10 MONTHS

Kjære Familie,
TODAY I HIT MY 10TH MONTH MARK ON MY MISSION!!!!
Time has gone too fast!!! I cannot believe that Bry is home, that Will was born, etc. etc. When I read the "No Greater Joy" email that mom sent, I started crying! I have had 2 nightmares the past week that I went home. I dont know how Bry did it. Im sure his heart was just ripped out. So really quickly, SUPER weird dream I had a couple nights ago! It was actually a nightmare. It doesnt have to do with anything, but I thougth it was weird. Long story short, at the beginnign of the dream, I was with a bunch of missionaries. We saw three deer and they ended up turning into 3 lions. Warewolf like lions...haha Anyways, we ended up in this house and all of a sudden Az was with me and another missionary. We were ont he top floor of the house and there was a man downstairs having a party. We looked out the back window and there was one of the lions, black werewolf, that dug up a cat! (this was in the Sitka house) I figured out a way to escape, because the guy downstairs was bad. and So we were going to get out the window and all of a sudden I heard, "We could jsut open the door for you." From the man!!!!!!!!! Oh it was terrifying!!! I woke up kind of scared to go back to sleep! Anyways, there is a point to telling you this! The next morning (this is real life now) Sister Trydal and I went outside to run. And there was a fluffy cat right outside our door!!! That creeped me out. And then when we were running guess what we saw!? THREE DEER! Oh it was scary! Anyone know what that means? hahaha, I know that was really random. But I wanted to write it!
Anyways, this week was good!











After emailing last pday, I got on the train with Aida to come here to Drammen. Aida packed LOTS of food and gave me a lot to bring here. (including lots of chocolate) :) I was so nervous to come here. I didnt talk much and I didnt really have an appetite. I was physically making myself sick because of how nervous I was and I dont know why! But I arrived here, Aida had to run to her other train to catch it in time back to Kristiansand before it left, and then I was left with my 3 suitcases, 2 bags of food, and my backpack. A nice muslim man helped me carry them to where my companions were! Sister Landrey and Sister Trydal and I rode with the Elders to our apparment! They spent the night calling people, while I looked through formers to see who we should contact. Sister Landrey was gettting ready to leave (go home) and so we had a lot of stuff out! I am actually finishing up unpacking today :) haha
Anyways, the appartment is ADORABLE!!! We have a fireplace, heated bathroom floors, and it is huge! (compared to Kristiansand.) We live under a house, so it isnt in an appartment complex :) I will send some pictures of it home!
Then on tuesday I got picked up by the Sandvika District because my companions had an appointmetn they wanted to go to. SO I went with the other district to Zone Leader Training. I got to share my experience with the baptism the last week and that was great :) I got to see Sister Mourik and other missionaries I LOVE too! Then I came back to Drammen (the meeting was in Tønsberg) and we contacted a little :) Drammen is pretty much two mountains. One on one side of the river, and the other (that we live on) on the other side! Its gorgeous! It looks like a "Norway Las Vegas" with so many lights, but classy - not like Las Vegas. haha :) That night we met with a less active named Stephanie, from St. George, who recently married a norwegian man who isnt a member. So we are teaching her husband! That was so koselig :)
On Wednesday we had lunch with a member, the only active member in her family. It was so norwegian - open faced sandwiches! It was way good and she lived at the top of a hill (mountain) so we could see Lots of Drammen!! We knocked on some doors and then later in the day met with more people. This day was actually SUPER busy! We met with a man named Martin. He is a buddhist norwegian man. And his islam friend was there too. After we prayed Martin did this meditation thing with his hands....(a circle around his belly button and then up like the sun salutation and back down). Good thing neither of my companions have too bad of a laughing problem hahaha! That teach was so hard. Because the Islam friend asked question after question but would rarely let us answer! Oi it was hard. Then on the way to the church, Sister Landrey found a man on the bus. She invited him to come see the church and so we showed it to him and shared a message with him! He has been looking for a church and so this was an answer to his prayers :) He is African and speaks english and his name is Dennis. That went amazing!!! Then we met with a man named Medhannie, also from Africa I thinik. Then we met with a man named Halvor! He is norwegian and probably in his 60s? Then we met with a lady named Debby. She is norwegian but was born in New York. Oh I already love her! she is an artist and loves the church :) It was a SUPER packed day!!! Oh! That night when we were at the church I was able to meet some of the YSA and youth, THERE ARE SO MANY AND I LOVE IT!!!!! :) It is my goal to know every member in the church (this is the biggest ward in Norway, and maybe Scandinavia) so thats exciting! :)


