6/24/19 - I'm pressured to have good subject lines

Hello Brothers, Sisters, and Elders!

My family made a comment about how much they love my subject lines and now I feel pressured to make sure I always have good one! 

Though honestly, it's pretty much the easiest thing to find at least one interesting thing that happened to me all week to make as my subject line  Just imagine the busiest week you've ever had. Maybe you had to help someone pack and then had a birthday party another day and a dinner reservation another and a service project to make it to the day after that, all with other activities packed in between. Now times that by 10 and you can imagine the life of a missionary.

I believe it was yesterday that we were with a friend named Missy who's son and mom are recent members and we were catching up on how she'd been doing when suddenly a car came racing down the middle of the neighborhood road. I turned to see the commotion and said "Oh, that's Seth!" and Missy was surprised that we knew him. He was someone we'd been teaching so we knew what drama was going on, and that's when I realized just how much we know about everything because of how many close friendships we build.

It rained all week and we basically were on flash flood watch constantly. Any area of water here it totally flooded. Speaking of which, they have a reservoir here but I'm disappointed in them because they don't shorten it down the "the rez" like us Delta folk. 

We had Zone Conference on Wednesday. Which feels crazy because it feels almost like it was weeks ago since so much happens every day out here. It was our last time seeing our current Mission President and his wife, and we'll be getting a new president here in a short while.

After reading my email about who's in our district and that we're "stuck with the same district leader" my mom commented on it and told me that I need to clarify that I don't actually mean it the way I said it cause I actually love Elder Widmer and think he's the best. My entire first transfer he always picked on Sister Priego and me and we honestly thought he might hate us, but since then he's started be nicer and apologized for teasing us too much. I still thought he was cool last transfer though. But for my mom's sake, I would like to clarify that I am not "stuck with" him, I am in fact very happy to keep him as district leader this transfer.

Speaking of Elder Widmer, this week I'm going to be lazy and just use for my email commitment the same commitment he gave in his talk in church yesterday...

In our Preach my Gospel books we have a chapter specifically called "Christlike Attibutes" and it's meant to use as a way of studying some of the attributes that Christ had in order to improve those qualities in ourselves and become more like him. 

The attributes it includes are:

Faith in Jesus Christ

Hope

Charity and Love

Virtue

Knowledge

Patience

Humility

Diligence 

Obedience

My invitation to all of you is to pick one of these attributes and study it as you try to improve upon it in your own life. If you need some tips on how to study them, Preach my Gospel in the gospel library has lots of good scriptures and if you email me I'd also be happy to send pictures of any of the topic pages with extra scriptures to check out if needed.

I hope you all have an amazing week! 

Sure love you!

-Sister Bliss

Pictures!

My selfies with the cute Abston kids and another Book of Mormon that we put in a cute little outdoor library.

The best screenshot I could get from the video we took of the flooded roads during all the rain this week.

I also included my favorite rendition of the Tree of Life from 1 Nephi 8. It's from Becky Craven's Careful versus Casual talk, but it's in the Gospel Library app and not the ensign version.

6/18/19 Facebook Cover Photo Update from Kylie Bliss

Kylie Bliss updated her cover photo.

6/17/19 Facebook Post from Kylie

Kylie's Facebook Post

Kylie Bliss is with Tim Bliss.

I'm a day late, but I'd like to wish all the fathers out there a happy Father's Day. I'm so grateful for my father and the wonderful example he's been to me of hard work. Whenever I feel too tired to go on I remember that my dad would never quit and I get back up and continue forward.
I'm also so grateful for my father in heaven and the guidance he's given me. I can't begin to comprehend his love for me and that gives me a strength that no earthly thing can. I feel so blessed to be able to feel his love in my life because I know there are those who don't. But I promise each and every one of you that he is there. He loves you and hears your prayers, whether or not you feel like he does. He wants you to reach out to him and push through the hard times and return to him again one day. I can't express enough the gratitude I have for my knowledge of my Heavenly Father and his plan of happiness and the purpose it gives me in my life 💖
Happy Fathers Day to both my earthly and heavenly father who care for and love me as much as they do!!!

