Dec 30

Hello! 

Big times new from yesterday! I found out that I will be leaving the great city of Drammen. It's been an amazing place to serve and I'm actually really sad to be leaving. But, next I will be serving in the city of Tromsø, up in the Arctic Circle in Northern Norway!

It's going to be so crazy. They speak a whole different dialect up there so it will take a while to get used to. But I'm so excited! Some other interesting news... My new companion, Elder Henriksen, is a Norwegian himself! I've never met him, but I've heard some interesting things about him, so things should be pretty great:) haha I'm so excited!

I leave on Friday, and will be taking buses and planes all day... by myself. I'm a little scared that I'll get lost, but... I did ride the public bus to Provo all by myself... once, so... that was pretty good training. And I flew to Missouri by myself too! So hopefully I'll find my way to Tromsø:)

Tromsø, by the way, is the one place you should go if you want to see the northern lights in Norway, so my hopes are high!

We had an amazing Christmas week here! Tons of food, and tons of visiting with members. Probably my favorite day was the 24th, which is the day they celebrate the most here.

We were with a member family, and we ate Reindeer for dinner (My favorite thing I have eaten here in Norway)

and had a huge chess tournament the whole night! It was pretty fun. One of the family members lives in Utah, but came back to Norway for Christmas, and brought two friends with him, who didn't speak any Norwegian, so everyone mostly spoke English the whole night, so that was nice too:) 

It was so great talking to the fam on Wednesday! It was crazy being on this side of things for once, after all of the calls I've been a part of while all my brothers were out on missions. Sorry if I was a little awkward! haha it happens! 

It's been a good week of Christmas celebrations, but I'm so excited to get back into the normal swing of things. There's a lot of things I'm looking forward to during this next transfer, and I'm pumped about it! 

Hope everyone has a great New Years!

Elder Nilsson

Dec 23

Merry Christmas! 


Besides having every single investigator tell us to come back after Christmas, it's been a decent week. We have been spending a ton of time with the awesome members here  recently, and this week we will be at members houses every night celebrating Christmas! So excited! All of the snow that we have gotten the past two weeks is pretty much melted.. Which is a bummer. It has been about 3-4 degrees celsius all week, which is pretty warm considering the time of year. I'm really hoping it snows for Christmas! I don't think I could enjoy Christmas in places like California, where it's like 70 degrees. Elder Weaver always talks about how him and his friends would go surfing during Christmas break.. That's not even Christmas! It has been suuuuuper icy though. The streets and sidewalks, and pretty much everything else has just been covered with ice. Elder Jones actually slipped and hit his head this last week and got a concussion.. So it's pretty intense! But I'm handling it ok:)

I've been loving the Christmas experience as a missionary! About the time when I got out to Norway President Evans had challenged us to read the Four Gospels, as well as 3rd Nephi by Christmas, and it has been so awesome. As I read through all of it, I also read Jesus the Christ, and watched a ton of Bible videos, and the life of Christ became more of a reality to me. He really lived, and is still living! I feel like I've gotten to know my Savior a lot better as I have been learning more and more about his life here on Earth, and been centering my Christmas around Him. He is the light of the world! 

Hope everyone has a great Holiday season! Merry Christmas!! 

Elder Nilsson

Dec 16

We got some more snow this week! Still not a ton, and it's not cold enough so a lot of it just turns to slush, but everything looks way cool when the whole city is decked out in white. Also, I might have mentioned this before, but we pretty much live in a cloud. It is SO foggy here. It's pretty scary driving sometimes because you can't see a think in front of you.

As far as this week went, it was pretty slow again. We didn't find any new investigators, and the people we were supposed to teach fell through. It was pretty similar to last week. But, as disappointing as that can be, a baptism to close the week always makes up for it:) 

The Jonas family got baptized on Saturday, and it was incredible. Words can't even describe! And then yesterday at church they all officially became members of the church:) It was a long wait, but it finally happened and it was worth it! So that was really good.

I'm so pumped for Christmas! Especially since they celebrate it for like a week! And luckily, the members here are amazing so we will be treated pretty well. The baptism was pretty much the only thing I can remember from this last week, so I don't really know what else to write.. But I do have some pictures!

 We went to Heddal Stavskirke last p day! It's just a really old church i guess. Their are a ton of Stavkirkes around norway, but this is the biggest, and most famous one. Pretty cool!

Just knockin on some doors.....

...no one answered....

