Well that's pretty neat that one of their neighbors was on the same flight, what a small world it is indeed with this Mormon clan (Hilari and Tucker left the MTC to go into the mission field. One of Hilari's neighbor's happened to be on the same flight to Calif. and they took a picture and text it to Bryan and Darci). Soo umm Dad said something about poisoning Hershey (we had set up some poisonous bait houses in the back yard to kill some unwanted friends. They claimed they were dog proof, but not for our dog, Hershey. He ate the poison and had to have plasma and two blood transfusions as he was bleeding to death internally)? When were you planning on telling me about that (I sent him a long letter telling him the whole story from start to end, but he did not receive it yet)? Perhaps it will be like a kryptonite sorta thing and he will become a super dog. superrrrrr genki desu (thats what Elder Wood always says). Well this week one of the more odd things occurred, well actually two things, one quite a bit more disturbing than the other. The first one was I was walking in the cafeteria and all the sudden some sister asks me hey Elder Bloomfield! did you by chance happen to grow up in Malaysia at all? I was like ummmm yeah for a couple of years. and she was like yeah and your older siblings are Kara and Kyle?? I was like umm yep that sure is me! So her name is Sister Orgill. She said that you and her mom were like best buds or somethin like that who knows. How she remembers all the way back to Malaysia and what I look like I have no idea either. She was like you used to be so small then! (I was thinkin well yeah you were most likely pretty small yourself sister). Yeah I was quite mind boggled as to how she remembered us all the way back to Malaysia. Props to her. She seems like a real neat sister too. Always so superrr genki desu. The second thing that was just oh so odd was (I'm guessing she had just gone to the bathroom or something) one of the sisters walked by our room and she happened to have the bottom of her skirt tucked up into the top part of her garment. She must have caught her skirt when she was pulling it back up but I thought you might get a lil giggle out of that. The worst part was she was going in to teach one of the pretend investigators but my companion and I didn't know what to say. So hopefully she got that figured out just before she walked in to teach the lesson but who knows. It was pretty funny though.
Our devotional on Sunday was real neat. We watched various commercials and then had a message with each one. Maybe if you could find them you could use them in a fhe or something but I'll describe em to ya since I still have half an hour.
fhe provided by Elder Bloomfield: The following are commercials the church published like 15 years ago or somethin like that. If possible try to look them up. Not sure if you will find them though.
Commercial 1: a girl practicing the piano and doing an awful job, also a boy throwing a baseball and being completely inaccurate... their teacher yells at them out of frustration and demands that they do better. They then surprisingly execute with exactness.
Message: "when everything says that you can't, believe in the part of you that says you can."
Commercial 2: two kids who are super embarrassed about how they look, one has braces, one is super embarrassed about his glasses he has to wear, all the kids laugh at them but they smile at each other. Message: "it's not who you aren't, it's who you are."
- Travis input, don't worry about what others at school may think of you and don't try to impress them, be yourself and who you've been raised to be.
Commercial 3: a child continuously asking their father to play or read to her but he is always working and continuously tells her not now honey daddy is busy, we will do that in a bit just let daddy work for a bit. Message: "it's often life's small moments that you remember most, don't let them pass you by."
-On that note could you send me an email of some of dad's greatest moments and other neat family memories? just like one line recaps that you guys think of and I will remember what happened and write it down.
Commercial 4: a child calls her parent who is with co-workers and tells him he loves her lots but the dad never says it back because he wants to act tough in front of his co-worker friends.
Message: "the people in your heart, can't hear your heart, let them know how you feel, tell them you love them."
Commercial 5: they had two little 2 year olds fighting over a toy and such with adult voice overs arguing about small things that don't really even matter.
Message: "if you think childish arguments don't hurt your companionship, you are wrong."
-companionship can be any relationship with any friend, sibling, parent, child, or spouse. It drives the spirit away and leaves uneasiness in the room only inviting more arguing to occur.
Commercial 6 (this one was called "splash" i remember): was about a small girl about 7 years old who was on a swim team who never won any relay and made her team come in dead last every time but still brought more to the team than any other swimmer because she had leg disabilities and had very small control over her legs at all. She gave her all in every race.
Message: "whatever you do in life, just DO YOUR BEST"
-Elder Bloomfield input, I think now would be a good time to relay a favorite quote of mine that Mason you can find in pmg (Preach My Gospel) on page 146. "I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life." -Elder M. Russell Ballard. So if you want to go anywhere in life, one must first set a goal or else he will have no ambition to go anywhere.
Other messages I got from the devotional that weren't directly from a commercial were to always listen to the promptings of the spirit, always, always, do not ignore it. as a missionary, at the end of the day ask yourself, "today... was the Holy Ghost my senior companion? Was he my junior companion? Was he my companion at all? Or did I ignore every opportunity?"
Also if there is time at the end one could watch the following Mormon messages that weren't from the devotional but I found to be really great.
------Mountains to Climb (my favorite one, watch this one)------------
-Hope you know we had a hard time
-Earthly Father, Heavenly Father
-Men's ears shall fail them
-Moments that matter most - Hey Kara, Kyle and Kyoshi, do you remember Alex from our intramural soccer team? The one that didn't ever play defence? He is in this one for a lil bit. When I was watching I was like holyyyy moly check that out!
Anyway, yeah that's that. Also I sent you guys a Fathers Day card, were you already camping by then or did you happen to get it? The nihongo is a real neat time. I quite enjoy it. After the devotional on Sunday I said goodbye to Tucker and Hilari cause they left in the wee hours of the morning on Monday as you know. It was real cool getting to see Hil and talk to her like 4 times a day, a nice family break from all the strangers we are now with. They will be awesome missionaries. Hopefully Tucker will get his visa soon (his visa for entry into Argentina did not come, so they temporarily reassigned him to Oregon until it comes). Tucker and Hilari cried when they were hugging and saying goodbye. First time I've ever heard of the man crying. It was a real tender moment. Well time to go now. Talk to you all later. Enjoy the fhe lesson. watashi wa mina san o ai shitte imasu.
Elder Bloomfield
Saying good bye for about 22 months while they all go their seperate ways to serve the Lord.
This is their final good bye. Such a tender time and incredible experience to serve at the same time.
Thought for this week:
