August 21, 2018

Hi mom,

This week was super busy and a lot of fun.

First, Preikestolen was amazing!  So much fun and we were so lucky because it has rained every day except the day we went there and today!  It rains so much!  I can't wait to come back and do it with the family.  

Bergen was awesome!  It is really weird that I have taken 5 flights in the past 2 and a half weeks.  I didn't get to see the heart of Bergen but the surrounding area and close to the city is amazing!  My next to trip will be to Oslo next week!  Zone conference was the reason we were in Bergen.  It was fun to be in charge of most of it and to present.  

I did see the Disney Magic ship in port!  It is cool to think I am serving somewhere that people go on cruises to visit. Fun to see a cruise ship I spent a week with my family on.  I really wanted to get on it for some chicken fingers and ice cream.  

The new ward is awesome!  We got invited over for a dinner this week with this family that has 4 kids.  They are all close to the same age as our family and it felt like I was home again.  Teasing eachother the entire time and it was a blast.  Sadly this dialect is a difficult but so cool!  I have never asked people to repeat themselves more in my life!  Its one of the most active wards with 100 people!  Really cool because Norway has about 4500 members and maybe 1400 are active. So having a ward with this many active is awesome!

I went on splits with an Elder from Denmark!  It was a blast!

I taught my first first lesson in over 2 something months!  It has been a long time since I have taught someone and it felt good to be teaching.

P day was changed for many reasons and I think it makes perfect sense that President changed it.  The main reason is so that conference can be more effective and so President Tew can visit the wards that the conference will be held at the day before!  That and many other reasons that make perfect sense.  I am in full support with President Tew on the change even though it will take some getting use to.  

Love from Stravenger,

Eldste Egan

The DISNEY MAGIC in port.

Norwegian Air (on my way to Bergen) 

Not a barf bag - a "In a while you will be fine"- bag.  The funniest part is that it's in English. 

August 15, 2018

Hi Mom -

Not much time to write this week.  My P days are now on Tuesday and today I was able to hike to PREIKESTOLEN! (Pulpit Rock)  So amazing - you have got to come do this hike.  Oh my gosh, it was so cool.  Here are some pictures.  Talk to you next week.  Just know that everything is great and that I fly to Bergen Sunday and stay until Monday.  Love you guys.  
Love, Eldste Egan

Pulpit Rock is one of the most popular hikes in all of Norway. It towers an impressive 604 meters (which is almost 2000 feet)  off the LyseFjord near Stravengar.  

August 7, 2018

Hi mom,

This week has been so busy.  If my emails are shorter this transfer is it because there is so much stuff to do on P-day here it is amazing.  We will hopefully be going to Preikestolen in a couple of weeks.  We need to rent a van but the senior missionaries are going to help us out with that, it will cost me like 25 dollars but so worth it.  We are planing on going on a hike today but it rains so much in the west.  I fly to Oslo tonight again and back home tomorrow night.  It was so fun taking a plane and also really weird.  I only can have 43 pound bags to fly so it was a struggle.  Don't send me anything that I would have to keep because I literally have no room or weight for it.  

Zone leader means pretty much planning everything for the zone, creating a zone plan, organizing all of the district councils, zone conference, going on splits with every district leader in your zone and so many calls.  It is a lot of fun but also I will not be able to keep up in my journal at this rate.  

Walking around the city and taking random buses and not knowing anything has been a lot of fun.  It is fun to be on the same playing field as my companion on knowing members. It isn't just me trying to learn about them, it is him too!

I feel like i am in the American part of Norway.  Stavanger is awesome.  So many restaurants and things to see and do.  And so many cruise ships.  I have talked to so many people from around the world this week.

The ward is awesome and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better!  So many young men it is weird!

Have a great week.  Talk to you soon. I still have to pack and do a lot of other things today before I fly at 5!

Love, 

ELDSTE EGAN

My new companion - Elder Pfeifer

View from my plane ride from Oslo

Cruise port in Stravengar

July 31, 2018

Hi mom,

Wow, big things and very UNEXPECTED!!!  I got a call last night from President Tew that both my companion and I will be leaving Fredrikstad. I will be taking a nice train ride up to Oslo and then a nice plane flight!  I will also be a zone leader now!  My new companion will be on my flight with me and we will both be new to the area and the big city!  This also means I will take many flights this next couple of transfers!  I will be sending a package home with just random stuff that you can just throw in my room. The area will be called Stavanger!  Also a really famous place to go see fjords and other things like pulpit rock.  This week was slow but great.  I wish I would've known before today that I was leaving because I didn't even question the fact that I was going to leave.  I thought I was staying so I didn't take any pictures with members.  Stavanger is a warmer place but will be so much fun!

My new companion will be great.  His name is Eldste Pfiefer and he is from Kentucky I think....  He is my current zone leader now so that will be funny.  

Eldste Hansen is also a zone leader now so I will get the chance to see him again next week!!!!!!!

I am so happy to be in a bigger city and area!  It will be a sad goodbye to this ward but a place that we will need to come back to!

Sorry my time is so short.  I am having problems with getting my visa appointment now in Stavanger so I might have to fly all the way back to Fredrikstad on the 21 of August!

Pulpit rock is going to be so cool!  I'm off to crab fish.  

Love you, 

Elder Egan

July 26, 2018

Hi Mom,

To start off this week,  

On Tuesday, we had the chance to meet President and Sister Tew,  Oh my goodness they are amazing!  President Hill could speak Norwegian but not the way president Tew can.  I feel like I have 2 mission presidents now as sister Tew is taking a bigger role than what Sister Hill did. I miss the Hills as they were both amazing but let's do this.  We had a way fun district council and great interviews with them.  Then they spent 100 dollars on pizza for our little district.  This next year will be amazing!  They are here to kick butt!  After that we get a call from the branch president who lives in Alesund and that is one of my dream areas as it is known as the most beautiful places in Norway.  He just wants to talk and says being around the missionaries keeps him out of trouble.  Fun to get some soda with him and talk for a while!

