Hola hola!!

¿Cómo está todo? Espero qué todo bien!

Well.... What to talk about this week....On Friday we had an awesome volleyball game! We have been playing
volleyball on Friday nights with some less-actives and some
non-members, and also some active members! It is some gooood
volleyball! Some of these Hispanics, mostly Peruvians, are super good!
We have some tight games and it is so much fun!! We have also been
able to get to know our members and less-actives so much better and
have been able to show the non-members that we really are just normal
people. It's honestly the best!

We had interviews with President Morgan and training with the APs
basically all of Thursday and then we went to visit with Rosa and her
cute girls! She always makes this amazing drink called Atole con Nuez.
It's like this milk and cinnamon drink with pecans crushed up in it
and it's hot. It's Delicious! And flan haha yummy! We basically can't
leave her house, or anyone else's without eating or drinking
something! Haha anyways!!

So, we had like a make it or break it lesson with Oriana yesterday.
She hasn't been progressing in the way we want her to. We have been
waiting for her husband to come on board because that is what she said
is the problem. But we received this awesome revelation through a role
play that we needed to explain to her that she will have to do it by
herself first but that she won't be alone. We had an amazingly
spiritual lesson with her and Fila and we feel really good about it!
It taught me that we sometimes need to take a different approach to
our missionary work. The Lord always knows how we can improve and how
we need to change, so he puts us in situations where we have to force
ourselves to change.

Like in the story of the Father of Lamoni. He has so much faith in
Aaron that he tells him that he will give up his entire kingdom to
know God and that he will believe anything Aaron tells him. After this
amazing act of faith, we know, that the people all become converted
and change their name to the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's. These people have so
much faith in God that they go out to battle against their own
brothers and kneel on the ground with no weapons and many of them are
killed. But, through that act of great faith and submitting their will
to their Father's, thousands of Lamanites were converted to The Lord.
Sometimes we have to take that leap of Faith and fall to our knees
when those trials come and just completely submit our will to that of
our Lord and Savior. I testify that He will pick you right back up and
carry you through the trial, if you let Him.

I love you all so much and I know that our Brother is just waiting for
you to get in your knees and ask Him for His help. I know that it can
be hard sometimes but with Christ, EVERYTHING is so much easier. I
love you and I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Hermana Jessica Bloxham :)

PS: shout out to the Bingham Minerettes going to state! You are going
to KILL it!! ;)

We did baptisms with our recent converts and with fila and the youth
and some members! It was awesome!

Group at the temple 

 President Morgan with his new suit and jersey
signed by all of us for his birthday! With the APs.

Elder Bloxham - Happy!!!

I am so happy. I don't understand why i am.. Well actually i do, haha and i'll tell you why. The Gospel of Jesus Christ will change your life. Studying the scriptures, and praying and gaining that relationship with our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ really and truly will change your life!

We have been teaching a lot!! There are days when we can't even stop in for lunch because we are traveling around and teaching! I love it so much because it strengthens my testimony each and every time. For some stupid reason, we have been teaching so much about the dang God Head. People just don't get it. We always bring it back to the Book of Mormon, but they won't read it. It is the most frustrating thing ever! Jennifer, (Believes in the trinity hard core) said that she hasn't been told by God to read it. Rob Losher reads Doctrine & Covenants... Gosh dangit... and wants to know about Joseph Smith, and we tell him it starts with The Book of Mormon! But that is always what it comes back to! The Book of Mormon. It has power! It's the other witness that Jesus is the Christ, that he lives and still loves us! He loves us enough to allow us to have Prophets, and know that we can receive revelation in these latter days. But, if nobody reads it, they will never know. Moroni 10 tells us that if we read it with real intent having faith in christ, the truth will be manifest to us by the power of the Holy Ghost, and by the power of the Holy Ghost we will know the truth of all things! I invite everybody to take that challenge. If you know for a fact it's true, do it again. If you don't know for sure if it is or not, take the challenge! If you don't want to read it and never will, do it, because the windows of heaven will open up and pour out blessings that are so amazing that you will not have room to receive it! I invite this to all because i love you and i know it will bless you :)

The Sowards didn't come to church again... They play sports on sundays and it is hard for them to change. Sister Sowards (Sam and Sydney's mom, less active) wants to come so so bad, but we think that she is scared because she knows that she will not be able to turn her back again. But we only know of the blessings she will receive and the love the ward has for them, will help them so much. They are praying and we are praying for them to gain the strength the make it to church and to feel of the wonderful spirit that is always felt there!

