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 

The World Turned Upside Down

Holaaaaa!

First off, I apologize for not sending an email last week but the past 2 weeks have been absolutely insane! First off, my past companion, Hna Dust, went home last Tuesday. So in our mission, our last P-day, we are allowed to drive around to our past areas and say "hi" and "bye" to our favorite people one last time. So I drove her all around the mission so she could do that before dropping her off at the mission home. So it was a whirlwind of a day. Also that same monday in the morning, our suspicions were confirmed. They doubled out our area in Walla Walla and put the zone leaders in our place instead! So there are no more hermanas in the whole zone of Walla Walla anymore, they got rid of us! So I just had to kinda leave which was wild. And because my companion was gone, I had to write down all the double out notes I could possibly think of and get packed because I was gone all day on Monday. So it was a super crazy few days. Then they have transferred me here in Pasco East where we are opening up a new area for Hnas. This area has only been alive for 6 weeks and so it is brand new. We are having to work super hard to get everything moving and have people to teach. But Pasco is so fun because like literally everyone here speaks Spanish! Like it literally is mini mexico! 

Also, I have been called as a STL again and I am 2nd transfer training Hna Bradley! But she is doing so good, she doesn't even need my help, she's got this and her Spanish is already getting so good! But we are working from the ground up here which is exciting! 

But other than all of that insane whirlwind of events things have been pretty good. I already have been fed twice here in Pasco which has honestly got to be some sort of a mission record. I ate so many flautas the other day at la casa de los Gomez and then we surprisingly got invited over to la casa de la Hna Vargas and had a full on fiesta with carne asada which was legendary. So I am honestly at this point maybe 25% Mexican food but all is well. 

I am starting my 2nd to last transfer and that is so wild to me how fast time has flown. I was here in this same zone literally 5 transfers ago and it has not felt that long but so much has changed. Time is going by so fast I honestly cannot believe it! 

Something that was really cool though that we were talking about at a mini MLC we had over zoom this past week with President and the APs is that we have to do what our prophet, President Nelson has counseled us to do in order to maintain positive spiritual momentum. Our mission is going in a good direction but we have to be willing to put our trust in the Lord in order to be able to see those miracles that are created by our high faith.

Pero, espero que esta semana vaya bien! Cuídense mucho! 

Con amor, 

Hermana Blackburn 

The Rains Came Down

 Hola!

This week has been a good week, especially compared to what went down last week, not a whole lot happened! Which is strange because also this week went by really really fast. So rip that.

But something really cool happened this week was that we had a bit of a thunderstorm which was super fun! I love thunderstorms so much and I've been sad my whole mission when it rains but no lightning shows up. But this week the lightning came! Granted, it wasn't anything super impressive but it made me so happen to see it. And we were doing service so we got to stand outside in the downpour and watch the sky light up. It was a ton of fun!!!!!

Also, this week is my companion's last week in the mission, she goes home next week so crazy things are going to happen! She's sprinting to the end and I don't know what they're going to do with me but it'll be fine. Since the transfer is also slowly coming to a close, we've been doing fun things and last night we had another bonfire which was amaaaaaaazing!! We went and built a huge fire and it was so warm you couldn't stand within 4 feet of it. 

Also, we got to spend lots of time with our district this week making T-shirts and eating waffles. So that was a party.

But otherwise, things here in Walla are going good! We'll find out next week what they're going to do with me! It'll be fine whatever happens. But I have been so grateful that even when we don't know what we're going to do every single day, the Lord helps direct us so we can be where He needs us to be in the exact moments we are needed.

Pero espero que esté bien! Cuídese mucho!!!!!

Hermana Blackburn 

You Will Not Believe What Happened

 Hola!

Well I'm just gonna jump right in because this week has honestly been the craziest week of my mission which is saying something. Here's everything that went down and I'll try to hit the highlights of what's been going on.

1. I haven't been feeling the greatest for a while and have had some weird allergic reactions and pains going on. This last week I was sick and tired for several days and I couldn't function super well, even when we were on exchanges. I felt so bad for the sisters that were stuck with me when I was just sleeping but that's okay. Well, I got a priesthood blessing on Wednesday night and then Thursday morning we drove to the tri-cities because Hermana Dust had her MLC meeting with all the leadership in the whole mission because she's an STL. So I hung out and did some studies. Well in the middle of all of that, the mission nurse, Sister Decoria gives me a call and says that she's been on the phone with my normal doctor and he recommends that I go to the emergency room. So as soon as the meeting was over, I drove myself to the emergency room and got all checked in and they started to run a whole lot of tests to try to figure out what's going on. And they even did a CT scan! Which is so wild and I did not enjoy that experience at all. We were there for 4 hours and kinda a little apostate, but we watched a basketball game while I was hooked up to the IV and that was awesome. The conclusion they came to is that I have some kind of strange viral infection in my lymph nodes in my stomach and that is causing the weird allergic reaction and breakouts and stuff. So they gave me medicine to treat the symptoms and basically said, "watch it for a few weeks and if it doesn't get better come back in." So hopefully it gets better soon. I already am starting to feel better than I did but I'm not a 100% back so little by little I'll make it.

2. Here's funny story #2. So this happened technically really really early Sunday morning but like Saturday night after we had gone to bed. It is 2am and there is this sudden BANG, BANG, BANG on our bedroom door and it swings open to full light and there is a man standing there with a flashlight! And for about .5 seconds my body is getting ready to yeet myself at him and then I realize that he's in full fireman gear and he has 2 other firefighters with him. And so he starts to explain to a room full of 5 sister missionaries. And apparently, what had happened is that our smoke alarms were over 15 years old and maintenance had come to replace them but they'd left one behind. It randomly started going off when we were cooking and so we stuck it outside in timeout. And it had started going off and someone had called the fire department and so they barged into our apartment and did a full sweep until they found us in the back room. And we seriously didn't hear anything until they were in our bedroom. So he gently closes the door, goes and finds the smoke alarm I guess. And in my head I'm just thinking, I am back in the ER. Something happened and that's where I'm at now. There is no way this is real." And then he comes BACK! And says super awkwardly, "well, that's it I guess. Sorry for waking you up. We'll lock the door on the way back out." And the 3 of them leave!!!! And so all of us are like what happened!!???!!!! So we all get out of bed and wander around for a while, just trying to make sure that everything is good. So that was exciting. 

3. Now the real highlight of the week, Elder Soares came to visit us this past weekend and I got to hear from him 3x!!!! Also, Elder Gadoy, Elder Bragg, and Elder Hunsaker were his companions and came with him and they were all super amazing too!!!!!! And so we had a meeting with them on Friday where I got to shake their hands and talk with them and it was amazing. Elder Soares is such a Christlike person and seriously, just by being near him you could feel the love of the Savior radiating off of him. Then we had a mission dinner and party afterwards because we were all together and that was super fun. Then they did a devotional in SPANISH for all the miembros and anyone else who wanted to come! All 4 of them speak spanish and it was so very cool to hear their counsel and to go with the ramita. I saw lots of friends from other areas I've served in so that was cool too! Then we also got to hear from them on Sunday when they did a multi-stake conference in the Toyota Center! And that was super cool too. We had tickets to go in person and that made me really happy to once again be there.

Well I hope that all of you have had a little bit of a calmer week than I have, jaja. Que tengan una buena semana! 

Con amor,

Hermana Blackburn