Wednesday was the mission wide fast to help us find people.  Miracle of the day is that someone gave us their phone number.  It's a big deal to a norwegian missionary even though we will never see them again.  And I talked with this 20 year old guy who was methodist.  Had a really fun conversation about why we are here on earth.  Stumped him hard core when I asked how the Methodist church would answer the question.... he couldn't give me anything and got embarrassed and said he would call us so that he can meet and have a better answer.  Sadly he wont ever call im sure but it was fun to actually have a conversation with someone because it has been a long time since someone was willing to talk with us.  

Thursday was mission wide finding day.... to me this means a normal 4 hours of contacting on the streets and 4 hours of knocking on doors so it wasn't anything different but after the first 3 and a half hours and feeling like the only missionary on the streets, i decided to go back to the apartment and just randomly call 3 people from the area book from a year ago. first call(wrong number)  second call(number not in use)  Third call(straight to voicemail) but i decided to send a text to the last one and he actually responded and wants to meet this week.  I just started laughing at the fact that he gave us a day that would work.  We then went out and knocked on doors for hours on end, nobody was home and by I mean nobody, I mean that a total of 4 people answered the door after 3 hours of it. and then we came across a guy fixing his bike on his front porch, i tried to start talking to him and he instantly freaked out and started yelling at us in german.  I can't understand german but I know german when I hear it.  He then asked us for our papers and said we werent allowed to do this.  He then grabbed his wrench and was smacking it on the fence right in front of us just screaming.  He then told us that we cant knock on any of the houses on this street.  I thought it was fun and games to walk to the next house about 15 feet away and go knock on the door.  At this point he loses his mind on his porch and pulls out his phone looking like he is going to call the police. He ran inside right after that but I was kind of hoping the cops would show up because it is perfectly legal to do what we were doing.  We have to take a ferry back from where we were and while waiting it was fun to just watch these stupid chickens bury themselves in these holes.  Really fun as it was in Gamlebyen.  The oldest well kept city in all of Norway.  Look it up!

Friday was the Christmas day of the summer as every 6 months the mission has a cleaning day where all you do that day is clean your apartment.  I love having a perfectly clean apartment!

Come Saturday, the sisters up in Sarpsborg asked if we could come help with a service project. It has been over a month since I have done any service and I was so happy for it.  Mostly just painting this house and ripping down wall paper. I will never put wall paper in my house I have learned!

Sunday was awesome!  First of all the Indian lady's teaching is going very well.  I am still trying but she said she couldn't come to church this week, as we are holding the front doors open for the members coming in, she shows up with some members.  The Allmans.  What saints!!!! Sister Allman literally told her that she couldn't not come to church and that she was picking her up in the morning no matter what!  The Allman family is the greatest missionary help I have ever seen in Norway!  But the big news is that Sister Bingham, the relief society general president and Sister Cordon, the young women general president came to Fredrikstad ward and spoke.  Well the crazy part was that I was sister Cordons Translator for the second hour.  That was stressful, especially when they started reading from Sister cordons general conference talk.  Haha a ton of fun!  They are both amazing people!

I get to spend Tuesday and Wednesday with an elder named Eldste Ewell, he is a stud and it will be fun to just be with him and hit the work hard!

I hope you don't expect these kind of emails often, maybe a 3 times a year kind of thing.

Time honestly is going by really slow right now.  I am blessed to only experience 1 July in Norway because it is the worst. I am so excited for winter you don't even know!  In the winter I feel like I am actually serving in Norway.  with the heat and humidity, I want some fresh fruit and sketchy areas by the way it feels.  And even though it is dark all winter, it is so much fun.  And always having 2 feet of snow on the ground is a blast!

Love you, 

Eldste Egan

Caught in a Rain Storm 

Copper in Norway

July 9, 2018

Hi Family - Happy 4th of July.  We had zone conference on the 4th of July and our zone is so small.  This mission is shrinking slowly but surely!  Rumor has it that it will shrink to 60 missionaries. The mission is great size wise because you know everyone!  It was fun to have interviews with President Karlsson who is our temp Mission President, because interviews were all done in Norwegian. President and Sister Tew made it to Norway after a week delay with their visas and the Hills made it home.  I'm going to miss them but I'm excited to meet President Tew who I probably won't meet for about 6 weeks.  

The Indian lady came to church yesterday.  Her 3 year old still makes everything so hard.  But we have restarted the lessons and really have just taught to her needs.  This last week we just taught the apostasy through the restoration.  I think she is understanding that we say that we are the ONLY true church on earth.  We will be meeting with her tonight!  She just needs to start reading in the Book of Mormon more!

Please order a Norwegian Hymn book for at home since the church is re doing the music - it won't be around for much longer.  

Love you guys!

At the Hills Homecoming, the missionaries sang Armies of Heleman in Norwegian

Branch President Alesund

Meeting Elder Wakefield and Elder Burgoyne at the Hills Homecoming

Elder Hansens Family 

July 2, 2018

Pictures from the month of June.  Norway is currently experiencing the warmest summer in 100 years and I actually miss the cold but getting in a little golf isn't all that bad.  

Thanks to CeCe, we also get fed well. 

Yes, I know my companion is a tad bit taller than me!

We had a fun visit in Fredrikstad from President Hill.

(Elder Parrish, (Easton), Sister Mumford and Sister Barlow)

in front of the chapel in Fredrikstad.

JUNE 2018 ZONE CONFERENCE:

Always fun to see friends from the MTC.