This week is gonna be a crazy week. There's an Elder from a neighboring area who just got sent to Mexico today, so his comp is rolling with is for a week. We're covering 3 towns, Payette, Fruitland, and Weiser now. It's gonna be interesting juggling 2 areas, but I'm excited. Elder Downey (the 1 rolling with us) is a cool guy, we're gonna have so much fun.

My ear's been acting up again. It started 13 months ago, and is starting to bother me again. It feels clogged and kinda amplifies sound (specially base) and makes my head and stomach hurt a bit. I'm thinking about calling it in, but part of me doesn't want to do that. Last time there wasn't really anything they could do about it.

Next transfers gonna be an interesting one. It's gonna be 5 weeks instead of the normal 6. That means I'm gonna go home a week early. Transfer calls are on Saturday, so that'll be exciting to see. Transfers are always a time of high anxiety and excitement. Part of me wants to stay, this area still needs a lot of work, but this has also been my hardest area and I'm eager to leave these memories behind. But I'll do what I'm asked to do, that's just the way things go. I think God has a sense of humor, so if I did get transferred it'd probably be to a harder area or a harder companion = P .

I need to be going now. I'll have some pictures next week (forgot my computer plug thing). Hope to hear from y'all soon!

Elder Blomquist

February already... in about a week and a half I'll have 17 months out...

Saturday was pretty awesome. Elder Christofferson was pretty amazing. He's become one of my top 3. He emphasized the importance of the Book of Mormon in our work, and it really gave me some guidance and direction. I need to do a better job about using the Book of Mormon, now I just need to figure out how to do that.


The general authorities are all pretty funny. Elder Christofferson has a small print triple combination, and Elder Ballard has a standard size. Elder Ballard said "I'm amazed at Elder Christofferson's small book. I don't think it has everything in it mine does (holds up standard size book)". They bantered back and forth about that the rest of the meeting, it was pretty funny.

We've spent a lot of time this week with the active members. Trying to get to know the people so they can know us and trust us and we can move the work forward. We're making progress with our investigators I feel, but it's slow. There's a less active we've been teaching, and she just loves us. We've split a lot of wood for her (I love splitting wood) and talked about the church a lot, and she just loves us. She came to church yesterday too. She's got a problem with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, she says "we have one testament of Jesus Christ (New Testament) why do we need another one?" Has a few other problems too, mostly things that Christ said "don't do" that was ok at certain points (mostly Nephi killing Laban and polygamy). She says "Christ said no, so why was it ok?" I think she's coming around though. It's been rough at times, I've had to be pretty patient with her, but it's been working. She keeps telling us she's grateful we're so patient with her. I guess I'm doing something right = P

Elder Martinez and I are getting along. We get along, but I don't feel we work well together. We haven't really had many teaching opportunities, it's mostly to active members where I share the vision I have, but we get along alright. I'm ready for a change though. I've had companions who I get along with, but we don't work well together, companions we don't get along but work well together, just not a companion who we get along AND work well together, I'm ready for that. President in interviews told me "yes, you've had a lot of rough companionships, but you're a leader, and you're good at it." I was reading "Jesus the Christ" recently and it talked about the importance of a name and what it meant to the Hebrews. I thought back to my name (Richard) and what it means (powerful leader/ruler). Thanks for that one = P

Well, that's pretty much my week. It's week 5 of the transfer, only this one then next to go before the next transfer, time's just flying by. It always seems to go by so fast. Should have some pictures coming soon!

Take care!

Elder Blomquist

My District

From left to right: Elder Macfarlane, Elder Blomquist, Elder Nicholls, Elder Shumway, Elder Fernandez, Elder Crosby, Sister Cline, Sister Huffman.  Kneeling in front: Elder Mitchell and Elder Witbeck

I think we've had a decent week this week. We taught more lessons than we have any other week, it's been kinda nice. I'm still trying to learn who's who in the area, but I think I'm getting it down. I know mostly how to get around, but I still would probably get lost looking around.

We've got some interesting people we're teaching. We were teaching the plan of salvation to someone, and they surprised me. Usually the idea of having a body in the afterlife and all that gets people excited, this guy was like "that's not appealing to me. But maybe I'm wrong, maybe we will have our bodies and I'll be surprised". He has a lot of questions. When we taught about Adam and Eve he asked how it was they couldn't have children in the garden. How are you supposed to answer that? We tried to explain it as best we could, but there's no real proof I guess on that, it's all just speculation, which does no one any good. I want to tell him these things don't matter, but they're concerns he has so I don't feel right in saying that. It's been interesting working with him, he has such a different view of the things of eternity.

