Week #31 - 2015 Jun 22 - "It's the Latter-day Saint Bible!"

Hey y'all! 

This week has been pre great. It started like all the rest of them...you know, looking for new people to teach. And then BAM. We found 2 new potential investigators on the weekend. That's what I'm talking about! Miracles. I'm tellin ya.

So Wednesday was the Goodbye Zone Conference. President and Sister Bernhisel are leaving and the new mission president and his wife are coming next week. Sad day. There were so many tears from everyone. Once the Bernhisel's were leaving us with their testimonies everyone just kinda broke and bam water works. And then we sang our mission song "We'll Bring the World His Truth" with the extra verses added in and the spirit was so strong. I couldn't even sing because if I did I would have started bawling ha. So I just soaked it all in. It was the most incredible feeling though. I haven't felt the spirit that strong in a long time. After the song, we were all able to give the Bernhisel's hugs. We got to give BOTH President and Sister Bernhisel hugs!! It was awesome! While I was hugging President (which was super weird, but awesome!!), he was like you're my favourite Canadian! And there's quite a few of you now...so that's saying something! And I'm like awe, well you're my favourite American! And he laughed haha. And then I got a picture with them afterwards. It was great. I love the Bernhisel's a lot. Definitely super blessed that I had the chance to meet them and learn from them. It was an honor to have President Bernhisel as my first mission president. He is incredible. And Sister Bernhisel feels like a mom and I just love her to pieces. She has such a special spirit about her :) I'm gonna miss them like crazy. But I'm excited to meet the new mission president and his wife. They're coming in next Tuesday :) 

On Saturday, we met Carol. We were driving home to go finish Sis P's training and then on the way we see this woman and we wave and then she gives us this huge grin and waves back with her whole arm! So we're like we need to stop and talk to her. So I quickly stop and we run out of the car and catch up with her. She recognizes us and we ask her what she knows about us and she's like, well you  have that latter-day saint bible! And we're like yep, the Book of Mormon! What do you know about it? And she says, "Well, it's another testament of Jesus Christ!" And we're like whoa! YES! Yes it is!!! And long story short, she wants to stop smoking and drinking and change her life for the better! So we're gonna start teaching her! Well Sis P and her new comp will...I'm heading out of this area. But she is awesome!! An older southern woman!! She's great. I'm excited for her :) 

And then on Sunday, Jan came to church! She walked in and I felt impressed to talk to her. So we asked her how she was doing and turns out she's not a member! She just wanted to check out the church and see what we're all about! And we were like woohoo! That's great! And we invited her to sit with us and we explained the sacrament and all that. And she's interested in learning more! So that's super exciting. :D

It was interesting because we have been praying hard core to find those people that are looking for the fullness of the gospel. But we haven't been able to find anyone..and then one day we were like, let's pray that the elect (those who are ready and have been prepared and are seeking out for the truth) will find us. And so we did! And we had TWO wonderful ladies who were right in our path. We were there at the right place and the right time. If a second would have passed for both situations, we wouldn't have met them...or even seen them! 

I testify to y'all that the Lord TRULY does have a plan for His children! We just have to be prepared and ready to be instruments in His hands. And then we'll really see the miracles. 

Missionary work is the Lord's work. We are the Lord's hands and we need to do all we can to help those lost souls come unto Christ. Remember, He's got our backs. 

We need not fear for we have the Lord on our side.

Well that's all I have for y'all this week!  So keep on keepin on! I love you all and I wish you all the best for this upcoming week! You're always in my prayers :) Take care and be safe. 

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo <3

Me with President and Sister Bernhisel -
at the goodbye zone conference for them.

Kenzie, Miah  (she's potentially an investigator we're just waiting on
her parents permission to start teaching her), me, and Sister Peterson 

The Montanez's!!! I just love them. Definitely some of the best friends I've made on the mission :)

Andddd this pic of me and sis p makes me laugh so hard every time.....

HER FACE THO!!!! HAHAHA.

Me and Sister Vickianna Clements --- I just love her. We got super close :) 

And Sister Mentzer (and her baby James) and I!

And the Borabora family. My biggest tender mercy of the area!! <3

Me and Sister Jennifer Thomas! 

