Elder Bloxham - 11.3.14

It's November!!!! I can't even believe it, but now i have embarked on a new journey in Montgomery, Ohio! I'm back to the second best state (behind Kentucky) and I'm super pumped because this was Elder Hanks' last area he served in before Kentucky! I'm in a huge ward now! there is like 260 people there, it was massive! But we get fed every night, and the ward is pretty awesome so i'm excited! I'm companions with Elder Seegmiller, and he is from Kaysville, UT. He's awesome, this transfer is going to be awesome!

We are going to be doing some rebuilding here for sure though! The zone needs some shaping up, as well as our own area! We don't really have anybody solid yet, but we are finding like crazy! I definitely know that the Lord is preparing people for us to meet. :)

That is pretty much all that is going on right now, next week's email will be much better so stay tuned! :)

Love Y'all!!

Elder Bloxham

The address to my new apartment is 9213 Deercross Pkwy, Apt 1A, Blue Ash, Ohio 45236 Send me Letters, i love  them :)

Elder Seegmiller and Elder Bloxham at a members house in Montgomery

Elder Bloxham - 10.27.14

Today is the day in which we received our transfer Doctrine!!! Elder Hanks will be staying, and after 7 1/2 months, I will be departing the Promised Land.... This is terrible!! I love it here, it has been the best time of my life!! I love the Northern Kentucky Ward, and I love the missionaries in the zone! But I guess it is what it is!!! Now I will embark on my journey somewhere else!

We had amazing things happen this whole month!! As a mission, we have a goal of getting 6 baptisms each month for each zone, and this month we had 10!!! It was so amazing! Every single one was such an amazing experience! Yesterday there were 4 people baptized! A family from Dayton Kentucky, and then an amazing young lady named Angelina! It was such an amazing baptismal service!

We had an awesome Halloween Party as well! Our Ward Mission Leader, Ryan Smith and his wife, dressed up as the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts! Their costumes were so amazing!!! But it was a sweet party!

Not much else is going on, but I love this mission! This really is the Best Two Years!

Love,

      Elder Bloxham

The Buck family has taken such good care of the missionaries!

Elder Lemmon, Bloxham, and Hanks with the Buck family

The ward Halloween party

Elder Bloxham - 10.20.14

Isn't this crazy!! We are reaching the end of October already! I hope everyone has their Halloween Costume picked out!! :)

Things are going great in the Promised Land! But I do want to ask everyone who is married, Why is marriage so important to you and how it has helped you in your life. We have a couple that doesn't want to get married, I think experiences and events from your life will really help them, so please send me an email letting me know how it has blessed your life! :)

We have been going on a finding spree these past couple of weeks! I mean we are always on the grind, I mean find, but we really have been diggin these past couple weeks! We don't have a lot progressing, so we keep on lookin!! :) How we find most of the time is when we have our plans, we see the person who we wanted to see, but then we stay in the area and walk around talking to everyone we see, that has been helping us find a lot of new people. I love it, Elder Hanks and I have the funnest time! We're always cracking jokes, and we go to the investigators level. That is the funnest part!! Sometimes they are crazy, so we get crazy and do funny handshakes with them, or talk the way they do! haha it's the greatest!

The best thing that happened this week was we went to a Ghanaian's house, Brother Abuagye, and he fed us Fufu! If you don't know what that is, go look it up on google, and read about how they eat it! For those missionaries in Ghana, they probably love it now, but must have stomachs of steal!! That Fufu sits heavy on your stomach, and is so hard to eat!!! They say not to chew it, but to just cut a little piece off of it, and just swallow it straight down! It was hard, but definitely and experience to never forget! We also got Ghanaian ties, which are awesome!!! :)

Things are great here, I love y'all at home! Take care and Godspeed!!

Elder Bloxham  

Elder Hanks, Julie, and Elder Bloxham Driving to Rabbit Hash

Found these beanies! this is inside rabbit hash general store!

My homie Roddy G, or Elder Rodriguez, and his comp Elder Marchello! (roddy is in the middle)

The Northern Kentucky district at the Temple!!!!!

