From Jordan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jordan Bloomquist
Date: Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 1:26 PM

Dear Crazy family in the USA,
       Life sounds like it is going right along, your Christmas
concert sounds like it was a heap of delight.  Has all the snow melted
there?  We had a Christmas activity on thursday and I guess I didn´t
sunscreen up good enough because I got burnt real bad so no my
forehead is pealing off and probably one day I am going to wake up and
my forehead will just be gone.  Anyway the activity was really fun we
did some relays with water baloons had some pretty intence tug of war
and then had some futbol tournaments my team won three of the games.
What can I say I guess I was just born to be an athlete,  I´m not
trying to brag or anything but it is just so hard when... YOUR the
BEST.  After that we went to a church nearby and had a delious lunch.
= People don´t eat dinner ear they eat a big lunch and then a small
snack called once for dinner, and no I have not eaten anything
discusting yet but I will let you know when I do.
   After Lunch we had an incredible devotional by President Laycock,
like always.  I recently found out that he used to be a lawyer and not
a small time one, he has had some big cases.  So he is very good at
speaking and persuading.
  At the end of the evening we all got together and watched It´s a
wonderful life it meant alot more this time seeing it, I just noticed
a lot of small neat things.
  Anyway that was that.  This week we have been working hard to find
new investigators,  when ever we contact people they always fall
through with the following appointments so it is frusterating.  We do
have to people or I should say they have become good friends, that
have baptismal dates Fabiola and Alan both set for the 26th of
December the day after Christmas, so that will be fun.  But the had
those dates set before I even got here so I didn´t really have
anything to do with those but we still visit them often to keep them
excited for their baptisms.
    Random fact when ever we teach lessons or go into members houses I
show them pictures of my family and when they get to the picture of
you, mom sitting on the bench with me at the provo temple they have
every time asked me if you were either my sister or my girlfriend, and
then they flip out and think that I am lying when I say that it is my
mother, one lady didn´t believe me for a long time and thought I was
lying.   They all ask what you eat, and say you are so beautiful and
young, so I am pretty proud.
     So on Saturday Elder Lyman and I got a call to give talks on
Sunday for 15 minutes each, needless to say my life was shortend about
ten years.  I talked about Christmas and the Greatest Gifts that God
has given us The Holy Ghost and his son Jesus Christ.
To answer the rest of your questions I have not had anything thrown at
me,  there are many dogs here but I have only been afraid for my life
twice and those dogs were both behind bars so everything is good for
the most part the dogs are pretty small.
About the pictures (last week) the one of the back yard is at my
house and the other is in another sector, we don´t have bikes in our
sector we were just borrowing the bikes, but good eye dad, good eye.
I havn´t taken very many pictures because I feel like a tourist when
ever I do but I will try to get better at doing that.  These pictures
are of my pention I will get much more to you next week of my area and
stuff but for now, I love you, God speed and keep up the good work.
Elder Jordan Bloomquist

I Am In Chile!

Dear Family,

 I would like to start out with a cool fact.  ¡I am in Chile ahora!  and I love every bit of it.  I don´t know where to start.  The first day my companion was really sick so we had to stay inside all day and I just studied all day so not to fun.  Our Pention is small and not to cozy but I like it like that because we are motivated to get out and work as fast as we can ha ha.  To take a warm shower here you have to turn on the gas heater ,califont, outside and the water is turned on outside as well so that is pretty fun.  Insted of knocking on doors here we stand at the gate and say ALO or tap on the gate with a peso.  Everyone here has gates and on top of every gate is metal spikes, or if it is a cement wall they have shards of glass and or barbed wire.  I feel pretty safe at night when I lock our gate with spikes and then lock the three deadbolts on our door. 

   The people here are magnificently wonderful but they don´t speak spanish, they speak Chilean which has some of the same words but none of the same sound.  Everyday I learn more though and I am loving it.  My companions name is Elder Lyman and he is the district leader so on Saturday we went to a different sector so he could do some baptismal interviews , the pictures are when we were in that area,  We went to the house of one little girl that was going to get an interview but it was more like a shack kind of like what josh and Becky camped in while there house was being build except they have dirt floors and they have been living there for 11 years now.  We have a couple investigators right now but the biggest problem here is less actives so we go visit them and try to get them regenerated.  They speak so fast and sometimes it is frustrating because most of the time I cant understand what they are saying so I look to my companion he will say the same exact thing in spanish and I will understand him.  But I am working hard to get things down.  It is summer here right now and everyone is singing Christmas songs and have Christmas lights up so it is confusing my little brain that I gots me self inside my head.   Couldn´t be more happy unless all of you guys were here too,  we will have to go on vacation here someday.  

I love you all 

Elder Bloomquist

P.S. 

My address is 

Elder Bloomquist

Chile Santiago East Mission

Pedro de Valdivia 1423

Providencia

29 Santiago 29

Chile

P.P.S.  Just a side note it takes two to three weeks for mail here and a helpful hint if you send a box or letter or anything,  tape a picture of the virgin mary on the seems and no one will touch it,  the will drill through the side before they cut up a picture of her. 

