January 9, 2012

Hei hei Familie,

How is everything going?  This last week has gone by way fast and this next week is going to be extremely busy.  I have Annie's conversion story so I will send that as well as what i wrote.  Things are going great here but we still haven't received much snow.  It's been in the mid 40s but it snowed a little bit this morning.  I went on splits with Elder Wandtke on Thursday and Friday in Arendal.  We had a lot of fun and it has been fun serving around my companion from the MTC.  His family has a condo at sports village in St. George.  We were already making plans for road trips when we all get back ha ha.  On Saturday night i got a phone call from President Johansen.  He has called me to be the District Leader in Skien, serving with Elder Abrams from Star Valley Wyoming.  He is from Elder VanWagoners group so he is a very young missionary.  So I will be considered his mother and I will have two sons ha ha.  I'm really excited to serve in Skien and I heard they have an awesome ward.  I will be in the Stake where things are little more organized.  I won't have a car and i believe i will be living right in town.  It's a pretty small town so i think i will be doing a lot of knocking.  I will be leaving on Wednesday morning by train.  Wednesday and Thursday are going to be very busy days.  Its a four hour train ride from k-sand to Skien and then that night I'm taking another train to Tønsberg to sleep there for the night and then on Thursday morning I'm taking a train to Oslo for a training meeting and then i will be taking a train from Oslo back to Skien.  So in those two days i will be on a train for about 11 hours. 

On Sunday I asked the branch president if i could say a few words in Sacrament meeting since i was leaving.  I got up there and shared some statistics for the year 2011 and then i told them i would be leaving on Wednesday to Skien.  The branch kind of seemed surprised that i was leaving.  The branch has been so good to me and they are like family.  In a way is was like giving another farewell talk.  I'm going to miss them and i told them i would be back soon.  After Sacrament meeting was over everyone in the branch came up to me and was thanking me for everything that i had done.  Sometimes you don't realize what kind of impact you leave on an area until your about to leave.  Everyone wanted us over for dinner but we had already been asked.  We have tons of appointments with members for the next two days.  The members have been so good to me.  They all told me when i come back to let them know and they will go out of their way to do anything for me.  My mission has been an amazing journey so far and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission in Norway.  These people are amazing and i have created life long friends.  I had a member come up to me and said i don't think you realize what you have done for this branch.  When i first got here there was no relationship with the members and the missionaries.  They had some poor missionaries in the past that destroyed the relationship with the branch.  Now the branch has an amazing relationship with the missionaries and i hope it stays that way.  I feel so blessed to have been able to serve in Kristiansand and meet the people i did.  I have seen so many miracles here, especially this last transfer with Annie.  I know the Lord is watching out for us and blessing us. 

We finally got in contact with Andre and we will be meeting with him Tuesday.  It has been very hard lately to meet with our investigators.  They all seem very busy and never have time to meet.  We will continue to work hard until the end of the transfer.  On Sunday a member from Afghanistan that just moved here from Drammen brought two of his friends this time.  They are both from Iran and they want to start taking the lessons and work towards baptism. 

Today we will be driving to Evje and ending our p-day early.  Were going to eat dinner with the Zurchar's and then have family home evening with them.  Were going to talk about sin and repentance.  We bought some food coloring and bleach for an experiment ha ha.  I'm pretty excited!  After were going to visit some less actives up there and then come back to Kristiansand later that night. 

Side notes:
The house is coming along and i like the color of the brick.  So will you have 10 seats and a bar in theatre.  I'm excited to see the windows and more of the brick.  That is awesome with the Utah Jazz and Mitt Romney.  People are starting to talk about Mitt Romney here and its pretty cool.  I have to watch myself because i can get easily distracted when I'm talking about politics.  I'm so excited to see what happens with Mitt.  I heard he has a really good chance of becoming President unless Obama does something great.  I'm excited for Jess and all the great things are coming up in her life.  I didn't here from her this week.  I would encourage her to get a preach my gospel and go to lesson 5 and look under the eternal marriage and families.  Read all the scripture references, its pretty good stuff. 



Eldste Godfrey