Elder Bloxham - 12.15.2014

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go!!!! Eddie?... Eddie? Eddie, if i woke up this morning with my face sown to the carpet, i wouldn't be more surprised than i am now! hahah!! Christmas Vacation though.... Miss it for sure!

Things are going great in Montgomery! The Madison family is doing great, progressing right along, and they are due for a marriage and baptism on the 27th. Please pray for them! The trio is awesome, Elder Davis is alright, he's not the best thing in the whole world, but we are getting him out of his shell, i mean, Seegmiller and I are the exact same, so you can only imagine.... Poor Elder Davis :) Also, Chris Green is doing great, he is on date for the 27th as well! :) Montgomery is awesome!

As I have said in prior letters, the Doctrine of Christ is the center of my life! It's how i live, how i love, and how i function every single day. His Grace is sufficient, to bear us up, and the enable us! I don't think many people understand that concept. Grace is the Enabling power, in which Satan can not bind us. Powerful. I encourage and invite all who read this to, like it says on "He is the Gift" To Discover the Gift, to Embrace the Gift, and then Share the Gift. The Gift being Jesus Christ. Not just him, not that he is born, but that he Enables us in all things that we do! I am seriously on this kick of people knowing and understanding the Doctrine of Christ because it will change you. It is all over the Book of Mormon, so please, Embrace his Grace.

This is a little excerpt of "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. If I have already shared it, i'm sorry, but actually not because this should be known over and over. :) 

Christ’s Grace Is Sufficient to Transform Us

Christ’s arrangement with us is similar to a mom providing music lessons for her child. Mom pays the piano teacher. How many know what I am talking about? Because Mom pays the debt in full, she can turn to her child and ask for something. What is it? Practice! Does the child’s practice pay the piano teacher? No. Does the child’s practice repay Mom for paying the piano teacher? No. Practicing is how the child shows appreciation for Mom’s incredible gift. It is how he takes advantage of the amazing opportunity Mom is giving him to live his life at a higher level. Mom’s joy is found not in getting repaid but in seeing her gift used—seeing her child improve. And so she continues to call for practice, practice, practice.

If the child sees Mom’s requirement of practice as being too overbearing (“Gosh, Mom, why do I need to practice? None of the other kids have to practice! I’m just going to be a professional baseball player anyway!”), perhaps it is because he doesn’t yet see with mom’s eyes. He doesn’t see how much better his life could be if he would choose to live on a higher plane.

In the same way, because Jesus has paid justice, He can now turn to us and say, “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19), “Keep my commandments” (John 14:15). If we see His requirements as being way too much to ask (“Gosh! None of the other Christians have to pay tithing! None of the other Christians have to go on missions, serve in callings, and do temple work!”), maybe it is because we do not yet see through Christ’s eyes. We have not yet comprehended what He is trying to make of us.

I love y'all so so so much, take luck, and peace out :)

-Elder Bloxham

Elder Bloxham - 12.8.2014

The Madison family is still amazing!! I finally have pictures of them to send :) Now you get to see how HUGE Andre is! Haha but they are progressing well, so keep praying for them, your prayers are being answered!

We are also teaching a part member family, and the guys name is Chris! He's pretty shy, but he is awesome! His mom is a recent convert and she is scared to share the gospel, so Chris hasn't heard of the Book of Mormon, so we are helping him read it :)

Things are going great, we have received some awesome member referrals, the Madison family is amazing and progressing, and i'm happy because i get to stay here for another 6 weeks with elder Seegmiller!! And we are receiving another Elder, we are going to be in a trio!!!! This is going to be the best!!! :):):)

I love y'all!!!!!

-Elder Bloxham

PS - He didn't really send any pictures:(

Elder Bloxham - 12.1.2014

It is December!! Isn't that crazy! But things are going great in Montgomery!! We are still working with the Madison family! They are scheduled to be married and baptized on the 13th of this month! Please keep them in your prayers, they will need it!

