Frozen, Soccer At Midnight &Trip to Hamar-Oslo Week Forty Three

Another week has come and gone here in Oslo. It's really hard to believe. Time is flying before our eyes. The following is a really deep quote I made up in an email to someone last week and felt that its beauty and extensive meaning was meant to be shared with everyone, ""Time is just a mist of moments, brushing past us swiftly, never to be the same again, only to be replaced by the next oncoming wave of individualistic self characterizing thoughts, events, and emotions. Never to be perfectly traced, only to be vaguely remembered in the moments that were and are yet to be."

I know. The worlds most interesting man ladies and gentlemen. I don't always leave a trail of broken hearts behind me but when i do...

Anyways.

So this week was pretty fun and entertaining I guess you could say.

Hamar
So as Zone Leaders we travel to our district leaders and go on splits with them at least once every transfer. So this Friday we took a trip up to Hamar. We caught the train at about 9:15 (should have been 8 but some handsome young fellow forgot his wallet....) So we took the most beautiful train ride every up to Hamar. It was right along side the water and it was just so green and beautiful. Gotta love it. The really loud Asian tourists in the quiet section with me were also a nice touch to the journey. They spent like 10 minutes trying to turn around a chair on the train that was clearly bolted down like most train chairs. Moving on though, splits was way fun up there. It's a small little city on the water and it's super Norwegian. It's kind of what I imagine when I think of Norway. So we did some contacting with them and had a good time. We actually ran into an opera singer who is a member and she and her husband bought us lunch (wayyyyy delicious salmon. mmmmmmm). It was a great time, we had a nice pillow talk discussing the scariest movies we've seen. Which isn't very cool if you're me because the scariest movie you've seen is My Little Pony Rainbow Adventures: Journey to Mt. Lollipop. Good times though, good times.

Trip to Hamar

 

Another View from the train ride

 

Viking Boat in Hamar

 

Another View

Birthdays!

The Birthday Celebration

So Sister Oldham had a birthday this week in our district. She's cool. I actually used the decorations my mom sent me because I felt more Christlike that way. She loved and appreciated the little party we put on for her so that was awesome. Finding joy in the joy of others. Plus our gift to her was awesome. A nice double sided laminated picture of us on one side and her on the other. Autographed by us of course. So that was a fun little Sunday. 

Sister Oldham Birthday

 

Birthday Treats

Positive Investigators               
So this week had some cool moments. We have a couple of cool people that I'm excited about. One is 25ish year old Norwegian girl who is way cool and nice. She's far from the truth but she has really good questions and is just really honest which is something I can appreciate. She said a prayer at the end of our lesson this week and it was way cool. The second situation we have though that I am way excited for is a part member family. She is not a member and he is but is inactive. They have 3 kids, but sadly they also aren't married. However, there is no reason they shouldn't be. She went on about "their family" for ages and ages. Also about how she wants "to settle down and have a fresh start". They love each other and they need the gospel. She is totally open and nice and agreed to be taught with her kids. The teach is next Wednesday and I am way excited.

Another Investigator not mentioned here.

Frozen    
Oh man. So we have permission to watch Disney movies on pday. We made the poor decision of watching Frozen. Poor because it was so awesome and just made me wanna watch it 50 more times. All I can say is that people have every right and privilege to rave about that movie. So good. Great stuff. Props to Disney. My mind is still recovering from how great it was. That was my little "in the world" moment.

After watching Frozen!!

 

And another!!

Closing
This week was humbling in an interesting way. As of late we have been having a lot of sucess. The Oslo area does really well and puts up some really fantastic numbers. The week was humbling though because sitting down last night we both realized that our work ethic and attitude could have been much much better this week. Our use of time could have been way more effective than it was. Despite that, we had a fantastic week. We quickly realized that if we don't fix our attitude that the blessings will stop and we won't be given great opportunities. It was an eye opener and this week is set out to be a great week of work and time management. The Lord does bless us as we do our best. Our best will never be enough, but it will always be made complete.

Clear eyes, full heart

Elder Shanklin

P.S. Today is the longest day of the year (holiday in Norway) so we get to stay up until 12 o clock! Rock on!

Midnight in Oslo

 

Soccer in the park at midnight!