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

Sisters Peterson and Blumel at the Raleigh Temple

Raleigh, North Carolina Temple

Sister Blumel at the Raleigh Temple

Week #22 - 2015 Apr 20 - Heyaaa!

Hey! 

So yesterday marked my 5 month mark. I've been away from home from 5 months! And then in a couple weeks it'll be that I've been out in the field for 5 months! Crazy how fast time goes by. I don't think I will ever understand mission time. It's weird. But a good weird...no worries!

Alright. So this week was pretty great! On Monday we were able to see a paratrooper jump (with permission from the zone leaders) on post. It was incredible! The Hills (the senior missionary couple) took us and I'm so grateful they did! They kept saying that it was a once in a lifetime experience. They didn't end up coming until late...so it was really dark. But! The lights from a distance lit it up just right so that we could actually see the jumpers! They looked like blobs and shadows, but we could still see them!! Hoorah! It was incredible!! A plane would go by and then there would just be a trail of jumpers. Like there was so many of them. It was neat! Later on that night, Elder Hill told us this: "We witnessed history tonight - 21 planes - there hasn't been a jump this big since WWII." 

Crazy, hey? It was such a neat experience!

On Wednesday, we had Activity Zone Conference, in Wilmington. So 3 zones (the southern zones - in the mission we call it the Southern Kingdom - hehe. And then the 3 zones up north are called the Northern Kingdom. Love it.) all got together and the spiritual portion of it went from around 9 to 12. And then we had lunch, and then we played games from 1-3! And then we had a fun little devotional type thing with President and Sister Bernhisel afterwards. It was so much fun!!! The spiritual portion of it was really uplifting. It was mostly focused on how to get members excited to do missionary work. It was great. President showed a clip of a movie (I can't remember what it's called) but it was about the olympics and the USA team playing hockey and whatever and the last part was "Whose team are you on?!" And the hockey player said "the united states of america" and then that's when the clip stopped. And then President was like ah, that part makes me want to tear up! No offense to our Canadian missionaries. Haha and then everyone looked at me...there's only like 3 of us Canadians in the Southern Kingdom. Haha I didn't know how to respond...but it was funny! And then for lunch we had a southern meal - pulled pork sandwiches in a vinegar based sauce. I love that haha it's sooo good! And then we changed and got into our grubbies (exercise clothes) and we got put into teams and then we played! There was 4 games - Capture the Flag, Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, and Zombie Ball. They were all a lot of fun! It was weird seeing everyone in normal clothes though...hahah. Zombie Ball is like a break off of dodge ball. Except for there aren't teams, you're on your own. Survival of the fittest. So what happens is there's one ball and it gets thrown around and if you get hit by it, you have to sit on your bum and become a 'zombie'. The only way to stand back up (to rid yourself of your zombie-ness haha) is if you tag someone else who's standing (you're allowed to butt scooch, or zombie crawl on your stomach) and then you get to stand up and they have to sit down, or! You catch the ball. It was interesting hahah it was kinda sketchy! Especially when you're one of the few who are standing and you have to dodge the ball and watch out for all the people sitting on the floor scooching towards you. Hahaha like I said before..it was interesting. But yeah! Zone Conference was a ton of fun! It was nice to just take a break for a couple hours and release all the pent up energy haha. This only happens once a year and I'm already so excited for next year's haha. And then afterwards, we took a group picture with President and his wife. And then we all sat under this roof thing (I can't think of what's it's called) and President and Sister Bernhisel both bore their testimonies and gave us a little message. They're going home in June...it breaks my heart! But I'm sure the new mission president and his wife will be great :) I'm just going to miss the Bernhisel's like crazy! It's okay though. And then we sang this southern song called The Preacher and the Bear. Or something like that hahaha it was fun singing that with all the other missionaries :) 

And then we all went home! We didn't get back to Fayetteville until like 7pm. It was crazy ahah. But sooo worth it! I loved it!

