Rainbow after the Storm

Miracles happen! This week Søster Love and I were able to be a part of the wonderful Andrea Sathler's baptism..definitely the highlight of the week.  But, many wonderful things happened earlier this week that I would like to share as well.

This past Tuesday and Wednesday all of the Søsters in Norway Oslo mission were brought together for an absolutely fantastic sisters conference.  President Hill kept joking that it was girls camp all over again, and in a way it did feel like girls camp, but so much better! First of all, I was able to be reunited with my amazing MTC group. The girls I started this journey with Søster Dransfield, Søster Hess, and Søster Hutchins. Man am I grateful for them. They have become my Little family away from home. I was truly blessed with each and everyone of them. Love you sisters! This mission really has been blessed with some amazing sisters. It was cool to see each and everyone of them and just think of the difference they are making in this country, Søster Hill included. Sister Hill put together sisters conference for us which just shows how incredible she is. Sister Hill really is the best and has been there for me through the good and bad days. She was able to share, at Sister conference, in her opening talk an experience that we shared together and it was really touching to hear how that made an impact on her life. Norway is lucky to have her as well as all of the other absolutely amazing Sister Missionaries.  A lot of sisters conference was listening to talks and presentations given by the senior sisters and sisters living here in Norway.  All of which, I believe served missions and are strong, faithful members of the church today. Man it was just incredible. I was able to learn so much from every single person. Sister Hill really found some outstanding speakers for us. I was absolutely blown away by the knowledge and spirit that they brought to us. It's really just indescribable. Norway is full of some smart and strong women. I hope to be as learned and wise as they are one day. We were able to learn so much. We were taught how to be more successful Missionaries, how to get along with companions, how to work through the hard times, how to cook, how to exercise, how important it is not to compare ourselves with others, amongst many other important mission, but also life, lessons. I am really grateful for the opportunity that all of us sisters Missionaries had to go and be a part of that wonderful conference. Pretty soon the best girls camp was over and we were all headed back to our areas.

The Elders bought us Dr Pepper and Mac and Cheese to help with the stress.

Here Søster Love and I were at the conference until Wednesday night, knowing that there was a solid chance of a baptism on Saturday and STL's (trainers) coming for Wednesday night through Thursday. Talk about hectic. We keep looking back on this past week and we honestly are not sure how we ended up getting everything done. Like I really don't know how the missionaries in Mexico handle approximately 50 baptisms a week.

We met with Andrea every day from Wednesday up to her baptismal day.  We taught her all of the lessons while planning her baptismal service simultaneously.  Thank goodness that she was such a prepared person. We would go into teach her a lesson and she would already know exactly what we were going to say about it. That made teaching her really easy and having her baptism on Saturday possible. It's interesting to think back on Andrea's teaching experience and the miracle that it was.   Seeing as, many people were telling us to push her baptism to the following Saturday. Of course we gave her the option, but Andrea was ready to be baptized.  And so we did everything in our power to make it happen and make it the best experience for her. We scheduled the time, called all the ward members, schedule talks and a musical number, got a member of the bishopric to be present. We made the program, figured out how to get the Kristiansund Elders Skype in, wrote our talk, got a gift for Andrea and somehow got every thing done in just a couple of days. It was truly a miracle, but it all came together and ended up being an amazing day. Andrea was glowing when she showed up at the church for her baptism. She kept telling us this was one of her most favorite days of her life and how she was excited to begin her new life.  After taking a few pictures, we helped Andrea get going and in her baptismal jumpsuit. We took a couple of pictures of her and Elder Sanchez who would be baptizing her and then we headed in to the chapel to begin the program. We sang "Kom na all, store, små " which talks about coming into the waters of baptism. After Søster Love gave the prayer she and I were able to give a 5 minute talk on baptism and then Elder Sanchez and Elder Applegate gave a beautiful musical number where Elder Applegate was able to sing in Portuguese for her. It brought her to tears.  Then it was time for the baptism. Søster Love and I lead her to the bathroom and she just broke down and told us how happy she was right then. Next we led her to the font.

Andrea's baptism and the preparation had been a bit hectic, but the spirit and peace that was in the room during her baptism was just perfect. You could tell that she knew what she was doing and what it meant and that alone brought such a strong spirit. I'm so grateful for the chance that I had to serve here in Asker and Andrea coming to Christ. It's days like those, moments like those, that makes all the hard days worth it. After a tough week last week, I was truly able to see the rainbow after the storm. Andrea's baptism will be something I will never forget. Being a missionary here in Norway has been one of the most for filling experiences I have had. Thank you all for all the support. Shout out to grandma and grandpa Blankmeyer, Sabrina, and Rebecca Dover for the sweet cards as well.  Love you all!

Søster Blankmeyer