The Squad is Poppin'

Alright I understand that most missionaries would not title their blog post "The Squad is Poppin'" but I promise it relates to missionary work. This has been a way busy week. On Tuesday morning we went and dropped off Søster Ralphs at the airport since she is needed in Tromsø for the next couple of weeks.

Bonding with Bender!

That left Søster Bender and I in charge of Ålesund and all the work that needs to be done here. We worked so hard this week and almost set a record of gospel conversations. Although this was a week filled with a lot of work, we also had a lot of fun. I truly believe you can be an obedient missionary and still enjoy the work. Which brings me to the explanation of my blog title this week. We have befriended quite a lot of people in Ålesund who originally come from the Congo. This past week they invited us over to have some African food called Fufu. Let me tell you, I was definitely not raised in Africa. Søster Bender and I had to relearn how to eat food with our hands. It was crazy. It was also way fun. I have loved meeting people from all over the world and learning about their different cultures. I've been trying to pick up a bit of Swahili and that's definitely something else. While at this fufu "party" Søster Bender and I were throwing out some English phrases for our African friends to learn. One of which was "pop a squat" as in "take a seat." They proceeded to repeat what we were saying and then questioned the meaning of the phrase. One of the guys thought he understood and told his friends, "It means that the squad is poppin' you know?" Way funny for us, but as I write it out I'm starting to think it's one of those "you had to be there" moments. Anyways, we love all of our friends from Africa and all over the world and are grateful to be missionaries where we have the excuse to go up and talk to everyone and make tons of new friends. 

Fufu from our African friends.

Played Skip Bo at a member's house.  Reminds me of good times with Grandma and Grandpa Conger. 

One of our favorite Africans happens to be our newest convert, Ben. Ben traveled the 3 hours or so to our branch president's house this week to receive the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood as our branch president would not be there on Sunday to perform those duties. He also would not be able to lead church seeing as he would be in London, so that left our tiny branch with a big problem. We called Ben after he had gotten home from the branch president's house to see how everything went. He told us what a wonderful experience he had had and that he was just so happy. After discussing his experience, Ben told us that our branch president had asked him to lead church on Sunday! Wild! I am not certain but I think this is probably one of the first times that the newest convert was in charge of welcoming himself into the branch. Ben ended up doing an awesome job though and made everyone so happy to be at church this past Sunday. He's so great. 

Norway is so great. It's such a fun and exciting country to be living in. We have a national holiday tomorrow, which is supposed to be even bigger than Christmas here so I'm way pumped. Our president is allowing us a couple hours on Wednesday to email, so I'll be sure to send some awesome pics. As for the pictures from this week, last PDay the elders in our District asked if we wanted to go on a hike.

 Taking a break halfway up the mountain.

Top of the mountain!

We ended up climbing to the very top of one of Norway's massive mountains and although it was challenging at times, it was way cool when we were standing up on the top. I think that's a lot like life. We are given certain challenges or mountains to climb and sometimes it's very hard and you are on a steep incline while at other times you are simply taking a stroll and it's a gradual path up. By the end of it all though, you are able to look and see all that you have accomplished to reach that top point. I hope and pray that we all are able to get to the top, to climb those "mountains" that are placed in our path. 

Also just had to include some stunning pictures of a Norwegian beach here in Ålesund.

I hope you all enjoy. I love you all and am thinking and praying about you while I'm away. Enjoy your week and can't wait to talk to you all then!

Love,

Søster Blankmeyer

I found myself a Norwegian Molly twin. 

Thanks mom for the Mac n cheese!

A Weekend to Remember!

Wow wow wow. That's all I can say. What a crazy and amazing week this has been. A week I will truly never forget. There are so many things to say and so little time to say it so I think I will focus on the BAPTISM we had on Saturday! Ben was able to be baptized in a cold fjord near his house this past Saturday. What a miracle. 

