Scenery and Linger Longer

Sunset 19 March 2008 at 5:27 p.m. Looking west from Håpe area of Tromsø towards Kvaløy.
On March 12, 2008 at 5:15 a.m. looking out our apartment window. The moon and the sunrise.
On the 16th of March we held a "Linger Longer" after the block of church meetings. It was a true pot-luck. We asked people to bring either a salad or a dessert. The only assignments we made was for one member to supply the drinks and another to supply the rolls. A good time was had by every one. Left to right: Maria Peterson, Elder Welch, Viliyana Anatasova, Arvid Hansen, Mark Peterson, Linda Bennett and Elder Humphrey.
The Linger Longer tabels looking the opposite direction. Left to right: Erlend Lunde, Leanna Lunde, Christine Peterson, Eveymartine Brogan, Elder Watts, Britannia Lomax and Jørn Lomax.
Lill Kristoffersen, on the left, a member of our church, and her mother, Bodil. We were invited to Bodil's apartment for an authentic Norwegian dinner of fresh cod fish, boiled potatoes and vegatables. These two ladies will be spending a month in the USA and we offered to let them stay in our home. The invited us to dinner to pay us back and to pick our brains about things to see and do in our corner of the world.

Tromsø in the spring

March 3, 2008. This is looking from the island of Tromsø towards the main land. On the mountain in the background there is a tram that takes people to the top, where there is a spectacular view of Tromsø, a restuarant and trails for hiking. Notice the snow. The roads are plowed but not salted. In parking lot areas the snow is piled up on the boarders and left. That is what can be seen in the left foregroung of the photo.
This was taken from the window of an elementary school. This shows a typical playground area. This is a basketball court-soccer field(but here it is called football). Notice the goals under the basketball standards. The houses in the background are typical housing for this area. The red one is an apartment building with two or three apartments on each floor and two or three floors in the building. A whole family will live in one of these apartments.
These next two photos were taken on Mar. 7, 2009 on a drive from our apartment to a location on the other side of the island. We drove the round about way on the shore road. This is looking accros the fjord towards another, larger island, Kvaløy (meaning whale island). The bridge in the background was built in 1971 and the large space in the middle is to allow ocean going ships to pass under it. We have some members who live on Kvaløy.
This was taken from almost the same location as the previous photo. It is of a group of school children on a field trip. They have a fire going and are roasting hot dogs and marshmellows while they search the shore of the fjord for sea life. Of course the boys are playing as much as they are doing supervised activities.
Every Friday evening we have the church open for college age members to bring their friends over to chill out, play games and find out that you can have good clean fun with out drinking and smoking. The missionaries usually come and meet any members of other faiths. From left to right: Elder Welch, Elder Watts, Åse Svendsen, who is studing astro-
physics at the University of Tromsø, Viliyana Anatasova, who is from Bulgaria and working in Tromsø, Lill Kristoffersen, and Elder Humphrey. This was a mean game of Scrabble.

End of February, first of March in Tromsoø

Another month has passed by and it is time to add to our picture history of our time in Norway. With the passage of time we are rapidly getting more and more light. This photo was taken on the 27th of February at 7:47 am of the sunrise. Even though we have more sunlight it is still winter. Today, March 24, 2008, we have had a snow storm which added four to five inches of new snow to the total on the ground.
A week later a photo taken out of the same window in our apartment, but this one was taken at 6:20 am. We gain around 8 minutes and 30 seconds of light each day. By the 25th of May we will have midnight sun for two months straight.
This picture was taken out of one of the windows of our meeting place for our church. We are on the second floor of an office building on the main street of town, Storgata. We are looking south and the two large brown buildings are the Mack brewrey, the worlds northern most brewrey. They also bottle "Coke" and other soft drinks at this plant. So it is also the northern most bottlery of "Coke".
Sister Humphrey and I tutored two young boys from Rawanda in English in our apartment. They were going to come every week but we only saw them the one time. We hope to have more contact with them so we can possibly teach their mother and father about why we are here.
We received a computer and the software to start a Family History Center in our meeting house. Here is Elder Humphrey teaching the software to Lill Kristofferson, who will be one of the facilitators in the center.

