Monday, May 5th, 2014

Porsgrunn is a really awesome place. We also work a lot in Skien, which is right next to Porsgrunn. Our ward here is incredible. We have a big member referral system and everything. There is an Albanian couple who is going to be baptized this coming week. In my district are sisters in Skien, and Elders in Sandefjørd as well as in Tønsberg, which are both part of the Tønsberg branch. It is a lot different than being in Alta, but I love both experiences so much. It is also a lot different than Oslo, but it is indeed the same work. I am really excited to have all of the blessings of being able to work with other missionaries and with the ward organization again as well. Elder Newey grew up in Twin Falls, Idaho and lived in Nephi, Utah for a couple of years before he left on his mission. He likes music a lot and soccer too.

There are so many blessings we enjoy as members of the church who have the restored gospel. I have been thinking a lot about how much Heavenly Father wants to bless each and every one of us. The purpose of the gospel and the plan of salvation are to help us enjoy all of the blessings that Heavenly Father enjoys, to come back to Him and to be with Him and Christ forever. These blessings are too much to comprehend, but I know that there is indeed nothing more desirable than the love of God. We need to help others to come unto Christ so that they can taste that fruit so we can all rejoice together. We are all indeed one. We are a family. We must reach out to others and show them our love just as the Savior came to serve and not to be served.

I am now a district leader. District leaders lead a group of companionships, help build up and train them, and do baptismal interviews, lead district meetings and that sort of thing. It is wonderful to be able to focus on other people as well. The ward here is awesome! There is one young man preparing for a mission who is a drummer and recently did a report from school on James Brown and Soul. He is super cool. The ward focus for the year is on missionary work, which is a tremendous blessing that we need to take advantage of. I know Heavenly Father is mindful of each of us and that He is always watching over us. I know we each have a work that is far more important and greater than we can comprehend. I also know that we have an even greater source of strength and power to be able to accomplish those works. I pray we will each keep moving forward and doing what is right. The Norwegian word of the week is forenet, which means united.

Love,
Elder Ankenman

Monday, April 28th, 2014

I found out yesterday that I will be moving to Porsgrunn, which is a part of the Skien ward. I am really excited but also sad to leave Alta. I have really enjoyed my time here and feel like I have grown a lot. There is no other place like it in the world, and the members are so kind, faithful and wonderful. Porsgrunn is a really wonderful place from what I hear. I do not know too much about it. They have delicious mustard in Norway called Bergyby’s that is from there. The Bergyby’s company has a restaurant there that I have to go too. I met a man originally from Porsgrunn who lives in Alta now and he said that they also have a canal system that sounded pretty cool. There is also a really strong ward there that I hear is incredibly enthusiastic about and engaged in missionary work, so I am really excited. My companion’s name is Eldste Newey. I have not met him before, so I do not know anything about him. There is never anymore darkness when we are awake here, which is crazy since there was no sun when I came. It is so cool how quickly the transition happens. I will be technically missing the midnight sun by a couple weeks, but since I am not that big a fan of the sun anyway and we cannot be up at midnight that is all right with me. The essence of the gospel truly is about turning out and helping others. We cannot even begin to thank God enough for all that He has given us, but we should still do the best we can to try. I feel so blessed.

I have been especially grateful for the opportunity to be more involved in family history work, and I intend to keep making it a part of our missionary work, and I think the Skien ward will have a lot of interest and resources to help. I am excited to be able to talk with the ward leaders about it. One idea we had for the family history course while we were out contacting trying to find people to come is that it would be wonderful to invite other churches to participate as well. We have talked with a couple churches about it already, so I hope there will be people from their congregations who would be interested in participating. Family is so important to us all. Eldste Reber and I also gave talks in church yesterday, which was the first time I have given a formal talk in church in Norway. I talked about our divine potential as children of God and how we can only reach it through the merits, mercies and grace of Christ, which is why it is so crucial for us to be engaged in missionary work. The gospel is what everyone needs. It is the food for our souls. Christ makes us whole. He enables us to become all that we can be, and He invites us to come unto Him and do so because of His never ending love for each and every one of us.


