It's the Final Countdown

 Hola a todos!

I hope you all have been doing well! This is my last week as a full time missionary and I absolutely cannot believe that I have made it to this point. It's exciting and scary and sad all at the same time. This past week though, from Friday to Friday we were in quarantine because our apartment got COVID. again. This will be my 3rd time dealing with the rona so I think I am a COVID professional at this point jaja. We were exposed to someone on Thursday who tested positive and we were then put into isolation for 5 days and then somehow on Tuesday we took tests and we were STILL positive! So we had to stay in quarantine until this last Friday when we all finally tested negative. So it was an hermanas party for 7 days straight. Just kidding, we didn't feel super good and mostly slept the whole time but we did do a cool puzzle when we felt up to it!

But as soon as we tested negative, our roommates and Hna Bradley and I went out and super saw the Lord bless us immensely for working as hard as we could. We found a total of 8 people in one night which is so cool! The Lord saw our efforts, took our faith and magnified it and that was such a huge milagro. So we are back out and at it which is such a relief because I only have a week left! 

But other than that I am just trying to wrap everything up here in Washington! I have seriously loved my mission and I am going to be really sad to leave when it's time but I am also excited to move on to the next part of my life. Elder Soares, when he came to our mission in April told us that "you may leave the mission field but don't ever let the mission field leave your heart". I intend on following that counsel because this really is the greatest work on earth!

Storytime 😎

 Hola a todos!!!

Sorry it's been a bit of a crazy time but we are still alive and vibing up here in Pasco!!! This week has been a bit crazy, we've had a zone exchange and then we went on an Hermanas blitz and then we had a testimony meeting last night! So we have super been partying it up. Hna Bradley and I had to wipe the slate clean this week and drop all of our people because they don't want to come to church but are super willing to have us over. So that was tough to leave some friends, but they're not ready to progress right now but they will be at some point. But with all the craziness of this week and limited pros time we were still able to find 7 new people this week!!! So that's amazing! A lot of them we're going by tomorrow so that should be super cool 

Other than that, things are going well! I am starting to realize the amount of stuff I have to get home in a few weeks and that is not good so Hna Bradley doesn't know it yet but she will be inheriting most of my stuff when I die hehe. But I refuse to actually start packing until the 27th at the earliest, I will no

t be trunky!!!

For the title of the email this week, my roommates and mi compa have realized I have a bunch of random facts and crazy info jumbling around my head so at night they ask me questions and I just fact dump or a tell them a story that I make up. And that has been super fun and I have become the resident Google. After going this long without it, some of my info might be outdated but I wouldn't know so we'll just ignore that jaja 

Pero espero que tenga un buen día y disfrute esta semana! Tenga cuidado que no se quema en el sol jaja 

Con amor,

Hermana Blackburn

Happy 4th!!!!!!!

 Hola a todos!

We are super duper busy this week but I realize I also didn't have time to write an email last week so I'm gonna make this quick and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

We have had lots of changes up here in the WKM as President and Sister Rasmussen went home this past week and we received President and Sister Quereto and their family. So it has been super incredibly bittersweet to say goodbye to the Rasmussen's as I look up to them and admire them so much. They truly have changed my life for the better. But we had an MLC (missionary leadership council) on Friday, the day after the Quereto's got here and it was so cool to talk to them and learn from them. The WKM is in good hands. 

Other than all of those changes and preparations, we have been super busy doing lots of service and trying to find people to teach! One day we went and did a bunch of yard work before going to help at a food bank so that was super fun!

Also, this week we had a super cool miracle where our friend Hector accepted a baptismal date for the 21st of this month! He was actually super in favor of consistently coming to church and keeping the word of wisdom which we were super worried about but he surprised us! His wife Leticia is coming back into town this week but he said that she wants to get baptized as well and come to church! So that's super exciting and we are super pumped for them! So please keep them in your prayers.

All is well up here in the WKM! We had some huge thunderstorms the other day and that was really neat. Like giant bolts of lightning across the sky. I realized this week it's been about 3 years or so since I've seen lightning like that because I've been gone from the monsoon season in Arizona for a super long time! 

