Change Is A Good Thing

 

All right everyone if this hasn't been one of my craziest weeks out here on my mission as far as traveling goes, I don't know what has. I started this week up in the north of Norway in the beautiful city of Tromsø and then went from there to Stavanger and then to Oslo and finished up back in Stavanger. It honestly was a pretty exhausting week but as I was debating what to write about this week my companion Soster Hutchings gave me a great idea. As I was kind of running through the highlight reel of my week we realized the major differences that I've been seeing already between Tromsø and Stavanger. It then got us thinking how crazy it is that two major cities here in Norway could represent the country so differently. It was crazy for me to think that last Sunday I was a missionary for a branch up way north that had on a good day and average of 5 to 10 people and that wasn't even a part of a stake. Now I'm serving and Savanger which is pretty big and belongs to a stake that had stake conference yesterday which hindered church attendance and yet still had double the amount of members then the Tromsø branch. Now I'll put it out there real quick that I am not saying that one is better than the other or vice versa just trying to show the different dynamics of these two areas. It's just kind of crazy to me to think how different all of my areas have been and not just regarding the dialect they speak. It really is such a cool experience though, because up to this point I have been able to serve in five completely different areas in Norway and I know they have all kind of felt like their own mini mission. 

Pretty much with all of my moves I've had to make some serious adjustments and basically re-learn Norwegian so it's felt as if I've been in five different missions, but I'm not complaining. It's been really cool for me to see all of these differences in these areas and be able to learn so much with each move and each companion that I've had. It's already been such a blast with one of my best friends Søster Hutchings in this wonderful area of Stavanger. Just from my short time with here (even though technically we knew each other and lived through the MTC together for six weeks) i've been able to learn so much. I love Soster Hutchings! She is a blessing in my life along with all of my past companions and all of the people I've met while in Ålesund, Asker, Kristiansand, Tromsø, or even Stavanger. I haven't met too many people here in Stavanger yet, but I am excited to get to know them all because I know I have so much to learn from them. It's exciting, like it honestly is so exciting to me that we are also different and every culture and everyplace is so different and that we can always learn something new from the people or place we are surrounded by. Honestly, how cool is that? Actually it's been really awesome being companions with Søster Hutchings because we started our missions out together and here we are towards the end of our missions and we have both changed a ton. Don't worry. We are still homies, but we are also no longer the people we were at the beginning of our missions in the MTC. It's really cool to see that we both can understand and speak Norwegian and that we both kind of know what we are doing. 

Like best friends do, we have been catching up and learning about each other's mission since we have been put in different sounds and stuff for the past year and learning about all of the joys and struggles and all that we have been able to learn in all of our different areas that have helped us to become the person we are now.  It's been way cool to see that change and differences and learning can all be good things, I'm excited to see what the rest of this transfer brings and how it will help to shape me into the person I want to become by the end of my mission, or even the end of this transfer. Which reminds me Sister Hutchings and I are both sister training leader's together this transfer and we are both determined to help the sisters we are over to reach their goals and be the person they want to be and I'm so excited! We all have dreams and hopefully have made some goals in our lives and I know how helpful it has been for me in my life to have someone to support me to accomplish my dreams and my goals in my life. I'm excited to pay it forward. 

Well considering I've been in and out of my area this past week I don't have too many things to share with you all so I figured I would just leave you all with a funny story that happened to me this week and then next week I'll hopefully have some more material to hit you up with. This week we had a leadership conference in Oslo and we had some time to kill after the meeting so Søster Hutchings and I go out to talk to people in kill some time. This man ends up stopping us and asking me where I'm from. He goes on to say I'm beautiful and that he would like a wife that looks like me (subtle 101) and then proceeds to invite us to coffee. I tell him that we are Mormon missionaries and don't drink coffee and he's all over the fact that I'm a good Christian girl. We end up inviting him to church in Oslo and say our goodbyes as he goes in for the kiss. Thank goodness for companions because Hutchings pushed him back and we were able to go. Pretty funny experience though. I hope you all have an absolutely fantastic week. Love you all!

