December 15

Don't have a ton of time today, but I made it here in Stavanger!! It was definitely love at first sight.

This place is so awesome. Just beautiful. The dialect here has been a slap in the face, but I'm getting used to it. I love being by the coast again and seeing so much ocean, plus there are some awesome mountains surrounding it, plus the ward is just amazing. There are about 150 in church each week, and they pretty much all stem from like 2 or 3 different families. There are so many "Brother and Sister Steffensen"s in the ward!!! They are so amazing though.  I just really do love it here, and I hope I stay for a long time:)I love serving with Elder Duncan! Its a blast. 

The day after I got here, we had a zone leader training meeting, and it was all about baptism. So we split up everyone into groups and gave them an investigator who they could take through the teaching process all the way to baptism. (pictures of the investigators)

May not make a lot of sense, but it was a pretty good meeting. The spirit was strong! 

 

By the way I sent a package home! Probably won't get home til like mid January though.. Sorry about that haha but I hope you enjoy the stuff:) 

Love you all! Keep fighting the good fight!

Elder Nilsson

              Merry Christmas from Oslo Norway!

                My delicious thanksgiving plate:)

             Elder Duncan and I just at the Library..

Me and Sister Frampton, who was my "companion" in the mtc! She goes home in a few weeks, which is waaaay crazy!

 

 

December 8

When you're phone rings, and you see that the mission president is calling, you just never really can know what to expect..I found out that I won't be in Oslo for Christmas anymore, but that I'll be moving to Stavanger on Wednesday to serve with one of my best buddies Elder Duncan!! 

It's crazy and sad to just leave an area half way through a transfer like that, but I'm super excited:) I probably won't get a white Christmas though since Stavanger is on the West Coast, and I hear it just rains all the time.. But I'm still pumped nonetheless! They also have a way thick dialect there, so that will be an adventure as well. 

We've had a lot of ups, and a lot of downs the last few weeks, and it's been a straight up battle between the forces of good and evil! This time of year tends to be a little tough since everyone leaves or wants to take a break from meeting till after the new year, or just don't have any time. But I have mentioned the "He is the gift" video before, and that has been such a cool way to find people! It would be a lot more effective if we had ipads so that we could show people the video, but we just ask them if we can watch it on their tablet or smart phone since everyone always carries one or the other, and people always love it! 

I've got pictures to send, I just have to wait to get them from other missionaries since they were taken on their cameras!

Hope everyone is having a good Christmas season and I can't wait to talk to the fam in a couple of weeks! 

I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true and the Joseph Smith was and is a true prophet! The church is true!

Elder Nilsson

 

We miss you already Elder Nilsson

"What a wonderful son you have, and you would be so proud of him, as he serves as a missionary. We will really miss him."

(Elder & Sister Rasmussen)

 

December 1

It's always fun starting this emailing and just sitting back in the chair, taking a big breath and really trying to reflect on the past week as a whole. It's hard to remember everything! I feel like last Monday was like a year ago!! But at the same time, a year ago feels like last week.. Time is a messed up thing. Can't wait til we all just see time as God sees it, as weird as it probably is, hahaha.

The week went well! Since Christmas time is usually a tougher time when it comes to finding new investigators, that is our focus right now as a mission. And as a zone. And as a district. We set a goal in our district to find 12 new investigators. After some thought and prayer, I decided to have a district meeting about having faith to find. I thought that applied pretty well;) It was probably my favorite district meeting I've had. First of all it was the first time we had gotten together as a new district, and the Elders and Sisters in our district are such good missionaries! We have a good mix of really experienced missionaries and some really new missionaries, so it's fun:) 

In the district meeting we adopted a new district motto, "One more house!". And I asked everyone how many of them had heard a story about missionaries out in the cold, tracting and getting dominated, and they were just ready to go home when one of them says to their companion, "Let's do one more house" and then they do it and some miracles happens? And when I said that everyone just started laughing because we hear SO many stories like that!! And obviously it doesn't just apply to knocking doors, but the attitude of "one more house" can applied to every situation that we were in. I then asked how many of them have had an experience like that on their missions, where they took one extra step of faith, or several extra steps, and a miracle happened, and everyone raised their hands. Its NOT A COINCIDENCE!! 

