Back in the groove of things
Tromsø became surprisingly quiet after New Years eve. New years day ushered in "the calm after the storm".
New years day Søster Neal and I jumped on the traveling bandwagon and fly to Oslo for Søster Neal's First Transfer training and then Splits with our STLs, Søster Morris and Søster Stocks. First transfer training was amazing and I was really able to review the basic parts of missionary work, strengthen my love for it, and realize the simple things that I could be doing better in order to accomplish my purpose as a missionary. It was great seeing all of the missionaries there and of course seeing President and Sister Tew and feeding of of their infectious enthusiasm for missionary work. One of my favorite parts of First transfer training is when we decided to make homemade BBQ saus for pulled pork sandwiches at the mission home. It consisted of all of the missionaries and Søster Tew using an internet recipe and using a lot of substitutes for things that we didn't have. It was wonderfully chaotic and resulted in Søster Tew and us trying to transform our tomato soup with random ingredients and us using up all of the mission home's 200 spoons to taste test it.
Splits was great as well being able to serve with my kindred spirit Søster Stocks and one of my greatest friends Søster Morris. We definetely saw some splits miracles that included someone reffering us to their neighbor when we went banking and also us talking to someone that had been to the church in Sandvika before. He asked us about how we knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet and listened to our testimonies. We also got to see the sun in Oslo and soak up some Vitamin D. :)
We have had a couple of amazing experiences these past couple of days. One of them happened on Sunday. We were on our way to Ingeborg and Anton's house to have dinner and we prayed before going out of the door to find someone on the buss that was interested and that we could meet with. Søster Neal and I sat down next to this lady from Eritrea and complimented her on her rain jacket. She then replied saying thank you and that she liked my nose and asked if Søster Neal and I were sisters. We said no and asked her a little bit more about her. After telling us how many children that she had, she looked up, saw that her stop was coming up, and asked if she could give US her phone number because she wanted to have us over for dinner. That NEVER happens! Heavenly Father answered our prayer so fast. And then, just yesterday, we were walking home from a rough session of kontakting. The few people that stopped and talked with us that day were not at all interested and one lady told us that stopping her was "ingen vits" (no joke) and that she would never convert to our church. We were almost to our apartment when a taxi stopped on the side of the road and this man got out. I had this inner turmoil in my head "to talk to him, or not to talk with him". Eventually the talk-to-everyone side of me one and I slowed down our pace and timed it so that we would walk up to him as the taxi was driving away. At first the conversation was a little awkward and he couldn't really understand why we were asking him what made him happy in life. When we told him that we were missionaries and showed him the book of mormon, his eyes lit up and he told us that he had met the missionaries in Tronheim a couple of years ago and that he already has one back home. Søster Neal bore her amazing strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and, even though he is pretty busy, he gave us his number so that we can find a time to meet with him. I am so grateful for the promptings of the spirit and that God's timing is perfect.
We have had a couple of amazing experiences these past couple of days. One of them happened on Sunday. We were on our way to Ingeborg and Anton's house to have dinner and we prayed before going out of the door to find someone on the buss that was interested and that we could meet with. Søster Neal and I sat down next to this lady from Eritrea and complimented her on her rain jacket. She then replied saying thank you and that she liked my nose and asked if Søster Neal and I were sisters. We said no and asked her a little bit more about her. After telling us how many children that she had, she looked up, saw that her stop was coming up, and asked if she could give US her phone number because she wanted to have us over for dinner. That NEVER happens! Heavenly Father answered our prayer so fast. And then, just yesterday, we were walking home from a rough session of kontakting. The few people that stopped and talked with us that day were not at all interested and one lady told us that stopping her was "ingen vits" (no joke) and that she would never convert to our church. We were almost to our apartment when a taxi stopped on the side of the road and this man got out. I had this inner turmoil in my head "to talk to him, or not to talk with him". Eventually the talk-to-everyone side of me one and I slowed down our pace and timed it so that we would walk up to him as the taxi was driving away. At first the conversation was a little awkward and he couldn't really understand why we were asking him what made him happy in life. When we told him that we were missionaries and showed him the book of mormon, his eyes lit up and he told us that he had met the missionaries in Tronheim a couple of years ago and that he already has one back home. Søster Neal bore her amazing strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and, even though he is pretty busy, he gave us his number so that we can find a time to meet with him. I am so grateful for the promptings of the spirit and that God's timing is perfect.
That pretty much sums it up for this week. We have more appointments lined up then we have had total this transfer and I am so excited to get back to doing the Lord's work.
Get ready for lots of pictures because I finally got them to work! Jk I jinxed myself and could only get a couple of them to upload. :) I love you all and hope that this next week is great!
Get ready for lots of pictures because I finally got them to work! Jk I jinxed myself and could only get a couple of them to upload. :) I love you all and hope that this next week is great!
Love, Søster Starkie
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