1/27/20

Hello! I didn't get time to proofread, so my apologies for any mistakes!

We had Zone Conference this week and at one point we split up so the sisters could have a training by Sister Ensign and the Elders could have one from President Ensign. For part of it Sister Ensign gave us an amazing training on not comparing ourselves to others (because sisters are bad at it). Below are her 11 steps to stop comparing 

1. Grow your own garden

Of course the grass is going to be greener on the other side if you're not watering your own garden.

2. Accept who you are

Accept your flaws and your imperfections and work from there.

3. Love your past

Your past made you who you are!

4. Know that this is not the end

This is not your last chance to improve. It is never too late to keep becoming better.

5. Be thankful for what you have

6. Know that you are not perfect

7. Be your own ally

When that mean voice inside your head tells you all your imperfections. Be your own ally and work against it!

8. Turn your comparisons into a pep talk

Look at others and their positive traits as something to learn from, not beat yourself up about

9. If you're going to compare yourself to someone, compare yourself to yourself 

Look at how far you've come and keep going!

10. Tell yourself a better story

When all you tell yourself is negative things, change what you tell yourself!

11. Take back what belongs to you 

Take back your power. You can do it 

And last of all, if you forget everything else, remember to trust in the Lord!

Tuesday I had the wonderful opportunity to go out to eat with my Muhlestein grandparents  They live in Columbus Ohio, which has been really fun to know that they've been so nearby my whole mission. But I got permission this week for them to come take me and Sister Morales out to eat at a restaurant called El Meson that our neighbor owns. So we got really great food their and were even offered jobs. Then we went to Graeters for dessert!  I'm so grateful for my grandparents and all their support, as well as all the support, emails, and prayers from all my other family and friends because you're all so amazing!

For years, the scripture 1 Nephi 2:15 "And my father dwelt in a tent." has always stood out to me because of some Elders who came to dinner and shared a spiritual thought on it one time when I was young. But I could never remember for the life of me what they said about the scripture or why it was significant. That is, until I was reading in my original scriptures that my Bliss grandparents gave me when I was 8. Luckily I keep notes in my scriptures and ran across this scripture where I wrote next to it: "Even when we stand in Holy Places we may not end up where we thought we would."

And suddenly I remembered why this scripture was such a good one. Lehi and most of his family were very righteous people doing all they could to follow God's commandments, but they went through many hardships. They left all their lands and inheritance and dwelt in a tent. Lehi spent the majority of the rest of his life traveling in the wilderness and watching two of his sons gradually grow more wicked. He could have mourned over how much better life should have been for him after all his hard work, but he realized that 

I hope all of you have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Bliss

PICTURES!

*Sister Peterson and I at exchanges

*Me and my grandparents 

*Sister Peterson, me, Sister Lewis, and Sister Morales during exchanges when we went out to a good ice cream place called scoops 

1/20/20 A spoonful of honey a day keeps the poison away

Yes, that is the fun fact I learned this week. We were visiting a member family from Africa and Sister Kitenge (ka-teen-ga) told us all about the good food in Africa, as well as the fun fact that if you eat a spoonful of Honey a day you won't die from poisoning if your enemies decide to poison you. 

Happy Monday!

Fun things that happened this week:

1. Being asked to be a witness for Cheryl's upcoming baptism...

We planned the program for Cheryl's baptism in February! And she asked us to be the witnesses for it  I'm so excited for her, and it's so exciting working with their family because Georgia's a new member of the church, Cheryl's close to baptism, they have another family member we just picked up as a new person we're teaching, and another family member is someone the Elders are trying to reach out to. So they have someone at pretty much every stage of teaching and it's so fun to be involved with all of them.

2. 80-year-old Georgia thinking Elder Johansen is cute...

We stopped by to see Georgia and Cheryl the other day just as the Elders were coming by to do service for them. I'm so grateful we did because we got to witness Georgia meeting a new elder. Our elders are the Zone Leaders, so they were on exchanges and Elder Johansen from another area came here with Elder Wigington. Georgia took one look at Elder Johansen and turned to us and whispered "Oh, he's handsome!", which wasn't a surprise because she's talked about other elders similarly. But then she turned to him and shouted "You're cute!". So if you can picture an 80-something-year-old black lady telling an Elder he's cute then you can imagine how funny this was to us.

3. The man who started reading The Book of Mormon right then and there...

AND I JUST RAN OUT OF TIME, SO I'M SAVING THIS STORY FOR NEXT WEEK!

I was listening to a talk this week (Conversion of a Catholic, for any of you who have heard of it) and one part in it specifically stood out to me. Near the end, a woman was mentioned who joined the church late in life and god her patriarchal blessing. A patriarchal blessing, for those of you you don't know what that is, is a blessing that contains inspired direction from the Lord to give you guidance and comfort throughout your life. And in this woman's blessing she was told that she was meant to join the church 20 years earlier, but a missionary decided not to serve his mission so the Lord prepared another missionary to find her. She passed away about a week later.

I loved this because it shows just how important each missionary is. To all of my missionary friends out there, I want you all to know that you are important! No matter how little success you seem to have, if you weren't to serve a mission, someone would be missing out on hearing this special message for a time! 

