Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Elder Clark's Visit 18 September 2010


Conference with Elder Clark and his wife.

Alright finally I have time to talk to you guys (His email came in at 10:30pm on Saturday night. That is when he finally found time to write). Things have been nuts this week up at 5am every day and to sleep at around 11pm or later. We didn't even get p day today because another member of the Seventies Quorum came into town.

So Monday Elder Clarke and his wife came into town. Elder Clarke is the area president and is a rather mean guy. Well he is not mean, strick would be a better word. He says things how they are and doesn't mess around, but he is rather nice if you impress him. Monday we had a zone conference in Leon so we went out there at about 7 in the morning. Every thing went really well, it was incredible, we learned so much stuff from him. he is an amazing teacher. He talked about how to find, teach, baptize, and retain. Those were the main things and then he talked about the value of our calling and stuff like that. It was awesome. I learned a ton. After that we got back to Managua at 7pm or so and worked what we could in the area. No one was really home.

Tuesday we woke up super early again and we went to Matagalpa. We drove through the mountains and stuff. It was really beautiful. When we got there, we had another multi zone conference there with Elder Clarke and the zones in that area. By this point in the trip with Elder Clarke, he is just super surprised with how well organized every thing was and all that we had planned. That night we had a fire side at 6:30pm, but for the first time ever in Nicaragua history people showed up early for the meeting and were super reverent so we started 15 minutes early. It was awesome! Elder Clarke is a funny guy. Tuesday night we had to stay in a hotel because it was to far of a drive from there home, so we ate dinner at the hotel with the Mission Pres., his wife and Elder Clarke and his wife.

Wednesday, we woke up at 5 again got ready and drove straight to a church in Managua to have another multi zone conference. Once again, we learned a lot more as his talks were not always the same. After that at 4pm, we had a leader counsel with all the zone leaders, us in the office and Elder Clarke, his wife and Pres. Arredondo. I heard it was really good. I actually didn't get to go to it cause I had to go run a couple errands super fast. After every thing was done and we had all the meetings, I had to make a going away letter and print off some pictures and stuff, so didn't get back to the house till like 9:30pm. Time just flies super fast.

Thursday morning Pres. Arredondo took Elder Clarke to the airport and we were finally done with him and could take it easy, kinda. We had a an office meeting later in the day to evaluate how every thing went with Elder Clarke. So here is all the good news and feed back. In the 4 years of being a general authority this was the best and most organized trip he had every been on he said, and we were the best group of missionaries in the office that he has ever seen. Oh, in one of the zone meetings he told us to go up in front of every one so he good thank us for all of our work. After his wife whispered to me that Elder Clarke never gives compliments to any one, so we had to have done something right. Also she told me that she was going to count how many times she looked at me and I was smiling. So I had to pass the whole day smiling. My cheeks hurt and it was pretty funny.

Also the AP, my comp., Elder Sanders was like super happy and thanked me a lot for every thing that I did and said that Pres. Arredondo has never said or complained about any thing, so I have to keep up the good work.

Things here in the office are pretty sweet. My comp. did leave for a week so I don't have a comp for the next week, so I am going to have to figure that out some how. On the missionary mom's goggle group that I belong to, one of the moms posted part of her son's email. He is the Elder that Elder Sanders will be gone with for the week. Here is his email as I thought you would enjoy reading what is going on there and what arrangements Kyle is busy making. Here is his email

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On Thursday while I was on divisions with my District Leader, Elder Land -I get
a call from the office and they tell me that IÂ have to go to my house, pack up
my things, and get to the bus station before 6 o´clock. I look at my watch and
it is 5 30! I called a taxi and literally threw everything into a bag and then
called another taxi to the bus station. (I left a few things in the house
including my chocolate icing. I had only eaten half of it but I forgot to bring
it along with all my clothes in my drawer). Â How I forget to bring my clothes in
my drawer? … I have no idea.  I was just being obedient and I just grabbed the
clothes that I had gotten back from the laundry lady that day and the ones on my
bed and ran out the door.
   Â
When I get to Managua - they tell me that the Lord has called me to do a special
work. Â I had an emergency change. Â I was going to a place called Siuna. Â I had
never heard of Siuna before because no missionary in the history of Nicaragua
has EVER gone there. Â I had to take a plane to get out there.Â
        Â
When they told me that I was being called to Siuna - IÂ felt so sacred and
inadequate. I was thinking… “Why on earth did they choose me to come here? There
are so many other missionaries that are more capable and knowledgeable". Â IÂ was
excited but I was scared out of my mind because I didn´t want to disappoint the
Mission President. When I asked the Mission President why he chose me he told me
“I have no idea why, the Lord chose you. Good luck Elder�
   Â
As I was flying over the land -Â I saw that I was truly going to middle of
NOWHERE. There is nothing out here, there isn´t even a bank!  There is not  a
bank OR a church of ours. LOOK UP SIUNA NICARAGUA ON GOOGLE EARTH AND LOOK AT
JUST HOW IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE WE ARE.

The houses are super nice because there is a gold mine here and every one got
freakin rich. We are staying in a hotel with air conditioning today and I had
warm water in the shower for about 40 seconds. (That is a big deal).
I am here with Elder Sanders, (he is the First Assistant to the President)
Elder Ball who has 9 months in the mission and Elder Mendez who was the
secretary of the office and is from Costa Rica. My comp is Elder Mendez but he
is pretty much a gringo. He speaks perfect English, he likes to listen to music
in English and he loves to work hard. He is my best comp so far in the mission.
He is great!
So, as I said, there is no church here. We are renting a house  and using it as
a church. We aren´t just baptizing …we are literally searching for Branch
Presidents, primary teachers, mission leaders... etc. There are NO members here.
WE are the Bishopric…us 4 missionaries! We teach, clean, and invite everyone to
church. We are it! Four kids! Wow! - it is so awesome.