I think the area is starting to pick up a bit. We've been working to gain the trust of the leadership, and it'll go uphill from there. It'll take some time to get things rolling again, but I'll probably be here a while to get things going. There's still a lot of improvements that need to be made, both personally and work wise, but things should pick up here in the next few weeks.

I'm excited for this Saturday. We're having some general authorities come and speak to us! We're getting Elder M. Russell Ballard and Elder D. Todd Christofferson, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, President Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Craig A. Cardon of the Seventy and Bishop Gerald Causee, First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric! It's gunna be pretty sweet, I'm excited for it. We had Elder Ballard speak to us last year, so we get to hear him again. I'm excited for this!


Well, that pretty much sums things up. Things are improving here, but at a slow pace. Hopefully we can get things rolling pretty soon. I've almost got all the tools I need to do it, now i just need to buck up and do it.

Take care everyone!

Elder Blomquist

Been another week like last week. Had the fewest lessons this week than I have in the last 8 months. Elder Martinez is so done. Part of it's my fault, I haven't said " let's go!" We've got interviews with President Cannon on Wednesday, so I'm going to talk to him about it then.

Went back to Nampa last Saturday. One of the people I taught got baptized. Was good to see. Taught him most of the lessons and was hoping I didn't go too far so I could see it.

Funny thing happened at church yesterday. there was a kid sitting in front of us, and he kept sticking things in his ear. First it was a brown crayon. He put it in there and let it sit for like, 10 mins. Then he took it out and replaced it with a toy battleaxe and then put a lance in the other ear. It was really funny, couldn't stop laughing for a while.

 

Take care!

 

Elder Blomquist

16 Months Today!

16 months today! Can you believe it's been that long? Seems like a blink of an eye.

Payette is gonna be a struggle, my biggest yet I think. The elders before me didn't take care of this area very well. All our records were trashed, I don't know who our investigators are, I have a companion who's only got 3 months left and doesn't care much anymore, it's a struggle. I feel like my mind has been shutting down lately. For the past 13 months I've been the driving force behind the companionship. It's be me to say "let's work" and where to go, even when my comp has been in the are longer than me. I'm getting tired of it and don't know what to do.

But the area's alright. It's small, but that's kinda a nice change at the moment. I don't wanna stay though. This has been a hard week on me mentally, and I'm ready for another change. We haven't really done much since my companion is ready to be done, but there's some good people out here.

 

I don't know what else... Things have just been hard and I'm ready for a break. Hope everything is going good for y'all.

 

Elder Blomquist

Got Transferred

So I did get transferred. I went to Payette, a small town on the Idaho/Oregon border. I went from a town of 80,000 to one of 7,000. It's gonna be a pretty big change. I'm excited though. It's bittersweet to leave Nampa though. Especially when the Bishop announced that I was leaving the area and everyone said their goodbyes at church. IT really did feel like home. But I got a new adventure ahead of me, new challenges, new people, new everything.

so before I forget, here's the new address.

 

1106 1/2 2nd ave s

Payette, ID 83661

It's a nice little place. It's pretty much our own house.

 

My comp is Elder Martinez. He's from Peru, but lives in Utah. It's only the 1st day, but I think we'll get along. He was a Spanish elder who went English, so he doesn't speak the best English, but I can understand him pretty well.

Little bit from my last week in Nampa, we had 3 baptisms on Saturday. 1 was a YSA (young single adult) who we've been teaching for a few weeks. We actually moved up her baptism a week, and it was good to see before I took off. 2 were some kids that didn't get baptized at 8, so we had to come teach. They were supposed to get baptized in September, but the step dad wanted to baptize them, but wasn't married and living together yet, so he couldn't till that happened, and then one thing after another just piled up to push it back. It finally happened and was good to see. There's another baptism on the 19th that I'll be able to go back and see, so I got lucky on that 1.

 

I'm nervous about the area though. Elder Shumway was a struggle for me. Had to teach him people skills, and it was hard to deal with at times. One example is that we would go over to members house for dinner and he would belch at the dinner table. That one didn't last long, I got on him pretty quick about that one. But also the Elder who's coming in with him, I'm nervous about him as well. I don't know much about him, but I know he's one I would not want to serve with. Nampa just feels like home, so I don't wanna see it go down the drain.

 

It's been a long time since I've packed my bags. I've accumulated so much stuff... I came to Nampa with 1 1/2 suitcases, I left with 3 bulging suitcases. I probably will send some home (eventually).

Well, I'm out of things to say... 1st day in an area is always interesting. 1st week too for that matter. we'll see what this week brings.

Elder Blomquist