Then on Thursday we dropped Sister Landrey off on the train! And then that night we met with Dennis again! He told us that when he reads MB, he feels hope. It gives him hope. That was so cool to hear. He had heard from a priest earlier in his life that after someone dies you ahve to burn all of their things. They are dead so you have to forget them. But we taught him the Plan of Salvation and I could see that he just loved that. He asked if it was okay to pray for those that have died. It was so tender to tell him that we can. That there is a life after this. :) Later in the week he told us that he had told a bunch of his friends about the Book Of Mormon and how they need to read it. And he actually brought one friend to a teach on Saturday. :) That nigth there was a Relief Society Activity and I was able to talk to a few of them! THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE IN THIS WARD!! haha!
On Frieday we did a lot of planning. We did weekly planning and I got to know the area little better! We met with an investigator named John that night, that comes from Africa also! He has a baptismal date for the 8th of March! So that is way exciting!!! :)
Then on Saturday we came to the church for a Carnaval (I CANNOT spell today. haha I hope that that was spelt right) anyways, there was a primary activity (we thougth it was for the whole ward!) so we invited Dennis! haha, luckily he came late and we were able to teach him and his friend that was visiting Drammen for a couple of days! Dennis wants to share the message with all of his friends - HOW COOL!!! :) When someone really has a testimony, I feel like that is what happens. The more we learn about Christ, the more we want to tell people about Him. Afterwards we taught a lesson to a Lithuanian lady named Ramintha, then we got kebabed. OHHH...I am now remembering more about this day. My feet were COMPLETELY SOAKED. It was so slushy on Saturday and my shoes are just being annoying. So my feet were wet, I was FREEZING, i was so wet it went through my coat a little bit. Oh i was miserable. Anyways, we ate dinner at the church and i took off my shoes, my foot was turnign a little bit blue! They were so cold they hurt. Oh it was horrible! But afterwards we went to an Indian ladies house, a lady that Sister Landry found on the train (when she was leaving - she is an AMAZING missionary!) and this lady said we could come give her the Book Of Mormon. She wasnt too interested to change. But it was still good to talk about it with her :) Then we went home and did some calling!





Then it was Sunday! We walked to church (no busses come early enough in the morning), and I layered myself - I was NOT going to be cold! haha, and I got so warm while walking there! I wore other boots, that I forgot had a hole in it. We brought some breakfast to an investigator, Debby, who lives really close to the church. She invited us in, and the boot with the hole in it, WOULDNT COME OFF!!! SO she tried helping me with the zipper, but I ended up just having to go in with one boot on. How AWKWARD! We had MMK, then church :) I sat next to the elders investigator from Greece, who speaks some Norsk. So when she needed help with what they were saying, I tried helping her. But TENDER MERCY! The person that taught Relief Society was the Kristiansand bishops wifes sister!! So she had a Southern Norwegian dialect, it was like music to my ears :) Oh it was great!! haha, the dialect here is what I learned in the MTC, and it seems harder for me to understand that Kristiansand, which is totally differnt! But I am excited, because I know my norwegian is going to get better, being able to copy the people here now :)
Sacrament meeting I was asked to introduce myself to the ward! I was SO nervous but it went well!! I sat by an old lady named Astrid and then a lady named Vivian sat behind me and when I came down they both put their hands on my shoulds and arm to tell me I did good :) It was so sweet! It was my goal to meet, 10 people and know their names yesterday and I kind of did it! I know I met more than 10 people haha, but it was a little hard to remember some names. The ward is SO great though and I LOVE it! It is HUGE!!! (I like smaller wards, but this one is just so koselig!) We ate dinner with the Kongsberg Elders (in our ward. There are 6 elders and us 2 sisters in our district! Well - in our ward too!) and with the Kapstad family! We had an investigator there too, så koselig :) We had a meeting with the MMK and the missionaries, and then we came home and called people!








So, theres my week for you all!!! Today is the most sun I am seen in a while, SUPER SUNNY! I kind of miss it, kind of dont :) hahaha
Anyways, I love you all so much and hope you have an amazing week!!!
Next Pday I wont be able to write as much because we are doing something as a distrikt, but I will try my best to write as much as I can!
LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!! :)
Love, Søster Chapman :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Leaving Beloved Kristiansand

Hei hei familie! :)
So, først og fremst, Im getting transferred!!! Im going to go from Sunday back to Monday this time, because of the different things that happened. Well, mostly just transfers!


But anyways, We woke up on Sunday...got our diner (fluffy blankets) out onto the couch and listened to moves call. It was so scary. Of course, my name was not read when they announced Kristiansand :( I was expecting that, infact, I started packing probably around 2 days before! Anyways, I had told Sister Robbins that if ANYONE in the mission could be her companion besides me, I would want it to be Sister Harrison. I told her that the week before maybe, and GUESS WHO IS HER COMPANION!?!?!? SISTER HARRISON!!! I was so happy! Because she is just the sweetest, bubbliest person and they will get along so great :) Anyways, then well...a little later, they announced where I am going! I am gonig to be in a three-some for about a week in...DRAMMEN! Sister Landrey is going home next week, and her companion is named Sister Trydal and she is a convert from a year or 2 ago from Norway! So After Sister landrey leaves, it will just be me and her! I am exciting!!! She is the only Norsk sister in the mission, so I am hoping that my norwegian just shoots up! It is going to be different, and I have so many breakdowns because I just dont want to leave this area.


