Week 78 Oslo Norway

 Hey everyone hope you all had a super fun Christmas!! 

    We had lots of food, fun families and a short nap, it was awesome! I loved the lutefisk it was so good! All the other elders hated it but I actually liked it, tastes just like fresh cod but it has the texture of Jello. Then after that we went over to the mission home and slept there with the boys and then woke up and made a big breakfast with President and Sister Tew. Then after that we went to this American families house and had a good brunch. The dad works for the Embassy so they get hookups from the states and they gave us all Skippy peanut butter and fruit smiley fruit snacks! It was so dope we were hyped! We played games and then I took a little nap, that was so nice I miss taking naps. Then we went over to this super nice old lady's house and she made us more food and then we watched a movie called the 4 Wiseman and it was great. Super good week! This week is super busy as well, President Tew asked me to be his assistant so now it's been a lot of office work and buying plane tickets and preparing mission leadership trainings and zone conferences but it'll be exciting to work with him more! I'm back with my old comp I had in Trondheim Elder Van Slooten. We got some cool people we are teaching too so that will be exciting as well! 

Hope you all have a good New Years! 

Eldste McSpadden 

Sister Tew's green smoothies!!

Week 77 Oslo Norway

 Hey wassup everyone!! 

    Wanted to start off by saying MERRY CHRISTMAS! Woohoo, I love Christmas time it's so fun and everyone is in such a better mood. For some weird reason we haven't gotten any snow and its making me sad like I live in the arctic circle and we don't have snow?? But every one is just saying its going to hit in January and then it'll be a long winter so that's exciting. But we got to see the sun for the first time in a while this week and that was so awesome! There weren't any clouds and it was about 2:30 and the sun was setting it was super pretty. We had a lot of service this week, things just shut down before Christmas and everyone goes into hibernation mode and just says, "yeh we can meet after the new year" so we decided to just grind out service. And it worked! We had like 4-5 projects set up and we have a couple more this week which is good, people are so shocked that we work for free because Norwegians are very in love with their money so they all just say,  "you guys are like Christmas angels!" It was funny. But it's been good because we've met a ton of new people that we can invite to YSA activities once they start up again. Or if they start up again, pretty sure the vaccine just started getting distributed here so hopefully it works. We have some fun plans for Christmas so that should be way fun, this member family is going to make us something called Lutefisk, its cod that's pickled in Lye which sounds super gross and tons of non Norwegians hate it but he says he loves it so I'm going to force myself to like it. My dad always told me before I left I have to embrace everything about the culture and I've gotten myself to love black licorice already so why not lutefisk. In my personal study I've been reading in Mosiah and when it talks about when we are serving others we are serving God. And then in the Institute study guide it has some pretty sweet quotes from legends like Neal A Maxwell and my boy Bruce R McConkie. There was one in there that I loved and it said something like every act of unselfish service to Gods children increases your spirituality and brings you closer to God. Your progress in this life has a lot to do with the relationships you have, and a measure of your conversion is how you treat others. It's so true! Being a missionary, I've noticed the happiest of times are when we are out helping others and teaching them the Gospel. True joy comes from turning outwards and focusing less on yourself. I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and remember to serve those around you!  🤙🏽

Eldste McSpadden

Week 76 Oslo Norway

 Another week down, a good one but weird as well! 

    The sisters I came out with went home this week, which is so crazy! There's no way it's already been 18 months but apparently it has. We had some great turnouts with potentials we met up with, this one girl who's friends referred us to her asked US for the link to online church and then invited us over today! So we're going on a hike with her and some friends later today which will be good! We're planning on bringing up the Plan of Salvation because that's what her friend said she's wondering the most about so we'll see how that goes. The one guy we taught 2 lessons to last week sent us a message saying we can't talk to him anymore because his family got mad at him for talking to the "Mormon" cult but added that he thinks we're nice dudes so no offense. But its funny because he's a grown man and seemed like a solid dude so I don't know if it was his wife and kids that told him that or his parents but you'd think a 45 year old man could make some personal decisions on his own, haha. Light the World has been the plug recently, there's just so many ideas and it comes in handy when things get slow like yesterday. We didn't have much planned but then I looked at the calendar and it said, "sing songs with those around you and spread some cheer". If any of you know me, I don't know a lick about music but I didn't care. I got the idea to bake some cookies and set up a table in Sentrum's city center and sing Christmas carols and hand out free bags of cookies.  Of course, every bag of fresh cookies had a pass along card with our number and Facebook Pages on there, it worked! We called up the other elders here got them on board and got er done.  It was super rainy and wet but we handed out so many so hopefully someone shoots us a message. Not much other than that, just a lot of FB contacting and meeting up with people. I put out a picture in this helping service FB group saying I'm offering free service to help set up Christmas decorations, shovel snow, clean around the house and carrying heavy things and so many people commented and liked it so we have some service set up now which was good as well. 

