6 June 2011 "I am just a Boy"

Well lets see-
This week was good. There were 2 days when I didn't even work in my area because I was in Ciudad Dario, the area that is 1 hour and a half away. They baptized a family so I was out there helping with the interviews and stuff like that. I love my new comp., he reminds me a lot of dad. Well at least in his sense of humor. He says a lot of things that I would see dad saying.

Also I started going to the gym this week again. We wake up at 5 in the morning to go to the gym, it is way cool. It feels great to go to the gym again, but I am so weak I didn't realize how weak I was till I started working out and I can't even lift half of what I lifted before.

As for my area, most of the time we just go around looking for new people to teach and looking for those that we need to reactivate. Being here is definitely the hardest area that I have been in. I have been here 3 months and I only have 3 baptisms. We have 2 families that we are teaching that are pretty positive. One of the families has a baptismal date for the 18th of this month but lately they have been real busy so it is really hard to find them to teach. As for the zone, things are alright in the first week of the month we baptized 6 one family and 2 future holders of the priesthood.

WOOO WOO WOO!! Don't be calling me an adult, I thought I made it really clear that I am just a boy- nothing more and nothing less. Kara and I are just following the things that our mother taught us. So don't worry about us. We are just like the stripling warriors, we can not doubt that our mother knew it (even though you seem crazy to me) . But that is just my opinion.
Just kidding, Lovely

I DID NOT GET THE PACKAGE YET I put it in bold so you don't ask me again next week.

Like you said, it is amazing to see how we are in the true church and how easy it is to tell. That thought goes through my head every day because of the things I see here. It is just so ridicules of how easy it is but people just don't think. They can't recognize how lost they are. They think all the millions of problems they have in life are something common, but life can be so easy if you just keep the commandments. Keep the commandments and you will prosper on the earth, the lord tells us straight up in the scriptures he doesn't beat around the bush but every one has to read the scriptures in their own way so they don't under stand any thing.

Well I am going to go.
Elder Bloomfield

Oh yes, Defig goes home on Thursday.


Checking out the Art work in Esteli




My comp. with the cows in the country side of Esteli


Esteli in the country

30 May 2011 A New Companion, Again!!!!

Cassi still doesn't know how to read? (I told Kyle my goal for Cassi this summer is to help her to be a better reader) Do what you did with me in Korea, you got me up at 6 in the morning every day to sit on the couch and read the amazing "3 musketeers". it seems like it worked. I am reading and writing to you right now, so it had to have worked.

WAIT, Travis had 100 percent attendance in early morning seminary (He really did!! Travis did not miss a day of early morning seminary this year. He got himself up and drove himself every morning. We are soooooooo proud of him - it is huge to be able to do that with everything else he has going on). That is impressive, he has to be beat, but he did have Tim Burton as his teacher, he is the bomb. I love that guy.

So lets just take a look back at this week together. Monday consejo de lideres I had changes and had Elder Peña put as my companion. Tuesday night he gets a call from President asking if he would be comps with an Elder that has a ton of issues. He accepted so Pres. Arredondo said at changes in 2 weeks it would be done. Later Wed. night we get a call from the aps and they tell us that Elder Peña has changes and that he leaves first thing Thursday morning, so Thursday at 5:30am he left and I stayed in my house all alone until 2:00 waiting until my new comp got here. His name is Elder Lopez. He has been in the mission for 10 months and we lived in the same house together in Puerto. He is way cool and a great missionary. He got baptized 2 years ago so he is still a recent convert. I am training him on how to be a zone leader, so every thing here is great. Even better news he has a camera (Kyle's back pack with everything including his camera and suit got stolen so now he does not have a camera, he just puts his media card in other people's camera and takes pictures that way. That is why he is excited his comp has a camera. I offered to send him a new one, but he said no that it will probably just get stolen too) so now we will be able to send photos and stuff. So just be ready for those.

I can't believe Marc Lucas is home already, that is crazy and Kyle Robinson gets home in like 2 months and I get home 2 months after that. It is crazy how fast time flies and I think Ben Patty gets home the week before I do even though I started 3 before him.

Sounds like a good book( I am reading a book by Henry B. Eyring called "Because he loved us first". Kara recommend it to me. She read it on her mission. It has great references to the Atonement and I was telling Kyle about it). I have so much to read when I get home. Right now I am just reading the Book of Mormon and studying all the little details. it is awesome!!

love
Elder Bloomfield


These pictures were taken of Kyle while we skyped with him on Mother's Day.

24 May 2011 New Companion, Elder Pena

I am writing today because yesterday we had leader council so we were in Managua all day long. Also I have a new companion Elder Peña. He was born in Granada, Nicaragua but lived his whole life in Costa Rica. It was sad to see my other comp go. He told me I was one of the best comps. he has ever had and that he is really going to miss me. He is a really great guy. I really enjoyed working with him. Elder Peña is real cool. So far I like him and I am real excited to work with him.

I have continued my skill with making moms cry. For mothers day, I had my zone write letters to Hermana Arredondo. We were the only people to do something for her for Mother's Day and she started crying for how kind we were. Her kids told me about it as they made fun of her for crying. Does that sound like our family a little??? Yip Yip

Johana got baptized Saturday, it was great. Right now we have one family that we are teaching that is pretty cool other then that we don't have much so we have a lot of finding left to do here in Esteli. Oh and I will be here for at least 8 more weeks. I might be able to finish my mission with only 5 areas. haha

So how is every one doing now, are they all healthy and fine or still a little sick.

Well got to go.
Love you,
Elder Bloomfield


Johana Baptism


Our latest investigator.




Just checking things out!!


Lovely Apartment


Baptism

16 May 2011 Rainy Week!!!

Wow busy week!!!!!

Let's see the highlight of this week was that it rained and it actually got cold here in Esteli, it was way nice. The rain part sucks though as the roads were all flooded and we were soaking wet, the roads turned into 2 feet deep rivers haha It was way fun. Some of the roads you just couldn't even walk down due to all the water. So I did some wake boarding of my own. hahah Just kidding!!! Other than that it was a good week.

