Happy New Year!

Happy new year!

 

Transfers are on Monday. I'm pretty sure (or at least kinda hoping) I'll be shipped out, but we'll see what happens. 7 1/2 months is a long time for a missionary to be in an area.

This Saturday should be a good one for us. We've got 3 baptisms planned. 2 are some OAY's, a 10 and 12 year old who we've been teaching since September are finally getting baptized. The step dad wants to baptize them, but couldn't till they got married. they got married a few weeks ago, and the baptism is planned for Saturday. The interview is on Wednesday, but I'm pretty sure they'll pass.

The other is a YSA. She was referred by some other elders, and she took to us right away. We've only been teaching her 2-3 weeks now, but her baptism was set for the 12th, but we moved it up to the 5th so she could go with the ward to a temple trip they're having. I feel she's ready for it, so it was no problem. It's exciting to see all this happen before transfers. I was hoping I'd be able to see these investigators get baptized before I leave, and now I can = ]. There's still one more investigator I would like to see baptized (scheduled for the 19th of January), but hopefully I wont go to far so I can see it happen. He's a 10 year old kid that's pretty fun to teach. I always love going over there.

 

It seems like all we teach is kids right now. It's been pretty fun, I always love working with the kids. Early on in the mission I didn't like teaching kids, they were always hard to teach since they couldn't understand as much, but now I love it. I love being with the families. It's pretty funny, Elder Shumway is the youngest of 2, so he's not as used to all the noise and commotion, but I love it. I fit right in with those families. Sometimes I think I rile the kids up more than calm em down. But it's fun, I love it.

It's been snowing for the past week. It's been scary to drive in. The car just doesn't seems to wanna stop! I was making a right turn, and the car just kept going. I ended up turning a 180, it was pretty scary.

well, take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

Slow Down Story

Another week come and gone. It's pretty boring here in Idaho, no interesting stories. Well, I guess there is one.

 

So we were driving home one night, going about 25 mph, and some guy with his arm outstretched in the middle of the road. I don't wanna hit him so I stop and roll my window down and he comes up and is like "SLOW DOWN, IT'S A NEIGHBORHOOD. 10 MILES AN HOUR (holding up 8 fingers)". I know he's not all the way there, so I'm just like "ok, I can do that" to which he replies "10 miles an hour, Jesus loves you." I drove off after that (going 10 miles an hour) and he yells "TOO FAST". I just ignore it and keep going and he stops another car coming the opposite direction and does the same thing. There's the funny for the week.

Got to go to the temple last Friday. Been about 14 months since I've last gone, and there was a big difference. There was a feeling and a power there I've not felt for that long. It was good to get back and feel that spirit again. We're able to go about once a month, and we're encouraged to find a family name to do. That'll be exciting.

I don't really know what to say... This is a short letter, but over the next 2 weeks (not gonna email Christmas Eve) there's lots happening, so I'll make up for the short letter. I got a package coming home too, so if it doesn't get there before Christmas, don't open it till the 25th!!!

Love ya,

Elder Blomquist

Single Digits Until I Come Home

Friday is my 15 month mark... that far already? That puts me in single digits till I come home (not that I'm counting down or anything).

 

 

I'm ready to leave Nampa. 5 transfers is a long time to stay in an area. We're finding work okay, but it's been a mental struggle for me. There should be a couple baptisms coming up in the next few weeks though, so that'd be good. All this work I've put into this area (well, some of it) should be paying off pretty soon. This has been my favorite area by far; I've learned so much, grown so much, had a lot of work, and have had a lot of fun while I've been here, but I'm ready to leave. It's time for me to go to a new area.

 

 

We had another marriage on Friday. Our investigator's parents got married (mom and step dad) and now they can get baptized (step dad wanted to baptize them, but couldn't until they got married). We're meeting with them later today to set that up and get through the details. Been waiting for this since late September, it's good to finally see it happen.

 

 

I think I'm starting to get more comfortable as a district leader. I gave some training at a zone meeting we had, and I think I did alright on this one. What made it worse was that President and Sister Cannon showed up to this zone meeting. I was already worried about giving the training, this was my 2nd one, and THEN I hear that President is gonna be there... talk about nervous. But I think I did fine. But now I've had some more responsibility added. District leaders now have to inspect the cars in their district. I don't know how to do a lot of the stuff on there. Luckily I know a mechanic who can show me how to do everything I need to.

 

 

So Christmas is coming up, y'all ready to skype? I think we got a place for it, but not 100% sure yet. I don't know what we're doing for Christmas yet. There's one family we're gonna be seeing, but there's a lot more we wanna hit up. You said earlier works better for y'all? I know we'll be calling on Christmas Eve to set it all up, but a tentative time now would be good so we can schedule our day.

 

 

I've been having a bit of trouble lately. Lately it's been getting harder for me to sit still. Church and meetings mostly, but I can't sit still for as long as I used to. My knees start aching, my fingers get fidgety, and it gets hard for me to focus as it drags on. It's not as bad in lessons, but my fingers still start to fidget and usually resort to picking my nails or cracking my knuckles, both of which probably aren't the best things to be doing. I don't know if there's anything I can do to help alleviate any of that, but if y'all have any suggestions that'd be nice.

 

 

Well, I need to go. See y'all pretty soon!

Elder Blomquist

December Already

Can you believe it's December already? December puts me into single digits... crazy right?

So, been a hard week for me I'd say. I had my 1st baptism interview last Wednesday, and that was terrifying. 1st district meeting last Friday, and that was bad too, not been the best week for me. But even so, there's been some good.  Interview wasn't bad, I was just nervous. The guy was prepared and ready, but it was just the fact that I can do them now. It took me about an hour afterwards to recover from the shock of it all. District meeting I'm in charge of doing the trainings. I was not prepared for this one. I knew the material, got ready for it, but it didn't turn out as I had planned it and wasn't the best.

Today for P-day we went and chopped down a Christmas tree!! I think this is gonna be the 1st year I've had a real one (at least that I can remember). It took pretty much all day though. We drove up into the mountains where our ward mission leader has a cabin, chopped the tree, and had lunch. We left at 9 and got back about 4:30 or so. It was a long day, lots of driving, but it was fun. They also gave us some extra decorations, so expect pictures soon!

We should be looking at a couple baptisms next month. Cross your fingers they happen. One person we've been teaching since I got here and never really made much progress until recently. He's 9 and his family hasn't been to church basically at all since I've been here till about last week, and they're getting ready to come back to activity and get this done. Scheduled for the 22nd.

 

Another person who's scheduled for the 22nd is the best friend of a family I've become pretty close with. They live in a different stake, So I don't know how we're gonna do this. I don't want it to be a "you live in a different stake so you can't come here" type deal, but at the same time, they do live in that boundary and we need to respect the rules. Setting up a visit with the bishop of that ward to see what he thinks about it.

That's been the week pretty much. Nothing too major. We're starting to get busy again. But I'm kinda ready to leave Nampa. 7 1/2 months in one area is a loooong time to be there. About half the people we're teaching I've been teaching for 6 months already and have made little or no progress (they're starting too, but it's been a long haul to get here). The rest are new people who every time we schedule an appointment something comes up and they have to reschedule. It's been frustrating lately. Every month I pick an attribute I wanna work on, and this month is patience. IT's taken a lot of patience and faith in the Lord's timing rather than my own to keep me out there trying to be effective. It's not been easy, but there's been some good lessons learned through it all. I love everyone we're teaching, they're all awesome people, but it can be frustrating at times when everything falls through.

well, gotta go now. Take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

Knuckles

This is what over a year of knocking on doors does to your knuckles.

