Weekly Letter: February 8-14, 2011

para todos ustedes:

Changes happen.

And they happened to me. I was unexpectedly changed from the area of Molinito 1A to the area of Independencia in Toluca....which was an area of Zone leaders last change. So you can all imagine my shock when I got the call that I was going to go there. Nope, I´m not Zone Leader...which was good because I wanted to avoid a heart attack. However, the area has a lot of fruits here.

I will admit something that everyone says here in the mission. Toluca is very difficult. So I was a little disappointed when I got the call....I will be honest in that. Especially, because my other Zone Culturas is a baptizing zone...and we already had invited people to be baptized and we had two families that had already said yes....which is something that really encourages a pair of elders opening an area. So I was shocked when I got the call, because I didn´t want to leave, but that´s when they change us. When we want to leave we stay, when we want a different companion, they give us another change together. That´s how it works. They say that if you aren´t changed from an area in a transfer, it´s because you haven´t learned enough from that area. So I guess I learned really quickly what I had to in Molinito 1A with Elder Quiroga.

So it was hard leaving everything on seconds notice. But like I said, this area is ready for some harvesting. Even though it´s Toluca, it has some fruits ready to be harvested. We still have things to do, but really, it´s great to inherit an area from 2 zone leaders. I am with Elder Perez, who had arrived in Independencia the change before to divide the area into two, because there´s a lot of work, and the zone leaders many times are really busy in everything that sometimes the area was neglected. But this change I guess the president decided that it´s better to put the Zone leaders in another area and just have two elders there(of course one is a District leader, so it´s still a little hard).

Anyway, so Elder Perez and I are working in an area where 4 missionaries worked the change before. We have a lot of work. The areas here in Toluca are huge, so we spend a lot of money everyday to visit several pueblos in our area, like Palmillas and Calixtlahuaca. Then we have part of our area in a municipal of Toluca called Santiago Miltepec, so we are running literally everyday, but I love it. Elder Perez is a great companion, he has a lot of experience, he goes home this change, so I thought we were never going to be companions, we even took fotos together in the changes because we thought we wouldn´t see each other again. But here we are as companions!

It´s way cool working again with someone with a lot of experience. With Lauritzen I really carried the load a lot, Elder Quiroga had a little more time and was more comfortable with being a missionary, but still always looked to me when the investigators asked a hard question. However, this change with Perez, it´s kind of half and half, and our lessons go by so fast! In twenty minutes we´re able to share the same lesson that before took like forty minutes or more! I think I didn´t truly take advantage from the experience of Elder Childers when I had him as a companion, but here I am with another chance, and I´m loving it!

We have a lot of cool people in teaching, and a really cool recent convert who is named Enrique. He was a contact of door knocking, and he was golden! Even before he was baptized he was asked to give a prayer in Sacrament meeting, and had an assignment in handing out the Liahona magazines when they arrive(they don´t arrive in mail here, they arrive to the Stake Center, and later they´re distributed to every ward, and then before the meetings somebody in the ward hands them out to the members that have a subscription.) He is the kind of person that takes everything with a smile and a laugh.

Some of our investigators are having a hard time adjusting to the idea that in 3 weeks none of the original missionaries are going to be here to teach them. However, Enrique makes friends way easily, and accepted me really easily, which is weird for an investigator that was found, taught, and baptized by the same companionship. It´s way cool.

So yeah, we´ve got a lot of work to do this week. We already have a baptism in the works, it was going to be this week, but she had to go to the doctor this Sunday because it´s the only day that her husband doesn´t work and can take her to the doctor. However, she wants to be baptized, and so I think we can baptize her this week. We also have other families that are really great, and I feel that they can also be baptized this change before Elder Perez goes home. Anyway, I´m excited, we have a lot of work to do, and I´m excited to do it.

Keep praying for me. We have some fruits to reap, but we need all the help we can get to keep going forward!

Cariños,

Elder Blackham