5/29/19 - Email from her mission president concerning the tornado

Dear Parents of Ohio Cincinnati Missionaries,

As most of you are undoubtedly aware, a small portion of our mission was impacted by an F3 tornado on Monday evening.  The affected area was limited to about a 10 mile radius around the north east side of Dayton, Ohio.  There was only one missionary apartment that sustained significat damage.  Two missionary companionships have been temporarily relocated to other apartments within their proselyting areas.

We have had and continue to have regular contact with all of our missionaries in the mission and all of them are safe and fine.  As of this morning with the exception of two or three locations, all have had water and power restored.  Missionaries are anxious to help in the cleanup effort but we have been told by stake presidents to refrain from going into areas where there may still be some danger with power lines.  For now we are limited to helping with debris clean-up located near missionary apartments.

We know you have concerns but assure you your missionaries are safe.

Thank you for your continued and positive support.  Please contact us if you have concerns.

Warm regards,                                                                                                                                                             President M. Tim Welch                                                                                                                                           513-349-7154

5/28/19 - Tornados and Miracles

May 28, 2019

Hi everyone! Our P-Day was changed to today since Memorial Day was yesterday and we were supposed to go out and meet some new people. So hello everyone, I'm a day late, but I'm here!

First of all, for those of you who heard about the tornado that hit near me last night, I'm safe and so are all the other missionaries that I know of!

Last night we were woken up just an hour after falling asleep by our Sister Training Leaders asking us if we had tornado sirens in our area and telling us to go hang out in the bathroom for awhile. Luckily we were out of the way of the tornado, but according to Facebook it looks like it caused some pretty bad destruction and has been all over the news. We're pretty limited as to what we've been able to hear about it, but we did get to experience some wicked wind and thunder last night. And now we get to have boiled water until further notice because we don't know if the water is safe. It would have been a pretty fun experience if it weren't for the damage it caused so many people.

I got to go on exchanges for the first time yesterday and it was so much fun! I was put into a trio with two of our wonderful Sister Training Leaders. It was a really neat experience to see how life was with different missionaries and in a different area. We visited a part and drew The Plan of Salvation out with chalk! This cute little boy even came over and started writing things like "God is good to me" around our drawings. It was the neatest experience! We took some fun pictures but the other sisters have them and haven't sent them to me so I'll include them with my email next week when I have them. 

We're putting a man named John on date for baptism sometime this week! We visited him a few days ago and he's been really excited to learn but hasn't been progressing very fast up until now. But as we were talking to him he suddenly turned to us and said he thinks he's ready to be baptized. It was amazing to see the difference just a few days can make in someone.

You know that cool D&D guy named Al that I mentioned a few weeks ago? So he wasn't really progressing, like at all, but he was willing to chat with us and we'd become great friends so we were still talking to him frequently up until last week when he had some tough stuff happen in his life and we suddenly didn't know if we'd be able to visit with him anymore. Well, right after our awesome chat with John, we hopped in our car and felt like we needed to ask Al if we could visit him even though we didn't have him on our schedule for the rest of the night. It turned out that we caught him right as he was filling up his car with gas and was about to drive to California because he just couldn't stay in Springfield any longer. He let us come say bye though and as I was driving, the urgency I felt to get to him before he decided to leave was greater than any urgency I'd ever felt to get anywhere before. After talking to him for a good hour we convinced him to stay one more night and come to church with us the next morning, which was something we didn't think we'd ever be able to convince him to do! After church the next day he felt so much better and he's willing to let us teach him more! I know that his change of heart was 100% God's doing because we could never have caused everything to line up as perfectly as it did.

A song I've been obessed with lately is "It's Not About You" from the 2016 Youth Album. I just thought I'd includ the lyrics below for anyone who might need the reminder that you're never too small for a job the Lord asks you to do because it really isn't about us or how little we sometimes think we can do to help others.

"You look into your father's eyes when he takes his hands of your head

He whispers that he's proud of you and he knows you'll do your best

You say you wonder if you can do it

And that's when he says

"It's not about you 

It's not about you

It's for the people who are blessed by what you do

It's not about you

"Everybody's gathered round you, eyes all ago

You start to read that peice of paper so see where you'll go

And you wonder if you're ready

But you already know

"It's not about you

It's not about you

It's for those who are searching for the truth

It's not about you

"You get home and you fall in love

But you're scared to death

Cause you wonder if you're good enough

But then a though goes through your head.

