3/30/20 ¿Que Significa?

And that's what I'm going to be saying a lot these next three months as I'm surrounded by Spanish...

Well, friends and family, this week has been full of excitement!

Wednesday we got a message telling all of the missionaries that we were having a surprise transfer call at 5 pm and needed to make sure we were on the call. It was announced that a lot of missionaries were going home due to COVID-19, including some of my closest friends. But we were also told that we'd be getting a bunch of new missionaries who were supposed to go to other places in the world. And as they announced that, though I had been given no warning beforehand, I was announced to be one of the new trainers!

My new companion, Sister Coleman, is the sweetest thing and I've loved working with her! She's hard working, which is perfect because we've been staying crazy busy this last week. We've seen some neat miracles in the progression of people we're teaching, and we've begun taking lessons on how to do Family History. Now on top of that we get extra time for companion study and language study. While I have absolutely no Spanish skills, Sister Coleman has to learn spanish for when she eventually goes back to Panama, so I've been doing my best to help her learn. I've been hearing many prayers in Spanish, we sang some Himnos for Sunday, and our District Leader who is one of the Spanish missionaries has been calling and just talking in Spanish to test her. I've very frequently been asking "¿Que significa?" "What does that mean?"

I've also been hearing the lessons from her in Spanish, which has been really neat. I really learned the importance of the First Vision in the process as well. As we teach the restoration we recite Joseph Smith's own words when we share his experience after he prayed to know which church was true. As Sister Coleman was teaching me the Restoration in Spanish I could pick up little key words occasionally to follow along. But once she started talking about Joseph Smith I got completely lost. Then I suddenly felt the spirit really strong and my first thought was "She must be reciting the First Vision" and a couple seconds later I caught onto a word that made it evident that it was exactly what she was saying. It was such a wonderful experience to see the power that came as she told me about Joseph Smith, even if I couldn't understand the language she spoke. And I now understand why people can handle listening to missionaries who can't fully speak their language. 

The spirit is so strong and I truly know that the restoration of Christ's church is true. I hope you all get a chance to watch General Conference this weekend because I know it is truly going to be a memorable experience!

My spiritual message of the week will in fact be the first vision because it was so impactful to me! I hope that you all will take a moment and read over these words and ponder on how it must have felt to be Joseph in this moment.

“I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. … When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” 

I love you all and wish you the best!

Love, 

Sister Bliss

PICTURES!

*Sister Coleman and I when we learned how to do some Family History activities 

*Our last picture with Sister Morales when we found a house with "202", our mission baptismal goal

*Some pictures of me and Sister Coleman

3/25/20 - Facebook Post - The First Vision

THE FIRST VISION!

I hope you don't mind our amateur video skills. We had lots of fun putting together this simple video about what the First Vision is!

As we've been in quarantine we've had time to reflect more on this special message that we share as Missionaries. With General Conference coming up fast, this is an even more exciting time to reflect on what Joseph Smith's first vision means to us.

Before my mission, I never fully understood what Joseph Smith's first vision meant to me and how much it has impacted my life. There are many people who wonder where to turn to for truth, which can be a very hard thing to find when there are thousands of Christian churches all teaching slightly (and sometimes less than slightly) different teachings from the same Bible. Thanks to Joseph Smith and his faith and desire to know for himself which church was true, we now have today the same church that Jesus Christ himself established during his time on earth. We have the same church again with prophets and apostles, teaching the same teachings that Christ taught. We have the Book of Mormon, which supports and testifies of the Bible while clarifying teachings that have been misinterpreted throughout time. Above all else, we again have the same priesthood power that prophets and apostles of old had, that gives us the opportunity to be sealed to our families for eternity and make promises with our Heavenly Father like baptism so that we can live with him again one day.

