i bet they all had big smiles on their face!

hi dad. well i'm sitting her at the computer in tears. lately i've been teaching the plan of salvation. its such a blessing to read in alma 40 that grandma is in a happy state. its a huge blessing to know where our loved ones go. it was her time. i just wish i was able to say goodbye. i hope she can visit me in my dreams or something. i was thinking about her all week and i talked about her a lot here and i will continue to do so. i'll never forget her home made buns. and the way she took care of us. i'll never forget how she hugged us and how excited she was to see everyone when we walked in the door. i'll never forget how she made a blanket with me, how she forced me to make it because i didn't want to make it. i'm so grateful that now i have that blanket. i know that the first thing i'll do is pull it out when i get home and sleep with it. i love her very much dad. i couldn't imagine how you felt on your mission when grandpa died.. i am so happy that grandma left a great legacy. i'm grateful that she was so strong and a great example for every single one of us. i love that she had curly hair. i'm grateful i got to pluck her eyebrows for her and cut her hair before i left on my mission. i'm grateful that when i went to the temple i went to visit her. i felt aunt tekla's presence in the temple when i was there and i know that when i go back, i'll feel grandma blackmore's presence too. i wish i could hug you dad. and grandma penny. its hard being far away and knowing i won't be able to go to the funeral but i know that god will help me through everything and that now grandma will watch over me and lana. i'm glad that grandma is with her children and husband. i know that they were waiting for her. how marvelous it is to know that they were there waiting to greet her as she passed through the veil! i bet they all had big smiles on their face! man dad... its super sad and super happy at the same time. she wanted me to play a song on the piano for her at her funeral. i still have it.. its at home. i'll have to dig it out when i get home and play it for her later. 

    today we have changes. i hope i get to stay with my companion another change. i have learned to love her very much. but i'm doing really well right now. can't believe i'm halfway done the mission. its like a mountain. 9 months to get to the top and the way down is always twice as fast as the climb. i love you all. please tell everyone i love them.

 

we went to the castle in lamas last pday. its a real castle that a husband built for his wife. it was awesome

 

 

coolest paintings ever. seriously felt like a real castle!

 

jungleeeeeeeeee in tarapoto

our baptisms this week. super great

 

i was so tired last night that i didn't wake up twice!

well i really hope that grandma blackmore is there for when i get home. i really want to see her again. at least once. keep me updated. thanks for the quotes dad!! i loved them a lot.they are all so true and make so much sense. so i've got some news!

     so this wednesday we had conference with all the missionaries and the president. it was awesome. and so in iquitos he opened up a family history centre where the investigators less actives and recent converts can go and do family history.. so two sisters opened that up... and it was super successful. i took my investigators there and it really was a nice experience! i honestly never had a testimony on family history before the mission. i knew it was super important to do but didn't really take interest in it. sooo the president has been really emphasizing on it lately and the church as well because the lord is really hastening his work faster than ever!! so i've been repenting that i haven't done my family history. i really have been feeling super bad for not doing it. and then at the conference the president announced that he wanted to open up  family history centre here in tarapoto. and he called me and my companion to do it!! i was so surprised that he asked me to do it out of all the sisters there cause i have less time than all of them! but i was soooo grateful dad. so hna kirk(the sister that opened up family history in iquitos came along with the president) trained us all week on what our purpose is as family history specialists. and we went to a 7 hour long conference on saturday... it was awesome! it was broadcasted from salt lake. seriously my testimony on family history has been planted and it even grew!! i was sooo overwhelmed with the joy i felt with my testimony growing this week on family history. i'm super excited to get started. so basically what we will do is attend all ward councils in all the wards here every week to train them on family history and to motivate them on it. and when we have meetings with all the missionaries here once a week we will train them too and get them motivated to bring their investigators in. our purpose is to help the people have  a true conversion to the gospel by feeling the spirit of elias. so i'm excited... seriously i am sooooooooo busy with all this. i was so tired last night that i didn't wake up twice! and that always happens. hha but i'm super grateful for this new calling! 

