8/25/14

Hey Guys How are you all doing?  Norway's doing good. No huge changes here. The last week was pretty good  sounds like the home is empty lately. School is back in. That's so weird. I left last time school started!! woah! one year is gone. That's crazy.  Thanks for your package by the way! I actually got it this morning. That was cool to get. All of it is awesome! Thanks so much ! I love you guys! We had another conference in oslo this week. Just a zone conference with the aps teaching skills. So lots of practicals and stuff. It was good though.  I learned a lot.  I haven't seen T, J or A this week.  T disappeared and J and A were difficult to meet with.  But because of the conference we had the elders from halden staying with us to drive us up and then we had a stake soccer competition that we were able to be in so they stayed with us.  Elder D is one of them so him, I and elder G burned shirts for our year mark.  that was fun.  Still pretty weird that its been a year.  Its been a crazy year. Lots of stuff thats happened.  The whole * (the guy who was converted and left right after) story is pretty crazy. He's not been in church as far as i know. He doesnt respond to my emails. Last i heard from his bishop was that his parents won't let anybody into the house to visit him and that he hasn't been to the church at all. SO thats sad. That was a while ago. I haven't heard anything since, but W said he's going to track him down and talk to him hah. so we'll see how that goes.I hope he goes to church.  But here in moss things are going well.  Its been pretty slow but i think it will pick up soon. Yesterday we only had time to knock on one street and we got three people that wanted us to come back because they were busy at the time. That was awesome. Two of them were families. And they were more positive than most of the people that just tell us to come back. So that will be cool.  Saturday was fun we had the stake soccer tournament.  It was intense. I didn't expect it to be so intense.  We were invited to be on the fredrikstads team because moss didnt invite us. So it was a team of 6 americans most of which have never played soccer and a few europeans. Against the other norwegians that take soccer very seriously. I had to hold back and really try not to take people out because there was a lot of non members. That was fun. They were way intense. We lost all 3 of our games.  THe europeans weren't so impressed with us. haha there was some yelling. But it was really fun. I was glad to play again. But we were a little sore yesterday.  This coming week we are really hoping to get some investigators who will really want to investigate. Moves call will be next sunday. That's exciting.  Not too much is going on other than that.  We have a few people that we are teaching norwegian to. One guy from canada. So that's exciting.  But we are just goin on. Doin our best and I am loving it.  Lots of good stuff out here as a missionary.  

Thanks for the key to life mom! (2 Nephi 31:19-21)thats helpful. I was thinking earlier this week about how you can make your calling and election sure.  You make it so simple. Thats basically the formula! We really just have to stick to the basics and really strive to follow christ.  He is our head and the center of all we do. WE really should hold our focus on him and do all that we can to be like him.  HE is the perfect example.  steadfastness in Christ.  I think that really just means we really have to try and have him in our thought and live by every word that he teaches.  HE is our teacher.  He loves us! Its true!! ANyway. I hope you guys have a good week! Love you guys! Thanks for the prayers and support!

Elder NEwey

8/18/14

Hey Guys! 

I have more time this week :) ha Its been good though. our zone pday was really good. We played soccer and capture the flag and ultimate frisbee. IT was fun.  We stayed the night in romerike for the night with the elders from halden and then we went to conference the next day. It was a really good conference. I really liked it. WE had elder dyches from the area presidency here visiting. I enjoyed it. There was a lot of things he talked about lots of stuff. It was really good.  There was a lot of good things said about how we can help the members and how we can be more obedient.  THere was a lot of good things there.  It was cool to hang out with so many missionaries too for a couple days.  The week was good otherwise. We saw *** again. that was good it's been a few weeks since we've since we've seen him.  I was pretty happy. He said he'd be in church but he wasn't... ah well. Church was really good. They've been having meetings with the bishops and with the stake presidents teaching them how to do missionary work in their wards. Im hoping good things are going to start coming. We were at a members house for dinner yesterday and they were talking about how they think that elder bednar coming is going to be about hastening the work.  I am pretty sure that is what he'll be talking about.  That will be cool.  I was talking to my distrikt leader last night and we decided its going to be more than just the normal hastening the work... haha :) Im really excited about that.  We've been sure trying to be busy here. IT's difficult to find stuff to do sometimes.  That's so crazy.  Tanners been home for a year and I'll have been out for a year on thursday. Wow. Super weird. It blows my mind how fast time flies. It's kinda scary! But it's awesome. :) haha I know what you mean about getting nervous to talk. I struggle with talking in front of people still. It's rough.  But I am working on it! Its funny how i can go out and talk to most of the people on the street pretty easily but talking in front of 150 members is hard!! BUt things are going good here. School started here today so the people should basically all be back from vacation. We are hoping so at least. WE really need to find some people to teach in this area.  I am having cool experiences of patience though. ha it's good. I am doing really good though.  The weather is cooling off quite a bit. Its been raining a lot. We had a few huge lightning and thunder storms earlier this week. It was crazy. SUper loud.  WE never know whether to wear a jacket or not. Because we just have these flash storms that come in and pour and then it would be sunny and humid and too warm for a jacket.. IT's crazy.  But it makes it interesting. Thanks so much for the prayers and support it helps a lot! I love you guys :) 

Love Elder Newey :)

8/11/14

Hey Guys! SO I have like 15 minutes to email today... WE have no pday because on thursday we are going to have a zone pday in oslo before  a half mission conference with a 70. THat will be pretty cool. That's awesome jacob and reid had a good time at efy. Thats a good one. Except i heard it's not even called efy anymore. Its fsy. THats pretty cool.   SOunds like they had a good time. Except they didn't tell me about it! hah its ok. THings are going pretty well here though.  WE haven't really found anyone else to teach lately. Everyone who gives us their number never answers and then when they do they say they're not interested. So its hard. But it's ok.  WE are working hard and doing a lot of praying.  I heard brother m served here. I asked a couple people if they ever knew him. I never met anybody that did.  BUt that would make sense if he didn't serve in my areas! I like how he named espen too. Thats a norwegian name.  Pretty cool. SIster mc was in my district for a while. She was cool.  SOunds like a good day though. I miss the 15th ward.  Cool people.  The mtc will definitely keep your spiritual high going. IT's awesome.  Good luck with your talks! I would say definitely that example was pretty huge.  AS well as constant fhe and prayer.  Prayer is a huge thing.  I have realized i guess that prayer is really one of the best things you can do. AS long as there is prayer in the home its kinda like there is an open channel to heavenly Father that he can bless us and speak to us through. You learn a lot through that relationship. I can't think of any specific memories right now... Sorry.  Its hard to think when you feel rushed.. haha but Good luck!  Thanks for the picture! Thats crazy,.... It can't be that time yet... ha wow.. ANyway I love you guys! Thanks for your prayers and support!

Love Elder NEwey

8/4/14

Hey guys! 

I don't have a ton of time today because i have to catch a bus back into moss. We are in fredrikstad today for a district p day. We watched the saratov approach. You're probably as surprised as i am that we got permission for that! It was intense. Now were all worried about getting kidnapped... haha But everything is going well though.  The members keep asking us if we are staying busy at church. And we keep saying of course we are. We are using all our time banking and kontakting though! Because finding has been rough lately! But we found a couple really cool potentials the last few days so that was good.  Things are still going great with ***. She came to church.  And *** dissappeared again... So that's sad. Im sure he'll show up again at some point.  ** is doing awesome.  I wish he was able to move out though.  I have been reading elder holland's talk however long and hard the road this last week. It's amazing.  Given me lots to think about.  I wouldn't worry too much about the terrorist threat thing... I got one text about it and thats it. Haven't heard anything really... haha Im sure its fine.  THats awesome reid and jacob are going to efy. That'll be fun.  I hope you guys have an awesome week! I love you all! 

Love Elder Newey

7/28/14

Hey Everybody!

How are you all doing? I dont know what youre talking about mom, the olympic park looks perfectly safe. Look at all those ropes and stuff. I wouldn't be too worried... ha..  

oops now ill finish... 