    Christmas is so fun and such a good time!! I love being a missionary during the Christmas season because you begin to realize how grateful you are for every little thing around you. Hope you all have a good week! My address is Welhavens Gate 2c, 0166 Oslo Norway if you guys want to send me your family Christmas cards I would LOVE them! 

Eldste Spaddy 🤙🏽

Week 75 Oslo Norway

 Waddup everybody another week has flown by, it's crazy Christmas is coming so soon! 

    I love it though because everyone is in a better mood around Christmas which makes it nice. But I'm so confused with the weather here, we got snow in like October and haven't gotten ANY since then. It always just stays like right above freezing so the rain doesn't freeze and it's just wet windy and cold. I'm literally in the arctic circle but yet there's no snow? Man I hope we get a toooon before Christmas. 

      Anyways this week was solid! We have had some good appointments with people we meet off Facebook, I messaged this hiking group here in Oslo and then a person responded and said, "It's good to see that there are other LDS people here in Oslo" and I was like what the, so I looked up her name on the member list and it wasn't there. Turns out she moved from Peru about 2-3 years ago and couldn't speak Norwegian and didn't have many friends so she went inactive. She is engaged to a Norwegian now and they are super cool people! We introduced them to another couple in the ward and the wife is from South America and the dude is from Norway and they got along so well which was great! Kinda frustrating that we don't have church meetings because it would be perfect to invite them but it is what it is. Miracles do happen! Like what are the odds!? Then another guy who actually just sent me a message and asked if I wanted to meet up at a cafe with him was cool as well. After we met up he asked me how old I was and I was like "uh 19 man what about you" and he was like, "ohhh I thought you were like 35, I would've never thought I'd be getting a cup of coffee with two 19 year old Mormons". Then he was like, "hey you guys are super cool" and just started asking so many questions about what we believe and we basically taught him the Restoration and some of the plan of Salvation. He's pretty religious himself but was super cool and genuinely interested in what we believe in so that was good. And to think he messaged me and I didn't have to do a thing. Our landlord has been reading the book of Mormon a little as well and likes it. We had a lesson with him about 2 weeks ago and he was just like " How do you guys have all these good looking young studs who teach people about Jesus? Like that is so crazy to me, you guys could be doing so many other things in your life but your paying to be here??" We just said because we know that book right there is true that's why. Then he goes alright then I'm  going to read it! He's such a cool guy, he's Italian and he said he would make us some pasta or pizza sometime so I'm stoked for that as well. 

     We had a missionary conference over technology this week and it turned out better then I thought it would, I wanted it to be in person so bad because we just got out of quarantine but we just wanted to be safe I guess. But the spirit was so strong and I've come to crave after that feeling while being on my mission and I love it. We talked about Christ's life and his birth and the meaning of Christmas and it got me hyped. Sunday was awesome, we had sacrament with other people for the first time in 3 weeks, which was so nice. We have 8 missionaries, a senior couple, and President and Sister Tew here in Oslo so that's a blessing. With these technology meetings we usually YouTube musical numbers so we've been getting some fire stuff recently and they just bring the spirit into the meeting so strong I love it.

 Hope you have a great week! 

Eldste Spaddy 🤘🏽

I had to check out the Nike store right next door to my apartment! 

Darin's trainer sent him this photo this week of him serving in England! I can see him in my boys. Grateful for missions and the opportunity my boys have had to serve. 

Week 74 Oslo Norway

 Finally out of quarantine!! 