If anyone would like a copy of the Book of Mormon I would be more than happy to get one to you. It truly has changed my life for the better, and I promise anyone who will read it with an open heart that they will know that it truly is the word of God, given to us by a father in heaven who loves us. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's restored church on the earth today and I know that our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us and is always there for us when we need him

comeuntochrist.org

#hearhim #thefirstvision

Video Sister Bliss and Sister Morales created:

https://www.facebook.com/kylie.bliss.948/videos/229320354932322

3/23/20 Quarantine Day #10

Oops, I took a nap and just woke up about 20 minutes before prepartion day ends and now I have like no time to email and I haven't even called my family yet  Sorry family! I love you all! But it's alright because I've gotten to talk to them an incredible amount this week considering everything going on! 

Wow, I heard from everyone about an EARTHQUAKE in Utah that could actually be felt and that sounds kinda crazy! Glad you're all safe to my knowledge 

Things are going great here! Yes, I am staying here, for anyone wondering since so many Missionaries are coming home. We were kinda slow and bored the first few days as we got the hang of things, but things are really looking up now. We've started having a Bible study with a girl we used to just teach basketball with (Side note: my basketball skill have gotten SO much better these last two transfers), but now we've finally been able to start teaching things! It's been neat to see little miracles like that 

We've gotten really creative with how to spend our time. There's been a lot of Facebook finding, reaching out to people back home, making calls to members ans people who used to be taught, and organizing a ward directory. But we haven't been sitting around wondering what to do, so I'll call that a win!

For any of you who may not have been able to take the sacrament this Sunday for any reason, we didn't get to either, so I know how you feel. Currently in the mission Elders are having the sacrament on their own and Sisters are permitted to go to members homes to partake of the sacrament. But because my companion has health issues we are not allowed to visit members for her safety. So, for the time being I won't be having the sacrament for a few weeks. I'm feeling a renewed sense of gratitude for the ability to take the sacrament when I can though. It's such an easy thing to take for granted, but it's the most important part of why we go to church so we can renew our covenants with our Heavenly Father and I'm so grateful for it  But we had our own little Sunday service at our apartment and studied together and tried to make the best of things.

Here's a scripture that has been standing out to me because I ran across it just a day or two after everything happened and it was such a good reminder that God has a greater plan in store and the Corona Virus is part of it. But he loves us and only does things for the benefit of his children!

 2 Nephi 26:24

"He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation."

So I'd like to invite you all to think about this question this week:

What am I learning or gaining out of all of this?

Sure love you all!

Sister Bliss

3/16/20 COVID-19 Quarantine Day #3

Last week I didn't get a chance to send an email and now I'm really wishing I had because I have a lot to talk about this week. Get ready for a novel! I'll start with this week because I'm sure everyone's curious about what's going on with the Corona Virus here and how that's affecting me (and if you don't care how I'm being affected that's okay, I'm going to tell you anyway). But, because I know that every missionary ever is going to be talking about it, rest assured that I will include some other stories and miracles after the update!

For the longest time we weren't being affected by COVID-19 at all, we just watched all the commotion going on in other areas and washed our hands a lot. It wasn't until Thursday that things really started changing. Suddenly church meetings were cancelled worldwide, Zone Conference was cancelled the day before we were going to have it, and a text was sent to all the Missionaries telling us to stock up for two weeks in case we have to be quarantined. The stores were a madhouse, but we were successful in getting everything we needed except toilet paper, but one of our friends surprised us by putting a pack outside our door for us  We still don't know who did it, but it was like Christmas morning  Our mission had a special call to update us on everything that's going to happen. We're getting about 6 new missionaries who were supposed to go to different countries but no longer can, and one of my previous companions was sent home early so she could make it back to her family in Switzerland before flights are cancelled. As for now, missionaries in the mission can still have small meetings like District Council and are still able to go out and have lessons and do things with people who would still like to meet, but we can't knock doors and we're trying to do a lot more over social media and video call. However, in some circumstances, Missionaries have been given specific instructions by Sister Elliot, the mission nurse, NOT to leave the apartment at all. One set of Elders in our district has been quarantined and told us, "I'm pretty sure if I stepped foot out that door, Sister Elliot would kill me."  

