Oslo Norway Mission, Called to Serve

Oslo Norway Mission, Called to Serve

Monday, November 7, 2016

October 31 - Arendal

Hey everyone! Happy Halloween! Hope you have a good week and get to eat lots of candy! Thanks for your love and support. 

Halloween has not always been a traditional holiday in Norway but over the years it has adopted it from the states. Every year more and more people celebrate halloween and it is not uncommon to see trick or treaters. Other good news is that the weather has been much better and the sun is finally out! We have been enjoying that. 

It was a slower week but a good one nonetheless. On Tuesday we were finally able to meet with --! She is so awesome. Several weeks ago she came to church. She told us that as she sat down in Relief society and sacrament meeting all of her stress, troubles and challenges just went away and she felt good the whole time. And she told us that she feels that as she meets with us to. definitely a tender mercy! We taught her the plan of Salvation. On Wednesday, -- needed some more help so we did some service for him. We watched the Hope of God's light. One of my favorite mormon messages. It teaches us several points. That God's light is real and can illuminate our lives but it takes an act of faith to immerse ourselves in His light. On Wednesday we also had dinner with -- and --, a less active couple were working with. On Thursday, we had district meeting. This week it was on guiding our investigators through the repentance process by giving commitments. As missionaries our call is to teach repentance and baptize converts. Repentance is change. The word repentance in Norwegian is Omvendelse which literally means to turn around. When we repent we make changes in our lives that turn us towards God. It is a blessing. So by giving commitments we invite people to make changes to help them repent. After district meeting we tried visiting a youth in the branch from the Phillipines. His family isn't active and he is the only young men in the branch so we're going to try to befriend him and see where it goes! He was super nice and let us right in. Then one of the greatest people I know invited us over to dinner. She is a member here and she lives the message of the gospel and is always a burst of energy and happiness and always there to lend a hand and serve. On Friday, we went early to the university to see if there would be people to talk to. In the past we usually go to the university in the afternoon and we noticed we started seeing the same people. Unfortunately I think the morning is a little to early because there wasn't anyone out and so instead we walked Grimstad to contact. Also on Friday, some members took us out to dinner which was super nice of them! The members are just so good! One beautiful thing about the gospel is that where ever you are in the world the church is the same. That night we took a bus to Kristiansand for splits! Saturday I was in Kristiansand on splits. We spent most of the time finding and actually were able to talk to a couple really nice people! Then we had dinner with some of the new convert members who are also the YSA in the ward and then we took a bus back to Arendal in the night to finish off splits. 

This upcoming Sunday is moves call so it will be interesting to see what will happen and who is moving. This week I read an article on LDS.org that really inspired me. It was titled "The Perfect Lie" The author shares several interesting and insights from her own life. The idea is that Satans lie is that "Me + More = Christlike". While Christ's truth is "Me + Christ = More" I think the key is that we put our confidence and trust in Christ. We are all imperfect and because of that we all can be better and we all have a lot of work to do. Christ takes broken things and people and makes them whole. We don't have to become something before we can be healed or before we can have Christ's help in our life. He will take us where we are now and transform us into something better. We just have to be willing to make sacrifices and put in work. I find it helpful to remember who we are and where we came from. We are glorious sons and daughters of almighty God. Him who knows all things. he knows what will make you happy and what will make your life meaningful. We can give ourselves to Christ by yielding to the enticings of the holy spirit and by being willing to sacrifice your will to his.   I'm so grateful to be here and to be having the experiences I'm having and learning that I'm learning. I know this work is true!!!

Have a good week. Love you all! 


Elder Witt 

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