GREAT WEEK

Good week! :)
Dear family,





WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE!? (just so you all know, I havent moved to Trondheim yet. I move on Wednesday! I just got to find out early.) But this week has been full of packing, trying to get rid of stuff, and seeing my companion pack for going home. She is done with her mission! And you know what that means? I am in the next group to go home....weird!!! Time is going so fast!
This week was SO good! Miracles happened and we were so blessed!!!
I sent a couple of pictures from last pday, but I will explain more now :) We went up to a Cable Car like thing...called the fjellheis. It takes you up the mountain so that you can see the entire island and around it! (its on the actual land, not island). And it was absolutely gorgeous! The Lord blessed us with perfect weather! We hiked around, took lots of pictures, there was still a patch of ice/snow that I sent a pic of last week! And we hiked around a little bit! The Crabtrees took the fjellheis back down, but we hiked. It was pretty steep but so beautiful! We taught a lesson to an amazing investigator named Taridzo from Zimbabwe! He is so cool and so humble. He believes strongly in the Bible, but is so open to there being another book from God. He sees how it matches up with history and with the things written in it. I really just want everyone to just TRY this. Just TRY THIS EXPERIMENT to see if this is true! It wont hurt! I know that if we try, read, and pray with a sincere heart and real intent, ALL will come to know that IT IS TRUE and that the fulness of the gospel is on earth today! The entire, amazing truth is here!





On Tuesday we had District Meeting on skype with the Alta Elders, and then we ate lunch that Sister Crabtree made afterwards :) We taught a man named Espen, a film producer...or something like that. This was an awkard teach...i really dont like awkwardness...but it happens! That night we were inside doing some weekly planning (preparing for the elders to take over our area) and it started pouring rain. There is also construction going right by our house, so we heard some loud banging and thought it might have come from that, but it was THUNDER AND LIGHTNING! That is not common in Norway! It was so exciting to have a huge storm! (tender mercy for sister rupp in her last week in Norway :) And so we went out and got DRENCHED!





Earlier that day we went out banking. It amazes me how much the Lord directs our paths. We got led to a door on a huge appartment complex (i had read dads story about the ankou family (?) I cant remember the name, but when he knocked on lots of doors and then found this family and baptized them later, to sister rupp this week...and we wanted to go to an appartment complex!) So we knocked on a door and this lady answered it. She just said, "Det er en skikkelig dårlig dag!" (its a horrible day!) and closed the door. She needed something. So we got out a MB, highlighted a couple verses, and wrote a note on a sticky note and left it outside of her door. I know it will help her, and I hope she calls us or gets in contact with the church soon in her life!











SUPER funny story!!! So, during the thunder storm, we didnt really know it was thunder yet, Sister Rupp saw the man that lives across from us. We call him Billy Mac...dont know his name and we have never talked to him. We love him though! Sister Rupp wanted to get a video of him...HAHA! This sounds so awkward. And it is, the story is hilarious! So she was hiding, trying to video him in the corner of the window...and he had left and she was just talking into her camera waiting for him to go to the window again, and all of a sudden, he opened the door and looked right at her!!! HAHA! She got it on tape and we both just died! She said, "I HAVE TO TALK TO HIM!" Because if she didnt it would have been super weird. So she went out on our balcony and asked if it was thunder. ...nice cover up. It was a tender mercy! HAHA! Oh it was so funny!


Wednesday was a super good day too! We went out on a walk on a dock that morning and saw, starfish and fish, and probably some jelly fish too...but we saw OTTERS! One just ran across the dock we were on and we followed it. It looked kind of like a river otter...i dont have that good of a relationship with them...but this one was a weird little otter from the ocean that lives under an old shack at the end of the dock! It was crazy, and of course we didnt have our cameras and havent seen them since. :/ We did weekly planning most of this day. We had to write out all about our investigators and the area for the elders coming in! We had some appointments fall through, and then went out that night and contacted. On Thursday we did some more weekly planning and taught Lena at the church! It was so nice to be able to talk to her once more before we leave. She is so great and we were able to talk to her about families. :) I love her! A little later we talked in the hallway with 2 converts (both from Congo) about missions. They can go on missions now and we committed them to continue praying and to start praying to know if they should go. It was awesome to talk to them about how amazing missions are! We had the Norwegian class, and then met with Taridzo. And then a man named Kim that we had met 2 nights before! He is A MIRACLE! He is from Uganda and we talked with him, he called over his friend (brother) and we got an appointment. He used to be muslim in his land, but wants to know about Christ. He said that the only things that he knows or has heard is that Christ is the Son of God and that He died for us. It was humbling to be able to teach about just WHO Christ is. For the closing prayer I said a few words and he repeated after me, like we do in primary. That is a moment I will never forget. He is coming to know his Savior and I get to be a part of it. :)


Tangent I want to go on: Something that I have learned this transfer is that it is hard to show everyone your love. I feel like my love has grown tremendously on my mission, but I have also realized that some people dont feel it. And the way I show it doesnt mean much to them. That has really made me sad in the past little while. There are some sisters in this zone that I truly LOVE so much and they dont really believe it or feel it and it breaks my heart. I didnt ever really think about that before...but it makes sense. Because Jesus Christ, with PERFECT love, was rejected. People refused to feel His love. It just hurts so bad. I have also thought a lot in this past while about my future family. I am thankful that I will be able to have a family to love and I truly believe that they will be able to feel how much I love them. That is my greatest desire on my mission, to help people feel the Saviors love (and to bring them to Him through baptism of course).