Tell sister hansen hi back ha.  It's true I think. I've heard that before I think.  It makes sense to me at least. There are forces on both sides of the veil fighting for God's kingdom to grow here on this side. IT's pretty cool.  Not only our families as missionaries but also the families of those we talk with.  It's really cool. SOmetimes its easy to feel like we are alone in this fight here in moss. Especially since there wasn't even very many members in moss this last week, but it is always good to remember that there are spirits around us. Building us up and keeping us going. I kind of felt it the other day. We had a really long bike ride, and it was like 95 degrees and super humid. So I was getting pretty tired and pretty sweaty. (its been pretty gross here lately.... I've taken a couple showers at meal times cuz I stunk...) But I just felt like there was something pushing my legs forward. It was a long bike ride. And lots of uphill, but it wasn't that difficult.  It had been difficult before, but it wasn't too bad.  It was really cool.  I knew there was something pushing.  But yeah. So Its pretty cool. There really are many who are fighting for this side that we don't even see. Thats a good reminder.  It becomes easy to feel like we are not enough sometimes.  But it doesn't matter. There is always something or someone there to help us out.  Plus as christ said, he is laboring with us. Pretty cool :)

Pioneer day..YOu guys didn't do to much for that? Thats ok me either haha.  SOunds like you guys had a good week though.  WE had a weird week here. All the members were in sweden so that made it slightly difficult to do any member work.  We kinda just banked and contacted a lot. But not too many people were interested.  It was blazing hot though. I saw it at 35 celsius quite often. And the sun isn't usually down by the time we go to bed, so its just always hot. Always.  I hear its supposed to start cooling down though.. So that will be good.  But The heat was tough. It was way humid as well. Its apparently record breaking heat for norway. So thats been pretty crazy. Just leaves lots of sweat and stuff.  But all is going well other wise.  The members are all back, and we have a couple progressing investigators. We've found *** and he is still slightly drunk but he's now invited us to come to his house. So we are going to try tonight. Hopefully he  lets us throw out all his alcohol... ANd then theres **. Shes awesome. She has investigated for a while. She just started coming to church and reading again. She was asking about baptism a couple weeks ago. So I have some high hopes for her! THings are going well though. AND I am happy.  Its crazy how you pretty much can always find some joy in everything you do.! It's awesome. :)

DOing service was great. WE don't get too do it that often.  The norwegian people sure like to be self sustaining.  They don't like help. Makes it hard sometimes.  But I really enjoy service projects. Gives me something a little different to do. ITs nice.  But anyway. I love you guys hope you have a great week!

Love Elder NEwey

7/21/14

Hey GUys! 

It was another good week here too! Sounds like you guys are doing good.  Mt NEbo is an interesting market.  I miss it... ha just kidding.  I want to go camping! ha I think I'll wait though.  IT has been really hot here lately. IT's been in the 30s Celsius. I dont even know what that is in Fahrenheit.  But its hot. ANd its not too fun going around in slacks and a white shirt. But its really fun still. Biking around makes you really sweaty so that's always interesting... But people don't usually say anything about it haha. So that's really good.  ANyway im glad you guys didn't see any bears and that everyone made it through their camping adventures. Tell jacob im proud. haha. I thought that was funny. (They put crickets in the girls tents) TAnners beard is getting pretty big! Im impressed! THis week was good here though. Monday after pday we went to a member families for fhe. It was really cool. WE had a lesson planned and were going to use a mormon message and what not. But we realized that they have little kids and they didn't understand english so we couldn't use that, so we kind of went of and made up a lesson as we went about prayer. It was really cool. We were talking about prayer and what it means to truly pray.  It was kinda cool because we have been getting the members to name people for us to pray for with them, and one of the extended family members who was inactive that one of the daughters asked us to pray for was at their house during the lesson. SO it was just pretty cool.  Theyre an awesome family. The rest of the week was pretty good. WE did lots of trying to work with members, but of course its still a little hard when a lot of the members are on vacation.  THis week will be even harder because its temple so most of the ward is in sweden for the whole week. But things are still going well.  friday we made cookies and saturday we went around and gave a bunch to members who have been a help to us and put out quotes from the apostles about member missionary work. We are really trying to motivate the members. Still trying to get to know them better. Its hard at first to make them feel like you are actually a friend. We are working on it though. I'm really enjoying it.  We found like the two people who are actually going to be home this week and are going to work with them and their friends this week. One even got us a service project to do this week. It was awesome. Little miracles. One we just went to a members house who was leaving today to the temple to drop off a book. They had another member family who had just moved in visiting them for a little ice cream. They invited us in too. WE shared a little spiritual thought and the new family told us that they had some people they were hoping that we could teach in their new neighborhood.  And he gave us a service project that we will do on tuesday. Pretty cool. THe Lord is still watching out for us. :) WE are really excited to keep going with all the members. Investigators are still going well. One lady that has been asking a lot of questions about baptism. Which is good because last time she was asked about it she didn't talk with the missionaries for three weeks.  But it's awesome.  President gave us tips as he watched (scripture study time) it was good.  it was a little weird though ha.   I got one last picture with elder w.  He'll be home on thursday... Weird .   Time is flying by too fast.  But its been awesome.  Yesterday I read in romans 12:12 and it says Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation ; continuing instant in prayer. I've made that my kind of goal. Always rejoicing when there is hope, so pretty much always.  patient when it is difficult and there are tribulations. and always being willing to say a prayer.  always praying. instantly. I kind of think of how thats going to the lord instantly before anyone or anything else. SO that's pretty cool. I like that one.  Arent pat. blessings cool? Theyre so helpful and have a lot of help in them.  Forgiveness was definitely a good quality joseph had.  Its a good one. But it is hard.  Its a good thing THe Lord is always willing to help us! ANyway I better go. WE are going hiking in a bit. Love you guys! Thanks for everything!

Love

Eldste Blake NEwey

7/14/14

Hey Guys! 

The glasses were just in the apartment here when I got here. They are fake. :) I thought they were funny. haha.  Two months vacation sounds great.  haha. I wouldn't take it though. That is such a long time. Luckily there are a few who don't take it. So we have a few members at least to visit haha. WE are really getting on these members.  They have a lot to offer with being the highest concentration of mormons in europe... haha I think serge (from Saratov Approach) might have kidnapped ***. HEs kinda disappeared. We have no idea where he is. haha Im sure hes just on ferie or something... 

Its a really good activity with the book of Mormon. It's so cool.  YOu realize the book really is about Christ.IT is all about him. I'm almost through second nephi in it. Its really cool to experience.  Jesus the Christ is awesome. It has a lot of detail and stuff that really explains it all. IT's so cool! I haven't read too much of it. But what i have read, it is awesome.  He really is our Savior.  Our Redeemer. The Messiah, the Creator, All the names he has! Its So true! I love it. I am so grateful to him.  Why would you not want to share this with other people. It's amazing. 

That's cool you had tucker and his family over. They really enjoyed that rodeo... SOund like you all had a good time. THat's good.  Where did the extra mattress come from? haha You guys got to spend lots of time with family. THats really cool. Josephs 8 now? wow... Crazy. haha I remember being excited for a journal... I remember not too long after my 8th birthday we went and picked up robert from the airport after his mission. ha Crazy. I just remember looking at my watch in bed wondering when we were going to go.  THat was a while ago.  

This last week was good here as well.  Monday night we went out trying to find people. WE tried a less active family. They were busy but we got another appointment. SO that was good.  Tuesday. we taught ** the jw... and president called us and told us that he was going to come down and visit us the next day.  so wednesday president came down and watched our studies and our weekly planning.  HE went kontakting with us for an hour too. It was good.  He left after that though. THat night we had a lot going on. WE had a dinner with a member family, they are way on board with the whole missionary work thing. They have a few families they are wanting to invite to church. THen we had mmk and discussed how we are going to continue our plan then I went with the mmk to visit another member family while elder g stayed at the church with another member to set up for our language class and get that started till i came back. THen we had our language class which was good. It was a good day. Thursday we had our distrikt leader and his companion over for splits.  we did some banking. Taught **. visited a member family for dinner, visited a couple less actives. and it was all around a good day.  friday the whole zone went up to oslo to have a  zone skills training thing. WE were there for about 7 hours . We thought it was going to be just practicals. Which there was a lot of that, but it was a really fun actually. WE learned a lot. and Hopefully we take those skills and use them.  It was the last time I got to see elder W. That was sad. He goes home next wednesday. Pretty crazy.  WE also found out elder bednar is coming to norway in september for a special stake conference, and he will have a 3 hour meeting with the missionaries afterwards. SO that is pretty exciting.  Saturday we tried using our new skills and decided to go banking until we found a miracle. WE were out for 5 hours and nobody wanted to talk to us... but finally we found a muslim man who took a book and said he would read it and we could come back after ramadan. So that was really cool.  And we felt happy the whole time. So it was good.  Sunday I gave my first real talk in norway.  I talked about member missionary work.  I felt like i did terrible. I still don't do so well with talking in front of people. haha But one of the ladies said she wishes she could tell my mom how proud she should be of me.  THat made me feel better haha. So that was my week.  One thing I've been thinking about is the hymn be still my soul.  One of the best hymns ever. I love it.  WE really don't need to worry. CHrist is on our side.  And all will be alright in the end. ITs pretty amazing. REally gets me every time i hear it.  THey don't have it in norwegian though.. ah well.  

