Week 38 Trondheim Norway (2020 Quarantine)

Yoo wassup everybody hope you guys aren't insane yet. 

     Stuffs been pretty much the same here until like 2 days ago! We had a potential person who we rang and she actually turned out to be solid! It was definitely a tender mercy from the Lord because it's been so frustrating not being able to do the Lords work! Especially me being stuck in a house for ever I was going crazy and needed some people to teach and she was golden! We taught her two lessons and the last one was amazing. She accepted a baptism date and said if she learns more that she would love to be baptized so that was dope! Let's just hope this virus stuff blows over soon or this new way of doing missionary work continues to work.  Then today we received a message from our MTC teacher back home in Provo. He served in this area, Trondheim,  and just texted one of his investigators he use to teach to see how he was doing. He said, "man that's really weird you texted me I literally just started searching more about the church and started reading the Book of Mormon again. Can we talk sometime about it?" So our MTC teacher sent us a message saying,  "hey boys, here ya go!" Hahah it was great, it made our day. It's pretty dope to be a missionary in these crazy times! People are really starting to believe there is a God and their hearts are softening, it's sad it's taking a pandemic to get some desire but hey Heavenly Father knows what he's doing and it seems to be working. Miracles are happening in Norway!!  I've had a lot of time to study and learn so much about the gospel during this quarantine! I've learned so much in this past week even though sometimes I want to go out so bad I'm grateful for the time I've had to study and learn. One thing that I've come to know more strongly is that we are children of God. I've known that my entire life but sometimes me being me, I need to know how and why. So I started studying a ton about it and I was reading in Acts and it talks about us being the "offspring " of God. And it got me thinking what is offspring because it's used in so many different ways so I looked it up in a dictionary the actual meanings of it. And right then my question was answered! The second definition said, "Offspring is a result of something that has come into existence." I had the strongest reassurance from the spirit that Christ is "the only begotten son" of God and we are his offspring or children :) I know God created us and that we are his children and I know he loves us all! He's got a plan for us no matter what's happening around us it's part of His plan. I would also love to give a shout out to all my boys who were sent home this past week, I love each of those boys with all my heart and am heartbroken to see their service in those different countries come to a pause. I have come to love the people of Norway with all of my heart and I would be devastated to leave, so I know how ya feel boys. Just know God has a plan for all of us, I feel blessed to have friends who are going through this with me at this time. We'll never forget this time in our lives.

      Thank you to all who sent me emails and videos and stuff they made me so happy! Hope you all have so much fun with your families with all this time you have.

Eldste McSpaddy 🤘🏽

 More hours of sunlight...

Week 37 Trondheim Norway (2020 Quarantine starts)

Hey everybody hope y'all have been doing good! 

    This week was pretty frustrating but it happens! On Wednesday, I flew into Trondheim went and grabbed my luggage and then met up with my new companion. We drove straight to our flat dropped off my stuff and went to a teach, I was happy to be busy! We have this older member we are working with and he's such a nice guy, really funny and he plays the accordion so that's cool. Thursday it was pretty sad, we got a message saying we had an online meeting and so all the missionaries hopped on and President Tew was crying pretty hard. He proceeded to tell all of us that because of all the craziness that certain missionaries will be going home. He then continued to name off a list of all the missionaries heading home in the next day. Luckily I'm still here and I'm chilling! Super sad though quite a few of the people here had to be flown home which really stunk. The missionary that replaced me in Alesund went home and then they had to do an emergency transfer to cover him.  We don't have a lot of missionaries in our mission as it is and then to loose so many along with a lot of senior companions it's hard. After that we were told we were being placed in quarantine as well which was even worse! It's so hard to do missionarimy work when your in your apartment all day but we're trying our best and thinking about all the different ways we can find people. So grateful for technology and that we have that blessing to be able to forward the work of the Lord in a time like this! I've been reading and studying a ton which is good for me and I've learned so much which is great but I'm starting to go a little crazy being inside all day so you guys have to help me out! Send me emails videos funny stuff things to do whatever to keep me busy and if you need help with something I can do just let me know and I'd love to help! Other than that we do a lot of teaches over skype and messenger which is good but ya just get sick of it after a while but this is going to be for a while so I better get use to it. But just some thoughts over the week, I'm so grateful for president Russel M Nelson and his guidance for each one of us. Homeboy knows what he's talking about and he's helping us! He listens to Heavenly Father and was inspired to give us Come Follow Me, prepared us for this next general conference and has been telling us to take our vitamins! Let's continue following him and his council and everything will be alright. That made me think of where I'm at in the Book of Mormon right now, I'm at the end of Alma where the people of Ammon are starting to get scared of the Lamanites and they start thinking about breaking the covenant they made and fight against the Lamanites. But Helaman, being a stud, and a follower of God decides to calm them down and say look you guys made a covenant to never fight again. Don't break that and not only lose the war but lose your souls. Let's trust in God and ask for guidance. That's when he gets the idea to have their sons, who didn't make a covenant with God, to take up arms and defend their Families their Freedom and their Liberty! So that's exactly what happens, the 2000 stripling warriors defended what was right and end up beating the Lamanites and are all saved and watched over. In crazy scary situations we need to trust in the Lord and his prophets to guide and direct us on what we need to do. Just like one of my favorite primary hymns says " Follow the Prohet, he knows the way!" I've really had to rely on that knowledge and I bear testimony that Russel M Nelson is a prohet of God and he WILL help us be ready for whatever comes. Keep it up and SEND ME EMAILS AND VIDEOS so I don't go insane haha have a great week and wash your hands! 

