May 19

Hip Hip Hurrah!!

The highlight for this week was May 17! The national holiday! Everyone dresses up in their traditional Norwegian stuff, and a lot of the men are in suits, and everybody just goes outside and celebrates the whole day!

We got to go to Oslo, and there was sooo many people...people upon people upon people! It was pretty fun.

After that we had a barbeque at the Mission home with about 40 other missionaries, and that was way awesome.

Hip hip hurrah! (Throughout the day random people would just well, "Hip hip" and then other random people would finish it off with a nice "hurrah". hahaha reminds me of when our family would do it) It was a fun day though!

We only had one lesson this week, and it was with a Muslim guy name Armeen. He is a pretty strong Muslim, but he was really nice, and actually said he would read the Book of Mormon and pray to his God about it, which is more than I have ever gotten from any other Muslim I have talked to. Other than that we have been doing a lot of knocking and contacting. We haven't had too much success.

I got to play basketball on Friday! We played with a new convert named Manny. He is About 20 and was baptized a few months ago. I'm not sure if I have mentioned him before, but he is awesome. He loves sports, but mostly American football and basketball, but pretty much played every sport known to man growing up. He is from Nigeria, but grew up in Norway his whole life. He is really solid, and is so excited about being a member! We met with him Friday night and talked to him about Temples, and he was loving it! It was so awesome, and he can't wait till he gets a chance to go the the temple. I love Manny:)

          Me, Manny, Elder Skoien, Elder Jensen, and Elder Jones!

We were also able to do a little service project and go pick up some trash around the tower in Tønsberg, and that was fun:) 

Me and Elder Skoien get a long really well, and it has been such a great experience training. I just keep learning and learning and I still have a lot to learn, but I love it! 

I don't have a lot of time, but one thing that has really stuck out to me is James chapter 2, "Faith without works is dead." We need to be Disciples of Jesus Christ, and we do that by following Him in every way possible. Christ is the only way to Salvation. I love the Savior, and I love this Church! It's the truth!

Until next time,

Elder Nilsson

                                  The king of Norway and his fam!

                Random little Norwegian girl. Too cute to not take a picture!

 Up at our service project at Slottsfjell! The branch president's wife took these
   pics:)

May 5

Hallo!!

 

Been a pretty crazy week. Wednesday was probably one of the most stressful crazy days of my life. It was moves day. haha I would hate being the AP's who have to figure out how to move around 100 missionaries all in one day using trains, planes, buses, cars, switching phones, making hand off with keys and all that. It was pretty crazy. I had to drive a TON. 

 

I first had to drive Elder Nelson down to Oslo to catch his train, then I went to the institute center to drop some stuff off, then to the mission office for a training meeting, then to the mission home to pick up my companion and eat lunch, and then drive back to Sandefjord, which takes about 2 hours. Driving in Oslo is probably my least favorite thing in the entire world. Their traffic rules and stuff are so confusing! Plus there are like 400 ways of public transportation going on around you. I thought I was going to die. I love Oslo, just hate driving there. haha. But I finally was able to pick up my new companion and make it back to Sandefjord!

My new companion is Elder Skoien, and he is from a tiny town in Alberta, Canada called Glenwood. He was born in Drammen, Norway, and luckily his parents spoke Norwegian with him growing up, so he is pretty fluent:) I was pretty happy about that:) We haven't had the most success number wise this last week, which is a little frustrating because of how hard we felt we worked. But sånn er det bare (that's just how it is sometimes). We have talked to a ton of cool people, and gotten a lot of potentials, but are just having the problem of getting in contact with them and setting up appointments. It feels like I'm serving in Poland with how many polish people we have talked to in the last 2 days haha. A lot. 

Training has been a good experience so far and it has helped me to really just focus on the fundamentals. Obedience, prayer, and hard work. I know prepared people are out here! So expect to hear about some baptisms soon! 