 

 

Staying in Nampa - Still

Another transfer come and gone... Today is day 1 of the transfer. I'm staying in Nampa for another transfer (transfer #5 here. All in all, 7 1/2 months). They're also making me a district leader! I'll be in charge of 4 sets of missionaries (including us). 3 sets of elders and a set of sisters. It's pretty exciting. I'm ready to leave Nampa, I'm running out of ideas here, but the change is exciting. It's an interesting situation though, our current district leader goes home in 3 weeks, so I'm co-district leader until he goes home. Not quite sure all that entails, but it sounds interesting. I've heard of it before, but never thought it would actually happen.

Thanksgiving was alright. We had 4 dinners, I was so full. The 1st 1 was ok, after the 2nd we were thinking "it's gonna be a long day", the 3rd I was ready to puke, and the 4th was dessert, so it wasn't all that bad. Mostly went to member families who I've become pretty tight with. One tells me that I've been here long enough I'm just part of the family now (they feed us about every 3 weeks). I could see myself moving back to Nampa after the mission.

I found a favorite opponent at chess. Spencer is a less active in the YSA (Young Single Adults) ward (it's pretty funny, he says that each YSA ward needs a resident less active, and he's just willing to fill that spot. I think there's still a spark there though). I don't know how we found out we both play chess, but once we did we almost immediately started playing. It's so much fun to play against him, our games get so intense. I think playing him in chess has been the only board game I've ever played that has left me physically exhausted after playing it. He's yet to beat me (played 4 games so far), but the games are always so much fun.

We're gonna have some baptisms coming up! We've been waiting on some divorce papers to go through so this couple could get married and then baptize the kids (parents have been LA (less active) for a long time but coming back and the kids aren't members. The parents were living together though so he couldn't baptize them till they get married). Another one of our investigators is quitting smoking (said that by today she should be clean) and are scheduled for the 15th. It's taken a lot of patience with this particular family. I've been visiting them for about 3 months now, and have only taught about 3-5 lessons or so I'd say. Things just keep coming up (all medical). We schedule an appointment, and then there's a trip to the E.R. that's come up or a host of other reasons. I feel they're not blowing us off, they're pretty sincere about everything.

Gonna be in Nampa for Christmas. Y'all looking forward to skyping? Should call on Christmas Eve again and set it all up.

Take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

Slow Week

Been a slow week. I don't even know what made it so slow, we really didn't do anything different.

It's starting to get to the "sick" season, it seems like everyone is getting sick lately. Members, investigators, even my companion. Luckily I haven't been sick yet, and I don't plan on it.

Thanksgiving should be fun. We have about 4 dinners planned so far. There's a lot of cool people here that I wanna chill with that day, it's tough getting all of them in = P. so far we have a meal about every 2 hours starting at about 1. I'm anxious to see how much weight I gain from all these meals.

So pretty much all the baptisms we had planned have fallen through... Two (maybe 3 now) we rescheduled for the 15 of December, they just need to live the word of wisdom and get married then have all the discussions and they'll be there. They're so close. I know they'll do it. As we've been teaching him (no religious background) he's really been opening up and there's been a new light that's come to his eyes. I know they'll get baptized, it's just a matter of when.

 

This week's gonna be a busy one, which is good cuz it's the last week of the transfer. Can you believe that? Another 6 weeks is come and gone. I think I'm gonna stay another transfer. I think I'll finish up training Elder Shumway then head out. It's also predicted that I could go district leader next transfer.

The temple was rededicated yesterday!! The cultural celebration was pretty neat. I wish I could have been in one. I miss the days when I could perform for others. But it was cool to watch. President Monson dedicated the temple. He didn't do anything for us missionaries, but he is so busy. It's gonna be nice having a temple once again. Last time I went was about 13 months ago (I feel old being able to say that = P ), and there's been a real difference. We'll only be able to go once a month, but that's better than not at all.

 

I don't know what else to say about this week... last week of the transfer... exciting times.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

 

Elder Blomquist

Busy Week

Week's felt like a long one. We've been so busy this week, not so much downtime.

On Thursday one of our investigators jumped up his baptism by 2 weeks. His date was November 24th, but he wanted to go to the temple dedication, and so he jumped it up. Got another baptism on Sunday! This one was pretty cool too. I told ya about it a bit last week. This was the kid who wasn't ready to meet with missionaries when I first met him, then some things changed around him and he was on fire. We had finished all the discussions, so we were starting to wonder what to do with him. Then we got a call saying he wanted to move it up, it was perfect.

 

Wednesday was also a cool day. There was a sister who we baptized here back in June, then in July she moved to Kuna. We get a call from the sisters there saying her daughters (who I never really knew, they were at some camp when I got here and when they came back they moved) were getting baptized. And one of them asked me to baptize her! It's been over a year since I've actually done a baptism, it was kinda nice to do one again.

 

Training's been interesting. Elder Shumway's kinda getting on my nerves. We've worked through a lot of issues I've had with him, not teaching/working/missionary issues, but social issues. He's been pretty invasive of my personal space from day 1. We're supposed to be together and all, but I am allowed my personal space. He was always asking questions... as soon as the phone ringed he wanted to know everything about the call: who it was, what they wanted, and what I was gonna tell them all before I even answered the phone. I'll be Writing a letter/in my journal and be thinking about what to say next and he'll be like "trying to think of what to say?" and other questions like that. I put up with it for a while, but then I finally talked it over and got things straightened out... hopefully... He's alright in lessons, talks way more than Elder Fullmer did, and even more than I did at his age, but he doesn't have very good social skills from what I've seen.

Other than that it's just been a normal week. Things are going alright, nothing to complain too much about.

 

Hope Taylor's feeling better!  (For those who don't know - Taylor broke her collar bone in a bike accident.)

Elder Blomquist

Another week come and gone... Crazy how fast time continues to fly.
 

Been an alright week. Halloween was alright. Ended up having to walk at least 5 miles I'd say, (out of miles on the car) to our Halloween party. Once we got there everyone was like "oh, I saw you walking down the road", and of course, none of them picked us up = P . But the Jack head was a success, everyone loved it. I sent pictures home in the mail this morning, so should be a few days.

 

 

Been to the temple quite a bit. Taken 2 investigators this week. It's been pretty neat. One of them committed to baptism on the 24th, and I think this went to help them along that journey. Went a 3rd time this morning, and that was a good one as well.

 

 

It's been a slow week, not much has happened. We've had a lot of Cancelled appointments.

 

 

But I'm going to a baptism on Wednesday. There was a sister I was a part of her baptism back in June that her 2 daughters are getting baptized now. They moved to Kuna beginning of July and they asked if I could be there. They also asked if I could baptize one of them! I'm doing another baptism on Wednesday!!

 

 

Had stake conference this past Sunday. It was a hard one for me. Saturday night was alright, there were a few issues I had, but it was a good session. Elder Rowe, an area 70 here presided. I got to shake his hand and he kept telling us what great missionaries we were and appreciated the work we were doing. The Sunday morning session was hard, that's when it really hit me. I slept the 1st half of it, then felt like crap the 2nd half, so I didn't really get to pay attention at all. Came home and slept, went to a baptism the sisters were having at 2, then came home and took it easy. It wasn't a very fun day. Luckily I didn't throw up or anything like that, just wasn't feeling well.

 

 

This week has just been one big blur... they're all just a big blur...

 

 

Take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

Amazing Week

So October is almost over... I'll be at 14 months in about 2 weeks. Time just keeps ticking.

So we've had an amazing week. This week we've set 4 baptism dates. One was an investigator who's been making progress, but been having a few issues (mostly drinking, but I don't think he's had a drink in a week). But we've just kept visiting him, and he finally set a date for the 24th on November. He's a guy I've built a really good relationship with.

