MY INCREDIBLE SHRINKING BOY (DOWN 30 POUNDS IN JUST 2 MONTHS!)

Hi mom,

 

Not a whole lot of time for email today.  We have maybe 5 minutes each to shoot an email off.  Anyways, no I do not have a bump on my arm, yes I am healthy.  I actually have lost weight, I have lost 30 pounds!  My paints are super big on me and I am on the last belt loop of my belt. 

 

We get fed by members a lot.  We actually eat with members about 2 or three times a week.

 

Last week was way good, ate with members for easter and lots of other fun stuff.  People in Norway all leave for the mountains though, so there was no one in the city.  So we didn't have a lot to do.

 

Tell everyone sorry that I can't write but we have a dinner appointment with our investigators at 5 that we have to get to.

 

They are progressing so well, and we found out that they are getting married in june in Spain!  We are way pumped and are so happy that they are progressing.

 

Anyways, I have to go, I love you!

THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK WAS DEFINITELY WHEN WE HAD A MEMBER DINNER THAT WE GOT TO BRING INVESTIGATORS TO.

Hei sann!

So glad to hear that things are well back home!  To answer Papa Del, no I haven't seen them (the Northern lights) yet.  That is so cool to hear that we have so many missionaries coming out from the stake!  

I am way pumped to hear that Riley finally got his call!!! I am so pumped for him, he is going to be such a good missionary.  He is a stud.

As far as things here are going, everything is good.  I am doing emails at the Local library today, so things are kind of working really slow.  But that is okay.  I am just excited to hear from you guys.

The past week was full of different stuff.  To start with something fun, I found a slackline!!!   There is a big park here and someone just came and put in like a tournament style rack that holds a slackline and left it there for the public.  So pretty much everytime we walk by there I hop on for a go and then continue on contacting.  I have to say that my skills have diminished though.  There are often kids there doing it to, so I stop and try and talk to them as well.

The highlight of the week was definitely when we had a member dinner that we got to bring investigators to.  The husband is from Norway and the wife from the states.  She served a mission in Norway.  They are all way awesome though.  We brought our investigators, X.  They had a really good time, we ate sloppy joes.  They seemed to like the american style cuisine haha.  

When we tried to have our lesson after the dinner the home teachers showed up.  So we let them do their lesson.  It was the one from the Laihona and it turned out to be really good.  

We also had a ward baptism on Friday.  One of the 7 year olds turned 8 and got baptized.  We got X to the baptism so we were way excited about that!  They really enjoyed it.  We are really excited to give them a baptismal commitment in our next lesson!

Other than that there wasn't a whole lot to report on.  We did a lot of street contacting, met a lt of crazy people and got a lot of potential investigators.  So next week we will see what we can do to actually get some progressors out of them.

But anyways we are off to go climb Lillehorn today.  It is another beautiful day here in Bergen.

Jeg elsker deg så mye!

Din sønn Eldste Jones

OUR LIVES WILL BE SO MUCH BETTER AS WE HAVE BETTER AND BETTER PERSONAL STUDIES.

Heisann!

My week was pretty good.  There is a lot to talk about this week. So questions first.  Language is going great, The new batch of missionaries just came in, so it is really cool to see how far I have come in such a short time.  I have tried to keep the journal... but I have been failing.  After zone conference one of my new goals is to be better at using it.  

I am so glad to hear that things are going well back home and that there is so much going on!  The mission calls are so exciting to hear about and I am so pumped to see the growth of the work.  I told R that I think he is going to Mexico.  He is going to be such a good missionary.  

Here is the week though.  Things this week were kinda hecktic.  We had our zone conference in Stavanger on Saturday which meant that we flew there for interviews on Friday.  We stayed the night at the elders place there in Stavanger which meant that we had 14 elders from our zone there.  We then had zone conference all day saturday and then we flew home saturday night.  Our flights were kind of lame though because we ended up going from Stavanger to Oslo and then back to Bergen.  A 20 minute flight turned into a 3 hour excursion.  But it was way fun to get to travel with the district during that time and get to spend some time with the AP's as they traveled back to Oslo as well. They said that they are probably going to come do splits with us again in the next month.  So we are way pumped for that as well.

Zone conference was really good.  It was focused mainly on enjoying the mission and getting the most out of it as you can.  President said that the most effective way to do that will be through personal study.  It is the way to prepare for the day and make the day the best it can be,  I know that that is the case throughout our whole lives. Our lives wil be so much better as we have better and better personal studies.  We have so many materials that can help us as well, Preach my gospel, institute manuals, seminary manuals, gospel doctrine, the words of the prophets in conference and so on...  I know that we all can do better at using these and by so doing can make our lives better.

