8/31/20 - Batesville Indiana is the cutest place

 So we only got about half of our preparation day today, so I'm just sharing pictures and I'll include more when we fit in the other half of our day later this week. We got a call this morning from some sisters who needed our help with transfers. So we got to spend half the day driving them around and having a blast, despite losing time to actually go shopping and do normal preparation day activities 

PICTURES!

-I FINALLY MADE IT TO BATESVILLE! One of my best friends, Jake, is from Batesville Indiana, and today I got to make a trip there and it was so much fun. So I took fun pictures of me with the signs and with a cute butterfly mural 

- Me with Sister Compton, who's serving in Batesville but is being transferred to Xenia, where I just barely left!

-We got OCM masks! So we had to take a picture (featuring from top left to bottom right, Sister Dymock, Sister France, Sister Felton, Sister Cox, Sister Odom, Sister Olsen, and me!)

-We went on exchanges but had a technology call during it (a call with the technology specialists where we discuss how we can best help the Facebook page grow). From Top left to bottom right we have Sister Odom, Sister Olsen, Elder Williams, Elder Chidester, Sister Bliss, Sister Felton, Sister Peterson, and Sister Gilmore

-Me and Sister Felton with the Canes we bought while on exchanges. It was a party of a day. We also got to borrow the Elders' car because the Crittenden sisters had their car in the shop so we did a car share with the Elders. They drive a Rav4 and let me tell ya, it's a nice car!

-Us and the Crittenden sisters. Need I say more with this weird one? 

-A skyline picture of Cincinnati and night that someone sent me!

I hope you're all doing great! Life is good here and it's been a great week. My big thing I learned this week was that when people serve, they forget themselves and their own problems. It's one of the most therapeutic things.

Sure love you!

Sister Bliss

8/28/20 - Facebook Post "Rescue Me"

 A friend showed me this song called "Rescue Me" a week or two ago and I've been in love with it ever since. Christ truly does rescue us. He's rescued me in hard times far too many times for me to ever think otherwise.

How would you describe Christ in one word? The first word I thought of was "friend"

https://www.facebook.com/100011234670765/videos/1185526491831829/?extid=6ChPdc6np7SCAPyZ

8/24/20 - "I'll just sleep when I'm dead" -Me as a Sister Training Leader 😂❤

 What a week! I'm super tired, but it's okay because it's all been worth it!

The "Field Trip" Version:

-Emergency sleepovers

-ZONE CONFERENCE

The Full Version:

Wow, this week was a good one! The two biggest highlights were:

We got to have a few emergency overnighters. One was the night before Zone Conference when some sisters had their fire alarm go off and woke up scared and didn't know what to do so they called us and came over to stay the night. The second was when we were already about to have an emergency exchange for a Sister who was struggling and by the time we got there, their fire alarm ALSO went off (this was the very next night might I add) and they ended up coming to our place as a bunch of fire trucks were showing up (they were staying in a hotel due to apartment renovations). Basically, it was a crazy time and I'm so low on sleep due to that and Zone Conference planning. It's okay though because I'll just catch up on rest one day after this life  Sister Odom mentioned earlier that I should take a nap and my automatic response was "I'll just sleep when I'm dead". To all you moms out there who sacrifice sleep so often for your children: YOU ARE AMAZING AND SO APPRECIATED! 

ZONE CONFERENCE! This was a blast. It was very strange the way it was run with Covid restrictions though. We had to split the zone into two groups to allow for no more than 25 people in the meeting, we all had to wear masks unless we were at the front of the room giving a training, and they gave us boxed lunch because we couldn't stay and eat together like we normally would. We had one meeting in Norwood Ohio, then we rushed over to Lawrenceburg Indiana for the second one. We're really hopeful that next Zone Conference will be less restricted, but for the time being this was okay because we at least got to see people. Plus, I got to spend a day in three different states, which was pretty cool and totally worth it.

President Ensign talked to us for a little while about basic people manners and how to work with members and show real gratitude and love for them. He really focused it on how the people skills we learn as Missionaries will last us the rest of our lives. The assistants gave a training on getting members involved with teaching. They again used the clip from Inside Out and all the Missionaries were so cute and awestruck as they got to watch part of a Disney movie for the first time in so long  Elder Graves specifically picked on me to make sure I was okay (Since it make me cry during our Mission Leadership Council). Finally, WE got to give our training! We and the Zone Leaders gave two trainings. The first was on how to involve members in the Facebook page, and the second was the importance of the Safeguards for using technology. The latter was a powerful training because right now there are more dangers than ever as we're on our phones all the time. Many sisters have had inappropriate men send them pictures, and missionaries near and in our mission have already had to go home due to inappropriate people blackmailing them on Facebook. It breaks our hearts to think of any of the Missionaries in our zone being taken advantage of simply because we do missionary work on our phones more now. So we expressed our love, talked about the importance of learning and following and safeguards, and showed the Missionaries how to do a device audit with their companions by doing a live device audit with Elder Chidester's phone and jokingly hiding pictures of him with a beard for Elder Williams to find!

