Transferred!

hei famile!
guess what!? I got transferred!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am in the California of Norway! KRISTIANSAND! It is the southest area for missionaries, and it is just a sisters area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is actually a senior couple here too, but no elders! And the senior companion in our companionship is Søster Johnson, she was in the MTC with me - in the other district! WAY cool that were together! :)


There are 3 companionships that are like this now, 2 of us greenies together, and were one of them! :) So I found out on Friday morning and left last night, by myself, on a train! It was a little scary, because I was alone and had my whole life in 3 heavy suitcases, but it all worked out!


Søster johnsons last companion is actually on her way HOME now! Crazy huh!? Well I am SO excited to be here!!!!! Kristiansand is where everyone wants to go, i heard :) It is green and the dialect is pretty! And what makes this cool too is that I am still in the same district! They closed an area, that used to be in K-sands district, so now were in stavangers district! So we will travel to Stavanager for Zone Leader Training...oh and Zone Conference is combined with the North Zone next month...and so were all meeting up north in trondheim!!! Im way excited!!!! :)


This week in Stavanger was way cool! We met with a girl, Mina`s friend, named veronica, who we ahve wanted to meet with for a while now! We actually taught her 2 lessons!!! And so now shes an investigator! The work is just going to take off now, because we also got a man to church that walked up to us at the busstop!!!


I am really going to miss stavanger. Last night before I took off, 5 yw came to the train station to see me off.


Annett, the one that i sent a pic of me and her to and said az would love her, made cookies for me and gave them to me :) And Mina Steffonson told us yesterday at the train station that she is starting her papers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She started them yesterday after I left :) She is 22 and had gone on contacting splits with us. I just love her so much and I am SO glad she is going!


It was soooo sad to say goodbye to those yw yesteday, then to the elders, and to my companions.


Ughhh i just cried and cried. okay, not sobbing, but it was really sad. Ingrid, Mina, Trina, Lin, and Annett came. And Minas, trinas, and lins mom was waiting in the car becasue she couldnt park it so i went ou thtere and said goodbye to her. ther efamily, minus mina, had gotten home from the ward temple trip a few hours earlier and still came to say goodbye. I LOVE that family! Anita, there mom, was totallly like my mom here. When we all come to visit norway we are going to come to stavanger and you will all just love them. Anyways, although it was SO sad to leave, I am SUPER glad to be in Kristiansand! Elder Torjeson, our district leader, is actually from here and I love his dialect! and I can understand him easier than people from stavanger . So Im really excited :)


It sounds lik eyou are all doing great! I pray for you all all of the time and I am so thankful to have you all as my family.


Let me think if there is anything else...OH! Su, a new convert as of a little more than a year ago, is so sweet! She gave the other sisters things for there birthdays, but berfore i left, she gave me earrings for my birthday haha and she gave us all matching pins. She is the one from berma! Ah i just love Stavager. But even though I have only been in Kristiansand for a few hours, i think im goin gto love it! The apartment is SUPER cute and modern! (NOTHING LIKE THE STAVANGER ONE haha) And there is only 2 of us :) Ill send pictures next week, i havent taken any yet! But also, there is a Center here in sentrum! Which is SO GOOD! And our apartment is super central. Unlike stavanger. Im just gonna love it here :)


Anyways, i love you all so much! I hope you are all doin ggreat!!!!!!!!!
BTW, here is my new address!!!!


Festningsgata 47 #210
4612 Kristiansand
Norway



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Hei familie!
So this week was just full of miracles! This week could potentially be my last week in Stavanger, but we will see :) transfers are next monday!!! Super crazy!


