Singing at the Norwegian Parliament

While in Oslo, we took a tour of the parliament building. We were hosted and guided by Dagfinn Høybråten, head of the Christian Democrat Party, parliament member and former Minister of Health. He is friends of Vice President Erlend Peterson, who traveled with us from Copenhagen to Oslo. On the tour, Dagfinn shared the history of Norway as well as personal insights into government, the economy and politics. He has been to BYU as a guest speaker. While on the tour, another gentleman, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, came up and asked where we are from and when he heard BYU he said he has spoken there. He found out Vice President Peterson was with us and decided to make a few comments. At the end of the tour we sang "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" in the Storting Room, which is the large assembly room. Dagfinn later attended our VIP reception and the show.

Craziest (but best) Day on Tour

Yesterday we traveled to Drammen Norway where we had a fireside.  The fireside went very well.  There was a very good turn out.  This morning we left at 8:00 am for Skien, Norway.  Upon arrival at 10:30am, after a city tour and a short tour of Henrik Isben's childhood home, we were greeted by a red carpet, cameras, 200 students and a live band.  On the bus ride over we were each given a colored pamphlet of the days activities.  Through out the day we were feed two amazing meals did over a dozen media interviews, two workshops, two lectures and we played with and watched a group of mental handicapped children perform.  And we still haven't even done out evening show yet.   The day has been amazing!!  The kids we have been able to be with all day were wonderful.  We hope that they got out of it as much as we did. 

Tomorrow we leave bright and early for Oslo where we will meet with the parliament, have a workshop with a local high school and have a show.    Then on to Sweden.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!!!

Pictures

Hello to all,  our technical director Charles Cox has been taking a lot of pictures along the way.  He has posted a lot of them on the web and will continue to post as we travel.  If you would like to see the pictures please go to www.ya2009.fowie.com!!!!  Please go and look at all the beautiful places we have been!!!

This is on one of our ferry rides across a fjord in Norway. Our broadcaster superstar, Jeanette, who is giving a lecture to future broadcasters in Skien, Norway, interviews other YAs about their time in Norway and on the ferries.

Norway is Beautiful! We are loving tour.

Dear Everyone at home,

So far we have been all over Denmark and across Norway. We love the people and cultures we are meeting and enjoy seeing all there is to see. Our shows have been successful as well as our firesides with many in attendance at each. We have all fallen in love with Norway and have decided to live here at some point in the future. These decisions have come because of the beauty that is all around us as we have driven over, under and around fjords, mountains, lakes and quaint little villages.

In Denmark we visited several sights including the Christus statue, the Copenhagen temple, The Little Mermaid statue, the Hans Christian Anderson home and the beach. We had visits to a hospital and with the Royal Danish Ballet. We did one fireside and five shows in five days in Denmark. The Spirit was strong at our firesides and we enjoyed our host family stays.

On May 3, we crossed the North Sea from Denmark to Norway on a ferry. We then drove three hours to our destination and immediately fell in love with Norway. So far we have had one show and three firesides in Norway with a lot left on our plate. We have visited the home of composer Edvard Grieg and other sites including an overlook of Bergen, a stave church from the 1200's and the historic waterfront district with its crooked buildings.

We have been on TV and the radio and met many dignitaries and will continue tomorrow in Skien with one of the busiest days Randy Boothe says he has ever seen on a Young Ambassador tour. There are three workshops, three lectures, one show TV and radio interviews all scheduled for tomorrow along with a stop at Henrik Ibsen's home and other sites. It will be very busy.

In all we love the tour and we love the people and places we are visiting. We are doing well in representing the school and ourselves and beliefs, and we have hopefully strengthened important connections and built new ones for the school and church.

I will post some pictures and videos of our time so far.

Sincerely,

Kevin Earl

Current Figures: 6 shows, 2 countries, 10 days, 4 firesides, nearly 100 tunnels, 4 ferries, 2 languages, almost 2,000 audience members, 2 trucks, 50+ cameras, thousands of pictures