9/30/19 - Things I've learned 💖

Things I've learned recently:

I've learned that God is really watching out for us. I've had so many experiences recently with little miracles from God. One week the lesson in Sunday School was exactly what I needed to hear. A couple of times my mom sent me some packages of treats and things that I'd been thinking of that week but hadn't told her I'd wanted. And when my District Leader asked me to give a training, it was on the exact topic I'd been struggling to better understand the last two weeks. God knows us and is always there for us, even in the little things. We just have to be looking for them to notice them.

I've learned that prayers really do work. To be honest, back home I wasn't the best at praying. But I learned to pray more meaningfully out in a mission and now love to pray. And oh, have I been praying hard lately. I've had days in which I didn't know if I could make it through the day, and I've had moments in which I was ready to give up and go home. But as I've prayed for strengthen and guidance there have been days in which I have literally felt as if someone was helping pick me up off the floor and lift me through my day. I've recieved immediate answers of comfort while I've prayed. And I've felt God's love throughout my day as I've kept a prayer in my heart and asked him for help.

I've learned that journaling is so impotant. I've learned so many things through keeping a record of my experiences and what I've learned. And I'm so grateful that I'll be able to look back on all I've learned after my mission. 

And most important, I've learned that having a testimony of The Book of Mormon is VITAL! I've had so many experiences on my mission in which I've been told I was wrong or been asked to question my beliefs. I've done that, and all I've found is sadness and darkness when I've let myself start losing something that I know to be true and something that will determine the rest of eternity for me. I'm so grateful that I've been able to gain a firm testimony of The Book of Mormon and see the blessings that have come from learning more about Christ 

So, crazy story about how my District Leader is so inspired. I've been studying how to recognize the spirit for like two solid weeks now, and suddenly he texted us to ask if I'd give a training in District Council on that exact topic a couple weeks from now. So maybe I'll finally figure out how to understand the spirit better  But I'm psyched to give a training on it. Training other missionaries and learning in the process is probably my favorite part of serving a mission thus far 

We had a couple neat experiences this week!:

We visited a member the other day and gave her a card just because we were thinking about her. The next day she texted us to tell us that the scripture we had in the card was exactly what she needed and we were definitely inspired to visit her. God is watching out for his children!

A few days later we talked to a man on the street who ended up being the brother of someone we'd been trying to find for weeks! And he told us that his Sister was trying to figure out who she is in life and was waiting for Missionaries to come back to talk to her! 

I have never been more grateful for any experience in my life as I am for the opportunity I've had to be on a mission. I just hit 5 months in the field and I sincerely cannot believe it's been so long because it's flown by. I still have another 13 months to go and I look forward to every good and bad day to come so I can learn from it all.

Also General Conference is this weekend and I'm so psyched! I'd like to commit you all to have at least one question to pray for and listen for an answer at conference.

I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Bliss

PICTURES!

A cute Plan of Salvation chalk drawing we did with some of the members.

What me and my companion do in the car...

And I got sick of my hair getting in the way of my name tag... so I chopped it 

9/23/19 Book of Mormon movie night 🍕🎞📽📺

Have y'all seen The Book of Mormon video that just came out in the Gospel Library app? Because it's basically the bomb! Sister Christensen and I had a movie night with popcorn the day we found out about it. And on top of that, our neighbor decided to drop off pizza and candy for us because he's basically the best and loves the Missionaries  A full on movie night watching The Book of Mormon was the best way to end a busy day serving the Lord! I'm so excited to see the rest of them as they come out, and I'm so grateful that I'll get to have these visuals forever to help people like my future children better understand The Book of Mormon in addition to reading it. What a blessing!

Our amazing friend Alice came to a Come Follow Me study and had an amazing time talking about the bible with some neat women in our ward. We were so excited to keep teaching her because she said she prayed us to her and we know that God placed us in her path because she asked for help. But then she dropped us a few days later because she talked to her husband about us... We're trying to stay in touch before she totally blows us off though because SHE PRAYED US TO HER.