But lets see what I want to start with. So last monday, once pday was over, we decided to go contacting instead of to FHE with the YSA. I told mom the first story, but i'll shorten it for you all, so that i have time to send pictures, etc. But we were talking to a man, who wasnt that intersted, and a little african walked up to us and asked if we were mormon, and then flat out said, "can i have your book?" Were going to hopefully meet with him this week! haha! He had talked to missionaries in trondheim, so thats cool! So that is what started our miracles! We wanted 2 appointments, and that is exactly what SIster mourik and i got, before even walking around the pond once! hmm...either two apps or 2 numbers...i dont remember exactly what the goal was, but we got it! :) (didnt get all of the apps to really happen, because they didnt all show up, but we still made the appointments with them) but Then Sister Clark and I talked to two 25ish year old men, and they ended up meeting with us this week! Holy cow it was crazy! :)


So then the next day sister mourik, sister clark and I were wating for a bus. We didnt know this at the time, but we were actually waiting for the wrong bus. But that makes this story that much more cool! We were waiting and all of a sudden this man walks up to us and asks if we remember him, we said yes (i didnt really...kinda recognized...but i thought he was actually someone else kanskje haha) But he started talking about how he showed up to the appointment and no one was there, becuase he had the wrong time and day! But something happened with his phone so we couldnt get in contact. So we rescheduled and ended up meetin with him on saturday! He is man from kazachstan who speaks english and russian. He decided that it was time for him to figure out if God is real, etc. So were meeting with him again this coming saturday! :) WAY cool! So, we also took some girls in the ward out contacting, one of them is 22 and LOVED it! Funny story. We started talking to a man on the bench and he was just in love with Mina. He was saying in broken norwegian, "So..if I liked you (poingin to mina)........or you. (pointing to me...tyring to not make it obvious that he liked mina) could we get married, since you are mormon and i am islam?" HAHA! It was so funny. I tried calling him on saturday to remind him to come to church annnndddd he hung up on me. Haha, oh well :\ Hes just not completely prepared!


So also this week, we got kebabed (what they call it if someone doesnt show up, because missionaries would go get a kebab when it happened haha) by someone. We were on our way home and i saw a man sitting somewhat close to our house. So i contacted him, and he said we could jsut teach him right then! We taught him the first lesson right there, sitting on the ground\grass and got an annen appointment with him! We met with him again, saturday morning at his house. It was all smoky in there, but what a sweet guy. Hes probably in his 60s, lives alone, and is from Iran or something like that. He has lived in norway since the 70s? But he told us he doesnt want to join any religion. Were still going to work with him though :) I guess lots of people say they just want to learn and then end up getting baptized, so well see how it goes! He was going through cigarette withdrawals or something during our lesson though, cuz he was chewing on his finger. Poor guy.
But that was a miracle, because our goal was to get one teach that day, and that person kebabed us, but we still got a teach!!!!!!!!! :) The Lord is so aware of us!


Sister Mourika nd I also talked to some people...super awkward about the Law of Chastity, but we were supposed to meet with them and they didnt come, and then we called again and they are having problems (bf and gf) so were still gonna try to meet with the guy, Magne this week. Also, a man that kebabed us a few weeks ago, called us and told us the reason he didnt come was because he didnt have minutes on his phone to cancel. but still wanted to meet! So we met like....40 minutes later at the libraray! and we got a soft baptismal commitment out of him! (if he knows its true he will be baptized) SO COOL! He said, Nei Takk to get baptized at a specific date at this point, but ill let you know what happens with him :)
So then I got to go to a party! haha
well, a member, who hasnt been coming to church often invited us to her bday party, and then kinda made us feel bad if we didnt come, so i went with the senior couple (splits with sister haugen) and the two other sisters went an app we had, that didnt end up working out. But guess what?? it was a PHILIPPINO PARTY! SO I had delicious philippino food! haha! :) I could not be sent to the phillipines, i would get so fat!!!!!!! But it was cool!


My langauge is coming along, i just LOVE norwegian and Norway is my favorite place!
Anyways, like...no one was at church on sunday because it was a stake temple trip (ward maybe?) in sweden. So it was pretty small :) Anyways, I should go so that I can send pics and stuff. But I love you all so much!!!!!!!!
Have a gerat week! I pray for you all all the time :)
Love, Søster Chapman :)






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a little late ... but last week's letter & pics! tons of pics!

Hei!!!!



