May 5, 2014

Transfers went well this week, and I am enjoying serving with Elder Forsberg. On Wednesday during the time I was alone for a long time, I just went back to the apartment and took studies like normal, then I cleaned the apartment and had lunch, and then I called in to Oslo so that I could be on speaker for a trainers' meeting with president. After that I just went to the library and waited until it was time to go pick up my companion, so nothing too exciting there :)

Elder Forsberg and I are getting along really well, and I can already tell that we are going to be really good friends. It is really interesting, because although he is Norwegian, he has been living in Utah for the past 5 years, and he went to Lone Peak high school. Small world, right? He is 21 years old, and has his associates degree from UVU. His parents were baptized as adults, and then he was born into the church, along with his three younger brothers, but the rest of his family aren't members. Interesting fact about Norway: all citizens are required to serve in the military for 18 months as a sort of draft, so there was some concern that he wouldn't be able to come to Norwegian because of issues with that, but everything got sorted out, so he is good to go. But that is a weird requirement, right? But I am loving living with a Norwegian because I just get to ask him all the questions I have always had but never asked anyone, and I am hoping I am going to start making some good progress toward sounding like a native. So exciting!

Things are going well with Stanley and Paulina. We weren't able to meet with Paulina this week, but we are meeting with her on Wednesday, and hopefully we will be able to commit her to pick a date to be baptized then. We met with Stanley this week and he wasn't able to come to church on Sunday because he had a soccer match, but we really need him to start coming so he can be baptized. Our latest plan is to give him a calling in a way, in the branch so that he has a reason to come. We asked him to lead the music in sacrament meeting, so we are going to go practice with him on Tuesday so that he can do it. Fingers crossed that he comes. We did teach him the word of wisdom this week, though, and he committed to give up tea in order to comply with it, so there is still potential here.

Our latest awesome investigator is a woman named Kikka. She is the mother to a recent convert here and has come to institute for a long time, but only this week start officially taking the lessons from us, and she has committed to be baptized on the 14th of May! It was really cool because she told us that she wanted to be baptized. We didn't have to do anything really. It is so cool to see the Spirit work on people, because once they really get a testimony of the truth, they are willing to do whatever it takes to follow it. I am so grateful to be able to see the Spirit work in Kikka's life. So, we are just planning for a baptism here. We have to rent the local swimming pool and everything. Exciting stuff!

We weren't able to meet with Inge and Gro this week, but we are going to go visit them today, so keep them in your prayers for us!