Merry Christmas

Elder Blomquist with his current companion, Elder Crosby.  He says Elder Crosby is his favorite companion so far because he has learned so much from him.  Elder Blomquist is transferring tomorrow so he is a little sad to have only been with Elder Crosby for 6 weeks. 

We were able to Skype with him today for Christmas.  It was wonderful to see him.  He looks good and says he hasn't gained or lost any weight yet (but he has only been out 101 days so there is still time).  He never was much of a conversationalist so we had to keep asking questions to get him talking.  He says he is LOVING Idaho.  He wants to be transferred often so he can see more of it and meet more of the people.  He says all the members he has come in contact with have been wonderful and take really good care of the missionaries.  They had a Christmas lunch and two Christmas dinners lined up for today.

Bad Week for Biking

So it's the last week of the transfer. We get calls on Friday then transfers are Monday, so send any mail to the mission office this week. Not sure if I’m staying or not and that would be best to avoid what happened last transfer. I had to wait like, 2 weeks to get the mail that was sent. Better safe than sorry.

Been a good week. Taught 22 lessons, the most in the zone. There are 12 companionships, and we had the most!

It’s been a bad week for bikes though. It’s been pretty warm, between 35-50 this week. It’s only when the sun isn’t out that it gets cold. We’re hoping for a white Christmas, but we'll see if that happens or not.

I clipped a mailbox with my handlebars as I was riding by and took a fall. Luckily I fell into a flowerbed and landed in dirt vs. the cement, but it still hurt a bit. It was about a week ago now and my knee is still popping pretty often. Think we're going to a chiropractor later tonight who can look at it and tell me everything's ok w/ it.

Elder Crosby took a pretty hard fall. He was standing on his bike signaling we were turning and squeezed his front brake a little too hard. He went tumbling over his handlebars and his bike just followed him. He caught it before it landed on him though. We were turning into church parking lot and there were some cars pulling out, so he had a little audience and got up and bowed. I was terrible, I just laughed. I was always behind him and just laughed. Should have checked first, I know, but I couldn’t help it. He was fine though. Chipped his helmet and gave him a shiner on his knee, but that's it.

Caught my pants in the chain too. Didn’t make me crash or anything, but ripped the seam a little bit. Pretty rough weeks for bikes, wouldn’t you say?

So I get to Skype home Sunday!!!! We have video capabilities, so find a camera. I’m super excited to see everyone! It’s only been 3 months, but I miss all of you. Crazy how time flies right?

Saturday (Dec 24^th) will be my 100 day mark, not that I’m counting or anything... it goes by so fast.

Jump started my 1st car this week. A person we are visiting had a dead car, and as we were pulling up she was pushing it into her driveway. We showed up and helped her jump start it. Cars are heavy and it was only a little one... I had to push it alone cuz of everything else we had to do to get it ready, everyone else was busy. I would have been able to do it if I could have gotten traction. These shoes don’t have the best traction. I would push, the car would move, then I would slip and it would roll right back. 

I’ve been feeling sick again lately, and it feels worse. I’ve been waking up feeling just drained and needing more sleep. I don’t know what it is, but in the morning I feel like throwing up and like I need more sleep, but it usually goes away around lunchtime. I’ve thrown about the same number of times in the last month than I did the whole time we were in Simi (it's only been twice, I’m not throwing up all the time, so don’t freak out). Just something I wish would get better. I think it's just from riding a bike and being in the cold all day.

Well, don’t know what else to say. That’s pretty much the highlights of the week. Been writing in my journal almost every day. Counted it out, and I’ve missed 11 days of writing the entire time I’ve been out. I’ve told you most of the stories, but there's always something I forget or just don’t mention, so maybe I’ll let you read those when I get back. We’ll see.

Hope everything's still going well. Glad to hear the roof is done and you're on cleanup.

Exciting to hear my plaque is up!

Love,

Elder Blomquist

Almost forgot...

Elder Crosby should be calling you sometime on Saturday to set it all up. My guess is it'll be in the evening sometime, but not sure exactly what's going on. I know we're bouncing around different families with our zone leader (whose companion went home last Saturday), so not sure what's all happening. Hopefully I won’t be sick this year. It’s been pretty bad recently, so keep me in your prayers that I won’t get sick.  (For several years in a row, he has been sick on Christmas Eve.  I has become a family joke that we just expect it will happen. But, this year, please keep him in your prayers so that he won't be sick.)

