Poor Spot of Ground??‏

Dearest darlingest family,


I won't sugar coat it, this week has been a hard one. During the middle of last week, Søster Peterson's foot started hurting whenever we would contact for a long time. We didn't really worry about it at first because hey, we're missionaries and our feet just hurt sometimes. :) But at the beginning of this week, it was just killing her. (Though she wouldn't let it show... the trooper) I didn't realize how bad it was until we were walking down the street one day and she started crying and had to stop walking. So we called Sister Evans, and got a doctors appointment set up for her. We found out that she has tendonitis, and that she needed to take it easy this week. The doctor actually asked her if she did a lot of walking and she just laughed and said yes. :) He suggested that she try to not walk on pavement or cement.... That's all that Stavanger has... so that advice wasn't too terribly helpful. We got some medicine for her foot and took it a little more easy the rest of the week.


We're really trying to find investigators right now, and for the most part, that means we have to contact. We contacted this week for at least two hours a day with no real luck. Maybe it's the fact that the sun has gone back behind the clouds, but people on the street were just not nice this week. I would just feel so terrible, because at the end of the day, there wouldn't be much to show for our work other than the ache in Søster Peterson's foot. So it's been a little rough.


But on the up side of the week, we met with Louis again and talked with him more about the plan of Salvation. We told him about living with our families forever and he really loves the idea of it. He loves his family SO much. Whenever we explain how Heavenly Father interacts with us as His children, we relate it to Louis and his son, and he understands perfectly. He's just so good!


We had a dinner appointment this week with the Redford family and the dad is actually from Scotland. (BEST ACCENT EVER) He is hilarious. He is actually the one who teaches self defense every once in a while. He actually reminds me a lot of dad. Over dinner we were talking about Man vs. Food and other TV shows like that, and he told us that his dream job would be to travel the world and eat lots of weird foods. For dinner, he brought out his hot sauce that only he uses because it is too hot for the rest of his family.... yup! That sounded familiar to me ;)


Søster Peterson and I hit our 5 month mark this week and to celebrate, we climbed Phil, the 20 ft tall giraffe outside of our apartment. (Pictures to follow) :) It was crazy fun! We did it with Søster Sorensen as well, (another missionary from our MTC group). We had to hoist eachother up and I'm sure it looked really funny to anyone watching. Yaknow... Three little girls in skirts trying to climb a huge wooden giraffe.... fun times! :)


On Saturday, we took a road trip with two of the Elders down to visit some members who lived about 2 hours away. They are a newlywed couple and the girl is from Burma! He name is Su and she is the most adorable lady I have met in my entire life! He conversion story is one of the coolest I've ever heard. Once she met the missionaries, she asked to meet with them everyday after her school until she got baptized! She is basically spectaular.


I've been reading in the Book of Mormon for personal study and right now I'm reading in Jacob. This morning I read Jacob 5, (yaknow, that really long one) :) but reading it as a missionary I got so much out of it. There is a part where the servant of the vineyard is asking the Lord of the vineyard why in the world he would graft in these young and tender branches in a "poor spot of ground". The Lord tells him that he know from the beginning that it was a poor spot, but that he had nurtured it and it was ready to bring forth fruit. Then it hit me. This is totally Norway. I think I had people telling me even before my mission that I wouldn't see very many baptisms or that I would have a hard time finding people who would listen. Which is true to a point. But the Lord really has nurtured this beautiful country and we see miracles everyday because of it. It's hard sometimes, but I have to remember how the Lord sees things for what they can become. I'm so glad I get to be "grafted in" to what might seem like a "poor spot of ground", because then I get a front row seat to watch the hand of the Lord really move His work forward!


Well, family! I love you all and I hope you have a FANTASTIC week!!! The Church is true!!


Love,

Søster Heywood



p.s. #1-Climbing Phil

#2- Road trip... and my sleepy companion :)