Hermana Bloxham -

Hey everybody!

So this week we had an awesome APF, which is when we all go somewhere
and try to contact or find new people to teach. This week we did shoe
shining and gave away free lemonade! It was sooo legit! I'll send
pics! I have like 119 pictures and a couple videos from it haha. I
taught 5 people about the BoM and gave at least 10 BoM's out to
people! It was legit! Lots of people came and participated and we
taught a lot of lessons! It was sweet!

We've been feeling better. Not super good but better. Enough to go out
and work, at least try to work haha. I've been super tired, but we've
been able to see lots of good stuff this week! We went on a split with
some sisters in Chinatown and we were going to meet them at 59th
street train station. So we get there and are waiting for them... Then
they give us a call and say that they were on the complete other side
of Columbus circle and Central Park. So we waited for like 40 minutes
for them to find their way back to the train station and find us. We
got to watch so many funny people! It was soooo funny! We saw like 3
people get arrested, we saw a guy that thought something dropped on
his head and he started shaking his head like crazy, a lady dressed
like a prostitute/hooker doing a guided tour for all these super old
ladies and men..., and just people being New Yorkers. It was the best!
I'll send a few pics of the scenery haha. Then the sisters came and
they were like, "I mean we don't get to see New York at night so we
were taking pictures!" So we both got some good times out of it haha.
Gotta love New York!

This week we also got to go help with an art exhibit thing at the
church! It was really pretty cool! They had Irish dancers, music
concerts, rappers, sculptures, food contests, and art gallery. It was
super cool! There were actually quite a few people that came! It was
fun! One of our less actives came and loved it! I love activities like
that because they can bring people to the church without any strings
attached. It was sweet!

We also got a super awesome referral from a lady in the English ward,
for one of her friends who has a family that is interested in learning
more! They speak English and Spanish, but the husband prefers Spanish
so we got to teach them! We only met them once, but we are going over
there tomorrow to teach them for the first time! We have seen tons of
miracles this week! We gave a planning and goal setting training with
the zone leaders in our zone Saturday. It was really really good.
It is so cool how much more I learned than what we taught about. I
learned about how much God really should be in our everyday lives, and
how setting goals in life that will stretch you can push you and allow
you to reach things that we never thought possible in our lives! It
was really awesome for me!

In district meeting I had a really cool revelation or thought while we
were talking about the Holy Ghost. We were talking about how when we
teach we should teach by the spirit, not in front of or behind, but
next to the spirit. I had a thought that sometimes we take turns who
is in the front. A lot of times we have to take the first steps by our
own knowledge before the spirit will give us the help that we need. It
applied to a flock of birds flying in a V. The bird at the front takes
the brunt of the work while he is up there and works hard to make it
easier for the rest of the birds, then he flies back as another bird
takes his place, that is like us and the spirit. We work first, then
the spirit takes over and let's us draft behind him as he is doing the
work, but we can't stay there forever because the spirit needs a break
too, so as we go throughout life, sometimes we have to take he first
steps, but then let the spirit take over and guide us where we need to
go. We need to act in faith first. It was really a cool thing for me
to learn about that!

 I love you guys and I challenge you to make goals to push yourselves
to become better. And to do it in faith, then let the spirit take it's
turn and guide your lives!

I love you all so much!

Love,

Hermana Jessica Bloxham

Shoe Shining and Random Pictures of New York

Elder Bloxham - CTR

This week has been so awesome! I'm so excited to write and let you know that I'm staying another transfer! Elder Hanks and I will be together one more!!!!!! Woooohhh!!! But the whole zone is getting split up! We are going to have a completely new zone this next transfer, and that is going to be awesome! :) Hate to see them go, but I love to watch them leave to change, learn and grow! ;)

 

This past week we had 6 baptisms in the zone! That came up to a grand total of 8 this month for the zone, so that is so amazing! We are super stoked for this month, June is the miracle month! Valerie and Zach were baptized into the lakeside Park Ward, and their baptism was amazing!! We are working with a family right now that came to church on Sunday and they are awesome too! They are a black family, and we've been praying for that! They are just so much more humble and so much nicer than white people! But the mom's name is Ora, the oldest son is Sean, the oldest daughter is Jameisha, then Xavion, then Janeisha. Yes, Jameisha and Janeisha.... hahah!!!! They are so amazing though, I love them so much!! We are working for July with them for baptism.

