Transfer week….

Thanks again for the update!! I just love seeing all their sweet smiling faces! Norway is blessed to have these wonderful missionaries, both young and senior!! Congratulations for a job well done for those going home. Just a few short months and our missionary will be one of those headed home.

Sister Hill–THANK YOU for posting all these fun pictures of our missionaries! Seeing their smiling faces brings joy to my heart. I also love seeing their feet and shoes, worn out in service to the Lord. Your pictures are amazing!

Bless you for all of these pictures! And my apologies for Eldste Wakefield’s tied too short tie! 😉

Sister Hill, I cannot thank you enough for your blog, I love seeing the pictures and reading the stories of the missionary work in Norway. It helps me not feel so far away. I can see the joy of their service.

Sister Hill,
I’ve been enjoying your blog. Thank you for posting the great pictures and sharing the experiences our missionaries are having. It means everything to us, but I believe you already understand that. Thank you. Thank you!

President and Sister Hill
I have just sent Dan Peterson some information about my ties to Norway. My Great-Great Grandfather Carl Johan Ellefsen Fjeld was a convert and wrote his autobiography about his conversion and subsequent migration to Zion. I had never really dug much into his story until I started seeing some parallels between Dan’s trip and my own ancestry. Even further and closer reading reveals information that I had not been aware of. Some of it is pertinent to Oslo and I don’t know if it is generally known by the local saints. I quote from his record and give you permission to share it with the saints there if appropriate. This autobiography was printed in a book written by my great uncle Andrew Fjeld of Lehi, Utah entitled “A Brief History of the Fjeld-Fields Family”. It was published in 1946 by the Art City Publishing Co. of Springville, Utah.
Fjeld Meets Fjeldsted
It was a good place (Christianshavn, Copenhagen, Denmark 1853) where we worked, one that I shall never forget in time nor eternity, for here I found those of whom I had inquired so much about in the towns through which we had passed, namely: the Mormons. (Grandpa Fjeld and his companion walked 324 English miles in Denmark to reach Copenhagen.) There was a man working here named C.D. Fjeldsted who was Mormon, and as I had read considerable about these people in the papers during the summer before I left home. I was very anxious to meet one of them. Fjeldsted and Fjeld soon set to work comparing Mormonism and Lutheranism, and I was very anxious that my religion should prove to be the best in the world. I soon found, however, that my religion would not stand investigation from a scriptural standpoint. Therefore, I commenced attending the Latter Day Saints meetings and was soon convinced of the truth of the doctrine set forth, and that it was my duty, as well as all men, to obey the same. The question which then bothered me most was my many weaknesses, which I knew I must repent of in order to become a member of the Church. The public house was my home and here I spent my evenings. My friends and associates were here and I was “a hail fellow well met,” by everyone. Fjeldsted counseled me against this evil and one evening he advised me to go out into the garden and ask the Lord in secret to give me strength to overcome this great weakness. I did as he suggested and had no sooner raised to my feet than the spirit of the Lord came upon me in power and I felt happy and full of courage and determination.
I went in where my companions were drinking, as usual, and a glass was soon filled for me, but imagine their surprise when I refused to take it, and soon the cry went up, “A Mormon! A Mormon!” Two of them came toward me to hold me while a third was going to force the contents of the glass into my mouth. A couple of well directed blows sent the two sprawling, and the third decided to let me alone. I told the rest of them that I was ready to meet them all if they wished to come. I felt such a power resting upon me that I was confident that I could have withstood all if they had come.
They did not molest me any more but treated me in a friendly manner. On the sixth of April 1853, I was baptized for the remission of sins by Peter Hansen, and on the following Sunday, April 10th, I was confirmed by P.O. Hansen, from Zion. Canute Petersen, also from Zion, was present and assisted in my confirmation by laying his hands upon my head. Petersen and Haugen were both from Zion and were going to Norway on missions. Everything moved along then very pleasantly, except that my traveling companion, Martin Christoffersen, became my bitter enemy, and is to this day for aught I know.
After a few days I returned to Norway and secured work at Aker’s Works under Capt. Stensrup in Christiania and in a few month I moved my family there. I had a few gospel tracts I loaned to my fellow workmen during the summer and soon had a number of friends and investigators. In the fall Canute Petersen came to Christiania and was there for twelve or fourteen days before he found me, for we did not know of each other’s whereabouts.
Beginning of Church Activity
He had not been able to do anything as yet, but the first day that he found me we arranged for a meeting that same evening in my house and invited those of my companions who were interested. In a short time my old friend Johannes Olsen was baptized and soon after C.C. A. Christiansen arrived from Copenhagen, having been set to Norway on a mission. Petersen and Christensen then worked together with result that others of my companions were baptized, and on the 8th of December 1853 C.C.A. Christensen organized a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Christiania, the capital of Norway. I was ordained a priest and set apart to be preside over the branch, while E. Haugen was president of the Norwegian Mission. Canute Petersen was not present when the branch was organized as he had been called away from the city a few days previous. That same evening my wife was baptized and my three children were blessed.
God’ Kingdom was now set up in Christiania and moved steadily onward.

On July 3rd, 1854 I was ordained an Elder and the same year President Haugen left Norway with a company of emigrants for Zion. Canute Petersen was then made president of the mission and in the fall of 1855 he also left with a company of emigrants for Zion and was succeeded by C.C.A. Christensen as president of the Norwegian Mission. The next president was Lund who was followed by S. Gudmundsen. However, there were other elders on missions in Christiania and other places in Norway. There were namely: Carl and Ferdinand Dorious, O. Magleby, Bertelsen, N.C. Poulsen and A. Larsen from Denmark.
Three other branches were organized in the neighborhood of Christiania, namely: Vestra Aker, Stommens, and Hedemarkens branches, but the Christiania branch was the largest and strongest of them all.
Enroute for Zion
In 1860 the Lord opened the way for me to emigrate to Zion. This was after having presided over the Christiania branch from it organization and seen the growth and development form a membership of nine individuals to an enrollment of over two hundred members. On the 24 of April 1860 we left Christiania bound for Utah……..

This is the note I sent Dan:
Dan
I envy your trip to Denmark and Norway. I too, have ties to both countries through a great grandmother. Her last name was Fjeld (mountain). Her father, Carl Johan Ellifson Fjeld and ancestors came from the Drammen area. Carl was a foundryman after having made two trip to sea. To find work he and a companion traveled to Denmark to find work. They did, but more importantly, they found the Mormon missionaries in Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark after having traveled “324 English miles in Denmark”, mainly by foot. Upon arriving back in Norway, Carl moved his family to “Christiania, capital of Norway” where they lived before immigrating to Zion. Grandpa Carl notes in his journal that a young Danish missionary arrived on his mission to Norway shortly after he arrived at Christiania. The name of the missionary was C.C.A. Christiansen and he organized the first branch in Christiania (Oslo) Norway. Grandpa Carl was ordained a Priest and was called as the first Branch President. He never mentioned in his history if he ever knew about C. C. A.’s becoming such a renowned artist of the Restoration. They emigrated to Zion and were in the last handcart company (10th) in 1860. As and aside. My great grandmother Josephine Emilia Fjeld married William Allen Montgomery, thus reconnecting two families that may have had a common origin. The Montgomery came to Scotland with William the Conqueror from Normandy. “Mont” means “mountain” in the Norman or French language. They met and married in the “mountains” of Zion. Enjoy the rest of your trip.

In any case, I wish you luck in your missionary endeavors. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like more information.
Jim Montgomery
Your Brother in the Gospel