Love,
Elder Ankenman

Monday, April 21st, 2014

It is so important for us to remember how precious each and every one of us is to Heavenly Father and Christ. Christ truly is the good Shepard, and He has asked us to feed His sheep, so it is our joy and privilege to be able to help and serve each other. The life that is given to us all because of Christ and the redemption of all those who will come to Him are really what Easter is all about. He bled and died so that we might live. I know that He loves us more than we can begin to comprehend. I also know that the Atonement is real. It redeems us, enables us, heals us and sanctifies us. There truly is no greater gift.

I do not think Easter in Norway is too different from Easter in the U.S. Linnea put together a little Easter egg hunt for Geir and us on Saturday after we came back from visiting some other members. We each got different clues that lead us around the house to others and eventually to our eggs, which were full of candy. Norwegians do not make chocolate bunnies as far as I know, but they do make these delicious chocolate eggs that are full with cream stuff inside that you eat with a spoon. They are really good. We will be going to Tromsø on Thursday for a training meeting, which will be a lot of fun. The Tromsø Elders also came on splits to Alta this week. They are both really wonderful and dedicated guys, and we learned a lot. One of the families in our branch is going to teach us how to make Nepali food on Saturday, which I am looking forward to. A lot of wonderful things are happening, and I feel so very blessed to be able to serve a mission.

President Evans asked us to be out knocking on doors as much as we could this weekend, and we were able to meet a lot of really wonderful people. It felt good to be out sharing the truly appropriate Easter message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Most Norwegians go up into the mountains on vacation for Easter, so we were uncertain about how many people would be home, but they were actually about as many as normal, which was great. Nothing is more important than our families. Heavenly Father wants His children to come back to Him and to be as happy as He is. To enjoy the blessings of eternal life, to be together forever as families, we must have the gospel in our lives. The Norwegian word of the week is Å Store Gud, which means How Great Thou Art. We sang this song in sacrament meeting this week.

Love,
Elder Ankenman

Monday, April 14th, 2014

I am so grateful to be able to serve in this branch with such wonderful people. They have such wonderful, kind and loving spirits. We drove to Hammerfest this week and visited some members and taught the member’s sister and her husband as well, which was really cool. It was our branch president’s birthday this past week, and he got some dogs and is trying to put together a dog sledding team. We were over at our branch president’s house to celebrate his birthday and he and Geir were jamming. He is a quite good guitar player. He asked me if I wanted to play his strat, and I could not say no. It was great to play an electric guitar again. The sun is up from before we wake up until 9:30 at night or so, which is crazy considering that it never came up when I came here.

I had a really cool experience this week. We were praying to begin planning when I got an impression that I should call a less active member who is from Alta but may or may not have been in Oslo. I had heard about the member since I was in Oslo and missionaries had been trying to get in contact for months. No one had ever gotten an answer though. But when I called, we finally got an answer, which was an incredible miracle. It goes to show that this is not our work. We are the instruments, imperfect as we may be, through which Heavenly Father works to save His children. When we serve with all of our hearts, we are able to receive such profound guidance and power. I really loved Elder Bednard’s talk about the Atonement. All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Christ as Preach My Gospel says. We can be happy knowing that Christ has overcome the world. He has asked us to be of good cheer and to press forward in patience until we are perfected. I know he understands each of us perfectly and that He loves each of us and wants to and can bring us all safely and gloriously home.

I have been trying to work on being more grateful, which has been a very big blessing even though I still have a long ways to go. We truly can never be grateful enough. As King Benjamin says, even if we cried all of our days in gratitude and served all of our days, we would never even begin to repay God for what He has done for us. It is humbling and empowering to know this to be true. Heavenly Father and Christ do not ask us to repay them for what they have done for us, but to appreciate and use the gifts they have given us. Their glory and their happiness are our immortality and eternal life. They are always willing to help and bless us the question truly is if we will accept those blessings. When we live the gospel and keep our covenants, we are able to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to guide us. We will be blessed in incredible ways. Obedience brings blessings and happiness. I know that Christ has given the gift of life to all of us. He died and rose again and so shall we all. He has taken upon himself our sins, griefs, weaknesses, infirmities and heartaches, and all can be made right through His atonement. May we remember this gift, use and accept it is my prayer. The Norwegian word of the week is God Påske, which means Happy Easter. Have a wonderful Easter and keep on keeping on!

Love,
Elder Ankenman