Week #75 - 2016 Apr 25 - The Best is Yet to Come :)

Heeeyyy-loooooo!

How was everyone's week?! Mine was pretty decent! It wasn't AMAZING but it wasn't awful haha it was one of those pretty normal weeks. So I can't complain!!

Monday: We were able to have a really good lesson with our investigator, Ken. We taught him the Law of Chastity. Which is always a good time hahaha. I'm so used to teaching that lesson to kids that I almost didn't know how to teach it to an adult. Haha but all went well and he understands and has committed to live it! He told us that if he was younger, that would be a lot harder of a sell for him..but because he's older, there's gonna be no problems. So yay! #success.

Tuesday: We spent all day at the doctors. Turns out I got Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. Also called Runner's Knee. Which is awkward and kinda....what's the word....? ...ironic?.. because I don't run.....everyone who knows me well enough knows this ahaha. But alas, it's because we've been walking A TON. And I overused it and so it tried to fix itself by filling up with fluid....but that was counter productive because that just made it worse. Haha but! Everything's good now! I listened to the doctor and I'm on the mend. Hallelujah! #backtoworkwego!

Wednesday: District Meeting! It was actually really good this week. After that we went and visited our recent convert, Verlinda! She found this anti video about so we had to clear some things up haha man Satan works so hard...it's kinda sad...but he's not gonna win! We left her feeling a lot better than she was when we got there. So hooray! That's always a good feeling. Thanks spirit!! And then after that my knee felt like it was gonna die..so we had to go and ice it. LAME. But it's okay. We were able to have a lesson with a cute family in the evening. We taught a little restoration and then asked them who they knew that would appreciate the message we have to share. But turns out they just moved here so they don't know anyone yet....BUT! They told us that they would make some friends! :) Yay!

Thursday: We weekly planned. And then we figured out a baptismal date for a 10 year old! She took the lessons before but then she had a lot of family things go on...so it's been a while since she met with missionaries. But we reviewed the lessons with her and she literally remembers everything. She's a genius. 10 years olds are smartie pants holy smokes! If nothing else, that's what my mission has taught me!!! haha! So she'll be getting baptized on May 7th! Super exciting :)

Friday: So a member in the Raleigh 1st ward got in contact with us and she said that her boyfriend's a nonmember but he's met with missionaries before and he ready to be baptized! WHOA. We ended up having dinner with them and it was awesome!! His name is Jimmy and his girlfriend, Nichole is literally the best member missionary I've ever seen in my whole life. Haha she's the best! So we're going to review the lessons and get him baptized! he's so excited to make that step in his life. Wow. Literally blessings from the Lord. This investigator literally came to us....THAT NEVER HAPPENS! I'm so excited!!!! :D

Saturday: We contacted a bajillion referrals. Good times! No one was home and if they were they weren't interested haha. #storyofourlives.

Sunday: Church was good! I had to give a talk in Raleigh 1st Sacrament meeting! it was the easiest talk I've ever done aha. We got a call from a member of the bishopric Saturday saying that there was a young woman that was too nervous to talk. So what ended up happening was

she wrote the talk, sent it to me, and I just had to read it for her. It was a really good talk! She did a good job and I was happy to help :) The rest of Sunday was great :) Visited a ton of people, so that was good.

Well transfers news came, and I am staying in the area! I'll be dying here in Raleigh. YAY. I love it here so I'm happy about that. And Sister Petersen is staying too, so she'll be killing me off :) It'll be a fun few weeks!!

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL week and as always, remember to pray, read your scriptures and go to church! It will bless your life. :)

I love you all!!!! Miss you. And take care!!! Smile. Always :)

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo <3

PS - had no time to read over this so I hope it makes sense!!! haha!

OH I FORGOT THE MOST IMPORTANT AND EXCITING PART OF THE WEEK!

On Sunday, KEN CAME TO CHURCH!!!! FINALLY! WHAT?! OH MY GOSH!!!!!!! It was the best thing ever!!!! And he had a really good time and he's super excited to come next week. I'm so excited for him!!!! He's progressing so well!! I feel so blessed to be a part of his journey. I just love him!!! YAY!!!

..I can't believe I forgot to put that in.....wow...hahaha.

Well anywho, love y'all!

Sister Petersen and I after church on Sunday

Week #74 - 2016 Apr 18 - Busted Knees and Pretty Gardens

HEY!

So this week was kinda rough, not gonna lie. But it's okay! It'll get better :) We just have to learn something I guess :) Haha. 

Anywho, I'll just go over the highlights. 

