Well, it's September! The leaves are changing colors and falling! Everything is changing! Including where I am serving! I have been released at Sister Training Leader (President is having there only be 2 STL companionships) and I am moving to Nordstrand - a suburb of Oslo! Its exciting, but also sad and unexpected. Its crazy that I will be spending my last 6 weeks in another area! I am going to be with Sister Buhler, one of the sisters I went on STL splits with her in Trondheim. She is adorable and her dad is the inspiration for Ferris Buhlers day off! haha! Anyways, Ill talk more about this throughout the email. :)
Last Monday was a good pday! We went to a thrift store and Fretex (another thrift store) and bought awesome things! I am starting to get you all presents, so if you want something specific, just say so...but i have pretty good ideas for some of you. :) Then that night we went to an adorable restaurant (really expensive...like 100 bucks a plate) with Elder Christiansen from the 70, his family, and a NTNU leader. He bought all of our meals. We all started with Seafood soup, then our main dish. I got reindeer! It was good...not as good as sushi though. :) We had salad with it and then blueberry cheesecake :) It was SO GOOD! The restaurant was in this old smal building, and then you go out into a little courtyard and you go into another building to get into the room to fit all of us! It was so cute! (I think that mom got a picture from Elder Christiansens daughter).
Tuesday was a great day! We had a STL conference call to prepare for the Sisters Conference happening this coming weekend before the Elder Bednar Conference. And then we had a teach with Håvard! I love teaching him! He is so open to try things and is seeing results from that. That is what we ask and promise people! I know that if people will ACT IN FAITH, results will come! We went out to an area where we were going to teach a man and contact a referral and neither were home. That night we went out to a members home, the Smiths, and were able to share a thought about miracles with them. Which is actually something we shared with the missionaries at a Zone Conference we had this weekend. Ill talk morea bout that later though.
On Wednesday we went to go and buy all the food for the Zone Conference! We dont have a senior couple yet, so the money was put on my card and we went and got the food! We headed back and then ate with Majken, one of my favorite members here in Trondheim!!! Then we taught an investigator named Hunk on Skype. He is living in China right now and told us he had been reading! I love faithful people that are really searching!!! We taught Hem that night, about keeping the Sabbath Day. Money is so important, so work is too. But I know so much that by keeping the SDH and by paying tithing, etc. EVERYTHING will be okay! And not even okay, but GREAT and better than it would have been! Afterwards we went out again to that area we went to the day before. Tore, the man we wanted to teach, wasnt home. But we contacted the referral (grandparents of someone in the ward) and they werent interested. But I knwo that it was a seed! And later in life more will come. :)
Thursday was also good! We did weekly planning and then went and visited Rupa, Hems mom. She only speaks Nepali...and no english or norsk. So...we showed her a part of a youtube video of a lady in the church speaking Nepali about the church. It was good. We sang to her and I know that she loved that. :) She is so sweet! That night we went and visited an investigator named Jostein! I told you a little about him before. But this time we washed his windows with Majken! And then got to pick apples for us to eat off his apple tree and rips berries! It was so sweet! he loved that we were so willing to help. And we are going to help again this week. :) He also played his norwegian violins for us! So cool! I love serving in Norway!
Friday was our Zone Workshop! President and SIster Evans came, along with the Assistants. It was a great workshop. It was from 10 to 4 and all the zone came. It was about planning and member work. We did practicalling and listened to the APs, ZLs, and President and Sister Evans talk. And Sister Oldham and I were asked to prepare something about Member work. We had made up an acronym about what to do at a members house, or in better words what to share. it is MATCH.
Miracle
Ask for help
Their experience
Commit
Help by following up
IGNITE MEMBER'S FIRE
We taped a match to it to, so it was like a little Relief Society handout :) haha, but it went way well! Thats what we did with the Smiths earlier in the week and it worked so well! I love getting all together with the zone! And I learned so much about how I can do better with planning.