Eldste Spaddy 😷🤘🏽

Week 36 Alesund Norway

Wassup guys, hope your all doing great. 
      Had a pretty solid week here and the weather was alright to begin with then it got awful again, so it's been a wet one that's for sure ha. First off I'm getting moved out of Ålesund to a big beautiful city called Trondheim it sounds and looks amazing! I've been mobbing this branch life with a small city and its been an amazing experience. I love this place so much and will miss all the people I've become so tight with here but I'm stoked to head to Trondheim! This week was dope but I feel like they just keeping flying by its weird. Some highlights of my week though! We had some great lessons and the spirit was so strong, that's one thing I love about being a missionary is not only feeling the spirit so strong myself but when other people feel it as well. We had a lesson with the girl who is on date and she is done with the lessons and we are just going over stuff and the baptismal questions with her so she is ready! We also talked about temples and how cool it is to be married for all time and eternity. Talked about my big bro and my sister in law Hannah getting married in the temple, and also that we can do baptisms for the dead and she loved it. Temples are so special and I'm so glad we have a place here on earth to make such sacred covenants. 
   Then on Saturday we had a lesson with a lady we met on Christmas day actually! Me and my last companion were determined to find some people to celebrate Christmas with because we didn't have anything planned because our branch was so tiny. So we went out on the streets and just asked people if they had a place to celebrate Christmas and if we could join. We didn't have much luck but luckily our stud Kjell came in clutch and had us over Christmas night. But we stopped this lady and she said she didn't have anywhere to celebrate Christmas and she moved here from Columbia a couple years ago. So we were like hey we could meet up another time and go on a hike or something because she loved hiking. We kinda lost contact with her then one  day she pulled up to church and it was dope! After that she was busy with school and work and we finally had a lesson and she had come and read all of first Nephi and had questions about it and it was great! We talked about the restoration and Joseph Smith's part in bringing forth the Book of Mormon. She could feel the spirit so much and then we showed her the first vision video and I would look at her out if the corner of my eye during it and she was smiling so hard and the spirit was even stronger then. After I just asked her, how do you feel right now? And she said " Amazing and happy" and I was like yup that's what this gospel can give you. Then she asked about baptism for some reason? And like how it works in our church and what we think about it so we explained it and she was like awesome that's cool and then she had to go to some meeting thing but the missionaries will keep meeting with her and hopefully she will get baptized! 
     On a not so spiritual note one of my highlights of the week was a dinner we had with our HOMIE Maria, she's from Venezuela and the sickest lady you'll meet. We had some dinner with her and her husband and her stepson who aren't members. We ate some good food and talked about life. Her stepson is a G let me tell you, he is a sick skier and served in the Norwegian military up on the Russian Norwegian border and had some sick stories. We just got talking about skiing and snowmobiling and was showing him some videos from my dad and brother Dillon and he loved it. After we were done he offered to drive us home and so we said yes, so we get in his car and we start heading home. When the car turned on it started playing music but it was super low so I didn't really notice it. But after about 5 seconds I realized what it was, one of the greatest bands of all time, The Eagles. I started asking him about his music and he's like  "bro I love this type of music" and I was so stoked. He played the next song and it was " Take it easy " agh I just had a flood of memories of me and my boys driving up the canyon listening to the eagles and mobbing with each other. Love my boys with all my heart and shout out to them for being studs. Then after that he turned on Born in the USA and said this ones for you boys! Hahah it was just great, to bad he's moving to Oslo but if I go down there I'm meeting up with him again for sure! For my last P day in Ålesund we went fishing and caught some fish then visited this sick outlet place and said goodbye to all my homies here. Bitter sweet moment but I'm stoked for other people I'll meet! Hope everyone has a great week! And of course, "Take it Easy" for me 😎🤘🏽

