Week #6 - 2014 Dec 29

Heyyyy! 

What's uppp?!

This week was really great. I LOVE the Christmas season because everyone is just so happy and full of love! It's amazing :) AND, I got to facetime you all! So much fun! Geez, I was doing so well with not being homesick, and then I see all of you and I'm like mannn I miss you all more than I thought I did! But don't worry, all is well, my head is back in the game and my focus is on the people in Ft. Bragg. :) It was just sooooo EXCITING to see the people i love the most!! You all looked amazing. And I love Matty's haircut. Hehe it looks super good. 

But yeah, Christmas was really fun. We spent it with members. We went to the Horn's first and they're amazing. We got to watch their kids open their presents and it was so much fun to see their reactions. Loved it! And then we ate this amazing breakfast that Sister Horn made. AND THEN. We jumped on their trampoline that they got for Christmas. SOO much fun. Hahah it was awesome. And I've never jumped on a trampoline on Christmas day. So that was exciting news. It was such a beautiful day. Like, we were working up a sweat jumping on that thing. I love the sun ahah so Christmas day was perfect! It felt like May up in Canada. It was great. And then I got to facetime home! So awesome. Not enough time of course, but this is an exact obedience mission! And it's hard to break the rules when your trainer is always there. Anyway, I kept it right on time because she was like right across from me probably watching the time for me hahah. But all is well! Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles! Voila! And I've seen that happen, and we need all the miracles we can get, so exact obedience is good. Anywho, y'all filled me up with so much love, i was so happy go lucky after talking to you all! <3 :D

Then we went over to the May's house. We went for a walk to a field where the kids played. It was super relaxing and the sun was shining. Ahh it was so good. And then we went back to the house for food! Lots of food :) That family is like borderline perfect. I want a family like the May family one day :)

The highlight of the week was definitely Christmas. But one of our investigators, Aly, is probably getting baptized at the end of January! YAY. So amazing. I'm so excited. She's so ready for baptism and the only thing holding her back was her mom, and now we have permission from her mom. Now it's just on her to pick a day that works best for who she wants there and such. But we're hoping to get a day picked out tonight when we see them for dinner. It's gonna be good! I'm excited for that family. Miracles...I'm telling ya...nothing but miracles in that home. :) 

Hmm, what else happened this week. It was a pretty laidback week because of Christmas. OH YEAH. On Christmas Eve, we got a text and it was like 'hey Sister Blumel, it's kind of short notice but can you give a talk on Sunday?' haha so of course I said yes. So I spoke yesterday in church! Everyone said it was good..but they could just be saying that to be nice haha. I talked about having Christ-centered goals for the New Year. :) 

Oh TODAY. We had a dance party with the Horn's. We being, me and Sis Olson and the others sisters that live across the street from us (the work with the other ward that goes to our building). IT WAS AWESOME. It was approved music, don't worry hahaha. We're obedient remember! Haha but seriously it was so much fun. Definitely needed that. I miss dance parties hahah cause me and Sara would have them all the time. So it was good to just let go for a little bit! Haha loved it. 

I think that's all the exciting stuff for the week. Just want to let you all know that I know Christ is the best gift that we have ever received. Christ is our Saviour, I know that. He loves us more than we can even comprehend. And He has given us a way back to our Father in Heaven. He has literally saved us. He did this through the Atonement and we need to make that a part of our lives. It's never too late to come unto Christ :) 

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you all and I miss you! Have a wonderful New Years and stay up till midnight and party extra hard for me!! ;) Haha. 

Much love, 

Sister Blumel xoxox

MTC pictures

Amy's MTC family

The MTC Sisters

Sister Ibarra & Sister Blumel

Having fun with the girls

Being silly at the MTC with Sister Ibarra

Amy at the MTC

The famous MTC map

The MTC sisters all going to North Carolina

Sister Blumel in front of Provo Temple

Sister Ibarra & Sister Blumel

Week #5 - 2014 Dec 22

Heyyya!

This week has been the best yet. It was super busy and the busier the better! On Tuesday, we had our Christmas Zone conference and it was really awesome. Lots of inspiration. And our mission president and his wife are so amazing. I love them a lot :) so it was a great meeting! 

We also had such an amazing lesson with a returning less active. Her name is Catrina and she wants to come back to the church so bad and I'm so excited for her. We taught a lesson that was completely guided by the spirit. It was so amazing. We talked about the Atonement and how it's never too late to come back and how God loves her sooo much. And then we talked about how because she wants to come back and has that desire, Satan's gonna try his best to keep her away, but with the armor of God he won't be able to have any sort of effect on her. And then we talked a lot about that. It was soooo good. I love the spirit so much and the guidance that it brings. 

