Week 18 - MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hola Everybody and Merry Christmas!!!

Well this week was an awesome week. I had the amazing opportunity to talk to my family over Skype and see all of their beautiful faces. It truly was such an amazing blessing to get to see and talk to my family. And yes, I'm not ashamed at all to say it. I did cry. And it was tough to hang up, but what an amazing experience for me!! I hope all of your Christmas was super amazing and that you all had many opportunities to serve during this amazing time of the year. Anyways like always I have an experience or two I would like to share.

So we had the opportunity to teach an inactive member in our ward this week. We've been trying just about every other day or every third day to teach her, but she's impossible to find because she's a doctor and she's literally never home. And when she is finally home, she's sleeping. Anyways, we taught her a little bit about prayer and how important it is. She hasn't prayed in a really long time and it's tough to hear that. So I let her know how important prayer was and that Heavenly Father really wants to hear from us. I shared with her an experience in my life when I was struggling just like she was and having a difficult time and how prayer helped me through all of the tough times I was having.

Anyways, I didn't know much about this sister so I asked my companion after the lesson why he thought she was having a hard time praying and everything. He told me her life story. So this sister was married and she had her first kid with her husband and everything in life was good. Then she had her second kid with her husband and she was born with down syndrome. It happened to be that her husband was mad at God for their kid having down syndrome. So he left her for another girl after two kids. After all of this happened, her first born daughter died at the age of 5.

I share you this story because I was absolutely heart broken for this sister. It just killed me hearing this story. I have seen so many things on my mission where I'm just beyond grateful for the life my Heavenly Father has let me have. We all have our trials as this sister has hers, but I know that he has given us all our trials to make us stronger. I absolutely LOVE what my dad said in his last email to me. He said, "Just remember GOD GIVES HIS GREATEST CHALLENGES TO HIS TOUGHEST WARRIORS." I believe that every single one of us are the toughest warriors and we all have that drive in us whether we show it or need to find it to get through the challenges that we face in our life.

I just want to tell you all how much I love you and how grateful I am for this extremely humbling opportunity in my life to serve our Heavenly Father. I know you are all going through something in your life now or will face a trial in the near future. Fight your way through that trial and the temptations that Satan brings and you will be stronger every single day. I hope you all have an amazing holiday with your family. I love you all so much! Keep doing it!!

Elder Blake

P.S. Thank you all SOOOOOOOO much for your letters and packages. You are all so awesome and I'm so grateful. Everything I received was exactly what I needed and wanted. But my favorite part of everything in my packages was reading your messages you sent me. I can't tell you thanks enough. It literally touched my heart!!

 This is a picture my companion drew for me freehand. The dude is an artist!

This is at a placed called Zocalo. It's super close to our area and we go 

there sometimes on p-days. There's always a bunch of tourists It's awesome.

Oaxaca Temple at Christmas Time.

My shirt and pants after a couple of days of work and service. 

My pants have holes in them from all the walking (I did buy some more today).

Just a good ole picture to make you all laugh (love the hat)!

 

And the BEST part of Christmas was Skyping with Jordan. And believe me, he was not the only one to cry. His testimony in Spanish was amazing and the spirit was super strong. But, saying goodbye was definitely not easy. We all can't wait for Mother's Day (138 days, but who's counting?)!

Week 17 - 4 Months

Hola Everyone.

I sure hope everyone's week was amazing and that you all have an amazing this week as well - especially right before Christmas. Anyways, I had quite the experiences this week that I want to share with all of you.

So to start off, we have this lady in our ward. She's a recent convert and was the first baptism I was able to be a part of. Her name is Hermana Xochitl. She's an awesome lady about 52 years old and she doesn't have a husband which is really tough for Elder Sac and I right now. She literally calls us everyday to come over to her house or something because she's scared or needs help folding her clothes. It's always something. So we had another "service project" with her on Saturday. It was at her mom's house this time because she wanted to see if her washer worked and she needed our help. So she gave us directions and we were walking trying to find it. We couldn't find it, so we finally had to ask for directions and this man told us it was down the street and to the right. So we walk down this street and the entire street was full of prostitutes. It was pretty crazy. My companion was super worried and scared in this area. It was a rough area for sure, but I know Heavenly Father is always here to protect me so I'm never scared about getting robbed or anything. I know if we are obedient and doing what's right we have no need to fear.

