Raining Mana from Heaven
So more people read this blog than I thought haha. Including some of the members here in Norway! So that's fun! Luckily I feel pretty safe in what I say so I don't think anyone should be offended, and if they are then they should know I'm not that type of guy and I'm just full of love. Ha ha. Anyways, so we were on our way back from Oslo this Wednesday from the airport. I got a call on the bus from a member asking me where I was and where I lived. I responded that we were on a bus and then gave him our address. Right as we walked in pretty late in the evening he called again and asked us to come up to his car with him. This is a way funny member so we were expecting a prank of sorts. Instead we got the opposite. He proceeded to give us tons of grocery bags filled with food! He told that a family member of his had read my blog and noticed the comments about Elder Childs and I being poor little missionaries and they decided to help out and buy us some food! WE ARE SO GRATEFUL! It is such a huge blessing to have great members here in Norway who love and support the missionaries. We have been eating well and are, as I said, very very grateful! It can't even be put into words! The real question the Elders wanted to know is if I could start complaining about our lack of handwritten mail from 18-23 year old girls ;)
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| The beauty of Norway at night |
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Flying All Over
Well we flew to Oslo on Wednesday as I said. It was a great meeting with the president and we got a lot done. Here in the North we do a lot of flying in order to visit our district leaders. This week we will make a trip to Bodø and the week after we will go to Alta and Kristiansund. Pray for some killer Northern Lights! They had an orange green and white phenomena the other night! Crossing our fingers. Flying is definitely exhausting but we manage. It was great to see Elder Nielson at the meeting in Oslo for the first time in a while! He just got called as a ZL so we will see each other at least once a month until I get released. He is a great guy and I still pray for the call to serve. Who knows!? Maybe I'll go to Drammen!
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| Elder Shanklin and Elder Collard with matching ties again!! |
Baptism
So on Saturday we had a couple that got baptized here by the sisters. They are super cool and we were all way excited. They come from Nepal! So this whole week we practiced a musical number. I even practiced extra hard because I just feel like I can't sing so I didn't want to bring the group down. However we gave the pianist our music late and that wasn't fair to her and when we got together an hour before the baptism it could have been better. We weren't singing well and yeah...it wasn't going to fly. So that was really hectic in itself but to makes things crazier while we were trying to pick another song to sing the sisters found out that the guy who was supposed to perform the baptisms couldn't come because his parents took the car! So Elder Collard suited up like a man and got ready to perform the baptisms. So we threw together a little musical number with a church hymn and that turned out alright. In the end it wasn't too bad but things were definitely hectic for a while. Lots of stress. Fun times though, fun times.
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| The Sister Misionaries, Elder Collard and the sweet family that was baptized. (well at least the husband and wife) |
Miracle Sunday
So things were going good but we just had a ton of miracles and ended up having a great week. Sunday night we ended up going to a mans house from Ethiopia and had a really great lesson. He is having some dark problems in his life and so we ended up giving him a powerful blessing to help him as he works to overcome that. Sadly he is leaving to Ethiopia for a few months and won't be back until February. After that teach we went to the church and decided to street contact home before dinner with the other elders and traveling aps. On the way home we met two people. The first was a cool Norwegian kid, T, that we taught and prayed with on the street and then scheduled an appointment with for next sunday. The second lady was a small burmeese lady, M, who was really excited and just jumpy but the street contact was hilarious and awesome. We taught and prayed with her on the street as well along with an appointment for next Sunday! In only 30 minutes of contacting we managed to get 2 new investigators which is pretty uncommon and just a huge miracle. It really got me pumped even if later that night I had to watch some lady bad mouth us to her children through the front window. Come on lady.
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| The Sisters |
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| The Elders |
Wrap Up
Time is flying but I'm just really grateful for the experiences I have and the time that I get to be here in Norway. I'm thankful for an awesome family. I don't think they come any better! It's definitely not been an all star week but I feel myself learning and growing which is always great. Things are not always easy but they are definitely worth it. It's all about pressing forward and keeping the faith.
Clear Eyes
Full Heart
Elder Shanklin
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