This Sunday we taught in the Priests Quorum. We showed them all of our awesome object lessons so when they go on a mission they will be able to use them. Elder Rose and i have found that object lessons are the best! Everybody loves them, it gets them involved, and it shows them and lets them experience instead of us just telling them. I love it!

I feel i have shared my peace, it was a long one today, i'm sorry! Hope i didn't bore you too bad!

I love you all so very much and wish blessing to be upon all of you! :)

Godspeed!!!!

Elder Bloxham

Hermana Bloxham - What a week!

Hey everybody!

I hope you have all had an amazing week! Isn't it crazy how fast time
flies?! I can't believe it!

This week was amazing! I don't even know where to start!

This week we got to see Rosa again! We went to this thing called
Breakfast on Ferris with her and we met her brother! Who is also not a
member. We talked to him and come to find out that he has never let
the missionaries talk to him before! He said he was always mean to
them and thought it was a waste of time. But that he felt the desire
in his heart to listen to us that day! His name is Marino Carpinteyro.
He is legit! We think he might even get baptized with Rosa when she
gets baptized! He has been living in New Jersey but got in with a bad
crowd and did a lot of bad stuff, but he snapped out of it and is
ready to make a change in his life (it's always the best when that
happens haha). So he just came to visit his sister and she told him
that he needs to get to know Christ. So he asked us how he can do
that. We were like, holy gold mine here right? Haha. So we told him
about the power of prayer and the ability we have to talk to our
Father in Heaven whenever we want to. He said that he only prays when
he is in basically like dire situations. We also gave him a Book of
Mormon. He started reading it right there! He says, "Rosa says that
she will finish it in 3 months, but I'll be done with it in 1" haha.
So that got Rosa ready to be reading it as well I hope! He is looking
for an apartment in white plains somewhere so hopefully he finds one
soon so we can legit teach him! He is AWESOME! He and Rosa and her 3
girls all came to all 3 hours of church Sunday too! It was sweet!

We talked to Rosa about baptism again! She said that's she needs to be
totally sure that this is where they want to be baptized but I know it
is. Everyone at church knows them all and loves them, they love coming
to church, and they are so ready for baptism. We are going to be
teaching about baptism this week and explaining what it means to the
girls and invite them to pray about a date! I hope they will do it! I
am so excited about them!

Also, we have our favorite person in the world re-activated! Fila got
her recommend to do baptisms! We are going to the temple to do
baptisms with her and the other recent converts and re-activated
members on Saturday! I am STOKED!! Honestly so excited!!

It is so amazing to see someone come back to church! You can see a
change in their entire lives when they make that change to come back,
no matter what happens. I have learned so much from the people here in
White Plains and I can't even imagine moving to a different area! I
have spent way over half of my mission here so far and it has been
amazing!

I know that The Lord puts us in situations and in the lives of others
to bless them and bless us with their gifts and talents. So, I
challenge all of you to USE all of your talents, and search out more
of them every day! Help others with things they can't do for
themselves and they will do the same for you. I love you all so much
and so does you're Father in Heaven and his Son Jesus Christ. I hope
you all have an amazing week!

Love Always,

Hermana Jessica Bloxham :)

At filas house with her dog. Ya it's sickly. Literally it's like
dying.....sad right? Haha

Cutting off the first part of my hair

Pics of the snowy day

Cute little girls. Maria, Zayda, and Zula! Our investigator Rosa's
girls :) we were playing hangman haha

This is a drawing by sister Livingston of one of the elders in our
zone! He is the basketball player, the missionary, and the guy with
the chicken wings and wild wings jersey haha

Elder Bloxham - Head for the Boro's!!!!!