One of the areas in my zone baptized the first family in a year, so they are way happy for that.

This Saturday we have a baptism for girl, her name is Johana. A friend of hers brought her to church and now she has been to church like 6 times and wants to get baptized. She already has her own scriptures and hymn book and goes to institute. It was way funny, she is single and has a kid and was telling us about how she prayed and told God that if she gets baptized, that God will help her find a good husband. Then she told us how she felt really good so she knows that God is going to help her out over time if she gets baptized and follows all of the commandments.

Yesterday we found a really cool new family. but the problem is that the guy is going to leave to the states to live soon. He comes and goes for his work, but the wife is awesome and seems like she will be super positive.

I talked to my comps. mom on the phone for 3 mins. on Mother's Day. She seems real sweet. Turns out my comp. has a brother that lives in San Antonio, so he is pretty close to our house. Also my comp. this morning was telling me how he is way sad and doesn't want to leave Esteli and how he doesn't want a new comp.. He says that I am one of the best comps. that he has had and wants to stay another change with me. That was cool to hear. We have already been together almost 3 months I figured he would probably be bored of being with me.

Well talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Bloomfield

2 May 2011 A week in the life of a missionary.

Well lets see, this week we had fun- like all weeks.
lets see, Wed. we had changes. I am still with my same companion, he is way cool still. haha We got 2 new sister missionaries, so that puts my zone to 6 sisters and 6 elders. haha Plus me and my comp. It is great. Nothing against sister missionaries but they are a lot more work then elders. Also we got an elder that is not to obedient so we will have to keep our eyes on him. Since I was in the office I know the dirt on all the missionaries so it helps to help them progress and move on spiritually.

Thursday was just another normal day.

Friday we went to the area of one of the sisters to do baptismal interviews. That went so well that I baptized the guy right then and his 8 year old son. That was cool. I prayed with him and he was like I need to get baptized but if I wait till tomorrow maybe Satan will work in my mind and I won't want to so he was like can I do it right now. So we baptized him right then.

Saturday we had a cool activity in the church the attendance wasn't what we wanted it to be but it was cool. We talked about the Sabbath Day then I talked about Joseph Smith. I dressed up like Joseph Smith and talked about my life, played a guy in stick pull and beat him (Joseph Smith never losses) and I made gold plates and I showed them to every one it was way cool. It was a fun activity. Saturday night I got a phone call that Elder Duarte, one of the seventy of the area, was going to have a meeting with us and was going to come to my branch.

So, Sunday at 7 in the morning we went to church to have a meeting with him and we made plans of what we can do to raise the attendance here in Esteli. In the meeting with Elder Duarte was the branch presidents, the district presidents and 6 missionaries. It was way cool, but we were talking about what we can do to help Esteli grow because it is falling right now. He told us about how he was in a meeting with the prophet and the first presidency and all the apostles and some of the seventies and Elder Packer stood up and said "a day will arrive when being a member won't be pretty." That is a powerful quote, I got to thinking about who all will actually make it to the celestial kingdom and there really aren't many that will make it there. It is way sad to think about how many people will be lost, good friends, family members, brothers, sisters, parents. Hopefully, the leaders took to heart what he said and start to help us to work. It would be so cool to be a General Authority. I really like them.

We have a lot of work to do here in Esteli, but I am not sure what we can do to get people excited here.

Pedro now has the Aaronic priesthood and blessed the sacrament Sunday. His family doesn't live with him they live in a city just out side of Managua and he is separated from his wife, but I think he is dating or has a thing with a lady that got baptized the week after him. We will see what happens with him.

Also Elder Falabella was suppose to come this week but he had some kind of problem in Guatemala and isn't going to come any more. bummer.

Well love you and talk to you later,
Love, Elder Bloomfield

25 April 2011 Leadership Council

Missionaries at Leadership Council


Every one had the whole week for vacations so they all left to the beach or a river and got drunk then drowned or got in a car crash such a great way to celebrate the death of the Savior of all of them. But don't worry they did better this year only 18 people died this year apposed to the 22 last year so things are improving.

As far as the work, it was nice to have the vacations cause we were able to find some families from the church and re-activate them. It is way cool. We reactivated like 3 familias this week, but some how the attendance at church still goes down. I don't get it.

Well I have to go to Managua for leader counsel, so I can't write any more but I will probably write tomorrow.

Love, Elder Bloomfield

Alright I am back now in Esteli and I have a little time to write now.

Let's see for council of the leaders, we got to the church at 3:30 and we started at 4:00, so we finished there at 6:45 then we went to dinner with all the ZLs and Pres.. It was way cool he took us to a way nice restaurant. It is a little expensive so we just got a set menu and then ice cream for desert. Then we went back to the house where the office missionaries live and we slept there and early in the morning we got up to come back to Esteli. Then we had zone meetings, lunch and then finally showered for the day and worked a little. Now I am here doing numbers and finishing writing my family.

Well changes are tomorrow so we will see who has changes in my zone. It will be exciting.

Got to go
Love Elder Bloomfield

Hermana Arredondo and the missionaries with their turtle CTR rings




Elder Whatcot and Elder DeFigueredo

18 April 2011 Work goes on

I saw on the tv that there were fires in Texas and jokingly I said to my comp well my house is going to burn down, cause I wasn't kidding it really might happen. (We had a huge fire near our home last Sunday. It is so dry, hot and windy here we have fires all over Texas - From mom).

So before every thing, lets take a recap of the week. We only baptized one more family in the zone this week. That is way sad as we only have 3 as a zone now, and one that my comp and I baptized. As a mission we have baptized 72 families, that is crazy in just 2 weeks we did that. Next week we will baptize 28 more to get to one hundred.

