"HAPPY :)"

Let's just talk about how much I l.o.v.e. this area! Birmingham is the best :) I just feel so blessed to be here and to have this opportunity to come in contact with so many different kinds of people.

I guess you could say that this week kind of defined the mission thus far. ALEJANDRO GOT BAPTIZED!!! His whole story has been a miracle and I can't believe I had the opportunity to be a part of it. After 6 months of waiting, it finally happened! And it was so special. The whole service was in spanish and we still had such awesome support from the ward even though they couldn't understand what was being said. The Bishop gets up there to welcome him to the ward and he says, "Hola! Soy Dora!" hilarious!The best thing though was when Alejandro showed up at church yesterday and with a big smile on his face was wearing a suit!!!! He looked so good and we couldn't even believe it. Brother Westenhofer gave him his mission suit! It was unreal. We've gotten so close to Alejandro and we love teaching him! His desire to learn is amazing and he is so dedicated. We have had so much help from the few members that speak any spanish and it is such a blessing to have our first hispanic baptism. We are fulfilling our purpose as spanish speaking missionaries!

Last monday, we went to the McWane Science Center in Birmingham with Sister Rich and her 5 year old, Eric. It was a blast! We had so much fun just playing around and there was hardly anyone there! We learned a lot and I was also reminded about how much I don't like science haha! It is an awesome place though and all of it is interactive and it was a great afternoon!

Yesterday at church was the primary program! It's been a while since I've seen one of those because of being in an YSA ward, but I loved every minute of it! The kids did such a good job and they knew all the words and most of them even had their parts memorized! And of course, it was so funny as well! Especially because you always have those few who start crying because they're so scared or are singing way too loud. Ahh it was the best! Plus, I was sitting next to this way cute family! It was their firstsunday back to church in a while and I got to color with the little girls and showed them the words to some of the songs that were being sung. I absolutely love Primary songs because they have the best melodies and the lyrics teach so much truth! The gospel couldn't be taught more simply. Definitely a highlight of my week!

Because we've been teaching so many kids, I've been trying to think of more creative ways to teach them and help it stick. So far I made a commandmens matching game which has been successful so far and this week I made a jeopardy game to review all the lessons. We tried it out for the first time and it was awesome! It's going to be so fun to use it in the future with both members and investigators. More ideas are in the works :) I've never been one to get inspiration in the shower, but ever since I've been on my mission, all my good ideas come at 7 o'clock in the morning!

Deantra is moving to Utah next year!!! And she's applying to BYU in a couple weeks! We are beyond excited and are already planning all the fun things we're going to do with her :) Hermana Wong and I just can't even believe that someone we taught and love is still going to be a part of our lives and going to be at the same school as us! It will be such a blessing in her life, I just know it!

This week we had an appointment with this really sweet lady named Mary. Yeah, it freaks me out every single time I write it haha! Anyways, our district leader decided to change our meeting right to the time that we were supposed to meet with her. So we're on our way to the library and we had just typed up a text to send to her as we pulled into the parking lot. We looked up, and there she was, getting out of her car!! So instead of having to worry about rescheduling our appointment we went up to her and asked if she had time right then! She did and we had an awesome discussion. This is just one example of the many tender mercies that happen every single day! The Lord really is in the details of our lives.

So on friday night we had an appointment with the Johnson's. Serena and Sarah have been coming to church the past couple weeks which is so good but we're still waiting for David to make that step. We were just expecting to do the usual sitdown lesson but when we pull into the driveway we see David starting a fire. Sarah was so excited to see us and couldn't wait to teach us all about roasting marshmallows. They had gotten hot dogs and s'mores stuff. It was such a wonderful surprise! We got to get to know them better and talk about mission life and just enjoy each other's company. We were joking around and laughing with Sarah and it was such a cool experience. David brought out his guitar and started playing while we talked. ANd David and Serena sang together which we hadn't seen them do before. They really do have an awesome marriage and obviously the gospel will make it even better! There's something about nature and music that totally invites the spirit. I was lovin' it! But then it got better...