More stuff I forgot = P ...

They asked us to speak yesterday. Our topic was service, something I’m a tad familiar with. We were speaking at a missionary homecoming (the 3rd of this transfer, and there's another one coming home next week... 4 missionaries coming home this transfer). But the meeting was running late. There was a baby blessing, and about a million people at sacrament meeting, so it was 11:40 by the time we started speaking. Since it was a homecoming, they asked us if we could keep it short to give him more time. Both of us prepared 7-8 minute talks, but ended up having us both done in 5 minutes. Had to really condense that talk. But it was still good. We both hit all the points we wanted to, just in less time and with less detail.

We have Pictures!!!

Elder Blomquist finally sent pictures home.  Most of them are from Mountain Home, ID area.

                                                                        Here he is with Elder Ryan Nadybal at the MTC.  Elder Nadybal is from SS5 (here is Simi Valley).  Elder Nadybal was sent to Baltimore, MD Spanish speaking.

                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

The name tag.  Of course, you can't miss the planner in the front pocket.  What kind of missionary would he be without that?!     

                       

                                        

 Debra, his first baptism.  The first week out in the field, he was able to baptize someone.   

One of the members in Mountain Home was really into hunting.  Here Elder Blomquist and Elder Ika are holding deer antlers.

The Mother Lode of Lasagna

Lasagna made in one of those industrial trays they use in buffets.

Had to be a good 6 inches deep. We had 6 people eating that meal, and only got about halfway through that thing. We had leftover lasagna in 4 Tupperware containers stacked to the brim and there was still 1/4 of the lasagna left. 

 (In case you don't know, he really likes lasagna.)

This Week's Missionary Stories

Pretty good week this week. Got some stories for this week.

First one is pretty funny. We went contacting some less actives, and this house no one was home. As we were putting our helmets on and getting ready to leave they pulled up. They opened the garage door and we waited for them to come out and talk to us. But before they even got out of the car they shut the garage door on us. That’s one way to get a door slammed on you.

We’ve had some amazing lessons this week. We had a total of 20 lessons this week. Monday and Tuesday were slow, only about 2 lessons for both days, but starting Wednesday we taught like, 4 lessons a day. There’s one in particular that really stands out.

It’s a part member family. The dad has been less active since he was about 17 or 18 (probably in his mid-late 40s now) and the wife and kids are all non members. There are 5 kids, 2 are hers from another marriage and 3 are his from another marriage. This is just the most amazing family though. They invited us over for dinner and a lesson, and it was probably the most powerful lesson I’ve taught on the mission. We taught the lesson and the Spirit was just so strong. I felt it, and I’m pretty sure they did too. It would be the most amazing thing to see this family embrace the gospel.

There was a baptism on Saturday. The other Elders had 2 teens getting baptized, and my comp actually served in their area before he came to this side of the stake and had started teaching those kids. The Spirit was crazy strong there too. After the baptism, they asked the missionaries to share their testimonies, so between the actual ordinance and the 4 missionaries’ testimonies, the spirit was strong. There are few times I’ve felt it as strong as that.

I was planning on skyping home. My comp will call Christmas Eve and coordinate things w/ you that way. Not sure what we're doing for Christmas yet though. Calling home is the only thing I know about.  We probably should figure that out pretty soon though. We’ll have about an hour. At least, they say we should try to limit it to an hour, but every missionary who talks about it says it always goes over. I’m looking forward to skyping home. It seems like so long ago since I saw everybody. It’ll be 3 months on Wednesday... it's gone by fast, at least for me it has. But at the same time its like "only”? It's gone by fast yet not too much time has gone by.

Well, can’t think of anything else to say... got my camera, so I guess I’ll upload some pics now. Hope everything is going well!

Love,

Elder Blomquist

There’s a story I forgot...

