Dear Mom and Dad,                                                                                                                                       July 18, 2016

This past Saturday, after 3, nearly 4 years of investigating the church and doing all he could to get to church, John F was baptized.  With permission from President Henrie, I was able to attend.  The six weeks in Van Nuys were worth it to eventually see him enter the waters of baptism and make his commitment and covenant to follow the Savior for the rest of his life.

Alright, let’s go back to Monday, shall we?  While Elder Agamata was busy emailing, I drew my first of twelve temple.  I drew the Nauvoo temple.  It turned out surprisingly well (see attached pictures)!  I was super nervous about it as I hadn’t drawn that much in nearly 5 years or more!  This week’s temple will be slightly closer – Chicago.

For studies this week, I got through chapter 40 of James E Talmage’s book, “Jesus the Christ.”  I only need to read 2 more chapters and then I will be done with it.  My thoughts for a study goal, in addition to finishing the Bible as I have already been working on is to take a copy of a teaching record and study each point of the teaching record.

I haven’t felt nearly as depressed as I did last week.  I would say that Elder Agamata is still too strict and doesn’t allow me the breathing space I need, but I think we’re getting along more now.  He is still quite dominating in planning which I’m not quite fond of.

This week, we had Zone Conference.  Our district sang a song as a special musical number, while I played the piano.  We performed “I Love the Lord.”  It turned out really well.  It was also nice to be able to receive instruction from President and Sister Henrie.

Finally on Sunday, the stake had a singles devotional (30-death) and I was asked to play the organ for it.  I did so, but the featured speaker was phenomenal!  His name is Doctor Gregg Olson and he is a cardiologist.  He spoke on miracles and while we don’t quite know how the Priesthood and blessings restore the body to its natural state, we do know how things such as leprosy work, and eat away at the body and how the ears (hear) and eyes see, but we don’t quite know how to put them back together like Divine intervention can.  Dr. Olson had something really profound – for all we know the man whom was blind since birth may have in the pre-mortal existence been given the assignment to be blind so that he could be a vehicle for the Savior to prove His divinity.  So to have we been given specific assignments for the same reason.

Love Elder Allen Blodgett

P.S. I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to be out on my mission.  Elder Agamata decided to call President Henrie because I was using a computer to send pictures home.  I’m so angry.  That everybody’s trying to control my agency.  I am simply trying to do what is right but everybody tells me that I’m not doing the right thing.  This sucks.

It has been a rough week for me.  It feel as if I were the Prophet Joseph Smith, who in the Liberty Jail, in a feeling of abandonment and recognizing the magnitude of his calling was depressed. He even asked God: “O God, where art though?  Where is the pavilion that coverest thy hiding place”  (D&C 121:1).

This week and the week prior, I myself am having these same feelings as the Prophet Joseph.  I don’t understand why I am going through the challenges that I face (not having the self-control to stay off a computer, having a companion who I feel does not trust me, and treats me as if I am being disobedient all the time).  What would the Lord have me learn from this, and when will it be over?  This past week after having all this frustration with myself and I suppose others s well, I met with President Henrie.  I would say that it has helped a little bit.  He did provide me a little encouragement.  He taught me from “Preach My Gospel”  (pp 10-11) about how I shouldn’t compare myself with other missionaries and how the surest way to measure the success of a missionary is by their commitment to baptize the people they meet, recognizing that the investigators have their agency.  He encouraged me to study “Adjusting to Missionary Life” and to study “Safeguards for Using Technology.”

I did as instructed and learned several ideas for how to be safe on the computer (eg. Keeping track of the activities I do on the computer). Plus, I learned several ways to combat (or at least try and combat) the negative thoughts I’ve been facing by doing as it says to do in “Adjusting to Missionary Life” and that is to aggressively fight off thoughts of inadequacy.

I don’t know how long these feeling will continue or if they will ever go away on the mission.  But, this much I do know:  “My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be for a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well … know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.  The Son of Man hath descended below them all.  Art thou greater than he?  Therefore, hold on thy way.  Thy days are known (next May); therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.”  (D&C 121:7-8 and D”&C 122:7-9).  How blessed we are to have that struggle of the Prophet Joseph Smith and God’s answer to his cries for comfort recorded as scripture!

