January, 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 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

In the undertaking of any quest, we may ask ourselves whether we have arrived at that place where
the quest will be accomplished? It is a place we know that we will be successful in finalizing our
accomplishments. Others will look upon us and say “Yes, they have arrived.”

What do we need to do in order to “Arrive” in the Norway Oslo Mission? What need you do to
feel that you personally have “Arrived?”

Alma 58:11; Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he
would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great
faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him.

Proverbs 3:5; Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

We thank you for your efforts of 2008 and we feel we are on course, that we are “arriving” as a
mission to the level of performance where the Lord can speak “peace to our souls.” Achieving 50
baptisms is putting us on course to achieving a mission goal of 84 for 2009. From your input in
zone conferences, the average, or midpoint from the three zones is 84. We feel this is achievable,
on course, and within our realm of possibility. That by doing so we will feel “peace in our souls.”

Bind the Lord

D&C 82:10 I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have
no promise.

The Powers of Heaven Operate Through Righteousness

D&C 121:34-37; Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?
Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of
men, that they do not learn this one lesson-- That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably
connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor
handled only upon the principles of righteousness. That they may be conferred upon us, it is true;
but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise
control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of
unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and
when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.
Cont.
 January 2009
Cont.
We Learn to Know The Master Through Service
Mosiah 5:13; For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger
unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?
Cleansed Through Faithfulness & Diligence
D&C 76:52; That by keeping the commandments they might be washed and cleansed from all
their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and
sealed unto this power;

D&C 68:30; ….labor, in all faithfulness; for the idler shall be had in remembrance before the
Lord.
We thank you for your diligence and obedience in striving to be a “Preach My Gospel”
missionary. We look forward to a prosperous 2009 and ask that as a companionship you set daily,
weekly, monthly and transfer cycle goals for your area that are focused on our funnel to a
standard of excellence. We can do it! It is within reach! May it be said of each of us, “Yes, they
have arrived.”
We send our love,
President and Sister Poulsen

From the Office Mail Room

“Send Me” When our Elder Brother spoke these words, it changed our world forever.
So why, is it “Send Me “ a Gratis Mormons Bok and a Gratis DVD doesn’t have the power to change
just one person’s life? For just a moment a TV spot or a testimony shared by a member on the internet
touched the heart of one of Heavenly Father’s children enough for them to respond and make a request
to “Send Me” more! They felt the Spirit and they wanted more! Gule Sider is checked for additional
information. We respond immediately! The skolepakke is shipped within hours of their request. Very
eager messengers of the Lord are notified and in a day or so, servants of the Lord ride the bus for one
hour and walk 5 kilometers in the cold to arrive at the door of a 60+ year old man who says “I am a little
busy now! Can you come back later?” As discouraging as it may be, it still has to be more productive than
just knocking on doors. This was a child of God who reached out for just a second. Statistics say that you
must knock on about 100 doors to find one possibility to teach. Your chances are greatly improved with
those who have shown an interest. Some only wanted the information for a school project, one actually
came to church once, several were taught the Restoration, others never opened the door or kept a
teaching appointment and some have never been found. From the 22nd of October 2008 to the 8th of Jan
2009 we have received 24 referrals. Not one is near conversion but still each new request is met with
hope, anticipation and eagerness – and that is how it should be. No one said that it would be easy, or that
success would come without opposition. But sooner or later one of those who said: “Send Me a Gratis
Mormons Bok will find exactly what they hoped they would find– a word or a phrase that was written or
spoken “just for me!” – as if a voice from Heaven was speaking directly to them – Spirit to Spirit. When
that happens, we will know that we are truly “Messengers” – not to change the world but to be
instruments changing one person’s life – forever.
Alan and Susan Arnesen
 January 2009
Message from the assistants