ANyway. THis is long...... I hope you guys have a great week! I love you! thanks for your prayers and support! 

Love Elder Newey

7/7/14

Hey guys!I miss fourth of july! It isnt the same when you aren't in america. Nobody really cares as much... It was good though. THat night we played the star spangled banner over and over again and put up my scripture case with the american flag on it. SO it was a day well spent. It was weird though the next morning cuz i realized you guys were watching fireworks when i woke up... Weird... haha This week was pretty good though. We are in a weird transition stage in our area because we are trying to not bank and kontakt anymore but to work with members a lot. The problem is, half the ward is gone on vacation. For a long vacation. Its funny when we ask, hey can we come visit this week, and they say, oh sorry we'll be leaving on vacation tomorrow and we'll be gone two months... SO we are still banking and kontakting, but its really not that effective... This week wasn't bad. We got a couple potentials. SO that was really good. We have a few people who have told us to try back when banking so thats really exciting.  ha we are going ham here. Its pretty awesome.  *** is still doing good as far as i know.  we saw him on tuesday and talked to him for a while, he said he wanted to come to church and to sport and it was cool, but we haven't seen him since, hopefully he's alright. He doesn't have a working phone and he's never home when we try so it makes it hard to contact him.  But other than that things are going well.  The ward has a goal of 12 baptisms this year, but they have 0 now.. we are working on that.  :) Anyway, sounds like you guys had a really good week. Good luck with school mom! Youll do great. SOunds like you guys had a good 4th though.  IT's always good to be with family.    I would like  to see these selfies with jacob hahahaha. that sounds like a good one. I would look at the album.  Is jacob busy or something that makes him so tired? Its not like hes very active. :) 

A little while ago we got copies of the book of mormon from president Evans at zone conference and we were given the assignment to go through them and mark every time the Savior is mentioned , as well as his attributes and his words. So it's been really cool to go through. It really helps you learn more about the savior when you are completely focused on him. Pretty cool.  So I have been thinking a lot about how i think of the savior. And while doing this activity i decided i want it to be like nephi says. How he says That Christ is is support. and he knows in whom he has put his trust.  You know that he knows and understands the savior. I am trying to get to know the savior more through this activity.  IT's pretty cool to see what his words are and what the prophets in the book of mormon say about him. I really strengthens my testimony of the Savior. I love how much you learn on missions. They are so awesome!!! ANyway. I hope you guys have a really great week! I love you all Thanks for your prayers!

Love Elder Blake Newey

6/30/14

Hey Everyone!!!!

I don't know much of what to say about this week. It was pretty good. I'll tell about what happened yesterday I guess. WIth background stuff. So There's this guy named * that we see in the main street quite often. Usually he is quite drunk. HE likes talking to us and giving us hugs and crying and all that good stuff whenever he sees us. Usually we give him a spiritual thought or something. HE's improved a lot since I first met him. THen he said he didn't have an alcohol problem, we've given him a book of mormon and he apparently reads it every day.  But he has now decided that he does have an alcohol problem and he really wants to stop.  So we are trying to help him a bit.  We saw him on saturday and stopped him before he walked into the bar a less active works at... but we stopped him and told him to come to church. In between sobs and hugs he promised us he would come and we gave him a word of wisdom pamphlet to read. And we said a prayer with him. Hes a super interesting guy... Super emotional when drunk. But so he promised to come to church and then decided to go home to sleep instead so he would be more sober for church. I made him promise not to drink before church.  But then church came yesterday and he showed up! With a suit jacket on over his half unbuttoned shirt! so that was exciting. We had a few members come up and tell us that they thought he'd been drinking that morning and we were just saying ya.. we know... we are working on it. But he loved priesthood meeting. THen he stood up and said he had to go for a little walk and he'd be back. But he never came back.. SO after church we met with bishop and talked about how we'd work with members and such but then we decided to go visit *. HE wasn't home but his neighbor leaned out his window and told us we were lost souls. HE then held up the satanic bible and explained to us why we needed to read it and why we were wrong. Then I told him to read the book of mormon and pray about it. He said no, and we declined his book, and then left. I thought it was funny. THe later that night we talked to a drunk old man sitting by a fountain, he told us to sit down so we thought he was positive. No matter how much norwegian we spoke with him he didn't believe we spoke it. Then in english he kept telling us how much he didn't like us telling him what to do. During this all he was doing a really high HEHEHEHE and punching our arms really lightly. THat conversation didn't last long. IT was funny though. THen later in contacting some guys dressed as pirates stopped us and asked what we were doing. So we told him about what missionaries do. ANd they invited us to their pirate party which is tonight! So we'll see. haha.  :) 

But so everything is going great here! Life is great.  I am pretty excited to keep going here in moss.  SOunds like you guys are doing great for you guys though! Glad tanners feeling better. I can't believe jacob ran that much. THat's crazy.  I wouldn't make it.  haha Way to go jacob.  Tanners face still looks fuzzy. haha.  SOunds like it was a good week though. Hope you guys have a happy canada day tomorrow and a good 4th of July on friday! I'm jealous.  SOunds like fun. But you're right being on a mission in norway is pretty cool too. :)Studying is the best.  I love personal study in the mornings. It is the best way to start the day and you learn so much! We've been focusing a lot on the uses of the book of mormon here the last couple weeks. So I have learned a lot about how important it really is. ANd how literally everything hinges off of the book of mormon for our investigators.  And then just spiritual confirmation.  Im trying to be able to be more in tune with the spirit lately though. I want to be able to understand and act on every prompting! SO thats probably a lot of what i'll study this week. But Ya. I hope you guys have a great week! Love you! THanks for your prayers!

Love Elder NEwey

6/23/14

Hey Guys! Happy birthday dad!!!!! A couple days late. I thought of you on friday.

THis week was good we met with *** again-. HE wasn't able to come to church unfortunately. He has to wait for a work permit so he can get a job and pay for his own apartment.  It could take months though.. SO we'll see how that goes.  Laws or culture here? I dunno... Traffic rules are way different. THey take some getting used to when biking around.  It's not real different than america besides the language. There are definitely some differences. Mostly when it comes to religion and talking with people about religion.  haha 

That talk is a way good talk.  IT just explains our church from the bible haha.  We've been trying to bank a little earlier so there isn't a game going on. SO far we've been alright. Its been a pretty good week. WE found out *** is still in town so we got an appointment with her for tomorrow. Hopefully that still works out.  We will still be meeting with ****.  and ***.  We have a couple less actives we are trying to work with. We are still working with trying to get the members to do some missionary work as well. IT's working with the starting just with prayer. Our list of people to pray  for is growing quite a bit.  I'm getting pretty excited about it.  The mmk is cool. Hes pretty good to work with .  We are trying to get to all the ward council peoples homes. I know who all but one of them are now. SO that's pretty good.  I need to figure out who the sunday school president is. Bu I think that's it.  WE are having lots of good stuff happening. We had a lady from the congo who came to church yesterday. Unfortunately her english and norwegian aren't fantastic. But she speaks french. Luckily we have a couple members that can speak french. SO that is nice.  She said she would come back next week. SO thats good.  WE have a lot of exciting things planned. WE started a norwegian class. We had one guy who was interested in learning more about the book of mormon so that was good.  We have a lot of good stuff going on here. :)

Wow all tanners friends are getting married? Is he the last one? ha Sometime in the future? haha Thats good.  IT's kinda crazy how many people come out with out a testimony. If they don't figure it out fast, its pretty rough for them. But there isn't too much that can build your testimony than a mission. Not that I would recommend it that way.  Missions are definitely made to build us up. There's a lot that it can do.  It's pretty awesome.  

Happy birthday to grandpa newey! Hope jacob doesn't have too much in the ragnar. That sounds like fun.  I hope the filer house goes through this time.  That will be awesome to have gone!   

