July 09
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August July
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, Sister Johansen and I are grateful to be serving in the Norway Oslo Mission with you. We are all colleagues in this most important work. We already love you and look forward to getting to know you. Missionary work is like no other work in the world. It requires effort to be fit for the work of the Lord. We must be physically fit to meet and teach the people of Norway. As we exercise our bodies it ensures that we will be strong and alert, able to go where the Lord needs us to go and do what He needs us to do. It also requires being spiritually fit to ensure that the message we bring goes to the very heart of those we teach that the people might know by the power of the spirit the truthfulness of our message. To have spiritual power requires a deep study of the word of God together with thoughtful and earnest prayer. As missionaries we all seek one thing, to have our sacrifice accepted of the Lord. That is probably the most difficult standard to live by and yet it is the simplest. It is the approval of the Lord we seek, no one else, for this is His work. I testify that we can know that we have the approval of the Lord as we feel the spirit testify through us while teaching. We can know as we go along each day. As the Lord softens the hearts of the investigator to feel the spirit through us, we become a little more sanctified. Love is at the heart of this work and it must permeate all that we do. As we fill our hearts with love for the people of Norway our confidence will wax strong. Our love of the Lord and the people of Norway must be communicated in all we do. It is our love of the Lord and the people that will give us the strength to work. It takes love to put what the Lord wants ahead of what we want. Obedience is an expression of our love for the Lord. We must have faith that the Lord is with us. The key to getting inspiration is faith. As we are in the service of the Lord He will go before our face. He will be on our right hand and on our left, and His Spirit will be in our hearts, and His angels round about us, to bear us up (D&C 84:88). If we have faith we cannot fail. Ours is a joyful work for it removes the greatest burdens of life in the lives of those we teach. It opens the door to peace, joy and happiness. May we find joy in the work, be inspired to recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives and look for the simple opportunities the Lord has prepared for us as we engage in this the greatest work of all time, the work of bringing souls unto Christ.
Love, President Armand D. Johansen and Sister Johansen
Departures and Arrivals President Lynn J. Poulsen Sister Ardith Nielson Poulsen Sister Juliet Warner Johansen President Armand D. Johansen Mission Home , Stabekk 1 july 2009
“
July 2009 Elders and Sisters! What a great opportunity we have to preach the gospel. One of the greatest responsibilities we have as members of the church is to share with others the truths of the restored gospel. Isn’t that amazing? Our testimonies are a light to a darkened world. The savior taught – Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” We have a good example of this – Right now we are teaching a nice guy. He’s genuinely nice, but seems unable to sort his life out. Sometimes he just speaks and we are unsure if he’s being completely honest, some of his stories just sound like tall tales from his imagination. When we speak with him we are struck with a feeling of his confusion of who he really is and by his desires to be accepted by those around him, he, in a manner of speaking, is ‘lost in the world.’ However, when he prays the world fades away, and his heart felt honesty is awesome to behold. At the end of the most recent teach with him the spirit was brought solely by his desire to “Shake off the chains with which ye (he is) are bound …and arise from the dust.” What a great example he is to us of letting our light so shine before this people. Our mission is filled with the elect of the earth, elders and sisters who have sacrificed everything to be here. Let us show from our hearts why we have come here and fulfill our purpose of inviting others to experience that which we experience everyday, the joys of the atonement. True spirituality is born in the heart, beginning with honesty with oneself. We “recognize our sins and feel remorse” and “we ask God in prayer to forgive us.”(PMG) We call this repentance. Something I know we all experience daily. We cannot fake closeness with the spirit; we cannot make our own light. It is born of a sincere desire to never forget and always remember the lord. Which is something our investigator shows every time he is stripped bare of his pride, this sincere desire to please our father in heaven through repentance. As Neil A. Maxwell taught, it will not come as we seek to “Try to impress in order to be heard or seen of men.” The key to spirituality therefore is right desire. We are grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives. Without it we know we could never return to our father in heaven and live with him again. We would not have eternal families and wouldn’t have the blessings of the priesthood. In order to succeed in this work we must show that which our investigator shows us, a pure desire to please our lord. Neil A. Maxwell again – “Of course there are individuals who are keeping their covenants who lack teaching charisma. Of course there are those whose lives are in order who are not exciting as teachers. However, the Spirit blesses the efforts of all who live worthily. It endorses what they say or do. There is a witnessing authenticity which proceeds from the commandment keeper, which speaks for itself. Therefore, I prefer doctrinal accuracy and spiritual certitude (even with a little dullness) to charisma with unanchored cleverness.” Jesus Christ is our savior, let us continue in a spirit of meekness before him and allow him to teach those we know - how? By becoming honest in our hearts and honest in our speech.
