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
Monday, December 19, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
December 4, 2011
thank you for the email this last week i found it very great. i didn't know tommy was there, please give me my BIG HELLOOOOOO! i sure do miss him and think very often of his abilit to serve people and meet their needs. i think he is an exceptional person and i wish i could be there to spend some more time with him. i just can never forget the one time he tried to teach me how to surf... haha, i loved that, by way of my most fond memories, that day lies somewhere among the top. thank you tommy for being such a great person. I am sure you are one of heavenly father's best and most choice people!
if i could give people some advice this week it would be... read the book of mormon. i know it is so cliche but seriously, please read everyday, be sure to talk to heavenly father every day too. those two things are the most important things ever. if you skip them, you will begin to just be a casual person. Heavenly Father loves his children so much and he really wants us to be the best version of ourselves we can be. he gave us the text book to get there (the book of mormon) and all we have to do is just study it like and live what it says. if you decide to do that you will find great peace and true happiness. happiness that doesn't go away at the end of the month when you are out of money.
what a blessing to have a true and living prophet on the earth today. I can't believe that God loves us so much! what a blessing to be able to receive true, divine guidance to help us build faith in the very Jesus Christ who can take away the effects of our sins and the guilt that we feel when we make mistakes. i know that when we use the atonement of Jesus Christ and we soften our hearts and repent, God will take away all of the guilt that we feel, and we will be left to rejoice. I know that God is our Father in Heaven, he created the earth and Adam and Eve truly fell. When they fell sin and death were introduced to the world. and it became impossible for us to return to be with God unless an atonement was made. We are here on this earth to prepare to meet God and when we follow his commandments we are blessed with peace and happiness. When we disobey, we sin and distance ourselves from God (that is why we become sad). when we disobey god's commandments, we can be clean again but not by ourselves. it is through christ, the very son of god that all the forgiveness is possible. Because of the Atonement of Christ, we are able to have claim on his mercy if we have faith in christ, repent of our sins, be baptized for the remission of sins, receive the holy ghost and endure to the end. Salvation, peace, joy and happiness are available for all of god's children if they will just soften their hearts, let go of the sins that so easily beset them, repent, come unto christ and live his gospel. i love this church, it is true, and christ is our saviour
love sister blum
if i could give people some advice this week it would be... read the book of mormon. i know it is so cliche but seriously, please read everyday, be sure to talk to heavenly father every day too. those two things are the most important things ever. if you skip them, you will begin to just be a casual person. Heavenly Father loves his children so much and he really wants us to be the best version of ourselves we can be. he gave us the text book to get there (the book of mormon) and all we have to do is just study it like and live what it says. if you decide to do that you will find great peace and true happiness. happiness that doesn't go away at the end of the month when you are out of money.
what a blessing to have a true and living prophet on the earth today. I can't believe that God loves us so much! what a blessing to be able to receive true, divine guidance to help us build faith in the very Jesus Christ who can take away the effects of our sins and the guilt that we feel when we make mistakes. i know that when we use the atonement of Jesus Christ and we soften our hearts and repent, God will take away all of the guilt that we feel, and we will be left to rejoice. I know that God is our Father in Heaven, he created the earth and Adam and Eve truly fell. When they fell sin and death were introduced to the world. and it became impossible for us to return to be with God unless an atonement was made. We are here on this earth to prepare to meet God and when we follow his commandments we are blessed with peace and happiness. When we disobey, we sin and distance ourselves from God (that is why we become sad). when we disobey god's commandments, we can be clean again but not by ourselves. it is through christ, the very son of god that all the forgiveness is possible. Because of the Atonement of Christ, we are able to have claim on his mercy if we have faith in christ, repent of our sins, be baptized for the remission of sins, receive the holy ghost and endure to the end. Salvation, peace, joy and happiness are available for all of god's children if they will just soften their hearts, let go of the sins that so easily beset them, repent, come unto christ and live his gospel. i love this church, it is true, and christ is our saviour
love sister blum
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
November 28, 2011
my companion says THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! for the gift we will open on christmas eve. Something i really love about her (besides the fact she is from zimbabwe) is that she is a ball of energy, we are having so much fun together. I feel like she is just my best little friend ever. we are sure that we make a lot of mistakes in a day ( sometimes it is sort of frustrating, but one thing is for sure, we do laugh a lot) and we seem to get out of them alright. for instance, the other day we got SOOO lost! i have never been more lost in my entire life. we were trying to figure out where we were for an hour. turns out we had traveled off of our map, so we were like a ship without a compass. eventually we figured everything out and it turns out we were in the neighborhood right next to the the neighborhood with our flat inside.... oh boy did we feel dumb?
