August August

August August

2009

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 Dear Elders and Sisters, We have been talking a lot about being led by the spirit lately and for good reason. Every day we are faced with many choices and the only way we are assured of not choosing poorly is to be led by the Spirit. President McKay after being sustained as president of the Church made the memorable statement, “With the spirit of the Lord we cannot fail, without it we cannot succeed.” We in the Norway Oslo Mission cannot accomplish what the Lord has intended and needs us to accomplish without His spirit. Having the Lord’s spirit with us literally means we are performing all our actions unto the Lord. In 2 Ne. 32:9 Nephi states: “…pray always…that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance….” Having the spirit means the Lord will consecrate all that we do. How can we be led by the Lord in all we do? President Heber J. Grant said: “There is but one path of safety to the Latter-day Saints, and that is the path of duty. It is not testimony, it is not marvelous manifestations, it is not knowing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true,…it is not actually knowing that the Savior is the Redeemer, and that Joseph Smith was His prophet, that will save you and me, but it is the keeping of the commandments of God, the living the life of a Latter-day Saint.” Basically the key to being led by the Lord in all we do is to be obedient in all things. Obedience is more than mechanically doing what the commandments ask us to do. Obedience to the commandments means our hearts are right before the Lord. As Alma said in Alma 7:23-25, “And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle, easy to be entreated, full of patience and long suffering, being temperate in all things, being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times, asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.” In our desire to do all things the way the Lord would have us do it we must not forget the lesson Oliver Cowdery learned in D&C 9. Oliver desired to translate the plates, a righteous desire, however in verses 7 and 8 the Lord said: “Behold, you have not understood, you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind….” President Eyring said, “The words ‘study it out’ means a degree of patience, labor, and persistence commensurate with the value of what you seek.” May we desire to be led by the Lord each day all day. May we be worthy to receive that Spirit by becoming 100% obedient in all things. May we have pure hearts before the Lord controlling our passions, anger and our thoughts that we may be able to stand before Him each day guiltless. And finally may we do all in our power to accomplish our task by studying it out in our mind, pondering the issues, studying to fill our minds with wisdom and knowledge. In short now that we have embarked in the service of the Lord may we “serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength that we may stand blameless before God at the last day.” Love, President Armand D. Johansen and Sister Johansen

August 2009 Message from the Assistants Dear Elders and Sisters, It is a pleasure to be serving with all of you at this historic time in the mission’s history. We are experiencing a significant transition. What a great opportunity to learn and grow and to really learn what the Lord is teaching us in our different situations. Some of us may feel excited and confident with new opportunities. Others may feel overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy. When these feelings come, let us never forget the words of our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, who said, “The Lord shapes the back to bear the burden placed upon it.” In order for the Lord to shape our backs, we must humbly seek his will, which is manifest through the power of the spirit. Therefore, learning to rely and act upon the spiritual promptings we receive is essential in self development. Learning to rely upon the Holy Spirit is one of the greatest challenges which we face as missionaries. It is a battle which takes place within us. We must strive to develop into what the Lord wants us to become. It takes humility and concerted effort. In October of 2007, Elder David A. Bednar taught that spiritual development is a process, not a one-time event. He said, “The Lord’s pattern for spiritual development is ‘…line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little;…’ (2 Nephi 28:30). small, steady, incremental spiritual improvements are the steps the Lord would have us take. Preparing to walk guiltless before God is one of the primary purposes of mortality and the pursuit of a lifetime; it does not result from sporadic spurts of intense spiritual activity.” We will experience several ups and downs throughout the course of our missions. One night we may have a great spiritual experience with someone and then the next day we may feel like nothing is going right for us. We may work so hard toward a goal and fall short; but as we press on and exercise faith with a resolve of reaching a goal, the Lord will send his tender mercies to us. These tender mercies are simply individualized blessings from the Lord. They come in several different ways. To quote Elder Bednar again, this time in April 2005, “I believe I have come to better understand that the Lord’s tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly, the Lord suits “…his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men” (D&C 46:15). During this next transfer you may feel discouraged, by feeling content or inadequate. But as you rely on the Savior, you will gain a greater understanding of the enabling powers of the atonement. As Preach My Gospel states on pg.2, “As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase.” We love you all and are grateful for the efforts that you are making to establish the Kingdom of God here in this beautiful land of Norway. May we always seek the Lord’s help and learn to rely upon him, and recognize that our strengths and weaknesses are given to us by our loving Father in Heaven. Let us all humble ourselves before God so that he can make weak things become strong.