Other than that it was a slow week.  We didn't really get to teach any lessons and didn't really find anyone through contacting.  It is so weird how the Lord gives us 8 investigators 1 week and then the next two we don't get any.  I am not totally sure what the Lord wants us to do/learn with that right now but we are going to continue working.  

We had X (couple) in Church again on Sunday.  So that was probably a highlight of the week. The english teacher however couldn't make it to church that day so we ended up doing the lesson during 2nd hour.  It went really well and the members here did a really good job of fellowshipping.  A man  invited them for dinner this week.  It is so awesome to see members step up to the plate and really help a investigator feel welcome.  It honestly makes things so much easy for us as misionaries.  

We didn't get to teach X or his wife last week... so that was a major disappointment.  But we have an appointment with them tomorrow.  We will see if they have kept their commitment to read or not.

Other than that we are just trying to plug along and get things done.  The next moves are not till May.  Which means I get to stay in Bergen till at least May!  I am way excited for that.

I am so happy to be a missionry and to get to serve here.  I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for Bergen over the next couple months, I know it is a big work.

I miss you guys so much!  

Jeg elsker deg!

Din søn,

Eldste Jones

Hei hei!

That is so wierd to here that Andrea is back!  That feels like forever ago!  That is cool about the missionary group stuff to!

The family is doing good.  They just came back from their winter vacation to Jordan.  So they all look nice and tan haha.  

My week was good.  We taught X and his wife again, as well as the couple again.  The couple actutally came to Church with us on Sunday as well!  So that was way cool to see some new investigators in church.  The only other person that has come to Church has been X, and he doesn't come very often.  So that was a highlight of the week,  seeing the D and Y there at church.  We ended up dropping X's date because he still isn't keeping commitments well enough.  But we are pumped to teach them both and get a date for both of them to work for.

Our teach with D and Y was awesome.  They both speak english by the way, however their first languages are spanish and lithiwanian.  We had a member, there with us.  He is actually from California and is working as an assistant professor here in bergen.  He is like 30 with 2 little kids and his wife.  But anyway, the lesson was on the plan of salvation.  It went really well and at the end D just said the best prayer.  It is so cool to hear testimony from members and the effect it has on investigators.  The member was a stud, he gave the best testimony and just taught the things he talked about so simply.  It made me realize how for I have to go.  But that was a definite highlight of the week.

I was sick though for the later half of the week.  Still am really.  So that was kind of a bummer.  On Friday I got a pretty bad fever and then I threw up a couple times that night.  But it is amazing the kind of strength that you can get from the Lord.  I was still able to go out and work on Saturday!  When I woke up I didn't think it was even possible for me to get out of Bed but as you show faith the Lord just helps you keep going... and it was like that with every single activity on Saturday.  Such a testimony builder.  I am still a little sick now.  I still have the chills and a sore throat but other than that I am doing okay.

We got our new district on Thursday!  

We got news that we have zone conference on Saturday.  So we are flying to Stavanger!!!  We fly in friday night and come back to bergen saturday night.

With regards to the package, maybe some Vitamin C... I had to leave the other stuff in the MTC.  And Elder D is making the request for Reeses Eggs. Tell Elder B hi back for me to haha.

Anyways, thats about it.  Jeg elsker deg så mye!

Eldste Jones

WE FOUND 8 NEW INVESTIGATORS OVER THE LAST WEEK

Well I am just sitting down to write my emails.  Today has been a really busy day already.

But this last week has been way awesome!!!

We found 8 new investigators over the last week!  So I am really excited about that!  4 of them look really positive. I am really excited about a couple that we started teaching, the women is from Venezuela and the man from Lithiwania. 

My first transfer is over.  Next transfer I get to stay in Bergen with my comp, who is now District Leader. So we are way pumped for that.  We lost half of our district though,  our district leader got moved to Oslo, he is now the Zone leader there.  we are also losing both of the Sisters.  They are both going to Kristansand.  We shall get two new sisters, X and a greenie.  Elder X shall also get a new greenie.  So that makes three greenies in Bergen!  

That also means that I will get to do splits in Stavanger when the zone leaders do splits with elder my comp.  So I am way pumped for that.  I will also get to do splits with the new greenie.  That is going to scare me out of my mind....  ugh.

So that was way exciting to have my first moves call.  In total we get 12 new missionaries and then 3 more when their visas get cleared.  Then we get 21 missionaries in may, the mission will be up to about 91 missionaries!