This week was AMAZING!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh, so many miracles and so many amazing lessons went so well! We have a lot of people getting closer and closer to baptism, we are totally stoked for that! Sam and Sydney are doing great, Stevan is doing great, Mike and his daughters are doing great as well! All those people, potentially, could be baptized in February!!! Ahh, that would be so amazing!! 

             

We taught 15 member Present lessons this week, and had 23 total lessons! We were on fire!! we had 7 Member Presents in one day!? It was amazing!!!! The members really help us out a ton here, and i love going out with them. We always have amazing experiences with them, that is probably why they love it so much!

We are getting the youth involved as well! Last Wednesday we went to Mutual with Stevan, and we played a game called Bloodball. Which is a free-for-all dodgeball. You run around and try and get everybody out. So i won the first game and then everybody made a truce with all of there quorums. The Priest were going after me, the Deacons were going after me, and the Teachers were going after me! So right when i would get the ball i would have to go crazy on a killing spree or else they would all go after me! hahah, "Get Bloxham!!" Then at church they said, "Lets play Bloodball for Mutual this wednesday and it's going to be everyone against Bloxham! haha it was so much fun though! Stevan calls himself a Priest and is pretty much already a member. He just wont get baptized that stinker!

There are so many wonderful people in the Boro and I love it!!

I love you all so so so very much

Godspeed!

-Elder Bloxham

Hermana Bloxham - "You found the claws only weakness... Subzero temperatures!"

Hey everybody!

Well, this week has been awesome! We got a new investigator- online!
She lives in Chile! Her name is Maria José but she likes to be called
Kote. She is 20 years old and she is awesome! She already knows what
the Holy Ghost feels like and has a testimony of the Book of Mormon!
It's awesome! I'm sad that we won't be able to see her get baptized or
be coming to church or anything because she lives in Chile, but we are
here using Facebook to get her in contact with the missionaries in her
area and go to church with them. She was a referral from Jessica
Wilcock, who taught her while she was on her mission in Chile! Sweet
right? I'll keep you updated on her for sure! :)

So this week we didn't get the chance to teach Oriana or Rosa! ¡Qué
raro! But we finally stopped by Rosas house yesterday and set up an
appointment for Thursday so she is still doing good! We are still
planning on inviting them to be baptized on a certain date next time
so keep them in your prayers! Oriana also wrote us back and we are
going to see her on Thursday as well. I'm really excited to see her
again!

Last Wednesday we went to the city! We went to Time Square and the
Rockafeller Center. We were going to try to go up and see the view but
it cost too much money.. Sad. It was -10ish degrees when we were down
in the city. Pretty chilly! It was super fun! I hope you go all of the
pictures from that last week! We got to go to the m&m store and the
Disney store and Hershey's and some other places that I can't remember
right now... Haha. Anyways!

We had an amazing experience this week with a Less-active member in
our area. A little background story, she was baptized a while ago,
went inactive probably like 3-5 years ago. She has two older sons who
are in their 20-30s who were also baptized and are now less-active as
well. BUT, she has 3 younger sons, 14,12, and 9. They are Active. They
come to church every week, they help pass the sacrament, and they stay
for all 3 hours, without their parents at all. Pretty amazing. So, we
go visit the 3 boys sporadically and we would see the mom, but she
didn't want to talk to us. So we didn't try to push her at all. The
other day I was on Facebook and I saw that she was online! Usually I
would just pass over it, but I felt like I should talk to her. So I
basically just said, hey how is everything going? She told me it
wasn't too good. She had been having health problems and in and out of
the hospital. I asked her if she wanted a Priesthood blessing...
Hoping we could help her. She said yes right away, and we planned to
go over there that night. We called the elders, went over and.... they
forgot their oil... So we left Maria with a prayer and planned to come
back the next morning with oil, for sure. As we were walking out of
the house, I just had this feeling come over me that she is completely
ready to change. She has been humbled, maybe by her circumstances, and
she recognizes that through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, she can be
healed and changed. I have never felt the spirit so strong with a
less-active member, ever. We went back over the next day and talked
about faith. Faith in the healing power of the Priesthood but also the
faith to not be healed if that is the will of our Father in Heaven. It
was a really powerful, spiritual experience. She said that she knows
that she hasn't been doing the things she knows she needs to do and
that she really wants to change. She said she wanted to come to church
again. So we invited her to come that day and she came! It was an
amazing experience for me! The Lord has truly prepared her and given
her trials or hardships to help her see that she needs to change. El
Señor sabe como hacer sus cosas! Haha. We are now going to go visit
her on Thursdays and have a noche de hogar or family home evening with
them every week! The Lord works in mysterious ways, but I know that it
is Always for our benefit and well-being.

