Tegn språk killed my ASL...‏

Hey family!

Ok, so first of all, I have to tell you about an AWESOME activity we had with the Young Men and Young Women this week.  The leaders asked 4 of the 8 missionaries to come help with a mini-mission.  All of the kids got a mission call, and were assigned to learn a language.  The leaders asked us earlier if any of us knew other languages. One Elder knew Spanish, and I know Sign language.  They asked if I could teach them American Sign Language... I said yes, totally convinced that I could still teach a few phrases.  Uff da. Have you ever tried speaking one language, then teaching sign language in another language? Harder than it seems. But it was fun! I kept switching over to Norwegian Sign Language on accident... oh well. After we taught them their language, they went to the other half of the MTC where we taught them how to teach the first lesson.  Then we headed down to the basement of the church (where all the classrooms are) and knocked on some doors.  The leaders played investigators and a few of them played the classic stubborn "Nei takk", but eventually, we got to teach a lesson to one of them. It was so fun, and honestly, I don't think the youth over here will ever cease to amaze me.  My "companion" for the hour, who is 14, is practically ready for the MTC!! :)

We taught a super sweet member family this week, and the 8-year old son is going to be baptized in a couple weeks.  So the mom asked us to prepare a spiritual thought about baptism.  After we ate dinner, we had a competition to see who of all the kids could clean their bowls the best.  The rule was that they weren't allowed to use water.  Their eyes got big and their jaws dropped.  We said GO, and they quickly started licking their bowls clean.  The rest of us were laughing so hard.  When the time was up, we judged the bowls but of course discovered them to still be pretty gross.  Then we had them go to the sink, and use soap and water. They came back a few minutes later with beaming faces and perfectly clean bowls.  We talked about baptism and how we can be clean, and how the sacrament makes it possible for us to "wash our bowls" over and over and over again.  The kids had this ah ha moment and the mom loved it too. (Though I think it helped that dishes were washed for her :)

Speaking of baptism, we had another 8-year-old get baptized on Saturday. They heard that I play the piano, so they asked me to play for it.  They (Some kids and a few adults in his family) did a beautiful arrangement of I am a child of God, and I played the accompaniment for them.  Though, throughout the week, I felt guilty every time I sat down to practice.  I just wanted to get out and do more missionary work... so the practicing was a little neglected, but it's all good.  It turned out fine I think.  It was just nice to get to play the piano again. :) 

This email is going to be a little short because we're going on a fjord cruise today, but I love you LOTS!!!! I know the church is true! I know God answers prayers.  I'm not sure exactly how or why, but I know He does.  He loves us so much.  We can't possibly begin to understand the how or why.  But He does.  Yep! The Book of Mormon is true.  I'll finish it for the third time this week.  I LOVE that book.  SO much! This time reading it through, I decided to focus on Jesus Christ and how the Book of Mormon testifies of Him. Spoiler alert!  It does. :)

LOVE YOU!!!!!

-Sister Heywood

Pictures of fall paradise from last week :)‏

I love this quote...Try to be faithful to the best in yourself. :) 

I love this girl!...Tora Nyman, the one that served in Finland with the Londons. 

CONFERENCE! *gasp*‏

Hei Fam!

So Norwegians do this awesome thing when they are agreeing with what you say.  Where we would usually just nod, they gasp! So sometimes Sister Randall and I just gasp everything that we say... yep!

Conference!!! OH my goodness! So many prayers and questions were answered this weekend.  Some favorites though:

-Ponderize a scripture every week.

-This work is not about me, it is about the Lord and the people who I serve.

-We need women who teach FEARLESSLY

-Focus on what you CAN DO instead of being discouraged by what you CANNOT DO.

-Many are the afflictions of the righteous 

-Mortal life is not easy for anyone

-No darkness is stronger than LIGHT.

-We cannot let our family be defined by society

-SIMPLIFY

There's so much more I could add.  I'm really excited to get the issue in the Ensign so I can study them more fully. :)

But as far as the rest of the week, it has been filled with some awesome tender mercies.  On Monday, we went to the Munch art museum!  A lot of the exhibits were closed including The Scream (That was sad) but as we were walking out of the museum, Eline found a little area with some oil crayons an big pieces of paper to draw on.  I was in HEAVEN for about a half hour after that.  I miss art! MAN! That was real nice.  By the end of it my hands were all messy from the oils. YES! 

