84/461 (PS)

The ballerina-pixy-princess-tinkerbell-fairy, circa 1991.

84/461

As promised, I deliver the flakiest blog known to man.

Hillbilly is wrapping up her 12th week in the field. That’s 1% of her life to date! Luckily she isn’t nearly as nerdy as her mom.

There is a long, confusing, epic and inspirational story regarding the MTC group’s exodus from the MTC, across the Atlantic, and their safe arrival in Oslo. It’s really quite amazing. If I try to recount it here I will just get it all messed up. But trust me; it is a really cool story.

The first email I received after the group arrived in Norway was from Hillary’s friend Karolina. Karolina was in Hillary’s ward in New York during their nannyhood days. Now, I’m not clear on the exact story (and it’s one of those things that I should have listened better but my ADD got the best of me), but Karolina is from Sweden, yet seems to live in Oslo and was waiting for Hillary at the mission home when the MTC group arrived! That was really amazing. Karolina knew Hillary’s first area was to be Bergen before Hillary knew.

Karolina sent me some pictures the next day—I’m not 100% sure which of the girls in the pictures is Karolina, but the thrashed looking one is Hillary.

Off to Bergen she went, and into her first companionship. Sister Engebretsen has been out just a little longer than Hillary has. She’s been a lifesaver—Hillary tells me she is much more fluent in Norwegian.

Sister Engebretsen (my goal is to spell her name without looking…) is a die hard cross country runner, and the two faithfully cross the country together almost every day.

Back in the day, I had a few companions who were runners. I was decidedly NOT a runner. My third companion would run around the block a couple of times every morning at about 5:00am. Then she would jump rope in the parking lot across the street. I felt horrible that she went off by herself like that, so one morning I got up determined to accompany her.

It was inspiration, guilt, or disgust that changed her mind about going outside to exercise. She never mentioned it again!

Hillary's emails are positively ecstatic. I’m chagrined that she’s happier now than she was at her 4th birthday party. Not that it wasn’t a joy for me turning the house into a pink palace and throwing together that ballerina-pixy-princess-tinkerbell-fairy costume. (I only have one girl, and she is a VERY girly girl, which I never was.)

Chagriness aside—I love getting her crazy happy letters. Her first one was over 3,000 words long. I will now attempt to paraphrase it:

“Everything is wonderful!”

Her next email was a mere 312 words, and can be summarized thusly:
“I love you mom!”

Letter # 3:
“Mom, I’m FINE, I promise!”

She’s growing by leaps and bounds, exponentially faster than she could ever have done at home. The one theme that permeates every letter is:
“The church is true! I love my mission! I love the gospel!”

I figure that’s a pretty good message from this 1% of her life.

59/486

Saturday, April 4th

I should have started writing this 59 days ago. And there is no promise that I am going to make it the next 486ish days.

Welcome to Eventyrene av Søster Emery og venner av det Norge , Oslo Misjonsstasjon.

Yeah, it's annoying when people think it's cute and clever to add a bunch of Norwegian to a message meant for English readers. So, I'll prøve å administrere meg selv!

Hillary, Sister Glosova, and Sister Wallace are two days away from leaving the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah and flying to Oslo, Norway, where they will spend the next 484 days teaching the folks there about the church and serving their fellowpersons.

I missed out blogging about her MTC experience, so, allow me to plagiarize from a letter from Sister Alicia Wallace, one of Hillary's two companions there:

(sent to her family)

So far, the girls have experienced,

2 Apostles

1 general conference

1 surgery

7 temple trips

about 30 toilets cleaned:)

8 sacrament meetings

about 35 miles runabout

60 salads eaten

about 40 grapefruits

about 60 chocolate chip cookies:)

9 Movies watched---5 of them were the Joseph Smith Movie---I could probably quote most of it:)

12 boxes of tic tacs eaten---missionaries can't chew gum:)

about 220 hours in the classroom with a teacher

about 440 hours in the classroom total

about 4030 hymns sung

about 930 bathroom breaks---One day we counted and Sister Glosova went to the bathroom 18 times in one day! It makes me laugh.

23 Health Center visits

7 visits to the outside world:)

16 loads of Laundry

about 80+ trips to the post office

about 125 times sister emery loses her blue card (thats the card that pays for everything:)

about 12 bags of cheetoes:)

7 districts have come into our branch while we have been here at the MTC.

-2 pounds gained---yahoo! I fluctuated a lot though:)

1 hair cut

2 wonderful companions

endless prayers

Norwegian? Still working on it:)

I went on a mission myself, back when we had coal-powered scriptures. And although it was one of the most amazing and important things I've ever done, it didn't translate well into letters home. Kind of dry and repetitive. So I might have to sprinkle the blog with some imaginary exciting events and situations. It will be subtle, so it won't be disruptive.

Next issue: Laser attack over the Pacific!