December

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,

Our area presidency has given us a special Christmas message.

“Christmas is a wonderful time to remember the simple beginning of Christ’s mortal life. As the glorious
message of Christmas is eternal, so are the ‘tidings of great joy.’ The Babe of Bethlehem is the Savior and
Redeemer of mankind. Christ declared: “Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” He vowed that
He will ‘never leave us nor forsake us.’ He promised that “the righteous…shall inherit the Kingdom of
God…and their joy shall be full forever.” Since the Restoration of the Gospel, prophets and apostles have
testified and prophesied of the grand gathering of the House of Israel to take place in Europe. The Savior
said, on the night before He was born: “…I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth
of my holy prophets.” We testify that this is the time when prophecies and promises are being fulfilled. We
testify that the Lord is pouring out His Spirit upon this continent. We testify that the Europe Area is a
wonderful place to serve the Lord and His children. Most importantly, we testify that Christ is the promised
Messiah.

We are grateful for your faithfulness and your friendship. We admire the spirit of sacrifice and service
evident in your diligence and in your testimonies. We pray that the Lord’s blessings and his Spirit will be with
you in the coming year; and that – in His words-you will “Lift up your heads and be of good cheer,” knowing
that His promises are sure.”

The future is filled with hope and with promise. What a privilege it is to serve in Norway at this time in the
history of the earth. We testify that He lives; He is the Messiah the Savior of the world. There is nothing
greater than joining with you to share this message with the people of Norway.

Love, President and Sister Johansen

PS: We encourage you to call home on Christmas Day. The calls should not distract you from your service.
We encourage you to keep your calls short and to focus on sharing missionary experiences with your family
members and bearing testimony.
 December 2009

Message from the Assistants

Dear Elders and Sisters,

First, we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and hope that the week went well for you. Now
we’re looking at the New Year! The Lord has truly blessed our efforts this year, and the mission is going
forward, especially with the quality of His servants He has sent here. That being said, we have a big year
ahead of us. President Johansen, as well as most of us in the mission, have knelt down and prayed about our
baptismal goal for next year, and feel that it is not only attainable, but that it is the Lord’s will. When
proposing the goal, President Johansen said, “This isn’t just something that would be nice to get. Norway
NEEDS this! We MUST reach this goal!”

We wanted to take up a bit of space in this copy of the Harvester by talking about “Lengthening Our
Stride”. While the quality of missionaries has increased, the key indicators of this mission are not increasing
at the rate we need. (Though they are increasing) There are many small things that we can do to “Lengthen
Our Stride” each day.

What does it mean to “Lengthen Our Stride?” The dictionary tells us lengthen means “to make
longer … to grow … to extend,” and stride means “to take a very long step … to move over or along with …
long measured steps … natural pace”. In other words it means that we are to improve that which we are
already doing. When initially challenged to lengthen their stride, church members were already doing a
great job and the church was seeing explosive growth, some of the best it had ever seen. This is why the
challenge wasn’t to stand up and walk. It is the same in the mission. We are seeing improvement in our
baptisms. This year it’s looking like 65. We’re seeing improvement, but for this rise to continue we will all
have to look at ourselves and the way we are working and evaluate what it is we could change that would
lengthen our stride and the stride of the mission! This is not something that takes the entire course of a
transfer to do. It can and should be done each day. There are things each of us can do TODAY that, though
small, will contribute to a large transformation. We hope and pray that each of you realize just how
significant YOUR role is in this. It takes EVERYONE being onboard to accomplish this goal.

“The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden flight,
But while their companions slept
Were toiling upward in the night.”

WE CHALLENGE ALL OF YOU TO EVALUATE YOURSELVES, FIND WHAT IT IS YOU SHOULD CHANGE,
AND CHANGE IT. None of us has the power to completely control our circumstances or surroundings, but
we can ALL control ourselves.

MVH,
Elders Gilbert and Miller
 December 2009
Notes from the Office
The mail room in December can be overwhelming! We tried hard to get Christmas packages
delivered before Christmas. WE HAD SOME SUCCESS! We thank those who were willing to
carry huge boxes on trains and planes. Sorry about those who received packages after Christmas.
We are really sorry for those who still have not received all their packages. Elders: Loveridge,
Hunsaker, Linge and Brush still have packages in the mission office. Let’s hope it is not fruitcake.
Dried out fruitcake is the worst unlike Twizzlers® which only seem to get better with age.

When emailing your parents on Monday, remind them DO NOT SEND PACKAGES TO THE
MISSION OFFICE. Posten Norge will not forward USA PRIORITY MAIL. Posten Norge
requires we rebox and put on additional postage to send the packages directly to you. We cannot
do that due to expense and time. We all know postage is not cheap here, just fast. However, mail
marked USA Priority Mail can be shipped back to the USA or go to several other countries
before being located. We haven’t lost a box yet but some cases have taken 6 months to solve.
Some packages have actually been forwarded successfully but not often.

