Be All In!

First off I apologize for the craziness of my blog these past couple of weeks. I think I ended up missing a week and then things got crazy and I got lazy and so I've been trying to catch up ever since.  I should be all caught up now. This has been such a great week for me actually and I'm super excited to tell you all about it. 

Tuesday night Elder and Sister Gormley came and picked us up to take us to the airport. The Gormley's, my companion and I, as well as the rest of the district would all be heading to Oslo together that night. On Wednesday we would be having a mission conference with half of the missionaries in the mission and our guest speaker Elder Herland. We all got into Oslo safely on Tuesday night and headed to our respective sleeping arrangements.  After the conference Wednesday Soster Hutchings and I were to go on splits with the sisters in Asker and so we decided that we would just spend the night there during our entire time in the Asker and Oslo area. We spent some time Tuesday night catching up with the sisters in Asker but quickly made our way to bed since tomorrow was a big day. We had been waiting for this day the entire transfer and now it was finally here.  On our way to the church building we ran into some of our fellow missionaries and I was able to catch up a little bit with some of my favorite people! It was such a blessing.  

We made it to the Oslo church safely and with just enough time to catch up with the missionaries there. I was able to see a few of my old companions, some cool sisters I met on splits, and just hang out with the homey's from my old districts. It was honestly so nice. We have some really great missionaries serving here in Norway. We eventually made our way into the chapel and quickly finished catching up with each other and started to prepare for Elder Herland's arrival. The assistance came in and told us that the STL (Sister Training Leaders) and zone leaders were going to get the chance to meet and hear a few words from Elder Herland when he first arrived and so we were led down stairs to a room to wait for him. Shortly after, he arrived with President and Sister Hill and told us all a little bit about himself, gave us a sneak peek as to what he was going to talk about and then thanked us for our service. The cool thing about Elder Herland is that he is totally Norwegian with ancestery going all the way back to the Kings and he served his mission in none other then Norway. 

After hearing wonderful words from President and Sister Hill we were privileged to hear from Elder Herland. He talked about his life and his mission and his journey to becoming a general authority 70. He left us with some inspiring messages and thoughts, among those being: 

 “The rascal who became a Seventy”
- Stop worrying and start focusing
- Don’t be someone else – be you. You are called to this mission because you are you.
- It is not a heavenly principle to beat yourself up – don’t do it
- Is Heavenly Father an optimist or a pessimist?
- Obedience is the first law of heaven
- Righteous decisions over time create joy
- A disciple not as a slave, but as a follower
- Heavenly Father will never leave you – you may withdraw from Him, but He will never leave you
- All or nothing – be all in 
- This is the Church for people with something wrong with them. If you have a problem, fantastic, join the 
Celestial club
- Heavenly Father will never tell you that He does not like you. He would not do that.
- Go to the source, Jesus Christ, and the scriptures
- Your mission can change your heart, and change your life forever
- We all have our battles – it’s part of the test. We will be able to overcome those challenges
- So glad I did not give up until I could better feel the Spirit. 
- Missionaries are like horses – sometimes they need “to be broken”
- 5 things
o Be kind to yourself
o Be obedient
o Be optimistic
o Have faith
o Do all you can do – because Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are doing all they can do to help you
- To those soon departing – "put the frosting on the cake"
- To those continuing – “step up”

 All in all though he was real. He still had a sense of humor and he didn't hide the fact that he wasn't perfect and he helped us to feel as if we really could accomplish everything he was saying to us. I really appreciated that he gave a really good presentation and then we were off to lunch to talk some more with the homey's. We then came back and heard a beautiful musical number, listened to Elder Herland's final comments and then heard some testimonies from nine elders who are going home this week. That conference was honestly exactly what I needed. I literally felt so blessed to be a part of that. Elder Herland was able to say somethings that were exactly what I needed to hear and I was able to see and talk to some people that I really needed to see and it was all just perfect. 

After the meeting Søster Ralphs, one of my old companions, and one of the girls I would be on splits with, told me we had to quickly run to an appointment. I said my goodbyes and hopped on the train to Asker. Man let me just tell you all it felt so good to be able to go on splits in Asker, one of my previous areas and to go on splits with Søster Ralphs, who I had served with before, was such a fun time. Our appointment was at the church building in Sandvika with one of our old investigators and we even had a member of the bishopric there as well. That alone brought back so many memories. After our teach we walked out of the room and turns out that they were having young men's and young women's activities that night so it was so fun to get to see all of the youth again. We also ran into Soster Vega who was Søster Hutchings trainer who now lives with her grandparents in the Sandvika area so that was cool. As we were leaving, a few of the members of one of my favorite families showed up and then I was really on cloud nine. There is no way that the day could have gotten any better. 

Thursday was a wonderful filled day of splits in Asker. It was really cool actually because as we were catching up the first night I noticed the white board they had up with all their investigators on it. One of the names up there was the name of a woman I had gotten really close with while serving in Asker, so I asked how she was doing. The sisters said she had been on vacation and they were unsuccessful in getting an appointment with her. I decided to try and give her a call and see if we could meet while I was in Asker. She was so excited to get that call and on Thursday we were able to go and visit her. Her house is my goal and so I took a lot of pictures of her house and we were able to catch up and have a good time together. She ended up really liking Søster Jones who had come with me and so I expect that the sisters will be visiting her again sometime soon. After that meeting we went over to sweet old Martha's house with some flowers for an early birthday gift. Martha is a champion. We called her that morning and I said I was in town and she invited us over to dinner. We had a wonderful dinner and chat and then headed out on our way.  We had some extra time and so we were able to pop in and say hi to another one of my favorite families. Honestly, one of my absolute favorite splits ever. 

Suddenly it was Friday and we were back in Oslo again to participate in a "miniature mission leadership conference" with Elder Herland. He asked us about our thoughts and impressions from the previous day and then he would take our comments and add upon them and relate them to leadership. He also shared a lot of really great thoughts about how to be the best leader we can be and it was honestly very inspiring and I felt very lucky to be a part of that meeting as well. Elder Herland is a very inspiring and completely inspired servant of the Lord and this Norway Oslo mission was blessed to be able to hear from him. I'm so glad for the past week and all the inspiring memories that came with it. I'm excited to bring that energy back to Stavanger and hopefully carry it with me for the rest of my life as well. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Kjempe gladi dere!


Klem,

Søster Blankmeyer