"The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway..."

Hola amigosssss,

If you didnt get that "Frozen" reference then you are not an amigo.. and you should probably go watch that right now..

Seriously weeks here are CRAZY!!!! I literally have like 15 min to tell you my crazy schedule and it never ends up being exactly what I want to say. So here I go trying to say EVERYTHING I did since last saturday (pday)

Sunday- Breakfast- a donut and apple (for those who REALLY WANNA know) Then we had church, it was grand. We listened to music and the spoken word, then Relief Society which Sister Hurst played a violin duet "If You Could Hie to Kolob" and Sister Boman gave the closing prayer. (P9 Represent) We are lucky because we get a guest speaker everyweek for relief society and this last week it was Jean A. Stevens, first counselor in the Primary general presidency. I cried a lot during her remarks because I MISS PRIMARY. My mom's primary president and I totally miss being with the kids, and teaching them, hearing their sweet spirits and everything... so I pretty much miss those kiddos with all my heart! We had study time and lunch, district meeting and bonding. Study (we do this a lot...shocker) then dinner. We (our district) goes to choir so we don't have to do service and its just more fun to sing anyway... and then we boarded the bus for the devotional at main campus. We sang "Where Can I turn for Peace?" and apparently I was on the screen a bunch... The elders kept making fun of me because they'd zoom in on me.. anyways, we watched the restoration video, and had a "you know you're a missionary when..."ironically, that movie can be funny...because its really NOT but its all we got for the next 18-24 months. :)

Monday- Breakfast, Class, Gym (I'll be the best bballer ever haha), lunch, class, teach our teacher/investigator "Juan", dinner, then class and our other teacher/investigator "Ricardo"

Tuesday- same thing except we had the opportunity to teach some members in spanish! It was way awesome and I love doing that! Its something we get to do everyweek and I'm always looking forward to it! We also had an awesome devotional from Elder Bradley D. Foster and his wife. Then afterwards we had a post-devo with our branch presidency and our zone. (My district is 4 hermanas, the other district is 5 elders and we combine to make a zone) My respect for all the elders went sky high after the devotional and our cry sesh during that meeting.  It is always powerful to feel and hear their testimonies.

Wednesday and Thursday- See Monday. Literally its the same. Although every Wednesday is when new missionaries come to the MTC. We knew we weren't getting new people in our district but it was still crazy to see others that are here and not being the "new-kids" anymore. We have inheritance that we want to pass on so WE WANT NEW HERMANAS every week! We were able to give the newest hermanas advice one night but it was just in passing.  It was pretty crazy because I've technically been here for a "long time" (almost three weeks) but, I don't know what to think of that concept when I feel like I just got here. 

Friday- Pretty much the same although everyone in my district had a break down moment. We were trying to teach a hard topic, in spanish, to our teachers, for the first time. It. was. HARD!!! We are all good now but prayers were flying left and right that day. 

Random sidenotes- Our teachers are both Returned Missionaries and go to BYU. We have 2 ZRT's (assistants) and then 3 others that randomly come to help us. 4 hermanas. 7 hermanos. There are days were we ladies feel outnumbered, literally and we are trying to absorb EVERYTHING they tell us and its too much. We can become great misssionaries if we work on one thing at a time. But I am the first to admit they really are helpful and I love it! I SAW DANIELLE EMERY TODAY!?!?! WHATTTT!!!!(friend from USU) I was passing the street, after eating at the Main MTC and there she was in a car looking cute as ever screaming her head off after realizing it was me!

Remember Benjamin?! Well he's actually a teacher at the MTC, we had no idea, but he came in and told us THE COOLEST STORY about his mission in Chile that uplifted us and literally after he finished I was dying to get to Mexico! He is way cool and he sang, "The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway" from frozen to me and I'm pretty much satisified with life now.

Sister Cano- THANKS FOR THE DEAR ELDER! You are seriously the sweetest and I miss you!

A Special Shout Out to all my DEARELDER.COM users - I received notes this week from dearelder.com from my Grandma Carol, Cicely, Hermana Cattich and Ruesch.  These daily messages really keep me going. I love them! Thanks!!

Cicely- I miss you to death and I can't believe you didn't tell me that you'd be in provo for spring break!  I love you! Thanks for the uplifting words! I miss you dearly.

There's so much I could say but so little time. For all who are reading this...DEARELDERS & letters are the way to go because I have NO TIME to write! Also, time here is crazy. I never understood how a day could feel like a week and the weeks going by like a day. It's techincally my 3rd week here (by MTC standards) and I leave April 14 to the beautiful land of VERACRUZ, MEXICO! 

