Straight from a movie

Good morning!

It was a another great week in the MLM and in the Holt area! It was great to be feeling back to normal and to be able to go out and work again.

Tuesday morning I said goodbye to Elder Bass. I am really going to miss him. We worked so well together and we were able to teach with a lot of unity. It was sad to see him leave at such a great time. We had several people that we had just started to teach and it would have been great to be able to teach with him. But, now I have the blessing of being with Elder Call. He is from Bountiful, UT and has been out for a little over a year and a half. He has spent most of his time up north but it looks like he is going to finish his mission down here in Holt. Since he only has 2 transfers left he will probably finish his mission and this will probably be my last transfer here in Holt.

We were able to do a lot of work this week. I put Elder Call to work right out of the gate. We have a few less actives that we have been visiting and a few other people that we have begun to teach. Wednesday we taught a girl named Sara that I am super excited about. She is a young mother of 3 that is super interested in the gospel and I think has a lot of potential. Wednesday afternoon we went door knocking and we knocked into this big black guy named Marcus. He said that he worked nights and was really tired and didn't really want to talk at the door step. He told us to come back Thursday. I honestly didn't think that there would be much potential there but when we showed up the most amazing thing happened. He told us that normally he would yell at people that come to his door and would have never given us the time of day. He said that the day before he had been praying for God to show him the path that he needed to take and when we knocked on his door he felt like the Spirit told him to invite us back. We taught him the Restoration and he was very open to it. He loved and agreed with everything that we taught. At the end of the lesson I invited him to be baptized and he accepted!! It was so awesome, literally every single word that he said sounded like it was from a cheesy missionary movie where they say all the perfect things. It truly was amazing and I am excited to see what happens with him. He is a single father of 4 and 3 of his kids live with him. We also have a teenager and her grandma that we met a few weeks ago that are excited to meet with us sometime this week. The girl said that she struggles with depression and anxiety and we told her about how the gospel could really bring a lot of joy and purpose in her life and she said that she had been searching for something in her life. I'm telling you, the people that I have met, and the things that have happened lately make me feel like I am in a movie. I truly am blessed to be able to be working here in Holt and be representing the Lord!

Thursday night I gave a training on why we do missionary work and how better understanding our purpose will help us be better missionaries. Yesterday in church I gave a talk on how members can be better missionaries. I talked about how it all starts with praying for opportunities and praying to recognize those opportunities;living the gospel so that those that are looking for the truth and happiness will find it in our lives. And extending simple invitations that will allow the Spirit to work on people and for people to be willing to learn more about the gospel. I felt like it went really well and several people came up to me afterwards and said that they really enjoyed it. So that was fun..

This week we have several people that I am excited to meet with. We lose the car for a week starting on Wednesday so that won't be too much fun but it always seems to go by really quick. People make fun of us because we have baskets on our bikes but Jesus said, "blessed are those who are persecuted for my namesake," right? That's what I keep telling myself anyways and it helps me not take the people that make fun of our bikes personally.

Well I think that is it for the week!! Thank you again for all of the love and support!! Have a great week!!

Elder Bloskas

Birthday in the ER

Well this week has definitely been the most exciting yet. Me and Elder Bass were having a great week until we got Ebola (not really but I'm sure it feels similar to how we felt) on Friday.

Our week started out great we had a few really good lessons with some new people that we came in contact with last week. We have a few that are really promising and I am excited to see what happens. We also got our transfer calls on Tuesday and I am getting a missionary named Elder Call who will come join me in Holt. I'm excited to see the things that we can accomplish and I know that The Lord is bringing him to Holt and putting us together as companions for a reason at this time! I am extremely sad to see Elder Bass leave and it has been really hard to see him packing all of his stuff and realize that I will have a new companion tomorrow. Me and Elder Bass worked so well together and we were getting a lot done but I know that Elder Call will be able to pick up right where we left off.

