Chillin' With My Gnomies in Norway: July 2015

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Viking Festival!

Søster Neilson and Søster Gates were fortunate to attend a Viking Festival last Saturday. Here is Haylee's photo journal of the festival. SO cool! ENJOY!…

"You know…a Viking girl with a few of her Viking boys!"

"There were tons of tents with Viking wares to see!"

"The forest is BEAUTIFUL!"

"Ragnar Lothbrok?!"

"A VERY talented wood carver!"

"This box he carved looked like a self portrait to me!"

"VIKINGS!"

"A cozy little Viking home!"

"The King and Queen arriving on their PONIES!"

"Blacksmiths!"

"Getting ready for the battle!"

"Shields UP! Children climb! It's a Viking dog pile!

Super cool and FUN!"

"Such an AWESOME experience!
So grateful I got to be there!"

Monday, July 27, 2015

Oh My Goodness!…Week 47

Hello my wonderful family and friends!!!

How are you all doing?! Oh my goodness, life here in Norway is CAZY! Hahaha I feel like I say that every week but it is so true! CRAZY BUSY! We had a baptism on Saturday with the wonderful and beautiful Beatrice! The elders have been teaching her. We all have such a good relationship with this amazing girl! She is so incredible! She was so nervous but after she was baptized, she felt nothing but PEACE!...AHHH! Just so good! :)

Two days from now, our little Norwegian family is being baptized! There are six members of their family but only three are old enough to be baptized. :) Holy cow! We are so excited! WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE! What an INCREDIBLE family! They are so good! They have just been prepared from day one. The Lord really does have a plan for His children and He has a plan for the Ravneng family! I am so excited for the day that they will be sealed together as a family forever! :) GO TEAM RAVNENG!!! :)))))))) So we have been super busy planning for this amazing baptism and it has been so much fun! We have gotten to spend so much time with this amazing family and I know that we are supposed to be teaching them but I feel like they teach me! They are such wonderful examples of love and patience! They are always so loving and patient with their kids and they just laugh at the things that can easily make us grumpy! WHAT EXAMPLES! :) I will be taking LOTS of pictures on their baptism day... LOTS!!!

We have been really focusing on being obedient and really helping others come unto Christ. President and Søster Hill came down to visit and interview the Ravneng family on Friday and then they came over to out apartment to just see how we were doing! :) I love them with all my heart! They are also going to be coming down for the baptism on Wednesday which we are looking forward to with much joy!! :)

So on Saturday at Beatrice's baptism we were there early to help Beatrice get dressed and just help out in any way we could and she was SO nervous! We tried to calm her down but nothing was working! We then began to walk down the stairs in the church and then... SØSTER GATES FALLS DOWN THE STAIR CASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She twisted her ankle, busted up her foot and broke a nail. Oh my goodness! She started crying and then laughing! She was okay!!! And that actually relieved a lot of nervousness from Beatrice so thank you Søster Gates! ;) Haha...she really is okay everyone! Don't worry!

The week is kind of a blur of miracles and I don't even know what to write! I love my life. I love my investigators. I love the Ravneng Family! I am so glad to be here in Norway! I love you all so much!

Gud vær med deg til vi sees igjen!

-Søster Neilson

Pure JOY and SUNSHINE!

Still driving! She said she doesn't take her

official driving test until January!

She LOVES visiting with these Beautiful Ladies! :)

Happy Hearts! <3 Søster Neilson and Søster Gates!

They went through the drive thru to get water and see…

THIS GIRL…Izzy! :)

"BEAUTIFUL souls…inside and out!' Søster Neilson

The Ladies of Sarpsborg! <3

"By the way…YUP!" -Søster Neilson
Hahaha…that's all she wrote. I have NO idea!
I think it was some kind of workshop or something!

"Me and my girl Tuva!"-Søster Neilson

"Søster Gates playing for Brother Olsen outside of our house!
So beautiful and so talented!" -Søster Neilson

"This little girl is two and has the best hair EVER!
Aww…Norwegians!"-Søster Neilson

Beatrice on her baptism day! <3

Søster Neilson and Søster Gates! ;)

President and Sister Hill! <3

They are WONDERFUL!

Happy Hearts in Norway finding JOY in the journey!

Monday, July 20, 2015

Life IS…Crazy AWESOME!…Week 46

Dear Family and Friends,

How are you all doing? How is the beach? The beach here is pretty absent of missionaries ;) but that is okay! Oh my goodness... LIFE IS CRAZY AWESOME!!!!!

We have an amazing Norwegian family that we are teaching and the parents are being baptized in 10 days! Ahhhh!!!! So exciting! There is a lot to go over and do but we are loving every step! What a blessing these people are. Søster Gates and I love this family so much. Such good people with SO much love to give! AND...they are so easy to love! We visited with them a couple days ago and their little 9 year old asked, “How can God answer all of our prayers and hear us all pray at the same time?!” We were not really sure what to tell her except that God can do anything! Then yesterday she raised her hand in the middle of our lesson and said, "I got an answer! Just like the sun is so big in the sky and we can all look at it, the sun rays can hit us all at the same time! That’s probably how God is too! Right?!" We were all just blown away! She is such a smart little girl! With beautiful insights! I love this family!!!

Søster Gates and I have been running around teaching many lessons and doing our best to not fall asleep during studies! Hahah...we are so tired at the end of every day but it is SO worth it! I love being a missionary! It is such a blessing! I am so grateful to meet so many wonderful people and to see their lives begin to change and even mine! I love this church and I know the Lord knows and loves us! :)

Gud vær med deg til vi sees igjen,

-Søster Neilson

Photo Disclaimer: Søster Neilson and Søster Gates were given permission to attend a Viking Festival this past Saturday. She took TONS of photos but wasn't able to make it to the library to upload and email them today. So be prepared next week for a million photos! :)

Friday, July 17, 2015

Holy. Cow. Batman!…Week 45

Hello Family!!!