Many Magical Moments

This week offered many magical moments. The first and best being that Jordan called on Monday evening. Of course we were anticipating it, so every time the phone rang my heart would skip a beat and then, when it wasn't him we couldn't help but try to rush people off of the phone. Then Mikayla's seminary teacher called with technical difficulties getting his eclesiatical endorsement to go through online and the deadline was that day, so she had to try and work it out quickly. Luckily Jordan thought to call Fred's cell phone, when the line was busy and I picked it up. There is definitely something magical about hearing your child on the phone after a long absense. He asked us to call him right back and gave us a payphone number. We kept trying to call the number but it would be busy or wouldn't ring through. We tried for 10 minutes and then started panicking, so we looked up the number for the airport we thought he was probably at and asked them to page overhead for him to call back home and then we decided we better say a prayer. So we knelt down and I got as far as addressing Heavenly Father when the phone rang, so, knowing that sometimes all he needs is to hear the thoughts of our hearts, not our words, I closed the prayer and answered the phone. He had a phone card so we were able to talk for about 30 minutes, with him on speaker phone and us passing the phone. He sounded so good. I especially loved hearing him talk to Mikayla about his experiences with his "fake" investigator in the MTC and her real investigator here and he cried. When you invest your heart into something, nothing is "fake".

Another magical event was our snow day on Wednesday. Even Fred got a snowday--somewhat. He still had to record a 2 hour video stream lecture online, but still had time to pull the kids and all their friends around on sleds for a few hours and build an impressive igloo (when I looked out Fred, Abe, Lily, Sophie and Eden were all inside and Eden said she could stand up inside). I didn't go inside because the thought of crawling through that small entrance and being surrounded by all that heavy snow made me claustrophobic, but I was impressed. We got our Christmas tree up and I decorated the whole house while everyone was sledding. We did miss Jordan when it was time to get all of the Christmas boxes down out of the garage attic. He used to jump up to the hole, lift himself up and inside and then lift everything down. Of course we had to get down the big ladder and Fred had to climb it this year, but the end result was just as exciting--opening boxes of magic and memories. We spent the whole day as a family, with cinnamon candles burning, 8" of white outside, Christmas music blaring. Every other activity, besides school was also canceled, which meant Abe had no scouts, and Mikayla, Eden and I had no mutual. It was a perfect day. The kids were hoping to duplicate it on Thursday, but magic is a fleeting thing.

Friday the missionaries came over for dinner. We have a threesome here, because one Elder is waiting for his visa to Mexico to come through and is being mentored in Spanish by one of the companionship. They were delightful young men. You could tell by their conversations that they were very obedient missionaries and full of the Spirit. I thought of Jordan when I prepared dinner and cooked an entire crockpot full of b-b-q chicken for sandwiches. I bought huge buns and toasted them with cheese and they each had two enormous sandwiches. Fred's first wasn't even as big as one of theirs. It was fun to see them enjoy their dinner and think about someone feeding Jordan in Chile. The Igloo was still intact thought it had shrunk considerably and they were excited to take pictures of it. The most adventurous one crawled inside with his suit (that would have been Jordan). They are still little boys in some ways, but you can't help but enjoy watching them entertain themselves in the only way they can for these 2 years and their inspiring message afterwards proved their depth and maturity. Having Jordan on a mission sure makes "feeding the missionaries" take on a whole new dimension of enjoyment.

Of course they asked if we knew anyone who they could teach and we told them Mikayla had a friend she was working with. They surprised us by asking if his name was Jet? Minutes prior to coming over they had received a phone call from our ward mission leader, who said our Bishop had asked him to call and ask them to call Jet. They did and he responded positively to them, but shared that he was worried about his parents reaction. He is 18 so doesn't technically need parental permission to be taught, but I can't help thinking of his mother's heart and how she must be worrying about her son being involved in something that must scare her. I think I will ask Jet's permission to go talk to her. Of course we offered out home for discussions and the missionaries called back Saturday morning with an appointment for this Monday evening. I think Mikayla is still a bit in shock from the whole emotional whirlwind of this experience. I don't think she was prepared for how personal missionary work is. It has been such a uniting experience for her to share back and forth with Jordan.

Fred flies out to Las Vegas tonight for a RT conference right before the 1st Presidency Devotional. It seems like he has missed it for the last few years, because of these conferences, but they are mandatory and useful for him. He never enjoys the atmosphere thought and always tries to find a way for me to go with him, so he doesn't have to endure it alone. It's just so expensive to "be a support" that I haven't been able to justify it. I'll just have to be a long distance support--but maybe one year we'll be able to make it work. I'm not happy to have him gone until Thursday. I know Lori does it constantly, but it doesn't make it any more fun. I'll be so happy when he's home. Even alone, I'm looking forward to the Christmas Devotional immensely--that is always the true start to the "meaning of the season".

The Igloo on Thursday morning

The Elders and Igloo--significantly shrunken on Friday night

The first of two teeth --lost in two days

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Posted By Bloomers to KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES at 12/05/2010 10:41:00 AM

Hello from the Santiago East Mission!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Chile Santiago East Mission <2013444@ldschurch.org>
Date: Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 3:54 PM
Subject: Hello from the Santiago East Mission!
To: "fredbloo92@gmail.com" <fredbloo92@gmail.com>, "crogys@gmail.com" <crogys@gmail.com>

Dear Brother and Sister Bloomquist,

We are happy to report the safe arrival of your son to the Chile Santiago East Mission.  We feel blessed to have the opportunity to work closely with him in this part of the Lord's vineyard. We are excited to share this great mission experience with you and your missionary and are confident that blessings await your entire family as a result of your consecration of time talents and resources to make this mission service possible.  Please know of our sincere concern for the welfare and eternal progress for Elder Bloomquist.  We pledge our untiring efforts to make this experience both meaningful and successful for your missionary.

                                                                                  With love,                                                                                                                                                   

           President and Sister Laycock

Attached is a letter from your missionary and a photo with us of when he arrived.  Enjoy browsing our mission website by clicking on the following link: 

                   www.santiagomissioneast.blogspot.com