Meetings and the beginnings of Fall

Once a month we hold Zone conference with the mission president and all of the missionaries from Arendal, Kristiansand, Stavanger Haugesund and Bergen. It is held in the church in Stavanger. Here is Elder and Sister Roberds who work in Bergen (backs to camera, President Lynn Poulsen and his wife Ardeth, and Sister Humphrey.
Lunch break at the zone conference. L- R: Eldter Hunsaker, Elder Murray, Sister Lewis and Sister Adams, all of whom have been working in Bergen.
Some of the Elders at the zone conference.
We also hold district meetings once a week with the four elders from Stavanger and us. We usually do this on a conference call between them and us. But this week we went to Stavanger on our way home from meeting with Sister Skoie (see posting above). Here we see Elder Ben Kerr, Elder Brett Jessen, Elder Michael Guttierez and Elder Humphrey.
Fall is on its way. If southern Norway is like northern Norway it won't last long. It is beautiful. We passed these bushes on our two mile walk. We try to walk often but we don't do it as often as we should. If we went at least as often as we eat at others homes we wouldn't be gaining weight, but alas we don't.

People in Haugesund

The second Enrichment meeting held in our branch since we have been here. Shown here are (l-r): Heather Pettersen, Ingebjørg Warvik (Relief Society President) and Kari Steinsvik (daughter of Heather Pettersen). This meeting was held in the home of Reidun Solmunde, a member of our branch.
Home evening held in the apartment of Sigmund A. A. Breivik. Shown are (clockwise from top) Heather Pettersen, Sister Humphrey, Valeriy Nyfantov (from Russia), Gunnar Rustad and Sigmund Breivik (with back to camera).
Me with Thor Tollaksen, our landlord. He owns the home we live in. We live on the second floor, and he has the first floor. His wife passed away about three years ago and he has not done much to the interior since she died. He has a second home about twenty minutes south of Haugesund that over looks an arm of the ocean. He lives in this second home ninty five percent of the time. This home is on the top of the hill with a garden, enclosed on two sides patio with a fire place, two cottages next to the fjord for his children and grandchildren and many other ammenities. His boat is docked at his property.
A couple that at the present time live in our branch, Pierre Magre and his wife, Irene. They are from France. She is a doctor and she works in Bergen, so they are moving there in November. He is retired and works two to three hours a day on geneology.
After a "Linger Longer" at the church we of course have to do dishes. L - r: Valeriy Nyfantov, Dado Emana, Kari Steinsvik, Elder Humphrey.

People and places.

At the end of August we went to Bergen, the second largest city in Norway which is a three hour drive north of us. The branch there was celebrating 150 years of the church being in that city. Elder Erich W. Kopischke, of the Seventy, spoke at the meeting we went to. This photo is, front, l - r: President Lynn J. Poulsen, Norwegian Mission President, Elder Kopischke, Elder Sterre, Area Seventy. We are standing behind them.
While in Bergen we did a little sight seeing. This is overlooking the port area with a cruise ship at the dock. We met several people who were on the cruise. One couple was from Knoxville, TN.
Two members of our branch here in Haugesund. Ellen Elisa Steinsvik is 15, going on twenty, and one of our two young women in the branch. Her grandmother, Heather Pettersen, the Young Womens President, is on the right.
This is one of the fjords in our area with a mist cloud against the mountains. We were on our way to a zone conference when this photo was taken.
A beautiful view of part of Sognefjord with majestic mountains surounding it.

Street Display and Seminary

On August 22, 2008 we set up a street display on one of the busiest corners in Haugesund. We invited the four young missionaries from Stavanger to come to Haugesund and work with us on the display. This was during a film festival held anually here. This is one of our investigators Lizbeth who came to see us at the display and Elder Olsson talking to a man about our church.
Here is Elder Olsson again talking to a different man and in the background Elder Guitierez talking to another person.
Sister Humphrey had to show that she did more than just take pictures. She also got an orange drink for her efforts.
The old missionary, Elder Humphrey, setting up the pamphlets and pictures so the display would be ready when the young missionaries arrived.
In our branch we have one person who is the age to take Seminary classes (religion classes for youth between the ages of 14 and 18). We have a member who has a daughter who is a member of another faith who we are trying to get to take seminary. Sister Humphrey teaches the class to the one member, Ellen Elisa in our apartment one day a week.