It's the power and the reward of showing faith. Forgetting ourselves and leaving our doubt behind and following the spirits prompting of doing something more. Maybe it doesn't happen every single time. Maybe its not the Lord's will, but the amount of times that things do happen speaks for itself. So we were all pretty pumped after that. The cool part was everything that happened the rest of the week. That very day I heard stories from every single companionship in my district of some miracle that happened in finding as a result of an extra step they took. We ourselves had several awesome miracles that day as a result of just doing doing "one more house". And like I said, that kind of attitude doesn't just apply to finding new investigators, but to faith in general:) Try it!

I'm so grateful for this Gospel! No matter what kind of opposition it faces, God's work will go forward. It is His work. We can choose to put our faith and trust in Him and be a part of it and receive the incredible joy and blessings that He has promised us, or we can choose to sit on the sidelines and settle for less. We are children of God! He knows us and loves us and will give us the strength and support we need. We just need to trust Him. That is my invitation to you all! Think of something you can do in order to put more trust in our Heavenly Father. Blessing and happiness await you:) 

Hope everyone enjoys the holiday season! I know I will! Love you all. The Church is true.

Elder Nilsson

Here's a bunch of pictures from our Thanksgiving Feast!

November 24

Because of the 2014 Turkey Bowl here in Oslo which we organized, I don't have much time to write this email.. I know I know, I say that every week and I'm sorry they have been lame lately! Pics of the turkey bowl to come... Next week!! ;)

It's confirmed that I will be staying here in Oslo with my current companion Elder Christensen throughout the Holiday season:) I'm loving it! All the lights are going up around they city, they have a Christmas market outside on the main street, and they are putting an ice rink in! The only thing we need now is some snow:)

(the main street of Oslo leading up to the Kings palace)

This time of year tends to be a little tough since everyone is so busy with vacations and holiday celebrations and everyone is too busy to talk or wants to just wait until after the holiday.. But! For those of you who haven't heard, the Church is having a huge initiative called "He is the Gift",

                          http://t.co/fEkD87vbc7  which will help us to really center our holidays and focus on the greatest gift, our Savior Jesus Christ.We as missionaries have been asked to use this initiative every day in our work. If you haven't heard of it, they should be announcing it in a few days. It's going to be huge!

With that said, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I couldn't be more grateful to Heavenly Father for the opportunity to be a missionary in Norway. I'm so thankful for the Gospel that I get to focus on each and every day, and that I get to try and share with anyone that I can. And I'm grateful for my increasingly large family, who I miss a lot:) Have a good one! Love you!

Elder Nilsson

Had to sew up the pants. Taking lessons from the master, Sister Rasmusson!

           outdoor exercising equipment! Genious!

Nov 17

It's been an awesome week!

It's quite unbelievable that Thanksgiving is next week! A couple days ago during a stake choir rehearsal, I sat down next to a Norwegian member and then we just kind of looked at each other and were like,  "You look familiar!" After talking for a second I remembered that I helped this guy move one time when I was in Drammen! It felt so weird talking to him and saying "oh ya I helped you move about a year ago!". Doesn't feel like it's been that long. But I still have plenty of time!

We had an awesome stake conference this weekend! Elder Adler from the area 70 came, and he gave a very powerful message. I loved it because it was so straight forward, but so filled with love. He talked about the importance of finding joy in the Gospel. Not just finding joy, but showing it! He talked about how so many times he has walked into a stake conference or a sacrament meeting and everyone looks like they are like dying, and then people talk a lot just about their problems. But he encouraged everyone to find excitement! Come to church excited, and focus on the JOYS of living the Gospel. That's really what it's all about. He mentioned how the scriptures not one time mention the word "fun". Fun is the world's word, and is different than joy. Fun doesn't last. Joy is eternal if we follow the Gospel. You can find the word "Joy" several times in the scriptures! There is a difference! 

