Sister Wvarvik is our Branch Relief Society President. She had us to dinner on Christmas Day. We had Lukte Fisk which I had hoped to avoid while in Norway. It is a common dish at Christmas time. It is fish that has spend hours in lie and then drying out before it is served. Actually, it was not that bad. We then had a wonderful cheese cake which she is holding. It was nice being in her home with her family.

I had to show off the slippers I knit for Elder Humphrey for Christmas. I have learned to knit with five needles at the same time. I am making another pair so hopefully I will continue knitting Norwegian style when I get home.

Dinner at the Wvarvik home. She also served salmon in case we could not tolerate Lukte Fisk. All of us tried it even Elder Reese and Elder Lange.

Christmas Eve we were in the home of the Steinsvik family. The Norwegian people open all their presents on Christmas Eve. We also had a very good Christmas Eve dinner. Everyone dresses up in Sunday best for Christmas Eve activities.

At the Zone Christmas party I had to have another picture with me and the Tromsø missionaries. We served with Elder Issacson from Logan and Elder Hotst from Denmark. Elder Holst was with us for four months and helped me make it through mørketiden.

(the period of two months without the sun). It is great to see the growth in these and other missionaries during the time they are on their missions.

More Christmas Parties

President and Sister Poulsen at the Zone Christmas party in Stavanger. We ate, played games, had a program and exchange gifts. It was great fun!

The Elders serving here in Haugesund with us, Elder Reese and Elder Lange along with Emily Thompson who was visiting our branch from America. We enjoyed visiting with her. She served a mission in Germany.

It is cold and frosty here but the grass stays green all winter. It is amazing. We get wind, rain but very little snow on the west coast of Norway. After spending last winter in the far north we are not minding the change.

Sister Mjøs and one of the two sons we hope to baptize on Jan. 24. They are busy in the kitchen helping to clean up after our branch Christmas party.

Santa Claus surprised us with a visit and treats for all the children
They were excited and followed him all around as he cheered member young and old.

Lots of visiting and enjoying the warmth of the season. People were moving from table to table having a great time being together

Sister Humphrey with Santa Claus who happens to be our landlord.

His wife died three years ago of cancer. She was a favorite in the branch and loved having the missionaries live in her home. She is greatly missed by the branch. Thor is a great landlord and joins us on Monday night for Home Evening.

Lars Steinsvik is a little old to be pleading for goodies from Santa but the children loved watching him plead for some treats. We all enjoyed his enthusiasm at the arrival of Santa. Santa is called julenissen in Norway.

Elder Humphrey won the chocolate candy when he found an almond in his rice pudding. The children were so hoping they would get the almond. They like their Branch President so I think it was ok that he got it if none of them were lucky enough to get it.

Branch Christmas Party,Zone Christmas Party

Everyone having fun visiting, eating and anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus. Our landlord, and his grandchildren. Brother Rustad taking pictures.

Annie Steinsvik, Ellen Eliza Steinsvik, Kari Ssteinvik, and Eric Gorde are enjoying the traditional Norwegian food and Julebrus. This is a drink that is available in all the stores at Christmas time.

Sister Humphrey, Kari Ssteinvik, Heather Pettersen and Marianna Hiltunen working in the kitchen getting the food ready to serve. They took a moment out to pose for a picture.

The female missionaries at the Zone Conference Christmas party in Stavanger. Sister Humphrey, Sister Crowther, Sister Poulsen, and Sister Engebretsen. Sister Engebretsen just arrived in the mission field at the first of December.

Elder Humphrey singing a solo at the Zone Conference Party. He sang, In Quiet Grove which is one of his favorite songs. He did a great job.

December 2008

Elder Reese and Elder Lange arrived to be with us in Haugesund. We picked them up at the bus stop and fed them dinner. We then cleared the table and begin doing missionary work with them. We showed them the area book and investigators we presently have and potential other investigators. We were so happy to have them come and join us in Haugesun.

The Young Women and leaders decorated the branch Christmas tree. We bought new decoration for the tree this year. They made it look very festive.

