18 month mark (on the 14th) and 17 Mai (Constitution Day)

Heia!

Well, this week has been insane.  It seems like I just talked to you guys but at the same time it feels like that was ages ago!  I really don't understand how time works here in the mission haha.

Anyways.  There were definitely a couple things that were huge this week. One of the first things that happened this week was splits with Elder W!  We did that on Wednesday.  I was supposed to go originally with Elder E, but because of some extenuating circumstances we had to switch some stuff.  So I went on Tuesday night to Oslo with Elder Wh and dropped him and then Elder W and I came back together to Sandvika where we worked all day Wednesday.  It was a solid day, we worked really hard and got a lot of stuff done.  It was way cool to be with Elder W again and we had a good time! 

I was kind of bummed that I didn't go with Elder E though!  It was our 18 month mark this past week, and we would have been together the exact day that we went into the MTC together.  (Mom commentary - Dallin and Elder E are the only 2 missionaries from his MTC group!) Anyways, that was just some wishful thinking haha.

Other than that we were doing a lot of different stuff here in Sandvika.  We had to get ready for 17. mai.  That was a blast! I sent some pictures home already but it really was insane. The entire city of Oslo was filled!  There must have been millions of people in the streets during that day.  All of them in their traditional dress (each one of which costs about six thousand dollars)!  I think that is the coolest part!  It is also the one day that we feel normal as missionaries, because all of the guys are wearing suits!  We fit right in. 

The day was sweet though. We woke up and had all of the missionaries meet at our apartment at 9.  We then all took the t-bane into town.  We stood right outside the palace and watched the parade with the King (he was sitting on his balcony)!  Then after that we all went to the mission home and had a huge bar-b-que.  It was awesome.  We ate hotdogs and sloppy joes and all sorts of good food.  It was fun to see all the missionaries too.  

It is kind of hard to really describe the day in all of its emotions though.  You just feel like you are a part of the country.  I sure do love the place!

Finally a little bit more about what we did this week with the investigators. G and R are both gone.  They moved and are trying to find work somewhere else now... that was way sad.  We did however find some others that are way positive.  We taught a brazilian family on friday.  They were so awesome.  We had contacted the father while we were on the street and he invited us to come and teach the whole family.  We got there and his wife and two sons were there too.  They were all so accepting of the message.  They loved to feel the spirit and wanted it more in their lives.  They committed to family prayer and scirpture study and were really excited for us to come back.  So that was really cool.  The best part was just to have the kneeling prayer with them when we were done.  It was amazing to see the family come together like that! 

Anyways there was a lot of other stuff but I think I will just leave it at that.  It was a awesome week!  One of the ones I will always remember. 

This week we're preparing for moves again.  That means buying more plane, train, and all sorts of tickets and lots of other stuff.  So yep.  We also get to go to TRONDHEIM this week! I am super pumped to go back!  It has been too long, but at last I return.  We are just doing some splits with the ZLs there.  It should be a good week!

Jeg elsker deg så mye!

Eldste Jones

Dallin's P-Day Changed to Saturday this Week for the May Day Celebration

Dallin warned me yesterday he would not be writing today because his p-day this week had been changed to Saturday because of the celebration in Norway this Saturday.  He also warned me that he probability would not write that day because they would be busy all day.  So I won't hear from him until next week!

But, yesterday's conversation was great!  Here are some highlights:

He is busy, busy, busy!
He loves, loves, loves everything about his mission (the land, the people, teaching the gospel, the language, learning, EVERYTHING)!
He has learned more than he could ever have imagined he would have.
He wouldn't trade his current assignment but misses proselyting full-time.
Says Norway is the prettiest place on earth!
He is supposed to come home November 11 but may extend to December 11.
He is down to 202 and has a goal of breaking 200 by this Saturday.  So skinny and looks incredibly handsome!!
He has very little time for cooking so he lives on Norwegian chocolate!  Who wouldn't love that?
He and his companion have "Frosty Fridays" and he says they make them exactly like Wendy's.

I am proud of the man that he is/has become!!

I AM LEARNING TO BALANCE TIME A WHOLE LOT BETTER. THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS THAT NEED ATTENTION, SO YOU GOT TO PLAN A LOT TO GET IT ALL DONE!

Heia!

Well, this week has been insane.  But before I get there, those pictures were also insane! Where did those girls come from?  Sawyer is seriously a completely different person!  I cannot even believe.  Also, when did Jordan start wearing make-up?  When did everyone grow up!?  Sorry for the rant, I am just confused.  Also, I must note how jealous I am that you got to go to the angels game!  That sounds amazing right now!

On to the past week for me.  It was literally insane.  I have never been more busy in my entire life. the journal will have to describe it in more detail because I cannot do it adequately in this email.  But I can answer some questions!

