Have a pretty, happy, wonderful Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Hello my dear friends!

Just a quick Christmas note! This week we have met a lot of neat people and we have had some neat experiences.

This morning Sister Frampton and I were practicing the first 

lesson and I started to talk about when Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ and the Spirit was so strong. We were just in our little apartment talking to ourselves, but the Spirit still testifies every time. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and I know that Jesus Christ lives! I am so grateful that He does and I know that He is the head of His church.

Oh! Thank you so much for all of love I have gotten in the mail lately! Oh my goodness. I have been spoiled rotten. You guys are absolutely wonderful.

Have a pretty, happy, wonderful Christmas. I love you and I am praying for you!

Love, Søster Pyne

 

I love Oslo! I'm staying for another transfer! Hooray!!

this is walking to church at 9:30 a.m. the sun is already
thinking about going down and it just barely came up!

Send me some snow or something.

Hello!

So on Sunday, this boy walks into church. And Sister Frampton starts talking to him, and he says, "This is my first time in church. But I ordered a Book of Mormon online a year ago. And I talked to the missionaries once, but not really. I just wanted to see how this church is." We got to teach him after church and it was crazy! He knew all about the living prophet, the Word of Wisdom, the pre-existence. He is just this 20 year old Norwegian named Magnus and he fell from the sky, I think! I'm really excited to meet with him again when he comes back from Christmas break.

Last night Sister Frampton and I were out talking to people and this girl was coming toward us and walking fast like she was in a hurry, but the Spirit said, "Stop her." It's like when you are supposed to bear your testimony on fast Sunday you, know? Your heart beats a lot faster and you just have to do it. So I said, "Hei!" And she stopped and looked at me and stared at my tag and then said in Norwegian, "I'm from Salt Lake. But I have chosen to not..." and then she pointed to my tag and shook her head. What? We don't meet people from Utah here! I don't know why we were supposed to stop her, but I think that she will think about why these two missionaries stopped her. It's God's way of saying, "You can't run away from me, even in Norway!" Hahah just kidding. I know that God loves all of His children though and it feels good to follow the Spirit.

we had to dress up.

We got to go to the Freia chocolate factory this morning and oh my... it was dangerous. They just kept giving us free chocolate! It was really fun though, especially at Christmas time.

making my own chocolate today!

Merry Christmas! We even have
red curtains in our apartment!

Enjoy all that Christmas snow and freezing weather because we have rain and 40 degrees here! It's driving me crazy!

COWS!!!!!

at the relief society Christmas party

Send me some snow or something. I love you!!

Love,

Søster Pyne

A sweet message

Brother - Sister Pyne, & Brother - Sister Frampton,

I wanted to share with you an experience I had yesterday at the Rema 1000 store on my way to the YSA Center. There is an employee at the store that my wife and I have spoken to your daughters about. We all feel she is such a nice kind lady. You can tell she is not native Norwegian, and speaks with broken English, but is always so happy to see us. She has a lot of light in her eyes, and we've all commented what a great member she would be. As I walked in the store yesterday this employee was so happy to see me. As I went to check out she said, "you're the teacher, and look what I have." She showed me a wrapped Christmas present with a card signed by Sister Pyne & Sister Frampton. She said again with a big smile, "your the teacher." I told her no we are friends in the same church. She then said, "no you are a teacher, and all of you are so kind." I then told her that the reason your daughters had given her the present was that they thought she was so kind and nice, and at that moment they were my teacher. I can't tell you how it touched me that your sweet daughters, on a limited budget, would take the initiative and time to do something so caring. They are a great team, and as you can see follow the Spirit as missionaries. It is small sweet acts like your daughters performed that touch a heart, and bring honor to our Lord's Church.

Sister Rasmussen and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, and 2014 is the best year ever.

God Jul,

Elder Rasmussen

*Note from Sis. Pyne's mom: I'm sharing this because Sis. Pyne has always been my teacher in matters of giving, and it reminded me to be more thoughtful this season. And because all of these small connections we have had during her mission (and there have been many!) are evidence to me of Heavenly Father's love.

I feel like I'm walking around in a snow globe or something.

thanks for the tree mama! we decorated him!

God jul, my dears!

I don't even know where to start. I love these Norwegians and their love of Christmas. You should see Oslo. I feel like I'm walking around in a snow globe or something. It's beautiful. I don't know why Heavenly Father has blessed me so greatly.

Sunday morning I was brushing my teeth half asleep and I looked out the window and said, "Sister Frampton! Come here!" There was snow. Finally! I don't think it will ever not be magical to me to look outside the morning after it snows. It snowed all of Sunday. We helped the relief soceity president set up the Christmas tree at the church and then she fed us warm food and then we got to go to a Christmas concert with some of our new converts! It's called Jul i Toner and it is members from the whole country who get together and create an orchestra and choir. It was very professionally done and I was in heaven. At the end we all got to stand and sing, "Deilig er Jorden" which literally means "delicious is the earth" but it's the tune of "Beautiful Savior". It's their traditional song. It was really powerful and neat to be able to participate in it. Then cute ladies in their bonads (traditional Norwegian dresses) had baskets of homemade boller (yummy roll things) that they handed out. It was so much fun!

This morning, Sister Frampton and I woke up and went outside in the dark and freezing at 6:30 in the morning and went sledding!! I don't know where they came from, but we have two sleds in our apartment so we tried them out. The hill is really steep so it was really fast and fun! Then we would run back up the stairs (that's the exercise part) and do it again. We were screaming and speaking English so everyone knows who we are now... but it was worth it.