Courage is something i've been wanting to work on a lot.  I love president monsons talk.  I Was reading in the book of mosiah the other day.  I read chapter 2. Its awesome.  king benjamin is amazing. I was thinking in church how cool it would be to be able to hear him speak in person. I think that would be one of the first points in time that i would choose to be a part of.  It's pretty cool. But I love how he talks about how we owe so much to god.  We can never catch up to him. I found this last time I read it, but this time i noticed a little more about how we could get as close as possible to repaying him. Its pretty amazing. In vs 34 he says "render unto him all that you have and are." I realized its not just giving up what we have, but also giving unto god who we are.  This can mean a lot of things. One is that we all have our own personalities that were given to us by God. We should not waste them. We were given them to make us individual. Who we are. We should improve on those things.  Our personalities and our abilities should be used to serve others. I think that is one way we can render to god what we are. WHo we are has something that could help someone specifically to find the gospel or even just a friend.  ANother way I took it was that sometimes we have to give up something that we think is a part of us to become something better.  Like one of the speakers in conference said I don't remember which, it talked about the man who needed to repent but he said he couldn't change, its just the way he is. SOmetimes we have to give up who we think we are and put it into the lords hands so he can give you something much better. It can be hard.  It is worth it though.  It hit me pretty hard, giving to god all that we are.  Its interesting.  WE should use all our God given gifts, and in reading mosiah two you can see that all we have comes from god,   to serve and help others. I thought it was pretty cool.  I love that scripture. ANyway. Hope you guys have a fantastic week! I love you all!

love Elder NEwey

6/16/14

Hey Guys!

Big wards are pretty different. I say big ward haha. I guess 150 ish isn't that big... For Norway its pretty big. I don't know how i feel about it. I like it. But at the same time, I loved skien because they were way involved with the missionaries.  The bishop here is pretty cool. He's not real involved with us. I've only talked to him a couple times outside of the time we ate dinner with them.  SO its just getting used to it i guess. It'd be hard there to get to know the missionaries in utah i think. TO be over multiple wards.  Especially when the ward is fully functioning and don't really need help from the missionaries at least... SO they think!!! I hope to help them with missionary work. In priesthood yesterday they talked about magnifying our call. And I thought about how the call of every member is to do missionary work.  We have to magnify that call.  One thing they talked about was how the spirit is vital in magnifying your call. You have to allow the spirit to guide to do that which is best in your call. So i am even more set on my plan to help the members.  They all have to have friends who are outside of the church. Somebody they just know at least. And when we visit members we kind of remind them how the gospel has helped them in their lives, and then ask if theres people they can pray for. And that we can pray for too. Also so we get a name so we can follow up with up with how its going. Its a process I took from skien.  Pray to know who you should help first if you don't think of anybody at first. Then pray for them and for opportunities to share the gospel. But you have to be looking for these opportunities as well.  And act on them. Then we after a couple follow ups ask them if they can invite them to an activity or to church or even just dinner or activity night with the family.  (with prayer included of course) and then ask them to invite them to meet with the missionaries. We are just getting this started and we are trying to start with the ward council and then onward. It is awesome. We have a couple names that we have gotten already.  Its a big ward so i think it is very possible to get a big list.  Our prayers every night will be getting very long.  :) I hope so at least.  It would help so much! Especially since here in norway they don't like talking about religion for the most part with random kids in suits on the street. But it's ok. Because missionary work still works! Bu i feel like it could go up so much more with the members help.  But yeah thats my speil that i have been giving my comp for a while now haha.  

Anyway sounds like you guys had a good week. I hope you and dad had fun. Its sounds pretty exciting.  Are you sure you wouldn't want to go to that? (olympic Park) It sounds like fun ha.  Good luck with school though mom!  SOunds like you're all super busy this summer. That's good though. Don't want to get used to not doing anything. That's never good.  Way to add your mark to the van jacob! I feel like that van is very personalized by us haha. At least mine didn't damage the car that i hit... haha This week was pretty good. We taught **. Hes an investigator that has been meeting with the missionaries for a while. HE comes to church pretty much every week. He really wants to get baptized. He knows it's true. HE just has to get some paper work back from the government so he can find a new living situation... Then he can be baptized! So We keep praying for that.  We visited a couple members this week and got started on the plan for member work. THat's pretty exciting. The members here for the most part are super nice and helpful. So i am excited to get to know all of them. That will be nice.  I've got quite a few down though!! WE taught another investigator named ***. Hes awesome. Hes a JW. But he doesn't follow all their rules. Like he's not that scared of us, so i don't think hes passed the class, and he meets with us by himself. And he doesn't argue and try and prove his church right without listening to our side first. It's pretty cool teaching him.  This week we gave him the talk called the blueprint of christs church by elder callister. Its super solid and just shows our church doctrines from out of the bible.  We used a cup tower thing to Demonstrate it. It stumped him on a couple things. So hopefully he will actually pray to know if its true.  I hope so. Its cool seeing the spirit work in people though! SO powerful! Even when they don't believe in the spirit its still there! WE tried some banking and kontakting this week a lot. I learned that the world cup is going on after a few people told me i should be watching the cup not disturbing everyone else when they're watching the cup! So that was fun. But it was a good week everything is going awesome! *** went back to bergen again... So hopefully she goes to the missionaries there.  But i am doing great! Love you guys hope you have a fantastic week!

Love Eldste Blake NEwey

6/9/14

Hey !

This was another good week. WE have lots of good stuff going here.  I am doing great. I am happy. I am eating some fruits and vegetables.... I am being a good boy! Settling into a big ward is quite a bit different. Its harder to feel like they want to get to know you more. It more feels like they don't feel like they need the missionaries help as much. So its weird ha. But its cool. I still don't know who most of them are. Its difficult when you don't know any names, your comp doesn't really know that many people either, and half the time you introduce yourself to someone they just say oh cool good to meet you! Then I don't learn names as easy. ha But I am figuring it out. It is different from the skien ward where they all wanted to get to know the missionaries. Especially bishop. But it's awesome.  I really do still like it here. I think we just need to help the ward out a little bit and it'll be alright.  touristy things? We are planning on wandering in a forest later today. That'll be fun.  I don't know how to do touristy things haha.  SOunds like you all had a un week though. IT's fun to have those kids over. I looked at a picture of them from our picture day and i thought about how perfectly it fits their family.  I thought it was funny.  Thats crazy they're so old.  SOunds like there was a lot of fun stuff happening.  I hope jacob feels better and that he made lots of people laugh in his santa costume. I was sent a picture... haha  THings here are going really good.  Elder g is from sandy utah \california. .  THis week was cool. On tuesday we had the travelling aps over for splits. It was good. There were a lot of miracles. The biggest one was when me and one of the aps were kontakting in the gå gate, there wasn't too many people out so we decided to go see if there was anybody down by the water. I had never kontakted down there so we went. When we got there there wasn't really anybody down there. So we figured that was why we had never been down there. Then we decided to talk to this one lady who was sitting on a bench by herself. So we did. Started off as a normal kontakt, but then we found out she's had all the missionary lessons before because the missionaries lived in an apartment under her house when she was young and she went to church for many years.  She is from bergen.  She said her faith started from when she was going to our church in bergen , but she was never baptized because she felt like they pressed too hard and didn't think the social aspect was as important as she felt we made it. BUt she did feel good there. We sat down and talked to her for a while and she opened up a ton. She told us she was praying on that bench right before we showed up. We told her it was an answer to her prayers and she said she believes it was too.  We talked for a while and said a prayer and got a return appointment for the next day. Elder G and i met with her the next day.  IT was amazing though. To be an answer to a prayer is amazing. It's such a good feeling! I love it.  I hope we can keep meeting and teaching her. SHe doesn't actually live here now, but she is here because she is considering moving here sometime this summer. So that was pretty cool.  Her name is **. Shes super awesome.  We're teaching her tomorrow.. Also that day me and the other ap went to go try and visit a inactive member. Outside the house was a kid who we talked to on the street a few days before. so we taught him too. It was awesome. HEs a pretty chill kid with not too much faith right now. BUt he'll get there.  I'm really excited about all that's going on here. Im hoping to get started with the members this week. and visiting at least one every day. We are going to the ward mission leaders tonight. THat'll be good to start off with. He likes where we are going so I hope I can keep that up.  BUt yeah.  THats a bit of what went on this week. 

I love that quote by elder packer. Its in pmg.  Its so true! AS long as we study the doctrines, we will come closer to god. That is one way that we can come closer to him. Good luck with school mom! you'll do great! That'll be fun.  Thanks for all your prayers! I feel them! I really am grateful for them! I love you guys!

