I am back to a good size ward, we have about 80 in sacrament meeting!

Heia,

Well,  first full week here in trondheim!  Things have been pretty crazy.  I am super glad to hear that things are going well there. It sounds like things are so busy there.  I hope that things are going well with Mimi and everything else!

To answer your questions... yes I got the package.  I am right between the two sizes of pants so right now they all fit... 

The address is Olav tryggvassons gata 30,  7011 Trondheim

Traveling here was pretty good.  I just hopped on a flight and then came on down.  We had a small lay-over in Bodø.  

Things have been a lot different here.  I am back to a good size ward, we have about 80 in sacrament meeting!   We probably have about 150 to 200 on paper.  So that is pretty good.  It is definitely a change from being in Narvik. 

We didn't come into any investigators here so the last week has been just trying to find people again just like we did in Narvik.  So we hope to pick up some people in the next week.  it was kind of a hard week though just because we didn't really find anyone.

The district is doing good though, we have 6 sisters here.  They are all doing great, super young though.  We also have Elder L as my Zone Leader with Elder E as well. I was able to do a my first district meeting last tuesday and that actually went pretty well. 

My Sunday was pretty ridiculous.  We had a member from France that came in and attended our sacrament meeting.  He spoke some pretty horrible english.  He wanted me to translate for him though... so I ended up doing that in Sunday school.  As we went into sacrament meeting I sat next to him.  Being that it was fast sunday he decided that he wanted to bear his testimony.  He turns to me and asks if I will translate to Norwegian for me.  I said sure.  We go up and starts in on telling this really convoluded story about being in paris and traveling and about he almost got hit by a train.  Essentially it was the most broken english I have heard and I was entrusted to translate it to coherrent norwegian.  Needless to say I think I failed.  I think I might have completely destroyed all confidence that the members had in my Norwegian skills... luckily I had to the chance to change that with my own testimony a little later.

Things are crazy but I am really enjoying all the stuff that it going on here.  I love being a district leader and taking care of other people and helping them be better!  It really is awesome!

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones

TRANSFERRED TO TRONDHEIM

Heia!

Well I just got here to Trondheim!  I am now serving with Elder A.  He is a stud, I can already tell.  He has been here in the mission for 9 weeks so I will actually be finishing his training for the next three weeks as well.  

My district is here in Trondheim, we have the zone leaders and then 6 sisters.  So there are a lot of us.  I am pretty excited to be serving here, especially with Elder L again (he is the zone leader up here).  So things will be pretty awesome I am way excited!

That is all I have time for today though, I have to go eat food and then buy some for the week!

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones

Simply put, it was because we listened to the spirit. Got to love being a missionary huh?

Heia!

Well, I am happy to hear that things are going well for you all!  I am very sorry to hear that Aunt Sandy passed away.  I will keep everyone in my prayers.  

Tell all the girls I say hello!  Also thanks for the money for the suit, it really looks nice, I like it alot!

Things here are going well. First things first, I just found out that I will be leaving narvik next week... President just called and said that he will be calling me as district leader next week.  I am not sure where I am heading but I think it will be next Monday that I leave.  So it is a good thing that package should get here soon then huh!?

The last week has been full of different stuff.  We have still been working hard and we having been seeing some major blessings from the Lord. We had a couple cool experiences on the street this week.  

We were walking on the street and we felt like we needed to take a turn that we normally do not take.  But we took the right turn anyway.  Then as we proceeded on that route we decided that we needed to go left instead of right.... so we did that to.  Finally we came to another crosspoint and felt like we needed to take another left.  This put us going back the way that we normally would be walking.  Not but 5 seconds later we fall in step with this man from Britain and end up having this wonderful conversation with this man.  Something that never would have happened if we had not been in tune with the spirit.  As we continued on that route we ended up meeting another person that we had a great conversation with and invited to church.  And simply put, it was because we listened to the spirit. Got to love being a missionary huh?

We had a couple other small little experiences like that throughout the week, but nothing that makes quite so good a story.  

On Friday we had to wake up early to catch a bus to Tromsø.  The bus left at 5:20a.m.  and got to Tromsø at 9:30.  So that was quite a bus ride.  Then we had zone leader training there and worked with the Tromsø elders for a little before we drove back with the Zone leaders to Narvik in the Tromsø car.  (The Tromsø car was being returned to the south of Norway which meant that select missionaries had to make long car rides to get it down there,  the North zone leaders had a 15 hour leg of the drive)  That car ride was a blast, it was super fun to get to see Elder L again (now my zone leader here in the north, instead of my district leader in Bergen).  The zone leaders stayed here the night and then left Saturday morning.  So needless to say, Friday was shot by travel.  

