All - Jan 09

January, 2009

The

HARVESTER Den Norske Misjon D&C 101:63-4 . . .I say unto you, I will show unto you wisdom in me concerning all the churches, in as much as they are willing to be guided in a right and proper way for their salvation--- that the work of the gathering together of my saints may continue. . . for the time of harvest is come, and my word must needs be fulfilled.

Message from the President In the undertaking of any quest, we may ask ourselves whether we have arrived at that place where the quest will be accomplished? It is a place we know that we will be successful in finalizing our accomplishments. Others will look upon us and say “Yes, they have arrived.” What do we need to do in order to “Arrive” in the Norway Oslo Mission? What need you do to feel that you personally have “Arrived?” Alma 58:11; Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him. Proverbs 3:5; Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. We thank you for your efforts of 2008 and we feel we are on course, that we are “arriving” as a mission to the level of performance where the Lord can speak “peace to our souls.” Achieving 50 baptisms is putting us on course to achieving a mission goal of 84 for 2009. From your input in zone conferences, the average, or midpoint from the three zones is 84. We feel this is achievable, on course, and within our realm of possibility. That by doing so we will feel “peace in our souls.” Bind the Lord D&C 82:10 I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise. The Powers of Heaven Operate Through Righteousness D&C 121:34-37; Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen? Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson-- That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness. That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man. Cont.

January 2009 Cont.

We Learn to Know The Master Through Service Mosiah 5:13; For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart? Cleansed Through Faithfulness & Diligence D&C 76:52; That by keeping the commandments they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and sealed unto this power; D&C 68:30; ….labor, in all faithfulness; for the idler shall be had in remembrance before the Lord. We thank you for your diligence and obedience in striving to be a “Preach My Gospel” missionary. We look forward to a prosperous 2009 and ask that as a companionship you set daily, weekly, monthly and transfer cycle goals for your area that are focused on our funnel to a standard of excellence. We can do it! It is within reach! May it be said of each of us, “Yes, they have arrived.” We send our love, President and Sister Poulsen

From the Office Mail Room “Send Me” When our Elder Brother spoke these words, it changed our world forever. So why, is it “Send Me “ a Gratis Mormons Bok and a Gratis DVD doesn’t have the power to change just one person’s life? For just a moment a TV spot or a testimony shared by a member on the internet touched the heart of one of Heavenly Father’s children enough for them to respond and make a request to “Send Me” more! They felt the Spirit and they wanted more! Gule Sider is checked for additional information. We respond immediately! The skolepakke is shipped within hours of their request. Very eager messengers of the Lord are notified and in a day or so, servants of the Lord ride the bus for one hour and walk 5 kilometers in the cold to arrive at the door of a 60+ year old man who says “I am a little busy now! Can you come back later?” As discouraging as it may be, it still has to be more productive than just knocking on doors. This was a child of God who reached out for just a second. Statistics say that you must knock on about 100 doors to find one possibility to teach. Your chances are greatly improved with those who have shown an interest. Some only wanted the information for a school project, one actually came to church once, several were taught the Restoration, others never opened the door or kept a teaching appointment and some have never been found. From the 22nd of October 2008 to the 8th of Jan 2009 we have received 24 referrals. Not one is near conversion but still each new request is met with hope, anticipation and eagerness – and that is how it should be. No one said that it would be easy, or that success would come without opposition. But sooner or later one of those who said: “Send Me a Gratis Mormons Bok will find exactly what they hoped they would find– a word or a phrase that was written or spoken “just for me!” – as if a voice from Heaven was speaking directly to them – Spirit to Spirit. When that happens, we will know that we are truly “Messengers” – not to change the world but to be instruments changing one person’s life – forever. Alan and Susan Arnesen

