Soster Blankmeyer: The Squad is Poppin'

Alright I understand that most missionaries would not title their blog post "The Squad is Poppin'" but I promise it relates to missionary work. This has been a way busy week. On Tuesday morning we went and dropped off Søster Ralphs at the airport since she is needed in Tromsø for the next couple of weeks.

Bonding with Bender!

That left Søster Bender and I in charge of Ålesund and all the work that needs to be done here. We worked so hard this week and almost set a record of gospel conversations. Although this was a week filled with a lot of work, we also had a lot of fun. I truly believe you can be an obedient missionary and still enjoy the work. Which brings me to the explanation of my blog title this week. We have befriended quite a lot of people in Ålesund who originally come from the Congo. This past week they invited us over to have some African food called Fufu. Let me tell you, I was definitely not raised in Africa. Søster Bender and I had to relearn how to eat food with our hands. It was crazy. It was also way fun. I have loved meeting people from all over the world and learning about their different cultures. I've been trying to pick up a bit of Swahili and that's definitely something else. While at this fufu "party" Søster Bender and I were throwing out some English phrases for our African friends to learn. One of which was "pop a squat" as in "take a seat." They proceeded to repeat what we were saying and then questioned the meaning of the phrase. One of the guys thought he understood and told his friends, "It means that the squad is poppin' you know?" Way funny for us, but as I write it out I'm starting to think it's one of those "you had to be there" moments. Anyways, we love all of our friends from Africa and all over the world and are grateful to be missionaries where we have the excuse to go up and talk to everyone and make tons of new friends.

Fufu from our African friends.

Played Skip Bo at a member's house. Reminds me of good times with Grandma and Grandpa Conger.

One of our favorite Africans happens to be our newest convert, Ben. Ben traveled the 3 hours or so to our branch president's house this week to receive the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood as our branch president would not be there on Sunday to perform those duties. He also would not be able to lead church seeing as he would be in London, so that left our tiny branch with a big problem. We called Ben after he had gotten home from the branch president's house to see how everything went. He told us what a wonderful experience he had had and that he was just so happy. After discussing his experience, Ben told us that our branch president had asked him to lead church on Sunday! Wild! I am not certain but I think this is probably one of the first times that the newest convert was in charge of welcoming himself into the branch. Ben ended up doing an awesome job though and made everyone so happy to be at church this past Sunday. He's so great.

Norway is so great. It's such a fun and exciting country to be living in. We have a national holiday tomorrow, which is supposed to be even bigger than Christmas here so I'm way pumped. Our president is allowing us a couple hours on Wednesday to email, so I'll be sure to send some awesome pics. As for the pictures from this week, last PDay the elders in our District asked if we wanted to go on a hike.

Taking a break halfway up the mountain.

Top of the mountain!

We ended up climbing to the very top of one of Norway's massive mountains and although it was challenging at times, it was way cool when we were standing up on the top. I think that's a lot like life. We are given certain challenges or mountains to climb and sometimes it's very hard and you are on a steep incline while at other times you are simply taking a stroll and it's a gradual path up. By the end of it all though, you are able to look and see all that you have accomplished to reach that top point. I hope and pray that we all are able to get to the top, to climb those "mountains" that are placed in our path.

Also just had to include some stunning pictures of a Norwegian beach here in Ålesund.