Norway is Dåp!

Friends and family, what is up??? I am here in the beautiful and wonderful country of Norway.

My first area is Ålesund and it is stunning. It is just me and my two companions (Søster Bender and Søster Ralphs) over the entire area which is actually pretty big but we also just got a car so we are now able to teach people that live farther away from us.

Søster Blankmeyer, Alida, SøsterBender, Søster Ralphs on the ferry on our way to go banking/tracting.

The west coast here is a bit different from the "west coast" we are used to, but both are very gorgeous places to live. It was snowing on us the other day but really the weather isn't too terrible just a bit colder than back home. Ålesund is a very interesting area and I'm still trying to figure out why President was inspired to send me here but I know it's for a reason and I can't wait to find that out. It's interesting here in the Norway mission in the sense that even before meeting us our President has to decide where to send us. Usually, mission presidents have the luxury of meeting the new missionaries and then deciding where they would best fit, but our president has to work off divine inspiration as they have to plan flights and other transportation so that we can be off to our areas ASAP. Ålesund is something I have never really experienced before and it's already taught me so much.

This is our apartment.

 shoe and coat rack

our work space

study wall

bathroom

kitchen

bedroom- mybed is the one with the black iron frame.

In Ålesund there aren't many people just out on the streets so even though it's a big area, it feels as if no one but us lives here. Instead of a big church group or ward like we are used to back in the states, we have just a tiny branch here in Ålesund. The church building is an old bakery and church is only 2 hours long instead of the typical 3. We have about 2 active members a few less actives and then we supply the investigators. Church this past Sunday was a stake conference broadcast. We had one of our investigators show up at the very beginning before the conference had even started. Her name is Maria and she is from Spain. She absolutely despises Ålesund and is what president likes to call "intense" but also way down to earth. Anyways, she came to church and then as soon as the conference started she left as it was being broadcast in only Norwegian and her native language is Spanish but she's also very fluent in English. After she left it was just Søster Bender, Søster Ralphs and myself until we had about 30 minutes left of the conference and then Elias showed up. He is a 4 foot tall 19 year old boy from the Congo and is actually a blast. He speaks very good Norwegian and is one of the more active members of the Branch. He comes from a large family but is the only member. That is such a testimony builder to me, to see Elias be so strong in the gospel with not much support from his own family. Anyways, so our Sunday was pretty chill and the conference was really amazing.

On Saturday we went to Stranda to go "banking" which is Norwegian for going door to door knocking. We went with a recent convert Alida who was baptized just a couple weeks ago in a fjord. (Sister Hill has pictures of her baptism and more pictures of Ålesund on her blog if anyone would like to check it out: thehillsinnorway.com) Søster Ralphs and Alida took one street and Søster Bender and I took another. I was actually pretty nervous as the language is not quite like the language I was taught in the MTC and also the dialect sometimes throws me off. Either way, we pressed forward. Our very first house we taught a lesson and got a return appointment which was such a blessing. It helped to relieve some of my stress and kept me motivated for the rest of the time we would be banking. In Norway people do not like to talk about religion and so we get a lot of "Nei Takk's" which is just "No Thank You" but usually seems a lot more mean than that. Throughout this first week I hadn't received one "Nei Takk" while contacting people on the street. I got a lot of people saying they didn't have time or other excuses but no real "Nei Takk's." While banking in Stranda I got my very first "Nei Takk" and also a few doors slammed in my face. It can make things hard but we had been told so many times in the MTC and beforehand that the people in Europe wouldn't be receptive to our message or we wouldn't get many baptisms so I guess I was mentally prepared for not much success.

Of course I was not going to take that as an answer. We spent hours in the cold knocking or just talking to every single person we saw. It is hard when people don't give you the time of day but you are reminded of why you left your family and the comforts of home when you run into people like Ben. Ben is one of our investigators also from the Congo. His life is like a straight up Hollywood movie. From what he has told us, he has not had an easy life by any means and it's honestly a miracle that he is even alive today. He is such a golden investigator though. He truly gets it. He understands the importance of this gospel and the need to have that relationship with Christ. He truly teaches us probably even more than we teach him and even though those people have told us that baptism is impossible in Norway I'm here to tell you on my first week in the field that Ben is getting baptized!! His Dåp (Norwegian for baptism) date is set for May 7th and I couldn't be more excited for him. Ben has been a real turning point for me this first week. Although I don't understand many people and am fresh out in the field, my second lesson with Ben really helped me to remember why I am here. Ben is trying to quit smoking and just kept telling us how weak he was feeling. I felt inspired to share with him Ether 12:27

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

not only was that one of the first times the Spirit had really prompted me to open my mouth and share something I hadn't planned to share but also Ben asked us to write that scripture down for him. He loved it!! 

I am so grateful for this opportunity to share this gospel with the people in Ålesund. I know I am here for a reason and even if my only purpose here was to help Ben quit smoking and get baptized, I'm happy to be able to do that. I challenge you all this week that if you feel prompted to open your mouth and share something to OPEN YOUR MOUTH! It is easy to just sit back and let others talk or even just let people walk by without sharing this glad message but this is eternal life we are talking about. We can't just stand back and keep others from this happiness. For those of you reading that may not know much about this gospel I hope you will go to mormon.org and find out for yourself what this is all about. Maybe even just let the missionaries in, I know they really appreciate it. Especially in freezing cold Norway! Thanks for all that you all do and keep up the good work.

Love you all and until next time,

Søster Blankmeyer

Oh my goodness I forgot to mention I saw my first group of cats while banking! Søster Bender and I turned down one street and no joke saw a million cats.  They started following us door to door.  It was way funny to see two missionaries and then just a trail of cats following behind.  That was a tender mercy though as it reminded me of Molly and home and made me happy.  

The car ride...I frequently look out our car window and marvel at the beauty!