Elder Blake Newey

6/2/14 cont

I've got a little more time! SO this week I thought about Laman and lemuel, cuz I started over in the book of mormon. SO i was just thinking about how they complain so much, no matter how many experiences they have, they always end up denying it again.  It just made me think about how we have to always remind ourselves about what is true. We as People forget Things way too easy. We let the Things we learn fall from Our minds so easy. But if we are like nephi, and hold fast, always seeking to do what is right. We have to pray always and read the scriptures often and strive to be closer to GOd. You can clearly see that nephi had a very strong relationship With God and laman and lemuel did not. SO that is one of the most important Things! So I think Our relationship With god is one of the most important Things that we must develop.  So That I would Challenge you all to develop Your relationship With God. I am trying it as well! MEaningful prayers are important.  Know his Word and his will. HAve a great week!!! :)

Love

ELdste NEwey

6/2/14

HEy!!! 

HOw are you guys doing?  Senior companion does mean something! It means I choose who says the prayers haha... i dunno. I don't know too much about the area, and elder g has been here for a few weeks so i follow him around a bit.  I am learning fast though! I haven't sat on any companions yet.. haha Reid should be scared. Ill just be meaner when i come home probably.. haha  

Moss is pretty cool. I like it.  Its a pretty small city, but there's a lot of good stuff here.  The ward is awesome. Its crazy to have a fully functioning ward that doesn't rely a lot on the missionaries... I think it's the largest ward in norway.  SO it was weird being in church.  There was a lot of people there.  I didn't know what to do!!! It is really hard to remember peoples names when there are so many.  Theres a couple hundred there. I am pretty excited to get going on the work here. I am excited to be here.  THe tops were pretty sad. We went to thei house last monday for dinner. It was really fun. I liked that family a lot.  Then tuesday morning i drove up with some other missionaries to a ferry and took a boat across the fjord to moss.  Then we got to work. The first couple days were a lot of contacting and banking.  We had appointments scheduled but a lot of them fell through. It was pretty sad. But we tried to do stuff.  WE have a couple people we are working with.  There's one guy who really wants to get baptized and as soon as he finds a job and can move out of his samboers house, he will be.  Pretty awesome.  Then after a couple days i was feeling again like kontakting and banking aren't the most effective ways to find people. So i decided to just go randomly go and visit some less actives and to find people on the way. We had so much more success that way.  We found a few people who were at least slightly interested.  Saturday we gave out 4 books of mormon.  I also was hugged by a drunk guy who told us he loves us several times.  HE promised to take very good care of the book of mormon we gave him... it was interesting.  But the area is a bike area. So it was the first time for riding a bike on my mission. That was interesting.  Its kinda fun.  But there are a lot of hills. I really enjoy it all.  This is a really cool area. WEll shoot. The computer at the library im using just threatened to log me out in 5 minutes. SO I will try and finish up fast.  I love you guys!!!! Sounds like a really good week you guys had.  Im jealous of the hike. Looked like fun.  Thats a really good point about the plates and the book of mormon! It really is precious! THey are worth so much!!!! SUper important. I love how much you get to know the book of mormon on a mission.  I have learned so much about it. But I hope you guys have a fantastic week! Love you a lot!! Stay out of trouble jacob now that its summer....

Love Elder Newey

5/26/14

Hey everyone!!!!
SO guess what? Im moving out of porsgrunn.... Im going to moss tomorrow. My new companion is elder g. He was in the mtc with me. I'll be senior comp THat'll be cool.  I'm pretty excited for something new.  But it is sad to leave from here.  Yesterday was pretty sad.  BUt I'm still pretty excited. We had a short transfer because there are three missionaries going home today.  THis next transfer will be 8 weeks though to make up for it.  

That'll be pretty cool. Porsgrunn has been a good place though.
SOunds like you guys had a good week though. Lots of cool stuff. :) There's some cool stuff going on there it sounds like. THat's good the house was closed on. Hopefully you guys can get it worked out with the filer house.  Me and elder b a while ago were thinking alot about moses too.  The story around that all is pretty crazy.  Moses did a lot of pretty amazing things.  Its crazy how they didn't trust him or God even after all the miracles they had already seen. I thought it was interesting.  I didn't even know it was memorial day... Hmmm haha its almost kristi himmelfarts dag.... Jacob dont laugh. It means Christs ascension day. haha So they will probably have everything closed on thursday. But it will be good.  I hope you guys have fun hiking though.- ANd enjoy those river sandwiches.  I might just eat that later.. haha I don't know of any suggestions... I dont remember that too much anymore.. I would suggest fløyen or ulriken.. or something.. But thats a long ways away.  haha

Sounds like you had a really good family home evening though.  I think its really cool to hear all the stories. THat's cool that we are related to a norwegian. I have heard the name knudesen a lot.  I think there was some elder a while ago named knudesen.  

LAst week was really good.  We have been Just trying to find people on the way all the time. SO we try and just make a destination to go to and then just talk to everybody on the way. Its crazy how often we are blessed so much more that way. Kontakting and banking are pretty ineffective for the most part. SO we have been trying to think of other ways to do things. SO to fill our time we decided we needed to visit at least one member every day. THat gave us a lot of destinations. ANd we find people so much easier that way. The people just seem more prepared when you are on your way to a destination.  Pretty cool. One day we had two people stop us and tell us they wanted to talk. So that was pretty cool. Now we just have to get them to meet with us more than once so they can progress.  Things are going really well. I love it.  BUt I will be moving to moss... SO I will just keep working hard there :)  I am pretty excited to go there though. I heard its the most members in a concentrated area in all of europe so thats pretty cool.  THe missionaries were fed a lot. But I heard that the mission actually stopped most of the dinners because it made it so there was no proselyting time.  SO I think I will be well taken care of. But every time I told the members here that I was going to moss they kind of made a funny face and said uff da... haha. We'll see.  I am excited. Lots of good stuff though,.

Thanks so much for your prayers and your support.!!! I love you guys!!!!

Elder NEwey

17 Mai

5/19/14

HEy guys!!!

Oslo was really cool. Way too many people though. I didn't know what to do. THe parade was super long but it was fun still.  I enjoyed it. WE went to presidents after that and had a barbecue and hung out for a few hours. Norwegians get offended if you proselyte on the 17. Mai. SO we got the whole day to pday.  So we played games and hung out for a while. It was fun. Then a long train ride back.  I was super tired afterwards.  But it was good.  I tried taking pictures, but there was a ton of people. Kinda hard to take good ones. I could barely see the parade. BUt I waved at the king when he came out on his balcony.  We got to oslo and then waited for the king, and then the parade started which was basically a bunch of kids in bunads and a bunch of marching bands.  We weren't allowed to go to the russ parade.  Then we walked around oslo a bit and then went to presidents.  SOunds like you had a good week.. Jacob got 18th??? Whys that? haha jk He was at state. Way faster than I would've ever gotten. THat's awesome.  THey can't all be that old!!! WEird... At least rylees still in elementary school. THat would be super weird.  I hope reid keeps winning in high school. THat'd be good.  haha Thats good rylee likes tumbling.  Will she do it again next year?   People are getting married!!!!! We're not that old!! I dont get it.    

I'm jealous you got to go to the temple. I miss it. Its So cool. And peaceful. Its amazing what can happen there. You can get answers to questions and you can just feel peace there! I miss the mtc when we could go every week.  I've come to replace that with chapels.  THey're so peaceful. I love just sitting in them sometimes, when nobody else is in the church. Its just quiet and peaceful.  I really enjoy it.  SOunds like you had a really cool experience though.  Its so true.  ITs amazing His love for us. I have thought about that a lot as well.  He wants us to progress and move on. He wants us to improve. If we mess up, he's not happy that we did it, but if we are willing to improve and be better, he is instantly willing to forgive and forget as long as we willingly strive to become better.  We have so much potential and so much opportunity! I love this gospel!  Thats awesome you got an answer about going to school.  THat'll be a good thing to have.  Its awesome that he's willing to help with that.  I have thought a lot this week about how important it is to develop a strong relationship with our heavenly father.  We have to pray and keep in touch with him. THis morning i read mormon 9 :27 and basically focused on that. About how we have to work out our own salvation, but we can ask him for help and to strengthen us.  HE knows what we need, but he can't just give it to us, we will never learn or grow from it. We have to work out our own growth and work out our own salvation. We have to realize what we need and why we need it while we pray to god for it. WHen we ourselves come to realize something, we learn so much more. It is ingrained in us.  We just have to be willing to accept Heavenly Father's will and do what it takes to reach our potential.  I had a lot more thoughts on it but it is difficult to exlain on email.. ha so i hope that made some sense.  

ANyway. Love you guys so much! It was awesome talking to you last week! 

