Family, I am way sorry ahha but I'm out of time. I wish I could get into more details and tell you more, but just trust me, it was such an amazing week. Conference with Elder Golden: Wow, I loved this conference! It was just the pick me up and inspiration that I needed! I was so grateful for all that I learned, I can honestly say that it was my favorite conference that I have ever been to. Why? Let me tell you! I was very grateful for the opportunity to fast and really pray in preparation. I had such a feeling of peace and a special kind of confidence that I would receive the comfort that I needed, even before the the conference started. I think the highlight for me was hearing the mission reports, and Elder Golden's responses to them. I felt so encouraged by the accounts of success throughout the whole mission, and loved to learn from Elder Golden about how we can do better. I feel so ready to take on these next months, and leave Kemerovo better than it is right now. Party: Success! We had three families in the church, 2 old investigators, and many children! I think we had about 32 people there, and it was a first time for about half of them! So many new people! It was a miracle that we all fit in our little branch! We somehow had enough food, games, and prizes. It was so fun. Literally a miracle. The Lord blessed us. {T...} answered her phone yesterday finally!!!! She has been in the hospital for the last two weeks, and that is why she didn't answer. Don't worry, she is okay! Phew, we were so worried! We will meet with her on Tuesday, and she still has three Sundays before her baptism on which she can come to Church.
Here was my favorite miracle from this week: There is a блины {pancake} stand between our house and the library that my and Sister D {Dolinar} would go to all the time. We met the workers our first time there, had a lovely exchange talking about families, and there were even some tears shed as we talked about why family is so important. We have made a point to regularly stop by that stand (no complaints there haha, we love блины!) and today, the worker's face lit up more than it usually did. After we talked, and then order our блины she started asking about what we teach in our church. She asked about the Bible, and said that she loves reading from it. Asked us how we try to strengthen our faith, and basically asked us if she could be an investigator. The spirit was so strong, as I prayed that my language would be good enough for her to understand and feel the love of the Lord. He really helped :). She said that she is very busy, so we are praying that she can find time to come to the church I really think she has been prepared to hear this message. Her name is Света {Sveta}. Could you send a prayer her way? Sister Johnson and I are doing so well. We had the best comp inventory ever last night, and I just feel so much love and appreciation to and from her. Companions are literally the best. Also I finished the Book of Mormon in English this week! I love that book! We hope you have a fantastic week! Thanks for all of your prayers and love! We can feel it all the way to Kemerovo! Thanks for everything! Love you all byeeee! Sister B
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Hellooo everyone! This week was a very good week, as Sister J and I tried to notice and thank our Father in Heaven for all of the miracles that He sends to us. Our mirror/door covering our closet is half was full of sticky notes with miracles written on them, it's a great sight to wake up to every day! :) Although some of them may seem small, I am starting to realize that the difference between a blessing and a miracle is smaller than I thought. Perhaps there is no difference at all. Either way, Sister J and I are doing well, and loving the work here. I will be honest though, we are really struggling to find things to do. We meet people and make friends, but the "successful" follow up rate is probably 5%. Either we don't make contact people well enough, or people here are insanely busy. This week we tried to spend more time contacting, as we have felt the need for meeting new people, and it has been great to get to know the city better, and make a lot of new friends. I am still, however, asking myself if that was the best way to use time. Oh, I feel horrible because I still feel like I have no idea how to do this work here! But it is more fun to have to figure it out in a companionship, than me simply telling Sister J "how it's done". We are TOGETHER learning and growing. We also spent a lot of time preparing for our Halloween party. Wow, I am so excited! We had a meeting after church with all of the members, explaining the party, giving them assignments, and gave them all a few fliers to hang up at work/give to friends. I have come to notice on my mission that all the members want to help... we just need to ask. We, as volunteers, need to take the initiative, and act first, then they all get excited, and are able to do their part. We need to work as a team. Neither of us, missionaries or members, can do this alone. I love these members! One of our friends who is less-active , Настя, is going to pretty much run the whole thing. We are expecting a lot of people to come to our party, and are doing all we can to prepare. This week we also found some new service places to help. And my favorite miracle this week was meeting Света. She is on of the leaders of the charity fund Луч Надежды that Надя and I found three weeks ago. She was SO excited to meet us when I called and set up an appointment, and had so many great questions about the church. I was able to legally tell her about the law, our restrictions, and that if someone has the desire to learn more, we are ready to teach them. She was very excited to come to the Halloween party, AND gave us some more contacts of charity funds within the city. I think she is our number one potential investigator. I have come to notice in my work amongst volunteers how important confidence is. That's what makes or breaks someone... I once had a teacher that said (Mendy!!) "the difference between pride and confidence is gratitude". It is so true. If our eyes are single to the glory of God, then we not only can but SHOULD have a lot of confidence. Ой, sorry for my tangents today!