Cool story though!  On Tuesday, I went on splits with Sister Hoggard, and we talked to this really cool YSA aged girl on the street.  We told her about the Book of Mormon and she asked if we had one on us.  OF COURSE!  She got really excited as we handed her a copy.  I love it when peoples' faces light up becuase of the Book of Mormon.  Even if they don't even know what it is yet.  She was really cool. We also met this other girl who loves the Bible, and is open to listening, but not at all open to the Book of Mormon yet.  We've been meeting with quite a few people lately who have been really stuck on the Bible and unwilling to try to read from the Book of Mormon.  They say things like, "I'll read it once you convince me that it's true." Uhmmm..... that's not how the Book of Mormon works.  To gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, one has to read from it's pages, and pray to ask God.  No missionary can simply convince someone of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  My testimony cannot convince someone else.  My testimony can convince me.  So many people lately have been asking for us to show them evidence and it's getting a little old... :) Yup! But hey! that's how it is :)

The good news is, one of our investigators who has been gone on vacation came back and told us that she had read in the Book of Mormon, and wanted to meet again, (We had only met with her once before). She asked if we could meet on Sunday and we told her about General Conference.  THEN SHE ASKED IF SHE COULD COME!  We didn't even get to inviting her yet.  But sure enough, she came for the Sunday morning session of conference (which we watched Sunday night) and the whole time, I was praying that she would like it, and that something would touch her.  One of the talks quoted Alma 32 which just happened to be the chapter she had read in the Book of Mormon already.  She loved the whole conference and all of the inspiring stories!  I mean, who wouldn't? :)

On wednesday, ALL of our appointments cancelled clear up until 6 o'clock.  It's the WORST!!! We left the apartment not quite knowing what we were going to do.  Even our backup plans fell through.  We concluded that the best thing to do was to get started in the best way that we knew how.  Contacting.  Now we had no intention on contacting for 6 hours, but we were running on pure faith that Heavenly Father had a plan for the day.  And He did!  As we were contacting, we both got the feeling to travel out to an island to visit a less active who we hadn't tried before because it took too much time to get out there. We took a ferry, then a bus for about an hour, and visited this lady.  After a few minutes of talking to her, she referred us across the field to her nonmember exhusband.  So we went over, and he wants to learn more about the church!  Now that we could see it all in perspective, we realized that we had kept putting off going out to the island for a day that we had no plans.  But we always had plans.  So God in His wisdom, cleared our plans, and gave us a little stress so we could have the time to go to this prepared man.  God is awesome. And so smart.

While we were on the island, we found a BEAUTIFUL little lake that was surrounded by yellow, orange, and bright read trees.  The water was SO STILL, it was like walking into a little autumn paradise! SO GORGEOUS! (I can't send pictures this week, but I'll send them next week for sure! It was breathtaking!

We had an AMAZING service oppurtunity this week.  We went to the poor house here in Oslo, and gave food to people who couldn't afford it themselves.  I came expecting to be amazed by the humble people who came through the line, but what I didn't expect was to be humbled by the amazing people who were volunteering their time to be there.  These are people who vonunteer there every week.  One of the volunteers in particular, had just recently finished a long and rigorous bike race where the prize was 10,000 Kroner.  He won, and donated every bit if it to the poor house.  When he saw our name tags, he told us that he had prayed that morning to be led to truth!  He came with us that night to the center to watch Meet the Mormons with some other YSA.  The Oslo sisters are teaching him now.  He's my hero.  What a champion!

Something I learned about the Atonement this week:  The fact that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are two separate beings makes the Atonement even more meaningful.  I mean, if it was God giving Himself for us, that would be great and all, but it becomes even more powerful when you realize that He gave His Son.  How incredible is that.  Of course they are two separate beings.  The sacrifice was not God giving himself, but giving His Son.  God gave His Son for us to pay the price so that we can return back to Him.  

