Transfers round 3

Good morning! 

It was another really busy week and I think that I am still recovering from the lack of sleep that we usually get during transfer week but it was a good week.

Saturday we had a great p-day. We walked on campus a little bit while the game was going on and went to the book store to look at some MSU gear. We also finished up some stuff for transfers but mostly tried to relax. That evening we had dinner with the zone leaders here in Lansing and then headed back to the office to finish some last minute transfer stuff. Once we got to the office I got really sick and had to go to the ER after we called Sister Jacobsen and the mission doctor. I will spare you from the details but we ended up being in the ER until 3:30am while they did numerous test including 2 blood tests. Long story short they ended up not having to admit me into the hospital and they are having me follow-up with a doctor in a few weeks when I can get an appointment.

Sunday, we woke up and did our normal Sunday routine except we probably looked like zombies since we were so tired. But it was a good day. 

Monday, we drove around the state twice and did transfers. It is always good to see all of the missionaries and to see the excitement that they have for their new areas! 

Tuesday, we went to the state capitol here in Lansing and then went to the temple with the missionaries going home. 

Wednesday, we took the departing missionaries to the airport and then picked up the new ones and spent some time with them filling out paper work and stuff. 

Thursday, we had our trainer and trainee meetings. It was a really good day both me and Elder Norton got to instruct 2 times during the trainings and I felt like they went really well!! Then after the meetings we drove several of the missionaries to their areas. We actually had a pretty stressful evening as one of the sets of missionaries got lost going to their new area and they didn't have a phone or the address to where they were supposed to be going. They were supposed to be following their zone leaders but they got separated and long story short we called the TIWI people (the black boxes in our cars that monitor our driving) and were planning on tracking them down but they ended up pulling off of the highway and used somebody's cell phone there. 

Friday and Saturday we pretty much just recovered from the week and finished some things around the office and on campus. 

Yesterday we had another great day at church! We have another busy week planned for this week with several trade-offs and preparing for 2 trainings that we have next week so things wont slow down for a while. But I wouldn't trade this for the world. My mission has been the greatest thing ever and I have learned and grown so much!! Thanks for all of the prayers and support!!

Elder Bloskas

Here are the new missionaries when we picked them up at the airport! 12 sisters and 6 elders!!

Spartans and General Authorities

Good morning!! 

It has been a great week!! It has been a busy week but a really good one.

Saturday evening we went to the MSU vs. Oregon game like I mentioned last week. President allowed us to go with the hope that if it was a good experience that more missionaries would be able to go in the future. It was a lot of fun! Campus was crazy and I honestly don't think that I have seen so much alcohol in my life... The gate where we were checking tickets was full of people that were drinking as much as they could right before going into the game and then throwing their bottles and cans on the ground. There were hundreds of cans and bottles and it honestly wasn't as fun of an experience as we expected. Shortly after the game started we got to go find seats and we were able to find seats right below the Megatron in the south end zone of the lower bowl in the stadium! It was a lot of fun but we only got to stay until about halfway through the 3rd quarter when we had to leave to go back to our apartment. It was a really fun experience but me and Elder Norton both agreed that as missionaries we probably wouldn't want to do it again and that missionaries in the future probably shouldn't go to a game this crazy if they go at all.

Sunday, we had a great day at church! Right after church we went to a potluck with the YSAs before we did our usual call-ins and then we went over to the mission home to have dinner with President and Sister Jacobsen and Elder Andersen, of the second quorum of the 70, and his wife. It was great to be able spend some time talking to and learning from a general authority! 

Monday and Tuesday we had to wake up at 4:15am in order to drive to Kalamazoo and then Mt. Pleasant to set up everything for the half-mission conference. It was an amazing conference and I learned so much about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the atonement, and how I can be a better disciple of Jesus Christ! Monday afternoon we had a great leadership training where we learned about how we can be Christlike leaders and also how to avoid becoming prideful and acknowledging where our strength and abilities come from. It was a great few days and I was grateful to be able to learn from a General Authority and to be able to spend so much time one on one with him!

Wednesday and Thursday, we transfer planned all day and got things ready for transfers next week. Thursday we had to drive to help Elder Linton (the senior missionary over the apartments) put furniture in a few of the apartments that we are opening up this transfer. Thursday night we went over and finalized transfer plans with President and Sister Jacobsen and then we called all of the new Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. 

Friday we had transfer calls all morning and then we drove to St. Joseph to take stuff to open up an apartment there and then drove back (it is a 4 hr round trip). 

Today we have a great day planned doing our typical p-day stuff and preparing for transfers. 

This week should be a busy week as we have transfers and send 2 missionaries home and then welcome 18 new missionaries into the mission! It should be a great week! Thanks for all of the prayers and support!!

Elder Bloskas

P.S. Here is a picture of our view of the stadium on Saturday and a picture of me and Elder Norton with President and Sister Jacobsen and Elder and Sister Andersen!

Fishing and College Game Day

Good morning from beautiful East Lansing. 

Campus is busy today with all sorts of students, fans, and the people from ESPN! The massive Goodyear blimp is even flying over campus today!! But we had a really great week!

Monday, we went fishing in Holland. We didn't catch anything worth keeping but I did catch 2 small fish!! One was a large mouth bass and the other was some other type of really small fish. I was the only one who caught more than one fish but there really weren't many fish where we were fishing. 

