Transfer Planning

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Hello all!

It has been a super busy week and next week will be even busier!! 

Monday, we started transfer planning and started to see where we needed to place all of the different missionaries. It is a really cool process as we (APs) work with President Jacobsen to seek inspiration from the Lord and see where all of the missionaries in the mission are needed. 

Tuesday, we continued to transfer plan until about 2pm when we taught a few lessons and then I had to do a training, required by the church, so that I can drive the big van and trailer for transfers this next week! 

Wednesday, we had to drive to Mt. Pleasant to pick up a missionary that needed to come back here to Lansing, and then we finished transfer planning. 

Thursday, we double checked transfer planning and then we spent the rest of the day doing logistics for transfers. So we spent the whole day going through every single missionary and figuring out how they were going to get from their current area to their new area, who they would be staying with while they waited on new companions, and where those missionaries that are training the new missionaries coming out are going to be working for the whole week until Thursday when they get their new companions. Thursday evening, we went to President Jacobsen's and called all of the new zone leaders, the current zone leaders, and Sister Training Leaders and told them where they are going and what areas in their zone they needed to call and tell that they were staying the same. 

Friday, we spent all morning calling all of the new missionaries to tell them where they were going and giving them their travel plans. We also went to a baptism here in Lansing, and then spent the rest of the day getting office stuff done before transfers. 

Today, there was a huge service project that we helped out with. We ended up cutting down trees to make a bike path at one of the parks. Tonight, we are shopping and getting things ready for next week.

Next week we should be super busy.... Monday I will be driving missionaries around the mission all day. Tuesday, we will be taking those missionaries going home to the temple in Detroit and then hanging out with them all day, Wednesday the missionaries going home leave at like 7am and the ones coming in arrive around 12. Then we will spend the whole day helping them get settled in and filling out paperwork. Thursday, we have to train the new missionaries and their trainers and then drive them to their areas. It should be a busy week.

Well that is all the news I have. I hope that y'all have a great week!! Thanks for all the love and support!!

Elder Bloskas

Moving to East Lansing

Good morning from beautiful East Lansing, MI. 

It has been a crazy couple of weeks and as you have noticed I have been in a different city for the past 3 weeks. This past weekend I was called to be the new Assistant to the President (AP) for our mission. I will be serving here for a little over 7 months and then I will finish my mission by going to one last area, spending a transfer there with a companion, and then training new missionaries for my last 3 months of my mission. Me and my new companion, Elder Norton will work side by side with President and Sister Jacobsen in helping all of the missionaries in the mission accomplish great things here in the Michigan Lansing Mission. It will keep me extremely busy and I will be traveling all over the state of Michigan but I am extremely excited that President Jacobsen and The Lord have put so much trust in me.

Last Monday, Elder Woodland and I, headed to Midland and played some games with the missionaries there before teaching a lesson Monday Night. 

Tuesday and Wednesday our zone had interviews with President Jacobsen and so I had to drive to all of those. Tuesday we were in Midland for half of the day and then we went back to Mt. Pleasant and did some door knocking and worked on some things that I had to do for the Stake President and his counselors about the missionaries in our zone. Wednesday morning I had to be in Saginaw at 8am for interviews and then we followed President Jacobsen to West Branch for the final interviews in our zone. We then drove back just in time for us to teach a lesson to a lady that we met earlier in the week and then I finished up things for the zone. 

Thursday, we weekly planned and I helped the sisters in Mt. Pleasant with their weekly planning and helped them to make it more effective and efficient, then we had to get the oil changed on my truck. We spent the rest of the day door knocking and then had a ward mission meeting with Brother May in the evening.

Friday, we helped a lady in the ward clean out her garage, ate lunch with her and her family, taught a few lessons and then door knocked until dinner. On our way to dinner I got the call from President Jacobsen informing me that I was going to be the new assistant and that I needed to pack my bags to be picked up by the assistants the next day. So we ate dinner, taught a lesson on Facebook and then I began packing. 

Saturday, we helped a lady in the ward move, ate lunch with Brother Banner (from Grand Rapids) and then spent the rest of the afternoon packing and cleaning the apartment before the assistants picked me up. We drove back to Lansing and dropped off Elder Woodland in Ithaca (there is still 1 more week left in the transfer and since I am the new assistant I have to plan for transfers this week) and then we ate dinner and I unpacked. Yesterday, we went to church, ate lunch at President and Sister Jacobsen's, then we had call-ins the rest of the evening. 

It is going to be a crazy and busy week. Beginning this morning we will start transfer planning. We will do that most of the week and spend a total of around 20 hours from Mon-Thurs transfer planning and then making transfer calls on Friday. Since I will be driving all of the missionaries getting transferred and preparing for missionaries to go home and to enter into the mission, we will be taking our p-day on Saturday this week and then it will be back to Mondays the next Monday.

Thanks for all of the love, support and prayers!!

Elder Bloskas

P.S. Any mail can be sent to me at the mission office address:

4910 S. Hagadorn Rd.

East Lansing, MI 48823

Mission Life Be Cray

Good Morning from Mt. Pleasant!! 

