To which we owe all our happiness {week 12}

Hello!

Isn't life just great? It's good to hear things are well in Colorado :) I'm so blessed to have such an amazing family!

Those of you who have read the Book of Mormon are probably familiar with the fact that the Book of Mormon is full of a lot of war. In one of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon (...ok it's all my favorite) Captain Moroni (a prophet and captain of the army) is describing the reason they have success in war. He attributes it to God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. In expressing his feelings for the gospel he says one sentence that has been echoing through my mind as of late. He says "to which we own all our happiness" (Alma 44:5)

The other day Sister Crane asked me "who would you be if you weren't a member of the church?" That thought causes me to shudder. I truly do owe ALL my happiness, everything I am, to Jesus Christ and His gospel. I cannot adequately express my gratitude for this church. The gospel is a gospel of happiness and I know that only in living by the words of Jesus Christ can we find the pure and everlasting happiness that everyone is searching for.

This has been another wonderful week in Canada! I am so grateful for my mission and the experiences I've had already! God truly does love all His children.

We were blessed with the opportunity to listen to the Woman's broadcast of General Conference the other day! It was SO GOOD! If you haven't had the opportunity to watch it go back and watch it! Even if you're a man! It was incredible and just what I needed to hear! 

The other day in the mall I ran into 3 deaf people! I can't even tell you how excited I was!!! I was so flabbergasted though that I was only able to have a quick conversation with them. But it was still cool! I love ASL!! Heavenly Father is so merciful to allow me to have such cool experiences!

Another cool thing happened the other day too. Sister Crane and I were kind of down about something and we were walking sadly home. Then we ran into this random man on the street and he just walked right up to us and was so kind! He wasn't a member of the church but he just wanted to talk to us. He had just come from the dollar store where he had purchased a couple of candy bars. He insisted that we take them. It was really random, but it was just a witness to me that Heavenly Father is in the details of the details of the details of our lives! 

General Conference is this weekend!!!!! YAY!!!! I CAN"T WAIT!!!! Everyone, go and watch it! It's an opportunity to hear form God's prophets! The people He has called to speak for Him!! Is there anything more amazing on the earth than that!? Just go and listen to it! I can promise you without a sliver of a doubt that if you go and watch General Conference, you will have your questions answered. You will feel God speak to you. So just go and do it! 

Being a missionary is so great! I am so blessed!

Have a great week everybody!

Sister Bloomfield

Lady they met that really wanted to take a picture with them :)

Vancouver Temple

Vancouver Temple

Thanksgiving, gluten-free cookies & ASL! {week 11}

Hello!

It's so great to hear about how you're all doing! Thank you so much for your emails. It means so much to me! 

I'm doing great! My new area is so amazing! The ward here is on fire! I have had such a great week, it's been amazing!

Some highlights from my week:

The annual BC thanksgiving food drive!: Here in Canada Thanksgiving is at the beginning of October, which is really weird. Now that everyone is prepping for Thanksgiving I'm getting pumped for Christmas and it's throwing me off because Christmas isn't for a while! Anyways, here in BC the church hosts a non-denominational food drive! And the Brookswood ward goes ALL OUT for it! We got to volunteer for a couple of hours unloading the food people were bringing in. It was so wonderful to be working along side members of the church and people not of our faith! Last year the Brookswood ward collected 6,000 pounds of food... this year we got 20,000! It was INCREDIBLE! Service is the absolute best! One thing that really impressed me was a massive donation of food from the Seek Temple. They donated about 7,000 pounds! I was astounded! They are such amazing people! It was just such a wonderful experience! Not to mention the ward put on a pretty stellar after party :)

Adventures with making cookies!: We have these WONDERFUL investigators that we just love SO MUCH! They just moved from Victoria so they're my type of people :) We haven't been able to meet with them for a couple of weeks because they're so busy. Randomly I had the idea that we should make them cookies. We texted them and said we were going to which made them happy. We asked them if they had any allergies and come to find out they are gluten free! At first me and my companion were like "umm how are we going to do this?" But then I randomly found a recipe for gluten free cookies in our cupboard. I made them and we gave them to our investigators. We were both a little nervous about what they would think... luckily we got to see them again and they told us that the cookies were the best they had ever had! It was a miracle! We had an amazing lesson about Jesus Christ with them too! They have so much faith! I love them so much! 

ASL!: Yesterday at church a lady came into Sunday school that I didn't recognize. I tried to introduce myself but the woman that had brought her came up and told me that she was deaf and couldn't understand me. I got really excited and asked her if she knew ASL and SHE DID! So we started talking and it was so amazing! I love her so much! It was such an incredible experience! I am so grateful I was able to learn ASL enough to be able to communicate with others! It is such a blessing! She wasn't able to communicate with anyone at church and then suddenly people were asking me to help translate. I can't even express how beautiful it was to see her open up. I also got to use some Spanish the other day which was pretty cool. I love languages! I'm trying to learn Chinese too so we'll see how that goes! 

