"follow him and his example"

Well it's been a great second week in good ol' B-ham!

Probably the most exciting news is we have a BAPTISM on sunday!!! Woo-hoo! Alexsia (13) and Cameron (9) are siblings and we are so excited for them! Their mom is a member and they have a little sister as well but it has been so fun to teach them and to see them at church at other activities! Things get super busy with a baptism coming up but we feel so blessed to have this opportunity to witness it!

We had a zone training meeting on Friday and I got mail!!! Like seriously, there was a huge stack all for Hermana Blackner :) Thanks for all the love! It was quite possibly the best part of the day!

Alabama definitely has southern charm and is green like washington but kind of different. Like there are lots of different kinds of trees and mostly just foliage. Bushes and plants and stuff everywhere! Also apparently this has been a cool summer (thank goodness) and so yeah, we pretty much sweat as soon as we walk out the door but we're just counting our blessings that is hasn't been as bad as years past. Probably the worst part is getting eaten by mosquitoes!!! It's so bad and we are always so itchy! I think I had like 20 after the first day in Alabama. There's some hills but not any mountains or anything and the roads are awful! The reason why we can't really ride bikes is because there are so many potholes and the roads are so narrow! We would probably get run over!

I started the New Testament this week and the thing that has stood out to me the most is how many times the Savior says, "Follow Me" How simple is that? He just asks us to follow Him and His example.

Ya know how during fast and testimony meetings there's usually a theme that kind of seems to happen? Well, yesterday it was definitely on families. And ironically enough, the closing hymn was Families Can Be Together Forever. I am soooo grateful for mi familia and for all the fun that we have together and for the things that we have learned and all the time that we spent reading the scriptures together and making the gospel the center of our lives. I love each one of you and want you to know that I have a testimony that families can be together forever and how important it is to live the gospel. Being on a mission has really opened my eyes to how different kinds of people live and there really is a night and day difference to be in a home where the spirit is present and where it's not. Keep being awesome and doing all the little things that strengthen your testimony!

One thing I would encourage everyone to do is to have investigators over to your home with the missionaries. One of our goals each week is lessons with a member present and for some reason I was always thinking they come with us to the investigators homes. But then a lady in the ward asked when she could have someone over this week and I was like, that's genius! Part of our ward mission plan is to have an investigator in your home I think quarterly and I know that it will be so beneficial and really help the investigator to progress and feel the spirit.

We met this awesome new family this week! It was a headquarters referral, so kinda a big deal! And so we contacted them and set up an appointment. It was a spanish referral so there was a little bit of a lack of communication and they thought we were coming at 10:30amand we thought we were coming at 6:30 pm. Don't ask me how that happened haha! Anyways, a lot of things had fallen through that day and we were having a hard time finding the house and we pulled up to this driveway to turn around and then realized that it was the house we were looking for! We knocked on the door and we talking to the girls for a while as we waited for the mom. The girls spoke english so that was good. Then we taught them the Restoration in total spanglish. And they just took in everything we were saying and understood it all. Just like Joseph Smith, they are looking for which church is true and it was so fun to talk to them and get to know them. We gave them a couple chapters to read in the Book of Mormon and asked if they would pray about it and they all said yes! And then before we even had a chance to ask, they asked if they could come to church and we were like, "of course!" We left that lesson feeling so great and are so excited to find people that are prepared! There really is such a difference and we can't wait to teach them more!

I've played the piano a few times this week and everyone just raves about how good I am. It makes me laugh because all I've been playing is hymns hahah! But maybe there just aren't as many piano players around here and maybe I'm just used to being at BYU or the MTC where everyone plays. 

The last thing I can think of is gratitude. Our Relief Society lesson was on it yesterday and I was thinking about the tender mercies of the Lord. My first week in Alabama was a little rough. It was just a lot different than the MTC and I felt like I came out with so much confidence and felt prepared and then I just had no clue what I was doing. I didn't know anyone or where I was at all. Yes, I was still in America, but let me tell you...it's a lot different down here. I was getting frustrated with things and didn't really have an opinion about anything and kinda just took the back seat. Especially because my companion didn't really have the opportunity to do a lot with her trainer so I wanted her to be able to do things how she wanted for a while. I would get frustrated tracting and would just have these internal conflicts and think why I am here and then answer my own questions. Of course I know why I'm here! Or I don't know what to add to this lesson. Yes you do! Or I don't have any good ideas for what this person needs. C'mon Hermana Blackner, you can do this. So obviously there were a lot of prayers said and a lot of self-reflecting and trying to have a positive attitude and one thing that I noticed every single day was how the Lord was looking out for me and putting things in my path that would make everything seem alright again. And I made it a goal to start writing them down. Heavenly Father blesses us with so much and even on the hard days, you just have to look around you and find them! And this past week was just a million times better and I feel a lot more confident about how things are going. Hermana Wong and I have really started to have fun and click. We have become a team and now that I have met pretty much all of our investigators I feel more a part of what's going on and know that I have strengths and things that I can contribute for this work. Yes, days are still hard and yes, there is so much more to learn but I can do it! I kept on asking people when missionary work was going to get hard and then BAM! It hit me right in the face. But like I said, all the tender mercies make it worth it and I cannot wait for the next 16 months!

Missionary work is amazing and the gospel blesses and changes lives. I am so grateful for all the experiences I've had in my life that I get to share with the people here. Have a great week and look for those opportunities to share what you know!

con mucho amor,

Hermana Blackner