Hermana Bloxham - Last week in the mission!

Hey everybody!

Wow, I don't even know where to start. I feel like my life is coming
to a close and something new and unexpected is coming next. I have
seen the hand of The Lord in every step of my path and I know that He
will be with me as I start the new journey at home.

We have had a really good week. We had 3 zone conferences where we did
a planning training. It was actually really cool to go to all of the
zone conferences. I learned something new each time. We got to see all
of the missionaries in the mission and got to feel of the spirit of
the work. I wanted to share something that I thought was really
awesome in the last zone conference. President Morgan shared this
quote and thought:
Joseph Smith said, “Salvation cannot come without revelation; it is in
vain for anyone to minister without it” (History of the Church,
3:389). You will succeed in your work as you learn to receive and
follow personal revelation.
We get our power from god. Unlike other clergy or ministers of the
world who look for power in a book, or in history or through any other
means. God is our source of power. The most significant revelation
will be directly from Heavenly Father to you.
I love that quote from preach my gospel. Revelation in our days is
something that sets us apart as Latter Day Saints. I have felt that
revelation and I know that God truly talks to us individually and
through our prophet.

We found a new family! They were a referral from a member! The moms
name is Gloria and she is Mexican and she has a daughter named
Fernanda and her son is named Julian. The dad is in the picture and
they are together but something happened and he isn't living with them
right now. But we had our first lesson with them last night and
invited them to be baptized and they said they would pray about it and
they would be baptized when they knew it was true. We are pretty
excited about them! The work just keeps moving forward! Our baptismal
date for Lucy, Lorraine and Serafín is going to have to be pushed
back. We came across some problems, but we are trying to work through
them. We are going to try to keep the same date with Lorraine their
daughter for September 6th. They are so prepared, especially Lucy, but
we have to work through some stuff with Serafín. They are awesome!

Another one of our investigators named Ylaura is so awesome!! We went
back for our third lesson and she had read to Enos in the Book of
Mormon!! That's nuts!! We were so excited! We finished the plan of
salvation and we invited her to be baptized! She said she would! She
hasn't been able to come to church yet, but she is so excited to come
and she said she will be there in two Sundays! She is sooo amazing!!
Probably the most prepared person to hear the gospel I have met on my
mission. Wow, if she isn't baptized within the next month or two I
would be shocked.

Well, the work is moving forth! The work of The Lord is hastening and
I am so privileged to have been a part of it! I love this work and I
love Him. He is my savior and redeemer!

I love you all and I hope to see you all very soon! :)

Love,
Hermana Jessica Bloxham

Elder Bloxham - Week of amazing!

A little update of what is going on in the Promised Land is we have a baptism this Saturday!!! Yay!!! His name is Jeremy and he is just amazing!!! It has been awesome to work with him because we have seen a real change in him! The Book of Mormon can and will change anybody who reads and ponders what it has to say! When we first started meeting with him he just invited us back because he liked hanging out with us, I mean who wouldn't, we're freakin cool... :) But then we finally got him reading the Book of Mormon every single night, and he has literally become a different person! Wow, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is real and changes the hearts of those who accept it. Jeremy has Multiple Sclerosis, and is 20 years old. He can't walk very well, he uses a cane, but he doesn't like using a cane so he just toughs it out. He really is an amazing man, and he thanks the Lord every day for what he does have! It really makes me think about what the Lord has given me! I have fully functioning legs and arms, sometimes... haha that I can do what I please, and I take it for granted, but it really is amazing to see him and how positive he is! I love Jeremy!

We've been sifting the Pool a little bit this past week! Dropping those who wont progress, and finding those who will, and it has been awesome! We've met some amazing people, but we've also met some weirdos!! That is always fun for the stories at home ;) "We have bikes and a car but we mostly walk, cuz it makes good stories for the homecoming talk!" what missionaries say here.. Anyway, we are excited about the work, and what is going on, we have really been blessed!

The main objective of the Lord allowing us to know the Doctrine of Christ and applying it in our life is change. The natural man does not want to change, but the Lord wants us to constantly change! A lot of people will say, "I am only like this because I was raised that way" or "this is just a habit that I have". The Doctrine of Christ is what allows you to get rid of those sayings! You can always change! This is an excerpt from the talk "His Grace is Sufficient" By Brad Wilcox. He is talking about a student that asked him about Grace and this is what he told her: 

She continued, “I know that I have to do my part and then Jesus makes up the difference and fills the gap that stands between my part and perfection. But who fills the gap that stands between where I am now and my part?”

