HEY FAM,
It has been one crazy week. Elder Abril arrived on Wednesday...but I wasn't there to pick him up...! On our way to the train station we got stuck in horrible traffic (not usual in Drammen). We had to park in a sketchy spot and sprint to the station, but when we got there we couldn't find Elder Abril! After a bunch of running and a few lost hairs we found him sitting composed on a bench. I felt horrible.
Elder Abril is from a small little town in Oregon only about an hour away from Boise! He lived in Sweden for about 7 years (Mom is swedish), so he speaks fluent Swedish! Swedish is very similar to Norwegian, so he understands people better than me haha. He is way excited to serve and willing to try anything!
On Saturday there was another baptism down in Drammen this time of a 19 year old guy from Angola. I was blessed with the opportunity to interview him. It was incredible to see how the gospel has helped him to turn his life around. He literally begging for commandments to keep. He is planning on serving a mission!
On this same Saturday I also made the brutal mistake of forgetting our phone on the train. You never think about how much you depend on something until you don't have it. How was missionary work done before cell phones?? Dad, are you that old? We borrowed a members phone to make some necessary calls to investigators and long story short we were able to retrieve the phone today from Oslo. A few more lost hairs.
We have this investigator who is a seventh day adventist that we found in this Ormåsen area. He is very satisfied with his beliefs, but talked to us just to see how we see things. We visited his church last Saturday and he came to our church on Sunday! It was a powerful sacrament meeting with a return missionary and a soon to leave missionary both speaking. I could tell the spirit touched him, but at the end of the meeting he simply went back to his concerns about the Book of Mormon not agreeing with the Bible. Agency. Even though he wasn't interested in the end, I was appreciative of his curiosity to learn about our message and what it is we do on Sundays.
We continue to find cool people, but are struggling to help them progress! I am also running out out of houses to bank on! Winter has begun and I finally got out the wallet and bought myself a parka. Should be another great week! Thanks for all the letters and for all the support! I appreciate it!