On Thursday, we had a Northern Zone Conference (so the Raleigh, Raleigh South, Apex, and Durham zones were all there!) and all of my former companions are in the North now! So I got to see ALL of them!!! It was such a happy day. It was a really good meeting too. All about member referrals. (I hope y'all are giving the missionaries in your ward people to teach!!) It was great. At the end of every zone conference, it's a tradition in the NCRM for the departing missionaries to bear their testimonies. Oh...that's me! So I like nearly had a heart attack because I was expecting it...but I wasn't at the same time. It was a weird feeling haha. I got up there to the podium and it was such a surreal experience. I started off my testimony by saying "I feel like my heart is going to leap out of my chest..but I think that's just because my heart belongs in North Carolina." And I don't really remember what I said..but I do know that I testified of Christ like the whole time. I'm seriously going to miss North Carolina so much. But I don't have to think about that yet! I still have lots of time ;) 

After the meeting, we had lunch, and then we all went to Duke Gardens!! It was awesome!!! It gave me time to spend with my Sister Peterson (my baby #1) and it was such a tender mercy to walk around the gardens with her. I also got to spend time with Sister Park. Awwee man I just love that girl oh so much. She literally saved my mission. I'll be forever grateful for her! And of course, seeing Baby Scrib (Sister Scribner) made my life too. It's always so much fun with her! I miss her!! <3 

We got to see Ken a couple times this past week! He told us that trying to quit smoking and drinking coffee at the same time was too much for him (uhm..totally understandably) so right now he's just going to work on quitting smoking :) So yay for him! He's still progressing so well!! We're still trying to get him to church....but one of these days he'll come!! 

Oh real quick, the reason behind the subject line! Ha so right after zone conference on Thursday, my knee busted haha. It felt like my knee cap was floating and all that jazz so I got in contact with the mission nurse and she got in contact with the mission doctor and basically it sounds like I just have a lot of fluid build up under my knee cap. LAME. So it feels like my knee cap is literally floating around #gross. And then it got progressively worse over the weekend....so now they're sending me to Urgent care. haha yay so fun! But really, it's nothin serious (err I hope) so no worries!!! I'm just mildly frustrated that this happened now! Haha it's slowin me down and I don't like that! I gotta keep working hard..but then.. #bustedknee. Ha it's okay though! I'll keep you posted on it!! 

Anywho. I hope you all have a great week! Remember how blessed you all are! The Lord is literally blessing you every day...even when it doesn't feel like it...if you look close enough, He totally is :) Look out for those tender mercies....it'll keep you going strong!

Take care. Love you, miss you. Keep smiling!!! And make good choices!!!

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo <3

PS - Angela, our golden investigator (or so we thought..), dropped us this week and basically told us "it's been fun, but I'm not interested anymore..don't come back." #heartbreaking... #anotheronebitesthedust. :(

President & Sister James and I

Me and Baby Peterson!

Me and Baby Scribner!

Me and my mission babies - Baby Peterson and Baby Scribner!

that's the Duke Chapel!

that's the Duke Chapel!

Me and Sister Petersen

Crazy knee!!

Week #73 - 2016 Apr 11 - We Are All Enlisted Till the Conflict is O'er! Happy are we! Happy are we!

Heyyyyya all of y'all!

This past week was great!! Lots happened and I can't believe it's already Monday again...every Monday I feel like I've entered some sort of time wharp thing and I have no idea what even happened. Thank goodness to planners and journals that clear that chaos up! Haha. Anywho!

Monday (4): We went to the museums as a district activity! Which was kinda lame...only for the fact that nobody could find each other cause we all parked in different places..So it was basically just a companionship thing because everyone was doing their own thing. Haha so a lame district activity...but Sister Petersen and I had a great time!!! The museums in downtown Raleigh are amazing!!! So cool. Definitely going back after the mission. And then after that we had a FHE with Ken (our investigator) and Verlinda (our recent convert) at a ward missionary's home :) It was awesome!! We watched Elder Holland's talk and talked all about the Atonement and wow. The spirit was so strong it was incredible!! :) It was great.

