Glorious

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil." -1 Thessalonians 5:21-22

First off I want to start by apologizing. I'm sorry and realize how late this post is, and I did it mainly so we could maybe get some more answers, so stay tuned... 

I was given the opportunity to really focus this week on my testimony. I want to do something a little different and share my testimony now (I might end up adding more throughout the post) I know that my Heavenly Father loves me. I know one day He held me in His arms and told me everything that I would go through in this life, all the happiness and He rejoiced with me. He looked into my eyes and told me I would have hard times but I believe He decided to tell me only to help me become stronger. Im certain He knew I would serve a mission in Mexico, and He knew how much this gospel means to me in my life, and He knew that I would fall in love with the culture, people, and spirit there in Mexico. They are valiant and I hope to return back to them one day soon! I love my Savior Jesus Christ, He has done so much for me, that now my mind set is more of, What can I DO for Him? He is my older brother and He suffered E.V.E.R.Y.   S.I.N.G.L.E. pain, emotion, and did that because He not only loves me, His Father, He loves YOU.   I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. Especially in times of loneliness, or when we are unsure or afraid. He is always there and wants us to talk to Him so He can embrace you in His arms and grab your hand and walk the path with you. He answered a 14 year olds prayer, which changed the world. I know living prophets speak to God. I know that if we ever have questions, we can go straight to Him and He will answer. Some things in life we might not understand why they have to happen, but I believe He has a plan for everyone. 

On Sunday I was given the opportunity to teach the primary & young women. For those who don't know me super well, I love teaching (thanks to the mission) and kids make my heart super happy. I helped them understand the importance of covenant making by giving them 1 single starburst, then asking them to promise me to not open or eat it, and I would promise at the end of the lesson to give them something bigger and better (a whole pack). I related it to our baptismal covenants. What we promise & what The Lord promises. Every child obeyed and kept their promise and was able to receive the bigger pack, but I reminded them if they accidentally ate the candy we have the option to repent and try again. Teaching the young women (laurels - 16-18 years) was way different. I could talk openly with them about how important it is to stay true to who they are and do all they can to prepare for making covenants in our temple. The temple has blessed my life in ways I would NEVER have imagined. It is so special and sacred to me. If the world has gone crazy and I need a place that is peaceful, warm, beautiful, and teaches me about the important things in life, the temple is the only place I would go to. I made them a slideshow of the temples in chronological order so they could see where they were built in relation to year. I personally was shocked at how many temples there are in Mexico, all beautiful. The people there are a temple attending people. They understand the importance of the temples. I loved when Sister Reeves came to Mexico and taught us about how the people in Indonesia have 2 stakes. Both stakes had 95% to 99% of the people holding current temple recommends. Even if the people know that they would only be able to go to the temple once in their LIFE. That goes to show how important temples are. 

(If any are interested - ill post my video on Facebook later today!)

I went to the doctors on Wednesday, and the lady who was helping me spoke Spanish. She was from Honduras. She asked me so many questions about why I was in Mexico, for how long, what did you do for fun? She really had no clue about anything about the church or missions. I explained to her my simple testimony that I was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and I served the people in every way I could for the 4 months I was there, but I'm hoping to go back and finish my year & half service. I left my friends, school, even my family for that amount of time because this message that we bring has brought me eternal peace and happiness in my life and in the life of my family. Also back to my "what would I DO?" If He suffered and died for me the least I could do is leave everything and go help the people in Mexico understand that He loves them. I was tearing up when she started saying how lovely it is that people my age would do such a thing, and how beautiful we are inside and out. I was reminded of all my wonderful missionary friends that are serving, have a call, putting papers in, or even just preparing. I've never been so proud of all my friends and their influence on me. I know it gets hard on the mission and there are days were we just wanna get home and go to bed hoping it will all go away. But missionaries are strong. We are focused and we are loving. Missionaries have about 8 hours to focus on them, and thats when they are sleeping. From the moment we wake up to the moment we say our nightly prayers and go to sleep we are constantly thinking of ways to help our friends, neighbors, members, companions, investigators, and so much more. Thank you for all you do, and know Im praying for each and every one of y'all out there. 

HAPPY LATE PIONEER DAY! Our ward celebrated and had a fun get together with food, music from the primary kids & some outstanding young women (we might have a small youth, but they are A.L.W.A.Y.S. willing to help and you can count on them). We also watched some clips from 17 miracles. Im thankful for the pioneers and for the sacrifice they went through because they knew there was going to be a better life for them and their family. They followed the spirit and trekked. It reminded me of when I went on trek as "Caroline Martin Garr" (one of my ancestors that crossed the plains). She was an outstanding young lady. But it was in the HEAT of summer in Texas, and it felt like we were there for a month. Despite the constant sweating, bugs, and the muddy roads, minus the fact that many got heat stroke and were put into random families with people we didn't know. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat with all those conditions and worse. The spirit I felt during our testimony meeting was strong. I know that they way I felt throughout the whole time is nothing compared to what they went though, but something I will remember for the rest of my life. Theres no explanation that can do it justice. We also had a lot of fun during it too. I also am reminded of when we traveled to Nauvoo and walked the Trail of Tears in the Freezzzinnngggg cold winter. I was bundled up in practically everything winter proof, yet I was still freezing while reading these accounts. Some of us were crying and I realized that they had none of these kinds of warm clothes that have been designed for the winter storms. They had to walk barefoot in the snow, or even get frostbite. The pioneers are my heroes.

Thought y'all would enjoy a pic or two from TREK 5 years ago...

The tests have all come back positive, yet I am still experiencing pain. Im seeing a new doctor and I think when we get to sit down and talk with him we will be getting more answers and hopefully treatment so I can be on the road to Mexico! Thank you all for your loving words, prayers, and thoughts. Im surrounded by loving friends and family. I cannot thank you all enough for your love and support, it truly means the world to me that you read my blog and hopefully enjoy it. I love you all and am sorry again for the lateness of this blog!

Con Amor,
Sophia Blankmeyer 

"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!

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!