Me and Elder Bass started feeling a little under the weather on Wednesday and so we did what anyone else would do and stocked up on Vitamin C  and cough drops and went out and worked! We did a lot of door knocking and helped a family move all of Thursday afternoon and really weren't feeling that sick at all. Friday we both woke up feeling a little more under the weather and by the afternoon we called the mission president's wife and told her that we thought we had the flu... We both had fevers, muscle aches, head aches, and just felt crummy... We laid in bed the rest of the day and were up almost all night sick. I was not able to eat or drink much of anything at all from lunch Friday until we were in the ER no matter how hard I tried. Saturday we were even worse and by Saturday evening we had both thrown up blood (sorry if this is to much detail), me twice and him once, and the mission doctor told us to go to the ER around 10:30pm. We went in and they got us back almost immediately. We were asked several times if we had traveled outside of the country recently or been around someone who had traveled out of the country recently (probably just to make sure we didn't really have Ebola). We were both super dehydrated and so they gave us both fluids and several medicines in an IV. They ended up telling us that we didn't have the flu but had a combination of a few things including a really nasty virus... They gave us a few medicines and me and Elder Bass have slowly started to feel better.

Probably not the best way to end my time with Elder Bass as my companion or to spend my birthday but I can definitely say that it is a birthday I will never forget! I don't think I have ever been wished "Happy Birthday" so many times in the first few hours of my birthday--by several nurses and doctors and a creepy hospital security officer.  The members of the ward here did so much for us. We had several people bring us food and other things that we needed and I had a few people from church even drop by birthday presents. It was truly a humbling experience and it made me really glad to be serving in such a great place such as Holt.

One last thought that I was thinking about earlier in the week that I wanted to share with y'all. As I was thinking about my upcoming birthday I was reminded of an experience I had a few years ago when I had the opportunity to volunteer at the MDA camp. I was the counselor to a camper,  Michael, who had a birthday one of the days that we were at camp. I remember the red carpet was really rolled out for him. I think "happy birthday" was sang to him over 25-30 times. People were constantly wishing him Happy Birthday and making sure that his day was as good as it could be. I remember overhearing one of the other counselors mentioning to someone else that they had never seen anyone make such a big deal about someones birthday before. The person they asked said that they make such a big deal about birthdays because a lot of the kids that have muscular dystrophy don't live to have many birthdays and so they want to make sure that the birthdays that they do have are the best that they can be. It was truly humbling to me and helped me realize just how thankful I am for the blessings that I have received in my life. And since Michael passed away this past year it was humbling to be reminded of the countless life lessons that I was taught by a young 14 year old boy. It really has helped me to not only be thankful for birthdays but also for every single day that I have been blessed with.

Well, I think that is it for this week. Thank you for all of the birthday wishes and for the continued support and prayers. I promise I am feeling a lot better today than I have been and there are plenty of people here in Michigan that are looking out for me! I hope y'all have a great week.

 

-Elder Bloskas

 

P.S. We busted the piñata and took this picture a few days before we almost died. I thought y'all would enjoy seeing that me and Elder Bass got to at least enjoy my birthday a little bit!  

 

A Spiritual Feast

It was another great week here in the MLM! I feel like so much happens between emails that I write to ya'll -- but the week just flies by.

First an update on our investigators... Rashida moved out of the area. We are no longer meeting with her.  We are trying to stay in contact with her until she settles down in a place and we can get missionaries to her. We also lost 2 other people that we were meeting with. They got super busy and asked if we could hold off on meeting with them for a few weeks. So me and Elder Bass went back to our roots and spent a lot of time door knocking. We had to give up the car on Wednesday so we have been on bikes since then. Saturday, we biked over 12 miles... It was really exhausting. It made me thankful that we have the car back in a few days. But we met lots of really cool people and set up return appointments with them but we really didn't do much teaching later in the week. It is hard at nights to try to be productive because it has started to get dark around 7:30 every night and so we aren't able to door knock as much. We have gotten to go and visit members and spend some time with some who haven't been to church in a while and work on getting them coming back.

This week is my last week with Elder Bass. This is also my last week of being trained (even though I have felt like we have been done for several weeks.) I will find out tomorrow who my new companion will be. We usually find out the Friday morning before transfers but President Jacobsen has a mission president's seminar and so they are doing it early. I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me. President Jacobsen has mentioned that I might be training a new missionary coming in this next transfer. So I guess we will see. It is humbling to me that he would have such great confidence in me but I know that the Lord doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called. So I guess we shall see what happens. I will let you know next week who my new companion will be.

This week we have a pretty busy week planned. We have several members of the ward here taking us out since it is Elder Bass' last week in the mission. So I will for sure eat really well this week. We will probably spend all week door knocking so we will end our time together how we started it, door knocking all day everyday until we find people to teach.

