"4 more days!!"

Hola!!!

4 MORE DAYS!!! My time at the CCM has flown by and I've loved every minute of it, but it's time to get out into the real world and teach some people! It's kinda fun being the oldest now. Not like it really means much, but we just feel very experienced now haha! Yesterday we got to host for the new missionaries! It was a so much fun, but also kinda sad. Like I'm pretty sure it was more sad to watch all the moms crying then it was when I got dropped off haha! I got to host two really sweet sisters. One going to Salt Lake spanish speaking and the other one going to Sao Paulo.

Last sunday was awesome as usual! Carole Mikita spoke for relief society. She's a news anchor for KSL and has traveled around the world usually during temple dedications for news reports and has some way awesome stories! She is a convert to the church, in fact most of our speakers are and it's so cool to hear their stories and see how the gospel has blessed their lives. She is from Ohio and the missionaries started teaching her mom when she was little. She talked about how the children will remember us and how some people have never seen people "from out west". I had never even thought about that before! I'm so excited to teach families and interact with little kids!

So I haven't had the opportunity to play the piano a ton but I did play it at church for a district that was leaving. And one time during additional study I went to play. And I get to play the hymns for our branch! 

Two pretty funny things happened. The first one was before sacrament meeting started.

 I was just sitting down, minding my own business and then decided that I wanted a mint.

So I got the container out, opened it up, opened the little paper that's inside, and then when I went to grab a mint.

Don't worry, it gets better.The container slipped out of my hands, and the mints exploded everywhere!!!!

I just put my hands over my face and started laughing haha! And we're at the MTC and everyone is so nice so immediately there were like 5 people surrounding me and helped me pick them up. It was pretty funny!

The next one was at dinner. Oh btw, the Nally's just randomly happened to sit next to us. It wasn't assigned or anything. So we're sitting with the Elders and I had to go grab a fork and they were laughing about something but I didn't really think anything of it because they are always laughing. We're just enjoying dinner and I had water and raspberry lemonade. When I got to the end of the lemonade it tasted kinda funny so I stopped drinking it.

And then, when we're walking to put our trays away

Elder Shipley says, "I have a confession"

Me: What is it?

Him: Did your drink taste weird?

Me: Yeah, that's why I didn't finish it

Him: Like salty?

Me: uh...yeah! That was it! What the heck Elders?! Why?!

Him: I'm sorry, but you handled it really well. I would've freaked out if that happened to me

Boys...they're so weird and I don't think they ever grow up haha!

Sunday night we watched the testaments! I had seriously been looking forward to it for so long because I hadn't seen it forever! It was so good! There's a line in there where the son asks his dad why he can't be happy for him and his sucess and the dad responds by saying, "I am happy for you because you are my son, but I'm sad for you because I know your happiness will not last. We kinda compared that to our investigators when they don't keep commitments. There is this awesome quote in PMG from Elder Holland that says, "The first thing you will do when an investigator tells you he or she had not read and prayed about the Book of Mormon is be devastated!" He says we can't be casual about it because it is salvation we're talking about. We need to be encouraging and supportive but we also can't settle for low expectations.

Well our district had a life-changing experience with Hermano Ralphs this week. As you know, it hasn't been the easiest getting used to his teaching style but something happened this week and it all made sense! So he spoke english for the first time in the past 3 weeks. Like for real, he had never said one english word before. And when the first word came out, we were all in shock. In fact, we just started laughing! His spanish voice and his english voice are completely different! 

This is what I wrote in my journal...

"Isn't it amazing how different things can be when all you do is just connect with somemone. He is talking about the reason why he does what he does. When we get in the field in just 7 days, there is going to be this stigma of "greenie". Our expectations are going to be lower because people will think that "we don't know the language" "we can't teach by the spirit" "we don't know how to talk to people" But really, we do! We have been learning all of this for the past 6 weeks. We are going to be in contact with the people that have been prepared for us. Missions are hard. We are going to be tried and tempted more than we ever have been in our whole lifes. I've gained a lot of respect for Hermano Ralphs today. And let's be honest. It's been a long road but all he's ever wanted to do is prespare us to be the best missionaries the world has ever seen. Through his experiences and what has helped him the most. By sharing countless examples and stories to get it in our heads. By making it hard and having high expectations. There is time to prepare for every purpose under heaven. When the time for performance is present, the time for preparations is past. How grateful I am for this experience and for this difficult time to learn and grow and be the best I can be. How foolish was I to be so stubborn and not understand what I could possibliy learn from this teacher that frustrated me so much. He could possibly have had the biggest impact on me thus far. Our teachers won't always be there to help us and remind us but we will always have the Spirit. Just like in the temple, all that is asked of us is a body and a willing heart. Same with a mission, the spirit does the rest. It is so vital to always have the spirit to be with you! Being a missionary is a full-time job! We got the job and now we need to keep it!"

We then did this activity where we wrote something that each person in our district has improved on in the past 5 weeks, including ourselves. We then went around and shared them. I didn't think it was possible to get any closer with these missionaries, but it was such an awesome experience! When we bring others up, we become more like Christ. We forget about ourselves and then everyone feels good. It invites the Spirit.

On Tuesday after devotional we took an MTC picture. It is the 3rd full MTC picture that has even been taken so I guess it was kind of a big deal haha! Elder Richard G. Hinckley spoke and one thing he said that stuck out is that the greatest suffering a missionary can experience is regret. Will you think... I wish I had or I'm glad I did?

I don't know if I've mentioned this but our district struggles a little bit with singing hymns haha! But recently we've been doing pretty good! And we're even singing in Sacrament Meeting because it's our last one. We're singing God Be WIth You Till We Meet Again and we practiced last night so hopefully it goes well! I did some intense abs this week and let me tell ya, I can feel it haha! I've also been playing a lot of bump which is always so fun! And we did yoga this morning. I seriously wanted to lay on the mat for the rest of the day! It was so relaxing! Well I love you all and I can't wait to talk to you!!! Oh btw...we got a letter yesterday and we won't have any of our luggage until Wednesday night! That's like two days after we get there! Paro esta bien!

con amor,

Hermana Blackner