This week was really good! I was all over the place. haha :)
We started off the week, on Pday, with SNOW!!!
It was so exciting! After emailing, we went to the canon that shoots half way to Denmark. I will send some more pictures today, but it was way cool.
The snow was blowing so hard up there it was hard to keep our eyes open at points! You all would have loved it though! There was an old bunker we went inside and it was way cool :)
That night we taught our investigator Gøran, hes from Sweden! We spoke norsk and he spoke swedish the first time, but he understands english better than norsk, so we changed to that :) He is just so jolly! We really do love him! The teach went great and we were able to meet with him yesterday too!
On Tuesday I went to the doctor and got my blood drawn. :/ They are checking my Vitamin B and D and my Iron. Aida came with us :) She really is our mom here in Norway. Our philippino mother haha :) But she payed for my doctors appointment!! She is SO giving. Other than that....I GOT A MASSAGE! :) My back and shoulders are like ROCKS. The lady in the ward said that my lower back is like a rock too, and I didnt even know that! Anyways, that was absoltutely perfect...sister robbins got one too and it was exactly what we needed! Afterwards though, we were completely relaxed and out of it hahaha :)
Later that night we went to Fredriks house for dinner. And I heard he sent you all an email, but HOW EMBARRASSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh I turned completely pale and jumped up SO fast to turn the music down! haha, it was really funny though :)
He helped us with language afterwards, OH! And I got the stuff you have to him to give to me!!!! I LOVE IT ALL!!! Thank you SO SO SO much!!! It made me cry seeing some of the things you put in there :) Sister Robbins says thank you too! I have already been sketching things in the sketchbook and wore the dress the next day :) and I have the ring on every single day. :) I actually had it on and a lady asked me if I was married...woops! ;) haha
Anyways, I also got to watch the family music video before I emailed today!! I LOVE IT! I cannot believe how old every one is and everyone looks so great!!! Ahhh I LOVED IT! I love the part when Caci says, "And this is my favorite because it reminds me of Annie or the Little Matchgirl...and I remember the first time I saw them..They are so tragic." Hahahahaha! I loved the whole entire thing.
But then on Wednesday we were going to knock on some doors, of people that told us to come back. Sister Robbins was leading us there and we sawa girl walking. I thought that I had talked to her already and that she wasnt so nice, but we talked anyways. She was THE NICEST girl ever! She is from Oslo and was just so sweet. We asked her if she had heard of the church, and she said no at first, but then yes to Mormons. (like lots of times.) Anyways, we talkeda little about the Book Of Mormon and asked if we could give it to her then. She said, "JA! Selvfølgelig!" "Yes! Or Course!" And so we gave it to her then. What is intersting is that earlier before we left the cetner, I told sister robbins that I felt like we should bring some MB with us, not really knwoing the reason why. How cool! Then we asked her if we could meet and when. She said, any day works! We got her number and her address and are meeting with her tonight!! PERFECT CONTACT! Oh it was a miracle! :)
Later that night we went to a members house to eat with the elders. This member from Chile made a whole turkey for us. With delicious homemade salsa, and deilig mat!
Afterwards we had to run to catch the bus. We were so full and so packed with clothes, running in the snow. I thought I was going to be sick! But we ended up having to wait for the bus for a while, I think part of the reason was becasue of the snow. That was fun :)
We went straight to a meeting at the center with the ward council. Going through the ward list and "cleaning it out." Talking about each person, what they need, if theyve moved, etc.That night the sisters serving in Arendal came and slept over because the next day we went to Stavanger!!!
Thursday morning we woke up to some rain. :/ But we got on the train to Stavanger! I have wanted to see this train ride with snow for SO long and didnt think i would be able to, but I did!!!
