This...is Norway: "The hills are alive with the sound of music!" 🎵

Heia alle sammen!

Greetings from the great land of Bodø! We have now gone from the big city vibes of talking to a person on a bus then never seeing them again to a town where you have giant mountains and fjords all around you and you start to see the same people most days. Quite the difference, but Bodø is amazing! I quite literally started thinking of the beginning scene in Sound of Music with the mountains and Julie Andrews singing. I just love Norway . And my comp, Søster Washburn, is just awesome! We have had so much fun this week, so let's get going!

- Wednesday, I arrived in Bodø and that day we had a fika with a girl about our age and who had been given a Book of Mormon by the elders that used to serve here. She is so cool! And apparently, she had read the whole thing and had prayed to know if it was true and let's just say she is a very big fan of the Book of Mormon and is wanting to learn more about the gospel! Woot woot!

- This last Sunday was super fun! I got to help translate in church for our friends which went pretty well for the most part. At times, I was really struggling to understand the dialect and had to put in some of my own interpretation but it all worked out! We also had a guy walk into church with a Book of Mormon (also given to him by the missionaries before, way to go you guys! :) and said that he wanted to worship with us! So now we are in contact with him and are planning to start teaching him soon :).

- We also have this cat in the neighborhood named "Safety Cat" because it wears a bright neon yellow vest and just makes a trip across our yard most days. This week we had our door open to cool down our apartment a little and Safety Cat decided to pay us a little visit inside . Needless to say, Safety Cat is watching out for us :).

Now just like Safety Cat, we have someone else watching out for each one of us and his name is Jesus Christ. One of the things that my mission president has done in our mission is had us share a story of Jesus in every meeting and conference we have. I used to think I knew most all of the stories of Jesus and what we could learn from them, but I realized that there is so much more to learn. I was messaging a couple people on Facebook this week and I asked them what their favorite story of Jesus was. One of them responded with the scripture John 14:6, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Why did Christ suffer? Why did He choose to bleed from every pore, shed every tear, endure every heartbreaking thought? I'll tell you it wasn't because He thought it would be fun, because it definitely wasn't. But it was worth it. He did it because He loved us too much to see us suffer on our own and be lost forever in the darkness. There's a quote that says, "Sometimes He calms the storm, but sometimes He calms the child." He is the way, He is the one that protects us every day even and especially when it doesn't feel like it. We just need to open the door to let Him in and trust Him in every step we take. I love you all and hope you have a great week! And even if it's not a good week, then I just hope you know that storms don't last forever.

Kia Kaha and just keep swimming :)

- Søster Twede