i broke my streak of not going to the clinic!!

hey mom and dad! alright so thanks for sending me a package! 

   sooo this week i broke my streak of not going to the clinic!! so on friday night i felt real sick in my stomach but whatevs.. i just worked normally... ignored the pains.. and then i was up ALL night throwing up and in so much pain and my body was really hot and the next morning when the alarm went off at 6 25 my comp woke up and i was throwing up... and shes super caring for her comps so she called the district leader right away and they call the zone leaders and make me an appointment at the clinic,,. and i was like NO!!! i don't wanna go (cause the doctors are a pain to deal with here in the jungle.. i've seen it!) and she was like hna blackmore you need help! and i was like seriously i can drink lots of water and sleep. cause i hate taking medicine and i knew they would prescribe me something ridiculous.. sooooo i went and they put me in the emergency section and started taking my blood and urine test and whatnot.. and hooked me up to a water bag... when they brought the waterbag in i looked at my zone leader and i was like ummm is this necessary?? and he just laughed... and so in the water bag was a drug to relax me so i was all drugged up with relaxant and falling in and out of sleep and the president and his wife came in and were trying to talk to me and i couldn't even talk right cause i would just forget what i was talking about or what they asked me and i was so annoyed with the doctor cause he was trying to tell me i had a migraine and i was like my aunts get migraines and i havn't experienced what i've seen them experience! ... and so at the end of the day he prescribed me 4 different pills cause i ended up having an intestinal infection and i ended up not buying the pills cause they were ridiculous and i could of been taking like 10 pills a day! NO. so now its monday.. i'm still feeling a little sick but ALOT better without pills! i've been drinking cocos and sleeping but today i'm gunna work cause i hate staying in the house.. besides hating staying in i feel like i'm wasting the lord's time! but anyway..... this week was great! we worked and had a few baptisms and yeah :) well i love you all.. and seriously dad thanks for sending me the stuff. thank aunt tanya for me!!!  i love you all so much. stay warm and stay strong in the gospel!!!

you asked how i keep dry.. haha i don't

new goal: visualize everything! in deep detail. i like that a lot dad. thank you so much. it made me chuckle when you said its warming up there to a scorching 8 degrees. i'm in scorching weather everyday!! ahhh i miss winter. so happy that i arrive in winter. it'll be nice to feel cold again. but then again it'll be nice to have a hot shower. havn't had one of those is agesssssss. haha we have been having lots of success in our area. my testimony is growing rapidly on the Christlike quality of diligence. its true that when we work hard we feel the lord with us and we come to understand his will. we are teaching a wonderful woman who's husband left her out of no where. but we have been praying to find families to baptize. and out of no where he comes back and she gets together with him again. i was soooo mad. i even told him that i watched his wife cry cry and cry and beg for us to help her find peace. i watched her starve and suffer. we went home that night and i was raging mad, thinking.... how could a man do that to his wife and child!! but then the next day we went to her house and the second i shook his hand the thought came to my head.. marry them, teach them, and baptize them. i was confused but then all of a sudden i felt bad for the way i had felt towards this man. this man who heavenly father wants to see in his presence again. he had explained to us that he saw a huge change in melissa and he wanted that too. he wanted to repent and fix his family. we have been fasting and praying hard to find families. the lord pretty much said to us: "you guys want families?? i'll give you families!.." and BOOM. we have found some AMAZING families who are definitely prepared for the gospel. its amazing how the lord answers in his own way. it may not be the way we want but i'm learning that i've got to trust no matter what. i've got to be humble, willing, hopeful, obedient. but its true that when we obey we receive blessings. our testimony grows. our relationship with our saviour deepens. it really is amazing how god works. we just have to find him. apply the gospel... do our part. i can't stress that more to my investigators...

                 i like to be direct with love. "if you want an eternal family, you must work for it through applying the teachings of jesus christ. but that is why we are here. we are called by a living prophet to teach the truths of the restored gospel and help you understand. i promise you that if you choose to apply the gospel in your lives you will be able to live with god again. you will receive the greatest blessings that  our father in heaven has in store for you. i know he loves you and more than anything wants to see you in his presence again."

   dad i love this work. i feel so good preaching the gospel and strengthening my own testimony. i love the people here.

    you asked how i keep dry.. haha i don't.. its impossible. but i'm used to it! people always say i'll get sick but i havn't gotten sick once yet. hahahhaha the poor missionaries here.. always get sick! they are surprised that i havn't been to the clinic yet lololl

now when i'm mad i can talk real fast hahaha

hi dad! i'm super glad you were able to go to grandmas funeral... and visit with everyone.  i'm glad the funeral went well and your talk is amazing dad. it was perfect because everything that was said about her was accurate! :) i sure do miss you all. i miss home. i miss you guys. i miss driving. i miss the backroads. the fields. the mountains. the food. i miss jeans and long sleeve shirts. i miss country music. i miss my car i miss pizza i miss technology.. but i wouldn't give up my mission for anything. helping someone apply the gospel in their lives and seeing that true change of heart they have is absolutely amazing. we have been working crazy hard dad. we have goals everyday and i do all i can to achieve them so that at the end of the week i can feel good about myself and i can feel like the lord is pleased with me. its so nice to have a companion with the same mindset cause we both love to work and see results. its crazy how much my testimony has grown. seriously i never thought a mission was this amazing and hard and rewarding. i'm so grateful i'm here. sometimes it feels like i'll be here forever and then it feels like time goes by too fast and it stresses me out.. but thank you mom and dad for all your support.. thanks for all those times you made me participate in scripture study and family prayer morning and night. it sure did pay off because now i can testify to my investigators and less actives that family prayer is essential and powerful. that scripture study is effective and rewarding. 

        so its funny cause when i pray in english i hear a slight accent in my voice! hahaha. its weird. but my spanish gets better and better each day. like now when i'm mad i can talk real fast hahaha i can just imagine me mom and lana raging together.... i sure do love my family.. i miss lana lots. i'm glad we both are on a mission. i miss vicky too. she will always be my little baby......sister.. haha i always tell people she was like my little dolly that i took good care of. but i miss your hugs dad. a girl needs to hug the priesthood everyday in her life.but i'll just have to wait till i get home. you and mom will be the first i hug. but i hope you are all safe and sound. how were the roads?? i love you guys so much.. ctr. xoxox

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