Pero, espero que disfruten el día de independencia hoy con todos los cohetes y fuegos artificiales! Cuídense mucho!

Con amor,

Hermana Blackburn 

The Beginning of the End

 Hola a todos!

So uhhhhhh, this week is transfers so this marks the beginning of my last transfer as a full time missionary and that is super scary and wild to say! Because it also has been 2 years since I was in the online MTC it feels at the same time like it's been a long time coming. 7 weeks left and that is just insanity but I am so excited to keep working hard and finish strong! For transfers, nothing is happening to our companionship, Hna Bradley and I will be staying together. But there is a lot that is changing in the mission, lots of areas getting doubled out. On the Kennewick side, they combined my old area of SP4, where I was last year at this time, with SP2 and they're putting elderes there! So that'll be super interesting. We really do live in exciting times. :)

This week we saw huge miracles with finding people! We have been trying our best to find people and we've talked to a lot of people but they've just cycled out of interest and we've never been able to meet with them again or they really haven't been interested. But this week we found a new amazing family that is sooooooooooo cool! Esmeralda and Manuel are the parents and they have 2 little boys and a daughter named Priscila who is super sweet and is in middle school. They let us come by and meet with them 2 days in a row after we met them this past week, Thursday and Friday. And then on Saturday they came to the Father's Day fiesta with the whole ward! It was so awesome and they just fit in immediately with the ward and everyone was so excited to see them and they had a good time. Esmeralda and Manuel had to work yesterday because they couldn't get it off because we had literally only met them like 3 days before, but they said that they're going to come next week which is sooooooooo exciting! They're such a cool family and I love them so much!

But that's about it for this week! I want to share a really cool quote I found this week that changed my perspective a bit on the power of the Gift of the Holy Ghost:

"I have had visions, I have had revelations, I have seen angels, but the greatest of all is that still, small voice." -President Wilford Woodruff

And that shifted my perspective a little bit to think that even greater than all these physical manifestations of divine intervention and power, the companionship of the Holy Ghost is the greatest miracle of them all. I have definitely seen how if we strive to Hear Him more, we will receive guidance and power in our lives.

Love you all! Have an amazing week!

Hermana Blackburn 

Chaos Continues

 Hola a todos!

I am currently typing this email out without the use of my left pinky finger and that's a little inconvenient but I'm making it work! Update: I don't need surgery for my finger so all is well! They're saying 6 weeks or so in a splint and it should be back to normal. So that's super exciting!

But this week we have had a lot of stuff happen so I'll try to give you all an update: We had zone conference up in Walla Walla which was super fun! We got to drive up by my old area and spend the day up in the mountains with the trees. But also it made me really sad because this is the last zone conference with president and sister Rasmussen before they go home at the end of June. So there were a lot of tears shed as I tried to keep my sadness under control. But the new mission president and his wife are going to do so good, I'm just super sad to see them go. 

Also, currently here in the Tri City Spanish Zone I am serving as an STL again but this past week my STL partner went home due to some illness very suddenly. So it was sad to see her go as well and now I am STL-ing it on my own trying to keep everything under control as we've dealt with emergency transfers and things like that. So things are getting a bit wrecked but all is good.

This week we have also had a lot of rain!!!! Which is very abnormal for this time of year. Summer hasn't quite arrived yet. So we went out tracting yesterday and literally water was dripping off my nose. But we're vibing up here in the 509! 

This week is going to be Hermana Bradley's last week of training so that is super exciting for her. She already knows everything, I feel as though I haven't had to do a whole lot to help her out. So we'll get transfer news next monday and see what happens. But we are still just working really hard to find people here in East Pasco and not having too much luck yet but that just means that there are huge milagros on the horizon.

Love you all! Espero que todo vaya bien durante esta semana! 