So, after a lot of thought, pondering, and praying; I decided to attempt to at least reduce the amount of time I spend on a computer – for at this time I would appear to lack the ability to stay off of them entirely is to send my picture home in as little time as it takes, then find a picture of a temple on LDS.org and draw it.  Even after I get my email privileges restored, I’m going to email and send pictures home real fast so I can still draw.  I want several perhaps 10-12 drawings of temples done before the end of my mission.

Anyways, the rest of the week went as follows:  Monday, seeing as it was the fourth of July and was not preparation day, I believe you already know what we did.  Tuesday was preparation day and we did a lot of fun games as a zone before having a lesson with our investigator Mel and his friend Antonio whom we picked up as a new investigator.

Wednesday was when we met with President Henri and we had weekly planning.  Thursday was district meeting and we had a really awesome video shown to us which was a talk given by Elder Jeffrey R Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the MTC, similar to a semi-recent talk he gave (probably 2012 or 2013) about Peter and Jesus telling him to “Feed my sheep.”  We also picked up a young couple as investigators during KO (knock out).

Friday, we had dinner with a member who invited their friend to have dinner and a “message”, we picked him up as an investigator; but, he lives in Simi Valley, so I’m not sure how long we’ll actually be teaching him.

Saturday, we taught our recent convert Leo about temples and temple work – my favorite!  Then we tried going by potentials all day long with no success.

Sunday, we had an awesome day at church.  We didn’t have to teach gospel principals for the first time since I’ve been here in Tarzana.  Phew!  We had a lesson on temples in priesthood, plus we picked up a new investigator at dinner who also invited a friend over and thankfully, he actually lives in our area!

Elder Allen Blodgett

Two significant miracles occurred during the past few days.  One – the temperatures have given us a bit of a break.  WE only have highs in the mid to upper 80’s instead of upper 90’s and lower 100’s.  Two – I’ve lost a pound and a half this week.  I’m now down to 212 pounds.  I definitely want to lose another two pounds so I can be at the same weight I was at when I came out, and if I can manage to do so, I want to get down an additional ten pounds to 200 pounds.  I’ve been running an average of two and a half to three miles every day except Sunday.  In fact, I just might run a 5K when I get back home.

I write to you again on a Tuesday again because of two things (there would appear to be a pattern of twos).  One – President Henrie wants us to work on holidays that fall on Mondays.  Two – the mail doesn’t operate on the Fourth, so by the time I prepare pictures and get the letter in the mail, it’s Tuesday evening.

This week, we had to drop one of our investigators, Chris.  He wasn’t very interested after all, he merely wanted to come along with his less active friend.  We met with Mel again this week, sadly he hasn’t come to church yet,  but we might be going to the visitor’s center with him tomorrow (Wednesday).

As I said in last week’s letter, Elder Agamata will probably be the companion I will have the most difficulty getting along with.  I get the impression that he doesn’t trust me.  I’m not sure why.  Every time he wants clarification on a rule he goes straight to the zone leaders even after I explain my understanding of it.  That kind of bugs me, plus he completely takes over planning and if it’s not his plan he doesn’t like it.  I’ve never wanted a new companion at the end of a transfer so badly before.   I do appreciate his hardworking attitude – that is something I feel that I have as well, but I feel like I need to have some room to grow and he’s not giving me that room at all.  It’s really hard to feel like I am a good missionary when he criticizes me for being late to studies or for doing missionary work in a way that is different to him.

Anyways, now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’ve been a little depressed about the whole situation regarding email.  I feel like I’m not murmuring.  I’ve been trying really hard to be obedient with them and not spend too much time on them.  As I have proven, when I set my mind to accomplishing things (such as my weight loss), I succeed.  For some reason or another I simply can’t seem to get this particular matter under control.  My mind, heart and body simply don’t seem to be able to accomplish this task, so I don’t get why I’m still being punished (because, let’s face it, this is a punishment and President Henrie, even if he is not trying is making me feel miserable).  Will you please call him and ask him to remove this restriction?