Tuesday (5): We still didn't have the car and we wanted to be as effective as possible....soooo we tried to contact some less actives that lived on our street. We thought that would be a good activity until we remembered that North Hills (our street) goes on for days. Literally it goes on for miles. And miles. And miles. hahaha. So we live at 6217 and we needed to get to 5410. Uhm...we were walking for an hour and a half....hahaha. And then there was one point where we had to cross this SUPER busy street and there wasn't any crosswalks or buttons to press to, ya know, get the walk guy that indicates the fact that it's safe to walk. So we watch the lights, figure out what's going on and then once we figured it out, we RAN FOR OUR LIVES. Hahaha. Screaming like monsters all the way across (it made us feel more invincible ;) haha). Oh and best part about the whole thing? The less active we were looking for WASN'T EVEN HOME!!! Yep...so we had to walk all the way back. But it's okay because we were singing hymns all the way home! hahaha (sorry to anyone that was listening....it kinda sounded like dying cows in a death chorus before their last breath...) So that made the time and the walk seem a lot easier! Especially all the hills....did I ever tell you how hilly Raleigh is? Well if not, now you know....it was great. Ya know. We're really just working on our leg muscles... we're gonna have legs of steel after all this walking ;) Anywho! And then our dinner appointment had to drop dinner off at our apartment..so we barely made it in time to get that.

And then we had an amazing lesson with Ken! It went great. We taught him the Word of Wisdom..which we were slightly nervous for just because we know how much he LOVES his coffee and it's evident that he smokes...so we were all like ahh. This could go very good orrrrrr not. Haha and I'm SO happy to say that it was VERY good! The spirit was so so so strong when we were teaching him! It was great! :) AND he even committed to cutting down on his coffee and cigarettes. So YAY!!! He's so willing to change for the better it's really a miracle. Ken is a miracle. And I am SO grateful that I have this opportunity to work with him. It's really an honor and a privilege :)

Wednesday (6): We had zone training and then right after that exchanges! Again! This time I stayed in our area and I was with Hermana Pouliot. :) It was good! We contacted a ton of referrals..it was AWESOME! We've been meaning to do that for a while now so it was nice to get it done. Nobody was super interested...but at that point we were just happy to contact them. We had a good time and I just love Hermana Pouliot!! She's the best!

Thursday (7): Oh man. So we weekly planned...but that's not the most exciting part of the day. Basically, for the sake of time, long story short, we had to discontinue teaching our little Duyck family. All that was happening was a Bible bash every Thursday night. Sooo, we decided that we better just take a break from one another...so we bore powerful testimonies of the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel and left it at that. And told them that if they want to talk more about what we believe to let us know and we'll come back. But until then, we just told them that we were going to let them think about everything that we've talked about and that we wouldn't keep coming because we didn't want to overwhelm them (which is what seemed like was happening) and they agreed that that was probably best. So it was a "clean break up" ;) Haha which was a tender mercy. So yayyy. But it seriously broke my heart. I'm so sad that we won't be able to see them anymore. They are literally the sweetest little family. Mission heart breaks are the worst. I'm telling ya. But it's all for the best. If nothing else, we planted seeds for them and that's an important part of missionary work. Without the seeds, nothing would ever grow! So that happened haha.

Friday (8): We just contacted some more people :) And that's about it haha.

Saturday (9): Sister Petersen wasn't feeling very good that day! So we did A TON of area book clean up. So we did a lot of the administration part of missionary work that no one really talks about. But it was very much needed. So that was good!

Sunday (10): We went to church and that was great! As always :) and then we visited a few people and it was great. Definitely a good day! We had dinner with a great family and we had a good visit with the Clements. And that was a good time -- as always. I just love that family!

And that's about it!!! I hope you all had a great week as well! And I hope this next one is even better :) (as per usual!)

I know this church is true! I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and that he was able to restore the gospel with the Lord's help :) without him, none of us would be where we're at today! Crazy to think about. But I'm so grateful for this gospel. It's truly changed me for the better and I promise it will do the same for you :)

I love you all!!! Miss you a ton!!

Take care! Keep smiling!

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo <3

PS - Here are some pictures from our Tuesday walk :) hahaha so ridiculous. 

We tried to contact a referral and found this graffiti wall hahaha too good

i'm sad...it's cuz the wall said sad..but I guess the s got cut out? ha. 

Anddd here's a selfie of Sis Petersen and I. 

Week #72 - 2016 Apr 15 - T-6 Months Until Conference! #oct2016 #ldsconf #best

Hey y'all!!

So this past week was alright...Nothing really to complain about. It just wasn't the BEST week. But hey, that's okay because we gotta have rough weeks to appreciate the good things. That's why there's opposition in all things! We HAVE to have bad so we can know, understand, and love the good. :)

Monday: We went shopping! Had some good retail therapy. It was much needed...it's just refreshing to have some new clothes....haha. And then we tried contacting a few people but they weren't home. #storyofourlives....