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week 

Love,

Sister Blis

 PICTURES!

-Me with the Miamisburg sign! This time I got the picture BEFORE my last day in the area!

-And me all bundled up because the weather the last few days has been a windchill of 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Hip hop hooray 

1/13/2020 - 9 months down, 9 more to go!

Hello!

I've gotten all settled in here at Miamisburg, after a few mishaps like breaking a desk...and a lamp...and almost another chair (I've already broken one in each of my other areas. I'm not having the best of luck in the chair department over here.) Miamisburg is up closer to Dayton, near Springfield where I first came out on my mission! One fun fact about the area is that we live in something similar to a retirement home because it's safer. But it also means that we get frequent bed bugs for some reason. So keep me in your prayers that I'm safe from that and don't stay here during bed bug season! 

My new companion is Sister Morales. She's been so much fun to be with and there's never a dull moment because she's always talking and always down to do something fun. I spent my first full day in the apartment sick though. We had to call in to our first District Meeting and everything. But I was up and going again the very next day, so all's well!

I hit my 9 month mark of my mission this last week. That means I'm halfway through my mission already! We celebrated by going to Graeter's, a really popular ice cream place in Ohio (And quite possibly the best ice cream I've ever had. It and Blue Bell might have to fight it out to hit number one on my list.) I'm definitely not ready to start the second half of my mission though because now it's a matter of counting down until I leave. I'm still trying to plot how I can convince my mission president to allow me to stay an extra 6 months 😂 I've learned so much throughout my mission, and I'm excited to see how much more I learn the second half of my mission.

Tender mercy of the week!

I've been working at strengthening my ability to plan, both during our weekly planning and daily planning. It was amazing coming to a new area and starting fresh for me because I was able to see just how much I learned in my 6 months in Milford. Coming into Milford straight out of training I felt at a total loss when we started planning. But coming into Miamisburg was completely different and it was such a blessing to be able to so clearly see the growth in me after what has felt like no time at all.

We're teaching some amazing people here, including an upcoming baptism! We also have a few recent converts we're working with, which is super exciting because Milford had no recent converts in the ward. One of our recent converts is the sweetest old woman ever named Georgia. We went by to visit, and when we tried to leave we had to bargain how much longer we'd stay.

Georgia: "Stay just 10 more minutes!"

Us: "How about 5?"

G: "8?"

U: "7."

G: "8 and a half?"

U: "7 and a half."

G: "10?"

U: "Okay fine, 10. But then we have to go!"

Also, we won't be hungry any time soon! We helped a woman move and she gave us all her food storage so we wouldn't go hungry. Then we stopped by to meet a member and left with 3 grocery bags full of food. So we're fully stocked and supplying the Elders in our district with plenty of food as well 😂

And my last note of the week is that today I got to play an official game of basketball for the first time ever and I didn't suck enough for the Elders to want me off their team, so I'd consider that a win in my book.

Basically, I've had a pretty great week!

PICTURES!

*Me and Sister Hines my very last day with the Milford sign

*My district when we went to Chuck-e-cheeses on our last P-day if the transfer last Monday!

*Graeters ice cream for my halfway celebration! 

*My new companion, sister Morales!

*A small sample of our food storage. We're not going hungry any time soon!

1/10/20 Sister Bliss Facebook Post

Today I hit my halfway point of my mission. 9 months ago today I left my family to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What has followed since has been lots of learning, growing, trials, fun times, many new friends, and a stronger conversion to my Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ ❤ I am so grateful for everything I have experienced up to this point and can't wait to spend every minute of the rest of my mission serving, testifying, and growing.

1/6/2020 - On the road again! To MIAMISBURG!

January 6, 2020

🎼"On the road again

Oh I can't wait to be on the road again

Goin places that I've never seen or been

Oh I can't wait to be on the road again"🎶

If I quoted that completely wrong, I blame the fact that I have no google and am relying on my bad memory.

Anyway, I'm gonna be on the road again to.... MIAMISBURG! It's about an hour or so north of me, near Dayton Ohio. My new companion is a sister that was in my zone awhile back and seems amazing but who I never got to know very well. So I'm pumped to be with her 😊

So I have yet another week in which I don't have much time to email. But my holidays were great! For Christmas my district got matching pjs in advance and played lots of volleyball and card games, had a potluck and a white elephant gift exchange, and I got to open presents and be part of christmas with my family! In fact, my family had Christmas eve twice! Once at 6 pm their time so I could watch them open their Christmas pjs and read christmas books with them. Then they packed it up and did it again later that night at their normal time after my brother was back from work. Basically, my family is my favorite ❤

For New Years we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders and ordered pizza and celebrated together. But earlier that day we counted down at noon and partied it up with our district, including volleyball, basketball (my basketball skills have improved ten fold during my mission), and card games. Oh, and the elders taught me magic tricks.

I'll update y'all on my new area next week! 

Love,

Sister Bliss

PICTURES!

*Our family Christmas picture 

*Our blind squad in our district. These two almost have vision as bad as me! (Which means really really bad, for those of you who don't know)

*Matching pjs!

*More pictures of our district during our holiday parties

*Me with a sign for one of the towns I serve in