     I don't think I've ever wanted to go knock doors so bad in my life then during this past week. It was a good week and we got a lot done given the circumstances but man it was BORING. We stayed busy with President Nelson's give thanks challenge and messaging people on FB. I put out a post in this hiking group with people and I actually got tons of responses and an inactive member who's records aren't on our list reached out to me. We're going to meet up with her and her fiance today and go on a hike! We also had Thanksgiving this week!! Definitely the most interesting one I've ever had but it was good. An American member family back in Drammen sent me a message and said they'd be in Oslo for the day and wanted to drop "some stuff " off for Thanksgiving because they knew we were in quarantine. They hooked us up so fat it was a miracle; a full chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, yams without nuts, and some apple crisp to top her off. I was so hyped and thanked them so much. We had a bunch of lessons with members over messenger just to try and get to know them so that was good. The problem is that the list here has about 650 members on it but only about 90-110 are active so it's a hit and miss with people hahaha but that's just missionary work. Light the World started up again and we had a meeting with the area technology specialists and they showed us all the light the world stuff for this year and the videos were so good!!! So get ready for some fire stuff coming out soon. Christmas is such a wonderful time and it's even better being a missionary. Your focus is so different and I love the time I have to really focus more on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and study more about him. The song " O come, o come Emmanuel" has been on my mind so much lately. In Hebrew the word Immanuel means " God with us " and the last line of each verse says " Rejoice rejoice Emmanuel" or in other words "Rejoice Rejoice for God is with us" I am so grateful for that knowledge we have of knowing that our Redeemer lives and atoned for each and every one of us and that he is with us carrying us through life. 

Hope you all have a good week 💯🙌🏽🦃

Eldste Spaddy 🤘🏽

Week 73 Oslo Norway

 Wassup everyone this week was interesting! 

      Said bye to all of the dope people in Drammen, had a bonfire with some of the YSA and people we were teaching before I left which was super fun. I love Drammen and I hope all the progress we had there keeps going! Still stoked for Bjørn, I got to visit him in the hospital before I left because he had some health problems come up but he's all good and hyped for his baptism! Which is so exciting! Now I'm in Oslo which is Norway's capital. It's a pretty sweet city and I'm right in the middle of Sentrum! It's funny because I'm in a super nice area with all the crazy nice stores like LV, Gucci, Jimmy Choo right next to me but my apartment was kind of a dump when I came in but we cleaned her up nice and bought some stuff so that's good. We have just been calling a ton of the families to get to know them and finding people on FB and stuff so not to much has been happening. We did get a referral from a YSA here that I know and her friend has been to church a couple times and said that we could "practice" the lessons on her so that'll be tight. I'm not sure what the difference is when teaching a lesson but they can think what they want if they're willing to listen to us. Other than that I'm just trying to stay away from the Footlocker and Nike factory down the street from me and I'm playing the guitar a lot more with some of my free time. My comp is a good guy from Caldwell, Idaho! So he's a hard working obedient kid which is always nice. He's 6'6 so when were out of quarantine we're planning on hitting the courts and doing some sport contacting. I loved President Nelson's invitation he gave to everyone! I thought that was so powerful and inspired. The last time we were given an invitation with social media it was to fast from it and avoid it. But in the technology world we live in today and with people being inside so much, he received inspiration to flood the internet with positivity! It's so amazing to have living prophets who receive modern day revelation. 

Have a good week every one! 🤙🏽

Eldste Spaddy 

Eldste Bevan and I 

We're in quarantine for 10 days so a member from Drammen drove up and dropped off a thanksgiving feast for us to cook. It made our day after cooking up all this yummy food! Love the members who take good care of us and so does my mom.  

Week 72 Drammen Norway

 Wassup everyone! 

We had a solid week here in Norway for sure.

     Corona canceled a lot of stuff but we were determined to have a successful week so we grinded. We had tons of lessons which was good. Bjørn is doing great, we showed him around the baptismal font and we came to the conclusion that we will probably have to have 2 people in the font to get him up out of the water. I kid you not, we're going to have to have a splash zone around the font because he's a big dude and the font is not big enough. It will be a cool experience and I can't wait, I'm so excited for him! Transfers are this week and I got the news I'll be leaving Drammen to train again down in Oslo. It should be really fun and I'm excited but the 10 day isolation is going to be really boring. After that it'll be good, my new companion's been waiting to get to Norway for some time and I'm sure he's excited to finally get here. Elder Bevan from Moscow, Idaho and a bunch more missionaries are arriving so a lot of us are training to get the mission back up to where we need to be. We're going to be living right in the middle of Sentrum, which is a pretty big city with a university and lots of people. The area hasn't had missionaries in awhile so we'll be opening it back up and getting to work. The Nike store is a 30 second walk from my apartment so I'm chillin! HaHa  It's kind of sad that I'll be in isolation for Thanksgiving but I'm just going to make some good food for us and we'll be alright. Eldste and Sister Jackson, my favorite senior couple, are moving to Oslo too!  

