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