Con Amor...

Hermana Blankmeyer

P.S. I forgot my camera so please ignore the ugliness of the blog this week and get ready for some wicked sweet pics for next week!

Sister Boman and me after the conference

Sister Askerlund and me

Sisters in Zion and Kappa Delta

Me and My Companion Hermana Bingham.  She is always making me laugh.

We are on our way to the Mexican Consulate to get our Visa's

Elder Davenport is the redhead, he is 18, first name is Christian, AND he is actually in my grandparents stake at home. 

He went to Brighton High School! 

Elder Schwab, Elder Davenport, Elder Jensen, and Elder Moore. Elder Jensen is going to Veracruz! 

Sundays Photo shoot

Hermana Williams, Hermana Sullivan, Hermana Bailey, Hermana Gurrerra, Hermana Blankmeyer, and Hermana Bingham

Hola Amigos!!

My life is crazy here at the MTC but I love it! 

So on Sunday ( L.I.T.E.R.A.L.L.Y. the BEST day ever here) we had sacrament meeting and relief society. We get to see Music and the Spoken word too! Then we have lunch and district bonding which resulted in a photoshoot. *Sidenote* here at the MTC-WEST (or CCM as us misionarios call it) we have a little creek that ducks come in and so it was a beautiful day that we decided to go outside and bond by the creek! Anyways, after all the bonding we got ready for lunch, and we even went to go sing in the choir! Its such a fun time, then we got on a bus to take us to Main Campus to attend our devotional! It was so good. I saw Sister Hurst, Sister Askerlund, and Sister Boman! Seriously, Sunday was the best day of the week!

Monday- Friday: The usual wake up, breakfast, class or studies, gym, lunch, class/studies, dinner, class/studies. But Tuesday was different! 

Tuesday we went to the Mexican Consulate in Downtown SLC. So everything was the same except we left at 10:30 am to get a bus to take us to the frontrunner. There were about 20 missionaries (all hermanas except 4 elders, our zone elders) and we got to the front runner, and it took us to the Trax, and then we took that to SLC. So a busy day of traveling. Once we got there we walked to the consulate and on the way while waiting to cross the street I saw SARRRRRA ERRRRRBBB! She was my visiting teacher at USU! It was seriously so cool to see her as I'm walking down the streets of SLC. We get to the consulate and literally sit and wait for hours.. **SIDENOTE:** FOR ALL WHO HAVE BEEN TO THE DMV..... it was like that but longer and worse... We finally get called to state our first and middle name, (which was weird for me to say since I'm so use to Hermana now), took a picture, and took fingerprints...then we left.. They decided they'd have us come again to say where in Mexico we would be entering and why and all that good stuff.. So we went back on the Trax, Front runner, then the bus to the MTC. by that time we got back it was 4:30pm and we were DEAD. tired. Funny how I know that if I was at the MTC and studying I wouldn't have been that tired but since it was a ton of down time it felt like forever. We saw tons of people at the Main Campus for our devotional and next week we are singing in the choir! 

Wednesday, my companion and I were teaching Benjamin, and Miguel (his brother) and we invited them to baptism and they accepted! We were so excited for them and they have a lot more to learn but it was still so exciting to hear that!...Then they came in with our helpers and basically explained what we need to work on, or things that we did excellent on. Turns out they are both LDS, and teach here at the CCM. But, still I was excited that they acted like real investigators and gave us a real answer! 

What I love most about being here at the CCM is there aren't a lot of people here so you get so much attention. Teachers, ZRT, everyone is solely here to help you with understanding and getting the language which is really helping me! We are divided up by classes,(Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) I like how I'm in the Intermediate because I still get 6 weeks here and I have an understanding of the language, rather than only 4 weeks for advanced or 6 weeks for beginner but, only knowing a little bit of the language. 

Anyway, time here is way crazy. Everyone says it but its so true. The days feel like weeks and the weeks go by like days! Everyday I learn something new and everyday and I cannot wait until I'm in Mexico! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Blankmeyer!

Hermana Blankmeyer and Bingham  I get to be the senior companion.  We both entered the MTC on the same day and are having a great time learning together.

Hermana's Blankmeyer (Texas), Bingham (Ohio), Williams (Montana), Sullivan (New York)

                                                Hermana Bingham and Hermana Blankmeyer

Hola amigos! Como estas? 

