THINGS ARE GOING GREAT HERE! LOVING IT!

Hello again!

Yep, somehow another week has gone by here in Oslo!  It sounds like a
ton of stuff is happening there back at home, especially with the
olympics!  

This past week was definitely hectic with the zone leader trainings
and what not, but has turned out really good!  We had a great splits
out in Fredrikstad and had a great meeting there to! I really like the
place.  It is only like 1 hour away by train and happens to be a
pretty cool city.  Elder W spent 6 months there so he was way
happy to get to go back and visit.  All in all, it was an awesome
trip.

The meeting here in Oslo went well too. I got to see both Elder J
and Elder N, both my sons!  After moves they both got moved here
to the east, along with Elder S.  So it was like a big reunion.

Otherwise things have been super busy.  We have been calling people
left and right and getting a lot of our potentials to meet with us.
We taught a lot last week, which was pretty sweet!

It was C's birthday on Friday so we came and ate dinner here with
him here in the center.  Sister Rasmussen made some awesome chicken
alfredo, it was so good!  Her cooking might be making me gain a couple
pounds!  That is okay though cause Elder W and I have started to
run again.  The weather has been getting a lot better making it
possible to get out and run! The sun has been coming out more and more
too!

You asked about school and stuff like that.... I have no idea.  I am
not sure if I will transfer or if I will be staying at BYUi.  I know
that the application has opened up for transfers and stuff.  I just
haven't made up my mind yet.  

That is about it!  Things are going great here, loving it!

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones

Heia!

Sounds like things are going crazy there at home!  I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well and that things are going good for everyone!

But anyways, about my week.  It has been super crazy.  We had a lot to do on Monday and Tuesday with Elder B leaving and what not, so those days were a lot of meeting with people and just saying good byes and what not.  But that all came to an end pretty fast because we sent Elder B off on a Train to the airport at about 9 in hte morning and then Elder W arrived a couple minutes later.  So then Elder W and I spent all day babysitting other missionaries and getting them from the train station and then back to it and working with different missionaries around the zone as they came through.  So all in all, Wednesday was definitely a crazy day. I am not looking forward to the next moves day!  That picture was with a new convert and with a less active guy named.  They both had come to say goodbye to Elder B.

The rest of the week was kind of slow.  Elder W and I didn't have a lot set up so we had to do a lot of street contacting and knocking.  It was kind of draining.  We found a lot of people though!  I think by the end of the week we had something crazy like 20 or 25 potentials!  So that was a major blessing from the Lord seeing as not much is going on in our area right now.  We needed some new faces and a new start to get this area going.  That is kind of what the whole zone needed to!  Just a new start!  So it should be a great place to start from now and get stuff rolling!

We didn't see our investigators this week.  C was busy with school and went to Sweden for the weekend.  So we had to just wait and see what we can do later with him.  We did get a chance to visit a different church here in Oslo though.  It was another pentacostal church, like the one I visited in Trondheim.  It was pretty cool, nothing like ours, but none the less a good experience.  We went with guy named V, a guy we have taught once before that Elder W found in Drammen before a came and reffered here.  So yep, that was a ton of fun actually.  I just love getting to know the Norwegian people!  

We tried to knock during the beginning of the olympics and it didn't go to well, people were to busy watching and just sent us on our way.  I don't feel like it is to crazy though.  It is not something that comes up everyday.  But occasionally.  But ya, Norway is pretty much the champ of the winter sports.  The kids here learn to ski when they start to walk, everyone goes out and skis whenever they can, the buses and subways are packed with people that just go to the mountains every weekend to ski and board.  So yep, that makes total sense to me.  As to your other question though, yes, Norwegian people are beautiful.  Sister Webber was right, this place is full of beautiful people. It seems like everyone is just like that to... you definitely notice it.  

This next week we will have to travel to Fredrikstad.  We will have a Zone leader Training there.  That should be pretty fun, we have to do one here in Oslo first though. So those will kind of take up the middle of the week for us.  But other than that we have a lot of people to call and a lot of appointments to make!  So hopefully all goes well!

That is about it though, I can't think of to much of anything else for the moment!

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones

Mom talking: As an afterthought yesterday, in a separate email I asked Dallin if there were missionaries in Liljehammer, the site of the 1994 Olympics.  This was his reply:

Yep, I was just there actually on splits!  It is a pretty cool place.  It is a part of the Romerike area.

Heia!

Well things sound pretty crazy at home.  That was cool to get your email and to hear that the fast is working so fast!  You guys can always have the rain that we have here, there is way to much!

Things here have once again been super crazy!  We had a lot happen in the last week. 

