Week 98 Bergen Norway

 Another good week has flown by! 

    The big three are grinding here in Bergen. We had awesome weather again this week, which was a blessing! We played some sand volleyball with some dudes I met on the trolley and they were way cool! They were asking tons of questions about why we are here and what we do so that was cool. Then out of nowhere this dude pulled up and asked if he could play so we finished off our last set of games then he started talking to us and said he just moved to Bergen like a week ago, is christian and looking for new friends! We told him why we're here and he said he'd pull up to church on Sunday so that'll be dope! We did a lot of street contacting with the good weather and found some potentials so that was also good. We have a young mom that we gave a book of Mormon to 2 weeks ago and we should be going on a hike and having a lesson with her this week so that'll be exciting as well. We did some less active work this week which was good but for some reason they all think they need to feed us every time we go there and it was a lot of food. And for those of you who know me I'll eat just about anything except hot dogs and tree nuts. I've managed to eat both of them on my mission but I'm still not the biggest fan of either, especially when it's frozen microwaved hot dogs. But it's alright I actually don't mind them now if they're grilled nice and crispy over a fire. But then we met up with this dude my companion found on Facebook and he was dope! We played a game call Kubbe and grilled food. He thought it was so cool that God would help us learn a language so that we could preach his word and was just shocked that we could all speak Norwegian. He's a professional break dancer from Columbia but grew up here and loves food as well. He said he wants to meet up again so we can hopefully start teaching him as well. Then today we visited Voss! If you ever see the fancy Voss glass water bottles that say, "Artesian water from Norway" this is where it's from. The only reason I remember it is because in the movie grown ups the kid of Adam Sandler asks for a Voss water and the waiter says, "we ain't got that fancy artesian water... we got tap water" haha good times. But then we just ate some good kebab's and went shopping. Life's good and being a missionary is so awesome, being able to see miracles everyday is such an amazing experience! 

Eldste McSpadden 

Week 97 Bergen Norway

 Another great week has flown by! 

    We had so much to do this week it was packed. We had 2 great lessons with a friend and another lady we met through Instagram. Elder Templeton said she had heard about the church and wanted to meet to learn more about It. We taught the first lesson and she loved it then we gave her a Book of Mormon she said, "so I just read it and pray to know if it's true right?" It was so dope! We did a lot of service and helped this dude paint his house, he gave me the wrong colored paint and I literally painted half the dudes house a different color it was so funny. He's like " man I can't seem to catch a break!! It's alright though no ones comes out here in the back of the house anyways." So he's got a half grey half off white house now and seems to be ok with it. This week was also the 17th of May which is Norway's 4 of July! It's literally the best day of the year here in Norway, people go crazy. We lucked out with solid weather too so no one cared about corona rules and just partied hard. There was parade, good food, music and people dressed up in their traditional Norwegian clothing it was so fun. All the Norwegians just start drinking at around 7 am and don't stop until midnight so the whole city was just loud and funny with people passed out and chicks hitting on us and us preaching to them on TV it was great. Definitely a day to remember for sure. We were just laughing the whole time looking at thousands of incoherent people just wandering the streets. But it definitely makes you realize why we have the word of Wisdom and the law of Chastity, its all fun and games till you wake up on a park bench with throw up on your chest, half naked at a random bus stop. 

Haha hope you all have a good week!

"They asked us what our plans were for the day and then she said she recognized a slight accent when I spoke and proceeded to ask us where we were from and why we we're here in Norway." I told her and then she asked again what our plans were and I said, " you know, getting some ice cream, eating some hot dogs and sharing the happy message about Christ." A member in Drammen sent the picture to me from the interview, it was great!!

May 17th celebrations in Bergen, Norway! 

Fritchoff Berg

"The Big Three" Ence, Templeton, McSpadden

We went on a hike today with my friend Wesley's aunt, she's so nice!

We love drinking straight from the natural springs all around Norway!

Our painting caps!

