HELLO!
Not sure what happened, but this transfer is already past! Moves call was yesterday and I will be staying here in Oslo with my new companion Elder Reber! Bummed to split up with Elder Årsnes a second time, but the funny part is that he is now heading down to Kongsberg! Elder Reber is from California and has about 6 months left I think. I know him already from previous areas and he's a good guy.
It was a tough week at times as we struggled to keep contact with some of our key investigators. One thing we started up this week was taking our street contacting over to the University! We decided that was the best way to find young Norwegians, and it worked like a charm! Pretty much everyone was willing to talk and we were able to find a lot of cool people from that!
Probably the coolest thing that happened this week was an activity we had at the center on Friday night! In one or another way we were able to get a copy of the "Meet the Mormons" movie that recently came out back in the States. We showed it for young adults in the ward and investigators that we were able to get to come! Loved the movie! We had our investigator C. there and he had his eyes glued to the screen the whole time. It was cool how much it had to say about missionary work, both for the members that were converts, and the last story of the missionary mom. I loved the story of the man from Nepal, especially the fact that he found the church in Russia and was baptized there. It was good to hear for me, since the majority of the people that are interested in our message here in Norway are foreigners. C., for example, will only be here in Norway a few more months before he goes back to Kongo. But, I know that wherever these foreigners go, they will be instruments in building up the kingdom of God!
We had an interesting experience yesterday. Last night we called this young lady that we had met on Saturday to try and set up and appointment. She told us that she had time in about 30 minutes, which shocked us as we were expecting an appointment later in the week. We sat down in the center and asked if we could say a prayer and she told us that there was something she needed to tell us. And then she dropped a bomb...I am a newly converted Jehovas Witness! I have talked to tons of JWs on my mission, but had never been ambushed like this before. She had come prepared with questions and facts to prove us wrong. It was an interesting teach, but we handled it pretty well and avoided the bible bash that she was pushing for. The experience really helped me to appreciate and relate to how Joseph Smith felt before the restoration of the Gospel. So many ideologies and churches exist with the Bible being the only authority. I was studying from the Book of Mormon in the 29th chapter of 2nd Nephi, a chapter that I have read quite a few times, but understood a lot better when I read it this morning. It talks about how the "Lord won't forget his people." While reading this it helped me to see the Restoration as an act of love. God doesn't want his children to be confused by every wind of doctrine and through a living prophet and the Book of Mormon we once again have a sure source to truth!
It's starting to feel like summer will be coming soon! Hope I don't jinx it!
Love,
Eldste Parkinson