After an interesting chain of events I am now back in Mt. Pleasant again. My new companion (for 2 weeks until he gets a new companion also) is Elder Woodland. His companion also had to go home for some medical reasons and so instead of us both being in a trio, they put us together for the remaining 2 weeks of the mission.

But it was a great week. I feel like I have been going a million miles an hour. 

Monday, we played baseball with the Bay City Sisters and the Saginaw Elders. I ended up scraping up my knee while we were playing and it was all bloody, but that just made me look tougher!

Monday night,  Elder Anderson and I went to Bay City, to be with Elder Rapp for a tradeoff on Tuesday. It was fun being in the 3rd most dangerous city in the nation (#1 being Detroit and #2 Flint, both also in Michigan but not in our mission) It felt great to be back in the hood and I really enjoyed spending time with the Elders there. 

Wednesday, the assistants came to Bay City's district meeting and then afterwards I went with them to blitz Bad Axe. (A blitz is where both sets of missionaries stay in the one area instead of just swapping companions for the day and working in both of the areas) It was fun. I got to be with Elder Boyd, who only had been out a few weeks. We got to do a lot of door knocking and it was good to be able to help train him and give him some pointers on how he can improve. 

Wednesday night we met a guy who got to be a nurse for several Apostles of the church when he was working in a hospital in SLC. He told us all of these amazing stories of his interactions with them and the amazing men that they were. It was really cool to hear him tell all sorts of stories. 

Thursday night, I was back in Bay City. Thursday night is when I got the call that Friday I would be coming back to Mt. Pleasant with Elder Woodland. 

Friday, we worked a little in Bay City and then we came to Mt. Pleasant and actually got to teach a few lessons here. 

Saturday, we did a lot of door knocking since there aren't many students in town to talk to on campus. There was one guy that we met and had a really funny conversation... So we were talking to him and he said that he was agnostic and didn't really know whether there was a God. We invited him to have us come back and share a message with him, and he agreed. As we were trying to set up a time he said that he worked on the weekend and that weekdays would probably work best. I asked him where he worked and he said, "Intimate innovations, it is an adult novelty store." For some reason I misunderstood him and thought that he worked at a comic book store and so he was so confused when I excitedly said, "Oh wow! That is really cool! Maybe we will have to stop by sometime when you are working.".... I didn't realize until afterwards when Elder Woodland about had a heart attack and explained that I had misunderstood him. Needless to say, Elder Woodland has not let me live that down and when we see him this week I am going to have to inform him that we will not actually be coming to his work... I guess sometimes I am more innocent that I realize. 

Anyways, it should be a great week. I will be traveling a lot in the zone this week and have a meeting with the Stake President to talk about how the missionaries in the stake are doing. It should be a great week!! Thanks for all of the prayers and support!!!

Elder Bloskas

Bay City: The Start of the Bloskas Dictatorship

Good morning from Bay City!!

It has been a crazy week but I am really enjoying being in Bay City! It has been weird not serving with Elder Blatter but I have really enjoyed hanging out with Elder Anderson and Elder Dorrough here in Bay City. It is strange being the only zone leader but I have joked with all of the missionaries in the zone that our zone is now a dictatorship and that I plan to take over the whole mission. 

It was a good week!  Sunday, we had Stake Conference in Midland before driving back to Mt. Pleasant, packing the last of our stuff and doing call-ins before the assistants picked us up and drove us to Lansing. We got to hang out with them and while they were doing call-ins with the other zone leaders we went on a walk with Elder and Sister Bish (who are a senior couple that are serving in the office).  It was really relaxing.

Monday, we dropped off Elder Blatter at the airport. It was so weird watching your companion go through security and then disappear walking towards the terminals... It was a strange feeling and I really wish he would have been able to stay but I know that now he will be able to take care of his medical issues and everything will be alright. After we dropped off Elder Blatter, I got to hang out with the Assistants the rest of the day. The assistants are pretty big on working out and they about killed me doing P90x with them... It was fun but I don't know how they do it every single day... Monday evening we also prepared for MLC the next day. 

Tuesday, we had MLC all day with all of the zone leaders, sister training leaders, assistants, and President and Sister Jacobsen. It was really good and we developed a lot of great ideas to best help the mission. Afterwards, we grilled burgers at the mission home and then we headed to Mt. Pleasant to grab my stuff and then drove to Bay City. 

Wednesday, we had district meeting here, taught a few lessons, and then went to a Bible study at the church. 

Thursday, we taught lessons all day and then Thursday evening I did a baptismal interview for a 13 year old that was being baptized here in Bay City. 

Friday, we drove to Mt. Pleasant so that I could work on things for the zone all day. We drove back, had dinner and then taught another lesson here in Bay City. 

Saturday, we had our car fast day (where one day a week we are not able to use the car) and so I think we walked a total of 10 miles to our appointments and then also walked to our dinner appointment. 

Yesterday, we had church and then as always I had to do call-ins for most for most of the evening. Today we are planning on hanging out and playing some baseball this afternoon. 

We have a pretty busy week planned for this week. I will be in Saginaw tomorrow on a trade-off and then Wednesday I will be in Bad Axe on a blitz with the assistants. Should be a pretty great week!!

Thanks for all of the love, support, and prayers!!

Elder Bloskas