I'm way excited to talk to the fam next week! Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes.

       It definitely is a lot different on the mission.

     I forgot it was my birthday pretty much the whole
                    day haha :) But it was still good. 

I love you guys so much. I took a lot of pictures for you this week, so I hope you enjoy:) The church is true!

Elder Nilsson

              Remember what I said about the fish?? 

             I wasn't kidding. Welcome to Norway.

 

           Treating Elder Skoien to his first Kebab.

 

  My mini-eclair birthday cake:) thanks for the candles
  mom:)

 

 

 

There is a lot of history that has to do with whales here in Sandefjord. I'm not going to say it is whale hunting, because that might offend some people but... It's whale hunting. haha pretty cool statue though!

April 28

My First "Son"

God dag all sammen!! 

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad, and Happy Birthday later this week Austin! I love you!

It's been quite a week. This weekend I was able to visit my home town of Drammen!! Stake Conference was this week, and we were able to take the 3 hour drive down, and it was awesome! Along with the incredible scenery as we drove along the fjord, it was so awesome to be able to see so many people I got to meet while I served there. Especially the Jonas family! They were there and are still strong and active, and the oldest daughter, Misha is actually engaged to a member and will be getting married in the temple! It was awesome to see them again, and they are doing really really well:)

The whole stake conference was about Missionary work. Elder Herbertsen, who is an Area Seventy, was there and gave some awesome talks about members and missionaries working together. He gave a list of ten SIMPLE things that members can do to help missionaries.

10 Simple Things members can do to help the Missionaries:

 
1.       Learn the names of missionaries in your
          stake, ward or branch.
2.       Pray for those missionaries by name.
3.       Pray for missionary experiences.
4.       Feed the missionaries.
5.       At church, look for anyone you don’t know
          and talk to them.
6.       Invite the missionaries to teach you a
          “practice” lesson.
7.       Offer your home to fellowship
          investigators (invite them to your home
          after church for dinner, FHE, etc).
8.       Offer your home for the missionaries to
          bring people to teach lessons.
9.       Decide you will not be shy about sharing
          the gospel.
10.    Offer to provide rides for investigators and
          less actives.

There is something in that list that we can ALL do!! Pick one (or several) and do it!

Got another call from President Evans on Friday. This one surprised me as much as the one where he emergency transferred us! He told me that I will be training a new missionary! In Missionary language, this means that I will be a "father", and he will be my "son". There is also some missionary language that says that wherever your first area is, is where you were "born". So that means I was born in Drammen. My new companion? Ya, he was born in Drammen too. Except literally. haha He was born in Drammen, and is full Norwegian, but moved to Canada and has lived there is whole life! Not sure where in Canada, but I'll let you know Tanner. Cause you're Canadian too, aren't you?? 

I'm really excited to train, even though I feel like I was just barely being trained myself. But it's a great opportunity to learn and grow!

I will be staying in Sandefjord, and two elders will be moving in to Tønsberg, so I will mostly just be in Sandefjord except for church on Sundays. Should be an exciting week! 

We had a really good lesson with an guy named Erling this week! He is in his 60's probably and already knows a ton about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He is retired, but was a professor at a university and loves the history aspect of the Bible, and that is one reason why he is so interested in the Book of Mormon. He has a really strong Christian faith and said he has been thinking a lot about the meaning of life. So we talked to him about the Book of Mormon, watched the Restoration video, which he loved, and invited him to pray and read! He is super open and accepted both commitments! I'm really excited about him. He's traveling all month, but we will teach him again when he gets back:)

It's so great to hear from everyone! I love you all! The church is true.

Elder Nilsson

   The return.

 

 

 Road trip to Drammen! Me, Elder Nelson, Elder Burt,  
 and Elder Newey.

 

Our awesome home theater set up. It was some high quality stuff:)

 

  Fresh trout! Welcome to Norway. We eat a lot of fish
  and potatoes.. haha