Klem

Søster Blankmeyer 

Dreams Do Come True

So another week has past and our Søster Blankmeyer was so excited about her new area that she forgot to send the blog post on Monday.  She finally sent the blog post, some fun Easter pictures and her NEW ADDRESS:

Søster Blankmeyer
Hillevågsveien 33 #204 
4016 Stavanger, Norway

Wow it's been a crazy week and it's about to be an even crazier one coming up. This past weekend was full of lots of pretty awesome things that I just can't wait to share with you all. After Pday last week Søster Etchells and I went home and started to get ready for our splits to Bergen. Bergen is one of those areas in the mission and honestly in Norway that everyone dreams about being able to go to and visit. I was lucky enough to go from Tuesday to Thursday of last week. Tuesday before we left I received my Easter package and a few letters from my parents and Søster Ralphs I was feeling very loved. We barely had time to run over to the post and grab my packages before we had to run to the airport, so I stuff the letters in my bag and figured I do some good reading on my way to Bergen. Talk about being on cloud nine. I was literally living "The missionary dream". I was headed to Bergen a dream city here in Norway to go on splits with some pretty amazing sister missionaries with a few letters to read on the plane and a big Easter package waiting for me back home. I figured my week couldn't get much better than that, right? Wrong. My week continued getting better and better. Søster Etchells and I knew that we would be having a three hour layover in the Bodø airport on our way back home from Bergen so on our way to Bergen we found ourselves some nice 70 kroner doodle books to entertain us. We were like kids at Christmas when we found those. It was awesome. Soon enough we were on our way to Bergen where we arrived early and were able to catch a shuttle bus to meet up with the Bergen sisters. Pretty soon we were at the very nice Bergen apartment complete with a bathtub! It's been a while since I've seen one of those. Anyways, that was way cool and then splits began.  

 

THANKS FOR ALL THE EASTER GOODIES!

Splits was honestly a party. Søster Gagon and Søster Jones were the two sisters that we spend the day with. I spent the first half of Wednesday with Søster Jones which was literally awesome. I'll be honest, I was pretty nervous when I got called as a sister training leader STL because at the beginning of my mission I wasn't a very big fan of splits myself and so I was terrified of being that person that everyone dreads coming on splits and stuff but that morning with Søster Jones was a really good experience for us both I believe. She was very kind and told me that she actually really enjoyed being on splits with me because I was just myself and that was so good to hear. We proceeded to have a really good study and morning together and even were able to visit a less active couple and help prepare them to get to the temple one day soon. It was awesome. I really loved it. I was truly living the dream, and the dream continues. I spent the next half of Wednesday was Søster Gagon who is just a stellar missionary. I was able to learn so much from her and really enjoyed getting to know her better. It was great. We had a really good day in Bergen with Søster Gagon and Søster Jones and were even privileged enough to see Søster Bennett and Søster Cook who are also serving in Bergen right now. It was a party. Sure enough every good thing must come to an end and as fast as they began splits were over and we were headed back to Tromsø. Six hours plus of travel back home was probably about the only bummer of the whole splits experience, but those doodle books that Søster Etchells and I bought really came in handy. No shame. 

Anyways, that was the beginning of our crazy week and before we knew it, it was Easter Sunday in Tromsø. We were able to spend some good times with the members, the Millers and even got to Skype with the Olsen's. What a treat. We played many a game of good old Wackee Six and I might add, you're talking to the reigning champ right here. All in all it was a pretty event filled weekend I hope you all were able to have a really nice Easter as well. My Monday (today) we figured our busy week was over and that we could start getting back to normal, but boy were we wrong. This past Monday we found out about moves. I was unsure as to whether or not I would be staying in Tromsø for the next seven weeks but Søster Etchells and I figured I probably would. Well let me tell you all that we have a very inspired mission president here in Norway because we found out this morning that I will be moving to Stavanger on Wednesday to be companions with Soster Hutchings from my MTC group. Dreams do come true! Although I really am going to miss Tromsø and the wonderful people here that I have grown to love so much, I'm really excited to be heading to what could be my final area of my mission. I know there is a reason I'm going there and I am so excited to find that out. It's going to be a great next seven weeks. Well, I've got to go run around Tromsø now and say goodbye to all of my friends here and then I have to go and pack and hope I can get all of my bags underweight again. Pray for me! I'm sorry for the lame blog post but I promise to have a nice update next week from Stavanger. I love you all so very much and hope you have such a wonderful week!

