October 30, 2017 - My First Investigator!

Hello everyone.  This week was one of the longest most rewarding weeks of my mission.  It all started off Monday night teaching Pål.  We taught the first lesson and we read James 1:5 when we were talking about Joseph Smith and after he literally committed himself to read and pray.  And to top it off he prayed for us at the end of the lesson and it was so amazing.  The walk home after that was an exciting time!

Come Tuesday we had another appointment with a guy who we gave a Mormons Bok to a couple of weeks back. The lesson went terrible.  We were struggling to speak Norwegian and he gave us back the Mormons Bok at the end of the lesson.  Sometimes they will just go bad!

Wednesday we had Zone Conference up in Drammen.  Its about a 2 hour drive and it was so fun to see a couple of people from my MTC group and my MTC comp who I just absolutely love.  The Zone Conference was all about teaching skills and my comp and I were put into a teaching situation twice with people who spoke the hardest dialects in Norway and it was super fun and difficult to do that.  The drive back was really foggy and out of the 2 sister in Skien and Eldste McCourt and I, I am the only one legal to drive because I haven't been here long enough to be illegal yet.  

The days after that I don't have much to say about besides lots of bonking on doors and contacting people on the buses and having a great time in the cold.  

Come Sunday I was in charge of teaching the youth while my comp taught gospel principles.  So we had to go on splits with the bishop and a priest.  My lesson was on "What can we learn about gospel learning from the example of the Savior"  It was weird not having a comp to teach with and this lesson went so bad,  I truly cant speak this language at all but can somehow teach the Preach My Gospel Lessons, changing the subject and not having a comp really changed things up on that but it was such a great experience.  We had dinner at Familie Lunds after church and the father served his mission in California and he really likes spicy food and we had enchiladas and they were amazing.  And dessert in Norway is the best thing in the world.  

Hope you all have a great week!

-- 

Eldste Egan

Elder McCourt and I at a members house for dinner

Pumpkin carving which is NOT a Norwegian thing. 

Young Single Adult Activity - Halloween week

October 23, 2017

Zone Conference This Week - The Oslo Fjord Zone in Drammen

October 16, 2017

AT THE PALACE FOR FIRST TRANSFER TRAINING

BONKING IN PORSGRUNN

1st TRANSFER TRAINING AT THE MISSION OFFICE (ABOVE AN INDIAN RESTAURANT)

Mom,

My new comp is great. He is from Kenilworth, Utah and for him only being out for 12 weeks... wow he can speak the language really well! 

Yes, the food package made it.  Thank you!  And don't worry it doesn't cost anything to go and pick it up.  The best part was the cosmic brownies and the mac and cheese!  Thank you so much.  

I got the book from the Mannings.  I will send them a letter thanking them.  I bought 3 stamps this week and I will send them one.  I hope they work.  

The reason I want the license is so that I can keep my Norwegian one.  The U.S. won't let me have both. 

I actually feel like a missionary. Some missionaries feel like we shouldn't give out as many Mormons Boks and we shouldn’t do it because it costs the church too much.  Are you kidding? I will hand one of those suckers out every chance I get.  

Don't worry I have enough warm clothes.  If you are going to send me anything, send socks.  Mr. Mac socks can burn.  Send thin dark grey socks and some thin cheap striped ones from amazon if anything.  It really is too expensive and I feel bad. 

And I actually already bought a Norwegian sweater.  It's a little tight but it was really cheap for a Norwegian sweater.  I have still just been using that cash that we got before I left.  I am so happy we did that.

Everything is great.  I am loving it.  It's a lot of work but it’s great.

Love you,      Eldste Egan 

1st training after 6 weeks in Norway

Getting Ready to hear from President Hill

Cold wet Porsgrunn

THE MTC 10 back together again

MTC Elders back together again

After training we walked to the palace

Soup and Grilled Cheese for 1st Transfer training

October 9, 2017 First Transfer in Norway

Hi Mom, 

Wow, big changes and a lot ahead this week.  I am staying in Porsgrunn and I am so happy I am!  I did not want to leave this ward!  My comp has been out 1 more transfer than me so this language barrier that we are going to have is going to be really difficult.   But wow I am so excited!  I feel like I will learn a lot from this next comp. Even though he is a youngin too!  

