Been a good week for us here in Eagle. We taught 19 lessons this week. We almost had 20, but our 20th rescheduled. That's more lessons than I've taught in about 11 months. Usually it's around the 12-15 mark, but we hit 19 this week!

The area's doing pretty good too. We're starting to see some success from our wards. We've had a steady flow of new investigators and less actives to work with since I've been here. Working 5 wards is difficult though. I'm sad that I won't be around when missionaries work 1-2 wards per companionship. I loved only covering 2 wards in Caldwell. Even in Nampa when we covered 3 family and 1 singles ward, that was pretty much working 3 wards, that was awesome too. I'm hoping Eagle will be split and Eagle 3 created. With the 9 wards we have here collectively, I hope to see a 3rd companionship here with all sets covering 3 wards. There's lots to be done here. I've said it in all my areas (and I firmly believe it too), but Eagle's got a lot of potential. I think I see more potential here than I have in any other of the areas I've served in.

Really don't know what to say. Things are good right now. It's hard, but that's usually when the good times are as well. These last 3 months have been some of the hardest of the mission, but have also been the times of biggest growth.

Take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

4-15-13

 

Yesterday as my 19 month mark. I don't even know what to say about it anymore, it just keeps rolling on.

 

Been another interesting week. Went on exchanges again, but I went to Weiser this time. We had a good time up here. In the 3 days I've been here we found a new person to teach, passed out 5 Book of Mormons, and committed someone to baptism (scheduled it for May 4th). It's been a good 3 days up here. Nice to get away from how things have been in Payette and have a change of pace. I'm happy to get back, there's something about the area your serving in, kind of a "my area" feel, but it's good to shake things up every so often.

 

4-22-13

 

Didn't get the above email out last week, spent the whole time emailing individuals I didn't get the general letter out. Here's the update with me.

 

Tore my PCL. Got a MRI last Tuesday and had the results today. The good news is that this is the least needed ligament in your knee. Said that it was only partially torn, and that through proper care and strengthening, I'll be back to normal in probably 4-6 weeks. Said there's college football players who have completely torn their PCL, so it's not that big a deal as long as I don't re injure it again. So the good news, I'm gonna be ok! It's been steadily getting better over the weeks, so I'll be fine.

 

Transfers are in 2 weeks, and I'm ready for them. Pretty sure I'm due for a transfer, and I kinda hope so. Mostly cuz of my companion (like usual). I love Elder Witbeck, he's an awesome guy, but over the past few weeks something's changed. I don't know if it's me, or him, or what, but things have changed. We've had a few heated arguments (over stupid things), he seems down and moody a lot more, and it's getting hard to deal with. I've tried to find out what's wrong and how I can help, but he just keeps using the line "no one understands my logic" or "you're not listening to me. If you were listening to me you'd think the way I do". Then when I try to understand his reasoning and figure out what it is he wants me to do he can't give me a straight answer. It really drives me crazy. I tried to tell him that we need to figure something out, cuz it's starting to get to me, but then he just says that I need to not let people get to me (which is funny, cuz he's always saying how he hates everyone and wishes they would just shape up. He's letting people get to him then telling me not to). but as a companion, and someone I spend 24/7 with, he affects me more than he realizes. It's amazing how much a companion and his attitude affects me. It's getting harder to deal with. It's been a good learning experience though. I'm learning how to deal with people and try to solve problems without getting angry (still working on that one). 2 weeks until transfers, I can do this.

 

Also decided I'm coming home early. President officially changed my release date to August 15. It was a hard decision, but I feel confident about it. (His original release date was Sept 15th, but classes start Aug 19th.  He'll come home and start right up with classes.)