i think i need to learn how to manage stress better, sometimes i get a little bit overwhelmed because there 1. isn't enough time in the day, 2. how the heck does one person having SOO many weaknesses?, 3. rejection, 4. investigators go crazy and start ditching us, or stop progressing, or whatever, 5. the to-do list is HUGE and so many other problems. I have come up with a remedy, are you ready for it?... PATIENCE and action. when overwhelmed, just do as nephi did, "go and do" what the Lord commands, requires and expects. please keep praying for us as we are trying so hard to overcome our faults.
i was asked the question what do you love most about mission... (mar, this one is for you) the answer? not exactly sure. so i will just make a list of things i love
not necessarily in this order.
just everything i think (except for the heat, ditched appointments, and mosquitoes. but not everything can be perfect i guess!)
please pray for us that we can manage our time better. that is our biggest struggle.
love you all,
sister blum
training is going great
i think i need to learn how to manage stress better, sometimes i get a little bit overwhelmed because there 1. isn't enough time in the day, 2. how the heck does one person having SOO many weaknesses?, 3. rejection, 4. investigators go crazy and start ditching us, or stop progressing, or whatever, 5. the to-do list is HUGE and so many other problems. I have come up with a remedy, are you ready for it?... PATIENCE and action. when overwhelmed, just do as nephi did, "go and do" what the Lord commands, requires and expects. please keep praying for us as we are trying so hard to overcome our faults.
i was asked the question what do you love most about mission... (mar, this one is for you) the answer? not exactly sure. so i will just make a list of things i love
not necessarily in this order.
- study time
- african people in general
- specifically, their humor (they love to laugh, are friendly and accomodating. they become instant friends with anyone they meet. it is very easy to strike up a conversation with them, especially if you are talking about something to do with God, bible, church, prophet, and so on.)
- kindness (they are the most kind people ever!)
- welcoming (if you enter their home, you are their honored guest. if they give you food and you don't finish it, they get really offended, so i am working on my ability to eat the HUGE portions of food they dish out. which if you are a guest in their home, they will most likely feed you, so get ready)
- my fellow missionaries. each one is a different flavor that adds to the mix and i am learning from each one of them
- the mission president and his wife.
- senior couples.
just everything i think (except for the heat, ditched appointments, and mosquitoes. but not everything can be perfect i guess!)
please pray for us that we can manage our time better. that is our biggest struggle.
love you all,
sister blum
training is going great
Sunday, November 27, 2011
the biggest news this week...
sister mudzimba and i were tracting and we asked this one guy for a referral, he sent us to his next door neighbors house. we got there and found it was full of rastafarians (you know like bob marley people who smoke weed and have some crazy religion?). we set a return appoinment with this man named rasta sido. when we went on Saturday we found out that the house he was at was like the church headquarters and it just happened to be their sabbath... woops. we started the lesson (we didn't know it was headquarters or it was their sabbath until later) and at first there were only two people, then by the end we were surrounded by a big group of 6 rasta's debating amongst themselves about the restoration and the plan of salvation (we are also sure they were smoking some weed before they joined us...) and the book of mormon and what what. the man we set the appointment with had been visisted by missionaries before so he knew about the book of mormon... anyway, the only thing we could do was testify and laugh because at that point everything was chaos. they ended up wanting to convert me to be a rasta with them. they wanted to know when we would be coming back so that we could discuss more of the "word man". "wow, man, that was some crazy things you girls were sayin!" "you should come back, we want to teach you our ways!" what what. so sister mudzimba decided that it was time to pray so she stood up to offer the prayer and everyone else stood up as well, then they made us join hands and they started to pray.... not exactly sure what they said but we do know it involved a lot of "rasta" this and "rasta" that, at the end of the prayer rasta sido closed by saying "I am Rasta Sido and I have spoken!" then the prayer was over and I had an obvious look of confusion on my face, so i said "amen?" and everyone started to laugh. Maybe the rasta party won't be converted anytime soon, but i sure do love them, and respect them for their dedication to the faith (no matter how bizzar it may be.) i know this church is true by the way. i am sad they are so confused, but alas, their time is not yet.