I know that, as I said last week, we are all being refined and put
under pressure to make us into the perfect diamonds that God wants us
to become. That is why we have the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know
that he truly suffered for each one of us individually and died for us
so that we can be "lifted up to the father"(3 Nephi 27:14). I know
this because I have experienced this change in my life and I can't
explain how amazing the feeling is to be clean again. I hope to help
people to be able to feel of that love and lightness of our burdens
being lifted from our shoulders (Mosiah 24:10-16).

I love you all so much and I hope that you will all accept the love of
our Savior and repent and be changed for the better.

Love,

Hermana Jessica Bloxham :)

PS: if you know where that quote is from, your awesome! ;)

Roommates in Times Square

Elder Bloxham - Transfers!!

It was crazy to get transferred out of Dayton, but i'm excited for what is to come! I am now serving in Springboro, OH, which is in the Middletown zone, still in the Dayton Stake, which is awesome because i love President Velincia and he's got an awesome missionary plan.
  

Springboro is pretty much awesome! It is a mix between Winchester and West Chester, which is funny, haha but it has members in the boonies, as well as in the rich city. But the amazing part is that the ward is very missionary minded. We have so many members coming out with us and calling us letting us know that they are available to teach with us and what not. Last week we had 13 member present lessons! That is amazing!!! I credit that to the amazing ward and the eagerness to join the missionary force! "This is the time for members and missionaries to come together" President Monson. We need to heed the call of our beloved Prophet. He wants the members and the missionaries to come together and do the work.

We put a wonderful family on date yesterday! Sam and Sydney Soward. Sam is 10 and Sydney is 13, and their mom is a less active, quickly becoming active. They are awesome! Their grandpa, who lives in Salt Lake is going to fly in and baptize them! It's amazing!!!

My companion's name is Elder Rose, from West Jordan, UT!!! haha small world! He is 18, which is crazy because i'm fetchin old now... I remember being like oh yeah i'm 18, and way young.. not anymore, i'm an old fart in this mission!! haha! But Elder Rose is awesome, he has been out for 3 months, and i love him to death! He's quiet, but when it's just the two of us, we laugh our butts off!

I love you guys so so so very much!!! Jessi, you are amazing as well :) Keep wurrkin girl!

Godspeed

Elder Bloxham

New companion Elder Rose

Hermana Bloxham - Oooh cold!

Hey guys!

Well, what do I talk about this week? Yesterday they had a leadership
training meeting for the zone leaders  and sister training leaders in
Scarsdale so I got to go and talk to all my old companions! Stringam,
Cole, and Brog! It was super good! We found out that we are going to
have a "sisters devotional" sometime soon for all of the sister
missionaries in our mission! That will be awesome! Something cool that
is happening, there is a youth fireside in Yorktown and guess who is
coming to speak? Sister Elaine S. Dalton and Elder Hollands son! Isn't
that sweet?! It's only for youth so we are trying to figure out how we
can get an investigator to go so we can go haha. I want to see Elaine
S. Dalton super bad!

Anyways, it has been pretty freezing! Especially yesterday and today!
Yesterday with the windchill it was -13! It like freezes your face
right off and whatever isn't covered is like frozen in 5 seconds! It's
nuts! We are blessed to have a car! Even though it doesn't get warm
until we get to our destination, but at least it's not out in the wind
right? Haha. I didn't even know this coldness existed! It's crazy! We
are going to try to walk around the city today though haha. We are
going to time square and hopefully we'll be in and out of warm stores
so it won't be too bad, and we are going to try to get on the top of
the Rockefeller Building and get some cool pictures! I hope we don't
freeze our buns right off! No me importa, I love the city! Haha