We went tracting on Tuesday, and we ran into a pretty interesting character. He was a pirate!! Had the hook and everything! His arm was cut off about the elbow, and there was a legitimate hook in its place. His tongue was also cut off about halfway, so he had a hard time talking. And to top it all off, he was NAKED! He was trying to hide, and he did a good job, but I could tell he wasn’t wearing any clothes. Def gave me a greater appreciation for people who actually answer the door with clothes on.

December Already... and One More Thing

Red comments are my comments/clarification on things he said in his letter.

December already... crazy.

We’ve had some pretty cool experiences this week. My 1st interview w/ President and some new investigators. Nothing special about the interview, but the new investigator was something else.

We rode past a house and Elder Crosby felt we needed to go and knock on the door. We did and she wasn’t interested. But apparently we looked cold and so she invited us in. We made small talk for about 20 minutes or so and then tried to make it a gospel discussion. We asked her if she went to church on a regular basis and she said she hadn’t. She couldn’t find the right church, all the preachers preached different things and how she thought some were amazing speakers and others she couldn’t stand. We tied that in to Joseph Smith and taught the restoration. It looked like she was just soaking it up. After we taught about the Book of Mormon she said “I know it's true." We thought she was talking about the bible and asked her about it. She said "the Book of Mormon. I know it's true." We gave her a copy and left her 3 chapters to read, and by the time we sat down she was already halfway through the 1st chapter. We’re seeing her again tonight, I’m excited for it.

The work's going well. We’re teaching a guy who's less active and he actually invited us to dinner on Friday and wants us to share a message. He drove us home and we talked about his family and some of the expectations he has in meeting with us, and we got some good info about him and his family. He says that we showed up at a good time in their life and good things are happening to his family. They met them before I got here and challenged them to pray as a family, and they've been doing that and can tell a difference in their lives. He’s less active and the mom and 5 kids aren’t members. It’d be cool to see him get reactivated and have his family join the church. That would be cool. They’re an awesome family.

so my typing drives mom nuts huh?? lol... well, i guess i dont really see the need to be grammatically correct or capitalize everything when im typing. in my letters i still do all that, jsut not in email = P . I left this part the exact way he typed it so you all see why it drives me crazy.  I just fix capital letters- not grammar.

I can’t believe I forgot about Taylor’s birthday!!! I remembered like on the 20th. Happy birthday Taylor!!! Was gonna say something about it last week, but forget then too = P

I like Meridian. I really don’t think I would mind living here someday. It’s pretty cold though. The weather's taken a turn for the worse. Today has a high of 32 at noon and 21 at 6. It’s cold... but in a car vs. a bike, I think it wouldn’t be bad. It’s getting colder though... I just bought me some better gloves, so I think I’m doing alright for now though.

I forgot my camera today, or I would have pictures. I’ll try better to have them next week. I know how to do it; I just don’t have my camera today. Every week he seems to forget his camera and hasn't sent pictures home.

Glad to hear everything's good w/ the roof. Hope everything else is going good as well.

Love,

Elder Blomquist

P.S. ok Alex, I gotta know... is it cuz of a boy that you've been so busy or are you just pulling my leg? I read that part of your letter and freaked out (not in a bad way though). If I don’t get a letter this week from you, you'll never hear the end of it from me till I do get one. You have no idea how much I’ve been freaking out over this! Alex wrote him (finally) and asked would he believe that the reason she hasn't written was that she was too busy with a boy.  Of course there is no boy (yet) but she just wanted to tease him.

New e-mail received 5  minutes later.

And another thing... we can skype on Christmas!!! Do you have skype capabilities? We need to start working out the details pretty soon. Not sure what we're doing on Christmas yet, but I'm sure we'll just be chilling w/ memebrs, just not sure who though. 

Another e-mailed received another 5 minutes later.

And about buying me a bike, I just got a call from the office today and they told me they have a lot of bikes in storage, so I can look through them and decide if one of those would work fine. I'll keep you updated if I need one, but I'm sure I'll be able to find something.

And one more.

I just can't say enough... I keep forgetting things...

 

I was sick on Saturday. I wasn't able to keep food down almost all day. Almost the whole time I've been out I've not felt the best. Most days I'm ok, but there have been days I've felt pretty bad.

Tracting Stories

Holy cow have I got lots to say!

