Frankenstein Email

Hei alle sammen! I have come up with a genius solution to my shortage of time in relation to sending emails on P-day. This email is brought to you by excerpts of my email to president Tew and søster Zenger's weekly email (since we basically have the same life).  

When we were in Skien last week I had the privilege of being together with Søster Ford for the first part of the day. After studies, we went and visited a member that hasn't been in church for several years. While we were standing there on the doorstep, I was wondering if she was expecting me to start the conversation since I am the older missionary and I was kind of regretting that we hadn't communicated before. But when the door opened, she immediately and boldly started talking and stated why we were there. She also told him about all of the members that miss him and have been asking about him in church. He lit up when he heard their names and after having a 10 minute conversation with him on his doorstep, he said that he was going to come and watch general conferance at the church. I was very impressed with Søster Fords Norwegian skills and also her ability to go off "the missionary script" and use different ways of teaching and engaging people. She explained to one lady that was catholic how we believe that we are saints in the last days and what that meant. Then she shared her grandmother's conversion story with an athiest on the street. She is amazing and she made sure to invite everyone she came in contact with to come to church. Next I was with Søster Rawson. It felt almost as if we were companions back in the MTC in the beginning still learning how to be missionaries. It wasn't until we taught our first lesson that I realized just how much the both of us have grown. I was again reminded of how sincere and loving Søster Rawson is. She gave every ounce of attention she had to the man we were meeting with and took time to listen to his perpective and beliefs. Everywhere we went that day on the street or on the buss she radiated positivity and kindness and people seemed to come to her on their own. It was like magnetism! We went to a free dinner at the frikirken and we gave a book of mormon there to a man that goes in several different churches looking for truth.
  
I love all of these sisters so much and I treasure these edifying experiences that I have with them! What a privilege it is! 

Things back here in Asker have been busy as usual but in different ways. A lot of the people that we are helping come back to church have been busy and so we have been spending more of our time with people that we have been finding that are interested in meeting. One of those people moved from Iran several years ago and had a really strong experience with the Holy Ghost in one of the Norwegian churches here. We met with him yesterday and I have met very few people that are as open as he is. He listened intently to the restoration and said that he felt the spirit very strongly. He said that he would be baptised after he found out that the book of mormon is true and planned on beginning to read it right after he arrived home that day. He is also coming to Stake Conference this Sunday! 

Tirsdag: hahahah Søster Starkie forgot her jacket at the mission home and it had her wallet and everything in it so we had to drive back and get it. There was a ton of traffic so we just studied at their house and ate dinner with them and then went to our lesson with Karen! She is a referral from a cute girl that used to be her nanny. She is so nice and it is fun to teach her. We sit in the little baby pen and talk while the baby crawls all over the place.

Onsdag: We ate lunch at a members house (Hannah og Andreas Isaksen) and it was really fun. We took the bus with a member named Anna . She was planning on leaving on her mission to the alps a few weeks ago, but her call is being delayed a few months while she gets a few things in order. She is the best!! We are going to try and do missionary work with her every week to help her get ready and stay in that missionary mode!! I love her so much. We also just took the long way home and contacted people the whole way and it took a while. Then studied and got ready for splits and took the train to Skien!!!!!!!!!!!!! The sisters picked us up at the train station and we walked home through those streets of my first area. It felt like I never even left. So wierd.

Torsdag: A crazy day!! Søster Ford and Søster Rawson are the best and they had SOOO many appointments planned for me and Søster Starkie!! And it was amazing because I got to teach and visit all of the people that I LOVE!!! Oh it was so special. We visited a member named Trine, ate dinner with Familien Palsrud, went to institute and ward council, and taught Nana!! It was a fantastic day. The members at first didnt notice that I was ME! And then they would do a double take and then they were like WAIT IT IS YOU!!! Trine and Nana both just screamed and hugged me hahaha it was so funny. But it was amazing to be back and talk with those people and realize how much more norwegian I understand. Now I understand literally every single word they say, and it wasnt like that when I left. It was also amazing to see how hard the sisters have worked in that area and have got in contact with all the people that we taught! When Søster Olaveson and I got double transfered out of that area, everyone fell through the cracks and I was soooo worried, but then Søster Rawson went there and I gave her a huge list and she found and taught ALL of them and found even more!! Aww my heart was so full. That area is doing really good now.