 

The other 3 were people we use to teach, but then dropped us, then came back around. One is a 20 year old kid who after the 1st meeting didn't look promising at all. We called to set up another appointment and he said he wasn't ready to meet with missionaries. Over the course of 2-4 weeks, whatever it was, we got a call saying that he wanted to meet again. This time he was completely changed. Everything was the exact opposite what it was in the 1st meeting, and the change was amazing. He's been dating an LDS girl and I'm sure she had something to do with that. But he's not doing it for her, she leaves for a mission soon, I feel he's truly feeling it. But the change in him was the most amazing part of it all. Committed to baptism for the 24th of November.

 

The 3rd and 4th were referrals from the bishop. This family came in to get some help, and he invited them to meet with us and they agreed. So we tried to stop by for like, a month, but not response. They had some major health issues and it was never a good time. Just as I was ready to give up and stop trying to visit them, I had the prompting to give it one last shot. This time, we had a good visit and set up an appointment for the next day. They've both had a rough life, so we shared a message on the atonement and how Jesus Christ can help us with whatever problems we have. They said they wanted to do this and committed to baptism on the 24th of November. We're visiting them about twice a week at least and are taking them to the temple open house tomorrow night. They're not married yet, and they have a smoking problem, but those are minor issues.

 

The 24th should be a wet day for us as we say. We got 4 baptism lined up for that day. Gonna be busy, but gonna be good. Our area's just exploded this week. We're busy working with these 4 people, keeping them strong, keeping up on their commitments, getting them to church, etc. Constantly trying to find new people to teach, but we're pretty busy at the moment.

Nothing exciting for Halloween. I've been getting a costume made, I'm gonna be the Jack in the Box guy. Hopefully it's done now, been having a member make it, but I haven't heard back yet. There's a ward activity in one of our wards going on, stake president doesn't want any ward functions going on due to the temple open house, he doesn't want to detract from that, but some wards are some wards aren't doing that.

That's pretty much been this week. Been so busy and I've been so tired. That's why I haven't responded to any letters yet. I have them on my desk all ready to write, but 've just been so beat I've not been motivated to write them. Hopefully soon I'll find some energy = P

So... there's one last thing... I give you full permission to laugh or facepalm, or whatever you wanna do. There are some stories you don't write home about, but I think you'll get a kick outta this one... So for a district meeting and elder brought some nerf swords for an activity he was doing. After the meeting, we had a little fun. This elder and I (elder Nicholls from Zimbabwe) took turns bending over the car and whacking each other as hard as we could on the rump. Can you believe we we re the only ones who wanted to do this? No one else wanted to participate... We each got 2 good whacks on each other, and let me tell ya, those nerf swords hurt! For the rest of the day it hurt to sit. We sat on a couch for an hour long lesson and I had to stand up right quick afterwards it hurt pretty bad. Checked it out and I have a bruise a little bigger than a baseball sittin there on my rump. Friday and Saturday it hurt, Sunday it was feeling better, and now it doesn't hurt at all. IT was fun, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. But like I said, you can laugh if ya want, just thought you'd get a kick outta this story.

Take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

Training's pretty tough, and It's only been a week. He's a good guy, but def green around the ears.

I'm so tired... I think I've worked harder in the past week than I have for a long time now. It feels good, but I'm exhausted at the same time. Last night I wasn't feeling the best, so I went to bed early and I slept right through the alarms. Ended up waking up at like, 8 and getting 10 hours of sleep. Felt pretty good.

Nothing major happened this week. Monday we had a trainers meeting with President Cannon, Tuesday we took the new missionaries through the temple open house then went out tracting, then Wednesday we picked them up at started working. We had splits that night too. 1st day in the field and I threw him out to the world. He wasn't too thrilled about that, but it's good for him. That's what happened to me, and I think I turned out alright.

Had a few good lessons this week. One of our investigators is working to quit drinking, and it was a great lesson. He went to the temple open house and had a great experience there. We talked about some of the things it takes to get back after it's dedicated (the baptism interview questions) and he's on board with most of them. We gave him a blessing to be able to quit drinking, and it was perfect. He talked about how he had fear and anxiety as we started the blessing, but as it progressed he felt peace and at ease. Showed him a couple scriptures about that, and confirmed to him that he was feeling the Holy Ghost. He recognized that, and says he's gonna work harder to get there. Been working with him for almost 5 months now, I think we're making some good headway.

Another good lesson with a less active. He's been listening to the Book of Mormon on CD as he drives to work, but he never prayed. That's been going on for a couple months now. But last week he finally said a prayer, so we focused on prayers this week. Read Enos with him and talked about some of the things I had learned from it. Committed him to pray at least once every day, and he said the prayer again this week, starting it all off. Another lesson with him on Thursday, so we'll follow up then.

We've actually got some pretty good things going on for us. This week we got a lot of referrals, and contacted most of them. We have a few potential investigators, and things are looking pretty good. We have a few investigators who seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth, but working on them too. Ups and downs, that's the way it goes.

Well, that's about our week. I'll be here in Nampa for prolly 3 more months, which is ridiculous since I got here early June... I could leave after only 6 weeks of training, but we'll find out in 5 more weeks. Gonna be spending Thanksgiving here, so that should be fun. Kinda ready to leave Nampa, ready to go explore. I don't like staying in places for 6 months, especially after just having spent 6 months in Caldwell. Oh well. at least I had better companions here.

 

Take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

New Greenie Companion

Got my new comp today. Elder Shumway from guess where... Arizona. That makes 3 Arizona companions here in Nampa. Elder Bell from Mesa, Fullmer from Glendale, and now Shumway from Gilbert. I just can't get away from Arizona.

 

Training is gonna be a new experience. Of course I'm scared, it's gonna be interesting. Hopefully things turn out ok. Lots of work needs to be put into this area, let's make it happen!

Elder Blomquist

 

Elder Blomquist, Elder Shumway, President Cannon

 

 

 

 

 

Going to be a Trainer

So got some big news. I'm staying in Nampa, and I'm training a greenie!! That'll make 6 months here in Nampa at the end of next transfer (Nov. 26 I believe). And since I'm training there's a chance I could stay another, which will put me here till Christmas. I kinda was hoping to leave, but training is exciting. I'm stoked for it.

 

So I found out why I haven't heard from y'all in a while. Eli, the 6 year old, it's his job to get the mail and bring it in. Of course he doesn't check to see if it's for us or not and just brings it all in. One time I asked him if there was any mail for us and he said "no, but there's lots for us". That night we get a text saying we have five letters... So last week we get a text saying I have a letter. Go and check it out and it was postmarked the 27th of September. Eli brought it in then they kept forgetting to tell me about it.

 

Got to go to the Boise temple open house on Saturday. Brought an investigator, and it was an amazing experience. Especially when we walked into the celestial room. I felt this peace I haven't in a long time. It felt as if everything was right... like I was welcome in His house. I felt good about training and I got some answers to some problems I was having, it was a good experience. We'll be following up with those investigators on Wednesday, but I think it was a good experience.

 

I'm stoked to train a greenie. I don't get a new comp till Wednesday though. Dropped Elder Fullmer off this morning and have just been chilling with some other missionaries for now. There are 8 companionships in our zone, and 6 of them are training and 1 of them are being follow-up trained. I think we are gonna have the youngest zone in the mission. We got a meeting tonight, some meetings tomorrow, then we get our new comps on Wednesday. It's gonna be tough at times I bet, but it's gonna be a lot of fun.

 

Well, gonna be able to email again on Wednesday, so I'll be able to have my comp's info then. Name, home, etc. Until then...

 

 

Take care!

 

Elder Blomquist



Boise Temple

Just a few days till the Boise Temple open house!!! I'm pretty stoked for that. It's been closed the whole time I've been here and I get to go through it! We're taking some investigators Saturday, so that's gonna be cool. It'll be open for about a month and they're expecting about 350,000 people or so to go through. Dedication is on the 18th of November.
 

