Week 72

Hi Family! :)

I hope you all have had a wonderful week! It's always great to read your emails and be able to tell you about my amazing adventures here in Bergen Norway! :) Everything is going so well right now! We just found out earlier this morning that Sister Pace and I will be serving together for another transfer here in Bergen and we both almost cried tears of joy when we found out. :) We are having so much fun together and I love her to death! We work like a well-oiled machine and it has been great fun. I look forward to being able to finish my mission with her. :) The only thing that is a little gloomy is the weather. It rains ALL OF THE TIME. My new shoes and my rain boots have been destroyed and we are going to go buy ourselves some new ones today. :)

I'm sure you are all wondering about why the title of this email is what it is ("Ducky Down")... Some of the pictures I have attached will explain. On Friday, Sister Pace and I were doing our every-morning work out of 500 reps with a jump rope. I was about 50 in when I smacked my foot with the rope. Mind you- this next part all happened within a split second. When the rope hit, my 2nd toe on my right foot curled under and then I landed on that curled toe and heard a nice crack. OH MY GOODNESS- it hurt so bad! I had broken my toe!!! Well, no I hadn't, but it sure felt like it. I was laughing so hard because it was so ridiculous, but wanted to cry because it hurt so bad. Well, I continued my workout with some sit ups and push ups (trying to look hot, you know? ha ha!) and then I just started praying that Heavenly Father would heal my stupid little ducky. I figured that if He had done miracles for the people in the scriptures, He could easily heal my toe so that I could keep doing His work. Let me just tell you- even though there have been many symptoms of a broken bone, the bruising is almost completely gone and the pain is at a minimum. It's a miracle!!! Ha ha! The pictures are the best way to see what happened. They look like they were taken weeks apart, but really they were all within the last 72 hours. I thought that was pretty cool. :)

Well, that's just a funny little story... Now for the important stuff! Bob still isn't baptized, but here is the next miracle... He passed his interview and will be baptized on Wednesday and confirmed on Sunday!!! :) The last few weeks with him have been so stressful! We have done everything in out power to help him gain a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and Thomas S. Monson. The gospel of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon were relatively easy. It was the connection of the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith that was the next issue, but we tackled that one with the Joseph Smith Movie and a whole lot of testimony. Thomas S. Monson was the most difficult thing ever! We watched talks and showed Bob the movie about his life, but nothing helped. We didn't know if he was going to be able to pass a second interview... But yesterday morning, before church, we met with him and then he had his interview... and PASSED! We were so excited and happy and relieved that we had to step into a classroom and cry for a minute. This has been, by far, one of the hardest preparations for baptism I have ever experienced and, it is going to sound horrible, but I am so glad it is almost over! :) Bob is so great and I can't help but feel that the reason it has been so difficult to help him see his answers is because he has great things ahead of him. :) I am so excited to see how he feels with the gift of the Holy Ghost! He is a champion! :)

We have been teaching this guy named Jarle who lives a long ways out of the city. He is only in town once a week to get treatments for MS. I met him on the street a couple of weeks ago and taught him about the plan of salvation. We met with him last week and then again on Wednesday- he is way cool! In our first teach, we were able to point out the Holy Ghost and how it feels to have Him around. That was super cool. But even cooler was what happened in the teach we just had. He told us that he decided to just open randomly in the Book of Mormon and start reading. He opened to 2 Nephi 2 which is all about opposition in all things and about the Garden of Eden and Jesus Christ. He loved it and told us that he felt the Spirit as he read it! WOW!!! That is a miracle! :) So we went on to teach him God's plan in more detail and it went great. He just felt like it was right. He has a soft commitment to baptism, but no date yet. He wants to know more before he goes that far. He is such a cool guy. :) I'll keep you posted on him!

Well Family, that's about all I've got for this week. I hope, again, that everything is going well for you all. I love you all tons and tons!!! Have a fantastic week! Ha det bra!

 ♥- Søster Jessica Taylor