Another one of those lucky companionships happens to include me! Yes, I get to be quarantined for at least two weeks. Because of health risks that my companion has, we can't leave and risk catching COVID-19. So we've been doing as many video lesson as possible and lots of studying and whatever else we can think of to do. 

Okay, so to steer away from the topic of the Corona Virus for a moment, here are some highlights from the last two weeks:

-Two weeks ago the Sister Training Leaders threw our district a surprise party because we all hit standards! That means that all of the four companionships had at least one person on date for baptism, one person who came to church, and two new people to  teach. Remember my miracle story a couple emails or so back when we were trying to find one more new person to teach because one of our lessons got cancelled, but we finally found someone after hours of walking around outside? Yeah, that was one of the miracles that led to us all being able to hit standards 

-I gave a killer training in District Council on how to make plans that support the goals we set. It wasn't actually THAT great, I just like to refer to all of my trainings as killer because if I pretend to be confident then people will think I'm better than I actually am 

-Last week we had dinner with a sweet woman named Miraina. She's from Afganistan and doesn't speak a ton of English, but we've been helping her prepare for her citizenship test by visiting and practicing questions and english with her (it's been some exciting service). Afganistan food is AMAZING, but women in Afganistan are such good hosts that she made us three different types of meat, and as we ate she kept refilling our plates until I was so full I thought I'd pop!

I also wanted to share a really neat experience that happened at the beginning of last week. We've been meeting with a man named Steve who has been technically taught for a few months now, but hasn't really progressing at all or showing any real interest in the church. But last week we had a lesson with him and invited a member who's a convert to the church to join us. The lesson was going SO WELL, and Steve even told us that he was feeling something that he's never felt with another church (which we assured him was the Holy Ghost testifying of the truthfulness of our message). We were inviting him to come to a baptism that evening when suddenly I felt a very strong impression that took me back to something I'd learned a few transfers back...

I was in District Council a few transfers ago and we were learning about promising blessings when someone stressed the fact that the blessings we promise can be really specific. There's a scripture, D&C 68:4 that assures us: "And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation." This really stood out to me because it can be scary to promise someone something specific when you're worried that it may not happen. But when we're moved upon by the Holy Ghost, the promises we make are as good as scripture to that person. Not because it's some black magic that's suddenly going to make something happen, but because sometimes our Heavenly Father has already made up his mind that if that person does what you're committing them to do then something specific is going to happen in their life. That being said, when we promise something that we've been prompted to promise, we're simply passing on a message from their Heavenly Father who wants them to know what will happen if they keep a commitment they've been given.

Fast forward again to our lesson with Steve... We were having an awesome lesson when I recieved the strongest impression to promise him the most terrifying promise. We were talking about when Brother Critchfield joined the church and we were inviting Steve to a baptism that night when suddenly, to this person who had never really shown real interest, I suddenly found myself saying "Steve, I feel like I should promise you that if you will come to the baptism tonight you will know with certainty that the next step you need to take is to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

I couldn't believe what I was saying either! And to make it worse, I'm leaving y'all on the worst cliff hanger ever because, while he said he would come, he didn't end up making. But it was a huge testimony builder for me because I know so strongly that if he had come, that's exactly what would have happened. Maybe he still would decide to be baptized, or maybe he would even tell us that he felt anything, but I know with a surety that he would have know that was a step he needed to take. I'm so grateful for promptings and the opportunity I had to pass on such a specific promise to someone 

Well, I hope you're all doing amazing! Feel free to email me and let me know if you're doing alright or how COVID-19 is affecting you. I'll be keeping each if you in my prayers.

Love,

Sister Bliss

PICTURES!

-Stuff from quarantine 

-the toilet paper stash our neighbor gave us 🧻

-our district party after we all hit standards! 

3/2/20 Sister Bliss: Cooking Queen

Good afternoon brothers and sisters!