There is so much to say and not enough time to say it! We are teaching this AMAZING family and they are getting baptized in a couple of weeks! AHHHHHH!!!!!! They are so AWESOME! I am just amazed everyday with how wonderful The Lord is! I love these people so much I feel so blessed to be in Norway at this time to be their missionary! :)

So on Tuesday, Søster Gates and I were planning for the day and we decided that while contacting, we were going to find a young blonde Norwegian boy with a blue shirt and black hat. Specific right? So we set off on the search! Didn't even find him in the time slot we planned. Ugh...come on! We were walking down the street on our way back to the car from an appointment and we saw a flurry of blue up ahead! We kept walking and there was a young blonde Norwegian with a blue shirt and black hat! We almost ran, but decided to walk, to him and started talking to him! He wanted to learn more and was pretty interested! We got another appointment with him and gave him a Book of Mormon! It was so cool! His name is Petter. :)

ÅSE MARIE FROM ÅLESUND CAME TO VISIT ME!!!! Åse Marie is my Norwegian mom! She came down to visit for a couple of days and helped us on all of our teaches! It was so fun! :) We taught some amazing people and had a belated birthday dinner because she missed my actual birthday while she was in America with my family! ;) hahaha It was so good to see her! I forgot to send those pictures so next week for sure!!! :)

Went to a funeral on Thursday for an older woman in the ward. She was almost 91! She was a very sweet and loved woman. The funeral was so tender and simple and I felt honored to be there and feel the love that our ward family had for this wonderful woman!

We also had lunch with one of our AMAZING investigators Izzy! I love that girl to death! We had a so very fancy McDonalds lunch and talked about the Word of Wisdom. It was kind of funny because a part of the Word of Wisdom discusses eating healthy food while we were stuffing our faces with cheeseburgers and fries! Hahaha ;)

On Saturday we had a big ward BBQ, which was SO fun! I absolutely loved it! So many good people came and it was just so great! We had a HUGE jump rope game which I was not apart of because I am not as talented in jumping in a skirt as my companion is! (see picture below! )

We had a few Americans speaking in church on Sunday which was kind of fun! They had a translator and it was fun to see the ward be so supportive and loving towards them! One of the American speakers called out Ann Marie (she is one of the amazing people being baptized) and asked her if she was the one being baptized, in the middle of sacrament meeting! Hahahahahaha...Poor Ann Marie! She just nodded her head! Hahaha I was so proud! ;) I love that woman!

I just found out today that my good friend Josh Boswell has been called to serve in the Provo, Utah mission! Wahoooo! It’s crazy because my companion I have now is from Provo Utah! And I am moving there when I come home! So a shout out to Josh! Congrats! :)

Well my wonderful family and friends, I love you all so much!

Gud vær med dge til vi sees igjen,

-Søster Neilson

PEACE from Sarpsborg Norway!

Michael and Anne-Marie…

"I love them SO much!" -Søster Neilson

JUMP Søster Gates!

Søster Neilson captioned this photo: JOY!

FUN times! :)

Eldste Phipps is the bomb anchor!

Eldste Phipps seems to be all tied up! ;)

Eldste Kirk is just chillin'!

Hahaha…Enjoying the sunshine and SUMMER!

The KRAMER!

Søster Neilson ADORES this girl! <3

1…2…3…JUMP!

"Hey Bear! I found another cat!"-Søster Neilson

Monday, July 6, 2015

The Lord is My Light!…Week 44

Kjære alle sammen,

Hvordan går det folkens? All is going well with me here in Norway. :) It has been sunny and beautiful the past few days and I think I might actually be getting a tan again! Wahoo! Today was very cold though which is a bummer but that’s okay! :)

This week we got a new mission president! So a mission president is a man who is called of God to watch over the missionaries in different missions all around the world. My mission president was assigned to Norway so he watches over me and my fellow missionaries! He also is in charge of the different places that we live in Norway which is very exciting! He and his wife take care of us just like the previous mission president did. Mission Presidents serve for 3 years and then they are replaced with new mission presidents and so forth. President and Søster Evans just left which was rather sad and I will miss them terribly! BUT, with change comes new beginnings and new opportunities! President and Søster Hill are the Newbies! They are such GOOD people! We had a missionary conference and met with them to receive some motivation and advice about how we can be better missionaries! :) It was amazing! They both have so much love for us missionaries here in Norway! I am so excited to work with them in this missionary work! I LOVE WHAT I DO!

So, as you know, this week was the 4th of July! Norway does not celebrate this holiday because it’s an American holiday! (who would have thought ;)) BUT our little ward threw a 4th of July BBQ! It was a BLAST! I am so grateful that they wanted us to feel warm and welcomed! :) It was not the same as home BUT it was still so much fun! My first 4th of July without fireworks! Hahaha

I cannot begin to express my gratitude and the love that I feel today. I have been supported and lifted so many times during my mission by those around me who I know love me. I am SO Grateful! I miss my family so much all the time but I KNOW that the Lord watches over us always. You are never alone. Ever. I am so grateful :)

Well Family I don't have much time. I need to write out my thoughts ahead of time because my mind goes blank when i see the computer screen! Hahaha

I love you all so much! Gud vær med dge til vi sees igjen!

-Søster Neilson

Note: Søster Neilson hit her 10 month mark this week! She also sent pictures to celebrating Summer Solstice and 4th of July!