My heart is here.. and it is just shattering!! ahhhh it is horrible. Anyways, then we had interviews with President! He was here this weekend and we had church with them there! President Evans and Sister Evans got to meet our 2 investigators that were there on Sunday :) (it was so exciting to go up to sunday school and see TWO, serge and gøran, there!!! We werent sure if gøran was going to come, but he did! :) ) Anyways, in Sacrament Meeting it was announced that Elder Cooper and I are leaving. He is going to serve about 40 minutes away from me in a city called Sandvika! Anyways, we bore our testimonies and of course I just cried. It is like my family is here in Kristiansand. I know it will be good there too, but it is still sad. Anyways, I went back down and sat by the less active I had sat next to earlier. She had tears coming down her face and patted me leg. Later, Aida asked her if she understood (shes from cambodia) and she said not really, but she must have felt the Spirit. I took pictures with people and said goodbyes after church and then we went to the Torjesens house for dinner! They have a kjempe cool library in their house, so koselig! mom and bry would LOVE it! Had a deilig dinner og dessert with their family, fredrik and serge (our investigator). :) Anyways, we had our last day of the 12 Week Program with Sister Robbins! She isnt a trainee anymore!!! It makes me so sad. Uansett... alt går bra. :)


So last Monday, Aida took us shopping at the Sørlandsenter where we got different backpacks - just black. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! It feels so good on my back!!! We came home during rush hour and it was super snowy, so there was so much traffic. We were stuck in a tunnel in traffic and it took us forever and a day to get home! haha Then that night was the CES devotional. We had 3 investigators there! Well....1 that we invited and came. One came at the very end. And one....well thats a funny story! The elders had found this boy named Melano like...4 months ago. They hadnt been able to meet with him, but they got in contact with him, invited him to the devotional and he came! He walked in...and we were SO confused! Why is our investigator RJ here and WHY IS HE WITH THE ELDERS!? hahaha, Aida, looked at us and said, "RJ!" haha! So after the devotional...which was AMAZING! You should all watch it...by Tad R. Callister...I heard Elder Cooper talking with Melano...Rj...hva som helst navnet er...and he asked if they could meet sometime. RJ pointed to us and said, "Im meeting with them tomorrow" hahahahaha! Aida had given us referrals and he was the son of one of them! We are meeting with RJ (which is his nickname) and his friend now. Anyways, it was so funny!


Then on tuesday we had Distriktsmøte, we guessed where people are going or if they are leaving and Sister McArthur guessed that i would move to Drammen! haha, I thought Ålesund. I am WAY excited though! :) And we met with RJ and his friend Christ that night with Aida!
On Wednesday we tried visiting a referral, found the house, and they werent intersted and didnt even want to take a card. That was sad, but we were still SO thankful for the members that are willing to tell us about friends that might be interested :) Anyways, then we had a teach with a man named Frode. Sister Peterson (one of the STL) and I found him a week or two ago. Anyways, we taught him the first lesson and he told us he doesnt want to read the Book Of Mormon or take one with him. Talked a little and he really was not willing. So we told him he could come back when he wants, etc. So we closed and got up to leave and he asked us if we were leaving. "Ja, det må vi. Vi har andre avtaler idag at vi må til." "Yeah, we have to. We have other appointmetns that we have to get to." Or something. So we got up and got our stuff and he just sat there! The Cressalls were there, so we talked to elder Cressall and he said he didnt leave until 15 minutes after we left!! haha it was so awkward!!! Later that night, Aida made us dinner, we met with her grandaughter Chezs (called chessy) and read in the MB picture story book with her. It is so fun teaching little kids :) Then we had a ward meeting, going through the ward list with some of the ward counsil! So, wednesday was good!


