Week #27 - 2015 May 25 - Walk of Salvation - Saving SOULS and Ruining SOLES at the same time.

Hey y'all! 

This week was pretty good! I just love being a missionary!

On Tuesday was transfer day and 2 of the elders in our district went home. Turns out that the Fayetteville 3rd elders are being taken out and the Ft. Bragg elders are covering all 3 units just like us. So they combined the area for the elders as well. That being said, the Fayetteville 3 elders had to drive a car up to transfer meeting. They knew our car smelled like dead cats (a sister spilled milk in it like 8 months ago and never cleaned it up) and so they 're like hey, we were thinking and we are going to switch you cars. That way we can take the smelly car away and you can have the nice car. (They had a 2015 Toyota Corolla.. ours was a 2012) And we were like alright sounds good! So we spent last Monday vacuuming out the car. And then on Tuesday we made the switch! So they took the gross car and we got their car! And oh my goodness. It's the nicest thing ever. I have come to the realization that I probably won't drive a car this nice ever again hahaha. I find it kinda hilarious that the nicest car I've driven and probably will ever drive is on the mission. Haha! But I love it! I love driving it!! It's a nice ride. :D 

Also! On Tuesday we scheduled in a "Walk of Salvation: Saving Souls One Step at a Time". (Sister Peterson laughed when I called it that when I scheduled it in...ha). So what we did was, we parked the car in a parking lot and then we filled our bags with copies of the Book of Mormon, a couple copies of the Bible, some pamphlets, pass along cards, you know, just the works. And then we just started walking. And before we started we committed ourselves to talk to as many people and the Lord put in our path. And that's exactly what we did! So we went street contacting for a couple hours! We were walking for quite a while and no one seemed to be out that day. Mind you it was super hot and humid that day... not exactly a perfect walking day. Haha but we talked to a couple people and shared with them the Book of Mormon and invited them to church. And then we turned into a neighborhood and started tracting. The only one who answered their door that day was this old lady who hid behind her door. We knocked and then the door opened, but no one was there...so we're like hello? And then the top of her head pops out from behind the door and we can only see her eyes. And we tell her who we are and what we do and she's like no. no. no. I'm not interested. Least we think that's what she said. And then she proceeded to shut the door. So we're like alright....and then we put a Book of Mormon in her mailbox just in case she changed her mind ;) hahaha. Other than that, no one answered their door so we just put a lot of copies of the Book of Mormon in their mailboxes! We put our card in them, so they have our number if they want to learn more. After about an hour and a half of this walking deal, I'm like well we have dinner soon, we should probably start heading back. Well....it turns out we walked A LOT further than I thought we did and we were like a 45 minute walk away from the car. HA! Whoops. And it was on the walk back that I realized that I was getting some pretty intense blisters. So I look down and it like covers my entire back of my foot...So I'm like. Well this is convenient...NOT. Haha. So I'm walking like a gimp because it literally burns every time I take a step and it feels like there are knives attached to the back of my shoes just cutting across the back of my foot. Ahh not one of my proudest moments. They were my black flats and I thought I broke them in forever ago...but I guess not! So we finally made it back to the car and I turned it on and blasted the A/C took my shoes off, I was like tap out! I'm driving bare foot! Haha. And so I threw everything in the back of the car and then I look behind me and there's this man. He's like hey, do you have a quarter? (Haha he was probably like who are these crazy people in skirts and why is that one not wearing shoes?) Anywho, we said we did so Sister Peterson scavenged for one in the car. And while she was doing that I was making small talk with him. He asked if we knew where the church was in this parking lot and we were like hmm, we haven't seen a church here. Do you know what it's called? And he's like no, a lady just told me I would find it in this parking lot. And then I was like I'm not sure where that church is, but! The church we go to is just down the road! And  he's like really? I might have to come with you all one day. And I was like yes! Please do! And I was holding a Book of Mormon in my hand (I don't even remember why...) so I kinda look down at it and I'm like Hey! Have you heard of the Book of Mormon before? And he's like no I haven't! So Sister Peterson comes over and we explain what it is and we give it to him and he's like wow. This is such a blessing. My wife has been telling me for the past week to change and that I should go to a church to become better and then I meet you all in this parking lot and you give me another Bible. Wow. I can't thank you enough. And then he asked about our church services and what time they're at and all that. IT WAS SUPER AWESOME! 