 

Transfers are in a week, next Monday. I think I'm leaving. I've been here in Nampa 4 1/2  months now, I've almost spent my last year in 2 areas, 6 months in Caldwell then if I do stay here it'll be 6 months here. I'm kinda ready to leave though, ready to explore more of Idaho. I kinda hope I go to Boise or Meridian, I wanna get back on bike again.

 

Weather's starting to go down. It's about 30-40s in the mornings, then gets 60-70s during the day. I think we just had a cold front come in and it should warm up a bit again later.

 

General conference was amazing! It seems like they really just hit home being truly converted to Jesus Christ and taking His doctrine deeper into our hearts. There was a lot of good talks. Some of my favorites have been Elder Christofferson in priesthood session, Elder Bednar's Sunday afternoon, and one other I can't remember right of the top of my head. But they were all good talks. We had one of our investigators watching it with us Sunday morning, and I think they liked it. Haven't followed up with them about it yet, but should be doing that soon.

 

What did y'all think about the missionary age change? Overall, I think it's a good idea. I feel like I didn't grow up in that year from high school to mission, it woulda been nice to go right outta school. I don't know if I woulda been ready at 18, but I think it'll be a good thing for a lot of young men and women out there.

 

Last week of the transfer is always rough. Anxious for transfer calls, and it's hard to work. We're kinda stuck right now as to what to do. We've already visited a lot of the members in our wards and committed them to do missionary work, gotten referrals, etc, that now we've almost visited them all. We've been making a second run through them getting ready for the temple, but I still feel like there's something more we need to be doing. We could be out tracting, but that's so unproductive I feel it's not worth doing. I'm out of ideas. What do you think we could do, either to excite members to do missionary work or find more people to teach?

 

But the month of September we found an average of about 2 investigators a week, better than I've done almost the whole mission put together. But not many of them keep their appointments. We have about a dozen people to teach or so, and with families that makes about 8 investigator lessons possible in a week. But out of those 8 we usually only get 2 or 3. It's tough at times, there's a million reasons to cancel. Mostly it's either they forgot, are busy, family, or are a no-show. We've been trying to make plans to go visit them again throughout the week (just dropping by. It's amazing how much more we catch people at home when we aren't expected). If only more people listened to Elder Nelson's talk... "Ask the missionaries!"

 

well, will let ya know next week what happens with transfers. It's a time of high excitement. Suitcoat season is about to start, not too happy about that, but it is what it is. It's my last one!

 

Take Care!

Elder Blomquist

1 Year in the Area

October... One year from the 5th (4 days) marks my 1 year of my 1st area. My last September is gone!! the time is really flying by. Heard it put very well yesterday, "the days are long but the weeks are short". Very true

 

Nothing new this week. We've been pretty busy actually. in the past 4 weeks or so we've found about 7 new investigators or so, with 1 more on Tuesday and hopefully another 2 coming soon, just waiting for them to get back to us.

 

Our new investigator for Tuesday was pretty cool, we met him at church at our singles ward. He actually went up and bore his testimony and said he wanted to learn more. After sacrament meeting we went and met him and his roommates (2 members) invited him to take the discussions and he said yes. Set up the appointment for Tuesday and we'll go from there.

 

Things are pretty good right now. There's been a lot of personal trials lately (in the past few weeks), but after a lot of work and effort I've managed to pull myself outta them and have grown so much from them. It's pretty amazing to think of where I am now vs where I was a year ago. I am def not the same person I was when I left home. It's pretty amazing to think about. This gospel is one of change, it's never easy, never quick, but it's so worth it.

 

Well, I tried to send some pictures last week, but they sent em back with some error... I'll try to send em again.

 

take care!

 

Elder Blomquist

Been our slowest week, but it's been fun at least. Had a baptism, Scott got baptized on Saturday, and it was good. Was a long time in coming. Been meeting with missionaries off and on for about a year now, and either this was the right time, we were the right missionaries, or both. Either way, it was good to see. Brings my baptism count up to 5.

Elder Fullmer, Scott, Elder Blomquist

 

That's the highlight of the week, but not much else has happened either. 2 things worth mentioning though.

 

There was a ward talent show on Friday. I love doing skits, so we rounded up some friends (ward mission leader and elders quorum president) and did one, it was fun and the ward loved it. Elder Fullmer was stirring a pot and I walked up and asked what he was doing. "making some beans". "Can I try some?" Eat a spoonful, walk away, then fall down. He freaks out and calls a medic, who comes and does his doctor things, check pulse, CPR, defibrillator, all of which fail. Then has the bright idea "mouth to mouth!" the director then comes out "CUT CUT CUT!! that was awful!!" and other dialogue like that, then tells us to slow it down. So we do it again, but do it in slow motion. Again comes the director "CUT CUT CUT" and tells us too slow and to speed it up. So we do it all super fast. This was the audiences favorite I think cuz I was all over the place. Instead of just falling I jump backwards and make a big scene of it. Then when the defibrillator comes in I just flop on the ground like a dead fish. The crowd got a kick outta that part. But again, the director comes out "CUT CUT CUT". Too fast, time to take a new angle, a musical. This was the least favorite one (until the end), as I'm not very musically inclined like that. But I did do a pretty dramatic fall, and that was funny. But alas, the director "CUT CUT CUT". Time to put it all together!!!! Elder Fullmer moved slow-mo, I was super fast, and ward mission leader (medic) was the musical. Fullmer was slow, so didn't make it very far in his lines, I did mine all fast and threw myself around all over the place, and ward mission leader when the medic came in skipped out "lala la lalala", it was really funny. Got a video of it, so will send home when my flashdrive gets full again.

 

Got my 1st beer too, it was pretty good. We were at an investigators house and he was telling us about his drinking, and I'm like "can we have your beer?" He only had 1 can left (and it was a little flat), but he gave it to me and I took it. It was great, he's starting to come along. He dumped it down the sink 1st, then put it in a bag so it didn't look like we were taking beer, that wouldn't be a good impression of missionaries. Hopefully he's quit for good. All the beer is gone from his house, he's gonna try quitting at work where he drinks the most (replacing it with Gatorade), and he's moving along the path nicely. He wants to be baptized, but is worried of messing up. We asked him what his problems were and he told us. Said "well, I'd have to come to church every Sunday (likes his Sundays off work) and quit drinking... that's actually not so bad". That was an important discovery to be made, that all the changes wouldn't be so bad. He wants to quit drinking anyway, and 3 hours on Sunday is reasonable I think, so for him to realize that it's not so bad, big discovery I feel. He was at church yesterday all 3 hours, and it was great.

 

That's this week, been our slowest, but some good things happened. Part of me doesn't want to leave this area come transfers. with all this work we've found, I kinda wanna stay and see it all develop. There's another part of me that's ready to go too, but part of me wants to stay. It'll be interesting to see what happens. We're starting week 4 of the transfer (crazy...) so not too much longer.

 

Take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

Been alright this week. We've had some miracles happen. This area has picked up so much in the last month and a half. Right now we're at 3 baptism dates (one this Saturday two the next) and it's been pretty exciting.

 

Scott's getting baptized. He was our miracle. Had a lesson with him last Wednesday, and it was a good one, but that night things went a little sour. From what I heard he was blowing up in his family's face and taking all his frustration and anger towards himself out on them. So we got a couple close friends together and fasted for him on Thursday. That next Friday our miracle happened. In the duration of our fast, he found a job, they had a good family night, and mission president called him and we set up an interview for baptism. All this in the space of about 24 hours. It was nothing short of a miracle. Went over the next day and set up the baptism for the 22nd.

 

Got your package on Friday (my year mark). Kinda funny, everything in it is things I didn't need. I have enough black socks (more than enough), it's my white socks that I need, all my pairs have holes in them. Have extra toothbrushes, toothpaste, and deodorant, but the whoppers and animal crackers were good. It was good to get a package though, I've been on a dry spell of mail for a while now, but Friday ended it.  Friday was just an all around perfect day. Mail, some good lessons, burned my shirt (pictures to come), it was a good day.

