March 25

You are probably wondering why I didn't email Monday, and that is because we didn't have time to take a pday this week. On Monday we helped one of our investigator families named Magne and Caroline to clear out their front yard after they had renovated their house. I wish I had taken a picture of the mess, because it was literally a mountain. So that took a little longer than planned, but it was great to help out and to do some work with my hands. We loaded it all into a trailer and then took it to the dump, where we had to sort it into tons of different containers, since we are in Norway. I hope that he felt God's love because of our help. Then we had to take care of moves, because that is coming up and we wouldn't have any other time to do it. So we did that, flew to Trondheim yesterday for zone conference, and now we are going to finish up moves today and fly to Stavanger for zone conference tomorrow, so it's pretty crazy for us in the near future.

I am trying to think of what has happened before that this week....we had a leadership meeting with all of the District Leaders, Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in the mission on Wednesday, and that went really well. We did some training and President Evans did some training, and then at the end we had a question and answer session for about an hour and a half, and that kept us on our toes! It was weird to me to be the one standing up front with the answers. It was an interesting experience, but the spirit was definitely strong, and that was good. We had zone conference in Oslo on Thursday, and Elder Gunther and I did a musical number together. We sang a medley of "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy" and "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" which we made up and did it a capella. I thought it turned out really good, and it was great to do it with Elder Gunther.

Other than that, I was on splits on Tuesday, and it was good to have a full day of work, and life is good. Things are going alright with our investigators. We are going to go help Henrik install a door this evening and teach him afterward, and really try to establish a good teaching relationship and see how that goes. We will also meet with someone named Christian who we found recently, so hopefully we will be able to help him want to be baptized. Jon Axel and Arve are still basically just the same, I just pray that they will feel the truth of the gospel sometime. We will just keep on working!

This week has been crazy. As part of traveling around and conducting zone conferences I have had a lot of time to spend memorizing and thinking about scriptures. I have a goal to know the scriptures better and my scripture study has really increased in effectiveness because of it. One scripture I found this week which really hit me is found in Paul's letter to the Galatians, and says in chapter 2:

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

This scripture hit me with great power because I, too, have been saved by Christ. Saved from myself and saved from the person I might have become, had it not been for his grace and mercy in my life. Now I live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I am living, I owe therefore to Him. To dedicate all that I am to His service. And that is what I have tried to do. I haven't been anywhere near perfect, but I have made steps in my life to live more by the faith of the Son of God, and that has made all the difference for me. I love Him with all of my heart, and I know He loves me, too. As Elder Packer recently taught us, this really is the truth most worth knowing. That He loves us and through His love we can be clean, time and time again. What a powerful gift which we have been given and can in turn give to other people. Share the gift with others so that they too, can feel of His love!

Homemade Sushi With Elder Gunther and some investigators.