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