Hello Everyone!





This week has been a lot different than others, and this is going to be a pretty short email because of it...sorry!
I am so thankful for you all though, and for all of the prayers. Thank you!
Monday was the longest day of the year! So that night we went and had a Branch Party on Kvaløya! It was GORGEOUS! the only thing was, was that the sun wasnt out and it was kind of chilly. But we played frisbee, volleyball, soccor, etc. with some of the people that came :) it was so fun! We had norwegian hot dogs, desserts galore, and it was just so fun! One of our investigators also came! It was a success! :) Then we got permission to go out at midnight to see the midnight sun. We went to sleep then woke up at 11:35 and went out to a bridge to take pictures! It was so cool! I will send the pictures a little later :)











I thought it was absolutely insane that people lived after 9:00 pm. It was after midnight and people were eating in restaurants and walking down the streets! It was a little sad because the sun wasnt really shining, but you will get the idea of it with the pictures. It was still bright outside!


On Tuesday morning we flew bright and early to Trondheim for Zone Conference. It was SO good! We are focusing on using the Book Of Mormon now and that is something that I have needed. During ZC i went to another room with Sister Storheim, who is a nurse and a senior couple, and her and sister evans talked to me about my health. It was decided that I would take a few days of "sick leave". And spoiling the story, I did that and the sickness caught up to me. I have been so fatigued this week! But my energy is coming back! Enought about my health.








Anyways, Zone Conference was great! Then we got a plane later that day and got home!
The rest of the week is boring. I have slept in everyday. Pretty much everyday have I slept in until 10 or 11 ish. I am sick of sleeping now! But Sister Rupp and I have just relaxed. I have watched 17 miracles, Mormon Messages, I have read lots of the Relief Society book, Daughters in my Kingdom, or something like that, etc. It has been nice being able to rest and get better. If you could all pray for my health it would be highly appreciated. Its been kind of rough this week, and I need lots of prayers.
Anyways, we taught just a couple of lessons and we actually had an amazing one last night!








We met a girl named Yvonne a couple weeks ago. She is norwegian and I think I wrote about her last week! Anyways, she didnt come to church yesterday, but we talked with her at about 7 last night. She is 21 years old and is searching to know if God is real. Last time, we committed her to pray. She said that she had prayed and each time she prays, she feels comfort. Towards the end of the lesson she opened up and told us that after she prayed she would just start crying. She didnt know why and it was really weird! But it felt good at the same time. Oh it was SO cool to hear that! We told her it was the Holy Ghost. And committed her to ask God if He is there. It was amazing! After the lesson we just talked for a little bit. She has had a rough life, but it was so fun just talking to her about things that didnt really matter. About dialects, school, etc. I LOVE HER!
Life is really so good!


Tomorrow we are going to Oslo for a Leadership Meeting! That will be fun. :)
Since this is so short, I thought I could share a little bit about what I have been studying this week. A lot of it has been about pioneers. As I said, I watched 17 Miracles, and I have been reading the RS book. the pioneers were AMAZING! I cannot believe all of the hardships they went through. But at the same time, there were SO many miracles that occurred. I know thats how everything works. Hard things happen, we excersize faith, and miracles come. I think gratitude is something I can always work on. Its hard to think of things I am greatful for, when other hard things are on my mind. But that how miracles come. Anyways, the pioneers were SO strong. I saw a picture in a Liahona and ripped it out. It is a painting of Emma Smith with her children climbing all over her. I dont know who painted it, but it is one my favorites. I LOVE IT! I hope you can all see it at some point!











Im sorry this is so short! Not much happened this week, but the Lord is watching out for me and for all of you.
I pray for you all everyday.
Love you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love, Søster Chapman :)


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MIDNIGHT SUN

Kjære alle sammen!
I hope you all had a great week! This week was a little more rough than others. I am not doing so well with my health. I told mom and dad, but when I get more information Ill let you know. Nothing to be worried about, just been sick pretty much my whole mission and its really annoying! But Ill be going to the doctor this week hopefully and getting some medicine. (norwegian doctors are not very good...) But it will be better than nothing!
Anyways, last p-day we went on a little hike with the Crabtrees. We went up to the Ski-jumps, saw the reindeer that the university is studying, and then went and fed the ducks at a lake. It snowed that day, like I said! So it was REALLY weird weather! But I loved it!