Where to start. I guess maybe I should just go through the whole day from the beginning. We woke up and started getting things ready for the baptism. We had cleaned the church the other morning so that was all set, but we wanted to get a few extra things to make it extra special. We headed to this cute little flower store nearby the church and picked up some way cute flowers for the chapel. Also (funny story), we headed over to H&M afterwords. You may think to yourself, why on this hectic morning would we go shopping and I would tell you that the answer to that question is quite the story. We were going over everything with Ben a couple days before the baptism day and we told him to make sure to wear white underwear for when he gets baptized. He pretty much told us he didn't have any white underwear to wear. We told him that we would be happy to go and pick some up for him and he quickly shut that down. He said he would not accept any underwear from us so we told him that we would figure something out and either have the branch president or the elders grab him some so (as Ben put it), "the guy stuff can be left to the guys." Anyways, we ultimately ended up being left to grab Ben some underwear the morning of his baptism and did a quick hand off with the Elders so that they could be the ones to give Ben his underwear. Crazy story and Ben still has no idea that we were the ones to purchase his baptism underwear. Lol. Anyways totally random tangent but we got that done the morning of and then headed back to the church to make Ben a card for the little gift we got him and print out some programs. Of course the printer broke halfway through printing the programs and there were some other issues we had to overcome but nevertheless the baptism was still a go. 

Once everyone had arrived we began the program. We sang, Søster Bender gave a talk on baptism, Søster Ralphs and I bore our testimonies and then we were off. We all hopped into cars and drove over to the fjord that Ben had chosen to be baptized in. It was sprinkling on our way over but as soon as we got to the spot, the rain stopped and we were able to take some nice pictures before Ben and Elder Rappeleye got into the water. It was such a spiritual experience to gather around the bank and watch Ben as he was immersed into the freezing cold water of Norway. Ben is such an amazing human being. We had him bear his testimony back at the church and that was one of the most spiritual parts of the entire day. He told us all how much he had been fighting for this day. How much he wanted to change his life and follow Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven. He really does have such a strong testimony and such a strong spirit about him. I can't even put it to words. Ben is just an amazing person. The people love him and I have yet to see him be anything but happy. Ben is the type of person that turns outward when most of us would turn inward and through his example, I know he will help bring others to Christ. 

What a special blessing it was to come to Ålesund at this time and to meet Ben and help him get to this special day. I will never forget the Spirit that was felt this weekend and what a testimony builder this whole ride has been. I am so grateful for people like Ben who know what they need to do and are willing to fight to do it. I hope that I can fight just as hard to do what is right even when it may not be easy. I would challenge you all this week to focus on something that is hard for you, whether it be spiritual or temporal, and work little by little to either overcome it or become better at whatever it may be. I know with the Lord's help we can do anything we set our minds to. 

A few other highlights of the week before I have to go. The beginning of this week we flew up to Trondheim for zone conference, (which was a blast and taught me a ton) where a special package was delivered to me. Just wanted to give the Plano 9th ward seminary class and teachers a special shoutout for the card and candy. I love and miss you all so much and make sure to keep your eyes out for a thank you card headed your way! 

Last but definitely not least, HAPPY AMERICAN MOTHER*S DAY MOM! I am so grateful for your wonderful example and it was so nice to be able to Skype you and the rest of the family yesterday. I am so grateful for my amazing family and each member that compiles it. You all have taught me so much and are my favorite people in the whole wide world. I am so thankful for everything my family has brought me and I can't wait to see them again in just a short 16 months, but for now I'm proud to give my time to the Lord. See you all at Christmas time (just a short 230 days away but who's counting). Thanks again for being the best family there ever was.

Love all you friends and family back home and I'll talk to you all next week!!

Sincerely,

Søster Blankmeyer

2 months on the mission

Placing Books of Mormon

Søster Bender was so tired after Ben's Baptism

It Ended In A Tie

Wow what a crazy week it has been here in Ålesund. This week has been full of ups and downs. I'll fill you all in on those and explain the title of this blog post, but first want to say thanks to all the love and prayers sent my way. They help me get through the downs and I know they help us to find those ups as well so thank you all so much!! Also apologize if this blog post is shorter this week, we leave for zone conference in Trondheim today so we don't have much email time before our flight. 

Alright, let's start with the downs so that we can end on a high note. This week started with us being invited over to one of our investigator's houses for lunch. We met him and his sister outside the library and walked over to his house. We get there and start chatting it up and absolutely love this investigator and his sister. It was all fun and games until his friends showed up, and then it was even more fun and games until they figured out we were Mormon missionaries. One of our investigators friends has some serious issues with Christianity and so he proceeded to lecture us for a good hour about how incorrect we were. Our investigator's sister is a strong Christian and did a good job at putting him in his place. We just tried our best to answer any of his questions and not make it any more heated than it need be. Although it's no fun to be told by others that what you believe in is false and that what they believe in is the only truth, those kind of situations are actually a blessing as they help me have a stronger testimony in what I actually do believe. I left that house feeling more certain that this gospel is true. 

