Monday, October 29, 2012

Missionary Survival 101



 DEADLIEST MISSIONARY 

This week I will be sharing with you some information on how to survive as a missionary. For those of you who have already served a mission and have survived, Congratulations! You are alive and reading my blog post on what I have to do to survive the rugged Norwegian wilderness! Now for those of you who have not served a mission, I will say that surviving a mission takes real determination of the heart, finding a love for others, and knowing what you are doing is right. The Lord will bless you and take care of you always throughout your mission. BUT this is not the Survival that I am talking about! I am talking about surviving on the land and what your mission has to offer you such as shelter, clothes, and most importantly FOOD! Yeap that is what this blog post is all about today! LIVING OFF THE LAND!  I should say I am one of the luckiest people in the world to be able to serve here in Norway. I can drink water from just about any place without filtering it. I have full access to Ocean Food! I guess that is really what I want to share with you today. Ocean food! Well for those of you who remember... about 2 months ago my companion and I caught about 96 fish. I had other plans for the insides and heads of the fish. Yes that is right I saved the fish guts and heads in a plastic container.  Now you might be wondering why! Well being raised the way I have been, I have a uncontrolled love for sea food. As a missionary I can not really afford sea food.  So I recently purchased a crab cage. Yes a crab cage, which maybe has been the best 100kr ( about $17 USD ) I have spent on my mission. We should spend roughly 20 kr for each meal of the day which is very hard to do! That is why most of my mission I have eaten rice and chicken which is why I have lost such a significant amount of weight. Now I get to change it up, because it is crabbing season. Yeap that is right I have officially started my own Deadliest Catch! but with no boat... :( but that is ok! im sure Sig Hansen would be proud! )

So Ladies and Gentlemen  please enjoy my pictures of my Deadliest Catch! 

In Addition: Click Sig Hansen's name or the Northwestern to find out who he is!.  Also If you need real survival tips for Norway here is a quick list! 

1. Big Warm jacket
2 .Fishing pole
3. Good shoe's
4. Ice defrosting tools! 
5. Learn a small amount of Norwegian 
6. Double your money before thinking on buying stuff here!


Enjoy the Pictures! 



The Cage. 

First Catch.

The Second Catch.

The Third Catch.


 THE BIG GUYS! Each of these crabs goes for about 45kr. a piece out on the docks. 




THE MONSTER!!!! 



ME and THE MONSTER! 


Perry and THE MONSTER! 






Monday, October 22, 2012

A Great Friend!


A Great Friend!

Well this week has been exciting, from picking baptismal spots to having a baptism. Yeap that is right this week we had a baptism... Her name is Christine Sikveland and she is AWSOME! It has been an interesting road teaching Christine, because we never really looked at her as an investigator... We always saw her as a great friend... I guess some missionaries look at people and merely see them as a statistic or as an investigator.  For me I always have looked at people I have met as friends... and found the things that I love about them. I can say that is was not hard to find the love for Christine She has a heart of gold and is by far one of the nicest people I have met on my mission. So I would like to share how we met Christine  Well here in Ålesund we have a double apartment.  One side of our house contains a 60 inch TV and a kitchen with two sofas, so we often have youth activities here at the apartment... Ålesund does not have very many members we have about 8 people in church every week and only 5 youth. We try to do as much as possible with the youth here because that is what seems to matter the most! For those of you who remember Sara from the Goat Story, she had invited some of her friends over to our alternate apartment for tacos and a movie night, that we hold each week. This is where we met Christine. She is a very shy girl and she just moved up here to Ålesund from Stavanger area to come to art school. She is an amazing artist!  Elder Perry and I are not the pushy bunch of missionaries. We like to give people their space. We try not to attack everyone with the gospel, mainly because that's how everyone perceives us, just wanting to convert everyone we see! Although sometimes that may be our desire because we know how much this message can help people. Through out my mission I have found the people that I have gotten to know and love have been the people that it really means something to me to share the gospel with them. It is such a great feeling to share this message with the ones you love and care about rather than sharing it with people who you don't really know... So as time went on we kept talking to Christine and realized just how great of a person she was!  What a fantastic friend she had become!  We neglected to try and teach her for the fear that we would loose her as a friend. It came to the point where we could no longer take it and told her! "Hey look Christine you are a great friend and we don't mean to scare you away with this but what we do as missionaries can really help you in your life, and we really want to share this message with you because we care!" Well she just smiled  and replied "Ok sure."  As we took the time to share the gospel with her our friendship grew stronger. I have no doubt in my mind she is going to do great things in her life! She will be a fantastic member of this church.

In Addition: If you click on any of Christine's names throughout my blog it will take you directly to her blog where she has also written about the Baptism, and has added additional pictures!

I Hope you all enjoy the Pictures!


Before Going out into the cold

Making sure water doesn't go up the nose
Walking down...
This is the place!
Norway!


Umm its Cold!


But Really its cold! do we have too?

Ok Fine! lets do this! :) 
She was laughing at me because i could barley even talk
because it was so cold!

Haha Ta Den!
The Branch! 








Monday, October 15, 2012

Eye Candy of Norway!


Eye Candy of NORWAY!

 Dear Friends and Family. I am sorry I have not kept you posted on what has been happening over the last month here in Ålesund. But for those of you who read my little blog, you are in for a great treat coming this way. Yes that is right, over these next three weeks you will have some new and exciting story's Coming! and Trust me you do not want to miss next weeks Story! :) But for now. The reason why the tittle of this post is called Eye Candy of Norway, is because I would like to take the time to share with you just how Beautiful this country really is. Before I begin I would like everyone to know a simple picture can NOT justify the true beauty of this place. And sadly to add, the last post I added. The Three Billy Goats Gruff. My camera developed a screen error, so I have been taking picture with my Ipod. So my current pictures really do not justify the True Beauty of Norway, so ill just have to make do with what I have for now. :)  But recently we have Traveled to Trollstigen and over the mountain to Geirangerfjord these are just some of the most Beautiful places in the world "in my personal opinion" It was fantastic to see these two places and the journey between the two, it was most definitely a breath taking drive...  Also to make everyone a little jealous this what I have gotten to see almost every day since I have been here in Norway. :P  So I hope you enjoy the pictures I have taken! And thank you for all of your love and Support!

Love Eldste Strange.


"Additional Note.  Please Feel free to click on  any of the TrollstigenGeirangerfjord and Ken Block Links they will take you to some more breath taking pictures, provided by Google Images of these places,I have just recently Been! and also info about who Ken Block is."

"On the Way to Trollstigen"
" Elder Strange (Me) At the bottom of  Trollstigen
" Elder Perry at the bottom of Trollstigen"






"A little Stop Mid Way"
"At the Top of Trollstigen"
"Additional note, Ken Block was here and Drifted that road about 5 weeks ago.
the Tire tracks where still burnt into the road!" 

"Trollstigen Info center"
"Christine at the top of Trollstigen"

"Perry Confused..."

"A MOUNTAIN ORGE! " (Me)


"On the way to Geirangerfjord


"Also on the way to Geirangerfjord "

"Geirangerfjord "


" Me at the viewing area of Geirangerfjord"


"Perry, Christine, and I at the viewing spot of Geirangerfjord"

"Back side of Geirangerfjord and down below the town Geiranger"