      Funny story that happened, we asked the sisters if we could borrow they're bus card so we could catch an appointment with a family one night.  They said yes and then the next day they called us to see if we could meet and bring the cards to the station at 2? We were like ya ya of course! At 1:59 we get a message from the sisters saying we're here... well if you know me, I had already forgotten about it. I felt so bad, so we zoomed down to the bus station and I took off in a full sprint to find them and give them their cards before their train left in 2 minutes. As I came around the corner, sprinting into town square, I slipped on one of those metal sewage lids.  I ATE it so hard, landing on the ground in a massive puddle in front of like 20 people. The sisters just died laughing as they watched the whole thing go down. I walked away with soaking wet clothes and some broken pride but they made their train so it's all good. 

      On Friday it was my old companion Elder Meldrum's birthday and a girl we teach so we decided to celebrate together and go to dinner at this place called "Texas BBQ" and ohhhh man was that a blessing from heaven. We had baby back ribs, brisket, mac n cheese, peach cobbler and a cold glass of root beer for the boys. It has been SOOOO long since I've had any of that kind of food and it was so good. But that was the first and last time I'll be paying 6 bucks for a cold root beer but man it was good. Anyways, we've been making some videos as well which has been cool! I never thought I'd be taking pictures, filming and editing videos on my mission but that's what we have to do now. Vilde is super nice and lets us use her fancy camera so we just take it with us everywhere we go and get footy of different things we do and then tie a gospel principle to it and post it. We have a page for our mission and they post it and then we respond to all the comments and likes of those who aren't members then meet up with them later. It's pretty weird but it works so well and I don't really care how we do it as long as we're finding people to teach! We invited our recent convert and another friend we're teaching to a family home evening with the Stake President and his fam and they KILLED it! We discussed Come Follow Me and in Ether when they built the barges. He compared it to how we need to make that decision to "get in the boat" everyday and trust in God. It was awesome for both of them to here and I learned a ton as well. 

      To close,  I want to share an awesome experience we had with Bjørn this past week as well. He'd been doing so well with his plan and he slipped up and smoked again. It was super tough on him because he thought he could just quit and he was super down about it and then the next couple of days he seemed to loose motivation. But last week I called my brother Dillon and he was telling me about his mission and that he was in the same situation I'm in right now with Bjorn. He and his companion decided to stop by for a little bit at least once a day to check in and it worked. So we started doing it with Bjorn and it helped him so much. We would read and pray with him or just have a good talk and then leave. We made a plan to begin again this week and keep it up until his baptism, he was a little uncertain if he could do it and was kind of stubborn on just throwing away all his tobacco right then and there. But then we showed up yesterday and he was so hyped! We got in a good lift with him and then he tells us, "boys guess what? I threw all my tobacco in the fire this morning, I'm going to do it!!" It was so dope, Bjørn is such a stud. We printed off some great quotes for him that he loves from President Nelson and then set up a calendar for him to mark off the days until his baptism and he was stoked again so that was amazing! Shout out to "D" for the inspiration 🙌🏽 Hope you all have a good week!

Eldste McSpadden

Eldste Affleck, Eirin and Eldste McSpadden

Eldste Van Slooten and I

Week 71 Drammen Norway

 What's up everyone, 

        Corona kind of messed up our week but we ended up making the best out of it. For some stupid reason everyone and their dog decided to go get tested this week so lines for testing were insanely long and people who weren't even sick were testing positive. So the numbers have been getting "dangerously high" so they shut everything down and cancelled church and all out appointments were cancelled as well. 

