gormleysinnorway: WINTER IS ABOUT OVER

Dear Family and Friends;

I need to get these done more often, It has been about a month. Winter is about gone. We have really enjoyed our last few weeks, except for brief colds. We were able to complete our Valentine's activity. It was a great success. We had 26 YSA from the southwest of Norway, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Haugesund and Bergen. We ate, sang, played, danced and gave testimony. All but a couple gave testimonies at a special Sacrament and Testimony meeting we had just for the YSA on Sunday at the end of the conference. Memorable experience for all. We then had a great zone conference. It is always great to be with the missionaries and The Hill's. Between the Valentine's activity and the Zone conference we were about cooked out. We fed about 40 people 4 meals for the Valentine's event and 34 Lunch for Zone Conference. Everyone is so appreciative. Last week we drove about 8 hours to the Oslo area to a funeral. Our good friend Jim Nelson from Keenesburg, Colorado had a sister living in Norway. She passed away a couple of weeks ago.. Jim came over to the service. We drove to Oslo to meet him and go to the service. It was great to see him,. We were able to say goodbye to our mission office couple and friends the Brostrom's and welcome the new mission office couple the Robinson's, We all had a nice get together and meal with President and Sister Hill at the mission home.We then spent a day finding the areas that some of Laurie's paternal ancestors came from. It was a great day with special feelings for these people. We have a big transfer coming up tomorrow. I have 54 trips to the airport. We are losing 5 of our great missionaries, but always look forward to the new friends. We are getting a pair of sisters in Haugesund. They will be a great blessing. We are excited about spring. It is getting light earlier every day. We are excited about some of our family getting to come this summer. We love you all so much and appreciate each one of you for the great people you are and the influence you have had on our lives. Love Elder and Sister Gormley

Missionaries Serving Dinner at Drammen Stake West YSA Valentine's Party

Breakfast at YSA Valentine's Party

Beginning of Concert at YSA Valentine's Party

Sister Gormley & Cardon and the young girls at YSA Valentine's Party

Dinner at YSA Valentine's Party

Missionaries serving "Cafe Rio" at YSA Valentine's Party

Elder Torgesen at Devotional at the YSA Valentine's Party

Friendshipping activity at the YSA Valentine's Party

Shelby is from the US and Marianna is from Spain and joined the church last year

Elder Torgesen and Seif. He is a Sirian YSA that joined the church last year

Lena a YSA from Stavanger and Gabriel a YSA from Spain. They met on her mission there.

Hike activity in the rain.

Friends picture: Ole from Stavanger, Gabriel from Spain, Sigurd from Stavanger Leo from France and Tanita from Haugesund

The mummy contest at the YSA Valentine's Party

The pyramid contest at the YSA Valentine's Party

Elder Applegate and Shelby singing the Prayer accompanied by Øvind Steffensen at the

YSA Valentine's Party

Sister Kidøy made cakes for West Zone Conference to repay Elders for service

Lunch at West Zone Conference

The West Zone Conference

We gave the Sisters a rose after the conference

Missionaries come in all sizes. Elder Collett from Billings, MT is tall and Elder Tangent, not so tall.

Emily,Christopher and Alex. They are growing up.

Sister Gormley and Sister Etchells, buds for life

Funeral of Janice Nelson Brekke at Aurskog Norway

Sylling Area where Laurie's 3rd Great Grandparent's Peder Olsen and Martha Andersen lived in the late 1700's

Sylling Church where Laurie's 3rd Great Grandparents Peder Olsen and Martha Andersen were married in 1819. Church had been rebuilt in late 1800's.

Sjaastad Church where Laurie's 4th Great Grand parents Anders Olsen (1753) and Helle Madsen (1805) were born and baptised.

Frogner Church where Laurie's 4th Great Grand parents Ole Christopjerson (1731) and Ronnau Inger Erichsdotter (1744) were born and baptised.

Rebbansbakken, Drammen Norway, area where Laurie's Great Great Grand parents, Marin Hansen (1827) and Maren Karine Pedersen or Emma Caroline Pedersen (1827) lived in the 1850's when they joined the church and left for America

Rebbansbakken, Drammen Norway

At the top of the Spiralen Tunnel in Drammen,Norway. Last time I was in this spot was in 1974.

Sande Church where Laurie's 4th Great Grand parents Ole Rasmussen (1752) and Kari Oldsdotter (1760) were buried. Their son, Laurie's 3rd Great Grandfather Hans Olsen (1791) was born and baptised here.