I guess you can tell by now that the week was definitely not slower.  We did a lot of driving and shuffling missionaries. We got to introduce the new missionaries to the mission and say goodbye to the return ones.  We ate a ton of really good food with Sister Evans.  She made dinner for the arriving and departing missionaries, so that was two meals, and she also made lunch for the trainers.  So that was awesome.  Their home is a 10 minute drive from the office and the office is a 10 minute drive from us.  They really are all just 10 minutes from each other.  So that is really nice actually.  

The office couple's name is the Allens.  They are from Oregon some place.  They are awesome!  I love working with them so much.  I couldn't ask for anything better.  

As for the investigators, we haven't had a whole lot of time to work with them.  But we have a guy named  G that we are working with.  He has a date for the 28 of May.  We are pretty sure he will make it.  We just have to be better at meeting with him.  I am learning how to balance time a whole lot better.  There are a lot of different things that need attention, so you got to plan a lot to get it all done!

Anyways, I don't have plans for next Sunday yet.  I haven't gotten that far ahead. But I will be in the office throughout the week so I will shoot you an email a little later about that.

I don't have any pictures!  I have been really bad a taking them!  I will try and do it soon though!

Jeg elsker deg so mye!

Din sønn,

Eldste Jones 

I AM LOVING WORKING HERE. WE ARE GROWING A TON, AND LOVING EVERY SECOND OF IT!

Well sorry, I don't really have time to write today. We have a lot to get together for moves this week. We have new missionaries coming in tomorrow, moves on wednesday, mission leadership council on friday and a whole lot of other stuff in between.  I have to buy some more flights before I go out to work for the night.  So ya.... but I will attach my journal again.  I think it will probably do a better job of me trying to write a real email.

I am loving working here though.  President Evans was in Germany last week for a mission president seminar.  He said that President Texiera and President Evans (of the Seventy) both talked a ton about the importance of assistants in the mission.  So needless to say, I am feeling the pressure.  Elder Wh and I are loving the work though.  We are growing a ton though, and loving every second of it!

(From a second email)

I got the package!  The new pants fit pretty good! The old ones were pretty dang big, but those were the ones I was looking for, which means I have changed a ton on the mission haha.   I couldn't fit in those when I left! 

I love the seeds and cookies.  that was just what I needed! [They don't have sunflower seeds in Norway]

Again, I love you a ton!

Dallin

Hey there!  

Happy Easter!  It was definitely a memorable one here!  We had just miracle after miracle this week!

I will try and answer your questions here before I tell about the week.  The first week was insane.  I have never worked so hard, nor gotten so much done in a week before.  I am afraid that this week is going to get busier and better!  

Elder Wh is from Alpine, Utah.  He came out 5 months before me, so he goes home in July. He went to Lonepeak and graduated the same year as me.  Needless to say, we are working great together and having a blast.

I would love to describe a typical day here, but that is just not possible.  It is never the same.  We are in and out of the office all the time, driving all over the place and cramming in our missionary work whenever we can.  So there really is no pattern.  it is to the point that most of the studies get ruined everyday.   But I have started keeping my journal on a word doc, so maybe you can read that and get a better idea of what it is like.  

I will try and share some quick stories or lessons that I have learned this week.  The week started off really intense.  We had a hard week in the mission the week before and we knew we had to turn it around.  It was easter though!  In Norway that means that every single person in the country leaves there normal home and goes on vacations.  You drive the streets and you feel like you are in a ghost town. With this in mind we knew that we could show faith and try really hard. That is what we did!

We knocked a ton of doors, went on splits with the zone leaders, the district leaders and got our office work done as fast as we could.  This lead to miracles everyday!  We literally taught every single day of the week.  We found families that were home, even through the holiday, and really had the best week the assistants have had the whole year!  I would try and describe it better but that would be really difficult.  

So at the end of the week I have learned some huge spiritual lessons.  I have learned to expect miracles.  I no longer have to hope that the Lord will provide us something, but I know that He will.  He has done it countless times this week.  I have learned that He will support me in my calling.  I went on splits with missionaries that were older and more experienced than me, missionaries that I didn't feel I could really help, but as I did so the Lord magnified me such that I could help them and their areas!  I have learned what it means to really be consecrated, that it does not matter where you have been, but rather what you are becoming.  

There were many more lessons to be learned and shared, but I don't have time to share really.  We have to run to Oslo to help the sisters there today.  We have to then get back and do more stuff here before appointments that we have tonight.

This week will be filled with buying plane tickets for moves next week.  Elder Wh and I have a lot to do.  On top of that we have a couple of investigators with baptismal dates and others that should have them. So we have to make sure these people get into the water!

There is a lot more I could say, but I have to go!  

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones

Missionaries are still forgetful boys!

