February 12, 2012

thank you for your emails, they sure do make me excited to be on mission! 

let's see, this week i was taken back to the time where dad owned that water park and we were there swimming. Remember when i asked mom if i could go to the bathroom and she told me to go in the pool? so i took off my bathing suit and went to the pool! the same type of thing happened in a lesson as the 1 1/2 year old daughter of one of our families, decided to take a potty break on the floor. not very many of the children here wear diapers and she definately wasn't! it made me chuckle to remember that. we paused the lesson and cleaned up the mess. it's funny to know that kids are the same everywhere.

our week was filled with sick people. we got the brilliant idea to go to the hospital and visit with the patients. it was nice (and sad sometimes) we were working in the surgery ward, there were a lot of patients preparing to go for surgery, some of them were really scared and it was nice to sit with them and comfort them before they went in. one of the women was one that we had met last week saturday at the local shopping mall, so it was nice to see her again, she invited us to her house for this week so we can teach her and her whole family :).
 when we started our morning, we were put in the icu where we prayed for 3 patients, one 10 years old, another 13 years and then an old woman recovering from brain surgery. i don't like seeing sick people but it sure was nice to give them some comfort. 

the sick people didn't end there, my companion is not well, and neither is the rest of botswana for some reason. almost all of our canceled appointments were because the people we were supposed to see were sick. a lot of the others that we saw were sick too. we spent a lot of time this week just comforting sick people. 

ironically this transfer i have decided to work on charity, as a result i have been praying really hard for greater charity and i think this might be God's way of answering my prayers. He works in a mysterious way sometimes. i do feel myself having a greater capacity for compassion and love towards others. i am just sorry that i may be part of the reason so many people are sick these days! 

the music thing... not sure how that is going. the man i am supposed to be teaching lives an hour and a half away and he doesn't quiet understand that we aren't allowed to go and see him, he thinks that we need to come and teach him there... we keep trying to explain to him that we can't leave our area and the president says no. we didn't see him yesterday. more details when the time comes. thank you for sending what you could. i hope we can work something out so we can see him. it would be really nice as well if you could send some rosin and an electric tuner/metronome. i am planning on giving it to him, turns out it is really hard to get things for a violin here. not really a common instrument that people play.

love you,
sister blum

Pictures!

January 30, 2012

the pictures this week are of our adventures that took place this morning. We had a zone activity, can you say a barbeque on top of kgale hill, the biggest pile of dirt and rock in gaborone?! It was pretty sweet and monumental. the funniest part was that my new companion decided that she was going to make it down the mountain with another sister who had "done it before". 2 hours later we were still at the bottom of the hill waiting for her... turns out they got a little lost and eventually had to cut through the bush to find their way back. pretty funny, especially because of how disheveled they looked. the picture of my companion on the stairs pretty much describes what she went through! 

so my new companion... her name is sister hadlock from vernal utah, been on mission for 4.5 months. there must be something in the water in vernal cause she is probably one of the craziest sisters i have ever seen! God thought it was funny to put the two most socially awkward missionaries together... haha, good one god! but the great thing is, WE LOVE LIFE! whew, she is such a breath of fresh air, man alive she just works and works and works, i have never seen anything like it before. her motto is "i want everyone to know who i am so that when i walk into an area, they know that my name is sister hadlock, a missionary from the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints!" she lives true to that. the second we step out of the house she is up and at em. saying hi to literally everyone, inviting everyone to church, singing, laughing, dancing sometimes, and throwing out pass along cards. i love her.

one great thing also, she follows the spirit like no one i have ever seen. god has given her the gift of discernment. in lessons (it is sort of creepy sometimes) she will sit there and randomly ask a question that makes the person on the other end much like zeezrom in the book of mormon (tremble and look really scared that she can read their thoughts). we have had probably the most powerfull lessons i have ever had my whole mission with her. the future looks bright.

sometimes missionaries talk of getting tired when they are older on mission, but when you are having so much fun it really isn't possible to be tired at all. we just work and work and work. because we are working, we are happy.

i love teaching people about the plan of salvation. It is so awesome to see the look on people's face when they finally realize they know the reason why they are here, where they are going and where they came from. I find that as soon as people realize that they start to make a million changes, like coming to church, repenting, reading, praying, etc. I have seen it be the turning point for so many people (sadly, also a stumbling block for many others). my love of teaching is so great.

i have a goal that before i go home i will convert a father-led family. when i finish i will "die" with both my hands clenching the book of mormon testifying that it is true and that everyone needs to repent. so far i am in good books with god. above all i just want to do my best for god, and work until i am dead. there is a missionary that is just preparing to go home, and i had a little discussion with him today that made me really realize that the time is now short. he is an exceptional missionary (reminds me too much of mitchel hyde, only black, from zimbabwe, and is a pro cricket player.) and i loved that he said he doesn't want to go home, he is scared and nervous for what lies ahead, but he has a lot of faith in the simple primary answers "read, pray, go to church" (as do I) and he knows that if he does those for the rest of his life, he will never fall away into forbidden paths and be lost. he said the mission will continue for the rest of his life if he remembers those three simple truths. enough of this talk.

please don't remind me that i am coming home until the beginning of may.

i love people so much. thank you all for your support and love as i have been here. ask me lots of questions, i love to answer them.

if nothing else, i need you all to know that this church is stinkin true! GO ON A MISSION! it is the best investment of time you will ever make. let go of all the stupid excuses that you can come up with and have faith in God, he can't let you fall. just turn in the papers and give up your life! seriously the best choice ever. i never knew i could love my god the way that i do know. i never knew that i could be this happy either. what a blessing to be a servant of god wearing a name badge as a representative of christ. HOW GREAT IS THIS CALLING eh?

love you. enjoy the week, we will keep knockin down every door.
sister blum