Weekly Letter: August 31-September 6, 2010

Another week....and another month....and almost another transfer.

I haven´t a clue what´s happened with August. It was here just a moment ago. I was just thinking of the date and realized.....I´ve completed 7 months in the mission. If I could express the joy and horror that come from that phrase. 7 months! I´m not green anymore! and 7 months: and what have I done with these seven months? I don´t know what I´ve done with this much of the Lord´s time, but I doubt it´s enough! I don´t know, I was still getting over the fact that I had 6 months in the mission, and then this had to happen! Oh well, I guess we keep going and try to make the best of the time I have here.

This week we had a few changes for us. First of all, Hermano Zepeda was released as the Ward Mission Leader. It came about a month or so later than it should have. Hermano Zepeda had been called as a counselor in the Stake Young Men´s presidency, which is calling where is basically assisting every ward but his own throughout the month. So he was basically out of action, even though he was very supportive and kept asking the bishop to call another ward mission Leader. And yesterday we got a new one. His name is Santiago, he´s recently moved in to the ward with his wife who had been in Plateros her whole life. However, I´m really excited to work with him. He´s not Hermano Zepeda, but I feel that he´s going to support us and help us as much as he can.

We also had an interesting experience. Elder Javier, Elder Childers, Elder Gamez, and I have been working for months to get some of the people we baptized confirmed. There were two that have put quite a bit of resistance of being confirmed, and had the longest time without being confirmed. The bishop told us that if someone passes 3 months after their baptism without being confirmed, they have to repeat the ordinance. So we did all we could to help make this step, but they didn´t want to.....or rather, they kept saying that they were working on it, but never gave the signals of progress. I think they were one of the reasons that I have stayed in this area. I really didn´t want to leave this work unfinished, like Javier and Childers were unfortunately obligated to do. Especially with these people, because if I went, that would mean that neither one of us that had baptized them (Javier and I) would have been there for their confirmation.

Unfortunately, the whole time with Childers, they made little progress, and became a lesser priority with all the work we had. But with Elder Gamez, we made them a higher priority from the start. And finally after almost three months without being confirmed, the two of them came to church yesterday and were confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It really thrilled me to see them, I still don´t know what we did to help them, but I think it had to do with our lesson on Friday.

Friday, we passed by like we often do before another appointment. We´ve found out from hard experience that it´s better that way because they´re almost always home in the afternoon EXCEPT whenever we´ve made an appointment for that afternoon. Mysteriously, they always seem to have urgent business somewhere else that they hadn´t a clue about until two hours before the appointment. Anyway, so we didn´t make that mistake again. We passed by, they welcomed us warmly, told us they were doing marvelously(like always) and had us sit down and put their attention for us. We had brought a seminary video for the Book of Mormon and were going to talk about faith, but our plans went down another road when she asked: "Has the bishop asked about me?" My companion was inspired to say that he was worried about her, and said that we would explain why in the lesson after the prayer.

In hindsight, I should have been worried, because I had no idea where he was going with this, but I had a great trust in him, and more than that, in the Spirit that was directing him to say what he needed to say. After the prayer, my companion and I described what was a covenant, and that we were concerned because of what the scriptures said about not fulfilling a covenant. My companion just happened to flip to Mosiah 5 where it describes the woe to those who don´t fulfill covenants. It was funny, I thought it was just a normal lesson, until my companion read one scripture in 2 Nephi 31 that was really hard...but neither one of us realized until we looked at the face of the Sister that was strangely quieted, (she has a habit of giving lengthy, wordy answers that really have very little feeling or comprehension behind them) I then muttered "Wow!" to my companion, who at that point realized that he had "planchado" or "bible-bashed" them.

So yeah, we ended the lesson quickly after that, not even committing them to go to church. We both left, marvelling about how hard we had been on them. I hadn´t been as hard on them as he was....or at least I don´t think so...but the more I thought about the things I taught them and how I taught them, I couldn´t believe it. I also bible bashed them....or rather, described the doctrine clearly without compromise. We actually felt really bad, because the family was very hospitable, but never wanted to put in practice the stuff they said they knew was true. We didn´t even follow up the next day on what had happened. So we were really surprised to see them in Church yesterday, and even more so that they didn´t put any resistance in getting confirmed.

