Hola Amigos! {week 69}

Hello Everyone!

Transfer calls came and I'm staying in Langley YSA!!!! That makes me so happy!!!!! I love this area so much!!! I'm getting a new companion and her name is Sister Guzman. She's from Hondorus!! I'm so excited because I'm going to finally have someone to try and learn Spanish from!!

This has been such a good week! I love serving in this branch so much!! I am so spoiled because since we cover so many areas of the mission I get to see so many different places and meet so many different people. It's absolutely incredible!

We are teaching this awesome guy! I don't know if I've written about him, but he's the one we found on the day we were without our car. He is just soaking everything in! We invited him to be baptized but he originally declined. Then after one of our lessons he texted us and said "about that baptism thing, I think I want to do it!" It made us so happy! We invited him to an activty on Monday and he told us he would rather have another lesson! It was so cool! Watching him learn about the gospel really made me realize how much happiness it brings. Knowing about Jesus Christ can truly change your life.

So much happened this week and I learned so much! I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve in this area, in this mission, with all the companions I've had so far. I know that it is God who has given me everything. Even when I strive to serve Him with all my strength, it is him that gives me the strength to serve Him. In Mosiah 2:11 King Benjamin says "I have been chosen by this people... to serve you with all the might, mind, and strength, which the Lord hath granted unto me"

Have a great week!

Sister Bloomfield 

Loaves and Fishes {week 68}

Hello Everyone!

This has been one of those weeks that I will always remember. There is nothing better that serving others and inviting them to come closer to Jesus Christ!

This week I had a really cool experience with the name of the church. I sat down to talk to this lady at a bus stop and she immediately said "Oh you're so beautiful, you must be a Mormon girl." I was surprised but said, "Oh well I go to the church of Jesus Christ." We got to talking and I was able to share some of the Book of Mormon with her. She had been searching for the true church for so long but had had such negative experiences with other churches that she had given up her search. I felt the spirit so strongly and bore my testimony of Jesus Christ and that this church is His church and that He wanted her to come home to Him. It was such a powerful experience that I don't think I would have had had I not been trying to emphasize the true name of the church. My testimony that Christ is at the head of this church has grown so much these past few weeks. This isn't Mormon's church, this is Jesus Christ's church! I know He is reaching out to as many people as will listen. We don't have to search for Jesus Christ's church anymore. It's right here. Alma 5:38 "Behold, I say unto you, that the good shepherd doth call you; yea, and in his own name he doth call you, which is the name of Christ; and if ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd, to the name by which ye are called, behold, ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd."

Yesterday Sister Robison and I both felt prompted to pray that someone would bring their friend to church. And what do you know, when we got to church someone had brought their friend! There has been random but special moments on my mission where I have felt prompted to pray for a miracle and it always happens. God really does answer prayers!

On Monday the Willoughby elders had to borrow our car so we were stranded in the middle of Langley. For our area, that's not so effective because all the YSA people we'd need to see or talk to wouldn't really be walking around neighborhood streets. We decided to just work as hard as we could with the resources we had and ended up finding some of the coolest people I've found before! We met with one of them, whom I'll call Amelia, on Saturday and invited her to be baptized. She said yes! She has been searching for the true church for so long, it made me so happy to share this gospel with her! The other person we found, whom I'll call Conor, came to a branch activity and is reading from the Book of Mormon!

I've really learned that when we try our hardest, God magnifies our efforts. Sometimes all we have to offer is 5 loaves and a few fishes, but Christ can take that and feed the 5,000.

Have a good week!

Sister Bloomfield

Alone, I am Nothing {week 67}

Hello Everyone!

It's been a beautiful fall week here in British Colombia! The leaves have changed into beautiful shades of red, yellow, and orange and lay scattered all over the ground! I love this time of year and I love BC! I love this area too because I get to see so many corners of the mission and find so much hidden beauty everyday! Being a missionary is just the best! 

