Weekly Letter: July 27-August 2

Another week has gone by. I cannot believe that transfers are coming up again. This is the last week before transfers, and so I´m in a little spot. I don´t want to change. I love my companion, I love the people here, and I've still got a lot of work to do here. However, I realized last week how much time I have in this area, and I would like to get to know more of the city. It would be perfect if I could bring my companion and all the people here to another place in the city.

Anyway, I´m getting ahead of myself. It´s not my decision. It´s the Lord´s. It´s out of my hands, and all I can do is live in the here and now, and do the things that are in my hands, and leave the other things in the hands of the Lord. He knows what I need to do, and whatever that may be, I better do the best I can to do it.

This week could have gone better in many respects. We didn't have any of the 6 baptisms we had as a goal follow through yesterday. (Coincidentally, we now have 6 people with a date for next Sunday....I hope everything goes through) First of all, the family Orea Zavaleta was unable to get baptized this week, because they still have people in their house Reciting Prayers and all that stuff in respect of the death in their family, and they didn´t feel very comfortable leaving so many people in their house for about four and half hours(during all the services and then their baptismal service). However, they seem to be coping well with everything. I was able to talk to Uriel a little bit while my companion and I took a short walk with the two of them Saturday night. I does seem a little hurt, but he continues strong, and he still has a lot of desires to get baptized. So they told us that this next week they will be baptized.

Two other people were Carolina Ábrego and her daughter Fernanda. Carolina is the sister of Bety that has been in teaching almost as long as her sister, but didn´t seem to be going anywhere. They just liked having us around. When we committed them to be baptized last week, they looked at us like "Is that what you wanted this entire time?" So they weren´t certain. That is, until Bety got baptized last Sunday, Fernanda, upon hearing of her experience(they weren´t able to go to church that sunday) suddenly got lit up with desires to get baptized, Carolina was a little less sure, but she was also bolstered by the example of her sister. As much as hearing of the baptism of Bety bolstered their desires, going to the Visitor´s Center by the Temple multiplied about fifty times. We went Friday with Irene, Marisela, and the two of them (Mari Tere was going to come with her son, but they had commitments). Irene and Marisela enjoyed themselves a great deal, but had to leave after a couple hours due to problems with the little girls they brought along(their granddaughters.) Meanwhile, Carolina and Fernanda seemed aloof in respect of time, especially when they were looking at all the temples, and when they listened to a few short messages from President Monson. That night after everything, Carolina finally opened up and begged us to put her baptism for the next Sunday, and not for yesterday, because she wasn´t sure she could convince her husband. We told her to pray about it and to make her decision. Before we left, Fernanda whispered that she would convince Carolina to be baptized that Sunday. So both of them now have the desire, the only thing that impeded them was the fact that her husband was away in a trip for work until well after the services on Sunday, and she never got to talk to him. However, I don´t have doubts that they will get baptized.

The final two people is an elderly couple, whose nephew recently was baptized and confirmed in the ward in Santa Fe(it´s a Colonia in Mexico City, kind of like Plateros, Mixcoac, Tacubaya, or Puerta Grande). They only problem is they haven´t ever come to the ward in Plateros, but have gone to the ward in Santa Fe two or three times already. That said, I think that if they do go to Plateros this Sunday, that will be able to baptize them after the services. Both of them really wanted to get baptized this week, but had already agreed to go to the ward in Santa Fe, to watch their nephew bless the sacrament for the first time. The only thing I´m concerned about is that the Elders in Santa Fe(who are in our Zone), are going to try to steal them and baptize them there. But I don´t think it would make much sense, because the Elders were the ones that gave them to us as a referral, but who knows what could happen!

Anyway, so this week could have gone better, but I´ve got high hopes for this next week!

Thank you so much for the prayers and support!

Cariños,

Elder Blackham