On thursday we had MLC again, that was pretty nuts.  We found out that there would be two new zone leaders and that two of the zone leaders would be released.  So Elder B  (my ZL comp) and Elder L (from another zone) are both getting released now.  Elder B will be travelling to Bergen on Wednesday and I will be staying here.  As a part of the transfers I will have Elder W serving with me here in Oslo as ZL!  Elder W is actually an elder from Irvine, California!  So he is super close to home.  I was way pumped to hear his name, it should be fun getting to know him.  He was friends with Shane and all of the kids that went to Provo from before the mission.  So that was a big surprise.  Also as part of the transfers we will lose a couple other people in the district.  Sister P and Elder T will also be leaving.

But yep... that was probably the biggest news!  Other than that we had another big week here in Oslo.  Lots of teaches and lots of stress trying to get people to progress.  Not with much luck yet.  We taught C a couple more times and we taught some other people to.  Finally C came to church though!  That was a big success.  Unfortunately he left right after the sacrament because he was hungry... so he went to the kitchen and ate his sack lunch while we had testimony meeting.  So it is kind of hard with him right now!  But I think that things will start to get easier because we got a man that speaks chinese here in the ward as well that will be able to teach him with us.  So he should understand a lot more here soon!

We just finished ice skating as our p-day today!  it was pretty fun, the weather finally cleared up and I saw the sun for the first time in about a month!  That was a really big blessing!  It has been a long month with a lot of work and a lot of things to do.  The sun not being there has made it seem forever longer!  It has been weird but it has literally snowed for the past month... so the sun was so welcome!

The sisters took pictures while we were skating so I will have to forward them to you!

Anyways, things are going well.  I am excited to be here in Oslo and get the chance to learn and grow!  I hope that this next transfer is just as successful as this one!

Jeg elsker deg så mye!

Eldste Jones

Heia!

Yep another week has somehow gone by.  Not quite sure how it works yet haha.  It sounds like things are going equally as fast there at home though, lots of stuff going on and what not!

It was another busy week with a lot of plans, but unfortunately we had a lot of plans fall through as well.  We got to teach both H and C this week.  H is doing really well.  We only got to visit with her for like 15 minutes because she was busy this week but she is still progressing!  She had read a ton in The Book of Mormon and understood so much.  She admitted that she didn't really know Jesus Christ as well as she could and that she really needed to find out who he really is.  So I think she is putting herself in a position where she can really move forward.  She also agreed to talking to her boyfriend and inviting him and the children to learn with us!  So both Elder B and I are way excited about that.  We are trying to organize a dinner with them this week that we can get to know everyone!

C was a bummer this week.  He was super busy with the first week of school and didn't have time to meet.  We invited him to a baptism on Saturday for a little boy in the ward and got to talk to him there though.  He had been talking to his friends and they had told him lots of crazy stuff and so he was really scared to meet with us again.  When we told him it was a baptism he asked of there would be a lot of blood... so I think he thought we were going to a sacrifice or something.  That was kind of awkward.  I guess that is what you get when you have no religious backround at all though. We are hopeful that we can continue working with him and that we can help him to start reading in the Book of Mormon.  Hopefully it all works out!

The other investigators haven't really come to far yet.  Oslo is really busy so it is hard to get people progressing because they do not have a lot of time to meet up.  So WE have meet with the majority of them like 1 or 2 times.  I can't say that we have moved to far with any of then yet.

Other than that we did a lot fo different things this week.  We were in Romerike on Friday on splits with the district leader, we got there the night before and slept there.  So that was pretty fun.  Elder Å is the district leader there and he is from Norway, so it was fun getting to work with him and get some extra norwegian practice in with him!  Elder B worked with his companion all day while I was wiht Elder Å.  We came back that night.  It was just a short 30 minute train ride from Oslo to get there!

I will be sure to tell the Rasmussens thank you for you!  They will be glad to hear it.  They had a really rough week this week with a big YSA activity here in Oslo.  WE had YSA from all over Europe come here for a weekend party, and the Rasmussens kind of were the people heading it.  It was way cool though, I got to see all the YSA from Trondheim and from Bergen and stuff.  So that was a nice treat. Nice to hear some of my dialect again to.  It is getting harder to hold my dialect now because I don't hear it everyday. But I think I can hold it pretty good, at least I hope!

Other than that though it was a lot of meetings with members and work like that.

We have another busy week ahead with a Mission leadership conference, a moves call for next week, and most likely more splits.  So I am trying to cram all of my time in that I can, and learn all I can from Elder B before he leaves.

