Norwegian Beauty and I was speechless-Tromsø Week Seven

Well I finally made it to Norway and let me tell you it is beautiful!! Literally probably one of the most beautiful places on the planet! This week is full of some "exciting" stuff! I have a lot of stuff to write because of how many days it has been since I emailed!

Friday July 14

Dorm Picture

This was a pretty awesome day and we had infield orientation and they did a small play for us. During that small play I was randomly handed an umbrella and had to follow one of the actors around as he literally walked everywhere... everywhere... We were doing in between rows of people, left, right, up, and down it was pretty fun but a little unexpected. I was also able to give a priesthood blessing of health to a Sister that had a stomach virus. It was by far one of the most spiritual experiences I have had in my life. As I gave that blessing I literally felt as if the savior was speaking through me and I could feel his love radiating through me. Afterwards I felt all tingly for a solid 10 minutes, it was amazing. 

Saturday July 15

We got some stuff from Elder McCourt's Dad's business. His Dad owns a portapotty business and the hats we got say "Got Poop?", and are incredible! That is really it besides it was our last time going to class in the MTC, so we said goodbye to Brother Leighton and Sister House.

Sunday July 16

We got to leave the MTC for the first time because Eldste Garlick was having stomach problems, so that was pretty sweet, but besides that nothing really exciting happened...

Monday July 17

We left the MTC and went to the airport, and I realized how much I hate public transportation... but we got to the airport and I was able to talk to the Fam and it was awesome. We had a ten hour flight from Salt Lake to Amsterdam and I did not sleep but ended up talking to Søster Wheeler pretty much the entire time. It was way fun and we got to see Greenland, Canada, Sweden, and the Netherlands all in one flight! We then waited in the Amsterdam airport for six hours and those were the longest six hours of my life............ I literally thought I was gonna die and then thankfully we got on our plane and got to Norway! That night at the Mission President's house we had homemade pasta and breadsticks! Bless! I was so happy it was amazing!!!! Elder Mitchell, who was going home on Wednesday, actually gave me his raincoat he did not want! Which was way nice because it usually rainsn in Tromsø! He is a way good Elder and told us some helpful hints for the mission field! I also one us the game when we were playing Kube! Finally I received a letter from Elder Renlund when I got to the mission field, it was very cool to read what advice he had to give!!

Hanging out at the mission home

Tuesday July 18/19 (Tuesday and Wednesday are actually the same day kind of

Alright Mom get this, guess what I ate this morning. Waffles with sour cream, strawberry jam, and goat cheese. Yes I had two of them, and both of them were surprisingly delicious, I don't know who came up with that concoction of ingredients but they did good! I did my first little proselyting shindig when I talked to a young German man about Family History at the airport and he said he would go to the church building and try it out when he got home! Way cool! I finally got to Tromsø and it was like 40ish degrees there, so it was a bit chilly. It is absolutely beautiful here, the pictures I have taken, although few, are breathtaking!

waffles with all the Norwegian fixins

Proof that he actually ate it!

Thursday July 20 

Alright got to do some contacting today! Which is when you just talk to people on the street about the church. It was way fun! Except no one really wanted to talk to us... hahaha it was so much fun to get to learn the language by talking with people, but no one was really interested and a lot of people just do not stop walking when you say hi to them... It is way awesome here!!! We also skype with a member family who is living about an hour plane ride north of us. We teach them in english, and it is there young mens for the week! It was way fun!

In Tromsø

Friday July 21

Alright today was way awesome! I am kind of having a rough time understanding people because of their Northern Dialect, but I will understand it soon enough. So we did some contacting today and as we did that we talked to an old grandma who I did not understand but Elder Rumsey did and after the brief conversation we had with her, note the old lady was smiling the entire time and so was Elder Rumsey, I asked Elder Rumsey what she said. He told me she said "See you in heck"... Yeah that is not at all what I thought was being said but oh well hahahaha! We were able to give out a Book of Mormon today to a 22ish year old girl named Lisabeth and she told us we could come back next week so we are super excited for that! Our first bonking (knocking) session was a pretty good success because of that!

Planning for their day!

Saturday July 22

We did another bonking session today and had some pretty good success! So first we visited a family that Elder Rumsey had been trying to get an appointment with for a while. When we knocked on their door the Mother said she did not have time right now. We actually were able to talk with her for a while and give them a copy of the Book of Mormon and she said she would read it and would call us when they had time! Alright mom you can take this out if you don't want to put it on the blog but I thought the fam should hear this funny story! So when we were out bonking we went to this house and it was my turn to start the door approach. When I rang the doorbell, I heard footsteps coming to the door and was way excited and already knew what I was going to say. Well when the door opened it was a 20ish year old girl, with blond hair, beautiful, and only in a bathrobe on. Everything I wanted to say literally left my head that instant. I had no idea what to say, and like after 5 seconds just said "Hi we two are missionaries and we are out to share a message about this Book (the book of mormon), have you heard of it?" Then she started to respond and that is when I let Elder Rumsey take over. It ended up really good because she took a copy of the Book of Mormon and said she would read it and we could come back in a month after her vacation with her family. It was a way fun day!

The beauty of Tromsø.  Notice the long sleeves for the 40 degree weather

Sunday July 23

We had church and it actually started with Sunday school for an hour and then we go to Sacrament after that. We meet in the second floor of a building that is meant for offices. We have about 20 members counting the members that skype in from up north. The sisters had a family show up to sacrament meeting which was way awesome! They look like an awesome family! We had some homemade rootbeer in our fridge and decided to try it. It was not good ten out of ten would not recommend.

Eldste Shanklin and Eldste Rumsey

That's it folks. I am so excited to be in Norway and I love the weather, the culture, and the people so much! I am so excited to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them!!

One more thing: In Norwegian you say "Ha det på badet, gamle sjokolade", and that means see you later alligator, but the literal translation is have it in the bathroom, old chocolate".

Work Hard

Play Hard

Return with Honor

Eldste Shanklin

Also, I would love to here how everyone back home is doing, especially the youth. It does not have to be a super long email but it would be awesome to just be able to hear how everyone is doing!!

Write me at :

Email:   carter.shanklin@myldsmail.net

Snail Mail:   Carter Q. Shanklin

                    Bispegata 2

                    9008 Tromsø