So this week we gave ourselves 2 hours to email because last week was just too short! But oh my goodness. I have such a list to write to you all!!!
This week was THE hardest week of my mission. And I know why. haha Its because i thought of myselft the entire week. I am the biggest most annoying problem of overthinking, and it just went on steroids. I started thinking, ah my family would think down on me if they knew i thought this, or im such a bad person, or oh no is something wrong with me!? And it was honestly just EATING at me! Satan was just KILLING me this week. I dont think i have ever cried more in a week. I fasted twice, and pretty much never stopped praying...well this was part of last week too. Anyways, Satan just knows exactly where to push my buttons! But last night we watched the missionary broadcast - speaking of, they're going to start having missionaries use facebook now and get ipads in some places..cool huh?! - but after the broadcast I was talking to one of our zone leaders named elder burt. He had been having a hard week\couple days too. So we were just talking and he said the exact thing that i needed to hear, adding on to the exact thing that i needed to hear in the conference. In the broadcast one of the apostles said that the greatest most powerful teacher is the mother. Which relates back to my Patriarchal Blessing, how reading the scriptures will help me be a good mother, and so much more about being a mom. And then Elder Burt said something like this, "When we're going through trials we need to step back and look at why were on our missions. And then step back even farther and look at why we are on earth." It hit me right then. I am here on earth so that I can have my own family, and live with them forever. My children are on the other side of the veil cheering me on and crying when im sad and being my guardian angels. Satan tries to blur our purpose. He tries to make us focus on one silly little thing that doesnt matter. But when we step out of the corner of the picture and see the whole thing, Satan has no power. He cant tell us that our purpose is different. Anyways, still trying to get over this overthinking problem. But that is something that really touched me.


I also came to know the Atonement better this week. It is so insane how the Lord works, I had been praying for charity, humility, patience, a deeper love for the scriptures, and more sincere prayer. And guess what I got? Those exact things from this past week! I have never jumped into the scriptures so much, or begged Heavenly Father so much. I have never had so much patience with a trial. I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord gives us the things that we are asking for. He will do it in a way that will break us til we are almost at rock bottom, and then will build us back up as better people. It is also so interesting how the Lord puts other people in our lives to answer our prayers. Actually, Elder Burt told me that I said something that he needed to hear too. And we were just talking...not trying to really help eachother, but just discussing. This week I have recieved answers to my prayers through my companions and others and I love that. Also, I came to realize that I wasnt even using the Atonement properly. I was asking for Heavenly Father to take away this problem. Then I realized, I need to ask him to give me the strentgth to overcome this. In Mosiah 25 (?) it talks om the burdens were lighter on the shoulders, and then on the morrow it was taken away. We need to pray for the strength to overcome things. We cant just be acted upon, we need to act.


Last week was cool!!! We had the Midnight Sun thing where we got to stay out til midnight! Well we couldnt the actual night of it because it was sunday but we got to the night before, saturday. We went to a members house, the steffonsons - who i love SO MUCH! And we got permission to watch tangled. So we did and ate candy and played games!!! Ahhh it was so fun!! Then the next day, we went to a ward bbq thing at a beach to celebrate it. we didnt stay the whole time but it was fun :)


We also hiked Preikestolen last week!!!!


AHHHHH!


You will all LOVE that hike when you all come here! it was hard, but the coolest thing ever! Im going to send lots of pictures, cant wait for you to see them! :)


Oh, also last last week I fell of my bunk bed. hahahahaa


I was getting down one morning, half asleep and i tripped off my ladder, tried catching myself with my other foot on the couch, slipped, tried catching myself with my hand, and then hit my head HARD on the hard part of the couch. Anyways, my hand was wrapped for a couple days and my head kinda hurt like a headache in that area at times. But i was ok! haha my hand was bruised, but I know that there were angels there that helped me not get as hurt! My comp Sister Clark describes it as in tangled when flynn rider falls out of the cabnet right on his face..hahaha yeah that was me! I was honestly so out of it, because it was like....630ish and i just laid there, stradling the arm with my head on the couch saying, "sister mourik i hit my head, i hit my head sister mourik, ahhh i hit my head." hahahahhaa anyways, im good now! (:



