called to serve

Min kjære familie!
Det høres ut som alt går kjempe bra hjemme. Jeg har hatt det skikkelig fint her i Trondheim! Selv om det er ganske varmt og fuktig. Det er så mange mirakler som vi må finne!
This week was pretty eventful. On Monday ( I was still in Tromsø with Sister Rupp ) And we went to the Reynolds house and played in the playground with the kids :) Good pday!
On Tuesday we taught Kim and William, the two Ugandans that have baptismal dates! It was fun to teach them and talk about Joseph Smith. I love showing The Restoration, the one part that I love most is when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir starts singing "Oh How Lovely Was the Morning" and he goes out into the grove to pray. Thats the part we showed them. The Spirit can be so strong during that. Then we had the Norwegian class and I learned a few greek words from some of the students :) I love being in Norway because we literally teach the entire world! Then we had Enrichment! We made birthday cards for the primary :) They were so cute. The members in Svalbard, well the wife, taught the lesson over Skype and then we gathered around the computer while making the cards to talk with her as we made them. We also had treats after and there were a good show of people! Janne (eternal investigatr that is pretty much a member but hasnt been baptized), Lil, Sister Reynolds, then us missionaries and Sister Gerez on Skype. :) Tuesday was a good last day in Tromsø! We also had to finish packing later that night and get everything ready to go. Sister Rupp was going home and I was heading to Trondheim!
The next morning we woke up and finished all the last minute things and put our luggage in the Crabtrees car and caught the bus to the airport! Sister Rupp and I both flew to Oslo, then we said goodbye, when she went to the left to stay in Oslo for a day and I turned to the right to get on a connecting flight to Trondheim. I was nervous and kind of stressed about thigns. But I prayed and sure enough the Lord answered my prayers. There was always enough room for my carryon! My bags were exactly the right weight or a little over and they didnt make me pay extra. The bag I had to pay for was 200 kr less than i thought! The Lord really passet på meg.


When I arrived in Trondheim a nice man helped me with my bags to the airplane bus...(flybuss) and then I waited for the sisters at the busstop. They had to go get Sister Oldham from the trainstation first. It was so good to see them all! I living with Sister Robbins now too!!!! IT IS SO FUN! I missed her so much. We contacted to get Sister Oldhams bus card refilled, and contacted more and ate dinner that night. Its crazy becuase we are starting from the basics. Needing to read what the other sisters left us and get to know the town and people. Luckily we have SIster Roe that is Sister Robbins comp that has been here for 2 or so months. We saw a miracle that night. After we got out of the place to refill sister Oldhams bus card, we stood around it talking to people. Those people werent very positive, but it is because we talked to those pepole that the timing was right and we met a girl that the Sisters had visited before that is the sister of an investigator we have that is going to get baptized!!! It was such a miracle! We got an appointment with them later in the week :) It is also such a tender mercy that I was here a couple weeks ago for a few days so that I am a little more familier with the city! It was such a tender mercy to have gone from the airport to the busstop in the city, because I knew what I was doing and wasnt nearly as stressed.


On Thursday we did weekly planning and then went and visted a less active we have on our list. Her name is Turid and her sons name is Øyvind. She made us norske vafler and saft and we sang to them! Sister Oldham and I both love to sing so we made a goal to sing to someone everyday! We havent done it everyday yet...but we are going to try! We visited another less acitve that night and sang the same song "Lord, I would follow Thee" på norsk and then gave her the words because she like them a lot. :) I love singing, and I believe it really brings the Spirit!


We saw SO many miracles! We were in the church and decided that we could either contact or go inside and do more weekly planning. We contacted. With the guidance of the Spirit we turned towards a girl riding a bike...and guess who it was? It was the sister of our investigator we saw the day before!!!!! And I even saw her on Friday too! Afterwards, we saw an investigator that I had tried visiting with Sister Burns when we went on splits! And THEN (really, this is just miracle after miracle after miracle!) we were walking and saw a man and son almost running with a broken suitcase and bag on top of it trying to get home. We helped them home and as soon as they got inside the building, children ran down hugging their dad! It was so cute. Its a language barrier and we are not sure if we will teach them, because we asked if we could come back the next day and did, but the mom didnt seem so interested (mostly the language problem) but we gave them a picture book :) It was such a miracle! AND THEN we were going down the stairs and guess who lives in that exact building? HEM! You dont know who that is..haha, but it is the investigator with the baptismal date, the sibling of the girl we kept seeing. Oh it was such a miracle! He wasnt home so we left a note. :)