It was a fun time giving these trainings to our wonderful Zone. For our member training we put together a COMPETITION for the zone! We made a killer trophy that I'll send pictures of next week, and whoever can get the most points out of making videos and posts for Facebook with members involved will win the trophy. We're going to let all the winners sign the trophy and have it be an Ohio Cincinnati Mission relic to go around the mission. Everyone was really excited about it and it was a fun thing to pump everyone up with. 

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love you!

Love,

Sister Bliss

PICTURES!

*Us with the Lakeside Park sisters, Sister Cook and Sister Edwards, during our mini exchange

*A member gave us Chipotle gift cards for dinner the day before Zone Conference. We were very happy that night

*Me and Sister Odom tired out soon after Zone Conference. (Featurong my spray painted hand that everyone at Zone Conference asked me about all day. I couldn't wash off the spray paint after finishing the trophy the day before. I still have leftover residue 3 days later and I've scrubbed that hand 100 times by now, I swear!)

*Zone Leadership matching because we're the best! Sister Odom had two polka dot dresses, so we had to match of course!

*I just thought this last picture was funny because I took a close up picture and the Elders actually joined in and smiled for it. Can we just appreciate the state my hair was in and how tired I looked right after Zone Conference?

I also included two random photos

*A quote about hope that someone sent me and that I loved!

*....I finally recieved the dreaded "My Plan".... For some reason someone seems to think I'm going home in a couple of months? Who do I need to talk to to tell them there was a mistake and I'm not done yet? 

P.S. Dear family. I promise I really am coming home on time, I wouldn't do that to you 

8/19/20 - Sister Lamarche Facebook Tag on Heroes

 I love heroes and they have influenced me in my life for the better! Comment below your favorite hero!

https://www.facebook.com/100008041774474/videos/2702590853352281/?extid=kSimgkH1P74FA6qN

8/17/20 - good, Better, BEST

 The "Field Trip" Version:

-All of the emergencies happened

-Mission Leadership Council

-Teaching in ASL 

The Full Version:

Wow, this has been a crazy week! I've learned a lot about prioritizing, because our plans can never stay the same in a single day 

In the last 7 nights, we've had sisters over 4 of those nights due to some emergency situations. We had one night that we had to drop all our plans to help a sister who was struggling. It was a really neat experience because we all have important things in our lives that are sometimes overrun when something more important gets in the way. I was reminded of a church video of a mom who was desperately trying to get all of her daily tasks done for the day but things kept getting in the way. At the end of the day she felt tired and as if she hadn't done anything, but you could see the number of lives she had touched throughout the day by what she had done. I've had many instances this week in which we finished a day without getting to a single task for the people we were teaching. But, for that specific day, stopping to help someone in need, or helping move sisters out of an unsafe apartment were more important than making a few calls and sending a few texts.

We had MLC (Mission Leadership Council) this week and it was so much fun! MLC is a meeting where our mission President and his wife, the Assistants to the president, and all of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in the mission get together to talk about how to best help the missionaries in the mission and talk about what we're teaching in Zone Conference. Since then, we've been discussing plans for Zone Conference because we're in charge of running it and we're really excited!

We got to teach our ward mission leader's family in ASL! Sister Kelly is the member I mentioned last week who is deaf. Last week I prayed in ASL and this week Sister Odom taught me enough so that we could have a simple lesson about repentance. We spoke as we taught it, but we also signed so she didn't have to depend on her husband translating. Though theybwere really simple signs that we used, she teared up as we bore our testimonies of how much Jesus Christ loves us and how his atonement heals us. It was wonderful to see how something so small could mean so much to someone 

I learned a fun little rhyme from my grandpa when I was a child. I thought of it a lot this week. 

"Good, better, best

Never let it rest

Until the good is better

And the better is best!"

Commitment of the week:

Take something good you're doing and do something to make it better. Then, go ahead and make it the best! 

I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Bliss 

PICTURES:

*Our video call with Sister Palmer, Sister Compton, and Sister Saunders with their new companion!

*For MLC, we and the Elders wanted to show up proving that we work together as leadership. So I made us matching "Cincy" masks!

*Jersey Mike's after MLC!

*We did service and I got to use a machete. I was very happy

*We did service as a district by cleaning the church grounds! Sister Guthrie even joined us for the day because her companion was going to a baptism (she couldn't go as well because of the limit of people who can attend baptisms at the moment)

*One time on a District Leader call (every night we and the Zone Leaders call a district leader in the zone to see how he and his district are doing) Elder Chidester was showing us something and we leaned in close to see it and someone caught a picture of it. They then proceeded to make a meme out of it

*Sister Lamarche and Sister Meade on a video call with us and the Zone Leaders

*We needed to borrow two eggs to make cookies for someone. The Elders had exactly two left. They were ones they used for a video, so this is what they looked like.

*Sister Guthrie, Me, and Sister Odom the day we got to hang out while Sister Buxton when to a baptism in Crittenden!

And this last one is my favorite

*I'll just leave this picture here with no explanation. Meet Sister Rage, Sister Savage, Sister Bliss, Sister Scared, and Sister Sad

8/16/20 - Facebook Post "Sister Merrell Book of Mormon Drawings"

 Look at my talented friend, Sister Mercedes Merrell!!! Curious why the Book of Mormon is named what it is? Well, here you go! Let me know if you have any other questions!