She then went on to tell me all the things that she shouldn’t be doing because she’s a Mormon, but she was doing them anyway.

Finally I said, “Jesus doesn’t make up the difference. Jesus makes all the difference. Grace is not about filling gaps. It is about filling us.”

We do not have to earn our way into Heaven, we are Learning Heaven. Grace is sufficient to change all who allow it to change them! I have applied this Doctrine, and the Lord has changed me!

I invite everyone to read this talk! "His Grace is Sufficient" Brad Wilcox, BYUspeeches, and it will give you a new perspective on how the Lord wants us to live our lives!

Have a great week everyone and I Love you!!

-Elder Bloxham

Playing some basketball!!! Elder Hanks thinks he swats me here, he's just wrong!!

People in the Zone

 I was stuck in the downpour while making Hot Dogs! hahaha

Thought I was cool! haha

It was Elder Hanks' Birthday

Playing Ultimate Frisbee!

 More Frisbee

Hermana Bloxham - First Zone Conference down!

Hey!!

It's been a pretty crazy week! Sister baker has been sick, so we've
spent speak time in the apartment, but it turned out to be a blessing
because we had a lot of extra time to plan our training for Zone
Conference. So we gave 3 of our 9 trainings today and we found out
that we will get to stay in the mission home on Thursday night just
Sister Baker and I! It's going to be sick! I'm so excited! The
training went pretty well. We just do a lot of things that other
people don't do so it's hard to explain how we are organized when
others do it a different way. But we are going to cut out some of the
information to make it easier to understand the reason behind planning
and organization more than just how we do it. I hope people can take
away something good from it. Today we are going to mini golf on a
pier! It'll be pretty cool I think!

This week I had the chance to go to the temple with some of the
Chinatown sisters and go through the temple with one of her members
who was going through for the first time. It was a super cool
experience. We were her guide people so we got to go through the whole
process with her. It was really cool! The temple is amazing! The
church is true! Haha. I just love how we can have moments in our lives
that grow our testimonies. Just something simple like going to the
temple can just increase my testimony by a ton! It's amazing!

Also, this was cool, while we were there one of the matron ladies was
talking to us and she is Paul Newbold's mom! Remember Nicole and Erica
Newbold? Their grandma. Small world! The temple just brings people
together haha.

Lucy, Lorraine and Serafín are doing great! They came to church last
week and they loved it. They had interviews with the bishop so that he
could get to know them and he told us that he really feels like they
are going to be an amazing contribution to our ward and help to grow
the ward. He has a lot of faith in them and is very involved in their
conversion, it's really awesome! I can't wait for you guys to meet all
of these people that I love so much! It's going to be so great! I am
so thankful to be a Missionary for these last two weeks! The Lord
loves us, His children and he wants us to be happy. It's amazing to he
his hands here in New York and to bring this good news to people here!
I love Him and I love this gospel!

I love you all so much!

Hermana Jessica Bloxham

Zone Conference

Elder Bloxham - Getting down to the Nitty Gritty!

Hey hey!!! I got an email from my wonderful mother saying she doesn't know much about what goes on here in the Promised Land, or what I do in general, so I will give a brief synopsize of these past few weeks!

Elder Hanks and I get to talk to a lot of people in Florence! There are a lot of lower class people that we talk to that don't have very much, but they are really funny and we can joke a lot with them! We find a lot of new investigators, but turning them into progressing is the real battle! I think of it as we are in the Kobe Bryant area. Like Kobe, we take a lot of "shots" or we find a lot of investigators. Now Kobe Bryant scores a lot of points, because he takes so many shots :) As long as we keep finding lots of investigators, we will be able to teach a lot of them that will progress, because we've talked to so many! :) haha

Currently we are teaching a pretty decent group of people. Emily and Zach are a cute 19 year old couple that are trying to strengthen their relationship, and they have been seeing lots of change with their lives as they've been reading and praying as a family. (they have a 1 yr. old boy) But they went to this concert church called 7 hills, and that church is just like a youth party hangout called "church". So they like that one, and they feel bad just leaving it and coming to ours, so they are going to switch back and forth every week, which is totally dumb, but they'll figure it out soon enough haha!