And then on Friday! We were able to see Sister Mentzer! Remember her? Haha. Anywho, she had her baby and he's such a cutie! He's adorable! His name is James. She's so happy now! You can feel the spirit more in her home. It's great. Babies just have such a special spirit about them that they bring into homes. It's amazing to see. But yeah, we had a lesson with her. Sister Hill came along and pretty much just asked her why she isn't baptized yet. Haha Sister Hill is very bold...it's great. And then a lot of Sister Mentzer's concerns came out. It mostly had to do with the Priesthood and she doesn't understand why there are priestess's in the Bible but not anymore. And why that changed. And she doesn't believe that there's only one prophet on the earth today...because again the bible's time there were many prophets. Sister Hill had a lot of inspired answers. But we told her we would study it more and get back to her. They're valid questions! Haha something I've never really thought about before. It'll be interesting to study! But overall, it was a pretty good lesson. I just love Sister Mentzer :) she's great. 

Sunday was pretty good too. In the YSA branch's sacrament meeting there was a speaker and he was talking about how we shouldn't just swim in the scriptures, but we should scuba dive in them and get the most out of them as we can. He was telling us that when he studies the scriptures he asks himself questions like why is this in here? Engraving the plates wasn't easy, so this obviously means something more. And how does this apply to me? And then he went on to elaborate on 1 Nephi 2:15 (Jon's favourite scripture!). He was saying something along the lines of, when they were out in the wilderness, they would sometimes be in one place for a long time and he didn't understand why they didn't just build houses and things. And then he was like, and then it hit me. Tents are used for mobile reasons. Lehi dwelt in a tent because that made them mobile. They didn't know when the Lord was going to tell them to leave, but did know that they had to be ready. Hence the tents. And then he's like alright. How does this apply to me? Then he talked about an experience he had where him and his wife moved to a different state and the first few days of being there and settling in, their stake president stopped by and he's like you don't know me, but I'm the stake president and you all just moved in. I'm here to tell you that you all need to go on a mission. Talk to your bishop as soon as you can. And so they talked to their bishop and they had their papers started a few days later! And then he went on to say, that "if you are so in love with what you got, you won't be able to leave." We have to be prepared for anything. If the Lord asked you to move somewhere else, would you? Because Lehi's faith was so strong, he had that mentality of, I will go where you want me to go, dear Lord. Again, going back to the tent. He showed that faith through his actions. He didn't build anything because he didn't know how long they were going to be there before the Lord told them to keep going. He was waiting on the Lord. 

It was interesting to hear! I never really thought about that scripture that deep before! Haha. Proof that you can get SO MUCH from every scripture!! You just have to dig deeper -- or scuba dive deeper. :) 

Ahh I love being a missionary here in North Carolina. I love being able to say that I am a representative of Jesus Christ. :) Some days are so hard, some days seem to go by so slow, and some days, I feel like I'm walking on sunshine! But ALL days are great days. I can honestly say that at the close of each day, I sincerely thank my Father in Heaven for that day and for everything that happened. For without those hard days, we wouldn't appreciate the good days. Being out here is worth everything. I am SO grateful I have been given this opportunity to serve a full time mission. And I am so very grateful for all the love and support I feel from back home. :) Y'all are amazing. I love you all so much and miss you like crazy! But I know the Lord is taking care of you...and that gives me peace :) 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and remember that I'm sending lots of love from North Carolina!! Take care and God Bless! 

Much Love,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo

Week #21 - 2015 Apr 13 - C'est la vie!

Heya!

Wowza, I survived my first week as a trainer...just barely...HAHA just kidding! My trainee is AMAZING. She totally came pre-trained...so all I have to do is guide her a little bit here and there. Seriously though, she's great. I feel so blessed to have her as a companion! It's the best. We make a pretty good team because we both have that desire to work as hard as we can. :) 