Has the gospel always been this TRUE?? Or could I just not see it before? hmm.

I love you all SO much! remember to Ponderize a scripture this week!

Love, 

Sister Heywood

Creeper saves the day!!!‏

Heisann!!

Thank you so much for the email from everyone in the family!! Hayden, it was SO FUN for me to picture you saying those words even though you can't pronounce them. Takk google translate! ;) Heather, you look STUNNING in your homecoming dress, and Sarah, STOP GROWING, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

These week was full of some ups and downs and boring in betweens, but I'll try to give ya the general idea. :) 

We met with one of our investigators and talked about family history with him.  You guys.  Family.  Over these last couple months and with this lesson, I have a testimony of journal writing!  It is SO important.  Getting into the habit is hard, but it is SO important to remember.  I haven't kept a perfect journal on  my mission, but I have tried, and hopefully, as my kids or grandkids are preparing for their missions, I can have them read my journal.  Elder Lemon said that without keeping records, who we are as people on this earth is gone in about three generations if we're lucky.  So basically what I'm saying is get ready because I'll be interviewing you all when I get home (especially mom and dad). I want to hear stories :) Yup! There's that schpill... :)

I'm SOOOO excited for conference!!!! Oh man! This will be my third and last conference on the mission!... weird.  But Sister Randall and I haven't been able to talk about anything else! We are so excited!  Everybody be sure to watch! Then send me your favorite parts\quotes!

I love the members in Oslo so much.  We had lunch with the Relief Society President this week and we talked with her about the Atonement.  As we're talking, she just whips out a poem she wrote years ago that helped her understand the Atonement.  It's long, so I won't take time to write it here, but it is INCREDIBLE!!! She gave us each a copy.  We left the appointment agreeing that we didn't teach her at all. We needed that appointment.  Then at our ZLT on Friday, about 5ish members came to help (the theme was member missionary work).  It helped so much to see the members' perspective on the work that we do, and what they expect of and appreciate about missionaries.  SO helpful! These members are my favorite! 

There is on member in particular here I have become pretty much best friends with. (At least, I consider her one of my best friends).  She served her mission in Finland and knows the Londons. She has lived in Oslo only about as long as I have, and she is just SO GOOD!  At Institute on Friday, she asked if there was a time this week she could come contacting with us.  WHAT? This is a member asking to come contacting! As in talking to strangers on the street!  I told her I would definitely take her up on that! :) I love her so much!

Speaking of Institute, we really love going.  A lot.  And we can go if we bring a less active member or an investigator, so that was one of our goals for the week: Get someone to institute.  We tried all week with nothing, then on Friday, we went to visit a older lady, and on the way back, there was this pretty creepy guy in the elevator.  We gave him a pass along card and walked down to the train to go to our next appointment.  And he followed. When we got on the train, he was in the same car as us, and we just felt really uncomfortable, so at the next stop, we got off, and switched to a different car.  We never sit together on the train, so Sister Randall sat next to a girl who was about our age.  I was in a different conversation, but long story short, the girl wanted to come to institute! And she brought a friend.  They both really liked it and the lesson was about Jesus Christ.  Perfect! Creepy guy saves the day!

Some other fun things:

-the ward had a cowboy themed party this week and had all of the missionaries give their best cowboy accents.  One of the many times I'm thankful to be from Morgan :) It was SO FUNNY! Elder Lemon ended up winning!

-You know how we have apple pie? Well, in Norway they have apple cake, and it's AMAZING!!! Everyone makes it in the fall time! YUMMMMMM!!!!!

-A couple members threw Sister Larsen and Hoggard a birthday dinner yesterday.  They are the best! (And one of them is originally from Ålesund). Again... these members!

CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK: Write in your journals everyday.  If you don't have a journal, GET ONE and start writing.  You'll never regret anything you write down.

I love you all!! Keep the faith! The church is true!

Love, Søster Heywood

Oslo Zone Leader Training

Cowboy Themed Ward Party

*I will be found of you*‏

Hallo family!