sister blum
sorry so short, next week will be full of more stories.
the work is great, it is sweet, i love it, mission is the best! keep being awesome and learning tons.
sister blum
sorry so short, next week will be full of more stories.
the work is great, it is sweet, i love it, mission is the best! keep being awesome and learning tons.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Middle of November
this week we had a small sort of miracle...
first of all, i locked myself inside of a part member families toilet! that was embarrasing. they eventually realized that i was not there and they could hear me struggling to open the door, so the mom came around the house, took the key from the open window and then came back around the house to unlock the door from the other way!
in the same lesson (we are teaching the two kids, 14 and 9) the nine year old is named elton, he is really smart. we were teaching about the plan of salvation (they lost their father in 2009) and at the end of the lesson elton told me that he had a dream. in his dream i was there, dressed in white, and i was introducing him to his father who was alive. his mom then said, "elton, if you keep listening to them, they will take you back to daddy! do whatever they tell you to and be a good boy!" it was a powerful testimony of the eternal family for me.
next, we had some few minutes before we had to be home and we really wanted to find someone to teach. we were aimlessly driving and we felt like stopping to say a prayer for guidance. right after the prayer we found a house (the only one with electricity in the middle of the night) and a girl closing the gate. so we jumped out of the car and started talking to her. she didn't want to hear from us and neither did her parents, but one of her sisters did. we were able to bear a powerful testimony on the peace that the gospel brings to the chaos in people's lives. she shows a lot of promise and we really felt the spirit so strong as we were sharing with her how she can be happy and find peace and purpose in this life to return to be with the God who loves her so much.
anyway, love the work, it is going great. i have also come to love alma 26:27, alma 17: 10-11 and pretty much the whole book of mormon. I love Christ and i love his children. i love the book of mormon, thomas s monson, joseph smith, inspired church leaders, preach my gospel, the spirit and trials.
probably my biggest struggle has been learning how to use time effectively, for sure, anyone preparing to serve a mission, make sure you spend a lot of time practicing that technique before the mission!
my companion is my best friend. we are loving and learning so much from each other.
here is a question each one of the missionaries has been given to ponder for the next week, it applies to all of us so here it is and i can't wait to hear your responses... "what am I doing to become a better disciple of Jesus Christ?"
i have also been impressed with the scripture in the new testament that says "any man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is not fit for the kingdom of God." when christ calls, you need to forsake everything and follow him, he is our savior, i love him and i am doing my best to follow him. don't look back, repent and repent quickly, move on and make something great out of your life! God loves us, that is why we have the wonderful plan of salvation. study, pray and keep the commandments,
i love you too much and pray that God is keeping you well.
sister blum
first of all, i locked myself inside of a part member families toilet! that was embarrasing. they eventually realized that i was not there and they could hear me struggling to open the door, so the mom came around the house, took the key from the open window and then came back around the house to unlock the door from the other way!
in the same lesson (we are teaching the two kids, 14 and 9) the nine year old is named elton, he is really smart. we were teaching about the plan of salvation (they lost their father in 2009) and at the end of the lesson elton told me that he had a dream. in his dream i was there, dressed in white, and i was introducing him to his father who was alive. his mom then said, "elton, if you keep listening to them, they will take you back to daddy! do whatever they tell you to and be a good boy!" it was a powerful testimony of the eternal family for me.