Church was interesting this week.  The bottom floor of the Red cross building that we use to meet in is being used right now as a fishing shop, so we had the upstairs.  That consists of 2 rooms the size of my bedroom at home.  We had about 10 people there though, so that was nice.  We watched talks from conference as our sacrament talks though, so that was an experience.

One of the people in Church on Sunday was my district leaders father! My district leader is Elder H, and is from Stavanger here in Norway, and is currently serving in Bodø.  His father was on vacation and came to our church for sunday!  So that was kind of funny when I called him that night to give him numbers and told him that I spoken to his father that day...

Other than that it has been a good week.  We worked really hard again and really tried to make some stuff happen.  But I have been learning a ton up here and am really coming to love it!

Jeg elsker deg så mye og jeg ønsker deg en fantastisk uke!

Din sønn,

Eldste Jones

It is amazing to see the Lord bless you as you try your hardest. That is what we have seen here.

Heia!

Wow!  Things are so crazy how much they change.  I can't believe that it is time for another missionary to go out!  Thanks for those pictures as well!  You have to tell taylor to shave that beard of his though!  Everyone was looking way good otherwise!  

That is cool to hear that the Elders did a role play with you, it is always a little hard to be an investigator for those.  I think that is helps when you choose someone you know and pretend to be them as you go through the lesson, especially try and figure out what they are thinking and what not.  Who know maybe you will realize something that could actually help that person and then share it with them!

Anyways, this week was probably my best week in Narvik.  Elder M and I committed ourselves to working harder than we ever have before and we saw some improvement.  We found 3 new investigators and had 6 lessons.  That was the best we have had since we got here.  But it was amazing to see the progress we have made as a companionship and the progress we have made here in the area.

We have taught M a couple more times, and it went well.  We focused a lot on his concerns with the Plan of Salvation.  We actually were able to explain it in a way for him that made sense.  At the end of the lesson he said, "This makes more sense than my doctrine!"  So that was some icing on the cake!  But a couple other concerns came up as far as proxy ordinances.  So we now have a great way to bring in Baptism in this life and why it is so important.  So we will hopefully teach baptism tonight!  We are very positive, and feel like we have seen some serious growth in him!  He knows that the Book of Mormon is true!

We also got a chance to meet with S.  I don't know if I ever told you guys about him.  Essentially we taught him 2 times and then he got super busy with school. We met with him because he wanted to attend a YSA conference but wanted to understand our religion first.  But anyways we got to meet with him one last time before he left to go back to china.  He really enjoyed to conference and felt like he grew as a result of it.  Unfortunately he still has no desire to change religions.  But the cool part is that he gave us gifts!  He gave me a Chinese screen model.  Essential it is just a small decorative piece.  It has the terracotta warriors on it and is super cool.  I will try and send a picture home soon.

Other than that we have had summer vacation plaguing us.  Most of or other investigators either left on vacation or remain on vacation.  Including half of the ward!

In church on sunday there was only like 3 members.  The branch president left for vacation with his family to Finland.  His daughter leaves on her mission to Finland next month, so they were going to sweden first to go the temple. So next week I think we literally have just the missionaries and one other couple.  But we shall see.   

Other than that we have just been working hard and getting stuff done!  It is amazing to see the Lord bless you has you try your hardest.  That is what we have seen here.  

I vært fall, jeg elsker deg så hoyt!  

Din sønn,

Eldste Jones

WE ARE VERY EXCITED TO CONTINUE MEETING WITH HIM AND TRYING TO GET A BAPTISMAL DATE WITH HIM SOON.

Heia igjen!

Well, it sounds like you all have had a very busy week, especially Grammy!  95 people, that is outrageous!  Glad things went well though!

Things here have been similarly busy.  We have been hitting the streets pretty hard every day and trying our best to find some people.  

Questions first, no we do not have transfers.  They are not until 27th of August.  There was a six week gap between MTC groups because of space problems there.  So ya not a whole of changes, Elder M and myself will stay here in Narvik.  

Narvik is its own area so it is just me and Elder M here.  Our apartment is nice, probably the nicest I have had in Norway.  It has a living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom.  Very simple but nice.   

We had an amazing lesson with M at a members home here last week.  We went to the Branch presidents house and watch the biography about Thomas S. Monson.  It was absolutely amazing, the spirit is so strong in members homes, I just love it.  At the end of the lesson M said he was beginning to be convinced that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet.  He once said a similar phrase about the Book of Mormon, which he now believes 100%! So we are very excited to continue meeting with him and trying to get a baptismal date with him soon.

