Home stretch at the MTC!

Hello Friends and Family,

I don't have too much time to email today but of course I am going to try my best to hit all of the highlights of this week for all of you back home. First off, I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

We were privileged to hear from Elder Ballard that morning. There is something about being in the same room as an apostle that just really brings the spirit. It was a way cool experience and I really appreciated his remarks. One of the best Easters I have had thus far as I not only got to hear from an apostle of the Lord but also was really focused on Christ and the reason we celebrate Easter. Granted, we did have an Easter party that night with the Swedes as we all ate lots of chocolate and treats that our families had sent us. We also decorated some Chalkboard material Easter eggs with a variety of colors of chalk. Thanks to everyone who sent me packages for Easter! Special shout out to the Williams family and my favorite 5 year old, Ava, for the wonderful Easter package I received yesterday. I am so grateful for your friendship and your kind hearts. I love all my friends and family back home and you all are the reason I get through the weeks here at the MTC!

 This wild week started with my companion escaping the MTC and leaving me without a companion for a day. That sounds as if she actually was able to break out of here (and although we have all concluded that breaking out wouldn't be that difficult) in reality, she was flying out to San Francisco to meet with the Norwegian consulate about her visa. It all worked out though, and while she was away I was just put in a trio with Søster Hess and Søster Hutchings. It actually ended up being a fun day as we helped to host and welcome the Senior missionary couples that would be entering the MTC this week. It was rainy and cold but boy did the Seniors put a smile on our faces. I could just sit and talk to them for hours. Sadly, that's not allowed and as soon as we were done helping them out, it was back to study time for us. Of course, Søster Dransfield is quite the jokester and when the front desk called my Sister Training Leader for me, Dransfield had convinced the front desk lady to tell me I had been reassigned. Unfortunately for her, I had already had this joke pulled on me before and quickly knew I was being messed with. The Danes all escorted me to the front desk to go and pick her up and then we decided to just hop in a room and take turns playing the piano and just enjoying ourselves. The Danes are leaving us next Monday for Denmark and boy are we all going to miss them so much. The Danish Elders have been my favorite zone leaders by far and I knew I could just talk to them about anything. Also Søster Landeen a solo Danish Søster has been such a blessing in all of the Norwegian Søster's lives. Denmark is one lucky country to be receiving some of the best missionaries here at the MTC!

Tuesday we had a wonderful devotional by Elder Vinson of the 70. He is a convert to the church and man did he have one of the strongest testimonies I have ever heard. I have such a respect for converts and their testimonies of this gospel, as they have truly felt what it is like to live without it. Elder Vinson was probably my favorite talk this week. He really just testified of the power of the Book of Mormon. I think a lot of the times, I take the scriptures for granted because it's just a book I grew up reading with my family every night. It's really cool being a missionary and being able to see how much that book can change lives. I have always been able to recognize the Book of Mormon helping me in my life through the hard times but it really does change the lives of so many people. What a blessing it is to have this book in our lives. I challenge you all to really come to know and love the scriptures and really read them and ponder them daily.

One of the coolest experiences here at the MTC is teaching members of the church in Norwegian. The MTC has a program where every Friday we get to teach members who either are here in Provo that speak Norwegian or we get to skype members currently living in Norway. That is always a highlight of my week. I love talking to members and being able to discuss the gospel and how it has affected our lives, and we get to do all that in the great language of Norwegian. This past week, we got to skype the members in Norway and after Søster Dransfield and I had finished our lesson, we headed back to the front room when we glanced at Eldste Nelson's computer screen and saw that there were other missionaries on skype with him! The member he was skyping was skyping from the church building and all the missionaries were hanging out there too, so we all popped in on Eldste's skype call and got to meet some missionaries currently serving in Oslo. What a cool experience. It was amazing to hear them all speaking fluent Norwegian and it just got us all so excited to be able to go to Norway! Speaking of going to Norway, we get our travel plans tomorrow and we couldn't be more excited! 

Alright, one quick funny story before I go. Last night Søster Dransfield and I were teaching a lesson to our investigator Erland. We were teaching him about the Book of Mormon and how ancient prophets wrote the Book of Mormon and then we were going to explain how we have a living prophet today and invite him to watch general conference this weekend. The lesson was actually going very well until we got to the part about Thomas S. Monson being our living prophet today. Apparently, instead of saying the word for "living" she used the word for "waist" needless to say, our investigator was very confused and I quickly had to clarify we had a living prophet. The rest of the lesson went smoothly until the very end when Søster Dransfield was trying to ask him when we could come back, but instead of asking him that question she accidentally said that we were going to get on his back. You got to love the language mistakes that happen here at the MTC. Seriously though, this language is coming along very nicely and our skype friends or just Norwegian speaking friends here at the MTC are always so impressed at how much we have learned in such a short amount of time.

Alright, well I really have to get going now but I hope you all enjoy General Conference this weekend and truly cherish the words that the prophet and apostles bless us with. I'll give you all the same challenge we gave our investigators this week. Go into conference with a question you need answered and really listen for the Holy Ghost and the answer he will give you through the Lord's prophets and apostles.

Love you all so very much and can't wait to hear from you all!

Sincerely,

Søster Blankmeyer