Liv I Norge

                     

Hei Hei

Hilsen fra Norge

  We arrived in Norway on August 18 (our anniversary - 44 years). After a day in Oslo we took the train to Kristiansand, the city we have been asked to serve in.   It's a beautiful coastal town on the north sea.   We have been here a little over a week, just long enough to feel lost.   After 2 days with the senior missionary couple who were serving here the last 18 months we are on our own.  Thank heavens for GPS.
     We have a beautiful view of the boats and water from our apartment and it is close to downtown where the young single adult center is located.  The city is located in southern Norway and the old part of town features the traditional wooden houses.   We had the opportunity to also hike the forest (Barnheia & Ravnedalen) above the town to get some exercise on our p-day.   Found some beautiful scenery and a nice overlook of the city.  We missed the gay rights parade in town that day by being up in the woods darn it...Oh well one can't do everything.
      We have a small ward with a fair amount of less active members.  We had about 75-80 out the first week...They changed the Bishop...Nice young family with a six month old baby.   Only called one counselor.  The next Sunday we had maybe 30 there.    Lucky for us though since Sister C and I were asked to speak in church.   Sister C did great and even bore her testimony in Norwegian.   She's a fast learner.    I gave my talk in Norwegian.  Not sure how much anyone understood.   They said it was fine but they are a very polite people.   I can think of the words I want to say but I find it difficult to understand.  Norway has lots of different dialects and I think we have most of them represented in the ward here so it's difficult to understand.  They usually have a translator available so Sister C understands what is happening but I am trying to tuff it out and try to understand.  I think I am getting about 10% of what is going on but it's the only way to relearn it. (I hope)
     We have held a couple of FHE with the young adults and one institute class.   We had about 12 for institute including 3 investigators and the missionaries.  One of the investigators volunteered to cook the dinner that night so Sister C was off the hook for one week.  We have 2 Sister missionaries serving here in Kristiansand - one sister will be returning home in October and the other one just arrived about 2 months ago, this is her first area so we are learning together- they are young and full of energy).  Elder C took off his socks and shoes and joined in the sand volleyball game for the activity afterwards.   My wrist held up pretty good so it was fun.   The last FHE we only had 2 young men show up so we had a nice discussion on how we can feel God in our lives when we are presented with so many distractions in the world these days.    The youth here really have it difficult.  There are not many of them and they live so far apart from each other.  They like to come and hangout at the YSA center after work and school so they can socialize with each other.   They then make the trip home late at night some as much as 2 hours (that's why the activities are sporadically attended).
      We received notice this week that we will be getting Elders again in Kristiansand with the new missionaries arriving this week.  One will be a greenie so we will have another one to learn with us.
       There are a couple of families that are the real strength of the church in Kristiansand so we hope we can help them while we serve and find some more families to support them.  We are grateful to have the opportunity to serve at this time in our lives and it is worth all the sacrifices we make.  We feel the love of our Savior in our lives and feel so blessed to serve.   We are grateful for the prayers we feel from our family and friends and pray the Lord will bless you also.


P.S.  hope the pictures we post can give you a small feel of what we are experiencing.  We are not  blessed with the ability to write well so no promises on how many additions to the blog we get.   We'll see.
Ha det bra!
Eldste og Søster Cook