Staying in Tromsø!

Hallo!

Well, moves call was on Sunday (it ended up being a really short transfer period). And.................I'm staying in Tromsø! However, Elder Garrard will be moving down to Stavanger. My new companion arrives on Tuesday and is named Elder Årsnes! He is Norwegian! This next transfer period is extra long to compensate for the last one (8 weeks?). 

Ole is progressing really well and was in church this week. We had over 30 in church again this week, which was great! Our other progressor, Andre, told us this week that his family is moving to Svalbard in August! The funny thing is that he will still be in our branch and we already have a member family up there!

The 17th of May was awesome! There were parades all day and Norwegian flags everywhere. I'll attach pics!

The language class is going great. 4 more Hungarians started coming, and they speak zero Norwegian and hardly any English. But, it's been fun to work with them and listen to them speak the language Erik will be learning. They actually own a Hungarian bakery in town! Mom, I enjoyed your letter about the global growth of the church. It's crazy how many different languages the Book of Mormon is published in. We actually ordered a bunch in this week, many languages I had never heard of before my mission. However, there is one language that the Book of Mormon doesn't exist in: Tigrigna. That is the language spoken in Eritrea. There are TONS of Eritreans here who he have met and tried to teach, but it is impossible to communicate! Dad, I think you ought to take the fam to Eritrea and find us a translator. 

The mission has a lot of momentum right now! It is crazy that Erik is in the MTC! Do work!

Love,

Elder Parkinson

Norge!

This is Arvid, the man we bring groceries to every week. He came to church for the first time in forever! Loves telling us stories about world war 2 and Jehovah's witnesses. Love the man!

A photo

Tromsø Tom

Syttende Mai!

Well, it seems like i just wrote, but a lot has happened in the short amount of time! I need to tell you about a guy named Ole. We met Ole my very first day in Tromsø and he gave us his address, but we were unable to find his house when we looked for it. A couple weeks ago we saw him on the street again and got an appointment with him. We dropped of a Book of Mormon and then we met with him for the second time on Wednesday. He was super positive and really understood what it would mean if he found out for himself if the Book of Mormon was true. He accepted a baptismal date! He's from Denmark and works as a DJ. 

We met with Andre again this week and he is now progressing. He is a big family man and really admires the values/morals of the church. We hope to start teaching his whole family soon!

We get the whole day off today to just enjoy Norway! They have parades all day and a bunch of other cool stuff. Don't have much to write, but I will send a bunch of pictures later!

Love,

Elder Parkinson

skal vi se

I don't feel like I have much to say considering I just saw you yesterday. I had no idea Harriet had braces?!? I must have missed that in one of your letters. I loved reading Erik's talk as well. We are taking Europe by storm!! 

Church on Sunday was a miracle. We had between 35 and 40 people there, more than triple the amount of my first Sunday in Tromsø. The Mission president was here along with one of his counsellors to set Elder Crabtree apart as the Branch President. 

We have been struggling a bit lately to turn our investigators into progressing investigators. We have found so many people, but it has been so hard to keep contact after the first lesson. This week we are going to really focus on keeping daily contact and extending specific commitments. Although, we just heard from Andre today and we got another appointment! He is totally down for daily texts and phone calls too!   

Another investigator named Edel came to church for the second time in a row! She is the lady that we found shoveling snow about a month ago. 

I will add my testimony to Erik's that The Book of Mormon is true. Mormons Bok er et bevis at Gud fortsatt taler til Mennesker og at han elsker hver en av hans barn. Mormons Bok kan svare våre sørsmål og kan gi oss veiledning med våre daglig valg. Hvis vi bare leser og ber til gud, med et oppriktig hjerte, kan vi finne ut selv at Mormons Bok er Sann. Jeg er så takknemlig for mitt vitnesbyrd og annledningen min til å dele dette vitnesbyrdet med andre. 

(Rough translation from google translate:  Book of Mormon is proof that God still speaks to People and that He loves each one of his children. Book of Mormon can answer our sørsmål and can provide guidance with our daily choices. If we only read and pray to God with a sincere heart, we can find out for yourself that the Book of Mormon is True. I am so grateful for my testimony and my annledningen to share this testimony with others).

I love you all! Good luck to David with that AP test! Slay it! I've already forgotten physics so I'm probably no help. Vi snakkes Lørdag! 

Eldste Parkinson

Our District!

MAI

The weeks keep getting better! The sun has started waking me up at about 2 in the morning. From May 17 through most of July the sun will be up non stop!

Our language class began on Tuesday. We had about 3 people show up. On our second day of the class, Thursday, we had more like 8! The people in the class come from all over. One is from Hungrary, which made me think of Erik! We happened to have a Hungarian Book of Mormon and gave it to her. There is this 17 year old Norwegian guy that we befriended on the street who comes to our classes and helps out! He is a funny dude. 

We had a huge miracle this week that came through a church media referral. We met this guy named Andre who requested a Mormons Bok through the mormon.org website. We met him on Friday and he was super positive! He had just been in Salt Lake and visited Temple Square and thought it was really cool! We taught him the first lesson and he was super excited to read from the Book of Mormon! He's a middle aged business man with a family too! 

We taught quite a few other lessons this week and have developed a pretty good teaching pool! Now we just need to get people to start progressing. We've used the Book of Mormon a lot this week in our studies and in our contacting. A testimony of the Book of Mormon is probably the single most important thing for an investigator. It is evidence of Jesus Christ as our savior, Joseph Smith Smith as a prophet, and the truthfulness of this Church. I love the last two paragraphs of the introduction to the Book of Mormon that explain simply how to gain a testimony and what that testimony means. 

Happy Mothers day on Sunday, Mom! Love You! Looking forward to the skype!

Fred og velsignelser!

Eldste Parkinson