Ethiopian Dinner

On February 24th we were invited to the apartment of the people who live right above us for dinner. We had said hello to them several times and then the first time I was at the library helping immigrants with their school work, one of the people I helped was our neighbor upstairs, Raheel, who is from Ethiopia. We invited them for cake and a visit a few weeks ago then they invited us to dinner. We thought it would be just us and her and her boyfriend. But when we arrived we found out that in her religion, Episcipal Ethiopian, the last Sunday in February is the day celebrated as the day Angel Gabriel appeared to the virgin Mary. So Raheel had invited many of her friends, teachers and family over for a celebration and dinner. This picture is of some of the people at the dinner. The food served was meats, sauces and salads put on a crepe made of flour. Another crepe is taken and torn into pieces which are used to pick up the food with your fingers. No utensils are to be found.
Part of their religious service is playing a large drum and singing and dancing at the same time. This is our hostess, Raheel on the drum.
Another guest playing the drum and singing or chanting. Everyone else is clapping their hands and moving to the beat of the music. Some of the people sang along with the music and others, at appropriate times, would let out a shrill cry. Very interesting.
One of the guests, sitting next to Sister Humphrey, was from Afganistan. They talked for some time and he was very friendly. He said that about ninty percent of the people from Afganistan support the U.S. presence in Afganistan. The only ones who don't are supporters of the Taliban.

Super Weekend

Elder Humphrey dressed for winter (we had just come into our meeting house) in the Branch President's office.
We invited the Elder's over for dinner, cake and ice cream on Elder Watts' birthday. We also invited some members over, Linda Bennett and Evey-Martine Brogan.
Because both Elder Watts and Evey-Martine are from England they enjoy talking with each other. L-R: Elder Brian Welch, Elder Guy Watts, Sister Humphrey, Linda Bennett, Evey-Martine Brogan.
This past weekend we had a youth conference for the branches of our church in northern Norway. The youth and their leaders from Alta, Narvik and Tromsø were in attendence. This is a photo of several youth and leaders playing a hot game of Phase 10 while we waited for everyone to arrive. L-R: Viliyana, Tova Nyman (behind Viliyana), Ingeborg
Nyman, Christine Peterson, Per Ole Nyman and Elder Humphrey. Viliyana, Christine and Elder Humphrey are from Tromsø and the Nyman's are from Narvik.
As part of the youth conference we did a Saturday morning service project. We all went to the Red Cross house and cleaned, prepared for painting, sorting through old storage items. They are restoring their building and asked us for help. A good time was had by all and the Red Cross (Røde Kors) was very happy for the help
In the afternoon on Saturday we went bowling. There is one bowling alley in Tromsø and some of the people at the youth conference had never been bowling before. Later that day we had a pizza fest and a bon fire marsmellow roast in the snow. The next day we had a breakfast and then held church services for them and the Tromsø branch. Many of the youth and leaders spoke and bore their testimonies. It was a great youth conference.

Sun, school and visits

A view of the sun coming over the horizan on February 2, 2008 at about 11 am. This view is right outside our apartment door looking south, southeast.
Elders Brian Welch (from Omaha, Nebraska) and Elder Guy Watts (from England) doing dishes at our apartment after a meal we gve them.
Elder Humphrey and a student, Martin Mortensen, at the Borgtun Elementary school. We go to the school and tutor students who need help with their homework one afternoon a week for about two and a half hours. They are students who need help with work ethics, or are slow learners and need help. They stay after school one day a week and receive help. We are being a help to them and those we serve with always ask us why we are in Norway, so it gives us an opening to tell them our message.
We are visiting the home of Harriet Larrsen, an elegent lady who is the mother of a member from another branch of the Church (Bodø). Harriet is on the right and her daughter, Anna Katrina, the member on the left.
These last two photo's got out of sequence and I don't know how to change their locations on the blog. This is a group of the students in one of the class rooms at Borgtun Elemaetary School that we help with their homework. This type of curtain is very common in public buildings in Norway.

Winter time in Tromsø

The last Sunday in January we woke up to about eight new inches of powdery snow. We tried to get out of our apartment complex but got stuck. We called Jørn Lomax, a member who lives close by, to help us get out of the snow. He tried to back down to our car and he got stuck. Here am I, Jørn's wife, Britannia and her sister, Christine pushing his car as he tries to get out of the snow. We, with the help of some other people, finally got us both out and got to church just in time for Sacrament Meeting, but not in time for the first meeting we were supposed to have. Life above the Arctic Circle.
Relief Society Enrichment dinner. The first social held in our new Branch meeting location. Left to right: Åse Svendsen, Viliyana Antasova, Sister Humphrey, Evey-Martine Brogan, Åshild Ulriksen.
Another view of the Enrichment luncheon with a late arrival, Eliane, third from the right.
Sister Humphrey and one of her boys that she helps with English at the Red Cross help center for immigrants. She does this three hours one day a week. While she is at this location, Elder Humphrey is helping with adult immigrants at the city library. The adults have to take language, Norwegian history, math and other classes, paid for by the government, so that they can be knowledgable about life in Norway. Everyone who immigrates to Norway must learn Norwegian.
We hold Institute classes on Thursday evenings. Here Viliyana, Evey-Martine and Elder Welch are acting out a Book of Mormon story that they used as an object lesson one evening. Others were in the action story, but not in the picture.