We got to meet with David 3 times this last week! He is so ready to be baptized. It's going to happen. I know it. You just feel it when they are people that you know will really get baptized. He texted us and thanked us for helping him in his life and asked when we could meet again. I love those ones! His dad died when he was 15 and he told us that his dad came to him in a dream and told him to keep following the path that he was on. He said that his dad hasn't "come to him" like that in a long time. His dad knows that it's time! We've got nothing stopping us when we have people working from both sides of the veil.

Sister Frampton met a couple on the plane when she was flying here from England and the lady had met with missionaries before and showed her her name on her ticket, so Sister Frampton remembered it and wrote it down later. We looked her up this week and found her house! She wasn't home, but her husband was and he told us we could come back when she was home. It was really neat to see his face light up as he recognized her.

After we visited him, we were knocking and Sister Hilton was with us and we all had our black puffy coats on. A man opened his door and said, "OH! What happened?" Hahaha I don't know if that meant, "Oh why are three cute girls on my doorstep at this time of night in this cold?" or "Did someone die? Why are you all wearing black?" But we laughed and talked to him for a minute. He wasn't interested... but it was funny!

No, we don't have a million investigators like other missions, and yes, we go days without finding or teaching anyone, but I still know that the Lord's hand is in this work. This kind of work means that you have to be in tune with the Spirit because it tells you exactly who to talk to. I love how close Sister Frampton is to the Spirit. We walk down the street and she says, "Not this one, not this one, ok, this one." And I feel it too and I am so grateful to be learning how to follow the Spirit and be more in tune.

Have a pretty, snowy, Christmasy week and know that I am praying for you! I love you!!

Love,

Søster Pyne

hockey rink! these Norwegians know how to do it!

this is how we get dressed in the morning.
white ninja in our thermal garments, then black ninja.

I think it was the cutest baptism I'll ever see.

 Hei dere!

hooray for the twins!!

It's so good to talk to you again! I go into my own little world in the library when I tell you about my week and then I walk outside and it's like, "oh yeah!" I'm in Norway!

Emma and Sandra got baptized on Saturday! I think it was the cutest baptism I'll ever see. These two little blonde Swedish twins in white dresses? So cute. They were so excited and expressive and happy too. After they got baptized, Emma said, "I just feel light!" There's nothing like sitting in the chapel at a baptism. The Spirit is always so thick. I love it. The program went really well and it even made President Evans cry so I think that means we did something right.

On Sunday, Tonje showed up at church! It's always good to see her. I was talking to her and she told me, "I think it's time to get baptized." What? And then all of the sudden Sister Frampton ran over to me and told me that the man that was supposed to confirm Emma and Sandra wasn't there. So we did a bunch of running around, but I'm just so grateful for Sister Frampton! We work so well together and she sees what needs to be done and just does it. She is fantastic. It all worked out and Tonje was able to be there to watch Emma and Sandra be confirmed. I cheated and kept my eyes open the whole time just to watch their faces as they were confirmed. Then I started crying so I closed my eyes. I love to watch people receive light in their lives. Light is one of my most favorite things to study in the scriptures. This light that we have-- it's the solution to everything.

So... yes... Tonje will be getting baptized. We have a lot to work on, but I believe with a lot of prayer and fasting, we can get to the point that she will be ready. Right now we have planned for the 14th. Pray for her. It's going to be exciting to see more light come into her life in these next couple of weeks.

Casper, our investigator, owns a pizza place. We visited him!

Last week Sister Frampton and I went to meet a man we had talked to on the t-bane. He wasn't there, of course, that happens all the time. But instead, there was a man working for Red Cross and he was out talking to people like we do. Sister Frampton said, "Let's talk to him instead!" So we talked to him. He is from "Barthelona" and his name is David. We met with him last night and it went really well! He said the closing prayer and said, "Thank you for this moment of peace." He told us he felt really good and he could tell that we really believe what we told him. I love when people feel the Spirit and try to verbalize it but they don't know how to explain it. Sister Frampton and I had to laugh because we had a member come who spoke Spanish as well and we were sitting with these two swooshy-haired Spanish men on a couch in Norway talking about the Gospel. David is going to get baptized. We both know it. 

We spent a day and a half in our beds with some kind of sickness. I don't know what happened, but we both were dying. Haha we tried getting up the second day and having a normal morning, but after personal study we both looked at each other and said, "Time to get back in our beds." That was frustrating. But we are feeling better now and we both fasted yesterday to find prepared people this week and we hadn't even talked about it before! So. I'm ready for a week of miracles.

the Swedish sisters gave me a birthday present and it was a real live
clam with a pearl inside! i had to open it myself and then put it in
the necklace. the coolest birthday present ever!

I hope Thanksgiving was lovely! Bring on the Christmas! Norwegians light a candle each Sunday of December leading up to Christmas and they start advent calendars on December 1. The kids get little gifts and they do something Christmasy each day. Ah man. This place is magic. Be Norwegian and do something fun like that! And of course, remember our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and I know that His light is the reason this time of year is so magical.

I love you!
Love,

Søster MJP

So sweet!!

Dear Family of Sister Pyne,

My name is Annalisa, and last week I was in Oslo picking up my youngest sister (Sister Pace) at the conclusion of her mission in Norway. I had the opportunity to meet your wonderful daughter one evening in the young adult center in Oslo. She and her companion and my sister taught a lesson to an investigator my sister had helped find months ago. It was a sweet experience for me to be a part of. Afterward she and her companion didn't have plans for dinner so we brought some pizza back to the center and visited for a few minutes, and met again a few days later at church. I wanted to let you know she is a strong missionary and she radiates the spirit wherever she goes. It was a pleasure to get to know her a little bit. I wish her much success with the rest of her mission.

Sincerely,

Annalisa