Hello from Tromsø!!!
IM IN TROMSØ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it SO SO SO much! It looks a lot like Alaska actually. It is an island of about 60,000 people! So its way populated with lots of people :)
There is a branch, one American family...OH! I hope Trev is reading this, because the American families dad, WAS TREVS MTC TEACHER!!! Rob Reynolds! I told his wife that Trev served in the Russia Samara mission, and he did too! Then yesterday at church he said he had taught a couple of Chapmans and said that Trev was really outgoing and energetic, and I showed him a picture and he recognized him right away!!!! How cool huh? He is studying here/teaching Russian. Cool, huh!? I got so excited! Anyways, the senior couple is the Branch President and RS president! The most theyve had on Sunday is 36. So this is a lot different than Drammen, the biggest ward in Norway! haha
A couple of days ago we wore our winter coats too, because it was so cold!!! There are also reindeer here!!! I didnt see any yesterday, but we were in that area where they ahve seen them before. Also, IT IS ALWAYS BRIGHT HERE! literally. when i go to be and wake up it is completely bright. I dont know about the middle of the night, but soon it will be the longest day of the year and we will see the Midnight Sun!!!!!!!!! Pray that there wont be any clouds! haha ;)
Anyways, last Monday I was in Drammen! After emailing we went and visited a family to say goodbye to them. The Fromgrens, I think I have told you all about them before. They made us food and we took some pictures :) Oh I love them so much.
Then we went to Debbys and also ate with her! We had pizza and the Kongsberg elders came! She did a "going away" dinner for us. I said goodbye to debby, ahhh i just love her!!! She has really changed my life. We said goodbye to our MMK and his family, then we went to the Bishops house for a meeting. I love the bishop so much in that ward, and it was so good to say goodbye to him also. Then I packed. I packed and packed FOREVER!!!! I didnt sleep much either. But when we woke up the Elders came and picked us up and I got on a train to Oslo with Elder Hinton! He was heading up to Bodø, north of the arctic circle, but south of Tromsø. It was so nice to be able to sit on the Flytog for an hour or so. Then we got to the airport in Oslo and got checked in ( i had to pay extras for baggage. One the church pays for, but the other I have to,...about 60 bucks :/)
My thoughts are that I wont get transferred again (i hope!) and that i will just get rid of most of my stuff here so that I can bring home other things instead of skirts that i wont wear again, etc. Anyways, another elder was coming up here, so we got on our plane and headed up here! It was almost a 2 hour plane ride (can you imagine, in ONE country with only 5 million people you can be that long on a plane?) I sat by two old people from Tromsø. And they let me sit in the window seat half way through the plane ride so I could look out the window. I was starved and they just stopped feeding us on the plane a little while ago. So I took my mind off of that looking at the snowy mountains!
They pointed things out to me, the 7 Mountains, Lofoten (by Narvik), etc. Then, we were finally there!!!!! :) The senior couple drove me to the Sisters Appartment, we said goodbye to Sister Mourik, headed to Bergen, and went into the appartment! It is so cute! You go through some doors, until you are in the area to go through another door, to get to our door on the second story haha :) We did some contacting and I thought I would be fine without a coat...jokes on me! Although it was blue sky, i needed a coat. We tuahgt a man on the street and got him as a new investigator and then later had a language class to teach foreigners Norwegian! There is alot of contacting and knocking on doors done here, WE NEED TO FIND A FAMILY! It was a good first day in Tromsø :)
On Wednesday we went with Sister Crabtree (senior couple) and Sister Reynolds to a less actives house, becasue they cant speak Norsk and Åshild cant really speak english so well. So we translated :) Then we went to the doctor for Sister Rupp, OH! I need to tell you about Sister Rupp! She is adorable! She goes home this next transfer, so is 3 months older than me. She is a great missionary from Cincinnati Ohio! Its weird being with a sister older than me, but way fun too :) That night we met with a lady named Lena and taught her a lesson on her porch. We were facing the ocean, about 7:30 that night, and we had to wear her sunglasses the sun was shining so bright reflecting off the water and the snowcapped mountains. :) We got kebabed 2 times that day, but thats alright, we filled it in with finding!
