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 🤘🏽