Eldste McSpadden 

I don't ever want to forget any of these families. They've taught me so much!

Helge, Fride and her dad Frode. Fride is such a strong girl and has grown so much with her knowledge of the gospel.

 Kimbo promises to come visit me in Utah!

 Love this kid!!

 Kjell, Marririane, Evan (Kjell's nephew) myself and Kimbo. An amazing family, right here! Love them and they're strong testimonies of the gospel. I'm so blessed to have them in my life.

 Last P-day fishing in Alesund

 Not much bigger than the first time I caught a few, HaHa!

 My Kurdish family: Tahir, Mahnaz, Shakob and Mahan. I don't want to ever forget the time I've spent with them, such a kind loving and thoughtful family.

 The hem kept falling out in my pants so I fixed them myself!  It works!!

Week 35 Alesund Norway

This week zoomed by! 
       It was a good one and very eventful! We had some pretty cool things happen by just being guided and directed by the spirit. We had a sick lesson with the girl we are teaching and it was on tithing! She totally just accepted it and has been living all the commandments for a couple weeks now it's so sick. She's like yeh I just make bank because I now charge my friends to be their designated driver. It was dope and were so happy she's choosing to follow Christ and making the best of it.  I can see it's so hard when NO one else chooses to live these high standards and your the only one. We had a very interesting lesson with one of our investigators who we thought was pretty interested and has even been coming to church. When went to visit him again he just went off about how we are a cult and he didn't really want to have anything to do with us.  I was just laughing he's spent way to much time on "bad things about the mormom church .org" and not enough time studying the Book of Mormon for himself. But it was funny he started by asking a bunch of questions and we clarified and corrected a lot of things for him that just weren't true but by the end it was basically him telling us that he has never felt God was there for him so why should he believe in Him?  I asked him if he was happy right now in his life and he said, "yes, actually these past two months have been the most happiest times of my life and I have had a smile on my face every day! I've overcome some mental health issues that have been hard and now I feel true happiness" and I said, "I believe that was God helping you through some hard times and the happiness you feel is because he hasn't given up on you, have you ever thought about that?" And he just kind of looked puzzled and said, "um no, no that, that was all me and well maybe some other people but definitely not God!"  I just kinda nodded my head and said, "alright buddy you keep being you and be happy!" It's pretty sad to see God's hands in people's lives and them not even acknowledge it. I think all three of us could tell by the end of that discussion that he just needs to study a little more before he starts throwing around crazy, false information, it was funny. Good guy though gave us a dope recipe for some yummy bread.
       A cool story that happend this week, following a chain of events that happend Saturday night! We were just walking to the bus stop to hop on a bus we needed to catch and it literally drove past us and didn't even stop. I started off in a dead sprint to catch it and I got right up to it and it just drove off again?! I was like bro come on, I know he literally saw me and that's just not cool... then the dopest thing happend this old couple pulled over and said, " hey you guys get in, we'll help you catch that bus!" So we hopped in and they drove us to the next bus stop, which was a miracle because that NEVER happens here not in a million years. They were like, "are you guys preachers or something? And we laughed and said yeh in a way! Then he said huh ok well you guys catch your bus alright, I tried to give them a book of Mormon but they were not very interested so we just hopped out, it was so nice of them. We caught the bus and went where we needed to go and then that same night we tried to catch the bus coming back into sentrum and the SAME THING happened. It literally just drives right passed us stops and then before I could sprint to catch it we missed it. It was so funny not going to lie I was like man we just can't get any luck today, because all of our appointments got canceled too. It was a rainy night and there was no one on the streets to talk to. I actually turned to Eldste Bennet and said, "man this is the part of missionary work that stinks. When you have NOTHING to do, let's pray for direction and then go knock some doors!" Right then one of our investigators skirted by on a bike, we stopped him had a little chat and got his number because he didn't use facebook often and that was why he wasn't answering us. Then we catch the next bus and I started talking with this guy, he had a Yankees hat on and we started talking to him about it. Then all the sudden he asks like so how much longer you got left? And I said well I'm in Norway for 2 years then I'll go back. I'm actually a missionary for my church and he was like yeh I know I'm a member, and I was like what no way what's your name man and we started chatting. Turns out it was a guy we've been trying to get in contact with but had the wrong address and number so we got his new number and should be meeting up with him next week! Then right as we get off at the bus station another couple that we teach was sitting at a table and we went up and chatted with them for a while. It was a crappy night that turned into a dope one it was so fun!
