Weekly Letter: March 1-7, 2011

para todos uds:

Another transfer period has passed. I really can´t believe that this six weeks have passed so quickly! I still haven´t gotten over the fact that it´s 2011...let alone that we´re already well into March of that year! I wonder if time has gone so fast for anybody else but me! It´s so crazy!

Well, I mentioned the last week, that Elder Perez was going to go home this week. Actually, from the time I´m writing, he should be landing in the airport in Tampico about now. It was a great experience to be able to work with a real veteran. I wish to be able to teach with the clarity and plainness that he had come to be able to teach with. I guess it will come with time.

Also, I was able to send off Elder Perez...but wet from the four baptisms we had this Sunday. The members here were so excited when they heard about the baptism. This ward had not enjoyed any convert baptisms for a period of 5 months until Elder Perez and Elder Sanders baptized the last week of their first change here, and then they baptized the first week of the change before the special changes when I came here, and we baptized other 6 together. Really, we have been blessed to reap the fruits of what these Elders had planted.

The work goes on. This Sunday in fast and testimony meeting a friend of a member got up to bear her testimony and said that she wanted to get baptized after seeing the Amalia´s baptism the week before. As good missionaries, we were quick to talk to the family who had brought her to church, she lives in the ward boundaries, and her mom wants to come the next week to church, but right now the situation is difficult for the father of the family. But we´re going to see if we can teach the whole family!

So we have some prospective fruits here in Independencia. We do have to fill in the gap left after baptizing almost all of our progressing investigators. I checked the Area book and there are a lot of people that we can talk to, but first we have to find them, some of them don´t have an address...and others have an address, but not a reference of what neighborhood they live in. Here there are a bunch of streets that have the same name in every town. Oh well, I guess we´ll have to work a little harder in finding these people, and maybe we´ll find other people prepared to hear our message on the way.

I just realized that I´ve been writing for a while, and I haven´t even mentioned my companion. His name is Elder Rosales, and he comes from Piedras Negras, Coauhila. Basically on the border of Texas. He says the violence there was pretty intense, but he´s glad to be here in the mission, even though he doesn´t want to pick up a Chilango accent (that´s what they call the people from Mexico City). He has just gotten out of the CCM in Mexico City, so I´m a trainer again. It´s funny because Lauritzen is still in Centro, so he got to know his younger brother(in the mission) yesterday in the District meeting.

So yeah, I´m pretty excited because Elder Rosales has come with a lot of desires to work...which we will need to do to fill in our gap in our investigators in teaching after baptizing so many this Sunday. However, I feel like this is a lot of responsibility, and that I need help to be able to complete it. I know the Lord has called me on the mission and as such has prepared the way to complete with all the responsibilities that may come during the mission, but I ask for your prayers to help me in this time.

Thank you all for the prayers and support.

Cariños,

Elder Blackham