Klem,
Søster Blankmeyer 

The Week of the Street Stand

Well this past week really has been kind of all over the place. Right before Søster Atanasio left Tromsø we ( us and the elders ) had started to discuss the idea of doing what we called a street stand here in Tromsø. Elder Olsen had told us about the street stand kit that was just hanging out in the library of the church and so we decided to check it out. It looked like a nice enough kit for us to use and so we got to brainstorming about this wonderful street stand plan. Well fast forward a week where we come to find out that both Edste Briggs and Søster Atanasio will be leaving Tromsø and so our wonderful Street stand plan gets put on the back burner as Eldste Wakefield and I help to get our companions packed up and ready to go. Pretty soon we are welcoming Søster Etchells and brand-new straight from the MTC Eldste Critchlow to Tromsø. The streets stand plan begins to be forgotten. Then one day Søster Etchells and I are walking the streets of Tromsø we get to talking and we both suddenly realize that our missions are coming to an end and neither of us have done a street stand. Quickly we start bringing this plan back to life. We call up the elders and get them on board and start figuring out what we need to do in order to make this dream a reality. We talk logistics and start to delegate. Søster Etchells and I get put in charge of talking to the city in order to get a permit. We end up filling out this application form and then wait patiently a few days to hear back from the city regarding our application. We were approved! This street stand was really happening now we had a time, date, and a place as well as a kit and a permit to get things going. Now here's the thing though, none of us knew exactly what we were doing since absolutely none of us had done a street stand before. The closest we had was Eldste Wakefield who, while he was in Bergen decided to roll a ping-pong table out into the middle of the city and challenge people to a game of ping-pong which somehow led to a conversation about the gospel. Cool idea but not quite the same. Either way we were determined to do the street stand thing. It was to be done on Tuesday, April 4. It just so happened that on Tuesday, April 4 our district leader and his companion up in Alta where to fly down to Tromsø to go on splits with the elders here. It also just so happened that on Tuesday April 4 we would be having the sisters down in Oslo flying up to Tromsø so Søster Etchells and I could do our STL splits here basically on Tuesday, April 4 Tromsø would be hit with double the amount of missionaries than it normally has still we only had one sister who had ever done a street stand before so it was bound to be an adventure, and adventure it was. After our district meeting Tuesday morning we all split up to go and grab the needed supplies from our apartments and the church for the street stand. A couple elders grab a big table from the church also Søster Crenshaw and I grab the kit and all the rest of the Missionaries headed back home to grab some books, pamphlets and cards to hand out at our stand. Now we had previously been getting off and on rain and snow storms early that week and early that morning but by the time we set up our street stand we were caught in the middle of a downpour. Some of the worst rain I had seen in my 11 weeks in Tromsø. We had done all this work though and we weren't going to let it all go to waste so we set out and started talking to people Søster Crenshaw and I grabbed Eldste Miller's tablet which had downloaded on it the church Easter initiative video  in Norwegian. We were able to go around and ask people if we could show them a two minute long film on Easter and almost all of them stopped to watch it. It was really cool the first guy we stopped we asked if we could show him a two minute video on Easter and he stopped to watch it and then we got talking to him afterwards. It was actually really cool because as we were talking to this guy I glanced around to see where all the other missionaries work and every single missionary in Tromsø at that moment was in the middle of a conversation about the gospel with another person out in the pouring rain. What a miracle. It may not sound like much but that was a real testimony builder to me that when we do our part, the Lord will provide. We continue talking to the guy about Jesus Christ and the book of Mormon and brought him over to our street stand and eventually got his number to set up another appointment. We ended up getting a few more numbers afterward and were able to share the Easter initiative video with as many as would stop and listen. It was a really cool experience. Totally worth being completely drenched the rest of the day. We ended up having a good rest of our splits and come Wednesday morning the Oslo sisters were back on their way to sunny and warm Oslo. The rest of our week was yet again all over the place. We were able to get some teaching in as well as some ping-pong and movies for our branch activity night and relief society enrichment night. The movie we watched was entitled Ephraim's Rescue which talked about the life of Ephraim and how he was able to use his gift of healing to help the pioneers during some of their most challenging trials. It reminded us all that miracles still happen. We actually had our very own miracle happen here in the Tromsø branch this past Sunday. We've had a family that has been going through some seriously tough times the past couple of months. Yesterday Sunday was the first time in those past couple of months that the entire family was able to be together at church. Not only that but we also had the best attendance at church yesterday that I have seen in my entire time here in Tromsø. All of that coming together made for one of the best fasting and testimony meeting I've ever been a part of. The spirit was so strong. The father of the family that were able to come to church gave one of the most beautiful testimonies and brought the spirit to the meeting from the get go. I was even talking to sister Miller after the meeting who still can't understand everything in Norwegian yet she said that even though she could not understand him Word for Word she was able to feel of the strong spirit that he brought to the meeting. I felt very privileged to be a part of the Tromsø branch that Sunday. Like I mentioned earlier, that week was all over the place and I really didn't even get into detail about that but it ended up being a really good week. I was able to feel the spirit so strong this past week and just such love for the people here in Tromsø and I am grateful that I have had the privilege to get to know them. Norway is just the best! I can't believe my time here is running out but either way I'm just blessed to have this opportunity. I love my life! I love you all and I am once again thankful for all of the love and support. I hope you all have a wonderful week and never forget how much I love you all! Klem, Søster Blankmeyer Mission Leadership Council