 We finally got to see people and teach them this week! The holidays
have been nuts! These Hispanics have more parties than we do, and I
thought we were crazy haha. They have this tradition that the 3 Wise
Men bring them gifts on the 6th of January. They call it "el día de
los reyes magos". It's pretty cool! The wise men bring gifts, kinda
like Santa clause but I have found that they save the best gifts for
the wise men! Which is pretty cool! I like that whole idea of the wise
men bringing Jesus gifts, so they celebrate that day by giving gifts
just like them. They also have this tradition that they have some kind
of bread that they buy and it has little "muñecas" or dolls/plastic
babies inside the bread and each person cuts off a piece and eats it
and if you have a doll in your piece you have to bring food to a party
that they have on February 2nd. Haha and sometimes they even have a
party for each person that gets a doll, which is sometimes a ton! Haha
parties for days!!

We got to go see Oriana, and we actually ate lunch with her husband
Vidal! It was a huge blessing! It was a huge step in the right
direction and hopefully we can help him take some little steps as he
is ready and start to take the lessons. We are basically waiting on
him to allow the rest of his family to get baptized. Oriana doesn't
want to do it alone and without him so that's the holdup right now I
guess. Oriana is so ready! For sure! On the Lords time I guess right?

Well, I hope you all had an awesome "Día de los Reyes" even though you
didn't know about it hahaha. I love you guys so much and pray for you
everyday! I want you to know that God loves you and he knows you
perfectly, so if you are going through something hard and sometimes
wonder why, it's because He is refining you and making you into
something even more beautiful than you were before.(D&C 128:24) Have
patience and know that He is there to watch over and protect you from
all harm. He loves you, and I love you and I know that through the
Atonement everything is possible!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Jessica Bloxham :)

Roommates in Yonkers!

 Acting like girls taking pics. Johnson left, Durham right

This is of Ferris Ave. We have like 7 members that live here and a few
investigators too haha it's like Mexican central!

Pictures from trip to the city....

It's colddd! Weird pic but it's ok haha

Elder Bloxham - Happy New Year!!!!!

Hello family, it's 2014!! That is so crazy and so awesome!! I've been out a little over 10 months which is pretty nuts as well! But this year is going to be a goal filled, amazing 2014 that i will get a whole year to work my butt off and change a lot of peoples lives!! What a privilege!

This week has been pretty awesome! I love it so much, the work is going great, the weather is absolutely freezing (-5) and we are bundled up playing basketball at the church! What better way to spend a day that is freezing playing basketball right? haha, well we started a new finding technique. We are going to invite all of the people we meet to play basketball with us. Then give them a tour of the chapel and allow them to feel the spirit, and it will be amazing! But we will see what happens. Something pretty awesome this morning, it was -5 so we boiled some water and threw it outside and it turned into mist! it was so awesome!!!! I've only seen that on videos, but now we did it in real life! it was sweet!

I've been told that i might be getting transferred, members think so, and other missionaries do, so i'll keep you posted, we find out this Wednesday.

I love you all so much and i have a constant prayer in my heart!

Godspeed

Elder Bloxham

Hermana Bloxham - HaPpY nEw YeArS!!

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Wow, I can't believe that it's 2014 today! I hope you all had an
awesome, fun, and safe New Years Eve! Now I can say I spent New Years
in New York! But I was asleep haha... It's ok though! We got to go
over to a members house and help her make chicken chipotle with cactus
and potatoes for her New Years party they were going to haha. It
looked super good, but it wasn't done by the time we had to go home..
So we are going to go pick some of it up today! I'm super excited!