Goes to show that even when you are having a hard time, even when no one will answer their door, even when you feel like you aren't accomplishing anything, the Lord will bless you. We spent the last 2 hours trying to talk to people but no one was interested and then the second we were ready to leave, this man comes up to talk to us. 

He may not have found the church in the parking lot, but he found us and I don't think that was a coincidence. When we were leaving, I said, well I hope you find the church you're looking for! And then I was just overwhelmed with the spirit and I was like, whoa. That's our church. Our church is the church that people are searching and searching for. And it's up to us as members to help them find it. So after that I made sure that he had our number and he told us he would call us so we could find him a ride to get to church. I wish we would have gotten his contact information, but it all happened so fast. I just really hope that he gets in contact with us. We're praying for him and that we'll get to see him again! 

Neat experience.

Oh yeah, sidenote when we got in the car the temp said it was 100 degrees out. And it's ONLY MAY. Ahh hahaha this summer is gonna be greeeeat. Ha ha ha *nervous laughter..* I'm gonna die....hahah. I'm excited though. I've loved the weather and I LOVE the humidity so far, so hopefully it stays that way! 

The rest of the week was pretty good. We had to go to Sanford (which is like 45 minutes away) on Thursday because we had interviews with President. That was good. I love the Bernhisel's and me and President had a really good chat about testimony and conversion. We agreed that testimony is what you know and what you believe and conversion is a change of heart and what you do because of what you know. It's that constant progression and desire to be better. It was good :) Oh also, we have to go to Sanford every week now because we're apart of the Sanford district now that the Fay 3 elders got taken out. So yay. We have to travel 45 minutes to Sanford and back every Wednesday! hoorah...haha. I miss our old district. But change is good :) 

On Saturday, our investigator Clara got baptized! I haven't really talked about her a whole lot. She turned 10 on Saturday as well. Her dad is a member and they've been on the less active side for a while (now they're completely active) but Clara said she wanted to be baptized so her dad got in contact with the elders and the elders got in contact with us about teaching her. So we started teaching her a couple months ago. She knows all about the gospel and we pretty much just had to teach her because she's older than 8. Ha but the lessons went well and she knows more about the gospel than we do...seriously haha she's a genius and she remembers everything. I love her so much :) she's a cutie. But yeah! She got baptized on Saturday and it was such a happy day!! Loved it! :D I just love baptisms. <3

Anywho, that's all I got for ya this week!! I hope you all had a great week and saw the hand of the Lord in your life :) I love you all!! The church is true and God is good!! 

Have an ah-mazing week. Take care!

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

 xoxoxo <3

Clara and her Dad

Sister Blumel and Clara

Sister Peterson, Clara and Sister Blumel

Week #26 - 2015 May 18 - Ready or not!

Hey!

So I think I'm gonna try and make up cool subject lines for my emails every week. The subject line "hey" or "heyyyyy" or "heya!" is getting kinda old. You can only say hey in so many ways before it gets obnoxious....hahaha. 

Quick story behind the subject line. Sister Peterson and I were having one of our ridiculous conversations that we have where it's not real life and we're just kinda making fun of a situation that either happened or something that we made up. So we were talking about knocking on doors and tracking down less active/inactive people on the ward rosters and after a bit Sister Peterson was like yeah it'll be all like "ready or not! Here we come! And then we'll just walk into their house." bahahah. It was pretty funny. As ridiculous as the conversation was, it's true! That's like the missionary motto! "Ready or not! Here we come!" Hahaha. It's always nice when they are ready....but you know...we'll work with what we get ;) Okayyy enough sillyness. (Is that even a word? Ah who knows.)

