gormleysinnorway: Beautiful September

Dear Friends and Family;

We are so grateful for your prayers. We sure feel them here as we are serving. The weather in Norway is a little confused. We got down in the low 50's for the high a few days in July and August. Last Sunday it hit 80. We have learned to enjoy the weather however it comes. We had 4 inches of rain in August. Bergen had a historical rainfall in August of 12 inches. We had a beautiful, warm Monday, two weeks ago. Sister Gormley passed her drivers test last week. We are both legal. We are glad to get that behind us. Driving is a big part of what we do. We had a BBQ at the Vaulen park on the ocean with the YSA's and the missionaries. We had about 15 out. What a great group. Sigurd, a young Norwegian man is getting baptized September 17th. The YSA and the Ward have been so great at befriending him. The newly found gospel brings him so much joy. We had a birthday party for Leo. His mother came up from Paris to visit him. It is amazing to see how many members there are throughout the world "lifting where they stand" for the Lord. The Evangers from Vanse have also set a baptismal date on October 22. We are so excited for their family. We drive down to see them as often as we can. It is about 5 hours round trip. We have really enjoyed teaching with the Sisters. We headed north to Haugesund again last week. We have really grown close to that small Branch. The missionaries are by themselves there and really enjoy the visits. A non-member couple came to church in Haugesund a couple of weeks ago, Tolleif and Lina Hidle. They have family that are members in Utah. They wanted the missionaries to visit them. We took them up there. They live on a island called Bømlo. We took the ferry and got a great tour of the island. We are headed back there to teach them next month. We found an inactive sister in a remote village. Sister Pettersen, in the Stavanger Ward was her Seminary teacher. She wanted us to find her. She was glad to see us and invited us back next month. We were able to visit several other remote families. Our fall institute has started up again. It is such an inspired program. We had zone conference last week. It is always great to see all of the missionaries and the Hills. President and Sister Hill are doing such a great job with the missionaries. Sister Gormley made some mean chili and her famous vanilla wet cake. The Torgesen's came up from Kristiansand to help us. She made some great corn bread and home made salsa. They are a wonderful senior couple. We had a special treat last Saturday evening. Elder Uchdorf and his wife came to Oslo and spoke to the members. We wanted to go but with limited seating we wanted the members to have that experience. We were able to see it live in our chapel in Stavanger. He said that we need to cultivate gratitude. He said that if we show gratitude it will return to us one thousand fold. He said that we can't be afraid to share the gospel of hope that God loves us. He went on to share the conversion story of his family and his wife's family after the war. It was very touching. He truly is an apostle of the Lord. Elise and Jessie are coming for a week tomorrow. We are excited. We enjoy hearing back from you. We love you all and are grateful for you.

Love Elder and Sister Gormley