The Family Reunion!

This week I was again reunited with my missionary parents Sister Belus and Sister Pond! They are serving as STLs in Stavanger and they came down here to Drammen last week for splits. We had a good time reminiscing and it was so great to see how much I have grown and also them in terms of missionary work and also language skills. Søster Belus' energy is contagious and we had a good time getting lost in the woods on the way to a members house and also banking doors. We banked so many doors in Ålesund and it felt like I traveled back in time to January. We had a miracle that night and the family that we ate dinner with, the Gjeviks, had a lot to do with it. They prayed for us that we would find someone that would accept our message as we were out banking. We only had enough time to go banking for 45 minutes, but we had enough faith that we could still find someone. I was reminded of Elder Uchtdorf's talk 4th floor last door, because the only person that would talk to us was literally the last door that we knocked on. We talked to him for 15 minutes and he took the Book of Mormon! He was a little hesitant about it, but Søster Belus both bore testimony of how much that it would change his life and he said that he could read it. 

Søster Pond and I went and visited a referral that was pretty out of the way. That morning we had set a goal to get 2 numbers and give out 1 Book of Mormon. We had no kontakting time scheduled so we just trusted that Heavenly Father would help us find people on the way. And he did. We met two people, got their numbers, and gave out a Book of Mormon all before we got to the referrals house. We weren't able to talk to who we were trying to visit, and her husband wasn't able to give her the cookies we made her because she has celiac disease, but everything else worked out. The buss even came to a random buss stop just two minutes after we got there and it was the right buss! 

We had the privilege of going to the mission home for the first session of conference. It was amazing and it felt like home. Conference was so inspiring and uplifting! Two hours of church is going to be quite an adjustment, but I am so excited to start focusing more on teaching the gospel in the home. On my mission I have recognized such a need for that. This past week we got the question "why is there sickness in the world?" and we couldn't give people an answer that they were satisfied with. I took that as one of my questions to general conference and it was answered by the story that M. Joseph Brough shared about that man who had Lukemia. Everything that the Lord allows us to go through is for us to learn and grow from. Conference is so amazing and it really does answer questions! 

A few fun things that happened:

• A girl originally from poland thought that Søster Pond was mentally ill at first for talking to her on the buss. NO ONE talks on public transportation here haha! 
• I gave a cookie to one of our friends that we regularly see on the buss here. I mentioned that my mum had sent me chocolate chips for my birthday. He told me happy birthday and an old lady overheard and told me happy birthday before she got off the buss. 

I can't really remember anything else that happened this week. A missionary that may or may not be named Søster Pond accidentley stole my missionary planner and so now all of my plans, memories,and organisation are taking a little trip through the Norwegian postage system. :) 

I love you all so very much! I hope that you all were able to watch general conference and that you have all made plans to follow the prophets counsel so that your lives can be blessed in the most wonderful ways. Have a great week!

Klem, Søster Starkie

My mission parents!

Sister Pond

Sister Belus

Beautiful countryside.

Lunch at Mircia's house. (a member here in Drammen)

The distrikt at Ikea.

We have sunrises again!