More of Jeff and Dori's visit

Our time with Jeff and Dori had to come to an end. It was hard to see them go. But it has been wonderful to visit with them. We are leaving on a train to return home and they are going to go on another train to Oslo and then fly home.
The women on a boat we took a tour on. Dori Humphrey, Sister Maxine Humphrey and April Hawkes. Yes it was cold because the wind was blowing.
Bergen is built on several hills and has many old and narrow streets. This is one of the cobble stone streets in Bergen. It is one of the most picturesque cities in Norway and a favorite of tourists, including us.
In one of the suburbs of Bergen is the Fantoft Stave Church. It was originally in Rogaland county but was moved to this area by a business man about a hundred years ago. In 1992 a group of youth burned it down. It has since been rebuilt from drawings and plans that were made during the moving of the original church. The LDS church in Bergen is just down the road from this Stave church. The original Fantoft Stave Church was built in the 1300's. At one time there were over 1,000 stave churches but now there are only 28 in Norway.
This is Maria's church in Bergen. It is the oldest building still in use in Bergen. It was built in about 1550 as a Catholic church. When Norway mostly changed from Catholisim to Lutherns it became a Luthern church.

Jeff and Dori's visit

When Jeff and Dori arrived they had brought with them a suit case full of goodies for us: cake mixes, mac and cheese, aspirin (which you can not buy in Norway) and other goodies. 48 pounds of goodies! With an empty suitcase they then could buy souvenirs and have a place to put them to carry home.
We took them to Knapphus to see the memory marker.
A short drive from our home to an island named Karmøy you can find a sandy beach. This is the first sandy beach we have seen in Norway. Mostly the beaches are rocky, like just before the sand in this photo. It was a cold windy day so no one is at the beach but us and Jeff and Dori. They were off looking for sea shells.
Because our visitors did not have much time in Norway and they wanted to see as much as possible they scheduled two days in Bergen, a three hour drive up the coast from us. Our mission president gave us permission to travel to Bergen with them. Here we are in front of a fountain in the town square.
While in Bergen we bought two two liter cartons of ice cream and had an ice cream bust in our hotel room. Notice the portions on the plates. Jeff ate everything on his plate, and so did Dori.

Visitors and the 17th of May

On May 18th our son, Jeff, his wife, Dori and his friends Brian and April Hawkes (Brian served a mission in Norway 15 years ago) came to visit us in Haugesund. They arrived right after we were through with our block of Sunday meetings. This photo is taken right outside of our apartment. We live on the upstairs floor of the brown house in the background. The landlord is a member, Thor Tollaksen. He and his wife lived on the main floor but she died three years ago and he has moved to a cabin he has several kilometers from town. He keeps things as they were when she died in the house. He told us when we have visitors that they can stay in this section of the home. So this is where Jeff and Dori and the Hawkes stayed while they were here. It was sure fun to have them here.
May 17th is the national holiday here in Norway. It is the day that the Constiutuion was ratified in 1814. Because it is a holiday we decided not to dress up in a suit and tie for Elder Humphrey and a dress for Sister Humphrey. We went downtown for the festivities and found everyone dressed up! All the men were either in national costumes or suits and ties. All of the women wore national costumes (called bunads-each county or main area has a seperate designed costume) or dresses. One of the very few occasions we dressed down and everyone else is dressed up. This is at the town square with many people carring flags, banners and all dressed up. The childs parade ended here. Every school in the area is represented by children, a band and a banner with the school emblem and name.
This is a man wearing a national costume. Notice the embroidery on the jacket and the neat stockings.
A mother wearing the Rogaland bunad with her son and baby daughter in costume.
Many of the children had balloons in the shape of different characters. Thought our grandchildren would like this photo.