This week was great! Alright. So I'm not really sure where it went or what specifically happened because it like flew by. Seriously. I literally just emailed y'all yesterday. Am I wrong? Okay so it has been a week. I'm gonna try and rack my brain and pull out some memories of what happened. 

What comes to mind almost immediately is we went tracting!!!! It was mine AND Sister Peterson's first time knocking doors! It was SO MUCH FUN! AHH. Okay so we didn't have anything planned on Saturday except for like some stop bys. And so we were like hey, if she isn't home, we should totally tract the area. SO WE DID! Haha. So this lady was having a nap. Her daughter (who is not a member) was outside and we talked to her briefly and shared a message out of the Book of Mormon with her and then we left her with a prayer and dropped some stuff off in the car and started on our door-to-door adventure! The first like 7 houses nobody answered the door. Out of like the 15 houses that we knocked (which doesn't seem like a lot....but it felt like a ton....and it was super hot and humid and we were super sweaty and gross haha) only 2 people answered their door. The first one who answered the door was this black man who looked like he was around 50 years old. We told him who we are and what we do and he was starting to shut the door and we were like no. He is not slamming the door in our faces. This is our first door contact! haha so we just continued talking to him so he felt like he had to keep the door open. We asked if he believed in Jesus and he said yes. We asked if he read the bible and he said no. We asked if he believed the bible to be the word of God and he said yes. And then he went on to say that he stopped reading it when he was a teenager. We then asked if he would like a copy of the Book of Mormon (after explaining what it was) and he said it would be a waste if we gave it to him because it would just collect dust cause he would never read it. We told him that would be okay and he's totally welcome to take it. We also mentioned that it's free. He wasn't taking it. So we tried the whole, you can give it to someone else approach and we asked about his family. And he wasn't biting that one either. And then we simply asked if he would like a picture of Jesus Christ and he said no. And then he was like, I don't want to shut the door in your face, but I'm going to go back to sleep. (mind you it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon on a Saturday) And so we're like, oh alright! have a great day sir! And then he shut the door before we could say anything else....hahhah. We were so confused after this one because he was like yes I believe in Jesus Christ but I don't want to talk about him and I don't want to read his words or his teachings....or even look at his picture. Some people! Haha it's okay! Maybe he's just not ready yet. Another time :) 

And then! The second and last one to answer the door was this lady named Virginia Green. She was also black and also older and she scared the bajeebies out of me haha. I knocked on the door and there wasn't an answer for a little bit so I go to knock again and all I get in was 1 knock and then all of a sudden the door swings open and this face just appears. Hahaha. So I'm like ooh! Hi! And then Sister Peterson does her thing (I let her take the lead on this one haha) and she did wonderful!! This lady, Virginia, is a strong baptist lady. She was like now before y'all get ahead of yourselves, just remember this - we believe in the same God and we believe in the same things as you all do. And we were like yes! You're right! We just want to add upon the knowledge that you already have! And then we talked about the Book of Mormon. First she didn't want anything to do with it. She was like, I already have too much Bible! And it all says the same things anyway! But after we explained it more and talked about it a little more she was like oh alright, I'll take it. And we had a picture of the Savior in it (the classic one where he's in the red robe) and she was like, Oh! That's the same picture I have! I just love Christ. And we were like yes! We do too! And then she was like, well I have to be somewhere in like 5 minutes. So we were like, thanks for talking with us! And if you have any questions, our number is in there (pointing to the  Book of Mormon) and she's like alright. We tell her to have a good day as well and she shuts her door. AND THEN! We hear the door fly open again and she's bolts out of her house and she's like, YOU LADIES BETTER COME BACK! I want to see y'all again! And then she was telling us how she's leaving for vacation in June and we have to come back before then. And she was telling us about her friend who lives a couple doors down and she was like, she's my best friend! I'll have her over when you come back as well! And we're like yes! That sounds perfect! We'll definitely be back!!! :D It was awesome. She's a sweetheart. Oh yeah. Fun facts - she wasn't wearing a shirt. She had a like a towel that was only staying on because she had her arm across her chest. Hahaha sooo her back and everything were completely exposed hahah it was interesting....haha. BUT anywho. She was a very sweet lady and I can't wait to go back and talk to her some more. 

