Monday, June 17, 2013

June 3, 2013
Hey Family! It's been another good week! A lot happened.  Wednesday 21 new missionaries came to Oslo, they had their meeting with the President and they had some extra time so we took them out contacting in the rain.  There was sooo many missionaries! I can't believe how many people are here ready to contribute to the work. Everyone's so different, but for a year and a half we're all missionaries and it's kind of inspiring seeing them here fresh and all ready to go.  Sister Pace left me and went to Bergen and I got a new sister with me here in Oslo, Sister Pitts. I don't know how I feel about this training thing, but it's going good so far.  It's just a lot a lot of responsibility all the sudden.  I have a good companion though, she's excited and ready to go to work.  Really, really excited.  She reminds me of Lexi- no fear of talking to people at all.  
 
We had a lot a lot of appointments this week and got lots of new investigators, but none of them could come to church, and the one person that we did get to come to church just came for relief society and then left.  She feels the spirit when we teach her, she reads the Book of Mormon and eats it up, she absolutely loves it, but we just can't get her to come to church.  I just want them to come to church so bad! And I don't know why it's so hard to come!  And they're not going to progress if they can't come to church!  So it's kind of frustrating, but we just keep looking.  Hit the streets and ask Heavenly Father to help us find the ones that are ready. the ones that are going to accept it, that are going to go to church and keep coming.  So right now I guess I'm supposed to learn to be more patient.  It'll come, I've learned a lot the past 3 months, and the more I learn the more I realize that I have so much more to learn.  And this is the best place to learn it.  I love being a missionary :)

Today we went hiking and it was gorgeous.  It reminded me a lot of home, except a little bit greener :) We got so muddy.  There were parts where the path was covered in water and we just had to jump from rock to rock.  That's norway.  Water everywhere! It was good to spend the day outside, and out of the city.  We had a fun time! Norway is the best country in the world! Except the states :) Thanks for being the best family ever.  I love you all!

Jeg er glad i dere!
Søster Knapp   
 

June 10, 2013

Wednesday night we had an appointment cancel so we went out contacting.  We stopped a very nice woman and had a short discussion with her, but she wasn't very interested, and then suddenly this group of middle aged woman surrounds us and starts speaking super fast and excitedly and I couldn't figure out what was going on.  Then they saw our name tags and got even more excited and kept asking "Vil dere bli med!?" Then I noticed they were all wearing these cards that said "Jesuskvinner" (Jesus Women) and they finally calmed down enough for me to understand that they wanted us to come to their meeting.  I had to tell them no because we had another appointment, and so they gave me a Jesuskvinner magazine and each gave us a hug and then left to round up more people for their meeting.  We just stood their laughing for a few minutes before we could continue contacting.  Haha, it was the best. 

This week has been amazing! Full of miracles. The first one was tuesday morning, we taught a man, and it was my first time since training that we were teaching in norwegian, so i was a little bit nervous because I knew that I would have to understand everything and my companion couldn't really help me out.  But I did it, and it was amazing! I understood everything, and we had a great teach with him.  Were able to answer his questions, and the spirit was there.  The gift of tongues really helped out.  And since then speaking and understanding norwegian has been soo much better, it's definitely not easy, and sometimes I have a headache by the end of the day from trying to listen so hard, especially on sundays, but its coming.  It gets better everyday.  And I love speaking norwegian. 
 
This next one is even better.  The last half of the transfer we've been praying like crazy for a family.  We hardly ever teach families but felt like there was a familiy we needed to find.  So we prayed and tried to talk to as many families we could and nothing ever happened.  Last week we were contacting and there was one man that we had a short conversation with. His name was Jørgen.  I remember stopping him and he didn't seem super interested. He was pretty young, but I wanted to ask him if he had a family, and he did! One child and his wife is pregnant.  And you could tell how much he loved them.  But he was christian and was going to a church that he likes.  And wasn't even from Oslo- he just works here but lives in another town called Drammen.  But I told him we had missionaries there and asked if i could give them his number so they could bring his familiy a book of mormon.  And he said that would be okay.  So i got his number and called the elders in Drammen- not really thinking anything would happen. 
Then last night the elders in Drammen called to thank us for the referral.  They visited Jørgen's family and taught them last night. The wife cried the whole time.  They've been looking for the gospel.  They said it was an amazing teach.  We found them.  We found the family we've been praying for.  We're not teaching them, but that's okay because we just asked to find them:) And we did.  God really does answer prayers.  And He works miracles. 
 
It was a good week:)  Definitely not the easiest week of my mission.  I don't think it's going to get any easier... but it keeps getting better. 
MVH,
Søster Knapp 
 
June 17, 2013
 
We had an awesome week! It's kind of been a blur so i'm having a hard time thinking of what happened that I could tell you guys about. But my favorite part of the week came in the form of a text message from a potential investigator that we met almost 3 weeks ago.  Usually when we're contacting we just carry one Mormons Bok around and don't give it out. Our goal is to get appointments and tell them we'll give them a book when we meet with them. So we just had one book when we were talking with a young norwegian man named Andre. He didn't know if God existed and said he had tried to find out but had never prayed before.  So we had a short conversation about prayer and the Holy Ghost then tried to get an appointment. He was going to Germany for 2 weeks and told us to call him June 15th when he got back. So then we were about to say bye and walk away when I decided to give him my book.  I really wanted to give it to him in the moment, but then afterwards I regretted giving it away because we didn't have another one to use and who knows if he would even read it...  But then June 15th comes around and before I could call him he sent a text saying he enjoyed talking to us and felt bad because he had told us he would be back today but just found out that he will be on holiday for another month. But then he said: When I get back can i learn more? I've been reading the mormon bible and will be reading more! haha, best text ever! no one does that. another miracle. 

Jeg er glad i dere! 
Søster Knapp