This has been such a good week! This week I had another Skype lesson with the Sisters in Burnaby to teach a different deaf person they were teaching. To be honest, I was panicking all morning. I'm not fluent in ASL and it's been over a year since I've taken a class. I prayed so hard all morning that God would bless me with the ability to effectively communicate with this person so I could teach by the spirit. During the lesson I continued to pray. It wasn't easy and took a lot of concentration. Luckily the man was very patient with me as well. I was able to teach about the gospel of Jesus Christ and he loved it! I asked him if he wanted to get baptized and he got really excited and even asked if he could be baptized a week earlier than I suggested!!! It was such a miracle and the spirit was so strong! I know it was all God. I honestly couldn't even tell you how it all worked. It was a pure miracle. The gift of tongues is real. Or I guess I should say the gift of hands haha.

The theme of this week has been that I can't do this alone. Alone, I am nothing. But when I take what I have to Christ, He uses my efforts to accomplish his work. As we were driving to the ASL lesson a song came on the radio that I've heard a million times but took on a whole new meaning. The lyrics say "when you're lost, when your strength is weak, when you're worn out and find yourself on your knees. He will come, he will take your load, and with the 90 and 9 He will bring you home." That hit me so hard! It truly is only through Christ that I can do any of this. There is so much we have to do in life, but through God it can all be accomplished. 

We are working with the cutest girl that I will call Michelle. When we first met her she was so shy but as she's learned about the gospel she has changed and opened up so much. Recently she shared that any time in her life that she struggled missionaries would somehow always appear. It really showed me that God is aware of us, and won't stop reaching out to us. 

I love Jesus Christ and this gospel so much! 

2 Nephi 4:20-21 "20 My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.

21 He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh"

Have a great week! 

Sister Bloomfield

Happy Thanksgiving! {week 66}

Hello Everyone!

I hope you've all had a great week!! Happy Thanksgiving from Canada!!

This has been such an amazing week! I don't have too much time so I'm just going to quickly write some highlights:

-This week I got a call from the Burnaby sisters asking for some help because they have like 3 deaf people they're teaching!! I got to skype in for a lesson and it was such an incredible experience!! I love ASL so much!!! It was a really humbling experience too because I honestly have only taken 1 year of university ASL so it's not like I'm fluent by any stretch of the imagination. But I prayed so much and studied the limited ASL resources I had. I truly felt God helping me. I honestly could not have done that on my own. It sounds like they're teaching a lot of deaf people so hopefully I'll get more opportunities like that! It was so incredible!

-General conference was so incredible!! There are so many things I could write about but one thing that stuck out to me was President Nelson's last talk. He spoke about why we will no longer refer to ourselves as "Mormons." It hit me so hard because he talked about how emphasizing that our church's name is "the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints" will help us to remember whose church this truly is. This is Jesus Christ's church and as we keep Him the center of our lives all of our doubts and fears will flee. On my mission I have learned so much more about the atonement of Jesus Christ, and that knowledge has changed my life forever. He really can heal anything. Also super excited to respond to the challenge he gave us in the general women's session! This is a great time to be alive!

-We've been teaching a lot of people by skype lately and it's so cool to see how that technology is allowing us to reach more people in a more meaningful way!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Sister Bloomfield

Courage, for the Lord is on our side {week 65}

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone has had an amazing week! I know I have! This has actually been such a good week!

This Friday we had MLC with Elder Klebingat! It was so good! He taught us different principles of leadership and I learned so much. I've been thinking so much lately about the importance of being fully consecrated. On a mission we try to direct all our thoughts and everything we do to Jesus Christ and to helping others. But I learned this past couple of weeks that the true meaning of consecration is being willing to give everything we have to the gospel. One of my goals is to be fully consecrated and I know it will be something that I strive to do for the rest of my life. The spirit was so strong this MLC. We also had an opportunity to be taught by President Wong. I am so grateful to be in this mission! I'm pretty sure I have the best mission president ever. At the close of the meeting we were about the sing the closing hymn, "Let us all press on" (one of my favorites after the April general conference) when one elder suggested that we stand and sing. As we stood and sang I felt the spirit so strong and had the thought "this is the happiest moment of my life so far" I've learned that true happiness comes when we are doing the Lord's work.