 

Teaching's kinda going slow right now. We have about 20 names we're working with, but about half of them are single sisters who we don't have set appointments with. We can't really drop by and teach them. We can set up a return visit (which we do), but then when we go with a brother from the ward they cancel. That's how it's been for the past few weeks. It's really frustrating. We have all this potential, but it keeps cancelling. But I think we've taken steps to try to combat that. I don't think it'll be while I'm here, but I think this are will soon explode. It's really neat to see what's happened here. We went from having about 6 people we working with to about 20. 4 months of hard work has paid off. It's nice to step back and see some results. I always feel like I'm not doing enough or that there's more i could be doing, but then I step back and see what it is I have already done, it's interesting.

 

Well, that's pretty much it. Hurting my knee, getting canceled on, it's fun.

Take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

Been another week. What do I say about this week? It's been fun, I'll say that.

Went on exchanges with Elder Downey. Actually, the exchange lasted about 3 days. He's a pretty good friend of mine, and we just stuck together for longer. Usually it's just a 24 deal, but we made it longer. He's made me into a pyro too. He's the 1 who showed me how to set my hand on fire, and we spent most of our nights together playing with fire. I wish I could send videos, but the emails wont let me. I juggled fireballs. We took some alcohol and doused tennis balls in it then lit em up and juggled them! It was a little harder in the dark, wish we would have turned on our stove light, but it still looks pretty cool. Then we figured out what else we could do. Took one of those tennis balls, lit it on fire, then threw it at Elder Downey and lit him on fire. We put some alcohol on an old shirt, then when the tennis ball hit it lit up. He started flailing around and screaming, and it was hilarious (it didn't hurt, we made sure we knew what we were doing before we actually did it). It made one heck of a video.

Based on what we did, we decided to have a contest to see who could do the best with fire. This week (starting today) we're seeing who can take the best picture with fire. It's gonna be pretty fun. So if you hear about something burning down in Payette, it's probably us.

Been a slower week lesson wise. We had a good week planned, we were looking at 20 lessons. But just like weeks before all of them cancelled (most at the door) and we only taught about 9 or so. But this area's seen a lot of improvement. When I first got here, I didn't know anyone. There was no records kept (and I've not been the best at keeping them up to date either, but working on it), I didn't know if we even had any investigators (we prolly had 3-5 people we were teaching when I got here), and it was a mess. But I've been working to turn things around. I feel bad cuz I feel like I could be doing more, but looking at everything I've done here I've done a lot. I think we're up to like, 14 or so people we're working with. Struggling to meet with them all every week, but there's been a lot of growth in this area. This'll probably be my last transfer here. But I'm glad for the opportunity I had to serve here. It was hard, but there's been a lot gained I think.

6 days till I hit my 19 month mark... I feel so old. There's not many missionaries left that are older than me. But it's an exciting time to be a missionary. There's so many changes happening throughout the world. We've got about 3 months till our mission splits, that'll be exciting. I'm hoping to stay in the Nampa mission, but will go where I'm asked.

So what y'all think of conference? Amazing as usual. I really liked Elder Holland's talk. Usually I'm not a big fan of him (it's a bandwagon thing. Most every missionary idolizes him cuz he's so bold and fired up and all that), but I thought his talk was amazing and something I needed to hear.

Week 3 of the transfer, going by fast.

Take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

Suitcoat season is finally over!!! I can go around in my short sleeves now! I'm just a little excited about that one if ya can't tell.

This has been a very slow week. Don't know if that's cuz of spring break or not, but we're looking at a good week next week. Most of our people were out of town for the break or just cancelled their visit for one reason or another, nothing we're not used to. Next week we're hoping for 20 lessons. We've got a lot of set appointments. From about 4 on or so every weekday we're busy every hour. Weekends are typically slower for us, but weekdays are crazy busy.

Something I forgot from last week, I almost got a tree dropped on me. We were helping a member clear some elm trees, and while trying to move a particularly big one, I hear "LOOK OUT!! LOOK OUT!!" Look and there's a tree falling. Run out of the way just in time to not get hit, but it was a close call. Then a couple days later I get hit by a car. I'm just waiting to see what's gonna hit me next. Tree, car, what's next?
We were on a doorstep talking to a sister outside when the husband pulls up in the van. The whole yard could be the driveway pretty much, so he chooses to stop right behind me (2 feet or less). He's the jokester type, so I just ignore it, then he nudges me a couple times. So no need to worry, didn't have to go to the hospital or anything.

