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