dumela lotle (hello everyone)
i hope the week was great. i am happy to hear the reports of how things are going on the opposite side of the world. keep em comin, i love them so much.
our living conditions are very nice, my shoes are great, you can send things to the gaborone address, my companion is well, we teach people and we work with members. the new couple missionary is in francistown, before i left they were doing splendid.
stories and facts...
fact, we do a bucket load of contacting everyday.
story about contacting. so our district (minus our area, thank you sister missionaries who were in the area before me) has not been doing as well as hoped. on top of that, we were given a rule that we are to only be teaching people within a 45 minute walk of the church. for us that wasn't a problem, for all the other areas however, their areas were further away than that. so what did the zone leaders do? they dropped the boundaries, now all of us share an area. it is awesome because now we can contact with our whole district. as district we decided we were done chasing people down, so what do we do now? we park our cars outside the church, play music, and put a stand out front with pass a long cards, pamphlets, and tons of other things too. then we send some missionaries to bring people to us. the best part is, when a lot of people start to congregate, we don't even have to tell people to come over to us. we offer tours of the church, and the whole bit. it is so nice to be working smarter and not harder. we get to work together as a district, and it is fun.
fact, we have an amazing recent convert who is on fire in missionary work.
story, she is doing so well. she has provided four investigators and a father led family that are progressing so fast we will probably move their baptism dates to sooner! one of the investigators was the one who planned the design for all of the tile work in the chapel. he is awesome!
yup, if you want to work smart, work with members.
i have to go now now, i love all of you, do something awesome this week and i will write you next monday.
love sister blum
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
April 18, 2011
oh thank you thank you for the conference talk! because i am in a city with
THREE wards, we were able to watch all four sessions of conference this
weekend. saturday and sunday. all i can say is... IT WAS SOOO POWERFULL!!!!!
i remember something a friend of mine told me before i came here. he told me
that conference would be one of my favorite things. he was right. i still
consider it the super bowl of the church of jesus christ of latter day
saints. i learned so much about service, feeling the spirit, obedience,
temple work, how to help investigators, how to prepare for eternity,
overcoming personal challenges, the plan of salvation, diligence, faith and
so so so many more lessons. yup, this conference more than any other by far
has changed me a lot. eight hours of listening to prophets, apostles, music
and the spirit has charged me and i am so fired up to convert the world!
just dropping a quick line to tell you about how much i love the gospel.
holy smokes there are no words to describe my feelings. if someone would
have told me five years ago that i would be where i am today in my love of
the gospel, i don't think i would have believed them. the best part is,
there is so much more.
this last week has been a trial and a half, possibly the most challenging
week of my life. but something i have learned is that the harder the
challenges, the greater the reward. faith is grown through the winds of
adversity. i love the gospel and my new found testimony so much that i say
to the adversity... "LET THE WINDS BLOW!" i know there is more i can become
and i look forward to finding it.
i hope all of you are doing your missionary work, praying with all your
heart, relying on the Lord, accepting challenges, loving those around you
and pressing forward with a perfect brightness of hope, and a cheerful and
happy heart. may the Lord continue to bless you in your efforts to become
perfected by one small step after the other.
with a spring in my step and a smile on my face, we continue our labor in
the vineyard!
sincerely,
sister blum
THREE wards, we were able to watch all four sessions of conference this
weekend. saturday and sunday. all i can say is... IT WAS SOOO POWERFULL!!!!!
i remember something a friend of mine told me before i came here. he told me
that conference would be one of my favorite things. he was right. i still
consider it the super bowl of the church of jesus christ of latter day
saints. i learned so much about service, feeling the spirit, obedience,
temple work, how to help investigators, how to prepare for eternity,
overcoming personal challenges, the plan of salvation, diligence, faith and
so so so many more lessons. yup, this conference more than any other by far
has changed me a lot. eight hours of listening to prophets, apostles, music
and the spirit has charged me and i am so fired up to convert the world!
just dropping a quick line to tell you about how much i love the gospel.
holy smokes there are no words to describe my feelings. if someone would
have told me five years ago that i would be where i am today in my love of
the gospel, i don't think i would have believed them. the best part is,
there is so much more.
this last week has been a trial and a half, possibly the most challenging
week of my life. but something i have learned is that the harder the
challenges, the greater the reward. faith is grown through the winds of
adversity. i love the gospel and my new found testimony so much that i say
to the adversity... "LET THE WINDS BLOW!" i know there is more i can become
and i look forward to finding it.
