Amy in North Carolina : Week #36 - 2015 Jul 27 - When It Rains In North Carolina, It Pours.

Hola amigos!

This week was great. It was a little bit slower...but it was still good. It's always good! My favourite saying recently is -- "All is well in the Kingdom of God." I say it all the time..when times are good, when times aren't so good.. pretty much just every 2 seconds....Haha! Sister Park can be the witness of this. ;) But it helps...because everything IS well in the kingdom of God! It may not seem like it at that very moment...but it totally is. The Lord has a plan and He's got it covered...we need not worry.

Anywho. We got the elders back last Monday. We got a window marker and wrote "Just Married" on the back of their cars. HAHA. You don't mess with sisters...I'm just saying ;) It was pretty funny. We laughed hard hahaha. And they thought it was funny too XD

On Tuesday! Tuesday was SUCH a good day. Definitely the highlight of the week. We had Zone Conference in Wilmington but this time President and Sister James were there. Man, it's been such a blessing to have seen them so often this month. I say this every time I'm sure - but they are seriously a blessing and an answer to my prayers. Wow I just love them so much. And every time I see them my love for them grows exponentially. :) But yeah we had a super spiritual meeting. It was SO motivating and it gave me that extra little boost I needed to get me through the rest of the week (yes I know at this point it was only Tuesday....hahaha). And then after Zone Conference we went to this little shaved ice shack thing..I can't remember what it's name is...."Surf" is in it though. But it's pretty much just these super good snow cones. AND the best part is - they were 100% free. Yes that's right. The owner's are members and they're like, missionaries orders are free! There's even more benefits of being a missionary.....free food anyone? #beamissionary ;) Haha! But yes. And then after the meeting we went on exchanges and I went with Sister Anderson from the Jacksonville 2nd ward. SHE IS SERIOUSLY SO GREAT. Oh my goodness...I just love her so much. We had SUCH a good time. And we both needed it :) It was a tender mercy to be with her for that time. I loved every second of it.

On Thursday we were planning on doing a TRACTING day. A full on knocking on doors goodness day. Yeah. But then! After studies as we were moving into our 'lunch hour' we realized that it was super dark outside and we're like "what the...." So we go and check it out. Oh my goodness hahaha it was super sketch! The clouds were all crazy looking and at one point they were spinning and we're like uhhhh. tornado? Haha and then one of our neighbors who we talk to every so often was like hey girls! Do you have a tv that you can check the weather on? Or a radio? Or something? And we're like nope we don't! And then he seemed shocked hahah but once he picked his chin off the ground he was like, alright, well let me check what the radars say because this doesn't look so good. And we're like sounds good! So we wait outside for him, in awe because of the clouds/weather. (ALSO SIDENOTE - it was actually kinda chilly...in July in NC. Yeah. TENDER MERCIES OF THE LORD. Haha! It was great....so that's why were standing outside....it felt so good to be outside and not sweaty after 2 seconds of being out.) So Ron (our neighbor) comes back out and he's like yeah...we're in the "red zone" which could mean a number of things. It could mean just a general thunderstorms, tropical storms, the start of a hurricane coming towards us, orrr a tornado. So we're like oh kay..! I guess we're not tracting today! #yikes. So we say thank you to him and go inside to get our cameras (hehe) and then we check the phone really fast and apparently we get weather warnings? We had a "tornado warning" text message and we're like whooaaa! And then we both really wanted to see a tornado...so we're like THIS IS AWESOME. Hahaha. So then we took some selfies outside and it was great. And then we went inside and decided that we would weekly plan instead of knocking doors. And good plan too because it started POURING outside haha. And it was windy and all that fun stuff. Needless to say, there wasn't a tornado....sadly. Haha!

But it was awesome being in the middle of that storm! Ha!

The rest of the week was good. We had a pioneer activity on Friday night. That was fun :) Sister Park and I had to share stories about our ancestors. So HUGE shout out to Grandma & Grandpa Cook for sending me that story about Grandpa's 3rd Great Grandpa - Solomon Hancock - around Valentine's Day this year! It was perfect!! So thank you thank you thank you!

And that's pretty much it. All of the investigators we have are like on pause or something. I feel like I'm a curse haha cause this is what it was like in Fayetteville too. Yikes. But they're all not wanting to progress anymore....they're at that point where they need to change how they're living but they don't want to change. So it's been pretty tough. If y'all get the chance, pray that Joe will have that desire to want to have faith and strengthen his faith and that it will be okay if he does change. He's so stubborn haha. But we love him anyway! He's a 74 year old man ( I can't remember if I've talked about him before with y'all.) But he's great. Just a little hard headed. But he'll come around I'm sure. Polly and Deborah just had a death in the family...but I really feel like Deborah is ready for the gospel. She's really receptive to our messages now. More on that later. Buttt that's about all we got. So if y'all want to pray that we'll find people that are ready, or they will find us, that would be great. :)

I hope y'all have a great week! I love you! Don't ever forget that :) Hey y'all the church is true, k? There are so many things that are witnesses of the restored gospel. We just have to keep our eyes open for them. God is real. Keep a tender mercy journal and you're faith in Him will increase. You will start to see His hand in your life more. It's amazing everything that He does for us. I love this gospel. I love being a missionary. and I love you all. Stay strong in the gospel and stay close to your Father in Heaven and His son, Jesus Christ. I promise it's worth everything.

Y'all are the best.

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo <3

That's the car prank hehe.

(that's my back....just in case you were wondering hahaha.)

Andddd then I found Mario and Luigi on a huge window and I immediately thought of Matty and Ben so Sister Anderson took a picture for me (this was when we were on exchange). Hahaha it's a super awkward picture of me BUT the window is awesome!!! I love you boys! :D