Oh! She was also saying how we have a very important job because we work under the power of a very important man - and that's God. And how we have to live up to that standard because of how important it is to be doing HIS work. It was a good reminder. It made my heart happy to hear that :) 

Let's see. We also had stake conference this weekend. And during the Saturday evening session for the adults, Ft. Bragg had to do a 15 minute demonstration of a ward council. It was interesting! Haha and the Ft. Bragg bishopric and the entire ward council wanted the full-time missionaries to be apart of it as well. So we had to participate! Which was totally fun. Anywho, we had to sit up in the stands the entire stake conference haha. It was good though. Everyone commented on how great that demonstration was. So  that's a good sign. Ft. Bragg is just amazing. That ward is super strong and such an inspiration. I love serving here. 

Stake conference was super uplifting and great and inspired! You know, as per usual!

Other than that, our week was good! We taught lots of lessons and felt the spirit and life is good! I honestly can't complain!! Everything is great :) 

I hope you all had a great week too!! I love you and miss you! Take care!!

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo

PS - Update on the squirrel prank. Okay. So the elders got us back. They stepped up their game and crossed the line.....Dad you totally saw it coming...haha. Anywho. So on Wednesdays we have District Meeting. And so on Wednesday we were getting ready to leave and I open the door and I look down and I don't know how to react. I feel like every emotion at once and then I just white girled it and was like "Sister Peterson, I can't even right now." And shut the door. And she's all confused and I'm like nope. I can't. And so she opens the door and she's like oh man. The elders put a dead kitten on our doorstep ALONG with the package we sent them with a note over it saying "return to sender". It was heartbreaking. GAHH. Seriously. I was like emotionally disturbed...I figured that was the best way to put that. But Sister Peterson being the great companion that she is, just kinda put the cat aside and we went on our way. 

So we get to district meeting and the elders see us and they have that look on their faces....(they aren't good at hiding anything)....and we decided we wouldn't give them that satisfaction. So we just walked right past them and we're like good morning! And looked at them weird for giving us weird looks. Haha. And long story short, they kept asking if there was anything on our doorstep and we were like what are you talking about? haha andddd we lasted all of district meeting and finally when we were outside getting in our vehicles we fessed up and I was like yes, we saw the dead cat. Thanks for that. Haha and they looked all smug. But then they told us that the landlord saw them do it and they called Sister Scott, who's in charge of mission housing and she got all mad at the elders and told them that they had to clean it up. So bam. Their prank didn't go as smoothly as ours did ;) so we still win ;) haahaha. but still. A kitten?! Really?! And they know I love cats....that's why they said they did it. Bah. They're dumb heads. Hahah. Jks. They're fun. It's all for fun. :) But yeah! Gotta love it.

So sorry....but I saw it and had to take a picture because not gonna lie...they got us
back pretty good. Andd I saw it, so y'all get to see it too. Ha. But yeah....poor thing.

Me and Sister Arave! She's going home this week....but
she was in my district for the past couple months :)

And me and Sister Skokos! Hahah I just love her.

I saw Sister Ibarra this week at stake conference!!!! :D
(She's getting transferred though...so we won't be in the same zone anymore...sad face.)

And we found a cat this morning...so obviously I had to take cat selfies..... duh.

I also preached to gospel to this cat...you know just fulfilling my
missionary duties of preaching the gospel to every creature ;)

Week #25 - 2015 May 11 - Hellooooo!

Family! Hey!