Unfortunately Таня has gone off the map. Stopped answering our calls and texts. All is not lost though, we will keep praying, hoping, and calling! We had splits this week too!!! Splits were SO great. Guess who I got to serve with............................................SISTER HOLMES!!!!! OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I love her so much. Literally, there is a reason we got to be in the same mission. Last time we did splits was in Vlad in December. so fun. Who knew my bff from 8th grade would be here hangin' out with me in Russia... 5 years later. WELL family. we are working. we are happy. and we have a crazy big party coming so pray for us hahaha! :) I love you! have a great day!!!!!!! Sister Blonquist HEY FAMILY YOU ARE SO AWESOME!!!!
This week was a lot better than last week, but I will honestly say that we are working day to day, and not week by week, which makes weekly planning a little bit discouraging sometimes. We are just trying to "take no thought for tomorrow" and trust the Lord. As I have said before, we are low on people to work with, so we decided to really put in efforts to FIND people this week. We will be spending at least one hour a day truly searching/contacting, and trying every day to do better than the last. I am not sure HOW we will find people yet... but we have some ideas that we will work off of. Any ideas/suggestions? Shoot them on over. :) Oh boy, we are praying so hard. Here is some more good news though. We have set a solid date of baptism for {Ta...}. 25 November! She has had 2-3 baptismal dates before, so we are really doing all we can to have daily contact with her, 2 lessons per week, and get her to church every Sunday from now on. She is pregnant, and really wants to build a strong family. Unfortunately, the father (whom she was supposed to marry) left her a few months ago. She has been investigating for 2 years, and has a great testimony (as we asked her half of the baptismal interview questions in our last lesson). The lesson was really great, and we also have asked one of our members to befriend and support her in the process. So far, we are on the right track. We had a GREAT branch council meeting yesterday, that really helped us all to get on the same page, plan some activities, and help to support each other. Our president has a big idea of making our branch a family history center, and getting more people in through family history. I totally agree, and think it is just what our branch needs. Our plan involves training members, giving them callings, and opening it up to the public. Sacrament meeting was way fun too. Sister J and I did a musical number haha. When we asked if we could do one, president seemed kinda confused, so i would guess this branch hasn't had one in a while. It was really fun. We also had a great young woman's activity! Our goal was to have 8 people, and we had 6. Not too bad! The YW president, was really pleased with how it went, and I could see her trust and appreciation in us grow. She feels more able to fulfill her calling now. We also made some new friends, playing ukulele all around the city haha. It has been fun, and has required a lot of courage on my part. "oh, those kids across the street are holding a guitar... I should go talk to them, I have my uke! But that would be awkward, they are in their own conversation... and i would have to cross the whole street.... there isn't even a cross walk. I guess we'll just go to our planned things... ahh Get over it and go! Okay...." We went.and dove ourselves into the conversation. Yeah, it was weird at first. BUT we made some friends, and one of them actually met volunteers last year. We'll let you know how that all goes. This week, I finished reading John. That means, I finished all the gospels. WOW. I LOVE the Bible. I feel so much closer to Christ than I did before I did a deep reading of the gospels. I honestly can't explain how my testimony has grown... and yet simplified at the same time. I love Peter. We are all so much like him. He denied three times. He was crucified upside down. He was the last to reach the empty tomb, but the first to enter it. Christ had to ask him three times "do you love me?" He was the one who walked on water. The one who cut the ear off of the kings guard. He jumped out of the boat to see the Savior, when he appeared to them the third time. And the one we learn so much from in the temple. I don't really know how to put it into words, but Peter was such a pure follower of Christ... and a great example of repenting, and having to reject the natural man. And we can learn so much from his relationship with the Lord. It's great. I do feel like I need to do something new in my studies though. I have been doing the same old schedule for a while, and my studies aren't as awesome as they were. Our wall of sticky note