Your parents must get the word out to your families and friends. DO NOT SEND PACKAGES
TO THE MISSION OFFICE You must notify them on Mondays of your current address and
remind them of the 9 week move cycle. I thought our Blog would help with the current
Kingdom Sheet posted. Unfortunately it will be removed starting in January. The white
Missionary Handbook states we are not to post missionary addresses. We must obey the rules!
With obedience come blessings, perhaps more Twizzlers® too!
Remember Htpp://norskemisjon.blogspot.com

Elder and Sister Arnesen

Baptisms Reported in November 60 YTD as of 11/30

Baptism Confirmation
Name Date Date Location Missionaries
Myhre, Jennifer 7 Nov 8 Nov Stavanger Mission Severson/Pratt/Linge
Lie, Cathrine Broch 14 Nov 15 Nov Drammen Stake Burns/Wilbur
Diallo, Robert Baba 27 Nov 29 Nov Alesund Mission Liddle/Hill
Christensen, Eldbjørg 28 Nov 29 Nov Sandvika Stake Gilbert/Phillips

Baptisms Reported in December 65 YTD as of 12/31

Baptism Confirmation
Name Date Date Location Missionaries
Elegbede, Adeshina 5 Dec 6 Dec Trondheim Mission Engebretsen /Johnson
Slettjord, Xin 12 Dec 13 Dec Trondheim Mission Engebretsen /Johnson
Soligard,Trond 19 Dec 20 Dec Trondheim Mission Engebretsen /Johnson/Molhølt
Yalung, Janette 19 Dec 20 Dec Oslo Stake Lewis/Knudson/ Farrer
Utthathon, Puttharawa 21 Dec 27 Dec Alesund Mission Liddle/Gardner/Hill
 December 2009
Our Miracle Column
Our teaching pool was getting small, so my companion and I started fasting. We
needed inspiration. We have this thing we do that works for us. We sat down on a bench
and thought to ourselves, three places we felt the Lord wanted us to contact for potential
investigators. After pondering, only one of our three places matched. So we got up
quickly and started contacting towards that spot. About halfway there I saw this man
looking into a window of a bar; he would look in, then turn away, walk away and then
turn back around. He kept repeating this same pattern! By the time I got to him he was
doing the same thing once again. I stopped him and told him a bit about the plan of
salvation and then asked what he thought he needed to do to get back to heaven. He told
me he wasn’t sure. His parents were of one faith, but he didn’t believe in it because he
wanted to find the church right for him. I told him that much of this plan came from
modern prophets and that we had a prophet on the earth today. At that moment his
whole countenance changed and he turned his face to me very fast and said, “Where is
this man and what is his name? He then asked, “how can I get a hold of this man? I told
him that the man had sent us to him today. I then asked him if I could explain and he
agreed. We took him to the library and taught him. As we were walking to the library I
asked him why he was looking into the bar. He told us that his boss owed him money
and had been cutting back on his shifts just to avoid paying him.
I know the Lord held him there just long enough, so we could contact him.
My companion and I sat down in the library, talked about Christ’s church, the apostasy
and the restoration. As I told him the story of the restoration, I showed him a picture
of it. He obsessed over it and looked it up and down. After telling him the Joseph Smith
story. He said “Stop!” He had tears in his eyes and then he said, “I must go and get
some water.” He rushed out of the room, my companion and I prayed for guidance to
know what to say when he came back. When he got back we taught him how Joseph was
the beginning of modern prophets. To close I asked him, “If you could ask the prophet
one question, what would you ask? “ He responded, “I have felt guilty for the longest
time about the horrible things I have done, the very thought of facing God terrifies me.”
He continued, I know if I died today, I would be the first person to Hell, I just want to
know if I can be clean again, or if I can feel good again?” I told him that if he would meet
with us the next day we could answer that question. He agreed and said he couldn’t wait.
The next day we taught him the story of Alma the younger, we taught him about Christ,
and had him look at Del Parson’s depiction of Christ, he even asked if he could keep the
picture, and we taught him about baptism. We challenged him to be baptized. He said,
“I know you two are god’s messengers because right after yesterday’s lesson my boss
called and offered me the money and a full time position, so I must say yes! I will be
baptized!” Not satisfied with that answer, I asked him the question, “So why do YOU
want to be baptized?” Then he paused with tears in his eyes and said, “Because I want to
follow that man”, as he pointed at the picture. It was a beautiful response!!!!!!!!!