So this week was great. And it ended off PERFECTLY when I had the chance to SKYPE with you all!! Wowza. There is never enough time to talk with you all. And I wish I could have taken 40 minutes (AT LEAST) with all of you individually as opposed to just 40 minutes for all of you. HOWEVA! I am so super duper grateful for the time that I did have to talk to all of you. As always, I wanted to say so much more (and I'm sure this goes both ways), but my mind totally froze when I saw you all and I didn't have a clue where to even start! But I just hope that you felt of my love in that brief call :) There are just no words to express how much I love each and every one of you! And I miss you all like flippin crazy. BUT! I know we're all where we're supposed to be so all is well! :D

On Tuesday, we went up to Raleigh for the 1st Transfer Training meeting. It's a meeting where all the trainees and trainers go to during their first transfer. (I talked about it when I was a trainee haha. But now the tables are turned and this time I was the trainer ;)!!) It was a really inspired meeting. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how it's flooding the earth. And how that's been prophesied in the Book of Mormon and now it's coming to pass. It's really neat to see how prophecies in the scriptures are being fulfilled in these days. It's a huge testimony builder in my books :) And then we also talked about the importance of 'pre-heating' our investigators for baptism. We're supposed to warm them up for the baptism invite from the time that we make the first initial contact. So we did a couple role plays that helped us mention baptism in all the points of the Restoration. It was great! Definitely something we can apply more in our actual teaching. It really fulfills our purpose as missionaries because our how point in being out here is to invite people to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel. And part of that is being baptized into the church. So if we don't mention baptism at all in the first few lessons, then when we do ask the people to be baptized, they will most likely be caught a little off guard. AND! If we don't have intentions to help get this person baptized, then what's the point of teaching them? Haha. It sounds harsh! But seriously. We're here serving the Lord to bring as many souls as we can back to Him. And like I said before, part of that is helping them unlock the gate through baptism. So! Through all of that rambling - which I hope made sense...- inviting the investigator to be baptized during the first lesson is super important! Even if they say no, at least you established expectations and they will know what your purpose is. 

But yeah, overall the meeting was fantastic. I loved it. I love missionary meetings, they are always so chalk full of amazing things that you always go out of those meetings with such determination and a spiritual high that you believe that you can do anything. And you can with the Lord's help! So it works out. 

I was also able to see Sister Hesen. I came out with her and she's training as well! So it was really fun to see her and catch up with her. She's doing great!!! :) It's fun to see people that were in the MTC with you...and see how much they've grown. The mission does wonders at changing people for the better!! :) It's so great!

On Wednesday, we had zone training and it was also super good. Lots of inspiration and revelation. Like I said, missionary meetings are so great. The Spirit is always super strong. We talked a lot about bearing your testimony frequently and helping people come closer to Christ with your love of the Savior. When they see how much you love Him and His gospel, they will begin to be curious and want to find out for themselves what you believe in. It was good. The Sister Leaders gave a teaching on Family History. And man oh man, I really wish I would have gotten into that before the mission because now I'm learning how great it really is! Ah well, I'll have to do that after the mission for sure. Family History is an amazing missionary tool! Use it!! :D 

We had exchanges on Wednesday (until Thursday morning). So that was good. Haha nothing really to report there. I was able to go with Sister Heninger and she's an inspiration to say the least. She says a lot of really profound things. So I felt honoured to be on exchange with her and hear her wisdom about life and the gospel. It was a good time! 

OH BEFORE I FORGET! 

UPDATE ON THE SQUIRREL SITUATION. 

So like I said last week (I believe...if not then I'm sorry for assuming things hahaha), the squirrel was residing in our freezer. Well! We decided it was there for far too long without paying rent or anything so we had to kick it out. So this is what we did. We got a small flat rate box from the post office a little while ago, so we used that. We made the box all nice and then we put the squirrel in it. And that's what the squirrel was in, in the freezer...so at least it was in a box. Haha. But on Saturday morning we got a new box and we decorated it a lot better. AND! Sister Peterson got a package, so we took the stickers (the ones saying that the package was paid for and the tracking bar code) and put it on this box. And then we also have a letter for another sister that came in the mail and she's from California. Sooo this letter was from Cali and Elder Wolf is from Cali. So we're like perfect. We'll just address it to Elder Wolf and use this California address as the return address. Hahaha. So that's exactly what we did. We also put a napkin that said "Bon Appetite" on it with a plastic fork in it also. AND SO! On Saturday around the time that the mail comes, we drive down to the Elders apartment and place this great package on their doorstep. And then we drove off. Later on we found out through a member (Sister Montanez...we're like BFFs with her) that the Elders got the package and they freaked out, but they don't want to give us the satisfaction of knowing that they got it. Hahaha so she told us that apparently, Elder Wolf was all excited about this package that he got and then he opened it and he was like "ahh." and threw it on the ground (it's not everyday that you get a dead squirrel in the mail...hehehe) and then he was freaked out. And said that they deserved it. Hahaha so we done good. Power of the skirt!!! Hahah we have all the best pranks. But! We should be done for a while. We had our fun for the next few months. Now we'll be nice to them I guess. Haha. But still! Super funny story! Hopefully that all made sense....I'm kinda just rambling and throwing words together. Haha. So! Yeah that was our fun for the week! Hahaha. 