     Sunday we just asked President if we could drive down to Tønsberg  to go to church so he gave the green light so that was fire. But on the bright side Bjørn is doing good and has been 1 week without tobacco! He's so happy right now and just loving life so that's really motivating. His baptismal interview is scheduled for the 2nd of December which is exciting. Transfers is next week though so we will see how that goes! It would be cool to be here for his baptism but if I dip it's in the Lords hands! We found some new people to start meeting with which is cool, I got a message from some random girl asking about missionary work and stuff so we are going on a hike this week with her and giving her a book of Mormon which is dope. We've just been making friends in the community and then bringing up the gospel so that's been fun! We've met some interesting but cool people, my comp is super musically talented so he just joined a Facebook group and asked people if we could meet up and "jam" and we had this guy say, "yeh I'm in my studio every day from 9-1 just come over!" So we pulled up and it was in this sketchy cellar thing and I was like oh man this is gonna be so ghetto but we get down there and this dude had a legit full studio with probably over 200 guitars hanging on the wall and a full set of drums and ukuleles and violins it was so cool. He had all this sick recording gear and massive speakers with huge subs and stuff it was legit! So we started talking and then he just gives my comp a guitar and they just start going off it was dope. Then I looked over and I saw a guitar with Jesus on it and thought aye there's my opportunity! So I picked it up and said, "I think this one is my fav! Jesus is a good guy!" And then we started talking about religion and what he believes in and stuff. He was agnostic but we can change that ;) so we will meet up with him again sometime and we're gunna make a song or something so that'll be swaggy. 

      This week I've been reading in the Book of Mormon and the Old Testament and one thing I've realized is the amount of symbolism in the scriptures. I read along with the institute manuals and the gospel doctrine books and it has helped so much to learn more deeply about what the prophets really meant and man Isaiah is a stud. I use to read super quickly through the Isaiah chapters but now I'm eating it up. One thing I loved that Bruce R. McConkie said was that the Fall the Creation and the Atonement are all inseparable and are all necessary for each other. I liked that and think he's such a stud! My mission presidents wife is his niece so she hooks it up with talks and speeches that were never written down. Today on p day we went fishing but didn't catch much. We saw a swan and fed it tortilla chips and then I got the grand idea to feed it one from my mouth.... homeboy bit my nose and chin but I snagged a dope pic of it so that's all that counts! #fortheboys 

Have a good week! 🙌🏽

Eldste McSpadden

Week 70 Drammen Norway

 Good week here in Drammen!

      Bjørn is doing good and he's dropped tobacco!! So that was exciting, he's been doing so good and progressing a ton. Super stoked for his baptism on the 12th of December! I also finally became good buddies with his massive Russian bear hunting dog named Samson. Back in the summer it attacked me and bit my bum but now we're buddy's.  This thing is literally huge, weighs around 200 pounds and looks like a bear. Other than that we've had interviews with President Tew, which was good, and then splits with some of the boys! Good to be around other solid dudes, we have 5 new elders in our zone so we've been doing a ton of language studies and online splits as well to make sure these guys get the language down well. 

    This week, I read about when Nephi had to build a ship. Still amazed at his response, as he said, "Where can I go to find ore to make the tools to build the boat?" He was a smart man and was so willing to do amazing things with the Lords help. I've really been working on how I can let the Lord use me for amazing things in my life. I'm always trying to prepare myself to be ready, worthy and willing to use my Priesthood powers when he needs me to.

 Hope you all have a good week and be willing to let the Lord use you for amazing things!

Eldste Spaddy 

A day of service in Norway but I had to support the man on his BIG day!!!  #4MOREYEARS

       (Eldste Holbrook from the MTC)

Week 69 Drammen Norway

 This week was awesome! 

     We set a Baptismal date for Bjørn which was great, he's receiving a lot of support from his family now which is awesome! He's doing great and this week the bishop gave the opportunity to come speak at a youth fireside. Let's just say, he killed it! I was so happy for him and grateful he shared his life story with the youth. He let them know he hasn't had an easy life but that he still never got into drugs or crime even though he was surrounded by it all growing up. He always felt like God was watching over him but he just didn't know how to better connect with Him until now. When my companion and I started coming to his house he said he could feel the positive energy we carried and it just emulated every where we went. He said he knew it wasn't normal for two 20 year old boys to pay to leave their life and families to go around and talk to people about Jesus, so he wanted to learn more. Then when he read the Book of Mormon in Alma 32 where it compares faith to a seed he connected really well with that. And now he said he has come to know that this church is true and wants to be baptized on the 12th day of December! All the kids were so engaged and were asking so many questions, it was awesome. The bishop was just as excited and thought he did such a great job. Then he started talking about his time as a world champion weight lifter it was so funny, all the kids were so impressed. 

