Amy in North Carolina : Week #23 - 2015 Apr 27 - I love to see the temple! And Miracles!

Holllaaa!

This week was so great. Wow. It's crazy looking back and realizing that so many amazing things happened this past week! :) I hope you all had a great week too.

On Thursday, we were able to teach TWO new investigators that we found through our #BecauseHeLives booth at FSU. And they both seem great! Their names are Capree and Jasmine. Lala came with us to the lessons and she was great. Our first lesson was with Capree and she is just the sweetest girl ever! She's 19, so she's our age and she's majoring in Biology. She comes from a Christian background and she's just super elect. Wow. So we were teaching her the Restoration and everything that we were saying she was like 'yeah! That makes sense!' and she didn't question anything we said. She was just soaking it all in. And when we would ask her questions, her answers were beyond the average answer. We asked her - "what impact has Jesus Christ had on your life?" And she bore the most beautiful testimony of the Savior! It was incredible. The spirit was so strong. And then once we got to the end, we read Moroni 10:3-5 with her and once she finished reading, we asked her what that means to her. And she paused, looking at it for a second and then got super excited and said "This is the truth! This is so familiar!" And we were like whoa. This is the single most greatest day of our lives. (haha) And then Sister Peterson went ahead and invited her to be baptized and the excitement was still in her voice when she said, "Yes!" and then she paused for a second and then said "I've been baptized!" And we're like ahhh there's the hold up. Haha it was all going way too perfectly! So I let Sister Peterson handle that one (pros of training haha it was good for her) and she just explained the Priesthood again and Capree was like, "yeah! My church has that!" Ahh. So that'll be a fun bump to get over..haha. It'll be good though! I think there's a lot of potential! :) But yeah, she is definitely an amazing girl and she's just so much fun to be with! We're seeing her again tomorrow to teach her the Plan of Salvation. It'll be great!

And then we saw Jasmine a little bit after that and we taught her a pretty simplified version of the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon, a Restoration pamphlet, and the little card with the Articles of Faith on it. She was a lot more quiet and reserved than Capree, but she was still fun! We didn't get a return appointment with her because finals are next week and she's in the process of moving back home (but she'll be back on campus in a couple weeks for a summer research project thing - so we'll still get to teach her!), so she told us that she would get back to us. So we'll keep that one on the front burner and make sure that we can set something up with her soon.

But yeah. Great, amazing experiences with them! It's always the best to see the fruits of your labors. The #BecauseHeLives booth, will carry on as long as we have people to teach, and we do! So hallelujah!! It's so great :)

AND THEN. Another highlight of the week, was definitely Friday morning. We were able to go to the temple. Yes. The TEMPLE. Oh my goodness, it was much needed. In this mission, we go to the temple twice a year around Conference time. So once every 6 months pretty much. And that time was now! Yay! Oh man, it was so great. I just love the temple so much. That session was super spiritual, especially because I hadn't been in so long. I'm not gonna lie though, it made me pretty miss you all and the Cardston temple. So! The day after I get back, we are going to the Cardston temple!! That is a for sure plan and it needs to happen!!! :) But yes. It was a fantastic opportunity and I'm so grateful that we have a temple in our mission that we get to go to. I wish we could go more! But, this way we appreciate it so much more.

On Sunday, we had a pretty spiritual experience with on of our active members in Fort Bragg. She has had a lot of challenges and trials in her lives and she completely opened up to us during dinner. She expressed a lot of things that have happened to her and it brought the spirit in so strong. I felt impressed to bear my testimony on the Plan of Salvation and so I did. I told her that because the gospel has been restored, we have knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. We have temples now. We have the knowledge that families can be together forever. Heavenly Father knows how much our earthly family means to us and He wants us to be able to spend forever with them. And I know without a shadow of a doubt that we WILL be with our families forever. I expressed my gratitude for mom and dad and how I was so grateful they lived their lives worthy enough to be sealed in the temple and because of that we are sealed as a family for time and all eternity. And then I just pretty much went on and on for a little bit longer about how much family means to me. I can count on one hand how many times I've gotten emotional because of the spirit in my whole life. That was one of those times. I got all teary eyed because of how powerful the spirit was. It was incredible. BLUMEL clan! Just know, that's all because of you! I just love all of you so so so much!! :D

Oh yeah. Sister Peterson and I also had to give talks on Sunday in the Fayetteville 3rd ward. Our topic was Love is Shown Through Service. Sister Peterson went first and she didn't take up her whole time, it was pretty short. And then I had to follow and I did what I could. I stood up there at the end and I kinda just rambled off my testimony trying to fill in time. But I still didn't cover the entire time. She gave me like 25 minutes...and I wrote a 15 minute talk...sooo I got it up to like 20. But then I was like an orange after your done

squeezing it for juice. Just kinda shriveled and dry hahaha so I just ended it. But alas, a member of the bishopric finished it off with his testimony on service so all was well. And I figure the congregation would much rather too short than too long. Ya know? Haha so it's all good. I'll have to photo copy my talk and send it to y'all or something. :)

I think that's all I got for you all this week! I'm excited to report next week :) Haha. I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you see many tender mercies!! And remember! Y'all make me so proud and I love you all so much.

Take care!!

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo