Family and Friends-
Address is on the right side bar!!
So there is definitely a lot that can be said in this email considering that I haven't written home for quite some time. However I do have some bad news that is actually quite exciting news. This week is a huge mission conference because a General Authority (Who are General Authorities?)is traveling through Norway and speaking to us. So all the missionaries in the North and West zones will be traveling to Trondheim today for the conference. Due to that we do not have an extremely large amount of time to email today. So pretty much it's like all of you have been waiting in line for the 7th Harry Potter book and instead you're gonna get a piece of paper that says "in a rather extreme series of events Harry kills Lord Voldemort". Lets roll.
Suppa Fly
Only a couple things to say in regards to traveling this week. The flight from Dallas to London was AWESOME. I know this is going to sound so sheltered, but it was a huge plane that sat 2-5-2 and it was only another missionary and I in the middle 5 so we got to lay down and sleep. So awesome. Also many of you may know that my wallet fell out of my pocket on the plane(maybe it was during that wonderful sleep! He still doesn't have it in his posession!) but luckily someone was nice enough to turn it in and save me from what would have been a terrible experience at the mission home. We got to the mission home after lots of flying and such and had a good meal and got our mission assignments.
City Lights
I'm not sure if this is news to anybody but I have been assigned to labor in the Trondheim city for my first area in Norway (Click HERE to find out more about Trondheim). I was pretty stoked because technically it is part of the North Zone. Elder Nielson (a missionary in his district in the MTC that is waiting for his Visa) is supposed to be here with me so if that kid would get his stinking visa I would love that. There are four missionaries living in an apartment here and it's pretty fun. The apartment is huge so it's not even a big deal. The toilets here, dude those things flush with more force than a hurricane. You could potentially flush a brick down the toilet. I guarantee it. My companion Elder L is from England and he is a pretty chill guy. There's really not too much to say about him (sorry mom), he works hard and gets things done and I know if I say too much then I'll just end up finding things I don't like and that's never good. SO! Let us talk about the wonderful city of Trondheim.
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| Cathedral of St. Olaf (11th Centruy Nidarosdomen Cathedral) |
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| City of Trondheim |
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| Can you imagine living here???? |
Reject
I have been rejected more times in this city than in my entire 18 year life. Probably because not many people can reject The Shank. Well in Norway they can. We seriously just go out onto the street and it seems like nobody wants to hear the message. My Dad told me he knocked maybe 1 door on his mission....yeah I've already knocked like 100+ and tried to talk to probably 500 people on the street. Does nobody want happiness?! GAH! Its really annoying but we just gotta go with it I guess. We contact for like 4 hours a day on average and it's super rough. The city is beautiful though. In the words of my companion "Well on the bright side only like 700 more days of it".
Trondheimers
The people here. Wow. They are great but there sure is a whole lot of sin here. First though, some of you may wonder how Converse All-Stars are still in business. Norway. I would say about 75% of people wear chucks, converse, or whatever they are called. It is ridiculous. I feel like there must be some sort of tax reduction for wearing them. Also, on the warm days here it wouldnt be rare to see someone in very little besides those converse. Saturday night here was seriously a throw back to Las Vegas mixed with Mardi Gras. So gross. I can't tell you how many creepy smiles my companion and I turn down from awkwardly dressed teenage girls. You gotta join the church if you want this my good friend!
Iranian Friends
Okay so story time my bros and broesses. On Saturday night my comp and I had a dinner appointment with an investigator from Iran (It is very common to find people of different ethnic backgrounds in Norway). We thought he was interested in learning more but when we got there and tried to talk a little about the church he said "uhhhm maybe tonight be for fun, teach another time". His English is awful. But as great as Kickapoo was, I didn't learn much Persian. So we talked him into letting us teach him 15 minutes after dinner. The food was great. He offered us Alcohol during dinner and Coffee after. During dinner I noticed a bong or smoking pipe thing on top of the freezer. I'm not very practiced in those arts so I really have no idea what it was exactly. Anyways, after dinner we started teaching and he immediately expressed how it wasn't for him. He had a friend there who spoke way better English and was translating a bit. Then it got exciting, near the end of the message our Iranian friend said something in Persian about smoking and pointed to the bong, his friend then said "crystal? You guys wanna smoke crystal?". I immediately realized that for the first time in my life, in some random Iranian dudes house in the middle of Norway, I was just offered Crystal meth. So yep. That visit ended shortly thereafter and we had a good laugh on the way home. Overall this dude just wanted us as friends and thought that Joseph Smith was crazy/a joke....says the guy who smokes crystal meth.
Peace Out Girl Scout
So overall these past two weeks have been crazy. It's been weird and I can honestly say that it is the hardest thing I have ever done. No doubt. Its definitely out of my comfort zone every time I have to throw out "Hei! Vi kommer fra Jesu Kristi Kristi, vi er ut for å snakke om..." and then watch as they walk away, being too cool for school and such. I gave a pretty snazzy testimony in church, the mission leader tells me that my Norwegian has potential to be insanely good. OH! Dude I thought there was no way that I wouldn't be able to understand Norwegian but it seriously sounds like Chinese sometimes! Okay so I hate to say this but I really gotta roll out. There's more to say but honestly, just be cool and write me and then you get to hear all the good stuff. Don't be lame. So stay good my wonderful lovelies and just remember that it's all worth it in the end. Clear eyes, full heart.
Much love
Eldste Shanklin
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