Friday we went out banking. We also were able to get a bag of candy and everytime someone answered their door and we talked to them, we ate a piece of candy :) haha We met with Bari and Marzie aftwerards and Marzie is going to be baptized on August 30th!!!!!!!! SO exciting! Bari is a less active from Afghanistan. They both used to be Muslim. And she believes in Christ as Gods Son now. :) Ahhh I LOVE them! We met again with Espin that night and then with Kim again!!! William came this time and we talked with them about Christs life in more detail, going through pictures and scriptures. They are both going to be baptized on August 30th also!!! Such a MIRACLE! William is Christian and wants to know how to live. It realized a little earlier in the day that Sister Rupp had lost the key card to the church...and we couldnt find it...so after the teach, the Crabtrees drove us to Bari and Marzies so that we could see if she dropped it as we to the bus. The Crabtrees that it was useless, but didnt tell us that, but that is what they were talking about when we got out to look for it...and all of a sudden they saw us both start jumping up and down and waving our arms! We found it! It was a miracle! It was run over and got a little cracked, but it still works! It was so exciting! This was a day of MIRACLES! :)
Saturday we went to Kvaløya and decided to go back to a specific house. It was the preacher from a church called Jesu Kirke. we have met like....3 or 4 of the members (out of 30ish) since Ive been here, so we watned to go back to the lady preacher and talk to her. So we prayed and talked about what we were going to say and although we were nervous...we went there! She was outside gardening and we talked for a second...and asked her about her church. She had us come and sit down on a table in her yard and told us. She didnt grow up learning about Christ as a child, and she wanted other children to be able to learn about Christ. That is how the church came to be. It was a tender story. We were able to talk about things that we believe in too, and I think it showed that we really are here to share the happy message about Christ. We actually believe very similarly! I know someday she will learn more about the gospel. :) Sister Rupp got stung by a bee on her foot as we talked with the preacher lady.





We met AGAIN with Kim and William! And we talked about the Book Of Mormon :) Then we went to Lill Kittys house. it was nice to talk with her and then share a message! She really is SO sweet! I love her! At the busstop, we realized that it was saturday and the busses dont come as often. But another miracle happened. A girl named Elie from France came and we talked. She was super interested inthe Book Of Mormon and I gave her one and asked if we could meet. We got her address and email and I really hope I can meet with her before I leave. Im not sure if thats going to happen though. :/ But I talked with her the whole bus ride back to the city and we believe in so much of the same things! She is so cool and I am so thankful that I was able to meet her! There are so many prepared people in the world! The Lord directs us so that we are in the right place at the right time to meet the right people!!! We taught Joseph, who we havent been able to teach for a while now! Nice to see him and then say goodbye. Im sure Ill have contact though!


Sunday morning was MOVES CALLS! I knew what was happening with me...but not positve about my comp and who I would be living with. (there are four sisters in Theim) And I was praying for the exact thing to happen, that is going to happen. SISTER ROBBINS IS GOING TO BE IN TRONDHEIM TOO!!!! Oh I was SO excited! Sister Oldham (from the MTC with me) is my companion! It is going to be so fun! I am super excited! :) We had Relief Society this week and then I gave a talk. Sister Rupp did too. I had a good idea of what I was talking about, but Sunday morning I didnt think that was right. I tried something else, but I was just not finding what it was I should talk about. Finally it all worked out. I talked about how we can write the Atonement more in our hearts. (a talk by Linda K. Burton in 2012.) There was about 30 people in church, some being visitors, Jannes family came, the Reynolds, John, Ole, Lill, Roger, and Kim! And of course all of us missionaries. :) The elders asked me the night before to sing a musical number with them, a surprise for Sister Rupp. We sang God Be With You Til We Meet Again. I didnt get to practice with them, becasue then Sister Rupp would know...but Az would have laughed so hard. They are great great elders...but it was absolutely a wreck. Hahaha it was not tuned exaclty right. I kept singing, but almost started laughing. I looked at Sister Rupp and I almost died. I hoped that it looked like I was going to cry. Sister Rupp didnt see I was about to laugh, so thats good. But I prayed during the song that I wouldnt laugh and I tried thinking of sad thoughts. Oh it was horrid. haha and kind of embarrassing! But hahhahaa oh it was so funny!





After church we had a potluck and it went really well! We got pictures with people too. I just LOVE this Branch and this city!!! We took a bus to Hamna, left a card with a note on it for a potential family that wasnt home and came back and did some more preparing for the elders (both of which I know)!
This was an amazing week! I LOVE TROMSØ!!!!!!!! And I am going to miss it so bad. I was so amazingly blessed to serve here. Really, SO blessed. I know that this is where I needed to be and now its my time to go to Trondheim!
Have a great week and I will talk to you all next week!


LOVE, Søster Chapman :)



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