This week was great. On Tuesday, that was transfer day, and because I'm training we had to be up in Raleigh by 8:15am. We had to wake up at 5am and be on the road by 6:30am. AH it was crazy. Wayyyy too early. Haha I'm just saying! But the day was good! So it all worked out. First, all the trainers met together with President Bernhisel and one of the assistants (Sister Bernhisel came in later) and the trainees met together. So at first the trainers and trainees were separated. And then at about 10, we finally met our trainees! It was awesome! My new companion is Sister Peterson and she's from Utah. She's great! And then we had a little bit of instruction, we role played, and then we had lunch! And came back for more instruction and then we went to the transfer meeting. It was awesome! After that we found our ride back home, which was Sister Horn (Elder & Sister Hill brought us up to Raleigh...I forgot to mention that). So after the meeting, I said my goodbyes to Sister Webb -- I'm gonna miss her! And then Sister Peterson and I went and got her stuff to put in Sister Horn's van. We found her luggage, but her bike disappeared! So we spent a solid 20 minutes trying to track it down. But no luck. So we talked to Elder Scott (he's in charge of that kinda stuff) and he said we would track it down and bring it to us when he comes to Fayetteville. So it will all work out. Good thing she got called to an area where we have a full time car!! Haha. The ride back was good. We stopped at Cook Out and Sister Horn bought us all shakes. Sister Peterson had her first Cook Out experience!! WOO! So yeah Cook Out is totally a southern fast food place (it's comparable to Peter's in Calgary) and it's SO good. I love it. The rest of the day was good! All of our appointments fell through....but that's why back up plans are so important! Haha it all worked out :) 

On Wednesday we had an appointment with one of the less actives in Fort Bragg. Her name is Sister Smith. She's the best, I love her. We hadn't been able to get up with her for a couple months..so it was great to finally get in with her. And wow. There was such a difference about her! Last time we met with her, she was way distant and she didn't want to talk to us at all..and she looked miserable. But this time, a complete 180. She was super happy and bubbly and totally soaking in everything we were saying. She mentioned that she has her ons and offs about the gospel and she's just getting over one of her offs. And now she's coming to church and reading her scriptures and having family prayer and all of those things that help you come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. This was such a great experience for me and a huge testimony builder on the fact that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can and WILL make you happier! I've noticed being out on the mission that the people who are happy and full of joy are the ones that are anxiously engaged in the gospel and those who are not in that happy place are putting other things before the church. So family (and friends), stay close to the gospel, do those things that you know you should be doing, and I PROMISE you that you will see the difference in your life! You WILL be happier! :D That doesn't mean that you won't ever have trials or hard times, but it does mean that you will have that hope and faith that you need to get through those trials. The church is true!! 

Saturday was a wonderful day as well! I'm sure you all remember Mercedes. Our golden investigator who is totally and completely amazing? Yeah her. :) Anywho, we recently found out that she is going to the ward that she's supposed to be going to (she lives in that ward's boundaries). She was only going to the YSA branch because that's the one her boyfriend took her too. So, we figured out where she was supposed to be and we passed her off to the sisters in that ward and now she's being taught to them! It's kinda sad because we won't be teaching her anymore, but it's MUCH better for Mercedes. She has a daughter and so they will be able to learn more about the church together and have the fellowship and support from the ward that they'll be baptized in. So all in all, this is exactly how it's supposed to be. I'm really happy for her! She actually wants to get baptized before her boyfriend moves back to Utah. And that's in a couple weeks. So I'll keep you posted on that! It would be absolutely amazing to see her get baptized. :) ANYWHO. The YSA branch had a service project planned for her - yardwork in Mercedes' backyard! So we totally went to that and helped :) It was a lot of fun!!! We got so much work done and Mercedes even fed us ALL lunch. She's such a sweetheart. It was great to see her again, and she just looks so so so happy! I love it. I love seeing the gospel change lives...that's the greatest miracle that you get to witness on the mission. In my opinion anyway. Seeing the Atonement work through people to soften hearts and help them closer to Christ just gives you the most indescribable feeling ever. 

Also! On Saturday, we were able to meet with Ceresa!! YAY! It was so good to see her again. We just stopped by her house so we were taking our chances as to if she would be home and if she would let us in. BUT it's a good thing we did because she was totally home and she totally let us in! It was wonderful! We had a really good chat with her and we just got to know her more and strengthen that relationship with her. We have an appointment scheduled for Thursday evening with her to actually start teaching her the lessons. I'm super excited for it. She seems really interested in learning more. I just love her! Haha she's the best!! :D

Well that's about all I have to report for this week! Thanks for all your continued love and support! Remember that I love you all SO so SOOO much. 

Have a magically delightful week!! :D Y'all are all the best! Love you!

Much Love,

Sister Blumel

xoxox

Service project at Mercedes

Transfer Day

Sister Peterson and Sister Blumel

Week #20 - 2015 Apr 06 - Happy Monday!