     This week we also did a lot of planning for zone conference and preparing presentations and assigning musical numbers, the conference was amazing! We talked about consecration and how we need to be "all in" not just as missionaries but as members and decide right now the path we want to go on. Very inspiring and uplifting! President Tew is such a legend and can be the funniest coolest guy but then invite the spirit into the room in an instant. Mad respect for that guy. Other than that we've been filming a lot video ideas for FB which should be good. I never would have thought I'd be editing and filming videos on my mission but that's what's working so I'm just gonna go with the flow. Hope you all have a good week 🙌🏽

Eldste Spaddy 

Bjorn and I 

Week 68 Drammen Norway

 Another week down, it was a busy one too! 

       We had so many member appointments and lessons it was great. We've been trying to grind and get all the members to help us out on FB and it's been working. The members just think the missionaries are still locked down doing nothing but we're showing them what we've been up to and they all get super excited to help! They want to be in on the videos and even want to use they're expertise to help us make them so they look better and it's been sick. On Monday, one of the members was a HOMIE and made Costa Vida sweet pork burritos with the spicy ranch and homemade salsa, it was cash money dolla bills! One of the best member dinners I've had and we even had apple pie with ice cream for dessert! Bjørn is doing good, we should be setting a baptismal date with him on Friday so that'll be exciting to hear! Then some other investigators are improving as well which is good. On our way to an appointment this week we were at a bus stop waiting and it was freezing cold outside (we woke up to a blanket of snow this morning) so we looked behind us and saw there was a Methodist church welcoming people in, we decided to head on in because it was Sunday and we were cold. We walked in and they were so kind and accepting. We watched as they were all singing and dancing,  playing the keyboard singing hallelujah! When we sat down, I glanced over at this man sitting on the back row with his family. He had his head bowed and I knew he was talking to our Father in Heaven in prayer. He may not belong to our church but that man was having a conversation with God and you could just see he believed! His little son was sitting next to him praying as well and it made me realize that there are so many good people in this world who really believe in God and know he's there despite all the craziness. I didn't get the chance to talk to him because I had to catch the bus and he hadn't stopped praying from the time I walked in to the time I left but his great example certainly impacted my day. I started the Book of Mormon over again and I have been studying the individual accounts of all the witnesses and learning more about who these men were. And even though most of them left the church they all testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon till the day they died and never denied it. One of the sentences I liked said something like, " I held the cold heavy plates in my hands and leafed through the thin gold pages and felt the engravings of the sacred text by the power of God" it was so cool and very powerful to have these witnesses testify of the plates. I love reading from the Book of Mormon, It's amazing! 

Hope you all have a good week! 

Eldste McSpadden 

Pizza for YSA activity...  Eldste Affleck, McSpadden and the Sister missionaries in our area.

Week 67 Drammen Norway

 Aye this week was super busy! 