We are blessed to be working with some amazing people right now. We got to meet with Jessica again and she's just so incredible! We taught her about the plan of salvation. It's amazing to see her just soak up what we're teaching her. She texted us right after our lessons to tell us that she had read some of the scriptures we had left with her to read and that they had really resonated with her. It's amazing to me how interested she is in the temple. I am so grateful for the blessings of the temple and it makes me so happy to think that Jessica could one day receive those blessings too! We've also started meeting with some of her friends! Jessica is the best missionary ever! She practically goes around campus telling everyone all about what's she's learning. The people who live in her dorm say that any time we are going to come over Jessica always gets really excited and says "the mormons are coming! The mormons are coming!" Haha that cracks me up. I guess we should probably tell her that we go by "Latter day saints" now haha. It's honestly such a miracle the people we've been able to meet through her.

We've been able to find some amazing people this week and I know without a doubt that God guides us if we are willing to act on the promptings we receive. This week I met people from Mexico, the Congo, Dubai, the Philipines, Japan, China, and of course India. It's so cool all the people I get to meet!

I love serving in this branch so much! Serving in YSA has really pushed me outside my comfort zone. It's stretched me and I'm so grateful for all I've been able to learn. I am so grateful that God provides ways for me to grow.

The past few months I've grown a lot closer to Jesus Christ. During sacrament meeting this thought flew through my mind "Jesus Christ didn't die for your sins, He died for YOU." That hit me really hard. I know that Christ isn't some random person that lived 2,000 years ago who died so that I could be forgiven of my sins. But He's someone who lives today, who walks beside me, and magnifies everything I do. He takes my best and even my worse and makes it enough. Because of Him I never have to be trapped in who I am right now, I can always become something better.

I am so excited for general conference this weekend! Something I've learned is that when the prophet speaks, the best thing we can do is listen intently. I've been trying really hard this week to spiritually prepare and I'm excited to see what message he will have for us.

Have a great week!

Sister Bloomfield

What Faith Can Do {week 64}

Dear Family and Friends,

I feel like a completely different person than I was last week when I wrote. I don't know how to compose this email because I feel that words are not enough to capture all that I experienced this week.

I'd say the climax of this week was yesterday. Yesterday we had a tri-zone zone conference with Elder Klebingat. Elder Klebingat is one of the leaders (from the quorum of the 70)  from the church. He is from Germany but came from Salt Lake to tour our mission. The experience I had at zone conference yesterday changed my life. I look at the world with completely new eyes now.

Prior to zone conference it felt a bit like we were plowing through the week. It was one of those weeks where we kind of just had to run on fumes with the faith that our efforts were amounting to something, even if it wasn't visible to us. We talked to a lot of people and spent a lot of time at bus stops, but I had gotten to the point where I knew that I personally had fallen into a rut. I said the right things and went to the right places but I wasn't doing those things with hope.

When we went to zone conference Elder Klebingat began by teaching us who we truly are through the doctrine of the plan of salvation. Even though the plan of salvation is something I have been taught since the day I was born, it clicked in a new way. Because we lived with God before this life we trusted in Him completely and we trusted that Jesus Christ would have the power to save us. No situation is truly without hope because Christ broke any chains that could possibly hold us back. And it is by choosing to accept His help that we are able to become a new person. One scripture that has stuck in my mind this week is Mosiah 27:25-26. It says "And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming His sons and daughters. And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this they can in nowise inheret the kingdom of God." It's so amazing that because of Jesus Christ we are able to change and be freed from any bad habits, mistakes, sadness, difficult circumstances. Anything.

Anyways, I don't think I can adequately convey all that I learned, felt, and experienced yesterday. But I do know that it changed everything about the way I work. Yesterday after zone conference we went to look for new people to teach. I met this girl from Osaka Japan and started talking to her. I don't know how to describe it, but I felt the spirit so strongly from the conference that I could feel God with me guiding our conversation more than I have ever felt before. We talked about her family and about God. Being from Japan, she didn't have much of a knowledge about Jesus Christ. I took out a pamphlet that teaches about the gospel of Jesus Christ and showed her some of the pictures inside of it. The spirit prompted me to ask her what she felt when she looked at those pictures. She told me that she felt relieved. I asked her how the pictures made her feel relieved and she said "because I can feel that He is someone like my mom. He is someone I can rely on." The spirit was so strong and it just blew me away that someone who didn't even know the name of Jesus Christ could recognize from a 5 minute conversation that He is someone we can rely on. It was amazing.

