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

Teaching Collegiate Athletes

Good morning!! 

It is a rainy day here in Mt. Pleasant and I think it is supposed to rain the rest of the day. We had a pretty good week. Elder Blatter is going to have to go home to take care of some medical issues so the next few days should be interesting while we figure out where I will go and who I will be with.

Saturday we drove up to Frankenmuth and went to the "World's Largest Christmas Store." It was HUGE!! I was really impressed with how big it was!! There were all sorts of stuff there, but the most impressive part was they literally had every single Christmas ornament you can imagine! It was really cool!

Sunday, we had our normal church and call ins. 

Monday, we had a few appointments and got to do some door knocking. I have come to realize that I enjoy talking to college students on campus way more than door knocking and I am really ready for school to start back up. 

Tuesday, I was in Lansing with Elder Rhodes on trade-offs. We got to teach several people and also got to do some finding on campus! It was really fun and I enjoyed getting to be on the MSU campus! 

Wednesday, we drove to Bay City and we went to their district meeting and blitzed their area that day. I got to be with Elder Dorough who has only been out about 2 months. It was really fun and I think that he is really going to be a great missionary. 

Thursday, we taught a few lessons and talked to a few students on campus. We actually met the starting center for CMU men's basketball team! His name is Luke Meyer and he is going to meet with us on Monday to learn about the church. So that was kinda cool! 

Yesterday, we got to go to lunch with Brother Banner from Grand Rapids. He then went with us to visit several less active members.  After that, we did some door knocking and found a guy that is on CMU's football team and he invited us to come back and teach him also!! Before long our whole teaching pool will be collegiate athletes!! We also got to teach the family of a girl who joined the church 6 months ago. Her mom had some questions about the Book of Mormon and what we believe, so they invited us over for dinner and we got to teach them more about our church! It was a really good lesson and they are going to have us back over in the near future!! 

This morning we got to eat at IHOP and do some shopping. I am not sure what we have planned the rest of the day. We are waiting on President Jacobsen to call us back to figure out our plans for Elder Blatter going home. We will probably have to spend some time helping him pack and stuff. 

But it should be an interesting week!! I guess we will see what happens!! I hope y'all have a great week!! Thanks for all the love, support and prayers!!!

Elder Bloskas

P.S. Here are some pics from Frankenmuth!

Lansing Citizenship

Well it was an interesting week to say the least. I spent a total of 2 1/2 days in Lansing this past week and will be back there to go on trade-offs with the Assistants on Tuesday and then back there again for out MLC the next Tuesday. I am thinking that sometime they are going to make me claim citizenship there!

Saturday, I went to Lansing like I told y'all that we were planning on. I spent the day with Elder Rhodes, who is one of the assistants. We did some things that they needed to do to prepare for transfers this past week, went to Guitar Center and got to jam a little bit on the guitars there, drove around and saw some of the sights of Lansing, and then talked to people on MSU campus. It was a lot of fun! 

Monday, we helped out with transfers here in Mt. Pleasant. We also had several appointments with some new people that we are starting to work with. 

Tuesday, we just did a bunch of things to help the zone for this transfer and then we did a lot of door knocking. 

Wednesday, we had several appointments with people that we are working with (we usually meet with them Mon,Wed, Fri and so it is usually the same people on those days) and got to help out a girl that was recently baptized prepare a talk that she is giving at Stake Conference in a few weeks. 

Thursday is when things kinda got crazy. So I think I mentioned that Elder Blatter has been having some health issues lately. Well, Thursday they got worse and we had to take him to the ER. The ER unfortunately were not able to do much for him and so President Jacobsen (who came up to Mt. Pleasant to talk to us and went to the ER with us) had us pack our bags and go back to Lansing with him. And so Thursday night we spent the night hanging out in the mission home while they tried to find somewhere to get him in.

Friday he had a few appointments and then we were able to come back to Mt. Pleasant last night. 

Today, we are going to Frankenmuth, which is a tourist town that is like an hour away. Apparently there is a huge Christmas store there that is open year round and is "The Worlds Largest Christmas Store" so we are going to check out some of those sights and just kinda hang out. It should be a great week and I am excited for this next transfer!! Thanks for all of the support and prayers!!

Elder Bloskas

P.S. Here is a selfie with Elder Rhodes with the Lansing skyline in the background

Land of Desolation

Note:  This post was written Saturday, May 16, 2015
I apologize for the delay--Kristi B.


Good morning!

I am sending this a little earlier than usual since we are headed to Lansing this morning. Elder Blatter is going to the temple to see a family that he baptized go through the temple in Detroit.  I am getting to hang out with Elder Rhodes (one of the APs) in Lansing while both of our companions go to the temple. We also got our transfer calls yesterday and both me and Elder Blatter are staying for another transfer! 

It was a great week. It was a lot different than the earlier weeks in the transfer but it was still a good week. Sunday was Mothers Day and it was great to be able to Skype home and see everyone!! It seemed really short and the hour that we were allowed went really fast but it was really nice to see everyone! After I got done with my Skype call, Elder Blatter called home and I got to do all of our call-ins with our district leaders and get the APs information about all of the areas to prepare for transfer planning. 

Monday we got to teach a few lessons on Facebook and then did some door knocking. Since campus is now deserted and like a land of desolation we are having to door knock off campus now. It was really weird to door knock again since we have just been talking to people on campus for the last month and a half. But I think we are starting to get back into the swing of it. 

Tuesday, we headed to a nearby town that missionaries haven't really gone into that much. We dropped by a referral there, a few less active members, and then also door knocked some more. I don't think that many people have ever seen missionaries because they looked really confused when we showed up at their house and knocked on their door but it was a really good day. We didn't see a lot of success from that town but it was still good to work that area. 

Wednesday, we made the long trek to West Branch to go to their district meeting. It was about a 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive but it is always good to see some of the country side of Michigan! I wasn't feeling that great and so on the way home I let Elder Blatter drive since I wasn't too sure that it was safe for me to be driving since I was feeling sick. I ended up feeling bad both Wednesday and Thursday but I was able to get some medicine and was still able to go out and work.  We just made sure that we kind of kept it light on those days. 

Thursday, we tried to find more less actives and see if they still live at the addresses that we have for them and also got to teach Ted (our only current investigator that is still in town and that we don't teach on Facebook.) and we had a good lesson about how we can allow our faith to grow. He tends to go off on tangents quite a bit but it was a good lesson! 

Yesterday morning we had transfer calls and after we got our calls we had to call the other areas in our zone that were staying. We then spent the rest of the day driving to pick up some stuff for a baptism that Ithaca is having Sunday and then taking it to them, doing some service for some members in the ward, and door knocking some more before we taught another lesson on Facebook. Today we are headed to Lansing and I get to hang out with Elder Rhodes all day so that will be fun.

There are quite a bit of changes in the zone this transfer but I am excited to see all of the great things that happen this transfer!! Thanks for all of the support and prayers!!

Elder Bloskas