Wish me luck! Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones

Disney movies and popcorn on a cold Norwegian P-day

I DIDN'T HAVE TO TRAVEL ANYWHERE FOR ANYTHING. I WAS HERE IN OSLO THE WHOLE WEEK... AND SUPER BUSY THE WHOLE TIME!

Yep somehow another week has gone by, and almost the whole month of January.  Next week we will be into february!  That is sweet that so many of the kids in the ward are playing Rugby, I miss that the most being out here on the mission, playing sports! Glad to hear that tay has been on a date, he should do some more of that haha!

This past week has probably been one of the busiest normal weeks of my mission.  I say normal because I didn't have to travel anywhere for anything.  So I was here in Oslo the whole time... and yet super busy the whole time!

I guess I could talk a little but about the people that we are teaching first though.  H is doing great!  We only met with her once this week (a teach that I missed because I was on splits with another missionary) and she seems to be doing absolutely great.  She had read the Book of Mormon and had talked to her family about us.  She seems super open and is accepting everything that we teach her.  President was on the teach with Elder B again and he loved it to!  He seems to be really excited to be teaching her!  So I am just super stoked about how she is making progression and how much she is learning.

Other than that we found this man from Taiwan this week.  His name is Charlie (that is not his real name, he just says that is his name so that people don't butcher his real name).  He came into the institute center the other night wanting to learn norwegian and we introduced him to the gospel (The institute center was that place in the photos from the rasmussens, It actually is a young single adult center too, so people are there all the time.  We teach people there all the time).  He loved being there because the other young single adults talked to him and became his friends.  He feels really lonely here and just wants to have people around him.  So we taught him a lot this week and he has been in the institute center alot to.  He has begun to really progress to and has even began to pray with us.  I really think he will be baptized soon!

Other than that this week has been really busy visiting members and talking to people.  We actually found 6 new investigators this past week, which has been the best I have had since my first week in Narvik!  So I know this place has so much potential and can just explode with success.

I did forget one thing though.  We had zone leader training this week.  It was centered on Miracles.  So to start out Elder B and I built an obstacle course of chairs and tables and such and made Elder N crawl through it.  Then I got to talk about miracles and how we qualify ourselves for them and how we need them to get around the obstacles in missionary work.  It was pretty cool though to get to talk to the zone and get to know so many new missionaries.  I was happy to see some old faces like Elder M, Elder N, and Elder S though.  President and Sister Evans where there as well.

All in all I am doing great!  I love being here and the new challenges that this brings.  I am happy to be learning and growing so much!  I really feel accomplished at the end of each day and am learning how to become a new person.  So life really is sweet here!

Anyways, i think I am going to go sledding now with all of our snow that we got!

So I hope you have a great week!

Jeg elsker deg! 

Eldste Jones

Hello!

Well, somehow my first week here in Oslo has flow by.  It has been incredible how busy we are here! 

I guess it is kind of hard to describe the change in pace from Trondheim here to Oslo but I will try to do it.  So in Trondheim there is not as many members as there are in Oslo, so you are forced to find a lot of the time by yourself.  Here in Oslo we get a ton of help from members and have a ton of stuff to do all the time.  So when I say that we don't have as much time to proselyte I mean we don't have as much time to go out and find by knocking on doors or by contacting on the streets.  It seemed like when I was in Trondheim I had at least 3 or 4 hours of that each day, here we maybe have 1.  So ya, I hope that makes a little more sense, but I will try and describe the week here though!

We visited like 10 members through out the week.  Some of them we had to take boats out to and others trains, and others just the subway or lightrail in the city.  So I have started using a lot more modes of transportation.  I really enjoyed taking the ferry though, it was way nice to see the fjord and actually see the city I am working in from a distance.  The ferry ride wasn't to long though, just like 20 minutes, so it was short lived.

One of the days we had president with us a good portion of the day. Elder B and president had a meeting with Elder C our district leader.  Elder B had been serving as district leader and zone leader for about 6 months and now he is passing off the district leader role to Elder C.  So they had a nice chat while I got to take language study with Elder T.  Then I got to go contacting with President for about an hour.  That was an interesting experience, it was the first time I got to work with President in the field.  It was actually pretty great though and I learned a lot.  Then President, Elder B and myself drove out to an appointment we had.  It was with a woman named H, she is a middle aged Mother to 3 children.  We found her knocking last week so it was our first appointment with her.  It turned out to be a really great teach.  At the end when we invited here to pray she started crying and was very thankful that we had taken time to come talk to her.  We have another appointment with her tomorrow.  So I am excited to hear what she thinks about the whole experience and lesson.