January 2009 Message from the assistants

”Charity is the pure love of Christ. It includes God’s eternal love for all his children. We are to seek to develop that kind of love.” (PMG 118) Our thoughts today are obviously focused on love and charity. If we really understood how much Heavenly Father loves us we would look at others with a completely different perspective. When we talk to people everyday do they know that we love them? Each and single one? The best way for us to find more people to teach is to love everyone enough to give them the same amount of attention and love that Jesus Christ would give them if he were in our place. When we develop this kind of love we have the spirit and it motivates us to do our very best. We are blessed we have companions, a mission president and his wife, and members to help us out. The more we recognize how thankful we are the opportunity to serve a mission (which is one of the greatest blessings we will ever receive), the more we will want to serve others and truly fulfill our purpose in giving them a testimony about Heavenly Father’s son Jesus Christ. “You will labor in their behalf… You will try to understand them and their points of views.” (PMG 118), not only speaking of the people we meet every day, but also our companions and fellow missionaries. When we really love our Heavenly Father we are thankful for every single experience we go through each day, we can’t expect to build the kingdom of God if we aren’t thankful for the people we are surrounded by. Having Christ like humility in all things. Our hope is that we can be more thankful for what we have and to be more thankful for where we are, so we can show our love for our Heavenly Father. Once we have said thank you we don’t need to wait too long until we say it again. Not only thank you in words but in action. Our goal in this life is to help others and ourselves in becoming Christ like in every way. We love you all and we are thankful for everything you do to help our mission. We need to do our best for Heavenly Father and the People we are surrounded by every day. We have two years to serve and more than a life time to think about it. We love you and we hope for the best! MVH, Eldste Leatham & Eldste Cramer

January 2009 Our Miracle Column Yesterday we had an investigator come to church. She even brought her friend and her friend’s two daughters. My companion and I were sitting together after the sacrament and we saw a member go out into the foyer and she then came in with all five of them. She was so great and looked after our investigator and her family the whole meeting. The member even invited our investigator and her family to come to her house on Christmas Eve and they are going to come, so we will have a great opportunity to teach them in the member’s home! I am very grateful for members. I am also very thankful for all of the members here and how much they love the missionaries! I always feel such love from them, and I try to give it back the best that I can.

---

This morning we had a teach planned with our investigator that doesn't come to church but wants to get baptized. We went to his house and no one answered. We were a little down because we had brought a member with us to. As we were about to drive away, a car came and dropped off our investigator! So we got back out of the car to see when we could visit him again. All of a sudden the member and our investigator just got really excited and ran up and hugged each other! Come to find out, they were really good friends in high school but had never had contact with each other after that! It was truly a miracle! Our investigator is really excited again to meet with us and to come to church! What a blessing. The Lord really works in wondrous ways!

---

I had a neat experience last Tuesday. I was talking to a man on the bus who said that he wanted to learn more but before I knew I had to get off the bus so I got his phone number and wrote it on my hand because I could not find any paper fast enough. He gave me the number in Norwegian and as I am definitely not fluent, I missed a number. I was so excited!! It was the first number that I had gotten in Norwegian and all by myself. Then, we realized that I didn't have all of the numbers. It was smudged and missing one number on my wet hand. I was so disappointed. I wanted to tell this man more about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then later that day, we were walking through the city, on the other side of town, and I saw the man. We chased him down and I got his real number. He said, "Wow, what are the chances I would run into you again!" It was a tender mercy from the Lord. God knew how disappointed I was and led us into his path. God is so involved in this work. I am learning more and more every day how to have faith upon his words and the teachings of this gospel. The church is true! --We had fasted as a district to help the missionary work go forward and to find prepared people. On Friday we contacted all day. We found a 26 yr old and he was way interested. He told us his parents believe in God and he wants to but has never gotten an answer. We called him Saturday night, and he told me that he does not think it is by coincidence that we met. :) It felt way good. We will be meeting with him tomorrow night. --We had identified this street during daily planning. At the first door we talked about families and how we can live with them forever. We said that we know this through revelation and the person really had never thought about this concept before so he let us in, and he really liked what we had to say about the Plan of Salvation. We set up another appointment about the Restoration and how we have come to know this. After that we finished the street and got 2 try backs and met with a lot of people that had talked to missionaries before. It was the best success I have ever had banking.

Baptisms Reported in December Name

Songsee, Prapai Serjani, Olsi

Baptism Date

6 Dec 2008 27 Dec 2008 Chiong, Leane Louise 28 Dec 2008

Confirmation Date

7 Dec 2008 28 Dec 2008 4 Jan 2009

Location

Missionaries

Skien – Stake Elders Pratt/Fish Bergen–Mission Sisters Crowther/Engebretsen Sandvika-Stake Elders Leatham/Cramer