To start off, it's been a slow week. Only 11 lessons this week. But that's not bad considering it's the holidays.

Thanksgiving I felt sick... we played in 2 turkey bowls, and I think I was just worn out. I didn't eat any dinner. I had a roll and piece of pie, that was it. I think this is the 1st thanksgiving I didn’t eat any turkey, I just wasn’t feeling good. But I’m doing okay now. Went home and slept well that night, and had to sleep in Friday morning, but I felt better.

The biking is getting easier. And the weather is warming up some (close to the 50s- low 40s), so it's been pretty nice. Still cold enough for me to bundle up, but it's been nice. I don’t go to bed with my legs screaming at me anymore. I still don’t have a bike of my own, I’m borrowing a members bike, so I may need to buy one for myself, not sure what I’m gonna do yet. I have the money, they're just expensive.

Since we haven’t had a lot of lessons lately, we've been doing some tracting. Man, have I got stories!! In just the last 2 times we've done it we had some pretty crazy people.

We knocked on one door and a lady answered. We told her who we were and she went to grab her bible. She belonged to the Church of Christ and proceeds to prove to us through the bible how our religion was false and was started by Joseph Smith, and that we're basically damned. She talked for 10 minutes straight. Every time we tried to talk she would cut us off. It was really funny looking back on it. It was the 1st time I’ve received any opposition, so I was kinda freaked out. Oh, and she said she didn’t want our testimony either. She wasn’t letting us talk, so we just said, "Well, can we leave you with our testimony?" she said no, that they were personal, then we just left after that. Interesting experience.

The scariest happened yesterday though. I knocked on a door and an old grumpy looking guy came out and was like "whatdaya want?" we told him who we were and he said "well ya’ll can take a long hike to hell. You’re talking to a guy with 3 degrees, 1 in theology, and I believe in the "real" Jesus. You need to take a look at your religion and what you believe in again. You’re gambling with eternity here". It was kinda scary. The house was dark, he was rude, and it was something else.

Tracting... it's the most effective tool we have = P . That’s where you get all your stories about the crazy people.

That’s pretty much been our week. I think we've spent more time on our bikes riding around then we have actually teaching people. We did just get 2 new ward mission leaders, so we're really excited about that. If all goes like it should, when we get these new guys oriented and practiced, this area is gunna be on fire. I may not be able to reap the benefits, but I’ll be here planting that seed.

Meridian is nice. Kinda reminds me of Texas a bit. We only cover the neighborhoods, and it's kinda like it was in Houston, only more trees. Most have already lost their leaves. Winter is coming...

Elder Crosby is from spring. That’s like 30 minutes from us right? Small world.

For mail, my address is 2026 NorthWest 10th St, Meridian ID 83646. I would probably say just keep sending it to the mission office though. It may take a day or two longer to get it, but it's safer that way (with transfers and all). I’ll leave it up to you to do what you want though. It was kinda nice getting it at the mission office today. We play basketball every week w/ the cold, and we have to make a basket to play. Well, today I only made 1/5 baskets, so I sat around for a long time watching people play. I did get letters though, so I was able to read them when I wasn’t playing. But again, it's your choice. As long as I get letters, I’ll be happy = ]

Keep writing to me. Encourage Alex to as well. I really want to hear from her. I’ve heard nothing since I came out.

Hope everything is going well

Love,

Elder Blomquist

IT"S COLD HERE!!!!

I thought I had some rough weeks last transfer, well, this transfer I think has been the hardest.

 

IT IS COLD HERE!!!

 

Last Friday it snowed, and being on bike, that was COLD! It was snowy, windy, wet, and cold. It got so bad we eventually just took shelter at a member's house who gave us hot chocolate and pecan pie. It's been less than 40 degrees all week. Being on bike in the wind = COLD. The biking is hard in itself. My legs are constantly sore and when I go to bed, I almost immediately fall asleep. The biking is hard, a new area is hard, and the cold is hard... this has been a fun week = P

 

But it's been a good week missionary wise. I feel like I've grown as a missionary tremendously. We taught 21 lessons last week and I've actually been teaching some! It's been difficult to open my mouth, being as shy as I am, but I've done it and am becoming more comfortable. We've had some good lessons too. My confidence is really boosting.

