Thanks for all your love and support! I sure appreciate it! Today has been super crazy and that is why I'm emailing later than usual. Arvid needed some help so he called us, and then the sister missionaries were moving to a different apartment and so we helped with that all day and then we needed to run to the mall so Elder Braunberger could buy a bag. It has been a great but busy day. The sun is out and I think it got to 20 degrees celcius! Didn't need coats today, wohoo!
This last week was awesome!! Because of the shortage of time I will give you some highlights!
On Tuesday, we flew to Oslo for the mission conference with Elder Kearon. Wow, that man is full of love! The conference was on wednesday. President and Sister Hill spoke to us and then Elder Kearon spoke to us. Elder Kearon began by expressing his love for missionaries and for us. His daughter had departed for the MTC in New zealand just 1 day before his meeting with us. His message started focusing on two points, "Don't worry, work hard" and Heavenly Father loves you. He helped us see our potential as missionaries and then gave us encouragement and direction on how to get there. He built off on what President and Sister Hill talked about, "Having a mighty change of heart". In Alma chapter 5 we read,
13 And behold, he preached the word unto your fathers,and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved.
14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
13 And behold, he preached the word unto your fathers,and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved.
14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
President Hill asked us the question, Do you have 1 foot on the dock and 1 foot on the boat? We need to be all in, 100% in, and then we will be successful and truly happy missionaries. I think this can apply to everyone. A mighty change of heart requires mighty action. It means continuing conversion. We must turn our backs to the adversary and face God and then proceed daily. When we make mistakes we shouldn't beat ourselves up. Often we can be too hard on ourselves. We need to have faith and keep aligning ourselves to God through repentence. Overall the conference was truly inspiring and a great boost spiritually and mentally.
We flew home on Thursday and met with Jolanda and Marshall! We taught the word of wisdom and it went really well! Elder Braunberger is a stud and shared a personal experience of how the word of wisdom has blessed his life. It was just what they needed to hear. They both commited and said they would live it. We gave Marshall a blessing after church to help him with smoking.
On Friday, we met with -- who is a new investigator we found! We have an appointment with him again for next week. We also met with -- and --. So they gave us different reasons for wanting to meet with us. -- said to strengthen each others faiths and -- said if the Book of Mormon is true then we need it in our lives. If it isn't true than you guys don't need it. There biggest thing is that they believe we are saved by faith alone. That is why they don't see a need for ordinances, the book of mormon, the restoration, etc. We will be touching on that next time.
On Saturday, we went to -- and did service and worked there. We took down some stairs and walls in this portable building so they could have some storage. It was a lot of fun. We were with --, the --, the sisters and -- and her husband.
Church was great on Sunday. -- and -- came. There were also several members from the states who were vacationing. I was able to do some translating for them which was fun.
Anyway life is good. Thanks for all your love and support. Have a great week!
Ha det godt!
Eldste Witt
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