It has been an incredible week here in Canada! Sometimes I can't even believe I'm here. It's so amazing! 

A guy in the Brookswood ward just got home from his mission and gave his homecoming talk yesterday. Guess where he served?? Colordado!!!!! It was so awesome to hear someone talk about Colorado! It made me so happy! 

One thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is faith! Faith is so incredible but it can be hard to develop. Having faith is having the courage to take a step forward even though making mistakes is inevitable. Having faith is knowing that even when we do make mistakes Jesus Christ can fix any broken thing. It makes me think of the parable of the talents. Sometimes it can be scary to invest in the world, to use our "talents", for fear of losing them. But we need to have the faith to invest our talents trusting that because of Christ all things will eventually work for out for the best in the end. If we have the faith to allow Jesus Christ to work in our lives we will be able to be happy even in difficult circumstances. If we have faith in Christ losing our "talents" isn't even a possibility. I found a quote the other day that says "We know that challenges, disappointments, and sorrows will come to each of us in different ways, but we also know that in the end, because of our divine Advocate, all things can be made to work together for our good" 

Have a wonderful week!

Sister Bloomfield

This is a picture from last week that I was waiting for permission to post.  It's with her 1st Companion, the ward mission leader in Victoria, and a recent convert.

Into the woods...Brookswood {week 10}

Hello!

I hope things are going well back home! 

I am now in Brookswood! Saying goodbye to the people in Victoria was SO HARD. But I know they're in good hands! The Brookswood ward is so awesome! I'm now in the lower mainland so I actually saw some rain for the first time since I got here! It's so green and beautiful and I love it so much! The church building is right across the street from the temple and it makes me so happy so be so near the temple! 

My new companion, Sister Crane, is so awesome! We have so much fun together! Langley is very different from Victoria so doing missionary work is very different as well. It's so interesting how missionary work changes so much in different cities! I guess that must be because my mission is so big and diverse.

Yesterday I got to meet one of our investigators! She's and old Japanese lady and she is SO CUTE! She's been investigating the church for a long time. Her son became a member a few decades ago and he actually served a mission in Japan! He's been trying to get his mom to join the church for a while. She is so sweet! She's going to teach me Japanese so I'm going to be a pro by the end of this transfer ;) 

There are so many different people from different parts of the world here, it's incredible! I've met someone from Vietnam, Africa, Korea, China, and the list goes on! 

We had such a cool miracle the other day! A member of the ward took us to a super fancy Greek restaurant. Our waiter said "Are you the mormons?" so we told him we are and he got super excited! It turns out he is a member of the church who was baptized in Ecuador!!!!! I told him that I had gone to Ecuador and it was so fun to talk about it! He hasn't been to church for a while but we told him where the building was so hopefully we'll see him again! I'm so happy I found someone to talk about Ecuador with! 

In this mission we are only allowed to listen to EFY music and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I just wanted to let you all know that EFY 2017 is the bomb. If anyone wants to know what's been running through my head just go listen to the song "He believes in you" from that album. Dad, you would love all of those songs haha. 

One thing I know to be true is that Jesus Christ loves each of us so much. He would never give up on us, so don't ever give up on yourself. He knows we're going to make mistakes, don't let that stop you from coming closer to him. As the prophet Nephi said, "why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?... Awake my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul" (2 Nephi 4). Never give up! God loves you! 

Sister Bloomfield

Sea Shells by the Sea Shore {week 9}

Hello Everyone!

I'm so glad to hear things have been going well back home! So many things happened this week! It's been awesome.

I also just found out that I'm being transferred!!!!! I can't believe it!! I've only been here for 1 transfer! I'm pretty sad because I love Victoria with all my heart. Leaving is going to be so hard! I hope I can return someday. The people here are so wonderful and I love them so much and I'm sad I won't get to see their progress. Also the ward here is amazing! I feel like I'm leaving my home! Also mom, you should be getting an email from our AMAZING ward mission leader. He said he writes the mother of every missionary that comes through. He is so awesome and does so much for missionary work here! He is so committed to his calling and missionary work in general. I'm going to miss Victoria SO MUCH!

Anyways, you're probably wondering where I'm going! I'm going to Brookswood, a ward in Langley! It's really close to the temple so that should be pretty cool! Also I'm going to be companions with Sister Beckstrand's current companion!! I'm pretty excited! I was not expecting this transfer call at all though. It's so crazy! I still can't believe it. I always kind of had a feeling I would be assigned to Victoria, so coming here just felt so familiar! Victoria is so awesome. And I'm sure Langley will be totally awesome too! 

