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