10/28/13

Hey dad!

The language is coming, I'm understanding more and more, but it's still a struggle. Somehow I haven't eaten any fish yet... I guess it's not as common as we thought. Lots of lefsa though. Its delicious. Most of the time when we eat with members we have rice with like chicken and stuff. So that's not bad. Groceries all come from grocery stores. We have a washer in our apt. we dry our clothes by hanging them up in a little room and turning on a dehumidifier. Leaves things kinda crusty... but it works! Anyway, other story I forgot to put in the other letter, we had a general authority speak in our ward yesterday. It was paul v. johnson of the first quorum of the 70. * sure thought that was cool that we had a leader of the church with us. It was pretty awesome. My companion had to teach sunday school, it was on eternal marriage.... and the 70 was in our class. I thought that was funny haha. It was way good though. Loving it all. Glad you're talk went well. Hopefully I gave enough information. That'd be cool if bishop could read my emails too. Thats fine. Hope you guys are all doing good! glad to see jacob hasn't changed! Love you guys!

10/28/13

Fasting works!! and trials really do bring about great things!‏

 

Hey everyone!

Glad to hear you're all doing good. Sounds like a good week. Our week started out pretty stressful. Our golden investigator, his name is *, but his family sent him some letters that were pretty negative. They were telling him they didn't think it was a good idea. He is so cool though. He said that he started having doubts after that so he read the book of mormon, and he felt better. so we were like awesome, but that night he came back again and didnt look as good. He asked to push his date back to the 9th. His dad sent another email that discouraged him a lot more. He said he had the temptation to go drink a beer, cuz he felt like that's what people do when they feel that down, but he felt like he should come talk to us instead. Basically, satan was throwing everything at him. He knows how to follow the promptings of the spirit! he is so cool. But he was really discouraged. We talked to him for a while and I gave him a blessing. Which was my first one. So that was really cool. The next day we met with him again, he said he felt a little better, but asked to drop his date completely. We were really bummed. He said he just wanted to be sure that it was right. He said he might want to wait til he was back in the states. So that was just hard. We made another appointment and left. We had been doing a fast for him as a district, cuz we knew that it would be really hard for him. We weren't sure what else we could do at this point but keep praying and hope for miracles. That was a really hard time. Then the Lord blessed us. That night at another appointment, we gained a few new investigators. THe next day we got a text from max, saying he felt like nov 9th was right,. So he was still going to be baptized! There were just so many little miracles we saw in those couple days after we fasted. Then on saturday, he had his baptismal interview and passed with flying colors. Yesterday he came to church and a fireside.. so 5 hours of church. Talked with tons of the members and was just loving it. He talked with the bishop and bishop came up to us after and said that he was completely ready to be baptized. That was so cool. To see how excited he was and how into the gospel he still is after some hard times. It sounds like his parents just kind of freaked a little but they are more understanding now. I think he will be baptized for sure. He asked elder * to do the baptism and me to do the confirmation. I am way excited to do that. All around that was just the coolest story of the week, maybe my mission so far ha all 4 weeks of it... Other than that, I went on splits to stavanger again this week so I flew down on friday morning and came back saturday afternoon. So fly count is up to 8 ha. Its a lot faster to fly us here. It is a 20 minute flight but like 4 hours to drive because you have to take ferries and stuff. But down there, we had several little miracles. They're all over the place. It has been an awesome week. Stressful but awesome. Thanks for the pictures. I honestly think pictures are some of the coolest things I can get. Hope this was a good letter. I know that fasting works! miracles happen! this is the true church! Love you guys!

ELdste Newey

10/21/13

church in norway... Not sure how many branches or wards... but we have two stakes. The north isn't in a stake, it's just part of the mission. here in bergen there are like 500 members in the ward. It has huge boundaries though. some members live an hour away. and only like 150 come to church so there's a lot of work to be done there. There's about 4000 members in all of norway i believe...Pretty much everyone knows english. THey dont speak it though unless they really need to .. like if I'm standing there with a blank stare. typical day... we get up exercise, eat shower and do all our studies til about noon. Then we eat a quick lunch and then if we have an appointment, we'll go teach, or we'll go contacting. We stay busy. If we don't have anything, we'll call everyone on our phone and try to set up an appointment. We usually have at least one appointment a day. That's basically it I believe. Friday night we have sport night at 7 til 9 for the young adults and we'll bring investigators to that. It's fun. but yeah... how I got locked out... So it was early, my prayer went longer then everyone elses, so I was the last one out of the room, I walked out in my towel, and everyone else was already in the shower. I closed the door. Nobody brought their keys with them and the door automatically locks... so yeah haha we had to get the custodian guy to come unlock it. he took his time too. it was funny. Hope these questions help! love you!