Crazy stuff this week.  SO MUCH happened! (and I'll have you know, Sister Randall has really helped me get a habit of writing in my journal EVERY NIGHT so I actually remember everything that happened this week) SCORE!

Last Monday Ricardo (from Drammen) sent me an email and said he would be in Oslo in the evening if we wanted to meet up. uh... SELVFØLGELIG (of course)! We met him by the palace, and he brought us both chocolate, (taking note of my favorite norwegian chocolate, SMIL which is basically like Rolos but SO MUCH BETTER!) He and I talked for a while while Sister Randall was on the phone and OH MAN! he is doing so good.  He has been helping to bless and pass the sacrament, and he teaches the missionaries the Preach My gospel lessons once or twice a week.  He opened his scriptures to show me Alma 26:15, and thanked me for giving him that chance.  I feel like I did nothing.  Absolutely nothing. He went on an on for an hour about the blessings he has been receiving. He's just so good! AH!

Wednesday was transfers and we got another 14 missionaries! So now officially half of the Elders in the mission are greenies and EVERY other Elder is training. Cray. Yup! We went to the mission home to return the car and got to meet them all. they were all SO jet lagged but SO happy to be in Norway.  Aw man! I remember that day like it was yesterday.  Those Elders don't even know the awesome stuff that is coming for them :)

Sister Randall woke up pretty sick halfway through the week, and Saturday we just decided to go home early so she could get some rest.  The journey home to Nordstrand that would have taken 15 minutes with a car took TWO AND A HALF HOURS on public transportation!! Uff da! Granted it was because there was a crash in the city.  But still!

Speaking of getting sick, I didn't! And I haven't... for my entire mission! So that's really awesome! Also, the other night, we were eating with a member, and after I had eaten two platefuls of this curry stuff with rice, she told us how she made it.... Coconut milk.  My heart kinda dropped and Sister Randall looked at me like... CRAP! We didn't say anything, but I was done anyway and we didn't want the member to feel bad.  But afterwards, we were walking back to the bus, and Sister Randall was like, are you okay??  I was fine.  And I stayed fine.  Does this mean I'm cured of being allergic to coconut?  I'm way confused, but WAY thankful that nothing happened.  Maybe it's just the Lord protecting His missionaries.  Love it when He does that.

We ate at another members house this week, which was a tender mercy in and of itself, but we messed up on the time and got there about 20 minutes early.  There were some people getting off of a bus stop a few meters away, so we stopped one of them, a 20ish year old kid that was pretty skeptical...until we brought up the Plan of Salvation.  We told him that we lived with God before and that we chose to come here because we wanted to be like him.  WE related it to a child wanting to grow up to be "just like daddy".  For some reason that really hit him and HE asked US if we could meet again and talk more about it.  Miracle! What if we hadn't have been early to that appointment?

The dinner appointment was so fun! One of the best EVER!  There were three adults there and 3 kids and we prepared my favorite spiritual thought: Hide and Seek.  We had the adults all hide, and had the little kids try and find them.  Of course, None of the adults are hiding especially well, and they were all found pretty quickly. We all came back to the table and read Jeremiah 19:12-14.  It talks about how the Lord hides sometimes, just to see if we will look for him,  verse 14 says "I will be found of you, saith the Lord."  He hides with the intention of being found easily, just like a parent hides form a child during the game of Hide and Seek.  The parent will stick out a foot, or make a noise, or even hide in the same spot that they have been found all the other times.  Our Heavenly Father gives us little hints and promptings as to where we can find him.  We can find Him by looking in places where we have found him before.  We just need to ACT and start looking.

Sister Randall have been studying the principle of prayer lately.  We both know for a fact that prayer works, but we've been asking questions and studying how and why it works.  On Saturday we went to a nonmember lady's house to do some yardwork, but instead of helping with the yard, she needed help with her cell phone.  So we tried to see what the problem was.  She had just lost her Sim card.  So we started looking all over her house for it.  We looked for about 20 minutes.  Last time we had come we talked about prayer with her.  She doesn't really believe in it, but in desperation, she said, "This is the only time I would ever pray".  I just smiled and said that that was a good idea.  She looked at me through pretty skeptical eyes, then agreed.  So I said a prayer, then we kept looking.  I kept praying in my head, "Heavenly Father, she really needs a testimony of prayer, please help us." Not a minute later, we found her card in a place that we had already looked.  It was a testimony to all three of us that prayer really works! God is SO aware of us!