Thanksgiving was amazing! One of the best i've had for a while!! The Bensons are so awesome! Sam Benson, their son, is going to BYU and is amazing at guitar and singing. He should be making a recording here soon, so maybe you'll see him out and about! Then we went to dinner with Andre and Patrice! Dinner was awesome, and i now have had "greens" and they are sooooo, not good. haha!! too dang salty, but it was fun to eat them all :) Then Elder Seegmiller played the violin for them, and they loved it!! :):) We also played in an amazing Turkey Bowl!!!! I was lucky enough to get some cleats from a member and i could cut back and forth instead of slipping all over the place!! But it was so amazing!!! ahh, i love football! I was soo dang sore after it, oh gosh i couldn't even walk! I think every single muscle was sore! I think it's a combination between my workouts in the mornings and then football was the icing on the cake! P.s, i ran a mile in 6.5 minutes!! it was pretty awesome! i'm getting there :)

All things considering, I'm living so well! I absolutely love this mission, holy cow!!! I'm constantly learning new things, and different ways to be better! It's so great! Elder Seegmiller and I get along perfectly, and it worries me because these last two transfers I might get someone not as awesome as my last 3 companions! We'll have to find out though, i think Montgomery will be my last area :)

I love y'all so so so much, and take luck!

-Elder Bloxham

Turkey Bowl

Elder Bloxham - 11.25.2014

I am so happy and Thankful for everything I have! I truly am blessed! There has been no better time than this, that I have felt so close to my Savior, and i'm deeply thankful for his Atonement. It's interesting because when I think about Thanksgiving, the thing that tags right along with it is Christmas because we are thankful for the same thing. First of all I am sooo ready for Christmas, it's going to be an amazing time! Especially because people then realize they aren't living right, and they are like crap i really need to be closer to Christ, and their hearts get softened and their necks a little looser! It's awesome because we get to be in the cold, and the Lord feels sorry for us, so he blesses us more because of it! ;) But i really am thankful for my life, and more my Lord and my Savior. His Atonement means so much to me, and allows my same selfish, lazy, and imperfect self, become patient, active, and perfect. Through the tools that he gives us, we can be made whole, and i'm so thankful for that!

We have some amazing plans for Thanksgiving!! We have a Turkey Bowl in the morning, then we have dinner with our favorite family, the Bensons, and then later in the evening we get to go to a Blackgiving with Andre and Patrice!! We are going with them so eat soooo much food! Andre says, "this food will be so good, it'll make you mad at your mama!" hahaha i guess we'll find out! Mom, i'm sure your food is wayyyyyy better!!! No doubt! :) This family really is the coolest!! They are so amazing and i love to be able to see them as often as we do! Gosh, they are the funnest! They're always trying to hook us up with their sisters and friends because they love us so much! hahah :) But things are  going great here in the Geezy, and I love my Savior!!

Love Y'all, Elder Bloxham

P.S. y'all can send me letters, i don't mind :)

Elder Bloxham - 11.17.2014 Forgiveness

A quick update with what is going on in Mongeezy!!! Andre and Patrice are doing amazing! They came to church this last Sunday, and they absolutely loved it! They now want to get married, so Elder Seegmiller and I might get to marry them! That would be so awesome!!!! haha!! But they are progressing really well!! I love working with them! They will be baptized at the beginning of December!

This last Saturday we played basketball with our investigators, and it was so so so awesome! Big Andre is like this 6'5 390 lbs. guy, and he brought Patrice's brother and he was the leading scorer of Cincinnati when he was in High School (So they say, although, he really is an amazing athlete) and it was so much fun!!! And I had the chance to play basketball, that was great :)

With an experience this week, I feel like I should share this! :) 

