7/31/20 - Facebook Post "Kid History, Nephi's broken bow"

Broken bow, war paint, and one child's amazing story telling! This is Nephi's broken bow, Kid History style, narrated by Remie McKnight!!

(If you're looking for the chapter its 1 Nephi Chapter 16 in the Book of Mormon)

 https://www.facebook.com/100001476068991/videos/3262864637106040/?extid=m2Y94AbdRveVMt25

7/29/20 - Facebook Post "Turn to Him"

https://www.facebook.com/100035630764892/videos/311864026677954/?extid=RYWzIbtRV7ol3wOE

This is an original song called "Turn to Him" that I felt inspired to write as I began studying deeper about Christ and his atonement. As I studied his life and death I couldn't help but be drawn to the truth that we truly are never alone when we turn to Christ because he knows us perfectly. One of my favorite parts about writing this song was backing up every single line with a scripture that I found throughout my studies. I listed them after the lyrics for anyone who would like to look them up.

TURN TO HIM

By: Kylie Bliss

Do you ever feel alone,

Like no one's listening?

Do you ever give up hope

When you can't see?

Do you ever listen close

To hear him whispering?

Do you hear that still small voice

That says "come follow me"?

[CHORUS]

You're not alone cause Christ has come,

God loved the world, so he sent his son.

He hears your voice, he knows your fears,

Wipes always your tears and pleads with you to come

Open the door and let him in,

He bled and died, a sacrifice for sin.

He pleads your cause, he knows your name,

Sends peace and love, replacing guilt and shame

When you turn to him

He's our shepherd, Christ our Lord

He knows his sheep.

He's the light of the world,

Strengthens the weak.

Will you reach out, take his hand

And go and do?

Will you rise up, take a stand?

He's calling you!

[CHORUS]

Aquainted with grief,

He knows your sorrows

He heals your tomorrows

And yesterdays.

He cleanses sin

And carries burdens

From those who desert them

And follow him.

Oh, you're not alone

When you turn to him

And oh, you'll find your hope

When you turn to him

[CHORUS ×2]

As I was writing I challenged myself to find a scripture for every single line I wrote. Along the way I gained a firm testimony of the need for both the Bible and the Book of Mormon to fully understand Christ. There were many instances in which I hunted for the perfect scripture and could only find one in the Book of Mormon, and others where I could only find the perfect one in the Bible. Without the scriptures we would not fully know Christ. How wonderful it is that our Heavenly Father has given us such a wonderful gift!

Genesis 2:18; Alma 32:21; 3 Nephi 11:3-6; 1 Kings 19:11-12; Luke 18:22; John 14:18: 3 Nephi 11:10-11; John 3:16-17; Mosiah 27:14; Alma 58:10-11; Isaiah 25:8; 2 Nephi 26:33; Revelations 3:20; Mosiah 3:7; 2 Nephi 2:7; Doctrine and Covenants 45:3-5; John 10:3; Alma 36:18-21; Zechariah 1:3; John 10:11; Luke 2:11; 3 Nephi 18:31; Mosiah 16:9; Ether 12:27; Matthew 14:27-32; 1 Nephi 3:7; John 21:15-17; Alma 5:38; Isaiah 53:4; 3 Nephi 9:13; 1 John 1:7; Mosiah 24:14; 2 Nephi 9:45; Ether 12:4

7/27/20 - Master has given Dobby a sock. Dobby is free!

Happy Monday everyone!!

I could not think of any reference or joke that I could make about being set free besides quoting Dobby the house elf. So that is how I am choosing to announce some EXCITING QUARANTINE UPDATES! I have some other things to mention first, but then I'll give the official update (Spoiler, we're not completely free yet).

The "Field Trip" version:

Things I've learned on my mission and a poem I wrote; awesome updates on quarantine; we have no social skills anymore; we planned out a book; we made a kid History version of a Book of Mormon story

The Full Version:

This week has been full of a lot of stuff, but I'll try to keep it short because of lack of time.