A picture that sums up the day, one large bottle of champagne! 

Q and A with some girls who had never met a "Mormon" before...

Week 96 Bergen Norway

 Eg e i Bergen!! 

    Oh man this week has been so good! I was so hyped when I pulled up to Bergen to see they had great weather. Bergen receives rain almost 300 days out of the year and in 2017 it rained every day. So we're starting off good! We had some sweet lessons with some less actives and did a lot of finding to find more people to teach! We joined some basketball Facebook groups and pulled up on some dudes that said they were on the division 1 team here in Norway We whooped them 10 games to 4. First 3 games I couldn't make a bucket to save my life but then I started finishing my layups and my pull up jumper was deadly. The Lord was definitely helping me cause I couldn't miss that thing... sadly it was only in the last 3 games. But then we called through the old area book and this 5 time champion boxer had been taught before and he invited us to a free boxing session. It was probably one of the top 5 hardest workouts of my LIFE... holy cow this guy was insane. We were doing so many things and the endurance boxers have is just unreal. It didn't help that I haven't been in a gym in over 2 years but still. After we finished our warmup and "jab training" we threw on the gloves and went to town. Me and Temp were matched up and we had this little pad that we put on our stomachs and then just threw hands it was so funny. I was NOT expecting the blow and Temp knocked the wind out of me first throw I started laughing so hard. Then I got my shot and went off on him it was so funny our abs kill now and our shoulders hurt too but the funniest part was Elder Ence (our other comp who's been out 5 months and I'm in a trio now) got lined up with some Brazilian dude who went off on him and he was just getting lit up it was so funny! Then the guy invited us back to a free kickboxing class and said we could have a sit down conversation sometime as well which was dope. His name is Trevor Ambrose, he's a bloke from Lestor and had 500 fights back in his day. Dudes a G! 

    Another funny thing is we were contacting on the trolley and a bunch of pretty Norwegian girls got on and Elder Ence wasn't holding on and when the trolley took off he fell into a guy and the crowd of girls and we just lost it, they all kept looking at us and we couldn't stop laughing... and then he gets up and was just red faced and then turns to us and says, "geez that was awkward, they were so pretty! Do the girls here eat different or something?" hahaha it was so funny we lost it and couldn't stop laughing until we got home! We're like best buds and work so hard together but we're having the time of our lives! Another funny story is when we had to find another bed for us because we're in a trio. We were moving this massive closet thing and Elder Templeton slipped on his blanket and the shelf just landed on him and he started squealing and me and Ence just lost it hahah he's ok but we broke one leg on the closet, nothing a couple books couldn't fix. 

Hope you all have a good week! 

Eldste Spaddy 🙌🏽

The biggest Kebabs I've ever seen for Elder Ence's birthday!!          Templeton, Ence and McSpadden

So good to be in Bergen

Week 95 Oslo Norway

 Wow what a week!

    We had moves this week so that was a grind to get set up. As I head into my last transfer, I'm leaving the office and getting back to the normal life in a trio with my boys Templeton and Ence. Both played ball in high school so we're going to play to teach with some pick up ball! I'm super stoked to head to Bergen as my dad's favorite mission companion is the Bishop there and it's a bumping city. We have some solid investigators here which is sad because I bet our boy Alex is going to be baptized soon but we'll see if we can plan it the day before I head home so I can see Bjørn and him get baptized! I had a solid interview with President Tew and am super grateful I got to serve so close to him. He's such a legend and I learned so much from him. Besides my family he has been the most influential person in my life to this point and I'm eternally grateful for the things he's taught me. We finished up our last set of splits as well which was fun but nice to be done. I have flown so much and I've slept on so many couches it's nice to be back in my own bed with a full fridge of food. For some reason every time I go on splits we don't have blankets or food hahah. Hope you've all had a solid week, things are so good right now and I'm excited to learn the things the Lord wants me to learn in the last bit that I have. 

Eldste Spaddy