Elders Henshaw and Kerr 8 July 2009 Our Miracle Column The Miracle Column will continue next month as usual. We just need to give President Johansen a month of reading emails: Letters to the President. No missionary can forget seeing the face of an investigator praying out loud for the first time! We recognize the Savior’s hand in putting potential investigators in our paths. We know our prayers are answered. The sweet miracles He gives us edifies and feeds us all spiritually. We all need this column. Take time to share stories with President. Every story need not end “and he/she was baptized.” Successes are not measured this way. Everything happens in the Lords time. How long it takes, does not matter.
July 2009 Here is a beginning of a story not contained within the borders of a country. PREACH MY GOSPEL
In Hong Kong, Norway, Sweden On May 11 2009 China Hong Kong Mission wrote: Hello BrethrenWe had a gentleman (non member) visit our branch in Hong Kong yesterday who is interested in having missionaries visit with him about the church he stayed for the entire block and then came to a Mother’s Day celebration/ program and dinner after the block. He was in Hong Kong on business and visiting friends. Signed Senior Missionary Elder Kau On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 7:04 PM, Norway Oslo Mission wrote: Dear Bro Kau, You will be happy to know he has had his 1st teach. A second discussion will be this week! He is so nice, cool and just a good guy per the Elders. Unfortunately like many Norwegians no strong belief in God. He is a bit different because he says he is open to hearing about God. Sister Arnesen On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 5:11 PM, Norway Oslo Mission wrote: Hello Sweden! We have an investigator staying in Sweden for two weeks. He owns a place there and spends time there in summers. He was in Hong Kong visiting friends when he went to a branch there. (Around 11 May) He stayed for 2 hours learning about our church from a senior couple. He was referred to Norway, his home. He has been attending church and meetings regularly, 3 times now with the Elders in Norway. He knows none of the other churches are true. He is not sure but the Church of Jesus Christ might just be the one! He would welcome a visit from the missionaries in Sweden. Invite him to attend church this Sunday and teach him, answer questions and let him know we are a worldwide church. The missionaries tell me he is way cool. He has a good heart recently lost his wife. Please make a call and try to visit. Would you let us know the outcome? Sister Arnesen There is much more to this story. Space would not allow for more… servants of the Lord working together in many places. PS: The Swedish missionaries made contact. He will be back in NO soon.