"It's not about you

It's not about you

It's for your children and the world they'll come into

It's not about you

"So you've become much better because of what you've been through

But it's not about you

It's not about you"

Invitation of the week! 

For those of you who already have a good scriptures study routine: I invite you to try studying in a different way sometime this week. Whether that means you study by topic or by writing down your thoughts in a journal or by using the footnotes. Find some way of studying that you don't normally do!

For those of you who don't have a regular study routine: Find at least one day this week and sit down and study for just half an hour. If you don't know how best to study, choose a topic and look it up in the topical guide or gospel library and start there.

If you take my challenge, let me know how your study session went! I promise each and every one of you, if you'll study The Book of Mormon and pray sincerely before you study you will come to know of it's truthfulness and strengthen your testimony. I had a testimony before my mission but I definitely took The Book of Mormon for granted and I wish I hadn't. There so much truth and light inside it's pages that your Heavenly Father wants you to be blessed with if you'll simply read what it says with an open heart.

I hope you all have an amazing week. I love each and every one of you dearly.

Love,

Sister Bliss 

Pictures!

I got to try real Cincinnati Chill at Skyline for the first time and loved it! 

Some cute pictures of me and my MTC buddies at new missionary training last week :)

5/23/19 Facebook Cover Photo Update by Kylie

Kylie Bliss updated her cover photo

5/22/19 Facebook Post by Kylie's mother, Loreen

Loreen reposted a facebook post by the Ohio Cincinnati Mission of a video of the missionaries singing part of "This is the Christ!"

Loreen Muhlestein Bliss

May 22 · 

Awww I love this! This is beautiful, Sister Kylie Bliss. You missionaries are all amazing! (My Kylie Loreen Bliss is right at the beginning on the left side in the white shirt, maroon skirt!)

https://www.facebook.com/cincinnatimission/videos/2258053351175525/

This is a video that the mission page posted
 Ohio Cincinnati Mission

May 21 · 

What a great group of new missionaries and trainers in the OCM! 

5/20/19 Bugs and Bible Bashing

May 20, 2019

First of all, we have our car back! For now... Later this week we have to take it in to actually have it fixed, but at least we haven't been walking all week in the meantime.

I would like to proudly announce that I have choked down my two first cheesy meals! For those of you who don't already know this, I'm a weird person and don't like cheese in a lot of cases. This last week we had one day where we had lunch with a new member who fed us ham sandwiches filled with melted cheese, and then for dinner we were fed homemade mac and cheese from another member who prides himself in how much cheese he makes it with. So that was one of two days this week that the meal we had actually made me physically sick. But at least I survived it!

There are so many bugs in Ohio compared to Utah, and they're a lot bigger too! The other day we came home and I opened the window to our room for some fresh air and layed down because someone fed me food that made me sick. Well, apparently we don't have a window screen and there are lots of bugs here that like coming inside...As I was sleeping a nice, big, black beetle of some sort flew through our window and onto our closet door. So Sister Priego freaked out and woke me up and made me take care of it. It only took me an hour to get up the courage and do something about it by putting a box over it after it finally fell to the ground... Never again will I open the window here.

On Saturday we ran across this guy who bible bashed us, and it was my first time being bible bashed, so that was exciting (it was not exciting). It was a tough experience to deal with, but ultimatly it led me to feel even more grateful for the Book of Mormon and the clarification and understanding it gives us. The next day we had a scripture study with a cute older lady named Annette who's a new convert, and her excitment when I showed her Isaiah 29:10-14 where the Bible foretells of The Book of Mormon made me remember why I'm here and why I'm excited to help people.

I'm so grateful to be here in Ohio serving the Lord. I've already had to experience my testimony waver in the short time I've been here, but because coming on a mission was such a priority to me and my testimony was so strong coming into my mission I only grew stronger because of that experience. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I love the Bible and the things it teaches us and I'm so grateful that that we have The Book of Mormon to read along side it and to help increase our knowledge of Christ's gospel. I'm so grateful for the power of prayer and that I have a loving Heavenly Father to lead me through my life. 

I love every single one of you and am so grateful that I have so many wonderful people cheering me on 

Love, 

Sister Bliss

Question of the week:

What's the most exciting thing that's happened to you in the last month! I want to hear about how life has been since I left :) Also, thank you again to everyone who sent me quotes last week. I loved them all!

Pictures!

The only real picture I took this week was a really awkward selfie with a Hardee's sign that I decided wasn't worth sending  But I got to experience the difference between Hardee's and Carl's Jr, so that was a fun time!

