I AM LEARNING A LOT. I LOVE PERSONAL STUDY.

Thanks so much! We usually walk and ride a tram thing called a bybanen.  We also take buses, I buy a card that works for all public transportation for a month.  The basement is basically one room that has a bunk bed, two desks, a couch, and cabinet with a stove and sink in it.  It is pretty nice, I really like it.    The family above us has 5 kids, 3 girls and 2 boys.  They are super musical and are always playing the piano or singing.  The mom is a professional singer, it is so amazing.  The father is a counseler in the stake presidency.  He is an absolutely amazing man, he came on a teach with us and was an absolute stud.  I love that family.  I will tell more about them later.  The prices seem about right, dirvers liscenses cost about 25000 kroner.  That is about 7 or 8 thousand dollars.  It can be pretty expensive depending what you get.  A whopper is like 50 or 60 kroner which is like 10 or 12 bucks.  The mission pays rent for us, they send the checks out.  

So some cool/funny stories.  

They fed us some of the best fish!  But when I walked in I saw the fish head on the cutting board and then they served the fish.  The fish still had all of the scales and bones on it.  They basically took out all of the guts and then boiled it.  It look super gross but was super good.  It was Cod, if you were wondering.

Then we also helped them move a piano.  I thought I was going to die like three times.  Carrying a standard upright piano across ice is not easy.  Then we had to go up the stairs in their house.  But their stairs were super narrow so only one person could fit on each end.  I ended up on the bottom.  The father was on the top end and eventually he got so tired that he couldn't lift it, so the mom had to climb up the banister to get to him to help pull.  Meanwhile I was stuck holding it on the bottom.  It doesn't sound so funny in the email, but it was awesome.  Loads of fun.

It is looking like we might have to move the baptism date, as he didn't come to Church on sunday.  We are still going to push for the 16th, but it will take a lot of work on his part.  We haven't been able to meet the Egyptian family again.  We actually have really been struggling to find new investigators.  Tons of potentials that we get, but it is tough to get them to an appointment.

That is all okay though, I am learning a lot.  I love personal study.

Anyways today has been really busy.  I have to go.  We climbed one of the seven mountains around bergen today, Fløyen.  It was absolutely beautiful!

Jeg elsker deg, and I am sorry the email was so short today!

Eldste jones

MISSIONARY WORK IS THE BEST!

Hei Sann!

So it sounds like things are very busy back home!  That is awesome!  Things are smooth there.  Taylor didn't email... so beat him up for me.  

Things have been going really well here!  The back pack is doing fine here, someone gave me his backpack cover so that waterproofs it for me.  Bergen is pretty much the best place in the whole mission. Everyone wants to come here and serve.  We have had a lot of rain and snow and sleet and what not though.  So I have been using the boots and the raincoat a lot.  Everything works great.  We get fed by members a lot here.  So that is pretty good too.

The first week was pretty interesting. Bergen has a very distinct dialect of Norway.  I am struggling a lot to understand the people that speak bergensk, but I can understand the missionaries much easier and those people that have the Oslo dialect.  I definitely get most of the missionary side of the conversation but not nearly as much as the Norwegian side.   That will just come in time.  That is all okay though.  I have definitely been blessed with some good language skills, so at least I can get something across to them even if I cannot understand what they say after so well. 

We taught about 4 or 5 lessons last week. We have one progressor with a baptismal date. He came to church yesterday, however he has a chronic sickness that causes him to be tired all of the time.  So he came for the first 2 hours and then left.  We have sacrament last... so he ended up missing sacrament.  But we were still happy he came.  

We focused a lot on finding new investigators because that is what we are hurting for here.  So that meant a lot of street contacting.  Street contacting is actually really fun... when you get people to stop.  Most of the time people here just kind of walk past and say <Nei takk (no thanks).>  But we get people that stop and then we can usually have a pretty good conversation with them.  We met a family from Egypt that we will be teaching this week that I am really excited about and a couple other people.  So good experiences there.

Today I had to go register in Norway and get my oppholdstillatelse, which is basically my permission to be in the Land.  So that was fun.  

We are going to go get my first kebab later today, a kebab is basically the missionary fast food here.  The first one in the land is always paid for by the trainer... so no complaints there.

It has been a really awesome week and I am so pumped to be a missionary.  I have been somewhat unsatisfied with my studies just because jetlag is hitting me still.  But I now know just how crucial Personal Study is in the Morning, it makes or breaks the rest of the day.     