         Church was good this week we had only 4 in church and it was us two elders our recently baptized friend and the councilor in the branch presidency. It was a good testimony meeting we all shared thoughts then studied in the Book of Mormon from Come Follow Me. Then on Monday we decided to get some baking in because like ALL of our members and investigators are sick right now so we decided to cheer em up with some good ol American chocolate chip cookies. Thanks to my bomb aunt Trisha and her recipes we doubled it and made about 200 cookies! Haha it was great we just made the dough during lunch and baked some and would give them out and were going to keep doing it all week. It was so much though, holy cow we weighed it and it was about 10 pounds of cookie dough it was great. Today it was so funny because everyone here hates Amreica and Trump and I saw this dude driving down the street with an Amreican flag and a Confederate flag flying and I just yelled " Murica!!!" And he started honking his horn and it just made my day it was awesome. America is the best land no doubt about it! Today we did service to help clean out this ladies house and I found an old sewing machine and she was going to toss it out so I asked her if we could take it home and she said I don't know if it works but go ahead, so I took it home and remembered some stuff from my 7th grade CTE class. I sewed up my pants and made em look nice. Shout out to Mrs, Griffin for teaching me how to sew! And I've been cutting hair so I can do some fresh fades now so my kids boutta be looking fresh! Anyways it was a dope week I love being on a mission, you learn so many things and not just spiritually! I can knit, sew, bake, cook and cut hair now it's crazy. Never woulda seen myself doing that but aye I ain't complaining 👀have a good week and listen to your moms they know what there talking about! 

Love Eldste McSpadden

Week 34 Alesund Norway

Ayyye wassup guys?? 

      This week has zoomed by, holy cow I feel like I'm writing these things every two days. Just want to give a shout out to my big bro D and his awesome wife Hannah for getting married this week! Super stoked for them and happy they were sealed in the temple for time and all eternity, cant wait to mob with you guys when I get back. 

      This week was another good one! We were in Stavanger and played volleyball with all the boys all day it was so fun. It was nice being with a big bunch of the boys again. We then had zone conference which was great! We talked a lot about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Everyone tries to roast our church about these two things and that's why it's so important that we all have a strong testimony on these things! I respect Joseph Smith so much, after reading and studying about him and his life my testimony of him has grown immensely. That man put EVERYTHING on the line to restore the true church of Jesus Christ back on this earth. He was dedicated and determined to do the Lords work and I know without a doubt in my mind that he did see God the Father and his son Jesus Christ in the Sacred Grove almost 200 years ago. That man is a stud and anyone who tries to prove that wrong hasn't studied a thing about him and needs to learn more. Then of course another crazy flight story as we were headed back to Alesund.  We get to our gate and then of course its delayed again and our connecting flight was like 30 minutes after we landed so I'm just already stressing. Finally we get on board and take off and we land 5 minutes after our boarding has started, so as the wheels touch ground I literally stood up and grabbed my stuff out of the over head bin and started walking to the front of the plane while it was moving. Then over the intercom these ladies start roasting me "um sir you have to stay seated, sit, what are you doing sir, please sit down" I didn't even care I wasn't missing our plane! So I said, " I've got a plane that leaves in 10 minutes and I'm NOT missing it".  They just nodded their heads and opened the door and we took off. And OF COURSE our gate is on the opposite side of the airport so again we are sprinting through the Bergen airport and finally pull up to the gate and we are like the last two to get on the flight. I'm just sweating, rolling up my sleeves and dying in the hot plane and then we were about to leave and the plane stopped and was like "sorry we have some special passengers who need to be on this plane so we're waiting". I'm not sure what it takes to be special to get the plane to wait but they always leave the missionaries. Then all the sudden this entire women's hand ball team starts getting on and funny enough they were on our last plane too! They mosey on back through the plane and started laughing at us, which was hilarious, and I was like "we aren't special passengers like you guys we have to run or they leave us" they thought it was sooo funny that we were sprinting. They love women's handball here and I guess Norway's girls team is like the best in the world and all the Norwegian's love it, it's so funny. Next time maybe I'll check for any famous people that can hold the plane for us because we miss it more often than we'd like to because of so many flight delays.  

       We had some sick teaches this week and made a baptismal date with the young girl we've been teaching! She'll be baptized April 18, so I'm stoked for her! She's dope, then we had some good finding sessions and we've been trying to get some new blood but the weather was awful this week. Not kidding it rained and the sun didn't shine for about 5 days straight! It stays like right above freezing so it doesn't snow it's just bitter cold wind and rain which is so miserable to contact in because no one is outside and no one wants to stop and talk. Then the temperature dropped on Sunday and it started snowing like crazy it was great. For any of those who know me know that I love snow so we were knocking doors at the time and we started having a snowball fight in between doors and messing with each other it was great. Snow puts me in the best mood I swear. But some funny stories this week! I was walking down the street and this lady had this massive dog that literally looked like a brown wolf  it was the coolest thing I've ever seen it was like a husky on steroids but with brown hair and I stopped her and tried to pet it and this thing crouched back  and lunged at me and almost bit my hand off! I jumped back and almost punted the thing and the lady was like "oh no no don't pet this one he's a mean one!" And I just started laughing, I was like what the crap who just owns a literal wolf. Only in Norway baby, that thing had canines the size of my thumb it would have bit my hand off clean. But it's really popular to have massive dogs like that but I'd never seen one like that before. Then on Sunday night when we were knocking doors we were like up in these mountains because we had found this guy earlier who lives up there and we wanted to meet back up with him. He wanted to roast us because he thought we were JW's and then he ended up really liking our message but we were walking back in the woods and all the sudden it just got super muddy and I took a step and sunk to my ankle and then I decided to  just start running because I thought it would just dry up in a few feet, nope! Ran through like a 20 yard stretch of wet snowy mud, so that was great just covered In mud the rest of the night. It was funny, all in all a good week! 

Eldste Spaddy!! 

The sun finally came out after 5 days!!!

 Pouring, freezing rain most days!

 Love the recipes my mom sends me...

 This is the tag on a cool brand of suits here in Norway!  "Made with Love by really pretty blonde girls!"  HaHa!

 My Aunt Trisha's homemade roll recipe, I'm getting a little better at  making them. I love these they're so good.

Week 33 Alesund Norway

Ayyye wassup friends and fam! 

       Agh this week was really good we had some sweet teaches and some people who have started progressing, it was great! First off it was so cool because I got to meet up with my boy Wes's (High School buddy serving in Tonga) auntie and got to chat with her and her husband. Momma T sent me a message a while back saying she would love it if we could meet up with her in Bergen. So we flew in for splits and set up an appointment. They were some of the nicest people I've met here, they bought us pizza and we had a great chat. Norway could use a few more people from Tongan that's for sure! So shout out to my boy Wes and his fam for having family everywhere even in Norway! Luv you toko, Ofa Atu ❤ We finished up with splits and headed to the airport to fly home from Bergen and we usually get to the airport with plenty of time to spare because we get there an hour to an hour and a half early just in case something happens.  Man it was lucky we did because it was so packed that day! It took forever getting through security and as soon as we got out we sprinted to our gate just as our boarding group came up it was a miracle! The amount of times I've had to full on sprint through the airport is ridiculous, my early morning runs are to keep me in shape so I don't miss my flights.  I'm sure the airport staff are like, "here come the missionaries".  Haha   

       Friday was such a good day and probably one of the best lesson days I've had here yet! We went over to the families house who was recently baptized and he invited his nephew over to eat with us. Kjell is such a stud doing missionary work himself, I know it's because he loves the gospel so much he just wants everyone around him to experience the joy as well! It's because he knows it's true and puts in the WORK. This man started believing in God about 6 months ago and already has finished the Old and New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price and is now following along with the Come Follow Me Program with the Book of Mormon again. He loves the gospel because he studies it and loves gaining knowledge. I read a talk this week by D. Todd Christofferson and he was talking about the powers of reading the Book of Mormon and he said the people who learn to love studying and who invest time are the ones who will truly love and know the gospel. I have a very strong testimony of that as I have become a big studier of the scriptures. I love it when I read and gain personal insights and things I need to know when we go out and teach. But anyways back to the dope lesson, after I had eaten about 4 or 5 massive calzones we decided to start filling our bodies spiritually haha. So with his nephew there we started going over the first lesson again because recent converts are suppose to be taught the lessons again but instead of him being taught it felt like a member on a teach with us! He was sharing scriptures and insights through the whole lesson. And right at the end when we read in Moroni 10:3-5 Kjell pounded his fist on the table and he said " That statement right there is true! I KNOW it with all my heart, God told me through the power of the Holy Ghost that this book and this gospel are his words and its changed my life!" Wooo it was so sick I felt like Jeffery R. Holland was in the room or something the spirit was just raging. So now his nephew is going to take the lessons and is reading from the Book of Mormon and Kjell took him to church it was so dope. Then the funny part begins, we had scheduled to meet with this super nice Kurdish family who just feeds us all the time. I had tried to get it on separate days because I knew they were going to make us food like every other. So on the way there we started doing the Samoan shuffle, my brother Dillon taught me to do so we could make some room in a stomach that didn't have any room left! We pulled up and said a good prayer before we went in to bless us to have the spirit in the lesson and that the spirit would touch their hearts, we walk up and start chatting with them and I didn't see any food on the table and I felt so relieved, right then she said "are you guys hungry I made some stuff for you!" So we gave the slight umm ya sure. She walks in with food that could have fed the 5000 jeez. I started tripping I didn't know how long I would last before throwing up. But we started and every time I cleared my plate and thought I was chillin she threw a heap of more stuff on my plate. The good thing was the food was amazing so It made it doable but I started sweating I couldn't eat another bite or I would have just exploded. So after 5 calzones, 2 peices of rich chocolate cake, 4 massive helpings of this Kurdish rice chicken stuff 3 helpings of salad and some fruit we decided to start a lesson! So I had coordinated with some of my boys I met in the MTC who were heading to California speaking Farsi a few weeks ago to see if they could skype in with a few of our lessons with this family.  They speak mostly Farsi, Norwegian but struggle with religious words and not any English.  So we called my buddies and they were pretty excited to help me out and  we had a sick lesson with them!  They had so many questions and the spirit was pretty strong even though I couldn't understand a thing it was a good night for sure. 

              Then we had a good turnout on Sunday as well and had 2 of our progressing friends there and some less active members so it was sweet! Now were headed to Zone Conference in Stavanger and we get P day with some other missionaries so that's always so fun. Going to go school some kids in volleyball,l shout out to my boy E dawg and I for playing on that club team in the winter, it came in handy! Always super excited for Zone Conference because not only do we get to see the homies and eat money food, we get to hear President Tew speak. And man let me tell you that guy is a STUD agh he's such a homie and so spiritual I love him and Sister Tew so much and am so lucky to have them leading this mission. Hope you all have a great week! 

Eldste Spaddy! 

Knitting Club!

 The Christmas gift I gave a member displayed in her house! She loved it!

 Valentines package from Grandma and Grandpa!

 Love you guys good luck with the wedding!  I still can't believe my brothers getting married!

Headed to Bergen

Kurdish dinner was so good!

 Reminds me of the mountain where the Grinch lives in Whoville!

Week 32 Alesund Norway

What's up guys! 