SEND EVERYONE MY CONGRATS!! (NEW MISSION CALLS)

Hey there!  

It sounds like it was a huge week back at home!  Tons of mission calls and other stuff going on!  I can't believe that everyone is going out!  That was awesome to hear, send them my congrats!

Things the past week have been pretty exciting here too.  My week in Oslo was packed with lots of stuff.  Elder W and I did our last zone leader training together.  We tried hard to include Easter into the theme but it was hard.  The best we could do was to have our missionaries go on an easter egg hunt to find their ''investigators''  The meeting turned out good though in the end. I am happy to say that I am done giving those meeting though.

After that we had a Mission wide leadership training where all the district leader and zone leaders came in to oslo for a meeting.  So that was a five hour long meeting on Wednesday.  It was awesome to see Elder E and many others as everyone came in.  

In between all of these meetings Elder W and I had some time to teach the investigators and try and make it so we had some stuff happening in our area.  There wasn't anything too exciting to report though.  

Church came on Sunday and we had a fast sunday.  There was good meetings and we had lots of investigators there in Church.  So it was a good way to leave I guess.  After church though I went home, got my bags, and headed off to Sandvika (a short 7 minute train ride away).

We had a ''burny'' dinner with Elder L and Elder and Sister B.  They all would leave the following day to return home to the states.  It was an awesome dinner.  We had turkey and mashed potatoes and lots of other stuff.  I was definitely spoiled by Sister Evans.  It was also a great way to end the fast sunday! 

Which brings us to today.  Elder Wh and I are now companions.  We live in Sandvika and work in the office here. Today has been pretty busy already with us doing a lot of work and trying to get lots of different stuff done.  So I can tell already that it will be a huge change in pace.  I am way excited for it though!  I am excited to get to work with president and the office couple here and to learn a lot from all of these people!

My new address is Bærumsveien 198, 1357 Bekkestua, Norway.  President told me that I will get to go back out and be a normal missionary again before I leave, so that will be nice!  Like I said the pace will be different, but I am definitely excited for this.  I know that I will learn so much about leadership and about how to help people by being here around President.  I might even get to do a little missionary work too!

So ya, life is crazy now.  We have lots to do today, so I got to get going!  But thanks so much for all that you do!

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones

I HAVE A LOT OF STUDYING TO DO AFTER CONFERENCE!

Hey there! 

Dang, that kid cannot be 3 already! I remember when he was born, that was just like a month ago!  Time goes way too fast.

I think I am going to take questions first.  Yes, we got to watch conference!  We watched it at the center with all of the YSA.  It was really awesome.  I will talk more about that later though.  Unfortunately no, I haven't gotten to work with my essays yet.  Things have been super busy!  However I am going to start on them this week, I hope.  I have thought about a major, and I was actually thinking about political science.  That is not set in stone as of yet though.  If I were to do english I think I would choose an emphasis on reading.   I love learning and getting more knowledge. We shall see though.  And yep, I am still speaking dialect!  It is harder than it was in Trondheim but a member gave me a Trøndersk dialect book which is helping me keep it up though!

But ya, my week.  This one has been a crazy one that is for sure.  We had a lot happening this week.  Meetings, baptisms, splits, and much more.  But I guess I can just start from the beginning I guess.

On Wednesday we had mission leadership conference.  Elder W and I got there pretty early, so we got to sit down and enjoy some of Sister Evans' cinnamon rolls before everyone else got there.  But before the meeting started President called me into his office to talk to me.  The rest of the meeting went pretty good, but I had a hard time concentrating.  

After that meeting, I came back to Oslo alone.  Elder W went on splits in Drammen to witness a baptism.  I worked with Elders S and D.  That was pretty fun.  We got a lot done and were pretty busy. It was only for that Thursday, Elder W returned home that night.

Finally we had General conference!   That was absolutely amazing!  There were definitey some surprises though.  I was shocked that it was Tad R. Callister that was called as the Sunday school president, he will do a good job though.  The talks were all awesome.  Elder Bednar's talk was amazing. Other favorites were President Packer (I think that was his last talk, it reminded me of Mckonkies last one), Elder Holland, and Elder Oaks.  Elder Oaks is probably the winner though.  He just gave such a great defintion of the priesthood and how gods power and authority is a part of all of our lives.  

I have a lot of studying to do after conference!

Sunday was especially good though because we got to teach too.  We got to meet again with J H, after a 3 month break.  It was a great teach and culminated in another batpismal date!  So that was the greatest ways to end the week.  It was something we needed really bad.

I am just loving it here so much!  I can't really describe the feelings that come from serving a mission!  I just love it.  I look forward to the experiences ahead.  It should be pretty crazy.  I am way excited though!

Jeg elsker deg!  

Eldste Jones

P.S.  I loved my p-day last week.  I am totally playing tennis when I come home.