(yep, mom's gonna add it here!)

5/13/19 Sister Bliss and Priego sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked and walked.....

May 13, 2019

Hello family and friends! I hope your week has been great and filled with less walking than mine has!

I'm pretty sure I'm just a curse on cars because I used to have tons of car trouble before my mission as well. But we started having some issues and had to take our car in to be fixed, so we've been without a car for most of the week, and we'll be without a car again next week while it's actually being fixed. So we've been doing a lot of walking lately. We did have one day though that the elders in our area were super sweet and biked all day so we could borrow their car since sisters aren't allowed to bike in our mission. We thanked them with goodies and hidden sticky notes all over their car (they're in for a suprise when they fill up their car with gas and find one inside the little door to the gas). In addition to loaning us their car, our district leader, Elder Widmer, also informed me that my spirit animal is a bunny because I'm happy and energetic and he can see me hopping around like one. Just thought you all might be interested in knowing that because anyone who knows me really well will realize that it's 100% true 

As much as missionary work is hard and takes a lot of work, I've never been happier than I am right now dedicating my life to helping others. The hardest part really is wanting to help people but having people who don't understand the things we're teaching or aren't willing to put in the effort of having faith and putting that faith into action because it pains me to see others who are struggling in their lives when I know that the gospel would help them so much if they'd just let it.

Ether 12:27 says "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

I've seen this so much in my life, especially recently. There was a time when I simply could not understand the scriptures or get much out of them but I wanted so badly to get something out of my scripture study, so one day, just a few months ago in fact, I sat down and decided I was going to figure out the scriptures. I spent a few hours each day just sitting down and reading scriptures and simply rewriting them into simple wording in a notebook, and if something didn't make sense I'd study it and look things up until I understood it. After a few days of this it just clicked and I could finally understand the scriptures. It doesn't actually make any rational sense why studying out part of the scriptures would suddenly cause me to be able to understand the rest of the scriptures that are just as confusing, so I know it was my Heavenly Father helping me out and making my weakness a strength.

I promise as you all try to better yourselves, your Heavenly Father will help you along the way if you ask him for help. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Question of the week:

What's your favorite quote? (or favorite 5 or 10 quotes. I'm just in need of quotes because I'm a quote junkie and can't access google anymore )

A quote I love that I heard recently from my mission president is:

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never tasted victory or defeat." -Teddy Roosevelt

Pictures!

(I'm done numbering them because they always send out of order, haha)

The sticky note Elder Widmer hid in the car we borrowed that gave me my spirit animal, me and Sister Priego walking in the rain, the Book of Mormon we put in one of those cute free library box things, and our cute district :)

Additional Pictures her mom wanted to add:  :-)

5/6/19 First Week in Ohio Letter

May 6, 2019

Hi family and friends!

Last week I didn't get to send out an email because I was too busy traveling to Cincinnati! (Or, if we're being technical, Kentucky. Cause apparently the Cincinnati airport was a bit past the state boarder) 

We stayed at the mission home our first night in Cincinnati and the next day we got our trainers. If any of you haven't heard the song "This is the Christ" then I highly recommend listening to it because it's beautiful! Most of us sisters sang it at the MTC for Easter so it was already special to us, but when we were introduced to our trainers we sang this song as the rest of the older missionaries walked in and joined us part way through. It was an amazing feeling to see all the missionaries there to greet us and I could barely sing the last half of the song because I was too choked up! My companion is Sister Priego and she's amazing! I gave a great first impression by bawling as she hugged me. But it was because I was so happy to finally OFFICIALLY be a missionary that I could hardly believe it, so it was the good kind of crying.

Because Sister Priego doesn't have a license and the phone she got turned out to be locked I get both the privilege of driving AND having the sim card in my phone. Both things that normally the senior companion does. Driving was interesting for a little while because I didn't know where I was going, but now I can pretty much get most places I need without directions, which is definitely a blessing because I'm absolutely terrible with directions. I've heard of the gift of tongues, but apparently I've been given the gift of directions!

I'm currently serving in a town called Springfield in the middle of Ohio, about an hour away from Columbus and an hour and a half away from Cincinnati. So much has happened in just the week I've been here! A cute girl named Belle was baptized, we put another girl on date to be baptized, one of the guys Sister Priego has kinda been teaching turned out to be a great D&D dungeon master and we've discussed playing D&D with him sometime for P-day , I offered to a woman we're teaching that we could refer her daughter to the missionaries in that area and she said that was an answer to her prayers, and I've been learning really fast and Sister Priego things I'll probably be a trainer as soon as I'm done being trained.

