Rain or shine!

All right friends and family, I'm just going to take this opportunity to apologize for last weeks blog post and emails. I felt really bad that I wasn't able to provide some quality reading. But I'm hoping this weeks entry will make up for that.   First and foremost I'd love to introduce you all to Søster Love, my one and only "daughter" out here in the mission field.

Søster Love is from Eagle Mountain, Utah and is an avid fan of Kraft macaroni and cheese. I believe I may have mentioned this last week but her mom was born and raised in Drammen and so she grew up speaking Norwegian with her mother. She even lived in Drammen herself when she was younger. Søster Love loves to have fun and loves to laugh and yet is still very spiritual and an outstanding missionary. She makes being a trainer pretty easy and I just love Søster Love, as well as all of my companions that I have had the chance to serve with out here in Norway. I have come to love each and every sister I have met and I am grateful for all of my fellow missionaries here in Norway. They have become my family away from home and have helped me to really enjoy serving care in Norway. So shout out to them. Speaking of shout outs, I just wanted to take this time to send a big thank you home to my family for sending me such an amazing package. Søster Love is grateful for the macaroni and cheese that was included. Anyways thanks a ton and I love you all so much! 

All right, onto the missionary work for the week. To start things off, I was able to have the wonderful experience of a Norwegian driving lesson. I am currently in the process of obtaining my Norwegian drivers license.   So, wow! My little brother Erik is back home learning to drive, I'm over here in Norway doing the same thing. Pretty funny. Hopefully we both end up passing our tests. Lykke til! (Good luck!)  After my driving lesson, we headed to district meeting where we focused on the Book of Mormon. It was probably my most favorite district meeting yet. I just love the Book of Mormon so much and just have such a strong testimony on the power of the Book of Mormon. I would invite you all to take just five minutes of your day and sit and read from the Book of Mormon. I know that by doing so you will come to learn more about our Father in Heaven and his son Jesus Christ. There is no greater substitute in accomplishing that then by Reading the Book of Mormon. Also, that's why I am here in Norway to help these people come closer to God and Jesus Christ. The majority of our week was spent out on the streets talking to the people of Norway! On Saturdays some people from the church as well as some of the investigators come together with the missionaries and play soccer for a couple hours.

Ready to play soccer!

This past Saturday we woke up to pouring down rain. We had invited a lot of people we had met on the street to come and play so we were hoping the rain would let up. The time came to play and the rain was still pouring but we called the elders and the game was still on. We went and played soccer for two hours in the cold, rain and one of our investigators even showed up! We had the rest of our Saturday open for going out on the street and we had planned some fun activities for missionary work. We were going to go out and talk to people in the center for an hour, then we were going to go to the beach nearby and play the ukulele for people.  After that our plan was to have Søster Petersen play her violin near the shopping center while Søster Love and I talk to the people.  Then we were going to take an object lesson to the street and have people try it out. We were so beyond pumped to hit the streets and yet the rain was still pouring down.  But that didn't stop us!  We spent the whole day on the streets in what we came to find out was the biggest storm in Norway in the past 30 years. We got a lot of glares a lot of "nei takks", and actually a lot of "I'm sorry I've got to play my Pokémon GO" or whatever. It was not a necessarily easy day, but we ended that day by teaching a man on the street about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Missionary work is not always easy. Sometimes we get told we are stupid, sometimes we have to brave through some meals, and sometimes we get put below Pokémon Go and yet we brave it rain or shine because we know how important this work is and that what we are really offering these people of Norway and the world really. Missionary work is not always easy but it is always worth it. We now have two girls with baptismal dates and all of our investigators are taking big steps forward to their Father in Heaven. We are also blessed! 

To end the post for this week I thought I'd share some of the highlights of the week. First off, I hit my five month mark! We have dinner appointments this week which was a blessing since we kind of ran out of food at home. We were able to help one of our investigators who is going through a hard time right now. We got to paint a house!!! That was so fun! My favorite service project thus far!

We made a homemade pizza which turned into a big cheese ball but still turned out being delicious. Søster Love and I found out we had a mutual love for a song called, "Good Friends" on Lds.org.  I recommend it! It's a great song. We also will be performing a song and sacrament meeting next weekend it was way fun to practice and even get to hear else Sanchez play piano with Søster Petersen on her violin. Man I'm just loving serving here in Asker. I miss you all back home and hope all is going well. Keep up the great work and I can't wait to talk to you all next week.

Medvennlighilsen, 

Soster Blankmeyer

Zone leaders and Søster Trainers leadership meeting

Søster Hill and 2 companionships