The other day we decided to go visit a neighborhood in hopes we could run into a couple people we knew. Honestly, I don't know why we would have decided to go there without being prompted, because there was no chance of running across the people we wanted to see. But because we were there we ran into someone who gladly listened to our message and accepted a Book of Mormon and said he'd come to church. He didn't make it to church, sadly, but he did text us that morning to tell us he read 3 Nephi 11 (the chapter where Christ comes to America)! And then he asked us a few questions about what he was reading!

I found a scripture this week that I absolutely LOVED and wanted to share with y'all...

Alma 29:1-3

  "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

   "Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.

   "But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me."

Sometimes we wish there was more that we could do. We want the power to just go out and spread the gospel in such a way that no one can reject it! We want to help everyone be happy! But we're human and we don't have that kind of power. Luckily, God has given us things we can do, and we can be grateful for those things and carry them out to the best of our abilities. So I hope you all appreciate what opportunities God gives you! 

Much love,

Sister Bliss

PICTURES! 

Our cute zone  And a scriptural reminder that I wrote out because it's always good to remember that we go through things for our own good to make us stronger.

9/16/19 "Oh, a boat! I didn't think about boats!"

Wow, so many miracles this week! 

The first miracle for me was at Zone Conference, when Sister Ensign talked to us about EXACTLY what I'd been praying to learn. I couldn't help but tear up after as I was thanking her for it, because there could have been no way that her talk could have been so perfectly made for me unless my Heavenly Father knew what I needed and helped make that possible.

The work has felt a little stagnant the last couple of weeks and we've been trying desperately to figure out how to better work with members or help those we're teaching progress or find more people to teach and it's felt like nothing has been working. But this week we had a breakthrough in all of those areas!

Saturday was Social Media Splits. That means we got to have members sign up to have us do service or go teaching with them and then they post about it online to show their friends and family members what Missionaries do. We got to meet and get to know members so much more, and it was such a blessing to us because we were able to learn of so many more ways that we can offer service to the members in our ward and strengthen our relationship with them. Our day was so booked that we didn't even get a break for lunch! The next miracle happened when one social media split felt through and we finally got to go home and take a break when I felt like I might pass out. Non-stop service is hard, but it's worth it!

Our next breakthrough was only a slight break though, but it was with the people we're teaching! Brittney and Jen are the best and they both told us they feel like they're actually getting stuff out of The Book of Mormon and wanting to read rather than just reading to get through the chapter. We were so excited to hear, because The Book of Mormon is such a blessing. And later, when having a lesson with Paul he finally brought up how he was feeling that gave us a clearer understanding of why he keeps pushing off baptism! It's been about two months of us feeling lost and confused with no idea of what was stopping him. But we finally got a good conversation in and have an idea of what lessons to give in the future to help him better progress towards baptism!

As for being unable to find new people to teach, we got an amazing referral this week! Alice referred herself because she recently made a lot of changes in her life and lost a lot of friends because of it so she wanted Missionaries to come by because she needs to be surrounded by good Christian people. She's the sweetest lady and super open to everything we had to say and to reading The Book of Mormon. At one point she mentioned "I just don't get how [the people in The Book of Mormon] got to America if they didn't have planes. Did they just walk across the water?" and when we explained Nephi being commanded to build a boat she laughed and couldn't stop talking about boats. "Oh, a boat! I didn't think about boats! Boats existed back then." 

Ultimately, it was a really great week as far as the work goes. I'm so grateful for my Heavenly Father and all the help he's given me this last week 

I love Alma 37:6

"...by small and simple things are great things brought to pass..."

I know that even by just improving in small ways we can become so much greater over time. We don't have to be perfect all at once. It's the small things that really matter!

Hope y'all have a great week!

Love, Sister Bliss

Pictures!

*lots of pictures of us making cookies, cards and mats for Social Media Splits on Saturday. I had fun getting to use the small amount of calligraphy I started learning right before my mission for the cards we made.