And it was fun to sing in the stake choir with Fredrik and Elin :)

In the middle of the week Fredrik took us out to dinner to some Italian Restaurant, which was way good, and then we went back to the institute center and watched the Testaments. It doesn't matter how many times I watch that movie, it gets me every time!

We had some awesome success out on the street this last week, and have being able to teach quite a few lessons to people who we have stopped! I love the feeling after walking away after a good lesson and meeting someone new who is awesome:)

Happy Holiday seasons everyone! Enjoy it! But always remember the reason for the season.

I have been absolutely terrible with taking pictures lately, so I apologize for that, but I'll work on it! 

Love you! I love Norway. I love Norwegian. The church is true.

Elder Nilsson

November 10

Hey mine venner,

We had a good week this week! There was a zone conference on Tuesday which was all focused on member work.  Zone conferences are always so inspiring, and they pump me up so much! We were so blessed in our finding this week. In the matter of about 2 hours of street contacting, we taught like 6 lessons on the street, all of which we got contact information from! 

It's pretty decided that I will be staying in Oslo for at least another transfer, which I'm totally ok with! We are getting 2 extra missionaries in our district, so now their will be 10 total! 

Sorry this one is pretty lame. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures this week either.. But just be patient! I'll probably have some next week:)

Love you all!

Elder Nilsson

Nov 3

It has been a fun p day today, hence the shortness of this email... I got to play tennis again today!

A member set us up with her second cousin's husband who reserved a court for us and we played with him! He was dang good. And he is about 70 years old. He gave me a good work out. I'm not going to tell you if I beat him or not..  ;)

We were able to pick up a couple of really great new investigators this week! Rune, who is an older Norwegian man who has a really good friend who is a member of the RLDS church, and Rune just has a ton of questions and is pretty open. And then Emmanuel, who is from Congo, really liked the Restoration and is going to read and pray. 

I think it's safe to say that I have the cutest little nieces in the entire world. Thanks for all the pictures!

I'll try and send a few pictures but I just don't know if I have enough time! We are about to go tracting in a few minutes, so pray for us!

Love you all. Kos deg!Elder Nilsson

the oslo opera house

Me and Elder Christensen with Oslo in the background

I Love To See The Temple

Hello my family and friends!

Before you start getting excited for me, no, I did not get to go to the temple or anything... But! It's been a huge focus of our work lately!        

                                                           Stockholm Sweden Temple

As with most weeks, there were definitely some rougher times, and there were some great highlights. We didn't have a lot of teaching this week, and we didn't have much success finding new investigators, but let's focus of the bright spots, and the good things that did happen.

We met with Fredrik a few times and he now has a baptismal date for December 3rd! Always a pleasure to meet with that guy. I hesitate to say "teach" with him since he knew everything about everything before we even starting meeting with him haha And we talked a lot about temples and family history!

We also met with Elin and have been talking a lot with her about temples and family history, and both are preparing well to go to the temple soon and do temple work for their family.  And seeing that both and Elin and Fredrik will probably both read this blog, you guys are the best! You're going to love the temple so just keep working on your My Family Booklets! :)

Anyways, it's been awesome to be able to focus so much on the temple these last few weeks, since that really is the next essential step in coming back to our Heavenly Father. I miss the temple so bad and will be going as soon as I get home!

If you feel like it's been a while since you've been to the temple, I'd encourage you to do everything you can to make it there as soon as possible. Nothing but blessings await you:)

Well, at the beginning of the year, our mission goal for baptisms in Norway was 157. That goal was a sum of all of the individual goals of the wards and branches. So far, we're at about 60, and our new goal is 80 by the end of the year! It would still be a great accomplishment and a step up from last year.

