Elder Bloxham - Hello Family!!

  Isn't it amazing that through God, everything is possible!? I wanted to start out this letter by saying that because this week I have fully relied on our Heavenly Father completely! If you try to do it on your own you just end up getting frustrated and then guess what, you end up turning to god in the end anyways! Just remember that through god, everything is possible.

     This week has been awesome! We had exchanges with the Dunkirk Elders and they are a brand new area getting opened up as well, with a trainer/trainee. Elder Barfuss came out with me and his trainer is Elder Mitchell which is going home after this transfer! Elder Barfuss and I went to Dunkirk for a couple three days, and I loved it! 

     This last week we taught Connie and Committed her to Baptism. She really wants to get Baptized but we need to teach her everything first. She doesn't know much, and that is what we are here for! Also, Elder Elquist and Elder Mitchell (while on exchanges) Committed Randy to Baptism and he said yes as well! His date is in August and then today we are going to ask Connie if she can be ready for June 15th. Ahh it's so amazing!!! 

      I love getting ready for these lessons. I love to plan what we are going to teach them and just thinking about how they will react just gets me so pumped! The first few weeks all we were doing was finding. Now that we actually have Investigators it makes planning better, studying better, and just makes the day better! It's pretty cool being a part of these peoples lives! 

      I wanted to leave a commitment with you guys which is what I started this Email with. Rely on god, because through him everything is possible! Never think you are praying too much, because you can literally never pray too much. 

I hope everything is going great at home!!

Muuuch Love,

-Elder Bloxham

Another sunset picture... I mean, this one is pretty awesome!!

I saw these Awesome little league baseball fields in Heartford City and just had to take pictures of them!!

Hermana Bloxham - Wow week 2!!

Hey everyone!

 

I can't even believe how fast this week has gone by! I missed talking to you all last week because we came to the library way to late and there were no computers to use!! Ahhhh!! I was sooo sad! But I wrote a letter and I hope you got it!

 

Anyways, what happened this week....?

 

We have found 6 new investigators this week!!! So crazy!!!! One day, I think it was Saturday, was such a good day numbers wise but honestly the weirdest day ever! Like my companion and I were both feeling weird all day, like nothing was going well and like we didn't have the spirit with us like we should have. But that day we found two new investigators, and had 4 lessons! Weird right?

The next day was great! We cleaned the church in the morning and Sister Cole and I laughed sooo hard at each others weirdness haha. Honestly I can't even believe how well we get along and how much fun we have together! Yesterday in our lesson with one of our new investigators Mercedez, we were teaching the lesson and seriously these people LOVE to talk! They have stories in stories in stories to tell us! The hard part is that we are both trying to really understand what they're saying in Spanish so its super hard to know what they are saying haha. Especially Mercedez, she is from the Dominican Republic (like 90% of our investigators and people we talk to are from the DR) and the first time we met her I could probably only understand about 10% of what she said to us but I could just tell that she wanted to know more about the gospel and just wanted to follow Jesus Christ. In our second lesson yesterday she told us that she has had lots of people come and knock on her door and she says that she can see it in their faces that they are "of the world" and when we knocked on her door she said, "these girls are different". She said that our faces are different and that she could notice that we really are representatives of Jesus Christ. It's so amazing how the Spirit can work like that!

We also taught another new investigator named Carlos and his daughter Nelly. Carlos has a lot of difficult questions to answer and it's hard to know what he really wants from our lessons but Nelly is so amazing! She has such a desire to want to be better and I think that she looks up to us missionaries so much and wants to be like us. She is so interested and we are going to try to teach her solamente? as well as with her dad. I can see so much potential in her for sure!

 

This gospel is AMAZING! Words don't even describe how I feel everyday being a representative of Jesus Christ. It's so amazing to be able to feel of His spirit and be able to teach through the amazing Spirit of God. I am so thankful for everything that I have had to go through in my life to be ready for this moment and I know that God is in every single detail of our lives. I love you all so much and I hope you have an amazing week!!