Visa thing went great. I have to go in again this week and then set up a ton of driving times and set up my driving test.  Will you order me a new Drivers License? Because I have to turn in my American one to get my Norwegian one and when I come back to the states they will take my Norwegian one away and the Norwegian ones are good for 15 years so when I come back I want to be able to drive!  That didn't make any sense but just order me a U.S. one and hang on to it until I get home!

Visited with a couple this week who gave us 15 minutes to talk with them.  They took a Mormons Bok and we plan on going back this week!  Other than that not a ton of news!

I am almost positive that I will be here until like January.  But honestly don't spend anything on me to send!  It costs so much and I would rather just use the money to buy stuff here.  Like I would love for you to send me stuff but don't go all out like the usual that you do being as great as you are.

I am so happy I am staying here in Porsgrunn.  This week we will have a lot of time to teach and find. I am really excited!

Thanks for everything mom.  And please tell your dad that I love his letters and thank you so much for them.  I will try and send him an email but it always seems to not save it.

Love you,

Eldste Egan

The bridge in Porsgrunn

Tracking in Porsgrunn (Bonking)

Tracking in Porsgrunn 

Attempting to make Prawns

October 2, 2017

Hello everyone!

This week was one of the most fun weeks of my mission because of the opportunity to travel to Oslo and have first transfer training for a couple of days.  It was so fun to see everyone from my MTC group.  Makes me miss the MTC.  

The training was mostly about developing skills as a missionary.  I feel like I learned a lot and it was fun being able to stay in the mission home.

This week was a busy one but we do an activity called sport on Saturday's.  Yesterday we had 2 less actives and 3 nonmembers show up.  We viewed it as a success. We just play hockey in the basement garage of the church.  It's way fun.  They call it Innebandy.  

Conference was great.  Still haven't finished it and I've watched half of the session in Norwegian so I don't have a ton of notes on it but it was a great experience.  We invited a nonmember to a session yesterday and I learned how much more work church is when someone you are trying to work with comes.  

We had this amazing feast after conference yesterday with all of the members.  It was so good.  There is nothing I love more here than being around the members. I probably say that too much.  The hardest part when I get transferred will be leaving this ward.

I read through the book of Moroni this week and his words are so amazing!  We got to share some of them with a referral this week.  He didn't seem to enjoy it but I did. 

Busy week coming up but I am excited for it.

Ha det bra

-

Eldste Egan

Elder Arveseth - AP

MTC buddies - Elder Hansen and Elder Welch

The Royal Palace in Oslo was built in the first half of the 19th century as the Norwegian residence of the French-born King Charles III of Norway, who reigned as king of Norway and Sweden.

OSLO

Statue of King Karl Johan outside The Royal palace in Oslo.

Potato harvesting

My district in Porsgrunn

September 23, 2017

Downtown Porsgrunn

Oslo Fjord Zone/ Drammen

Zone Conference

Elders in the Oslo Fjord Zone/ Drammen

Package from home

Taking a Ferry

Hi Mom - I might buy my winter coat today.  The coats are a lot cheaper than they say but I will probably buy my coat today and then maybe an ATM withdrawal and maybe some other small clothing items.  My goal is to spend as little as possible.  

I got the candy package on Monday after I emailed you. Thank you for that. The beef jerky was the best part.  And I don't have to pay anything to get them. If they are small enough they just put it in my mailbox but if not they put a slip in the mailbox and then I just go and pick it up.  I have not gotten any others yet so hopefully nothing went wrong.

I head to Oslo today, it is not a fun train ride because it takes forever. But I am lucky enough to get to stay in the mission home.  I leave Oslo Wednesday afternoon and I couldn't be more excited to see Eldste Hansen and Welch.  

Most weird thing I’ve eaten here is probably this lamb and cabbage stew.(just make sure you don't bite the bones) We eat a lot of lamb here. It's pretty good!  I just miss having the pantry and fridge that was so filled at home.  That's probably the food thing I miss.  Best food I have had was this Salmon soup! It was so good!