Since yesterday was the Fourth, we had an early curfew of 7pm.  We quickly ate dinner and had our nightly planning before sitting out on our patio to watch Meet the Mormons (Elder Agamata has a copy of the DVD) / watching fireworks (see attached pictures).

Have a great week!

Love Elder Allen J Blodgett

This week was transfers.  I’m still in Tarzana, but for obvious reasons, seeing as Elder Thompson’s mission came to an end, I have a new companion.  His name is Elder Agamata. He has some Japanese blood ancestry in him, hence his name, and is from the Philippines!  Far, far away.

This has been probably the biggest adjustment thus far in terms of getting used to companions, ie. His accent, his personality, not having grown up in the United States, etc.  Other than that he’s a great guy, and is a hard worker, which is how I prefer all my companions to be, but you take what you get.

Anyways, it’s been a nice week for us.  After a week of the gym being closed for renovations at our apartment complex, it reopened, which was nice to be able to use the treadmill and weight equipment again.

We did service at operation gratitude several times this week, plus we went and did service at a food pantry by serving some homeless people dinner one evening.

We met with our investigator Mel again and he accepted a new baptismal date, but sadly was not at church yet again.  We also picked up a few new people as new investigators.  One was purely accidental.  We had set an appointment to meet with a less active member who brought a friend with him and is willing to learn more.  The other two were a couple that we had a return appointment with set for 3 or 4 weeks and when we showed up, they were willing to let us in.  I’m not sure exactly how receptive they are, especially considering our return appointment is in 3 weeks. I guess we’ll see.

I’m nearing completion of (the book), Jesus the Christ.  I recently read the chapter concerning when he had died through his resurrection.  I don’t know if there is a specific ordinance he had not yet received, but there is a definite difference between when we die and our bodies and spirits separate and go to the spirit world versus when we will actually talk face-to-face with our Heavenly Father.  Christ had simply not yet received his Celestialized body, which means he could have his judgement with the father yet when he appeared to Mary Magdelene.  We don’t know what the process is about receiving our resurrected perfected bodies and facing the judgement bar and probably won’t until we go through it ourselves.

Church yesterday was fantastic.  I really liked a talk that was given in Sacrament (meeting on Sunday).  How many times have you heard the following phrase? “ … that the Spirit may be with them …”  I’ll tell you as soon as you send me your answer and what you think his talk was about.

Say, my birthday is coming up quickly.  I believe Payless is currently having a BOGO sale right now.  I don’t know how much their shoes are, but if not too expensive my request for an additional gift is the new Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD, the full length Handel’s “Messiah.”  (http://motab.org/Messiah)

Love, Elder Allen Blodgett
written 6/27/16

As I suppose you might be able to assume, it’s hot around here right now.  At the time of writing of this email (hand written on paper), it is awfully hot outside.  In fact, today (Monday) the high temperature is around 110°F.

Also, as you can tell, I’ve emailed you (sent via US mail).  To put it simply, the more I think about it, some thing I heard recently has really applied to me and this situation.  What I heard was unless you set a goal for yourself you are not very likely to actually have the motivation to reach for the goal and make the changes that come from attempting to reach for that goal.  Because of the fact that President Henrie tried to set a goal for me (to just not touch a computer ever), the self-motivation to reach for it has never come to me.  I tried to gain it, I prayed for it, but to simply not use a computer does not feel like the battle I need to fight right now.

DO NOT tell me that because of what I’ve said thus far means that I’m addicted or that I’m not being humble or anything to that effect.  That is neither yours nor President Henrie’s responsibility.  It is solely mine to realize and figure out what needs changing in my life.  People are free to give constructive feedback, but nobody can force anybody to make any changes in their lives.

That said, all is well.  I’m happy to hear that an offer was made so quickly on Grandma’s house!  It’s also exciting to hear that the move went well.

This week was our mission temple trip.  It was a big headache just to get there.  Because of somebody’s poor planning, Elder Thompson’s departing temple trip was on the same day  / time as half the mission.  My half was going another day.  Because we were going on separate days, it made it confusing as to who we needed to be with so we could still have a companion.  Any ways, we both made it and it was fantastic!

