April 6

I love it here in Stavanger, and I am really happy :) We got here and all of the investigators that were in our area had been taken to other areas by missionaries who were working here and are now working in different areas, so we literally had nothing. And I had a brand new missionary. So I knew we needed to have a good week and that the Lord would bless us if we worked hard. We set a goal to find someone to come to General Conference and went out and worked like we expected it to happen. I did expect it to happen. We found a lot of cool people this week, and I know it was a direct result of the Lord's hand in our work. General Conference weekend rolled around and I wasn't sure if we had anyone coming or not, but I prayed my hardest and left it up to the Lord. We showed up to the church to watch the priesthood session and walked into the kitchen to put away our lunch. When we walked back out, there were Dimitr and Jovan, two guys from Macedonia who we met this week and who said they would try to come. I was so happy and so grateful that the Lord blessed us. We ended up with a really great week and I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us. I have a goal to have two baptisms here before I go, so we've just got to go and work. 

Stavanger is a really great place. It is a bigger city and, as is typical of the west coast of Norway, is incredibly beautiful. There are a few famous landmarks in the area, like Prekestolen and Kjerag, and there are a lot of things to do in the city, including see the Christus statue, one of just a few in the world. Who knows why it is Stavanger, Norway? Not me. There are a lot of American families here because of the oil industry (Stavanger is the center of the oil industry in Norway) and we have been speaking a lot of English lately, so it is weird. We weren't able to meet very many members this week because of General conference and Easter, but I am looking forward to being able to next week, and I can already tell that I am going to love it here.

My new companion is named Elder Broadbent, and he is from Orem, Utah. He is a really great guy and is loving his mission so far. We are having a lot of fun together :)

General conference was amazing, and I can't believe it is already over. I have never been very good at looking back over the talks in the ensuing months after the conference, but I am going to change that this time. I really loved President Eyring's talk during priesthood session about being able to speak and do as God would do through the prayer of faith. I also really enjoyed Elder Andersen's talk about hearing the music of the gospel and Elder Pearson's talk about enduring to the end. Conference is so amazing and most of my action items were centered around being a better district leader and helping the missionaries I am serving to be more focused on Christ. 

For the last part of my mission, I really want to focus on enduring to the end and sprinting to the finish line. I have a goal to get two more baptisms and I want to help the district to be on fire before I leave. The plan is no longer to be a traveling AP at the end of my mission. We talked and decided that being a district leader would be a lot better use of time and resources and ultimately a better way of training. I am really excited.