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