He has been begging me to play the violin but I haven't yet because I don't really have anything memorized and he's like way better than me. But he brings out this violin and lets me play it. I was a little rusty but it felt so good to hold a violin again. Then he tells me the story behind it. It was made in 1800 in Germany and has been played in both the Tennessee and Alabama symphony orchestras. I was DYING! I couldn't even believe it and I immdiately fell in love with that violin! It has amazing tone and the color is gorgeous and I just wanted it haha! He was planning on selling it a while ago, but then changed his mind. But he told me to write home to mom and dad and tell them about it. Wink, wink... haha :) It was a really special friday night!

Well, all that being said. I'm just really, really happy! I feel so blessed every day and absolutely love every minute of being a missionary! There is so much more to do and so much more I want to become, but I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world.

This next week is going to be a great one so I can't wait to tell you all about it! In the meantime, my invitation is to focus on your prayers this week! Really making each one a spiritual experience and being in tune with the Holy Ghost so that you can communicate with our Heavenly Father. And prepare yourself for conference! Write down so good questions!!

con mucho amor,

Hermana Blackner

"M&Ms"

It's been another whirlwind of a week! 

It feels like months ago, but last Tuesday Elder Kopischke from the Seventy came. It was definitely the highlight of the week. 6 hours of spiritual uplifting. So much fun! I loved every minute of it and was so excited to have that opportunity.

A few of the highlights:
 -Come to church with a question in mind. It should be one of your most spiritual experiences each week. And it will allow you to get more out of the meeting! 
-live your dream We all have dreams and we should have a vision of how we can accomplish them.When you wake up in the morning, just lay there for a few minutes and picture your vision God's big dream Moses 1:39 -Our goal should be to find our replacement teach and baptize someone who will someday serve a mission too :) 
-M&M- the most wanted candy in the mission, missionaries and miracles, missionaries and members, mary and mckenzie, might and mind. what other m&ms can you think of? It seems to be a theme in my life (maybe just because of my name) but I've decided to adopt this motto and always have some m&ms on hand! It should serve as a great reminder of my purpose and also, I definitely need chocolate :) 

At this meeting I also saw some of my district family from the MTC!!! It seriously felt like being at home. It was something familiar and I missed them so much and it was so good to see them and to catch up on mission life! I probably talk about my MTC days too much, but it changed my life and I'm so grateful for the people I met there! it.was.a.blast. This week Alejandro had his baptismal interview and he is so excited!!! As are we :) We got to practice some good spanish. Afterwards, we went to dinner with a couple in our ward to the place where Alejandro works. New China Buffet. Someone please explain to me how it makes any sense that a hispanic is working with the chinese. I'm still not sure how they communicate haha! But it was SO good! And Hermana Wong and I ate way too much and I regretted it a little bit later. It was fun while it lasted! One of the things I love about the South is that since everyone loves Jesus, it becomes "normal" to just have gospel discussions with people. We went down to the leasing office one day to say hi to Sister Malon and ended up having a gospel discussion about faith and service and tithing and all sorts of other good stuff with about 5 people, all of different denominations. It was awesome! And we started and ended with a prayer and shared some scriptures and had a great little discussion. We all kind of marveled at how cool it was that a group of so very different people could get together and do that. It was added to my list entitled only in alabama.

We've been teaching this 13 year old boy named Lawrence who is so solid. And so we stopped by his house one afternoon and asked if we could follow up with his mom about him going to church. Well, she came out and said that she had been talking with some people and how he would be staying at his own church because we limit people and have all these boundaries and how he would not be doing that "missionary thing". Well that opened up an opportunity to testify to her about how keeping the commandments blesses our lives and doesn't hinder us in any way but keeps us safe. And how ultimately the way we find truth is by asking Heavenly Father. So we invited her to pray about the things that we've been teaching and talking to her about and she said it all made sense and that he would be allowed to come to church and decide for himself. So that was good, but it was a little terrifying at first. We didn't want to lose him but we didn't want to disrespect his mother either. So she went back inside and we got to talk to Lawrence and he says he still feels really good about getting baptized and that he knows it's true. I just told him to always remember that he is a son of His Heavenly Father and to always remember how much He loves him and that He is so proud of the choices he is making and his desire to learn more. You could tell that he was kind of down and that he didn't really know what to do because he was in a tough spot, but I promised him that as he continues to come closer to Christ and learn more of Him that he would be a great example to his family. We wanted to read some scriptures with him and he picked Mosiah so we got to talk about King Benjamin and about following the prophet and serving others. It turned out to be an awesome night! 