Senior Couples Conference

The week following the Mission Conference for members we had a Senior Couples Mission Conference. In the Norway Oslo Mission we have six senior couples serving missions plus the mission president and his wife. We met in Bergen, Norway on Thursday and had meetings and went to dinner. We also took a funicular train to the top of one of the seven mountain peaks surounding Bergen. It was extremely beautiful. Then on Friday we all boarded a train that took us to a town named Voss. We exchanged to a bus (a very nice one) that went down a two way road that was just wide enough for the bus and had switch backs with an 18% grade. This water fall was one of the more spectacular ones we saw while on the bus ride. With so many rivers and water falls there is an abundance of hydro electric power in Norway. Most of the trains are electric powered.
At the end of the bus ride we came to a small town named Gudvangen where we boarded a boat, seen here, which took us down one arm of the longest fjord in Norway, Sognefjord, then up another arm to the town of Flåm. Here we boarded a regular gauge railroad which goes from 3 meters above sea level to 850 meters above sea level in a very short distance. It is the steepest regular gauge railway in the Europe. Some of the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen was on this trip.
Here are all of the Senior Couple sisters on the boat portion of our trip. From l to r: Linda Roberds (from Salt Lake City), Dian Merrell (from Vernal, UT), Maxine Humphrey, Bente Andersen (from Denmark), Ardith Poulsen (mission president's wife, from Logan, UT), Liv Schow (from Salt Lake City, but born in Norway), and Bjørg Sims (from Loveland, Colorado but also born in Norway).
And here are the senior men and one young woman who kept asking us questions. She is a student at University of Tennessee in Knoxville who is studying for one semester in Stockholm and took a week vacation to Norway. You will have to match the husband up with their wife from the above picture to find out where they are from. From l to r:
David Sims, Byron Merrell, Alan Roberds, David Humphrey, young lady, Duane Schow, President Lynn Poulsen, and Niels Andersen.
Sister Humphrey was able to make contact with two street trolls while we were in Flåm. She talked to them about our church but they were very quiet about receiving what she had to say.

First few weeks in Haugesund

This is a statue of Marilyn Monroe! Why in Haugesund, Norway?
Her mother was born and raised here, then emigrated to the US. They are proud of her here so they have errected a statue of her. She does have a dress on, it just doesn't look like it here.
One of Elder Humphrey's favorite desserts is bløtkake (soft cake). It is made in three layers. The first is covered with a vanilla or carmel sauce with whipping cream and fruit mixed in. The juice from the fruit used is drizzled onto the cake first, then the next layer is put on with the same fillings, and then the third. It is completly covered with whipping cream and topped with fruit. He made this for company and was very proud of his creation. Of course it is not fattening. If you don't believe it just look at him in the picture.
Approximatly thirty to thirty five kilometers east of Haugesund is the fork in the road that has a convience store, gas station, car dealership and a roadside park. This is where Elder Humphrey's grandfather on his mother's side, Torlief Knaphus, was born and raised. Back then it was just farms and small houses. He joined the church when he was around twenty years old while studying art and sculpture in Oslo. He later emigrated to Utah and did many sculptures for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. One of them is the "Handcart Monument" on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. The current owner of the property where he was raised, Jarl Skjurseike, donated a spot in the roadside park and the Torlief Knaphus family donated the plaque and a memory marker was errected in 2004. When Norwegian Mission President Lynn Poulsen and his wife, Ardith, came to Hougesund to sustain Elder Humphrey as branch president, we took them to Knapphus. Of course it rained that day.
The next week the elders who had been working in Haugesund but were transferred when we came to town, came back to aquaint us with the investigators and some of the members. We took them to the memory marker because they did not know that it even existed. This photo of us was taken that day.
The week after we attended our first meetings in the Haugesund Branch we flew to Oslo and then drove about an hour south to the town of Drammen, where we attended a mission conference for all members of the church except those that are in the one stake we have in Norway. They had had Stake Conference two weeks priviously. Our visiting authority is Area Seventy and councilor in the Central European Area, Elder Wondra. He is an amazing man. He has been a Bishop, Stake President, Mission President, Temple President, and now and Area Seventy. We were able to meet with him personally and have our picture taken with him. The conference was a spiritual uplift and we learned many things that will help us.