And Then There Were Two

The Palace in Oslo

Søster Love and Blankmeyer

Well another week has come and gone and now we have reached the ever famous transfer week. Sadly, Søster Love and I will be losing Søster Petersen as she goes to continue the journey that is a mission out in Moss. We are however excited and ready to take on these next six weeks here in Asker. We not only are losing Søster Petersen this transfer but also the assistance to the President are moving from our district to Oslo. We will be going from seven missionaries down to four. We are also partly in charge of taking over some of the assistance investigators, so needless to say we will be kept pretty busy these next six weeks. Although we've been doing a pretty good job ourselves at keeping busy. I'll just give you all a rundown of the this past week. 


Starting with Monday after emailing all of you we went and had dinner, washed the car, went shopping and eventually got ourselves ready to go and visit a less active member of the church. That was a fun visit. This less active member still has a lot of active friends and they invited her to the ward party coming up in October and man was she so excited about that. At this church party there will be a lot of singing and dancing and this less active absolutely loves Michael Jackson so she gave us a little preview of some songs and dances of his that she is hoping she can perform at the party. It was so fun to see her just light up when we got her talking about Michael Jackson and other things she just loves. I think that has been one of my favorite parts of my mission. Getting to talk to people and getting to know them and what makes them happy. It has really been one of the coolest and most rewarding experiences thus far on my mission and I hope I'll be able to have that opportunity for the rest of my mission wherever I end up and hopefully for the rest of my life. I hope that when I come home next year that you all will allow me to come and visit and listen and learn from you because I know each and everyone of you has something I can hear and benefit from. You all are amazing talented people and I can't wait to learn from you. So that was my Monday and what I got from it. 

Tuesday started out great but ended up being a tough day which made our district meeting on Wednesday even more of a learning experience for me. Every district meeting we end with a little role-play or practice of what we were just taught and being a little vulnerable because of a recent trial in my life. I was able to feel as if what was being said was exactly for me and exactly what I needed. It's crazy how that works and I've seen it multiple times in my life where I have seen someone  said something that was exactly what I needed. That just goes to show that God is really there and that he really does hear and answer our prayers. The rest of Wednesday was fantastic. We went and met with a new investigator who is from the great city of Ålesund!  That was way cool to hear someone in Asker speak with the Ålesund dialect that I grew up with in the mission. Way fun I just really do love Ålesund and Asker has been great as well. I'm just so blessed to be able to serve here in Norway.

Thursday and Friday consisted of what we call "first transfer training" soon to be called "first transfer training the best two days" thanks to yours truly. For two whole days all the trainers and their trainees got together with the assistance and President and Sister Hill in Oslo and learn how to be better Trainers. We learned how to be just better Missionaries.  We had a ton of really amazing stations where we learned how to be more effective, use our scriptures and ask better questions or things like that which was really awesome.  I really did learn so much from those but my absolute favorite part was President Hills final remarks. He was talking to us about "becoming a successful missionary"I think what he said could be applied to us as individuals as well. Being successful is all about the commitment we put into whatever it is that we are doing. We need to remember that we can't be successful unless we are willing to give our all and not compare ourselves to others but rather compare our success from where we were yesterday, a month ago or a year ago. We can't compare our weaknesses to other peoples strengths.  Like I said earlier, some of us are just more talented at one thing but we all have our own "things" we are all successful in one way or another and if we are able to just focus on ourselves and our own success then we will be able to prosper. 

Jeg håper ar vialle kan vite omdet. I would just like to end this week with my testimony that I know that our Heavenly Father knows us and loves us. That He really truly does hear and answer our prayers and that He wants nothing more than for us to be happy in life. I am so very grateful that my Heavenly Father loved me and you and everyone enough to send His son, Jesus Christ, to the earth to atone for all of our sins. I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to repent and be better and try and help my fellow brothers and sisters return home because of Him. I would invite you all to go to this link and watch the two minute video  https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-00-1420-because-of-him?lang=eng
And become uplifted by the beautiful message.  I love and pray for you all and hope you have a great week. 

Love,
Søster Blankmeyer

Velkommen TiI Arets Første Kamp!

