Week One, Check!

A sea of ties and skirts, so many new places and faces and things. Welcoming words and smiles and all offered because of a little orange dot on my chest. A dork dot as some veterans like to say. But I am past all that, the dot is gone, and life is begun. Oh, and I guess you all might like to know, I am the district leader of District 37-L, so that is one more new adventure that is coming my way!  My district has 8 elders in it, and I was a little worried about how everyone would get along at first because they are all so different, but we have come together and are really good friends now. Oh and Eldste Gunther is in the room next to me and he is in my district! So that is a lot of fun. My companion, Eldste Hall, is a nice kid from St George. He was a soccer player and we are very different people but we are learning a lot from each other.  We have the largest branch here in the MTC and it is made up of missionaries going to Norway, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands, Iceland and Suriname. The zone leaders are headed to Iceland and they are the only two missionaries in the MTC going there right now....the gospel is spreading to all the world!

 

Life here at the MTC is nothing like anything I have experienced before. They fill the days so full of language learning and gospel study that I barely have time to breathe. It is a blessing though. I am progressing so fast in Norwegian and the Gospel and this is perhaps the most Spirit I have ever felt in my life. Here at the MTC, they believe in taking the new missionaries, ripping them from the arms of their families, and throwing them directly into the ice cold lake of missionary life. And believe me, it comes as a shock. The teachers then watch the new elders and sisters come crawling back, dripping wet and panting like a dog, begging the instructors to teach them how to swim. And then life begins.  My teacher, Bror De Costa doesnt speak any English, so the first day it was tough to understand him, but it is incredible how quickly I am learning. On Friday we taught our first lesson to an investigator in Norwegian, and I wasn't aware that it would be so soon! I wasn't ready for that, but once I found out I would be teaching I prayed, prepared, and relied a lot on the Spirit. It didn't go perfectly, but I was able to say the things I needed to, and I understood Annette as well! Since then we have taught two more lessons about the restoration and the plan of salvation. I sit in class all day every day and it is, at times, very tedious, but in all honesty it is so exciting to be doing the Lord's work. I am learning Norwegian and I am understanding. That is one thing I cannot believe has happened in 5 days. I am having conversations and teaching in a language I knew nothing of not even one week ago. The Lord enables His servants to do all things which are expedient in Him, and for me, it is expedient to learn this language and do everything that I can to prepare to invite the Norwegian people to come unto Christ in any way that I can. And I am preparing. Slowly. At times with doubts and frustrations. But at all times with an eye single to the Glory of God with faith that He will enable His servants to grow in ways that they never thought possible. And I am growing.

 

I love you all, your love and support are all I could really ask for. So, until next time, farvel!