Chillin' With My Gnomies in Norway: Why Hello There!…Week 53

Hello alle sammen!

How is everyone doing? I hope well! :) OH MY GOODNESS! This week has been MADNESS! I don't even know where to begin... Last Monday we went blueberry picking which was magical! I love Norway so much. This land is my home and I love it! I love the people, the food, the culture, the land! I love it all! I never thought I would actually be able to say that and mean it but I DO!

We had a great district meeting this week. We talked about how we can make good goal and REALLY accomplish them! It was a big eye opener and we were able to make some personal goals and companionship goals for our lovely investigators. :) It was way good to sit down and focus in on what was really important and things we actually needed to do. Haha ;)

We got to visit our members that live in Sweden after District meeting. It was SO fun! It was raining and cold but we made the best out of it :) The family we were visiting live out in the middle of NO WHERE! So It was way fun driving out there through the forest and the beautiful rain! I loved it! :) I am so proud to be a Swedish girl. It is such a beautiful country with so many beautiful people... BUT, I am VERY proud to be an adopted Norwegian too! ;)

Oh my goodness! So Thursday was my year mark... ugh... and it was such an awful day. Hahaha! Let me just explain a little bit! (It got A LOT better!) So I woke up to having a dream about my wedding... it was crazy! So jumped out of bed and went running because I think that dream was my body trying to tell me to stop eating so much chocolate. Then we went to go visit the WONDERFUL Ravneng family (they just got baptized a month ago! Wahoo!!!). We got there and they began to tell me a lovely story about my former companion Søster Gates. She had been there the day before because she was trying to get her temporary license renewed but something crazy happened and so they just took it! It got me to thinking...maybe I should check my temporary...so I ran out o the car... and... it had expired a couple days before! Ah! No!!!! My current companion has no license... OH NO!!! Hahahaha so the Ravneng’s drove us to the Government building to see if they could extend it or something but the ONLY opposition I had was to take my driving test ASAP! The waiting list was until like the end of November which was also my deadline to get any license at all in Norway. STRESS! We had an appointment right after so we were not able to go to a driving school. I called President Hill and I felt just SO bad because it just added extra stress to my amazing mission President! I talked to Elder Phipps about it because he is my district leader and I was just stressed.

Søster Rogers and I then WALKED to the bus station where we were supposed to pick up the elders in a car (awkward) and then we WALKED to our next appointment which was with a dear friend! It was her Birthday so we ate some fruit with her, gave her presents and played Frisbee! Wahoo! It was WAYYYY fun! :) I am actually pretty good at Frisbee! The WHOLE time though, Elder Phipps was on the phone with "President Hill" and after he got off the phone he said, "We need to go to the church later today because President is coming down to talk to us." I was freaking out! I thought I was in BIG trouble! The elders drove us back to our apartment so that we could empty out the car because the elders had licenses! UGH! From there we headed to the church, and so we get to the church and I saw my investigators motorcycle there... I had a small freak out because I have not seen her in a while! I RAN inside screaming her name (because I love her so much!) and BOOM! A HUGE surprise party waiting for me! THAT is why Elder Phipps said President Hill was coming (even though he wasn't) so that he could get me to the church! I was so shocked and surprised I just started crying. I was so worried and stressed most of the day and then BOOM party time! Hahahaha it was so sweet! It was for my year mark! My AMAZING mother sent my investigator and a member a package with all of this One Year Birthday decoration stuff and my favorite cake mix from America to surprise me! It was SO sweet! :) We partied and ate yummy Norwegian hot dogs and I got to SMASH cake in elder Phipps’ face for freaking me out the whole day... it was WONDERFUL! ;) SO fun! I love my family and ward family here in Norway! So sweet! I felt so loved and thought of! :) THANK YOU MOMMY!

The rest of the week was pretty normal. We met with our investigator who is getting baptized on Wednesday and we talked all about his baptism and he is SO ready for this next step. Such a good man with a fantastic family! What good people! :) We also got to walk home in the pouring rain for 2 hours because we have no car...wahoo! We sang hymns the whole way and found dumb things to laugh at! :) When we first started walking we ran into this 19 year old guy on a bike. He was speaking English to some other lady and of course we stopped because we had no idea if he was American or not! Turns out he was from Germany! He had biked all the way from Oslo (2 hours by car) to Sarpsborg that day and that he was trying to bike to Sweden and then back to Germany... CRAZY! He was super lost and had no idea how to get to Sweden, so we walked with him to get him back onto the right road. He was SUCH a sweet kid! He just loved biking and decided to bike some of Europe! When I asked him if he had food he reassured me that he had corn flakes and some apples... hahaha! We helped him on the right road and left him with out testimonies and a card. He was SO grateful! I was SO grateful! He was such a breath of fresh air and definitely heaven sent. GO GERMAN BUDDY!!!

Nothing else very exciting :) I love my little Sarpsborg and I love you all so much! I am so grateful for all the experiences I have had this last year. My life and heart is forever changed. I love these people so much. I have not seen my family in over a year BUT I know that our family is forever and that's why I am here! I want others families to be together forever too! I love you all so much!

Gud vær med dere til vi sees igjen!

-Søster Neilson