Lastly, the Mulligans got baptized!!!! I called it the baptism of the year because we've all been waiting for this moment and it's taken a lot to get them to this point. But the spirit was so strong the whole time and it was wonderful! The girls looked adorable in their baptism dresses and they had a lot of family come which was great! The gospel really has blessed the family and hopefully Nicholas will be soon to follow :) We're giving him till October 15th because then they can be sealed on their anniversary next year! Yay!

I can't think of much else. We're staying busy as always and of course having a lot of fun :) We have an awesome ward, an awesome area, an awesome distrcict, and all is good in the hood... (literally) I can't even begin to describe some of the areas we drove through yesterday! Crazy stuff! until next week :) 

♥ con amor, Hermana Blackner

"Mucho Gozo in Mi Vida"

Well, I must say, this was a pretty awesome week!

 

On Tuesday we had zone training. One awesome thing that we are asked to do is:

1) find a trait or two that you love about your companion

2) define the principle behind the trait

3) share an example of how they exemplify this trait

4) find 1-2 scriptures that go with it

5) think about how you can emulate it

 

So! Everyone should do it! Either with a spouse, a sibling, a best friend, or a mission companion. And then share it with them and with me :)

 

Thursday was temple day! Hermana Wong and I could hardly contain our excitement. But really. We have been waiting for this day for a very long time :) And it was fantastic! The temple really does have such a special spirit even if you're just walking on the grounds. I was in heaven the whole time and just loved every minute of it. I sat in between Sister Hanks and another senior missionary and they were both talking to me the whole time and I just trying to take in everything and enjoy the peace. And Sister Hanks said she felt bad for me because I was in an "old lady sandwich" haha! I seriously love her so much! I don't know what else to say about it besides it was just what I needed and I wish we could go every week!

 

This is what President Hanks said in his weekly email. I thought I would pass it on because I loved it!

 "1) As we attend the temple it is good to focus on the covenants that we are making with God. Depending on how you count them, there are 4 or 5 major promises. They have to do with us placing our lives in compliance with how Heavenly Father has asked us to live, with maintaining devotion to the cause of truth, with charity and love, with disciplining ourselves, and with “being willing to seek in every way to contribute to the great preparation that the earth may be made ready to receive…Jesus Christ.” (J.E. Talmage).

I ask you this… who best lived a life that demonstrated each of the covenants that you and I made in the temple? The obvious answer is the Son of God. Was his not the most obedient, loving, unselfish, completely committed life to ever grace the earth?

So, to me, the Temple is really about the Savior.

Sometimes we go to the temple looking for some new and great insight… and perhaps the greatest insight that lies right in front of us all along is that the temple is really about us making promises to God, that we will comport our life in some small way to be similar to the life the Master lived while he was on the earth.

2) A second idea comes from the dedication of the Kirtland Temple in DC 109: 22-23. I think it applies directly to you… the Disciples of the Alabama Birmingham Mission!

“And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them; And from this place they may bear exceedingly great and glorious tidings, in truth, unto the ends of the earth, that they may know that this is thy work, and that  thou hast put forth thy hand, to fulfil that which thou hast spoken by the mouths of the prophets, concerning the last days.” (DC 109: 22-23)"

 

I pretty much died of happiness when I got the letter with the notes from all the fam in it! All the spanish, and exciting updates, and southern phrases. All of it was buenisimo! And I could not even handle the fact that there are new scripture mastery!!!

Pretty sure Hermana Wong thought I was crazy, but it's a big deal to me!

So you better believe that when we had media time this week I looked up all the info about it and printed out the new page and calculated how many new ones I have to memorize. Like 8 from each standard work so that's about 32 scriptures! Not bad right? It was interesting to see the themes of the new ones and how they relate to what's going on in the world today. Maybe I'm putting too much thought into it, but really...how can you love the scriptures too much?