Activity night (Enrichment night) for Relief Society we wrapped DVD's of the Christmas story and Christmas songs by the Mormon Tabernacle Choire to pass out to family, friends, co-workers and people we meet on the street to wish them a MerryChristmas and Happy New Year.

A church in Stavanger that we went in while in Stavanger for District Meeting. It was very ornately decorated and had many interesting paintings, and scluptures for us to see.

The Stavanger District meeting we went to. Usually, we just have a conference call. However, because Elder Humphrey needed to practice a song he would be singing at Zone Conference/Christmas party we went to Stavanger so he could practice with Elder Tessen who plays the piano. Our District Leader is Elder Holst who served with us in Tromsø.

Thanksgiving dinner and Relief Society

We were invited to a Thanksgiving Day dinner at the Branch in Bergen, Norways second largest city that is three hours north of us. We accepted the invitation. This is one of the largest branches in the mission and they went all out to make this a special occasion. There were ten turkey's that members roasted and we had all of the trimmings, including two kinds of cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes. However there was no pumpkin pie. Elder Humphrey didn't miss that, as he doesn't like it anyway.

Sister Lewis, one of the sister missionaries in Bergen putting one of the turkey's on the table. The young missionaries did and extra amount of service helping get the feast ready and then cleaning up afterwards. Elder Humphrey served in Bergen as a young missionary and he was able to visit with some of the old time members that remembered him.

On the trip between Haugesund and Bergen you have to cross a fjord on a ferry boat. Trucks, busses and cars drive onto the ferry. This is from the upper area where people go to get something to eat, read or just relax while on the ferry. Notice the trucks and cars below. We had just left the dock and were on our way out to the main channel. This ride on the ferry takes about forty minutes.
Our Relief Society has begun holding monthly activity or Enrichment nights. These are the sisters that came to the last one in November. They learned how to make fancy open faced sandwiches and finished up knitting things that they started in the October meeting.

A picture of the fancy open faced sandwiches (smørbrød) that were made that night. Of course after they were made they had to be eaten, with some soup and a nice drink of punch. Elder Humphrey is glad that there were a few left over that Sister Humphrey could take home with her.

Zone Conference, Bømlo, and Snow

On the 19th of November we held our monthly Zone Conference in Stavanger. We will be having a moves day on the fourth of December so this was the last time many of us will see each other in Norway. So we took a group photo, and thanks to photo shop, everyone is smiling and looking great. Thanks Elder Holst (seen on the far left). We are next to Elder Holst and President and Sister Poulsen are on the far right.

Elder Hess' mother crotcheted wreath Christmas decorations for each missionary in Norway. We received them at our Zone Conference. This is Elder Hess holding up one of the ornements. He is a great Elder. We are very appreciative of these.

Dado (on the far right) was baptized in Oslo last May. He is a refugee from Ethiopia. He lives on an island that is a little over an hour north of Haugesund, named Bømlo. The Norwegian government assigns refugee's to live in different cities all over Norway so that they can intigrate into the Norwegian life style easier and so that there are not large enclaves of them in any one area. They are assigned to take Norwegian language classes in their assigned areas. Dado lives in a building that houses several emigrants. We went to visit him recently to see if we could help him get to church meetings more often and he had four of his friends that live in the same building as he does listen to us tell about our church. Tedla (who is also from Ethiopia) is just to the left of Dado and has listened to us a couple of time since and came to church with Dado two Sunday's ago. The young man on the far left is from Iran and the one next to him is from Syria.

When Dado and Tedla came to church we had a linger longer luncheon after our meetings. After the luncheon they helped clean up and we took their picture helping do the dishes. Both are married and have families they had to leave behind in Ehiopia.
We received a snow storm a week ago (about the 17th of November) and we had six inches on the ground. Then it turned very cold for the next three days and nothing melted. Glad we had our winter tires on our car. But it has since warmed up and it rained for two days straight. Now all of the snow is gone. Much different than in Tromsø last year.