Baptisms Reported in June Name
Baptism Date
Zachariassen, Marianne 30 May 2009 Ahmadi, Alireza 7 Jun 2009 Helsing, Eva 13 Jun 2009 Rydgren, Karoline B 20 Jun 2009 Schreuder, Varg 20 Jun 2009 Xiao,Di 20 Jun 2009
Confirmation Date Location 7 Jun 2009 7 Jun 2009 21Jun 2009 21 Jun 2009 21 Jun 2009 21 Jun 2009
YTD 29 Missionaries
Bergen – Mission Elders Wallace/Ashcroft Narvik - Mission Elders Swan/Jaffa Drammen - Stake Elders Jensen/Eagar Drammen - Stake Elders Jensen/Swan Stavanger - Mission Elders Leatham /Pratt Trondheim- Mission Sisters Wallace/Johnson
July 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 you 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 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, 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
When you have updated your Hybel Inventory List send it to the mission Office with August’s 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
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, Sister Johansen and I are grateful to be serving in the Norway Oslo Mission with you. We are all colleagues in this most important work. We already love you and look forward to getting to know you. Missionary work is like no other work in the world. It requires effort to be fit for the work of the Lord. We must be physically fit to meet and teach the people of Norway. As we exercise our bodies it ensures that we will be strong and alert, able to go where the Lord needs us to go and do what He needs us to do. It also requires being spiritually fit to ensure that the message we bring goes to the very heart of those we teach that the people might know by the power of the spirit the truthfulness of our message. To have spiritual power requires a deep study of the word of God together with thoughtful and earnest prayer. As missionaries we all seek one thing, to have our sacrifice accepted of the Lord. That is probably the most difficult standard to live by and yet it is the simplest. It is the approval of the Lord we seek, no one else, for this is His work. I testify that we can know that we have the approval of the Lord as we feel the spirit testify through us while teaching. We can know as we go along each day. As the Lord softens the hearts of the investigator to feel the spirit through us, we become a little more sanctified. Love is at the heart of this work and it must permeate all that we do. As we fill our hearts with love for the people of Norway our confidence will wax strong. Our love of the Lord and the people of Norway must be communicated in all we do. It is our love of the Lord and the people that will give us the strength to work. It takes love to put what the Lord wants ahead of what we want. Obedience is an expression of our love for the Lord. We must have faith that the Lord is with us. The key to getting inspiration is faith. As we are in the service of the Lord He will go before our face. He will be on our right hand and on our left, and His Spirit will be in our hearts, and His angels round about us, to bear us up (D&C 84:88). If we have faith we cannot fail. Ours is a joyful work for it removes the greatest burdens of life in the lives of those we teach. It opens the door to peace, joy and happiness. May we find joy in the work, be inspired to recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives and look for the simple opportunities the Lord has prepared for us as we engage in this the greatest work of all time, the work of bringing souls unto Christ.
Love, President Armand D. Johansen and Sister Johansen
Departures and Arrivals President Lynn J. Poulsen Sister Ardith Nielson Poulsen Sister Juliet Warner Johansen President Armand D. Johansen Mission Home , Stabekk 1 july 2009
“
July 2009 Elders and Sisters! What a great opportunity we have to preach the gospel. One of the greatest responsibilities we have as members of the church is to share with others the truths of the restored gospel. Isn’t that amazing? Our testimonies are a light to a darkened world. The savior taught – Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” We have a good example of this – Right now we are teaching a nice guy. He’s genuinely nice, but seems unable to sort his life out. Sometimes he just speaks and we are unsure if he’s being completely honest, some of his stories just sound like tall tales from his imagination. When we speak with him we are struck with a feeling of his confusion of who he really is and by his desires to be accepted by those around him, he, in a manner of speaking, is ‘lost in the world.’ However, when he prays the world fades away, and his heart felt honesty is awesome to behold. At the end of the most recent teach with him the spirit was brought solely by his desire to “Shake off the chains with which ye (he is) are bound …and arise from the dust.” What a great example he is to us of letting our light so shine before this people. Our mission is filled with the elect of the earth, elders and sisters who have sacrificed everything to be here. Let us show from our hearts why we have come here and fulfill our purpose of inviting others to experience that which we experience everyday, the joys of the atonement. True spirituality is born in the heart, beginning with honesty with oneself. We “recognize our sins and feel remorse” and “we ask God in prayer to forgive us.”(PMG) We call this repentance. Something I know we all experience daily. We cannot fake closeness with the spirit; we cannot make our own light. It is born of a sincere desire to never forget and always remember the lord. Which is something our investigator shows every time he is stripped bare of his pride, this sincere desire to please our father in heaven through repentance. As Neil A. Maxwell taught, it will not come as we seek to “Try to impress in order to be heard or seen of men.” The key to spirituality therefore is right desire. We are grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives. Without it we know we could never return to our father in heaven and live with him again. We would not have eternal families and wouldn’t have the blessings of the priesthood. In order to succeed in this work we must show that which our investigator shows us, a pure desire to please our lord. Neil A. Maxwell again – “Of course there are individuals who are keeping their covenants who lack teaching charisma. Of course there are those whose lives are in order who are not exciting as teachers. However, the Spirit blesses the efforts of all who live worthily. It endorses what they say or do. There is a witnessing authenticity which proceeds from the commandment keeper, which speaks for itself. Therefore, I prefer doctrinal accuracy and spiritual certitude (even with a little dullness) to charisma with unanchored cleverness.” Jesus Christ is our savior, let us continue in a spirit of meekness before him and allow him to teach those we know - how? By becoming honest in our hearts and honest in our speech.