 

Our Stake President, President Greenhalgh, is focused on "one by one, by one" Focusing on individual people and helping them one by one by one. He is so amazing and he is always finding ways to help individuals grow in their faith in the Savior! That is also what we've been working on as we say Win The Day, and how our missionaries focus on each day to grow. It's awesome!!

 

I hope Y'all have a great week, and I pray that you can all have missionary experiences!!

 

Love, Elder Bloxham

Starting from the left, Elders Martinez, Thompson, Reeves, Arveseth, Benavides, Bloxham, Hanks, and Carranza. We are on crew tower and it overlooks all of Cincinnati and you can see into Kentucky!

Elder Hanks and I in our Awesome Promised land shirts!! AHH thank you parents!
(Nate and Elder Hanks requested Mike make these shirts for them to give
to their zone)

Elder Martinez and I went on a little adventure off the side of the road we were on! We were biking and then just bailed and went by the river! haha it was fun!

Sister Widdison and Sister Corbridge and then Elder Benavides Arveseth Reeves Martinez and Hanks

then Brother Perkins is with us in the pictures, he made the "last supper" breakfast before transfers

Hermana Bloxham - Pastelitos.... Worst day ever.

Well family, I'm sorry in advance for this sorry email I am about to
write haha. I've been sick since Saturday and Sister Baker has been
sick since  Monday, so we have literally been inside puking our guts
out for 5 days! Yay! Also meaning we have watched: The testaments (4
times), legacy (3 times), Mountain of The Lord, The Joseph Smith
papers, animated version of the New Testament, Old Testament visual
resources, children's reader of the Old Testament (3 hours), teaching
resources, mr. Kruegers Christmas, Nora's Christmas gift, the other
wise man, and a selection of other Mormon messages, and I've been
studying some cool stuff from the Old Testament! That part has been
pretty cool actually haha. I've been studying from the Old Testament
institute manual! It's super interesting!

Anyways, Thursday night we went over to Maria de la Cruz and
Bienvenida's (investigators) house and we had a pretty good lesson on
the Plan of Salvation. Afterwards they usually bring us out some
delicious juice and some baby bell cheese and crackers! But this time,
they had this huge chunk of some Dominican cheese. It was THE grossest
thing I've ever had! I had to like down it super fast and then drink
the juice so I couldn't taste it. It was Nast. That was just the
beginning.

Then, Friday night we went to a less actives house, who we are
teaching with her kids, who are investigators! They are awesome! Their
names are Tammy, Ashley and Pablo. They got us some things called
pastelitos. They are like little rolled up things with meat and
something else inside. Kinda like egg rolls, but more Hispanic haha.
They were even grosser than that cheese! It was basically like the
icing on the cake. I felt like I was going to puke the rest of the
night. That night we also got to go visit the Harlem chapel to pick up
a baptismal suit for one of the elders baptisms, that we didn't get to
go to because we are sick, but we heard it was super amazing! Harlem
chapel is super cool! I'll send a picture of it! :)
Then, that night I was puking all night! It was the worst! Ah. Yeah.
That's where it all started and now here we are, still sick haha. It's
ok though, we are going to be better tomorrow!!

On a good note, on Friday we got to teach one of our investigators
named Ana Chan. She is super legit! I don't know if I've told you yet
but, She is a home attendant for one of the investigators of the
English sisters. She lives in Harlem, but works up here so we visit
her here and hopefully we will be able to get her to come to church
soon! We taught a super awesome lesson on the restoration and about
how the spirit can teach us truth no matter where we are. We were able
to use some of her experiences to explain how the spirit can work with
her and help her to understand that that was the Holy Ghost helping
her in those moments. It was super legit!!

Also! Something else super awesome! Maria Espinosa(a member) is fellow
shipping Luisa and Rachel and she is doing an amazing job! We have
lunch with her every Friday afternoon and this week we came and she
told us she had a surprise! Before we knew it, Rachel and Luisa were
coming through the door! She had invited them to lunch with all of us
missionaries! They are like best friends and it's Super awesome!!