When Elder Bednar was here he talked to us about how the church wouldn't always grow because of ginormous outpourings of baptisms or huge miracles; but then he said that if we could see things from his perspective, (meaning visiting a country maybe every 5-10 years for example), the changes and growth are substantial, and it's hard to see when we are living it. If that makes sense. The church is totally growing though:)

There was a ward talent show on Saturday, and of course, they asked the missionaries do something. And of course, we ended up doing a rap. And who threw down the beat? Yours truly. I did the same classic beat that I have been doing for the last 40 years   (like this time in highschool ...)

because it's the only thing I can do, but nobody else new that haha. I'll probably try out for vocal point...

I had a pretty cool contact with a guy on the t-bane (subway). I was sitting across from this big African dude, and just asked him where he was from, and in the deepest, richest, "throooow the heaaat" kind of voice he says "Ghana".

The guy was pretty intense, and I wasn't quite sure what I had just gotten myself into. Normally the Africans just start smiling and talking with you, but we was just straight faced, one word answers. So I just continued to ask him some questions about himself and about his faith and told him who I was, and ended up getting to tell him all about Joseph Smith. During that part, he was just staring me down right in the eye balls with a way intense face, so I had no idea what he was thinking about the whole thing. He seemed to feel the spirit though, (cause I thought it was totally possible that something like that could happen), and when we brought up the Book of Mormon he was totally interested in getting one! So we are meeting with him this Friday. I'm looking forward to it! His name is Dezmond.

Well that's the low down for this week! Love you all. The church is true. Norway is great. Norwegian is beautiful. And Johnny Harline is still open. (that one is for my brothers).

Elder Nilsson

October 20

Lots of good stuff this week!

On Wednesday we had transfers, so I went and picked up my new companion Elder Christensen from the mission office and then we headed back to Oslo! His first day included exactly what mine did.. Ward council meeting. hahaha I remember feeling SO overwhelmed and a little discouraged after walking out of ward council meeting on my first day, so I felt a little bad for my companion. But it was kind of cool for me to think about how far I have come and that I'm at this point now where I'm fully participating and understanding the meeting, especially in a ward like Oslo:) Felt good! 

What I didn't get to do on my first night that my companion did though, was attend a baptism! It was for one of the sisters investigators and was an awesome service. There was probably about 60-70 people there! A couple months ago there was a baptism in Oslo and there were about 10 people there, most of whom were missionaries. So that's some improvement from the ward. 

I know I have mentioned before how most of my companions have been really different from me in personality and things like that, and this case is no different haha I think it's fun though:) Elder Christensen is from Nampa, Idaho and was pretty involved in debate. He did play a little tennis though so that was cool! Training is always an adventure:)

The work is progressing very well here. So many people are being prepared! We went on splits with the AP's last week and it was pretty dark and pouring rain, and Elder Jones, the AP quoted this, 

 

“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done” - by Joseph Smith 

 

and we both just got so pumped!! We came home just completely soaked, but it was a way fun night, and the spirit was so strong, and the Lord had worked some miracles. As a part of splits, we contacted a guy and ended up sitting down with him and teaching him on a bench. Turns out this Norwegian guy had met missionaries like 4 years ago and has had a really rough time since. He started telling us about how he remembered the story of Alma, and how he felt so much pain and anguish because of his mistakes, and that he was feeling the same way. Well, he now has a baptismal date in November! I won't take credit for any of this since it was Elder Jones and Elder Christensen who found him, but who cares! The Lord is preparing people and He is leading them to the truth! Amazing! 

Here's some pics from our hike last week looking over Oslo Fjord:)

 

 

 

Oct 13

Dear loved ones,

This week was ridiculous. Straight up ridiculous! In a good way:)

I'm falling in love with Oslo. It has taking some time, but it's definitely happening. I think my favorite part is working so much with the YSA!