 

Love, Hermana Bloxham :)

Hermana Bloxham - April 23, 2013

Hey Guys,
I feel so bad that I wasn't able to email you today! We just didn't plan our time very well and we got to the library and none of the computers were open:( I am doing great! Don't even worry about me at all! I hope these letters get to you soon! I miss you guys a ton and next week I'll try to send some pictures to you guys of the amazing Bronx, NY! I wish you guys could just spend one day as a "fly on the wall" of my life! It's so amazing! My Spanish has grown so much this week too! Not so much my speaking, but my understanding! There are so many accents and they are so hard to understand!

This week has been amazing! Being in the Bronx has been so great! I'm pretty sure I never want to leave! There are cars honking 24/7, sirens going off 24/7 (even if a cop car just wants to get through an intersection, he turns on his sirens!) sister Cole and I are sleeping in the front room of our apartment and that's our room, so that's great! We have two roommates who are the English side of our zone and it has been fun to get to know them too.
So day 1 in New York was so much fun! We contacted people on the streets and that is mostly in English:( But our lessons are in Spanish. We had a lesson with the Reyes family who are recently re-activated and they are so nice! They fed us some great tortillas with beans and cheese in them. The had a friend there who isn't a  member so we got to teach him about the Book of Mormon and set up another appointment. 1 new investigator! The next day we had planned to go to lunch with the Spanish Elders in our zone to get to know them but we got there early so we tracted/contacted people on the street! I thought it would be a lot scarier than it is! One lady I just said "Hi, how are you?" and she stopped and said, "Why did you say hi so nicely?" I told her that we were missionaries and we just had a great message for her! She seemed so excited and wanted to learn more! She said it was so crazy to just run into us like that, it must have been fate. Then after lunch we had an appointment with Angel, which went so well! He is just struggling with one thing, but he knows it's right so we just need to be patient for him.
After that at the bus stop I just said hi again to a guy waiting with us and he asked why we were so nice. Then  he saw our tags and said that he has had missionaries knock on his door recently. He also said that he has been looking for religion! So perfect! We gave him a Book of Mormon and our numbers if he had any questions.
The next day we had a lot of the same types of miracles, running into the right people who were willing to hear our short message. We got another investigator! Her name is Rosie and hopefully we are teaching her again on Friday! Besides that though it was a pretty hard rest of the day. We had our planned lessons juked (missed) and we had an appointment with the Reyes again but we didn't get in the door so we didn't teach them...
Sunday was pretty good! We had ward counsel and during that meeting we got a call from a former investigator. She said she was awake and wanted to come to church! She came!! So that was both of our first investigators at church! She even stayed for all 3 hours! That day we had at least 4 lessons planned but all of them either got juked or cancelled. So that was not good either. Sunday was just a long day! Monday was such a better day! We started the day in a district meeting that went extra long because we had our first interviews with President Morgan. He had me pray in Spanish and he was blown away by my ability to speak and couldn't believe it! I have gotten a lot of compliments on my Spanish which is so nice! All my hard work was for something!
It has been so amazing to teach real people and see them understand our message. Being a missionary is an amazing experience and I am so thankful for all of your support during my mission I love you all so much!!
Love,
Hermana Bloxham

Hermana Bloxham - April 16, 2013

Hey Family!