We also went to the HIlls, an american couple, for dinner last week! SHe dated zach buchanon ahahhahaa anyways, they made our choice of something were missing and guess what we had!? CHICKEN POT PIE! haha and salad and fruit! super deilig! heres a hilarious joke for you all that we told there:
I was like, "why did the monkey fall out of the tree?"
"because its dead!"
and brother hill was like "why did the squirrel fall out of the tree?"
"because it was stapled to the monkey!" HAHAHAHAHA! sorry if you dont think thats funny. I almost died it was so hilarious though! hahahahaha
Another thing that was super funny. I was sitting int he back of the bus by someone i didnt know and my comps found seats together so were sitting togethre. we were about to get off the bus when this old guy started talking to them saying, "Praise the Lord" and stuff like that. He was talking really loud and was drunk kanske??? maybe? haha and so i was just sitting there almost bursting out in laughter because he had his arms around the chair around sister mourik! hahahahaha so then they get off and he sees me coming. He looks at my badge and says, "Jesu Kristi?!" and starts saying the same kind of stuff to me! really loud on the bus!!! hahaha so then he continues to talk to me and asked where im from so i get off the bus with him and hes talking to me and my comps. then he screams "praise the lord! praise Jesus Christ!" again and then STARTS BOWING TO US!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA! I almost died laughing!!!! We left like right after that and had to sit on a bench and laugh for a minute or two. ahhh man it was SO funny! The day that we went to the hills for dinner, earlier in the day sister clark had us all contact alone. So i went up to this older guy and ended up getting his number and an appointment with him! I couldnt understand lots of what he said, but anyways got the app with him! so later before we go into the hills, sister clark is talking to him on the phone and i guess he started going off on how impressed he was with me, that he knew i couldnt understand him very well, but that he was so impressed that i was on the street speaking norwegian doing this! hahah and he said that he would meet with us but if he didnt like the gospel he would take me out for lunch! hahahaha sister clark was just on the phone saying, "yeah, shes a good example." it was funny haha
Oh! also last week a recent convert, su from berma, made us sushi! so we sat on the harbor and at it...ahh it was yummy :) anyways, now that ive written a novel haha OH! wait! last last week we met with a less active named juni. the day berfore we met with her or something, our plans were messed up or something so we went through our area book calling people. We foudn a girl named mai, her sister was a memnb3er but she wasnt so we called. WE got ahold of her, but she said oh yeah, heres my sister! so we made an app with juni. when we were meeting with her she told us a story, that sister clark hd to tell us later cuz we didnt exaclty understand during it hahaha, but she had been talking with her sister about how she wanted to start to go to churhc again...baptist, muslim, or mormon. or something like that. and after she said that, the phone ringed. and guess who it was? US! Everyhting is so inspired by the Lord. Not sure if it was exactly when they were talking, but soon after we called her. Ah, we love Juni.


I am loving it more and more every day here in stavanger. IT is just BREATHTAKING here! Everyday i feel like I thikn about how much brookie would love to live here. our family would fit in perfectly! In a little mustard house with flowers by the windows, just walking to sentrum and buying our delicous food from the grocery store, and eating a chocolate bar on the way home. hahaha i miss you all so much! Just so you know mom, this week I read your letters SO much! ugh this week was hard. anyways, I love you all so much! Life is amazing!


Oh one more thing, sister pace, one of the sister training leaders who travels to see us and go on splits came and that was a great experience! anywhooo, i pray for you all daily, actually like...everytime a pray which is a lot! haha
OH! wait! also, i got sick last last week too. My stomach was just all gross so I had to lay down and sleep for a little :\ my companions made me! haha anyways, im good now. I love you all so much!


Jeg vet at Gud er her for hver av oss. Han elsker oss. Jeg vet at vi kan bo med hver andre igjen, for evig! Og jeg er skjempe takknemlig for det. Vi er her på jorden slik at vi kan komme nærmer til Kristus og bli som Ham. Og jeg er veldig takknemlig at jeg er en misjoner i Norge. jeg er glad i menneskene her!
Jeg elsker doker!
Love, Søster Chapman



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First Real Lesson

Hei hei familie!
This week has been pretty good! Actually, pretty stressful haha, but good too! Oh, funny story! So I was eating corn with these fish cake things we get at the store, theyre actually really good haha, and i was finished and going to get more or something. I lifted it over sister mouriks head...and realzed that some of the fish\corn oil spilt. And i just stopped and looked at sister clark with a panicked face and sister mourik said, `Sister Chapman. Did you just drip fish oil on my head?` hahahahahaha! it was so funny. And then i was eating them a little later and I was talking and a chunk of fish flew out of my mouth, INTO her purse! I was just dying because i thought it was so funny!!!
Another weird story.


