Weekly Letter: January 17-23, 2012

para mi familia:

Thank you for your letters as always. I think I am one of the only missionaries that can possibly say that my parents wrote me every week in the mission. You should be proud! Thinking about it, this may be the second to last time that I write you guys from Mexico. I´m not sure how I feel about that....other than that I don´t like it! The interviews with the president have been postponed until this wednesday....which will be a week and half before my last interview with him. I imagine it will be quite a unique interview. The interview I had two changes ago was very emotional....and I still had 3 months left....ouch. 16 days and I will be in utah.

I love you all for your support, and I am looking forward to seeing you all again. I hope that you all understand that when I talk about the not wanting to go home, that I´m not saying I don´t want to see you guys. These two years can´t have flown by any faster. I suspect that after the mission time keeps flying....I hope not. I want to be able to enjoy the memories. I really regret not being able to write in my journal in the mission (I was once good at that, but I have long since lost track of time). I guess these letters will be a type of journal for me....I imagine that you may want to kill me because I am also very bad at taking pictures....I guess I didn´t inherit that gene from any photo-happy relatives.

But enough of reminiscing...(is that how you spell that?) It´s time to work! We had three souls go into the waters of baptism yesterday. But... as always, there were complications. Lourdes that had a baptismal date for yesterday could not come because she got really sick saturday afternoon and went to Ixtlahuaca because her brother lives there and is a doctor. She sounded pretty ill that night that we called her. She told us that she was going to see how she felt the next day, and see if she could get to church early. However, her brother checked her out that morning and told her that she couldn´t leave. We called her sunday morning, and she said "It´s at 1:00, right? Can I get there at 1:00 and it will be okay?" She has so much faith! However, there was another complication that affected both her and the other family that was to get baptized yesterday.

The font wouldn´t empty! It still had water from over a month ago! So we called the Zone Leaders in Metepec (which is the next closest church with a font...both Tenancingo and Santiago Tianguistenco don´t have one!) And crashed their baptismal service...it was fun. So Tania and her two daughter Mitzi and Eleni were able to get baptized yesterday. They loved the service despite all the complications....so yeah, they were able to get baptized! However, we tried calling Lourdes, but she wouldn´t answer her phone...it just kept ringing. We still tried last night and nothing. We´re planning on calling her today, too. I hope everything is okay.

Yeah, so we are getting things done over here. A really cool family was going to go to church this week, but then the parents of the mom started saying things about not respecting their own religion and all that stuff...they didn´t tell her not to go, but she felt uncomfortable going, so she and the son Jaseth didn´t go. However, Jaseth Sr. did go with us. He had read in the pamphlet that the men usually go in a suit and tie, and he took that suggestion and ran with it! It was awesome! Some people thought he was an inactive member, but nope...he was an investigator. At the end of the services, he had to run to check something at home that his wife called him about, but he said I liked the services, that they were very interesting. He said to have patience with his wife, that she needs a little bit of time. We told him to tell her about how he felt in church and invite her for next week.

Well, we are going to have good week this week! I can feel it! I know that it will not be without the disappointments, I´m sure...but I´m beginning to enjoy even that aspect of the work. When else can you feel so bad about something that has nothing to do with you? I imagine that in the mission we really get a glimpse into fatherhood and what our heavenly father experiences with every one of us.

I love you all! Keep praying for me...and thanks for maintaining my excitement in check. I love this place!

Still Finishing Strong!

Elder Blackham