Panama by way of Colorado. Hermana Bledsoes mission

If you've put up with my emails all this time, I'm incredibly proud because sometimes I look back and think... Wow. I said that?  But anyway, this is the last one! I fly home on Friday! So thanks for putting up with me, supporting me, reading all my lame emails..... I really appreciate it.  The past couple weeks have been nothing but busy, and I'm grateful for that lol. We got to visit the Colorado National Monument last pday, if you've never been I highly recommend it. It's very very pretty and also serves as a fantastic reminder of God's hand and how much power He has if He was able to make something as huge and as beautiful as that. I'd been before, but it was my companions first time and I wish you all could have seen her reactions! (she's from Maryland) We did lots of work on Facebook this week, we tried to get thrown into Facebook jail (when you send too many friend requests/messages so they lock you out for a day or two). Despite sending nearly 10...

I probably had the most spiritually enlightening week I've ever had in my life besides the time I went to EFY, but even that kinda pales in comparison. On Thursday we hopped onto a bus and drove 8 hours to Denver. Stayed with missionaries there and had a devotional with the mission Friday night. Seeing around 200 missionaries together in the same room was pretty incredible. Singing with them was even more so. Saturday we had a devotional with Elder Holland, elder Nielsen, sister Craven and Bishop Budge. I don't think I can properly put into words how amazing it was. Life-changing, is probably how I would describe it. Elder Nielsen told us that President Ballard had recommended that elder Holland not come to Denver because of his health. And he replied with "no, we're going." it was his first trip since before covid and he had a LOT to say. Here's some highlights: -"serving a mission is the most important thing you will ever do. The most important thing in...

Forgot to hit send on my email last week. Here it is: I'm officially in my last transfer as a missionary! So, to keep me from slacking off, they gave me a brand new missionary as my companion. It's been an insane couple of days, but seriously I wouldn't even guess that Sister Fa was a new missionary. She just jumps right in before I even explain what we're doing! She's awesome. It was after 9pm, so we were done for the day and she exclaims: "I'm just going to send ONE more message!" so I'm loving her enthusiasm for the work.  We're finally allowed to go out street contacting! We've been talking to people at the park and it's been SO fun. Naturally the very first person we talked to was a member.... Hahaha.  And last night we had a lesson with a lady we're teaching and her neighbor was over... And she was very very drunk. It was hilarious.  Funny story: a member came over and brought Sister Fa some cookies because she heard somewhere...

I finally took pictures this week so I have something to show you guys!  This week was insane and probably one of the best weeks of my mission so far. Here are some highlights: -It POURED rain out of nowhere (gotta love monsoon season I guess) lots of lightning too  -We pulled weeds and it was super muddy hahaa - Someone had QUAIL and gave us some pickled quail eggs and also a FAT zucchini. (we made muffins using the zucchini)  - There was a church building in Fruita (nearby city) that was burned down a couple months ago (arsen) and they just announced last night that the church was just going to bulldoze the property and not rebuild it for a couple years.... That was sad news but its okay.  And my FAVORITE part of this week was teaching Neena. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and she was just in awe. We asked if she believed it, and she said she did so we invited her to be baptized. She picked her own date (August 15th) and she was so excited ...

Good news everyone, it has been above 100 all week and I haven't died yet. That wouldn't be saying much, if we had air conditioning.... Our apartment is currently 87 degrees and it's totally awesome. On the bright side, we had a tri-stake fast for rain yesterday. So we'll be getting rain here pretty soon:)  Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope you all did something exciting, we as missionaries just read about Captain Moroni and his awesome feats in protecting the liberty of HIS people... And just how this land was chosen to always be a land of freedom. Captain Moroni is one of my favorite heroes of all time. Just to reiterate what kind of person he was, I give you Alma 48:17- "If all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men."  I think that speaks for itself. No commentary necessary.  Anyway, I hope you ar...

This week was crazy long. but today I just want to tell you about some bees I don't like bees. They are loud and they sting and we eat their vomit.... Nasty. They are just not my favorite bug at all.  Someone in our ward is a beekeeper. He was showing all the 8-11 year old girls how the honey was made, and we were invited (because inwardly, we are 8 years old). He showed us the bee boxes, and explained how they worked. A couple things I learned: All the bees you see are female. The male bees rarely leave the hive Male bees don't have stingers. They have about a 5 mile radius Every batch of honey tastes a little different, depending on the flowers they visited And many other random facts. And you know what? The more I learned about those bees, the less I hated them. At the end, a bee just about flew into my face, but I hardly flinched. They were just happy, little innocent insects minding their own business, working their little butts off and making that honey for us to enjoy. M...