Other than that things are going well here.  X talked to his wife and she said that she wants to sit down with us now too, so we are going to try and get a baptismal commitment with both of them that they can work together towards.  We are really going to try and get the whole family this next transfer.  We feel like X cannot progress without his family behind him because of his sickness.

Unfortunately we had to drop our other investigator because we haven't met with him in 2 weeks and he won't answer his phone.  But we will continue to work with him.

That is pretty much it for now.  Jeg elsker deg så mye!

Din sønn,

Eldste Jones

WE ARE GOING TO SHOOT TO GET THE FAMILY TO SUPPORT HIM AND HOPEFULLY HAVE A FAMILY BAPTISM

Heisann!

Glad to hear things are good at home!  Things are really warming up here.  So that hike that I went on it was Cold but while hiking and stuff it didn't matter.  We did another hike again today and I did it in short sleeves again, I will tell you about that later though. 

Transfers are in a week, not totally sure what will happen with my comp and I.  We just hear from the ZL's through phone if we are moving or not.  Last week was just Zone leader training, so we just had the Zl's training the district.  We have 6 here in Bergen.  Everything is by air here.  Luckily most of the flights are under an hour.

We have a teach with X's whole family tonight, we are going to shoot to get the family to support him and hopefully in about 3 weeks we will have a family baptism!!!  And with that family baptism a baptism with X too!  So things are looking up and I am really excited for it.  Other than that this week was super long.  Just a lot of contacting.  X was sick all week so we couldn't teach him.  But he told us that is still is excited about everything so that is good.

Other than that there was not a whole lot going on. 

The hike that I was talking about was super long today but way fun and was absolutely grueling.  Definitely the gnarliest hike I have been on.  It was all covered in snow but it was super warm out.  I love Norway!

The hike took forever today so I have to run but I was so pumped to hear from you!

Jeg elsker deg så mye!

Din sønn,

Eldste Jones

IT IS A POWERFUL THING TO BE ABLE TO SAY A PERSONAL PRAYER OUT LOUD.

Hei sann!

So glad to hear from you! That is so awesome to hear that you guys had a baptism in the Ward!!!!  I am so excited to hear that!  So sweet!

First things first, questions.  Unfortunately we didn't have any investigators to Church.  The baptism got postponed.  The work is going SO WELL!  And yes I have been kinda of sick here.  I have had a cough and a fever but nothing bad enough to keep me from working.  So that is the short version, but this week has been way better than any of that sounds.  So here it is.

A lot has happened here over the last week.  First thing, we had the Assistants to the President here on splits with us.  They are studs!  We got to go contacting with them for about 2 hours or so.  We ended up talking to this man.  He was really interesting had a lot of cool stories to share with us but we didn't really get to share a whole lot with him.  But we did get a return appointment with him, so that was awesome.  Then my companion and I taught him on Saturday for the return appointment.  It was so awesome, super good teach. We got him to recognize the spirit at one point of the lesson and even got a baptismal commitment with him!  So now we have two baptismal commitments!

Next we had Zone leader training.  It was really cool.  It was the first one I have had, and we did it all in Norwegian.  It was super cool to get to hear from the ZL's and hear how the mission is doing.  The biggest thing that I took out of it was that I cannot lose sight of my potential.  We are the Children of God and are promised everything that the Father has, so don't settle for anything less!  We were also given some time for personal prayers. It is such a powerful thing to be able to say a personal prayer out loud... I would suggest taking time to do it more often.  It is something that you don't get to do really on the mission but it is way beneficial.

Last big thing, out investigator missed his baptismal date.  He still has a big problem with reading from the book of Mormon and getting a answer to pray about Joseph Smith.  He has an illness called Chronic Fatigue Sickness that makes him tired all the time. So we are at the point of sending him a scripture a day to help him read something every day.  We reset his baptismal date for march 16.  So hopefully we could have two baptisms that day seeing as our other investigator's is the same day as well.

Other than that things have been really good.  Except I have had some very humbling experiences this week... all a direct result of Ice. In short I have slipped on Ice 3 times this week.  I made it 3 weeks in the Mission field with no incident.  Now I have 3 falls on record.

The family that live above us are still awesome.  They brought us pork chops the other night when we got home. I love that family so much.  They are all awesome.  Nothing but respect for every member of that family.  Jørgen, the 11 year old son, comes down at least a couple nights a week and hangs with us.  He is super cool, and he tells us about how he invites people to come to church like all the time. The kid is such a stud!

Other than that nothing much.  Last p-day we hiked up the Mountain Fløyen. I will attach some pictures of that.

Jeg elsker deg so mye!  

Eldste Jones