We are also teaching Jeremy! Jeremy is a 20 yr. old from Jamaica, and he is a Rastafarian, or however you spell it haha!! But he's been kicking the weed, and cigarettes and soon will be baptized!

Things are great though!! I love serving in Florence, in the great state of Kentucky!! It has been my favorite area for sure!!! I have definitely done the most growing in this area, but we've also had the most success, so that is awesome too!!

I hope that does the trick mama, the rest will be fun stories when I get home :)

I love y'all, Godspeed!

-Elder Bloxham 

Hermana Bloxham - We got a baptismal date!

Hey everybody!

Big news! We have a date set for Lucy, Lorraine and Serafín to be
baptized! September 6th! We are so excited! We taught them about the
gospel of Jesus Christ and about baptism. And we read in D&C about the
qualifications of baptism and they said that they have them all. So we
invited them to be baptized on September 6th! They all said yes! We
are a little bit worried about Serafín. He feels like he needs to know
a lot more before he can get baptized, but Lucy and Lorraine are super
excited! We're not worried about them at all! That's probably the best
thing that has happened this week and in a long time!
We have been planning our training for zone conference. We will be
giving three trainings a day for Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. So we
will be doing 9 in total. We're excited. I think it's going to be fun!
We will get to see the whole mission and we might get to stay in the
mission home on Thursday night! That would be way sweet!
I have been thinking lately about how much I have learned in my
mission. I feel like I am a completely different person spiritually.
It has been amazing to understand the true meaning of repentance and
of faith. I have grown so much in my testimony of the Book of Mormon.
I have grown to love everyone, even those who I just met or haven't
even met yet. I walk down the street and just smile because I can feel
a little portion of Christlike love for all of them. It's an amazing
feeling! I can say that I have felt more joy in my mission than
anywhere else, just as it says in D&C 18:15-16--
15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying
repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me,
how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!
16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have
brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your
joy if you should bring many souls unto me!
My joy is full and I know that The Lord is preparing His children to
hear this wonderful message! He is relying on us to save His children!

I love you so much!

Hermana Jessica Bloxham 

Jess was able to visit the Statue of Liberty as part of  her "city tour"
before she goes home:)

Elder Bloxham - Promised Land!!!

Things are going so great here in Northern Kentucky!!!! I'm excited to email today, I don't know why!! I'm just exceptionally excited today!!

     

This week has been amazing! But to start it off I want to give y'all a quote:

"I do not equate my body with His in its refinement, in its capacity, in its beauty and radiance. His is eternal. Mine is mortal. But that only increases my reverence for Him. I worship Him “in spirit and in truth.” I look to Him as my strength. I pray to Him for wisdom beyond my own. I seek to love Him with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. His wisdom is greater than the wisdom of all men. His power is greater than the power of nature, for He is the Creator Omnipotent. His love is greater than the love of any other, for His love encompasses all of His children, and it is His work and His glory to bring to pass the immortality‍ and eternal life of His sons and daughters of all generations." President Gordon B. Hinckley

I was reading this talk from President Gordon B. Hinckley which is titled "The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." This quote here is talking about God the Father. I just thought this was so amazing because when I think about the Prophet I always think they are so perfect. But that is not true. They still go through hard times and they still get tempted by Satan. But more importantly, he relies on the Lord for protection and strength! Also, when President Hinckley wrote this, it is him baring testimony. He is so humble, and gives everything unto the Lord!

I have been trying and striving to be more submissive in all that I do. As I read this talk, it helped me to gain some more strength and courage to do so! I want to look unto the Lord in every thought, and never doubt nor fear! Coming closer to the Lord and repenting daily, has allowed me to come closer to what I want to achieve. :) This really is the Lords work! Which is amazing because that means all I have to do is what he has said for us to do. Talk to everyone, extend baptism, and then rely on the spirit to show you where to go, what to do, and what to say. That is amazing! :)

For those of you at home who are trying to do missionary work, just know that everything happens on the Lords time, and if you are praying for opportunities, then the Lord will give them to you!

I love Y'all so much, and take care!!

-Elder Bloxham

Promised land shirts :)

Elder Hanks with Marcus our Recent Convert, he was singing thunder Rolles Garth!

We took an awesome picture after exchanges