 

That's about all this week. Been a lot of good things happening lately. In the space of 2 weeks we've found 4 new investigators, with 2 more on the way still. Our days are booked from about 5 pm on on weekdays, then weekends are usually more open. We're staying pretty busy, but those afternoon hours are always hard to fill. I'm excited for things that are happening here. This has been a good time of the mission, one of the best I'd say.

 

Take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

Shirt Burning

Tradition is that you burn a shirt on your 1 Year mark.

 

 

 

One Year Mark on Friday!

My year mark is on Friday!! Isn't that crazy? I remember sitting in the airport after you dropped me off... Crazy how time flies.

 

So we've found 3 new investigators this week, 2 of which wanna be baptized. Their names are Siara and Wyatt. Siara is 13 and Wyatt is 10. Their parents (mom and step dad) aren't married yet, but within the next month should be. They've been less active for a while, but have started coming back and wanted the kids baptized. Siara was kinda shy when we first went over, but we had a ward party last Friday and threw the football around with her, so hopefully she's more open to us now. they're pretty excited (at least Wyatt is, not been back since the party yet, but I think Siara is too). Next lesson is on Friday, and baptism date is Sept. 29.

 

Had another good lesson with Scott. Hopefully we have 3 baptisms in September. We talked about the atonement and how it lifts burdens. Not anything new, but something good to be reminded of. Something hit home. He's had a lot on his plate recently; new step dad, looking for work, wanting to be baptized, it's been a lot for him and I think this lesson really hit home. By the end of it he was in tears and it was great. He needs to meet with mission president before he can schedule a baptism date, but hopefully he calls and sets it up either today or tomorrow. Scott's a great guy, I've really enjoyed working with him.

 

Other than that not much happened this week, been a pretty standard week. Been the best week I've had in this area. We had more investigator lessons this week than I have in 9 months (basically since December) and 2 baptism dates. It's been a pretty good week overall. It's pretty tough trying to teach with Elder Fullmer, but we've managed. I let him pick what points he wants to teach every lesson, then make do with what he says. It's worked, but it gets rough. I do most of the talking, which is something pretty new to me. He's been one of my favorite comps though, we really get along. He's only got 3 months left (goes home end of November), but he's not trunky yet. He pretty much does whatever it is that I do, just goes with the flow. It's nice at times but hard at others. But we get along and it's a good companionship.

 

Well that's about it for this week. Take care everyone!

 

Elder Blomquist

Been a decent week again. Another one of those where it was an off week, yet we managed to still do good work. Elder Fullmer and I are staying in Nampa together, I think this'll be my last transfer here.

 

 

Hard to believe I've almost spent a year in 2 areas. We've got a lot going for us here though, just heard of some kids who want to be baptized (parents are less active and coming back to church), a part-member family has agreed to take the discussions and learn about the church, investigator close to baptism, and we got some other stuff going for us. It's an exciting time, but part of me was ready to leave.

 

Did a lot of service this week. That part member family was getting some hay, so we spent 2 mornings baling it with them. It was a lot of fun, and I might possibly have a job when I get off. I was the one in the trailer stacking the hay, and he was impressed, said I did a good job. Sorta jokingly asked "so would you hire me to do ranch work?" and he was like "oh yeah, I'd put you to work. Few more things you'd have to learn, but I'd put ya to work". Said we learned fast and did a better job the 2nd time as opposed to the 1st. So I might have a job as a rancher when I get home, wouldn't that be neat? I'm planning on moving back up to Idaho, now I might have a job to get me started.

 

Other than that it's not been a very exciting week. Last week of the transfer is always a rough one; you're just waiting for transfer calls and don't wanna do anything. But we managed to stay busy and got 17 lessons. I'm kinda excited to stay too though. Last transfer Nampa Zone did the best in the mission (16 baptisms [next highest zone was 7] and about 450 total lessons) and we set our goals higher for this month.

 

Not excited for our "new" car though... We had a 2012 Subaru legacy, and it was awesome, I loved that car. It drove perfect was really spacious, and just a good car overall. Now we traded with some other missionaries and we have an older Malibu. It's brown and ugly, is a wild drive, and has a turn radius the size of a boat (hence the name "maliboat"). It's gonna take some time getting used to... We got the short end of the stick too. We inherited the miles they already used, so we gained an extra 15 miles PLUS the 25 they used to drive it there. so overall we lost about 40 or so miles, that's gonna be a killer. We only get 875 a month which averages to about 28 or so a day (a little under 30), so the loss of 40 means at least 1 day of walking if we're not careful (or maybe even if we are careful... my bike I inherited has a busted tire and I've not had it checked yet). And they were supposed to clean it but didn't, so we have to do that now (not that we cleaned our either though... we washed the outside, got all the dirt off, but we didn't vacuum. But the sisters didn't do anything to theirs). Less miles, dirty car we gotta clean, sounds like a good deal right? yeah...

 

That's pretty much it. Looking forward to another transfer here. I've doubled my baptisms (up to 4 now) and had a lot of fun in this area. It's been a lot of work and there's still a lot of work we need to put into it (out of our 4 wards we got 3 new ward mission leaders and have started a new program to spark member missionary work. We give a lesson then leave a commitment to do missionary work [something easy like meeting a new neighbor or having a friend over for dinner, something fun and easy, yet is missionary work nonetheless], then tie a piece of yarn around their wrist to remind them to do it and provoke questions from friends and acquaintances). 1 of our wards has jumped right on this and is having the ward missionaries help us out, and we're working on getting it going in the other wards as well. So far everyone loves the idea (even President Cannon) and it's starting to take off. It'll be slow in the get-go, but once it goes it'll just explode. We're excited for it and so are the wards. We have good ward support here, we've really worked hard to build and maintain that.

 

Take care everyone!

Love,

Elder Blomquist

Last p-day of the transfer... crazy how fast it's flown by. It's been a good one though, it'll def be interesting to see what happens. we find out who leaves and stays on Friday.

 

It's been a weird week. I couldn't tell ya why, but it felt weird. We did the same we've been doing for the past 5 weeks (18 lessons), but it felt off. We didn't really do anything different, so I dunno what's up.

 

Not much has changed from last week, still mostly doing member visits raising missionary awareness. One of our investigators is looking at getting baptized here pretty quick, so pretty soon we're gonna be down to 0 investigators who are really progressing towards baptism. We have about 8 investigators, but only 1 of them is really coming along. Pretty much none of them come to church, so that's what we're gonna focus on this month (today starts the month of September for reporting purposes).

 

There's been a part member family we're kinda starting to work with. We haven't had a discussion or even invited them to, but we've been going over there helping them milk their cow and just hanging out building that relationship. they're pretty tight. Amity (the mom) is making me a glitter tie (went and bought a tie from DI and she's gonna glitter it up for me, should be pretty sweet). Dwight (the dad) said he'd take me horseback riding in the mountains when I get off the mission as well. We've been working with their neighbor (an active member) to invite them to start investigating and having the discussions with us. I've got a pretty good relationship with Dwight and Amity, so hopefully we can start teaching here pretty soon. Bailing (or however it's spelled... baling?) hay with them tomorrow morning, so that should be fun.

 

Almost got in a wreck on Friday. We were in a roundabout coming home from district meeting, and a car pulled in right in front of me. Had to almost slam the brakes and turn to the side to avoid getting hit. I dunno if they didn't see me or just didn't care, but it was a pretty scary experience.

 

Dana, the girl we baptized about 2 weeks ago, went to the temple with the ward and did baptism for the dead. She's coming along great. She's been my strongest convert baptism (out of the 4 I have = P ) and it's truly amazing to see the change the gospel makes in the lives of people. Her family is getting better, but still nowhere near being supportive from what I've been hearing. But she's staying strong and it's been great to see.