I still haven´t a clue what we did that friday. I don´t know if this will be the final challenge that they´ll have with the church, but at least the convenant is complete, and we can ease the work more to the members of the ward. Anyway, I´m just glad that they could have been confirmed, they were ready for it, but I don´t have clue why it took so long.

Well I´m out of time right now so I´d better go.

Thanks for everything!

Cariños,

Elder Blackham

Weekly Letter: July 20-26, 2010

Another week, eh? I´m not sure what happened. It has gone by so fast, but at the same time we have done so much this week. We were able to have our first Zone conference with the new Mission president. I really enjoy learning and working with him. He is very loving and expresses it well. We had a chance, Elder Childers and I, to talk to him a little. He first asked how much time we had in the mission. Childers told him about 22 months, and I told him 5. He laughed and told us that he had 3 weeks. It´s interesting that his approach is different from the other president. He told us that we should count the days of our mission. We were like "huh?" I thought it would make us trunky, but he clarified saying. "I´m counting the days of my mission....every. single. one." How true this is. Everyday is a gift, especially in this work, and if we don´t make every one count, we really aren´t treasuring the gift we have. I still haven´t been able to do this, but I´m working on it. It´s hard to think that I´ve already got 5 months, almost a quarter of my mission already under my belt. And what have I done? Not enough.

That being said, we had a pretty good week. The highlights were the two baptismal services we had on Saturday and Sunday. Marisela Valdés got baptized on Saturday. The service was very beautiful, but the only thing that I regret is that there wasn´t a lot of people, I think, due to the rain. However, her testimony was sweet and we all had a special moment with her that day.

She was then confirmed yesterday in the services. After that, Bety Ábrego was baptized after the services! She was able to finally convince her family to let her get baptized. It was a marvelous experience. We had challenged her to get baptized that thursday, but on friday, when we visited her, she hadn´t still talked to her family. I thought that this was going to be a challenge for her, especially with her husband, so I didn´t have a lot of faith. What´s more, I felt really bad in the stomach that morning and we were late to church. However, I now have a testimony of the power of priesthood blessings. Manuel Piña and my companion Elder Childers were able to give me one before the services. In Manuel´s spoken blessing (his first time giving one), he gave me the promise that I would be able to accomplish all that I needed to do and keep the sabbath day holy. This was before I knew that Bety was going to ask me to baptize her.

So, during the services, I felt almost normal, and I was marveling why. That is, until Hermana Ábrego asked me to baptize her. What a grand experience it was to baptize her. I was no longer distracted by my fatigue and discomfort and was able to do the ordinance well in the eyes of God. I have seldom seen such faith as I have with her. She actually quit her job this week,(so that she doesn´t need to work on Sundays) and is waiting with faith for the blessings of her baptism. She went to church, alone, even though her sister Carolina was going to come, but couldn´t, even though we were going to pass by in the car of Hermano Zepeda, but were a about an hour late(due to my sickness). She took the initiative and I have no doubts that she will be blessed for it.

It´s a tender mercy to have witnessed this miracle in her life. I don´t know if I wrote this before, but she told Elder Javier and me earlier about a dream of her baptism, she explained the baptismal font perfectly and told me there was a lot of people there to support her. Well, both of these came to pass yesterday. Because it was after the services, everyone that could from the ward came to her baptism, to the point that there were people standing in the back. In addition, Irene Sánchez and Maricela Valdés(the three of which had become good friends) were there to support her in her decision. I didn´t realize until Hermano Zepeda mentioned something about fulfilled promises that she had perfectly seen this baptism about a month before in her dreams.

In respect of her work, Hermano Zepeda commented something to Elder Childers that I think is an answer to her prayers(but we haven´t able to give her the information yet.) He commented that the distribution center needs people that can work in making clothes(Neither I nor my companion know how to say this in English: "Sewery? I don´t think that´s right.") This is what she has worked in in her other work, it will pay well, and it´s by the church, so she will rest the weekends(including Sundays!) We still have a lot to do to make sure everything fits out for this job, but I know that our Father in Heaven is very well aware of the needs of His daughter.