6/17/19 My companion saves a man's life

Hi everyone!

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful fathers out there! I'm so grateful for my father and all the love and support he's given me throughout the years and the wonderful example of hard work he's always been to me. I'm also grateful for my father in heaven and the love I know he has for me.

I am now part of a normal district where elders outnumber the sisters. I knew it was going to be an interesting transfer as soon as we parked at our first district meeting and our oh so loving elders decided to park on either side of us so Sister Priego would be forced to maneuver me out of our parking spot when we left (because our rules say you have to have someone backing you if you're in reverse and elders love to do anything to inconvenience the person who has to be out of the car backing the driver). But the elders are all really nice and I can tell this is going to be an awesome transfer.

So, the story of how Sister Priego saved someone's life:

A few days ago we decided to make cookies for a woman who had stopped talking to us and we wanted to go see if we could mend our relationship with her. We were running slightly behind schedule and by the time we were leaving the apartment we had to decide if we wanted to stop by her place really fast and go to our next appointment a bit late (which wouldn't matter because we didn't actually have a set time for the next woman we were seeing) or just go visit her after. We both felt like we needed to go to our other appointment first and drop off the cookies after, so that's what we did. About an hour later we were finally out of our scripture study with a new member and on our way to drop off the cookies. When we showed up we had just enough time to give her the cookies and talk for a couple minutes when suddenly we heard someone shout "Does anyone know CPR?" Next thing I knew, Sister Priego shouted back "I know CPR!", threw her bag, and was running down the street. After what felt like far too long, the man was finally conscious in time for the ambulance to arrive and take him to a hospital. After we left I found out that the only knowledge she actually had of CPR was what she'd been taught in Girl's Camp when she was 12. It was a wonderful experience of being in the right place at the right time and proved to me just how valuable the things we learn in young women's can really be!

Thanks to Father's Day I've been thinking a lot of my Heavenly Father's love for me (in addition to my earthly father of course). So I'd just like to share one of my favorite scriptures about both Heavenly Father and Christ's love for us:

Romans 8:35-39 

       Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

        As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There may be times in our lives when we don't feel God's love. Or there may be those of you who have simply never felt it before. But it's always there. God is a perfect being, which includes having perfect love. I knew a guy who put it in perspective once that in order to be a God you have to be perfect. Which means, if at any point God were to stop loving a single one of his children that would no longer make him God because he wouldn't be perfect. But because he is a perfect and all loving God his love is there for us regardless of whether or not we feel it. I'm so grateful for the blessing it is that I can feel my Heavenly Father's love. And I'm so grateful that I get to be on a mission to help share the knowledge of his love with others 

Until next week,

Sure love you all!

-Sister Bliss

Pictures! 

Al (aka the coolest guy ever) gave us bandanas as a thank you for being his friends so we can be cool like him! And mine is a marauders map, so it's basically the coolest thing ever.

We were doing daily contacting one day and I turned to Sister Priego to get the okay for one of our texts and found her with this note on her head!

The elders joyfully walking away from the atrocity that is their parking job. 

6/10/19 One whole transfer in!

Hello friends and family!

Wow, it's crazy to think I've been here an entire transfer (6 weeks) already! We had transfer calls Saturday night ti know who's being moved where. Sister Priego and I get to stick around, which is good because she's basically my bestie and I'm going to miss her like crazy when I eventually get a new companion. We'll also be stuck with our same district leader, but other than that our whole district will be different. The other sisters we had are leaving because we killed one off (this transfer was Sister Romrell's last one before she went home) and the other one, Sister Gardner, is going to be a Sister Training Leader. In their place we're getting a set of elders instead, so we get to be the only sisters in the district, wish us luck 