As for my area we have dropped all investigators and we are starting from scratch, except for one baptism this week so we kept one investigator. She is a reference from a member that comes to church. I say a member that comes to church because only 30 people come to church in my branch. We work all week long and on pay day Sunday, we never really are able to see our work pay off. It is way sad. We have a ton of plans made to get the place up and going again, but only with time. 2 years ago my branch had a attendance of more than 100 members every week, but now who knows what happened - every one is asleep. All the leaders are all tired of this stuff and depressed and have stopped working. It is way sad and the future of the church doesn't look good because we have no young men or young women in our branch. I was the branch chorister this week. I was leading the hymns as if I was the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. haha It was epic. Any ways, our investigator already has her own triple bible and hymn book and has come to church twice. She knows like every thing. Her name is Johana Del Carmen, we will probably baptize her this weekend and hopefully the zone baptizes 5 families but we will see how every thing goes. Satan is working hard against us. haaaa I hate you Satan!!!

Alright best story from Esteli: This didn't happen in my area, but I was a part of it. It was way funny as well as spiritual.

So the elders in the area Ciudad Dario were contacting and it was close to the end of the night and they needed to contact like 6 more people to complete with there goal. So they saw a group of men sitting on a street corner and figured they were just drunks hanging out on the corner, so they went over to invite them to church. In that group there was a guy and his name was Pedro. The next day me and my comp went to Ciudad Dario to do some interviews and to help out for the day. We taught like 2 lessons then while we were walking we passed this Pedro guys house so we asked if we could have a lesson with him, he said yes, but not in his house, it would be better if we go to another house. So we took him to the house of the missionaries and we got chairs and we were sitting out side of the house of the missionaries and so we started the lesson. We started out with questions to see how he is doing and every thing and he just talked for like 20 mins. telling basically his whole life story. Turns out he went to the church in a different city for a year and all of his kids are members. We start teaching the doctrine of Christ, faith, repentance, baptism, the holy ghost and fight till the end. haha We get to the part where we ask if he would like to get baptized and we asked if he would get baptized on Saturday and we were talking to him for the second time ever on a Wed.. So we pop the question and he is like um that is way to early I don't think I can get baptized. I have to think about it. We started to talk and figure out why and eventually we said if we do it Saturday night, what do you think. He was like yeah that's perfect that will give me enough time to think about it. haha Saturday afternoon was to early but in the night it was fine. We were all just way confused so I did a baptismal interview right then and he was ready. He got baptized 2 Saturdays ago. Turns out he has now read half of the Book of Mormon and half of the principals of the gospel book and on Saturday he went and talked to one of the ladies that was going to get baptized and shared his testimony and every thing. Way cool! Sunday he was in a white shirt and tie and received the Aaronic priesthood. That's the story for now.

We also had interviews with president. It was nice to see him and his wife again. I talked to Hermana Arredondo for a good 20 min about life it was way fun.

Well yeah running a marathon is on my bucket list still but more important right now is getting back into shape to do normal things like run a mile, after that we will move on to a marathon.

I started working out every morning to get back into shape for when I get home. I am curious to see how much I weigh these days because I am looking really skinny. President says my hair looks a lot whiter these days. So that is good to know my blond hair is still looking good.

Um I think that is all I have for this week.

Mother's day you can probably just call my cell phone like we did in the office. I have a nice cell phone again, it worked well at Christmas time.

I can't believe that April is almost over. Time is just booking past.

Love, Elder Bloomfield

11 April 2011 Rough Morning

As for the week, it didn't go as well as hoped, but it turned out alright. I slept on the floor twice this week while I was out and about. I did 6 baptismal interviews. In the month of March the zone baptized 9 people and 2 familias. So far this month, we have 11single people, 2 familias and 6 men. One of the families my comp and I were able to baptize in our own area. Now this next week we just need the zone to work hard with the familias that they have so we can get to our goal.

For me, going around and helping the other areas is my favorite part of the mission, because you always have the most spiritual lessons and you can really feel like an instrument in gods hands. This last week there were like 3 lessons where the family started crying during the lesson from the spirit.

Well hope to talk to you soon.

Love,
Elder Bloomfield

PS The family is the most important part in our lives.


Had a bit of a rough morning during personal study!!!

4 April 2011 General Conference Recap

Alright this week was a little long we aren't finding many people here but life goes on.
Conference: Lets see I watched all of it and I had to watch Sunday mornings in Spanish that really sucked. The people that translate speak with no emotion and the talks have so much emotion in them, so when you here them in Spanish, it is just not the same, but it is all good. So highlights for me of conference, lets see:
-First off every one was way bummed that they didn't announce a temple her in Nicaragua.
-from Kent F. Richards He said pain is the gage of healing.
-Quentin L. Cook: A person is measured for the way they deal with challenges.
-Henry B Erying: a person cant give the lord a crust without receiving the whole loaf in return. Also before all service we should prepare spiritually, choose people that will feel the love of Christ and use the power of unity to teach. This is some thing that dad is way good at. He always bringing the family together to work.
-Boyd K Packer: We should always use the full name of the church not call it the Mormon church. I also liked his John leave it alone story.
-Richard J Maynes: the Family is like a rope
-M. Russell Ballard: Small and Simple things
-Niel L Anderson: The blessings of bringing souls to the church are far more than anything else.
-Steven E Snow: Many hopes never came to past due to laziness.
-Larry M Gibson: (this was one of my most favorite talks from this conference) Do you think God would call you if he didn't think you could do it
-Dieter F Uchtdorf: Living under our priesthood.
-Henry B Erying: people that usually work together well always are a peace giver.
-Thomas S Monson: He is AMAZING!! Nothing in this life can give more happiness then a MARRIAGE. Choose your love and love your choice. It is not marrying the right person it is being the right person.
-Dieter F Uchtdorf: With all the problems in the world today it is easy to preach the gospel.
-Paul U. Johnson: After each trial I should analyze what I have learned.
-H David Burton: Be kind to the POOR.
-David A. Bednar: NO man can receive the Holy Ghost with out receiving Revelation first.
-Thomas S Monson: No Sacrifice is to much, there is no distance to far for the covenants that you make in the temple.
-RICHARD G SCOTT: HIGHEST PRIORITY AFTER THE MISSION: TEMPLE MARRIAGE
-D. Todd Christofferson: The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan to make us what God wants us to be.
-Lynn G Robbins: (mom this one is all for you) Challenging children are a blessing. This came straight out of his mouth. haha a si que buck up. also I need you to make me better just as much as you need me to make you better. The best parenting manual: the Scriptures.
-C. Scott Grow: First off his parents are real mean they made his name a sentence. The power of the atonement.
-Jefferey R. Holland: Wow he is so dedicated. I liked how he said the gospel of Jesus Christ is here to comfort the afflicted and afflict those who are comfortable.
Well that is what I got out of the conference. It was Amazing I have learned so much. In the back of my journal I took special notes of things I have to do when I get home, and with my future wife, and with my family.
Here in the mission, if we get the blessing from the lord we are going to pull a huge miracle here in Esteli. As of right now, we have 8 families that are ready to be baptized as a zone. The most that has ever been baptized in one month here is 6, so we are putting all the faith we have in the lord and going big. If we can get this to happen it will set the mood for the rest of the months to come and Esteli will start growing like no other, but who knows what will happen.
There are 3 of our areas that are 2 hours away, so I think I am going to go out there with them for 3 days and make sure every thing is tuanis so that we can do what we can.
Also me and my comp have made a pact to read the Book of Mormon in a month so we are reading 30 mins. in the morning and 30 mins. in the night. We are reading around 10 chapters a day. We should be able to finish in 24 days or so. Pretty cool.
Well that is all for now . As far as the whole college thing, I have no idea. I talk with Elder Lundquist about what we are going to do when we get home. We haven't really come to any conclusion about college, but we have decided that we will both find girls to marry with in a year and a half of being home. less if possible.
Well I love you. Keep doing what your doing.
Love
Elder Bloomfield

