Usually in a big ward one of the members are called as a ward mission leader and they end up leading a meeting once a week to discuss missionary work. And missionary efforts in the area. Here in Tromsø we don't really have a meeting like that so often, so it was nice to get to discuss the missionary work here in Tromsø branch. Our visitor told us the story of this guy who, while out on his mission was serving in a small branch of 40 to 50 members and by the time he was supposed to leave the area they were up to 150 members. He then moved on to serve in another branch in another city and did the exact same thing. His secret-he worked with what he had. He saw the members in the branch and new that a lot of them had friends and family members who are not yet members of the church. He then was able to use their interest as well as his interests to start planning activities and parties for these members to bring their friends and their family to. In the end, these people had a nice and normal way to be introduced to the church. It made for a lot of success in those two branches where that Elder served and so it got us missionaries pumped up here in Tromsø to try it out. We are going to try our best to create more parties and activities and to encourage these members to bring a friend. Thus far we have an activity coming up on Thursday where one of our investigators is going to teach us how to knit socks and Eldste Wakefield and I are really going to try and get some Sports started on Saturdays as well. We are way excited. We will be praying for some miracles to come of this. Either way it really was so nice to discuss our missionary efforts and bounce off some new ideas of finding new investigators and supporting the members here in Tromsø. I'm way pumped. It was a great way to start off the week.
Tuesday was full of packing and saying goodbye. We were able to meet with a lot of people in the branch and Søster Atanasio was able to say her goodbyes. It was great. Then Wednesday came rolling along and it was time to send Søster Attanasio off to Trondheim. We finally finished up packing right before the Miller's came to pick us up. We got everything together and out the door right on time and before we knew it we were at the airport saying our goodbyes. After she had successfully gotten through security we headed back to the Millers and waited for our new companions to come. It was great. They fed us lunch and we even made a very nice welcome to Tromsø sign for the newcomers. What a wonderful morning. Sure enough the time came around for us to go and pick up my new companion, Søster Etchells at the airport so off we went again to the wonderful Tromsø airport with our beautiful welcome sign in hand. Eldste Wakefield and I held the sign while Søster Miller was on the lookout for my new companion. Sure enough Søster Etchells arrived safe and sound in Tromsø and ready to begin the adventure that this transfer has already began to be.
We took it pretty easy the rest of the day and by Thursday we were ready to go. We started off the morning with our usual district meeting and played some get to know you games since a majority of the district is new to the area. It was great. Way fun. The rest of our Thursday was also pretty chill. We had studies and weekly planning and then I gave Soster Etchells a bunch of information about the area. We are never sure how long we will be in an area so just to be safe I'm going to try and help Søster Etchells be ready to take over Tromsø if I end up leaving in four weeks. Friday was quite the day. Friday morning I woke up and my throat was killing me. I was starting to think that maybe I caught what the elders had last week. They were both really sick and had to stay in a majority of last week. Søster Etchells was also having some trouble with her eye that morning so we called sister Hill that morning to see what we should do. She basically told us to take it easy and see where that ends up. We still ended up visiting or investigator that we visit every Friday with the senior couple but came straight home afterwards to rest up. We had a crazy busy day planned for Saturday and knew that we would have to be well enough to be able to do missionary work that day so we focused our Friday on getting better. Happy Saint Patrick's to us. It really wasn't all that bad but let me tell you it's no fun to be sick as a missionary. That was the first time on my mission I had to stay in and although the sleep was much-needed it was surprisingly hard to stay inside pretty much all day.
It did make me think though that sometimes we need to take care of ourselves first before we can go and take care of others. It even reminded me of the scripture found in Luke 22:32 which says, "...and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Ultimately the thought goes both ways if we are physically not well ourselves it's a lot harder to help those around us and if we aren't spiritually converted ourselves it's a lot harder to strengthen our brethren. Come Saturday morning we still weren't in the greatest of shape but I got some medicine and Søster Etchells got a doctors appointment and we were able to go out and do our work to the best of our ability that day. By Sunday we were both feeling much better and able to enjoy the calm and peace that the church service brings into our lives. Also one of my good friends up here in Tromsø gave a talk and he did incredibly well. It made me so proud. The people here are great and I am truly blessed to be able to serve alongside them. It's wonderful. We are hoping that next week we will be a bit more normal. We do fly out to Oslo today but I believe the rest of the week we will be able to go out and strengthen our brethren. I am excited. I hope you all had a wonderful week and an even more exciting St. Patrick's Day. I hope you all continue to have a great week and that you all get the opportunity to help strengthen your brethren. Love you all and make it a great week!
Klem,
Søster Blankmeyer
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