So apparently I'm really struggling when it comes to subject lines since last week I didn't even put one on accident  So bonus points go to any if my friends and family who actually read my email even though it just said "(no subject)".

We went on exchanges this week and our Sister Training Leaders came to our area where we split up for a day. That morning for breakfast I worked on one of my transfer goals by making everyone breakfast! I've been learning to cook more things, so I made a bunch of different fried eggs for everyone and Sister Gallup dubbed me a "cooking queen", which is funny because I can still barely cook  But at least after this week I know how to cook a lot of different egg recipes. Then we split up and I was with Sister Lewis and we had an amazing day and taught about how the gospel can bless families 

We had a lesson with Matthew (the man who's on date for baptism) this week along with his girlfriend Sister Lenart who's a member, and we brought our ward mission leader. After we left he stayed for a bit longer to chat with them. Later he texted us to let us know that he had stayed for another two hours just chatting with them and reading from the scriptures and ended up dedicating Sister lenart's home and talking about the priesthood. So basically, we have the coolest ward mission leader 

Yesterday we had a goal by the end of the week for all of our district to hit standards this week. Sister Morales and I had everything figured out because we were making one girl new that night. She ended up getting sick and dropping oir lesson, so we suddenly had just a few hours to find someone new in order to hit standards. We went out for HOURS talking to people and trying to find someone interested. Finally, near the end of our time we ran across a man sitting on his porch who we almost didn't see. But we saw him and chatted with him about his dog and his old car. Finally we brought up the Book of Mormon and talked a bit about what it was. We ended up having an amazing conversation about why there are so many churches and he said he wanted to learn more. It was a great testimony builder that when you have a goal you really want to achieve, the Lord will help you out!

I've been pondering a lot this week on how grateful I am for how our Heavenly Father blesses us through others. The last couple of weeks I've been kind of spiritually drained. But this last week I had two seperate friends send me talks from General Conference for me to listen to and they were exactly what I needed. So, because I know it wasn't a coincident that it happened, I thought I would share one of my favorite quotes that talks about exactly that, from the talk "By Divine Design" by Ronald A Rasband (though he's quoting someone else in it)

Elder Neal A. Maxwell once explained: “None of us ever fully utilizes the people-opportunities allocated to us within our circles of friendship. You and I may call these intersectings ‘coincidence.’ This word is understandable for mortals to use, but coincidence is not an appropriate word to describe the workings of an omniscient God. He does not do things by ‘coincidence’ but … by ‘divine design.’”

Hope you all have an amazing week

 Sister Bliss

PICTURES!

-Our cute district in the snow!

-Me, Sister Morales, Sister Gallup, and Sister Lewis while on exchanges

-Me and Sister Morales when we ran across a sign that said MTC on it 

2/24/20 (no subject)

Hello friends and family!

Sorry, it's a really long email, but I'll give you a cookie if you read till the end. (You may have to wait about 8 months though)

So last week I decided not to write a weekly because I woke up really sick and slept as much as I could throughout the day. But this week I'm feeling great, so I get to update y'all on two weeks now.

So transfers have come and gone and Sister Morales and I are both still in Miamisburg. But we did have to say goodbye to a couple members of our district who left us, which was sad as always. So we got a couple new district members, including a new district leader, Elder Rodriguez, who came out with me, but from the Mexico MTC. Sadly, Sister Morales and I had to miss our first district council to go to the doctor because Sister Morales is slowly being killed off by her allergies and she needs medicine to survive. (It's not actually that severe. She just had allergies and Ohio is really bad with allergies so the poor thing has been sick and miserable) We also missed our first district Council of last transfer when I was sick, so we have a rough streak going. But the most exciting part of transfers is that Sister Gallup is now one of my Sister Training Leaders! Sister Gallup was one of the sisters I roomed with in the MTC and she's one of my favorite people ever, so this transfer is going to be a party.

