Hello everybody! This is going to be a fun week to write about! A lot of... interesting things happened... Let us just get right into things!
Jarl is doing good. Sadly he did not watch the talks or read in the Book of Mormon like we asked him to but we were prepared! We watched together "What is the Blueprint of Christ's Church?", which is a phenomenal talk and we new he would really enjoy! After the talk was over we explained to him so key points and he said he really liked it. We tried to help him understand that commitments like reading in the Book of Mormon and watching these talks will actually help him find answers! After some stellar testifying by us he seemed really ready to give his effort to read everyday!
Shout Outs
1. Baby Shank is a boy! He is healthy and strong! Wohoo!!!
2. KHS Academic team I have heard is pretty legendary, with THE Taylor Cobb leading them
3. Justin and Macy celebrating their 6 month Anniversary (That means I have been on my mission almost 6 months... woah....)
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| Christmas Festival in Tromso |
Questions
1. Why is Pday today not monday? There is a big christmas festival in centrum so we could not really do missionary work so we switched Pday
2. Light the World? We have something planned everyday! You should try it out! It is incredible opportunity to brighten someone else's day!
3. Mørketid? So yes it does only get light from about 11-1 and only like bright enough where you can tell that it is not dark anymore... It is pretty cool but I am getting a little tired but I just stop being tired and be awesome instead! (Anybody get that reference?)
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| I think he told me these were reindeer boots?? |
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| A Norwegian Nativity Plate for Mom |
I am NOT an Electrician...
So this story begins a week ago when we had a member middag and our member wanted us as the Elder to bring a screwdriver. I thought it would be to fix some loose screws but I was wrong. She wanted us to screw some curtain rods into the wall and hang a chandelier, so a screwdriver just was not what we needed. She invited us back this week and that is when the story will begin. It started off pretty well, despite the fact that I never really did stuff like this at home to often, and I got both of the curtain rods hung up with no problem. Really was a blessing, I felt like my Dad was their guiding me because in no way did I remember how a drill worked or what I needed to do! It was really amazing! However my Dad was in fact not an electrician so this is where things start start to blow up *hint* *hint*! Well after we fixed her cabinet hung up her clock things got fun. So she wanted us to try to wire a dimmer to a chandelier so I thought " Well everything else has gone well today might as well go for it!" Wrong answer. As I wired it and got everything in what I thought was the right place it looked pretty promising! Then we plugged it in.... nothing happened so I thought why not just mess with the dimmer wheel, mistake #2... There was a spark and then no lights in half the house... Well I thought "Oh a fuse blew easy, just flick back on the switch!" Well folks let me tell you I have never been more confused than when I opened that fuse box and there was one switch and like 8 different light bulb thingamajigs... Well after calling everybody in the mission field we called a Norwegian member and he said you had to just go buy new fuses... I do not know who thought that this was a good idea that every time a fuse busted you would have to buy a new one.... Well we went to the store and luckily the fuses were only 25 kroner or like 3 bucks for six of em! We got back and fixed the lights and apologized but she was awesome and said "If we do not try we can't win!" Truth!
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| Christmas Tree lighting at the festival |
This guy is an Electrician
Well we had an actual electrician come check out our fuse and electricity because we live in a wooden building in the middle of centrum so if our building lit on fire, poof centrum is gone... Well first problem was to get to our fuze box you have to go through this storage closet. Which I know all of you are thinking "Oh Elder Shanklin, the storage closet is not that big of a deal just take out the few things in there and let the Electrician go in." Correct answer if it is not a missionary apartment... Everything is clean and awesome besides that closet... Missionaries have just decided to throw whatever thing they did not want in there... Everything from a Justin Beiber dyna cover to a Bob the Builder in Norwegian... So we cleaned that out so he could get to the fuse box and then he said "Well one of your fuses is dangerous so I am going to have to shut it off." I thought no biggie sure go ahead. Well that one fuse controlled: the washing machine, dryer, our bedroom, half of the lights in the living room. He said that it could take upwards to six weeks to get that fixed... Bro I need clean underwear... Anyways we spent all that day talking to an Electrician our Landlord and Elder Robinson, who is up in mission headquarters and controls the apartments and stuff. Long story short we got it fixed the same day so we are all good now!
Eldste Fowler's Birthday
That was tuesday, which is the same day as my attempt to be an electrician. We had french toast for breakfast with buttermilk syrup, made by yours truly. Then we had hot dogs for lunch with Oreo Milkshakes! THen we had more milkshakes later that night! It was a fun day!!
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| Milkshakes to celebrate Eldste Fowlers birthday! |
Jarl!!
Jarl is doing good. Sadly he did not watch the talks or read in the Book of Mormon like we asked him to but we were prepared! We watched together "What is the Blueprint of Christ's Church?", which is a phenomenal talk and we new he would really enjoy! After the talk was over we explained to him so key points and he said he really liked it. We tried to help him understand that commitments like reading in the Book of Mormon and watching these talks will actually help him find answers! After some stellar testifying by us he seemed really ready to give his effort to read everyday!
Dinner with Zardasht!
Zardasht is a member here who moved from Greece about 2 years ago. We decided for the first day of Light the World, "Freely you have received, freely shall ye give.", we would go and make him dinner, szechuan chicken, because he is usually just all alone after work! It was a really fun night and he was so thankful and agreed to try to Light the World everyday as well!! Our members here are the best!!!! I love them all so much!!
This weeks spiritual thought is going to be brief because it comes with a commitment. First some questions. Did Jesus Christ establish a church? Yes we read about it in Ephesians 4:11-14 and many other places in the New Testament. Was Christ church lost from the earth for a short period of time? Yes we also read about this occurrence through prophetic words in the New Testament in Acts 3:19-21 where Peter talks about "a restitution of all things" or in 2nd Thessalonians 2:1-3 where Paul states that the second coming of Jesus Christ will not occur "except there be a falling away first." How can someone find Christ's Church again if it has been lost? Compare the Church Christ built in the New Testament to every church on the earth until you find one that has everything Christ had in the New Testament. We know it will be the same church because, as it states in Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever." Jesus Christ and the Father have always worked in the same time throughout all of history so why not our day? Well in fact he has spoken in our day through a young boy who would become the first prophet in these days, Joseph Smith. I would like to state with more assurance than anything in this world that the same church that Joseph Smith RESTORED, not established, is the exact same church that Christ had on the earth and add with the same assurance the Lord's words from Doctrine and Covenants 1:30 that this is "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth..." Test that statement in anyway you wish and you will find it to be true!
The commitment to help you understand more and it is more in depth then I ever could share in an email is a talk given by Tad R. Callister at BYU in 2014.
The talk begins at 12 minutes into the video and will help you understand how this is Christ's Church restored upon the earth once again!
Dream Big
Don't Doubt
Give 'em Heaven,
Eldste Shanklin
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