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.

People and fall scenery

Every month we travel to the city of Stavanger, about fifty miles (78 km.) south of Haugesund to attend Zone conference. Elders and Sisters from Bergen, Haugesund (us), Stavanger, Kristiandsand, and Arendal come together with the mission president and his wife for training. This is just before the conference started. Sister Poulsen always brings banana bread for people to eat before the conference begins. Yum.

The week before zone conference, Elders Kerr and Phillips baptized a couple from Ghana. They invited us to attend and we went to the baptism. A very spiritual experience. They are friends of a man that he baptized a month before.

We took a trip about 40 km out of Haugesund to visit people and took several photos of the fall colors. This is a well with a plant covered roof that has turned because of the fall weather. Overlooking Grindefjord.

Looking out the window of our apartment at some of the bushes that are changing colors. By the time you read this the leaves have all fallen off of several of the trees and bushes in this photo.

Another view outside of our apartment. The colors didn't show up as well in the photo as they really were this day. The mountain side behind the big apartment buildings was bright red, as were several of the trees in front of these buildings.

More people in Norway

Elders Kerr and Phillips came from Stavanger to work with us one day and we went to the home of Anette Mjøs. Her children are Kristoffer (10), Tryn (8) and Nora (13). Her husband was at a school meeting this night. A fantastic family.

The same day we ate middag (mid-day meal, or lunch) at the home of Sister Ingebjørg Warvik. Then after eating the young missionaries and Elder Humphrey worked on covering a former doorway with a piece of press board. It was supposed to take two hours, but with our planning, goofing up and off (see the last photo in this post) it took us almost four hours. But it got done.

The "Linger Longer" we hold once a month after the block of meetings.

More people at our "Linger Longer." This is a very popular event.

Elder Kerr playing hockey with one of the scrap boards we cut out to cover sister Warviks door way. Of course it was just a diversion to all of the hard work he and Elder Phillips had been doing.

People we know in Norway

Bjarne and Anne Marit Strand. His grandmother and my grandfather on my mothers side were brother and sister. He is a few years younger than us, lives in a small town about 7 km. from us. They are very nice and remember many of our reletives who have visited them and who they have visited. We hope to visit with them many more times while here.

Elbe Blank, Ingebjørg Warvik and Kari Steinsvik at a Relief Society activity night. It was held in our apartment. The sisters learned how to knit house slippers for cold winter nights.

The four elders who are currently serving in Stavanger, the fourth largest city in Norway and the oil capital of Norway. L - R: Benjamin Kerr from Scotland, Phillip Olsson from Sweden, Andrew Phillips from Sandy, Utah, and Troy Tessum from Lindon, Utah. They are great missionaries and wonderful to work with. This picture was taken when we went to Stavanger to see general conference live via satalite. This was a wonderful experience in and of itself.

Laila Pettersen and Karl Petter Pettersen making pizza for the missionaries at zone conference. They live in the Stavanger area. She was a young girl of nine or ten when I was on my mission in Norway as a young man. She lived in Bergen with her parents and the whole family had been baptized about three or four months before I came to Bergen. They lived in the area I was assigned and we visited them often. They are a great couple and very active in the church.

The Whitesides. He works for an American oil company and has been in Norway for about five years. We stayed at their home during the weekend of general conference. He has been serving as first councelor in the branch presidency and she served as Missions Young Womens president and early morning seminar teacher. We just learned that he has been reasigned back to the United States, after living in Europe for almost ten years.