Halloween PDay

Good morning and Happy Halloween.

I am emailing/having P-day today because we will be driving all over the state of Michigan on Monday and won't have our p-day then!

We had a really good week this past week! Most of the week was spent transfer planning. We started it on Monday right after we got done emailing and spent most of the day transfer planning before we taught a lesson to Michael that night. We talked about the 10 commandments and about how prophets have always been able to give us the word of God. It was a really good lesson and I think all of us learned a lot from each other about something that all of us grew up believing.

Tuesday, we transfer planned again most of the day before we taught Jake that afternoon. Jake is doing so awesome and he was already in 3 Nephi (in a week and a half) and was loving it!! We taught him about tithing and the blessings that come from it and it was awesome because earlier in the day he got a call from the school that he goes to saying that he owes them more money than he expected.  It was cool to be able to talk about how faith plays into tithing and how God will always bless him! Afterwards, we got to go on campus and it was a lot of fun. Since there were 3 of us, two of us would talk to someone and then the other would keep walking about 20 more feet and stop someone else. I love talking to people on campus and it was great to get out of the office and do some finding. 

Wednesday, we went to Meridian's district meeting. Elder Dunn (who I served with when I was a district leader in Grand Rapids) is the district leader there. He did a really great job and then we took pictures with his district afterwards! I got to use my new selfie stick that someone gave me last week for the picture! I will include the picture in this email! Then we spent the rest of the day transfer planning before we taught Michael, Janell, and then another member who hasn't been to church in a while named Jose. All of the lessons went well. The lesson with Michael went great because he has a lot of questions/concerns that he hasn't really told us about and so it was great to get those out in the open so that we can help him. 

Thursday, we finished logistics for transfers and then got to help Elder Haddock do the van driving training and we also washed and waxed the new trailer to protect it from the snow and salt this winter.

Friday, we had transfer calls and then we drove to Saginaw to pick up a missionary and take him to Grand Rapids for a baptism. Then we got to have dinner with Brother Banner before we came back to Lansing. 

Today we are teaching Jake and then spending the rest of the day preparing for next week before we have a Halloween party with a bunch of the missionaries tonight. It should be a lot of fun! This next week we will be busy with transfers and sending missionaries home and welcoming the new ones! It should be great!!

Thanks as always for the prayers and support!!

Elder Bloskas

P.S. Here is me and Elder Norton and Elder Haddock with my selfie stick. And here is the Meridian District with my selfie stick! (I feel like I have put it to good use)

Birthday Week!

Good morning!! 
It was another great week here in the MLM!! We are continuing to see miracles every single day and it was been amazing.

Monday, I had an awesome birthday. After we emailed we went to lunch and then went to another corn maze! This one wasn't nearly as big as the other one. It was kinda lame since the corn was dead and you could see over the corn most of the time. But it was a lot of fun and we got to get some apple cider afterwards (it was at one of the many cider mills in the area). After that we went to a place here in Lansing called Spare Time. It is a bowling alley and arcade. We went there to do laser tag but they didn't have the laser tag open so we did a thing called a laser maze. It was similar to the thing that you see in spy movies where they have to get past all of those lasers without hitting any of them. It was a lot of fun and you were even able to watch other people via a screen that showed the inside of the maze. That evening we had a birthday dinner with several of the members of the ward here. It was a lot of fun and they made me a cake and everything!! Afterwards, we taught the Plan of Salvation to Michael and although he had a lot of questions it went really well. 

Tuesday, we spent most of the day driving to West Branch for their district meeting, which was 2 1/2 hours each way. We spent some time with the elders there and then we drove back to Lansing to teach Jake again! He is doing so awesome! He is loving the gospel and is continuing to read nonstop from the Book of Mormon! We taught him and then we got to go to the last part of the Book of Mormon institute class with him. The members of the ward are fellowshipping him so well and he sat for a long time talking to a lot of them after institute!

Wednesday, we drove to Greenville to go to their district meeting and then afterwards we came back to Lansing and taught Michael again. He had a lot of questions about things he has been reading online about our church. So we spent most of the lesson answering his questions and helping him to realize that most of the stuff that he is reading online is completely false or taken out of context. Afterwards, we had a member take us out to eat pizza! 

Thursday, we had a lesson with Janell and then we drove to Jackson to teach Jake again. We taught him about temples and about the Word of Wisdom. He loved what we taught him and he was excited to start his own family history! Afterwards, we came back to Lansing and went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with President Jacobsen to celebrate my birthday. Afterwards, we met with him for a little while before he left to go up north this past weekend. 

