I am really excited to start this new adventure. I know that I will need to rely on the Lord for help as I serve in this new area and I know that as long as I do my part that the Lord will provide. It's going to be great!
This week has become rather hectic with all the goodbyes and with our friend Aida leaving for her mission to the Phillipines so I apologize in advance if this blog post is not up to par. I decided this week that I would focus on the word 'differences.' I really had no idea what I was going to write about this week. I figured of course I could write about Kristiansand and the special place it has in my heart or write about something I was able to learn from the people here but then a couple of nights ago as Søster Davis and I were making cookies I was given an idea. Søster Davis and I were talking and were just reflecting back on our time together here in Kristiansand. At this point we were unaware of which one of us would be leaving but we did know that one of us would for sure be moving on. We were both excited but also pretty nervous to see what our future would hold so instead of focusing on the future we decided to focus on the past and all the memories that we had made here together in Kristiansand. It was great.
I'll be the first to admit that Søster Davis and I are two very different individuals. She likes math, I like clothes. She likes alone time, I like people. She has 7 siblings, I have 3. She's from Utah and I'm from Texas. We are two very different people. We grew up in different families with different rules in different states. We stress about different things. We have different likes and interests and yet we are similar where it really counts. We both love the gospel. We both came to Norway to serve the people here and we both are children of a Heavenly Father who loves us for our differences.
Growing up in Texas with not that many members in my high school I can say I felt pretty different. Having to wake up early every morning to go to a scripture study class that we call seminary made me different. Going to church every Sunday for 3 hours made me different. Not being able to play in volleyball tournaments or participate in activites on Sunday made me different. Not drinking coffee or tea like all of my friends made me different. The life of a Latter Day Saint is actually very different from what has become mainstream nowadays. Now granted, I wasn't always perfect and honestly none of us are but for the most part I would say I was pretty different. We all are different from one another. That's what makes us special.
That's taken me a long time to grasp and I'm still not always a fan of being different. A lot of my companions out here on the mission have told me that they have been able to learn so much from me because I was different. That's actually what Søster Davis was telling me the other day that sparked the idea of this blog post today. As Søster Davis was making cookies and telling me she loved that I was different, I wasn't quite sure how I actually felt about that. Sometimes you just want to be normal. You just want to be the perfect sister missionary that everyone pictures that loves to go out everyday and talks to everyone and is always happy and just kind of fits in the crowd or whatever the expression is for that. I didn't actually know if it was good to be different. I mean I had been a bit different all of my life and like I said earlier, we all are actually very different but still I didn't know how to feel about that.
After further review I decided it was because I was different that I could make a difference.
That's what all of my companions had been trying to tell me. That's why I was called to Norway to these specific areas and most likely why I am moving to Tromsø. My differences are what make me, me and I should be using those to help others who have those same differences. Being different isn't something only applicable to me, in fact it's applicable to us all. In one way or another we are all different and we can use those things to help us to connect with the people around us who may be different as well. Sometimes it's good to be different. I hope we can all learn to be okay with what makes us different and realize and always remember that our Father in Heaven loves us despite and because of our differences. In fact,and I have a real testimony, that He has given us those differences so that we can make a difference. I hope you all have a wonderful week and find a way to be confident in your differences.
Klem,
Søster Blankmeyer
No comments:
Post a Comment