Beautiful Bergen

This past week we were able to go on splits and visit the sisters in Bergen! It was such a blast. I was so glad we were able to make our way out to Bergen again. It's such a beautiful city in Norway and the people there make it even better. If I had more time here in Norway, I would totally want to go and serve there. Luckily enough for me, I've been able to go and visit these past two transfers. Before we left for Bergen though we went and tried back at an apartment that we had knocked on last week and had told us to come back another day. It's really kind of crazy because in Preach My Gospel, it talks about contacting people who have recently had a baby, moved to the area, or experienced a death in the family. Well this contact had all three. We had knocked on her door and asked if we could share a quick message and she told us she was interested but her husband was out of town attending his dad's funeral and she was trying to feed their new baby so she asked us to come back another day. Well we decided to try her again before heading out to Bergen.  She let us in this time and we were able to teach her a little bit about The Book of Mormon. Come to find out she's actually from Romania where her and her husband just recently moved from and they both come from religious families. She was very interested in what we had to share and was really grateful for the free copy of The Book of Mormon that we gave to her. It was a really cool experience and it just goes to show that one, Preach My Gospel knows what it's talking about and two, Heavenly father is preparing people here in Norway and placing them in our path. It's honestly so cool. We committed her to start reading The Book of Mormon before our next visit and then we were off and on our way to Bergen.

We arrived there Thursday night, talked and caught up a bit and then we noticed they had a ukulele in their apartment, so we sang some songs and went off to bed. The next morning splits began and I was able to start out with Søster Gagon and visit some members I had visited last time I was in Bergen so that was pretty cool. He then went back to the apartment for studies and lunch and it ended up being a great morning. By the time I got finished with all that, it was time to switch companions, but it was also almost time for sports so we decided to just all get changed into our sport clothes and then go knocking on doors nearby the soccer field. It was a really nice day and so everybody was out doing yard work since it's hard to come by a sunny day in Bergen. It made for some really cool knocking experiences we decided to do it all together and make it like a little group activity. It was way sick. I had never done missionary work like that before and so it was cool to learn a new way. It was just like four girls out to do service and people responded very well to it. It was way cool. I think maybe we were less intimidating in our normal clothes or seemed more legit with four rather than just two people but either way it was different and fun. It was also really cool because that's totally something that anyone can do. You can get together as just a group of friends or a church group and go out and try to find people to serve. Regardless of religion, service is a great way to show our fellow humans that we care and are willing to spend some of our time and energy for them and it's so rewarding. I challenge you all to go out and find someone you can serve. I promise you it'll be worth it. Have a great week!

Klem,

Søster Blankmeyer