Friday, we had a crazy day... In the morning I had a doctors appointment to figure out everything that happened when I had to go to the ER last month. But everything went pretty well and we are figuring everything out. Then that afternoon, we had a mission emergency that required us to blitz an area, and emergency transfer 2 companionships. I am not able to say all of the details but it all worked out well! After that we met Jake at Applebees and had dinner with him.

Saturday, we had a great day. We got to do some finding on campus before we drove to Jackson again and met Jake for a lesson. We taught him in Culvers (a place that sells custard) since we weren't able to meet him at the church. It was really cool, after the lesson a guy and his wife approached us and said that they had listened in on our lesson and had some questions. So after Jake left we came back and talked with them for about 30 mins about some of the questions that they had. After that we drove to Mt. Pleasant to pick up Elder Haddock who is the new assistant and will be my companion once Elder Norton leaves. 

Sunday, we had our normal Sunday and it was a really great day.

Today we start transfer planning and we will be planning all week. I will be emailing on Saturday this week since we will be having transfers on Monday so be looking for me then!!

Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes and for all of the prayers and support!!

Elder Bloskas

P.S. Here is a sign that was at the cider mill where the corn maze was!

The Big 2-3 and Bithday Week Miracles

Good morning. 

Thank you for all of the wonderful birthday wishes that I have received so far! I have been overwhelmed with an outpouring of love from everyone and I am sure that today is going to be a birthday to remember. It is a wonderful morning here in East Lansing and we had an amazing week. We were really able to see the hand of the Lord this past week and saw several miracles!

Last Monday, we went to the Corn Maze and it was a lot of fun. We went with several other missionaries and it was a great way to spend our p-day. That evening we had a first lesson with a guy named Michael. He is super awesome and has been prepared to accept the gospel. After the lesson he asked us if we could take a picture with him so that he could send it to 2 of his friends who are on missions. He is super awesome. I will include the picture that we took with him in this update. Monday night after the lesson we went over to President's and kinda had a mission emergency that we had to take care of so we didn't get back to our apartment from his house until around 11:30pm...

Tuesday, we drove up to Traverse City and it was a beautiful drive. The leaves have been changing colors and I would have been able to get several awesome photos but it was cloudy and raining the whole time that we were up there.. So I got a few pictures but not nearly as many as I was hoping. But we had a great blitz up there. I was with Elder Coziar all day and we had an awesome day of finding and then that evening the Lintons (the senior couple who are over apartments in the mission) took us all out to Pizza Hut.

Wednesday, we went to district meeting in Petoskey and then made the long trek back to East Lansing where we had another awesome lesson with Michael.

Thursday, me and Elder Norton helped Elder Bish move an elliptical into President and Sister Jacobsen's house while they were gone. When we were moving it down stairs one of the pieces actually slipped up and nailed the wall and did a little damage but it was nothing major so we are going to be able to get it fixed without any issues! We also got to do some finding before we had a trade-off with the zone leaders here in Lansing. That night when we were planning for the next day me and Elder Schetselaar decided that we were going to find 2 new people to teach while we were finding (since we were just going to be finding all day) and we even decided what their names were going to be. It was a light hearted way to make a goal to work towards during the day and while we didn't find and teach "Mark" and "Alicia" like we planned we did meet a guy named Wambali that we were able to teach. We taught him the restoration and he accepted a baptismal date for November 21!! It turned out to be a really good day. 

Saturday, we had another amazing day as we got to teach a guy named Jake that our ward mission leader goes to school with. He met Jordan (the member that goes to school with him) and saw something in him that he felt like he was missing. So he prayed for 2 WEEKS to ask God if he should talk to him about the church and this last Monday he went up to him after he felt he received an answer and told him that he wanted to meet with missionaries. I kid you not, this is the most solid guy I have ever met. He asked so many great questions, the Spirit was super strong, and he said that he wanted to be baptized. Not only that but he had already begun to read the Book of Mormon and by the time he showed up to church yesterday in a full suit, white shirt (which he saw that we were wearing and went out and bought after our lesson), and tie, he had read all of 1 Nephi and said that he was going to finish 2 Nephi by the time we see him tomorrow evening. After we taught him he said, "I do have one question... I read online that in order to serve a mission you have to be out of debt to serve a mission. I have a car payment that I will be making for a few years. Will I have to wait until after I am done paying that to go on a mission?" It was so amazing and he is so awesome!! This week was full of so many miracles!! Yesterday, was another great day at church. 

Today we have a great day planned we are going to another corn maze today and then going to a members for a birthday dinner. It should be another great week. 

I love this work and being a missionary is so awesome. I wouldn't trade this experience for the world!! Thanks as always for the prayers and support. Also thanks for the birthday wishes!!

Elder Bloskas

P.S. Here I am in front of a big apple at the corn maze (they also had apple cider and donuts so obviously I had to get some. Hence, the donut in my hand in this picture) The other is 

a picture of us and Michael!