The Lord has prepared SO MANY PEOPLE for us. They have never heard of us. We
tell them that we are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
and they have never heard of the name. Then we ask them if they have heard of
the Mormons and they also say no. When we teach the restoration… they are
amazed. We have people telling us that they want to learn more and change their
lives  after only one message of Joseph Smith. They are so pumped.Â
We have only been here for 3 weeks (I have only been here for one.) and we had
64 people at church yesterday and 45 were investigators, 5 entire families and 8
men who could receive the Priesthood.Â
Since there is no church here, this means that there is no baptismal font.
 Today for p- day we went river searching! We found a beautiful river that we
are going to baptize in this week. We have 30 people lined up for baptism but we
expect to only baptize 10 of them this week. The work is moving so fast here in
Siuna. If we baptize everyone on our list we will already have a branch.

I am just so excited and I truly feel called here. The Spirit is in every
contact and lesson. The Lord is working hard for us (and as usual the Devil is
working hard against us.) Â It is just so amazing.
So that is what I am doing and that is what happened. I have literally been
called by the Lord to START a church program! It is like I am a real pioneer or
a real missionary in the early days of the church. I am just so happy to be here
and I feel so blessed by the Lord to have the opportunity to be here.

Okay now back to Kyle's email . Some how in all the mess we had also had a baptism on Friday. We showed up to this girls house and she was like, well I decided I am going to get baptized, so we went through all the interviews and stuff and she was baptized. Miracles just popping out of every corner. Oh and I found some one this week that was like I have been waiting so long to talk to you guys, I want to get baptized. It was actually pretty funny. We turned a corner and she was walking towards us and just got this huge smile, but a different kind of huge smile, so we talked to her. She is awesome! After that, she walked around with us right then looking for more people to teach. She is so getting baptized!!!

So today Elder Falabella, another president came to have a meeting with the district of Tipitapa so we spent the whole day with him until now when we finally got time to come and write. It is 9:30pm my time, so we should probably go home. Well things are great here in paradise. We might have to go on a super awesome road trip this week to go investigate the new areas we are going to open, but who knows. I am getting out of the city lots these days.

Well love every one,

Elder Bloomfield

Road Trip 13 September 2010


Kyle's "Nicaragua style missionary" When we lived in Japan when Kyle was born, when ever we would see missionaries riding their bikes wearing helmets, We would point and say, "There's the missionaries". One day after we had moved back to Arizona, Kyle pointed to his bike helmet and asked for his missionary. All those times in Japan when we would point to the missionaries, he thought we were talking about the helmets as the missionaries are the only ones that wear them in Japan while riding bikes.

This is a family that Kyle and Elder Sanders taught and baptized

I Love you. I don't know if I will have time to write this week. Things are nuts here. Elder Clark is coming for 4 days tomorrow, so we need to get ready. Life is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I went on 2 crazy road trips. I ran over my first chicken. woooo hoooo and I left Managua(He has not been out of he city since he got there until this week.) finally.
Oh also we had 7 baptisms this week, talk about a miracle for never working in the area.
More later maybe.



These are pictures from the "Road Trip".

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

"Being a missionary rocks and still livin the dream" 4 September 2010

Well lets start off with my birthday, it was fun. It started at getting up at 5:00am to take a kid to the airport so that he could be flown out to the middle of no where and open an amazing new area with the ap, my teaching companion. Then we came to the office and worked all day till 6:00pm or so then me and one of the aps went to run errands and stuff together. Eventually we made it to go eat at this place called Rosti Pollo. It's like um I don't know, Nica food. Then we went back to the house and went to bed. We bought a cheesecake and ice cream but didn't have time to eat it, so its in the fridge. Hermana Arredondo, the Presidents wife, said she got me a cake and that we are going to celebrate tomorrow. But over all, it was really fun.

Alright my job as a secretary is:
1. Do what ever president tells me to do.
2. Get reports of all the numbers every week and send them to salt lake.
3. Record all the baptismal registros in the computer
4. I am in charge of all the letters and packages for the missionaries.
5. I am in charge of making sure all the missionaries have teaching materials
6. I take people to the airport
7. I pick people up from the airport
8. I buy the plane tickets for missionaries to go home
9. I get stuff ready for missionaries coming and going.
10. Make sure every body has there legal papers.
11. Put peoples (locals from Nica) mission calls into the computer because they don't have computers
12. more things.... the list just keeps growing

But I love being here it is so much fun. There are a lot of pros and a lot of down sides, but more pros then any thing I believe.

Alright so lets see, I got the dry food package and an envelope with a ton of photos but never got the dvd. So you know, I go to the other mission office like 2 times a week so if it goes there it is not a problem cause I will get it.

So we have an investigator that we are going to baptize this weekend, actually 6 but one of the six wants to get baptized in a river so it is going to be a little difficult because here in Managua all of the water is contaminated. We will see what we can do. The other 5 people are a family and they are so awesome. They are always going to the church and every thing. I can't wait to help them receive salvation and in one year get married in the temple.

Being a missionary rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I never left the city, but I am still living the dream.

Love,
Old Boy (20 years old now)


Dead pig hanging out of back of the truck. You see lots of random things while driving down the road.

Cattle wandering on the highway.

Horse and cart, part of the normal traffic.