That's about that for this week. Some other fun things:

-It's still hard not to hold little kids.

-We showed up an hour early to a dinner appointment.  #thoughtitwassixo'clock #itwasonly5 #SLOWDAY #whydidn'twerealizethat?

-It's Eline's birthday tomorrow and we're going out to dinner with her family!

-I gave a talk in church.  First time since Ålesund.... Oslo has more people than Ålesund...

-President randomly decided to come to the Oslo ward the one week I was giving a talk #takkprez

-I tried caviar.... It's gross... I thought it would taste like the orange things dad puts on sushi... not in Norway at least!

Mom's answers:

-Having no car has been crazy and we have been able to meet some awesome people because of it. :) And it's harder to estimate times we will be places.  Usually we're really late or really early.

-Elder Lemon teaches the English Institute class.  There are three classes taught every Friday and another one on Thursday.  Elder Lemon only teaches the one.

I love you all SO much! Sorry this week was really long! Enjoy the novel! The Church is True!!! Prayer works.  God loves us!

-Love Søster Heywood

 p.s. Selfies with our favorite 95 year old! :)

p.p.s. Soldiers marching up to the palace. Not sure why!

Can I go to the temple now?‏

Hey Familie! 

Wow, this week felt long.  Part of me feels like I did a ton of stuff this week and part of me feels like nothing happened.  Yup! It's one of those kind of weeks.  Not terrible, not amazing, just another week of serving the Lord, speaking Norwegian, and growing my testimony (Okay, maybe that is pretty amazing!)

This week is our last week with the car, so we made the most of it, and drove to all of the less active members that live super far away.  So that was LOTS of time in a car.  But it's ok. Later this week I'll beable to contact people on the busses and trains again. YAY! (didn't think I would ever actually miss that).

We visited and had lunch with a member this week, and talked about temples.  *Oh man!.... I seriouly cannot stress it enough how badly I want to go to the temple.  I hope you guys are okay with going on the way home from the airport in 6 months.  Really though.  We were all talking about the peace we feel in the temple and how it is a kind of peace that you really can't feel anywhere else on this earth.  there were so many times when I was at home that I just went to the temple because I was having a bad day.  I guess it just put things into perspective.  When I have hard times out here, all I want to do is go to the temple, but instead, I just think about it.  that helps alright :)

Anywhooo.... Eline and I and Søster Randall went to lunch this week at a Norwegian Food Festival!! There were so many different food from all around Norway. MAN! I love that girl so much!  We went to her school, saw her through the window, then contacted for a little while until her lunch break.  (Who knew her school was like 5 blocks from the institute center?) Speaking of Institute, to answer your question mom, The younger missionaries don't have any of the responsibility for it, but we are welcome to bring investigators and less actives. (So we try to do that so we can listen to Elder Lemon's awesome lessons) :) Elder Lemon is the best.  He is really good to answer any questions we have about the gospel.  We usually set asaide a dinner hour every week so we can eat and ask questions.  It's awesome! and the Lemons made all 9 of us missionaries waffles for breakfast on Saturday. Senior Couples are the BEST!

We had moves call on Sunday and neither I nor Søster Randall is leaving. (Hallelujah) I'm not sure what I would do if she left right now... This place is still kinda a maze to me.  Hopefully it will help to be on publlic transportation from now on. 

We met a really cool and open Norwegian man on the street the other day.  He told us that he didn't believe in God, but that he was willing to listen.  We got his number, then on a whim asked him to pray before we met up again.  He said he would, but we kinda forgot about it.  When we met with him on Saturday, that was one of the first things he mentioned.  He told us that he had prayed right before coming to meet with us.  He actually prayed!! We taught him about the Restoration with a big focus on praying in order to know the truth.  He was really interested in what it feolt like to us to feel the Holy Ghost.  He really is just so sincere.  We're excited to meet with him again :)

More fun things:

-Norwegian cheese is the BEST!

