Men Are That They Might Have Joy - 2 Nephi 2:25

This week was c.r.a.z.y.! But I think every week in mission life tends to be on the adventure side. There's never a dull moment. The weather is still trying to make up it's mind so we've had some beautiful short-sleeve days and some bundle up days tambien.

We got to go to the temple on tuesday and it was glorious! Out of all my favorite places in the whole entire world...definitely makes the top of the list. Two words that could describe the experience:

{joy & peace}

Joy because that's what Heavenly Father created us to have. And peace because the spirit is just so strong within in the walls of the Lord's house.

In case y'all didn't know, Satan is real. And he's not fun to deal with. But guess what happens when we stand up to Satan? You get stronger. And you prove to Heavenly Father that you really really really do want to follow Him and keep His commandments and that nothing can stop you from progressing and making it one step closer to returning to live with Him.

"Don’t give up. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead Youkeep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come. Some blessingscome soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of JesusChrist, they come."

Sister T and I went exploring a little bit in downtown Bham this week. Saw some crazies, had some good gospel discussions, even met an awesome man named Bob at the UAB hospital. He asked me about the salmon up in WA and thought I was going to steal his money. And as with most everyone else, he could read me like a book and knew that I didn't know what to think about him. He is a character! And bless his heart, he has cancer. But I think we were able to make his day a little bit better. I know I would want visitors if I was laying in a hospital bed! He told us that we shouldn't pray with our arms folded because then we're closing off everything that is in our hearts. So we just prayed with our arms open wide so all the good stuff that we were saying could be sent up to heaven :)

Sports update of the week:

(since none of y'all have even mentioned MARCH MADNESS. Only one of my favorite times of the year...) 

Sign me up for FIFA twenty fourteen. Yup, you heard it here first. I'm gonna become a professional futbol playa. You know me and all my mad skills with all those hispanics.

ha. ha. funny joke! I can't play soccer to save my life, but we just have a blast every friday night with all our amigos. It's a work in progress. Ya never know, I might actually get aggressive enough to be good at this. Need to work on my agility. Literally have no control over my feet. But good times nonetheless.

SUCCESS STORIES

This is what we were asked to share last week at district meeting. I was feeling a little brain dead that morning so this is what I came up with. Success is different for every person. And recently for me, success can sometimes be just waking up in the morning. Success can be making it one more mile down the road. Or even just to the next door. Success is knowing that you're a child of your Heavenly Father and knowing that He always loves you and is willing to help you. Success means that you just keep trying and that even when you're on a mission to serve others that somehow you end up serving yourself because you never knew how strong you really were. You become more converted, you learn priceless knowledge, and at the end of the day you just have gratitude because you know that you didn't get through the day on your own. Our Heavenly Father is constantly mindful of us and we just have to look for His hand in our lives because He wants us to find SUCCESS.

I thought I would hop on the band wagon and talk about our new teaching method. Ready for it? 

The Restoration of the Gospel in 7 minutes. The investigator prays, gets a book of mormon, and is invited to be baptized all in about 20 minutes. Crazy right?! Well it works. They teach themselves, want to read more, and they have a stronger testimony of prayer. Baptisms are supposed to explode and this helps us to find the elect. It's a big deal. Kind of a new adjustment and takes lots of practice, but is so much fun!

Today we are off to the zoo! I love going to the zoo so there will probably be good pictures next week :)

con amor, 

Hermana Blackner