Bledsoe in Brazil : ultimo semana!

Super eventful week. I will try to write brief highlights about it all:

In district meeting this week, our district leader had the best object lesson ever. Elder West (district leader) bought a chocolate cake and put Elder Lowe into a trash bag (to make sure he didn't get cake all over his clothes), had him sit down, and told him to eat everything that he puts in front of his face.

Elder West: "Eat the cake. Why aren't you eating it? Eat more. Your mouth is bigger than that. Ok. Swallow. Eat more, you must be so hungry."

Elder West proceeded to cram chocolate cake into Elder Lowe's mouth. Elder Lowe got pretty mad and ended up spitting most of it out except for a few crumbs.

Then Elder West had me put on the trash bag, and asked me to sit down. He cut a piece of cake and asked me how much I wanted to start off with. I wanted a smallish piece to start with and then he asked me how I wanted to eat it. I told him that I wanted to eat smallish bites. He gave me some then let me chew and swallow then he asked me if I wanted more. I said yes. I ate until the piece was gone. I was happy and content.

That is how we have to feed people the gospel: slow; let them chew/think; figure out how they eat/learn and feed them/teach accordingly.

I realized that sometimes I really overwhelm people when I teach a whole lesson/cram the cake down their throat :) I loved that object lesson. It was delicious too :)

We met with our ward mission leader in 2nd ward, Dexter Prall, and he asked us if we were memorizing scriptures. We told him that we weren't. We did at the beginning of my time in Page, but we hadn't been lately. We thought that we would be stronger and more powerful teachers (earn the trust of the members) if we memorized scriptures from the Bible and used them in our lessons. So far it has been awesome! It has strengthened my testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a New Testament Church, not a Post-New Testament church. I know that feasting on the words of Christ and memorizing them has power. As Brother Prall said, "Give the Spirit a few building blocks."

We had a cool lesson with Draven, a 10 year old who really wants to be baptized. His grandmother was in the lesson because she is visiting from the rez. She was probably paying more attention than Draven was because his siblings were being really noisy and his parents were talking over the lesson; Draven's mom is a less-active member and his dad is a not a member of the church. I didn't really feel like he was really getting anything out of the lesson. We were teaching the Plan of Salvation and he is really smart and answered all of our questions, but I didn't feel like this lesson was very spiritually uplifting. At the end of the lesson, I felt impressed to open up my scriptures. I originally had no idea what scripture I wanted to share but as I opened up my scriptures I thought about Alma's description of his joy in Alma 36. I read: " 20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain! 21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy. 22 Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there." I was thinking about that as I read it and I felt very strongly like my testimony is a lot like Alma's; his soul longed to be with God because of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the nature of God that he received. I know that the Plan of Salvation teaches us those full and complete truths. It was awesome. We all, including Draven's grandmother, talked about his much the gospel has blessed our lives. It was a beautiful lesson.

Stake Conference was this weekend: It was awesome! Lots of talks about missionary work and family history. I loved it! I will include pictures of our ward mission leaders talk, it was hilarious. He gave us a copy to read before conference and he put it in a sealed envelope that had "CONFIDENTIAL" stamped on the front. Sister Askren also spoke and did a great job. A youth speaker also spoke about missionary work and the importance of the Holy Ghost; she said, "He (the Holy Ghost) understands the situation much better than you do"--so true. And our stake President opened his talk with "Many of you are here today because of the full-time missionaries." One of our investigators, Sylvia, was there so that made me happy. He also counseled the stake, "Missionaries are full-time teachers. We are full-time finders." awesome.

Tim Fielden also got baptized on Saturday! so cool because soooo many ward members came to support him; the entire room was filled. Our district leader said that he never saw a convert baptism with this many people :):):) that meant a lot. We love our wards! After the adult session of stake conference, the ward had an impromptu ward party at a really good burger place called Slackers. They paid for our dinner and it was awesome. The entire restaurant was filled with the ward. It made me happy to see everyone there, especially the less-actives that we have been working with. It was way cool.

Also we had a lesson with Sylvia this week where we planned on reading Alma 36 with her. She enjoyed it and at the end, she said, "It's so weird. It's like you can read my mind. Every time you come over, we read something that helps me with arguments that I just had with Myron(her husband). It's so weird." I was like--Yes! The Spirit! It was epic.

Also Kelly is epic. She did family history with us at the family history center on Thursday night, and she went to the St. George temple this weekend with Erika! Most of the recent converts in the past couple of years here still haven't been to the temple. Kelly is stellar. 'Nuff said.

Oh and on Wednesday morning, Sister Askren told me that she woke up in the middle of the night because I was speaking Portuguese in my sleep! She said it was pretty loud and really animated, like more animated than I ever am when I am awake. I laughed so hard. Apparently, I am subconsciously really excited to go to Brazil... :)

And I also made a wager that I am rethinking. Jason, an investigator, said he will only read Our Search for Happiness, if I read one of his books. It is by a Christian preacher in Texas; I think the book is called Become a Better You--it is a cheesy self-help book from the looks of the cove. I agreed. What was I thinking? we will see about this...

Cool quotes:

-"We are not just building a temple; the Lord is building us." -from the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration video

-Say "Help me" instead of "why me"

Love you!

-Sister Bledsoe

Also if you send me a letter, it has to be to my actual address, not the mission home because the post office doesn't forward mail anymore. My new address is:

"PO Box 86

Page, AZ 86040"