 

We actually spoke quite a bit of spanish this week. It really is so helpful just to be able to get some experience using it.

 

This week I noticed a lot of joy. I guess I just recognized how the people we're teaching truly are changing and as they are coming closer to Christ, they are becoming more happy! And they can see how living the gospel really does make their lives more simple and that their day goes better. It is awesome! And it makes me so happy too! I feel like recently we've really been helping people to understand their purpose and as we explain that they are children of our Heavenly Father who loves them so much individually, it affects the way they see themselves and helps them to realize that they have infinite worth and potential and that we're here to help them every step of the way. Some people really have no idea why they're here or who they are.

 

Christy got baptized this weekend! She could not stop smiling from ear to ear :) She was SO happy! And she said she couldn't sleep at all that night because she was so excited! After she got confirmed the next morning, she said she felt like she was floating on air. This is what it's all about. The blessing of the Holy Ghost is inmeasurable.

 

The M girls are getting baptized this week and hopefully the dad will make that decision soon! The mom was so excited to tell us at church on Sunday that her husband had told her the night before that he needed to prepare to take her to the temple.how precious is that?!! So many good things are in store for that family :)

 

And last but not least...

We worked our way up the calling tree to ask President a few questions. And guess what...he said YES to all of them!!!

1-We get to go to the McWayne Science Center in Birmingham next week on preparation day with Sister Rich

2- We get to go to the temple again on my birthday (the big two-one...still trying to get over that one) to do baptisms with the young women including hopefully 5 of our new recent converts that are that age. What better place to spend your birthday than the Lord's house? If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited :)

3- ALEJANDRO IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!

Not even kidding. He's been to Sacrament Meeting twice and since he's been ready for months to get baptized, the waiting game is finally over! We're just going to be working with him to make some commitments about reading a conference talk or something when he can't make it to church. Our first Hispanic baptism! And what a huge blessing this is! Besides faith and fasting and prayer, the one thing we can take away from this is...when in doubt, just ask.

 

More details to come! The work is going well and we are loving life and all our mucho investigadores! Elder Oslapas likes to call them future members :)

 

In the words of President...Birmingham B is ON FIRE!!!

 

con amor,

Hermana Blackner

" I Became a Part of a Country Song Today "

Well, I don't even know where to start! There is way too much going through my head right now. We are busy, busy, busy!

 

We went fishing this morning with our friend Nikki! The country girl totally came out and it was hilarious! We're sitting there, while she puts all the bait on, tells us everything we need to know and talks about all her knowledge while wearing blue jeans, cowboy boots, and a pink camo hat. We were looking over a nice pond with blue skies and sunshine. Lots of bugs around and a dog that wanted to jump in the pond and then splash us. It was pretty great! Did I paint a good enough picture?

One thing I learned this week is that everything you thought just happened in movies, happens in real life down here in Alabama! I'll spare the details, but let's just say things can get pretty crazy!

 

September is going to be wild and we are preparing for baptisms every single weekend! Christy will happen this week which we are so excited about! She is incredible and has such a strong testimony and really needs the gospel in her life (along with everyone else!). And the Elders are having two baptisms as well!

 

I don't even know what happened this past week because I'm like 4 days behind in my journal! But things to look forward to this week include zone training tomorrow and temple on thursday!!! And then next week Elder Kopischke from the Seventy is coming so that should be awesome!

 

This week I've been studying some old notes and I came across a quote that says

Obedience brings blessings

Exact obedience brings miracles

 

As this new transfer begins I told Hermana Wong that there were a lot of goals that we should make as a companionship and that as we focus on being exactly obedient we will be even more blessed than we are now! Later that day we had an awesome lesson with Alejandro at the temple. Really what happened is that Brother Campbell taught the lesson and fluent spanish and Hermana Wong and I sat there smiling and nodding haha! However, the miracle is that Bro Campbell offered to bring him to church for an hour so he could get a church tour and see sacrament meeting and then take him to work on time. It was the most amazing thing ever! This man has been learning about the gospel for months and so ready to be baptized and we thought he would never have the opportunity to come to church until he found a new job. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. Thank goodness for Brother Campbell. When Alejandro walked into the church yesterday, he had the biggest smile on his face! It. was. the. best!!!