OHH it was heavenly! It looked like the lion the witch and the wardrobe! It looked like heaven, actually. Our train was delayed because of strong winds, so we were a little late to Zone Leader Training. But it was REALLY good! We started with lunch, made by the Haugens (senior couple there). And Actually, Uncle Darryn knows their son or something! She was telling me about that! Anyways, then we had the meeting, centered on goals for this year and how we will achieve them. The goal for the mission is 157 baptisms. We got 66 or something this year, but I KNOW we will get 157 this year. I am SO EXCITED! :)
After the meeting, a yw, Annett, came and saw me! It was so good to see her!!! (Az you should add her on FB I told her I would ask you too, because she thinks it would be weird to add you...but her name is Annett Andersen. :) ) Anyways, I LOVE seeing people that I love! haha Then we did some weekly planning and lucky for us, Seminary was that night! SO I saw SO MANY of the youth I love!!! I also got an email last pday from Mina Steffensen, one of my favorite people from Stavanger. She is now serving a mission in the London South Mission. It was so good to hear from her :) But I got to see the bishops sons, the 12 year olds, the older ones...OHHH it ripped my heart out because I love them so much!!! On the train ride home Sister McArthur and I went to another area of the train, so that we could get to the bathroom, and then just sat in some other seats and talked. We talked about how amazing it is how much love we can have for people. I have never loved people like this before. It HURTS because I dont have enough room in my heart for how much love I have for them! AHHH I LOVE PEOPLE!!! We talked about a lot more, but also the different reasons we get sent to areas. I really believe that a huge reason I got sent to Stavanger was because of the members. OHHH it just melts my heart because I love them so much!!! So we were sitting there, the other sisters had come to use the bathroom, when all of a sudden we saw FLASHES outside! I thought it was lightning. I guess there was a big sound too! But, it was the TRAIN!!! The train stopped. The other sisters went back, and then the train was turned off. We thought that a dementor was going to pop up on the window next to us haha :) Anyways, we were right next to the area where the train people were getting in and out of...to talk on the intercom, etc. But the lights were then turned off..well some of them, and they went outside with flashlights. We went back to the area we started in. After waiting and waiting. They told us to all move to the back of the train. So thats what we did! We went and sat in some other seats, they brought around coffee and water too. So we sat there for a long time. We were sitting in the train for about 2 hours, when finally a bus had come to drive us to a town called Moi, so that we could catch another train.
We were about 3 meters off the ground on one side, and 1 meter on the other. So we all had to climb down a ladder...about 3 feet down. and then through a bunch of dirt and plants. There were people guiding us with lights too! haha it was crazy!!! Then we didnt know where to go...so we got on a little taxi and it took us to the bus :) it was for people with a lot of baggage...we didnt have too much. But it was better to catch that, then to have missed the bus! We were still about 2 hours from home! So we got on the super nice bus, and I slept most of the way there...to Moi. We got on the train and I couldnt sleep. usually, the food on the train is SUPER expensive. But guess what? It was ALL FREE! So I got a hotdog in a lumpa with french onion crisp things, and it was delicious :) We got free water and oreos. Itw as just so fun :) Finally, a little after one in the morning, we got to Kristiansand! (we were supposed to get there at 10:30 ish) :) Such a fun adventure! haha!
We got permission to sleep in a little bit, so we did! Then Sister Hanson and I took a bus (which was late because of the snow) to Arendal for splits!! GORGEOUS drive, again!
Oh it was so fun in Arendal. It is such a koselig city! We did some studying and ate. But one of my favorite parst of the day was when we went to go and knock on some doors. Arendal is FULL of hills. So we went and hiked up a hill to get to someones house. On our way we saw two old ladies with their car stuck in the snow. We got over to them and i asked if we could help. She said nei, so we walked a little away, and waited. it was way awkward, because we were stading pretty close, but I was pretty sure they would need help.