       Wednesday we had moves and we picked up my new companion and Elder Meldrum's new companion and drove them to their apartment in Sandvika. We helped them carry stuff into the house then came back and had some calling and appointments to make. Then the next day we had to plan splits with all the District leaders in our zone and figure out which day they're coming so the assistants could buy plane tickets which took a while, then we balled some dudes up at the local park. That night we visited a less active family to get to know them and It was probably one of the most spiritual filled visits I've ever had. We came in and their house was filled with pictures of Christ and I felt the spirit as soon as I walked in, I was kind of caught off guard because usually that's not the case when we visit less active members. Then we get talking to get to know them and we asked how long they've been members and the father was like well we've got a pretty cool story honestly but it takes a while to tell.  I then asked them if they were willing to share it and she said yes! So to keep it short this girl believed in God from the time she was young but her family wasn't religious at all and never talked about it either and then one day her grandfather passed away at like 60 or something and they were all distraught. So she decided to pray and ask God why her grandpa died and where he was at? So when she did she felt prompted to go downstairs, so she did and she proceeded to checked her parents room and they were sound asleep as she turned around she immediately saw a light there and then heard a voice say, "hey it's me grandpa, God let me come and talk to you and I'm here to tell you that I'm ok and I'm learning a lot right now but I need your help!" Then her grandpa proceeded to tell her all about the plan of Salvation and that after he is done learning what he needs to learn he will be going to "paradise" and finished with explaining the 3 different kingdoms that people go to afterwards. As a missionaries you hear a lot of stories and sometimes you can tell or feel that they are making it up or exaggerating but when she said that the spirit just filled the room. She had some more dreams and visits from her grandpa throughout the next few years telling her that he needed her help but she didn't ever know how to help him? Then when she was about in her 20's she started dating this guy who was a member but went inactive when he moved from France to Norway. She ended up telling him of this experience and he was like, "oh shoot ya,  I know where we need to go" so the next day was Sunday and they pulled up to the church house so she could talk to the missionaries and he asked the missionaries to teach her the plan of Salvation. When they did she was in shock as she realized it was exactly what her grandpa had taught her years ago.  Then when they told her about baptisms for the dead and explained that is the way people in the spirit world can be baptized it clicked and she knew that was how she was suppose to help her grandfather. So she got baptized and then had the baptism done for her grandfather and then the dreams and visits stopped because she knew she did what needed to be done! And the reason she hasn't been coming to church is health problems and some other anxiety stuff but that her testimony will never go away and she knows this church is true. Me and my comp were so shocked and so grateful she shared her story with us,  it was sweet. Super cool how God is always helping his children.

     I finished the Book of Mormon again this week in Norwegian and every time I get that same confirmation that it is the word of God. I agree 100 percent with Joseph Smith and the statement that the Book of Mormon is the most true book out of all the other books and that it can bring man closer to God more than anything else! We had MLC which was fun and we are grinding to get more people taught and baptized here, Bjørn is doing great and has been doing good with his plan! Hope you all have a good week. 

Eldste McSpadden

Week 66 Drammen Norway

 Aye wassup guys, this week was sick! 

      General conference was so fire, I love hearing from the Lords servants. They are truly inspired men called of God to lead us here in these days! President Oaks just threw it down on all the crap that's going on right now so I hope that gets people to screw their heads on right. But man is our prophet an intelligent man! When he was saying he was studying stuff in Hebrew I lost it! That man is a world renown heart surgeon, can speak English, Spanish, Chinese, read Greek and I guess some Hebrew as well. He's made a name for himself but he dedicated his life to the Lord and has used those talents to further the gospel on this earth. Truly inspiring to me and it makes me want to gain as much knowledge as I can while I'm on this earth because that's the only thing were able to take with us! Wish I would of payed more attention in Mr. Millers Spanish class, shout out to the OGs in that class, it was a party. But I also loved the way he talked about letting God prevail it's so true! I loved in one of the talks it said, "as we are students of the Book of Mormon...." and it made me think about what the definition of the word "student" meant so I looked it up. It says, "A learner who is enrolled in an educational institution or someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more subjects" and I thought that was so cool! If we could enroll ourselves in the institution of the Book of Mormon and gain mastery of it then our faith and knowledge would increase immensely. It was also sick to get a shoutout from Elder Uchtdorf as he talked about the baptisms increasing in Norway! We get a little overlooked up here in the North Pole so that was swaggy. Bjørn is doing great with his plan and we are hoping to set a new baptismal date so that's super exciting. Sad news, Elder Meldrum is leaving tomorrow but I'm so excited to be getting Elder Affleck.  He's a hard worker, loves his mission and has an amazing voice. Elder Meldrum and I are homies and I'm grateful we were companions for 4 months. He didn't move too far so we can still mob on p days! This next transfer will be fun, crazy how fast time is flying. Got my highest max with Bjørn on bench this week too, so that was sick! Haha 

Hope you all have a solid week 🤘🏽

Eldste McSpadden 

Week 65 Drammen

 Hey guys hope your all doing well!