Tuesday we had district meeting and we at a delicious lunch afterwards that Sister Crabtree made. It was a super cold blustery day, and she made homemade breadsticks and chicken noodle soup. Oh it was perfect. Afterwards, we contacted in the cold weather and found a man named Rahim and brought him back to the church. He is from Iran(?) and we were able to talk to him for a little while about the church. He said the closing prayer and afterwards he just started crying. He told us how his dad had passed away 2 years ago, and he is the best man he knows. I love being able to tell people that they will see their family again. He believed it before, but there is a power in saying it to someone else that strengthened my testimony. We had language study that night and it of course went well :)


On Wednesday we met again with an investigator named Livia, from Romania! Sister Crabtree came and we talked to her about Gods nature. She has an adorable 5 year old daughter that cant speak norwegian or english, so we communicate through actions, a couple romanian words we know, and faces :) She is so cute! Then we studied Norwegian with an investigator named Karoline. She is 18 years old and is from Tromsø. So she has this strong dialect! She helped us with our norwegian, the dialect here, etc. And then we had a teach with her. I dont know if I have ever been so flat out bold in a lesson. I didnt know her too well...even though I did know things about her, I asked questions. I asked her why she thinks us missionaries ask so many of the same questions about her. And she didnt really answer it. I told her it is becasue we love her and care about her. We want the best for her. Her main concern is her friends and social life. That if she stops drinking, etc. she wont have her friends. I questioned if they were really her friends that they would support her. And she said it just wouldnt be the same. Things that came out of our mouths, didnt come from us that teach. We talked to her about progression. That she could move backwards, plateau, or move forwards. And she needed to pray and figure out her next step. She agreed to meet with us more often. I love her so much!!! She just needs to feel love! And I truly believe that there are sisters up here now because there are a lot of people with HUGE potential that dont just need a buddy and to be taught, but someone that loves them and shows that love. Anyways, it was an amazing teach and the Spirit was so strong that a knife could cut through it. Later that night we taught Tidros, a man from Eritrea! We taught him almost an entire first lesson in Norwegian, and then he told us he would just read the book and come back afterwards because he couldnt really understand a lot. We werent going to let that happen! haha, so we spoke in english to him and he spoke in norsk to us.We taught it from the beginning again! haha and it went a lot better. Oh! I just rememberede something that happened on Wednesday. We had a couple of hours, so we went to Kvaløya to go and visit a potential and see if we could teach them. We were walking there from the busstop and stopped this lady. She was so mean. She went off on how she believes in the "Norwegian God" and all of this stuff against us. How we think were doing good but were not is how I felt her comments were headed towards. Anyways, she said MEAN things. Afterwards we bore our testimonies to her and we walked away, towards the potentials house, and i broke down. I just started crying. Sister Rupp and I went from talking about how rude that was, to how Jesus Christ felt that times a billion. That we, as missionaries, feel them not reject us, but reject Christ. It broke our hearts that she was flat out rejecting Him as we talked to her. I have realized that when these people are rude, I shouldnt be sad for how they treated me, but that they gave up their chance to accept Jesus Christs FULL GOSPEL. I am thankful that I can be a missionary and share what I know with people so that they can recieve eternal joy.





