Bygdoy Island-Abandoned Castles & Censured Statues-Oslo Week Forty Four

Okay well after some playful comments I feel like some things need to get cleared up here before I continue any further in this email. With the frozen movie and the idea of playing soccer at midnight I think I should explain myself.

1. We always get permission from the president to do these things.

2. No missionary under our mission presidents term has ever had to be sent home. Our mission is ridiculously obedient. We have no blatant rule breakers. So when you choose to be obedient you are blessed. kind of like as a child. If you listen to your parents then you get more privileges. The biggest problem missionaries have here is that they like buying European suits that are too tight. If that's your biggest problem as a mission then I think you're doing well. 

3. President Evans is the man. This man has management credentials out the wazoooo. He knows how to keep people motivated while still maintaining a high level of focus. 

Well with that taken care of...

Gay Parade

So there was a gay parade this week. Yay. No pictures though because we aren't supposed to take pictures of civil unrest. Not sure if gay parades fall into that category but I was mostly just afraid that if we got too close to all of them that I'd have a mission story that I would never want to share. Ever. So yes, just a fun fact for you all. It was a big deal. Lots of rainbows and stuff. The quote of the week came when Elder Ellsworth saw incoming clouds on this day and threw out the clever line "I hope it doesn't rain on their parade"....hahaha. Good stuff.

Time Out

The shirt in the picture that my mother sent me of my brother....it will not leave the United States. I would like it please. Thanks for having good fashion. I'll consider this payback.

This is THE shirt!

Sunday of Sundays

So going into this Sunday we did not have numbers that were too fantastic. Like, not very good at all. There was still hope though so we prayed that Sunday could work out for the better. God pulled through boys and girls. So one of our Chinese investigators (not the one in the pictures) continued to come to church. Two other people also showed up. I took the Chinese investigator and a member after church and taught him in a classroom while my companion took a member and taught The Fresh Prince in another classroom (the name is fitting, trust me). Oh and that's total legal by the way. Feel like I have to defend myself now so that people know I don't break rules. So I finished my teach and it went well, and when Elder Ellsworth finished his he told me that the guy told him "man, I gotta be honest with you, I wanna join this church". So now we have a baptismal date with The Fresh Prince and hopefully it will all work out. He's from Africa and Africans in Norway have a reputation of being kind of flaky. So we'll see how it goes. praying for the best though!

Happy Anniversary
Happy anniversary to two loving parents! We were sitting in zone conference and I remembered! I feel proud of myself considering you guys hardly remembered haha! Thanks for all you two do for me, it wouldn't be possible without you! Much love"

You guys are the greatest! LOVE YOU! :)

Bygdøy

So this is just to explain some of the pictures I sent home. We went out knocking doors on a little three sided island. The word for it is too hard to spell so I won't try. Elder Ellsworth saw a castle thing in the distance and we decided to go knock it, because it would be legendary. Turns out that the inside was destroyed and abandoned, but Elder Ellsworth "came this far, so I must knock the door". Yeah. Saw some weird statues and houses on the Bygdøy island. So we took pictures. Mhmmm. I censored one of the statues with my head. Not on purpose. Just poor selfie skills.

Elder Ellsworth bonking on the castle door.

Elder Shanklin overlooking Oslo

Cool Norwegian architecture

The Statue!

The censored statue!

Conference

So we had a zone conference this week in Oslo. The entire Telemark zone came in and so did the mission president and the assistants. We had a total of maybe 45 missionaries. It was a great meeting about the importance of The Book of Mormon. Got to chat with lots of missionaries and enjoy some wonderfully made gluten free food. Boo yah. Also found out the the mission has a pole vaulting state champ! Along with a 300 m hurdles state champ! I just think State Champions are so cool. Especially in track. Plus they're both Sister missionaries, and they never brag an themselves, so we have to do it for them. Dang. Anyways. So the meeting was great. I love the Book of Mormon because there is so much logical proof but really when it comes down to it, you have to have the spiritual proof as well. Our president mentioned how the Book of Mormon mentions a place called Nahom which was random and nobody had ever heard of, but then like 40 years ago or something it was actually discovered! Like, uhm, thanks for the proof. The real proof comes from God though, no testimony based on facts will last! A testimony based on Christ will though.

The mission president sent us this picture of the Zone Leaders
and Assistants in a meeting together

Clear Eyes, Full heart.

Elder Shanklin