 

On thursday we participated in some pretty crazy prayers. One was with this guy who is our age that is pretty confident and called himself a real life thug. But he's trying to change and knows he needs to be better and started smoking some weed the night before but then threw it away because he knew it was wrong. Don't be impressed yet because he still has a lot of work to do haha! however, we had him say the closing prayer and we're standing in a circle holding hands (people always want to pray like that down here) and he is saying some powerful stuff. And then pretty soon he's preaching,

his voice is getting louder

he starts quoting scripture and Martin Luther King

then he starts repeating phrases

and then I lose it. Like I could not control my laughter and I bust a little bit but try to keep it quiet but then Hermana Wong starts giggling too and then it's game over.

I was just praying that it was going to be over soon so that we weren't too distracting. So that was a great start to our morning haha!

 

That night we went to go stop by this family's house that we hadn't seen in a while. The dad is a less-active and he comes out and you could tell he had been drinking a little bit but he decides to start talking to us about accepting people for who they are and not judging people if they're trying to follow Christ and then we go inside and he gathers his whole family around and decides to have a prayer. But not just one prayer. No. Every single person had to say a prayer. So once again, we're holding hands in a circle and Hermana Wong starts and we go around until both parents, all 3 kids, and I had all prayed. Yup, 7 prayers. Good stuff. He then wanted to make a game plan for his family to have them become closer to Christ. And he was ready to have us come over and teach the lessons and reminded us to pray to find out what the spirit would have us say and decided that he needed to have a lesson on strength. And kept saying how blessed they were to have us there. It was quite the visit and I came out of there not even knowing what to think. However I did learn a few things. Regardless of whether the Grants join the church or not, we know their faith will be strengthened and that as we rely on the spirit, it will touch their hearts. I don't remember the little details of what he said that night but I do remember how I felt. There was definitely an increase in confidence and a desire to continue to go and do because there is a reason why I'm here. And that we are all children of our Heavenly Father and that as we see people's full potential, it makes it easier not to give up on them. We can't give up becuase you never know what someone is going to decide to make that change and decide that they want to live differently.

 

I went on an exchange this weekend and it was so awesome! Sometimes change is nice and it can be fun working with different missionaries and seeing what their strengths are and how you can work together in a different way. Plus, a lot of their investigators are hispanic so I got to speak more spanish! Probably the highlight of the 24 hours was getting a call from a recent convert that was in Atlanta for the night before getting deported back to Guatemala the next morning. We talked to him for a while and then sang him Abide With Me in spanish. It was such an awesome experience to be able to lift someone's spirits and bring peace into their life during such a difficult time. The spirit was so strong and I couldn't believe that I was able to connect with someone over the phone in a different language and that I was able to help them grow closer to Christ, even if it was simply through a song. The gospel is true and is universal!

 

I had some other experiences this week with music and so my invitation is to use music for good this week! Either to influence yourself or others. But listen to some uplifting music and see the difference that it can make in your life!

 

After hearing about the football game and helping Deantra with her BYU application, I was missing Provo this week, but being in Alabama is pretty great too :) I love my life! And in respect to football season, check out my planner for this transfer. We just won't let those Auburn fans see it ;)

 

Make it a great week!

~Hermana Blackner

"Good Things to Come"

Hello from a cold and rainy Labor Day in Birmingham!

We got permission to use a members computer so I'm sitting on a couch with a laptop. Kind of feels like a normal day! Minus the skirt and whatnot. This week was A.W.E.S.O.M.E! Hermana Wong and I had pretty high goals for this week and we worked really hard and blew them out of the water!

Let's start with the news you've all been waiting for...

HERMANA WONG AND I ARE STAYING IN BIRMINGHAM!

We're pumped about it because seriously so many exciting things are happening this transfer! General Conference, my birthday (t.w.e.n.t.y.-o.n.e. years old...I can't even believe it), we get to go to the temple, a general authority is coming, and we're hoping that all of our baptismal dates with go through! SO much to look forward to!