Heit ærlig det er veldig vanskelig Hiá begynne mitt blogg noenganger så tusen beklagermen jeg skal bare hop right in to what went down this week. Sorry for the Norwegian-English, derskje noen ganger. All right about this week we had splits so Soster Bennett came down to Asker to serve with Soster Love and I for a few days. It was such a blast. Soster Bennett came to Norway just six weeks after I did and is a stellar missionary. She came to Asker on Tuesday and so from Tuesday to Thursday it was kind of all up to me. 

You may ask what my first order of business was as the leader of the pack. Let's just say, Norwegian hockey games are wild! All right, now to explain myself to everyone who may think I am and unfocused missionary.  We had good reason to attend this Norwegian hockey game. We have been teaching a lady here in Asker ever since I got here. She is awesome and she is making such great progress. One of our last lessons she was telling us about her week and how she works with the Asker Frisk ice hockey team and she invited us to their first game of the season. We of course got permission from our mission president to go and so with his approval we were able to attend, not only was it a really fun experience for us, but a lot of good came out of the hockey game as well. Our investigator would come and talk with us throughout the game and we were able to learn so much about her which was awesome. That wasn't the only good thing though, our investigator was actually going around and talking to all of her coworkers about us as well. We were actually able to talk to a few of them and we even got one of their numbers and he actually came to church yesterday! It was way cool to see how much good came from a Norwegian hockey game. Sadly Asker Frisk ended up losing to Stavanger, but we like to think it's because we had to leave the game early. Anyways, it was a really cool experience and we are now big fans of the Asker Frisk. It was a great and fun way to start off the week. A week that would continue to be great and fun. 

passing out cards at the hockey game

On Wednesday we had a solid lesson with another one of our investigators. It was really cool to see the spirit work in her. She was really open to what we had to say and she really connected to the Joseph Smith story which was really cool. She still has some major questions but she has been so prepared and is allowing faith to work in her. It is so cool to see how the gospel can help people each and every person in their own individual way. Which brings me to another solid lesson we were able to have this week. 

This investigator has been investigating the church for almost 10 years. We have had some really awesome lessons with him but nothing quite like this. This lesson was more of a discussion and it was way cool. Since he pretty much understands almost every aspect of the Gospel we were able to just kind of talk about how the Gospel has impacted our lives and just share personal stories and bear testimony. The spirit was so strong and he was intently listening to every word he said. We all came out of that lesson stronger in the faith and he even invited his sister to come to church with him. It was really awesome. We had a really spiritual Sunday service yesterday and the members here never cease to amaze me. 

One of the members gave a talk in sacrament meeting on repentance and there are really no words to describe the spirit that he brought to that meeting. We had so many wonderful spiritual experiences this past week and some really fun ones as well. We drove out with the elders this past week to Hønefoss to go and visit one of my favorite members in this area. She is so cool! We had dinner and just had a wonderful time together and before we left I noticed she had a Texas magnet on her fridge. I pointed it out to her and she started to sing "The Yellow Rose of Texas." Like what the heck? How cool is she? How many Americans, let alone Norwegians, know that angelic song? I'm so blessed by her. 

the road to Hønefoss

moose sign

We accidentally left our trash out and something got into it.

We also were able to visit a less active and her daughter yesterday. Less active is actually from America and had made us sloppy Joe's. It was really nice to just sit and talk and eat sloppy Joe's. Also her daughter has a black cat as well, so it really couldn't get any better. I am really so blessed to be serving these people and to be having fun doing it as well. I hope you all have a wonderful week and get to have some fun and spiritual experiences of your own. Love you all!

Klem,
Søster Blankmeyer 

President Uchtdorf comes to Norway

Wow! What a wonderful week this has been for den Norske mision.  Just a few days ago, President Uchtdorf, an apostle of the Lord, came to Norway. How amazing is that? However, I thought I'd end this blog post with the highlights of that night and just start out by saying happy late National grandparents day. I have been blessed with some of the best grandparents out there and I'm so lucky that they just love and support me in anything I do, so thank you for that. Sending a big klech (hug) your way. 

