July 20

It's been an exciting week! 

On Wednesday and Thursday I was able to do something that I've been looking forward to every day for the past year. Go back and visit Kristiansund! We went down there for splits. It was so amazing to be able to go back to that city and see so many of the people that I love so much. It was a great splits there. :) 

When we arrived in the Trondheim airport Thursday night, we met up with the assistants, Elder Duncan and Elder Parkinson, who were coming on splits with us. So it was a week full of splits! It was great. We had a movie night activity where we watched Meet the Mormons in the church. It was was a success! We had a lot of non-members there. Plus that movie is sick. 

Had another similar experience like last week. Sunday night; no new investigators; feeling kind of bummed. We were walking home, pretty exhausted, and ready to eat dinner at 8. But when we got to our door, we decided to just make one more short round around the block and try and find someone. Not many people were on the streets, but that didn't matter, because THE ONE was on the streets! 

We stopped a girl and started to talking to her about faith and the Book of Mormon. She said she had lost her faith, but that she hoped that she could find it again. She also said that she had a friend in the US who is Mormon and then told us that if she did find her Christian faith again that should would be a part of our church because of what she heard from her friend who was a member. Go friend!!

We ended up sitting on the bench and teaching her about the Book of Mormon while everyone on the street would walk by and just stare at us hahaha. It was one of the best "street" experiences I've had. It was amazing!

Once again, it was the the last moment. This time, the blessing didn't even happen during the 99 percent. It didn't even happen at the 100 percent! It required us to show some faith and go the extra 1 percent. I'm telling you. It has happened SO MANY TIMES! I'll never be able to deny that God's hand was in these instances and that He definitely reacts to the faith that we show. I don't think we can always expect things to happen immediately, but they do happen. So that was a pretty great experience.

This will be another good week! We are flying to Alta, the northern-most missionary area in the world! So on Thursday just know that I will be higher up north than any other missionary. :) Should be fun!

Hope everyone has a great week. I uploaded some pictures on dropbox, so vær så god! 

Stay sweet

Sincerely,

Elder Nilsson

 

July 13

Well another week down!

This week was another test of patience and a trial of our faith. Throughout the week we really focused on working diligently no matter the outcome and always trying to be praying along the way and following the spirit. To be honest, nothing really happened the whole week. It was really frustrating (haha) and come Sunday, we had no appointments of any kind after church, which gave us a huge block to go out and try and find at least one person.

It ended up being an amazing day! We found and talked to several people who were interested in meeting and learning more! So many times on my mission Heavenly Father has waited until the end, the last second, the final stretch before he blesses us with someone to teach or anything like that. SO MANY TIMES!

If we hadn't endured to the very end or we had just gone home and given up and found something else to do then we never would have received the blessings. It's hard sometimes though. But I guess that's just how God works sometimes. He just wants us to put that extra effort in and show that faith, and that can make all the difference. Sometimes we can finish something 99 percent and then call it good but don't get the blessings, but if we were to just hold out the last 1 percent, that's when it happens!

That's my experience at least. It's been good to think about that principle for me since I'm so close to the end. It's given me more motivation and strength to not let up. 

This week will be a good one! I'll be travelling back to Kristiansund for the first time since I left almost a year ago! 

I have a testimony that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. It's my own testimony and it seems to grow stronger every day. I'm very grateful for everything I have been learning as a missionary. It's been an enormous blessing!

Love,

Elder Nilsson

July 6

This was a week filled with the ups and downs and roller coaster rides of life.

Things have unfortunately seemed to slow down a bit because of summer. Members all go on vacation, investigators decide to take a break or they go on vacation, all Norwegians flee to their cabins and the streets die down a little bit. But sånn er det!! The work always goes on. God doesn't take summer vacations from helping us, so we can't take summer vacations when it comes to helping him and living worthily of his spirit!

On Thursday we flew down to Oslo for MLC with President Hill. It was a great meeting and it was awesome to get to know him better. I have no doubt that God has called him to lead this mission right now. I also love those meetings because I get to see so many of my old companions! Elder Duncan, Elder Allen, Elder Vause, Elder Skøien, and Elder Jones from my MTC group were all there. I love those guys so much! And everyone else.

The worst part about the whole ordeal was that we had to wake up at 3:30 that morning in order to catch our flight, and then our flight that night which was

originally scheduled to leave at 7:30 ended up getting delayed a few hours, and we didn't get home until about midnight, so we were pretty tired. I know it doesn't sound that bad for some people, but when you get into such a regular sleeping schedule of 10:30pm to 6:30 pm, and then go away from it, you get wrecked!

In addition to that one of the Elders in our apartment got super sick so we had to take shifts staying home with him; And just had a rough week of finding. But I'm grateful for the spirit which has helped keep our spirits up despite the opposition.

I know the church is true! I know it with all my heart. I cherish the experiences I've been able to have as a missionary in Norway and I look forward to having a few more before my time is up. I love this country, I love these people, and I love the gospel which has always given me so much hope and happiness in my life. I also love my family. I'm SO pumped to see everyone again and meet all my new family members as well!

Gud vær med deg til vi sees igjen!