Tuesday: We saw Verlinda! We read some Joseph Smith History with her and she loved it. She's awesome! I just love her a ton! And then we saw Ken, and he's doing really well. We're trying to get him to church and one day he'll get there. Just keep praying for him!! We talked about why we have commandments that night. And then we asked if he had prayed specifically about the Book of Mormon yet and he said he hadn't but he said he would do it that night. And just to be sure! I felt impressed to ask him to pray about the Book of Mormon while we were there. He was a little leery about it, but he did it anyway! We were proud of him anddd and and! We got to experience a little miracle. That was THE most sincere prayer that Ken has ever given! I mean he always has great prayers, but this one was amazing. He's progressing so well. he just needs to come to church dang it!!!! And ps! Our washer and dryer finally came in today! We were literally so excited hahaha :D

Wednesday: District Meeting. It was actually really good today! And our district is getting progressively less awkward #tendermerciesofthelord. So that was good. We had to give the car to the Hermanas....day one of walking. Haha so we walked over to our next appointment! We had a lesson with our investigator Deborah and it went well! We read from the Book of Mormon with her and she got excited because things were coming back to her memory. Fun fact, she had apparently investigated the church some 40 years ago when she was a teenager. So! She got super excited when she started remembering some things that we were reading!! And after that we walked over to our less active, Timberley's house so we could have a visit with her, which was good!

Thursday: We weekly planned and then I didn't feel too well. So we took it easy. #lamesauce

Friday: We didn't finish weekly planning because I like died..hahaha so we finished that today and we cleaned the apartment a little bit and made it more live-able haha. And then! BEST PART OF THE WHOLE ENTIRE WEEK! The guys finally came to INSTALL OUR WASHER AND DRYER!!!!! YAYAYAYAY. HALLELUJAH! We've only been staring at them since Tuesday and getting more and more impatient with the people coming to install them. Buttttt, we survived! And they were finally ready to use! YAY. Best day ever. So that was cool. :)

Saturday and Sunday: CONFERENCE!!!! BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE! I literally get so excited for Conference it's ridiculous haha I've had a countdown going since like December. Lol. Anywho. It was definitely worth the wait. It was EXACTLY what I needed to hear :) Our investigator, Angela came to the Saturday morning session and I think it was perfect for her. She said she LOVED it and she wanted to come to the other sessions, but things came up and she couldn't :( But! She still came to one and that's what counts! Ken said that he would watch a session of conference too..so we'll ask him that this week when we see him haha :) But wow, talk about overflow of the spirit!!!! #spiritoverdose. <3 <3 <3 I gotta say, Elder Holland's talk was my all time favourite it was perfect. And I needed it a ton. :) Now the countdown begins for next conference in October!!!!!

I hope you all had a good week! And I hope you have a GREAT week this upcoming week! :D I love you all so much and y'all are always in my prayers. Thanks for all your love and support and I want you all to know that the gospel is TRUE. I received SO MANY spiritual confirmations on so many things this weekend and my heart is overflowing with truth and the knowledge that I KNOW that this IS the Jesus Christ's church once again established on the earth today! Hallelujah! We are so blessed to be a part of it. Now let's share this great truth with others so they can feel blessed too!! 

I love you, I miss you, and guess what, the church is true!

Take care! Keep smiling! And make good choices!!!

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo <3

PS - I started ponderizing again!!! Mosiah 16:9. Christ's light will never go out. We can always rely on Him to help us out of whatever darkness we are facing. <3

New clothes. Cuz....it was just much needed.....hahah. #RossFTW

Literally the comfiest clothes ever

Tuesday. When we got the washer and dryer......

Thursday. When they still weren't installed...... Haha
accurate depiction of what we were feeling inside.....

Friday. When they FINALLY installed them!!!

And we were able to wash our clothes!!!! YAYAYAY.

So we had this doll...Named Tina. Super freaky. One of the

members in Sister Streetman's last areas gave it to her and said

that it reminded her of Sister Streetman. (EVEN MORE CREEPY)

So we "discarded" of Miss Tina...But first we had to
take pictures with her. Obviously. #basicwhitegirls ;)

Sorry about my foot and bag.....#faceholethingfail. Buttt you can only do so much
when your camera is balancing on a second story balcony railing on the self timer ;) 

And yes. I do consider North Carolina home. Thank you very much!!! 

i am seriously in love with this state. (Sorry for the terrible quality....

low lighting and my camera don't get along very good hahaha...)

We went to the museums today! Hoorah. :D They were awesome!

Military!!!! Always gonna hold a special place in my heart <3