Hey everyone!
It was a successful first week here in Romerike! I'm already loving it here and looking forward to being here.
So I took a plane from Kristiansand to Oslo wednesday morning and then took a train from oslo to Lillestrøm. And when I got off the train we went straight to work. On Wednesday and thursday I was in a trio with Elders Gurr and Carver. They are just amazing people and it was a lot of fun. After dropping off my bags at home we drove straight to an investigators house. His name is -- and started investigating a month or two ago. He is an older Norwegian man who is struggling. He told us how he loves our visits and can feel the goodness and the spirit but when we leave he can't manage to keep his commitments. He has a good heart so we are going to keep working with him and see how we can help him with his commitments :) Then we went straight from his house to a recent Convert --. -- is amazing. Her story is incredible. After several coindences, miracles, she was led to the church and was baptized on the fourth of july this last summer. She went from an atheist preaching atheism to a member of the church. Her influence has seriously changed the heart of this ward and the members.
Thursday morning we went over to a members house to prep for a highschool presentation we were going to give. That is why Elder Gurr stayed the extra day in romerike before he was transfered. In the highschools here in Norway for one of their class options is a world religions class. And so one of the members here got us signed up at this highschool. The way the presentation is layed out is actually really cool. It starts off with a few basic facts and statistics of the church and then there is a video. The video is off a member interviewing random people on the main street in Oslo. Very similar to the beginning of Meet the mormons. She asks these people what they have heard of mormons and other questions. And so many of the basic misconceptions and other beliefs come out such as the word of wisdom and law of chastity. Then the presentation goes into the WHY. Why do 15 million members do the things we do. It is because of "Lykke" which means happiness. So then we explain the plan of salvation, including the restoration very short. and then it is opened for questions. The presentation went great! Good honest questions were asked. The member with us is also a really good presenter which helped. And so after that we dropped elder Gurr at the airport.
On Friday we had district meeting and then we had a lot of planning, shopping and cleaning we needed to do
On Saturday, we visited a member for lunch. He lives in the middle of nowhere in the woods haha which was awesome. Later in the day we went to a town to try back a potential. We knocked on his door and he was just about to have a party with a bunch of family and friends for dinner but he invited us in anyway. He is from Eritrea in Africa and invited us to try some aritreisk food! It was really different food. You eat with your hands. It was like a spongy pancake that you eat with meat purrees with spicy sauces. They were super nice and we were able talk to quite a bit of people. We got his phone number and he said we can come back again.
On Sunday, we had church and it was the primary program! The children did a great job and it was a special meeting. It was first time I've had official 3 hour church for over a year which was weird. The branches that I served in usually only went for 2 hours. And then in the evening we had a big open house at the church. We worked with the Oslo missionaries in planning it. It's focus was on new converts and their conversion stories and we hoped to get all the investigators and members there we could. It turned out to be a success. One of our investigators sofie marie brought 2 friends who are both now interested. The oslo missioanreis also invited several members from oslo and investigators.
The work here in Romerike is way different than my other areas. Because the area is so large and we have a big ward we do a lot of visiting. Lillestrøm does not have a big down town city so street contacting isn't very effective and so what we are encouraged to do is plan formers, less actives and members, and then just visit people throughout the week and then find on the way. so find while you are walking, taking trains and busses and so on and then tracting in the areas you visit that day. We share a car with sisters so we switch with them often.
I'm looking forward to being here. There comes a point in one's life where they must decide for themselves what they want in their lives starting with the basic question. Do they want to believe in God? That is what happen to me. Even though I grew up a member I still had to decide whether I wanted this in mylife and so I did what everyone must do. I searched. I started going to seminary to learn for myself, I started praying and reading the scriptures, I went to church searching. And sure enough I found the answers. I was surrounded by hundreds of people who had lived the miracle of the savior in their life. I had seen brothers and family go on missions and return changed. We can see the evidence of God's light in our daily lives and in the lives of those around us. I know it is true and real. God is real and I know that his light is real.
Have a good week. love you all :)
Elder Witt
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