”Charity is the pure love of Christ. It includes God’s eternal love for all his children.
We are to seek to develop that kind of love.” (PMG 118) Our thoughts today are obviously
focused on love and charity. If we really understood how much Heavenly Father loves us we
would look at others with a completely different perspective. When we talk to people
everyday do they know that we love them? Each and single one? The best way for us to find
more people to teach is to love everyone enough to give them the same amount of attention
and love that Jesus Christ would give them if he were in our place. When we develop this
kind of love we have the spirit and it motivates us to do our very best.
We are blessed we have companions, a mission president and his wife, and members to
help us out. The more we recognize how thankful we are the opportunity to serve a mission
(which is one of the greatest blessings we will ever receive), the more we will want to serve
others and truly fulfill our purpose in giving them a testimony about Heavenly Father’s son
Jesus Christ. “You will labor in their behalf… You will try to understand them and their
points of views.” (PMG 118), not only speaking of the people we meet every day, but also
our companions and fellow missionaries. When we really love our Heavenly Father we are
thankful for every single experience we go through each day, we can’t expect to build the
kingdom of God if we aren’t thankful for the people we are surrounded by. Having Christ like
humility in all things. Our hope is that we can be more thankful for what we have and to be
more thankful for where we are, so we can show our love for our Heavenly Father.
Once we have said thank you we don’t need to wait too long until we say it again. Not
only thank you in words but in action. Our goal in this life is to help others and ourselves in
becoming Christ like in every way. We love you all and we are thankful for everything you
do to help our mission. We need to do our best for Heavenly Father and the People we are
surrounded by every day. We have two years to serve and more than a life time to think about
it. We love you and we hope for the best!
MVH, Eldste Leatham & Eldste Cramer
 January 2009
Our Miracle Column

Yesterday we had an investigator come to church. She even brought her friend and her friend’s two daughters.
My companion and I were sitting together after the sacrament and we saw a member go out into the foyer and
she then came in with all five of them. She was so great and looked after our investigator and her family the
whole meeting. The member even invited our investigator and her family to come to her house on Christmas
Eve and they are going to come, so we will have a great opportunity to teach them in the member’s home! I am
very grateful for members. I am also very thankful for all of the members here and how much they love the
missionaries! I always feel such love from them, and I try to give it back the best that I can.
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This morning we had a teach planned with our investigator that doesn't come to church but wants to get
baptized. We went to his house and no one answered. We were a little down because we had brought a member
with us to. As we were about to drive away, a car came and dropped off our investigator! So we got back out of
the car to see when we could visit him again. All of a sudden the member and our investigator just got really
excited and ran up and hugged each other! Come to find out, they were really good friends in high school but
had never had contact with each other after that! It was truly a miracle! Our investigator is really excited again to
meet with us and to come to church! What a blessing. The Lord really works in wondrous ways!
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I had a neat experience last Tuesday. I was talking to a man on the bus who said that he wanted to learn more
but before I knew I had to get off the bus so I got his phone number and wrote it on my hand because I could
not find any paper fast enough. He gave me the number in Norwegian and as I am definitely not fluent, I missed
a number. I was so excited!! It was the first number that I had gotten in Norwegian and all by myself. Then, we
realized that I didn't have all of the numbers. It was smudged and missing one number on my wet hand. I was so
disappointed. I wanted to tell this man more about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then later that day, we
were walking through the city, on the other side of town, and I saw the man. We chased him down and I got his
real number. He said, "Wow, what are the chances I would run into you again!" It was a tender mercy from the
Lord. God knew how disappointed I was and led us into his path. God is so involved in this work. I am learning
more and more every day how to have faith upon his words and the teachings of this gospel. The church is true!
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We had fasted as a district to help the missionary work go forward and to find prepared people. On Friday we
contacted all day. We found a 26 yr old and he was way interested. He told us his parents believe in God and he
wants to but has never gotten an answer. We called him Saturday night, and he told me that he does not think it
is by coincidence that we met. :) It felt way good. We will be meeting with him tomorrow night.
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We had identified this street during daily planning. At the first door we talked about families and how we can
live with them forever. We said that we know this through revelation and the person really had never thought
about this concept before so he let us in, and he really liked what we had to say about the Plan of Salvation. We
set up another appointment about the Restoration and how we have come to know this. After that we finished
the street and got 2 try backs and met with a lot of people that had talked to missionaries before. It was the best
success I have ever had banking.

Baptisms Reported in December

Baptism Confirmation
Name Date Date Location Missionaries
Songsee, Prapai 6 Dec 2008 7 Dec 2008 Skien – Stake Elders Pratt/Fish
Serjani, Olsi 27 Dec 2008 28 Dec 2008 Bergen–Mission Sisters Crowther/Engebretsen
Chiong, Leane Louise 28 Dec 2008 4 Jan 2009 Sandvika-Stake Elders Leatham/Cramer