hi family!! this week i have some funny stories for you!!

 

so I'm training and opening which means totally new area. new companion. new ward. no investigators. no anything. our apartment is awesome though. it's on the 30 floor and huge. probably the nicest sister missionary apartment in the mission. we have two bathrooms so pooping is nice. hahahaha don't put that on my blog please. we saw lots of miracles this week and things have been interesting.

so the first night that we get there it took about 2 hours to get home maybe so we drop our stuff off and go to eat dinner at like 8. we sit down and are waiting for our food not really paying attention to anything when this guy is like hey are you from church? and we were like we're missionaries....people get super confused because my companion is korean so they just look at her the whole time and speak to her and i'm the one that answers because she doesn't speak or understand korean (her parents are korean but she never learned the language growing up) but he was speaking english/korean so it was okay. he was talking about how when his grandma died she told him that he needed to believe in Jesus and then after he went to the military he felt like he needed to believe in Jesus. So we told him that that's exactly what we teach about, got his number and then it was kind of awkward after that but that's a different story. it was hilarious. we turns out we live in the same apartment complex (across the street from where we were eating) and we were both going home so he came with us and i was like uh....because i didn't want him to know where we lived. so i was like i have to get my bags from the security office kind of place thing and he's like okay i'll come with you and i was like uhh okayyy....so we picked up my luggage and boxes and it was a ton and i was like dang it he's going to try and help because it's way heavy. so then when we got to our apartment building we were like it's alright we can take it from here. and he's like no it's so heavy i'll help you. and i was like NO PLEASE IT'S OKAY!!! but finally i had to be like yeah you can't come to our house and he's like oh okay see ya. it was a little awkward and me being awkward by myself probably just made it worse. but we got home safely and hopefully he forgot which building we live in....anyways met him later in the week and turns out he wants to teach us korean and then wants us to teach him about Jesus Christ. So it's a win win. Miracles!!

 

 We met some black guys from Saudi Arabia maybe? It was super hard to understand his accent, but he wants to come to church with us so hopefully when I call him I can understand what the heck he's saying.

Then met this other guy from Egypt who didn't speak English very well so we had a whole conversation through a translator on his phone and it was super sketchy like I'm pretty sure he wanted something we couldn't offer....but i told him the Elders would call him!!

Sunday one of our ward members told me that I looked like Megan Fox. almost had a heartattack. Thank you but i do not. So far I've gotten Haylie Duff, Audrey Hepburn and now Megan Fox. Quite the collection.

Then another member told me he wanted to give me a puppy stuffed animal (he's like 30 years old) and I was like oh can I have a dinosaur and hes like yeah i think i'll give that to a pretty sister missionary and i was like .....so that's not me? and he's like mmm there's a prettier one in another area.-___- haha thaaaaaanks.

 

This week I was studying in Ether about the Brother of Jared. Mom I know why you love it so much. It's an amazing story and I just feel like it relates so much to everything in life. I just love the scriptures so much. I learn so much from them everyday and I know that there is a real spiritual power and real spiritual strength that we gain from reading the scriptures that we cannot get anywhere else. Just wanted to talk about a couple things that I learned from the story. 1) The Lord LET there be light in the barges. He could have easily taken away the light and the people could have been in darkness but the Lord didn't want them to be in darkness so he caused for there to be light. Sometimes in life we can't provide our own light and things feel dark, but the Lord never wants us to be in darkness so He provides the light for us. 2) the barges were being led towards the promised land. despite being tossed to and fro and crashing in great waves, they were always being led towards the promised land. sometimes i'm sure they felt like the promised land was too far away or wondered when they saw vast amounts of water how they could possibly reach land, but the Lord knew where they were and was leading them. The Lord always knows where we are and He is always pushing us towards the promised land, whatever that may be for us at the moment. yes we get tossed to and fro, yes sometimes we have no idea where we are, but the Lord knows and He is pushing us towards our promised land. 3) in the depths of the sea, NOTHING could hurt them because they were sealed tight like unto a dish. they were still in the depths of the sea, the circumstances never changes, they were still undergoing large tempests and crashing waves, but because they were sealed tight like a dish (momma your favorite line) nothing hurt them. Sometimes we can't change our circumstances, but we can trust the Lord and know that if we seal our testimony to the Lord, nothing will hurt us.

I love the Lord and I love the gospel. The experiences I've gone through have strengthened my commitment to the Lord and to this gospel. If no one else, I've converted myself. Hope you all can experience the same conversion or have experienced/are still experiencing the conversion to the gospel every day.

Love you so much. I need your prayers.

See you soon.

 

SIster Blickenstaff

hey i get to call home soon!!