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