 

That's about all I got for ya, life's still pretty boring as far as stories go. Working to stay busy and productive. Workin hard, playin hard... Life's pretty good right now. Just anxiously awaiting transfer calls. I think Elder Fullmer and I are staying together, but it's always unpredictable. We'll find out on Friday...

 

love,

Elder Blomquist

Been the usual week. 19 lessons, about 14 or so to active members. We've got anew angle we've taken things, and it seems to be working so far. It's gonna take some time to get things rolling on it, but we got a new ward mission leader and he's on board with us, so hopefully wont take too long.

 

Most exciting thing this week has to be a wedding. One of our investigators just got married Thursday, and we got to go to the wedding. His name is Scott, and he's awesome. He's one of my favorite people to work with.

 

that's about all the news I have... School is starting to start. I remember when school was getting out, and it's time to go back now. I got about 3 weeks till my year mark, transfers are in 2 weeks, this past month has gone by so fast. We've been working hard, playing hard, and having fun.

 

I'm really trying to think, my letters seem to keep getting shorter and shorter every week. I guess I'm just to the point where being away from home doesn't bother me as much. I know there's a lot more that we've done, but you may just have to wait for my journals to see all that I've done. I've been decent at writing in my journal (more of catching up on days I don't write), and it's mostly been written for the most part, but when I sit down here I just space on everything. Is there anything you wanna know? that's the hardest thing... If ya ask questions I know more about what to write and all that.

 

You know what? I think I sent President Cannon a longer letter than I sent you... hmmm.... ask me more questions! if ya can't get a letter out, email me. I really don't know what to say in these letters home...

 

Love,

Elder Blomquist

Laura Bryson Holland

 

 

 

 

Laura Bryson Holland and her family moved close to where I am serving.  Our families were great friends when we both lived in Houston, TX.  It was great to get to see her again after so many years.

Happy birthday Alex! I know it's tomorrow, but I wont be able to tell ya then. Tomorrow is also a special day for me, my 11 month mark. Can you believe it's been that long? 13 more to go, almost halfway done. This time next month I'll be burning my shirt.

 

Been another good week I think. We had 21 lessons. I think about 15-16 were to active members trying to get them to do missionary work, but we're working and hopefully something happens out of it. It gets frustrating at times, we teach these good lessons, but most of the time I don't think they really take to our message. I know the spirit is present in the lessons, I feel it strong when we teach, but they don't generally act on it. What can we do to get the members more excited for missionary work? We've lost a lot of investigators over the past 2 weeks, dropped a lot and baptized others, so we're down investigators right now. What can we do to help motivate people?

 

2 big things happened this week. 1st was a baptism. I've talked about her before, but Dana got baptized. It was a good service (as all baptisms are). Everything went smooth, except the musical number I did. Sis Wheeler and I played guitar, she played the chords and I picked the melody. We did good for the most part, but we both messed up once or twice. My hands were shaking, I could feel them shake and I had to account for that as I was placing my fingers on the neck of the guitar. But it turned out good overall. Was confirmed the next day and is still progressing in the gospel at a good rate. She feels different than before, she said she was happy all day yesterday (day she got confirmed) and recognized when it left her. She's on a good path, I'm excited for her.

 

Elder Bell, Adam (baptized Dana), Dana, Elder Blomquist

 

Got another investigator that has some exciting news. We're going to a wedding on Thursday. He has to get interviewed by Mission President, but he's ready to take those steps. He was hesitant for one reason or another, but in thinking things through he decided to just move forward and do it. He's been ready for a while, there was just something holding him back. He finally got over those hurdles and is moving towards it. Gonna meet with mission president at the end of the month and we'll be able to set a date with him after that. But he invited us to the marriage on Thursday, excited for that.

 

I don't know what else there is. We've just been visiting a lot of members, getting to know the people, and find some more work to do. But it's been fun, I have a lot of fun with Elder Fullmer. He's a little different, but I can deal with it. We have fun, and it works for us.

 

So those goal things start next week? I'm actually pretty excited for that. Those are 3 things I've struggled with all 11 months (well, probably closer to 9 or 10, I was pretty good at the beginning of the mission), but now I actually have more of a goal to do it more than just to be obedient. That's a good goal in itself, but I never really got motivated enough to do it. But I've been doing better already, so I'm striving for 21 points a week.

 

Take care y'all

Elder Blomquist

Been an amazing week. Taught more lessons this these past 2 weeks than I practically did the whole 6 months I was in Caldwell. 21 lessons last week and 19 this week. They've mostly been to active members, but that's what we're supposed to do when we don't have work. We've gotten a few referrals and are working on contacting them, and good things are happening here in this area. People have been asking what's the difference between this transfer and last, and I think it's that we're actually working. Elder Bell was a little trunky and when we didn't have set appointments he didn't really want to do anything. We sat around a lot that transfer. But this past 2 weeks we've not been, we've been working hard and good thing are happening.

 

Got 2 baptism this Saturday. 1 is for an 18 year old girl named Dana. Her boyfriend is in one of our wards, and she was ready to meet with us. I think I talked a little about her before, but this Saturday is her baptism. We're excited for it, she is so ready to be baptized. She had the desire to be baptized after our first lesson, that's never happened to me before. She was almost done with the Book of Mormon (only took her 2 months to read cover to cover) and she believed everything. It's been amazing to teach her.

 

 

Other baptism is a 13 year old kid named Anthony. His dad is a member, but has never really been active. Dad just won custody of Anthony from his mom in Utah where he was meeting with missionaries before, and already had a baptism date for the 11th. We taught him several times a week since it was only 2.5 weeks away, and I think he's ready too. Everything just seems to be lining up for them. The dad got a job (hired by one of the member we brought with us to a lesson), and things seem to be just going right. I'm a little nervous about this one, just wondering if he's gonna stay strong or not, but I think he will. He seems pretty into it right now and has good support from his dad.

 

Elder Fullmer and I are getting along great. He ranks in my top tiers of favorite companions. We work hard, have fun, and it's been good. Heard weird things about him, but he's not bad, I like him. I can see me staying one more transfer with him.

That's pretty much all we've been doing, working hard and playing hard. Nothing more to it really. Things are good.

 

Take care y'all

Love,

Elder Blomquist

What a week's it's been! I need my p-day today... We taught 21 lessons this week. We've worked harder this week than we have since December, it's been great, but exhausting at the same time. We should be playing Frisbee today, so it should be good. I need that, been working long and hard and I'm exhausted and ready for this break.

 

My new companion's very quiet. He's taught maybe 4 or 5 of those lessons, so I've had to step it up and talk a whole bunch. But it's been good for me, I feel a sense of confidence I haven't for a long time now. I think this is getting me ready to train or go district leader. I've been taking this transfer as one for self improvement. I'm working hard not to complain about anything and do everything I can to improve myself and prepare for leadership.

 

 

Elder Fullmer's a good guy, but he's just quiet. I think that's one reason we get along, he doesn't say much. He talks if talked to, but I'm not a real conversationalist, so we don't say much to each other.but it's alright, we work well together (sorta. he needs to talk more, but it's been working out so far.) and good things are happening in this area.

 

Most of the lessons we've taught have been to active members. We're trying to promote missionary work and help members do missionary work. We've been passing out mormon.org cards for people to hand out to their neighbors and teaching a little bit about faith to fin and all the stuff that we need as missionaries. It's been working, we've had a little success. Within a couple of days people we've challenged and who have accepted have had opportunities to pass out cards. We haven't been able to follow up with very many people yet, but that's our next step, follow up and give them more cards or more directions to take. It's been good getting out there and doing the work. And as we've met with members they've given us a couple referrals to go visit, so the work is picking up and moving forward here.