We also taught this couple who are returning less actives the Plan of Salvation and it went so well! The husband is a Christmas hater so we related almost everything to Christmas...it was super funny. And then when we were explaining the resurrection we told him the GOOD NEWS that if his leg gets blown off during a deployment or whatever he'll be able to get it back as good as new!! Ahahah it was super funny. He's like wow...I'm never gonna forget this lesson. Oh my goodness hahah it was so good. I love them, it's always a blast with them. They're so fun! Overall though, it was really good and we explained the plan of salvation really well and they understood it...so that's always a good thing haha. 

On Friday we had a service day! SO I GOT TO WEAR JEANS. For a couple hours at least. Oh mann it felt so good hahah. It was ridiculous how amazing it was to wear pants. Haha! But yeah we helped clean an investigators house and then we went and helped a sister in the ward make hair bows for her daughter. It was such a fun day. AND THEN. We had such an incredible lesson with one of our investigators. We've just seen miracles in that house. Her mom a couple months ago wouldn't even set foot in the church and make eye contact with the missionaries BUT NOW. She wants us to come over twice a week to teach her kids :) AMAZING. Oh man I can't even begin to explain how happy I am about it. And she's feeding us all the time...so that's a good sign too! She's totally softened her heart and I've never seen the Atonement work like that in someone's life before. It's incredible. Ahh it makes me soo super happy. :):):):) 

So fun fact. You all know about my hate of peanut butter and how I can't stand it...correct? Yeah. Like the smell of it set me off. Okay. Yeah whatever. Except for the fact that I'm craving it now...Ever since like last weekend I've been eating like peanut butter and jam sandwiches like all the time...ALL THE TIME. You don't understand how weirded out I am by myself hahaha. Like if you knew me before the mission you would know that peanut butter and I were on a mutual hate with each other...and now I can't get enough of it. It's so weird. Oh my goodness. I don't even know. 

Also fun fact, every restaurant in the states has a drive thru. Like every one of them. It's strange. Oh yeah, and it costs more to send a letter to Canada than it does to send a letter to Australia. Umm say wut. Hahah I will never understand postage rates. Or America. Hahah but whateva! It's all good!

I think that's all I got for ya this week... But enjoy the pictures!! :D I finally remembered my camera cord and so you get a bunch of MTC pictures :) hoorah! 

Have a great week! As my trainer says, have the best week ever until the next! (or something like that...I'm sure you get the jist of it. hahah) 

I love you all so so so much. AND MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! 

Much love,

Sister Blumel

PS - Letters are always welcome ;) 

Email my Mom and she'll give you my address - blumel.jana@gmail.com

Week #4 - 2014 Dec 15

Heyyyyya!

This week was good! It was kinda slow and we didn't have a lot going on and my companion was pretty sick, but it was good. Every week is good! You just gotta look for the little things that make it completely awesome. :)

So last Sunday was fast Sunday, right? And so after 6 hours of church, we were starving (go figure) and we had a dinner that night with one of the members. Hoorah food! And it was a fast Sunday so we thought we would have an awesome meal. We get there and the member was like "i'm taking it easy today and I just made breakfast." so it was like that's alright! I love breakfast for dinner! Anddd then we find out, by breakfast she means, scrambled eggs. Oh! But there was cheese on them. Hahahaha. So we had eggs for dinner on a fast Sunday...that was it. Nothing else! Hahah so before our next meeting we rushed back to the apartment and devoured the pizza we got the day before. Good times. Hahaha. That was just a weird time though, we usually, with the exception of that day, get fed realllyyy well. The food here is awesome and the ward takes super good care of us and they make sure someone is feeding us everyday. :) 

We had a sister's conference this week and I got to see the sisters from my MTC district. That was soooooo amazing. Ah I miss them a lot. But they all seem to be doing really well! So that's good :) I got like overly attached to my MTC district ahah we all did. But it's all good...friends for life! Hahah we're already planning our reunion after the mission. It'll be fun. 

But other than that, nothing crazy has been happening! We went and saw the Bora Bora family a lot this week. (they're like the Blumel house in Brooks, the missionaries are always over there ahahaha) They're seriously the best. 

Ahh sorry this email is lame ahaha not a whole lot went down this week! But I hope you're all doing well and just know that I am doing awesome and having a blast. :) I love you all so much!! 

