Tønsberg, Norway - 18th Week in Norway

Hey Family!

I'm staying in Tønsberg and staying in a trio. Elder Orr, is leaving to Drammen and we are getting a new missionary Elder Johnson. I'm excited to stay in Tønsberg, because I have absolutely come to love Tønsberg, the members and all the people here.I see so much potential in the work here so  I'm optimistic that it will be a good transfer.

It only snowed a little this week but other than that it has just been really cold. It usually is around -10 to -15 degrees celcius. This morning the thermometer for our car said it was -25 degrees celcius, so really chilly haha. I've been able to stay warm though. I wear a ton of layers, and the boots have been really good!

This week was good! On Tuesday, We went street contacting and stopped by ---s to see how they are doing. They are getting ready to move into the City so it has been a little stressful. They weren't able to make it to church. We will visit them this week. The Branch President has been really good fellowshipping them and he told us at church he was going to visit them again later in the day. Later in the day we visited an older couple in the Branch. They are so full of faith. They are great people. We showed them the video, Called to Testify of all the current Apostles and the First President bearing testimony of Jesus Christ. It is a powerful video. After that we tried a house that said we could try again but unfortunately they weren't interested.

On Wednesday, we went to the Mission home for interviews with President Hill and then a zoneleader training meeting. It was really nice. President shows so much interest and love for the missionaries. As of late he has had a focus on Baptizing. It is something he wants us to focus more on as a mission, that we can baptize in Norway. In the ZLT we talked more about using family history and they intiatiated a plan to start using it. We also talked about prayer and knowing the truth through the Power of The Holy Ghost. One thing that stood out to me was improving our prayers. It is always something I can improve on and be better at. One thing is asking inspired questions. Often we can find ourselves going through the motions, but it is important to really ponder the things we want to say and ask before. Instead of saying, Help me to be a better missionary, ask, What is holding me back? What is something I can focus on to help me be better? What is something I can do TODAY to be better. Heavenly Father knows each of us personaly. He is all knowing, all powerful and all loving. He knows the path that will give us the most joy, growth and success in life. It is so important that we seek his love inspired correction and guidance. After ZLT I went on Splits down in Porsgrunn with Elder Bunnell. He is the District leader. We went to a members house for dinner and they gave us Lutefisk!! It is a old traditional Norwegian meal that has a reputation of being gross. It is fish that is soaked in lye. You can read more about it if you want. It wasn't very good haha. I'm glad I was able to try it though! After that we went to a Norwegian class that the sisters in Skien and Elders in Porsgrunn are teaching together. We are going to start a Norwegian class in Tønsberg this transfer. There are a lot of Immigrants coming to Norway and so a lot of people need to learn Norwegian. In the class, we start and close with a prayer, Teach Norwegian, and then end with a Mormon Message. It has had a lot of success. They got 3 investigators from it. I'm excited to get it going.

On Thursday, We went street contacting and visited an old man who is a member. Then we went to a dinner appointment with some members.  It was fun to be down in Porsgrunn for the day. The ward in Skien is strong.

On Friday, we visited --- and ---. They are doing so well!! They always feed us well and they are way cool. They also both came to church this week which was really good! After that we did some more street contacting and had dinner with the Fyhns.

On Saturday, we had a lesson with this guy named ---. We have taught him several times. He won't take a Book of Mormon because he doesn't like reading books. We'll see where it goes haha. He is a really nice guy.  After that we were invited to dinner with --- and her family. She is Norwegian and her brother is a member of the church and lives in America. She is the same person who invited us over for Thanksgiving and then to a brunch Christmas morning. She is a devoted catholic. She asks us questions about our church but she's not interested in changing her beliefs. They are really nice. They have a pet tarantula that they let us hold. It toook me a while to build up the courage to do it but I'm so glad I did. It was way cool!

On Sunday, we visited this man from Iceland. He is a member of the church and I actually found out about him from Elder Sam Adams. He is not on our member list but he is a member and has a friend in Denmark. Sam knew I was serving in Sandefjord and Sam knew this guys friend and so long story short, he told me about him and gave us his address so we could visit him. It was way cool. This man wants to refind his faith. We had a nice visit with him. He said we can stop by whenever and so it will be cool to work with him as he tries to find God in his life again. He is actually moving to Denmark in a month so we hopefullly we can help him. Then the --- invited us and the missionaries form Skien and Porsgrunn for a little birthday party. One of their daughters turned 3. We had a nice time together.

Also, This morning I took a practice driving test with the driving school. That went really well. I will take the actual driving test in February some time.

I hope you all had a great week!! I sure love all of you and am greatful for all of you. Your support and prayers help me so much. I know the church is true!!

love Elder Witt