Tuesday, we had our usual meeting with President and then we went on campus to contact people. We met a girl named Rachel that wanted us to teach her right then so we got to teach her the restoration in one of the dorm lobbys on campus. After that we got to have dinner at a back-to-school BBQ the ward had here at the institute. 

Wednesday we drove to Midland and went to their district meeting and then got to go to district lunch with them before heading back to Lansing. Once we got back here we continued to work on preparing for the half mission next week. We got to teach a girl that was recently baptized and then we had dinner. 

Thursday, we had a really good day. We spent most of the morning beginning our transfer planning since we will have conferences Monday and Tuesday of next week and then we got to teach a few lessons before we helped one of the senior missionaries move stuff into an apartment that we are opening up and then having dinner with the Dickerson's!

 Friday, we started out the day teaching 2 amazing lessons! We had a lesson with Janell who was recently baptized and then we taught a new guy who really loved the message that we shared. Then we spent most of the rest of the day transfer planning before we took a break from the office and went on campus to check out the set up that College Game Day had set up. It was a really good week.

Today we are doing our regular stuff before we go to the MSU and Oregon game tonight and then all week we will be super busy! It should be a great week!!! I am excited for the work picking up here and for all of the awesome experiences I will get to have this week!! Thanks for all of the love and support!!

Elder Bloskas

P.S. Here is my fish that I caught and also a picture of the College Game Day set up!!

First Week of School/Students

Good morning and Happy Labor Day!! 

It was a really great week here in East Lansing and it was great to be able to spend a lot of time on campus.  It was also great to spend some time here in East Lansing and not have to be all over the state like we usually are.

Monday, we had a great p-day. Our meeting with President Jacobsen went a little longer than usual but we were still able to have a great p-day. I got my haircut and we also played basketball and dodge ball so it was a lot of fun! After that we cleaned up and ate dinner with a few of the YSAs. We ended up grilling hamburgers behind our apartment and enjoyed being outside a little bit. 

Tuesday, we had to do some stuff in the office to prepare for the half-mission conference next week.  Afterwards, we got to go on campus and talk to a bunch of students. All week we had a lot of really good success and got to meet a lot of awesome people. That evening there was a huge event on campus to welcome all of the new students and to help them become aware of all of the on campus organizations and stuff.  So we kind of hung out around there and talked to students that were attending. 

Wednesday, we drove to Grand Rapids and went to the Wyoming district meeting and then also the Spanish district meeting. It has been a few transfers since we have had an all-Spanish district and so it was awesome to be able to attend a district meeting in all Spanish (even though I didn't understand most of what they were saying,  the Spirit was super strong!) It was really awesome. Then we got to go to this authentic Mexican food restaurant and eat district lunch there. Once we got back to East Lansing we went on campus and talked to several students before we met with President for a few minutes before we went to dinner and finished some stuff in the office. 

Thursday, we started the morning by going to the church and setting up our new sound system that we are going to start using at conferences from now on. We set everything up and got President's opinion on what he was wanting it to look like so that we wouldn't have any problems next week when we have Elder Andersen of the quorum of the 70 here. After that we had lunch with a few of the Elders that were helping us out and then we went on campus. Right before dinner we were walking into the institute (where the mission office is also) and we stopped to talk to Bro. Tibbitts.  He told us that he met a guy whose organization volunteers at the MSU football games scanning tickets and said that after they get done scanning tickets and the game starts they get to go watch the game for free in the lower bowl of the stadium. He told us that he signed up to do it through this organization and asked if we would be able to do it. So we called President Jacobsen and he told us that he would let us do it for one game. So this Saturday we are going to be at the MSU and Oregon game watching 2 top 10 teams play and will be watching the game in the lower bowl of the stadium!! I am super pumped!! After we talked to him we drove to Leslie, MI to eat dinner with the YSA ward mission leader and talk to him about how the work was going on MSU campus.

Friday and Saturday we mainly just talked to people on campus and met a lot of awesome people. I had a really cool experience on Saturday. After lunch I wasn't feeling too great but I really wanted to still go on campus since we usually don't have too much time on campus. I was really not looking forward to talking to people and so I prayed that Heavenly Father would give me strength to be effective on campus. The first person that we saw I immediately had a prompting that this was the person that I was supposed to talk to. And so I stopped him, talked to him, and he agreed to meet with us and was super excited about us teaching him! It was so awesome and it was a true answer to prayer.

Sunday, we had an amazing Sunday!! Mauricio, who is a deaf recent convert, blessed the sacrament! It was so awesome! He had to memorize the prayer and then someone helped him through it but it was so awesome. Sunday school and Priesthood were also amazing and it was a great day!

We have a great week planned!! Today we are going to go fishing in Holland, MI! Then we are going to spend most of the week transfer planning (since most of the week will be taken up with Elder Andersen coming) and preparing for Elder Andersen! Then Saturday we are going to go to the MSU game!! Since we will have conferences Monday and Tuesday, our p-days will be on Saturday for the next 2 weeks and so I will be emailing then instead of Mondays!! But I hope y'all have a great week!!

Elder Bloskas

P.S. Here is a peak into our lives as assistants. This is the "Transfer Board". It has the names, pictures, and areas that all of the missionaries in the mission have served. It is a magnet and this is what we use to decide where missionaries get transferred and which areas they go to. This gives you an idea of all of the missionaries in the mission and how many missionaries we help