I’m happy and I’m having fun, and I’m so grateful to be a missionary.

there were sheep running around on our hike this morning.

Good Morning!

Sister Osten, one of the missionaries we live with has this cool thing where you can record your voice and send it as a picture, and she does that instead of typing an email.  So we’ll see if it works, and it feels really weird sitting in my room talking to myself. But it’s fun!

Let’s see, this week we visited the crazy cat lady that makes us apple cake, and this time it was like 7:00 at night, and she never lets us out, she always has more to say, and we had to go. So I was racking my brain for a way to get out of there, and I said ok Bergette, we have to go, we haven’t eaten dinner yet, and she said, you haven’t eaten dinner? Oh, well, I have a fish cake! You guys can share the fish cake! And Sister Robbins looks at me and mouths, I hate you.  And I said no, it’s ok, it’s ok, and she said no, I want to feed you. So she goes to the kitchen and brings back two forks and she’s cleaning them with her thumb.

Sister Robbins gets sick a lot, and she has throw up bags, like from an airplane, in her bag. So she gets one out and we make a plan. So we go in the kitchen, and she is plopping mashed potatoes in a bowl too.  And she cuts up the fish cake.  Then she said, I don’t have very many cups because I’m just here by myself, so she takes a cup that was already on the table, and I don’t know what was in it…and she dumps it out in the sink, swishes cold water around with her hand in it, and dumps it out, dries it and sets it on the table, and poured orange juice in it and sets it in front of me.  Luckily, she put the dinner on the table and then left the room.  So we were awful: clinking our bowls, pretending we were eating, but really shoving it in the bag. We really could not eat it, there was cat hair everywhere too.  So that was Bergette for the week.

We went to Stavanger for the week for Zone Conference. We flew there Friday morning, then flew back that night.  It’s weird, flying is just like driving here. It’s fun!  And I sat next to a lady who was Norwegian, but she had been to Arches National Park, and she loved it. So that was good.

We taught Art again. He had asked for a Bible a couple of weeks ago, which we ordered through the office. It was in Chinese, and way cool when we got it. So we texted him when we got the Bible, and said we have that Bible if you still want it.  And he said, yes, I do! And also, that Joseph Smith movie you were telling me about, we could watch that too if you want. So we met him at the church, gave him his bible, and watched the 20 minute Restoration movie with him.  And then he started asking six million questions about…I don’t know…he drew us a diagram on the chalkboard about how he’s a dust particle in the corner of a room…I didn’t follow all of it. Sometimes it’s so frustrating because people make it so complicated, because I think finding God is such an abstract thing to them. So they try to research it, and they go places they’ve never been before because they want to find him, but they don’t understand that it’s really simple.  We just kept saying, I don’t know the answer to that question, but God does. And first you need to find out if He’s really there. You have to build a relationship by just talking to Him. We said that over and over, and I think he was getting frustrated because we were giving him the same answer. I’m trying to figure out how we can help him. He’s really honest about finding God, he really wants to, but he also has a neighbor that met with missionaries for a while, but this neighbor is telling him things all the time about how God isn’t there, and they get in arguments all the time. So we’re trying to figure out how to help Art, but at least he’s making progress. He’s reading in the Book of Mormon still, so that’s really good.

Yesterday at church Anders came, and I sat with this family (he has twins, I don’t know if I told you that, a boy and a girl that are 4, and Mina) and he’s such a good dad and husband. He lives the Gospel already, so being baptized isn’t going to change anything for him…well, it will, but not his lifestyle.  It was awesome.

Also, we had another girl named Anisha. When I first came to Bergen, she had a baptismal date, I don’t know if you remember. I talked about her, but she’s from India, and she knows it’s true. Our lesson in Sunday School was about the Holy Ghost, and she was talking about how she knows what the Holy Ghost is and she’s felt it in her life. But she just believes everything is true in a way. She’s the one we went to the Hindi temple with, and she was worshiping false idols… so I don’t know how to help her either. We need to do some praying and fasting. I feel like we need some guidance with a lot of our investigators right now. But  it’s good that she came to church. She texted us, hey, I want to come to church with you guys today.  So that was really exciting. And she is the sweetest girl. She just graduated. She’s really smart. And she’s going home for the summer, but she’s coming back in the fall to work in Oslo. I think we’re meeting with her tonight, so that should be really good.  Hopefully we can figure out what will make the difference for her, to help her realize that this is the only true church. But it was exciting to us that she came to church.

