Thanks for your love and support. It was a great week and I'm feeling much better. The 24/7 sun is officially gone. It is crazy to think that when I got to Tromsø everything was covered with 3 feet of snow and the northern lights were out at night and now we are beginning to lose the midnight sun. Time sure goes by fast! I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be serving in such a beautiful city with such amazing people. Transfer calls are this upcoming sunday and I will most likely be leaving Tromsø on the 18th of August.
For more exciting news, -- is getting baptized this Saturday! She wants me to baptize her so she wanted to move the date from the 20th of August to the 13th. We are really excited for her and her decision to follow Jesus Christ in her life. Unfortunately, Her husband -- didn't show up to our stop smoking lesson. He wants more time to think about it. It was sad to find that out but I'm confident things will work out for them.
On Tuesday, the Alta elders came for splits. As always it was way fun to be with them and gå skinke! We had district meeting all together and talked about the Book of Mormon. We went around in a circle and shared with each other our favorite verses. Elder Mitchell made a connection that all of our verses testified of Jesus Christ. They testified of his delivering power, his power to comfort, to lift, to change us, and strengthen us and I thought that was way cool! I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon. It is the keystone of our religion and evidence that the church of Jesus Christ as been restored. It testifies of our Savior and teaches us the plan of Happiness. It shows the path to having joy and peace in this life and in the life to come. After that we went contacting together. Elder Mitchell and I talked to this woman from Brazil. She told us that she just recently regained her faith from experiences she has been having. She gave us her Brazilian telephone number and name so we could give it to the missionaries in Brazil. She was way cool!
On Wednesday, The Alta elders flew home in the morning. After that we met with a man named Thomas. Thomas's story is a neat one. We met --- about 2 months ago while we were on splits with the Alta elders. Elder Beck and I contacted him. He is from Canada and a really friendly guy. He is also a super talker and will just go on about any subject, like politics, religion, and all the topics in the media today. He told us that he would be willing to meet but that he would just be pain to us and that we wouldn't be able to convince him of anything. He told us he was going out of town but we could call him in a month or two and we could meet. So a month goes by and we call him and he is super friendly. He tells us to call him in two weeks and that he would love to meet. So we call him in two weeks and have a long conversation on the phone. He tells us that he would love to learn more about the Mormons and would be interested in coming to church. We invite him and he says he will come but he doesn't show. That was the Sunday a week ago. Now while the Alta elders are on splits, guess who we meet again on the street, this time Elders Beck and Braunberger meet him. He apologized for how he was when we first met him two months ago and wanted to meet. So we invited him to the church and felt like we should watch meet the Mormons with him. We watch meet the Mormons and he really likes it. After that we talk about the plan of salvation. He pretty much taught us about the natural man or human nature and how we need to become better people and be more forgiving patient and loving. We testified that it is through Christ how we can do that. Anyways, it went really well and he wants to meet more and we got an appointment tomorrow with him. As he was leaving he told us an experience he had a long long time ago. He was driving and couldn't get his car to start. He did absolutely everything he could to get the car to start but it wouldn't so he said a prayer and the minute he finished his pray his car worked and started. He told us that he felt a little shame that he didn't after that moment commit his life to God.He told us that our meeting reminded him of that experience. It was sooooo cool!! The Holy Ghost is real.
We also on Wednesday met with --. We reviewed the baptismal interview questions and set the official baptismal date for August 13. She talked about how the gospel has helped her in her life. Before she started coming to church she said her life was going in a bunch of different directions but since coming to church everything seems to be falling in place and now she has one path in front of her. She also explained how her daughter came home from primary one day saying "Mom I know how to pray in Norwegian now!" It is truly a blessing to see the gospel bless the lives of other people.
On Thursday, we went to the police station so I could renew my visa. They have a bunch of paperwork you have to fill out and appointments you have to make and everything went smoothly! After that we were out on the street and talked to this man for about an hour. He is a member of a protestant church and just asked us question after question about our beliefs. It was cool. Then we did some weekly planning.
On Friday, It was my year mark! It has been one of the most happy, challenging, and growing years of my life and I'm so grateful for it. We had another interesting experience while we were out on the street. A woman from France stopped us and said, hey are you Mormons? You guys know a lot about family history. Can you help me learn more about mine? We were like yes of course! Haha it's not very often that people approach us. We went to the library and began to set up and account on family search for her. Unfortunately, her phone doesn't work in Norway and we weren't able to get the code for her email to work so we could activate her account on family search, but we did fill out a referral with her on Mormon.org so that when she goes home to France the missionaries there can help her with family history work. Later in the day we visited -- , and taught -- again. Then we taught just -- with -- . -- was out of town. It was an intense lesson. -- really wants to know if the Book of Mormon is true. She says either it's true and I need to change or it is false and I've got to get away from it. She now recognizes the need to find out which is really good. We'll see where it goes.
On Saturday, we met with -- and --. In the evening we taught --, he was our new investigator from last week. There is a big language barrier but we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and gave him a pamphlet in Arabic and he loved it. He asked us if he could take it him and read it. He is a good guy. While we were waiting for -- a Norwegian guy asked us why we were here in Tromsø and we told him we are missionaries. WE had a nice conversation and he gave us his number! Wow as I'm typing I'm realizing how many sweet miracles we experienced. It was a great week!
We had great church meetings on Sunday. I don't know if I told you but a recent return missionary from Sweden moved to Tromsø to work for the next 6 months. He now is one of the Sunday school teachers. He is awesome and is always willing to go on teaches with us. Testimony meeting was really powerful. A family from Bodø was visiting. -- came to church. Bianca her sister is out of town and so It was awesome to see -- coming on her own. We also visited with Alexander and Linda. Great Sabbath day!
Updates on -- . He is out of town still. We will call him today. Kurt is also out of town and comes back on Thursday or Friday. Good things are happening in Tromsø!
I'm grateful for the Church. I'm grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ, whose grace is sufficient to help us, to heal us, and change us. His atonement makes it possible for us to return to Heavenly Father. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all. I know the church is true!
Love,
Eldste Witt
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