Out and About

The work is picking up slowly but surely and I am looking forward to another week of bringing the fullness of the gospel to the people of Bristol. On Tuesday we had the task of creating a post for the zone Facebook page so that was pretty interesting. If you would like to check it out go hit up the Representatives of Jesus Christ in Kingsport page. Sorry if it's a little confusing, wasn't my idea.

Wednesday I went on exchanges with the district leader and the highlight of that was probably when we visited Sue. She lived quite a ways away in a valley high up in some mountains. The drive was beautiful and I'm considering living here. Sue is an amazing lady with unbelievable faith, her daughter isn't in the best situation and Sue is building a trailer house for her to live in. We explained the plan of salvation and she was blown away. She felt the spirit strongly and we can't wait to get back to her.

Taught another lady named Vicky and her super cool grandson Aiden all about prayer and they were all for it planning on praying as a family ever night. Aiden thanked us for "coming to by to talk about Jesus"(in an extremely southern accent). While we were waiting for our appointment with Vicky we were in a trailer park and lots of people were out so we may have done some illegal tracting, sorry.

One lady in particular loved our message and took a copy of the Book of Mormon. She has 5 kids all under the age of six while in school so we focused on the peace and guidance of the gospel and I can't wait to talk more with her. Along with her we were able to schedule a lot more lessons for this week.

We held a farewell for our mission President on Thursday and I was able to meet a ton of guys from the surrounding areas. President Pickett told a bunch of great stories but also taught about the love of God. "His love never ceases," it is always there no matter what we are going through, if you can't feel that then turn to Christ.

Going to church yesterday was amazing again and we even have a couple dinner appointments set up with the member this week. Still surviving in motel room and learning more and more. My thumbs are kinda sore from being on the phone all day, not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Cuidanse mucho ok!!

Great week in Tennessee/Virginia!

Great week in Tennessee/Virginia! I'm learning so much about being a missionary in the states and I'm becoming accustomed to the daily routines. Transfers were this past week and we have a new district leader, he is the most genuine person I've met and cares so much about the work. I am now the oldest Elder which is crazy but we're all new to the area figuring it out together. We had an amazing district council and finally met everyone in person rather than through the daily video call devotionals we do. We did some amazing role plays focused on the divine mission of Jesus Christ and another sister and I were able to practice in Spanish a little too. I saw fireflies for the first time which was amazing! I caught a couple and released them into our motel room for some company.
As for food, we've been blessed with a ton of gift cards from the relief society president and treated ourselves to Olive Garden one night. The people are insanely nice and I still have not met someone even sorta mean.
Also, yesterday we went to church! It was so amazing to meet everyone in person and talk to them. The building held three meetings, one for mask-only, and the others for the two wards. We stayed all three and helped do sacrament and clean between services. It is so warming to see the church run with care and pure dedication. The testimony meetings were amazing and I was able to introduce myself and my desires to help the ward in any way.
We finally got the area book situated and we set up a ton of lessons for this coming week. Pretty much everyone was open to us and I couldn't believe it, finally looking in the right place. Personal study has been going great and having access to videos online is a huge blessings in furthering my studies and understanding new ways to explain to people the joy of the gospel.
I listened to an audio clip titled "Conversion of a Catholic Priest" by Bill Carpenter and it's amazing so check that out if you can. Hope all is well for everyone else and you're taking things on one by one. Going into the week strong but keeping my knees high because there's always going to be some hurdles to get past, looking forward to it.
Elder Blazzard

Area 3 - Bristol TN

First Week in Tennessee Knoxville Mission

I'm back on board as a missionary again and am stationed out in good ol' Tennessee. Started off a little rocky as another elder and I missed our connecting flight and stayed the night in Detroit. We landed a little late and thought we had time to grab some Popeye's but got a call from an upset sister in our travel group telling us that they were boarding. So I sprinted through the whole airport with my box of delicious chicken only to find a shut gate with the plane sitting right outside. We got a nice stay in a hotel but little did I know this was foreshadowing. After making it to Knoxville with another load of reassigned missionaries the next day we met the mission President and his wife and had some tacos along with a great orientation. And then yet another night in a hotel before getting all situated on Wednesday. We filled out a bunch of papers and got some packets before being assigned a companion and heading out in our own cars! I am in Bristol TN/VA and am staying in a motel room which is getting pretty rough so that's what I get for enjoying those previous hotel stays a little too much.

We have only been finding people through Facebook and I am not the best at that stuff. So when we had a service opportunity helping a member move and I was super excited. The whole "southern hospitality" thing is no joke and everyone is crazy nice. Going from dirt dry Peru and torn up shoes to a car and a phone in lush Tennessee country has been crazy but an amazing experience. It has been insanely different and really hard to adjust to but know that I am putting forth all my efforts and trying to figure out Facebook as best I can. I am blessed to be serving relatively near to where my amazing grandmother Carol is from and where her older Sister Betty lives. I follow the man he was and hope to make them proud. All is well here no matter how slow it feels at times, using that "freight-train" attitude as best I can.

Bristol Tennessee/VA

I flew out of SLC the same time my parents flew to Lewiston to be with family.

SLC airport

Interim

Elder Blazzard returned home after a whirlwind trip by bus, car, charted plane, stay in LA, and plane to Salt Lake on April 7th, 2020. His flight arrived at 12:30 p.m. at the SLC airport which was organized for parents to receive their missionaries while keeping 'social distancing' rules. Not much fan fare for John. He was released that evening by President Buckner.

John spent the next two months at home. He signed up for a BYU Spring term religion course while waiting for his reassignment. He took a quick trip to California and then flew to Spokane WA where he helped with the Spirit Lake cabin dock with his brothers and extended family on the Ford side.

He received his reassignment notice on May 12th to the Tennessee Knoxville Mission which contains Abington VA where his Grandmother's older sister lives with her extended family.

He departed for Tennessee on the 8th of June, 2020. This is the same day his grandfather 'papa' Blazzard passed away.  He arrived in the mission on the 9th of June.

http://vassar-rawls.com/obituaries/bruce-h-blazzard/