All through quarantine I have loved the faith building experience this has been and I've been mostly nothing but happy with our situation because of the miracles I was able to see. Xenia has been a little bit harder because we don't have many people to teach and things feel a lot slower here. So, I'm sharing this story because it's a little funny to look back on, and I saw some miracles after and was reminded of things I have learned on my mission. Last Monday night we finished up for the day and one of my companions looked over at me and asked me if I was okay and for the first time in quarantine I had an actual breakdown because I finally wasn't doing well. My companions were awesome and helped me feel better and thkng were all okay. Then, the following days were amazing because we got some responses from people on Facebook, we found out that the Facebook rules aren't as strict as we were told a few weeks ago, we were given amazing updates on quarantine, and I was given a moment to reflect back on my misson and the things I've learned through all the hard times.

Several months ago, not long before quarantine hit, I wrote a poem about the struggles I'd had earlier in my mission and the things I'd learned because of it. I thought about it a lot this week and thought I would share it this time in my weekly.

Weaknesses:

"It's funny how something so precious and sweet

Could also be something that's this hard to beat. 

I worked and I prayed and I put on a fight,

I wanted to be here to do what was right.

To help spread the gospel to young and to old, 

Only to find that I couldn't be bold.

"I couldn't trust God, despite what I tried,

As I pushed and I scrambled along for the ride.

I struggled in ways I thought that I wouldn't,

And when I tried teaching I found that I couldn't.

For I found when I tried to speak eloquently

I stuttered and struggled with difficulty.

"But I look back to see just how much that I've grown

Through the hardships and tears and feeling alone.

For I've learned that I always have someone beside me,

As long as I'm worthy, to lead me and guide me.

And those places I'm weak have best taught me by far

That our God knows exactly where each of us are.

"Yes, a mission is harder than I've ever known,

But the joy that I've felt truly has shown

That this lifelong commitment I've chosen to do

Has made me a person completely brand new.

Who may still have trials and weakness galore,

But knows that they help her trust God that much more."

EXCITING QUARANTINE UPDATE!

We were put into phase 1 as missionaries this week. That means we can:

-Go to church when we have it (once every three weeks. We rotate with the other wards)

-Meet as a district for District Council again

-Get together with our districts every other preparation day

-Meet with people in person again! But preferably outside, and we have to be 6 feet apart with masks on.

We had our first in person visit with some members yesterday and it was so unbearably awkward. None of us have any in person social skills anymore apparently. Then Sister Nelson got worried about going home in a couple of weeks and now she thinks she's going to be super awkward. So today we did the most missionary thing ever and she turned to me and said "Sister Bliss, I need you to roleplay with me how I'm going to act when I go home." It was a great time, and Sister Nelson is totally going to be fine.

Sister Merrell, Sister Nelson, and I all started putting together a book this week. We were discussing what characters we would be if we were in a book and decided Sister Merrell would be the hero, Sister Nelson would be the villian, and I would be the old wise woman who's basically the Dumbledore of the book. We then proceeded to include our whole district and it started spiraling and now we have a full fledged series planned out 

We made a Kid History style video of Nephi breaking his bow! If you haven't seen Kid History, go look it up on youtube. But Sister Nelson's little sister told the story and we acted it all out for her and it's really funny to hear a child's voice every time I speak in the video. We're still putting it together and then it'll be posted to Facebook.

Overall it was a stellar week 

I hope you all have an amazing week!!

Love,

Sister Bliss 

PICTURES!

*A couple pictures of me and my companionship while out for a walk

*Us and the Sister Training Leaders during our exchange walk (we still can't have exchanges overnight so we just go for a walk)

*Our killer photoshoot while filming Nephi's bow (Sister Nelson is Nephi, Sister Merrell is Laman, and I am Lemuel)

*Sister Merrell as Lehi

*Me!

*A picture that is my favorite stalker photo of me praying during stalker challenge part 1. 

P.S. we finished round 2 two this week and I demolished the competition.

(From another, short earlier email about today's email.... )

"But it probably won't be ridiculously long (I hope) because (spoiler) we were released from quarantine a little bit! I'll explain more in my weekly, but basically we can group every other week now so of course our district is going for a hike today. So I have less time to write and I won't just hoosier you over email.

Fun fact! Hoosier = someone who talks a lot. It's a word that somehow became a thing in the mission and will forever be part of my vocabulary now. Have you ever known someone who just talks a LOT and you don't know what to call them other than a person who talks a lot? Well, we call them hoosiers. Now you can too. You're welcome 

Other fun fact: a hoosier is legitimately actually just someone who is from Indiana (we have part of Indiana in our mission). Maybe people in Indiana just talk a lot and that's how it became a thing.'

