Eldste Truxton McSpadden: Week 22 Alesund Norway

Hey everyone!!

First off Happy Thanksgiving to everybody! I'm so grateful for all of my friends and family, you've all been such amazing examples to me in my life.

This week was pretty stinking crazy! To start off we had Zone conference in Stavanger so we had to catch a flight again and we were told our flight left at 3:00. So we pulled up to the airport at 2 and we look at the departure screen and our flight actually doesn't leave until like 4:15 so we decided to start talking to as many people as we could! We were finally able board our plane and take off. About 20 minutes into our flight I was quietly reading the book "The Saints" and something exploded the noise was so loud and the whole plane just shook like crazy! I looked out the left window and there were flames and smoke coming out the left engine everywhere! I woke up Eldste Lindberg and I was like "Bro did you just see that?" he wakes up and had the funniest look on his face and just said "WHAAT?" I laughed so hard. Then the pilot gets on and he's like " uhmm we're going to have to make an emergency landing back in Ålesund we have um some uh difficulties with the uh engine." And we were like oh shoot our engine blew up! People started freaking out, the flight attendants make everyone buckle their seatbelts and tried to calm people down. Sadly it was on the other side of where I was sitting so I didn't get any pics. But the first thing I thought was "noooo I'm not going to get any Thanksgiving food at zone conference!" I was pretty bummed out! It was a bumpy flight back with a really rough landing but we made it back safe. When we landed there were ambulances and cop cars everywhere because they thought we were going to have to crash land. I guess the story even made it on the World News but Heavenly Father kept us all safe! They started getting people off the plane and people were crying hysterically, calling their families so we were just trying to help people chill out a little. They got us all together and told us what had happened and they said there was technical difficulties with the engine but that they were going to give us a food coupon to get some dinner! Mmmmm?? Whatever that means, I was stoked for dinner! We went in and of course all 93 passengers wanted to hit the pub the only restaurant in the airport (typical Norwegians, loving their beer). So Eldste Lindberg and I just got something quick from the snack bar and then we walked over to the restaurant, there was only one lady taking orders and only one lady cooking! They seemed super overwhelmed!! So I said " Lindberg let's go be waiters!" He agreed and we just started taking the plates of food and beer to everyone and talking with people it was so funny! It passed the time away rather than just sitting and waiting for our next flight and we met a lot of new people. Then they told us that we were going to have to sleep in Olso but that they bought us a hotel. So we caught our flight to Oslo and arrived around 11 and finally made it to our hotel room. It was way nice and cozy! We woke up at 4 and had an amazing breakfast, Norwegians know how to make breakfast let me tell ya. We then headed back to the airport and hopped on the flight from Oslo to Stavanger. We got there just in time for Zone Conference and the only thing that kept me from falling asleep was a good ol Red Bull baby.

We had an amazing zone conference and we talked a lot about the Light the World initiative and how we can light the world by simply going about doing good. It was an amazing conference filled with the spirit! President Tew is just an amazing man and everytime he speaks the spirit floods the room. He pumps us all up to go do some missionary work and every one always leaves amped up and ready to go. We also watched the Christ child video, it was very humbling to watch and see the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. One thing I really love about it is when the wisemen come before Christ and just fall to their knees and just cry tears of joy! I've really thought about why they were so happy to see him and I came to the conclusion that they were crying tears of gratitude! They knew that this little boy standing in front of them was going to suffer for all the pains and afflictions everyone on this earth had experienced, and would experience! And that through Him we can live with our families forever. That hit me deep because my family is the single most important thing to me in my life! It definitely got me thinking about what I'm grateful for... I'm so grateful for Christ and his sacrifice, I'm grateful for the chance I have to come out and serve Him and my Father in Heaven for 2 short years, I'm grateful for my family, I'm grateful for my amazing friends who have helped me get to where I am right now, I'm grateful for my free country the good ol' USA, and I'm grateful for this gospel! I love being a missionary and serving the people here in the beautiful country of Norway, even though I'm pretty sure their two favorite words are "Not interested". I still love everyday I'm able to be here and serve these amazing people. I love all the funny, cool, spiritual experiences that I get to have that I will never forget and I know I never would of had if I wasn't willing to serve!

Now time for some funny things that happened this week. So first off me and Eldste Lindberg are best friends and he reminds me of my boys back home so much. If we aren't having a crazy spiritual lesson we are laughing our heads off. He randomly says things that make me laugh so hard and they're always in different accents and may or may not have swear words in them because "they ain't swear words in Denmark!" And I always ask him like where did he come up with these sayings and he says " there's a method to my madness mate" and I loose it every time. We had been bonking (knocking) doors for like and hour and we usually just switch off every house on who speaks so we get into this routine and this next one was suppose to be my turn but then I thought it was his turn so we rang the doorbell and we both just stood there and then I was like " Hi I'm Eldste Lindberg and uh wait no " ( In Norwegian) then the dude looked at my name tag and I was like wait no I'm Edlste McSpadden and that's Eldste Lindberg and then Lindberg says in a Brittish accent " Ha! fair enough mate" and I just started laughing so hard and the dude just looked at us and thought it was a joke and just said "not interested" and slammed the door while we were laughing it was so funny. It also snowed a ton this week which was dope!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at one of our American friends houses with mashed potatoes and gravy which was so nice! It was kind of funny because they kind of argued a little bit but then they all agreed on politics and how the leftist are taking over the world! So politics calmed down the conversation! We had some good lessons as well this week and the spirit was super strong. Kjell and Marianne are still doing really well! We did a lot of finding this week because all our investigators were busy with family but we met with Fride. She said that if she finds out the Book of Mormon is true that she would be baptized so that was awesome! She's had a hard time with prayer but she had a cool experience with it this week. Her grandpa was super sick and in a lot of pain and she said a prayer in the morning that he would not be in pain anymore and have to suffer any longer. He then passed away later that day and even though it was sad she said it was an answer to her prayers. So we taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she loved it and said when she finds out what we are saying is true she wants to be baptized!

My P day here in Bergen has been so fun! We're not around other missionaries ever because we live so far out in the boonies but they planned a few things for us to do while we're here. We woke up and went ice skating then went shopping around in the city and now were chilling at Brasilia, an all you can eat Brazilian buffet like Tucanos, it's so good. So cool!! The craziest thing happened on the bus on our way to Brasilia. There was a man who was like, "hey um come here are you guys missions? Or missionaries?" And I said, yes! He was like, "my friends are missionaries and I want to meet with you guys!" I got his name and number and the Bergen Elders are going to meet with him on Thursday! Miracles!!

Hope ya all have a good week!

Love,

Eldste McSpadden

This is how high the sun comes up each day and then it just sets again at 3:30 in the afternoon!!

Day time!!

It's a thing to collect all the kommune pins in Norway! It's like community pins so we send mass emails to all the kommunes and they send us pins for free! I'm going to try and get all 400, it's exciting when ya get something in the mail and it's fun. Some of them are so dope! Some have reindeer or polar bears, Viking weapons, helmets, and a lot of them have fish on them. It's so cool! Our mail box was so full!! Ha Ha!!