next, we had some few minutes before we had to be home and we really wanted to find someone to teach. we were aimlessly driving and we felt like stopping to say a prayer for guidance. right after the prayer we found a house (the only one with electricity in the middle of the night) and a girl closing the gate. so we jumped out of the car and started talking to her. she didn't want to hear from us and neither did her parents, but one of her sisters did. we were able to bear a powerful testimony on the peace that the gospel brings to the chaos in people's lives. she shows a lot of promise and we really felt the spirit so strong as we were sharing with her how she can be happy and find peace and purpose in this life to return to be with the God who loves her so much.
anyway, love the work, it is going great. i have also come to love alma 26:27, alma 17: 10-11 and pretty much the whole book of mormon. I love Christ and i love his children. i love the book of mormon, thomas s monson, joseph smith, inspired church leaders, preach my gospel, the spirit and trials.
probably my biggest struggle has been learning how to use time effectively, for sure, anyone preparing to serve a mission, make sure you spend a lot of time practicing that technique before the mission!
my companion is my best friend. we are loving and learning so much from each other.
here is a question each one of the missionaries has been given to ponder for the next week, it applies to all of us so here it is and i can't wait to hear your responses... "what am I doing to become a better disciple of Jesus Christ?"
i have also been impressed with the scripture in the new testament that says "any man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is not fit for the kingdom of God." when christ calls, you need to forsake everything and follow him, he is our savior, i love him and i am doing my best to follow him. don't look back, repent and repent quickly, move on and make something great out of your life! God loves us, that is why we have the wonderful plan of salvation. study, pray and keep the commandments,
i love you too much and pray that God is keeping you well.
sister blum
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Questions and Answers: One Year Anniversary!
Dear all,
thank you for everything! to answer your questions
1. did i go to the mission home?
yes, and it was awesome! that was my first and last time there probably until I go home. I do miss the temple a lot, we were trying our best to be able to go but the ap's said "NO, get in your car and go back to Botswana!" (don't worry everyone, I am not bitter). The mission home is a huge home that looks like our house but it has a lot more books and it is all brown, even the piano. otherwise it was so cool to hang out with President and Sister Omer for the evening, we went to dinner, they gave us the tour of the home and everything.
2. How did I travel?
by car
3. how long did it take?
about 4 1/2 hours
4. where is my new companion from?
ZIMBABWE!!!! her name is Sister Mudzimba. so that means i am continuing with a no american companion spree! (nothing against americans, but i just love africa way too much!) so i have had companions from
madagascar
uganda
new zealand
namibia (companion for three days)
kenya
now zimbabwe
woohoo to foreign companions!
5. what am i trying to accomplish as a missionary?
I want to be an excellent misisonary (i know it is vague but there are so many things that go along with that, great faith in God, christlike attributes, most importantly lost in the work of the ministry)
when this is finished i want to look back and feel like i have finished what i was called to do.
i want to use time effectively (it is sort of a struggle for me sometimes, any suggestions?)
i also want to be a father led converted missionary.
i hope to baptise the pope (ha ha, that will be hard because he isn't even in this mission. but if he ever stops by botswana, he better watch out!)
6. how is the member work coming?
great, we are completing two part member families in december! :)
7. have i read the book of mormon again since i have been out?
yes, i am half way through it again! i am also through luke in the new testament. i started on page one of the book of mormon at the mtc, now i am half way through it again. I am expecting to finish once more before i get home. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON WAY TOO MUCH!
8. what is the new misison presidents name?
President Omer from ogden utah!
9. How is the food?
great, but very different from home, if you come this side to pick me up, i will show you how the food is. i haven't eaten anything too weird but sour milk and pap (pap is like mashed potatoes made from maize meal)
10. how many hours do we work a day?
as many as we can. from 11.30 to lunch at 1, then from 2 to 9.
11. do we have any good investigators these days?
interesting ones, our golden ones just got baptised last sunday, so now we are once again in the works. our good ones are dying of heart conditions in joburg right now.
12. do we get to trade off with other missionaries?
yes, we go on exchanges two times a transfer.