7/26/20 - Facebook Post "Search Ponder and Pray"

 I hope you're all having a wonderful Sabbath day I'm so grateful for the scriptures and the influence they've had in my life. This primary song is a great reminder of the importance to SEARCH, PONDER, and PRAY about the scriptures. If you'd like to know more about how to know that the scriptures are true, please message me!

https://www.facebook.com/100035630764892/videos/310185153512508/?extid=FXz2wsWe5rQZ1j8I

7/22/20 - Facebook Post "God's love through your Journey of life"

 As Lindsey Lamarche and I were going for a walk we couldn't help but think of how the path we were walking reminded us of our own life. How have you felt Gods love through your journey of life?

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1156253591471864&extid=uPaqbzlxqMpUn8ml

7/20/20 - 100 days left...

 Hello family and friends!

So, first of all, I was writing this on a computer so I tried adding photo in through the computer and that's why it's different than usual 

The "Field Trip" Version:

100 days until I go home; the blessing of setting goals; dress burning; Facebook posts; slacklining; Bible painting; the crazy cheesecake factory meal; another mound, this time with a hike; how working with members has been helping us; update on the stalker photo challenge; video call roleplays are better that regular ones; updates on quarantine restrictions

The Full Version

It's official. As of tomorrow, I will have single digit numbers counting down to the day I go home. Today marks 100 days until I will step off the plane and see my family once again. I know they're going to be really happy to hear that  As for me these 100 days are going to be busy ones for me as I work to make them the most meaningful days possible. I've been setting goals for myself to accomplish before I come home and I've been pondering on how grateful I am for the ability to set goals. I may possibly have mentioned near the beginning of my mission that I couldn't set and accomplish goals to save my life! I had a goal board back in college that was split down the middle and had two sides titled "Goals" and "Accomplished". On my "Goals" side was a single goal: "Make a goal board". There was nothing on the other side. So, learning to set goals and actually stay tethered to them has been a big goal of mine throughout my mission. Lucky for me, this goal was one that I've actually begun to accomplish! There have been a lot of practical skills that have made a huge impact on me that I've learned during my mission, but learning this skill has been the one to make the biggest difference in my mission, and I'm sure for the rest of my life. Quarantine is a really hard time to feel productive during, but setting goals has been such a blessing to me as I set things to do in the morning, work on those goals throughout the day, and discuss how my day went with my Heavenly Father each night through prayer. I've found that as I do that, I never end a day feeling like I didn't do something worthwhile. I definitely recommend setting goals for yourself each day. I promise it works!

Updates on quarantine:

We are still quarantined...

BUT!

We got to have interviews with President Ensign this week on a parking lot so we could see him in person!

This Sunday we get to go to church for the first time  There will only be 25 people there and it will only be in order to take the sacrament, so it'll be different for sure, but I'm super excited. 

We have been given the okay to have district lunches as long as we are in a parking lot and stay in our cars 6 feet away from each other. Our district is really excited about it.

I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Bliss

Fun things we did this week!

- Sister Nelson hit her 18 month mark this week! To recognize the day as something special, we got one of her old dresses, stuck it on a metal pole, and burned it in our driveway. To all my Utah friends, don't worry, we had water nearby and were super safe about it. Plus, nothing catches fire in Ohio because it's too humid anyway. 

- We hunted for signs and murals to take pictures with for Facebook posts. I never thought there'd be a day in missionary work where part of your daily activities would be taking pictures and planning out fun videos, but today is in fact that day! We had a Facebook live event on all the Facebook pages that reached over 3,000 people (and counting) yesterday, so the Facebook pages are growing and getting better each day!

- Sister Nelson tried to teach us how to slackline, but Sister Merrell and I are no good at it. I did not include a picture because I was embarrassed by them 

- We did lots of weeding for members. I'm basically going to be a pro at taking care of plants by the time I get home, just you wait!

- We painted matching copies of the Book of Mormon and the Bible so we can offer them for free on Facebook and find new people to teach. Mine is the one on the far right with the quote. I'm not quite as artsy as my companions are, but it was really fun to do!