Love,

Sister Blumel xoxox

Week #3 - 2014 Dec 08

Ahh it feels like forever since I last emailed! And that's probably because...well it has been. Hahah. We flew out to NC last week and the flight was good! I hate flying...but I survived! And all is well :) We stayed at the mission home for the night and then we got sent out to our areas the next day.

I have so much to tell you! Ahh. K so the last week at the MTC was INSANE. It was good. We got to see Elder Oaks and hear him speak which was awesome. And then a couple days later it was Thanksgiving (thankgiving part 2 for me! ahah) and Thanksgiving at the MTC is great! Haha Elder Bednar came! And it was pretty cool. He didn't actually have a specific talk prepped instead he had like hundreds of cell phones that he passed out and we sent him questions through text and he answered them at the pulpit. It was super cool!! It was a ginormous Q&A sesh. It was so fun. AND THEN COOLEST THING EVER. We did a service project anddddd Sister Bednar (Elder Bednar's WIFE) and their granddaughters were helping at our table!!! WUT. Seriously it was so cool. And then Elder Bednar came and took pictures of his wife and granddaughters and I was defs in the picture. Sooo, I'm on Elder Bednar's phone. No big deal or anything. It's whatever. HA. And he was so close to me, he was probably breathing on me. Hahahaha. It was super awesome though. :D And then for RS on Sunday, Sheri Dew came and talked to us women. And then BYU Vocal Point came that night. SUPER awesome. So yeah the last few days at the MTC were pretty much the best thing ever. Haha. 

ALSO. Singing at the MTC is the most incredible thing. Like you get a bazillion missionaries in one place, singing, and the Spirit is just like the only thing you can feel. It's indescribable. But it's super super sweet. I loved it. Like I would recommend anyone who is thinking about going on a mission to just go because the MTC is such an amazing experience and your testimony grows so much in the short time that your there. It's so awesome. So anyone who can... GO ON A MISSION. Seriously. Do it. It's the best thing ever. 

So that was the MTC. I have so many more stories, but I'll have to tell you all another time, because I have like no time to write these days. 

And now I'm in North Carolina! I'm serving in Fort Bragg (Fayetteville) and that's a military base. So everyone here is in the military. It's pretty crazy. But the work is good and this last week was super busy. Which was awesome. My trainer is pretty amazing. Her name is Sister Olson and she's from California. I love her aha and I definitely got blessed with a sweet comp again. She says that I'm a rockstar and it's like I've already been out for 6 months. Sooo that's a good sign! Hahah. Like I planned an entire lesson by myself and then I invited someone to be baptized and they said yes! Anddd she says I'm a good teacher. So this whole mission thing is going pretty sweet. I'm loving it.Best decision of my life so far! Haha. For reals tho. Oh and there's a Hawaiian family and they're amazing. Definitely my mission family in this area. Maybe. It's only been a week but they definitely have the potential to be my mission family so that's what they're gonna be! I love them so much ahah. They have 2 little boys and they're just coming back to church and stuff. It's awesome :) Andddd guys! I'm in a full time car area! So I don't have to ride my bike (I guess the whole bike thing wasn't necessary mom...they lied to us...awkward. Ha) and that's super sweet! I'm excited for that. Also, because I live on the base, we aren't allowed to proselyte and talk to people unless they talk to us first because it's illegal and we could get arrested for it. Uhh yeahhh sooo no knocking on doors and street contacting for me for a while! Ha fun facts about my area! So we also cover the YSA branch in this area. We cover both, so on Sunday we went back and forth from the family military ward to the YSA branch. It was different. but fun!

So in Doctrine and Covenants it's always talking about how if you open your mouth, it will be filled with everything you should say. AND that's so true. That's happened to me so many times already. Where I just start talking and my mouth is literally filled with words. Like the lessons where I can look back and say, I don't even know exactly what I said, but I know the Spirit was there...are the best lessons. It's super cool to see how the Spirit works. 

AHhh! I wish I could go on and on and on. But you'll just have to wait for more stories for another day. 

I love you guys so much! You're all in my prayers and in my heart always. Sending you love from North Carolina!!

xoxo,

Sister Blumel

Week #2 - 2014 Dec 04

Hello everyone!

This is Amy's Mom. Sister Blumel didn't have time to write home this week. She flew from Salt Lake City to Raleigh on Monday. We did have the opportunity to talk with her in the airport for about 20 minutes. She sounded great and happy :) She is excited to get out into the mission field but a little nervous. I'm sure these are normal feelings. We are excited for her and can't wait to hear how North Carolina is.