This week was filled with some amazing experiences. We put John on date, we finally found out what was stopping Brennae (a cute 11 year old) from progressing and now she seems to be moving along a lot better, and we got to do a lot of service for people. The bugs here are a lot bigger than the ones in Utah. We saw like 5 daddy long legs that were twice as big as normal just crawling up someone's house the other day. It was no big deal until I looked down and saw one on my leg and freaked out. Everyone keeps telling us they can't bite us, but that does nothing to stop them from being creepy 🤣

One of my goals recently has been to work on being exactly obedient. I'm not necessarily being disobedient currently,  but I have a hard time getting up in the morning and using my time as wisely as I should, so it's something that I know will bless me if I can master it. As I've been working on being better I've found a quote that I love and wanted to share.

"How are you?

Better than I was but not as good as I am going to be...Trying a little harder to be a little better!"

-Ardeth G. Kapp

Last week I listened to a talk Elder Holland gave in the MTC titled Feed my Sheep. It tells the story of Peter and the apostles and compared Jesus asking Peter to feed his sheep to how we as missionaries (and all members) are asked to feed his sheep. 

We cannot make it back to our Heavenly Father without loving Christ. We cannot gain the salvation and exaltation and eternal joy we all want without loving Christ. And Christ asks us to feed his sheep if we love him. Back before my mission, sharing the gospel sounded like a scary thing. But it's amazing to see just how easy it is if your life is centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ and you're not afraid to talk about what you believe in when it comes up naturally. Nothing in my life has been more fulfilling or brought me more joy than sharing the gospel and serving others.

Just as Peter was asked to leave his fishing boat and oars behind and feed Christ's sheep forever, I'm so grateful to know that I've been called to feed his sheep forever as well. I know this gospel is true with every fiber of my being, and when the day comes to leave Ohio and go back home I'll be going home knowing that now I just get to do missionary work somewhere else and without a name tag. 

Invitation of the week!

Pray for missionarie opportunities and don't be afraid to talk about what you believe in and invite someone to church or to try out family search or come to a ward activity. I promise that as you seek out opportunities to spread the gospel you'll be blessed and find joy that can only be found through forgetting yourself and serving others.

Sure love you all!

-Sister Bliss 

Pictures! 

Sister Priego and I went to a graduation party for the sister of Belle (the girl who was baptized my first week) and the two deaf girls we're teaching. We got some fun pictures there and got to jam out to music for the first time in awhile, so it was an interesting experience. The children were adorable and they all love us so they'd drag me up onto the dance floor to dance with them occasionally.

The other pictures were from this last Saturday when we got to help Sister Douglass from our ward make her garden! None of us had experience so we just kinda winged it 🤣 Fingers crossed something actually grows!

6/3/19 Fireflies and tornado clean up!

This week probably won't be a long one because we had a busy day of grocery shopping and I don't have much time to write out my email anymore. The most exciting things that happened this week were:

I saw a firefly for the first time and basically screamed in excitment. It was the coolest thing ever and it just looked like a tiny flashing light that could fly and it made my heart so happy.

We got to help clean up after the tornado! (Pictures included) I've been wanting so badly to help out, so it was such a great experience to get to help clean up the mess that the tornado made. It was devastating to see what a disaster it was though.

I'll have to send two gospel thoughts next week because I ran out of time to finish my email and have to get going. But I hope all of you have an amazing week and find someone to serve this week!

Question of the week: Do I look like a Kylie? I keep being told I don't look like a Kylie and it's probably the most upsetting part about my mission so far 🤣 I've had, like, two Elders agree that I look like a Kylie, but anyone else who finds out my first name thinks it doesn't fit me!

Pictures!

Destruction from the Dayton area tornado that we got to help clean up. Sister Priego and I after having to find and EMT to check out her eye when a bee strung her on the eyelid. And then the one of us in the rain was while our car was in the shop (again) and we got to walk around in a storm. We were drenched for the rest of the night! 🤣