Thursday was a good day. We had some weekly planning, visited Mony..oh really quick! When we were on our way back, we were walking through the snow. I am borrowing shoes from Aida, because my boots were in the shop, and anyways, I started to fall, yelled Sister, and lost my balance, but SLOWLY fell down to my hands and knees on the snow. haha it doesnt really sound funny writing it down. But it was SO funnY! And a truck with 2 construction workers were watching, stopped at a stop light. So instead of crossing there, I told her we had to walk another way because i was so embarrassed! hahhahaha anyways, then we taught Serge...well began teaching him the 1st again. Sister Robbins and I werent completely there. You know when you just wake up with a billion problems? Not real problems, but you just arent so happy? We were both like that. Things were just getting at us. We have NEVER fought with eachother, but the smallest things, like...I thought she pushed my head down when I fell and she told me she didnt and I told her she didnt remember...hahaha it was really silly and petty. But we are sure that it is seperation anxiety. It is just RIDICULOUS. we are laughing at it now, but it was bugging us then hahaha So the teach with Serge could have gone better, but it went okay! It was what he needed I think :) So then the Cressalls drove us to Bestemors house and we went in. She was just sobbing on the phone so we decided to sing "I am a child of God" and talk a little about that and other things. It went well. But we had to catch a bus to Mandal soon after. The bus wasnt going to be coming for a little bit so we had to walk/run down the icy hill to the center and bus! I was running and I think I slowed down to walk, when I just fell! AGAIN! My foot flew in the air and I landed on my bum! haha! there was a man behind us...EMBARRASSING! hahahah :) But all ended up going well. The bus was delayed and we rode it with Fredrik and studied some scriptures with him that he was planning on studying with the elders! We had dinner with him and his mom! And then came home after sharing a thought!



On Friday we met with the Rustad family. We knocked on some doors before hand and funny...ish story. We knocked on a door where a really nice oldish man opened up. He invited us in and we couldnt...not knowing if a woman was home, and we didnt have much time, but mostly because we couldnt be alone with him. So we left and he shut the door. When we were walking away a lady opened it up and yelled, "DERE TRENGER IKKE Å KOMME TILBAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" ("YOU DONT NEED TO COME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!") And shut the door. well...okay! haha, we heard later that she hasnt been to nice to others in the ward either that live close. We had dinner with the Rustad family, shared the Family Mission Plan and made our way to the bus to catch it to the Williamsons. On our way, we had to go down a steep hill (usually has stairs, but covered in snow...) So i was sliding down it with my shoes with no traction, and I was talking to someone on the phone. Sister Robbins was behind me and I wasnt paying so much attention. She tried sliding too, but that didnt work. She fell! And called after me. It isnt too unusual to fall, so i laughed a little and kept going. Then I heard her scream again, SHE WAS ON HER STOMACH IN THE SNOW!!!! hahaha! She had fallen on her knees to her stomach and couldnt get up! hahahaha she made her way to me and I accidentally threw my phone in the snow! So I had to reach down, where I was pretty sure it was and pull it out with a handful of snow hahaha (the Zone Leader was still on the phone while this all happened) So then...she was right behind me and we BOTH fell! on each others legs and in the snow! Oh it was HILARIOUS! We were dieing laughing!!! hahahaha :)


We taught the Williamson boys about Baptism and the Sabbath Day Holy, then had Sloppy Joes with them. :) We came back to the center and before we taught Gøran, we both got blessings from the Elders. The ZLs were here on splits so Elder Edwards and Leighton (both from England) gave us blessings. I am so thankful for the Priesthood. I got a blessing of comfort. In my blessing it was said something to the point that my trials are going to help me and shape me for motherhood. When I think about things that way, everything is worth it. No I have not had children yet. No I dont really know them right now. But I have felt so strongly taht I would just do anything for my children since i have been on my mission. And I think that is why we all have some trials, to help our future (or not future) families. So that was really special :) Then we taught Gøran! We taught about prophets and committed him to pray about President Monson :) We are meeting with him tonight and we will see how that went :)



Then Saturday! I packed some more during our lunch hour!!! hahaha, I was sure I was leaving. anyways we also tried contacting some referrals. One wasnt home and the other, that was a media referral said that she just wanted the MB (which she got a week or two ago when sister r and a STL gave it to her roommate for her). and if she wants to learn more she can call us, from our number on the card! We had MMK (ward mission meeting) and Elder Edwards made us delicious enchiladas to eat during it :) Then we went to a members house, a lady named Meressi from Chile, that lives alone. She made us some Chilean food and we tried sharing a little thought with her about missionary work :) We had some studies that night and went to bed to wake up to Moves Calls!!!
So, there is my week for you all!

I am going to be moving on this Wednesday and my address is

Tomineborgveien 47
3011 Drammen

SO exciting!!! But SO sad!!!!! Anyways, I will be taking a train there with Elder Cooper, but getting off about 40 minutes before him. OH! One thing I am WAY excited about is that I will be in the same zone as some of the missionaries I just love!!! :) And some of them I havent seen since we split up 8 months ago! But sad that I wont be able to see Sister Harrison and Elder Ashton that are coming here...I havent seen SIster Harrison since we split up! So sad! Anyways, I love you all SO much and hope you have a FANTASTIC week!!! :)
Love, Søster Chapman :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad