Happy to be wearing this tag and trying to learn Norsk.

           

My sweet sweet family! I love you.

Oh my goodness I miss you guys! But I also am happy to be wearing this tag and trying to learn Norsk. It's incredible to be a part of something so huge. So "to endure" in Norwegian is "å holde ut." Like to hold out. I think about it all the time, especially when we teach our investigators about the doctrine of Christ. That's the step that most of us are on! Enduring to the end. So "holde ut", my sweet friends. We're doing this!

I've been learning this week that missionary work has to do with fast-answered prayers. Our investigator, Mariel, is struggling to believe that God exists. It's been a really interesting process to help her to come to know Him. In our lesson yesterday morning, she was telling us how her dad left their family when she was very young and she doesn't understand how we have a loving Heavenly Father. I had the prompting to ask her to kneel with us right then and I said a prayer (in Norwegian...) asking Father in Heaven to help her to know that He is there and that He loves her when she prays. The spirit was very strong and it was so neat to be able help her feel His love. There were a couple teachers in the room observing and they told us after that it was one of the most spiritual lessons they have observed. It's amazing to me that even though we are just teaching our teacher and she's pretending to be an investigator, the spirit still testifies of God's love. The spirit is everything in missionary work! I feel my missionary heart growing and growing even though the MTC feels like jail most days. Haha working on my attitude... it's going to be amazing to have actual investigators that need that love so badly. And to be able to see the sky...

So I miss music like crazy. The MTC has a rule that you can't listen to any music. So I've been kinda dying. Except for that I watch the Brandon Flowers mormon message every day just for the music. SO GOOD!! Technology is fantastic. Mormon messages are like gold here. Sister Oldham and I aren't sure when we're going to play our musical number yet, but we recorded some of it while we were practicing and I'll send my memory card home today so you can see it! Well, hear it. See? We love technology! What did you do in the days before memory cards and email? Die?

TRC is training resource center and it's when we just sit in a little room with a random Norsk speaker and have a conversation for 20 minutes. And we do two of them every week. Intimidating!! Some of my girls and I were running the other morning at like 6:30 and a grandma was walking into the MTC. She randomly stopped us and said, "Where are you going?" We told her Norway and she started to speak Norwegian to us! It was so awesome! So she was one of the people that we got to talk to in TRC that night too and she was so kind. I told her that I speak French and she started speaking French! We had little side conversation and I understood it much better than our Norwegian one. Still working on it. It's coming though. I memorized the first vision this week and my vocab is getting better. Grammatically, it's actually not a very difficult language. We had already learned all of the grammar concepts so we're just reviewing them. But actually applying them while I'm speaking? Whole different story.

We get our travel plans a week from Thursday! The Swedish district left at 3 in the morning and it made it feel more real that we're actually leaving soon. I don't know how I'm feeling about this... but it's all going to be okay. My little heart is being stretched in every way possible.

Chad and Michelle Lewis gave our devotional on Sunday night and it was incredible. I just had tears streaming down my face the whole time. Part of the reason was because I saw Sarah, of course, but they also were so inspiring. We get lots of old people speakers here and they are great, but sometimes it's a little too much so it was very refreshing to hear from them. I talked to Michelle for a second before and she said that they had done this a couple times before, but this time was so different because there were so many sisters! She cried with me too. I was so grateful to see them and to be able to listen to them speak. Such a tender mercy. We have another devotional tonight and I have a feeling it might be a general authority. We'll see. Maybe it's just my wishful thinking. Most of them are pretty old though too. ;)

Guys! The church is so true. I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us. God is there and knows just waht we need. This is the hardest thing I've ever done, but Christ has a way of making eveything okay. I am so grateful for that. 18 months isn't even that long... and... I've almost been gone for one of those months! We're doing this! Can you believe it? Thank you so much for your emails. I think everyone knows by now that I just cry every day for one reason or another so I sit in this computer lab and just let tears stream down my face as I read your words. I love you so much!

Oh yeah. I got a "calling" in my branch. I guess it's not really considered a calling here. I just am supposed to boss people around about doing the music for sacrament meeting. Music, bossy, and only for three weeks. Perfect, huh?

Oh man. I just feel like I have so much to tell you all the time! This time is the best and the worst cause it's so stressful to type as fast as you can. I love these ladies in my district and zone. Last night we had a pinata for Cinco de Mayo (excuse my Spanishy spelling) in one of our rooms. A girl held it from the top bunk and we hit it with some random stick we found. The things you'll do for fun in this place. It actually was pretty fun though! We all get along very well and I always think of the blessing that dad gave me right before I left that said I would make some friends that would be lasting best friends. I'm grateful for them!

The temple is the best place ever. Today I saw a girl and her mom in the session together and I cried a bunch. I miss that so much, mom. But we can do it again soon! I read the note you gave me with the hankerchief every time I go. Temples make it so we can be together forever! What a blessing. I just want Norway to have one! It's coming.

We were doing TALL (just a study Norwegian thing on the computer) on Friday night and my computer kept being so weird! The mouse was working for me, but then it would randomly click on things and move the screen around and it was actually kind of creepy cause it just kept doin this by itself. Earlier, an elder had come in the lab freaking out about his pen being lost and he was looking behind all the computers and couldn't find it. Um... elders are so dumb. What they were really doing was plugging another mouse into my computer and then they dragged it behind all of them to their computer so they could control it! If I could touch elders, they all would have dead arms. They make things exciting. I told them I'm in on it next time they do it cause no one expects sisters to do things like that. I also told Metcalf, the "lost pen boy" that he better watch his back.

I promise to write hand-written notes today too! They're better anyway. Be happy! We have all the reason in the world to be happy!

I love you with all of my heart,

Søster Pyne