Rain, rain, go away!

Hey!!!

TGI Friday, where we're pretending it's America

Actually, the rain is really pretty today. It's super misty and dark and kind of warm. So we're okay with it for now. I'm starting to panic a little bit that it's never gonna go away though.... I love my sun! It sounds like you guys had great 4th of Julys! We had fun too in the rain :) I think it's the first 4th of July ever that I wore tights and a sweater. But we ate lunch at TGI Fridays as a district and played some sports with our investigators that evening and had a barbeque so it felt a little more real. Even though TGI had no idea anything was happening in America. It's okay. I read the quotes from my passport to make me feel patriotic and talked to people on the street about the gospel.

We visited Anders with Elder Nielsen and Taylor this week so he could get interiviewed. He passed! We talked about how this is it and he's so ready to get in that water. I've never been more excited for a baptism before! They are on vacation in Bulgaria all week so we're emailing him and keeping contact and he'll get back on Friday. It means the world that you are sending your prayers and fasting this way for him. He has no idea how much Heavenly Father loves him and is taking care of him. But I am so grateful for it. Thank you!

We spent 3 hours trying to get the program together because Norwegians prioritize vacations over eveything else. It was supposed to be our weekly planning session but we didn't get any weekly planning done because all of our time was eaten by trying to find a few talks and prayers. We kept praying and we saw miracles as we went through the ward list and asked to know who to call. I am so grateful for the people that willingly said, "Yes! I'd love to!" I forgot that that's a normal thing to do in Utah and it was so refreshing to hear it again. He's getting baptized, you guys!!! 

Anne Austenaa, my pal from Oslo came to visit us again. She always takes us to dinner at these crazy places. This time it was this extremely expensive fancy little put a dot on your plate and call it food place. It was the experience of a lifetime, I think and it was really fun! But then after we had to run to catch a bus and we almost threw up our blow fish soup and who knows what else the stuff was on the plate. 

we spend a lot of time waiting for the bybane, the train thingy

On Saturday we went to the city to meet Else Marie. We saw her from a distance with her hood on and an umbrella and she was tallking to these two other people that looked really sketchy. Then we watched as she took a little while thing out of their hands and put it in her mouth. DRUG DEAL. We hurried and backed up by a door and waited for a second and watched. We had no idea what we were going to do. And then she took off her hood and started to walk away and it was a HE. It wasn't Else Marie at all. We felt so awful to thinking it was her! She showed up right after and we were so glad to see her. We read 1 Ne 17 with her and talked about how the Lord has asked her to be baptized in a very personal way and she needs to follow her prompting even though she is nervous. Nephi didn't know how to build a boat either but he still did it. She liked it a lot, but still wouldn't commit to a date. We're not sure what she needs next, but there was progress. 

This month we're all trying to focus on being bold and I feel like the past couple of days I've been really bold. I feel like my testimony is at a point where I just know things are right and I don't have to try and explain them to other people, I just have to testify and let the Spirit teach. I should have been at this point all along, but I feel like it's finally becoming real. So the past couple of days I've really enjoyed being really bold. I think I'm also just tired of saying the same things and watching people go in circles. That's probably how Heavenly Father feels about me too. I need to listen better.

Sunday walks with Laila and the baby. check out their strollers!

We have really been trying to help these inactive people but there are so many we just have to go down the list and call and then show up knowing nothing about them. Last week I talked to this man that was really nice on the phone and told us yes of course we could come. We asked the elders to come with us because we were a little bit unsure. But when we knocked on his door, he got really mad and told us we couldn't come in because he had talked to a very kind nurse on the phone and it was her that was coming. I told him it was me he talked to and he said "No, she was a nurse and you can't come in." I think he's not all the way there, but I almost said, "Well, do you have some rubber gloves? I can be a nurse if you just let us in! We're here to nurse your soul back to health." People people people.

We also saw a grandma across the street pushing her own wheelchair with her feet. She was trying to get to the train station so we crossed and asked if we could help her. She let us push her there and then we started talking with her. Neither of us had any idea what she was saying the whole time but she asked us if we knew this man and we were both just nodding pretending like we knew what was going on. She got so excited that we knew him and told us to give her a hug. And then she kissed us on our cheeks (slobbered kinda) and told us to tell him hello. I felt so bad because I didn't realize what she had said until after. Ah. We're just doing our best, Heavenly Father.

We're trying to find and find and find. Our area really  needs some good people right now. We would really appreciate your prayers this week to  help us be led to people that are ready!

I love you guys and I'm happy to be a missionary! I'm praying for you all the time too.

Love,

Søster Pyne