On Saturdays we have this thing called sport, where we meet with investigators and youth and just play sports. This week we played soccer. And two men that the elders invited came. I was just standing there, minding my own business, when i looked over and one of those grown mean were changing right there! It looked like he had no pants on and he was talking to us or something!!! So I just walked away...super awkward and i looked over and he was just standing there in his underwear!!!!!! This grown man!!!!! On the field! EW! hahahaha az would have died. hahahaha and then while we were playing i was on there team at one point. One of them kept yelling CHAAAAPMAAAAAN! Like how kostya (definitely dont know how to spell his name haha) would have said it. Now sister mourik makes fun of it and says it haha


We had our first real lesson this week! We met with some muslims the first or second week we were here, but that was at centrum...i guess it was a real lesson. But this past week we met with people at the church! 3 muslims haha, but they have potential! Well see! I could feel the gift of tongues while i would say something! And i really felt the Spirit! It was way cool :)
The day after I emailed you last week was Zone Conference. They really focused on becoming a successful missionary and a concecrated missionary. That is a hard thing to do. Putting EVERYTHING on the alter for the Lord. But im really going to strive to do that! Being here in stavanger is like being a missionary for the world! People from all over are here! Also, Stavanger is one of the most expensives cities in the world! Oslo is ranked as number 1 most expensive city in the world! President Evans said that the money that we pay every month doesnt even come close to how much money we need on our missions. Really, each we get about 300 dollars on our cards, for food\transportation and missionary related things! That doesn't include for housing. so crazy! So pretty much, the money going towards brys mission is really going towards me! crazy huh!?


For zone conference sister mourik and i sang Come Thou Fount with me playing the guitar and i think it sounded really good. The YSA room in the church ahs two guitars in it which is cool! and we have one in our apartment.
I started crying\laughing today when i heard a song from our cd player. Some sisters left cds and so we were listening to an efyish one and the song about...oh great. Im forgetting it. haha but the song about how shes on an airplane and they guy says hes athiest...remember? Idk, but mom you would play it on the computre like every Sunday and it made me miss you!
(p.s. theres a older guy sitting next to me in here in the library that keeps looking at me and my screen...weird!) anyways haha


i have to hurry so i can send pictures, but lately i have been studying about angels. I really know that grandma is my guardian angel. The Lord is watching out for us, as missionaries me and bry, but also all of you, so much! There are always angels surrounding us. If you try to feel the angels around you, just like you listen for the Spirit, you can feel them. I know that there are always angels around me helping me. Helping me not be scared, and have courage. Russel M. Nelsons wife said that we can pray for any angel, by name, character, trait, etc. I love that. Also, as missionaries, it is so important to have the Holy Ghost as our Senior Companion. The Holy Ghost knows these people on the street better than anyone!


It is just so sad when we start talking to someone on the street and they say, ` Nei takk! ` I just want to say, NO! YOu NEED THIS! You just dont understand! people think that they are fine, when really they could be so much happier! Anyways, I want to send pictures! so ive gotta go, but i love you all so much og jeg be for dere hver dag! Jeg er veldig takknemlig for dere og at bry er en misjionær og. Han er en eksempel til meg. Gud elsker oss og vi kan bo hos ham igjen, sammen, hvis vi følger Ham.
Ha en bra uke! :)


Love, Søster Chapman





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Hallo Familie!
This week was great!!! I definitely grew this week.


One of the cool things we did this week was one of the girls in our ward asked us to be in a documentary she is doing for school. Its her last project before i think she graduates with a photography major? Anyways, we did it in english, sister mourik and i could express ourselves better in english at this point, and she just asked us different questions about our lives relating to the gospel and about the gospel. I went first and I got asked about my family and other things! They said I did really well, and i totally iknow that i got my tiny bit of talent in that from you mom!! haha, it was way fun! They asked my companions way for doctrinal things like the law of chasity and stuff. It was way cool though and she is going to give us a copy so i'll see if i can get it to you all! We did not have good success with numbers this week, but i do think we brought a lot of people closer to Christ, and that's what really really matters.