i hope all of you are doing your missionary work, praying with all your
heart, relying on the Lord, accepting challenges, loving those around you
and pressing forward with a perfect brightness of hope, and a cheerful and
happy heart. may the Lord continue to bless you in your efforts to become
perfected by one small step after the other.
with a spring in my step and a smile on my face, we continue our labor in
the vineyard!
sincerely,
sister blum
Sunday, April 17, 2011
April 11, 2011
thank you dad and mom,
i love your emails.
to answer your questions:
am i holding up alright, or will my companion survive?
yes and maybe... it feels a lot like a blast from the past with her. we were companions in the mtc and she loves to have fun, which means we will be doing a lot of fun things together. i think she has mastered the whole building relationships of trust with the people we work with. i am excited to continue to learn from her. her name is Sister Nalusiba from Uganda.
did i get the cd and sd card?
yes, thank you a lot. i love it and i think my companion is getting tired of hearing it over and over. especially the "there can be miracles" song.
how are the new accomodations?
great, the missionaries here are really spoiled especially the sisters. we live in an apartment complex with a lot of stairs so starting today, we have a sweet new workout routine that looks a lot like us running up and down stairs until we die.
have i heard from paco yet?
no, i hope he gets the chance to come to botswana. he is pretty cool and i really want to see him.
have i met the stonehockers yet?
yes, i met them the day i left the MTC. they are in south africa so i have only been able to see them that once. elder stonehocker looks exactly like jay and i thought he was. i had to blink, and rub my eyes a lot to realize it wasn't him.
the transfer to the BIG city has been a lot like jumping into a cold pool after sitting in a hot tub. it is completely different here. first off, there is a chapel! we are the missionaries for both the YSA ward and the family ward. it is weird to have everything organized and running so well. although i sort of miss all of the funny things that happen in Francistown, especially when it comes to church. however i am finding my feet and adjusting quickly to the change. this always rings true, when we are obedient we are successful, no matter where we are. dad, you are right, the people are the same no matter where you serve.
my companion just told me her sister got her mission call to Salt Lake city temple square mission! she just went to the provo mtc today. you should see if you can find her in a couple weeks. her name will be sister nasakn and she will be from Uganda. if you find her, give her our love! :) i must be going and remember that there is someone in gaborone botswana who loves you a lot! i will give some stories and things when i have some!
gosiami,
sister blum
i love your emails.
to answer your questions:
am i holding up alright, or will my companion survive?
yes and maybe... it feels a lot like a blast from the past with her. we were companions in the mtc and she loves to have fun, which means we will be doing a lot of fun things together. i think she has mastered the whole building relationships of trust with the people we work with. i am excited to continue to learn from her. her name is Sister Nalusiba from Uganda.
did i get the cd and sd card?
yes, thank you a lot. i love it and i think my companion is getting tired of hearing it over and over. especially the "there can be miracles" song.
how are the new accomodations?
great, the missionaries here are really spoiled especially the sisters. we live in an apartment complex with a lot of stairs so starting today, we have a sweet new workout routine that looks a lot like us running up and down stairs until we die.
have i heard from paco yet?
no, i hope he gets the chance to come to botswana. he is pretty cool and i really want to see him.
have i met the stonehockers yet?
yes, i met them the day i left the MTC. they are in south africa so i have only been able to see them that once. elder stonehocker looks exactly like jay and i thought he was. i had to blink, and rub my eyes a lot to realize it wasn't him.
the transfer to the BIG city has been a lot like jumping into a cold pool after sitting in a hot tub. it is completely different here. first off, there is a chapel! we are the missionaries for both the YSA ward and the family ward. it is weird to have everything organized and running so well. although i sort of miss all of the funny things that happen in Francistown, especially when it comes to church. however i am finding my feet and adjusting quickly to the change. this always rings true, when we are obedient we are successful, no matter where we are. dad, you are right, the people are the same no matter where you serve.
my companion just told me her sister got her mission call to Salt Lake city temple square mission! she just went to the provo mtc today. you should see if you can find her in a couple weeks. her name will be sister nasakn and she will be from Uganda. if you find her, give her our love! :) i must be going and remember that there is someone in gaborone botswana who loves you a lot! i will give some stories and things when i have some!