And after our dinner appointment yesterday we found a TON of geese!!!! 

They are also my tender mercies :) They make me think of Grandpa 

Reeder and I just feel his love and support. It's a great feeling! :)

Sister Peterson and I!

And the Willis family!!!

And the Hoffman's! They're like our grandparents :) 

Picture is kinda blurry...but you get the jist of it. I love them!

Me and Elder & Sister Hill - The Military Relations missionary couple here.
I don't know what we would do without them. They're seriously the best. 

And just me with a whole bunch of American Flags...haha.

Sister Hill - "Go stand by your boyfriend and I'll take a picture of you! 

This is the only boyfriend you're allowed to have right now. And he's probably the

best one you'll ever have.....cause he's a statue! *laughs*" hahaha. She's so funny. 

We found train tracks ;)

Anddd I like posing....hahaha.

Us and Sister Hill!

Week #30 - 2015 Jun 15 - Onto New Adventures

HOWDY!

Okay. So first thing's first I'm the realest. Bahah just kidding. First thing's first, I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED. President called on Saturday with the news. And it's definitely bittersweet. I'm going to miss Fayetteville and Ft. Bragg like crazy. I have met so many amazing people here and it's going to be so hard to say goodbye. But at the same time, I am ready to move on and see more of North Carolina. I have been here for almost 7 months and that's a long time haha. So it'll be good to get out and see change. :) So that's my exciting news for the week!! :) Oh I'm also gonna be a sister leader again. And my next companion is gonna be someone who came out with Sister Peterson...so I'll still be the senior companion. It'll be good!

So this week! It was good!! Flew by...as per usual. And to be honest as I'm sitting here...I have no idea what even happened. Sooo. I gotta put my thinking cap on. I'm pretty sure my memory is just getting worse and worse the longer I'm out....haha NOT GOOD! Anywho!

I think the only other exciting thing that happened this week was we went on exchanges on Wednesday. So Sister Peterson was able to stay in our area with Sister Barney and I was able to go to Cameron with Sister Skokos. Turns out that there's a military base there too! I was able to meet the Nielson family. And oh my word they're hilarious. Bro Nielson is an MP on base (military police....I'm pretty sure that's what that means...but don't hold me to that one....they're policemen on base though...so yeah.) Anyway, when I told him where I was from and what area I serve in, he was like hmmm, a Canadian serving in a military base...yep definitely a spy. So he went on this tangent of how I'm not even a missionary at all, it's just my cover and that I'm totally a Canadian spy. He's like you're gonna be transferred to Jacksonville next because there's a military base there and then you're gonna come here to Cameron and you're just gonna hit up all the military bases in your mission. Hahahah it was pretty funny. It's a funny story to go by. BUT, people don't worry. I really am a missionary called of the Lord. Don't fret. It's all good. A Canadian spy just sounds awesome ;) 

But yeah! Exchanges went well! Sister Skokos is the bomb dot com. I love her a lot. It was good to be back in Fayetteville with Sister Peterson though. :) I feel blessed to have such a great companion and that we actually get along really well! It's great. I'm gonna miss Sis. Peterson to pieces. She's the best. 

Hmm. Not too much else happened this week. We did a lot of tracting...and got rejected a lot...Actually out of all the doors we knocked (which was a lot...I lost count), only one person wants us to come back...and she was super hesitant about it haha. Gotta LOVE the South!!! Hoorah. But, we still have faith that we'll find who we need to find!! Our district is also great because they have all agreed to help us out. This is how it's gonna go down: There's a Goodbye Zone Conference this Wednesday (it's the Bernhisel's last one...sad face...) and so they have to come to Fayetteville anyway. So! What we're gonna do is give each companionship an area to go tracting in and they're gonna go and see who they can find! There's gonna be 7 companionships (including us) tracting out Fayetteville that day. So we're BOUND to find someone :) Haha. It's gonna be a lot of fun, I think! I feel super blessed to have a district that is willing to do this with us! They're all awesome. 

