As sad as it was to leave Tromsø, I have arrived safely in my new area! My companion is Elder Gustafson, from good ol' Utah. He has a bout 8 months left of his mission. Cool dude. Right before leaving Tromsø we got a baptismal date with a man named Rogers, someone I taught on and off my whole time there. He is a way cool guy from Uganda. Exciting!
Anyway, Kongsberg! Kongsberg is actually a pretty small town (about 25,000). The area was just opened up about 9 months ago. It is part of the Drammen ward, which is about a 40 minute drive from Kongsberg. Church on Sunday was an awesome, completely new experience. Despite almost everybody being on summer vacation there was still tons of people. Youth passing the sacrament. The primary sang a musical number. The missionary work in this ward has been on fire too. A lot of recent baptisms and a lot of member support. There is an awesome family that I have already eaten dinner with twice (they live right outside of Kongsberg).Most of the members are in Drammen, though, so there are not that many members we can work with.
When I got here we had one really awesome investigator. A 19 year old Norwegian that will be baptized!... but she is moving to Oslo for school. So we just referred her to the sisters. Other than that we do not have any investigators. So find, find, find. We literally spend 4 straight hours contacting on the streets and then the whole evening banking on doors. And the streets of Kongsberg are quite empty haha. But, we found quite a bunch of potentials and set up a bunch of appointments next week. And we have an appointment with C's family on Thursday! They still have no idea that he is a member, but he told us to bank on their door!
It's hard starting over again, but I feel a renewed sense of urgency and determination since switching areas. It's a great opportunity to really get re-committed. It's also been cool to reflect on how much my testimony of the restored gospel grew while I was in Tromsø. I really do love this message and I love sharing it with others, whether through words or action. That is how you live the gospel and that is how you experience true happiness.
Have a great week!!
Love,
Eldste Parkinson
NOTE: We got an email from Tom's Mission President that they are getting good information from the U.S. Embassy on the Terrorist threat in Norway. Threat level has been downgraded, but they keep monitoring the situation and will do all in their power to keep the missionaries safe.