Con amor,

Hermana Blackburn

Pasco Vibes 💕

 Hola a todos,

So this week has been pretty normal actually!!! So this email is gonna be pretty short because nothing super crazy happened. We just have been grinding out in the streets trying to figure out this whole new area we're opening. We found some cool spots we're gonna go back and knock so that's exciting. 

I went on an exchange this week with Hna Johnson and she is so sweet! She is really good at talking to everyone and we had some cool experiences that came from really trying to seek inspiration and go where the Lord wanted us to go. And then we ended up talking to some cool people and they're gonna go back and hopefully start teaching them! There is so much power from trusting in the Lord and asking how He wants us to do His work instead of just doing it the way we think we should. Because He truly does know better than we do. 

Now, I was just kidding about there being nothing crazy. So sorry, but it wouldn't be a true Hna Blackburn week if something didn't happen. The something just happened today so it took its sweet time. I was playing sports this morning and messed my left pinky finger up pretty good. We went to the hospital and we literally just got the news that I fractured a bone in my pinky finger so that's fun! So there will probably be more news on how that all goes next week. But don't worry, we know what it is now and all will be well. 

I hope you all have an amazing week! 

Con todo mi amor, 

Hermana Blackburn 

Dónde Está Lunita?

 Holaaaaaa!

I hope that all of you are doing well! This week has been super crazy but it's been good! So I have a crazy story/milagro for all of you that literally happened yesterday and it has to do with the title of this email. So here we go: We were andar-ing in the calle of all places when Joanna skedaddled right up to us on her bike. She said she had lost her dog Luna and had been biking around her neighborhood for a while trying to find her. So as missionaries, the logical thing to do of course is that we said a prayer and asked for help with finding Luna. So nothing instantaneous happened so we told her we would keep an eye out for Luna in between going by some of our amigos. We parted ways and not 10 minutes later we saw Luna in the street as our amigos didn't answer us as they casually do. So I naturally spring after this dog and I have to corner her in the middle of the street between a car and scoop her up. Then we take the dog back to their house. So that's part 1 of the milagro is that we pray and find this dog and then bring her home. 

Now, part 2: Joanna is like 10 years old and she's a recent convert but because she's so young it's really hard to teach her all of the recent convert lessons because she's so busy. But she comes in exhausted from riding her bike all over. She sits and listens to us teach her about the Plan of Salvation which she had actually forgotten a lot of, so it was good we went over it again. Now, the milagro continues. So Joanna's parents are less active members and fun fact, the whole family came to church yesterday which was also a fat milagro! Now, Griselda and Dimas are both there which is super cool. Now here's when things went wild. After we finished teaching Joanna we shared Mosiah 2:41 with Dimas and Griselda and talked about keeping the commandments. Dimas kinda went on a tangent about how he loves the commandments and he knows obeying them brings blessings - but he doesn't like going to church because "all we talk about is Joseph Smith", not Christ or God. We bore our testimonies about the Book of Mormon and how it's the word of God, not the word of Man. So basically we shared fat testimony and let the spirit tell him that he has the truth in front of his eyes and is choosing to see differences and problems that aren't there. The reason we talk about the restoration a lot is because it is the most miraculous event in our dispensation in which God once again gave the fullness gospel and his authority to his children on the earth. And I literally pull out a book of mormon and go, "Hermano, no está leyendo en este libro. Si quiere aprender la verdad, tiene que actuar, no solamente preguntar. Si no hace nada, no podemos ayudarle." And that shut him up real quick as Griselda goes off sharing her testimony with her esposo about everything. And everything just changed from him being angry and trying to bash us to very calmly taking the book of mormon and saying he'll read it. He even wrote the date in it and his name and just looked at Griselda and said, "Vamos a estudiarlo juntos." So that was such a cool milagro to watch the spirit literally soften this man's heart as we shared our testimonies. It was sooooo cool! So that was awesome.

But other than that, everything has been pretty good. I've had lots of meetings as an STL but all is well, we're just vibing up here in Pasco.

Pero, espero que estén bien y que disfruten la semana!

Con todo mi corazón,

Hermana Blackburn