Zone Conference and Stavanger

Once a month we are invited to a zone conference for all of the missionaries in the South Zone, comprising the cities of Arendal, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Haugesund and Bergen. The mission president, his wife and sixteen missionaries come together and have an all day meeting. It is great to feel the spirit of the young missionaries, the other senior couple, the Robards serving in Bergen, and President and Sister Poulsen. Here one of the young elders, Elder Holst from Danmark, who served with us in Tromsø and helped us set up this blog, is helping myself and Elder Robards with our computer problems during the lunch break. It is great to have some one with a little know how about computers.
From left to right: Elder Jonathan Lange and Elder Tyler Alexander, both serving in Kristiansand, and Elder Jacob Reese, serving in Arendal.
After the zone conference was over Sister Humphrey and I stayed in Stavanger for a meeting for all Seminary teachers that was held in the church building. It lasted until 9 pm and we did not want to drive the two hour drive back home so we stayed overnight in Stavanger. The next morning, before driving home we went downtown to see what Stavanger looked like. This is the downtown harbor area with an old church in the backgroud.
A section of Stavanger has been preserved just as it was two or three hundred years ago, with very narrow cobblestone streets and houses built right up to the edge of the street and very close together. This is a picture of "Gammel Stavanger" (old Stavanger).
In most of the cities that have hills in them and on most roadways going from city to city there are tunnels. We recently read that there are close to one thousand tunnels in Norway. The longest is 24 kilometers (15 miles) long. Many go under fjords. To drive from Haugesund to Bergen one must drive through a tunnel that goes 264 meters (about 2500 feet) under sea level. Notice that there is a house built right on top of this tunnel which is almost in the downtown area of Stavanger.

Stavanger and Haugesund

While in Stavanger for the missionary zone conference and the seminary teachers training meeting we went into the city to see what it looked like. This is the bryggen (warehouse wharf) area where the fish, flower market and many restuarants are. It is now a popular shopping area.
Standing at the same spot but looking out into the harbor. A large cruise ship is just getting ready to leave the dock.
Sister Marcia Nelson, from Boise, Idaho came to Haugesund to look for some of her ancesters farms. She is also writing a book about the king who unified Norway into a nation instead of many fuedal kingdoms, Harold the Fairhair, or Harold Hårfarge. He had a farm near here and is said to buried just outside of Haugesund. She and Sister Humphrey are behind an old church build about 1250 A.D. by one of his great-grandsons, King Olav the holy.
This is the same church. The people in the photo are Elder and Sister Humphrey, and Marcia Nelson. We are standing next to a piller that is called the Virgin Mary's sewing needle. It started leaning towards the church and old legend has it that when it touches the church, it will be the day of final judgement. To prolong the day of judgement priests have several times ordered that the top of the piller be cut back and/or pulled the piller back away from the church and propped it up.
Haugesund holds a jazz festival every year. It is called the Herring Jazz Festival (or Sillajazzfestivalen). Booths are set up all over town to sell anything and everything and people come from all over Scandinavia for this festival. This is a picture of the wharf area with booths on the waters edge. There are boats tied up to the harbor four or five deep.

Touring and church work

One of the families in our branch got a nanny from the Phillipine Islands this fall, Glory May. She will be taking Norwegian language classes sponsered by the government later but wanted to get a head start on the language. Elder Humphrey agreed to tutor her in Norwegian. And now she has asked us to tell her about our church.
This is the usuall Primary in our branch of our church. From l-r:
Matias (10), Lars (6), Johannas (4), and Georg (8). Sometimes there are visitors. Sister Humphrey has had up to 11 come into Primary.
Brother Gunnar Rustad is an extra ordinary man in our branch. He is 81 years old, holds two callings and is very energetic. He has been a member for 42 years, but his wife and children will not have anything to do with religion. He and his wife asked us if they could take us on a tour of some of the places where they had lived in their lives. To build a relationship with her we aggreed, thinking we would be gone about four hours. The next three photo's were taken during our twelve hour journey. This is Fonefjos, a majestic water fall that emptys into an arm of Hardangerfjord.
The turn around point of our journey was a farm high up on a mountain over looking Eidsfjord, at the end of Hardangerfjord. Spectacular view.
All along the roadway, between the fjord and the mountains are fruit farms. They are famous in all of Europe for there fruit. This is a cherry orchard. Large plastic sheets are put over the cherry trees to keep the birds out. The sun gets in but the birds cannot. These plastic sheets are a net material so air circulates in.