Weekly Letter: March 15-21, 2011

para todos uds:

Another week in the change, I can´t believe we are about to start the third week in the change! I won´t even try to mention how weird it´s been seeing the time pass by so fast. I´ve already tried in several letters to say it, and I feel that it would be just a waste of time to try again right now. I would just like to say, Can anyone tell me what happened with March?! Because I would like to know. This is the last full week of March, and then it´s General conference in the following weekend.....ummm wow, my second-to-last General Conference in the mission, and I feel like I just saw it a few weeks ago in October!

Anyway, I´ve already gotten carried away talking about stuff that doesn´t matter. Or maybe it does, because it gives me more energy to work even harder. Here in Independencia, we are finally starting to fill in our schedule with investigators. We actually found a really interested investigator who´s from Argentina, and had gone to church for a year over there...but was never baptized. I think her problem is smoking. We found her smoking when we passed by for an appointment. She tried to hide it when we went by and asked if we could come back in 10 minutes. But it´s okay, she accepted really well our answers to her questions about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. So that´s why I think that her resistance is smoking.

My companion is good to keep me animated about the work. Whenever I´m discouraged, I look to him and try to encourage him, which is really easy. Then when he gets encouraged, I automatically get encouraged too. So in that way we keep working well together. We are trying to do everything to be 100% obedient like the President has been stressing lately. I just hope that we will begin to see more fruits of our labors. The people here accept us really easily, but the problem is they then don´t go to church, and the work cannot keep going if that happens. However, it really encourages me to see Amalia every week since her baptism, and the Piña Family every week since theirs.

Actually, about the Piña family, we have been able to see a real change since they got baptized. Yesterday, Brother Piña volunteered to pray in front of all the brothers in Priesthood. This same man had had problems with saying a prayer out loud with the first missionaries that taught him. He also wore a white shirt and tie for the first time this week, and is going to receive the Aaronic Priesthood next week. They have also been blessed with understanding that we as missionaries could never have been able to teach. They are not only learning, but they are beginning to internalize the gospel....surely the Gift of the Holy Ghost has a great influence in the lives of the people who receive it.

Also, I am really surprised at the growth that we have witnessed with Enrique, the recent convert of Sanders and Perez. He was able to bless the sacrament today, and though he was really nervous, he didn´t mess up. He already has a calling in the ward here, and he likes it because he feels included in the ward. He also has given us a reference of his brother, whose interest was piqued when Enrique got baptized. We have an appointment with them tomorrow.

So it´s really a great position where I´m in, seeing a whole bunch of new investigators accept us in their homes, and a whole bunch of new members making their place in the ward family in Independencia.

Well, I think that´s about it with the news for this week. Please pray for us this week, we are going to focus in a family whose daughter has already mentioned the desire to be baptized. We have to work a small miracle for that to happen this week, however, it´s possible. We just need some help from above.

Thanks for everything

Cariños,

Elder Blackham