We haven't had much time to visit with Lianabel this week, or with
Wendy Anderson. We've had a couple pretty crazy weeks with them! But,
we are going to get back on track with them this week for sure!

Something that I have learned this week is that God knows what to do,
and what time it needs to be done. I have always had a hard time
letting investigators take some time alone. Sometimes they need time
without the missionaries bugging them, but I like to talk to them
every day! But, since we've been sick, we haven't been able to see any
of them! It's been kind of a blessing for sure!

I also learned a little bit about obedience in my studies this week.
It says that we were sent here to earth "to see if they will do all
things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them." (Abraham
3:25) the whole purpose of our life is to solely be obedient to Gods
commandments. A lot of times we feel like they don't always make
sense, but it's not necessary for them to make sense to us. We are
just mortals with imperfect minds. We cannot understand the full
reason behind each commandment, but we can be perfectly obedient. That
is all Christ asks of us and it is something we need to try to do
every day. But, we are not perfect, so we need the Atonement to make
it possible. Christ has made everything possible for us because he
loves us. So,mi want to challenge all of you to chose today to be more
obedient to the commandments of God. Not just the big ones, but
especially the small ones of reading your scriptures daily, especially
the Book of Mormon, going to church every week no matter what, and
keeping God in the loop of your life through your prayers. I promise
those 3 things will make the biggest difference in your lives!
President Eyering once said, "There is a danger in the word 'someday',
when what it means is 'not this day'. The thought 'someday I will',
can be a thief of the opportunities of time the blessings of
eternity." Don't let tomorrow stay in tomorrow and not change your
today!

I love you all so much! The Lord loves you and I know this Gospel is
the way to find true and complete happiness!
Love,

Hermana Jessica Bloxham

Pics of sick days haha
We played apples to apples for days hahaha

Yep more sickness

Before transfers last week.

With elder McKeachern at transfers, he was going home! His little
brother is in Nates mission!

With elder Cruz at transfers

Harlem chapel

Sister Oluwalana was leaving us :(

Lunch before transfers with the zone

We got soaked!

This is Dominican Spanish haha. It should say, lista para la fiesta,
lista para refrescarte. :)

At transfers, with the bears, a senior couple. Cutest things ever!

Some cool graffiti!

Last district meeting

Elder Bloxham - CTR

This week was great!!! We had such an amazing time this week! We had Stake Conference which was amazing! We had Marcus' Baptism on Saturday and it went amazing! He read the whole Book of Mormon prior to his baptism and after he was baptized he got up and bore testimony and shared his favorite scripture from the Book of Mormon. He did so amazing! And also ended in the Name of Jesus Christ, so that was a plus!

 

Something sad happened with us this week though :( So we had been teaching Valerie and Zach and Olive, and they are still getting ready to be baptized on the 21st, this weekend, and we were checking out our ward boundaries to make sure she was still in our ward because it was close, and turns out she is in the Lakeside Park Ward :( We had to hand her off to the Lakeside Park sisters and she will be getting baptized in the Lakeside Park Ward... That is okay because she is still getting baptized, but it just sucks because I wish I could see them every Sunday... They are so amazing and progressing so well! I'm not worried about them at all!!!

 

We have been seeing so many miracles in the zone as well! Areas that haven't had investigators at church in 9 weeks had 2 at church yesterday. Area's that haven't baptized are baptizing in June! It's so amazing to see these things!! :) The Lord really is in charge and is changing this mission! I love it and I love President Porter and his inspired leadership!

 

Have a great week this week everyone!

 

Love, Elder Bloxham

Check this swag!!! hahaha

a cool street sign with syd's middle name!!

this is Cincinnati from a awesome restaurant in Covington!!

I think this is the Red's stadium from a distance haha

a nice sunset picture

Marcus' baptism

 Marcus' baptism again

Rabbit hash!!! this little town where 1 person lives!! haha 

They have a hat that says, "Where in the He** is rabbit hash" haha it's funny