Next unfortunate thing of the week. We went over to one of our recent converts houses to check up and see how everything was going. As soon as we sat down on the couch, the laptop was placed in front of us and a bunch of anti Mormon youtube videos were pulled up. We shut that down very quickly and tried our best to figure out why our convert would turn to youtube and watch all those terrible things about the church. Come to find out  that this person had some pretty serious issues with some things in the church and also tried to convince us that we were wrong. Yet again we were devastated to hear this and have since met up with our convert again and discussed some of those issues. Although it's very unfortunate, we have become more grateful for our testimonies and this experience just helped us to strengthen them even more. 

Alright now for the high points of the week. First and foremost, we have a BAPTISM on Saturday the 7th of May!! Our investigator Ben will be getting baptized! He is such an amazing investigator and I have nothing but nice things to say about him.

He has one of the strongest testimonies of the gospel and is just so Christlike. You always catch Ben with a smile on his face and a good attitude about him. This week he has taught us just as much as we have taught him. Ben calls himself a radio. As soon as you turn him on and get him talking he'll keep going until you turn him off. He's such a hoot! Really though, you can just see how much Ben loves his Father in Heaven and his Savior Jesus Christ. What a blessing he is here in Ålesund.

Another highlight, while we were out talking to people on the street, we noticed a ton of people out near the ships. We decided to head over that way and try and talk to some more people. As we were walking we decided to stop this older man that was walking alone. We started talking to him about the gospel and handed him one of our "I'm a Mormon" cards. He pulled out his wallet and right in one of his card slots was the exact same card that he had received from missionaries a while ago. He kept it in his wallet all these years. After we had wrapped up our conversation, we asked him if he knew why so many people were out and he said that they were all looking at the old ships. He points to a ship and tells us that it's a ship from 1920 and then says that it's his ship! He then gave us an exclusive tour of it! Way cool!!

Some other fun things from this week include Ben teaching us how to make African food,

also playing us one of his original songs. Let me tell you, he is one of the best guitar players I know! It's crazy how awesome he is and he promised us a free CD once his producer is finished with everything. We also were able to stroll through the old car show the other day and talk to some people.

We ended up seeing this one gorgeous Buick around Ålesund the rest of the day and are determined to talk to the owner as he has great taste in cars and may have great taste when it comes to religion as well. ALSO, we get to Skype home in 6 days!!!! So beyond pumped for that and I hope all my other mother figures have a great Mother's day as well. Last but not least, as we were out talking to people last night we ran into some American members from Arizona! What a blessing that was. I really love English and Americans. They were the sweetest people and were backpacking all across Europe and had some pretty awesome family history stories of ancestors they had in Norway way back when. They also sent my mother a picture of us which I'm sure was a highlight for her week as well(:

Alright last order of business. I promised to explain the title of the blog post and that's quite a funny story. A couple weeks ago during district meeting we challenged our elders to see how many people we could stop on the street and talk about the gospel with. Which explains why we were out talking to so many people. We were determined to win. (Just to clarify, we are not just worried about numbers. It's a fact that the more people you talk to the higher probability you have of one following through.) Anyways, we were like way behind this week as every time we stopped a person we would end up touring their boat or talking for long amounts of time (which I'm totally okay with). We really wanted to win though and so Saturday and Sunday we talked to as many people as would give us the time of day. We called our Elders that night to report our numbers for the week and here's how you know the Lord has a sense of humor, it ended in a tie. Ultimately we were all winners and had a very productive couple of weeks and got some investigators out of it.

Okay I've gotta sign out but once again thanks for all the prayers and love from all of you. Always remember our Father in Heaven loves you and wants nothing but the best for you. Keep him in your thoughts. I would challenge you all to try to be as loving and Christlike to everyone you come into contact with. One of the best forms of missionary work is loving those around you and serving them. Keep up the good work and talk to you all soon!!

ferry we drive onto to get from island to island

The restaurant where we met the branch president.

the Helm

captains quarters