This morning during my personal study...holy cow - BEST study i have like...ever had! all of you should read D&C 6! It was exactly what I mean. These past couple days I have been beating myself about things I overthink. And in that section...i think verses 21 and 22 its when the Lord is talking to Oliver Cowdery i think and he says you have already felt that peaceful feeling, isn't a witness of the Lord enough? And that was exactly what I needed!!!!!! It was like the Lord said that to Olvier Cowdery so that I could read it years later. Way way cool! Then towards the end it talks about how if there are 2 or THREE people who go out and preach the gospel, to remember that He is there with us helping. It was so cool :) Cuz there are 3 of us and it just worked so well.


It says if people refuse you, you are blessed and just remember that you can't be hurt more than the Lord...or something like that. And ifyou are, you will life with Him forever! It also says not to doubt or have fear, but to think of Him ALWAYS! You all just need to read it...cuz i'm wording it not so well.
Hmmm let me think. So I just went grocery shopping a little ago and i got salmon and chocolate :) OH my goodess you would all LOVE it here! Brookie - we ride public transporation all the time and we pass really cool things. And I totally think of you so much when we pass different houses. They are mustard, white, brown, coral, etc. Such classy colors. Mom - You would LOVE it here too! Within an hour you can pass rolling green hills with sheep, to the ocean with boats galore, to little shops with cobblestone roads. AHHH! I love it!


You can just ride the bus to get groceries, then ride it home, and on our way home we have a catholic or something church really close to us. When we were leaving today to come to the church the bells...oh wait i think that was yesterday..? anyways, the bells from the churhc were just going non stop. :) It is also WAY nice today outside! It is blue sky! And we can see the ocean from our house!
I feel like my Norweigan is getting way better too! It is so hard to understand though. Sometimes...well like. everytime that we street contact i have to act like I udnerstand what the people are syaing to me hahaha then I let sister clark talk (: I have also done So much better at bus contacting. I think I told you all about teh scripture I read on the bus that motivated me to never let someone go by sitting by my without talking to them. I usually start out with a language question and then it just goes into why im here etc....or i bring it up :) This morning during personal study i got SO pumped up! Sister mourik acutlaly read d&C 6 also...crazy!...and when she was talking i just started ot histericaly laugh and cry because I was SOOOO happy! I was just punched in the face with the Spirit!!!! Haha! It was GREAT!
Caci and Az would LOVE road of shops here...Kiss - the band was actually here 2 days ago, and we were eating a kabob (our trainer buys them for us our first time...yummmy!) where all the shops were and people had there faces painted like kiss! haha (: But its kinda like a little italy! cobblestone roads and different shaped shops all smooshed together :) Anyways...hmmmm...let me think if there is anything else. Oh, EVERYONe think i look like miley cyrus here. Haha, we were eating at a members house yesterday and the girl, annett said that the first day i met the young women, everyone was saying how i looked like miley cyrus hahaa (: And yesterday was actually stake conference! It was a broadcast from sweden for all of scanidnavia. President Monson was supposed to be there -but his wife and all :( - so he just had a little recording. But M. Russel Ballard Spoke and it was Amazing! they are really pusshing for members to be missionaries. :)
Anyways, hmmm idk what else to talk about! It is hard being in a new city - bc all of us sisters are new here. We have to figure everything out kinda...which of the progressors are really really going to progress with us, etc. But we are also trying to find to. We have sport every saturday with the youth - where we just play sports with them and they are invited to invite there friends. A gorgrous norweigna girl named mina invited her friend veronica last time and when we were sitting down I started talking to her! And guess what? We have an appointment with her tomorrow on tuesday! :) And we thought she was coming to church yesterday -but she didn't :/ It's way cool here, becuase its really like were teaching the whole world. People from all over the world are in Norway! We meet people from Africa, Germany, and ESPECIALLY the Philippines!!!!!!!! I can always talk to them to, cuz I can say Bry is there RIGHT NOW! haha :) They are SO nice and open too! (the norwegians are not always as open). Life is so good though :) Ahhhh I love it here. :) So my comp sister mourik, we call her a hipster because of all this stuff about her. and it made me way happy cuz one of the elders said that I would be categorized as antique! woot woot! haha :)
Another thing, it is SO hilly here. My calves are huge. I think i'm gaining weight in muscle in my legs! .lol, also, I never use heat on my hair- cuz i havent' tried to use my converter yet. Sister mourik tried hersa nd it charged her ipod in like 2 minutes completely and it was hot! She thought it was going to blow up! hahaha anyways, transfers are in a couple weeks, but i am 98 percent positive i am staying here (: they have a 12 week program for us greenies. (: Next week on pday i htink we are hiking Prektastulen (totally not how to spell it) the rock that is in like...all the norway picturwes! (; but that'll be WAY fun! And another week we are going to go on a boat on a fjord :) OH! Another reason why you would all love it here is because of the freshness of the food. Everything tastes amazing. The honey is SO good...veggies, way good (i bought spinach last week...and our fridge was freezing things...so it ruined it and i didn't buy more this week..haha) you would all LOVE it so much here! It kinda reminds me of sitka - but european style (: Anyways, I'll send pics now! I love you all SO much!
Jeg elser dere!
Være trygg!
Og gleme ikke at jeg be for dere!
Love, Søster Chapman


