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!"

 

Sept 22

Week 2 in Oslo was a good one. 

Time feels like it is going a billion times faster here, though! It's hard to write this email cause I feels like everything in the recent past is just all jumbled up in to one big thing! We did have some awesome moments this week, though. 

Elin, our investigator here, passed her baptismal interview and is getting baptized on Saturday! Speaking of baptisms on Saturday.. Veronika from Kristiansund is also getting baptized on Saturday! It's going to be a glorious day.

Working in Oslo is way exciting! As I've mentioned the last time I was in the Oslo ward, it is very unique. There are about 750 members on the member list, 200 of which are active and come to church, with people from over 50 different countries.. All in one ward! There are a lot of less actives to work with, and a lot of potential! 

 

When we contact people, we like to go bench contacting. So we'll go to the closest public transportation spot and then split up and go sit by people sitting down and just start a conversation with them, and try and smoothly transition it into a lesson. I had never really contacted that way before, but it has worked pretty well!

Congrats again to Austin and Jessica! Dad mentioned to me that it's one more thing to add to my "changes-to-my-family-while-i-was-on-my-mission list", and that inspired me to actually make one haha There has been a lot! And keep in mind that it's only been one year!!!   

I'm really sorry, but I'm drawing blanks right now with what else I should write. So mom you can send me some more questions if you have any. That's helps me write better letters home:) I do have a few pictures for you though!

Love you! The church is true.
Elder Nilsson

Beautiful.

Sushi time! It was dece.

Getting rid of all of the sinful substances that Elin had in her possession! Aka burying her weapons of war aka repentence :)

Here's a great quote our mission president passed along to us:

Get on the Path: The Way to Perfection

(From an address by Bruce R. McConkie, "The Probationary Test of Mortality."
delivered at the University of Utah Jan. 10, 1982)

"We don't need to get a complex or get a feeling that you have to be perfect to be saved.You don't. There's only been one perfect person, and that's the Lord Jesus, but in order to be saved in the Kingdom of God and in order to pass the test of mortality,what you have to do is get on the straight and narrow path – thus charting a course leading to eternal life – and then, being on that path, pass out of this life in full fellowship. I'm not saying that you don't have to keep the commandments.I'm saying you don't have to be perfect to be saved. If you did, no one would be saved. The way it operates is this: You get on the path that's named the "straight and narrow." You do it by entering the gate of repentance and baptism. The straight and narrow path leads from the gate of repentance and baptism, a very great distance, to a reward that's called eternal life. If you're on that path and pressing forward, and you die, you'll never get off the path. There is no such thing as falling off the straight and narrow path in the life to come, and the reason is that this life is the time that is given to men to prepare for eternity. Now is the time and the day of your salvation, so if you're working zealously in this life – though you haven't fully overcome the world and you haven't done all you hoped you might do – you're still going to be saved. You don't have to do what Jacob said, "Go beyond the mark." You don't have to live a life that's truer than true. You don't have to have an excessive zeal that becomes fanatical and becomes unbalancing. What you have to do is stay in the mainstream of the Church and live as upright and decent people live in the Church – keeping the commandments, paying your tithing, serving in the organizations of the Church, loving the Lord, staying on the straight and narrow path. If you're on that path when death comes – because this is the time and the day appointed, this is the probationary estate – you'll never fall off from it, and, for all practical purposes, your calling and election is made sure."

Sept 15

It's been quite a big adjustment this week going from my humble small town of Kristiansund to the Big city (Big for Norway at least) life of Oslo. There's ups and downs to each of them, but overall I'm way excited to be here. There are just so many crazy things that happen in the city! 

For example last week, some bald Asian monk dude got a huge crowd around him, and was just doing random weird things, and people were just waiting for him to do something exciting, and then out of nowhere he was done, and just took a bow, and everyone was just like... Are you serious? It was ridiculously funny. haha 

But anyways... The work is good. Everyone is still way pumped after the Bednar conference, and church yesterday was pretty much a big follow up on that. Speaking of church.. It was 3 hours! 3 whole hours! Can you believe that?! I didn't know they did that anymore. But it was pretty good. I stayed awake the whole time:) And it was kind of nice not having to teach Sunday School or give a talk. It's been a while haha. 

We have one investigator named Elin who is preparing to get baptized on the 27th! She's way awesome. Things are still going well with Veronika and Kim Einar in Kristiansund too! 

Not much really to report this week. It's been fun to have member appointments and visiting less actives again, since it's been awhile since I've done any of that as well. But I sure do miss Kristiansund! By the way, my new companion is Elder Edwards from London. We get along pretty well! He came six weeks after me but is like 22 years old. Super outgoing and super thick English accent. haha it's lovely. 

I love you all so much! Keep fighting the good fight. The church is true!

Elder Nilsson

Pics with my mtc group a little over a year later!

These are talks that Elder Bednar asked us to study before he came, and is pretty much what we discussed with him. I encourage you to read and study them! They are amazing! One of my favorite quotes is in the "Ask in Faith" talk, second page, middle paragraph. Check it out. It's about missionary work:)
(Here it is:)

"We properly pray for the safety and success of the full-time missionaries throughout the world. And a common element in many of our prayers is a request that the missionaries will be led to individuals and families who are prepared to receive the message of the Restoration. But ultimately it is my responsibility and your responsibility to find people for the missionaries to teach. Missionaries are full-time teachers; you and I are full-time finders. And you and I as lifelong missionaries should not be praying for the full-time missionaries to do our work!"

"Seek Learning By Faith"

"Ask in Faith"
"Converted Unto the Lord"