I really don't know what to say... I've never really been good at conversation. People are surprised when I tell them I haven't heard from y'all for about a month now. (This is so not true.  He gets a letter or e-mail every week.  I just think he wants more mail.)  How bout this, everyone sends me an email, then I reply to it. I can do that!

Anyway, take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

Staying in Payette another transfer! I'm both excited and not about that. We've been picking this area up like no other, but I was kinda hoping to go zone leader or just for some change, but it's whatever. They're redoing my district too. Before it was the sisters in Nyssa and us, but now we have us, the elders in Weiser (my best friend out this way), and the elders in McCall. McCall is 2 hours away though, so I've got a pretty big district. But it's gonna be good. Gonna be weird not having sisters in my district. Been 10 months or so since I've had a full elder district. I can actually do exchanges now.

We've had a pretty good week. These past 2 weeks have been the best we've seen in this area. Things are just exploding here. Not sure what it is, we're really not doing anything different than we had been, but all the work we're putting in is starting to show some results. We've found a bunch of new people to start working with.

My camera broke. The button to take pictures doesn't always go through. I can still take pictures, but takes a while sometimes. I'll send pics when I can, but I don't know how many more I'll be able to take.

 

Remember back when I set my hand on fire? I actually found a lesson to teach with that. I relate it to the atonement, and how we sometimes hold on to these things that hurt us (the fire). We let it stay so long it hurts us (still got some scars on my hand from the 1st time, was probably a 2nd degree burn after all). But there is a cure, the atonement of Christ. After I burned myself I put on a LOT of aloe to help it. I relate that to the atonement and how after we get burned, we can apply the healing balm of the atonement and take our pain away. We'll still have our scars, they remind us of where we've been, but they don't hurt anymore. Through the atonement we can be healed. What do you think of that lesson? Yes, I actually do set my hand on fire again when I do it. This has become one of my favorite lessons to teach people.

Well, gotta run now. Hope to hear from y'all soon!

Elder Blomquist

This has been an interesting week, I'll say that. It's felt long, but it's gone by quick. It's actually been one of our better weeks, we taught 15 lessons this week. Most our work is dealing with less actives, but that's alright. We've found a couple new people to teach. One is a less active, and another we know nothing about. They're members, been here for 9 months, yet nobody in the ward know who they are. This area's been dead for a while, but we're slowly bringing it back up. We've been doing a lot of work, I'm always amazed at how many lessons we teach a week compared to how many people we have to teach.

Transfers are coming up. It's in a week. I've only got 4 transfers left. Crazy to think that I may only have 1-2 more areas and 1-2 more companions.. I think I'm gonna stay another with Elder Witbeck, but we'll see what happens.

Have some food stories. That's one of the only problems I have serving in Idaho, the food is all normal. So that means we have to go and make our stories happen. We had a member offer us a cow tongue. Another member we're close with works at a BBQ place, so she smoked it up for us. It was pretty good. It kinda tasted like a mix between beef and pork. Was better fresh though, it didn't reheat very well. Also tried cow liver. Same family that gave us the tongue gave us the liver. The liver wasn't that good though. So now I can say I've eaten most of a cow now actually. Had the oysters, the tongue, liver, and steaks. Can also add pickled pigs feet to the list.

Had our house inspections this week. We won a grand prize! It was pretty cool, only took 18 months. Not that I was trying before, but it's cool to get it once.

well, that's about it as far as this email goes.

Take care!

Elder Blomquist

 

 

 

18 month mark tradition - burn a pair of pants.

 

My usual P- Day Crew
(from left)   Elder Witbeck, Elder Blomquist, Elder Andelin (in the suit), and Elder Downey