A few seconds later she waved us over and we pushed their car. That didnt work. So the old lady shoveled a little, and then sister Hanson, me and another lady pushed and got them out! That was fun :) We continued on our walk, and got to a house of a man they havent talked to again, since the fist time he said they could come back. No one answered the door we knocked on (even though it was a little open)..(and we saw a child inside), so we folllowed some footprints. (You NEVER know where the front door is in norway...lots of times it is in the back, so you ahve to snoop around their house to find it) haha :) Sister Hanson said if I wanted to, we could see if the other door was it, so we started following the footprints and the snow was SO DEEP! up to my knees or higher it seemed! Turned out it was the back door the footsteps went to. Haha, it was fun though! So Earlier that day I had told sister hansen that I thought it was the day that I would fall for the first time this winter. I shouldnt have said that! So we were walking down this hill, and I fell. Just, right down! So I tried standing back up, and fell AGAIN! haha! So then we were walking more and Sister Hanson fell! HAHA! She got up and we kept walking, and I said, "I think one of us is going to fall any second." And as soon as I was done saying it, Sister Hanson was on the ground! Hahaha! Oh it was so funny!!! Then we went to go and knock on another door of someone that said they could come back...or something...but they didnt answer. We saw 2 shovels and snowing stairs and porch, so we decided to do secret service. So much for the secret part. hahaha We had been shoveling for maybe 15 minutes when the man just opened the door! hahah! Sister hanson got an appointmetn with him and he was going to do the rest of the shoveling, but I talked him into letting us do it. He said he was going to go in and get some winter stuff on, then come out. He had to go tot work, so we had to get the driveway done! So I prayed that we would have extra, or enough, strength to do it before he got out. Because Shoveling snow is SO tiring! It was crazy how fast we got it done. I was throwing snow behind my head, and sister hanson was shoveling like crazy too! It took a little while, but we finished before he came out! I think that is one way Heavenly Father answerered my prayers. The man didnt come out! :) But we knocked on the door and told him we were done. It was so rewarding to do that. I LOVED it! :) That night we met with a girl and went and taught her in the church...which is the right side of the second floor of a building. The same building has a doctor in it I think! Anyways that went well :) Then we had some smoked salmon with our dinner that night and it was heavenly. It reminded me of the smoked salmon dip we would have on the Allen Marine Tours....SOOO DEILIG!!! :) We went to go and see if one of their investigators was home, but she obviously wasnt, because the snow was SO high on her porch. Shes from Denmark, so they think she is probably still there. have you all heard of the movie, Frost? I heard it was based or the setting is in Arendal Norway.. So when you see it you can think of me! Haha! I live about 1 hour and 1/2 by bus! :) Anyways, it was absolutely GORGEOUS! When walking to her house, we walked by the water, but across the water is more houses on a hill, with snow, and it was honestly the prettiest thing. Their appartment has a balcony and people had been throwing their snow down so the snow on their balcony is SUPER high! It was nesten impossible to open the door. Well, it is if you want to go out!!! It was SO fun being their though :) The next morning we did some studies, sister mcarthur and robbins came and then sister robbisn and I went back to Kristiansand!
We went to Mandal a little later (poor sister robbins was on the bus for about 4 1/2 hours!!!) We went from the bus in mandal to the library and the snow had not been cleared, so we had to trudge through it following in others footsteps! Oh it was HIlarious!!! because it was SO high! I didnt realize someone else was behind us, but when I did, i tried to run and fell instead. It was so funny! Later, we visited with two of our investigators. They were really nice, but they ended up kind of dropping us. He will still read it, but if he has questions or wants to learn more, he will call. And she said she is not going to read MB. So taht was sad. :/ We got some food and waited at a busstop eating. Instead of just waiting for 20 mintues, eating and waiting for the bus, we had to wait for 45 ish minutes, because the bus was late!!!!! Oh my goodness! My hands hurt SO bad! Even just kind of sliding them/hitting htem on my bag, hurt SO bad! And Sister Robbins feet were wet and cold..they were killing her. Finally the bus came! We had a 45 minute bus ride home...well more, because of the snow I think. Anyways, I was so tired. Usually when i fall asleep on buses, I wake up when we get to our destination. But this time I DIDNT! I was completely out. And so I randomly woke up to the radio to see that almost everyone was off the bus!!! I had this paniced feeling and dropped things, picked things up and finally got off! Thankfully the bus driver was still waiting for people to get off when I was still dead asleep in my seat!! haha! Sister Robbins was just waiting outside for me and just laughed and laughed. it was so funny but so scary! hahaha :) So then later that night we taught Serge at a members house! We talked about the Word Of Wisdom and Presdient Monson and prophets. It went really well! But he just needs to have that desire. It is hard becuase socially, drinking is great in his family! He hasnt told his family about the church really...well atleast not about the WoW. So that is holding him back. He siad if he goes back to his family he will go back to his old ways. Thats not good...But he did tell us about an experience he had. He said that he was eating dinner adn the man gave him some wine, so he wasnt going to say no, so he drank it! But he said that it had no fruit taste or anything! That it tasted like water. Emily, the member, told him that that easily could have come from God. it is so cool to hear his experiences!!! I am positive he will someday be baptized, but maybe not on the date we have set for him, this weekend.