I think one of the hardest things to do is to forgive. Forgiveness is hard... When somebody has done something against you in the past, several times, you have the hardest time trusting them, as well as forgiving them. I say this because we had an experience when we saw people we love fight, and i realized why Heavenly Father let us see it. When we were listening to the war of words, what kept coming to mind was the parable of the Adulterous woman. When she was taken and thrown down at the feet of Jesus, he knew all that she had done. He knew what she did the day before, the week before, and 10 years before that. He could have went off and said, well.... you really have kept going against my commandments, you don't listen, you this, you that. But he didn't do that. He looked at her and said, "Go, and sin no more." We need to forgive and forget the things that have happened in the past. We need to see the change within the person now. If we kept our mind in the past, then we would have no need of the Atonement, because the Lord sees us progressing, not digressing. So, I invite all to open your eyes, look at the world around you and if you have not forgiven somebody, please pray to the Lord for help to forgive them. As we see in the eyes of the Lord, we will grow ourselves, as well as allow others to grow! :)

 1 Nephi 7:21 And it came to pass that I did frankly forgive them all that they had done, and I did exhort them that they would pray unto the Lord their God for forgiveness. And it came to pass that they did so. And after they had done praying unto the Lord we did again travel on our journey towards the tent of our father.

I hope this is able to help someone, because for some reason i felt as though I should share it.

I love Y'all!!! Stay tuned for next week!!

-Elder Bloxham

Elder Bloxham - 11.10.2014

I just have an amazing miracle i'd like to share :) Stay tuned!!

There is this family that we are working with, and they are so amazing! It's a family of 5 and they live in a place called Lockland, Ohio. Now everybody in our area does not know how to keep commitments, and they have never had to in their whole life, but we expect them to keep them every single time we invite them. It kinda reminds me of Coach Carter, the basketball movie. All of those kids have no idea how to stay at class, get good grades, or even be committed to something. But the coach set a high expectation and didn't settle for anything less, because he knew that they all needed to get a college education. See we have the same thing in mind! We know that baptism can change their life, and we have such a high expectation set with them, that we do not want them to settle for anything less. 

If you can remember when i shared the story of the "Win The Dad" Situation when we pulled weeds for Andre, that was the beginning of the heart softening. A couple days ago on Saturday, we brought this family into a members home and had dinner with them! They had the time of their life, and the kids kept saying, "wow, this house is so big! it's so big!" They have never been in a decent home before, so it was a pretty cool experience for them to see a normal sized house, and also to feel the spirit that was there! But they committed to come to church the following day, and they were set on it! We stopped by in the morning and the mom, Petrice, said "Yes, all the kids took their baths and are getting their stuff ready." They were on their way!!! So we head to church and we were saving seats, all ready for them, then we get a text saying they weren't coming because she had gotten sick.... She had "worried herself sick"!!! Then we left after we took the Sacrament and drove over to get them going. Elder Seegmiller and I go in and just start getting all the kids clothes on! haha, ironing shirts, pulling the pants onto to 2 year old, and getting the dad ready! It was funny because when we got there, they all were like alright lets get ready! haha so it was a scramble!! But lo and behold, we got them all ready and downstairs and 'bout to go. But before we left we gave Petrice a blessing, and it really calmed her down, so that was amazing!

They came to church, absolutely loved it, and to put the cherry on top, we had an awesome Linger Longer after church with some dang good food! :)

When Nephi says, " 23 For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do."     He really means it! haha!! We did all that we could do, and then Grace was poured out upon that family! Truly a miracle!!

"Miracles are everywhere to be found, when Priesthood duties are magnified! When faith replaces doubt, when selfless service eliminates selfish striving" - President Thomas S. Monson

Love y'all!! -Elder Bloxham

A couple more pictures from Kentucky

The second night i was in Montgomery, we had to retrieve our love sac back from missionaries that stole it from our apartment! haha so we fit that bugger in the back of G storms car and the only spot for Seegmiller was to smush up in the back and i had to shove him in with the door! it was supppper funny! 

We saw a pretty sweet castle when i was on exchanges! And then of course i want to fish this river! i've heard they've got some alligator gar in it! That'd be pretty awesome!

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