On Sunday, we were able to attend a baptism.  We had received word that one of our investigators in Van Nuys was getting baptized, but when we arrived we found out that it has been cancelled, but there was another baptism going on so we sat in on that one.

We were able to meet with Mel this week again and we read the Book of Mormon.  Leo is also doing well, he is active and we’ve been meeting with him almost every week.

We did a lot of service again this week for Operation Gratitude. They had an assembly day on Saturday and we helped them by teaching people to make paracord bracelets.

Last week for our zone preparation day activity, we went on a hike / scavenger hunt.  It was super fun.  Also, the gym in our complex was closed this week for renovations so we went to various trails though out our area for exercise this week.

Love, Elder Allen Blodgett
written 6/20/16

Note from Elder Blodgett’s mom – once again I was behind in posting letters, so I’m posting some photos from the past 6-7 weeks in a single post. We are still waiting to receive the letter he likely wrote June 20, 2016.

What an interesting week it’s been.  We’ve met a lot of cool people and had a few interesting experiences.  We had an awesome zone activity last p-day which was a lot of fun.  We had a BBQ, filled with amazing hamburgers and some interesting games.

For some reason or another, we were unable to meet with the people that we’ve been working with.  Mel was still getting over jet lag from going to France and Leo we couldn’t contact.

We again did service at Operation Gratitude this week a couple of time making bracelets and sorting donations.  We also helped a family move some furniture from their old apartment to their new home.  Afterwards, they were having lunch with a member from the Chatsworth Ward, and they invited us, so it was really nice to see them again.

Our weekend is when things got interesting.  On Sunday, we both gave talks in Sacrament Meeting.  My talk again happened to be on missionary work.  A funny experience happened on Sunday as well as we were driving to knock out when I spilled my water on our ward list so we decided to stick out our ward list out the window so it could dry out.  What happened (this while we were going at about 35mph) was most of our ward lit got blown out of my hands. We then turned around as soon as we figured out what had happened and as we found it, it was still intact.  Then we stopped and just as we got out of our car and another car had run over it and it completely blew apart.  We were able to collect all the pages and it is now full of tread marks!

Going back to Saturday, we went up to our complex gym when we got there, we found out it is closed for the week for renovation.  On our way back, I noticed a chair placed by the trash room.  I grabbed it so now I have a nice office chair for my study desk.

And now back to Sunday, we went up to the pool/gym area so I could grill some steaks. I love grilling!

Love you all,
Elder Allen Blodgett
written 6/13/16

I hope all is well back there in Wisconsin.  Did Grandma “officially” move yet? It’s been a good, short, week here.

Tuesday evening and as well Saturday morning we were able to meet with and continue going over the recent convert discussions with Leo.  He’s progressing well and is excited to keep moving forward in his new-found faith.

Wednesday was a bit of a wacky day.  We had to go shopping on Wednesday instead of Tuesday because we didn’t get our cards reloaded until Wednesday morning.  I ended up buying a 9 pound half ham.  It has and still is delicious.  We had an appointment with a less active member who gave us a really slick knife. It’s safe to say it’s not leaving my suitcase for the remainder of my mission.  On Wednesday we also met with our investigator Mel, who left for France the next day for a few day tour with his Mom’s band.

On Thursday we did some service for Operation Gratitude which is always fun and we also had an exchange with our district leaders.  It was fun being with Elder Engle who has a lot of awesome jokes and stories.  We were supposed to have splits with the High Priest Group, but it didn’t pan out so we had coordination meeting instead.  On Friday we had our monthly zone training meeting.  It was nice and it seemed much more motivating than the previous few.

On Saturday, we had the chance to help a member in a nearby area move in as well as beginning our fast as after lunch as we didn’t have a dinner that day.  As a zone, we had a begin our fast meeting (despite the fact that we came already fasting) which was super awesome.

Church was great, we had a really cool lesson about the temple in priesthood based on Elder Quentin L Cook’s recent General Conference talk.  We also had an impromptu zone testimony meeting later in the afternoon, which was really spiritual.

