Wow I am loving it here it Norway and I love being a missionary!
So my companion is Eldste Nelson. He is from Vancouver, Washington. That is Paul's mission! He has one sister at Utah state. He has only been out for almost 6 months and fredrikstad is his second area. His first area was arendal. It's a small city on the southern coast, which is the city that is in Frozen. He is way chill and really nice and He likes to work hard. We get along great and I'm glad he is my companion.
President Hill sent Elder Nelson and I to Fredrikstad to open up a new area because The fredrikstad area has had so much success recently. We are with two other elders, Elder Tennant, who is also a new elder, one transfer before me, and Elder Phipps, who is our district leader. He has been out for a year. Our apartment we are in is really tight because it was meant for just 2 elders but it is great. It's way fun having four elders together.
Fredrikstad is in south east Norway and is the closest area, in the mission, to Sweden. Because there is a family in our ward boundaries from Sweden we have permission to travel to Sweden.So hopefully I will be able to go there sometime! We live really close to the city here and next to a big river. Fredrikstad is also the flattest area so not really any mountains but the landscape is still beautiful. It rains all the time here! my first two days here were nonstop rain. All the plants and grass are so green. There are hills after hills of thick forest and farms outside the city. Very gourgous.
The ward here is amazing. The people are so nice. My first day here my companion and I went to young mens and played soccer with the youngmen. They are some great youngmen and I hope we can get to know them better. My second day here we had dinner with the landlord for our apartment\house. They are members. We had pizza, icecream, and soft. Soft is this drink that everyone has here. It is basically flavored water so comparable to really good kool-aid. The icecream here is amazing too. They are an older couple and the Man is convert to the Church.
So when it comes to Norwegian it feels like the movie the best two years haha. Is this the language they taught me at the MTC?? It is hard understanding people because they speak so fast and well but that is okay! I know it takes time to become more used to the language. and when I think about how i've only been learning it for 7 weeks it encourages me. When talking to people in the city and telling them ive only been here for a couple days they would be shocked. So that is encouraging. We just have to be patient and trust in the Lord.
Anyway, so because we are starting fresh and opening up this new area we have done a lot of contacting in the city. We tried calling a lot of old investigators in the Area book no one is interested so we are going to focus on the less-actives, members and finding new people. We contacted Wednesday and Thursday with very little success so we decided to fast on Friday. a Fast to find. We fasted Friday and Friday things were much better. More people were interested and talkative. Sunday was the best though. Church was at 11 until 2. I didn't understand much but the spirit was the same and it felt like home. It was a good feeling. I played the piano in Priesthood :) We also taught Sunday school to the 14-18 year olds. In Sacrament meeting all the new missionaries bore their testimonies. It was great. I was able to go up and say what I wanted to say in Norwegian. After sacrament meeting Our bishop had a big dinner at the church because he blessed his new baby. A lot of the ward is Phillipino so we had some good food.
After the ward dinner, my companion and I were trying to decide what to do. We had a couple of hours of proselyting time left. We hadn't done our language study yet but we wanted to go out and talk to people in the City. We decided it would be better if we went out and worked. We went out and it was amazing. In just one hour, we taught two lessons to two different people. It was a blessing and miracle. We met two women from Ukraine who are studying in Oslo and they just happened to be in Fredrikstad. We taught about the book of mormon because they are taking bible study classes and after we bore our testimonies they were interested. We got their number and gave it to the elders in Oslo. I hope they begin meeting with the elders in Oslo. The next lady we met was way excited to meet the mormon missionaries because she is also searching for the truth. Her name is Katherine I believe. She has been doing a lot of bible studying and believes in Christ but she doesn't like any of the churches. We taught her the book of mormon and restoration and as Elder Nelson taught the Joseph smith story the Spirit was powerful. We both felt it and I knew she did too. We got her number and we are hoping to meet with her this week. We felt so grateful that we went out and worked rather than stay in the Apartment for language study. I know the Lord put them in our path. We have been praying so much for people to teach and help. To find the people the lord has prepared for us.
I haven't had any true Norwegian food yet but hopefully soon. Today for pday we are going to bike to the ocean and have lunch on the rocks. I'll take some pictures. Life is good. I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live. Learn of them and rely on them.
This week I learned, That it is all about loving and serving others.The Norwegian people are so friendly and Kind and I can't wait to learn more of the culture, the language, and get to know the members better, Even though we were rejected so many times because people werent interested I just could't help but smile. Everyone has agency. We have the good news of the Gospel so let us love it and live it. Im grateful for the gospel and I love being a missionary.
Love you all!!
Have a great week!!
Eldste Witt
Elder Witt's House in Norway
Elder Witt in Fredrikstad, Norway!
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