The Blanca Beat: Love Produces Miracles

Celebrity's

I'm famous. One night after a devotional when we were going to our classroom me and my companions got stopped by three other missionaries. These guys asked if they could take a picture with me. When we asked them why they said it was because I looked like a famous person. After some guessing we found out they thought I looked like Amanda Seyfried! I was so embarrassed but also flattered. Shout out to these two missionaries, I hope they can trick their friends into thinking I'm her.

Oh also here's me and my companions in our matching dresses!

And here's my new haircut!

Sports

We had a weird volleyball week this week. First of all I've played so much volleyball I've decided I need to go pro when I get back. Second of all we've been playing volleyball with 32 people. At first we were doing teams of 7 that rotate a person on and off. Then we got more people so we did 3 teams of 6 where the losers swapped off after a game to 5 points. Then we had 4 teams of 6-7 that swapped after a game to 5.

I mean volleyball is fun, but this is too many cooks in the kitchen. On Monday it seemed like all the guys in our district were done playing, they were inside playing basketball and ping pong, but me and my companions decided to go out to volleyball anyways. We were tossing around the volleyball when one of the other districts who played came up and started playing with us.

We were having so much fun and I was actually playing good! Then some of the boys from my district came over to play so we have to do 3 teams of 7 again. It was funny to me that the guys had mentioned wanting a break from Beach Volleyball, but when we started playing it again most of them wanted to join back in.

I was a team captain and ended up picking a team full of people I liked, even if they weren't very good at volleyball. Initially I got a complaint from a team member about how we weren't going to have fun because we weren't going to win/play any games, but I told him that we weren't playing to win, we were playing to have fun together, and I chose a team I could have fun with.

Jokes on him because we ended up winning 7 games in a row. Even when we finally ended up off the field we still had fun kicking a volleyball around together, playing frisbee, and joking around. Don't pick people because you think they're winners, pick people because you know they can be. That's what God does with us. I was chosen to serve a mission not because I'm perfect or I'm going to bring every person I meet to the gospel, but because God knows I can be perfect, when I do the best I can every day.

Personals

One of my dear sisters Kinney gave me a bag with kitkats and notes for each one before I left for Mexico. I had been gradually opening and appreciating these kitkats, until Saturday when I opened my KitKat with the note for "when you need encouragement." When I opened this kitkat I discovered the note had not been written by my sister, but by my little brother.

I admit it, I cried when I saw it. Sometimes the strongest words are the simple ones from the heart. Seeing Jimmer's cute messy handwriting telling me I can do hard things made me know of a surety that we can do anything through love. I love my little brother so much and it means so much to me that he loves me too.

This is why the two great commandments are to love god, and to love one another. Because love allows us to do and be anything. We change through love for people and things. When we feel loved we are capable of enduring. When we love others we work miracles. (I loved my volleyball team, which is how the miracle of our 7 wins was possible)

My challenge for you is to tell people that you love them. I love you all! I love you for reading my words, I love you for caring about me and being the perfect amazing person you are. Tell your siblings, parents, significant others, friends, and family of all kind that you love them. It's the simplest and most meaningful gift you can give them.

Español

Nosotros enseñamos estas niñas en un actividad! Ellas tienen testimonios muy grande y poderoso. Ellas quieren servir misiones en el futuro! Ellas son lindas!

Aquí es un foto de nosotros!

Spiritual Thought

The promise of the gospel is not that you will never be hurt or abandoned, it's that you have a savior and so those trials can have meaning through him. So many wonder why bad things happen to good people, but I think it's just because things happen to people. Good and bad. That would be the case with or without God. But with God all those struggles and trials have meaning and purpose and become opportunities to help others, change ourselves, and be happier people.

Temp Mission

I received an email on Monday assigning me to a temporary mission in Houston Texas! This got me worried so I went to reception to talk about it, and they told me they couldn't give me any information until Tuesday when the man in charge of flights and travel would be back in office.

So we went to go talk to him today and he had to call another lady who I talked to and she told me she had no idea what had happened! She had put me on the list of people who had completed all their paperwork and had a visa waiting for them in Argentina, and had even scheduled my flight for Argentina. Somehow I had been put on the list for people who couldn't go. She had no idea how it happened and said she had never seen anything like it before ever while working for the department!

She had me email the Houston Mission to tell them it was a mistake

Funnies

Elder Storm has been violently ill for days...

Sandcastle during "Beach V" (or Playa V as we call it)