Honestly, I’m so done with this stupid computer restriction.  The impression I received while fasting is that it has gone on long enough and that said, I plan on emailing again beginning next week (you can start emailing me beginning June 20^th).  I’ve wondered over and over again why God has given me the talents or gifts of using computers.  I still l recall hating typing classes in elementary school and as I learned to do it, I enjoyed it.  Then, I learned about setting up for church broadcasts and other church media needs.  Then I took that knowledge a step further after you insisted I take a computer repair class.  I don’t know the exact reason why those things came to be, but I do feel like god has given them to me at least in some small way to grow his Kingdom on the earth.  I feel like there is potential President Henrie is preventing me from having, and I also feel that by not having my computer/email “privileges” right now is preventing me from sharing the gospel in ways that will reach the hearts of those I might not otherwise be able to find.

Love, Elder Allen Blodgett
written 6/7/16

So your letter today will be arriving a little later than usual as preparation day was postponed by one day due to Memorial Day.

It has been a hectic, busy week.  This had made for a fairly fun week for us.  For starters, we had several exchanges with our zone leaders and our district leaders.  We also were able to meet with one of our investigators for the first time since we’ve been in Tarzana.  Plus, we taught Primary on Sunday.

We had a really crazy exchange with our zone leaders.  We exchanged really late at night, around 9:30pm, and the zone leader that was coming here for the day didn’t have a chance to pack up and bring his stuff here.  So, all five of us (they are in a trio) piled up in their car and we all slept in their apartment for the night.  Then, several times through the day we temporarily exchanged back at district meeting and other times before the actual exchange ended around 9:30pm the next day and we didn’t get home until nearly 10pm.

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to meet with our investigator Mel.  He has been meeting with missionaries for several years and has struggled to come to church.  He used to work on Sundays but no longer works for the company that he worked at on Sundays.  He said that he was going to be at church this past Sunday but never showed up.

We also had a mini-exchange with our district leaders this week.  We exchanged during knock out and I went into the Spanish area.  We knocked in a complex where nine out of ten people spoke Spanish so I didn’t have much opportunity to speak.  Something cool that happened was I saw this bird perched on the railing of the second floor so I took out a pass-along card and flung it at the bird and I hit it.

We were asked several weeks ago by the primary president in the ward to do the sharing time activity.  So, once a month they have a guest come in and portray a prophet in the Book of Mormon.  So, we portrayed Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty.  We found an old bed sheet in our apartment and ripped it up, with the help of the kids and they made their own titles of liberty.  The primary pianist also happened to be out of town, so I substituted.

We did some service again this week.  WE spent several hours at Operation Gratitude and made a lot of paracord bracelets.  Then, we also helped a less active member in a nearby ward clean up his house before they move in next week.  They had already moved in their baby grand and they let me play it.  I just learned “Bring Him Home”, from “Les Miserables”.

Love, Elder Allen Blodgett
written 5/31/16

This week has been good for us.  So, working a little backwards, we were finally able to meet our ward – the entire ward – this past Sunday.  I’m a firm believer of getting to know the members of the ward will do far more to increase the effectiveness of our work than does merely knocking on doors.

Also, this past week we had the opportunity to meet with our recent convert Leo, who was baptized one week prior to our arrival.  He just received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday and the recent convert lessons are going well with him.

This past week we had some time to go to Operation Gratitude again.  I love that place – it’s a really fun place to do a variety of types of service for people in the Armed Forces.

We also did some service for a non-member in one of the nearby wards who is moving and helped her pack things in to her car to be donated to a thrift store so she has less things to move with her.

Despite the fact that I don’t feel that I am addicted to the use of computers, I am still going through, at President Henrie’s request, the Addiction Recovery Program book and am enjoying that.  I still want my computer restriction removed though, it’s been going on for long enough now.

Hopefully everything is going well for Grandma’s move.  There are times that I wouldn’t mind helping, then I remember two things.  One, that I’m in California; two, when we moved.  Thank, I think to myself, it’s okay.

Love, Elder Allen Blodgett

P.S.  Send more envelopes/stamps.

written 5/24/16