"the church right now is as historic as the book of mormon coming forth"

Hola mi familia!

 

Well it´s been another fantastic week at the CCM! Thanks so much for all the dear elders. They are the BEST! It's always a good day when you get some mail :) And I love hearing about what's going on at home. I seriously am clueless as to what's going on in the world. But I don't feel like I'm missing anything either.

 

I guess I'll start on last friday. We got to meet our mission president!!! We met with all the missionaries in our mission. There are 11 of us here at the CCM right now. 9 sisters and 2 elders, all spanish speaking. There are 250 missionaries in the mission and only about 40 of them are spanish speaking, only 10 are elders. I already love President and Sister Hanks SOOO much! They are amazing and so much fun. They were cracking jokes the whole time and we so nice to all of us. They were shocked when they opened their call as well and kinda feel like they're in the same boat as the rest of us, they have no clue what's goin on haha! Our mission scripture that President Hanks wants us to memorize is 3 Nephi 5:13. It talks about being disciples of Christ. The other two scriptures he shared are 2 Nephi 31:20 about being steadfast in Christ and having love of God and all mankind and 1 Chronicles 28:20, be strong and of good courage. Just do it. I am super excited to get to Alabama! 

 

It has been amazing being here with all the mission presidents and having general authorities and apostles on campus all week. Being a part of the broadcast was an absolutely amazing experience and I'm so glad we got to sing in the choir. Watch the broadcast and look around 2:40 and you'll be able to see me. Sister Page is on the end with her short hair and a green shirt on and then I'm the fourth person in with a blue shirt on. I've never been so close to all the apostles before and it was so fun to have them wave at us. The spirit in that room was overwhelming and I will never forget that day. We met a mission president going to Australia and his wife. They were telling us all about their family. Whenever we talk to a mission president they always testify to us about something and start to get emotional. It is such a blessing to be a part of this historic time. Also yesterday on the way back from gym, this mission president stopped me and asked if I was in the choir. I said yes and then Hermana Torgersen stopped to wait for me and he asked her as well. He then talked about how great it was that we were able to do that and that at their meeting that morning with Elder Perry he said that the time in the church right now is as historic as the book of mormon coming forth. Can you believe that?!

 

Because of the mission president's seminar we have been having all our meals in the gym. I might have to say that it's better than the cafeteria. The other night we had steak, baked potato, salad, roll, and corn on the cob. Right up my alley for sure! And I love getting BYU creamery ice cream! It's the best :) We've been playing volleyball outside every day for gym and it is so much fun! We have gorgeous weather and it's a blast to be with our zone. We lost a district this week and we also gained a district of 8 elders.

 

The spanish is coming along. I understand mostly everything now and can get by in a lesson without notes but there is still so much to learn! And we need to practice speaking more. But it's funny how some words just come naturally especially when we're writing in our journals and stuff haha! We just met our new teacher who was on vacation, Hermano Ralphs. Definitely felt like I was back on day one at the MTC but that's ok. It will all be fine! He just speaks super fast and isn't as loving and forgiving as Hermana Eyring haha! Plus, I don't think I've heard him say one word in English. And he won't let us speak any english either. He doesn't "understand" us. But I know it will be for our good and that it will really help us to progress.

 

It sounds like you've been having a lot of fun at home! Jealous that you got to go to the mariners game! And I love the idea of writing your testimonies in the book of mormon and giving them to people! I thought it was so awesome how the whole broadcast was exactly what I was talking about in my farewell talk! Have the members keep our schedules full haha! And it was awesome that we've already been doing church tours, no one else had really heard of them before. And I hope that maybe I'll get to write on a blog in the mission. I miss writing on mine a lot!

 

Oh, another thing about the broadcast. Remember when Elder Nelson interviewed Neill F. Marriott? She came to speak in relief society my first sunday here! She is so funny and we absolutely loved her conversion story. And she has a southern accent so that's kind of fun too :) For devotional on tuesday this week, Janice Kapp Perry came to speak. She seriouslly wrote all my favorite primary songs! We sang this awesome medley of them and I loved it! Her and her husband are quite spunky and it was an awesome devotional. She also just rewrote the lyrics to As Sisters in Zion that we sing a lot here at the MTC. It's all about sister missionaries. I'm going to try to learn all the words before I leave. But it's now a part of the new efy medley and so we sang that at the end. It was beautiful!

 

Hermana Torgersen and I have started making a list of everything we have in common. We are also already invited to each other's weddings. I just love her so much and I am so grateful to have a new best friend! We really want to stay together in Alabama! Our district is amazing and we have SO MUCH FUN together! We really are like family and have grown so much over the past two weeks. Hermana Eyring said she has never laughed so much with any of her other districts. Basically that means we're the best :)

 

I have been taking lots of pictures recently. Thanks for the reminder mom :) So our temple time is at 7 am on p-day which is so fun because it's the very first thing we do when we wake up. I absolutely love the temple but the sad news is that it's closed the whole month of july so this was our last time :( But basically our whole zone was in there together and we took some pictures aftwerwards so that was good. I learn so much every single time I go and am grateful we get to go!

 

Thanks for all your love and support! Till next week!

love, Hermana Blackner