     so on friday we watched meet the mormons!! it was sooo aweosme! i bawled at the end story where the mom sends her kid out on his mission. it was so great!! i love being a member of this church! it really is true. and if you guys aren't doing family history i encourage you to do it. some of the promises are that you will have a greater protection from the adversary, you will have a deeper conversion to the saviour and your patriarchal blessing will have more meaning for you. sounds great hey! well i love you all sooo much. stay strong.. and dad i miss you too. i miss the family and just hanging out with you guys. but isn't it crazy how fast time flies by????? we will really be home in no time. in april i'll hit my 10 month mark!! WHATTTT!! hahah LOVE U ALL!!

i'm trying to imagine what it would be like to be in snow right now

hey dad!!! How are things. that's crazy to think that there's so much snow there up to the fence i'm trying to imagine what it would be like to be in snow right now and feel coldness against my cheeks and on my fingertips. i remember getting into my car and thinking wow... these leather seats are FROZEN and my steering wheel wouldn't turn cause its so frozen hahah i hated winter but now i'm missing it a lot. we really are blessed to have seasons in canada. well this week was good. i have been trying super hard to just work super hard every single day. like i have papers full of goals and how i'm going to achieve our goals everyday so that at the end of the week we would have passed the goals. so every wednesday our district leader calls us and asks for our numbers}... like what we have achieved so far and we noticed that our numbers were lower than usual and the district leader asked why and we really didn't know cause we are doing our best to be super diligent and never procrastinate anything... so we thought and thought... and i'm not going to lie i felt like a failure cause i have been working so hard and the results aren't how i wanted them to be.. so we prayed and decided we would do divisions the day after and the day after again.. so we called the members and organized it... last minute they cancelled on us and said they couldn't come out with us!! oh and every week we work on a christ-like attribute that we want to develop better and so we have been working on faith and hope that week... so we were like.. alright we cannot get discouraged cause that'll make it so we don't have the spirit... so i put on a happy face and we prayed and did our part and relied on god for the rest.... so this sunday we were putting the numbers together and we achieved them! but that's not all... we went over our goals... i was super happy. the zone leaders are super happy with our work and are saying they can see big improvements in our area so that makes me feel good. anyways there's a little story... 

     hmmm what else.. so we went to go visit a sister less active and her dog was sooo crazy and hyper it started biting my comp's skirt and pulling it down! and the owner was yelling sooooo loud at it and it was jumping all over her and so my comp took her agenda and started wacking it soooo hard on the butt like ten times and i was laughing my head off and they were just going at it with this poor dog! and the dog continued being super hyper and i was laughing sooo hard that my stomach hurt. it was reallly nice to laugh for a while cause i haven't laughed hard like that in so long.. hahaha well i love yall soooooooo much!!!!!!!!! be good and stay safe with the weather and all... xoxooxx!!!

sacando fechas como locas

dad! i like the duo email thing cause then  i can see what you write lana too. hehehe and we always send each other copies of the email we send you weekly. so dad remember when i used to say that i could live somewhere hot for the rest of my life and always said i hated winter? ya kinda shot that one to you know where. i MISS WINTER!!! i wanna be cold again for once!!! so this week has been great. we have been working crazy hard and working on christlike attributes and our prayers and fasting and faith is working. we have been finding new people and sacando fechas como locas (setting dates like crazy). i love this gospel. its so true, and perfect. yesterday after church it started to flood like crazy cause of the rain! in 30 minutes everything was flooded! me and my comp were walking back from a lesson after the rain stopped and the sun came out and everyone on our street was standing outside and their homes were flooded. i was like ummm ya there is no way we are proselyting we need to help these people. so we got permission right away and we went to help the members. it was awesome cause everyone was helping everyone. as soon as we were done in one house we would call someone else until we found someone that needed help like the old couples or families. it was sad but made me happy to help!!

      so how's my car?? haha i been thinkin about her. i bet she's doing alright. hahah so something funny.... everyone on the streets like everyday yells at me saying "SHAKIRA!!!" hahhaa and at church sometimes they say, do the muñeca malograda face!...(broken doll face..) so i cross my eyes and put one eye in the center and everyone thinks its great lollll.