So then on Sunday we were on our way to the center, when I got a call from the bishops wife. She told me that the school parking lot (where we have church) had TOO much snow so no one could park there! we had to cancel church!!! So those that could, or that were in the city came to the cetner and we had church there. It was so koselig and fun! Our investigator Gøran came late, and in the middle of the Sacrament he walked in and said, "Hello!" Haha! He is so funny. He told us to get here, the bus didnt show up, so he walked a little, then a nice man and woman drove him most of the way! Haha! He even said he was thinkinga bout walkiing. I LOVE HIM! We taught him afterwards and then drove with Atle and the elders to Atles families house for dinner. They live about an hour away from here, up in a cabin! PRETTIEST DRIVE OF MY LIFE! (really, this probably was) SO covered in snow. We were taking pictures and it was GORGEOUS! We got in their and ate some lasagna, bread, and salad. And had HOMEMADE chocolate pudding with vanilla sauce and banana cake. It was PERECT! :) And then we shared the Family mission Plan Sister Robbins and I are doing. One thing though, during dinner that Ingvild (the mom) said, was... (She has MS) that she was sick before and then got better, but then she got MS. She said that instead of thinking about, well in the future when this isnt so bad I can enjoy things. Or later in the future I will be able to enjoy life. She enjoys life now. She has learned more from being sick than if she wasnt. THings that she wouldnt have learned if she wasnt sick she is learning and has learned. It jsut breaks my heart that she has MS. She is the sweetest lady and I just lvoe her so much. Later she showed us her Bunnad...the cultural dress they wear for the 17th of May. And it is different for every area you are in in Norway. But she embrodered hers and it is amazing! She is working on her daughters and it is absolutely GORGEOUS! She told me that it has taken her 5 years to do the pocket and the bottome of the dress...or maybe jsut the pocket! Anyways, she said that she wants to get it done before her hands stop working. It just broke my heart. Her husband is amazing at the piano and so we picked a song, practiced it with their daughter and her and the elders, and are going to sing it next sunday! (abide with me fast falls the eventide)! So in Norway, you never wear your shoes in someones house, but lots of times they let you loan some slippers. Sister Robbins put some wool, knitted ones on and I put some other norsk slippers on. I asked her where she bought them and guess what? Later that night she ended up giving us the slippers!!! SO SWEET! I am wearing them right now :) I just love that family. We got back to the city, had MMK (the ward missionary mission meeting) and then studied. Last night I started crying because I just dont want to leave this city. My heart is stuck here in Kristiansand. I LOVE this ward. I LOVE this area. I LOVE MY LIFE!!! AHHHH!
Anyways, today we are going to go and bake bole (dessert norsk rolls) with Fredriks mom! SO EXCITING! :)
And I think I am going to go and by some mittins, because I NEED SOME!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! :) have a fantastisk, flott, og trygg uke!!! :)
Love, Søster Chapman :)
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