13. do we tract?
yebo! lots and lots
14. how many lessons do we teach per week?
it depends on the week but we have an average of 5 a day. so ya.
that is all, my time is up,
love you
sister blum
thank you for everything! to answer your questions
1. did i go to the mission home?
yes, and it was awesome! that was my first and last time there probably until I go home. I do miss the temple a lot, we were trying our best to be able to go but the ap's said "NO, get in your car and go back to Botswana!" (don't worry everyone, I am not bitter). The mission home is a huge home that looks like our house but it has a lot more books and it is all brown, even the piano. otherwise it was so cool to hang out with President and Sister Omer for the evening, we went to dinner, they gave us the tour of the home and everything.
2. How did I travel?
by car
3. how long did it take?
about 4 1/2 hours
4. where is my new companion from?
ZIMBABWE!!!! her name is Sister Mudzimba. so that means i am continuing with a no american companion spree! (nothing against americans, but i just love africa way too much!) so i have had companions from
madagascar
uganda
new zealand
namibia (companion for three days)
kenya
now zimbabwe
woohoo to foreign companions!
5. what am i trying to accomplish as a missionary?
I want to be an excellent misisonary (i know it is vague but there are so many things that go along with that, great faith in God, christlike attributes, most importantly lost in the work of the ministry)
when this is finished i want to look back and feel like i have finished what i was called to do.
i want to use time effectively (it is sort of a struggle for me sometimes, any suggestions?)
i also want to be a father led converted missionary.
i hope to baptise the pope (ha ha, that will be hard because he isn't even in this mission. but if he ever stops by botswana, he better watch out!)
6. how is the member work coming?
great, we are completing two part member families in december! :)
7. have i read the book of mormon again since i have been out?
yes, i am half way through it again! i am also through luke in the new testament. i started on page one of the book of mormon at the mtc, now i am half way through it again. I am expecting to finish once more before i get home. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON WAY TOO MUCH!
8. what is the new misison presidents name?
President Omer from ogden utah!
9. How is the food?
great, but very different from home, if you come this side to pick me up, i will show you how the food is. i haven't eaten anything too weird but sour milk and pap (pap is like mashed potatoes made from maize meal)
10. how many hours do we work a day?
as many as we can. from 11.30 to lunch at 1, then from 2 to 9.
11. do we have any good investigators these days?
interesting ones, our golden ones just got baptised last sunday, so now we are once again in the works. our good ones are dying of heart conditions in joburg right now.
12. do we get to trade off with other missionaries?
yes, we go on exchanges two times a transfer.
13. do we tract?
yebo! lots and lots
14. how many lessons do we teach per week?
it depends on the week but we have an average of 5 a day. so ya.
that is all, my time is up,
love you
sister blum
Monday, October 31, 2011
Happy Halloween
we have an investigator who has a heart problem that no one can figure out. she was just referred to a specialist and is going to johannesburg to receive more treatment very soon. unfortunately for us, we will miss her a lot. we met her by accident, we went to her house thinking it was someone elses house, when we realized it wasn't the right place, we just talked to her. she is 21, a university student, lives alone and has a large yard that didn't look very well kept. after speaking to her we asked her if we could help her with her yard to which she said yes. so the next wednesday we rallied the forces (the elders in our district) and all of the tools and went to work. we gave her a book of mormon and set an appointment to see her the next day. when we got to the appointment we found that she had read from the very beginning to 1 nephi 3. she came to church and left half way through, when we went to visit her we found that she has been sick with a heart condition for a long time and when she works too hard, or is in new situations, she gets very bad chest pain and then she becomes dizzy, even to the point where she can pass out. so the reason why her yard is unkept is because she is physically unable to do it! it also turns out that her parents were visited by missionaries when she was six and she still remembers, especially about the book of mormon. everything about us meeting her testifies to me that it was 100% not a coincidence, when we went to her house the first time, she wasn't even home. she met us outside as we were about to leave. another testimony to me that i don't know the mind of God. we have really grown to love her and she is doing so well (minus the heart thing) truly we will be so sad to lose her, please pray that she can get better soon.
another reason why i don't know the mind of God, WHAT? I get to train?! i am excited and nervous, thank you for all of your advice, i will do my best and the Lord will do the rest. :)
love all of you, and i love the work! thank you for all the support.
sister blum
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