We’ve been making homemade boler to give to less actives this week. It’s like homemade rolls, pastry rolls kind of, with chocolate chunks, so they look kind of like chocolate chip cookies.  But they’re rolls and they’re really good. We found a really good recipe, but the oven said to set the oven to 225 degrees Celsius, which is really hot, but I didn’t think about it. So we did it, and we were in the other room calling people, and we came back to check on them, and the oven was full of smoke! We were so sad, because we were so excited to see how they turned out, and then they got ruined! But it’s ok, we tried it again, and it was better success.

Today is a holiday, Saint Hans Evening, and it’s the longest day of the year. So they do bonfires and bbq with their families and such. So the ward had a party on Saturday night at a family’s house in the ward, the Livsalts.  They live on an island outside of Bergen, and it is breathtaking. I want to go there so bad, just to see the road. But their house is breathtaking too, and they’re right on the fjord, and I don’t have words to describe it. It’s beautiful. So we had a barbecue there and a lot of ward members came. It was really good.

Oslo ward never had activities, and they weren’t very close. This ward isn’t very close still, but they’re good about having activities. It’s good, they’re coming. I think there’s a reason there are only American missionaries here though, because they need some big, loud, American love.  I don’t know, their culture is just different, but I love them. They’re really honest people. So it’s good.

Last night it was freezing! It’s been really windy the last couple of days. So we had our coats and scarves on, and we were knocking on doors, and nothing that exciting happened. And we were going back home to study Norwegian, and we walked past this house, and Sis. Robbins said, Hey, we need to go to this one. Do you still have that Book of Mormon? I had grabbed one on our way out just because I felt like we should have one to maybe give to someone…I don’t know. I said yeah, here. So we knocked on the door, and this lady answered, and she was really nice! Usually, they’re not really mean, but they’re kind of sarcastic, and they’re just not nice. But this lady said, yeah, Mormons! I’ve heard of you guys. I’ve heard of the Book of Mormon.  And we were talking to her about it, and she said, well, to be completely honest, I don’t know if I’m that interested, but we gave her a card, and she said, Yeah, that’s good! I can look up stuff and call you if we have questions.  It was a big deal to us, because it was the nicest lady we had talked to that night. And it was just cool how Sister Robins used the Book of Mormon to talk to her, and also how she followed the prompting to go to that house. I feel like I take little things like that for granted all the time now because it’s just so normal, because they happen all the time. It’s really neat!

I feel like I’m talking weird, because all the girls I’ve lived with lately have their own little ways of talking, and you just pick up little things.  And I hate the sound of my voice on recordings, so this is a big deal…you’re welcome.

We had a lesson with Anders this week, and we talked about tithing. He’s had all the lessons before, because he was there when Mina got taught, and also, he met with the missionaries a couple years ago. But we talked to him about tithing again, we just read the pamphlet. And he said, yeah, Lynne and I (that’s his wife) need to try it! I’m willing to try anything, and we need to try it and see how it goes, because if all the blessings it talks about in this pamphlet really do happen, then we need to try it out and see. So that was good. He’s like the perfect investigator. He does what you say, and reads his scriptures and everything, so that’s really good.

We’re going hiking again today, so that will be good. We’re going to hike Ulriken, which is the mountain right behind our house. I’ve done it before, but it’s like a waterfall bed that you hike up, and it has a rod held into the hill the whole way up so you can hold onto it. So that will be fun!

I’m happy and I’m having fun, and I’m so grateful to be a missionary. Oh also, we were talking about this the other day. I don’t know how President is going to do anything when my group goes home, because there are 17 girls, and there are only 4 coming this next transfer, and there are 10 others here. So he’s going to have to close areas like crazy. And I don’t know how he’s going to do companionships before we leave, because some of us are going to have to be with each other, but then the area’s just going to close because we’ll both leave. But I’m grateful he prays about things and receives revelation and does such a good job. It’s just neat the way the mission works. I love the city, Bergen, I think it’s beautiful, and I love Anders and his family. And I think that it’s been really good for me to be here. It’s been a really growing experience. But I’m also really excited to see where I go…well, I’m assuming I’m leaving, because I’ve been here six months, but we’ll see. 

Hopefully this recording works, that would be cool! I love you guys! Thank you for everything you do, and for letting me be here, and for all of your support. I pray for you, and I think about you, and I’m so excited to show you this place! It’s going to be so much fun! Have a very good day and a happy week, and I’ll talk to you soon! Bye!