Olive Garden, Elder Rodriguez and our Awesome Waiter!!

Elder Bloxham - Hey Y'all!!

I want to say at the beginning that the hardest thing for me is to see the negatives, and when I think of the negatives it doesn't feel good! But I wanted to tell you about this week and the crazy turns it took!

To start it off, as a mission, we have a goal of 720 Convert Baptisms, and because of the prior months, all of the zones in the mission need to get 6 baptisms per month, and we've been doing great thus far, last month we had 4, and this month we were super excited with what was panning out, we were going to have 12 as a zone. Because that is so awesome, Satan likes to take action! There has been craziness in the zone! Missionaries being persecuted, our friends falling off date, rides to church being mixed up! I mean it's been utter Chaos! With Elder Hanks and I, we got rocked in one day! If you remember of my past letters, I talked about Elder Billy and Rick, the Native American guy that knows that the Book of Mormon is true. A few days ago, he texts us and says that he and his recent convert brother John, don't want us to come back anymore. They said it was nothing that we did wrong, they just want to be left alone... That was a wrencher! We love them so much, and for them to tell us that, it broke my heart! They will be found in the future, I know it! They are too amazing to be dusted under the rug.

Now, despite the craziness, it is all made okay by the Grace and miracles of the Lord! When Elder Hanks and I were going to our appointments on Saturday, everybody kept calling us and canceling! It was like 4 straight! haha we were like holy, this is typical! Lets keep these kind of things coming! hahah, but low and behold, the righteous and faithful Elder Hanks, being the inspired man he is, invokes the powers of Heaven by saying a prayer! As we looked at the Less Actives list, we chose the closest one to us, and went for it! This was at about 7:30, dark and chilly, we knock on this unknown less active. Answering the door was a High School girl, and we ask if this was the Sheilds home. They said no they moved a year and a half ago! Now conversation moves to sports, to school, to the gospel, funny how that always happens...... :) Also, her mom came talking to us at this point as well. But they were both very open! We are seeing them tomorrow and it's going to be a progression of conversion, blessed be the name of the miraculous Lord! Sometimes I hate that because I'm like okay, lets have all these bad things happen, just so you can build our faith! I see what you did there Heavenly Father, I see... :)

Heavenly Father answers prayers, Jesus is the Christ, and together, they are hastening their work!!

Love,

        Elder Bloxham

this is a picture of the Elders in the district! haha, but the kid on the other end is Elder Hanks! You can tell we're companions because we're the best looking ones ;) hah jokes!

Elder Bloxham - Conference week!!

What a wonderful General Conference!! These men and women are so inspired! I have learned so much from them this October. It's amazing to see questions answered as you watch. As they speak the way the Lord speaks, it touches our heart so perfectly! I wanted to say a couple of quotes that I loved from conference;

Elder Richard G. Scott "Never say that you are "too busy" to study the scriptures. Reading the scriptures is more important that sleep, eating, or anything! We need to study to scriptures and make them a priority". Wow! That talk was so powerful, and amazingly rebuking :)

Elder David A. Bednar "Come and See". This talk was so powerful as well! Simply, when people want to know why we are different, you don't necessarily have to tell them, just show them :) Have them come to church, let them inside your home. Show them why you are different!

President Henry B. Eyring. I don't have a quote from him, but I loved his talk! President Eyring always is talking about the examples in my life. I also was able to reflect on the examples that have been in my life. There are so many! From coaches, to parents, to my friends. There are so many examples in my life, and I am sincerely grateful for them! This also brightens my spirits to become a better example to those I see as well. There is always somebody watching, and there is always somebody who you can help, as you are already an example to them.

We heard several talks about sustaining our wonderful and inspired Prophet, and I too want to take this time to say that I know that he is a Prophet of God! The spirit is the ultimate teacher, and if we want to know spiritual truth, we must spiritually receive answers. The Holy Ghost has taught me that he is a Prophet, and that the Lord has called him for us today. He has also called 12 Apostles to help and assist in the marvelous work! These Prophets, Seers, and Revelators are here today, for us. As we heed their council, we will be safe, secured, and more important, happy! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Elder Bloxham

Elder Hanks & I cleaning the baptismal font!