So, I'm just sitting on the airplane on my way to NYC with nothing to do so I figure, why not write an awesome letter to the people I love?!
This week we had to finish teaching Ricarda and Juan. Our last lesson with Juan was good and we told him we were leaving because our Heavenly Father needed us somewhere else but that other missionaries would be coming to take our place. It was pretty sad and a crazy experience that I really hope I don't have to do very often on my mission! It was so sad! Our last lesson with Ricarda was much worse! After our lesson we told her that we were leaving and she got so sad! She said, "How am I going to open up to any other missionaries like I have to you and why don't they  just send the other missionaries to where you are going and let you stay here?" It was so hard because we were so emotionally attached to teaching her that leaving was very hard!
It's so cool to me that even though our investigators were really our teachers, we could still receive revelation about how to help them. Sometimes we even taught something that our teacher really needed to hear, more than the investigator! Hermana Collier told me that because of the revelations we received for Ricarda, she knows that there are some things that she could do to help her brother, Rich. Even though she was really difficult to open up, once we finally did, it was so amazing to see how much she changed and how much joy I got from helping her change her life!
Enough about her.... ha ha!
Yesterday we watched a talk given by Brad Wilcox at a BYU Devotional called "His Grace is Sufficient". He talked about the atonement of Christ and how there is not just the saving power of the atonement, but also the enabling power of the atonement. That enabling power if referred to in the scriptures as grace. He used an object lesson about a piano player. As a child your mom wants you to learn to play the piano so she puts you into lessons to help you learn. She pays for it but does your practicing of the piano repay your mom her money back? No. But as you practice and learn the piano your mother is happy and excited for you when you say "Thank You". By using her payment to make yourself better. Es la misma cosa por medio de la expiacion de Jesu Cristo. (It's the same thing through the atonement of Jesus Christ.) We are eternally indebted to our Savior for everything He has done for us but we can "say thank you" by practicing the special gift that he has given us. There are so many people who think that they are not perfect enough to ask God or Jesus Christ for help. But, as Brother Brad Wilcox says, Do we expect every piano player to play at Carnegie Hall or quit? No, there is that middle ground and God's grace is sufficient to help us pull our trials through life and He is in every detail of our lives.
I testify that through the infinite atonement of Jesus Christ, all things are possible. We don't need to be perfect to have His grace, we just have to ask for it. I know that if you go to the Lord in your weaknesses, He will be able to make those desaftos (challenges) your strengths. (Ether 12:27)
I love you all so much!
Love from NYC!!
Hermana Bloxham

Elder Bloxham Week 7 :)

     Hello family!! I am so happy to be writing you this fine Monday morning!! The weather is getting warmer, but also more humid, but the birds are chirpin' and the trees are getting greener!! That is what is so great is everything is so green! The trees are huge and green, all the yards are nice and green, and the birds are just so awesome to listen to! They have Cardinals here, and they are the coolest birds. They are the most beautiful song bird, they have the coolest little chirp!
     Anyways, this week has been fabulous! We are getting more investigators and they are all pretty solid! Connie came to Mutual on Wednesday and she loved it! We are also teaching the Badger family which was a referral from the senior couple here, and they are an awesome family! They have 2 sons and they are pretty cool! Darron and Ashley really want to come to church but there is a lot going on because he is switching jobs and stuff, but once he gets his new job he will be able to come to church because he will no longer work on sundays. They are a very fun family and we are really excited to teach them more and more as they start coming to church and everything.

            The town is starting to love the missionaries walking the streets. We get honked and waved to about 5 or 6 times a day and some of them pull over just to say hi! Now that it's getting warmer people are starting to get happier and that just opens avenues for teaching! We are getting pretty close to the members and i love that. I love that i can talk to them personally and joke around with them! Brother Robbins, he's about 31 and his wife Sister Robbins is about the same age, and they have the cutest little daughter names Eliza! Brother Robbins invites us over for lunch all the time and he makes us some pretty good food, well for Indiana it's pretty good.. It's funny because people in Indiana think it's fine just to cook everything with salt only.. It's pretty good, and it keeps me from being picky! 

             My testimony just keeps on growing! There are just so many things that happen that i don't understand how you couldn't KNOW that it is the spirit. I love it. Absolutely love Winchester. Love Indiana. Love being a missionary. Love the Book of Mormon and I know, without a shadow of a doubt that it is the word of god, translated by the prophet Joseph Smith. It testifies to me every time i read it and it feels like i'm sitting on a cloud while i'm reading. Who would have thought i liked reading so much?... 