The thing that I have been studying recently is faith. It is something that we can all understand better and continue to build.  It is very easy for someone to be complacent with their faith and not actively try to improve it.  So that is something that I would like to improve on so that I can have such faith that people cannot deny the truthfulness of my testimony.

I am so happy to be here though and serve the Lord. Missionary work is the best!

Din Sønn,

Eldste Jones

I AM SO PUMPED TO FINALLY BE HERE!

Hey there family!  

It is the first Monday here in the land.  I am writing from the Church here in Bergen.  It is about one here in Norway.

Things have been really awesome here.  We got here on Tuesday at about 8 o clock and went straight to the mission home.  We had a great dinner there and then went to bed.  On Wednesday we were allowed to sleep in and then we went and had an orientation in the mission home.  We then went and did some contacting in Oslo.  We went with the A.P.s. It was super fun and we talked to a lot of people.  Then we went and had a really nice dinner at the mission home and had an evening testimony meeting and interviews.  The next day we went to the airport and went to our areas!  

We arrived in Bergen at about 11:30 and then we went and got a bus pass and then we had a dinner appointment and some contacting.  We had weekly planning on Saturday too.

We did some more contacting the rest of the week and some door knocking.  The area is really interesting.  We have about 100 active members and then about 400 inactives.  We have one investigator right now, he has a baptismal date on February 16. Bergen has been pretty cool.  Apparently all of the elders and sisters want to come here so I guess I am pretty lucky!  It has been pretty easy on temperature here and yes it rains a lot from what I am told.  But since I have got here it has been snowing the whole time.  One of my comps from the MTC is serving in Bergen with me, one stayed in Oslo.  Both the coats work really well, so that is good as well. 

I am so pumped to finally be here!  It is really hard to understand the dailect here, but I think I am getting better at it.  I had to talk in Church and give my testimony på norsk, I thought it went pretty well.  A lot of the members said I spoke pretty well.

So things are looking good on that front.  

My companion is from the States.  He is a stud!  He played basketball, baseball, and football in high school.  He has been out on the mission for just over year now.  We are getting along really well and set some pretty good goals down.  I think this is going to be a really good transfer and I will learn a lot from him.  So that is awesome.

Both letters and packages go to our address. So here it is

Our address here in Bergen is 

Eldste Dallin Jones

Rieber-Mohns Vei 33

5231 Bergen

Norway

Other than that things are going great!  I am so happy to be serving the Lord and finally serving the people of Norway.  They really are awesome here.  Which reminds me, we are staying in the basement of a members home.  The Dad is a counselor  so he is usually traveling on Sundays but the family is awesome.  Our apartment is nice.  I can send pictures some time.

I vært fal, Jeg elsker deg. Vi snakkes.

Eldste Jones

SAFE ARRIVAL IN NORWAY

Elder Jones arrived safely (sans luggage).  We are delighted to have him.  He has a wonderful spirit about him.  He has been assigned to the beautiful city of Bergen on the west coast.

"There might be a time when missionary work will be more exciting, but I would have no idea when that time would be!" - President Holland

This past week has been really good, I have seen a lot of things taking off in the teaching experiences that we have had. I am really getting excited to leave and get out and teach people. So it is going really well. Also we got to hear from President Holland again!!!

He came for a Tuesday Night devotional and spoke to us, then he rededicated three of the buildings here on the MTC campus after renovation, One of which I am living in! It was funny his talk was much the same talk we heard him give at thanksgiving and mirrored the same subject that we have heard here in the MTC many times over. He focused on now is the time where this church and missionary work will find success. He said "There might be time where missionary work will be more exciting, but I would have no idea when that would be!" He shared how proud he was of us and talked about how great we are. To be a missionary during this amazing time of missionary work is simply astounding. Basically, somehow we worked ourselves into a line of people that all wanted to be missionaries at this day and in this year, and now we are here.

I am so excited for this work, I know that great things are in store for me. In another one of our devotionals it was said that we should have higher goals then our Mission Presidents and in Preach My Gospel it says that when we lower our expectations our effectiveness will decrease. I know that things will be really hard in Norway, I know the situation that I am going into, But I also know that I was not called to bring a few souls unto salvation. I was called to bring many souls to salvation. I cannot imagine that Christ would be satisfied with a few souls, so I shouldn't either. Ultimately it is not in my hands, I mean look at Noah. He preached all of his days (he being a much greater man than myself) and didn't bring a single person onto the boat with him other than his family. This however doesn't mean that I shouldn't expect great success.

I am so excited to go and serve, and strangely enough I am excited to struggle. I know that before I find success I will have to struggle alot, but I guess that is what a mission is about!

