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.

 Horse Arena in Stavanger

 Sisters, Mina and Trina Steffensen

Elders Sadler, Bjorn Applegate, Decker, Hailes, Larsen, Carver and Davis

Sisters Davidson, Hutchins and Gormley

Breakfast at our apartment before the transfer.

Dinner for Sister Gormley's Birthday at Phileas Fogg, her favorite in Stavanger.

Floor hockey with the YSA for Family Night

Happy Valentine's Day

Dear Family and Friends;

January has been pretty dark and rainy.  Sometimes it is difficult when you don't see the sun for days on end.  We have enjoyed our visits to Haugesund every two weeks.  The ocean is a little rough this time of year.  It makes for interesting ferry rides.  The members are always so kind to have us over. The gospel is an important light this time of year for all of us.  We are so proud of how well all of kids and grand kids are doing.  Everyone is busy, busy.  It has been a tough year in the farm/ranch business, but Erik is holding things together. We are grateful for the notes and letters that many of you send us. We are grateful for good health and the energy to keep up with the demands of a mission including the YSA, missionaries and member visits. A highlight for us is when we get to help teach with the missionaries. I have been called as the member/missionary coordinator for the Stavanger ward until a new one can be called.  Sister Gormley's favorite meeting is our weekly district meeting where she feeds the missionaries a great lunch each week and we share testimony and train with each other.  We understand that many of you have had a wild winter.  Be careful out there and stay warm.  We feel your prayers and are grateful for your support.

Love, Elder and Sister Gormley

This was on January 15th.  It has been our only snow this winter,  We got about an inch.  It lasted about a day.  Our landlord said that this has been the mildest winter in his life, he is about 40.

This is Ingrid, one of our YSA young ladies.  She spend two years in Korea learning the language and working.  We are glad to have her back.

Once a month we have Family Night at a members house.  This was at the Oyama;s, an American family working with NATO.  They are great.

Another zone conference.  We feed about 35.  It is always fun to get the missionaries and our President together.

Sister Cockrell, on the right, broke her nose in 5 places.  She was learning an exercise using kickboxing with one of our YSA young men.  She was bobbing when she should have been weaving.  She had to go home to Salt Lake to have surgery.  We pray she will return to us soon.  

Sister Kari Nilsen.  She is one of our sweet single sisters in the Stavanger ward.  We was an airline stewardess for many years.  She now works in the Stockholm temple several weeks a year. 

This is where Kari Nielsen lives in Hommersåk, Norway.  A beautiful spot on the end of a fjord.

This is Leo.  He is one of our YSA from France.  He is an engineer at a window factory in Moi named Nordan. It is about 1.5 hours southeast of Stavanger.   He gave us a tour of the factory.  Most of the work is done by robots.  He manages them.  Very interesting.  We then went on another .5 hour to Flekkefjord to see one of our YSA's that got married, Brightess.  We were able to teach her husband a first discussion.  He is from Poland.  Great guy.  We then went on another .5 hour and visited our dear friends the Evangers who were baptized in late October.  It was great to be with them.  It is difficult for them to get to church.  It is a 5 hour round trip.  

This is our transfer breakfast the morning before the missionaries are transferred.  Sister Gormley cooks a nice breakfast.  We then go around and tell what we love and appreciate about those leaving.  We really enjoy this time together.  We sure miss the ones that leave, but always love the new ones.

This is our new district leader, Elder Davis from Gilbert AZ.  He is a character.  I think he is taking his new calling a little too serious, don't you?

This is Casper Vågen.  He is one of our YSA's.  He got called to the Arizona Scottsdale ASL Mission.  He has left this monday for the MTC to learn ASL and brush up on English.  ASL is a different sign language than Norwegian sign language.  We had a big ward going away party for him at the Bjerge's Sunday night.  I cooked up some Buffalo hot wings for the party.  He loves them.  He has been a member about two years and will be a wonderful missionary.  He has a powerful testimony.   

This is Alex with Sister Gormley.  He is about 6 months.  She crocheted him this blanket.  This is her new hobby.  She also made one for his brother Christopher and his sister Emily.  Their mom, Linda, is investigating the church.  She is amazing to keep up with triplets as a single mom.  They are a wonderful little family.

This is an invitation to our YSA Valentine's party we are having in Stavanger on the 17-19 of February.  We will have about 30 YSA from Bergen, Haugesund, Stavanger, Kristiansand and Arendal.  We are trying to broaden the YSA friendship circles.  We are excited for this event.  

Happy New Year

Dear Family and Friends;

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  We sure missed all of you, but really enjoyed the members and missionaries here in Norway.  Everyone was so kind to have us over for activities and meals.  We really enjoyed getting to know the members in their homes.  Christmas time is a special time here in Norway.  The traditions are so deep.  The sad part is that 95% of the people have know idea who Christ is or why he was born.  The church has an uphill battle here teaching of Christ.  The standard of living here is so high that people struggle with looking to God for anything.  It is definable a "finding the one" process.   We sure get close to these missionaries.  They are the cream of the crop.  We are off and running in 2017.  I'm sure that our last year will go by very fast.  We are praying that we can make a difference here.  We pray that each of you can accomplish all that you hope to this year.  Like George Durant would say "This will be our best year."

Love you all.  Elder and Sister Gormley

Will, Nathan, Ella, Sam

Richard, Claire, Sophie, Tyler

Wesley, Beckett, Dylan, Kennedy

Bennett, Grace, Tessa, James

Stratton, Emily, Michael, Jaycie

What a great crew of grand kids.  They range from 17 to two.  We love them and can't wait to be with them again.  

We really enjoyed some of the Christmas art the grand kids sent us.  

Christmas dinner with the missionaries and the YSA.  Sister Gormley is becoming a sensation around the missionaries and the YSA.

Julenissen (Santa Clause) at the Olsen's.  We spent Christmas eve with them.  They have 4 beautiful children.  We had a great evening.

Ward Christmas party in Haugesund.  Playing pin the nose on the reindeer.  

Movie party with the YSA and missionaries.  We watched Dory.  Ate a lot of popcorn.

Ward Christmas party in Stavanger.  A huge traditions is to all hold hands and dance around the Christmas tree while singing favorite Norwegian Christmas songs.

Our landlord Atla built a new fence in our driveway.  It was fun to help him for a few hours.  

Our Bishops wife Elin won the Stavanger area ginger bread house building competition.  She has won it several times.  She even made clear windows out of sugar,  It all has to be edible.  She is so talented. 

Missionary dinner with the Redfords.  He is from Scotland and she is from Sweeden.  Wonderful members.

New Years Eve with the Meads.  They are an American family from Laramie working for Conoco Phillips here in Norway.  Great fun.  Norway goes crazy for fireworks on New Years Eve.  Much more that we do on the fourth.  

Had dinner with the Haugesund Elders with Beverly and Hans.  She is American and he is from Haugesund.  Missionaries are teaching them.  Great Shrimp.  

The southwest coast of Norway is full of sheep.  Lamb is their favorite meat in this part of Norway.  Pinnekjøtt (salted lamb)  is a Christmas tradition.  We had it about 4 times.  Great,

We drove the missionaries out to Karmøy (Karm Island) to find inactive members.  Beautiful part of Norway.