Thursday was also a good day (everyday is good in Tromsø :) ) We had district meeting, and our district leader, that came in my group, is in Alta! So they skype in! haha it was way fun and then we had a district lunch ( i love having senior couples ) Ive had a senior couple in each area, but Drammen! The language class was again and we shared the thought about church! And invtied them all to come :) Then we had a surprise phone call from a romanian investigator named Florin. We met with him and taught him over Google Translate. He is so great, with such a sweet heart. We dont htink he is a beggar, but he does not have a home, he collects bottles to get money, and paints for a job...about 27 years old. It breaks my heart, but he seems just so sweet!
So part of the Sister Training Leader calling is to travel to different areas in your zone and visit and go on splits with the Sisters. So we are going to Oslo this week for a meeting (MLC) then we are going to Ålesund to visit the sisters!!! Then in a couple of weeks we are going to Trondheim. Im so excited!
Friday, we did some weekly planning! And that night met with 2 less active members. They are so cute. Two ladies, Linda and Lill. Sister Rupp told me that Lills name is Lill Kitty. haha! One grandma is Lill and the other is Kitty, so thats why she has that name, cute huh? :) She is a sweet quiet middle aged lady! I think it was on Friday that we were contacting and talked to a man, he wasnt so interested, but we tried so hard! There wasnt a good reason for him not trying this "experiment" but he just wouldnt. SOme friends came up to him at one point and when we asked for referrals he told us one of the friends. He said we could just talk to him on the street sometime. I really wanted to find him again. Sister Rupp even prayed about it in one of her prayers! So we were hopeing to see him again. Dennis gave me a referral before I came her for one of his friends in Tromsø, so we called him, Joseph, and got an appointment the next day with him! It is amazing the success, miracles, that have been happening here! We got so many numbers this week!!! and teaches we werent expecting!
Saturday we taught a referral named Mahbob. She was a referral from before I got here, but we were able to contact and meet with her! She is Muslim, but feel like she and her family could become positive :) Then we met with a part member family, Bari and Marzi. They are from Afghanistan. He is a member, and she has been taught for a little while now. They are so sweet. There is a language barrier, but the SPirit talks to everyone :) They ahve 3 little girls that were playing with our hair as we tuaght their parents, so cute!
Later that night we taught Joseph! It was gorgeous outside the first couple days I was here, then it started getting cloudy and a little rainy. This was a day we thought we would need to teach outside...but only needed to teach one and were able to teach in the mall. This was Joseph! We were waiting outside the church (an office building, second floor, next to a dentist office) (im actually emailing in the chapel/sunday school room right now) :) and we saw the man that we wanted to talk to from a couple of days ago! (he was an african man wearing the same hat as a couple of days ago (the friend of the man that we had contacted) and it was Joseph!!!!!! The teach went great and we are going to be teaching him tonight!!! I really think he will be baptized! He is from Rwanda! :) It was awesome to teach him and we know that it was the Lords will that we saw him before. He is prepared!
Then yesterday was church! It was Mission Conference...we arent in a stake or a district up here, but a mission. So in Bodø, they had mission conference and we were told the night before that we were going to just have regular Sacrament Meeting and not Skype in. But then that morning right before church was a bout to start, we got told we were skyping in! So we did and it was great :) A greek girl from our norsk class came to church!!! We were way excited and are going to be teaching her this week hopefully! :) After church we ate and then went knocking on doors on an area called...translated, "whale island" (this is the area with reindeer!) I didnt see any, but hopefully I will soon. :) We said hi to an eternal investigator, tried some come backs, and then went banking! These are some of the gorgeous pictures I sent to you :) We knocked on a door and an old lady opened and let us in! We sat on the floor and taught her a little bit. Found out she is 92, her husband, son, and friends have passed away and her daughter lives close. I told her that she can see them again, and she looked at me with the most innocent sweet face and repeated me or something like that, then said, "Kanskje det..." "maybe.." It was so precious. She has a pet bird that just flies around in her house :) it was adorable. I love her!! her name is elli and we are going to visit her again next sunday! :)
I love being her in Tromsø. It is adorable! We saw a couple of days ago a big truck with a sign that said, "Fersk Hval Biff" (fresh whale beef) I am going to NEED to buy some to try it!!!
Well, I hope you all have a great day!!! Dont forget to check that video on dropbox.com !
JEG ER SÅ GLAD I DERE OG SAVNER DERE!!!!!
XOXO
Søster Chapman :)
p.s. Here is my mailing address!
Storgata 12B
9008 Tromsø
Norway
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