And then it was Mother's Day! And that was like the best day ever! :D I hope you had a great mother's day mama bear! You deserve only the best of the best. <3 <3 <3 I LOVE YOU MOM! 

I hope you all had a wonderful week! Like always, remember that I love you all like mad :) <3

Keep on keepin on!

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo

PS. For Mother's Day, I wanted to give back to Sister Horn and Sister Borabora because they do so much for us. And I just love them to pieces. So we bought them flowers and put them in little mason jars and wrote them nice notes :) We delivered them on Saturday evening. And it made their day.
Sister Horn said she wasn't in the best mood and then we came over and surprised her with flowers and notes and totally made her night. 

Sister Borabora said this is a rough time of the year for her, just because of things that have happened in the past. And we knew about what happened but we didn't know when it happened. So we had no idea...I just had the thought to give her flowers too. And she said that our flowers, notes, and visit were exactly what she needed that night :) 

Ahhh I love the way the spirit works :) Especially in little moments like these. It just makes me so happy :)

Best Family Ever!!!

And yessss. . . . we are CRAZY!!!!

Flowers for  Sister Horn and Sister Borabora

Week #24 - 2015 May 04 - I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

Hey y'all! 

This week was SO GOOD. Wowza! I don't even know where to start haha. This may be out of chronological order...but ah well!

On Saturday we were able to finally contact a referral we received from church headquarters. We've tried a couple times before that but she was never home. Howeva! She was home on Saturday and we were able to meet her! AND! We have a return appointment with her this next Saturday. Anywho, it went something like this. 

*she opens the door*

Me: Hey, we're the sister missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we're going around sharing uplifting messages about Jesus Christ. 

Her: Oh, I actually just got back from church!

Me: Oh really? That's so great! What church do you go to?

Her: Hope, Love, and Faith. 

Me: That sounds wonderful!

Her: It is. I love it!

Me: What do you love about it?

Her: Just everything! 

Me: *noticing that she has a phone in her hands and she looks like she's in a hurry to get back to it* Wow that's amazing. We would love to come back and get to know you better. Would that be okay?

Her: Yeah of course! When are you usually in this area?

Me: A couple times a week. We'll be back next Saturday around this time if that works for you?

Her: Yep! We'll see you then! 

*She shuts the door*

Us: *freaking out inside cause it went sooo great!*

Her name is Ann and she is such a sweetheart. We're excited to go back and get to know her better. 

Then only a few minutes after we contacted her, we were going to do some stop bys and then when we were at the light waiting for it to turn green so we could turn, we noticed this homeless man across the street. So we decided to change our course of action and go contact him. He started walking away before the light turned green, but once it did turn we hurried (safely...don't worry!) and parked and just barely reached him in the nick of time. We told him we were the sister missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that we're going around sharing uplifting messages centered on Christ. And he replies with, oh I know all about Him. So I ask, what do you know about Him? And then this man says, "He always provides." And that's all he said. But it hit me so hard. This man has nothing but a backpack with a few things in it. And he says that the Savior always provides for him. Wow. It was really humbling. And then Sister Peterson offered him a Book of Mormon and he accepted it. It was a really neat experience and I'm so glad we listened to the Spirit and contacted him.  It was a super short contact and we didn't get a return appointment, but it was still such an amazing experience. 

