Week 56 Drammen Norway

This week was one to remember for sure! 

        We had a good busy week with a full schedule but the highlight was the weekend! Luke was baptized on Saturday and it went so well! A ton of members showed up and brought cakes and a variety of food to serve afterwards. Luke is a great missionary as he invited so many friends and family and now we're teaching some of them because of it! It was truly an amazing experience! Right before we both walked down into the water (which ended up being freezing cold because we filled it up to early) we were in the changing room and I said, "Luke this is the best decision you will make in your life right here hands down, don't ever forget this and never forget or throw away the answers you've received from God" and he said, "Not a chance mate, no way I could forget the things I've experienced and the knowledge I have!" It was really motivating and so inspiring to me to know that he knows without a doubt this gospel is true! Super cool, then after that we went over to his house and the family had tons of food and Russian dancing going on it was a blast. On Sunday, Luke and I had the opportunity to speak in church and he KILLED it! You would of thought he'd been a member his whole life and it made it even better that he did it in Norwegian! He's from England and has been living in Norway for only a year and speaks very well. Then I had the opportunity, with his permission, to tell his story from my point of view and bore testimony that there are people out there prepared to hear the gospel and we can't listen to the people who say there aren't. We've got a living witness right here and it amped up the members in our ward to do more missionary work! When he received the Holy Ghost, he said he had a tingling feeling the whole time and he'd never felt it that strong before. He felt as if he could feel the Holy Ghost physically with him at that time! It was awesome and such a testimony building experience for all of us who witnessed it.  
           Monday, we had a little MLC zoom meeting with the other Zone leaders, President Tew and the assistants were talking about how technology has changed missionary work so much! Then a member of the area presidency joined our meeting and asked us to tell our story of how we've been doing things here in Norway and how it's been working. It was so cool because he said they've loved seeing what we've been doing and have been impressed with the ideas we've come up with and how we've really figured out how to use social media to find people who want to learn more.  He said they've taken the videos and ads (including my snowman one) we've been producing and showed them to "a man named Dieter who then showed it to a man named Russell" haha it was great! We're down to 38 missionaries in the whole country of Norway soon and they haven't forgotten about us. We have been blessed to have such amazing tools from the Lord to help us further His work here with all the craziness that's gone on. I'm so grateful to be learning good healthy ways to use technology to the fullest, I've always thought of it as a huge waste of time but it really works to spread the word of God! 
     We had a good p day, of course we went fishing again, caught a nice mackerel but nothing else. Still trying to figure out how to fish the ocean. We're super stoked for Vilde's baptism on Saturday as well, which will be sweet! She's been progressing a ton and even though tons of people are against it she says, "I'm not doing it for anyone else, I'm doing it because I know it's right for me and a can't deny the answers I've received!" Super proud of her and all she's done. We also had a softball tournament on Saturday and that was fun we balled out but came up short in second place. After the game my comp and I were interviewed for the post game recap and we made some pretty funny comments about not drinking enough protein and the fact we didn't hit enough dingers. I hit 2 Homer's so I think I did ight! I've been thinking a lot about Jesus Christ's Atonement this week and how it can change people so dramatically including myself! The atonement can change the nature of someone if we let it and we must USE  it every day. I love the way Kenney Chesney and Randy Travis put it in their song called "Baptism" it says, "It went down with the old man, and up with the new one!" Christ's  atonement can cleanse us from anything and everything IF we allow it to and are humble enough. 
Have a good one 🤠🙌🏽

Eldste Spaddy

MLC with President Tew, amazing man!

Service with Luke 

Luke lives with Bjorn 

Baptism day!

Celebration after the baptism, so much support.

Bjorn is a true Viking!

Eldste Meldrum, Vilde , Luke and I

Softball tournament with Vilde and our team!!

New name tags without our personal names on them. Our mission president requested them to see how it would work and it's amazing how much less we have to explain. Elder in Norwegian means oldest brother and it was so confusing to everyone. Times are changing for the good!! I love how forward thinking our president is and how he's always willing to listen to our thoughts. Being our normal selves is how we teach...