The Book of Mormon > Free Ice Cream

Happy Monday everyone! I can't believe that it has already been another week! The time is just flying by! The first thing I want to tell you explains the title. You may be thinking to yourself, "of course The Book of Mormon is better than free Ice Cream!" I have found these past couple weeks that for many of the people here in Ålesund don't realize that. For the past two weeks , we have had a constant stream of people walking into the church and asking if we are giving away free Ice Cream. Apparently there is an article in the newspaper that says the old bakery (now the church) is giving away ice cream. It is a great thing for us because we then tell them that we are not giving away ice cream but that we are giving away Books of Mormon! Unfortunately, every person turns that down and leaves. It is so sad to see that people don't realize the joy that comes from this gospel. It is so hard to try and make them see that when we go banking and street contacting! But there are those few people that are prepared to listen to us and accept our message. One of these people is Silje, our investigator that will be baptized in March! Some of the older Sister missionaries met her while Banking and right from the start she soaked up the gospel and was so willing to find out for herself that the church is true. She is continuing to make amazing progress and I continue to be amazed at her simple, strong testimony. She gives me hope that there truly are people being prepared to hear our message. It is our duty to continue to take that leap of faith and just keep looking. 

Highlights of this past week:

- We played truth and dare Jenga for FHE last week. I don't know if I should even be telling you this, but it got pretty out of control. Elder Rogers drank 8 glasses of water!

- We went to Bergen on Tuesday for zone conference! It was so amazing meeting the other missionaries and learning better ways that we can be more effective in missionary work! Also, I got to see sister Rawson again and eat American Peanut Butter!!!

- The Elders got our car stuck on not one, but TWO hills. After we got stuck on the first one the Elders decided that we should try to make it up a second one. Boy logic. Luckily, there were some really nice Norwegians that let us use their gravel.

-Søster Belus and I got woken up by some screaming drunk teenagers at 2 AM. All of our neighbors were looking out their windows. Norway is a very safe place, but a lot o people still like to drink and party on the weekend.

- I discovered that they have Ben & Jerry's ice cream here. This could be dangerous.

-WE GOT LET IN TO A HOUSE WHILE BANKING! This cute old couple let us into their house and we learned that the husband has mormon cousins that live in Utah. One of his cousins was even a missionary in Norway and tried to convert him. They weren't interested in learning about the gospel but the wife played a couple of songs on the piano. We gave them our card and they said that they would invite us over some time so Søster Belus can play the flute for them. They were definately a tender mercy this week. I hope that something will come of it. 

Well I have to bounce now! We have a lot of exciting things planned for this week and I can't wait to tell you all about how they turn out! I love you, and remember: No matter how amazing ice cream is. The Gospel is better!

Love, Søster Starkie