Chillin' With My Gnomies in Norway: The Lord is SO Good!…Week 12

Dear Family,

I love being a missionary! This week has been so busy but I find that those are the best times! We are having a transfer on Wednesday and I am so excited! As you all well know, my trainer, Søster Hunt, went home to America a couple weeks ago so I have been in a trio with the other two Søsters serving in Trondheim, Søster Robbins and Søster Williams. Søster Williams was in the MTC with me so Søster Robbins has been our trainer. On Wednesday, Søster Robbins will be leaving to her new area and two other Sisters will be replacing her and Soster Hunt. My new companions name is Søster Heartly! I've heard so many good things about her and I am very excited! Søster Williams' new companion is Søster Hoggard... Søster Hoggard was mt MTC companion.... so 2 BRAND SPANKEN NEW Søster missionaries will be training each other.... hahahahaha I am so excited for them! If anyone can handle that it is those two!

Most of my investigators are doing really well! There are a couple of people who are struggling to keep there commitments which is so hard to see! I have such a deep love for the people I am serving and to see that they are not taking things as seriously as they should be is torture, but I know that if we approach everything with love, the Lord will take care of the rest!

DÅP!!!!! (BAPTISM!!!!!!!) We have a baptism on Saturday for a man named Joseph. He is amazing! He is from Africa and has such a strong testimony of the Restored Gospel! He is very excited to be baptized. When we teach him, we go to his house and sit in the slightly lit basement. The whole house is a house for African refugees so there are about 20 black men living there. They are so funny! I love going over there to visit and teach! We are going to convert that whole house! Charles was the first one to be baptized and now Joseph is being baptized and we are teaching Arnold now! Such good men!

I want to take a little time to talk about the AMAZING members that I serve with here in Trondheim. First I want to talk about the beautiful and talented Mali! Mali is a college student here and she is SO smart! She invited us to come to her mother's house for dinner. Her mother lives in Hell (what the town is called.... hahaha in the winter Hell LITERALLY freezes over!) which is about an hour train ride. Mali and her brother are the only members in their family. So we get to Hell and walk off the train and there is Mali's mom with a HUGE smile on here face! She welcomes us all in Norwegian with huge hugs! She then starts driving up this LONG, DARK dirt road. We finally get to the house and it is so cozy! Mali was cooking us real American Baked mac and cheese with bacon! I found about 5 cats running around the house so naturally I was on the floor playing with the cats the whole time. :) We had an amazing dinner and after we had some apple cake (BIG deal here in Norway) and knitted! Then Mali's dad came home. He came in and started making fun of the fact that I am Swedish (hahaha Norwegians and Swedish don't like each other but it's more like a brotherly dislike hahaha ;)) it was so amazing! They invited us to come back to spend Christmas Eve with them! I am so excited! Mali had to go back into the city because she had school the next day so she drove us home and on the way home she told us how here parents NEVER do that, and how special it was that they invited us to spend CHRISTMAS with them! How blessed I felt!

Another member I would like to mention is Sister Hansen. What an amazing woman! Every time she has the missionaries over for dinner (All 8 of us!) She has us bring all of our investigators! She lives in a beautiful farm house somewhere in the country of Norway and loves to serve! She is one of the most giving people I know (besides my mom). Every week she buys 10 dozen FRESH EGGS FROM A FARM and gives them to us missionaries... we live off of eggs! What an amazing woman and giving woman she is. She is about 5 foot nothing and is always smiling and hugging everyone... I love her! She is filled with so much wisdom! The same goes for Brother Hansen! The man is always serving! Every time we come to the church during the week he is there cleaning or setting something up or just being amazing! I cannot understand ANYTHING he says in Norwegian because his dialect is SO thick but I love him! He always traps us in hug even though he knows he is not supposed to! I love awkward side hugs from Brother Hansen!

THE WEGGERSON FAMILY! Okay...so there are 13 children in the Weggerson family ranging from 40 something to 7 years old! They are amazing! The actual Weggerson parents are living in Olso but 3 of the Weggerson sons live here in Trondheim with their wives. Sam Weggerson is the second councelor in the bishopric. Aaron is married to Majken who is one of my best friends now! She is American but grew up in Thailand! Ben Weggerson is married with three HILARIOUS children! Ben is the ward mission leader here. I love the Weggerson family! They do so so much for us missionaries!

Bestemor (grandma) is next! What a beautiful woman! Her name is Inger Jørgensen! I love her! I can't understand anything she says either but she is a kick in the pants nonetheless! She is in the hospital right now because she had surgery on her knee. We went to visit her! We made her a card with a picture of Jesus in it and she was showing all the nurses and telling them we were missionaries hahahaha she is the best! She then asked ME to sing and dance for her.... so I did! Hahaha I love her!

Okay...time for some funny stories! This week it snowed and I almost fell on my butt like a million times! The snow didn't stick but it is FREEEEZING! I was proposed to this week! We were making phone calls to people to see if we could meet with them to teach them and I was just calling some of the people in my Kontakts (contacts)! So I call this guy and I ask him if we can meet with him and he said "Okay, if will you marry me! Will you marry me when I join your church?" and I said, "Uh... NO!" so he said, "Okay, I am not interested then!..." WEIRD!! Also, one night we were sleeping (it was 4 am) and we have a door bell on our apartment door, and someone held the button for a good 30 seconds! It was scary mostly because I sleep pretty close to the door..... hahahaha so there are a couple weird things that have happened!

I love Norway! It is literally a Christmas country! It is so beautiful here and the people have such beautiful spirits here. :)

Well my family and friends I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week!

Gud vær med deg til vi sees igjen!

-Søster Neilson!