 

They're calling Elder Crosby and me the "twilight pair". They say he looks like Jacob and I look similar to Edward (less pale though). Pretty funny. I think Elder Crosby kinda reminds me of Mark Bartholomew. I don't have my camera, else I'd have pictures.

 

We have 2 investigators with a baptism date. Both are in January. We have another investigator who wants to be baptised, just hasn't set a date yet. She wants to wait till after the holidays, but we encouraged her to move it up. She's thinking about it and will get back to us.

 

We're anticipating a slow week. With tTanksgiving, a lot of people are going out of town or have family in and don't want to talk to us = [ . They say come back in 2 weeks. Hopefully it isn't bad, but we'll see. Happy Thanksgiving by the way! It's a non-pros day, so hopefully President lets us play in the turkey bowl. Don't see why he wouldn't, but we'll see. We have I think 3 dinners lined up. 1 at 2 pm, one at 4, and I think there's another at 2 that we'll just have desert with later. It's gonna be a lot of food! So don't worry, your little boy is being well taken care of ; ] .

 

I was so not ready for the cold... the gloves I bought aren't fit for a bike. I need some new ones. Other than that I think I'm fine for now. we'll see how cold it actually gets. We're still in fall weather, so it's only gonna get colder before it gets warmer. I still have a Wal-Mart nearby, so if you wanted to send funds to help, we do have that. If not, I'll be fine.

 

Just send mail to the mission office for now. I don't have the house address yet. I wrote it down, but forgot the paper, so just send mail to the mission office. I still haven't gotten last week's letter (if you sent one). It's still at the Mountain Home house, and they forgot it at p-day today. I'll get it soon (hopefully) and have responses next week.

 

Hope everything is going well at home!

 

love,

Elder Blomquist

Lots to Say This Week

Well, lots to say this week. 

 

Today is my 2 month mark in the mission. Crazy to think that 2 months ago I was entering the MTC. It's so different out in the field vs the MTC. I think it's harder being out here than it is in there. There's a relaxed, sheltered almost feel to the MTC. When I got out here, is was so much more intense than it was in there.

 

This has been a slow week. Monday-Friday we taught like, 4 lessons. But by the end of the week it started picking up a bit again. We had 3 on Saturday and 4 or 5 on Sunday. It's been a long week. Coming from the success we've had in previous weeks it was kinda hard and tiring going back to contacting. Elder Ika almost fell asleep at the wheel. I had fallen asleep in the passenger seat and luckily he caught himself before he fell all the way asleep. His hand slipped from the wheel and he woke up.

 

We had transfer calls last Friday. I got transferred. The other 3 elders all stayed, but I got moved. I'm now serving in Meridian. I did not want to move. We got the calls Friday night and I haven't been sleeping well since. I loved the people in Mountain Home and am sad to leave them. I'm still close enough where I'll be able to see the elders there every p-day depending on what we do, but I am sad to leave them. Everybody says I'm gonna like Meridian, but I still didn't want to leave. Only thing left to do is make the best of it. Pres Cannon is an inspired man. Meridian must need me (or me Meridian).

 

My new companion is Elder Crosby. He's from Houston, so that's pretty cool. We're still trying to figure out where exactly the other is from, but we're working it. I think we were only a couple hours apart at most.

 

It's a bike area... I am NOT thrilled about that. 1st of all I don't like biking and 2nd winter is coming. From what he told me we try to get rides when we can, but it's not gonna be very fun when we can't. I have some cold weather accessories, I just hope it's enough. It's gonna be a brutal winter I think.

 

I'm glad to hear the roofing is going good. The Elders are always looking for service. Most of what we've done here is splitting wood. Ryan better watch out. I'm not sure how much wood there is to split in Meridian vs Mountain Home, but it's a workout.

 

I got a hookup for when I get back. One of our ward mission leaders in Mountain Home is a doctor, so he gave me his email address and I can start working towards that as soon as I get back. I'll get back too late to start school that semester, but with his help I can start planning and doing everything I need to prepare for that.

 

Hope everything else is going well at home. Hard to believe I've been gone for this long, even though it's been so short.