Elder newey

10/21/13

Hey guys!

Sounds like another crazy week for you all. Wheres Christina going again? I don't quite remember.... Hope you guys are all doing good. Its crazy how you can apply talks so perfectly to our situations. The Lord watches over us. Its pretty crazy how much we can see that. I love it. tell cool and pretty cool congrats with their races ha It took me a minute to figure out what you were saying. Exercise time is usually just push ups and sit ups and stuff like that. Still haven't gone running! Sounds like everything is going great! I did some studying the day after I got your last email on doubts. What I came to the conclusion was that doubt is the opposite of faith. It is awful. We just have to doubt not but be believing. Even if it's hard. One of my new favorite quotes is from pres. Uchtdorf from priesthood session. "you cannot become a champion without trials!" So good. we say that a lot. Any way, this week was pretty crazy we had zone conference in Stavengar. We flew up on Wednesday and had conference on Thursday all day. It was really good. That night we went to get on our plane to come back to bergen. The flight was supposed to leave around 7 and be about 20 minutes long. We waited on the plane about 10 minutes after we were supposed to take off, but then the captain came on and told us that there was a leak in the hydraulics and the plane couldn't leave. So we got off the plane and went back into the airport while they tried to figure out what to do. We all were kinda hoping that we would be given hotel rooms and have to stay over night. Eventually, after they got some people off on other planes they had a plane sent in from oslo to fly us out. the plane wasnt going to come til like 10 though. So they gave us food and we just kinda hung out in the airport. It was pretty fun. When we got on the plane, we pretty much had the entire back of the plane to ourselves so we told stories and just got to know each other. Then we rode the flybuss which is a bus from the airport to the train, we had that to ourselves as well. and the train. We pretty much just had several hours of just straight geting to know each other time.It was good. Our district is pretty close now. I think that'll be a good thing. We got home about 12 at night. Pretty crazy. It was fun though. The next morning was rough though for sure. Other than that... this week we did some more work with our investigator with a baptismal date. We are finished with everything for him! we actually moved his date up a week so he will be baptized on nov. 2nd! in a fjord! It will probably be freezing... but I am pretty excited for that. It will be a cool experience. I have some cool pictures I'll put on from the last week. Hope you guys are all doing well! I am doing great! learning tons. and just loving being a missionary. It is the coolest job anyone could have. Especially in norway ha. The gospel is just amazing. I love it. I am learning so much about it! Can t wait to hear from you guys next week!

Love eldste Newey

10/14/13 #2

Hey dad!

 

Most of my info is in my other email, but yeah we flew from oslo to bergen. It's crazy. We pretty much fly everywhere. We fly to stanger on Wednesday for zone conference. One of my teachers flew 130 ish times on his mission. We've got lots of people to teach. Things are really going well here in bergen. For your sacrament meeting talk, I'd say just prepare them to be ready to talk to people. That's what you do. Tell them that Missions are hard. But they're worth it. It gets hard, but usually it leads to something great. Like on saturday we had 5 lessons where people didn't show up... then at the end of the day, we got somebody to show up, we taught him at the church , gave him a tour of the church and he actually asked us if he could come to church. we also asked him if he'd be baptized. He said yes, once he knows it's true. He really seems to want to know. It is awesome. He came to part of church too. He had to leave before sacrament unfortunately, but he still came! so that was just awesome. hmmm also something I've noticed is you have to be ready to work with anybody. Members are super important in helping investigators. Thats what I have noticed. Really helps. If we don't get to know the members, they won't work with you. So being able to get to know all kinds of people and working with them is super important. I can't think of much else right now, but I hope that helps! Thanks for everyting dad!