*Sister Christensen and I in front of the Little Miami River, which goes into the Ohio River. Halfway through the river is where our area ends.

*And my favorite picture is one I didn't even take, but that one of the Elders sent us all after Zone Conference. As part of one of the trainings, the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders used a story from The Book of Mormon as an example. So they had our mission president, President Ensign, read it to us from the children's Book of Mormon as a bedtime story. 

9/14/19 Facebook posts from three members!

Three facebook posts from members in one day! So fun to see these!

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9/9/19 The members are giving US commitments

This week was interesting when it came to member dinners.

First, we had dinner with the Bellistons, who, after we shared a message about bearing testimonies, 
committed US to bear our testimonies more.

The next day we had dinner with Brother Blanton (at Chick-fil-A whoop whoop!) 

and shared a message on praying for missionary opportunities. In return, he committed 

us to pray to receive help from our ancestors, because he's had some neat experiences 

with that in his life. I've been requesting lots of help from my Grandma Muhlestein since then 

And the next day we had dinner with Sister Talbert, who got to hear us talk about 

strengthening our foundation on Christ and committed us to write our experiences in our 
journals so we never forget them. I've been a huge advocate for journal writing since I was 
about 10, so I've been really trying! It's tough to keep up with everything I want to talk about when 

we have so little time though.

We have some amazing members in Milford. They keep us on our toes!

This week I've really had on my mind the importance of having the gospel be family centered 
because I gave a talk on Sunday about making our homes into fortresses, and then in Sunday 
School the topic was on the importance of the gospel being primarily taught in the home and 
just being backed up by church. A few of my favorite quotes and scriptures I found while 
preparing my talk were:

"Christ centered homes are fortresses for the kingdom of God 
on earth in a day when, as prophesied, the devil "rage[s] in the
 hearts of the children of men, and stir[s] them up to anger 
against that which is good."" -Ronald A. Rasband

"Satan in a subtle snake, sneaking into our minds and hearts 
when we have let our guard down, faced a disappointment, or 
lost hope." -Ronald A. Rasband

"In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually 
without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant 
influence of the Holy Ghost." -President Russell M. Nelson

Helaman 5:12, which talks about the importance of Christ being our foundation:

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the 
rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye 
must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send 
forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, 
when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, 
it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf 
of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which 
ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon 
if men build they cannot fall."

Helaman 15:7-8, which talks about the importance of scripture study:

"And behold, ye do know of yourselves, for ye have witnessed 
it, that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of 
the truth, and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions 
of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, 
the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which 
leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which 
faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them—

"Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves 
are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they 
have been made free."

And both Alma 2:28 and D&C 10:5 which talk about the importance of prayer.

Alma 2:28:

"Nevertheless, the Nephites being strengthened by the hand 
of the Lord, having prayed mightily to him that he would deliver 
them out of the hands of their enemies, therefore the Lord did 
hear their cries, and did strengthen them, and the Lamanites 
and the Amlicites did fall before them."

D&C 10:5

"Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that 
you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the 
hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work."

Throughout history, fortresses have been used to keep the enemy out. Satan is the enemy that 
we most need protection from right now, and as we make our homes into fortresses by having 
Family Home Evening, scripture study, and prayer, we can keep Satan at bay for the protection 
of our families. I definitely recommend reading or listening again to two specific talks from last 
General Conference: "Build a Fortress of Spirituality and Protection" by Ronald A. Rasband and
 "Prepared to Obtain Every Needful Thing" by David A Bednar.

Our Relief Society is doing a "30 days till Conference" activity if anyone else wants to try it! 
There are 30 days till General Conference starting from last Thursday, which means if you 
read one talk every day from last conference you can get through them all before this 
coming one! I recommend it  I can't believe General Conference is less than a month away. 
Last conference was held 3 days before I went into the MTC and it feels like it JUST happened! 
But I'm so excited to get to watch it with some of the people we're teaching here 

I hope you all have an amazing week! Keep putting your trust in the Lord and building your family fortresses!