gosiami,
sister blum
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
April 4, 2011
dear family and all others who are concerned,
i am glad you were all able to listen to conference, unfortunately we will not be listening for a loooonnnnnggggg time. not even sure we will be able at all this year. one thing is for sure, the ensign will come and i can not wait to read it! mom, i am so thankful that you sent me that spiral bound ensign, all the missionaries that see it are super envious and want to know how they can get one too. i just tell them they need to have a mother that cares about them and their spiritual progression! again, thank you for the ensign.
it is sooooo hot here. yesterday i thought i was going to melt. sometimes people tell us what the temperature is and it was 36 degrees celsius. i am aclimatized however, last week it was raining really hard and the temperature was 29 degrees, i had to wear a jacket. people keep saying winter is coming and i am excited to see what that will be like. my guess is it will be the same as now.
unfortunately the sister randri and blum show is ending very quickly. i got transferred to gaborone. the transfer news is in and i should have gone today but will be staying here in beloved francistown until saturday. the other sister missionary who is going to gabs with me has a driving test on friday. it sounds funny that we would be staying here until then but you must understand something about botswana culture. there are a million lines and lists that you need wait in until something happens. especially with driving, she has been waiting to take her test for three months now.
driving school is funny here, all you do is go to the range early in the morning, wait in a line, get into a car and drive for 15 minutes and then you go home. you do that for 10 times, they give you a pamphlet of traffic signs and rules to read at home, give you an even smaller test on the pamphlet and you go for the real test. the test itself consists of a parrellel park, a hill start (it is a manual transmission), and a loop around town. if you don't hit anything you pass!!!! she will do well i am sure.
i don't know who my new companion will be yet but i do know one thing, she will be one of the sisters i was with in the mtc. most likely sister nalusiba (we were companions in the mtc!) that will be a crazy show to watch :) and an adventure that i am looking forward to.
service makes you love people, i love these people way too much, it is hard to go from here but i know i will serve wherever and whenever the Lord wants me. i have faith that the hearts of those people in gaborone botswana are being prepared at this very moment.
we have been working so hard this last transfer and am happy to say we have 8 father led families in our teaching pool. good things are happening in francistown. i will let you know next week how the new area is. for now, know i love you all.
hakuna matata still,
sister blum
keep praying for miracles
i am glad you were all able to listen to conference, unfortunately we will not be listening for a loooonnnnnggggg time. not even sure we will be able at all this year. one thing is for sure, the ensign will come and i can not wait to read it! mom, i am so thankful that you sent me that spiral bound ensign, all the missionaries that see it are super envious and want to know how they can get one too. i just tell them they need to have a mother that cares about them and their spiritual progression! again, thank you for the ensign.
it is sooooo hot here. yesterday i thought i was going to melt. sometimes people tell us what the temperature is and it was 36 degrees celsius. i am aclimatized however, last week it was raining really hard and the temperature was 29 degrees, i had to wear a jacket. people keep saying winter is coming and i am excited to see what that will be like. my guess is it will be the same as now.
unfortunately the sister randri and blum show is ending very quickly. i got transferred to gaborone. the transfer news is in and i should have gone today but will be staying here in beloved francistown until saturday. the other sister missionary who is going to gabs with me has a driving test on friday. it sounds funny that we would be staying here until then but you must understand something about botswana culture. there are a million lines and lists that you need wait in until something happens. especially with driving, she has been waiting to take her test for three months now.
driving school is funny here, all you do is go to the range early in the morning, wait in a line, get into a car and drive for 15 minutes and then you go home. you do that for 10 times, they give you a pamphlet of traffic signs and rules to read at home, give you an even smaller test on the pamphlet and you go for the real test. the test itself consists of a parrellel park, a hill start (it is a manual transmission), and a loop around town. if you don't hit anything you pass!!!! she will do well i am sure.
i don't know who my new companion will be yet but i do know one thing, she will be one of the sisters i was with in the mtc. most likely sister nalusiba (we were companions in the mtc!) that will be a crazy show to watch :) and an adventure that i am looking forward to.
service makes you love people, i love these people way too much, it is hard to go from here but i know i will serve wherever and whenever the Lord wants me. i have faith that the hearts of those people in gaborone botswana are being prepared at this very moment.
we have been working so hard this last transfer and am happy to say we have 8 father led families in our teaching pool. good things are happening in francistown. i will let you know next week how the new area is. for now, know i love you all.
hakuna matata still,
sister blum
keep praying for miracles
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