August 12, 2013

"1 down, 35 more to go"

Hello!
 
I decided that I should probably start putting titles for my letters. Sometimes it's hard to think of one but today it comes from a guy in our ward. That's what he said to me last night at the baptism haha! Wouldn't that be awesome to see 35 people get baptized and make that decision to come closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ! It was such an awesome experience to be a part of that baptism and to see how the gospel has blessed that family! It really reminded me of my purpose as a missionary and that a baptism is evidence of me fulfilling that purpose. It shows that someone has taken the invitation to come unto Christ and to follow in His footsteps. It was a happy happy day and everything went smoothly and they are going to be an awesome asset to our ward!
 
One of our other awesome investigators is Alejandro. Yay for using espanol! He is pretty much golden. We go to visit him once a week and we are always just blown away by his diligence and his faith. He has read the whole book of mormon, a copy of the conference ensign, and is so ready to be baptized. Why isn't he you might ask? He works on sunday and therefore can't come to church. Otherwise, you better believe that would've happened a long time ago. He is just amazing! Anyways, we fasted with himon saturday and we really hope that as he continues to search that the Lord will bless him with a new job! We're crossing our fingers.
 
We had an exchange this week with the Sister Training Leaders. Hermana Wong and I planned out this awesome day with all this appointments and extra back-up plans. I was staying and she was going to their area. So we make the switch and then go. Well, what we thought was going to be an awesome day turned out to be quite the opposite. e.v.e.r.y. single appointment fell through. Not even kidding. Including the back up plans! Ahhh! It was a little rough but we just kept on trying to visit who we could and come up with something to do all day. The best part of the day by far was the weather. pouring down rain. All y'all from washington might think you know what rain is. False. You have never seen rain like this. It was so bad that I was driving through a flood and couldn't see through the windshield and we had to pull over and wait for the story to pass. Then we continued to go down the road only to find a river in the road!! I couldn't believe it! Well, there was no way to get around that one so we had to call Carol and tell her we couldn't come. It was such a bummer, but that's how missionary work goes. Sometimes things just don't work out haha!
 
The thunderstorms are awesome here! There is some serious booming and sometimes it even shakes our apartment! And the lightning fills the whole sky! But it's always humid haha! The best is when Hermana Wong's glasses fog up when we walk outside hahaha!
 
We have been stressing about miles as usual and decided to pull out our bikes one day. Haha that was a joke. We start out and I'm like, "yeah i got this!" and then about .2 down the road. DYING. All I want to do for the rest of my life is eat fruits and veggies, work out hardcore and sleep! But we made it! And we survived! We just were very sticky and wet. But it's all good in the neighborhood. Side note...I will be so tired of dogs by the end of these 18 months. They are everywhere! And everyone has one! And it always makes me really nervous when they start coming after us! But it's ok. I think they're growing on me...
 
One thing I've learned this week is that I need to work on hiding my emotions. Apparently my face tells it all. We were at a member's house and Brother Chandler kept asking us questions and before I even answered he knew what i was going to say just by my facial expressions! And then someone asked me if I was ok one time when all I was doing was thinking! And then the next day at a lesson, I shared something with Carol that I had been thinking about last time we visited her and she was like, I could tell something was up. Oh great! It's becoming a problem haha!
 
Probably my favorite lesson this week was with Sister Agbay. She is super awesome and has so much faith and really relies on the Lord for everything in her life. So we show up and had asked her to read a couple chapters in the Book of Mormon and we could immediately tell that something was up when we walked in. So she said she had been having a discussion with some people at work and that she didn't feel like God had led her to open the book because she had some doubts about Joseph Smith. Anyways...we cleared those up and she said she would still pray to see if reading it was something she should do. Then she asked us to share out testimonies of the book and why we are serving missions. How awesome is that? No one asks us to share, usually we just do it anyways haha! So we both talked about how the Book of Mormon has blessed our lives. And the spirit was so strong in that room!!! It was overwhelming and she was just speechless. So we just sat there and she cried and then she picked out specific things from each of ours that touched her. Hermana Wong had a testimony of peace and how it has really helped her to feel hope in her life and how she came to know it was true. Mine was more of joy and happiness and how grateful I am to know that I can be with my family forever and how much I learn from it and how I am here to share it with others because I can't imagine my life without it. It was so awesome and it was amazing to see how the gospel can bless everyone's life and that it can help you get through the specific things that you are going through and that it can touch you in different ways but that it's true and there's no way that you can deny that. It was the best!
 
I'm running short on time but I've been reminded a lot about our family scripture study and how important that was and how I learned so much from it so keep it up!
 
Funny thing of the week:
If you ever want to be asked about your boyfriend or significant other or missionary, just go on a mission. How ironic that the time when you're not supposed to be focusing on that stuff is the time that I get asked about it the most. My favorite response: I'm just keeping my options open :)
 
have a good one!
 
love you all!
Hermana Blackner




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