Love Elder Newey

5/5/14

Whoo! Monday! Exciting! I'm still trying to figure out how thats going to go. Right now we have no plans to be at a members house but we will see.... I will figure that out today. For sure.  :) Im excited.  Elder A is from san fransisco california area.  It's going good. Its been a pretty big change from elder b.  I think it will be good though. It was really cool to see the bergen members. They were awesome.  The bishop asked me when i'm going back to bergen. ha he's awesome.  Koselig is a word that cannot be described completely in english. Its almost cozy... in a way.. Its hard to explain.haha but its a good word.    I'll try and write more of the people and the culture.  One the first of may there was a holiday. Not really sure what it was. I was told it was something like labor day. But everything was closed and i saw a few parades going around town. It was pretty cool. We tried banking and i think out of the hour we were out. One person answered so we gave up and did weekly planning.  It was kinda cool though.  I tried taking pictures. Something exciting coming up is syttende mai. Which is the 17th of may. Its norwegian independence day. I've heard its huge. I'm pretty excited. I heard we might get to go to oslo. But i don't know for sure.  The people are super nice unless you try to talk to them about religion. Then they don't really want to listen to you. It's pretty ridiculous. But if you ask for directions or something, they like to help automatically.  SUper nice.  We knocked on a door once to ask for directions to find a members house. ANd these random people came out and helped us with maps and then they offered to drive us. We had to decline because it was a lady... But they were super nice.  The weather is pretty nice here- Its fairly cloudy today. But it has been super nice lately 80 sounds warm...  I am starting to get used to celsius. So its weird seeing that haha.  I keep thinking 16 is pretty warm.  Thats about what we've been at.  Spring is awesome. Im finally able to see color in norway! The trees all look super pretty.  Its pretty awesome.  M got baptized? That's awesome. When i was in the mtc jason told me about how he challenged her to find out if pres monson was a prophet. I wonder if that was him ha.  That's way cool though. It would be hard. It's the truth though. I  can see how that would be very hard. I have seen how it can be very hard.  When its out of the church that is super sad.  The jw's shun family members that leave the religion.  I think that's way sad.  Its just important that families are loving. Its a pretty personal decision between us and god.  SO i am glad though that i realize that its based on what god tells us instead of what man tells us.  It gives  so much more peace to know that i have made the right decision because God has confirmed that for me.  I wish all people would just realize that you have to ask god which church is his.  HE is willing to answer!  

ANyway. Thats cool tanner is home. That'll be fun to have him home. And to have him be able to not stress too much. Of course dad is his boss haah just kidding. That will be awesome I think.  Where are kalauna and gage moving too? thats pretty exciting.  ***, we met with him this week on tuesday and had an appointment for friday but he cancelled that. And then we rescheduled to yesterday but he cancelled that as well.  So next friday.  We started teaching another guy named *** too. HE's pretty cool.  Only taught him once but he loves our church. Just doesn't think he needs to be baptized. So We will see how that goes.  Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting. That was really cool. I don't know why but it was one of the most powerful testimony meetings I've been to. The spirit was so strong. I thought a lot about how everyone is trying to get better. And we really can't get better unless others let us. So forgiveness is so crucial for everything! Its so important! I hope to be able to forgive everybody.  Forgiveness allows people to grow and to change.  I think a part of forgiveness is helping people to change. Not just being like oh ok its alright. But really striving to help them to become better. Forgiveness is awesome.  ANyway. I better find out when we are skyping on monday. Love you guys! This email wasn't too detailed... hmm. Sorry  Have a great week! I will see you on sunday!!!!

Love

Elder NEwey

pictures from going up to drammen! Taken during the car ride

pictures from going up to drammen! Taken during the car ride

4/28/14

Hey Guys!! 

We had a pretty good week! It'll be some crazy changes. My companion is elder A. He'll come in wednesday night. Elder B leaves on wednesday afternoon so ill be hanging out with elder j in tønsberg for part of the day.  I haven't met my new comp before. HE came the group before me. He'll be the district leader.  It's pretty cool. Our district is going to be pretty young. Theres a sister in skien who's been out for a while, she goes home in july, then there is elder a who came out one transfer before me and then me elder n and elder j who all came at the same time, one from the group after me and then two greenies. It'll be cool. Im pretty excited.  Elder a is actually albino. Im super excited.  I don't know too much else about him. I've heard he's really cool.  WE met *** once this week. Hes still super positive. We had stake conference in drammen so he wasn't able to come to church. That was cool too.  But we taught him about the book of mormon. HE promised to read in it. HE's super cool.  HE is way prepared.  It might take some time to help him understand some stuff but he's awesome.  We are meeting with him tomorrow before elder b leaves. SO that will be good.  NOthin too crazy happened for most of the week. MOnday we visited a family for fhe and pizza. THat was koselig.  THen tuesday we had district meeting and we visited bishops family.  District meeting was really good., All about enjoying the journey.  Wednesday was kinda lame. We had service for a member planned for most of the day and then to go have dinner at another members house that night.  Both sent us texts and cancelled before we were done studies. SO we had to replan. We visited a couple members, one less active and talked to people  around skien. It was good. Thursday we had a war service helping hands project. We didn't get to wear the yellow vests or shirts. I was disappointed.  But we picked up trash in a park and then me and elder b played soccer with a couple little member kids and then a lot of other youth joined in. It was fun.  Friday, we did the service for the member that was cancelled on wednesday. THen we helped with a youth activity, then we taught **. It was really good. Saturday we drove up to drammen with the sandefjord elders for stake conference.  There was a saturday session that President evans and sister evans talked at as well as a few members and a visiting area seventy from scotland.  IT was really good.  IT was all about missionary work. It was super solid. It was really cool too because there was a lot of members from bergen there so it was really cool to see them.  We stayed the night in the drammen elders apartment.  yesterday was the last of stake conference the area 70 spoke again. It was really good too.  I enjoyed stake conference. I was glad that we got permission to go to it.  Elder b was really glad. HE got to see a lot of members from around the country before he leaves.  So that was cool. All around it was a good week.  TOnight we are going to a members house to have a viking begravelse for elder b. We are going to make a raft and put an old shirt, tie and pants of his on it and light it on fire. THat will be fun  I'll take pictures haha.  I hope i do good at telling what goes on here in my emails, i haven't been super good at keeping up in my journal... haha ah well.  I hope you guys are doing good! Hopefully dad gets to spend lots of time home after he's done in california. Wow! Only two weeks!! THat's crazy! Im pretty excited!  Sounds like the weather here has been much better than there. It has been sunny and super nice all week.  I haven't worn my jacket at all.  Its been pretty super nice! BUt yeah. It was a good week. Hope you guys are all doing good! I love you! Can't wait to talk to you guys in a couple weeks! WHoo! Have a fantastic week! 

Love Elder NEwey

God Andre påske dag!‏

YOOHOO HI FAmily! SOunds like you guys had a good week. That video really is awesome. I love it.  Its short but super powerful. We did a few of our thoughts this week on that video.  And what happens because of him. Its awesome :)  Thats a really good hymn.  Of course all of them are good but the spirit is really strong in that one.  I'm so grateful for the Savior and for all that he does for us.  SO many things have become possible because of him.  He is indeed our Lord and Savior, he is our friend and comforter, our reason to be who we are and why i am on a mission.  I want others to feel of that love that he has for us! Every single one of us.  Its amazing to know that you can begin again. You can be clean and start over. YOu can have peace in your life no matter what's around you. YOu can know of god's love for you and you can return to him.  Im so grateful!!!   I think its interesting about how they love easter and not religion. WE decided they just like the 5 days of paid vacation they get... Everything shuts down.  Today is the last day though. 