     so i want you all to know i love you and pray all the time for you guys. i love my mission but when i get home i'm going to do all i can to still be a missionary. its so important to help the missionaries with references and feeding them and making sure they are okay!! i love you all!! XOXOXOX

we have been keeping rules to a tee

hey dad! don't worry about it! i know you would never forget about me haha. so when an area is small every once in a while they take out the missionaries and put two new ones in there. so that's what happened. but its ok! the area was very very very small. so the way we don't lose the investigators is that we have a binder with registers and everyone's files and every time we teach someone we write it in the file so the next sisters can see what we have taught. but i left a letter for them expressing my love for the area and how some of the investigators are. so that helps. tarapoto is very pretty. i don't think anything tops fort st james though. i think my hometown is super gorgeous! and i'm proud of it :) i'm glad that you're home safe though cause i know the roads get super nasty in BC. how was mom's bday???? i hope it was fun. i know i told you that i wouldn't come home if you died. haha that sounds bad but yesterday we did a family home evening in someone's house and a ton of members showed up and we taught them about temples to try and motivate them to go get sealed in the temple. and something i said was that one thing that made me feel at peace with being on a mission was knowing i am sealed to you guys for eternity and no matter what happens i know i'll see you guys again and there is nothing that can separate us as long as we are keeping the commandments.

    this week we worked super hard to try and find new people and seriously dad we have been keeping rules to a tee and we have been seeing miracles. we've got lots of people progressing and are seeing the promise come true that elder grow made to the mission. that if we work with the members and the references from them we will baptize people. its awesome. i couldn't imagine being home right now. i love my mission so much and it makes so much sense to be here. i know that the lord is with me every step of the way. its amazing to know that even when things get extremely hard he is there with me every step of the way. i can't wait for ten to go on a mission. i can see him as future zone leader for sure! i hope vix goes too. its the best thing i've ever done for myself and future family. well i love you all lots!!!!!!! CTR ALWAYS!!!!!

 

goodbye iquitos!

 

 

more iquitos. and amazon rivah!

 

new compy. new area. hna resanovich :)

 

 

me in my new home. its tiny!! hope this pic doesn't look all stretched out. hahah

 

 

 

hna blackmore pack your bags...

dad! so last monday was changes and it was CRAZY. so we thought that hna child was going to get a change and i would stay. so we met together with the zone and got ready to hear the changes and the zone leaders always make it so intense. so we all stand up and they eliminate people and when i was the last one standing i was like WHATTTTT. "hna blackmore pack your bags... cause your going to Tarapoto!" i was like WHAT NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i put my face in my hands and i was like you're joking right!!.... and everyone was like WHAT! haha but tarapoto is where everyone wants to go. but i was just thinking about magali and gerardo(the fam that is getting baptized and super awesome) and so i was like there is no way my comp is staying either. so when she was the last one standing everyone was shocked.... "hna child, you're going to tarapoto" AHHH!"!!!!!! it was crazy. i have spent 7 months in iquitos and i felt sick to my stomach just thinking about flying away from it! but its what the lord wanted. so hna child and i cried together and went to magalis house and said bye and she was bawling and saying that maybe the lord did it cause he wanted them to prove that they would stay strong in the gospel even when we weren't there. but hearing her and her hubby's testimony made me feel peace in my heart. we went to say bye to people all that day and were super super sad. but excited to go deeper into the jungle. soooo we packed all our stuff and went to the airport. i fell in love with the morona cocha area SO fast. i don't even know how. we worked so hard there and loved it so much and found lots of awesome families to teach but it was our time to go. i was super sad to part from hna child but i'm super glad she's still in my zone. so we packed our stuff and headed to the airport. all i could think was how much i was going to miss iquitos and i had so many mixed emotions. it was incredible to fly over the jungle and amazon river and see SOOOOO much jungle. but i kneww when we were getting close to tarapoto cause mountains started to come in sight. so we landed and our comps were there waiting for us. so my comp's name is hna resanovich from argentina. she's cool! teaching me a lot. before this change i prayed that my next comp would be one that would teach me christ like attributes. i'm super grateful for her and the way she is. i'm learning to love her a lot. its cool though cause we both have the same trainers! lollll