Dec 9

Dear Family and Friends,

Unfortunately, not a lot happened throughout this week. Last p-day we went up to Oslo and just walked around, so that was cool! We didn't have a lot of teaching appointments though. Plus we had a zone conference so that took the whole day. It was a good conference though:) Although we didn't have the best week ever, it was all made up for on Saturday, at the wedding for Samuel and Isabel:) It went so well! Although Isabel showed up almost an hour late, it was ok, because it was an African wedding, so they were running on African time. The wedding was just in the church, and there was about 40-50 people there... And 95 percent of them were African, so it was a party! There was a nice little program with some singing and stuff, and then the ceremony. After that, we went into the gym and ate dinner and cake and all that good stuff. They are now officially married, and officially eligible for baptism:) They were so happy, we were so happy, and you better believe all the Africans were happy! I love Africans. They are some of the nicest and friendliest people I've ever met. So this week will have a lot of focus on just making sure nothing happens to them before the baptism! I don't see how anything could possibly change their mind, but you never know... Satan can be clever sometimes..

We got our first real snowfall yesterday! It's only about 5 inches, but I'm way pumped about it! Drammen looks even more beautiful now with all of the snow! I'm also way excited for Christmas! It's huge here. They celebrate it for like a straight week. They've got lights up and big Christmas trees everywhere. The only disappointment is how they do the lights on the tree...

They just kind of hang them straight down from the top, and it doesn't look that great.. But I guess it still works:)  Here's some more pictures for you to enjoy:) 

Elder Nilsson

 Cool view from the bridge the crosses the fjord.

This is pretty much the White House of Norway. On May 17, which is there national holiday, this place is just packed with people and then the king comes out and waves at the people or something. I hope I'm in the area because foreigners get front row seats!

 Me and Samuel Jonas. I don't know why he doesn't like to smile in pictures, but I promise he was happy!

 Some of the kids. The tallest one and the shortest are part of the family. And then there is just this random kid in a gold suit with white shoes haha I thought it was pretty sweet.

 Me, just enjoying the snow:)

Cool ice thing that's right by our house haha

Just a little info on the Christmas in Norway that Sister Evans wrote to us.

"No one loves Christmas more than Norwegians!  It begins with Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas.

Christmas then ends on January 5^th when you have a party to take down the Christmas tree!   Purple is the color of “anticipation” and so you will see purple candles and other decorations in the homes of Norwegians at this time of Advent.

 Four special candles, often in a special holder or wreath or even a plate, often with the numbers 1,2, 3, and 4 on them  are for this special time. On the first Sunday of Advent one candle is lit, on the second Sunday two are lit and so forth until the Sunday prior to Christmas.  Advent is another word for the coming of Christ and it is often associated with His second coming."

Dec 2

Hello! Happy holiday season!

Definitely is the best time of the year. Even here in Norway. I'm loving it! I'm just hoping it snows really soon. The holidays aren't complete without a little snow.

We had a really great thanksgiving week this last week! We had a dinner with members almost every day, and three of them were thanksgiving dinners! Only one of them was an actual real thanksgiving dinner, meaning it had rolls and stuffing and turkey and pie and all of that good stuff:) I'll send pictures probably next week! Right after our last thanksgiving dinner, we all went over to the church for the Annual Stake Christmas Concert. It was so sweet. They had a stake choir and orchestra playing, and just did a bunch of Christmas songs..

Speaking of Christmas concerts, do you remember when we went to the Mo Tab Christmas concert and Sissel sang with them!? Aub? Jace? You guys remember that? Well she is totally from Norway! And we have the concert DVD, and we watch it all the time in our apartment:) and I love her haha She is the bomb. Also, one of the members gave us a fake cChristmas tree with a bunch of lights and ornaments, so I'm pretty pumped about that:)

Not much to report on any investigators. The wedding for the Jonas family is this Saturday!! And then the Baptism is next week! They are still doing so good. We still go and visit them like 2 times a week, but we are running out of things to teach them! They were totally prepared to get baptized like 6 weeks ago, so now they are just unbelievably ready. Everyone just acts like they are already members, which they pretty much are, just not officially yet.

This ward here is incredible. I never would have thought that a ward in Norway could be so good. I'd say it competes with any ward anywhere. The leadership is incredibly strong, and the members are the nicest people ever. I don't really ever want to leave haha.

Don't have a lot of time this week to write this week. We are driving down to Oslo for P-day today, so I will have a lot of pictures next week probably! Thanks for the emails! Love you all!

Elder Nilsson