miracles is growing. As is the wall of our shower with the scriptures we are memorizing. We have started reading the BOM in Russian together as well, which I love. I'm now reading the version without accents marked, and it's cool how much faster I am reading then I did last time I was reading in 1 Nephi haha. Here was one of my fav miracles last week though: Friday planning was rough... we had a lot of empty time slots, and didn't know what to plan in them. Talked about maybe finding English schools to work in (wasn't allowed before, President Lamb says it's okay... but because of some problems in our mission, it makes me nervous to work in them), then talked about how we really need to find people. Went to print off flyers for our Halloween party (which is gonna be awesome, btw), I told the lady who was in line after us she had a cool hat... we talked a bit, then she began talking to me in perfect English! Turns out she is a teacher, and lived in Montana for a bit when she was a teen. She is way cool, and excited to work with us. Блин, and I almost didn't talk to her! I feel like it was an answer to my question. :) Anyways. If you can't sleep, count blessings instead of sheep. Love you all! :) Sister Blonquist Hellour Family! Jake, so good to read your letter! Dont worry, you will adapt. I remember sitting with sister Goncherova one night when she was new, and she asked me "How long did it take you to adapt and adjust?" As I answered her, I really couldn't remember... it was like I just realized in that moment, in that question, that I had adapted. We learn, we grow, we forget ourselves, and we adapt :). And like you said, working helps a lot too. Lizzie. your Russian is coming along really well!! ;) So can I be honest for a moment? This is probably the most difficult area I have been in. It's very similar to Angarsk, in that it is small, but in Angarsk, we saw a lot of growth, and we were always so busy with service and meeting people. People just came to us asking for help. But here, I would say it is the opposite. We don't really have progressing investigators or friends, and are always scrounging for something to do. This is the first time on my mission where I have really seriously though "if only I could TALK to these people. It only I could go knock on doors, and be straight forward about why I am here." Yeah, it is hard to see the miracles, and very easy to ask questions like "what am I doing wrong as a volunteer that is keeping the windows of heaven from opening?" But we are working. We are smiling. Repenting. And this companionship is probably the most unified one I have had, although you really can't compare. That's kind of what happens in trials though, I think :). We started a miracle wall in our apartment. It's actually our mirror in our bedroom (it's far too big for us haha). We wrote on the top "Have miracles ceased?" and decided to add a sticky note everyday. Yeah, it's hard right now to feel like I am sincerely writing things down right now... but I know as we look and pray, we will start to notice. Because miracles have NOT ceased. We also have started to memorize one scripture per day in Russian together. Way cool. God is helping. Also writing in my journal more is helping. My journal has become one of my best friends out here. But know, that really life is good. We are happy. I LOVE training. Sister Johnson is an absolutely amazing person. And we are buckling down. We have planned activities in the area, because that is the best way to get people into the spiritual activity in the church. Young Women's this week, RS next, then Halloween. Wahoo, I love Halloween!!!! Conference was AMAZING and over the 2 days, we had about 11 people come! Wahoo! We were also able to find some new service this week, we'll have a little meeting with some people today. Wish us luck and pray for my Russian haha! I really am doing so good. Don't you worry about me, fam, but it wouldn't hurt to send a few extra prayers to my wonderful friends in Kemerovo. PS did I tell you I finished the BOM in Russian? I honestly don't remember... but I finished it a few weeks ago ahha it's way great. I'm also at the end in English and will finish this month. What a great book. And when I think it's hard for me, I just think about Moroni, who I am reading from. Yeah, we may feel alone sometimes... but we were never as alone as he was. Tell me? What did you learn from your studies this week? Tell me about the miracles you saw? I would really love to read about some of the wonderful blessing of the Lord all the way down there in Utah! Keep me posted! Let's count some blessings, shall we? Love you all!! Have a fantastic week! Sister Blonquist {Mraurm here... I asked Sister B... Is it getting cold? Yeah, like below 0 (cel). its my FAVORITE weather though. I LOVE it. haha! SO FUN. and so beautiful!