Here's a picture of us watching General Conference:)

The YSA are so great here. They help us with the language, they help us on teaches, they invite friends to activities, they fellowship investigators like their life depended on it, and it just makes things so much better! Plus our ward missionary leader is Brother Kerr, who is like, 25 years old, from Scotland and served his mission in Norway, and he is the MAN! The first half of this week we were kind of struggling to get appointments, but then on Wednesday, the cloud of miracles and blessings just starting pouring over our heads! We were able to set up a bunch of appointments with members, investigators, and less actives, and it turned out to be a pretty good week. But now to the good stuff..

On Thursday, there was a 20 yr old kid who just walked into the YSA center and wanted to talk with missionaries. We luckily walked in right at the same time. He said he met missionaries about a year ago just to learn a little bit more about the church, and now he is really ready to learn more. This guy is Norwegian by the way! So, long story short, he came to institute the next day, loved it, already knows a ton about the church. We taught him for the first time on Saturday morning, and he has already read a good chunk of the Book of Mormon, knows it's true, and is preparing to get baptized on November 15. And during our lesson, he talked about serving a mission already! Then he came to church. Loved it, and the YSA has already just taken him in and it's been beautiful to watch! He is probably the coolest kid I have ever met. I have never seen anyone so prepared by the Lord. Ever. His name is Fredrik. Stay tuned... :)

But wait.. There's more!! For the last couple of weeks my district has been planning a big street stand for this last Saturday, and it was LEGIT!! We got a spot on Karl Johans gate, which is like THE street in Oslo which leads right up to Kings palace, and there were tons of people! So we set up a table with a bunch of Book of Mormons from different languages on it and had a little language guessing game to get people interested so that we could start a conversation about the book. Plus we miraculously found this HUGE 12x12 foot Jesus Christ picture in our storage to put up to catch people's attention. We were out there for about 3 hours and ended up getting like 40 numbers and dished out a ton of pamphlets and information about the church! 40 numbers in one day in a city in Norway is pretty good by the way! So that was a huge success! The work is totally hastening! The past couple years in Oslo has been pretty rough when it comes to baptisms, especially baptisms of Norwegians. When Elin got baptized, it was the first Norwegian baptism in Oslo in over a year.. but right now we have about 4 or 5 Norwegian baptisms happening in the next few months! Plus a couple of other non Norwegian baptisms! It just gets me pumped:)

October is flying by and it's getting cold here! I can't wait for winter though:) Last year was a supposedly a pretty weak winter here in Norway so hopefully we will get a real Norwegian winter this year. Halloween is growing here, but it's still not nearly as big as in the states. And I'm pretty sure members are the only ones who celebrate Thanksgiving, and it's only because they make thanksgiving dinner for missionaries haha. 

And to answer a question, we don't really get that many referrals from the internet.. Every once in a while, but not too often. And no word on ipads yet! 

I'll get my new companion, Elder Christiansen on Wednesday. He's from Nampa! haha A lot of changes in the district this week, but we'll keep rolling forward:) The church is true!

Elder Nilsson

October 6

I think it's safe to say that the Church is true. And if you don't think so just go watch General Conference with a sincere heart and with some questions and you will experience some of the same feelings and emotions that the rest of us did. 

What an amazing Conference that was! We watched the first session live on Saturday night here, and then watched the rest of the sessions on Sunday here at the Institute center. We'd watch a session, eat some food, then watch another, then eat some food, and then we watched the last two sessions live at 6 pm here and 10 pm. I was pretty tired during the last session but I'll definitely be listening to it again in the near future:)

This week was pretty rough. My companion has been sick and hasn't been able to leave the apartment for much of the week, so we weren't able to teach or find much. So I don't have much to say about that, so I guess I'll just talk a little about conference:)

Man! One of my favorite talks was right off the get-go. The second talk by Elder Robbins about "Which way do we face?" It was so bold and much needed. It takes a lot of courage to really, truly stand up for what is right sometimes. I know, many times, if there is an opportunity to stand up for good it's always tempting to justify our way out. But we can't invert the first and second commandments! The first commandment is to love God. That is and always will be most important. We can't let ourselves rationalize and slide down and meet other's lower standards. We must do and stand up for what God wants us to do. Maybe people will take offense or think you are self-righteous or judgmental, but we need to be more worried about what God thinks. Fear God more than man!! I loved it:)

But at the same time, when it comes to council that we receive, we must always look inward first and ask ourselves, "Lord, is it I?" I think that was Uchtdorf's talk at Priesthood session. We must be casting the mote out of our own eye before we try and cast the mote out of others' eyes. (Whatever a mote is..... haha) Conference is the best. Can't believe I'll only be here for one more conference! That's insane!