California Hit Man

Good morning! 
It was another great week in the 5-1-7!! 

I had a really great week. We were super busy as always! 

Monday, our p-day was shortened because of the Legacy group that we were doing part of the day.

Tuesday, we had a big MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) where we had the District Leaders there also. I was able to train on Christlike Missionary Leadership. I think that it went really well and I think that a lot of the missionaries got a lot out of it. MLC lasted most of the day and then that evening me and Elder Norton finished up some things in the office. 

Wednesday, we drove to Jonesville and went to their district meeting. It was a really good District Meeting and then we went to Pizza Hut afterwards. One of the Elders (who is Polynesian) decided to attempt the Big Dinner Box Challenge (which is a made up mission challenge) where you eat 2 medium deep dish pizzas, wings, and bread-sticks, but he gave up with 2 pieces of pizza left. I am convinced that he could have done it! That afternoon we got to go on campus for a little bit before we drove to Kalamazoo to trade-off with WMU. We had a really interesting trade-off... So for the past week or so we have had a guy from California that has been texting us and telling us that he is coming to MSU to visit campus and has asked us to get him in contact with some people that might be able to help him out. It has been a really weird situation and we have really been creeped out by him because of the amount of text that he sends us and how easily he gets offended if we don't reply soon enough. When I got to WMU I found out that the same guy had been contacting them and was wanting to have a lesson with them. So long story short he starts freaking out about when we can get him a ride from the train station in Battle Creek to Kalamazoo (a 45 min drive). Thursday morning we were supposed to have a lesson with him but he wasn't able to get a ride to our our lesson. The Elder that I was on the trade-off with decided to pick him up and take him to the lesson. So we show up at the train station and are waiting for him but he won't tell us what he looks like or what he is wearing. He then tells us that he can't find us (I should add that we are in the ghetto and we are the only white guys in white shirts and ties) and he tells us to go to a street corner in the open... At this point my mind flashed to all of the movies that I have seen where a hit man lures them into the open so that he can have a clear shot at them and get away. Needless to say I thought that I was going to get attacked by this guy or something. He finally found us and we took him to our appointment. We spent the rest of the day after our lesson with him texting us all day and getting offended at any comments that we made. We found out that he is bi-polar and probably schizophrenic... Needless to say it was an interesting day. 

Friday, we planned to drive to Traverse City for out blitz there but we had some stuff come up in Lansing that we had to stay in town for. We are going up to Traverse City tomorrow and I will send pictures next week of all of the leaves. 

Saturday and Sunday we had an amazing stake conference! 

Today we are going to a corn maze with a whole bunch of the missionaries. We got permission from President to take the transfer van down to the only corn maze that we could find that was open on Monday.  It is about an hour away. 

It should be another great week!! Thanks as always for all of the prayers and support!!

Elder Bloskas

Late Email

Sorry that I am on later today. We had a training for all of the missionaries that are going home within the next 6 months.  We had to set up and facilitate the training.  I don't have as much time to email tonight since we have a lot to do.

We had a really good week! Monday night and Tuesday I was back on CMU campus with Elder Haddock. It was great to be able to be back at CMU and to go back to one of my previous areas. We got to teach a few lessons. One of the lessons was with a guy that has a strong belief in Jesus Christ but said that he really wants to "feel" God's love and not just know it in his mind. It was a really cool experience to be able to share God's love with him and help him to feel it. 

Wednesday, we went to Ithica to their district meeting and then we actually helped them move into their new apartment (which is right below their old one).  The senior couple that was living there finished their mission and it is nicer than the Elder's apartment. 

Thursday, we had a great day on campus and saw a whole lot of success talking to people on campus and we also had a meeting with President Jacobsen. That evening we had trade-offs with the Wyoming zone leaders and I got to be with Elder Clark, who is one of the great new zone leaders.  Elder Clark and I had a great day on campus and we set up several return appointments for this week.

Saturday and Sunday we had a great weekend enjoying conference. I watched conference with several questions in mind and had several of them answered!! It was a great weekend and it was so great to be able to sustain 3 new Apostles of the Lord. It was an amazing experience to feel the Spirit testify to me that these men were called of God and that their calling is from the Lord and not from mortal men on earth. It truly is great to have prophets and apostles on the earth to lead Christ's church!!

We have another great week planned it will just be super busy with another training tomorrow with all of the leaders. I have to instruct for about 45mins-1 hour so that will be really good. I am excited to continue to see the Lord work in my life and in the lives of those that I work with!! I am grateful for my mission and all that I have learned! Thanks for all of the prayers and support!

Elder Bloskas

P.S. Sorry again that this is rushed and so short since I don't have much time!

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!