At the end of lunch President asked to talk with me and told me that I was going to get released, move, and who my comp would be! I am sad...I am sad that Im leaving and that I am not STL anmore. But this is just the next step of this journey! I told President that I will have experienced all of Norway now! After the meeting we had dinner and went to go and find an investigator the sisters had before we got here. We went and found a lady named Wenche. We taught her and got an appointmetn with her, for tonight actually. I have learned in this past transfer that we can be teaching ALL THE TIME! Not just when we have an appointment scheduled, but wherever we are!
On Saturday, Sister Oldham and I went and visited Bestemor and her husband, then traveled back and Sister Robbins and I got to skype SERGE!!!! It was SO good! And he is doing better than I thought. He knows this is true and still reads in the MB. :) He went to church a couple of times in Switzerland (lives in Italy now), but he doesnt feel very comfortable. That makes me sad.. but I know that the Lord is watching out for him. And he promised to go to church once in September! (it is an hour away!) He is SO GREAT!!!! I LOVE HIM! Then....AKWARD! We were late for an apointment we had with a member family named the Andersens. We showed up...and guess who was there!? THE ELDERS! It was so awkward walking in, seeing them, then we had to leave to catch a bus to get to our appointment. We rode the bus with his wife though, and got to know her. :) Then we taught Jing! The chinese family we found knocking! It is hard teaching someone with NO Christian background. She asked a lot of "WHY" questions. And that caused me to think. She said, "well if you love your families so much, why arent you spending all the time you can with them now?" It was hard to answer those questions. but all went okay and we got a return apointment to come back the next day. :) That night, the sisters bought ice cream, candles, cookies, and soda and we sat on the rug in our living room and ate it right before goig to bed, listening to Sister Oldhams ipod. Then we pulled out 2 matresses and had 2 couches and slept out there together. I love these sisters!
Sunday, we first, decorated Myhrens door (a member) in the church to his office (for his birthday!) and then we had moves call. I am the only one leaving, and Sister Hunt, from my MTC group, is coming her with Sister Oldham! Church was great, Hem, his wife, children, mom and sister came to church! Some left early though. But it was SO great they came! After church we brought cake to Myhren and sang to him and ate it with him. :) It was so great. But when we were making the brownies, I had put WAY to much water in (changing deceleters to cups is sometimes confusing...) and so sister oldham fixed it by adding lots of cocoa and stuff haha, it was great though!!! And then we went and taught Jing again! It was a better teach than the day before and we brought a movie we were going to watch, but didnt have the time or something, but the little boy remembered (his name is waynie) and asked for it. So we gave him finding faith in Christ and he got ready to watch it! She committed to pray! It was great! she just doesnt understand the need to rely on someone else, when you should rely on yourself. Every person and family needs this HAPPY message! After Jing, we went to the Mckenzie familys house for dinner! We ended up missing the bus, and then missing the train to get there (with Sister Mckenzie) so the elders drove us. What a good family! They actually lived in Henderson until 2008! And they know the Udalls and the Spencers and others. So fun, huh? It was so nice being with them and having dinner with them too. :)
I love Trondheim and am sad that Im leaving...but it will be an adventure! My emotions are up and down. I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!! But randomly my heart will be jabbed and it just breaks to pieces. Like a second ago, we were on the mission website and looking at plans for baggages and leaving. And what the APs said for me was....
Chapman Take your baggage with you to the mission home. After all the conferences, you will travel back to the mission home to retrieve your baggage and take it with you to Nordstrand.
#MATCH #reliefsocietyhandouts #makemiracleshappenonelasttime
My heart is so sad. I love being a missionary and woudn't trade it for anything in the world. And I would NEVER EVER trade where I have been on my mission. I think I have always meant to be a Norwegian. :)
I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!! This is going to be a crazy week! But I will write next week!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!
STOR KLEM,
Søster Chapman :)
P.S. My new address is...
Breiens Vei 1H
1165 Oslo
Norway
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