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Hey Everyone! So I'm so sorry If I don't have time to email all of you separately. There are only a few computers in the church and we have to share with the elders in our area too...annnddd I'm in a three-some! (hahaha don't know if thats what its called) Anyways, where am I???


I am in Stavanger!! Its a city on the coast, pretty south. Its south of Bergen and west of Oslo. Sister Mourik and I (from my district with curly hair) are companions with Sister Clark who has been on her mission for 8 months!


I love it here! The weather is SO bipolar! haha today is PERFECT weather. Its blue skies, sunny, a tad windy, and probably in the high 60s low 70s?


But the one thing about Stavanger is that the dialect is INSANE! Instead of rolling their tongues they have a french way of saying their "r"s haha But it's okay! I don't exactly understand people, but Sister Clark does for the most part and so we rely on her a lot. My apartment is not ikea-y but i still love it! It is made for 2 missionaries, so we had to move the couch into our room. haha I have the top bunk and sister m has the bottom. Sister Clark likes the couch!


Lets see...I love my companions and i know it was inspired by God. Also, where I was sent too! She was actulaly just sent from Trondheim and she had been there her whole mission! she did not want to leave because she loved it so much! So we're all trying to figure out everything here. There are 2 other sets of missionarys (elders) and one set of senior missionaries and us here! Elder Whetton, Burt, Holden, and Nash. I love them! They're so fun. So yesterday at church we were planning on bearing our testimonies, but instead they asked us to say the prayers! There are like 150 people at chruch on a good day. haha But i did it and when i sat down, my heart was just pounding like crazy. I felt like I just did something that required so much strenghth! But people are SO nice here and said how surprised they were at us. Sister Mourik gave the closing prayer and that was good! Before sacrament meeting a little girl was talking to us and I said to her something like "vi har vart her for fem dager, sa vi kan ikke snakke norsk vellig bra. Med, vi prover!" (we have been her for 5 days, so we can not speak norwegian very well) and she said, "Dere er skjempe flink!" and that means you are very talented/smart! haha it was so cute. We had dinner with an american family yesterday and that was fun!
We don't have cars or bikes here - we ride public transportation...so - buses! Its different than america i think though. We have bus cards and you hold it up to a thing that doesn't charge it but lets you on the bus? not really idk how to explain it. haha you can get on the bus but you just do that every time. And then we can do bus contacting. Which I am TERRIFIED OF. We did street contacting around a lake/pond in the middle of town. I like that! A lot of people speak english and not norwegian. But when we were talking to someone that I stopped, I had a feeling that even though we may teach lots in english - i willl get the language. (:
I AM SOOOO jetlagged! At first, i would get hungry like...30 minutes after we ate and then every morining too i am just dead. It'll get better though i think.