Anddd that's all I have for y'all this week! I hope you all had a great week and I hope you have the best week ever until the next! I love you all so much! Remember the church is true and God is good. And do all the missionary work that you can! Share the gospel with everyone! We have such a great knowledge that the Lord's church has been restored and we need to share that with as many people as the Lord puts in our path. So...everyone ha ;) I promise you that it will be worth it! And as you share your testimony, your testimony grows exponentially. It's a win win situation ;) Just do it! 

Keep smiling. I love y'all.

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo <3

Sister Blumel

Temple cookies that the Ft. Bragg ward
mission leader's wife made for us

Sisters Blumel & Peterson with the Horn Family

Sister Blumel in her room

We made cakes with one of the less actives in Fay 3.
And she helped us decorate them.....well there was like
 a 2inch thick layer of icing all around the cake it was sorta
disgusting hahaha. So I took all the icing and put it on top
 of the cake....andddd it looked like a cupcake bahaha.

Week #29 - 2015 Jun 08 - Opposition In ALL Things

Heyya! 

So this week was one of the more rougher weeks on the mission. (Is rougher even a word? Ha...I don't even know. Hopefully that makes sense....) It was slower than last week and no one seems like they want to hear from us. It's fantastic! Ha not!!! 

To follow up with my report last week. We were able to stop by Irma and Rachel again (the ones we gave cookies to last week). We had a good convo with Irma and I just straight up asked her if she would be interested in learning more about what we're all about and she very stubbornly said, no. I'm happy with my church. And I'm like I'm so glad that you are! We're just asking if you want to further your knowledge about God. Anddd then she started talking about men or something I can't even remember. But this woman, who is EIGHTY ONE years old talks about men ALL THE TIME. Oh my goodness. She's like, most of my neighbors are men, and they always talk to me. And all the ladies around here are jealous of me. And then she gives this smug smile hahaha what the...? Basically we tried our best to steer the conversation to gospel related things, but she would always turn it away to the most random things. So yeah. I don't see a whole lot of potential there.... But yeah. We bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and told her the promised blessings that it brings. So we did what we could and now the ball is in her court. She has our number and we made it very clear that if she wants to learn more she has to call us. 

And then! We stopped by Rachel's (the 82 year old woman) and we didn't get to talk to her at all. She ran away from us. And by running away I mean she slowly walked away because she can't walk very good...but we didn't think it would be a good activity if we chased after her.....we respected her agency. And plus. She was with her daughter or some other woman and that woman was like, "Rachel doesn't want to talk today." And we're like alright we'll come back another day! And they're like yeah, whatever. Hahaha so that was fun....I don't know if there's any potential there either. 

We did have a great lesson with one of the inactive sisters in Ft. Bragg though! We were able to teach her the Plan of Salvation and she was like, wow! I don't remember being taught this at all! (She was baptized a few years ago and she says that she doesn't think that she was in the right place to be baptized and she doesn't remember anything that she was taught.) And she kept saying over and over again how this plan brought so much peace to her mind. She's like it's so full of hope! How can you not believe this?! And then she's like, do you teach people this? The people you meet on the streets....do you go over this with them?! And we're like yeah we do! And she's like wow, how can you learn about this and not choose to believe it? This is the perfect plan! And it is so full of hope and love and everything. And she's so right! The Lord's plan of happiness is truly full of His love. The Plan of Salvation is definitely my favourite lesson that we get to teach people :) There's always a special spirit that comes with it. It's the best. 

That's about all that happened this week. OH WAIT. Yesterday in testimony meeting in the Fayetteville 3rd ward, Sister Hill (she's a military relations missionary with her husband here) called them all to repentance about not doing member missionary work. And then we got a couple referrals out of it. So thank you Sister Hill! Haha it was such a bold testimony, but it got the people listening! So maybe we'll actually have people to teach soon :) 

We have a great week ahead of us. Lots planned and lots of work to do. So hopefully we see a lot more success this week. I just gotta remember that without the tough weeks, we wouldn't appreciate the great weeks as fully! So all is well. Life goes on and the work is continuing to hasten! 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Take Care!!

Much Love,

Sister Amy Blumel

xoxoxo <3

HOLD UP!

I totally forgot to mention this!......

MERCEDES GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! 