Love eldste newey

10/14/13

Week two in Norway... Wow just awesome! I can't believe how awesome things are going here in bergen.   SO yeah... THe plane ride was fun except for that one part. Ha I blame the airline food though. It didn't taste right anyway. Pretty sure it was just cooked up in a microwave or something. Didn't feel right after that...  So kinda funny, My companion is Elder W** haha. He is my trainer.  Hes way cool. Definitely helping me out a lot to get adjusted. We do get along pretty well. We have fun.  President seems pretty cool I didn't get to talk to him to much but yeah I like him.  We have zone conference this week so I'll probably talk to him then.  I am having tons of fun here. Lots of amazing things happening. There is one kid we are teaching, from the states. I think I talked a little about him last week. But This week was a really good week with him.  He's read half the book of mormon in 2 weeks. So thats really cool.  Every lesson we see him teach himself with a little bit of help from us and tons of help from the spirit. IT is amazing.  Every time we meet him, he just seems super excited about the gospel and just everything about it. He just wants to learn more and be a member! Everything we tell him he just accepts and gets excited about.  We think it's funny, he told us, most people come to norway to party and i'm here learning about the gospel! we think it's awesome.  He is way ready. We asked him about baptism and whether he wanted to be baptized here or in the states when he goes home. He quoted the scripture in mosiah about here are the waters of mormon, and said he felt like he should be baptized soon. So we have a date with him on the 9th. Pretty dang awesome.  Just last night he told us he was writing a letter to his parents to tell them he is becoming a member. He said it is three pages long! ah! I'm pretty sure its probably pure testimony. I'm way excited to see how that goes. He wants to get baptized in a fjord too.  THat will be way awesome.  THats just one of the awesome investigators I am working with. THe work is really going pretty strong here in Bergen. Its awesome.  SO here, we do a lot of street contacting. I haven't been knocking yet.  The classes bring the most referrals, but they don't always come through.  Most of the time we walk or ride the bybane, which is a train thing. We have a car for a little bit, while the couple missionaries are in oslo for a transfer. We don't use it too much though.  Mostly just if we need to go long distances which is possible cuz our area is pretty dang big. The time difference wasn't too bad to adjust to.  It's pretty weird to think that its 3 am where you guys are! weird! But I am just doing really good.  The weather has actually been pretty good the last couple days. Tuesday we got soaked through, but the last few days it has been pretty much sunny and fairly warm Thats one nice thing about being on the coast. Not too cold. At least not yet.  It is super pretty here though.  I need to take more pictures.  I'm going hiking today so I'll do that today. Conference was great.  There were such good talks! Uchtdorfs was definitely good.  His from priesthood worked really well with it and it was my favorite. Mostly I remember the part that says we can't be champions without trials.  I really like that. It has to be hard sometimes. If it wasn't hard, we would never be stronger.   Something I've already seen here in norway is that hard times come, but after hard times, there is always something good at the end.  It is just truth! THats good to feed the missionaries! It helps a ton! Ive only had one dinner with members so far and we had an investigator with us. But we have a few more dinners this week already scheduled, so they take care of us here. The people are awesome! I still haven't had any real norwegian food except for maybe a kebab. THose are good.  oh and these hotdogs I'll send you a picture of.  But thats cool for christina Good luck to her! Anyway, this was a kinda long email... But I hope all is well! I miss you guys! THis church is true! never forget it. Christ is at the head and his will will be done. No matter what! Good things take time, but if you bear them with patience they are amazing! Hold to the faith! and know that with God, You can do it Now! love you guys! see you in two!

Eldste Newey

10/07/13 Norway

Hey everybody!

Oh my goodness I am actually in Norway! It's so crazy! I don't even know how to describe it all. It has just been a crazy but amazing experience. So yeah. Monday morning we took off on our plane to head to dallas. The plane ride wasn't too bad. Only a couple hours and I would've talked to the lady next to me, but she didn't speak english.... or norwegian. So I stared out the window for the whole ride. Pretty crazy. I dont mind flying too much. So we landed in dallas which was a huge airport. We kinda just hung around for a while.... I got to talk to tanner that was cool. I didn't get to talk for too long because they called us to go check in our passports. So finally we boarded the plane and headed off for london! 9 hours..... holy cow. That was a long flight. but it was cool . I slept for about half of it. so that was nice. The rest of the time I kinda just talked with the elders I was sitting next to and reading scriptures and talks and stuff. Not too terrible though. So then we landed in london. That was weird... First time in another country. That was interesting. Pretty exciting though. We couldn't leave the airport so we just sat around inside the airport for a while. Sorry mom I didnt get to taking any pictures of the airports... But so finally our last flight from london to oslo came. So we all boarded up. I was next to elders again. That's probably good because I ended up throwing up right after take off... I blame airline food.. It did seem a little sketchy. So then we eventually got to oslo. Just staring out the window at the land was beautiful. It is an amazing country. So eventually we finally all found our bags and found the mission president and his wife. They helped us exchange currency. and then they ran us to the mission home. There they fed us a big dinner and talked to us about where we were going and what we should expect and stuff. They sent us to bed early and the next morning we got up at 630 and all showered and stuff. Then we had a homemade breakfast and a little orrientation thing. That was good. Then about 2:00 we headed to our planes. So yepp I am in bergen! super awesome place. They get 300 inches of rain a year here..... It is raining almost all the time. I'll probably buy a rain coat today sometime. So yeah back to wednesday when we got here, right when my comp picked me up, we went straight to the church where we were teaching a language class. I was thinking how can I teach the language, I barely know it! but i didn't have to teach. So after that we teach like a 10 minute lesson on the book of mormon and ask if anyone is interested in learning more. Some of them say yes. So thats way cool so we set up appointments and stuff with that. Then a while later that night we had a lesson with a guy named A****. He has a baptismal date for the 26th. But he didn't come to conference and we don't know why. So I think we have to change his date. but I hardly understood anything that was being said in the discussion! they talk way fast. but so that was my first day. Thursday we taught a lady named I****. It was the first lesson with her but she accepted it . She seems super positive about it. Her family went inactive when she was 7 so she was never baptized and she doesn't know much about the church. But she really wants to find out more and find out for herself if it's true. She just seemed to ask all the right questions and I think she should be a really good investigator. I gave her a baptismal invitation and she said yes if she finds out. but that was just one awesome experience. There is a lot more success here than I though there would be. so conference was awesome. We had an investigator from america who came with us. He's really positve and I could see him being baptized. But that might be in the states. But this was the first place he's found it before. Super exciting. The Things are just going really well here. I'm super excited to be in this work! conference is awesome. We watched the saturday morning session saturday night and then all but the sunday afternoon session on sunday. We watched that this morning. It was a dang good conference. Norway is seriously just beautiful. I'll send a few pictures that I have taken. But I am doing really good! miss you guys but I know that I am doing what is the right thing to do! Im super excited to be here in the bergen ward. The people are super nice. There are 4 elders and 4 sisters in the bergen area so we all work together. The work is picking up here. And it's going to be really good. You should see my walk home. I walk through a forest pretty much. I'll take a picture of that sometime. I wish you guys could see it. Any way I am loving it. Super happy and excited. hope you guys are doing good as well!

love eldste newey

9/24/13

GRATULERE MED DAGEN MOR!!!!!!