Two random exciting thing from this week include:

1. HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE BROTHER LOGAN!  It was so much fun to call home on his birthday and hear about everything he was doing that day. I love you so much Logan and can't wait to actually spend your next birthday with you 

2. We watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" with Cheryl and Georgia and I cried the entire movie  It was so good! Georgia kept calling people the devil when they'd be mean to Joseph, and Cheryl was surprised because she never new Jospeh Smith was murdered. It was a really neat experience for them and we had a cool conversation after about how blessed we really are to live in the time we're in. Especially with all the technology and tools that the church has access to in order to help further God's work.

We put our friend Matthew on date for baptism this week! He's been so amazing to teach and he has a goal to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of March, which is so cool. The other day we were planning his lesson and I was asking what we should teach him and Sister Morales jokingly said "Let's teach The Gospel of Jesus Christ and invite him to be baptized." I paused and responded, "Wait, I was actually going to say let's do that..." So we prayed about it and decided to invite him to be baptized on March 28th, which happened to align almost perfectly with his goal to finish reading the Book of Mormon. During our lesson he was even the one to first bring up wanting to possibly be baptized into this church. Matthew is really talkative and kind of all over the place, but when I looked him in the eyes and asked him, "Matthew, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" he went quiet for a moment and very sincerely said "Yes, I will." It was a very surreal moment for me and I'm so excited for Matthew and his decision to be baptized. I'm also so excited for his girlfriend, Sister Lenart, who's been really excited and so much help to us in teaching and encouraging him (not that he needs much encouragement to read the Book of Mormon. He's been making her drive everywhere so he can just keep reading).

I had a neat experience this week is seeing that "Light" that everyone talks about us having as members. I remember growing up hearing that we have this light to us, but always being confused because I didn't really see a difference. I've seen since then just how different we really are from the world and how much of a light so many people around me are, but I got to see a neat change in someone we met with this week. A few weeks ago we reached out to a woman, Sister Ferrell, who had joined the church a few years back but couldn't make it to church anymore because she couldn't get Sundays off work. When we met her she asked if we would start coming over to study with her because she wants to start understanding the Book of Mormon better. We went over a couple time and read with her and she's been really neat to meet with, but she never got around to reading during the week when we weren't there to read with her. Last week we stopped by to study with her and she opened the door and my first thought was "Something's different about her". She didn't look any different or act any different, but something radiating off her FELT different. Upon starting our study, we soon discovered that she had finally been able to sit down and read a chapter on her own earlier that week and had taken notes as she went. It was so neat to feel this big change in her after she took such a seemingly small step. But because that step was taken in faith and was something she truly desired and plans to continue progressing in, her entire countenance was brighter. 

I've loved seeing how just reading from the Book of Mormon changes people. Whether you're pulling out buckets of insight from it like Matthew, or simply finally remembering the difference between the names Nephi and Lehi like Sister Ferrell, the Book of Mormon can do wonders in your life.

COMMITMENT OF THE WEEK:

I have done one of these in awhile, but while I'm on the subject, I want to invite each of you to study from the Book of Mormon this week! 

If you're already studying for 2 hours a day, great! You're doing better than me. Try finding some way to improve your study a little bit.

If you haven't picked up the Book of Mormon in a few days, a few weeks, or even years, try picking it up again and pay attention to the way it makes you feel.

If you've never read the Book of Mormon before, I would invite you to try picking it up. I promise if you will read it, ponder on the words it contains, and sincerely pray to know if it is the word of God, then you will be able to receive an answer. It may not come all at once. In fact, answers to prayers usually don't happen suddenly. But I've felt so much peace in my life and comfort and strength that I know come from the Book of Mormon. While I may not be able to explained exactly how I know the Book of Mormon to be true, I can honestly say that I do know that it is true. And if any of my nonmember friends would be interested in hearing more about the Book of Mormon or about what I and thousands of other teach as Missionaries, I would invite you to reach out to your local missionaries or a friend that's a member, or send me an email. This message will surely change your life if you do.

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

-Sister Bliss

PICTURES!

-Me and Logan on his birthday!

