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