Weekly Letter: January 25-31, 2011

para todos uds:

Another week in the mission has gone. My past experience is that the first week of change with a new companion and new area(especially if you´re opening it) are the longest. If that is the case....I´m in trouble. I cannot believe that it is Monday again.

Well, enough about how the time is going way fast....oh wow, I just looked at the date and realized that I gave my farewell talk a year ago. That is pretty crazy. Anyway, here I am in Molinito 1A. The ward is called Molinito 1, but since we divided the ward into two areas we dubbed our part, part "A" because we`re more important, but then the other companionship said they were going to be okay with "B" for Baptize...so we decided to go for "A" for "diligenciA." Well, they baptized this week, and we....were diligent, so I guess our names fit. Our part of the area has suffered a bit of non working. Our ward is really long, so it`s hard to work in all the area. Actually, our part contains parts of two cities. They`re basically the same urban zone of Mexico City, but our part of the ward contains a splinter of what corresponds to Naucalpan, and the majority is technically in a city called Huixquilucan. We actually changed our house and we now live in Huixquilucan, the other Elders still live in the same house where we lived for almost a week, which is technically in our area...but it`s easier to get to their part of the area than it is for us from there, so we let them keep the house.

So yeah, we`ve been pretty busy this week. Trying to get to know all the members in our part of the area, trying to find the few investigators in teaching that are in our area, contacting, tracting, and trying to find a house. We were pretty busy all week. Elder Quiroga has been good in not getting discouraged. I mean, it`s hard opening an area, and this is the first time he`s done it. He has about 6 weeks in the mission, but he knows how to be a missionary, I´ve actually learned quite a bit from him, even though I´m the senior companion technically. He likes to take charge a lot of times, which is okay with me, because he knows what he´s doing. Sometimes I have to correct him with little things, but he is a lot more independent than Elder Lauritzen and he learns quick. He´s a great missionary and I feel like we´re going to have a lot of success here. We have to get over the first hump of getting to know the area and the people in it, but we´re pretty close to knowing all the area. We just have to work a little bit in two neighborhoods in our area in the street names, but I feel that we can get to know it pretty well this week.

I´m loving what I´m doing right now. It would be a lie if I said that opening an area is my favorite position to find myself in in the mission, I mean sometimes you want to arrive and hear your companion say "Oh, and we have to schedule an interview for the baptism this week," like what happened in the other companionship in Molinito 1B. However, I feel good. I feel.....well, like a missionary! It´s sounds weird, but sometimes I get so used to the idea of this mission and how it´s my life that I really don´t think about what I´m doing. Opening an area, you have to focus, and so you come to realize that you´re doing what you really wanted to do for all your life...and even though your feet hurt, your legs don´t move, and you have aches in muscles you never knew you had, you feel good.

I love that feeling when I realize what I´m doing. I´m a missionary! I don´t know, maybe some of you are thinking "Well, that´s great that he realized that about a year after he started." But really, I can´t keep myself from getting excited when I think of that! Anyway, I am out of time, but I hope that you guys don´t think that I´m getting down on myself because I´m opening an area...some missionaries already have pity parties for my companion and I, but let them have them! But my companion and I aren´t going to show up!

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Please add to your prayers this part of our ward and the people that are in its limits. This is a big task, and though I enjoy it, I feel incredibly limited in fulfilling it.

Cariños,

Elder Blackham