December 12, 2011

Kjære Familie,
WOW... Jessie is getting married. That is very exciting news! I feel really bad that I'm going to miss it. It seems like everything is changing ha ha. It will be a different world when i get back to kaysville. The house looks great and it looks like its coming along. I hope you told the family hi for me and sounds like everyone is doing pretty good. Well today i don't have much time to write unfortunately. Elder Bennett who is serving in Arendal right now will be going home this week so we are in Arendal with him for the day. So we have a mini transfers this week but not very many people are affected. I was not affected but if i had to guess i will be moving in January. We have a lot fun stuff planned today. We drove down last night and slept over at their new apartment they just got. Its like state of the art with two shower heads ha ha. After e-mails were going to go eat at a pizza buffet and then go bowling after that. After bowling we're going to watch the best two years, it should be a lot of fun. The weather has been all over the place this last week. At the beginning of the week it was extremely icy and i can't count how many times i almost fell. I was on splits on Thursday in Arendal and the city of Arendal is built on lots of hills. Very steep roads and Elder Wandtke and I had a hard time not falling on the ice. Lucky they have railings on the side of the road to hold on to ha ha. The last couple of days it has been pretty warm in the mid 40s but it has been rainy. Still no snow. Elder VanWagoner and I flew to Oslo on Tuesday for a training meeting. It turned out very good and i was able to learn a lot. Oslo doesn't have any snow yet either. Very strange for Norway. We flew back to Kristiansand that night. It has been a very busy week and we will continue to be very busy til Christmas. All the missionaries will be flying into Oslo on the 22 and have a two day conference there. This will be a lot of fun to see all the missionaries and we will be playing games and watching a movie. I'm still not sure what time we will be able to talk on Christmas. I think i can pretty much do it whenever. Christmas in Norway is on the 24th when they open all their presents and what not. On Christmas Eve, Benjamin's family invited us to come over. It will be a lot of fun to see how Norwegians celebrate Christmas and there is going to be like 30 people there. I can't set up a skype account on Christmas right? I can probably set up one next week if that's what i need to do. I don't know if I'm going to get boots but i need to get some good socks that will keep my feet warm. I also need a cover for my back pack when it rains so i can use the money that Corinne and Grandma gave me for those things.

Well this week has been amazing! It seems like so much has happened in only week that i don't know where to begin. On Monday we taught Andre and the lesson went very well. We talked about Gods plan and temples and he had a lot of questions about what would happen to his future wife if she didn't become a mormon. Tuesday we were in Oslo the whole day. Wednesday we taught Andre and Annie atthe center in town. We taught Annie the Plan of Salvation and she loved it. I got so into it that we were only able to teach half the lesson. I love teaching people the Gospel and being able to feel a strong spirit there. That night we went and visited Esther. She was pretty busy but her son Prince was there. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he loved it. He asked us when we could meet again and we should be meeting with him tomorrow. The Lord has blessed us so much and has put amazing people in our path. On Thursday I was in Arendal with Elder Wandtke and we had a lot of fun. It has been a lot fun being able to serve around him my entire mission. On Friday we met with Annie again and taught her the Word of Wisdom. She was so willing to live it and i know with out a doubt that she has been prepared by God to accept our message. Right after the lesson she went and bought a different kind of tea so she could follow the word of wisdom. On Saturday we spent a good portion of the day in the city contacting. The city looks amazing right now with all the Christmas decorations. I've never seen a city so festive There is always something going on in the city at this time of year as well. On Saturday the city was packed and we could barely walk anywhere. They had all these street vendors and Christmas music playing everywhere. Kids were walking around giving out free stuff like cookies and hot chocolate. They had a bunch of kids singing Christmas songs. It was pretty cool! On Sunday we took the bus with Annie to church. She loved it like usual and she just keeps telling me how grateful she is for this church. She is an amazing person with a very strong desire to follow what the spirit tells her. It has been a huge blessing to see her progress so rapidly in the gospel. We taught her tithing after church and she gladly accepted to that commandment as well. Annie will be having her baptismal interview this Friday.

I just watched the best two years and i'm not kidding if you want to know what our mission is like in norway watch that show. It is surprisingly the exact same ha ha.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity i have right now to serve the Lord for two years. I will never regret this decision to serve and there is nothing better in this world then to serve others. The best way to find out about yourself is by serving others. I know this church is true and the Book of Mormon is the word of God not because it seems logical but the Holy Spirit has born witness to me of its truthfulness. I love you guys and i can't wait to hear from you next week.

Eldste Godfrey