We had a really good easter week.... haha.  Monday we went to teach someone but they weren't home... so we went and kontakted.  TUesday was good we went up to tønsberg to meet with a new convert there that needed some help and then we had zone leader training there the next morning so we stayed overnight in the missionary apartment there.  ZLT was good. WE talked about fellowshipping and getting investigators from one stage to the next and to keep going with them.  After that we came back to skien and had a lesson with a guy named *****.  We found him a few weeks ago on a street and he was pretty excited to meet with us.  WE had a pretty short lesson but he was pretty excited about it.  We gave him a restoration pamphlet and told him to read it. And we would meet again on saturday.  HE was really positive. THe next day me and elder b went and banked the whole day. THe one day this week that it was pouring rain.  It was awesome though.  WE had a few really cool experiences. NObody let us in, but one guy talked to us about his batterie invention for 20 minutes or so. THat was fun... But we found a couple people that wouldn't do anything but take a card. I am really hoping that they feel the need to call us....  There was some really cool people.  THen friday we went up to sandefjord for splits because elder b is district leader.  Friday we visited a member. They had deaf daughters so it was a pretty cool experience. Then saturday we were still up there and we went banking some more. IT was fun.  One jw let us in, but he just wanted to tell us how his church does missionary work their whole lives and there were so many differences between our religions. I couldn't help but think well.... yeah.... thats why they're different religions.  ha but he was nice.  THen another lady gave us ice cream after we gave them the whole first lesson almost. But they weren't real interested. But it was still pretty cool day. But when we got home that night it was the coolest part of the day.  WE got back to the church and had our appointment with *** again.  HE walked in with the pamphlet and after a little bit of small talk he just said, hey can we talk about this now? so we went in and sat down. HE said he'd read it and asked if we could read it together and then talk about it. So we did.  AFterwards we asked him if he had any thoughts about it, he said yeah i have lots of thoughts, but i know it's true. WE were pretty excited. But we kept it pretty cool and just said... well.... do you want to be baptized?  with a smile of course.  HE said that seemed a little too fast. BUt we said oh you don't have to right now. BUt we can help you prepare for later this month. SO we set a date for the 22nd of may. IT was pretty cool.  Actually it was really cool. We were pretty excited.  HE didn't feel ready to come to church yesterday, but we committed him to come next week. But then we remembered its stake conference next week.  In drammen. SO we are hoping we can get a ride for him. ANd us . ha But hes awesome. Sunday we had a good church meeting. We sang in the choir. We still hoped for *** to come, but he didn't. But that's ok. We've got high hopes for him.  The rest of the day was good. WE went to the i's. WE had some lamb and other good food. SO that was fun. Other than that, we have a lot of good stuff starting and going on! I am loving it! 

That's pretty crazy that people are getting out of school.  I left right before school got started... Weird!! That was a long time ago!!! That'll be nice to have tanner back home again.  I hope jacob had a good birthday... besides being sick.  At least his redo birthday. Maybe it was punishment for not writing me.. haha jk.   REid you gotta slow down a little bit.  haha is that possible?  It was cool learning the easter customs here too.  THe world is awesome.  Thanks for the 25 dollars that will be awesome! :) That pays for frozen haha. I thought it was an awesome movie. I really liked it haha. IT was pretty funny. I laughed a lot.  WE listen to the songs too. They are too catchy.  THe haircut was good... That's twice I've done that now. I just used clippers. I had to have elder B fix up the back a little bit.  It worked pretty well.  ELder b's pretty bored, he goes home in a week and a half so his family just said they'll tell him everything when he goes home.  I find out who my new comp is next sunday that'll be cool.  But I love you guys!  I hope you have a fantastic week! LOVE YOU!

ELder newey

4/14/14

Hey guys! God Påske!  Easter is  a huge holiday in norway.  Its as big as christmas. This week is påske ferie for all the schools and everything.  ITs like spring break.  They have like 5 days of påske so They love it.  But the way they celebrate it is that everybody leaves and goes into the mountains to their cabins for a week.  SO i've heard its hard to get anything done around easter, but we have some teaches already set up for this week so it shouldn't be too bad.  IT'll just be rough finding people.  ELder b said last year, the streets were straight empty so they went banking, and nobody answered cuz they're all in the mountains.  So I'm interested to see how this week turns out.  The bus doesn't run nearly as much, everything will be closed after wednesday and all the people will be gone, so it'll be fun...  

ANyway. 4 weeks?? Thats not far away at all! Sweet!! :D I should be able to skype i don't know why not. so that will be awesome.  Thats cool about the tops... My companion wonders if they know he's there sometimes too. THey took a picture with him in it but were pretty sure it was a courtesy picture.. :P All because of greg C haha. i think it's kinda funny.  I like the top family though. THey're cool people.  

Sounds like it was a fun spring break! Abby is funny. Does she still remember me? haha Jeez you are still getting snow? thats crazy. We have had it pretty nice here. It rained a couple days ago, but it has been fairly nice here for the most part.  Today i even went without a jacket or sweater or anything, we'll see if that was a good idea, the weather changes pretty quickly sometimes.  But I think i'll be ok.  Woohoo! I got money!! thats exciting.  I had about 90 dollars in american cash since my birthday and some from christmas that i finally changed to norwegian kroner when i was in oslo this week again. So i have a little spending money with that. I bought frozen in norwegian today so we are going to watch that a little later.  I'm kinda excited. haha I gave myself a haircut this morning as well. SO that was interesting. THat's twice now I've given myself a haircut. Pretty cool! I dont think it looks too bad, but who knows.  Woohoo! THe marion house is selling! that's awesome! THat'll be way good to have gone.  The filer house will be good to have gone as well.  Sounds like you had a good trip.  Thats crazy grandma is going to europe! Europe is a cool place! She'll love it I'm sure.  COnference was awesome. Im going through and reading some of the talks again too.  SUper good.  

This week was awesome.  WE went up to oslo on tuesday because elder b is the district leader and there was a leadership meeting there.  SO i got to go along so neither of us were just alone. SO up there i went on splits with elder n who was in my mtc group. THat was awesome. We had a really cool day of splits.  We got to talk to lots of people. I think it would be pretty cool to serve in oslo.  IT was awesome.  Long train ride though.  Other than that, this week wasn't too exciting. We got lots of ward work done.  WE are getting the referral process down.  It's pretty cool. WE ask people to pray to find a person, pray and come up with a plan and then to do the plan.  It's all there plan, we don't want to make them do anything they don't want to so we let them come up with it all, but then we have a log with all the members and who they are working with and where there friends are at and all that. SO it's pretty cool. IT works pretty well.  We just have to get people, to focus on one or two people at a time before overwhelming themselves with a whole bunch of other names.  IT's pretty  cool. Ill put some pictures on of oslo and stuff. SOmething i thought a lot about the last couple days though is are we living up to the expectations others have for us. People see us as missionaries and they know that we have been called for a purpose and that we have a special call to help people. We are promised inspiration.  I just thought about how much the people who we talk to, their loved ones who are on the other side are sitting there waiting for us to help their family. They know we have authority from God and they know what we can do with that.  THey know we can help their family. They've put their trust in us and so its up to us to do something with the authority and power we've been given.  But so thats what ive been thinking about the last couple days. Pretty cool thought though.     THis week is going to be awesome. Hope you guys have an awesome week as well! Love ya! Jeg er glad i derre! Norwegians are weird in the way they say i love you, if you say jeg elsker deg t basically means straight i LOVE you. ANd it weirds people out if you say that. So you generally stick with jeg er glad i deg haha BUt i love you guys!!! THank you for your prayers and love and support!! 

Love Eldste NEwey

4/7/14

Hey! SO conference was awesome. Its so weird watching it in another country but it was still just as good. I was loving it. We watched the saturday morning session at 1800 saturday night.  and we watched the priesthood at 11 sunday morning and the sat. aft. at 1300 and the sunday morning at 18 last night. THen we watched the sunday afternoon one this morning. It was super good.  WE watched it all at the church all but the one this morning were with lots of the ward members.  They had a pot luck after the saturday aft. session.  IT was good. Lots of good food.  There were so many good talks. I think one that stood out to me the most was president monsons talk about love. THat was one thing i decided to commit myself to, was loving everybody who is put in front of me. I thought it was awesome when he said that the people even in the grocery store parking lot are there for us to love.  SO that is one thing i really wanted to focus and change. :) Its so awesome what you learn from conference.  I thought it was awesome to have aidukitis speak in the sun. aft. session. HEs super funny! I remember when he came to our stake conference.   I got to watch them all in english, because we didn't have any investigators come. IT was a super cool conference though. I really liked elder eyrings talk about priesthood heros too, MAde me think a lot about who are my priesthood heros and why.  

Sounds like you guys had a good week though! Thats good that the houses will go fast. I hope so. JAcobs getting too fast. Im glad reids eye looks normal again.  I could see rylee wearing lots of colors. I'm wearing a gray tie now... dang...  THat'll be cool to see grandpa smith. Tell him hi.  I've thought a lot about faith and hope and what they do to support each other and what the difference is. I haven't gotten any stor conclusions yet. BUt i like thinking about it. I love thinking about hope.  HOpe sometimes seems easy. TO say we hope for something. But then we have to make that leap and have true faith. And that comes with more of a willingness to act.    WHat was your favorite conference talks?  THat's sad that dad was gone for a while.  