HEYA!!!

And alas it's Monday yet again! How are y'all doing?! How was Easter? And Conference?! Tell me all about it!!

I know for me, Easter was wonderful. We had a huge dinner with the Horn family. (The one we spent Christmas with... just like with Elder Windham/LAW and Elder Keck, they call y'all their mission family...the Horn's are definitely my mission family here ahaha it's great!) 

We watched Conference at the church for the Saturday morning session, the Burbank's (The Bishop & his family) for the Saturday afternoon session, the Reist's (a young couple in the Fayetteville 3rd ward) for the Sunday morning session, and the Horn's for the Sunday afternoon session. Oh my goodness, conference was SO good. I loved it!! Definitely going to have to read and study those talks when the Ensign comes next month. 

On Wednesday we had a zone training meeting and President and Sister Bernhisel came down for it. It was awesome seeing them :) It was a really inspired meeting and we all learned a lot from it. Sister Bernhisel was also able to come out with us for a couple hours after the meeting. We had an appointment with Lala at FSU. It went really well! On the way back to the church, I asked Sister Bernhisel for some advice on training and she told me that as long as I'm doing what I'm supposed to and living according to the white handbook and preach my gospel, I have nothing to worry about. She said a few more things that helped my mind ease up a little bit haha. It'll be good! We talked with President for a little bit outside when we dropped Sister Bernhisel off. He told me [yet again] that I will do fine and I don't have to worry. I just love the Bernhisel's. :)

So for the past month, we were trying to plan to go to FSU (Fayetteville State University) and contact on campus using #BecauseHeLives. It was supposed to happen on Wednesday (the 1st) and Friday (the 3rd) of this last week. But apparently student elections were happening on Wednesday, so we're like alright that's not a problem, we'll just do the 3rd. BUT! Turns out, no one had classes on the 3rd...so we're like awe man...now what?! (Cause contacting is only fun when you actually have people you can contact.... ha) And so we were like oh well what about Thursday. And then Lala (she's a recent convert that we visit all the time on campus...she's also the one that put this together), was all like Thursday will work - she talked to the man who's in charge of the "free speech zone" and they got it all figured out and we were ON! We found out that we were on Wednesday at about noon. Hahah so we had to plan SUPER fast. It was semi-stressful...but it was good! It turned out well! Hahah. Soooo, we went to FSU on Thursday (the 2nd) and we contacted from 11:30-2! (We were supposed to only be there till 1...and the elders were supposed to take 1-3pm ...but they showed up late...no surprise there haha.) IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! Haha the people there were really nice. And a lot of them said they were going to a church for Easter...I'm tellin ya the people here are super religious. Everyone loves Jesus here in the south! It's pretty great :) But yeah, we were able to show the #BecauseHeLives video (kudos to Lala and her tablet!) and the people loved it! We have 2 really solid potential investigators from this. It's so great. The senior missionary couple (Elder & Sister Hill) also came with us :) And Sister Hill was like, even if we can only find 1 investigator who gets baptized...it'll make this all worth it! So out of all the people that we talked to, there's definitely a good chance! It's really neat  too because Lala found the church through the same thing! The missionaries that were in the area about a year ago did the same thing - set up a booth on FSU campus - and Lala was all like 'hey, what are you doing?' and then bam, she got baptized a few months later!! So it went complete circle because she was the one who pretty much set the whole thing up!! She's so great. I love her a lot! Haha but yes. This was definitely such a great experience! :) LOVED it! Definitely gonna have to do it again. :D

Well, tomorrow I start training! Keep me and my trainee in your prayers! Haha we have to be in Raleigh at 8:15am. So we have to be on the road at 6:30..it's gonna be an early morning. But it's all for the best! Speaking of my trainee..she's in the air right now! She's on her way to Raleigh, NC! Super exciting!!! 

I think that's about it for this week! I'll try to remember to take pictures of me and my new companion so I can send pictures next week :) 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! And I hope you all take care :) Especially Miss Sara Bear. You heal quickly, k?! :) Y'all are all in my prayers. I miss you!! 

Much Love,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo

#BecauseHeLives at FSU

#BecauseHeLives

Sister Missionaries with Sister Bernhisel

Sisters Blumel, Bernhisel, Webb