Other than that we had some interesting stuff happen in the last week.  There was a Jehovah's Witness conference here in Narvik last weekend.  So there was about 1000 witnesses here in town.  We had been trying to meet with a family that was Jehovah's witness for about a week when they invited us to come a long.  So we called president and got permission to visit for 30 minutes to watch a play they were doing with this family.  As we got there we were ushered to the very front of the place ( apparently mormon missionaries have special privileges haha).  

The play was interesting, it focused on how we can gain strength from the Bible.  But as it finished and it was time for us to go we had to make the long walk up the aisle to the exit.  Every single head turned as we walked past, they all knew who we were, even though for once in a missionaries life we fit in while wearing suits.  It was a cool experience to say the least. 

All things worked to our advantage as well seeing as we have meet with that family already today!

But anyways that is about it for the week.  That was by far the most exciting thing.  

Jeg elsker deg!

Din sønn

Eldste Jones 

AS WE WALKED OUT THE DOOR WE WERE ATTACKED FROM BEHIND...BY OUR MTC TEACHER! BROTHER S!

Heia!

Well thanks for all of the updates... everyone is in my prayers!  I love you all!

It is kind of freaky to think that Riley will be a missionary in 2 weeks!  That is just too close!  But it is exciting that is for sure!  

This week here has been rather average here in Narvik... no books being thrown or anything like that.  We hit the streets in the last week again... producing as President Hinkley calls it "meager results."  So that was kind of difficult.  But we had some pretty cool experiences over the last week!

The first cool story comes from Thursday!  We had just finished doing our companionship study when a member called and said he was outside, so we went down to go talk to him.  As we walked out the door we were attacked from behind... by our MTC teacher!  Brother S!  He was here visiting Norway while on Break for the summer, and made a trip to Narvik!  (he served here for a long time and loved it)  So we went with him to visit some of his old friends/investigators/members.  We visited a very elderly women in the hospital that is a member that we haven't been able to visit yet as well as the member that called to surprise us.  So that was way cool!  It was amazing getting to see him and he helped us get some of our MTC fire back! That is always appreciated!

The next story comes from just yesterday.  We went out to a town called Harstad, which is about 1.5-2 hours away.  We actually caught a ride with the catholic priest out there haha.  We had met him on Monday and he said that he was going out there on sunday and offered us a ride.  So we went!  There are several families out there that never get to come to sacrament because it is so far.  So we have to try and make it out to them as often as possible.  The catholic priest is from Germany, he speaks Norwegian as well as german and english.  He has served in Narvik for about 2 years.  He is way cool.  

While contacting and tracting we have met some pretty cool people, unfortunately no new investigators though.  We taught M a couple more times and he seems to be still making progress.  We are going to try and move into gospel of Jesus Christ and make a baptismal commitment coming up here soon.

We of course watched the Work of Salvation here.  It is amazing the move on member missionary work.  We need the members for us to move forward, the time is here.  We in Scandinavia have had 3 conferences over the last 3 months telling us to work on member missionary work.  General conference, the Scandinavian conference, and the Work of Salvation.  So we hope to see it rolling!

But that is about it from here.  Random stuff... we finally got a scale for the apartment, I am down to 220!  So that was pretty cool.  That has been another 15 pounds in the last 6 weeks.  I am going to try and get down to 205 by the end of the transfer.

But anyways, that is about it!  Jeg elsker deg så mye, det er umulig å forstå hvor mye!  Jeg håper at du får vite det.  Ha det godt!

Din sønn,

Eldste Jones

I know that this is Jesus Christ's church and that Jesus Christ leads and directs it today through his prophet Thomas S. Monson.

Hallo!  det er godt å høre fra deg igjen denne strålende dagen! (Hello! It is good to hear from you again this glorious day!)

I have to say that your letter was pretty full of some ups and downs.  I am so sad to hear about Aunt Sandy.  Please tell her how much I love her and that I am so thankful for all the love and support that she gave me while I worked in the temple with her.  I wish her the best and I will be praying for her.

As far as your questions though... no there has been no travelling this week.  We just worked Narvik for the first whole week since we got here.  That made for what seemed like a long week.  Our potentials have been rather difficult to turn into investigators, essentially no one answers their phone.  Yes we do get fed, once a week.  The branch president has us over every Sunday for dinner.  Other than that I make a lot of peanut butter and honey sandwiches, pasta, burritos, stir fry, or hotdogs. Those are the staples of the missionary diet.  Every morning I have Granola cereal with yogurt, and sometimes a banana.  But ya, I think that I am still losing weight.  Last time I checked I was at 229. So I am getting back to high school weight!  I recently got p90x from one of the other missionaries and put it on my jump drive, so I do that 3 times a week.  