- We got ALL the cake. Cheesecake, chocolate cake, and angel food cake! This is what happens when you work with members and they want to thank you. The members here are spectacular! But the cheesecake was the craziest one. We had a ward mission coordination meeting and Brother Morris, our Ward Mission Leader, got us and the Elders food through doordash. He always offers cheesecake factory, so we finally took him up on the offer but all got something simple so we wouldn't spend too much. Dispite our efforts, he threw in a huge appetizer of chips and an ENTIRE CHEESECAKE! It was absolutely insane. We ended up sharing with the Xenia Elders of course because we couldn't eat it all ourselves.

- We (and by we I mean Sister Merrell, the real artist) made a Plan of Salvation chalk drawing for a Facebook video and it stayed in our driveway for a few days

- We visited an ancient burial mound, like the one we visited in Miamisburg. But this was was a hike to it, so it was even better!

- We ate like health QUEENS this week. And by health queens I mean very much not health queens

- A couple different sisters in the ward recently lost a husband and a daughter, so we took them flowers and left a note 

-We did a cute spiritual gift activity for our companionship activity. I'll share more next week and include a picture of it! In the meantime, think about what kind of spiritual gifts you have!

Apart from that. The main thing I've been working on is catching up in my journal, which is really hard. Especially when, as you can clearly tell, I like to include EVERYTHING when keeping track of memories! RIP my life. 

This last week Brother Morris made a wonderful plan for us to meet with the members and start setting up 10 minute weekly calls with anyone who is interested  where we follow up on goals the members set for themselves. We had lots of meetings this week and look forward to getting this rolling so that future missionaries don't feel lost when they come into the area because they already have set member lessons each week. We're hoping that by doing this we can help strengthen the ward and build up the missionary work in this area again. We got a member referral from Brother Morris and had a wonderful lesson with her. She wants to build her relationship with God and we're really excited to start working with her 

Update on the stalker photo challenge that we started last week: Sister Nelson won but I was close behind her. We started round two yesterday and I already have 25 killer stalker photos (Sister Nelson won with about 40 photos she took in an entire week) so I'm ready to win this time 🤷‍♀️ This is my favorite stalker photo that Sister Nelson took of me praying one morning. I'm going to have the oddest collection of pictures of the three of us after our time together.

Also, here's a wonderful picture of us that we rook while we were waiting to have a lesson with one of our friends. We didn't end up getting through to him because he's in Nigeria and the connection wasn't working, so we're working on getting him over to missionaries in his area who can work with him better.

As Missionaries we like to do lots of roleplay. But, to be honest, I hate doing roleplays  So we were going through a thing called Ed App which is a learning app that the church made a technology learning thing for Missionaries on. We were studying how to help those we teach pray and it mentioned doing a roleplay and practicing with the technology you use (if you're going to show a video you need to know how to make it work over video call). So Sister Nelson looks down at her phone and suddenly mine starts ringing. Long story short, Sister Merrell and I practiced teaching Sister Nelson how to pray over video call.

7/18/20 - Sister Coleman's Facebook post "Are you my mother?"

How do you find your answers? Sydnee Gunnarson and Camille Coleman did an amazing job of showing us where we can find our answers!

(Plus, the book they quoted was one of my childhood favorites ) (Are you my mother?)

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3322051691140942&extid=OBTAqfEEj6KWimix

7/15/20 - Facebook Post "Feast on the words of Christ"

 I sure love food, but I love the scriptures even more! How do you feast on the words of Christ?

Followers of Jesus Christ in Dayton Ohio

July 15  · 

"Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." -2 Nephi 31:20

How do you FEAST on the word of Christ?

7/13/20 - "Jesus Christ is basically a superhero."

 Happy Monday friends and family!

The "Field Trip" Version:

I've been in quarantine more days than I have left until I get home; minor updates about quarantine; we lost most of our friends to pass offs, being dropped, and just not being able to contact people; Sister Levitt's cool conversation story; what we do to stay entertained; comparison is not part of missionary work; Jesus Christ is basically a superhero

The Full Version:

As of today I officially have 107 days until I come home. Which means I have officially been in quarantine more days than I have left of my mission. That's so crazy. 