Follow The Creator Not The Crowd

What a wonderful conference weekend we have just had. I'm so very grateful that we have the opportunity twice a year to hear from the leaders of the church and get that spiritual recharge that we all so desperately need. Growing up I didn't really appreciate general conference like I should have.  But now I look forward to the next time I get to hear the prophet of the Lord and his apostles and receive the spiritual guidance they are prepared to share. This is such a blessing that I hope we all take advantage of. This time around, we had been going around asking everyone to come to conference with a question they wanted answered when I thought to myself that I had never put this to practice myself. I determined that this time at general conference, I would come with a question myself. Something really cool happened, I receive not only one but multiple answers to my specific question. I'm sure many of you have put this to practice yourselves and have had similar experiences but wow what a way to get something more out of General conference. It felt as if the apostles and leaders were speaking directly to me and they knew exactly what I needed to hear. These are really some inspired men and women. It was really cool to come to conference with a question this time around and I would recommend it for any of you who will be participating in conference this coming October. It's also been really cool to watch conference as a missionary. You are not only trying to find answers for yourself but for your investigators, less active, and members in your mission. That has been really cool to receive revelation for those people through listening to the general conference addresses. As a missionary you want everyone around you to receive that same spiritual recharge that you have received and so you focus on what is being said and how that can help other people's needs as well, which is way cool.

Sometimes you are even lucky enough to have the experience like I had yesterday with one of our investigators. We had an investigator show up to church last night to watch general conference. She can speak a little English but is more comfortable with Norwegian so we had set up the Norwegian translation in the library while the others watched in English in the chapel. It was just Søster Etchells myself and this investigator in the little library in our building. We all set and listened and participated in the general conference together. It was a really great session and it seemed as if our investigator was taking in every word. It was really cool to see. At the end of the session, our investigator turn to us and asked us if we could teach her more about Jesus Christ during our appointment on Friday. She said that something one of the speakers had said had made her think more about Jesus Christ and how she really would like to learn more about Him and focus more on Him in her life. She specifically asked us to focus on his early life as she had read much and heard a lot about his ministry and death but not much on his childhood and early years. How cool an investigator felt the spirit as she sat and watched that two hour session of General conference and truly had such a strong desire after the fact to learn more about her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His life here on earth that was such a cool experience for me to have after watching my last general conference as a missionary in Norway. I can't remember if we had challenged her to come to conference with the question but nonetheless I'm sure she was able to receive many answers and she was even prompted to ask a question to her Missionaries that would help her to receive even more answers after conference was over. I think that's something we can all learn from. This past weekend we have been blessed to receive revelation and answers to grow in our knowledge of the gospel. But I would ask much like Nephi, " if all is done?" Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save. Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. (2 Nephi 31:19-20)

Basically what I'm trying to get at is that we are never done learning. There is no end to faith. We can always be growing and strengthening our testimonies. Whether we are investigating the church or have been members all of our life, we will all have questions. None of us fully understands every aspect of the gospel and if we think we do we have so much more to learn. I'm so grateful that we can continue to learn and grow and build and strengthen our testimonies.  I'm so glad that our investigator taught me that wonderful lesson yesterday. After I had thought I had received all the answers and the knowledge that I needed, I was reminded that not all was done. That I could continue to think and ponder on the words that had been said and then find the questions or the focus that I needed to continue to grow, to expand even more. 

I don't think there was one bad talk this general conference but before I go I would just like to share with you all a few of my favorites and invite you all to go and watch them if you missed them or to go and watch any of the sessions you may have missed. They all were really very good and very inspired and I know that if you take the time to watch them the Lord will bless you with the answers and or revelation that you are in need of. I'm on some of my favorites were Linda K. Burton talk on Certain Women in the general women's broadcast. Dale G Renlund gave an amazing talk in the Saturday morning session on Christ love and compassion and focused on the Saviors example which was perfect. Of course, Jeffrey R Holland gave another incredible talk during the Saturday afternoon session about the Songs we Cannot Sing. I also really enjoyed Gary B. Sabin talk about standing up inside and Follow The Creator Not The Crowd These are just a few that I really enjoyed but I hope that you all were able to have a great conference weekend and that there were some talks that spoke to you. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Klem,
Søster Blankmeyer