This "week" has been CRAZY to say the least. From the dropoff until now we keep on going (which is good). I saw Sister Askerlund at the dropoff but she was hosting someone else so I never got to say hi, but my host was an elder going to Seoul South Korea, and I told him about Elder Anderson! Then he said there was a girl in his district from Texas... guess who... SISTER HURST!! It was so comforting to get a hug from her and see a familiar face! She was also a host and I'll see her on Tuesdays for devotional! 

Spanish is coming along here. We live at the Provo MTC-West which is specifically for Spanish speaking hermanas y elderes. So its nice to be surrounded 24/7 with the language. I've learned A TON since I've been here! 

I have a super awesome companera named Hermana Bingham. She actually knows the Heilners which btw (S/O to them for sending me a Dear Elder!) She's a redhead and is super sweet! I love her!

We are teaching an investigator named Benjamin. He is from Chile and has a brother named Miguel and they are here to learn English, but don't worry mom, we teach solamente en espanol. We taught him yesterday and we will teach him again today in a couple horas. 

(Side note, sorry for my Spanglish but honestly its gonna get worse so I'm not super sorry)

I have an awesome district and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to learn from them!

Seriously so much has happened since Wednesday (and PDAY is Saturday) but I really can't remember them all but I've been writing in my journal! 

I also received a letter my 3rd day here to go and get my Visa to Mexico in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 11!  Crazy to think its here already but I am excited to get it!

Hasta Luego! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Blankmeyer 

Sophia's Farewell Talk

        I’m Sophia Blankmeyer and I will be serving in the Veracruz, Mexico mission reporting to the Provo MTC on March 5th. Veracruz Mexico is a port city located on the Eastern Coast of Mexico. I’m so excited and lucky to be able to serve the beloved people of Veracruz. I’ve been thinking a lot on what topic I’d be sharing today, and I found through prayer and promptings that Christ like attributes are what I’d like to share with you today.

I found in Preach My Gospel, chapter 6, it is dedicated to this specific topic. “When you have faith in Christ, you believe in Him as the Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father in the Flesh. You accept Him as your Savior and Redeemer and follow His teachings...Faith in Him means that you trust Him and are confident that He loves you.”

I love that faith in Him leads to action. In stake conference last Sunday, we were privileged to hear Elder Ellis, from the Seventy, talk about ‘Hastening the Work.’ I loved that he included that this is not a spectator church, that everyone is on the field working and doing their part. 

A man once asked Jesus, (Matthew 22:36-39)  “Which is the great commandment and the law?" Jesus replied: “Thou shalt love The Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” I love this story because since I have received my call, I have found a love that is indescribable for the people of Veracruz, and all those I come into contact with. I can only imagine after 18 months how much my love for them will grow. As I stand as a witness for Jesus Christ that pure love and charity will grow.  I know that if we struggle with this principle, we can ask through prayer for help to be able to see and love them as our Father does. I have a strong testimony of this. 

More Christ like attributes are patience & humility, which are related to hope and faith- you must wait for the Lord’s promised blessings to be fulfilled. 

Psalm 46:10 states... Be still and know that I am God...

I know that if we are patient we will be able to be more submissive to His will and we can accept His timing. “Humility is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of spiritual strength. You are confident that you can do whatever The Lord requires of you if you rely on Him.”   

Diligence is another attribute “A diligent missionary works effectively and efficiently. Diligence in missionary work is an expression of your love for the Lord and His work.” President Ezra Taft Benson stated, “I have often said one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. There will be no homesickness, no worrying about families, for all time and talents and interests are centered on the work of the ministry. Work, work, work—there is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.”

Last, but certainly not least is Obedience. Obedience is the first law into Heaven. I have been going out with the Hermanas from the second branch and getting a feel for what P-day, Zone conference, FHE Family Home Evening, and lessons are like on the mission and in spanish! I’ve learned so much and they told me that the one thing you have to be on the mission is EXACTLY obedient. There are many temptations and the world is all around but, if I focus on what I am there for and have faith, I know that I will be blessed beyond measure and the temptations will seem less desirable. Elder L. Tom Perry acknowledged, “The discipline contained in daily obedience and clean living and wholesome lives builds an armor around you of protection and safety from the temptations that beset you as you proceed through mortality.” 

I know that if we, as children of a loving Heavenly Father, follow our brother Jesus Christ with these attributes of Faith, Love, Patience, Humility, Diligence, and Obedience we will see a wonderful change of heart that will help guide us to be able to return with Him again. I love my Savior and know that He lives. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord after all He has done for me. I love this gospel and what it has done to my family, and friends. I cannot wait to share it with the people of Mexico for 18 months. I cannot thank everyone enough for helping me become the person I am today. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.