Elders Henshaw and Kerr 8 July 2009 Our Miracle Column The Miracle Column will continue next month as usual. We just need to give President Johansen a month of reading emails: Letters to the President. No missionary can forget seeing the face of an investigator praying out loud for the first time! We recognize the Savior’s hand in putting potential investigators in our paths. We know our prayers are answered. The sweet miracles He gives us edifies and feeds us all spiritually. We all need this column. Take time to share stories with President. Every story need not end “and he/she was baptized.” Successes are not measured this way. Everything happens in the Lords time. How long it takes, does not matter.
July 2009 Here is a beginning of a story not contained within the borders of a country. PREACH MY GOSPEL
In Hong Kong, Norway, Sweden On May 11 2009 China Hong Kong Mission wrote: Hello BrethrenWe had a gentleman (non member) visit our branch in Hong Kong yesterday who is interested in having missionaries visit with him about the church he stayed for the entire block and then came to a Mother’s Day celebration/ program and dinner after the block. He was in Hong Kong on business and visiting friends. Signed Senior Missionary Elder Kau On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 7:04 PM, Norway Oslo Mission wrote: Dear Bro Kau, You will be happy to know he has had his 1st teach. A second discussion will be this week! He is so nice, cool and just a good guy per the Elders. Unfortunately like many Norwegians no strong belief in God. He is a bit different because he says he is open to hearing about God. Sister Arnesen On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 5:11 PM, Norway Oslo Mission wrote: Hello Sweden! We have an investigator staying in Sweden for two weeks. He owns a place there and spends time there in summers. He was in Hong Kong visiting friends when he went to a branch there. (Around 11 May) He stayed for 2 hours learning about our church from a senior couple. He was referred to Norway, his home. He has been attending church and meetings regularly, 3 times now with the Elders in Norway. He knows none of the other churches are true. He is not sure but the Church of Jesus Christ might just be the one! He would welcome a visit from the missionaries in Sweden. Invite him to attend church this Sunday and teach him, answer questions and let him know we are a worldwide church. The missionaries tell me he is way cool. He has a good heart recently lost his wife. Please make a call and try to visit. Would you let us know the outcome? Sister Arnesen There is much more to this story. Space would not allow for more… servants of the Lord working together in many places. PS: The Swedish missionaries made contact. He will be back in NO soon.
Baptisms Reported in June Name
Baptism Date
Zachariassen, Marianne 30 May 2009 Ahmadi, Alireza 7 Jun 2009 Helsing, Eva 13 Jun 2009 Rydgren, Karoline B 20 Jun 2009 Schreuder, Varg 20 Jun 2009 Xiao,Di 20 Jun 2009
Confirmation Date Location 7 Jun 2009 7 Jun 2009 21Jun 2009 21 Jun 2009 21 Jun 2009 21 Jun 2009
YTD 29 Missionaries
Bergen – Mission Elders Wallace/Ashcroft Narvik - Mission Elders Swan/Jaffa Drammen - Stake Elders Jensen/Eagar Drammen - Stake Elders Jensen/Swan Stavanger - Mission Elders Leatham /Pratt Trondheim- Mission Sisters Wallace/Johnson
July 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 you 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 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, 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
When you have updated your Hybel Inventory List send it to the mission Office with August’s 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