Love, Elders Kerr and Henshaw Assistants to the President

August 2009 Notes from the Office

Establish a House of Order Do you have a waffle iron or an iron and ironing board? Maybe you have a rice cooker and a coffee pot. Does all this sound confusing? You have no idea how confusing it can be when vacating a hybel. We need to establish order in our Hybel Inventory Lists. Do you know, you have an inventory list? First, find it! Look in the back of your hybel’s Area Book. Second, search drawers and kitchen cabinets. If you do not have a Hybel Inventory List, call the office. We should have one for each apartment. Unfortunately , when you do find it is old and outdated. Once you have located the list, take inventory. Are these items still in the hybel? Do you know if new items have been purchased by the previous missionaries? They should have been added to the Hybel Inventory List. The HIL cannot be a precise perfect list. Do the best you can. Keeping in mind it is the Lord’s money. The purpose of the list is to know what belongs to the mission and what belongs to the landlord. Big items are most important, washers, dryers, beds, sofas, vacuum cleaners, scales and etc. Coffee pots are one item YOU can be sure was furnished by the landlord. All other items are a mystery. Mysteries lead to confusion. Confusion can cause hard feelings among landlords and tenants. We want to avoid problems and costly repair bills to items not belonging to the mission.

Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God; D&C 88:119

Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion. D&C 132:8

Departing Missionary 20 August 2009

When you have updated your Hybel Inventory List send it to the mission Office with your August reimbursement sheets for September’s MSF. . A legible handwritten list, the original list corrected or an email sent to [email protected] are all acceptable. With Much Love and a Little Organization,

Elder and Sister Arnesen Oslo Norway Mission Office

August 2009 Announcing “First Vision Cards”

Elder Nathan Henshaw and Elder Kerr announcing the arrival of the “First Vision Cards” and second order of the Prayer Cards. Thanks to the efforts of former missionary Jacques Holst, these two pass-a-long cards will continue to serve as useful tools in our mission. It is hard to keep a good thing to ourselves! Holst has shared his graphics with the other European Missions. They too are using these cards in their Missions. Cards will be mailed to Elders August 10th. Look for them!

Our Miracle Column We have all read the account of Nephi and his brothers and their mission to secure the brass plates as the Lord, through his prophet, had commanded. We all remember that on their first attempt one of Nephi’s companions simply asks for the plates, is accused of trying to steal them, and is chased by Laban’s guards, barely escaping with his life. For their second attempt they, through careful analysis and reasoning, determine that their first plan failed because of poor planning. They decide that simply asking for the plates was a mistake so they try to buy them and become victims of Laban’s greed, losing everything they had previously owned of value in the attempt. Discouraged and seemingly out of options, the senior members of the group try to enforce their decision to simply give up and are reprimanded by an angel who tells them that if they will try once more they will be successful. But they have completely lost the Spirit and are only kept on track by earnest and inspired pleading by Nephi, their younger brother, who takes the initiative and offers to go himself. With no specific plan, but trusting in the Spirit to lead him in the direction he should go, he heads back towards Laban’s house in Jerusalem. When he finds Laban, drunk and unconscious, lying in the street, the Spirit tells him to do something he had never done before and didn’t want to do. He wrestles with his own feelings but, after working it out in his mind and heart, he obeys the confirming voice of the Spirit and is successful. He is successful because he allows himself to be led by the Spirit “…not knowing beforehand…” what he was going to do next. Last month we had two missionaries who experienced success after success because they relied on the Lord to lead them, step by step, not knowing beforehand what they were going to do next. Instead of wasting time “knocking on everything until something happens”, they asked the Lord to lead them. They found that as they

listened to the voice of the Spirit, they were led from one teaching opportunity to another wasting very little time with those who were not interested. The Lord knows the hearts of all men, everywhere, and can help us find them if we can recognize the Baptisms Reported in July YTD 33 as of 7/31 voice of the Spirit and are willing to follow its instructions.

Name Johansen, Angelen Fusdahl, Marie Laneza, Mary Rose Magli, Hassan Alwan

Baptism Date

4 Jul 2009 5 Jul 2009 16 Jul 2009 24 Jul 2009

Confirmation Date

5 Jul 2009 5 Jul 2009 19Jul 2009 24 Jul 2009

Location Kristiansand - Mission Oslo - Stake Fredrikstad - Stake Kristiansand - Mission

Missionaries Elders Harris / Carr Elders Watts / Phillips Elders Lewis / Wright Elders Harris / Carr