This has been a spectacular week! This week as we were park contacting (which in Victoria pretty much just means talking to people on the beach) we found a random piano! It turns out there are pianos all around Victoria! So me and my companion tried this new thing where I play the piano while she talks to people as they're walking by! We got to talk to a lot of people, but decided it wasn't the most effective so we probably won't do it again. But it was such a cool experience! While we were doing that we met these 2 really nice old ladies. One old lady told me that I had a genuine happiness about me that she could visibly see. Later that day we met 2 old men who told us they weren't interested but they could see that we were "wonderful representatives of the message printed on our name tags." The gospel is the only source of pure and lasting happiness. Once we have the gospel in our lives that happiness is visible and different from the rest of the world, and people notice it. Happiness is fleeting. But the pure joy that comes from the gospel lasts forever. 

We also met this incredibly kind old lady who let us in and talked to us for a long time. She is obsessed with sea shells and showed us her collection of all her sea shells. She even gave us one! We were invited to come back later too! She just made me so happy and I loved her instantly! I honestly love the people here SO MUCH! I love being a missionary! Sometimes it can be discouraging when you feel like you're not doing enough. But if you try your best and leave the rest to God, miracles happen. 

Lately I've been thinking a lot about something my mission president said to me. He said "your mission is going to change you even more than you can comprehend right now." I know that what he said is true and I can already feel my mission shaping me. Jeffry R. Holland once said "God is determined to make more of us than we thought we could be." Sometimes it can be scary to turn everything over to God. But I know that as we do he helps us to become who we're really supposed to be. I've been thinking about that a lot lately because of our transfer calls. I was wholeheartedly expecting to stay in Victoria. Getting transferred did not even feel like a remote possibility. So much is changing in my mission and my life that it feels a little crazy sometimes. But I know that if I just trust God, then everything will work together for good in the end. 

The gospel of Jesus Christ means so much to me. Jesus Christ means everything to me and I want to devote my life to serving Him. I know the church is true! 

Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Sister Bloomfield 

Life is marvelous {week 8}

Hello World!

This has been an interesting week. Also an awesome week!!! Our mission president is really emphasizing the importance of changing things up! So this week we tried something pretty crazy.......service tracting! Service tracting is where we go knock on doors in jeans and a T-shirt and offer to help in any way we can! Let me tell you, it is SO WEIRD to be out doing missionary work in jeans. But so cool!!!! We saw a lot of hearts soften and a lot of miracles! Doing service is the best!

I hope everyone is doing well! It's so fun to hear about life in Colorado! Time goes by SO FAST it's weird to think that normal stuff is happening in the rest of the world. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I will send some this time. 

We set a baptismal date this week for our incredible investigator, Denise (name has been changed)! We love her so much! She's the one whose door we knocked on after that guy screamed at us! It has been so amazing to meet with her and see the gospel touch her heart. Please pray for her! The gospel is so amazing. I've never been moor happy then when I'm helping someone else come closer to Christ. 

There's one scripture that's been sticking out to me a lot lately "This was the Lord's doing and is it marvelous in our eyes?" (Mark 12:11). How many times do we just go through the motions each day? Wake up, go to work/school/whatever you do, come home, go to bed, repeat. So many times we fail to recognize God's hand in our lives. I promise you miracles happen every day. It's just a matter of us opening our eyes to recognize them. Life is so marvelous!! Sometimes I walk around and take in everything around me and just think "Everything is so amazing! I can't believe Heavenly Father has blessed me so much to be here!" Life is hard, but it's also marvelous!

I'm a little scatterbrained today so sorry this email isn't the best. But this week has been amazing none the less! The other day we had dinner with these members who are so awesome. They left everything behind to join the church. Their families, everything. They also are so amazing at following God's will. They felt like they needed to move to China so they did just that. Sold everything and moved to China. There they were able to have some amazing experiences! It just goes to show you that if you follow God's will everything always ends up being a million times better than you could have planned it. 

Have a wonderful week!

Sister Bloomfield 

"Oh my goodness, am I in paradise!?" {week 7}

Hello Everyone!

Thank you so much for all the pictures:) They really brighten my day! It's so good to hear that things are going well at home! I hope everyone has a good first few weeks of school!!

I know I say this a lot, but this has been another fabulous week in Victoria!!!! Even better than usual because we had zone conference! And having zone conference means we get to see president Wong! He is so amazing, I love him so much! I'm pretty sure that a large part of the reason I was called to this mission was because of him! He is the perfect mission president for me! 