I have a lot of respect for Jake, 9 weeks learning a language in the MTC will be the longest thing he has ever done.  It never ends!  Let me put it this way. While you are in the MTC, it is not fun, but when you leave the MTC, you look back and it was so fun and amazing.  I didn't like the MTC so much while I was there but now I look back I am so grateful for the experience!

I do get to watch conference next weekend.  We only watch the Saturday morning session on Saturday night and then a ton of it on Sunday and then finish the rest another time.  

It feels like Alaska here but with a little more of a city feel when you are in the towns.  I am having a hard time of remembering everything that happened this week.  

First great thing was Zone Conference up in Drammen.  It was so fun to see President and Sister Hill and to be around all of the other missionaries. 

Next big thing is that I got let into someone’s house for the first time this week!  It was someone we gave a Mormons Bok to a week earlier and he said we could come back. We talked with him for about an hour and it was great.  We are going back this week and we are planning on teaching the first lesson!

Another fun thing was getting to teach Sunday school yesterday.  Once again the members here are so amazing.  I love getting to have dinner with some of them throughout the week.  

Finished up 3rd Nephi this week.  It is an amazing part of the Book of Mormon.  

The language is coming slow, but I learned that my English is getting worse as we were bonking yesterday and a guy opened the door who was from Turkey and he could only speak English and whatever other language he speaks.  We started trying to explain the Book of Mormon in English and it was almost harder than Norwegian.

I head up to Oslo tonight and will be there until Wednesday.  I am so excited to see my MTC group and to just be in Oslo.  It's a long train ride but I'm way excited.

Have a great week everyone! -               Eldste Egan

September 18, 2017

Mom!                                                                                                              

Another great week. Sorry this will be short we decided to go on a really long hike so my time is very short.  I will answer your questions and then send a group email.  Splits went awesome and I'll talk about it in my group email. I feel like I’ve gotten the routine down.  A lot of people can speak English but they do everything in Norwegian so it's just when I don't understand they speak English.  But I would say anyone under the age of 55 can speak decent English but all the kids can’t yet.  I get to go to the mission home next week and I am so excited to see everyone.  We will just take a really long train to get there.  I have not gotten your package yet but I think it will come.

Love you, 

Eldste Egan

             

Splits in Tonsberg

A view from a members home

Hiking in Gygrestolen

www.visitnorway.com/listings/gygrestolen/3714

At the top.

                                          

Hello everyone!

Another amazing week!  It all started off with heading up to Tønsberg to go on splits for 2 days.  They always talk about how awesome things happen on splits and let me tell you it is true.  Not much happened the first day but the second day I was with Eldste Johnson and within the first 5 people we talked to, we had already given out a Book of Mormon and a ton of pamphlets and people would actually talk to us for a solid 10-15 minutes.  It even gets better. The first door we knock on this lady answers the door. We talk with her for a second and she says that she doesn't believe in anything. We explained the promise that is in the back of the Book of Mormon and she was willing and said that she would read and pray and that we could come back.  We walked away so shocked and happy. Too bad it wasn't in my area.

Next the Drammen Eldsters came down to Porsgrunn and went on splits with us.  Within the first 3 people we talked to we already handed out 2 Books of Mormon and a pamphlet.  Through this process we have 6 potential investigators and we are just hoping one becomes an investigator.  This makes this week a big and crazy one.  

We also got to help out with a lot of service this week and we got to do a lot with all of the members.  

 One story from splits we were talking with this guy about the Book of Mormon and all he wanted to talk about is how revelation doesn't happen anymore and that there is no need to do anything. He was very polite and we asked if we could share a scripture with him and we shared Moroni's promise and the spirit was so strong and you could see that he was feeling it.  After we read it he said "it's true" and then instantly went back into all of this stuff.  We were disappointed but at least we tried.

We got to go on an amazing hike today called Gygrestolen, I'll send pictures!

Eldste Egan

At the top of Gygrestolen

The best chocolate ever!  Melkesjokolade!