Do they have fall leaves etc in Kemerovo? yeah so many. :) It is such a beautiful city! Love it!} SO! Our Russian emails don't work today. Don't know why. But as always, we adapt :) Looks like they stopped working sometime yesterday, so I was able to receive and read a lot of emails from you anyways, so thanks! I honestly don't know if you should email me this week on gmail or the other one...so maybe flip of coin or play rock paper scissors with yourself haha. It'll all work out anyways haha. THIS HAS BEEN THE CRAZIEST TRAVELING WEEK OF MY WHOLE MISSION. WOW let me tell you about it. 2- 5 hour bus rides in and out of Kemerovo 6- Taxis all over with a lot of luggage 4- planes all over the um.. world (with a lot of layovers.. totaling 24 hours either on a plane or in an airport) A few metro rides (wow Novosibirsk is like America haha) And then the normal buses, walking, etc throughout all of Russia and a little of Finland haha. How was your week? HAHA. We are rested and literally already up and runnnnning! But my first night back home, sleeping in a bed and not on a floor, I slept like I did my first day in country. crazy. So tired. I love these trips and they give great time to catch up with other volunteers and do extra studies, (and wear our tags) but they wear you out and take so much time. I literally left Tuesday at 2:00 and got home Saturday at 21:00. BUTTT we made it! I love life though. I am soooo pumped for this transfer. I am convinced its gonna be my best one so far. Wednesday we had train the trainers, had some interviews with pres (that's like my favorite thing) and then had a dinner at the mission home. My first time there, it was so great. Seven new volunteers came in, 2 sisters and 5 elders. What a special group of elders and sisters. And ALL of them had met Jake in the MTC. Thanks for passing along a "hey" for me, bud :). You entered the same day into the field that they all did! So cool! Thursday we had a train the traniees all day, president announced our comps, and then went back to the sisters apartment. My comp is.... *drum roll please* Sister Johnson! She is from Sandy, Utah, went to BYU before the mission, and also has 2 sisters and a brother. She did soccer in HS and loves sharing things. Haha. Honestly, before president told us we would be comps, I knew we would be. We just got along so quickly, and were able to talk so comfortably with each other from when we first met. I love her sosooso much! I'll come back to that in a second. Then Friday. flew to Moskow. flew to Helsinki. flew back to Moskow. and then to Novo again. 24 hours. Lots of lay overs. We weren't able to leave the airport, but we did do a bit of walking outside to breath in some fresh Finland air where people get picked up. Haha it is SOOO different than Russia or Korea. All the taxis that I saw were way slick BMW's and the air just smelled clean. It was so good to spend some time in the sun. :) Just kept thinking about Haley Knapp and Grandpa who served there! So we got home, showered, went to the рынок and got some coats (winter is here) (we got matching pink coats lol. #cutestcompanionsever). THEN went home. The bus driver was way crazy though haha. It's a 5 hour drive, but he did it in four. He was like switching lanes all over, and doing all sorts of crazy stuff. haha. Gotta love it! Sunday, fast and testimony meeting. 12 people came (including four volunteers), and then we watched the Women's Session of General Conference together. It makes sense that attendance was low, we weren't able to spend our normal amount of time calling reminding people that church still happens at 11 every Sunday ;) Haha. But we called them all after church to say we missed them.
Sister J and I have had a great last few days!. I just have no stress right now. It's a great feeling. She is ready to work. Already talking to everyone that she can. Even bore her testimony yesterday :). We always cook together. Spend our evenings getting to know each other and each others families, and we are running (how I have missed running)! Pretty much life is at 100% awesomeness right now. Other than that, not too much to report. Conference is gonna be awesome, already watched Women's session in Russian (not gonna lie, kinda hard for me to understand after this week). I love you all!!! I know it's fun for you to all count down, but I'm trying not to, so maybe don't mention it too much in your emails haha. I am so excited to see you too though! Thank you as always for your support and love! I hope you have a wonderful week full of miracles and sunshine, because you know that we will! Cya! Sister B |
Sister Hannah Christine BlonquistI have known I was to serve a mission my whole life. The time has finally come. Archives
December 2017
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