May 21, 2019

Hey everyone!

This past week has been awesome.  To start it off, this week was Norway's Constitution Day which means a day of parades and a billion Norwegian flags.  It was fun to be in the Capitol and to see the king of Norway.  

Norwegian Constitution Day is the national day of Norway and is an official  public holiday observed on May 17th each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to simply as syttende mai ("seventeenth May")

The Norwegian Constitution Day is very non-military. All over Norway, children's parades with tons of flags form the celebration. Each elementary school district arranges its own parade with marching bands between schools. The parade takes the children through the community, often making stops at homes of senior citizens. The longest parade is in Oslo, where some 100,000 people travel to the city centre to participate in the main festivities. This is broadcast on TV every year with local reports from celebrations around the country. The massive Oslo parade includes some 100 schools, marching bands, and passes the royal palace where the royal family greet the people from the main balcony. 

On Sunday after church, we had a Boodle Fight with many of the members from the Philippines.  Boodle Fight is a delicious meal, not a fight.  This means all the food is put directly on the table over some banana leaves and then you eat everything with your hands.  I have never felt so full from eating in my life. It was delicious. 

My companion and I (Elder Fry) are blessed with a grill in our apartment, the problem is that we haven't had propane so we haven't used it yet.  We went to go fill up the van that we drive with gas and thought might as well try to get propane.  Our old case was a 5 kilogram and we went to go refill it after we paid for a refill of 5 kilograms and they only could refill the 10 kilograms containers so we got an extra 5 kilos of Propane for free.  Blessings because that stuff is expensive!

Transfers are this week and I will be staying another one here in Oslo.  By the end of my mission I will have spent 10 1/2 months in almost the exact same area and the same ward.  

The sun now rises early and doesn't set until late so I feel that dark skies have stopped to exist again!

The work is going great.  I am grateful for the Book of Mormon and for the miracle of prayer.

Eldste Egan