Also, on Saturday we were at the church with the YSA cleaning the building as a part of their service project for the month. (The YSA does a "feasting on service" on the first saturday of the month. Last month we helped Mercedes with her yard work - I wrote about that. It's a really great thing that they do!) And then this 2 ladies come up to us and they're like "sisters! hey!" And when people do this, you just know that you're getting an assignment...hahah. And! Sure enough, they say that they have this stake activity day girl thing and they have a whole bunch of stations set up. And the people that were supposed to be in charge of missionary service weren't able to come. So they asked if we could fill in. And so of course, we have to say yes hahaha. Gotta love being a missionary! Hehe it's great. Anyway, so we're like yes, of course! That's our specialty ;) haha. And so we quickly run to the store and buy a whole bunch of starbursts. And then we go and teach the class. We got the candy because as the girls were coming in and as we were doing introductions, Sister Peterson and I would just be sitting there eating the candy without offering it to them. And slowly but surely the girls would eye at it or ask us why we were eating them. And once we noticed them doing that we turned to each other and we were like "Wow! These are so good! I just love starbursts. They're one of my favourites." So just like making a big deal out of it and then the girls would be like! Hey! I want one! And we'd be like oh wait. You want one? Are you sure? I'm not gonna offend you or hurt your feelings if I offer you one? We thought that if we offered you a candy, you'd be sad. Haha and then they'd be like no! IT would actually make us happy! Haha. It was so funny. But anywho, we related that to missionary work and how we have something so amazing and so great that we should just be sharing it with everyone! It'll make them happy! And so for 2 hours straight we were able to teach about the blessings of missionary work and bear our testimony of it. It was fantastic. I loved it. :D Missionary work is the best work! It's THE LORD'S WORK! 

OH! Yeah. So we were on a walk in the morning. And ever since our last prank failed we've been looking for a dead squirrel to try it again. And then all of a sudden, Sister Peterson is like "there's your dead squirrel that you've been looking for for the past few weeks" and I'm like no way. So I inspect it and sure enough, it's up to standard. (Hahaha) And then I'm like awe man I didn't bring anything to pick it up with. So we just continue walking and then when we turn around to start walking home, I'm still thinking about how I can get this squirrel from point A to point B without touching it. Haha there's water bottles all over the road so I'm like maybe we can figure out a way to get it in there. (ridiculous I know...hahah i was getting desperate) AND THEN! Out of the corner of my eye, I see this blue thing. So I look at it and it's an ENTIRE ROLL of dog bags. (you know the ones you pick up poop with. ha.) And I'm like Sister Peterson. You won't believe this. And I show her. And she's like no way. You have to be kidding me. It's like it was meant to be. Hahahah so we take a bag over, put the squirrel in it and it fits PERFECTLY. So we run it over to the elder's apartment and just dump it on their front step. Ha. It was fantastic. Haha. 

And then during personal studies, all was well. We had the window open because it was a nice day. And then all of a sudden we hear this loud thud and it scares the bejeebies out of us because it sounds like someone tried to get into the apartment, and then we hear a car door slam and a car zoom off. And we both look out the window and look at each other and say "...the elders." At the exact same time. So we run down stairs and sure enough. They threw the squirrel at our door. Now there's squirrel blood on our door. It's disgusting. Haha. But good on them for actually getting us back for once ;) hahaha. We have some good plans to get them back. Because they obviously just declared war. I'll keep you posted. ;) 

Andddd, that's about all I got for ya this week! (Just realized how long this email got...hahaha) Can I just mention how FLIPPIN EXCITED I AM TO SEE YOU ALL NEXT SUNDAY?!?!?! I'M SO STOKED! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

Just remember, y'all are the best. And I love you all more than anything. I miss you a ton. But I know you're being taken care of. God is good. The Church is True. And you are loved. 

Have a greeeeat week! See you on Mother's day!! :D

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Blumel

xoxoxo