Other than that we had one other crazy experience for the week.  We were asleep on thursday night and it was about oclock in the morning.  The phone starts going off and it was President again.  He tells us that the institute director for Norway was locked into the Institute center with no way out, we were to go and let him out. So we had to get up and get dressed and walk over to the institute center to get him.  We got there and let him out and everything was great.  Waking up the next day wasn't that exciting though.  Needless to say, I was a little tired.

It has been super good to be serving here with Elder B.  I feel like I am learning a ton more than I ever have before. So i guess I have become a much better planner already and I am learning alot more about working with the ward.  The next three weeks will go pretty fast before Elder B gets moved.  

I am glad to hear that everyone thinks Norway is great, I would be the first to say that it is the most beautiful country in the whole world.  So everyone should make a trip out here sometime!  I would totally come back for it.  I can't ever imagine leaving though.  I have started to dream of coming home at night though... those are pretty wierd.  Luckily I have only had like one or two of those dreams though, so I am not thinking about it to much!

Really though things are going really well.  I love my area, and I love being on a mission.  I have learned so much and I hope to keep growing.  I still have a long ways to go!

Jeg elsker deg så mye!

Eldste Jones

Hello there!

Well it is super wierd that I am email here from Oslo.  It has been just a crazy week.  Sounds like it was just as crazy up there with taylor and riley leaving and what not!

I guess I can talk about trondheim first though.  I had my last week there.  I got lots of stuff done, visited with M and S (his two baptizees there) and had my last goodbyes with them. They are both doing so well, I am so proud of them and what they are doing.  It makes me so happy to see that they really are living the gospel of jesus christ, and receiving blessings because of it.  It is wierd though, S just got accepted in Military Officier training so he is leaving in two weeks.  He will be travelling up to the far north of Norway where there is no congregration, so I think the only contact he will have with the Church is through skype.  I really hope that he can stay strong and do what is right.  He bore powerful testimony the last time I saw him so I have faith!  M is doing good to, he is staying in Trondheim and has plenty of friends in the ward, so I think he is going to continue to grow!

For New Years we went to the M's house and hung out there the whole night.  It was super awesome, we played games like stratego, charades, the new wedd game and others.  Finally when it was the new year we sent off fireworks with the rest of Norway.  When I say the rest of Norway I mean literally every house in Norway.  The sky was just fill with light, I don't think I have ever seen anything like it, or ever will really. It blows even the forth of july out of the water.  So that was a memory that I will not soon forget!

After that we just kind of worked and tried to get as many things locked down before I left.  We even had some lessons with Elder J's new companion there before I left on Friday.  So I am stoked for the Trondheim and I know that it will be in Good hands!

Finally I got here to Oslo. I didn't have any time on Friday when I got here, I kind of just went through weekly planning with Elder B that night and collapsed into bed after a day of Travel.  That day I arrived in Oslo where i was supposed to pick up a greeny and get him on the right train.  Elder C was somewhat late so we had to book it to catch the train.  We were literally running the last 50 meters with all of our luggage and where the last ones to get on the train.  That was an adventure. But we made to our destination safely so all was well.

The weekend here in Oslo was pretty good.  We had a Juletre (Christmas Tree) party on Saturday that was awesome. All the missionaries sang songs for everyone and we all danced around the tree together.   It was a ton of fun.  We also had a ton of good food. I think that food will be something that I get plenty of here in this city haha. 

Finally I had church sunday.  It was kind of an interesting experience.  I have learned that I was successful with learning my dialect, because everyone got a kick out of my language.  When I introduced myself in priesthood everyone was laughing and the same in Sacrament meeting.  The bishop was even cracking up on the stand.  I was told that it was convincing enough that I sounded Norwegian but it was just funny because no missionary ever learns dialect like I have.  So I think it will be an advantage to me, everyone will want to hear the missionary with the wierd language haha!

So ya, Oslo should be pretty great, it will be a lot different than anything else that I have experienced.  This place is huge!  There is a opportunity to have so much to do that we might not have to proselyte. So I think it will be a great time to learn and a great time to help out the ward.  I have to learn more though before Elder B leaves, because he will only be here for about 4 more weeks.  This transfer is really short to get us back on schedule.  Elder B is my companion and he is also the other zone leader.  We are back to Normal here in the east zone, one zone leader companionship and then a district leader in another companionship.

My address is
Pilestredet park 19 #501, 0176 Oslo

My apartment is alot like my apartment in Bergen, small, one room with everything in it. I like it though, it should be nice.  The zone covers not to much space, I won't have to take planes will I am serving as zone leader here in the east.  I will take trains everywhere.  I have about 20ish missionaries in the zone, so it is about the same size as the North.  But ya, I am way excited to be here, I think it is going to explode!

So yep.  I think that is about it.  I hope that things are going well there and that you are having a great new year!

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones