June, 2009 The

HARVESTER
Den Norske Misjon
D&C 101:63-4 . . . I say unto you, I will show unto you wisdom in me concerning all the churches, in as much as
0 they are willing to be guided in a right and proper way for their salvation--- that the work of the gathering
together of my saints may continue . . . for the time of harvest is come, and my word must needs be fulfilled.

Message from the President

Dear Elders and Sisters,
We loved the talks given in our last zone conferences with the theme “Becoming: Just as
vital as what you do is what you become”
A favorite hymn helps us pledge to Heavenly Father:
I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, over mountain or plain or sea;
I’ll say what you want me to say, dear Lord,
I’ll be what you want me to be.
The missionary commission also reminds us of what we need to be:
“My commission is to do what He wants done, to say what He wants said, to be
a living modern witness in word and deed of the divinity of His great and marvelous
latter-day work.”
The zone leaders told us that God will care less about what we know or what we have done
than what we have become. Everything we do is to help us become.
One of the true joys of our mission has been to watch all of you as you go through this
process of becoming. You have set the example for us. Your faith, diligence, obedience,
remarkable abilities, and love have been an inspiration for us. We love you. We are so proud of
you. We will continue to feel this joy as we watch you continue the process of becoming. We
know you will be great fathers, mothers, and leaders in the Church, Our prayer for you and for
us is that when Christ appears “we shall be like him”.
President and Sister Johansen are so excited to be in Norway with you. They love you
already. They will come to know of your Christ-like qualities and what great missionaries you are.
We leave the mission in very capable hands – theirs and yours. We will be anxious to hear that
you have reached the goal of 84 conversions! Keep up the good work!
Our love forever,
President and Sister Poulsen

“Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of
their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen
their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls,
raise up friends, and pour out peace. Whoever will lose his life in the service of God will find eternal life.

Sacrifice is truly the crowning test of the gospel. We are tried and tested in this mortal probation to see if
we will, in fact, turn our lives over to God. If we will put first in our lives the kingdom of God. (See
Matthew 6:33). To gain eternal life, we must be willing, if called upon, to sacrifice all things for the gospel
and for the Lord.”
President Ezra Taft Benson
 June 2009
Assistant’s Message
Dear Elders and Sisters,
Being a missionary is great. You get such a unique opportunity to serve God’s children. I
love the feeling of showing up at someone’s house right when they need it. Right when they’ve
prayed. And I live to teach other people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Teaching is why we are here. We find, we plan, we work with members to teach. Because
that is the way we invite others to come unto Christ. It is easy to forget our purpose; to think
that these other routines are our purpose. We start thinking that our purpose is to find potentials
or to be out a certain number of hours a day. But if we love the core of missionary work, we will
rarely forget our purpose.
Charity is this driving love for missionary work. It will shine in our eyes. The Holy Ghost
will be with us much stronger, and more people will say yes to our invitations. We will wake up
every morning excited for the day.
It’s about what you live for, what you look forward to. If you look forward to going home or to
the sports activity or to your hour for dinner, then you love that more than you love teaching the
Gospel (John 21:15).
When we love missionary work so what do we do if we’re missing that love? We pray.
This feeling, like any Christ-like attribute, is a gift of the Spirit. It is easy to say “that is just the
way I am.” let the Holy Ghost change “the way you are!” Because those kind of changes run
deep and last long (Moroni 10:17).
We are called of God! He uses us every day to fulfill his eternal purposes (Alma 37:7).
Let’s enjoy the ride.

Love your brothers,

Eldste Cramer og Eldste Henshaw

Priesthood of Alma
Often the question arises, where did Alma get his priesthood? I offer you some notes from
our Norwegian apostle, Elder John A. Widtsoe. These notes are condensed from 3 pages of his
writing on this topic.
There is no direct answer to this question in the B of M. Yet, the events recorded in the
Nephite scriptures indicate that the Higher Priesthood was among the Nephites prior to the
second coming of Christ. Alma was a high priest (Alma 8:23). His sons were ordained high
priests, and also many others (Alma 46:6, Helaman 3:25). It is clear that Alma cited in his famous
sermon (Alma 13) the story earlier high priests to explain and to emphasize his own calling. The
existence of numerous high priests is thus another evidence that the Higher Priesthood was
among the Nephites.
Under the authority of the Priesthood, the Nephites performed baptisms from the days of
the first Nephi (Mosiah 18:13-16, Alma 5:3, 48:19).

Baptisms Reported in May

Baptism Confirmation
Name Date Date Location Missionaries

Jellum-Gundhus, Shain T. 30 May 2009 31 May2009 Kristiansand-Mission Elders Borgenfalk/Harris

 June 2009

Welcome President and Sister Johansen

Notes from the Office

Do We Speak Your Language?
If you have ever called the office you know I struggle with “Den Norske Misjon, Dette er Søster Arnesen”. How
amazing it is to have BOMs on the office shelves for 63 languages. Many are shipped each day to eager
missionaries and investigators. It is always sad to say “sorry we do not have it.” or even worse “I cannot find it
online in Salt Lake’s Distribution Center. The BOM doesn’t come in *Eritrean!” Hopefully it is not a dead end for
you. We know how important it is to have all the materials when you need them NOW! Here are two cross
reference lists that might be helpful to you. Eldste og Søster Arnesen
Country Language Language Country
Afghanistan Mongolian,Persian Akan-Fante Ghana
Bangladesh Bengali Amharic Ethiopia
Bengal West Indies Bengali Bengali Bangladesh, West Bengal
Bolivia Quechua Cebuano Philippines
Ethiopia Amharic Hiligaynon Philippines
Ghana Akan-Fante Hindi India
India Hindi, Malayalam Igbo Southeast Nigeria
(Kerala), Tamil, Telugu Ilokano West Nigeria
(East Coast), Urdu Malayalam India (Kerala)
Iran Persian Mongolian China, Mongolia, Russia
Kenya Swahili Afghanistan
Madagascar Malagasy Persian Iran, Afghanistan
Mongolia Mongolian Quechua Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador
Shona Mosambique Shona Zimbabwe, Mosambique
Nigeria Igbo (Southeast), Sinhala Sri Lanka, India
Ilokano (West) Telugu India (EastCoast)
Pakistan Urdu Tongan Tonga, English
Phillippines Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Tagalog Urdu India, Pakistan
Peru Quechua
Russia Monolian, Russian *FYI “Eritrea” is in Ethiopia. Use this list: Look up
Sri-Lanka Sinhala, Tamil Ethiopia *note they may speak Amharic!
Tanzania Swahili
Tonga Tongan,English
Zimbabwe Shona
Do We Have All These Languages? Yes We Do!
 June 2009
Our Miracle Column

There is so much that I need to be doing as a missionary! I had to sit down the other night and
write why I felt things weren’t going smoothly in the missionary work here. I realized that it is
just because I try to focus on too many things at once, so I don’t really give a lot of my energy to
one thing. It was really great because it is making me prioritize in missionary work the work that
is important and the work that just fills up time. Hopefully I will be able to grasp missionary
work a little bit better! Do missionaries ever grasp the idea of a successful missionary, or is it
something you keep on learning til the last day.
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We try and do our part and then we can do literally nothing but hope and pray. For example we
had an investigator that we tried to meet with on Friday but he was unfortunately not home and
we had almost no time available on Saturday. So we had really no chance for inviting him to
church because we had not been able to make contact with him during the week. I was not too
happy. All I did was pray for him and pray that he could know that he was welcome at church
and we wanted him there. I was thrilled when he arrived in church with a suit and tie on. The
power of prayer is real and when we are out of reach with these people that we care about we
can take comfort knowing that the Lord is never out of touch of our investigators. It gets me
excited to know that we are in reality in the service of a living and true God that has power to
make miracles happen here in our missionary service.
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We taught for the second time an investigator this week. He told us he didn’t have time to read
this week so he only got to read 3 Nephi 11-14. That was a pleasant surprise. We had a great
lesson with one of the members in our ward and I could tell he really enjoyed it and understood.
The spirit was present and it felt good. Afterward, the member was way excited and reminiscing
on his own conversion. It was a testimony to me that this is the greatest work on Earth and
brings true joy and happiness to everyone involved.
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We had a great miracle happen the other day! I was on splits. We went out to eat with a member,
when we got to the house the member was not done making dinner, so my companion asked if
she knew anybody we could visit while she finish dinner. She said that we could try the Spanish
family that lived over her. She had talked with them one time. So we went up and knocked on
the door and they let us right in! It was amazing! The have a hard time speaking English, but we
learned that the son was baptized in South America and that he is a member but the others are
not! The whole family said that they wanted to learn more! So we talked about the restoration
and showed the video and got a return appointment! It was so cool! The best part is that the
member lives right next to them! It is an immediate support system! Heavenly Father is so great!
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A lot of exciting things happened this past week. Monday night we met a man as we were
knocking doors. He let us in and we taught him about Church and invited him to come on
Sunday. He said that he would decide and let us know later, and we made an appointment for
Thursday night. Right as we walked in the door on Thursday he asked us if we could get
someone to give him a ride! We were super excited to have him with us on Sunday and after the
meeting he asked my companion if he could get a ride next week as well. He is a great man and
we are excited to work with him.