here is what i wrote last week that somehow didn't make it...
thank you so much for your emails this week! I loved them.
sounds like things are going ok, anyone who knows about life knows that there are ups and downs... this week was sort of a down by way of teaching... HOWEVER I have the best district in the entire mission and we are spending a lot of time planning on how to be more involved with the ward. it is a little bit like the missionaries vs the bishop, our plans have taken us to closing that gap and with the unity of the six of us, we will accomplish it!
we were asked by the ward council to sing in the choir for the christmas program so we spent a lot of time with them getting that ready. seriously, i wish you could hear how amazing the voices of these people are, they LOVE music, especially when it has to do with Christ. the funniest part was that the four elders in the district can't carry a tune in a bucket so we relied very heavily on prayer. the christmas party itself was a little interesting... africans are also about A LOT of food at parties, it is sort of like the tradition. the goodness of the party is sort of determined by the grandness of the feast. our "feast" consisted of 5 cakes made by sister mudzimba and me (side note, we saw a miracle because those cakes fed 200 + people), and three small finger food trays provided by the Relief Society... nice one! needless to say the party was something else according to african standards, but hey, we had fun getting to know the members of the ward! better luck next time i guess.
my companion is crazy. her name is sister mudzimba, she is 21, from harare zimbabwe, she is 1.3 meters tall (you do the math) she has brown eyes, black hair and she is black! favorite color is blue, favorite food is roasted chicken, with roasted potatoes, and coleslaw salad. she has one older sister and a younger brother. her parents are seperated, she worked as a cashier before her mission. she wants to go to school to become a interior decorator, her personality type is blue and yellow. her most embarrassing moment on mission was when she blew up an egg in the microwave.
i do have a sort of sad heart. transfers here are horrible because the chances of you seeing the people you served with after mission is basically nill. we had to say bye to three amazing missionaries who went home. it is hard to see people go, the older and older i get on mission the more difficult goodbyes become. nevertheless, i know god will put some more amazing missionaries in their place!
i have realized that Mom, you were right, my goals in life are completely changed since i came here. heavenly father has helped change me into a completely different me. personality wise i am the same crazy kerri, but spiritually wise, there is no comparison between the then and now. i love heavenly father, and jesus christ. mission has proved to be rather like a refiners fire. there have been so many difficult times, for instance, we had an investigator who was progressing so well on tuesday completely dodge us last night. people go home for the holidays, our teaching pool was cut more than half this last week, and sometimes i get really sleepy.
i find that the hard times are when i learn the most. after the trial comes the reward, and it becomes us to never give up, never quit, keep on keepin till the keepin is done! rely on the atonement of christ. i am not perfect in anything, and heavenly father knows it, but fortunately through consistent prayer, faith and repentance, he is working with me and changing me to something better. i feel like he has become sort of like a personal trainer to change and mold my heart to something completely different! i love the scriptures. i want to follow gods plan for me, to put him first, to be obedient, to be diligent, humble, and repent. it is difficult for me to explain how i feel.
great news, we completed a family yesterday, the two remaining daughters were baptized into a long time member family! it was so great to watch them stand together after the baptism and people were gone. they just gave each other hugs and they were so bright and shiney. there is another family who is in the running to become eternal. it built my testimony so much that temples are so important. they have plans to go to the temple in april. anyway, love you, that is the week, please pray for us.
love, sister blum
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