Then today I received a letter from her Mission President. He said they were able to spend some time with Sister Blumel and the others that came out with her. He said they felt her spirit and her heart and that she is ready to do the Lord's work in North Carolina!!

He did send her new address and asked that we send her mail there. If you'd like to have it, email me at janablumel@shaw.ca       

I will try and post some pictures that Brother and Sister Bernhisel have sent us.

We look forward to hearing from Sister Blumel soon...

Arriving group with Bernhisel's

Sister Blumel with Bernhisel's

Sister Blumel with new companion Sister Olson

Week #1 - 2014 Nov 24

Heyyyaaa fam jam! 

I'm happy to report that I'm alive and well. AND I LOVE THE MTC. I caps locked that because that even surprised me. So I'm sure it'll surprise you. All my doubts about the MTC are totally gone and I just love it. It's seriously so incredible. The Spirit that is here is undeniable and you can feel it so strong that you can practically cut it with a knife. (If that makes sense - this was quoted at a meeting yesterday and I loved it). 

As you're all probably wondering: my companion's name is Sister Ibarra and she's from Washington state. She is so amazing. I remember the night before the MTC I prayed so hard core that I would be blessed with a companion that I would love dearly. I was like, if nothing else, I just want a sweet companion. Wellll, it's been like 5 days and she's seriously my best friend. I don't know what I would do without her. We got super close, super fast and it's been great. Heavenly Father does answer prayers, don't you dare forget that! And if you pay close enough attention you can see that everyday in your lives. :) My district is SWEET. We're ALL going to North Carolina Raleigh Mission which is supa cool. Again, it's been 5 days and it's like we've known each other for years. Like we're all so comfortable with each other it's definitely a miracle. There's no way that 12 people can become as close as we are in that short of time without a miracle. Haha. They're my family here in the MTC and they'll be my family out in the field. And I feel so blessed that we can have that relationship as a district. Oh yeah, I'm also the only one from Canada in my district, everyone else if from the States. So that's pretttayy sawweeet. Canadian pride! True, North, Strong and Free!

{Personal revelation time!} I was praying a couple nights ago before I went to bed and I made a goal for myself that I would converse more with God and try and have a father-daughter relationship with Him. So I was praying and I was saying how I'm super grateful for my district and how much they all mean to me. And how we must have known each other in the pre-existence or something. And as I was saying this, I felt impelled to ask "....did we know each other in the pre-existence?" And then this rush of warmth and love came over me and the tears started rolling! :') I was like, we must have been such great friends up there and then it was like 'ahh, we need to be able to reunite on earth!' and then we all decided that we would serve a mission and that's how we would meet up again. It was amazing. I love how the Holy Ghost works.}

OH ALSO SUPER COOL. ME AND MY COMP GOT ASSIGNED AS SISTER TRAINING LEADERS!!!!! Apparently the Lord trusts me.... So, we're in charge of the sisters in our zone here at the MTC and we work with the Zone Leaders to make sure our zone is going as good as it can be. :D It's super cool. We're getting to know all our sisters and I just love them all. I love this assignment. And since we're on the topic of leadership, I also got assigned as my district's travel leader. Ha. Soooo apparently the Lord is wanting me to lead people. Ahhh crazy. I can't believe it! It's awesome though. I'm loving it. 

So a couple nights ago, we met with our Branch Presidency and when it was my turn one of the presidency brethren asked me what my goal is here at the MTC. I told him that I wanted to become more familiar with the scriptures so I could just pull them out in lessons. WELL ANOTHER COOL STORY. We (my comp and I) were teaching our 'investigator' (it's our teacher but he acts out an investigator in this super hard core role play that feels real when we're teaching it and there with him). His name is Tom. Well we had this awesome lesson planned and we were so stoked. And then I think pride got in the way a little bit because we were like this lesson is going to be the best! We're awesome! YES! And then we got in the lesson and he accidentally mixed us up with other sisters and mentioned stuff we haven't even taught him yet. Sooo, we had to make up a lesson on the spot. We ended up teaching about the Godhead. And I remembered a scripture I had read about Jesus getting baptized. Matthew 3. All three members of the godhead are present. And it was PERFECT. Ahhh I was so happpyyy! It seriously so cool. I love the Holy Ghost. Cause it was definitely all him, I woulda froze. But thank goodness for the Spirit. 

I'm so happy here. I know this is where I need to be. I've experienced things already that are shaping me into a better person. I love it. The Spirit is amazing and real and He is there waiting for you to open your mouth and share the great message of the gospel. 