     Another week has flown by and it's been great! We started off by having splits with the other elders which was good but we had some bad luck honestly. We had to get our car serviced so we pulled up to the service station and then ended up waiting for almost 3 hours I kept walking up and asking, "like hey how long does it take to change the oil I've been here for awhile. I finally talked to the right guy and the dude said, "oh, we didn't know you were waiting here we thought you'd just like pick it up tomorrow" and I was like, "nah man we got things to do and places to go". He then said he could have it done by 4 but we had Elders coming in at 12 for splits. So we started calling all the members we knew that might help us out and one of the YSA came in clutch, he picked us up and dropped us off at the train station. We then walked with them all the way to the church and had to take studies and stuff there until our car was done. I guess all the bus drivers are on strike right now because they want to get paid more so we couldn't take the bus and really had no other options. It ended up fine and we were able to do some service and a bit of teaching, which was good. 

      On Saturday, we had our last tournament for softball! It's been fun to be able to go hit some dingers every once in a while but now the season is over. We played two quick games and pulled W's both times. Too bad the championship was on Sunday, as our team took 2nd, but they tried to make us feel good and said it was because the Elders weren't there! This ward is super cool and they love us so it'll be sad when we're transferred but because they like us so much, we've made some really good relationships with them. They're so willing to help us with teaches while inviting our friends over to dinners and stuff it's great. We also played some footy this week and if any of you know me I am horrible at soccer! I've been getting a little bit better, I pulled off a couple sick passes and made a few goals when we played with the young men and our investigators. But of course, it was after I had whiffed the ball on some kicks and missed some other easy passes haha. 

       We had a really cool lesson with Bjørn this week and we invited our bishop to come with us. He came and Bjørn had more questions for him and the bishop answered them perfectly. After the Bishop had answered some doctrinal questions Bjorn said,  "I think this is all logical and makes sense, I'm just scared if I make the wrong choice God will punish me!"  The Bishop responded by saying, " Bjørn your a good guy and I know you are on the right path, I want to ask you 4 questions that I think are so very important!" He then went through the first 4 questions in a temple recommend interview and Bjorn did great but then admitted he feels he needs to hear more from President Nelson.  The Bishop said, "well perfect he's speaking to the world this weekend and you can listen to him!" So it hyped Bjørn up and got him excited and ready for conference. He comes to church and stays for both meetings because he says he doesn't want to miss out on anything that was different from the first meeting! Can't wait for conference to listen to our prophet and apostles speak! It was really cool... Eirin came to church as well and Vilde was doing so well answering all her questions. She accepted her own copy of the Book of Mormon and is going to start reading it and praying. After church she said, "thanks for today guys I have so many questions now!" It was awesome! 

     Something I wanted to share from my personal study covering the famous story about the brother of Jared. His faith was so strong and so powerful he is often referred to as one of the greatest examples of faith in the scriptures! But like all men he wasn't perfect, when Babylon was so unrighteous he prayed to God to spare his people and let his people keep their language because of their righteousness. So God answers his prayers and then he asks where they should go to leave the iniquity of the people. God tells them they need to leave the city, so they obey and then after 4 years God tells them to build barges and leave again. The brother of Jared is very obedient and follows his direction but he keeps asking so many questions! God gave him what he needed and expected him to act and decide on his own. So when the brother of Jared asks God, "How are we going to have light in our boats?" God chastises him and says, "Well Mohonri, I have given you enough guidance and direction for what is necessary, what ideas do you have to make light in the boats?" And then the brother of Jared starts to ponder, pray and read in the scriptures. He learns that Moses had a similar problem and then received revelation that he should have the Lord touch stones and put light into them. So he comes back to the Lord with an idea and a solution to the situation he's facing and the Lord is pleased with him and his efforts. It makes me think about life today, we stress so much over the smallest things, I believe we definitely need to rely on God and pray to him often but instead of asking him to tell us what to do we need to rely more on what he has already provided for us. We need to take the scriptures, the words of our prophets, leaders, parents and make an educated decision and pray for a confirmation to God rather than asking more questions. Life will be a lot easier if we follow that pattern and strive to use that gift of agency God has given each of us. I know God answers our prayers and wants what's best for us and I know He has a plan but sometimes we need to act on our own and take that step of faith. 

Love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Eldste Spaddy!

The ladies house that we do a lot of service at wants these rock wall cage things. They're pretty cool, I may be hauling a lot of rocks in the near future.  I thought my mom would like this too.