28 March 2010 Questions and Answers

So I (Mom) was telling Kyle that his letters have been very vague lately and that we needs more information, so I gave him a list of questions to answer so we could find out a little more as to what is going on in his life now. He did a pretty good job of answering them all. My questions are below and then his answers.
1- Why were you transferred? I thought that Elder Starke was being transferred and you were staying in Puerto.
2- I heard from the missionary mom's group that some areas of Esteli were closed down, so why were you transferred in there?
3- Are you still a ZL there?
4- Is Elder Starke still in Puerto or did he get transferred also?
5- Did you fly to Esteli?
6-How long will you be there, any idea?
7-How is the work going there?
8- Did you ever get your Valentine Package?
9-What spiritual experiences did you have this week?
10- What is your apartment like there? (Running water etc)
11- Where are you eating these days? Do you eat with the members?
12- Have you lost weight since you are not in the office anymore?
alright
1 Why was I changed, I don't know. The lord needed me in a different place. It was way funny when the zone found out I had changes they all got real mad and said that they were going to come with me.
2 Well lets see, Esteli is on a down fall to be honest. They pulled out about 8 missionaries from here. It is the hardest zone in the mission so we will see how it goes. The lord has some big plans for this place, so I guess I was transferred here to help the place out. Who knows?
3 Yeah I am still ZL here. I will probably be ZL for the rest of my mission, till October when I come home. Being ZL is a ton of extra work but I love it.
4 Yeah, Elder Stark is still there in Puerto
5 No, I flew to Managua and took a bus from Managua to Esteli.
6 Who knows how long I will be here. I hope for around 6 months or just finish my mission here. That way I can get settled down and do work. Being changed around sucks.
7 haha The work here is a little slower from the rest of the mission, but we still do work. We have a goal of baptizing 3 families in the month of April (in March there were no baptisms) and as a zone we baptized 16. This month of March we only had 2 families so we are doing a 180 make over of Esteli. as far as the members here we had an attendance of 36 at church and we don't get much help here from the members.
8 Yes, I got my Valentines package about 2 months ago before going to Puerto and I am pretty sure I told you that already. A miracle from god happened this week. I received the soccer video that you made and sent that never got here. It was sent on May 15, 2010 and one year later I got it. Cool right!
9. Well yesterday I was on divisions on my area with an Elder Leon. I told him every one we walked past if he didn't say hey or bye or any thing to them I would punch him. So this caused that we started to talk to every one. Over all we found like 5 new families to talk to but one of the families was like 20 yards away and he yelled adios to them and they were way happy that he spoke to them. So we went over and talked to the family, it was like 3 families that live in the same house. They were way receptive. The grandma started crying and they all accepted to be baptized this 16 of April. It was way cool the lesson was way spiritual, but it is funny how the lord works. Some times you have to do things extreme to help others learn but it helps you gain a testimony of opening your mouth and talking to every one.
10 Well the apartment we live in is 2 rooms one with the beds and one with just stuff to study. It is pretty nice for Nicaragua. We have running water, it's cold but always running. Esteli is a really kind of a rich place, so things aren't to bad here.
11 We eat at a place that's kinda like a restaurant but the owner is a member. We eat lunch and dinner there. The good part about the place is that he gives us a salad with both meals and we always get good tasting food. It is probably not to healthy but it taste good. Just so you know I go poop at least 3 times a day these days. It is pretty cool.
12 Oh yeah, I have lost weight. It is awesome. I am skinny, tan and sexy now that I am not in the office. In the office I was fat white and ugly. haha

Over all the mission is sweet these days. My zone are all great missionaries. Some of them are not the hardest workers, but they are all obedient, so that is way good. I think that is why they took out a lot of missionaries from here. If they aren't converted and really want to serve their mission and know why you are doing it (and the girls here aren't your average nica ugly, they are white and pretty so a lot of missionaries get bummed that they don't have success and end up doing stupid things) they aren't successful. So I think that is why they took missionaries out.

Well here are a couple photos of Esteli.


The little kid with glasses is my comp.


The Asian looking kid is Elder Morris, he is from Panama and he is cool.



Well there is every thing for now.

