HEY
SHOUT OUT...to David with the 15th birthday on Saturday! I sent something in the mail, so I hope it gets to you before the big day! It will be special to have Hannah back a few days before. I hear you are getting pretty tall, Dave. Dunkin' yet? We will be playing some bball in the church later today. Most of the elders in the district played high school ball and we keep saying that we should put together a squad and take on the little Norwegian pro teams haha.
We had a great Zone Leader Training on Tuesday in Tønsberg. We drove on this tiny little winding road to get there and it was way scenic. We talked a lot about teaching skills especially when it comes to resolving concerns. One important thing I learned is that our job is to "help other people resolve their concerns," not simply "resolve their concerns for them." Often I become used to certain concerns and try to use rote, textbook answers that I have given before. It really comes down to teaching in the way that Elder Bednar taught us while he was here: help investigators become agents rather than objects by listening, asking inspired questions, and allowing the spirit to teach them answers to their own concerns.
We had a difficult time teaching people this week. Appointment after appointment fell through, something you become used to as a missionary, but this week seemed especially brutal. But, all disappointments really help you to appreciate the few flecks of gold you did have. We had an awesome teach with one of our newer investigators named Jacob. He is a really nice man from Sierra Leone! Thanks to the car we were able to visit a less active that lives out in the boonies. Literally the middle of nowhere haha. The address wouldn't even show up on the GPS so we had to ask around before we eventually found the street. We didn't know much about her, but we banked on the door and were able to teach the whole family (4 kids and a husband)! She is a convert of about 14 years and still reads daily in the Book of Mormon, but her family has unfortunately never jumped on board. It was a really cool and unexpected teach.
Sunday was the Primary Program. The Primary in this ward is about twice as big as the whole branch in Tromsø haha. The missionaries got to go up and sing the song "Vi vil bringe sannhet til jord" (We'll bring the world his truth) with the primary which was cool. All the elders in the ward are really tall so it was a cool image with all these kids as tall as our kneecaps.