I feel like I have been extremely blessed with so many opportunities to learn lately. Last weekend was General Conference and I always learn so much! This past weekend we had Stake Conference and we had Elder Hamula here from the Quorum of the Seventy (he talked during General Conference). It truly has been a spiritual feast that has really encouraged me to continue to work hard. It was so great. He truly is an inspired man and he taught so much that I was able to apply to my own life and to those that we come in contact with!! I was reminded of Alma 5:38;41 where it talks about those who hearken to the voice of the Lord. Hearken meaning to not only hear but also to follow and do what is asked. This applies to the baptismal covenant that we make to take upon ourselves Christ's name. When we take upon us Christ's name we are standing in his place and are given the right to speak and act in his place. But we must be willing to adopt His character and willing to submit to his will and also do his work.

I have a lot going on in the next few weeks. Next week I have been asked to give 2 different trainings and I am speaking in Sacrament Meeting in 2 weeks. So I will be spending a lot of time in preparing for those trainings. I am humbled at every opportunity that I have to train and teach. I have really been able to see the Lord work through me and it is humbling to be able to see the Spirit teach through me. I truly am grateful to be the Lord's servant and to be able to be doing His work and stand in His place in people's lives.

Thank you for all of the love and support! I'm grateful for the flood of emails that I get every week that encourage me! Thanks for all that ya'll do!!

 

-Elder Bloskas

Meet the Mormons

Monday, October 6, 2014

Good morning!

What a wonderful week that it has been. I have been constantly reminded of how truly blessed I am and how grateful I am to be in the Lord's service.

This week was a great week. Me and Elder Bass have been super busy with teaching lessons and the area we are serving in has been doing better than it has in a long time. It has been great to be able to see the fruits of our labors.

There has been little changes in our teaching pool. We did pick up one more investigator. His name is Kory. He is a super knowledgeable guy that is truly searching for truth. He has been very open to what we have shared with him. He has a good Christian background and knows the Bible fairly well but he is humble enough to have an open mind and listen to us. I am excited to see what happens with him!

Rashida is moving out of her apartment today and we are not sure when we will see her again. She said that her mom is planning on moving close to Kalamazoo but she said that she feels like she might do better going to a shelter in the area. So hopefully we will see her again soon. She is supposed to get baptized on October 18th, (since General Conference was this weekend and Stake Conference is this next weekend and we need a Sacrament meeting to confirm her.) But I know that she will do good wherever she goes and I know she will get back in contact with missionaries in the future if we lose contact with her.

This past Wednesday we had the opportunity to watch Meet The Mormons, a documentary that the church is putting out in select theaters October 10th. It was a great movie and I think that it will really be a great missionary tool for those that see it. I encourage all of you to watch it if you have the opportunity! You can see theaters where it is showing and find out more information at MeetTheMormons.com

General Conference was great!! It confirmed my testimony that the speakers that spoke truly are the mouthpiece of God. Like I have done in previous years, I took the challenge of writing down questions that I felt like I needed answered and waited to see them answered through the talks that were given. Every single one of my 10 questions were answered and not only that but there were countless things that were shared in Conference that were things that I had been taught by the Spirit lately! There were some things that were taught and talked about that were worded almost word for word for how I have explained and taught things to the people that we have been teaching. It confirmed to me that I truly am standing as a representative of Jesus Christ and that the things that I am saying in the lessons with investigators truly is from the Spirit. You can watch/listen to all of the talks on LDS.org and you will be able to read them in the coming days or week.

I truly am grateful to be a servant of Jesus Christ and to be serving in place of him. I am reminded daily that I am truly blessed. There were several times this week that I was reminded just how grateful I am to have been raised by such great parents! There are people that we meet that were never taught important lessons, ideals, or any type of decent work ethic. I am grateful for the many lessons that I have been taught by countless people as I have gone throughout my life and since I have been a member of this church. I'm truly grateful that there is a living prophet on the earth and the opportunity that we have to listen to the Lord's servants every 6 months. I'm grateful for all of the love and support that I have been given these last 3 months and know that it will continue to encourage me throughout my mission! 

I love all of you!

 

-Elder Bloskas

 

"Search these commandments, for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled. What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." -D&C 1:37-38