Everyday we go from place to place, meeting with different people and teaching them the gospel. I've seen so many different family situations and life stories but one thing I know is that no matter what your situation, Jesus Christ has the power to change and help you.

My faith has grown to the point where it rests in Jesus Christ, not in any outcome.

Sister Bloomfield

YOUR Final Dispensation {week 63}

Hello Family and Friends!

 Sorry but I'm kind of running out of time so bear with me, this email may be full of a lot of spelling and grammatical errors. I just have so much to say because so many amazing miracles happened this week!

 The other day we got a media referral who I will call Jessica. She goes to trinity Western University and according to the missionaries who referred her, she is golden. We met her and they were not lying, she is pretty golden! She has been researching the church for the past few months and just drinking everything in! She is a fourth of the way through the Book of Mormon and loves it! Our first lesson with her was such a miracle because she introduced us to 3 friends who are also now reading the Book of Mormon! Then she brought 5 friends to church on Sunday and to the devotional with President Nelson (spoiler alert- the prophet came to Langley this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) It was so amazing!!!!!!! It made me so happy! Teaching her is so much fun! We teach her at her college dorm! The university is a Christian based school so it feels a lot like BYU! I felt like I was back at BYU hanging out with my roommates! It was so awesome! It really hits me when I see someone just soak up the gospel so readily! It is also a miracle because it's usually difficult to talk to people at Trinity Western because they are usually pretty set in their beliefs and not too interested in learning more.

 This week was full of so many little miracles! It was a pretty good week! Oh, transfer calls came and both me and sister Robison are staying! I'm so happy! I love this area and Sister Robison so much!!!!! I love the Abbotsford zone!!!!! It's my home!

  I got to help out at the BC food drive this Saturday with the Brookswood and Willoughby ward! Guess what?? Exactly a year ago I was also helping with the BC food drive in the Brookswood and Willoughby ward!!!!! It made me SO HAPPY to be back! The food drive is one of my favorite memories from last year so I was just overflowing with happiness to be back! I got to see some more of the ward members again too! Ah I am just so happy to be in this area!!!! Crossing my fingers I get to stay in this area until I die so I can say I served in Langley for a year!!! Haha! Really though, I will go wherever God sends me because I love serving a mission so much and every area He sends me to is amazing! I love BC! I love how God knows where we need to go more than we do! He really has the best plan :)

 But yep, President Nelson and Elder Eyring came this last Sunday!!!! All the missionaries from the Vancouver, Abbotsford, and Surrey zone got to go see the devotional in person!!! It was so cool to be in the same room as the prophet!!! I am so blessed to be here! His message was amazing! As I was spiritually preparing I just made the decision that I would do whatever it was he instructed us to do! I'm so excited to apply his counsel! It was all about making sure our children know the principles of the gospel. I feel like so much of what I'm learning is just training for my lifelong service in the church and my family! President Eyring's message especially hit me! It was about how keeping covenants enable us to keep more covenants and help us to be better ministers. I was also blown away by Sister Nelson. She is an incredible woman! 

  Wow, this week has been such a good week!!!!!! While I was studying about the restoration this week I was thinking about the pattern that God always follows. Throughout history He has called prophets to reveal His gospel to us. And throughout history people choose to listen to the message of the prophets, but they also chose to reject the prophets message. When the people reject the gospel that results in apostasy. That just means that the gospel is not longer on the earth in its entirety. The gospel was restored through Joseph Smith after a long period of apostasy. We have been promised that this dispensation of the gospel is the last time it will be restored because it will never be taken away from us again! I thought about how that pattern is similar to the pattern of our life! There are times where we listen to God and accept His guidance in our life and times where we reject Him and are slow to live the principles of the gospel. However, each of us can commit today to make their lives be their own personal "final dispensation." We can chose now to serve God for the rest of our lives, to never turn away, to never fall into personal apostasy. This moment can be your final dispensation. One thing my mission has instilled in me, is the importance of committing to always live the gospel. I have made the decision that this is my final dispensation. 

  Sorry if this makes no sense I typed it in like 10 minutes! My email time was interrupted by trying to help a random lady in the library. Anyways, have an amazing week!

Sister Bloomfield