The Northern Kentucky District with Edith Perkins!! she's 98!!

Elder Bloxham - Telofa!!

This week went very well!! We went on a ton of exchanges but it was fun!!! I went into Covington, Kentucky as well as Newport, Kentucky! Covington is exactly like Dayton, OH, so that was so awesome! We saw so many black people!!! They are the funniest and are the best to talk to! Every single one has such a strong faith in Christ! It makes me wonder how that always happens, I guess white people are way too stubborn?.. haha But we had some funny experiences. There was this one girl that we were talking to and she asked us what we will be doing after our missions and I proceeded to tell her that I'd be going back, getting back into school then eventually finding a girl and getting married. Then left it at that... After Teaching them, we then went on with our walking. We ended up walking back the same way about 30 minutes later and she yelled at us and said "hey, she wants to be your wife! You two should get married!" Haha and I thought they were joking at first, but then I look up and they were like waving me to come back over!! ha I'm like alright lets do it! but kept walking away, I hope they caught the sarcasm, because I was laying it on pretty thick! :) hahaha But no, y'all I aint getting married any time soon, nor will I be getting married while on my mission. Nor to a girl from Covington.... Anyways!!! Funny experience :)

We are teaching Matt and Jeni, they are a recent convert's, Joey Asche, Sister and her boyfriend. They are doing so awesome and are getting baptized on the 18th. Rick is still progressing as well, he will also be baptized on the 18th! :)

Things are going great in the Promised Land, and the Lord is really blessing us with miracles!

Love,

         Elder Bloxham

Elder Bloxham - Hey Hey!!

What a fabulous week! We had an amazing miracle this past Monday night that I'd like to share with y'all!

        

There is this Elder in the Zone and his name is Elder Billy. He is from a Navajo Reservation in Arizona, and he is a convert of about 3 years, and I think he's 21 or so. But he has such a strong testimony of The Book of Mormon, and that is pretty much it. The poor kid has been our for 3 transfers and hardly ever opens his mouth to talk. All he will ever talk about is the Book of Mormon and how it has changed his life, and if it is anything else, he wont talk. But when it's his turn with the Book of Mormon, he's there! It's pretty cool. Anyways, we are teaching Rick, John's brother, and Rick doesn't want anything to do with religion, he just like us coming over. Okay sorry little back story on Rick. He is about 55, is on oxygen, and is a little prideful. He has some Indian descent, so his apartment is full of dream catchers and pictures of Indians and wolves. So it's pretty cool. So Elder Hanks and Elder Billy were on exchanges and they went to teach Rick. And the secret weapon, Elder Billy, gets the chance to bear testimony of how he came to know that the Book of Mormon was true. He says, "all you need to do is read the introduction, pray on it, and you will know it's true" "it is all about my people and my religion, (he always says "my religion" meaning "Navajo tradition") and it's how they knew about Christ. Now we are taught to give strong commitments like "Will you read this", giving them a chance to say yes or no, but Elder Billy says, "could you possibly try it out?" and Rick says Yes. WHAT!?!?!? We've been trying for like a whole month on this guy! He finally read the intro, and then got into the Book of Mormon. We invited him to read one chapter and that's all. We came back 2 days later, and he had read 8 chapters. He told us right when we walked in that he knows that the Book is true, and that he wants to be baptized. "I am going to be a lot of work, but I know what I want to do." What a miracle!!!

It's amazing what bearing pure testimony will do! Elder Billy knows that the Book of Mormon can bless his life, so he told him. It's just a simple fact of what we know to be true! So I'll invite everyone to take every opportunity to bear your testimony. Elder Hanks always says "if you don't have a testimony, gain one, if you have one, bear it" From the inspired words of Elder Hanks, Bear your testimony often! :)

I love y'all so much!!!!

Godspeed!!

Elder Bloxham

I just have a couple pics of Hanks and I lookin fresh! hahaha