We learned so many amazing things at zone conference and are so excited to go out and apply! This week I had so many moments where I caught my self thinking "oh my goodness, am I in paradise!?" I love being a missionary so much! And I love my mission so much! 

It feels like so much has happened since I last emailed, I feel like a different person! I can already feel Heavenly Father changing and shaping me for the better. It's so amazing! The atonement can work wonders in your life if you let it. One of the many quotes/ themes I've been focusing on this week is "Our focus must be riveted on the Savior and His gospel. It is mentally rigorous to look unto Him in every thought. But when we do our doubts and fears flee" -Russel M Nelson. I just love that quote so much! It is mentally rigorous to center our lives on Christ. But it is only in centering our lives in Christ that anything will fall into place. He needs to be the motivating force for everything we do,

We had dinner yesterday (an amazing dinner may I add) with a member that was telling us some of the experiences from her mission. She got a stress fracture the first few weeks and a couple of other injuries and was also paired up with a difficult companion. She said her companion pushed her so hard that it literately got to the point where she could not physically walk more than 4 steps without thinking of Christ and praying for strength. She survived on Christ alone. It's so amazing because if we allow Christ to be our motivating force in life, then we will be able to accomplish anything. Put real energy in those daily habits, like scripture study and prayer. It needs to be mentally rigorous if it is going to pull you closer to Christ, if you really want to draw His power into your life. I have felt the power of Christ's love for everyone and I know that we can grow to see the world through His eyes as we strive to become like Him in our efforts to answer His call to "come unto me"  

Missionary work is work, but when we put our whole heart and mind into it amazing things happen as a result. We met this really cool guy on the street yesterday. After talking with him for a while he said "Ok, you've got 6 weeks to turn me into a Mormon." It's so incredible because I know that the gospel has the power to completely change a person's life, and I know that it can and will work changes in this man's life. Haha it kind of makes me think "better be careful in issuing a challenge like that. Because the gospel IS true and it WILL change your life." 

I love being a missionary so much and I love the people I have the opportunity to come in contact with on a daily basis. It's sad when people choose to reject our message, because I know it will help them with all the difficulties they face. But I am so excited to see the gospel change people's lives. Because I know it can and will. Miracles are about to happen in Victoria! 

Victoria is the absolute perfect little city for me! It has such a special place in my heart now. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! 

Sister Bloomfield

BLOOMfield!?!?! The field is white and ready to harvest! Because it's BLOOMING!! {week 6}

Hello Everyone!

It's been another AMAZING week in Victoria! I'm quoting a random guy we met on the street in my subject line! Haha finding people is one of my favorite things because you get to talk to so many interesting people! Just yesterday I talked to someone from Brazil, Japan, China, and a refugee from somewhere in the middle east! The guy from the middle east was also a famous piano player who's going to tour in the United States soon! So keep an eye out for that haha! I can tell I'm going to be learning a little bit of a lot of different languages! 

This week John Bytheway visited Victoria and we got to meet him! It was so cool and he gave an amazing fireside! Unfortunately none of our investigators could come but it was such an awesome experience! 

Here's an awesome quote I found: "As a missionary we have to fight, claw, kick, and work to have the spirit" (Jeffry R Holland) It's a missionary quote but I'm going to modify it so it says "As a member of the church we have to fight, claw, kick, and work to maintain our testimony." Don't take your knowledge of Jesus Christ's gospel for granted! It has been amazing for me to see just how much Christ can bless someone's life. I know the gospel has blessed my life so much! It truly is the most precious thing in the world and I'm so grateful to have it in my life. Keep up the daily habits like praying and reading the scriptures, because it's the small things that make a big difference! 

We are teaching an amazing lady whom I love so much! She's from Peru and she's literately an angel! Haha the other day in a lesson we asked her to pray and she said yes. She then pointed to me and said "do you want to get married!?" I responded "um not right now" my companion said the same thing. She then said "when!? in a year?" Haha it was so funny! She didn't end up praying for us to get married (which is good haha) but she did say such a beautiful prayer! She's so amazing! She also has a lot of foreign exchange students! She's so dedicated to helping others I can't even believe it sometimes. I'm so blessed by all the people I get to meet! I love being a missionary and I love giving people the opportunity to hear about Christ's gospel! I know it's true! Honestly, I couldn't be a missionary if it wasn't true.Heavenly Father's hand is undeniably in the work. Or we would fail. But because of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ we get to meet these amazing people and watch the gospel touch their lives. 

I love it here in Victoria and I love being a missionary! Sometimes I feel like the prophet Nephi when he said "He (god) hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh" Heavenly Father loves His children SO MUCH! 

Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Sister Bloomfield