Anyways, thursday was weekly planning day.We met with Rahim again and then later that night had language class and MMK! Not much about thursday.
Friday we had a lot of time to contact! 3 of our appointments fell through, but that night we met with Lil, a less active member, and then waited in the FREEZING weather for a bus to come! We were about 20 minutes from our house, and it felt a lot colder there!
TOURISTS ARE EVERYWHERE!!!!! The Midnight Sun Marathon was on Saturday, so there wree people here from all over! Adding to that, there were people from the cruise ships! (I saw a man with a "Holland" cruise ship umbrella and it brought me back to playing for the tourists in Sitka) :) Anyways, Saturday we tried doing some contacting, and then had a teach with a girl named Yvonne. We found her on the street and got an appointment with her. She is norwegian and is SO AMAZING. We were planning on doing a first lesson, but with how the conversation went, we taught mostly about God and the plan of salvation. She doestn believe in God, but wants to. The Spirit was SO strong. She has had a hard life, and I know a belief in God would help her. I told her that if she prayed tonight she would get an answer. And she asked me how I knew that. Sister Rupp talked a little bit, and the whole time she was talking, I was just thinking, we have to tell her she will get an answer. I know she will! We shared Moroni 10:4-5. And I told her that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and I felt strongly that we needed to promise her that if she prayed tonight, with a sincere heart, willing to act on her answer, she would get an answer that He is there. It was SO cool! She told us about an experience she had where it was the description of the Holy Ghost. But at the time, she didnt knwo what it was. She committed to praying that night and was happy to recieve the Book Of Mormon for free. She also said she would come to church on Sunday! WE. WERE. SO. HAPPY!!!! It was one of my favorite teaches, because I did nothing. The Spirit used me and spoke through me and Sister Rupp. Oh it was amazing! THAT is why I love being a missionary!


Yesterday I slept in forever. As I said, my health isnt that good. But it will be okay. :) We had Branch Council, then primary with the little kids! Then in sacrament meeting Sister Rupp and I sang "Abide with me! Fast falls the eventide" We had dinner after church and I started feeling more pain in my stomach, so we called Sister Evans and she told me to take it easy and end the day early. So we did and first taught a man named Desale from Eritrea (there are so mnay people from Eritrea here!) and then we stayed in the church and did things we dont usually take time to do, but would like to do. Because we needed to take it easy, we stared recording songs in Norwegian for the primary children to have! We only have a "sound recorder" on these computers, so we used that. Not the best quality, but still fun! And sister Rupp made a coloring book for the kids for Sacrament Meeting. :)
It was a rough, but good week! I hope you all had a great week! Again, dont worry about my health!! Im taken care of and will be okay :)
LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great week! :)
Love, Søster Chapman :)





p.s. I forgot to tell this story! We were contacting in the rain and Sister Rupp wanted to go one way, and I wanted to go the other. Usually one of us will agree with the other, but this time I was just like, "lets split" So we did! i went my way to talk to the person I wanted to talk to and Sister Rupp did the same. Neither of these people wanted to talk to us, so I crossed the street to go over to Sister Rupp. We talked to someone, and were about to go the other way, but we saw a man coming. So we turned around and talked to him. He was from Spain and said to us, "how can i come to your meetings?" ha! He wanted contact with us, didnt have his number or phone or something, but gave us his email address! It was a miracle that we found him! If we wouldnt have split, then the time wouldnt have worked out to find him! The Lords timing is perfect!












Another story about the Lords timing! We were going to go out and contact, but went back and printed somthing out, then went back out. As we were walking we stopped a norwegian girl. Sister Rupp told her who we were, etc, and then asked her if she believed in God. She said, "I dont, but I would love to." Sister Rupps reaction was great. That isnt usually the answer we get, so sister rupp went blank. She was speechless. So I started talking and realized how special this was, so payed extra attention! She agreed to giving us her number and we would find another time to meet with her, bcause she might be out of town for a little bit. IT WAS A MIRACLE! THE LORDS TIMING REALLY IS BEST! I think we can relate that to our lives too. That sometimes we dont know why we make mistakes, or things happen, or even dont happen. But it is because the Lords timing is BEST! He knows what will bring us MIRACLES! So we just need to rely on Him and the miracles, better than we will imagine, will come! "TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL THINE HEART....IN THY THY WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM AND HE WILL DIRECT THY PATHS."