I have been thinking about all of you, and I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. 

Hope you're doing well. 

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel 

xoxoxoxox

The Ultimate Mission Prep

Blessed art thou that work in fast food kitchens. 

Alright, so that may be a little over the top. But seriously. If you want PRIME mission prep....go apply at a fast food kitchen. You will receive so many life lessons that you won't even know it until like 3 months in. That's mostly because you will hate it with such a passion that the only thing you think about while working is how much you hate working. Haha at least that's what happened to me. ;)

I was fortunate enough to obtain a full-time job in a city where everyone and their dog is looking for a full-time job. So I consider that a blessing. A big shout out to my boss for being so considerate of my need for money for my mission, that she practically hired me on the spot. Helps when your boss is LDS too. Seriously though I love her for that. 

For the first couple months of this five month job, I hated it with such a passion. It stressed me out so hard core...to the point where I would come home and report, like so: "Mommmm! This job is stressing me out so much that I'm gonna go grey by the time I'm on my mission. People are gonna think I'm a senior sister missionary! SERIOUSLY." Ha yeah. It was bad. Who knew a fast food kitchen would be so stressful. 

But then! I had an attitude adjustment. Not sure when...but I did. One day I was thinking and I'm like, this is a fast food kitchen job...it's not supposed to be this crazy. So from that day forward I decided to go into work with a smile and laugh at my mistakes and laugh at those who yelled at me on a daily basis. Pretty much just smile/laugh at anything that made me wanna punch a wall beforehand. 

AND LO AND BEHOLD...

...it worked. 

Instead of pulling my hair out and losing my cool, I began to see things from a completely different perspective. I began to notice all the life skills that this place was teaching me! And wow, did I ever learn a lot. I learned things that you could only learn in a fast food restaurant kitchen. I will now give insight on everything that I think will help in the mission field. 

Things/Life Skills I Have Learned While Working in a Fast Food Kitchen:

Patience. Holy smokes. I've never had my patience tested so much in my life. Wowza. Butttt! Now my patience level has grown about 10 feet. (ahaha.) Seriously though. 

Tolerance. Once you work in a kitchen, you learn (and you learn real fast) that not everything goes how you want it to go. Especially with all the people that work with you. Sometimes things have to go a certain way and sometimes that certain way was exactly how the person you can't stand said it had to go...and you just learn to tolerate it... This may or may not have happened numerous times. This brings us to...

Learning to work with such a diverse group of people and personalities. In a fast food chain you get the pleasure of working with people from ALL over the world. And everyone is different. You connect with some people and you don't connect with some people..that's just the way the world works. But being in a tiny kitchen 8 hours a day every day makes you realize that just because you don't like that one trait about that person doesn't mean that they aren't great in other areas! Thus, you shouldn't focus on that one thing that irritates the crap outta you. Focus on the good! 

Love. This flows nicely with the point mentioned above. I learned to love those that I worked with! I began to look past those things that were like nails on a chalkboard for me and I began to see amazing people. I learned that it's much, much, MUCH easier to love someone than to be irritated by them for a stupid reason. It makes you feel lighter when you have that much love in you!

I learned kindness. When someone's yelling at you it takes A LOT to look them in the eye and not blow up on them back. It takes a great amount of effort to smile and say, I'm sorry, I'll do better next time. 

Anger management. I would be wearing headsets somedays to hear the drive thru orders (so we could make their orders as fast as possible) and some of the customers that came through were just plain rude! It would make my blood boil! There would be no respect at all. It was ridiculous. It would make me want to run out of the restaurant and throw their food in their face and say choice things that I probably shouldn't say (hahaha). But I learned that instead of taking it out on them, you just let it go. Some people are just angry! Although...can I just mention something? If you have the desire to eat at a fast food restaurant and you have the nerve to have no respect whatsoever to the people working there, just remember! That we, kitchen people, are the ones making your food. AND if you are rude to the front people, you can bet your bottom dollar that we hear about it! Like I said before....we're making your food and we aren't afraid to wreck your meal. MORAL OF THE STORY: just be respectful. Seriously. We can all behave like mature adults when ordering food. Right?

(sorry for the rant...)

Dealing with stress. When I said I would work in the kitchen I didn't think it would be as stressful as it was. Like freak. Lunch time? IS INSANE. I learned that something will only stress you out if you let it stress you out. If you don't let it get to you, you're golden. 

