Let me just start out by saying that Norway is beautiful and especially when it's been sprinkled with snow. This past Friday night to Saturday morning Asker got hit with tons of snow and everything has been magical since then. Sunday morning, as in yesterday, we had our moves called to see where everyone will be spending their next five weeks (if not more). Of course Søster Love and I knew this was coming up but we had absolutely no idea which one of us would be moving. We decided to make a list of all the people we would want to say goodbye to and then started making some phone calls. We were able to set up appointments with almost everyone and so the crazy, hectic, possible last week in Asker began.
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| 8 months to go |
Monday night we were able to go to a Halloween dinner with a family in the ward that all four of us Missionaries (Sandvika Elders and Asker Sisters) have gotten really close to. It's really just a blast to go and visit this family and a Halloween dinner was absolutely perfect. Tuesday we were able to visit the African couple in the ward. The wife reminds me a lot of Ben from Ålesund and also shares his love for music. It's really cool. The wife was able to teach us Missionaries how to sing "Nearer my God to Thee" in her native language of Rwandic. It was a really awesome experience and if I haven't mentioned it yet, I'm a really big fan of the African culture.
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| Sandvika Elders and Asker Sisters |
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| Vilmeia |
From there, Søster Love and I went to go and visit our convert Andrea. Like I said in last weeks blog, Andrea is really incredible. She understands so much about her Father in Heaven and she's another one of those people that I just learned so much from. I was able to cuddle with one of her cats while teaching her the restoration again and I was definitely in missionary heaven after that.
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| Ana |
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| Claudia and her mom |
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| Cora |
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| Cutie Alexander |
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| Martha |
Thursday we went and said goodbye to the AMAZING Martha. Martha is a member in the ward here that organizes the missionary meals on top of feeding us and inviting us over to her home a few times a month. I have really grown to love this lady and so saying goodbye to her was a hard one for me. We also were able to go and have dinner with the first counselor in the bishopric here and his wife. They are really wonderful as well. The husband served his mission in Dallas Texas so he is already awesome and his wife is one of the strongest human beings I've met here in Norway. It was really a hoot to get to talk some Texas and hang out with the fun couple.
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| Texas Magnus |
Finally we are onto Friday and we start the day off by attending Mariam's funeral. Let me just take a second to tell you all about Mariam We were able to visit with Mariam about once a week so we got to know her really well. Mariam quickly became one of four best friends out here and is the primary reason that Søster Pederson, Søster Love, and I are able to knit. She was only 46 years old but I know she's in a better place now. She is sharing her beautiful smile and her amazing strength with others now and that gives me peace to know. At the end of the funeral as they drove Mariam away it began to snow. It was perfect.
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| Søster Pederson |
The rest of our day we had planned to take the hour and a half drive to Hønefoss and say goodbye to the faithful members there. We said goodbye to the Pedersons and then to another one of my best friends in the ward, Liv. She's a hoot let me tell you all! For 80 years old she's got more energy than I do and always leaves us with a good laugh. She calls me Søster Abigail and we've become good friends. I am really thankful for Liv. After Liv, the snow started to pick up and we still had to drive over an hour to our next dinner appointment with our summer tires. Thankfully Søster Love is a born and raised Utahn and was able to drive us through the blizzard to our next appointment.
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| Liv |
The next appointment was with the lady in the ward that calls me Søster Shakira and also is best friends with Andrea. Andrea and Vilmeia are such a blast. We always have tons of fun with them. We were able to make it back home safe and sound and woke up Saturday morning to tons of snow. The Brostrom's called us up in the middle of studies and said they would change our summer tires for us if we drove over to the Mission home. While Elder Brostrom changed our tires, Søster Love and I shoveled President and Sister Hill's driveway and had a blast taking some snow selfies.
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| Søster Brostrom |
For the rest of our Saturday we went and said goodbye to the family we shared Halloween with and also another one of my favorite families in the ward. My wonderful mother had sent me a package this past week which also included some Tootsie Roll's to share with this last family we were going to say goodbye to before actually finding out which one of us was leaving. Man I just love this family they are just so much fun and both parents attended BYU so the whole family are big cougar fans which is fantastic. They were definitely very hard to say goodbye to.
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| Me and my fellow cougar fans with american tootsie rolls |
Sunday morning at 7 AM, after saying goodbye to everyone already we finally found out that ...Søster Blankmeyer will be heading to Kristiansand! How exciting! As pumped as I was to hear the news it's always hard for me to say goodbye, so we got to church and the tears just started flowing. There are so many wonderful people here and I will miss them all dearly. I am so beyond grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve here in the Asker area and for all the wonderful and fun memories that Søster Love and I have had together. These past 18 weeks have been quite the roller coaster but, I wouldn't change any of it for the world. I'm excited to see what the next transfer will bring and I'm really excited to meet and serve the people in Kristiansand. I hope you all have a wonderful week and iykke til med alt!
Søster Blankmeyer
PS. Special shoutout to Grandma and Grandpa Conger for the beautiful card. I love you!
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