Love you,

Elder Bloomfield

21 March 2011 Transferred to Esteli

Well to be honest, where I am it seems like spring. It turns out that I was changed to a place called Esteli. It is cold and in the mountains here. The people are white and speak Spanish unlike my last area where they were black and didn't really speak Spanish.

It is hard work here the people are super Catholic or something like that and the church is falling so I have a ton of work to do here. Yesterday we had a 2 hour meeting with the District Pres. and we have some pretty sweet plans that will help the zone here.

Right now as far as investigators when I got here there was nothing but we found a family that is way cool. They read the Book of Mormon like it is Harry Potter for Kara and they remember every thing and just sit and ask us question after question. Now we just have to get them to church and baptize them.

My comp is probably 5'2" tall. He is a little white kid from Guatemala. I have never looked at him when he hasn't been smiling. He is way cool. His name is Elder Perez. He shines my shoes every morning. He has 15 months in the mission and he has a brother that lives in Houston. I think that is all I can think of about him.

Well, I think I covered all the fun stuff that happened this week. Oh there is one more thing from my area we have an area in hour zone that is 2 hours by bus to the north and one that is an hour and a half to the south by bus so we spend a lot of time traveling with baptismal interviews and stuff like that. So we loose a lot of time traveling.

I don't have my address book with me. I left every thing in Managua. I just have a small duffel bag these days.

Well keep me updated on every thing.


Love you,
your beautiful dangerous prince
(a girl called me that this week. cool right)

8 March 2011 Oh Rats (literally)

So over all the week was hard just because we didn't have the success that we really should have, but the good news is last month we were the highest baptizing zone in the mission. It was mostly families also. woooo hooooo

Sweet that you went to the temple with Kara. I am planning on going Friday, the day after I get home but I want to go by myself, so that I can have the drive to think and I can get every thing straightened out in my life. For me my mission doesn't stop until I have been to the temple to report to the Lord the work that I am doing.

Oh last week I also almost lost an eye ball to a stupid dog. That thing was way mad. haha It sure scared me.

Our investigator gets back from fishing this week so hopefully we can baptize him and his family.

I got my socks out of the drawer Sunday and found that I had a giant hole in it from a rat. It is a pretty lame, first pair of socks down
but don't worry I still have those sexy socks(the Argyle ones).

Well have a great week.
Love, Elder Bloomfield

28 February 2011 Slaying of the Turtle

So turtle is one of the most common foods here in Puerto, so we all wanted to know what the process is like killing a sea turtle. It turns out that the process of killing a turtle is way interesting. First off we woke up at 3am and left and went walking down the street until a taxi drove past. But don't worry we were safe we had a giant stick, machete, and our athletic clothes on in case any one wanted to rob us. I was more worried for the stupid dogs that enjoy biting. Anyways we got to Kingmin's house but by the time we got there he had already killed one turtle and wasn't going to kill anymore that day, but luckily he had a neighbor that hadn't killed his turtle yet, so we went over to his house and watched how he killed the sea turtle. It is pretty brutal. They catch the sea turtles and just keep them under their house because the houses here are on stilts so the turtles just lay on their backs till they are slaughtered. Alright for the gross part. How they kill them: they tap its head lightly with the dull side of an AXE and when the turtle breathes in they just start beating it in the nose until they are passed out. Then they grab a knife and slit the turtles throat. That is about enough of the description that you probably want to hear. It is pretty brutal.

Alright now to the spiritual side of the letter, we were told not to baptize this week because we had reached our goal. It doesn't make sense to me but that is what our leaders say so we do it. Things were looking good for this Saturday that is coming. We were going to baptize 3 familias but things didn't go so well Sunday. One family the father left and went to the ocean to fish for 12 days so he is gone for a while. The other family had a guy come over and tell them that they just talk and listen to us because we are white but really we are Satan worshipers and the anti-Christ. haha Satan is a silly guy. Oh another funny thing. When we went to the turtle thing there was a church going on, one of those churches that scream and fall to the the ground and seizure and stuff. It was 3 in the morning. That is not called worshiping god......

Well this next week will be so super busy, we need to do real well. This change is almost up so missionaries will want to baptize every one. That means a ton of interviews those are the funnest part of the week.

well love to all

Elder Bloomfield

21 February 2011 Got to Love the kids!!

Well I am sitting here writing you and 2 little kids just came down and sat next to me they, are like 4 years old. haha Got to love being the main attraction at the zoo. One thing I am going to miss when I leave the mission. I convinced them to give me there jelly beans. haha I win!!

Any ways the zone baptized 16 people and 6 families this week. Elder Stark and I baptized one of the families.

So lets see Miskito (the language they speak in Puerto where Kyle is now) is not like a Spanish or English. It is really different. For right now we have a kid that gives us class every Wed. and Friday, but he might leave soon so we might loose our teacher.

My area and one other speak more Miskito then all the areas in the zone so it is kinda hard to teach on occasion, but we do the best we can.

So now the little kids are making me read stories and color in there coloring books so things are getting really hard to write to you guys.

So Kara gets home in a couple of days, that is crazy. I can't believe it before we know it I will be home also.

As far as the food goes I have beans and rice a lot and a lot of fish, lobster, shrimp, and turtle. That is what we eat here in Puerto. All the work here has to do with the ocean it is a port city. So it is pretty cool.

Well got to go, love you and tell Kara hey for me..

Love
Elder Bloomfield

14 February 2011 Learning Miskito (the langauge spoken by many in Puerto Cabezas)

This week was alright, but we should have done a lot better, but it is all good. So lets see, it is looking like we are going to have a baptism of 3 families in our area this next week so I am really excited about that. They are amazing families.

So the cruise sounds like it was really fun. That is neat you met some one from Bluefields. Remember that black family I baptized a while back, they were from Bluefields. They all speak English like Bob Marley, it is way cool.

So here in Puerto, they don't speak Spanish, so I have been learning their language, it is way cool. It is like Bob Marley speaking Japanese. It is such a crazy language. yen nusna jisus kris pruis ka watla redpalisa. There is a little Miskito for you. Also it rains here every day at like 2 o'clock, it is kinda like Malaysia.