I also would like to take a second to remember and to thank all those mighty men and women who serve the United States of America. They truly are our heroes. The week began here in Asker with a lovely meeting with one of our new investigators.  We headed over to her house to share a little message with her, and to our surprise, she had made eple kake (apple cake) with the amazing Norwegian ice cream. What a wonderful lady she was, not just because she treated us to cake and ice cream (although it was delicious) but because she helped us to feel welcome in her home and my favorite part, she love to laugh I felt like I could be myself around her and man whatshe just laughed and laughed. It was so much fun, and she is very positive when it comes to the Gospel. By the end of our meeting with her, she was asking us if we had more we could teach her. So cool! To make a long story short, her mother was a member of the church while she was growing up and so she remembers having the missionaries over and the friendship that the missionaries had with her mother. Her mom just recently passed away and now she is curious about the church that brought her mom such joy. She is a literally so awesome. She already does some of the things that active members of the church do because she has seen her mother do it. She was telling us all about her food storage and how she thinks that it's so smart I just can't stress enough how awesome this lady is and she makes a solid apple cake.  

reunited

We were also able to meet with one of our progressing investigators earlier this week and had a fantastic lesson. She really felt the spirit and even came to church yesterday to support us with our musical number. She's just so great and I'm so blessed to have this opportunity to meet all of these wonderful people here in Norway speaking of wonderful people, this past Thursday was our zone conference which, for those of you who don't know, that is when all of the missionaries in the surrounding areas get together for a big meeting. I was able to see two of the sisters from my MTC group and a bunch of other fantastic missionaries serving here in Norway. Together we were able to learn how we can be better Missionaries and how we can serve the people of Norway to the best of our abilities. It ended up being a really great conference and along with the good food and good company, I was able to personally learn and grow. I really am thankful that we can continue to learn and grow here in this life and try to be that best we can be and follow Jesus Christ and his example. I am also so thankful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am thankful that President Uchtdorf could come and visit the Saints here in Norway and I'm thankful that I could serve here and be a part of that wonderful experience. I'd love to share with you all some of the notes I took during that conference. It was also good that it was hard to narrow it down, so I have a list of 24 bullet points of some of my favorite things that were said. I figured I could just share those and then give my thoughts on them so here we go.


• Now I tell you that you can make every correct decision in this life if you learn how to listen to the Holy Ghost (Sister Uchtdorf)

• gratitude is one of the things we need to cultivate. 

• being grateful in every circumstance will bring many blessings

• The gospel is something to be shared. Stand up in confidence

•  Be humbly confident and share what we believe. We don't force this on anybody but we don't hold back either

• There is room for improvement. There's room for growth

• We need love for God and fellow man.

• We help each other. We grow... We strengthen each other.

• The gospel is not just our Sunday service. It is our life.

• Living and showing who we are, there is great strength in that

• Boy you have a lot of things to be grateful for. Just continue on and do it joyfully. 

• The future will come all too quickly. 

• Just be grateful for all you have and all you have going for you. 

• With the limited time you have, use it for the maximum good. 

•  Use what you have to the best of your ability and don't compare yourself. 

• Continue on and trust the Lord.

• Keep the Commandments and trust The Lord. That's what you can do. That's the short answer. Don't falter from that.

• The core of the gospel is the Savior and His sacrifice for us.

• Share the gospel and when necessary use words.

• That's what I believe. That's who I am

• The gospel is not something you put on Sunday; the gospel is us

• The core of the gospel is the same all over the world

• It is only with the heart that one can see clearly, what is essential is invisible to the eye

• It is heart to heart that makes the difference.

• Do we really believe? Do we believe what we know and do we act on what we believe?

• Let us not be afraid to share this message of hope of greatness, of gladness.