              If you ever need guidance in anything, prayer and reading the Book of Mormon is the answer. You will know that the Holy Ghost is there comforting you. And that alone will make your day that much better!

             

            Love,

-Elder Bloxham

That is my pedometer and how many miles we walked in one day.. nice huh?? haha 

I thought it was so funny taking pictures of us driving to Union City cuz it was so dang windy outside!!

We made our own dinner, spaghetti and meatballs!! The meatballs were from scratch too!! it was a wayy good meal!!!

This is me and Elder Elquist half in Ohia and Half in Indiana!

That is pizza king... there are billions of them, and they SUCK.. the pizza is way gross hahaha!!!

Elder Bloxham - The end of my first transfer!!

Heyy!!! I made it through my first transfer! Awesome right? Haha it was a great way to end it as well and i will love to share this experience with you!!

          So as you know, we have been talking with Connie Owens, and we were talking a little bit to her son but that was it. We saw her  daughter coming through the house and we talked to her a little bit as well but that was all we have talked with her. Her daughter's name is Connie as well.. confusing to us.. ahh but we say Monnie, as in mom connie, and then little Connie!

       But one day we were at their house and little Connie came up to us (she is 17) and said how is your church? And we said, uhh haha we love it and it's awesome? i mean of course we'll say that because, i mean it's the true church!.. Ha-ha but she was like i really want to come to your church on Sunday .. and we were like uhh YES please come to church!! So we found her a ride and she came to church on Sunday  It is crazy the tender mercies you receive while being completely obedient and giving yourself up to Heavenly Father! She loved church and she is coming to the young women's activity this Wednesday  it's this iron chef thing where they are making food with a secret ingredient and me and Elder Elquist get to be the judges, it's going to be really fun :)

      The other crazy thing that happend this week is we went over the Chris Young's house, a member, and he lives with his grandparents, his mom and step dad, and sister in this tiny house. it's kinda chaotic, but we were teaching him and we asked him if his grandma was a member or went to a different church? and he said no she doesn't go to any church and doesn't really have a belief in anything? So i asked her, i said Mary, would you be interested in us coming over on sundays and sharing a short message with you? (because she is home ridden because of her husband is sick and she cant leave him) and she said yeah i'd love that! So we went over and had a lesson plan which was teaching her the restoration. But when we got there we got to talking to her and we realized that she had no education in the gospel, or even her purpose of life! So we just made a new appointment with her on thursday and we gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet and told her to read it and write down any questions she had! and she really wanted a bible so we are going to bring it to her then too!! She is such a sweet old lady and she really is interested and wants to learn more!! 

     This was all because of our obedience and our hard work. We feel like if we are going to work this hard and be completely obedient that god will trust us with his children and will soften their hearts! Amazing things can happen!!!!

Love, 

-Elder Bloxham

Hermana Bloxham - First Day in the Field!

Hola from NYC!

Well I just Got to NY and found out that I'm serving in the Bronx! Last night we stayed in a hotel with my travel group and then this morning we drove into the Bronx for our transfer meeting where I met my new companion! Sister Cole!  She's from Boise ID and I'm loving it here already! We got to talk to a lady who was working at a cross walk as we were on our way to email today and she was so nice! We gave her a Folleto(pamphlet) and asked her to read it and that we would come back by sometime to see how she's doing!

I don't know if anything is going to come of that but it was a fun experience!

Tonight hopefully we have a lesson with two 12 year old twins! I'll let you know how that goes next week!

So my new companion is obviously my trainer! She has only been here for 6 weeks! So when I went into the MTC she left! So this is like super fast for her to already be a trainer but I am so excited to finally be here and get to actually do this work to real people! I am so blessed to be able to be working for the Lord for these 18 months. Thank you guys so much for supporting me in this and for helping me through it!

I love you guys so much!

Hermana Bloxham :)