This week has been slow going for sure. We have looked up a lot of
people, potentials, less-actives, former investigators and almost
every person told us, oh ya come over after the new year.... Yeah so
we haven't had many lessons this week. Hopefully it will pick up like
crazy after this new year! We did see a miracle this week! We went up
to the top of our area, it's called Valhalla, to look up less-actives.
We went by this one house to look up someone named Alexandra. We
talked to her relative (at least I think they are related) and talked
to her and invited her to church. We didn't get to talk to Alexandra.
The next day at church we had an entire family of less-actives at
church that we have never talked to, and this young girl that I have
never met. Come to find out, it was Alexandra, the one we were looking
for the night before! She came to church! It was awesome! ¡Que
Milagro! ;)

Well, the other day I was thinking about my resolutions or as they
call it in Spanish mis deseos(my desires) for the coming year. What
can I do to be better? How do I make meaningful goals but also
achievable ones? So of course, I searched resolutions on LDS.org and
found a talk about making goals. I read the talk from President
Uchtdorf on regrets and resolutions. It was really good! The part I
liked the most was that we should find joy in the journey. If there
are goals that are making you miserable, change them! Our resolutions
are supposed to make us happier! Don't regret this year for any
reason! He said "To avoid some of the deepest regrets of life, it
would be wise to make some resolutions today. Therefore, let us:
• Resolve to spend more time with those we love.
• Resolve to strive more earnestly to become the person God wants us to be.
• Resolve to find happiness, regardless of our circumstances."
So, I bet you have already made some "deseos" for your new year but I
challenge you all to go through them and see if they fit the criteria
that President Uctdorf has given us. I know that if we follow the
teachings of the prophet and his counselors, we will be blessed, and
we will actually be able to complete our resolutions by next year!
Also, just like President Gordon B. Hinkley invited us to do a few
years ago, read the Book of Mormon. Read it everyday day as a part of
your resolutions! I know that as Joseph Smith said, "it is the most
correct of any book on earth, and a man can come nearer to God by
abiding by its precepts than by any other book". I love the Book of
Mormon and I know it is true. It Will bless your lives. It will bring
you closer to Christ. It will make you happier.

I love you all so much and I am so thankful for the gifts and the
support that I have received from each of you so thank you!

Love,

Hermana Jessica Bloxham :)

Elder Bloxham - Miracles!!!!

Hello family!!! :) I'm so excited to talk to you all today and share with you the work of the Lord!

        

Elder Litster and i have been praying for a miracle to happen. We have had about 3 weeks straight of struggles and haven't seen anything happen. We were still diligent in our work, being obedient, and studying hard. But it seemed that nothing would pay off! Miracles work according to the one who provides them, which is when i become the most patient. it's not on my time, it's on the Lords time. But i can tell you all, that our Father in Heaven answers prayers. On his time, not our time. So if you are ever struggling with that, just know that he will. He does answer your prayers, sometimes he just has to prepare you with a trial first... :)

 

Sometime last week we got a call from a lady and her name is Pam Vesey. She recently moved from Oklahoma and was talking to the missionaries there, so she told the missionaries that when she moves she wants to continue the discussions. That is when she contacted us and told us she wanted to meet. She has been having the hardest time, and is going through a terrible divorce. She was married for 20 years, and never had a thought about divorce, and when it finally came, she broke down. She called us Sunday morning at 9:15 asking for the address to the church and told us she's be there. (little side note, we hadn't talked with her for 2 weeks up until this point because she told us she'd call when she was ready.) So she showed up to church and we talked for about 20 minutes then it started. She loved sacrament meeting, and then we had a wonderful discussion in gospel principles with her about Heavenly Father. Then, because it is the 5th sunday, President Velincia, (Stake President) came and gave us a little training. It was very simple, and very amazing. He talked about the language of prayer, and how to bear correct testimony. After church Pam asked us to give her a Priesthood blessing. She didn't know what that meant but she was told by her cousin that she would need one. So we pulled her into a side room and explained to her what was going to happen. She then asked me to give her the blessing. I gave her the blessing and after it she turned around and said "Elder Bloxham, i know this is the true church. You guys have the Priesthood Authority and i know it." What a miracle! She wants to get baptized as soon as she is ready. She is reading the Book of Mormon, and we are meeting with her tomorrow to discuss it more. She also told us, "I think God has prepared me, and it is my time."

 

Heavenly Father answers prayers! he lives, as well as his son! They are constantly watching out for us and want the best for us always. They know you individually, and will individually bless you! :)

 

My love goes out to everybody that is going through a struggle and a hard time right now, and i want to say i know how it feels. But more important, Christ knows. The Atonement is for everyone!

 

I love you and Godspeed!!

 

Elder Bloxham