Well, those were the two baptisms that we had. The only ones we missed were the family Orea Zavaleta. They´re still continuing strong. But were unable to be baptized or attend church because his grandmother died on friday. Her funeral services were yesterday, so that made things difficult, but I no longer have doubts that they will get baptized. We just have to continue helping them with their concerns. He no longer has the reservations that he had before about being baptized, in fact he was telling every one of his friends about his baptism in the week. Right now, they are facing the challenges with more strength and faith. Of course, they´re a little sad about this challenge, but neither one have doubts that they´ll see her again. We also talked to them about baptisms for the dead, especially because the grandmother also wanted to get baptized when we talked to her. So I expect that as soon as they can get a temple recommend she´ll get baptized for the grandmother of her husband.

Anyway, I literally have no time to write more, but this week was a good one, and I´m looking forward to an even better one.

Cariños,

Elder Blackham

Weekly Letter: April 13-19 (In Mexico)

Para todos ustedes:

Well, this is me, ¡En México! It´s been a great experience so far. My mission president, Presidente Fuentes speaks very little English. When he first walked in to welcome us new elders, he apologized because his English wasn´t good, but was quick to add that our Spanish wasn´t too hot either. He laughed and promised us that if we were faithful that Spanish would come.

My trainer is Elder Javier, from Southern Mexico. I can´t remember exactly what city he´s from because he talks way too fast when I ask him. The name of the city is pretty long, but it has Azul and Cruz in the name... (anyone want to send me a dearelder to help me?) I met him late Friday night, and he has apparently been waiting for a companion as long as I had been waiting on my visa.

Anyway, so the Spanish I learned in the MTC amounts to very little more than just a small background here in the field. You pick up about half the words they say and you end up getting about half of the meaning that was intended. It is getting better, though. I´ve already been blessed to see the gift of tongues working in my life. First of all, people seem to understand me when I do start talking in Spanish, and in Church yesterday, I actually understood a lot of the talks that were given.

That being said, I still need your prayers because I can barely teach a thing in the language, and whenever I ask a question and they answer....I´m not even sure what they just said. Things are a little difficult right now, since Elder Javier and I are reopening an area called Plateros that had no missionaries in it since last transfer about two months ago, so we kind of have to start over from scratch. Yesterday we went through the entire area book and picked out a few investigators to begin teaching again. So we´ll start trying to contact those people.

I did teach a couple lessons on Saturday while on a split with the Zone Leader in his area. I was not able to teach much, but it felt good talking about the gospel...which is the only thing in Spanish that I feel remotely confident in speaking.

We also had dinner at the home of the Ward Mission leader of the Plateros Ward. His name is Hermano Zepeda and he served in Veracruz Mexico on his mission. It was great to hear that. I then asked him if he knew an Elder Jensen that served there. (Hermano Jensen is a teacher in the MTC that really helped our district the last week in the MTC.) I knew it was a long shot, since I had no idea how long it had been since either one of them served missions. So I was pleasantly surprised when Hermano Zepeda brightened and went on a stream of rapid Spanish about how good of an Elder he was (and that is about all I was able to pick out). So I felt pretty happy that I had been part of the conversation during dinner, and even happier that I was able to make that connection on my first meeting with the Ward Mission Leader in my first area.

Anyway, everything is cool here. The city is HUGE. It was a little daunting when I first saw it from the window of the airplane, but it´s all good. I like it, there are a lot of people to talk to....as soon as I can talk to them, that is. I was going to attach some photos of the MTC and also some of the city, but the USB cord isn´t working and the memory card isn´t registering on this computer, but I´ll probably get it to work on another computer next week, since I just helped Elder Javier do the same thing on his computer, and it worked fine there. But look forward to getting a whole bunch of MTC and DF pics next week!

Love you all and I´m so thankful for your prayers, they really have helped.

I've got to go now to a Zone meeting (which will include playing a little soccer!), so I guess I better go and start speaking Spanish, which will be all the harder now that I´ve been thinking solely in English this last half'-an-hour.

¡Nos Vemos!

Con Amor,

Elder Thomas Blackham