-Aviz asked me to summarize the entire Book of Mormon in sign language for her.  That was interesting...

-A less active lady named Astrid gave us about 5 gallons of soup to take home with us because she is worried we aren't getting fed enough.

-There are ALWAYS students from the university in church because they are studying different religions.  It's kinda awesome!

-The bishop called us "canaries in a mine shaft" during ward council.  He was referring to less active work.... yup! Takk bishop! haha

-Sister Hoggard and I were talking about plans for school after the mission.  I think I might go into speech therapy.

Welp! That's about it for this week! I love you all SO much!  

Challenge for the week: Find something during scripture studay that you never noticed before, then email me about it next week.  There is SO much to learn!

Love you! The Church is true.  

-Søster Heywood

Eline with Søster Heywood in Oslo (notice the cool phone booth)

Oslo missionaries

1 Year!.............wait what?‏

Okay, so there was this one time, like a couple of weeks ago that I was eating Costa Vida with my family on the way to the MTC.... Oh wait...

There is NO WAY it has been a year since that day! AH! Okay. Done with that part. Not thinking about it. La La La..

This week though! It was so good!  We met with the family again, and the mom leaned over to Sister Randall during dinner and told her that she really identifies with this church than she does with the Catholic church that she grew up in.  That is a MIRACLE because before, she was VERY VERY strong in her faith. Still is.  But now she is open to adding to it.  We are SO excited for them.  They are planning on coming to church this Sunday.  All 4 of them! YAYAYAYAYAY!

Another really cool thing. There is a member named Tora Nyman who just got home from her mission in Finland a few months ago. (Yup! She knows the Londons).  Last week at church she walked in and told us about a guy that she had met on the train on the way there.  She mentioned she was on her way to church, and he said that he was looking for a Christian church.  So she invited him to institute that Friday, and wanted us to come and teach him afterwards. Uhm... yep, I'm pretty sure we can most definitely do that... :D So fast forward to friday... Evans came to institute, loved it but was way confused, then we met with him afterwards.  He is actually from Zimbabwe and has lived in Norway for about a year.  When we handed him a Book of Mormon, he looked at the church logo on the back and realized that his house in Zimbabwe is right by one of the church buildings! WAY COOL! Also, we told him about the Book of Mormon and where it came from and his only concern was, "Wait, why doesn't everyone know about this book? This is really important!" We just said, "Yup! That's why we're here!" :) He's a champ.  Tora is a champ. yup. Aviz came to church again yesterday and I got to translate for her again.  It's a workout I'm telling ya.  She's doing well.  Our other investigator Eystein is getting baptized in Utah on December 19th. (A TON of his family lives there) He's basically a member and instead of teaching him the lessons for the 300th time, he just tells us what he wants to learn about.  So that's fun.  He calls himself a dry mormon :)

At Institute on Friday, (all the Ysa in the Telamark and East come to it), I saw Madelen, who just got taught and baptized in Skien.  She was taught by none other than the GORGEOUS Sister Horner! (My little girl is growin' up) *Wipe away a tear* Madelen and I basically talked about how awesome Sister Horner and Grubaugh are the whole time :) She's awesome.

Other fun things:

-Had lunch with a girl who was an exchange student in America.  She's not interested, but we ate some yummy pizza with her.

- Went to the KonTiki museum. Norway just keeps getting cooler.  I had no idea the guy who sailed the Kontiki was Norwegian. CRAZY! (Also, he proves that Lehi and his family definitely could have crossed the ocean way back then.) #butwealreadyknewthat

-Went on splits and met some people from Utah who were here on a cruise.  They were wondering we wanted them to look you guys up when they got home. :)

-Got flipped off.... that like NEVER happens here.  I kinda forgot it was a thing...

-I LOVE THIS COUNTRY! 

I know the church is true.  I mean, Norway is awesome and beautiful and breathtaking, but I'd be on the next plane out of here if I didn't know this was true.  I miss you all way too much.  I love my Savior Jesus Christ.  The Book of Mormon is SO TRUE! Read it every day!

Love you all!