Long hours. On a mission, you're required to work like ALL day long. So it was good to get in some 8.5 hour days to sorta get used to what I'm getting myself into! Haha. 

I learned how to stay out of drama/gossip. I'm sure at some point(s), I was what they were gossiping about...but I personally stayed out of it. I also didn't realize how much drama there was in a little fast food joint. Seriously! It was crazy. Gives me a headache just thinking about it. But for reals. I learned that gossiping about co-workers did nothing but make you dislike them more. And if I got involved in this it would have totally contradicted my love life lesson. So I just didn't get into it. Who has time for drama and gossip anyway? Haha it's practically just a waste of time...in my opinion. 

And finally, I learned perseverance. I wanted to quit since the first day I started working there. However! I pushed through and made it until I could officially quit to prepare (full-time) for my mission (which was a week and a half ago...woo!). I actually made it a game, to be honest. I wanted to see how long I would last. Anddd I won my own game! Hallelujah. It was also fun to watch everyone in amazement as "that white girl" managed to survive the kitchen life. Hahaha. 

I believe that all those lessons that I learned during work will indeed help me IMMENSELY on my mission. I can take each of those things I learned and apply it to the mission lyfe I'm sure. 

And therefore, fellow mission prep-ers. If you want some hard core mission prep...a fast food kitchen is the way to go. 

Until next time.

Amy (aka -future- Sister Blumel)

"I Love to See the Temple"

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

WOW.

That's all I can really say after the weekend I just had.

On Saturday (October 11th) I was able to have the opportunity to go to the temple and receive my endowments in preparation for my mission. It was the most wonderful I've felt in a reallyyy long time. Seriously, I can testify with all my heart that temples ARE the houses of the Lord. There's no denying that when you can feel the Spirit so strongly there.

I went to the Cardston temple and now I can see why people hold that temple close in their hearts. It's b-e-a-u-tiful inside and out. The minute you walk in you're in awe with the architect and the paintings and just everything that's there. It's beyond perfect and I loved it. Who couldn't love something so beautiful? There's the physical beauty that you can't deny because it's right in front of your eyes, but then there's also the spiritual beauty that you can feel as soon as you walk in. As soon as I opened that door to the inside of the temple, all - the confusions, the thoughts of what I had for supper the day before and just silly things like that, the worries, the anxieties - of the world, it was if they were taken up from my mind, so I could focus on what really mattered. Those worldly feelings were immediately replaced with feelings of peace, happiness, comfort, and love.

The temple workers definitely made my experience even more of one to remember. They were all patient, loving, and caring ladies and they were just soo excited to see me going through the temple. They made sure that I understood (as best I could at that point -haha-) before moving onto the next thing. They made sure that I understood that I would be taking in a lot, but not to worry because I can come back as frequently as I want to understand things more. They were all just sweethearts and I'm grateful they were there to help me along.

Yes, the temple was crazy overwhelming the first time. However, I cannot wait to go again and again and again to keep learning more.

Something that I really loved about the temple was that after everything was done, I got to see my family and give them all hugs and it was just such an amazing moment. It was there that I realized that families *can* be eternal through the temple. I have a feeling that's what the spirit world is going to be like. I feel like you're never going to be alone once you pass on. You will always have someone. And your family members that have gone on before you will greet you with a smile and embrace you in a hug and say "you did it, I'm so proud of you."

I'm really grateful for my family. I'm grateful for my parents that have taught me about temples since the day I was born I'm sure! But seriously, without them, I don't think I could have gotten to this point in my life. They have been my rocks for my entire life. And I'm SO happy that I got to experience this amazing time with them. I'm grateful for my Grandma and Grandpa Cook. They are the best grandparents a girl could ever have asked for. Their testimonies of the gospel are such an inspiration. I'm grateful for all my aunts and uncles that came to support me. And I'm grateful for my cousins that also came. They are all amazing people and have been such great examples to me. I look up to every single one of them and I'm so happy that they're a part of my family. I'm grateful for my former young women's president, who came just for me. In young women's the goal is getting to the temple. I was able to do that this weekend and having her support was wonderful. She is such an incredible lady. Seeing everyone gave me such overwhelming feelings of joy!

I love this gospel. It is definitely the Lord's one and only church in the world today. And I cannot wait to spread it all over North Carolina.

Until next time.

Amy (aka -future- Sister Blumel)

Me and my parents. 

My parents, Aunt Randa and Uncle Vance, and my Grandparents.

Thumbs up! Yayay I did it!

Me and my Grandpa and Grandma Cook.

Me and Lindsey! (My former YW's president)