LOVE YOU ALL!!!
xoxo


p.s.s. TODAY IS THE LONGEST DAY OF THE YEAR! So we are staying up until midnight to see the midnight sun! Ill send pics next week :)


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Is it JUNE or JANUARY?!?

Kjære Familie,
Well, its June 16th and we woke up to it...SNOWING!


Can you believe it!? Yesterday we got DRENCHED in the rain, but today it was snowing! not enough or cold enough to stick, but it was still snowing! haha! It was so exciting/crazy! So while you are burning in the HOT Nevada sun, I will enjoy the snow/hail/rain/sun all night here in Tromsø :)
This week was really good. MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING IN NORWAY! Especially in the North! :)


Last Monday we went with the elders to an area in Tromsø called Sydspissen (the south point on the island) where we explored and dug for seaglass and cool shells! People that dont come from Alaska dont know what seaglass is, so I have had to explain and show quite a few missionaries what it is ;) No, but there was SO MUCH and it was GORGEOUS! I loved it. After pday we taught a man named Ingvald that we had found contacting. The eternal investigator, Janne, was our "member present"! haha there arent many members, so we used her! She was GREAT! Bore amazing testimony and helped a lot. I hope so much she gets baptized while Im here! After Ingvald, we took a bus to Lenas house (another investigator) and taught her a quick Plan of Salvation. It was amazing how the Spirit guided that lesson and how the Spirit really did tell us what to say.


On Tuesday we had a couple of lessons that went really well. We taught Pedros, who now has a baptismal date for the 2nd of August! And then taught Joseph! We have AMAZING investigators right now! WE ARE SO BLESSED! We had the language class later that night and shared the spiritual thought, which is always nice to share with the people that come. :) Also, we decided to do a Book Of Mormon contacting day. So we took specific languages and put them in our backpacks! Almost back to the church, we stopped a lady from Brazil. I had a portuguese MB! And we pushed so much to give it to her! I knew it was for her! But she wouldnt take it and it just broke my heart. Sister Rupp and I have been talking a little bit about this, well its been a theme for a while, that I just dont understand why people dont "try the cake." If I had a huge entire chocolate cake and said, "THIS IS THE BEST CAKE I HAVE EVER HAD!!!! You try it!" Wouldnt you try it?! Atleast try? Not that you have to eat it all or that you cant give it back, but just a taste? Sometimes people will say, "well, i have a piece of it already!" (I have happiness already, I am happy enough, I already believe in God, etc.) But why not, if the whole cake is going to be better than just one piece, why not take it all? It baffles me.


Well on wednesday, all the missionaries above the arctic circle came here for Zone Leader Training! Since it is so expensive to fly here, our zone has 2 Zone Leader Trainings. One in Trondheim for those in the north zone under the arctic circle, and one up here. ZLT was so good and a good pump up for everyone to realize that Miracles are happening! Sister Rupp and I also go to share something, with all the missionaries - who were actually all elders! We are the only sisters! It was so weird not having any other sisters here, ja vel! There will be 6 when we have Zone Conference in Trondheim next week! In the evening, we did not know what to do. To go home and call people in our phones, or to go out contacting. So I said a prayer that if we needed to find somenoe, they would be right outside the church on our way home but if not, we would go home and call. Because we could NOT make a decision! So we went outside, did a round about way home, and saw a man coming down the hill. We talked to him and we brought him intlo the church and taught him a short lesson! THE LORD ANSWERS PRAYERS!!! He is now a new investigator :)


I also think on wednesday...well I cant remember which day, but we were contacting and people were just not happy. I was amazed with how grouchy people could be! They were not nice. But we prayed a lot. MANY MANY TIMES! And in one of the last prayers we said, we told Heavenly Father that we knew that we were going to find a miracle. Someone that would listen to the gospel. And the last or second to last person we talked to in that contacting period, was at a busstop. We decided to talk to her. She is from Romania and had a sweet little daughter with her. We got an appointment, her number and address and we knew that she was our miracle. It is worth it to talk to a billion rude grouchy people, and then to find one, MIRACLE! It really was a miracle!
On Thursday we had weekly planning and then taught Pedros again at the church! But this time we had a man that recently got baptized in Skien, who is from Eritrea (where Pedros is from) on skype! the sisters were there too and Pedros and Senai were able to talk! (pedros cant speak great english and not really any norwegian. Anyways, it was nice to be able to get real understanding. haha from what Senai said, Pedros wants to be baptized, but first wants to keep learning! Language class was that night again and went well like always :)


