told that she hadn't come to church for a long time, and actually had kinda dropped the missionaries.  We still knew her through the knitting activities though.  but SHE CAME TO CHURCH!!! It was awesome!  And while Søster Buhler and I were up doing our musical number, she was sitting on the back row beaming!  I really think it was good for her, and I hope that it will open her back up to meeting with us again.  So keep Oddney in the family prayers!

One thing that I have learned this week is how important and powerful each individual person is.  Because we have such a small branch here, each member plays such a key role in it.  Every person is so important and vital to this work. We missionaries could never do this without our members that we have helping us.  They are so fantastic!

I love hearing about everything going on back at home!  And I expect to see pictures from Peter Pan soon!!! Take a video of it so I can watch it when I get home!!! I love you all SOOO much!! Keep praying for missionary oppurtunities and share the gospel with EVERYONE!  :) I'll talk to ya soon!!

glad i dere!

Søster Heywood