Sister Heywood

 Madelen and I 

Kontiki Museum! (The actual ship!)

Small girl in a BIG city! :)‏

Hallo! 

Just kidding, Oslo isn't that big, but definitely bigger than anywhere else I've lived! I'm really glad we have a car and that Sister Randall knows where she is going, because this city is a maze! Like... ya know how most cities have a block system?... yeah... Not Olso :) But I'm absolutely loving it here!

On tuesday, we got to teach the Norwegian family again, and this time, the kids were there.  They fed us dinner, (yes, an investigator... feeding US dinner! oh yeah!), then we started the lesson afterwards.  We gave them each a piece of paper and told them that we were going to tell a story about families, and that they would have to draw it as we told it. Then we taught the Plan of Salvation.  We told them all about how they can be together as a family forever and that it doesn't just end here.  The kids had awesome questions, and the spirit was just so strong!  AS I was bearing my testimony to them about families, I kept thinkin about you guys and how this year and a half away is nothing! It's a blink of an eye, because our family is forever!! I love that and I'm realizing more and more what that means.  

Tuesday was also our two-zone p-day since we had a mission tour on Wednesday.  Unfortunately it was raining, so my first p-day in Oslo was playing card games (mostly spoons) in the church with a bunch of other missionaries.  It was really fun (except I have a bruise on the back of my leg... yup... I got hurt playing a card game... see family? I haven't changed a bit! haha!

The conference on Wednesday was so good! Elder Johnson from the seventy came and spoke to us.  He actually served his mission in Norway!! With President Hill! That was awesome.  He talked about a lot of different things, but one thing in particular he focused on was helping people commit.  He had two missionaries come up and being their investigator, he told them that he hadn't had time to read the Book of Mormon, but that he still wanted the missionaries to keep coming and just tell him about the church.   Initially, the missionaries were fine with that.  Then he explained it in another way.  He said, "I want to play soccer.  I want to play in the World Cup. And you guys have to help me get there.  Tell me all about soccer.  show me videos of people playing soccer.  But I don't want to ever run, or train, or really do anything.  and after a few months, I'm sure I'll be able to play in the World Cup." Of course we were all laughing by then.  Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ. To invite people to ACT! The people we teach CANNOT get a testimony unless they DO THINGS. A lesson without a commitment has little purpose.

Another fun thing from this week: The mission office moved from Sandvika to Oslo, so since we were on the Oslo end, we offered to help unpack the already packed and moved boxes.  We decided to take on the project of orginizing and shelving 70 Languages of the Book of Mormon, pamphlets, manuals, and other materials. It took 4 hours one day and two hours the next day, but we finally did it! An here's the kicker: We actually use all of those languages here in Norway.  I swear, I think I've met someone from every continent here...wait... yup! I've met and taught someone from every continent here. It's CRAZY! 

Other Fun things:

-Taught Aviz again- She already has a testimony of Joseph Smith :) 

-A group of kids came to church on Sunday because they were doing a project for school.  So we got to show them around the building and tell them more about what we believe in.  Way cool.

-Reunited with Sister Larsen: I LOVE HER!!!!! Yup!

-Asked a less active old lady to tell us a story from when she was young, and she told us about her first love... during World War 2.... I'm going to write a book based on her story... not even a joke.

-Most people that we contact think we're absolutely crazy and usually don't even treat us like people... so that's lame.

-Don't know if I mentioned this last week or not, but Sister Randall's favorite musical is Aida!!! AHH!!! yup! We'll be friends for a long time.

I've been reading the Book of Mormon lately with an emphasis on Christ.  Newsflash: That Book is really another testament of Jesus Christ. Yup! It's true. Also, every person in that book lived. They all had families, and a childhood, and trials.  It's true!

I love you family!! I hope you are all changing, growing, and becoming better and better than you were yesterday! Keep it up! The church is true, the Book is blue!

Organizing the books/pamphlets at the new mission office.

A beautiful p-day, sitting on the docks by the river.  what could possibly go wrong??

I dunno... maybe Sister Heywood could be swinging her legs off the edge and kick her shoe into the water?... #notallowedtoswim....