• As we love Him, we will love our fellow man. It is true

Wow what a powerful experience that was to be part of that conference. President Uchtdorf is an incredible man and truly is an apostle of the Lord. I think one of my favorite quotes from this particular conference was when he said, "continue on and trust the Lord. "As I was reflecting back on this week and thinking about that quote it dawned on me how much the Lord has helped me this past week and honestly my whole life. I'd like to end with an experience that exemplifies this quote. Yesterday night my companions and I decided to go banking or go door to door by truck to try and find one of our investigators we had lost contact with. All we knew about where she lived was the city she lived in and so we looked at a map and prayed for some guidance as to which street she might live on. After that prayer, there were two street names that stuck out to us and so we put on one in our GPS and headed that direction to go knock on some doors and hopefully find our investigator. We started knocking. 15 minutes and no luck 30 minutes and no luck. After about an hour we were starting to lose hope and yet we just kept on walking eventually we pass this girl walking down the street and I decided to stop her and ask her what brought her hope in this life. We started a pretty good conversation and began to tell her what we believed and also explained our job as missionaries. We asked if she would be interested in meeting with us again and she said yes. We grabbed her number and continued our service. We weren't able to find our investigator that night that because we continued on and trusted in the Lord, he was able to lead us to another person in need of this glad message. 

I am so thankful for all of my many blessings and for all of the wonderful experiences I have had in my life thus far. And thankful for a beautiful sand volleyball courts. I'm thankful that my district will play sand volleyball with me and take fun photos to I'm not so thankful for the massive spiders in our apartment but I'm thankful that sister Petersen can kill them for us and that we are getting a new place. I am thankful for all my fellow missionaries and how wonderful they are. And thankful for fellow Americans living in Norway who hook us up with syrup and other American foods. And thankful for packages and my new BYU T-shirt from Soster Petersen's mom Leslie, I am thankful for all of you and all you do! 

Until next time,

Søster Blankmeyer

Grateful In Any Circumstances

Thinking back on this past week, it’s kind of difficult to decide what I want to write about.  We’ve had a great week full of fun and missionary work here in Asker and there are so many ways I could take this blog post today.  I originally planned to just hit the highlights of each day this week but after the spiritual experience that we had last night I would like to focus this entry on the idea of gratitude.  

Earlier this past week we decided to visit a member in our ward who is the daughter of an older woman in our ward as well.  While we were at the daughter’s house she told us that she would no longer be coming to church and that she would only like visits from her visiting teachers, home teachers, and us (the missionaries).  While this was challenging for us to hear, we knew this would be even harder for her mother; so we called and set up an appointment to go and visit her mom on Sunday night.

The week flew by and pretty soon in was time to go and visit this mother whose daughter has decided to go inactive.  We prepared a nice and uplifting message to share to try and help this mom during this time of need.  Let me tell you, this woman is one of the strongest, most dedicated members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that I have ever me in my entire life.  If I could be as faithful as her during my trials in life, I know I’d be able to take on anything.  Literally anything and everything in this woman’s house pertains to Jesus Christ and when we showed up to teach her she was in the middle of studying next week’s Sunday school lesson.  

This lady is incredible. We started to share our message with her and we just started to discuss how our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are always there for us to build us up and help us in our everyday lives.  She then told us of an experience she had in Oslo the other day.  She had gone down to Oslo to pick some things up with she saw a young homeless man begging for money.  With tears in her eyes she told us how she began to pray for this young man and began to ask our Father in Heaven for forgiveness for thinking that her problems were that much greater than those around her.  She told us how she began to be more grateful for all of the things that she did have and all of the things that were going right in her life.  This woman really understands the gospel.  

Just this morning I was thinking back on this women’s strength and dedication to the gospel and thinking how incredible it was to me that even though this women’s daughter, who means the world to her, has decided to stop coming to church, she’s been able to be grateful for all she does have.  I think it was no coincidence that this morning I came across a general conference talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who will be visiting Norway on Sunday entitled, “Grateful In Any Circumstances.”  It is a wonderful talk and I would encourage you all to read it this week. 

I would invite you all to think of how you can be more grateful this week or better express your gratefulness to your Father in Heaven and those around you as that will be my focus this week as well.  Anyways, I just wanted to share an excerpt from the talk with you all.  It says, “Everyone’s situation is different, and the details of each life are unique.  Nevertheless, I have learned that there is something that would take away the bitterness that may come into our lives.  There is one thing we can do to make life sweeter, more joyful, even glorious.  We can be grateful.  I just love that!  If we can just focus on being a little bit more grateful we can have a happier life and who doesn’t want that?

Love,

Søster Blankmeyer

6 months

Norwegian forest cat named Bond

soo fluffy

Søster Loves Grandmas home

Trio