Missionary work and scenery

Our oldest grandson, Jory entered the MTC in October and has now arrived in the El Salvador/Belize Mission. We are so proud of him that we had to include a picture of him and his mother, our daughter Heidi, here in our blog. He will be there for two years and we have seen a growth in him just during the time he has been a missionary.

This is Trym. He is eight years old. His mother, Anette is a member of our church but his father is not. He has told us he wants to be baptized and so has his brother. We are teaching them and hope that they can be baptized before we return home. He is demonstrating his skill playing the violin. He has been taking lessons for three months and he played Silent Night for us. An exceptional boy.
This is Ellen Elisa, who comes to our apartment every Wednesday for two to three hours for seminary. Sister Humphrey is her teacher. Elder Olsson is one of our Zone Leaders and Elder Dillion Jensen is an Assistant to the President. Elder Jensen served the first six months of his mission in Haugesund and was in our zone and wanted to visit us (really he wanted to visit Haugesund and the people he knew here).

About a mile from our home is a walk way that goes around a very beautiful lake. At the end of the walkway is this view of Haugesund and the North Sea. We try to walk on this walk way two or three times a week. But since the weather has turned a little colder and rainy we have slowed down on our excercise program.
This is also a view of Skudeneshavn seen from a bridge that goes from the main land of the city to a small island just south of the downtown area.

Skudeneshavn

Just outside of Haugesund is a large island named Karmøy. It is about 45 km long. At the extreme souther tip is an old city named Skuneneshavn. This is a photo of some of the houses at the outskirts of the city with the north sea behind it. We went to this town to find a member who has not come to church for several years. We did talk to her, but she did not want us to come into her home or to have any personal contact with her. So we looked over the whole town and did a little sight seeing while there.

At the entrance to the childrens park this old sailing ship mast head is protecting the entrance way. It is from a ship that sailed in the 1860's.

On one of the streets in Skudeneshavn. Notice how narrow the street and the house are. And the house is two stories on the end closest to us and it goes down to one story at the other end of the house. I thought this a very interesting house.

Just outside of Skudenes is this lovely sandy beach. Of course in November we had the beach to ourselves and it was way to cold to even put our feet in the water but the beach and the clouds made for a very beautiful picture.

A view of the harbor and the downtown area of Skudeneshaven.

Mission and Zone Conferences

On the 25th and 26th of October we had a Mission Conference-south in Stavanger. In Norway we have one Stake (a group of smaller geographical groups of members) in the Oslo and surrounding cities. The rest of the country is in the Mission jurisdiction and is divided in the north and south area because of distances. We have a mission conference twice a year. This conference was presided over by an Area Seventy, Elder Steven Kerr. His son, Elder Benjamin Kerr is our District Leader and serves in Stavanger. This is a picture of father and son. This was a very spiritual and worth while conference.

At the Zone Conference and Mission Conference we met two of the elders we had worked with in the Tromsø area, Elder Isaacsen and Elder Holst. Two great elders. It is good to see them again.

The Mission Conference was for members from all of the cities in our zone plus another branch. Between meetings there were meals served. This shows the missionaries taking money for the meals. The young man standing to the right in this photo ws a native Norwegian who just returned a couple of months ago from serving a mission for our church in Salt Lake City, Utah. He had a wonderful experience and was very successful. He spoke durning the Sunday meeting for all of the members. He gave an excellent talk.

This is Elder Humphrey, Sister Sarah Crowther, and a member of our branch in Haugesund, Dado Emana. She knew Dado in Oslo where he was baptized in May. He has since moved to Bømlo, an island about an hour and a half drive north of Haugesund. His goal is to some day return to his native country, Eithopia, and do missionary work. He is very excited about the gospel.

Us with Sister Sara Crowther. Sister Crowther is a granddaughter of a couple, Brother and Sister Duane Crowther, that we worked with in the Bountiful Temple. She came to Norway about three months after we did, but has been working in the Oslo area and this weekend was the first time we met her.