     well i miss you all a lot and want you to know i'm doing great. i was sad my first day here. my second day was better and i'm not going to lie i fell in love with the branch. the branch has about 125 active members but hasn't been made into a ward yet for a few reasons... but its ok. we are working on making it stronger. i love the work of the lord. he really is with us every step of the way. i am so grateful for jesus christ and that everyday i can apply the atonement. i can't wait to see him again. i get sad every time a month goes by. can you believe i already have 7 months???? i love you all but feel like i should serve a mission for the rest of my life cause you learn sooooooo much. have a great week and i love you all. be careful on the icy roads and i'll try not to melt over here. its hot but not as humid as iquitos. xoxoxoox

i had the impression to ask him if he was a member

    so hello everyone!!! hows it going? this week was sooo awesome for me. me and my comp were walking outside in the POURING rain just absolutely drenched from head to toe and we were having fun skipping along on our way home to change into dry clothes and this guy on a moto stops and asks us for directions that happened to be in my old area so i told him how to get there and then i had the impression to ask him if he was a member ( i was thinking to myself of how funny the scene was in the middle of the road and the rain pouring SO hard) and so i asked him. he hesitated a bit and said yes but i'm not assisting. and he had his head down and looked real sad. and we asked him why. he has said he had done something bad and wrecked his family and that he should stop going to church cause he was a bad person and needed to pay for what he did. we ended up having a lesson on the street. and we told him that especially at this time of his life he should go to church and talk to the bishop. we promised him that if he did his testimony on the atonement would grow. this guy was desperate for help, for someone to help him know what to do. i felt so bad for him dad. he was a return missionary and i started crying. but i don't think he could tell cause it was raining so hard. he looked at our name tags and said, well i'll probably never see you again but i'll never forget you guys. and he left. and it was so clear that the lord put him in our path. it was a really neat experience. now i'm going to tell you about a family that i didn't mention before cause i had such high hopes for them and couldn't bear the thought of having to tell you guys that we stopped teaching them cause they stopped progressing or something.

      so a day before i came into the morona cocha area my comp had felt an impression to knock on this family's door. so she did. they went in and taught but they were super hurried so nothing really happened and they left. so when i came into the area she told me we had a cita with this family. so we went and we taught them the restoration and they were SO intelligent.( mom dad and two kids) they love god and wanted to know more. we invited them to a baptism but she had told us that she was already baptized in the catholic church. so the next time we came we explained the authority/priesthood. the spirit was strong. we invited them to a baptism again but they said they thought it would be making fun of god if they got baptized again. but they came to church and loved it. they were asking questions like no other and i was so proud to call them my investigators! they wanted to know more and more and more. and my love for them grew so incredibly much. they are married so that's perfect. they are so worried about the spiritual welfare of their family. they acted like church members who weren't baptized. so after working with them for 6 weeks... last night we finally got a baptism date with them! we were at their house last night and the mom and dad were in tears just bearing their testimonies about the church and saying how they just wanted to go to the temple right away to be sealed. they havn't missed a single sunday of church since we found them. they are so excited to pay tithing and keep the word of wisdom and fast and keep all the commandments. they read the book of mormon everyday and pray everyday together and the wife was like wow i know our lives are going to change because now we have this gospel. she called us her "muñeca angeles" (angel dolls). i love that woman. i would go back to iquitos for her in a heartbeat if i got the chance. they are intelligent and remember everything we teach them. i feel sooooo blessed to have met them. i'll never forget them and there is no doubt in my mind that the lord was preparing them for us. everything that happened at church or in lessons with them or when we coordinated to get her a priesthood blessing was just an answer to all their prayers. it was so obvious that the lord wanted them to join his church. its so cool how he guided us through all of this. it makes me sooo happy and last night i couldn't sleep cause i was just so happy. the dad is someone i can see as a future mission president and her a president's wife. i love all of iquitos and the people here. this church is so true!!!! well we have changes today so i guess next week i'll let you know what happens!! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

this is that wonderful family that is getting baptized!!!

fun in the rain!

another family we are teaching!! they are AWESOME! the kids are so cute. the little girl always runs up to us and hugs us when she sees us. her name is si si :)

the missionaries in our ward! there awesome! they work in the offices. its awesome cause they keep us up to date with stuff loll