Love,

Elder Nilsson

June 29

Transfers week went pretty well! I've got my new companion Elder Arnold and he is awesome. We get along well.

The day before transfers though we celebrated the longest day of the year! It's a holiday here and the tradition I guess is to have a bonfire and eat hot dogs and stuff.. So we did!

It was a ward activity and it was really fun.

The ward in Trondheim is great. A lot of really awesome members.

This will be an exciting week too! Our new mission president, President Hill, will be arriving on Wednesday and Elder Arnold and I will be flying down to Oslo for MLC, so I'm excited to meet him (again... he was our branch president in the MTC). 

Things are continuing to progress well with our investigators, and we have one who is making AMAZING strides in order to prepare for her baptism on August 1st. It's amazing to watch, really. Probably one of my favorite things about being a missionary. 

Just keep it real! I'm excited to see everyone in only a few weeks! 

The church is true.

Elder Nilsson

June 22

Summer has finally arrived in Trondheim! Despite the almost constant rain since I got here in May, the sun has come out and so have the short sleeve shirts. It's about time. :)

Summer time also offers some challenges here including having to deal with a lot of members and investigators going on vacation for the entire summer, but for the people that are still here it is great since they seem to have a lot more time. We have some really great things happening in our area!

This week I say goodbye to my good friend Elder Tate and welcome my new companion Elder Arnold from Maryland. He'll be my last companion as I finish up the last six weeks of my mission. This last transfer will be pretty exciting.

We get our new mission president, President Hill, next Wednesday, and Elder Arnold and I will be taking flights pretty regularly for Mission Leadership Council, splits, conferences, etc.. I should even be able to make my way back down to Kristiansund!! I miss that place, especially the people. So it should be a pretty fun transfer.

That's it for this week. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah for Israel!
Elder Nilsson

June 8

Hey peeps! 

Only two weeks left in the transfer. It's been cold and rainy since I've been here in Trondheim even though it's JUNE! Hopefully the sun will come out more often. Despite not seeing the sun very much, it's still light outside 24\7. It's that time of year. It's so weird waking up in the middle of the night because it always feels like you slept in way too long since there is so much light coming through the windows, but then you look at the clock and it's like 2 in the morning haha. I never get used to it either because when if I wake up in the middle of the night I'm so out of it to remember that I'm in Norway and that's just how it is, so it gets me every time.. haha Next month I'll probably go on splits all the way up in Alta and be able to see the midnight sun! That'll be cool.

Things are steadily improving here in our area. There are 8 missionaries total in Trondheim and the district is doing awesome. We should have 2 baptisms this next Saturday. We've got some cool new investigators that are at the beginning stages. One of my favorite people I've met here in Trondheim is Antonio who I mentioned last time. He is just the most down to earth guy ever. I'll try and get some pictures or something next week. 

With my companion going home in 2 weeks, me going home a few weeks later, registering for college classes and all that, it's hard not to think about how crazy the next couple of months will be. I'm just trying to take it one day at a time though. 

We had an awesome opportunity to get the broadcast of a Europe area combined stake conference with Elder Holland. He was in Scotland, but it was broadcast to about 55 different stakes in Scandinavian, UK, Ireland, etc.. It was powerful. Elder Holland took the last 50 minutes and went off about the Book of Mormon. That's really the best way I can describe it. He just went off. haha. If you want to catch a glimpse of what he said, then go watch his conference talk called "Safety for the Soul". 

Safety For the Soul

At one point he said something like "Joseph Smith or anyone else writing and making up the Book of Mormon would be an infinitely greater miracle than him translating it by the power of God." haha it's true. The Book of Mormon is true, and it's the keystone of our religion. I'm grateful that I've been able to increase my knowledge and testimony of the Book of Mormon so much these last two years. 

I love you all. God speed!

Elder Nilsson

June 1

God dagen alle sammen,

It's a rainy day up here in the north, but more rain means more green! Right? Things picked up this week and we were able to find some more people to teach, which is exactly what we needed. Since I came to Trondheim I've met this awesome guy named Antonio. His dad is a member, but he hasn't really heard much about the church. He is one of the nicest, most sincere guys I've ever met. And.. He LOVES ping pong!!! He's way into it, so we get to play occasionally and it's awesome.

Right now in our mission, we our doing our best to focus on Jesus Christ. Before my mission it would have been hard to believe that you could ever lose focus on Jesus Christ on a mission because all you do is talk about the Gospel. But just like at home where there are so many different things to think about such as family, friends, school, work, etc., it can be easy to get caught up in the different aspects of missionary work and lose focus on why we are actually doing what we are doing. He really is the reason. We all need to make sure that we take to remember Him always! Not just during sacrament meeting, but daily. 

That's our focus right now as missionaries because when we not only do the work, but remember the reason and purpose that we are even here, then we are more motivated to show faith and be true representatives and disciples. So remember Him! The Christ-like attribute activity in Chapter 6 in Preach my Gospel is a good place to start. :) 

That's about it for this week! Sorry I haven't taken many pictures lately. I'll try harder. But feel free to send pictures to me!

Much love,

Elder Nilsson