The thing that disappoints me the most is that I didn't keep up with learning ASL after my one semester in college! We have two cute girls we're teaching who are deaf and we've been having to teach them using our limited knowledge of sign and a white board. But the lessons have been going surprisingly well and we've been learning more and more as we meet with them.

Yesterday we were heading home after finishing our day of visiting people. It was about 8:50 and we're supposed to be done visiting people by 9 unless we're in the middle of giving a lesson. But suddenly Sister Piego said we should go visit either one of two people we'd been trying to catch throughout the week. So I started driving toward one of them, knowing full well that no one was likely to be home at their place because we'd stopped by earlier that day and heard that they wouldn't be around. When we got there we knocked and the woman who lived there opened the door. This woman was the neighbor of the cool dungeon master guy, and earlier in the week when we'd been talking to him about some Book of Mormon stories and Joseph Smith she was out smoking on her porch (Basically everyone smokes here. I'm sure I smell like cigarette smoke most days.) and turned to us and asked "What book are you talking about? It sounds interesting!" We explained the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy and she agreed to let us come back another time because she and her fiance felt like they needed our message because they'd just moved in and were going through a lot. After talking to her yesterday and giving her a brief lesson on The Book of Mormon and some words and scriptures of comfort we found out that she'd JUST walked in the door when we showed up, and she wouldn't be back again for another week. She sincerely felt like us being there was meant to happen and that the things that we have to share with her are exactly what she needs in her life right now. And she was fully committed to read The Book of Mormon until we meet with her again, so we're super excited for her!

Overall, I'm loving Ohio! The people here a so nice, everything is so green, and there lots of cute neighborhoods full of adorable old houses. Most people here are really religious, so it's easy to have really good talks about religion even if they don't end up accepting what we have to say. With all my heart I love getting to bare my testimony so many times every single day and serve those around me. I've already grown so much and I can't wait to see how much more I'll grow.

There's a quote by Jeffrey R. Holland that I LOVE that says 

"...the great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don't always succeed." 

I also love Moroni 10:32, which says 

"...if ye shall deny yourselves of all 

ungodliness, and love God with all your might mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ..."

We don't have to be perfect right now, but as long as we're trying and working our hardest we can become perfect in Christ through his grace. I love the comfort that I get knowing that despite my shortcomings I still have the atonement that allows me the opportunity to return to my Heavenly Father again one day!

I'm also including a poem that I heard at the MTC and loved!

DISCOURAGEMENT 

"It was announced so the story goes ,
That the devil was going to quit,
That all his tools would be up for sale the whole infernal kit.
Malice and envy hatred and strife each marked a bargain price,
Jealousy, pride, and other wise
All implements of the vice

A bad and sorry looking lot
Attractively displayed
But just apart from all the rest
A wedge shaped tool was laid
A harmless looking, simple tool
Much worn as one could trace,
But higher priced than all the rest is in that infernal place.

Then someone asked the devil  what the wedge shaped tool was,
Why that's discouragement, he said it's higher priced because.
It's much more useful unto me
Than any of its brothers 
It will prevail where I would fail
With any of the others.

Few people know it's mine and so,
It works wth perfect ease 
For once inside (I'll put you wise)
I do just as I please
Just let me get the conscientious 
Discouraged, downcast, blues
Eureka, I have found a way
Santanic work to do!
Suffice to say the price to pay
The devil for his "PET"
Was just to high, no one could buy
And so he 's got it yet,
And what is more he is using it 
And in these times of stress
He no doubt finds DISCOURAGEMENT
of all his tools the BEST!!!"

Pictures!

1. Sister Priego, Belle, and I on Belle's baptism

2 & 3 Sister Priego and I, and our name tags!

4, 5, & 6 Traveling 

7. Cincinnati!

8. The view from the plane

More pictures on Facebook if anyone wants to go friend my missionary Facebook page!

5/6/19 First Area - New Address!

Kylie's new address is:

2944 Derr Rd

Apt. #136

Springfield, OH  45503

5/3/19 Sister Bliss's First Facebook Post - 1st Baptism and Trainer, Sister Priego

"Even though the power went out and the water was FREEZING Belle and Elliot were still able to get baptized!  I've grown to love this girl so much in just the last few days I've been here and I'm so proud of this decision she made!" 

- Sister Bliss, Facebook, May 3, 2019

Sister Jesenia Priego, Belle, and Sister Kylie Bliss