Week 3 Yipee!!!

Fun Norwegian stuff:

-Norwegians are pretty concerened about gender equality. So instead of the traditional the women takes on the name of the man, they are getting creative over here. Like the man takes on the name of the women, or they make up a new last name that combines or uses parts of both of their last name. My initial thought, wow this will be a nightmare for doing geneaology work.

-Norwegians are all very proud of their good quality and tasting drinking water. This is definately a country wide thing.

Our update!

-The snow has started to fall again and it looks beautiful. I think it is somehow related to church because anytime I go to church, it begins to snow a ton. :)

-This update is a little late as I laid on the couch to rest for a minute and ended up sleeping all evening away. oops!

-I taught Nursery yesterday, the 1.5-3 yr olds. There were 3 of them at class and they are super cute. The lesson was a little difficult but luckily Anne Svendsen came and helped. So i would say something and then she would translate into Norwegians. Even the little kids understand quite a bit of enlgish, but not enough to have a lesson. It was fun because we sang songs and played games. Two of my nursery girls. 

-How can you help me. Let me know all of the rhymes, songs and games you like to play with children that age. I am looking for ideas because I can teach them some in English. We did once there was a snow man and row row row your boat in english yesterday.

-Jake got his callings!!! He is the YM's 2nd counselor and the Ward mission leader. This means he works with the guys who are 12-18 years old and he is incharge of working with the missionaries here and trying to help the ward (congregation) to feel comfortable sharing their beliefs with the people they interact with.

Jake's least favorite sign ever.  It just shows up everyone.  It means no driving.  A road will suddenly become a pedestrian street only.

-Jake flies to Iowa for a 25-minute interview.  Round-trip flight time from Norway was over 50 hours of planes and layovers. He returned from the states on Wednesday and Rachel was so excited to have him back. He was gone for 5 days and spent 4 of those days traveling. He is a trooper. He said the Iowa interview went well and it was helpful for him to spend 2 nights with a BYU student who is studying at the medical school in Iowa to see how life is for him and his family. 

-We had a great institute lesson on friday. We are studying the last week of Christ's life. The teacher is very knowledgable and he was great because he would say something in Norwegian and then say it again in English. It was great.

-Work is going well. I finally have my 4th rotation all arranged!!! Also the trainings are really coming along here. I have lots to do in a little time and I feel like our time in Norway will fly by, but we are really enjoying ourselves.

-we summited the mountain behind our house while snowshoeing. Thanks mom and dad for the snow shoes. They are so much fun and we are so grateful we have them. It is funny because I look at a mountain top and think, wow that is pretty. Jake looks at a mountain top and thinks, hmm.... I think we could climb it in ____ amount of time. It is fun because I would never dream about hiking up something that looks so steep and where there is no trail. But we have been doing that and it is really fun.

 

-I saw the sun today!!!! I have a new desk and it is by the window and if I lean back in my chair and it is the morning around 9:30 am I can see the actual sun. It is so exciting.

-The guy I work with has a funny sign behind his desk and it reads "If at first you don't succeed try doing it the way your wife told you." I thought it was pretty funny. He is a very humble guy.
-Jake does some volunteering for the red cross.  This is their building.

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-What happens to skis left on Norwegian soil overnight?
A happy couple walks outside in the morning to go cross-country skiing, and finds that a sheet of ice 2-3 inches thick has covered the ground outside. Including the skis. Jake brings pot after pot of boiling water. You might think this would work, but within about 2 minutes the boiling water also turns to ice. So Rachel chisels away with a shovel. After about an hour of this combined effort, freedom is restored to the skis.  I wish we would have taken a picture becuase you just wouldn't believe it.