Love,

Sister Bliss

Pictures! 

Because I got no pictures this week, I'm including the copy of 
the 30 day General Conference challenge in case anyone 
wants it :)

Mom note!  I've included a couple screenshots of our video call with Sister Bliss!
We sure love being able to talk to her every week!!

Attachments area

9/2/19 - I Can Go the Distance

I almost began my email with "Hello Elders and Sisters" before correcting myself 🤣

We had some really neat experiences this week! The most meaningful one to me was earlier this week when we were out contacting some people. We had just stopped by a members house to put some inspiring quotes on their door when we decided to check out the park right around the corner. It looked like a nice big park and we'd never been there before so we thought it might be good to check if anyone was there. It only took a few steps in before it was obvious that the park was empty. It was a like big park with an old historic building in the middle and no people to be seen. Sister Christensen and I both individually mentioned that we should probably just turn back and go somewhere else, but we kept walking. I remember thinking "Why are we still walking, we're just wasting our time here", but I felt inclined to go further. After a few minutes of aimlessly walking toward the old building in the middle of the park (which turned out to be a cool old building that's been there since before the church was restored) we saw a cute old lady with some kids sitting under a pavillion that was hidden out of the way. We talked to them and found out that the woman's daughter-the mother of the kids-used to meet with missionaries and was interested in meeting again! It was definitely a neat miracle.

 

We tried to put Paul on date for baptism this week. In case I haven't mentioned Paul before, he's the coolest. He's been ready for baptism for months now but is just really slow moving when it comes to getting things done. He's more active than many members are and he ushered for Stake Conference last week and asks us for assigned readings faster than we can send them to him! However, he wasn't able to commit to a date when we extended one. But he's the best and we have high hopes. 

Sister Christensen and I have been really enjoying the song "Go the Distance" from Hercules lately. I've never thought of it from a gospel standpoint, but I've loved thinking about the Plan of Salvation while listening to the words. I've decided to include the lyrics here for y'all.

"I have often dreamed of a far off place

Where a hero's welcome would be waiting for me

Where the crowds will cheer when they see my face

And a voice keeps saying, this is where I'm meant to be

"I'll be there someday, I can go the distance

I will find my way if I can be strong

I know every mile, will be worth my while

When I go the distance, I'll be right where I belong

"Down an unknown road to embrace my fate

Though that road may wander, it will lead me to you

And a thousand years would be worth the wait

It might take a lifetime but somehow I'll see it through

"And I won't look back, I can go the distance

And I'll stay on track, no, I won't accept defeat

It's an uphill slope but I won't lose hope

'Til I go the distance, and my journey is complete

"But to look beyond the glory is the hardest part

For a hero's strength is measured by his heart

"Like a shooting star, I will go the distance

I will search the world, I will face its harms

I don't care how far, I can go the distance

'Til I find my hero's welcome, waiting in your arms

"I will search the world, I will face its harms

'Til I find my hero's welcome, waiting in your arms"

Sometimes life seems like...well...a lifetime! And sometimes it's hard to remember that everything we work for will be worth it in the end. But we're here to work hard and go the distance until we return back to accept a hero's welcome from our Heavenly Father.

I hope each and every one of you have a great week, I love y'all tons!

-Sister Bliss 

Pictures!

*The beautiful sunset the other night. The pictures doesn't quite do it justice, but I'm sending it because I'd like yall  to note that there are NO MOUNTAINS IN THE BACKGROUND.

*Our cute district selfie our last district council of the transfer!

*Our district leader Elder Bigham had the cutest idea for our final district photo. We each grabbed as many hymn books as the number of transfers we have left on our mission and took a cute picture with them! Our fearless district leader only has two transfers left (I'd point out which one he is, but I'm sure his tiny pile makes it obvious), Sisters Hedelius and Christensen both have 8 transfers left, Elder Quiner came out exactly 6 months before me so we'll be leaving together in 10 tranfers, and Sister Saunders is the baby who has 11 of her 13 transfers left!