Saturday night people broke into the house and stole some bicycles, but don't worry we found the people that stole them Sunday morning and got the bikes back. It was just pure luck...

Well I don't know what else to say other than Kara will be home real soon.

By the way a missionary that just got home here to Puerto that was in Panama on his mission knew Kara and said all the elders have crushes on her. I thought that was pretty funny.

Later!

7 February 2011 Life in Puerto Cabezas

Alright so I am here in Puerto Cabezas just hanging out. I played 2 games of basketball then like 9 games of soccer. We won almost all of the games. It was way fun.

Puerto is like living in- I don't know. All the houses are on stilts and every thing like that. All the people that aren't smart don't know how to speak Spanish. They speak a language called Miskito and it is really hard to understand. In other words if I want to be successful here I will have to learn Miskito, but there is a missionary that came home from Panama that had health problems so he is going to hang out at home until he is healthy enough. Last night Elder Stark and I had a meeting with him. He gave us some good ideas for activities and stuff and says he knows a ton of people that we can teach. He also says he will give us lessons on Miskito. He is awesome. He also said something.

My plane ride here was like an hour. Elder Stark was at the airport waiting for me. He is now my companion. Its kinda funny cause the first day he got to Nicaragua I took him out and taught him the ropes and we have been in the same zones a ton.

The zone didn't do to good this week. We only baptized 18 and 4 families. I know it sounds like a lot for you but we should be baptizing 25 a week and 6 or so families. We have a little work to do to get the things done that we need to. So off to work we are.

Well I don't know what else to say really. We baptized on the beach this week. Here we baptize in lakes, rivers, beaches or the font. It is pretty cool.

One of the investigators we found this week is one of the richest people in Puerto he is the judge for like all the area and a very influential person. If we can get him baptized it would be amazing, a huge step for the church her in Puerto.

Well I love you,

Elder Bloomfield

30 January 2011 Being Transferrred to Puerto Cabezas

Baptism of Carlos.

Yes I did see Elder Christofferson and Elder Jensen. We had a conference with them and then we talked for like 5 min in the Arredondo's house before we had to leave and do other things.

We had a baptism yesterday of a boy named Carlos. He is amazing in one year he will be on a mission. He is so cool.

Well as far as the mission work goes I leave the office on Wed. and I will be sent to Puerto Cabezas as a Zone Leader. My companion will be Elder Stark. They had a zone leader in Puerto that was doing things he shouldn't so he is no longer a zone leader so now they need one more Zone Leader. So they gave me 10 days to train the new kid in what I do here in the office instead of the usual transfer that most get. haha Good luck for him.

I will actually fly out Thursday morning, I get to go out to a super nice dinner with the missionaries that are going home on Thursday.

The zone in Puerto in the month of January baptized 130 people and there are only 6 companionships. They also baptized around 30 families so I have my work set out for me I know when I leave here. I am pretty sad to leave the office but it has to happen. Tonight Hermana Arredondo is making me a special dinner for everything I have done for her. She also said she is going to make me cookies and give me a bag of granola, like Dads favorite kind that he always eats. She is a great person.

So to get to Puerto you have to go on airplane and you are only aloud to take 30 pounds of stuff with you, so I am going to have to leave every thing in Managua except clothes and my scriptures. The airplanes are those little ones like when we went to the Tioman Island in Malaysia. So, that should be fun. I am real excited to go out there. There is a great group of missionaries out there so I am in for another adventure of a different sort now. haha Seems like the adventures never stop in this mission.

By the way, you asked, brains are wet and slimy and don't have taste.

well i think that is all for now.

Love you,
Elder Bloomfield

23 January 2011 Elder Christofferson's Visit

Ok, I finally have time to write. Alright so the week went pretty normal as normal could be until Thursday. Thursday all the people from Puerto flew in and all the people in the choir (the mission put together a choir of missionaries to sing for the apostles visit) came to Managua also. We were running around doing stuff for them. Then Friday morning we had the conference with Elder Christofferson and we were told that the church members would do every thing for that and we get there and the conference starts in about an hour and some one tells us that we need to get the computer from the office. So we leave flying into to the office that is like 45 min. round trip. We did some formula 1 driving and got back to the church and we were there for about 2 mins. before Elder Christofferson got there. He got there and the conference was amazing a super spiritual. After the meeting we just had to run errands and all kinds of stuff to help out. We finally got to bed really late.
Then Saturday we had to get up at 5:45 and take 16 elders to the airport so that they could go back to Puerto Cabezas. Then we sat there helping people get onto there plane, by the time we left there and got to the office it was around 11:00am and we hadn't eaten any thing. Every one was writing their families and we got a call from Pres. Arredondo telling us that Elder Christofferson was going to spend the night at his house. It was an all of the sudden thing so they needed our help so he was going to call us back at 2:00 to tell us all the things we need to do. Following all the things that you taught me we went straight to Pres. house to see what his wife needed help with. So we get there and asked Hermana Arredondo what she needs help with and she was just real excited that we came to see what she needed help with. She was real stressed out also, just like you get Mom when someone is coming, she even cried of joy from us helping her or of stress. We left and went and got a lot of stuff she needed then we went back her house to drop the stuff off and show her what we had bought ( the presents for Elder Christofferson & Elder Jensen). Then we went out with the Arredondo kids to buy more stuff. We got back to the house at about 6:00 at night and Elder Christofferson was suppose to get there at 630 so when we got to the house we wrapped the presents, put new pictures in picture frames and swept the floor inside. Then Pres. called and said we needed to clean the back patio before they got there. I was on my hands and knees cleaning the floor when Elder Christofferson knocks on the door, so I grabbed the broom and all the cleaning things and ran to put them in the closet. I put them there and then walked into the living room, when I turned into the living room I saw Elder Jensen, Elder Christofferson, Elder Falabella, Elder Duarte and President Arredondo, holy crap so much power in one room- one apostle and 3 seventies. After that we left and had to go to the eye store with some people we were suppose to be there at 5 but we showed up at 7:30. At 8:00pm we finally got out of the store and the APs call us and are like what have you done today we need 500 pencils and we need 500 small notebooks. The best part is that the APs didn't do any thing all day. They took the day like a normal p-day. So then they call us crying about how we do nothing cause we didn't buy their notebooks. So we went to the nearest book store and buy 500 pencils but they didn't have any notebooks, so we called the APs and told them that they can get the note books. Then we run to another store and we buy stuff for lunch on Sunday. Finally at 10 :00pm I got some McDonalds to eat. It was the first thing I had eaten all day long. After that, we went to the office to see what was up with the note books in the office. The APs weren't there just Elder Holman and Elder Bolton. Elder Holman is the elder that is going to take my place as secretary. He was called to the office on Friday. Anyways they were making the note books. So we helped them out. After we finally got the 500 notebooks done we went back home. That was like 11:45 at night. Of course when we got home the APs were sound asleep. They are so great and were such a great big help. NOT.

