#stayininskien

Hei hei alle sammen!

Skien rocked it this week. Well, Heavenly Father rocked it. He's been blessing us with so many good miracles. Twice this week I've stood there and tried to comprehend what just happened. God is there! He really is!

Sister Hartley is leaving me, we're sad about that, but we knew it would probably happen. I'll be in Skien for my last transfer with Sister Olsen. I knew I'd probably be getting a new companion and I secretly wished it would be Sister Olsen. I guess Heavenly Father hears secret wishes too! It's going to be good.

Monday night we drove all around trying to find this less-active lady's house. The address was this weird old farm house and a barn and we weren't sure where to knock. So we knocked on everything! But then a different lady that Sister Hartley had met on the street a long time ago answered the door and she let us come in. We thought she wasn't a member for a minute, but then she started talking about church things and we realized she was a different less-active lady! She needed us to come and Heavenly Father sent us right to her door. It was the weirdest way of finding her, but it was a miracle. 

Tuesday night we ate dinner with Ragnhild, an amazing lady in the ward that served a mission and then raised 8 kids by herself after her husband died, and she had Floris (the kid from Germany that I talked about a couple weeks ago) there to eat dinner with us. We talked to him about finding God in His life and creating a personal relationship with him. He is skeptical, but he's interested. It will be interesting to see where it goes with him. As we were leaving we mentioned that we were going to knock on some doors and Ragnhild said, "Can I make a suggestion?" (Um... never happens in Norway... YES please) and she said, "You know the blue and yellow houses in the center of Skotfoss? I feel like there is someone there that is ready." The blue and yellow houses are really confusing apartment-type things and we had no idea which doors to knock on and who lived where. We knocked on a door, a lady answered and then told us no and shut the door. We knocked on another one that we weren't really sure if it was the front door. No answer. Then we knocked on another one that was kinda propped open and no one answered so we decided to poke our heads in and see if it was a house or apartment building. We knocked on the door inside too but no one answered and we just kinda stood there confused for a second. Now that I think about it I don't really know what we were doing. But we turned around to leave and a girl was coming out of the second door we had knocked on. We went over to her and she had this little smile on her face like she wasn't surprised we were there. I asked her what she believed and she said, "I don't know." Then I asked if she had heard about the church and she said, "Yeah. I lived with a Mormon family in Sweden for a year." And I said, "Great, when can we meet?" She said she had time any day. It was one of those moments where you don't really understand what is happening, you just know God is in charge. We met with her on Thursday and she told us a little more about her life. She has a lot of hard things going on right now and she's going to Spain for a couple weeks, but we're going to keep contact with her. I called Ragnhild after and told her what happened and she was so excited. That's how you do member-missionary work! 

Sara is still blowing my mind. We met with her on Tuesday and tried to set a date for baptism with her. She got really nervous and told us she isn't ready to set a date, but she told us that she has three concerns. 1. she wants a testimony 2. she wants her dad's approval 3. telling her friends that she can't drink anymore even though it's such a part of their culture. We talked about resolutions for them and then talked a little bit about how Satan knows that she is finding more and more truth each day and she needs to be aware that he is going to do everything he can to get her to go away from it. We talked about that talk from last conference about how the biggest dust cloud is right above the truth. I feel like Sara is 25 because she just gets it. She's been being prepared her whole life.

An hour after we met with her she called us crying and told us she tried talking to her friend about everything and her friend acted really weird and told her to stop meeting with us and that we were trying to control her. We said, "See? Satan wants to get you so bad!" We talked about how she was so hurt because the things she tried to tell her friend about mean something to her. She said, "I feel like it's true! I told my friend that I've been to so many churches and no one has answers and I'm finally getting answers!" I'm so impressed with her determination to find the truth even though she's alone in her family and her friend group.

it gets prettier and prettier every week, i swear!

Her dad drove her to church yesterday after having a conversation with her about how he would respect her decision to be baptized and would support her even though he is Atheist. And then she came to young womens and told us she had drunk some wine the night before at a birthday party but as she was doing it she thought, "This is dumb. Why do I need this?" The Spirit is working on her so much and her concerns are getting resolved because she's willing. She always tells us, "If I expect God to give me answers then I have to try. He's always there, but I'm over here and I have to move closer to Him." She's 17!  All of this happened this week so.... who knows what is going to happen next week. Please pray for her to be able to receive and recognize a clear answer that the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet. 

After our Ragnhild experience we decided to try it out with some other members too. On Thursday we went on splits with the sister training leaders so Sister Hartley and Sister Aasen went to visit a sweet less-active grandma. They told her the story with Ragnhild and then asked her where to go to knock. She told them the second floor of her apartment building and guess what?? They found someone! A couple from India that believes in Jesus Christ. We visited them last night again and they said they had been waiting all day for us. We're going to find them a Book of Mormon in their language and take it to them this week. 

Saturday we had a bunch of miracle lessons that we weren't planning on at all. One of them was Jofrid. We visited her and read from the Book of Mormon and then I asked her if we could do anything for her before we left and she said, "Yeah! Color my hair!" kinda jokingly and I said, "Ok! I can if you want me to!" So she let me color her hair. Haha it was exactly what we needed though to help her open up a little more. Service always opens the heart. 

This morning while I was studying I was thinking about the difference between testimony and conversion. I feel like my testimony is the strongest it's ever been. There is no doubt in my mind that the gospel is true. But it hasn't been like that the whole time. I have doubted everything as a missionary and really had to search and dig deep within myself. The Spirit will always testify and retestify when you invite it though. When we were on splits Sister Aasen said that her brother said, "You just cannot know the extent of the Lord's work alongside you in this vineyard... no matter what you feel about yourself, your companions, or your mission as you struggle through it, as long as you are not giving up and you are still struggling to do something good, or even if you are struggling but the Lord is doing you some good, you will look back on it and know without a doubt that it was good, and it was worth it. You will feel, as I feel, a sacredness about the people, and the places, and the things you did on your mission." I feel like that explains how I feel. It's all worth it. And the Lord works miracles in you and everyone around you. There's nothing like it. I know that it's true! There's a bigger plan. 

I love you very much!

Love,

Søster Pyne

this land we live in... these are from Sara's phone.
she took all of these herself.