 

That's our week basically... visiting members, walking out in the heat (out of miles on the car), and doing work. But it's time to play now! Gonna go play some Frisbee soon. Take care everyone!

 

love,

Elder Blomquist

What a week it's been... wisdom tooth pulled, birthday, transfer calls, the announcement of the Boise temple announce (November 18 if i remember right), transfers, been quite a week.

 

So I'm staying in Nampa. I'm happy about that, but not so happy about my companion. Name's Elder Fullmer from AZ. All I've heard is that he's weird and makes a lot of weird noises all the time. I don't know him, but I've not heard good things. Trying not to judge, but we'll see how it goes. But can you believe it's been 6 weeks already? Seems like just yesterday I was coming to Nampa... time is flying by.

 

So had my tooth pulled on Tuesday. It wasn't bad at all. Dentist said to take it easy for a bit, so the rest of Tuesday and Wednesday morning we didn't do anything. The pull was easy enough, took longer to numb it than it did to pull it. But it's weird having a hole in my mouth. I want to rub my tongue on that tooth like I used to, but there's no tooth there anymore, and I have to wash it out with a syringe at least every night. This hole ever gonna go away? It didn't hurt too bad. Tuesday and Wednesday I was taking pain pills every 3-4 hours (800 mg of ibuprofen then 1000 mg of Tylenol switching it up every time) then on Thursday up to now I've just been taking it when it hurts. But like I said, it's never hurt too much. Another cool thing, the dentist who pulled my tooth is cousins with Bro. Broberg.

 

My birthday was alright. We went back to Caldwell and hung out with some of my old friends there. The Dayleys fed us dinner and we played games with them for a while, then went to another family who wasn't there, so we just came home. The Wheelers (family we live with) had a birthday party for me on Saturday night, that was pretty fun. They got me a present too, a back shaver... thought that was pretty funny. Cake, Ice cream, games, it was a lot of fun. They announced the temple dedication on my birthday too, so that was a good birthday present. Thanks for the camera by the way. It'll be nice to be able to see what I'm taking a picture of. I don't know how my other one got like that, but I'm going to try not to let this one get like that.

 

Despite all that's happened this week, we've had a good week. We got 8 lessons this week, and would have been more but a couple people cancelled on us. We did just get a bunch of referrals today from church headquarters, and one of them has a baptism date already in mind, so we got some work going for us. I'm not too excited about my companion, but I love the area and am gonna work it hard. Having fun, we'll see about that one. It'll be good.

 

That's this week. Been a slower week with all the stuff that's been happening, but it's been good. We'll see what the next few bring...

 

Love,

Elder Blomquist

Picture Time

Brother Wheeler giving me a haircut.

We did some service with cement and got it all over my hand.



Just another day on the job!

We helped hydroseed a yard.  I liked working the hose.  Maybe I'll become a fireman.

Been a great week this week. We taught 14 lessons this week. We've put more into this week than we have in a long time, and it payed off. I haven't had 14 lessons in months. The most we ever had in Caldwell was 9, so it's been since Christmas that I've had that many. It's great.

 

We have a baptism coming up. We met the girl (Dana) yesterday and she wants to be baptized. She's already read most of the BoM, and is starting the gospel principles manual, been coming to church for a few weeks already, just started meeting with us yesterday. The date is set for August 4th! Hopefully I stay in this area. Transfers are next week (calls on Friday) and we're pretty sure one of us is leaving. We've been together 2 transfers now (counting Caldwell) and we don't think we're staying another. Be interesting to see what happens.

 

So about that call from the dentist office... I just forgot my insurance card. My wisdom tooth started hurting, I couldn't even chew with that side of my mouth. It hurt to eat, sometimes it hurt to talk, and it was miserable for a while. The pain came and went, it happened once before in Caldwell, but after a bit it went away. Now it's back about a month later. Had a dentist check it out and they want to pull it, says it could be getting infected. There's no bone in the way, so they say it should be an easy pull. that's going down tomorrow at 3:30 (my time) so keep me in your prayers. Hope all goes well

 

Dad was right about that camera that one of the missionaries who went home gave me to use. It's a piece of junk. It works, you can see the screen, but that's the only thing better about it. I've just been using my broken camera then putting my memory card into the other one to look at them.  It's been working out ok, I've gotten pretty good at pointing and shooting, but it would be nice to see what it is I'm shooting = P

 

Birthday on Thursday! I'm excited.... kinda. Turning 20, I'm getting old. 10 months out and 20 years old... I'm getting up there.

 

That's pretty much been our week, hard work, play, and all that good stuff. Nothing too excited again. hope all is well with y'all.

 

Love,

Elder Blomquist

5 days till my 10 month mark and 10 till my 20th birthday. my how the time flies.

 

So I realized last letter that I left a lot of stuff out about what I did during the week. Good thing I keep a journal (slacked a bit at writing every day, but I usually write the day after and make it sound like the yesterday). We do all these fun things, then when I sit at the computer to write them, my mind goes blank.

 

Been a slower week for our whole district with 4th of July. We had a zone meeting, went home and hung out with the family we live with, and then did some service at our dinner. We did some hydroseed. put this compost mix in a big container of water, spread the seeds in the yard, then turned on the hose and sprayed the compost mix all over the yard. Turned the whole yard green. Was fun though, felt like a fireman spraying the water. supposedly it's supposed to help the grass grow better/faster, not really sure, but it was fun. Afterwards we had dinner (hot dogs and hamburgers) then played some games. There's so many cool people in Nampa.

 

The work could be a little better though. Elder Bell is getting trunky, he's almost done working. He's willing to work, but I have to do everything. He's been in Nampa 6 weeks longer than me, so I've been trying to rely on his knowledge of the area and what they've done in the past, but he doesn't help with that. If I wanna get out and work when we don't have a scheduled appointment, I have to decide where we go, what we do, and all that. A lot of times, I don't do that. I've never been the pushy, leader type guy. I want to get out and do stuff, but if he doesn't care, it's not gonna work. More so lately I've been cracking the whip and saying "alright, we're going" and take charge and do it all, but I don't like doing that at all. It wasn't a very good night the last time I tried that. ugh... Only 2 more weeks of the transfer,and I don't think I'm staying with Bell for another. Hopefully I'll get a good companion who'll work hard, is obedient, and chill. There's a lot of fun in Nampa (cool members), but it needs to be worked. If I got a companion who's cool and a hard worker, It's gonna be a good transfer.

 

I love playing my guitar. I figured out how to read music and play the notes, so I've been playing the hymns and reading the tabs. I want some piano books now! Now that I can read the music for the guitar the possibilities are endless. I'm so excited about it and can't wait to really start digging deep into. That's one of the things on my "want list", music.

 

That's pretty much it (or at least all I can remember). You'll have to wait till I get home and read my journals (if I let you ; ] ) to get the day by day stuff.

 

 

take care!

Elder Blomquist

17 days till my birthday. crazy huh? Gonna be 20. 2 whole decades... 10 months out and 20 years old. time continues to fly.

 

So I don't know if you're considering a birthday present (believe me, I'm perfectly ok if you're not), but if you are, I have some requests. Like usual though, they all might be expensive, but like I said, I could care less if I got anything. Some things I would like are cleats, GPS, and I forget the last one. I'll tell ya if I remember.

 

Been a decent week. We've found quite a few new investigators. Most of them were from formers, people missionaries had been teaching before but for one reason or another stopped, but there is one we found on our own.

 

Her name is Lynda. Her husband is LDS and is in a mental institution in Buhle (close to Twin Falls, so about 100 miles aways or so). She doesn't think he has very long left to live, and she wants to be with him forever, so she asked us to start teaching her. It's been pretty neat, we met for the 1st time on Thursday, then she set up a return appointment for Friday. On Friday she sets up the time for Sunday. She just wants to move quick with this. There are some W.o.W. issues we need to help her get over, and we want to make sure she actually believes it and has a testimony, but she says she wants to be baptized and we're gonna do all we can to get her there. I've never seen someone so anxious and eager to learn. We met with her 3 times last week and each lesson went 2 hours. Meeting with her again on Thursday.