As far as the summer solstice, yes it gets celebrated but, nothing huge, just bonfires at midnight.  It was rainy here though that night so we didn't do it even though we had permission.  And yes, it is light 24\7.  The sun never goes down, hasn't since I got here 4 weeks ago.

Now about the week.

Things here have been pretty crazy.  We have had some very interesting experiences this week, to say the least.  We have had some serious ups and downs. This week might have topped the list for the longest week in the mission too... but I honestly wouldn't trade it for the world.  

Bad things first I guess... this week has been a lot of tracting.  I mean a lot.  We would work all day.  5 hours contacting on the main street, just walking up and down it, and then 3 hours of doors at night.  Most of the time just looking for people in the rain. So that was a little interesting. We have a lot of potentials that we are trying back to get to be investigators with not much luck as well.  BUt that being said, I now come to the experience of the week.  

When the Travelling Ap's were here Elder T and I had banked a street and given a book of mormon to a philipino kid.  He was way nice and said that he would read and we could come back in a week.  So this week Elder M and I tried to do just that.  We arrive at the house and try and ring the doorbell, it didn't sound like it worked so we decide to knock.  We see a shadow walk by the front door right after we do that so we assume that they are going to open up.  We wait a minute or two and nothing had happened.  So we decided to knock again. Just as we do so I here something strike the ground behind me, maybe 10 yards away.  I look behind me to find our Book of Mormon.  It had been cast out of the 2nd story window. I figured that means that they were not interested so we started walking away.  As I picked up the Book I realize was really had been done. The word Mormon had been cut out of the front cover, the back cover was ripped in half, some of the pages edges had been burned (an obvious attempt to try and set it on fire as they cast it out the window), the book completely destroyed.

I picked up the book and we left the house, never talking to whoever had done this.  

That was probably one of the most discouraging things that I had experienced, not only rejection but a literally attempt to destroy that which I know to be true.

So needless to say that was a hard experience.  But, after that we kept on working.  We had an amazing lessons with others.  One in particular being a man named M.  We had taught him the restoration before but we wanted to see how it was going with him and how it was going with the Book of Mormon we had left him.  We began to discuss and he told us about how he was beginning to be convinced that the Book was true.  I asked him if it was the words that were convincing him or if it was his feelings.  He then told me that it was his feeling that were telling him that the Book was true!

I echo that testimony. I know that if any honest seeker of truth reads the Book of Mormon they will know of its truthfulness.  I know because I have done that.  I know that this is Jesus Christ's church and that Jesus Christ leads and directs it today through his prophet Thomas S. Monson. 

We had many other great lessons throughout the week, some with people we taught others just to ourselves as we thought and pondered.  I have learned a great deal this week, and I am excited to continue to grow.

One of the other things that happened this week was that I finally had to give my first talk in Norwegian!  So that was yesterday!  I spoke about how happy missionary work makes us.  I shared my experience of my mission and how I am happier now than I ever have been.  How I have seen the gospel change the life of someone I know, how I receive joy as a result of seeing that person becoming a better person.

It really enjoyed the experience.

Now maybe to finish of with a funny experience...  One day Elder M and I were tracting.  We come across the street onto a new block and we look to our left and there is this abandoned house on our left. The weeds are almost as tall as us the paint chipping and falling off, the house in complete and utter disarray.  As we walk past we see these seagulls sitting on top like they own the place.  Just as we see them and they see us, and they take action.  They started dive bombing us and harassing us til we were half-way down the street haha.  Now every time we walk by the house they do the same thing.  We think that they actually have a nest or something on the top of the roof or something. 

The real funny part was when they began to do the same thing to the people behind us.  Some poor elderly woman couldn't really get away from them either.  

So that was some quality entertainment while contacting.

Anyways, that is about it.  I am still loving the mission, loving the people here, and loving the chance to be a missionary during this historic time.  We watched the conference to the mission presidents this morning and all I can say is wow.  We are so lucky to be living at this time to experience this kind of thing happening in the work.  

I know that if we seek to help others as we are motivated by love we will find success, that as we act on our love and faith the lord will bring miracles into our lives!  

Jeg elsker deg så mye!

Din sønn,

Eldste Jones