Fredag: We took the train back to Asker and dropped off our bags at home and headed straight to distriktsråd. On the way we met a nice guy on the bus who is named Omar. We got an appointment with him! Distriktsråd was good, it is always funny when I half play the piano so the district can sing along. I am a little rusty... but thats okay! Better than nothing. I always start to laugh when I make a mistake. Then we just had all of our studies and some weekly planning and dinner at home. We have this thing called a spiralizer. So we spiralized zuchinni for dinner and there was this long strand that was SOOOO long it was taller than me and søster starkie and I did a lady and the tramp moment with it. Check out the video it is pretty funny. :D

Lørdag: We got ready to leave for the day. We had an appointment before fotball, but I couldnt find my shoes!! Then it dawned on me... I left them in Skien. AAAAAhhhhhh ahhahahahha so now I dont have excersize shoes ahhahahha. Classic. Søster Starkie also forgot her jacket, so classic. We taught Ni chum and went okay.... he just does not have any progress so there is no point in meeting with him and he knows that too. He was like okay... we can meet one more time next week and that will be the last time. We were like yeah okay, that sounds good. It is always hard to drop people, it is an act of faith trusting the lord that he will help you find new people to teach. Søster Starkie and I have been dropping quite a few people... it is a scary process because you really have to have faith!! But we are seeing miracles and finding new people! :) we played fotball and I played in my tan booties.. like the little boots I wear normally. Hahahha it was so uncomfortable and all of the africans were like "what in the world are you doing?" They thought I was really dumb hahah. After, one of them said they will bring me cleats next time. They have extra just my size. Yes!!! I am excited about that. After fotball we watched conference with President and Søster Tew!! Yay! It was fun. We ate dinner with them at 4.30 and then watched conference at 6.00 and then looked at moves together at 8.30. I am staying in asker with Søster Starkie next transfer. That was what I was expecting. It will be good!! :) Søster Starkie and I made homemade cinnamon rolls fredag night and brought them to conference to watch together with the tews. They were sooooo good. And do you know what the secret ingredient was? Mashed potatoes. I know so weird. But seriously soooo good.

Søndag: The lord directed us big time today. Our schedule got wayyyyy messed up but he fixed it perfectly so it would work in his way. all of these cancellations were happening so we just had to go home and get the car, and on the way we saw Martin!! He is a guy we teach. he said he could watch conference with us later that day. This guy is the best last minute hahaha! We watched some conference with a member, went home and ate lunch and studied, and then took the train with Martin to Oslo to watch Conference at the insitute center! It was great because he got to meet new people and really connected with a member. It was a good day.

Mandag: Hahahha this day was wild. It started out with us accidentally joining in on the district leaders call... we just joined early for our leadership call, but it was a little too early, hahhaha it was so awkward. Then we had an appointment at 12 with a nice girl we met on the bus. It was pretty koselig, we started chatting because we were at her house and I saw a music stand so we started talking about music and then all of a sudden she just stood up and started singing and playing the piano. She was actually really good! Then she sat back down and we prayed and she wanted to read something in the bible and we were about to do that when the front door just BURSTS open and this lady with red-brown hair that was very disheveled and braided and stuff. She just started immediately telling us this story about how she blessed a womans dog on the street and that she just called upon the holy spirit and yada yada yada and then all of a sudden she just switches and starts yelling at us that we are living in sin and teaching people blasphemies because she saw the book of mormon on the coffee table.... And she wouldnt even let us talk... I said "can I say something?" and she was like "NO! YOU CANNOT!" and I was like ahhaha okay. But honestly it was a good thing that all of last transfer I worked on not being offended because this situation could have really gone bad if we had tried to be loud and rude or defensive or offended back. So we just sat there and took the chastisement and tried to bring the spirit back. The spirit helped me know what to do and what to say and it was good by the end. That poor girl elisabeth... she is kind of depressed and this woman also just rails on her too... they are friends but it is not a good relationship. We had to leave, but before we left, the pentecostal lady gave me a blessing..... she took my hand and I closed my eyes and then she started making all of these wierd noises and yelling and blowing on my face. I was honestly really scared of her and did not feel the spirit. So what did I learn from that experience? The church is true, ahahha. The church is true. But the day was not over!!! We drove to our next appointment and taught the man Omar that we met on the bus! He is from Iran and opened up to us soooo much about his life and everything. We read in the scriptures about Jesus Christ to help him understand what jesus christ went through so he could understand him. He was really touched by the scriptures. the spirit told us to talk about baptism!!! So we did! We read a scripture. Omar said "Okay.. so we need to follow jesus. Even jesus got baptized. So we need to do that too. I will read this book. And come back with questions." He is the best!!1 THe spirit was sooooo strong and he is sooo humble and that is why it was so amazing to teach him. He was reading in the pamphlet about the book of mormon being written on gold plates and he goes "WOAH. I know that is true." After the lesson Søster Starkie and I were like WOWWWWWWWW!!!!! This guy is getting baptized. Then we met some cool people on the way home, ran into Arkeen on the street, tried to contact a less active member, and then went home to do some planning. Søster Starkie and I jumped out the window a couple times to grab something from the car and put it back. It was sooooo uncomfortable because søster Starkie couldnt come back in the window because she had a skirt on and then Martin walked by and was like HEY!!! See you on Wednesday!! .....So now he knows where we live. But he already kind of knew because we live right next to eachother. Hahaha so we died laughing. Also we ate the most delicious thing for dinner. Tortilla wraps with salmon and lettuce and cabbage and cheese and rice and lemon juice and sweet chili sauce. It was really good. End quote from Søster Zenger. 

That's a wrap! Hope that you all had a great conference weekend! Vi ses!
Love, Søster Starkie