Hope that is going good! Today I am doing great. Everything is going good. Sounds like we are on track to get into norway on october first! We got our travel plans on friday. At 730 we are supposed to leave here. Our flight from salt lake leaves at 12 30 I dont remember how long that flight is, but it goes to dallas. Then we have a couple hours there, then we fly over to england. That will be a long flight....... We will be in london for 3 and a half hours, then we go to oslo. We asked the travel office to make sure we had our visas. They told us they don't know. They also said that if we don't hear anything we are fine so hopefully since we havent heard anything, we are fine. I am getting pretty excited though. It will be awesome. Going to be an awesome but different experience. Some cool things our teacher told us... I guess they're cool kinda... but Norway is so expensive that we use the $10,000 that pays for our mission in like 3 months. After that we go off of the money from other missions in like south america and stuff. Though that was interesting. Also since its so expensive to move missionaries around at transfers, we have 12 week transfers in norway. Thats crazy. That could be a good thing, and it could be a bad thing. Music in other languages is awesome! I love singing the hymns in norsk. Theres a song thats only in the norsk hymn book that is awesome. Its called Jeg sier deg o guds lam å stå. good stuff. It is kinda creepy though. Pretty awesome. My teacher said it is just a very norsk song. Thats awesome my plaque is up. Sounds like babysitting is a lot of fun... Have you missed those days at all? haha  My companion is eldste J. Birthday.... hmmmm,....I dont know exactly. I know that I am probably going to buy another thing of luggage here. Its 40 bucks. But I think im going to need it for sure. I leave literaly the morning after my birthday so i dunno what will be too useful. Something that a missionary can use on the plane to keep me entertained or something. Maybe one of those ties that blow up like a pillow haha. just kidding. I dunno. Anything would be awesome! I am just excited to go to norway for my birthday. I think we counted and we will be travelling for 20 hours total... Thats a long time. Other than that I think i am good...   My week was pretty good. Travel plans were definitely a highlight. A couple weeks ago I saw reese  in the temple. He went through a session with me. I think I forgot to tell you guys that. So yeah. I dunno. Pretty exciting. just lots of class time and stuff. I am actually working on a letter for you guys that I just write about my day at the end of the day for this last week. So you can see what its like here kinda. But last friday I had a cool experience. Our teacher had us all say a prayer and told us to ask a sincere question. Like if Norway is ready to be converted or something like that. I started my prayer, and I just wanted to know that God was listening. Cuz for a few times he had us do something like this, I didnt get an answer or nothing happened like I thought it would. So I just asked. I sked if he was listening, and then I just waited. I waited a couple minutes and didnt really feel anything. finally I started saying something again. Immediately I just felt like someone was right next to me listening to every word I said. And I just felt like he cared about every word as well. It was an amazing experience! He really does listen to our prayers!!The mtc is just awesome. SO many experiences like that. So anyway, yepp I got the salsa! I read the letter at first and thought it was homemade salsa. Little disappointed when I saw it haha just kidding. I was excited. We will probably eat that today because we havent had much time before. I am excited for my birthday! I probably will get ice cream because they usually have it on sundays! but it is also fast sunday... so we will see I guess. But I am excited. Cant Think of much of a better present than getting to go to norway to preach the gospel! Everything is still going great! So I get to email on saturday I think before we go so I will email you then or maybe some more later today. Keep writing! I love to hear from you all!

Love Eldste Newey

9/17/13

HEY! Hordan går det? Sounds like det gå bra. besides all the sickness and what not. That doesnt sound fun. I got an email from jacob finally. I bet this week is pretty crazy for all the byu and utah fans.... I hear about even that hear at the mtc... Of course when there is a game going on in provo we can hear the cheering and stuff. My companion is a byu fan and doesnt like hearing all of that. haha Days are definitely good. Just kinda long. I really am kinda tired of my little classroom. The window is like half underground and covered by bushes so when we go outside the sun is just one of the best things ever haha. I do feel like an old timer. Ive seen people come in and then leave a couple times... Its weird. And I still have 13 days left. Which isn't too bad. I still think going to norway is an awesome birthday present. Visas.... Still no word. I think we get our travel plans on friday but I dont think that means much still. THe people going to denmark got their travel plans last friday, they were supposed to leave next monday but only one of them got their visa so I dont know... I have been told a few times we dont have many problems going to norway so I am still just hoping. The danes are all getting reassigned it sounds like. That would be kinda a bummer. I dont know how to call collect haha. Ill figure something out. I am excited for that though. Think of some stuff for me to say in norsk though aha. Thats going to be awesome to be able to talk to you. SO yepp I have seen the new temple movie a couple times now. It is pretty sweet. I like it a lot. Hopefully you all start feeling better soon. Thats good tanner is doing better. Haha he went to homecoming? Even in the mtc stuff like dating is already gone from our minds. The other day the co producer of some of the church movies came and talked to us. He showed us som eclips from the movie ephraims rescue which looks pretty cool, but one of the scenes had a kiss and everybody freaked out. I thought that was funny.  My friends all seem to be doing really well. Jason is in argentina and said its really dirty there but he is enjoying it. I heard from cade today, I guess he was on west campus and that was why i never saw him. But hes down in part of colorado now and hes loving it. Tate is enjoying england. Says he drove for the first time this week. I guess its super weird driving on the other side of the road. He says europe is awesome though. All around it just sounds like everybody is doing good. I do miss my friends though. I am looking forward to your packages! food will be awesome. There are a few times I just look for snacks but dont have any. Its crazy to think that my birthday is so soon.... weird. Im almost 19! Sounds like a fun anniversary... Jacob and reid sound like they're doing good. Hopefully jacob doesnt overload himself. I still dont get why they like running so much. I have been actually running only once since being here. And that wasn't fun. I went a mile and a half. I felt it was a good speed. No idea how fast it was though. Usually I just play soccer. Its interesting, cuz theres no sliding or heading and the grass is super wet and slick... but its still fun. The nords and the danes have a soccer rivalry going on. Championship is on friday before they leave. tell Rylee she is silly and poke her for me. Tell her I think girls are weird too. That's cool she's in tumbling. I am still doing great! learning more every day. And loving it. I got my first committment to baptism yesterday. That was awesome. Now I can't wait to do that for reals. Hopfully I can understand real nords as well as I can understand most of what my teachers say. I miss you all too! HOpe all is well and everybody stops being sick! Can't wait to hear from you again It's always nice to hear from home! Love you all!

Eldste Newey

9/8/13 MTC

Hvordan Går det? (how goes it)

Things here are awesome. The days are all blending together. It all feels the same. Every day is pretty much the same. Wake up, Gym time, Shower, breakfast, study, class, lunch, class, study, dinner, study,planning, bedtime. It's pretty crazy though. We are kept busy. A lot of it feels the same, except I am learning more. The teachers really are awesome. They help us so much. They have inspired us to do better with our missions and to want to be the best missionaries. The language is definitely still hard, but we have had a few pretty successful discussions in Norsk only. I am still loving it. Its awesome being able to go to the temple every week too. we go every p day so I have been twice. Should be going again today. I probably will send the charger back. I can use the plug but I dont need the cord. I ll send it with a few other things I dont think ill need. I am out of cookies and pretzals so that would be good. I dont know what else really. I am pretty set, but a package would be awesome! Maybe some actual pictures of you guys or something. When you say ånden the å is more of an o sound and a is a a sound ha. and onden is evil so sometimes that could be bad. They are all pretty similar. I am hoping my visa comes on time as well. I think I should be fine. but well see. Sounds like you guys had a pretty fun crazy week. Thats cool that tanner is volunteering. Keep me updated on whats going on! sounds like all is going great. Thats cool abby still misses me ha. Hope you all have a good week! Have fun!

Love

Eldste Newey

1st e-mail from MTC

Heisann Everybody!

 

How's life at home? Things are awesome here. There have been so many good things. Its so spiritual. My district is awesome. We all get along really well. In fact we got in trouble last night because we stayed up too late talking. It's been amazing here though. There are 6 elders in my district all going to Norway and one other district of 6 elders and a sister also going to Norway. We've all decided It is the best mission. There have been so many cool things and experiences happening! Every night I wish I could just tell you about them all. It's so much fun though. The language is definitely hard. Friday we had our first discussion with an investigator in Norwegian. Holy cow that was hard. I really didn't know what he was saying 99 percent of the time. But we got a few words in and have taught him a couple times since then. My teacher is awesome. He helps a lot. He talks mostly in Norsk but He speaks in English too occasionally though. He spent an hour one day telling us about Norway and how cool it was. I'm so excited. Since Ive gotten here there are a few things I realize I need.... ha such as a couple more t shirts, my norsk hymn book, Oh and a nerf gun. I dont have too much time on the computer or I'dd tell all the stories... like how I locked my whole district out of our room yesterday morning so we all sat in the hall only wearing towels for 20 minutes... Yeah it wasnt good. But love you all! sounds like a crazy week.   pday is on tuesdays so today I get to go to the temple so I am way excited for that. I saw jason quite a bit since getting dropped off. He left for argentina yesterday though so he's gone. I think cades either gone or at the other campus so I won't see him too much. I really am loving it here though! good to hear from you all. Tell rylee to watch the mail. and that her letter made my day. Keep writing! Love you all!

Har de Bra!

Eldste Newey

This is how it all started!