 

I've gotten into rugby. There's an elder from Zimbabwe here, and he taught us all rugby. It's way different than any of the sports I've done before, but after playing it today (we prolly played rugby for 3-4 hours today) I'm starting to get the hang of it and it's been really fun. Of course we have to play 2 hand touch, but it's still fun. Took me about 2-3 weeks to get the hang of it, but it's been fun now that I do.

 

Nampa's been tight, new favorite area. The family we live with is cool (we live in an apartment above the garage), the members are cool (the few that I've met), and it's been awesome. Not at all what I expected from Nampa. I expected more of an older town with the old run-down look to it. Not our area. We don't actually cover too much housing, it's mostly commercial stuff, so I bet we could tract it all out. But it's tight, I love it.

 

Things are going good. I think they're better now than they've ever been before. Starting week 4 of the transfer, and it's just flying by. Really doesn't feel like I've been here that long. But things are good and I'm loving it.

 

well, that's about our week here. Hope everything is going well back home.

 

Love,

Elder Blomquist

Can't believe June is almost over. Time is just moving too fast. Seems like just yesterday (June 4th) when my eyes were swelling up and transfers were rolling around, and we just started week 3 of the transfer. Time is just moving WAY too fast.


Had a baptism on Saturday. Missionaries have been meeting with Kim Nielsen for a while, and the baptism was Saturday. The service was interesting though, the font filler forgot to fill the font, so the service took 2 hours and was a little on the cold side. She was so ready to get baptized though. She had Elder Bell baptize her, but she asked me to confirm her. It was an awesome experience. I've never seen anyone so ready to come into the fold before. Working on her kids now (she has some kids in their 20's living with her), but I don't think they'll take very long. That whole family is just amazing.


That's pretty much all we've done all week. Looking back, we haven't done much, but we're trying and have made some good contacts lately. Everyone we talked to the week before that said come back this week told us the same thing this week.


Our district is pretty cool. Elder Flake (who was around us in Caldwell the whole 6 months I was there) is my district leader, and he's way tight. So is his comp and I like the zone leaders. Not a big fan of the sisters in our district, but it's not bad, everyone is pretty cool. Elder Bell and I are most def the district clowns. It's so much fun.


Zone Conference is tomorrow. We're getting new phones. They're upgrading us from pieces of junk to pieces of junk with a touch screen. They don't actually seem all that bad, but they're nothing nice either. But it's still an upgrade from what we have now. A previous missionary who was here shot it with an airsoft gun, so the screen is cracked, but it's still usable.


Dang, I really don't know what else. We've not done anything interesting lately. Oh well. I got 45 minutes left on the computer, so if I remember anything I'll just add it.


Hope everything is going well at home. Take care everyone!


Love,
Elder Blomquist

Transfered to Nampa

6-11-12

I got transferred! I'm in Nampa now. Funny thing is it's only about 5-10 miles away from Caldwell. Know what else is funny? I'm serving with Elder Bell again. I'm stoked about that! I did NOT get along with Van Zalinge very well. It was a hard 6 weeks with him. I was ready to leave Caldwell. Nampa was the one place I didn't want to go though. Well, guess I didn't want to go to Oregon either, but I remember saying "I hope I don't go to Nampa". Oh well. I'm just happy to be away from Elder Van Zalinge and excited to be with Elder Bell again. We're gonna have lots of fun.

Nampa seems pretty tight though. It's about 80,000 people, so I'm moving to the city. Elder Bell hit someone last transfer, so I'm the driver. New city and I'm driving it. Been so long since I've driven a car. Drove to Meridian today for p-day, and it's been a while. Didn't hit anyone (or even come close to for that matter), it's just been a while. So use to either biking or sitting shotgun. Just a little different.

So I haven't heard from anyone for a while. Haven't gotten a letter for a couple weeks now. What's up? Life too crazy busy for me? Ha-ha

Been a fun last week... With everything that happened with my eyes, I've been sick almost all week. Swollen eyes Monday, then Tuesday-Friday I was feeling sick. Friday I was able to get out and work a little, but I still felt pretty bad. Better now, so I'm happy about that. It was def not fun being sick. Gets to the point where you're just so used to feeling bad that you really can't remember what it felt like to be healthy, that's kinda what it was. For 3 weeks prior I had had allergies, the itchy watery eyes, runny nose, that kinda stuff, but then swollen eyes and all that, so it's been a while since I've felt good. But I am glad to say I'm feeling good now and things are starting to get back to normal. Luckily we got everything figured out with the medications. Pretty sure you might've talked to president about it already, but missionary medical covers the eye drops, but Aetna didn't cover the pills. But it's better than it was. Had a $25 dollar co pay on the drops (shoulda been 10, but it is what it is), then $60 for the pills. So all in all I paid $85 for all the medications. That's WAY better than the $176 it was before.

So before I forget, our address is 1200 Autumn Wind Dr. Nampa, ID 83687. Pretty easy to remember.

Well, take care everyone. I'm doing well here. Gonna need to adjust to Nampa now, but that'll be easy. I feel like I'm gonna be here for a while. Might be another 6 month area, who knows, I just feel like I’m gonna be a while here.

Love,

Elder Blomquist

I got transferred! I'm in Nampa now. Funny thing is, it's only about 5-10 miles away from Caldwell. Know what else is funny? I'm serving with Elder Bell again. I'm stoked about that! I did NOT get along with Van Zalinge very well. It was a hard 6 weeks with him. I was ready to leave Caldwell. Nampa was the one place I didn't want to go though. Well, guess I didn't want to go to Oregon either, but I remember saying "I hope I don't go to Nampa". Oh well. I'm just happy to be away from Elder Van Zalinge and excited to be with Elder Bell again. We're gonna have lots of fun.

 

Nampa seems pretty tight though. It's about 80,000 people, so I'm moving to the city. Elder Bell hit someone last transfer, so I'm the driver. New city, and I'm driving it. Been so long since I've driven a car. Drove to Meridian today for p-day, and it's been a while. Didn't hit anyone (or even come close to for that matter), it's just been a while. So use to either biking or sitting shotgun. Just a little different.

 

So I haven't heard from anyone for a while. Haven't gotten a letter for a couple weeks now. What's up? life too crazy busy for me? haha

 

Been a fun last week... With everything that happened with my eyes, I've been sick almost all week. Swollen eyes Monday, then Tuesday-Friday I was feeling sick. Friday I was able to get out and work a little, but I still felt pretty bad. Better now, so I'm happy about that. It was def not fun being sick. Gets to the point where you're just so used to feeling bad that you really can't remember what it felt like to be healthy, that's kinda what it was. For 3 weeks prior I had had allergies, the itchy watery eyes, runny nose, that kinda stuff, but then swollen eyes and all that, so it's been a while since I've felt good. But I am glad to say I'm feeling good now and things are starting to get back to normal. Luckily we got everything figured out with the medications. Pretty sure you might've talked to president about it already, but missionary medical covers the eye drops, but Aetna didn't cover the pills. But it's better than it was. Had a $25 dollar copay on the drops (should  have been 10, but it is what it is), then $60 for the pills. So all in all I payed $85 for all the medications. That's WAY better than the $176 it was before.

 

So before I forget, our address is 1200 Autumn Wind Dr. Nampa, ID 83687. Pretty easy to remember.

 

Well, take care everyone. I'm doing well here. Gonna need to adjust to Nampa now, but that'll be easy. I feel like I'm gonna be here for a while. Might be another 6 month area, who knows, I just feel like I'm gonna be a while here.

 

Love,

Elder Blomquist