Getting that transfer call was so nerve-racking though! Our hearts were beating outside of our chests. And the assistants were just takin their time... crackin jokes... like it was no big deal! 

So, y'all should read the August Ensign! it was fantastic! Quality stuff.I seriously loved every article in there! 

In other news, the weather has been HOTT these days and I'm finally getting some color. Woo-hoo! 

And something that a friend of mine told me a while ago is to expect miracles. I never really believed that statement until I started looking for the miracles. There are things that happen e.v.e.r.y. day. At district meeting this past week Elder Frederickson asked if anyone would like to share the miracles they've seen. It was amazing to me the stories that were told and the changes that are being made in the lives of the people here, including us as missionaries. 

Another thing I learned this week is the joy that can come from your investigators and it was kind of a testimony to me of the truthfulness that we truly do gain so much happiness when we serve those around us. There were a few times this week when someone we were teaching would share an experience they had where they felt the spirit, or when they helped someone, or what they learned from reading the scriptures, or they bore their testimony of the things that they were starting to know were true. It is the most exciting thing ever! And I'm just sitting there, listening to them with a big smile on my face because I'm just so happy that they are coming closer to Christ. It really does feel so great to know that someone is keeping their commitments and doing everything they can to strengthen their relationship with their Heavenly Father. It's evidence that I am fulfilling my purpose and I just get so excited about what's to come for these people! Seriously, Hermana Wong and I could talk about the blessings of the temple for dayssss. We love it! Something a lot of missionaries do is try and see every person in white, entering the waters of baptism. For me, it's always seeing them in the temple. I just want to go to the temple with everyone!

And now, on to the investigators. We started teaching this boy named Lawrence. When we came back for our second lesson he was running out of his house, right on time, with his book of mormon in hand, and had read the first chapter. It was the cutest thing ever!!! 

And we're teaching this man named Mr. Sunny. He is quite the character. He's always talkin about being broke and is not doing good because he has a grandkid hangin on him. And he's always making cornbread when we're over there! So he gets up in the middle of the lesson and says, "I gotta check the cornbread before it burns up on me!" We even recorded him saying it because it's just so hilarious! I don't even know how to describe the man, but we broke his heart this week because we had to have a serious discussion about him keeping his commitments and our purpose there as missionaries. We said we didn't care about him any less but that we wouldn't get to spend as much time teaching him if he wasn't progressing or working on anything, primarily his cigarettes. So we'll see where that one goes. I'll send a picture of him soon! 

Let's talk about church on Sunday. So investigators only have to attend church twice before they can get baptized and we were so excited to see Christy and help her prepare this week for her baptism on the 7th. Well, the member that was supposed to pick her up walks into church late. Oh no! We also were expecting one of our hispanic families to come and we didn't see them either :( And the Bradt's weren't there! Where are all our people?? Well pretty soon, a less-active showed up that we were so excited about so that was good! And then right after her, an investigator family that we hadn't seen for a while because they were sick showed up! So that was an awesome surprise. And then right after Sacrament Meeting, we walk out and the Melijas are there! They just had some trouble finding the church. And the ward was so so nice to them and made them feel so welcome and they loved all of church and it was just the best! This week we taught them about the tree of life. So we read through 1 Nephi 8 stopping along the way and drew a picture of what was happening, and then talked about how it applies to us. The girls loved it! We got way more creative with our lessons this week, especially because we are teaching so many kids and it was a blast! I'm just lovin' it :)

This week Hermana Wong and I will be getting our first legit, all southern, home-cooked meal. There is an older lady in our ward who's son is visiting from Germany and we went and taught them a lesson this week. And he has lived all over the world and still says that Birmingham, Alabama is is favorite place on earth. Now, besides the fact that it's his home, he went on a described all these reasons why! The landscape, the weather, the economy, the food, the people. All of it! He just loves it! So they invited us back tomorrow and they are going to cook for us :) We told them that we weren't even looking for anything specific. We just wanted authentic haha! 

Well my invitation to y'all this week is to memorize something. So many people talk about the power that something has once you memorize it. It becomes yours. So take a scripture, a poem, a quote, a hymn, any good literature and see how it blesses you!

love love love,

Hermana Blackner