Friday we met with Livia! (the romanian girl at the busstop) We went to her house and taught her, one of us teaching and the other keeping her daughter distracted :) We love her and are going to meet again with her this week!!! We met with a man named Million later in the day. The first thing he did was show us his baptismal certificate and other certificates that he has gotten in church related things. Then he wanted to know a lot, but never really let us talk enough to answer! haha we will meet with him again this week :) We think it will go better next time. Then we taught Tidros! (the miracle that we found walking home). We taught almost the entire first lesson in Norwegian, and then he told us - I think that I will just read it and get back to you because I cant understand you that well. So we taught him (the lesson again) in english and it went better :)


Saturday we taught a man named Simon from Kenya. Elder Crabtree knows history so well and so we took him on this teach to help. The rest of our plans fell through so we went banking!


Then it was sunday :) We had our first Relief Society in this branch! 4 americans, 2 norwegians, and a chilean that lives in Svalbard on skype :) It was SO nice to have R.S. though :) Then in Sacrament Meeting, I played the piano and spoke! I know there were less than 30 people there, but I could see my heart pounding through my skirt, Yes my SKIRT! I was nervous. haha Rose and Janne came to church and that man that we talked to on Saturday when we were contacting came!!! He left during my talk though...oh well :) My talk was about Standing up for what we believe in and it went well! Sister Rupp and I are doing a musical number next week, and ill make sure to record it before hand so that i can try to send do you all on dropbox. By the way, did you look at that video that i posted on it a couple of weeks ago?


Anyways, there was SO much mingling afterwards! That is when I just felt the LOVE for these people here. I love Tromsø! Rose, or referral from a referral, hit it right off with a member! It was SO GREAT! We then met with her and Sister Crabtree helped :) You will never believe it...SHE LISTED TO THE ENTIRE BOOK OF MORMON IN FRENCH ON YOUTUBE IN THE PAST WEEK!!!!!!!!! INSANE huh!? She is amazing and I am sure she is going to be baptized soon! Her question was, "Where are the three Nephites?" haha! She is great! :)


Then last night we went contacting. We were going to go knocking but didnt feel good about it. We got DRENCHED.


After we said some prayers we decided, after not deciding to do this once or twice, to go an talk with a boy in the military that stood next to the mall to stay out of the rain. It was direct revelation from Heavnely Father to talk to him. He doestn live here, but we gave him a Book Of Mormon and our contact info. I realy hope he ctontacts us. The things that were said were exactly what he needed. He was going to try to say things like, knowing God is there wouldnt really help him, but as he thought he askwered truthfully. AHHH I just love him! One day he will accept the gospel. He said if he lived here he would have "tried the experiment of reading, praying, meeting with us, church, etc. But I know that he will accept the gospel at some point.


And later that night we got 2 appointments! The Lord really blessed us. We also talked to Joseph that we saw walking! The Lords timing really is perfect.
All in all this was a great week! It is snowing golfballs outside now, Im living the life!!!


LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!
Have a great week!!! :)
LOVE, Søster Chapman :)








p.s. one extra story. I think on friday we were contacting, again in the rain. We didnt have an umbrella but we were fine :) We talked to a norwegian man for a while about the gospel and then he said, "I have another question. Are you two doing ok? Do you have money? I have tlaked to missionaries before that are away from home and its hard on them...etc. etc." haha YES WE HAVE MONEY WE JUST DONT HAVE AN UMBRELLA! ;) This was the same man that came to church!


LOVE YOU!


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