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
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