August 22, 2011

Hallo Familie,
Hvordan går det med dere? The language is coming along. The gift of tongues is so real. I just got off the phone with a member who was speaking Norwegian and i understood it all i could talk back in Norwegian. I'm pretty sure my English is getting worse though. They word things a lot different in Norwegian. Sineth was confirmed a member and received the Holy Ghost this last Sunday. Church is a lot of fun here, i pass the sacrament every week and next week I'm giving a talk in church. I already wrote it so I'll probably send it to you today. Today i don't have as much time. We went over to Joseph's house (member) this morning and he gave us a presentation on the Book of Mormon. Fredrik and Benjamin came with us. Fredrik goes into the MTC on Friday and Benjamin goes in Oct. Joseph knows so much about the church its ridiculous. He feels confident enough to answer any question about the book of mormon or about the church. After the presentation we just asked him questions about the bom and the church. These are some of the things he mentioned.

You begin with a testimony of the book of mormon. You build your testimony through knowledge. Testimony of the book of mormon and knowledge/proof compliment each other. In D&C 88:118 it says, <> We need to study the gospel and develop that knowledge and also we need to have faith that they are true. We are one of the only churches in the world that promotes education or knowledge and study. We know that the Catholics didn't want you to read anything or gain knowledge that the bible is true for instance. Joseph Smith said true science is always in harmony with true religion. In almost 200 years no one has proved the book of mormon false. The more they look for things that are false or not true the more they find of the authenticity of the book. The book of mormon is the key stone of our religion. If someone can disprove the book of mormon our church goes with it. There has been many famous non-mormon scholars in the world that has given praise to the book of mormon. They can't disprove it. The book of mormon was published on March 26, 1830. It took 63 days to translate it which means he wrote 4000 words a day or 8 pages a day. For Joseph Smith with no education to know the language, word print, fabrication, geography, political/legal, warfare, economy/logistics, seismology, botany, onomastication, etymology and theology is impossible.
It is pretty cool stuff and i want to bear you my testimony of the book of mormon, that i know with out a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true. Through this book we can learn of our God and his son Jesus Christ. We learn of things that will help us return to Him. I'm so grateful that we have scriptures today that we can ready them and feel of the spirit that the truthfulness of the book. The book of mormon is the only book in the world that God testify's that things pertaining in the book our true.

I received your package on Thursday so that's not to bad.

Investigators:

Alami had the baptismal date last saturday but he has been put on hold for the moment. We hadn't been able to get a hold of him for like 2 weeks but i ran into in the city 2 days ago and he told me everything that had been going on. He has been scared to answer the phone and he is really nervous about everything. He doesn't have a job and winter is coming fast and he doesn't know what hes going to do. He kind of broke down in front of me. At that time Eldste Tedrow was teaching someone else near by. I asked Alami if he would like a priesthood blessing of comfort and peace. He wanted one so i went and grabbed Tedrow and we walked down some alleyway and i gave him a blessing. I hope he is doing a little better. He is really struggling right now.

Maurice didn't get baptized last saturday either. He wants to pray to God and find out when God wants him to get baptized. He said he hasn't received an answer yet so we will see what happens with him. To meet with him we have to drive two hours away and then two hours back.

Christina the Spanish lady from Chile dropped us on Saturday. I told her how i felt about her in Norwegian and she started crying. We were contacting in the city on Sunday night and she saw us came over to us. She was so glad to see us and she said she felt really bad about last night. The language barrier is kind of hard. She speaks Spanish and very little Norwegian. We found out that she feels to pushed by the members (we say it in Norwegian ikke press but i'm not sure the english word for it haha). She loves us though and wants to continue meeting with just us. She is very nice lady who is like 65 years old. She feels like we are messengers from God and she can tell that we're different then other people.

Christopher the guy from Nigeria has a date to get baptized now on October 7. He is way cool and loves going to church but doesn't like reading. He said he will probably move back to Nigeria in a couple of years. i told him I'm going to come visit him in Nigeria and he said he would like that. So in a few years want to travel to Nigeria??? haha.

Everything is going good though. This is Elder Tedrow and i last full week together. We have set our numbers high for this next week. I love you all very much! I hope everything is going well.
Eldste Godfrey