-I got a prompt in a missionary journal to write down everything I keep in my bag. So, while cleaning out my bag I wrote down everything I pulled out... I have no idea how I keep so much stuff in my bag, but my companion and I found it hilarious 

2/10/20 Cheryl's Baptism!

Happy Monday!

Our friend Cheryl was baptized this Saturday and it was such a privilege to put it all together and be there to support her. 

For any of you who have put together a baptism before, you'll know what a crazy journey it can be. I've always heard that the week before a baptism everything starts going wrong because Satan is going to do his very best to stop someone from taking that step closer to Christ. For example, some sisters we know told us that they were putting together a baptism one time and got a flat tire on the way to the church that took them two hours to get fixed. However, this last week everything was going oddly well... and then everything hit the night before...

So, to list a few last minute things that went wrong:

-The only jumpsuits that our stake had were youth sizes and XXL sizes. Eventually we found a medium and a small that had been kinda hidden away, so we used them for Bishop (who did the baptism) and Cheryl . Later someone informed us that those ones were in fact the youth sized jumpsuits we had found. Either that person was wrong about the sizes, or it was a miracle that the jumpsuits fit them.

-We had a bunch of last minute program changes the night before so we had to reprint the program that we'd made sure to get out of the way almost a week prior.

-The morning of we got a voicemail from our ward mission leader that said "I don't know if you've looked outside, but it's supposed to keep snowing until 5 tonight. I just wanted to call and see what your thoughts are on the baptism and if we should push it back or not." So far it hasn't snowed most of the winter, but that morning it decided to all come down at once. But we found a last minute ride to get Cheryl to the church in the bad weather.

-We had no keys to the family history center or library, so we had to take an hour out of our morning to travel over to the Elders and get their keys

-When trying to reprint the program, the printer ran out of ink

-The TV that we needed for a small presentation wouldn't work

-The nursery, which is where the font is (and which is never used outside of Sundays) was a WRECK when we walked in

-And, I now have a 2/2 streak for cold font water during baptisms!

Basically, if something could go wrong that morning, it probably did. But oh, was it all so worth it!

We made a last minute decision the night before to ask Cheryl's mom, Gorgia, if she wanted to be one of the witnesses for Cheryl's baptism. She excitedly said yes and worked really hard to memorized the baptism prayer so she could make sure it was said correctly at the baptism. Not only was it a wonderful opportunity to talk about the prayer and priesthood power as we discussed what it means to be "commissioned of Jesus Christ", but it was also so wonderful to go up with Georgia as a witness, knowing that she and Cheryl both understood the power that those words and that priesthood power contained. There's something so special about the spirit that's present at convert baptisms. Cheryl has been such a light to those around her as she's come closer to Christ, and I've been so lucky to get to know her and Georgia because they've both taught me so many things and strengthened my gratitude for the knowledge of the gospel that I've been able to have my entire life.

One last crazy thing about the baptism. Immediately after the baptism ended I started getting a bad headache, and about an hour after the baptism was over as we were heading out I very suddenly fell ill and had to cancel the rest of our day to stay in bed. But I was right back at it the next morning so we could see Cheryl at church. It was quote the tender mercy that I was okay all through the baptism!

This week someone asked me something along the lines of what the best thing I've learned on my mission has been. After pondering on it for a bit I came to the conclusion that I've learned A LOT of things on my mission thus far. But the best thing about my mission has nothing to do with WHAT I've learned, but that I've learned HOW to learn. I grew up learning the importance of becoming more like Christ and learning from the scriptures. However, there's a big difference between knowing that you need to learn and grow, and knowing how and where to even start. If I didn't learn a single new thing for the rest of my mission, I would still go home satisfied because I've learned how to study the scriptures and learn from them, and I how to work on developing qualities that can make me more Christlike. (Though, if I didn't learn another new thing for the next 9 months that probably means I forgot all that I've learned regarding the subject. But we're not factoring in that part)

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Here are some pictures from the baptism and a picture of Christ that I love.

Love,

Sister Bliss