      We had a dope week for sure! We had a lot of good lessons and did a lot of finding, knocking and service! I love finding people in different ways so we've been trying to do as many different things as possible, it's nice so things don't get so repetitive. We had some new people we found from that so we will set up appointments with them when we get home from Bergen. We are here for splits and it's been dope. I got a message a couple weeks ago from Mama T, my boy Wesley Tuiasoa's mom, saying she has relatives here in Bergen. We set up an appointment to eat and share  a message of Christ with her so that should be dope! One cool thing that happened this week was when we had just come out of a place to head home, we saw this couple walking down the street and it was pretty late and cold but we decided to get one last contact in before heading in for the night. As we started to walk towards the guy he asked us if we were missionaries and we said yes actually we are have you met with the missionaries before? And he was like yes actually about 5 years ago two young men gave me a book and I read most of it and it was good! Maybe we could meet up sometime and talk more about it? And I was just stoked out of my mind because I had been focusing on being guided by the spirit to find the people who are prepared and for the spirit to guide those people to us! It was just a reminder to me that God does answer our prayers we just have to have faith that they do happen. 

       It's always dope being on splits and being with the boys it's such a good time! One funny story that happened was we had some drunk guys walking past us on the way to an appointment and one of them was just staggering in the back not knowing what was going on. I asked him if he was ok, then he just looked at me and had this awful look on his face and he threw up all over the sidewalk almost right on my shoes, luckily I was light on my feet and dodged it so we chillin. We also went to a Pinsy church this week and that was an experience for sure. Just a true testimony builder that there is only one true church on the earth today and that is the Church of Jesus Christ. Even though it was quite entertaining with all the flashing lights, loud music with the pastor saving people and shouts of amen coming from everywhere at the most random times with people on the ground worshiping and dancing it just didn't feel the same in any way! Still cool to experience though. Last night we played some sport in the church, Jorgen came over, which was sick because I haven't played ball in so long so I was stoked. Come to find out no one likes basketball here so we played soccer. After about a couple games of getting "megged" and made fun of I decided we'd play some b ball and schooled those kids, shout out to the Shamrocks for always grinding. We went on a sick hike today as well which was so fun but it was so windy and snowy but I loved every second of it. The snow is just little blessings coming down from the sky. Then after we came back we ate reindeer hotdogs, and I'm not a big fan of hotdogs in the slightest but man those things were dang good I could have pounded 5 if they weren't so expensive.

      One thing I loved in my personal study this week was in Luke 15 when Christ tells the story of the prodigal son. I think this is one of my favorite parables Christ ever uses because it shows the love that our father in heaven and our brother Jesus Christ has for us. Even though the son went off and wasted away all his father gave him, his father still accepted him and embraced him and threw a feast for him when he came back. This is the same way our father in heaven feels about us when we make mistakes and distance ourselves from him, even though we've messed up no matter what he will always welcome us back into his loving arms. In verse 7 it says " that likewise joy shall be in heaven when even one sinner cometh unto repentance." So God is rooting for us and cheering us on. He's throwing parties for us up in heaven when even one of his children uses the atonement and I'm so glad we do have a Father in Heaven who loves us that much and that I get to be a tool in his hands to spread that message. Hope you all have a great week! 

Eldste Spaddy 

P.S. We met with Nia Tuiasoa's sister and they were so cool and nice and bought us dinner. I really want to start working with them, maybe when I get transferred to Bergen! ;)

A real mink coat, so cool some of the things people have here. Coats and hats are a big deal because it's so cold but people really love to collect them!

We hiked Ulriken in Bergen today, you'll have to look it up it's so beautiful!  It's the highest of the seven mountains that surround Bergen. It's a bit snowy and windy today but such an amazing hike. President Tew says we are living in one of the most beautiful country's in the world so milk your p-days and explore! I am so grateful for this opportunity to be here to serve the Lord and appreciate all that God has created. 

 My first Reindeer hotdog!  I loved it! I hate hot dogs but this one was so good...

Eldste Bennett, McSpadden, Jorgen Berg, Eldste Jaccard and Rasch

  Every time I come to Bergen I call up Jorgen and "I'm like where you at bro? I'm in town and he pulls up, it's fire!"  I can see why my dad and mom love the Bergs, I love this family, they're amazing and I love being around them. (His dad and my dad served in England together) Jorgen's putting his mission papers in soon! I hope I get to serve in Bergen before he leaves, it would be so sick working with Bishop Berg and just being here, it's fire!