Crazy to think I’ve been in Caldwell for 2 weeks now. It feels like an area I’m gonna stay in for a while. Things are starting to pick up. We’ve been visiting members and working w/ a few less actives and investigators, but we've really been trying to fire up the members and get to know who we're working with. It’s been good in 1 of our wards. We rode or bikes out to Notus, which is about 10 miles away, from there to Greenleaf, about 3-5 miles from Notus, and got a ride back to town. Word spread pretty quick about our ride, and members are really impressed and member trust is huge in that ward now. They know they have missionaries who want to work, let’s just hope they use us.
Had a good weekend. I think I taught the most powerful lesson I’ve ever taught on my mission. This lady wants to be baptized, but has a smoking problem and I think 1 or 2 other things she needs to work on before she can get baptized. I don’t even know what I really said, I just opened my mouth and it was filled. I shared a few scriptures, shared some experiences, and just bore testimony. She knows what she has to do, and by the end of the lesson she was like "just pick a date for me". I thought she was referring to smoking, so I asked "to quit smoking or be baptized?" She said baptism, but we thought it best to fast and pray about it (this was Saturday and fast Sunday was the next day). We’re seeing her on Wednesday, so hopefully something good comes out of it.
Gave a few blessings this week too. There was an old woman in the hospital that had a stroke and they didn’t expect her to live long. We went and I gave a blessing. It was kinda weird giving a blessing to someone who's about to die. That’s pretty much what I said, this life is temporary, you will be missed, but be at peace. It was just kinda weird.
But I did give another good blessing. There’s a less active in our ward whose neighbor just got diagnosed with cancer from the neck to top of the legs. She said she wanted to build her faith back up and this guy asked if he could bring "the boys" on over. She said yes so we went. I gave a blessing and it was another one of those where I’m not too sure what was coming out. I think it was pretty much about trials and how God gives us them to learn and grow and to use this one to grow closer to Him. She said we could come back and start teaching them, so that was pretty good too.
Still pretty slow in this area. We got about 7 or 8 people we're working with, and only 1 of them is a less active, but we could easily have more. Starting a new area is hard. Elder Bell's been here for a while, but covering 5 wards he doesn’t know too many of the people and we're still learning the area. I’m getting it down pretty good though. I can get around almost all of 11th ward. Still learning 4th, but I’m getting it. Things have gotten better since last week. We had a zone conference on Friday, and I got some things I needed to hear. I fasted last Sunday (Jan 1st) for help with the area. I was struggling hard and just needed to know what to do. Zone conference was perfect. It wasn’t everything I needed, still need some help with the people here, but I learned some things I should do to help the area.
I feel like this area is gonna be one that I’m staying in for more than 1 transfer. That's what I thought about the last 2, but I’m pretty sure I'm gonna stay this time. We’ll see though. Still plenty of time left in the transfer for things to happen, and it's all God's will anyway. Whatever he has in store for me I will do. I look back at the last 2 areas, and I’ve learned something from each area. I think I’m actually a better missionary than I give myself credit for. I’ve always tended to think I’m never good enough, but I’m starting to realize that maybe I’m just good enough.
I think I’ve gained 5 pounds now though. The biking here is tough; I think my legs have really thickened up. it's a lot of uphill (our house is at the top of a hill, so we gotta go uphill to get home no matter which way we go to get there), lots of miles, and just difficult sometimes. But it's good. I’d still rather be biking than in a car.
Hope everything's still going well at home. I hit my 4 month mark on Saturday! Only 2 more till I burn a tie! That’ll be exciting. It’s going by so fast, yet it's only been 4 months. But I’ll be home before I know it. I’m so glad to be out here. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now.
Take care!
Love,
Elder Blomquist
P.S. I think I almost make my emails grammatically messy on purpose now just cuz it drives mom nuts... lol
No comments:
Post a Comment