 

love,

Elder Blomquist

Some of My Investigators

Again, sorry for the short message last week. Like I promised, there's gonna be a lot more today.

 

Before I forget, yes, there is a Wal-mart here. I bought gloves for myself, Nicki got me a beanie, and a less active here is making a scarf for me (at least, I think it's a scarf), so I think I'm okay on cold weather clothing, but there is a Wal-mart here.

 

This has been a pretty rough week. I think I'm sleeping better, but every morning till around after lunch I've been feeling sick. It's gotten better the last 3 days, but it was really hard this week. I've had to skip meals, miss study time for extra sleep, and it's not been fun. I think I'm over it now, but that was a burden this week.

 

Other than that things are going much better here. The area has really picked up. My 1st week we only taught 11 lessons, well, this last week we were up to 17! The work really is starting to pick up. We're only close to baptism and/or reactivation on about 3-5 of those lessons, but I'm really happy with the way things are going.

 

But I am struggling a bit. I've always been shy around strangers, and now is no exception. We go into a lesson and I don't speak much. A big part of it is getting to know the person, and that's not something I've been very good at. Meeting new people is definately not my forte. Anything you can say/do to help me? I really want to be able to open my mouth, but I don't and it's really been an inward struggle for me.

 

There's a lot of wonderful people here in Mountain Home. Everyone is just so nice and willing to help us and I just love them all. There's almost never a night we don't have dinners lined up.

Our investigators are wonderful too. We're really close to baptism for a lot of them, and there's a lot of potential investigators we have as well. I'll talk about a few of them.

 

Juanita Walton- she's an OLD lady. She just turned 90 last Thursday, yet she still moves around like she's 60. She's soaking everything we have to say in. I think she wants to be baptised, but she wants to know and understand more first. 

 

Danni- He's married to a member. He's had all the discussions, told us he wants to be baptised, but has a WoW problem he's trying to overcome. He's German, grew up in East Germany, so religion was something new to him (he had all the lessons before I got here), but he's really taking to it and has that desire. 

 

Johnny Schmid- he's 29 and not sure what he wasn't in life. He claims a hippie... hitchhiking, alcohol, chew, the whole deal. He's awesome though. He's progressed more than any other investigator we've had. He comes to church every Sunday, reads scriptures (has a difficult time understanding though), and prays (the 1st time I heard him pray instead of ending in the name of Christ he said "so yeah, that's about it. peace out man. BEEP" said it was like hanging up the phone. But the last time he prayed he ended in His name, it was neat to see). He also liked calling God "the dude" and Christ " the man". He's stopped that since we've been meeting with him and is progressing rapidly. He's not sure if he wants to be a Mormon, but he loves going to church and having us over.

 

That's just a few investigators we're teaching right now. They're probably my favorite though.

 

It is COLD here. We had our 1st snow last Friday! It didn't snow hard or leave anything on the ground, but I can count the times I've been in snow and cold on one hand, so it was exciting to me. But the wind here is brutal. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't windy.

 

Well, that's about it for this week. If there's anything else you want to know, send me a letter and I'll try to address it (if I remember. Tere's so much to say I forget a lot of stuff      = P ). Hope everything goes well with the roof and that everyone is doing alright.

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Blomquist 

Not Much Happened This Week

Hey guys, how's it going? 

 

It's Halloween!!! Our p-day just changed to Monday, and it's a non-pros day (no missionary work), so we literally have all of today off. We went to Meridian to play football, then to a corn maze, and I think there's a BBQ and glow-in-the-dark dodge ball after. Overall, a pretty good (but VERY tiring) day. It's nice to just sit here and email.

 

Not much has happened this week. I think the only thing worth mentioning is that we had 1 day where we taught 5 lessons (our average is 1-3)!! It was an exciting day.

 

Elder Bowen of the 1st quorum of the 70 also came and spoke with us. It was an amazing talk. He talked about the Abrahamic covenant, the house of Israel, and the oath and covenant of the priesthood. It was pretty remarkable to see how he laid some of it out. I guess I never really understood/realized some of what he said before. It was definately something I needed to hear.