Updates on quarantine:

We're starting to get the okay to do group service projects. We haven't heard a lot about it yet, but it's exciting to hear! Our churches are also starting to open up finally. They're only allowed 25 people per meeting, so it's a slow step, and it also means we may not get to go as missionaries, but it's still exciting. And at least in Xenia we get to go to members homes on Sunday to take the sacrament, so we'll be good either way.

Updates on those we're teaching:

We can't get a hold of a third of the people we know.

The other third have dropped us 

And the last third we've passed over to their rightful areas.

On Saturday we officially passed David, our friend who's on date, over to the Missionaries in Kansas. He's being well taken care of, and we're super excited to see how things go with him.

Now our goal is to find new people to teach. But we just found out that we're actually not allowed to Facebook tract, which is basically the only way missionaries have been finding people to teach lately (RIP to finding new friends). So now we're going to have to get creative with the things we're doing to find new people! But that's alright, we're getting used to being flexible with missionary work, so nothing's stopping us!

We do get to teach an amazing recent convert in Xenia named Marissa. My friend, Sister Gallup from the MTC, found her when she served here a year ago. She found her because she felt prompted to go out into the middle of nowhere and ran across Marissa right as she was pulling up to her house. She quickly accepted the gospel and she's super strong now. We love her and really enjoy teaching her the new member lessons.

We had a meeting with Sister Leavitt in the ward who shared the COOLEST conversion story with us this weekend. She always felt that there was something missing as she went to churc vhf and read the Bible. When someone gave her a Book of Mormon she immediately felt like she'd been handed the missing piece, and she stayed up all night reading the whole thing. She was a much better story teller, but she's going to make a video of her story and let us post it to Facebook, so hopefully y'all can see it there cause she's such a good story teller and her story is amazing, so it's the perfect mix!

We have been told that we need to find ways to have fun while in quarantine so we can stay sane. This is what we choose to do:

-We all recently discovered just how white our legs are, so we sit outside during companion study and try to make them a little let blinding.

-We currently have three bikes, so we went for a long bike ride yesterday for exercise and I'm kind of obsessed with bikes now because they're so fun! I can definitely see why people move to Milford (my area many transfers back) just to be near the bike trail there. Also, I still have not gotten a picture with me on a bike, so I may just get home with no proof that I ever rode a bike on my mission.

-My companions and I have a competition going on where we take creepy stalker photos of each other and by the end of the week the losers have to buy the winner lunch. The winner will be the one with the best stalker photos on their phone. I'll keep y'all updated when I win 

We had a Sunday devotional for the mission and the woman who talked to us reminded us that we cannot find success in comparison. Speaking specifically to us as missionaries, she reminded us that it doesn't matter what success your parents or friends had on their mission, and it doesn't matter if another district in your mission is having more success than you. We are all on the same team and as long as we are doing what we can, God is accepting of that. The field may not feel "white, all ready to harvest", but because of COVID-19 it certainly has been leveled and plowed.

🧡🧡

DOUBT your DOUBTS

QUESTION your QUESTIONS

FEAR your FEARS

🧡🧡

We were having a lesson with a member and her kids and we asked them about Jesus Christ and one of them responded "Jesus Christ is basically a superhero." which immediately reminded me of a picture of Jesus Christ and the avengers that I included below! As a big fan of not necessarily just Marvel, but of all superheros, I really loved this. How often do we watch movies of superheros and think about how cool they are and how cool it'd be to have their powers? In comparison, how often do we look at Christ and his atonement and think of him as a superhero? He took upon himself every pain, sorrow, sickness, sin, and tragedy that every person who had ever lived or will ever live would ever experience. He bled from every pore, gave his life as a sacrifice, and rose from the grave three days later. He did all of that so that we could experience happiness in this life and be able to return to him and our Heavenly Father again one day. That is greater than any super power or any super hero I've ever seen on TV.

I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Bliss

PICTURES!

*The missing picture from my last weekly that I tried to include of me and Sister Lamarche having Lee's for lunch of the 4th of July

*XENIA 

*I guess if you've gotta live in a pandemic at least you can have some fun with it 🤷‍♀️ (no, we didn't buy the game)

*Me and Sister Merrell (FEAT. Sister Nelson's arm)

*The picture of Christ and the avengers (read email for an explanation of why I included this one)