Monday, December 29, 2014

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

Monday, December 22, 2014

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

Monday, December 15, 2014

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


Monday, December 08, 2014

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

Thursday, December 04, 2014

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