 

I'm beginning to feel that discouragement of losing an investigator. Something happened with one of ours (not quite sure what), but it really hurt his relation with the church. He's still cool with us coming, but we're not sure how he feels now. We need to go visit him and see what's up.

 

Other than that, not really much happened. I know it's not much, sorry for that, but it's been a pretty standard week overall. Still having trouble sleeping. I don't have an off switch, and my brain runs 100 miles a minute at night.

 

I do like my companion. I've learned a lot from him. He's an awesome missionary, and I'm glad he's my trainer. Mountain Home is awesome, the people are amazing, and the work is starting to pick up. It'll be exciting to see what happens in the coming weeks.

 

Again, sorry it's not much. I'll try to work on that next week.

 

Love,

 

Elder Blomquist

Keeping Busy and Counting Doors

Hey guys, 

 

Gonna be a short letter. We literally could be picked up any second and not gonna have time to email later, so sorry it's short.

 

Couple things happened this week that are worth mentioning.

     1. We went to a referral's house. He's a single dad, nonmember, and the Bishop helped pay his rent and challenged him to take the discussions. We went to his house and when we knocked the girls were outside and said "get Dad, the Mormon church is here". It wasn't much, but it was so cute and funny it just made me laugh and smile.

     2. got called sexy later that night ; ] . We went to a less active's house and they were having a birthday party across the street and they invited us over. But it was def not a Mormon party. People there had a beer in one hand, a cigarette in the other. The girl who told us that had a little too much to drink I think. But it was still funny. Not often do you hear that as a missionary I think.

     3. played soccer today for p-day. It was a blast. Soccer is def more my sport than basketball is. I played goalie and everyone says I did a good job. I always think I could do better (I've always been harder on myself than I think I deserve, but that's just how I am), but it was fun. I blocked a lot of goals and it was just fun.

 

Before I forget, Alex, tell Bro Manwaring that I was in the same classroom in the MTC his son was. They have the folding desk chairs, and a lot of missionaries signed the bottom of the desk and one of the desks had his son on it. Just let him know. I think he'll like that.

 

As far as the conversation about the sheets go, no, I don't remember. I didn't know the difference between a flat and fitted sheet before my mission. Doesn't matter though, I'm making do.

 

Let's see... what else... oh, I've started counting doors knocked and houses invited in. Just something I thought would be interesting to look back on some day. Only been counting 2 days, but in those 2 days we've knocked 23 doors and of those 23 we were invited in 8 times (that's counting members, investigators, and basically any door we knock/get invited into). I thought you might like to see these numbers too.

 

Dad, I am getting your emails. I don't really have time to reply to them, but I am getting them and love hearing how everything is going back home. Which reminds me, I want to hear from Alex more!! Make her write me a letter!!

 

Hard to believe I've been out about 6 weeks now. It's crazy how fast time is flying. I'm starting to get into that "missionary mode" people talk about. I don't feel right if I'm not out in a shirt and tie with my name tag and my backpack on. Hugs are starting to feel weird too. I've had 2 kids give me hugs out of the blue, and it does feel a little weird.

 

We've been keeping so busy lately. I need to do better about waking up (sleeping in till 7-7:30 these past few days) though. I have plans, it's just a matter of sticking to them now. Missionary work is tiring... especially Sundays. On Sunday our day starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m. We usually go to sacrament at 9, gospel principles at 10 but leave early to make it to another ward's sacrament at 11, gospel principles at 12 but we have to leave that one early too for another ward's sacrament at 1. We are literally at church from 7-2:30(ish).

 

Our morning schedule is pretty nice though. We start personal study at 8-9, companion study at 9-11, lunch at 11-12, so we're usually out around 12-1. Depends on the day too. There's some paperwork and weekly planning we have to do throughout the week, so 2 days we get out later than that, but it's a busy schedule either way. We get in at 9 then have daily planning for the next day which can go anywhere from15-50 minutes depending on how it goes. Then I write in my journal and shower (I shower at night. It supposedly helps you fall asleep, something I've been struggling with).

 

Well, I need to go now. Need to write president. Hope everything is going well at home. Keep sending letters!! (and let people know that it might take me a while to get back to them if they do write.  We're really busy.)

 

Love,

Elder Blomquist