Do y'all remember her? We were teaching her and she was the super golden investigator that we had and then we had to pass her on to the other sisters? She's always smiling and she recognized the spirit super early and all of that? Anywho...if you don't remember her, go back to like February/March-ish and you'll remember her haha I'm pretty sure I talked about her a lot. Cause she was just so great! Haha. But yes. I do remember saying that "I know she's getting baptized...it's just a matter of when" AND SATURDAY WAS THE WHEN! And her daughter, Marisol got baptized too! Yeah! And because she's still "technically" in our area (we're over the YSA which covers 2 stakes....so it's practically impossible to go out of our area) we were able to go! It was awesome!! :D 

So yeah. That was my exciting moment of the week! I love Mercedes so much and she was just shining so bright that day :) Ahh I love this gospel <3

Mercedes, Sister Blumel, Marisol (Mercedes daughter)

Andi, Mercedes, Sister Blumel, Marisol

Sister Peterson, Mercedes, Marisol, Sister Blumel

Week #28 - 2015 Jun 01 - Tough Cookie

Hey one! Hey all!

HOLD THE PHONE. IT'S MY 6 MONTH MARK TODAY! I'VE BEEN IN NORTH CAROLINA, OUT IN THE FIELD, FOR 6 MONTHS!!! Whattttt?! I have no idea where the time is going...but it's flying somewhere! Wowza. That's crazy. 

Anywho.

This week was pretty good. It was a slower week. But that's just because Sister Peterson was not feeling good AT ALL. Seriously...she was in the bathroom for majority of the week. Ahh not good. But we worked when we could! I also didn't want to push her too hard....but I probably did haha. Whoops. She's been sick for a week, has gotten 2 priesthood blessings and she still isn't feeling that great....so prayers would be wonderful for her :) 

A big thing that happened this week though was right after district meeting on Wednesday. We (Sister Peterson and I) both received some revelation for our area and after much pondering and prayer, we decided that we were going to wipe our investigator board. We thought about it and none of our investigators are progressing. And we need to be spending our time looking for the people that are ready to hear the gospel and WILL progress. So we decided that in order to make time for that we needed to stop focusing on the investigators that we were working with and start fresh. So that's exactly what we did! We took our whiteboard cloth and literally wiped our investigator board clean. This week is dedicated to finding the elect. We're excited to get to work and find those people that WANT to come closer to Christ :) So if y'all want to pray for the people in our area and that we'll be able to find those that are ready to hear the gospel as well that would be wonderful! Thank you!

We made cookies with Sister Horn to give to less active people in Ft. Bragg and Fayetteville 3. And right quick before I go on, these cookies are the best cookies in the world. The recipe is called "Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies" and it's not lying. They are literally perfect. Like too legit to quit. PERFECT. I'll send you the recipe one of these days and y'all will have to try it out! SO GOOD. Okay anyway, we delivered first to Fay 3 and let me tell you. We had 5 bags of cookies to give to 5 different families. Well, we only gave 2 bags of cookies to the families that they were intended for. The rest went to people we just met. No one answered their door and we would always find someone outside as we turned around and were walking to our car. So instead of going straight to the car and driving away, we went and talked to the ladies that we saw. We met an 82 year old lady, an 81 year old lady, and a 74 year old lady! (All at different times) It was so much fun getting to know them and talking to them! I just love old ladies aha they're just so sweet and funny and they have the best stories! I love it :) So we could potentially have 2 new investigators this week! The 74 year old is a strong baptist lady....so it'll take some time to soften her heart towards the church. But one day!! :) The other 2 ladies told us they would love for us to come back :) So that was awesome! 

Like I said, it's been a slower week so I don't have a whole lot to report on! I hope you all had a wonderful week and I hope this next one is even better :) Always remember that I love you to pieces, but God loves you even more!! 

Love and miss you all. Take care! And keep smiling!

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxox <3

Sisters Blumel & Peterson with Lyssa
She is waiting for her mission call! 

Sisters Blumel & Peterson with Lyssa She is just wonderful. She's in Utah for the summer working :) 

Sisters Blumel & Peterson with LyssaWe made the skirts that we're wearing in the picture with her! Fun stuff!

Sister Blumel - before haircut

Sister Blumel - after haircut