THis week was a good one. WE had a goal as a zone to place 80 book of mormons. THat meant each companionship had to do at least one each day. or 7 through the week.  WE did 6. There was some cool experiences with that. IT led to us doing a lot more bearing testimony of the book of mormon and why it was important. SO it was pretty cool. THis week we are focusing on inviting to church. SO that will be good.  I cant believe it is already april!!! Im blown away how fast time flies! I wonder how much longer i have here in porsgrunn.... At least 10 weeks i think... Im excited to see what it is like in the warm weather.  ITs been off and on. SOme times its warm others its chilly. Usually have my rain jacket with me just in case. TOday is pretty nice. WE are going to play some frisbee golf with ø today. SO that will be fun. Get us out of the church today! whoo!  BUt anyway. I love you guys and I hope you have an awesome week! Jeg er så glad i dere!!!! 

ELdste NEwey

3/31/14

HEy everyone!!
 You're getting snow? Dang thats no fun.... ITs been pretty warm here actually. Like 15-17 degrees. Its been awesome!! ANd sunny. I have been loving it a lot.  Thats good america is doing alright.  That isn't good about forgetting god though.  As long as you guys are still doing good!!!! :) It sounds like you guys had a pretty crazy week.  BUt it sounds like it was a good one.  Is that weird not having so many crazy busy days? THats cool you saw r. THat is crazy that school is that close to being over. THat didn't start that long ago.  we hear from each other every once in a while haha I have a letter i need to send to her... Ah well,

Are my letters hard to figure out sometimes? haha thats alright. i kinda just write until i stop thinking of other stuff to write haha.  And norwegian words sometimes describe things better than english haha :) We do a lot of blanding.  Hows reids eye doing? That is a pretty good one! haha i always thought that was a funny quote. "I sometimes wonder why that frisbee is getting so big. ANd then it hits me" :) Or something like that. Ouch haha.  Thats cool the twin houses are for sale. Do you think they'll go? I hope so.  I thought that was an awesome scripture with a lot of help and promise in it. the scriptures are awesome.  I love my personal study time every morning. THey help me so much.  TOday i read in alma 42 ll about the atonement and the plan of salvation and how they all work.. Its pretty awesome.  Pretty deep. It just makes so much sense!!! But it sounds like you guys had a fantastic week this last week.  Lots of cool stuff. Jacob has now experienced junior prom! Did he survive through all the stress of being in charge of it? HE didn't have too many people upset with how it was run? haha jk.  They probably did a good job.  THey probably had better date ideas then our group ever had.  ha we had fun though.  I thought that was a super funny story about seth and jacobs date though. hahahah JAcob is getting too fast. 4:56 on the mile? THat's ridiculous.  wow. but anyway. YEah. We have had a really good week.

Monday night we went out after pday was over and talked to people.  It wasn't too successful.  Tuesday was really cool. We went to oslo for a zone conference. It was awesome, i got to see a bunch of missionaries i hadn't seen since the mtc and some that i served with in bergen. It was really cool cuz elder W was there and he's the new ap. SO thats cool.  THat was a fun trip. We were gone the entire day. with almost three hour train rides both there and back.  We accidentally got our train time to come back 10 minutes late. so our tickets that were pretty expensive were no longer good and we had to call the aps and have them come back and buy us new tickets cuz we had no money. THen we had about an hour til our train came so we went and explored oslo a little bit. THat is a pretty big city.IT was cool.  zone conference was a lot about how to work with members so that was good for us.  WEdnesday elder b had mini surgery on his toe for an ingrown toenail that he's had since october. I watched. IT was gross.  Other than that we just tried talking to more people and we went to the bishops families for dinner that night. IT was a nice visit.  They are so good at missionary work. THe whole family. THeir twin 8 year old girls gave their school teacher a book of mormon and invited her to church. I thought that was awesome.  Thursday we had weekly planning. WE tried coming up with ways to help the whole ward get excited about missionary work. We also had a j dub kid called and did an interview over the phone for his school project that was cool.  His teacher told him that we don't use a cross, instead we use a giant sword or something like that as our symbol. I thought that was interesting.  Kinda funny.  BUt that night we had the ward activity. THey have ward activity night every thursday, they usually have something for everybody to do, youth, ysa and adults.  We are required by the bishop to be there to get to know any non members that come and to get to know the members well. ITs pretty cool. The deaf member that I was talking about before, was there, but the adults didn't have an activity, the young men went swimming somewhere else, the young women leader said no to letting him watch legacy with the young women, and the ysa were playing risk and he didn't want to learn a new board game, so the mmk and one of the bishopric members was telling us to improvise something for us to do. So we finally decided to just watch a disney movie with him because we didn't know what else to do.  It was really good. HE enjoyed it a lot. HEs a way cool guy. We go and visit him every week. So i am learning norwegian sign language. Pretty cool! but we are just trying to keep him active and worthy so it was good for him i think. We watched tangled in norwegian. He loves movies so it was good.  THen friday was pretty cool. WE did studies and then we got on a bus and rode into skien.  We decided to randomly just take a bus back when we got there to go back to porsgrunn. Right when we got off the bus a lady calls out to us and then asks us if we were mormons.  She told us how much she loves mormons, and then some guy walks up next to her and says hey we've got two elders here! SO i talked to the guy as elder b talked to the lady.  THe guy, ** tells me about how he's been talking to a mormon online a little bit and he'd read a bit in the book of mormon.    He asked if he could get a copy of the book of mormon.  I said of course I've got one right here. HE was so excited. I gave it to him and he was super excited. I said we could come talk about it more if he wanted. He said of course! HE had some weird views. HE talked about how he believed in all prophets and religions and stuff, but he said he would meet again. He gave me his number and said to call him and meet up after he's found an apartment then he and the lady had to go. apparently they are friends.  So they left. Elder b got the ladys card and she said to come over whenever. We were blown away. IT was awesome. Then later that night we went to go visit some members in bø.  So we had to take a bus for an hour to bø. It was 2 ysa and a married member having guys night while his wife was away. So he made pizza. He told us it was his famous spicy pizza.  AFter a couple bites my mouth was on fire. My eyes were watering, I accidentally rubbed them, my nose was running and i was sweating.  ANd they had no milk. Cuz he's allergic. Somehow i ate nearly the whole huge piece that he gave me. Elder b had stopped after a couple bites. and everyone else seemed to be doing pretty well with it. I literally couldn't eat more my mouth hurt so bad.  So after several drinks of water. me and elder b figured it was a joke.  BUt it took me longer to realize that.  SO i ate a lot.  Eventually after a while the married guy admitted to putting daves insanity sauce on our pieces only.  It was awful. I tried eating a normal piece afterwards and i couldnt. My mouth made everything that went into it hurt.  One of the ysa tried a bite just to see how bad it was. HE felt really bad for being a part of it after that.  It was kind of funny. I thought the whole thing was pretty funny but painful at the time.  THen on saturday we had sport and we played soccer outside. It was awesome. It was super nice out.  Its been a while since i've played.  THat night we went to *** house ( the deaf member) and he made us greek lasagna. And we taught about the atonement..  IT was cool. I like visiting him.  Sunday we fasted and went to church. We were hoping for a member dinner, but we didn't get one, we had not very much food at home either. So it ended up being us splitting 4 eggs for dinner. But it was good. THen we went kontakting a bit. We almost didn't stop to talk to this one guy on a bench but we decided to halfway through passing him, and we had a super long talk and got his number and committed him to coming to conferanse on sunday or saturday.  HE was way cool. THen we went banking. Most of the people said no, but we had a cool talk with a girl who had lost her voice because of a virus, so she was learning to speak again. She said she wasn't interested, we asked if she's ever prayed before and she said she hadn't tried that, we committed her to try and then left. It was a cool experience.  Then we went to another house , and it turns out it was the house of the lady that ran up and stopped us on the street.  SHe let us in even though she said she was leaving. WE had a good talk, shes met missionaries several times before.  We met her husband and we and a good talk.  SHe does homeopathy stuff, i thought of you mom. SHe talked about ear acupuncture stuff, elder b mentioned some back pain and she did ear acupuncture on him for free. It was funny. But they invited us over again  next week. SO that was cool. All around this was just a super awesome, miracle week. Lots of interesting stuff lots of cool stuff. SOrry its so long!!!!! I hope it all makes sense.  I thought a lot this week about setting goals that are more personally driven, so ive been trying to set more goals that are more of inviting people to do something, and that drives me to invite instead of just expecting people to meet and be baptized. SO far it is working!!! I love you guys! HOpe you have a great week!!!! 

Love eldste blake NEwey