Any ways that was my exciting day.

Well
Love you!

Oh one more thing, an apostles testimony of Jesus Christ is one of the most powerful things in the whole world. You can tell that they know with out a doubt that Jesus is alive. It was amazing.

Elder Bloomfield


Kyle is very serious about being a missionary as you can see from the following pictures.




"Bright Eyes" (I think this is Elder Lundquist)

Snack time in the office.

18 January 2011 Another busy week!!

Sorry I haven't written, I have been kinda busy and stuff, but I am here now and I am all yours for about the next 10 min. I figured out another thing that I have gotten really good at and will help me my whole life during the mission. I have to fill out peoples papers so that they can go on missions and I have probably done about 50 so I can help Travis and who ever else wants out so they can go on missions. I even have the powers to put in the bishops and stake presidents comments. haha That's always weird.

Alright so these days have been pretty normal we had choir practice again for when Elder Christoferson comes so that made Monday pretty crazy but things are back to normal now. I don't know if I told you but we played tennis on Saturday for p-day and that was really fun. We might get up and do that again tomorrow morning at like 5.

The kid that we were going to baptize doesn't get along well with his grandpa and that is who he lives with so now that he is on vacations he hasn't been around much at home to teach so that is getting hard but his sister is progressing finally now. So things are looking good for them. The one boy is going to serve a mission for sure. We just need to get him baptized. Last night we had a really fun family home evening with one of the families that Sanders and I baptized. We all read our favorite scriptures it was nice, then we played a game with them. It was way fun. We almost played uno but they wanted to play another game we taught them a couple weeks back.

Oh a kid that I dropped of at the airport to go serve in the Peru mission got to the mtc and realized that he shouldn't be there and that he couldn't really go into the mtc so he came back. Oh and the kid from El Salvador (there was an Elder serving in the El Salvador mission that was transferred to Kyle's mission)said that he knows Elder Cook (a good friend of Kyle's from Arizona). Small world!

Oh also big news, so far we have baptized 51 families this month and there are still 2 weeks to go. That's like more families then Kara's mission in total.

I think that when I leave the office I am going to go to a place where missionaries have never been. I am excited. I have to baptize 2 every day after I get out of the office to reach my goal the office put me back a little.

We have another kid in the office for a little while to do reports of every single missionary and stuff like that. He will also figure out how many baptisms every missionary has and how they help or hurt each ward. It is a lot of work. It sucks to be him.

Well I think that is all for now. I will write you later.
Love you, bye!!!!


A dirty P-day at the Tennis courts. I was not playing while doing hand stands. The racket I had was really dirty on the handle. It was like tar and stuff. It was way gross and messy.

9 January 2011 Another mission adventure-catch the Elder on the run

You don't want to know what I did today.... It was a real adventure....

Alright so lets go through the week. Monday- We had choir practice for when the apostle comes. I wasn't there because I had to get all kinds of stuff ready and buy things for them. I heard that they didn't sing to well and Pres. told them the need to practice more tomorrow (Monday). Let's see what else. We finally have time to work in the area again and I love it. We are able to see our investigators and the recent converts.

I don't know if I have ever told you about Miriam but she is a recent convert. She is awesome and prays and reads the scriptures and is always at church. The only bad thing about her is that she is really crazy. She use to be one of those crazy people that went to those churches that people dance and scream and speak in tongues and fall on the floor and stuff like that, so we go over and teach her son and daughter every other day so we can teach and baptize them but at the same time we are taking all of the apostasy out of the mind of her. The lessons with her are usually really lively. haha. One day we recorded on of the lessons with her. It was so funny after words.

Oh we went to the doctor again with Lundquist this week and things weren't doing to good still with his ingrown toenail it is a little inflamed so we have to go back tomorrow for another check up and they will probably cut his nail of then. So things are looking up for him.

So things at church this week went well we now have a new ward mission leader. He is awesome and always working. He got home from his mission about 3 months ago. He is already married in the temple. The last 2 weeks on Sunday me and Lundquist have been out teaching lessons and we will be in the middle of lessons then his wife and him show up to the same lesson as us. hahah It is real funny.

Today was an exciting day. We got up and went to church every thing real normal. I love this ward. I love going to this ward, but any ways church started at 9 and the APs call us at around 11:30 and said they were on the way to our church to pick us up, but didn't say why. So they come and get us and pick us up and they are like "well one of the elders has gone crazy and beat up his comp and 2 other missionaries packed his bags and got him on a bus coming to Managua". So we ate a fast lunch at the house and went on the search for him. We found the bus that the missionaries described to us and followed it to the bus stop in Managua. At the bus stop the APs got out and we looked for him but didn't see him until he was just about to leave in a taxi. We decided to follow him until he got to where ever he was going. We followed him, there was 3 other people in the taxi with him. To try and not make a scene we just followed the taxi. First the taxi went to almost a block away from our office but went straight instead of turning to the office. Then it was driving like it was going to the old office where the south is now but it drove straight in front of the office and didn't even stop. Then it went to another bus stop so we thought that he was going to try and get a bus back to Panama where he is from, but then the last person in the taxi got out and it was not him. By this time we had drivin across all of Managua following this taxi. Eventually he got out at some hotel so we got out and grabbed his suit case and went to put it in the car, but he got mad and started yelling he hated us and never wanted to see us again and stuff like that. Then he ran into the hotel and was in a room in there for about 20 min. We just hung outside waiting. Eventually he just told us that he just wanted to go home. Now he is in the office talking to his family on the phone and I bought his plane ticket to go home tomorrow.