The transfer ends next week, and I think I will be staying in Oslo for a few more months. I will be getting a new companion though! Straight from the MTC. Fresh off the plane. I'm looking forward to training again, it will be fun:) 

Here's some pictures I received from Veronika's baptism!!
 

 

To answer some of your questions mom..

Here in Oslo we use a TON of public transportation; Buses, Trams, trains, subway, and we can occasionally borrow the senior couples car if we need to. Or we just walk:) But we mostly use the trams. We live in a pretty big apartment building which is in the city. It's a 3 minute walk to our institute center. There are 8 missionaries here in Oslo, plus a senior couple! 

The weather is BEAUTIFUL right now! Just typical fall weather. The trees are all changing color and it's awesome. It's usually pretty cloudy and it's getting a lot colder. I'm looking forward to the snow though so I'm not complaining! 

As I mentioned before. The ward here has over 50 different nationalities in it, but not all of them speak Norwegian. We have Norwegian, English and Spanish classes, and sacrament meeting is translated into all three of those languages using headphone devices for those who need an English or Spanish translation:) It's intense!

I'm a District Leader. It just means that I have to prepare hour and a half long district meetings each week, also I'm the main contact between the ward and the missionaries. I just have to follow up with my district and make sure all of the companionships are doing well and try and set district goals that will help us:) Being District leader in Kristiansund was a lot easier haha.

I'll answer the rest next week!

I love you all so much. I know the church is true. God loves us no matter what!

Elder Nilsson

Oh! And remember the Norwegian foreign exchange student that I went to school with? She was in Oslo and came and watched a session of general conference with us! It was cool to be able to talk to her in Norwegian this time haha :)

 

Sept 29

Hey hey!

Well it was a great weekend! Two investigators that I have worked with got baptized and confirmed, and they are both amazing! And they are both Norwegian:) It's so amazing to see how much the gospel is changing their lives. Keeping the commandments changes our lives! We are so much happier when we do. 

                                 Us and Elin!

 

Oslo life is stressful as the district leader, but I'm learning a lot still. A lot of important lessons. I love the gospel and I love the members here. They are so nice and supportive. It's especially fun because we get to interact with so many of the young single adults since we are around the Young Single Adult center so much. That is where we teach most of our investigators. 

I gave a talk in church this week! My first time speaking in a ward on my mission. Luckily I got a lot of practice giving talks in Kristiansund, even though there were about 200 less people there haha. I just talked about service and love, and challenged everyone to have missionary questions in their minds going while watching general conference! It's good to take notes of what the speakers say, but infinitely times better when we take notes of what the Holy Ghost tells us to do while we are listening to them. If you don't believe me, ask Elder Bednar. He'll leave no doubt in your mind! I'm so excited for conference! The crazy thing for me is that I was in Oslo last time I watched general conference, and six months later I'm here again!

This is all I have time for right now, but I will answer some of your questions in the near future mom! I'm doing great though. Love you all so much!

Elder Nilsson

I love phillipinos. They are SO. NICE.

 

I love when members stop and talk to us:) This sister was SO nice! She even sent my mom this email and some pictures:

"Hello Marci, I am a member who was just visiting Oslo for only 2 days and I randomly came upon your son who, on a Saturday night when the world was engaged  in play, was engaged in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ! 

I was so impressed by your son that I knew I had to get your address and let you know what a great man you raised!  You can be at peace and know that McKay will always be caught doing what is right!  Enjoy these pictures and know that your son is making a huge difference in Norway---even for members who are just passing through!"