The chocolate here is AMAZING. the food here is actually amazing. haha I don't understand kroner and celcius and all that stuff really yet...but i'll get it eventually. haha
hmmm, Oh! Just today when I was on the bus to the church I didnt talk to anyone cuz i was in a single seater ( i guess i could have leaned over to talk but...oh well) and so i opened up my scriptures randomly and i opened to alma 5 and the second verse i read said something about how they were called to preach the word to people young and old, etc. And i was thinking before how there was a younger kid next to me and i always think how bus contacting is terrifying and then i got my answer. So...I decided that every time that i'm on a bus and can talk to someone - i will. Bahhhhh so scary.But Christ got rejected so much more than I will. And I'm His representative. Anyways - at the mtc i got a blessing a couple weeks ago and it was said that i was going to be rejected a lot. I know that its true - but i also know that I will also be accepted a lot. Just a thought.
Hmmm...what else. You would all LOVE it here! it actually kinda looks like sitka! Very green and the ocean is near, SOOOO HILLY!
Oh! And my english is going down the drain. Grammar especially. I forgot my first word that I knew in norwegian and not in english...but firgure it out soon after. Ledsager means companion and that was the word. Very exciting (: haha Hmmm...one of the investigators that the other sisters left is named Sylwia (sylvia) and she's from poland. I'm excited about her - we wont be able to teach her until she is finished with her thesis but once we do it will be great. She is from poland so we teach her in english. She wants to know the truth so she is looking into other churches too. But I really hope she'll be baptized. Also, One of the people i stopped on the street is a muslim man named Arafat. We met with him and his friend the next day at the lake...which is actually against their religion to meet with us! But we think he sorta wanted us to hear about his religion too. He's going to give us a karan (?) and we're going to give him a Book Of Mormon. Anywho we'll see how that goes. I don't have much time! BAHHH!
Let me think if theres anything else...Look up stavanger accent and then listen to oslo accent (bokmal) and then you will be able to hear a little bit of my troubles. haha (: Anyways Idk what else to talk about but I love you all sooo much! I'll write more next monday and i'll try to send pictures today! but idk if it will work.
Jeg elsker dere og dere er fantastisk!
love, soster chapman




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Location:Finally in NORWAY !!!!

Leaving for Norway!

FROM SISTER CHAPMAN'S MOM:
Before her mission, we bought Sierra a Tracfone and some minutes so she could call us from the airport. Knowing there are limited payphones these days in airports, we thought that was the best way to do things. I still think so, even though it was a bit of a stress making sure her phone was activated. We didn't want to activate it before she left for the MTC because it's just not appropriate for a missionary to have a phone; So Monday morning was a little stressful for me, trying to activate her phone from here, but being unable to do it because you have to be in possessions of the phone to activate it. So anyone sending a missionary out ... I say go ahead and get it activated and don't worry about it ... at least you know they'll be able to call you as soon as they're ready at the airport!

So Azure and I spent Memorial Day morning alternately cleaning the house and praying that Sierra would be able to activate the phone. When my phone jingled and an unknown number popped up we were so excited! I picked up the phone:
"SIERRA!"
"Hi mommy", sob, sob, sob. On both ends. We're cryers.
"Hey baby .. we miss you. But WOW! This is so exciting!"
And then we put it on speaker phone and plopped down on the floor to chat.


It was glorious. Her MTC experience was all we knew it would be. And true to Chapman form, she loved the food there :) She ranted and raved about her amazing district, her perfect companion, her great teachers. She told us all about her district in Norwegian. We talked about feelings, tender feelings. It was so fun to hear her voice as she recounted some of the funny experiences she'd written about. We laughed and we cried.


I'm a big cryer, yes. But Azure was worse :)
We knew we had to share her time as the family, this day, was all over the United States. She got to talk to everyone, including grandparents, except for Bryan. Boy! that will be a great reunion when they're both home from their missions! Bryan and Sierra were pretty much raised as twins ... they grew up doing absolutely everything together: weaning from bottles, getting drivers licenses, dating ... really, everything.

Anyway, we got to speak with her while she was at the Salt Lake airport and then again at DFW. And yes. It was killer hard saying good-bye when she was boarding the plane for London. Plus, Azure and I were in Target at the time (a good distraction ... hehehehe). So teary-eyed, we exited the store and decided again to totally spoil each other.

We're so excited for Sierra. Oh! An interesting point: She's traveling to Norway with 4 elders and 16 other sisters. There are currently only 12 sister missionaries in Norway. This means those already there will be doubling up on training and many companionships will actually consist of 2 new sisters and one seasoned sister. Can't wait to hear where and with whom Sierra is serving! (PS - she hopes to start out in Bergen ... we'll see!)


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