On Friday we tried visiting that family, but it didnt really work out very well. We will be bringing a book in their language that we are going to try to make at some point. But then we met with 2 people from Uganda. This teach broke my heart because he was not ready and told us that, and the girl told us that she had seen Joseph Smith movies, etc. but doesnt have time to come to church or meet with us, but she knows he is a true prophet. Oh it hurt my heart...but they will be ready one day! That night we went out and tried visiting a less active, but instead decided to bank. Well, we had to catch a bus to get home by 9, but really wanted a teach. We prayed and decided to show faith that we would get a teach and be home by 9:30. So we went and tried knocking on doors. No one was interested. We were about to go back to the bus to catch the one that came home at 9...but talked to a girl walking a dog first. It took like...5 minutes to get this dog to settle down! It jumped out of its collar and was going crazy. Finally sister oldham was on the ground petting it and the lady was also sitting on the ground. So we talked with her and ended up teaching a lesson right then and there. We are going to meet with her again on Wednesday! IT was such a miracle! She is originally from the Netherlands but has lived her for about 8 years. It was an amazing miracle and she is so prepared!!!


Saturday, we had sport and a family from Stavanger was visiting! So good to see them. :) And then Sister Oldham and i went out banking in kind of the same area as the day before. This was kind of a tough day for me...okay pretty tough. I had people on the street insulting my norwegian and i just got fed up with it...BUT we got 2 referrals from a boy whose house we knocked on! And then we went back to the city and taught a boy Sister Oldham had talked to on the bus the day before. His name is Christ Marco. We went and sat on the grass in a park and taught him. Boy has he had a hard life. But he believes in God and we are going to teach him again this week. It is so special to be able to bring the HAPPIEST message in the world to people! That Jesus is the Christ and our Savior and Redeemer and that the ENTIRE truth is here today!!! We went out contacting that night and I was still having a tough day. Sister Robbins had tossed me a small chocolate bar before going out and I was carrying it. I dont know why I didnt just eat it or put it in my backpack...but there was a reason. We went over to a man surrounded by little children playing around him. (they were all from the Middle East) and we wanted to talk to him, but he didnt really understand. The children did though! I was going to give him a card, but instead all of the children saw the cards I had and wanted one. There were probably 11 or so! And I gave a church card to almost all of them. And then they saw the chocolate bar and they asked me for it! haha, so I gave it to them and the other children told me I was the one that had to break it up for them to share. I opened it and it was starting to melt and one kid grabbed it and started licking it! Hahaha he gave it back and I broke it into pieces and gave a piece to each of the kids. The same kid that licked the chocolate took the wrapper, licked it and gave it back to me...hahaha. I know this doesnt sound like some huge miracle. But it was a huge tender mercy for me. The Lord was watching out for me and it made me feel so happy to see those kids so happy. :)


Sunday was church! My first sunday in a ward for a couple months! Most of the ward is on vacation...becasue that is what they do in Norway haha :) But we were able to meet some of them, and visitors! Out of 8 missionaries, 5 of us were new coming in. So they had all of us bear testimony and introduce ourselves in Sacrament Meeting. :) I already love this ward and this area! Sister Oldham is also so great. I am so glad we get to serve together. I felt before we got here that it was going to be good. :) We have the same goal and the same desire. I am really excited to see how this transfer (or 2) goes!!! It is already FULL of miracles! Aftwer we bore testimony, the man leading (not in the bishopric...they were all gone!) said that we were expecting a lot so they were going to have to keep up that standard! Later in the day we went and visited an investigator named Aref. And then we visited Urmilla (Hems sister) and her mom. Her mom was sick and she also had a friend over. We sang "I am a child of God" to them and taught about the Book Of Mormon. And are going to meet with them all (including the friend) this week. :) It was so funny, this happened a few days ago, but Sister Oldham called a less active couple, and the Spirit definitely guided her to say this, but I thought it was hilarious! They are really musical and she told them that we are practicing a song and we want to sing it so someone so that they can help us with it, and asked them if we could sing it for them! haha, so we will be doing that to go visit some less actives! We printed off some songs last night and to finish comp study practiced those. I love music and it has become more of a way I feel the Spirit since Ive been on my mission. :)


My health is doing better. I am pretty sure it is just stress. I am working on not being as stressed, so dont worry about me! I will be okay. :) The Lord is watching out for me!


I love you all so much and I will send some pictures in a little bit! We live SUPER close to the domkirke (remember the picture I sent last august of me in front of a huge gorgeous church? thats the one!) and right close to the river. :) I have been so blessed to be by water my whole mission! (not like its hard to be in Norway) ;)
jeg elsker dere!!!
xoxo
love, Søster Chapman


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