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=333919111099455&extid=d9cF74ubx1Fdtuy6

8/10/20 - Florence Y'all!

 Hello everyone!

The "Field Trip" Version: 

We taught a girl abour Jesus; I'm still teaching family history to people and loving it; the importance of spiritual armor; sister calls and hula dancing; I SAID A PRAYER IN ASL; an amazing experience with priesthood blessings

The Full Version:

It has been an awesome last few days, filled with some amazingly and wonderfully spiritual experiences.

We had a few neat lessons this week, but one that really stood out to me was with a 10 year old girl named Vanessa. She's super sweet and has been taught for quite some time. We felt like we should talk about Christ's life on earth and just focus on him for a lesson, and when we called her we found out that she had been having a hard day, so we adjusted the lesson to talk about how Christ knows exactly what we go through. It was really powerful because I've always struggled at teaching simply, but in that moment I felt like I just knew exactly how she needed to be taught. The spirit is real and really does help 

We have a friend, Nathan, who I met on Facebook while in Xenia and we just started teaching him family history. He's AWESOME! We messaged him and told him about the app, and by the time we had an actual lesson with him he'd already inputted all his living relatives and found whole lines of ancestors. Now we're working on teaching him how to put in memories and do other fun things. We're hoping that he'll be interested in learning more about eternal families and why we do family history as we continue to meet with him. Things seem really promising right now 

We had the cutest lesson about building our spiritual armor with the Kibler family yesterday. In the Book of Mormon, our study right now is focused around a bunch of war chapters, so Brother and Sister Kibler put together a fun activity for their little children and made them a bunch of armor that they wore as protection as  we all thew wads of paper at them. Then Sister Odom and I showed a fun video and shared a short scripture about Moroni arming his army with weapons. It was a great way to teach their little girls that we also have to arm ourselves in our battle against Satan. If we aren't prepared, he's going to beat us. But we've been given some great weapons (like scriptures, prayer, and a prophet to follow) in order to beat him!

We put together a fun little sisters activity for all the sisters in the zone yesterday. Even our mission nurse joined in  It was really fun to get together since we're limited on how much we can be together currently. Then, to add to the excitement, Sister Saunders (who used to me MY Sister Training Leader) taught us all how to hula dance!  THAT was a party!

I got to sign a prayer this week! Our ward mission leader's wife is deaf, so our ward mission leader and his daughter taught me how to say a prayer in ASL so I could surprise her when we met with them on Sunday for the sacrament. It was so amazing! We're now planning on learning a lesson in ASL so next week when we go we can teach a lesson in ASL so her family doesn't have to interpret for us.

This last week there were some sisters who were really struggling in their area. After talking to them, they asked if they were allowed to ask for priesthood blessings with all the Covid rules and we assured them they were. However, because we aren't allowed to have even numbers (we can't get together with two Elders and two Sisters), they asked us to join them while they got priesthood blessings (which worked because then there would be four Sisters and two Elders). I am so grateful I was asked to join because it was one of the most amazingly spiritual moments any of us have had in a very long time. The Elders ended up giving all four of us blessings, as at the end we all paused and agreed that the spirit that was there in that moment was very similar to the spirit that is felt when visiting the temple. In addition to it being amazing because priesthood blessings are so strengthening and we all got some much needed answers, it was a wonderful reminder to each of us that, while temples may be shut down now, or there may be others reasons throughout our life that we are unable to visit the temple, we can create temples where we are in moments that we need it. Our homes can be temples as we live righteously. Our study desks can be temples as we study and seek answers. Our rooms can become temples as we kneel in prayer each day. I know many of us miss the many wonderful blessings that come from visiting the temple, or even just meeting with our wards (I don't know about y'all, but I'm back to no church at all because Kentucky doesn't allow gatherings yet), but that same spirit and those same blessings are in fact still available to us as we seek them out 

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Love, Sister Bliss

So apparently my pictures got messed up again last week, so here's some pictures from both last week and this week!

*Me with the Florence watertower sign. It originally said "Florance Mall", but they weren't allowed to advertise on it, so they had to change to to "Florance Y'all". Now it's so popular that one of the schools actually has that watertower as their mascot and they're school is the Y'alls. That's the kind of school I wish I could have gone to 

*Zone Leadership! (Aka, us and the Zone Leaders) From left to right: Me, Sister Odom (who I knew while I was serving in Miamisburg. I LOVE HER), Elder Chidester (who was in the MTC with me and is super awesome), and Elder Williams (who goes home with me and is also really awesome) 

*We FINALLY got our new missionary handbooks! They were announced last September or October and we've been having to read it on our phones ever since

*Sister Odom and I doing service for a member

*Sister Merrell, Sister Nelson, and I on our last day together  I love and miss them SHOUTOUT TO MARIS NELSON WHO'S NOW HOME AND RECIEVING MY EMAILS

*Today our district got together and played some volleyball outside and had a good time