this last week was possibly the craziest week ever! it involved one of our
recent converts houses lighting on fire, some investigators having a baby, a
lot of meetings with the second counselor in the branch presidency because
the primary president decided to stop being the primary president, trips to
the dentist, the announcement of the loss of our chapel (we are currently
renting it and the renter decided to terminate our contract) some other
investigators getting deathly ill, a lot of priesthood blessings, and lastly
and most importantly 2 baptisms!!!! WOOHOOOO MISSIONARY WORK!

as i am typing this i realize there is not very much that i have actually
told you, let me try to fill in the gaps. the branch we are a part of is
small in members but HUGE in investigators, we had 106 people at church! the
leadership are very small babies still. we are having a problem with the
leadership in primary so sister randria and i have been running it for the
last few months. two sundays ago we were told by the branch president to
stop planning lessons and to pull out of primary to let the newly called
persident do her job. we did that last week and it worked well, then this
week she decided that she was done for the second hour. i went to the room
to check on her and as soon as she saw me she said "ok kids, and here is
sister blum with sharing time." then she left quickly. there i was, 43
children starring at the white girl in the front of the room... needless to
say, we did a lot of singing time, a lot of coloring and a lot of playing. i
did tie some gospel into it, we have bodies that move so we must be thankful
for them! whew, that was a tough one. i sure am happy for an inspired bishop
who gave me the calling in nursery before mission.

the work continues, we are trying hard to build up the branch by finding
good strong people that can lead. we found two of them and baptised them on
saturday. the Mom is married ( we expect the husband will be baptized soon,
she reads the book of mormon with him every night and he has a strong
testimony of the book of mormon. he just needs to be taught). and she is the
headmaster of a school. her daughter will serve a mission, she is 22 and i
know that if she continues the way she is, absolutely she will be on a
mission in a couple years. 

anyway, i know there wasn't a super amount of explanation in that email
but i must go, my time is up. i was hoping that i could get a cd sent to
me. i wish for the cd to have the prince of egypt soundtrack, dad playing
hymns on his guitar, and karli playing songs on the piano. so i guess it
would have to be three cd's. as well as many chocolate chips, and brown
sugar. i also need a watch. 

i love you and i am happy to have you tell me your testimony every week.
sister randri and i have been doing our best to work our tail ends off. i am
doing VERY VERY VERY well though, i love the work and i love the people.

sincerely,
sister blum