So just a lot of lame drama. It is really sad that he is going home because I already had to get a plane ticket for one person that we had to send home a few weeks ago and this week we found out that the kid is in prison now. It is sad to think about. Who knows where this other kid will be in 6 weeks. It so sad.

Well I got to go.

Love you
Elder Bloomfield

Later that day Kyle also sent this message:

We took the kid to the airport after all was said and done he was way sad to go home, but he said he had to do it. Personally I think he smoked because he always wore so much cologne but who knows. Also we went and got Elder Lunquist's toe nail fixed, it was so gross. I should have said got Elder Lundquist's toe nail ripped off. haha There is still a little there.

New Year!!!! 1 January 2011

Well its a new year. It is really weird to think about. The full year of 2010 I was on the mission..... time sure flies. So lets see what happened this week. Oh one highlight of the week was when the Elder Goodman flooded the office. Every night the water goes away (most of Nicaragua does not have water at night. They only pump it during the day) here in the office, so he went to the bathroom then went to wash his hands. So he turned on the water but there was no water to come out, so he left and tried another sink the same thing no water and he left it open and forgot to shut the tap, so when the water came back in the morning the sinks filled up with water then over flowed until the whole office was a giant mess. While he played soccer with some of the zones me and Elder Lundquist got to clean it up. It was kinda funny. It started going into the office next door to us and they weren't to happy about that. They kept coming in um and saying "by the way its flooded". It was way helpful because if they wouldn't have told us we wouldn't have noticed the 1 and a 1/2inches of water on the ground. retards.

I got a hair cut this week. Elder Burrows another missionary that was here came back to visit and we ate dinner with him.

Oh so the other missionaries that were in the office before us are setting a really high standard for us. One of them is married and the others are Engaged. Elder Burrows went home when I came to the office in August and he is engaged and getting married in May. Hanks is married and went home in Sep. and Sanders is basically engaged so we have our work set out for us. The area president Elder Clarke told us if we don't get married with in a year of being home we didn't learn any thing on the mission. ha ha ha

Any ways lets see. We have a new investigator Eddie, he is way cool. He use to be a gang member but wants to change his life and stuff. He is really positive, a good funny kid. Just hope he hasn't killed any body. That will make it hard to get baptized.

So last month went really well we baptized 41 families as a mission that is a ton.

We finally went to the doctor for Elder Lundquist's toe (he is Kyle companion and has had an ingrown toe nail for a long time that is very infected -for weeks I have been telling them to get it checked and at Christmas, they agreed they would get it checked as it was green with white stuff coming out they said - yuck) and it is doing better but he has to go back on Tuesday so the doctor can fix his nail up.

Other then that every thing here is great.

Love you and miss you.


Mopping the Office after the flood


Christmas Eve Dinner with the Arredondo's and the Office Elders and those that live near by the mission home.


New Year's Eve Dinner with the Arredondo's at TGIFridays.

Christmas Conference 15 December 2010

The whole mission at the Christmas Conference

The Christmas conference is over and things are almost normal again. Now I am just getting ready for changes and stuff like that. We are staying way busy.

So at our Christmas conference the people that were going home gave there last testimonies. Then we had a music and the spoken word kind of thing. It was real cool, I was in charge of the cool little slide show with pictures of Jesus and the baby and every thing. We had 2 narrators that read the birth of Jesus and after each small narration we had a special musical number for each group. After that we had games. We played volleyball, soccer, dodgeball, obstacle course, and random food eating contests. It was a ton of fun. Every one got sunburned during this part. After that we had lunch. Lunch was amazing. Hermana Arredondo wanted the best food possible so we spent 3000 dollars on food by catering the nicest hotel in Nicaragua to make our food. It was way professional and nice. During lunch we had a gift exchange and the office gave out a gift to all the missionaries. It was way fun. after lunch we had a spiritual part by Pres. then every one went back home. It was way crazy but I think it was worth it. I will attach some photos so you can see how every thing went.

On Friday about 7 kids (new missionaries) from Provo MTC are coming then on Monday 7 Latinos are coming then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 8 missionaries go home. So, we will be doing tons of work in the next week or so. Pres. announced to every one that Elder Christofferson is coming. It was pretty funny. It was right at the end of the conference and people were starting to fall asleep and he said it and every one just jumped up and was paying attention to what was going on. It was funny.

I have good news if Kara was in my mission I would have bought her plane ticket to day but she is not in my mission. It is weird to think she is going home in 2 months. I am like the 8 oldest gringo in the mission and I don't even have 18 months that shows how young our mission is. It is crazy, every one is so young.

I think that is all I have to say this week . I will write later.

Love
Elder Bloomfield


Some deep thinkers!!!


Enjoying their Christmas Conference Dinner


Stuffed!!!!


Two Latino Elders with Elder Taylor Whatcott, Kyle's old companion


Pres. Arredondo with 3 Elders that are going home. The one on the right was Kyle's first companion when he got to Nicaragua. He is from Panama.


Looking so serious


Pretty dirty after the obstacle coarse!!


Looking sweaty and tired


Setting up the obstacle coarse


Obstacle coarse


Office Elders


The Arredondo Family performing at the Christmas Conference


President and Hermana Arredondo's Christmas message




The Office Elders at the end of a busy day.


Notice the great matching ties and hanker chiefs

Here is a link to a Christmas Video that the mission made with all the missionaries:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=124778657584567&comments