Anyways I will talk to you on Monday. I am buying a phone card and should call in the airport.

Jeg elsker deg!

[Based on concern about copyrighted emails from missionaries, I asked Dallin if it was okay to post his emails to the blog - below is his response]

It is fine with me if you post them to the blog and just change names. 

IF YOU SET A REALLY HIGH GOAL THEN YOU MUST PLAN TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. YOU CANNOT JUST ASSUME IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN.

Hei Sann!

 

Well its been another week here in the MTC.  Not a whole of News though.  We only have 10 days left here though!  I am so pumped to be leaving!  It looks like we should get our travel plans either the end of today or tomorrow, so we should know with a day what the plane ride is going to be like.

 

One of our "investigators" has his baptismal service on Saturday!!!  I am so pumped!  I don't think that we will do anything real special but this means that we get to reteach the lessons to him again!  I am really excited for that, weird what I am getting excited for these days haha!

 

Other than that it has been kind of an interesting week.  The sickness has finally hit us and Sister S has been out for a couple of days with a Cold.  It actually feels kind of weird teaching with only one other person!  We have gotten so used to teaching with the Three of us that it has really been a change to switch to only two people for a day.

 

I don't really know what else to report on.  We have begun to start doing the packing stuff to get ready for Norge. I really liked the boots you sent!  It looks like they should be pretty good for Norway.  I have to start wearing them around to break them in soon. 

 

On tuesday we had a really good devotional on Setting goals and the importance of planning as a missionary.  To sum it up in preach my gospel it says something like, "If you lower your expectations your effectiveness as a missionary will decrease."  That has seemed like the common thread that has been playing throughout the week.  The other thing that I really liked about the devotional was the emphasis on planning.  If you set a really high goal then you must plan to make it happen.  You cannot just assume it is going to happen. Probably the last thing we talked about was Charity, and how it has to be the driving force behind any goal we take as a missionary.  I think that is totally true.  When you recognize why you are out here then you recognize the true mission you are on.  He said to help build Charity you must work on repentance.  If we are truly repentant then we would become more charitable in our lives which would in turn lead to the desire to share the Gospel.

 

Anyways that was just a short spiritual though for the day.

 

Jeg elsker deg,

Eldste Jones

[I was able to have a short conversation with Dallin and ask him about how crowded the MTC was getting and if there were new Norwegian missionaries among other things. Part of his response is below]

Yeah things are definitely crowded.  We don't get more Norwegians till after we leave.  But the group after us has 15!!! The swedish group gets 35!  they only have 10 here right now!  So things are getting a lot more crowded.  Definitely a good thing though.

I LIKE TO HAVE SOME COLOR BACK IN THE WARDROBE

Hey Mom,

 

I just logged off this the morning so that I could email right now.  So I have plenty of time to write!!!  The sweater is pretty nice, I like to have some color back in the wadrobe.  The elder was Swedish that took it.  It is so wierd being so close to the swedish elders because I feel like I am going to the same mission as them.  We pretty much spend every waking second with them and are pretty much speaking the same language so it feels like we are at least.

 

We don't have travel plans yet.  We should get them next Thursday.  I feel like I am getting pretty good at the language.  There is an Elder from Norway here that comes into our class on Tuesdays to get a little taste of home and he says he can understand me... so thats good. He speaks in a wierd Dialect of Norwegian though so I have hard time understanding him when he uses the Dialect.  If people are speaking Bokmal though I can usually understand them pretty well.  Something tells me that I am going to get sent to some superhard dialect my first area...  I hope not haha.  The companions are both doing really well.  Eldste E is a stud as always.  Although he has been really cold the past week so I think he is in for a surprise in Norway! 

I am not sure about other stuff that has gone on.  We have had a small epidemic here in the MTC though.  There has been a Stomach Flu bug that has been going around, it causes people to have vomiting and diarrhea.  There have been several kids that have had to go to the ER because of Dehydration.  It hasn't hit our zone too bad though.  We only had about 2 kids get it of the 40 of us.  Other zones it took out like 30 of the 40...  so that has been a fun little side note this week.

 

Other than that we got another investigator to work with from our teachers.  We finally have Brother S back to teach us, he has been on vacation for several weeks.  So he gave us another investigator.  We have had several lessons with him that have all gone well. 

 

So thats about it.  You were right, New years came and passed without much celebration.  Your Christmas presents have been quite a hit. We have gotten ourselves lost in all of those wood puzzles.

 

Anyways, Jeg elsker deg!

 

Eldste Jones