Purpose as a Missionary

Sorry this letter is so late.  We went to Boise today to play some basketball and just now got back. 

 

It's still amazing out here. In the last 2 days I've given 4 annointings and 1 blessing. It's pretty cool to see how it all worked too. On Sunday we were just going out to go to the bathroom and we got pulled over to give a blessing. Then one of our investigator (part member family) had 2 sick kids so we gave them blessings. On Monday we had some time to kill, so I just threw out a name we could go visit. We went and it turned out she was in pretty poor health, having some breathing problems, so we showed up gave her a blessing and by the end she was breathing fine. Then later that night we were driving to someone's house to talk about some stuff when we thought of another name we should visit while we were in that area. It's an older member and he's been having health problems as well. He had some doctor appointments today, so we gave him a blessing last night. It's crazy to see how each of those worked out. That's really the Spirit guiding us. It's really cool to see.

 

I've been thinking a lot about our purpose as a missionary as well. We've been doing everything, being obediant, contacting, and doing everything we should, but we really don't have numbers. I know that's not what makes success, but it's nice to see our hard work accomplishing something. But then I really got to thinking about our purpose. As it says in Preach my Gospel, it's to "invite others to come unto Christ". It says others, not less active, part member families, or investigators, but others. When we gave our first blessing yesterday, the lady we visited said "I love having the missionaries over. You guys just radiate peace and really lifts my spirit". It was then that I realized that that's what it's all about. We have been successful. I've learned a lot. We listen to the Spirit, and things are really moving forward. It took me a while to see that, but it's been a whole lot better feeling knowing that now, even though it's only been one day since I came to that realization.

 

Sorry I don't have pictures. We're kinda in a hurry (dinner at 6 and it's now 5:30), so I don't have time to upload them. Funny story though, well, not really, but you bought me 2 flat sheets instead of a fitted and a flat. I meant to send that 2 weeks ago, but it just slipped my mind. I've just been using one of my flats as a fitted. Just  thought you might like that.  (When I bought the sheets, the "what to bring list" said two flat sheets.  I asked Ricky if he wanted two flat or did he want a fitted. He said he didn't care, "but if the list says two flat, maybe you should get me two flat."  Now, he thinks it's my fault that he doesn't have a fitted sheet.  How soon they forget.)

 

There's not really much to say. We spend all our days contacting and teaching maybe 1 or 2 lessons a day. We did commit one guy to baptism. He's had all the lessons, just hasn't been able to get over a drinking and smoking problem. We talked about baptism and read 2 Nephi 31 with him, and invited him to be baptized. The girl he married is LDS and has some kids, one is 7, and he said he'd be baptized when she was. We then talked about how if he was baptized before then, he could baptize her and how much more special that would be. I told him my experience baptizing my first week, and I think it really got him thinking. He looked like he was seriously pondering about it. I think he will be baptized. He loves his family and with the look he had on his face when we walked out of there, it looked like he wanted that for himself and for them.

 

Other than that, yeah, not too much to say. Starting to warm up, but everyone says the cold is coming. They say it gets like 10-20 degrees, with cold snaps of like 0 sometimes. Yikes! I'll stay warm though, that jacket really is nice.

 

Thanks for all the letters. I really love getting letters. I don't have too much time to write back (well, none practically), but I love getting them and reading them and seeing how everyone at home is doing. I will definately write back when I can. If there's anything you want to know about just let me know. I know you said I don't give a lot of detail, if there's anything you want to know about I'll try to make sure I address it.

 

Hope everything is still going okay back home. I really miss you guys!

 

Love,

Elder Blomquist