Anyways that was the first really weird story, but on the same day we got to sing as a missionary choir and it was super awesome. The spirit was so strong! After we sang, the stake had a bunch of talent numbers we got to watch and it was awesome. Then to end it all they had one of those portable like rides that spin you all over and up and down. Of course, I had to do it even though I get super motion sick. So I did it and the guy running the thing kept us going for like 3 minutes. It seemed like forever. I about threw up and then on the bus ride home, I about threw up again. All day Saturday and Sunday both me and my companion felt dizzy and everything. It was an awesome, crazy, terrible day that is for sure.

Also, to end it's pretty tough right now in this area. I'm sure you all though I would have 100 baptisms by now where I had 3 baptisms my first 4 weeks, but the people here are actually really tough. If they let you in their house, it's a miracle. Most of the time they don't want anything to do with us, so it's tough. But that's just how life goes. Sometimes we work super hard and we're hoping things will change.

Also this transfer Elder Sac is still my companion. He's an awesome dude, but we were both hoping for changes because I felt like we needed a change in this area and he's been here for 4 and a half months now. But even though we didn't get a change, we will be working harder than ever this transfer. I love you all so much! Have an absolutely amazing Christmas everyone. I will be emailing on Tuesday next week as far as I know. FELIZ NAVIDAD A TODOS (Merry Christmas to All)!

Elder Blake

P.S. Happy birthday, Generra. I sure do love you and I'm sure you're glad I wasn't there for your birthday to beat you in cornhole or something!

FINALLY some pictures!!!

Pictures from the Mission Choir - Found on Facebook.

Week 16

Hola Everyone.

This week was super crazy like always. The mission has it's ups and downs without a doubt every single week, but you can never let the bad out weigh the good. I hope you all had an amazing week and I hope the good ol' San Juan Broncos are tearing it up in basketball. Just a few experiences I want to share from this week.

So we are teaching a lady and she's Catholic and we had our 3rd lesson with her on Tuesday. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Anyways, she thinks our churches are the exact same. So this lesson me and my companion were super direct with her. We basically told her (in a really nice way) that without the authority of the Priesthood, her baptism doesn't count. And we explained to her that baptism by immersion and by someone holding the Priesthood authority of God is the only correct way. She didn't really buy into that, so towards the end of the lesson she was saying that it's okay because our churches are the same and God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are the same and how it doesn't matter what church you join because God isn't a religion.

Anyqays by this point, I was a little upset. I really have a love for sharing the Gospel and so I kind of raised my voice and just west straight at her. I said, Yes, that't true that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are the same, but our churches are not the same. Your church has part of the truth, but our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the earth today and it's very important what church you join. Jesus Christ established his one and only church on earth again. Then I read 2 Nephi 31:21 and I told her baptism is the only way to enter into the presence of God. Anyways, she ended the lesson with prayer and she said in her prayer how grateful she was to be in her church and be baptized in her church. She's a really great lady, but it's hard to see people not accept the Gospel.

I had another super humbling experience this week. So we got a call from a member in another ward and his nephew lives in our area. He has cancer and this member wanted us to go and give him a blessing. So we met up with this member and we went into the house. Seeing this kid who was 25 years old that has cancer absolutely sick in his bed was so hard for me. He couldn't sit up or anything during the blessing. But we were able to give him a blessing and tell him how much our Heavenly Father loves him and he's given him this trial for a reason. It was really tough and humbling to see this.

Anyways, I don't have much else to say other than I love you all so much. I hope your week is amazing. Don't ever forget all of the blessings that we have - especially the opportunity we have to celebrate our Savior's birth with our families at this time of year! I love you all so much. Have an amazing week and keep doing it.

Elder Blake

Week 15 - 105 Days (Triple Digits!)

Hola Everyone.

I hope everyone is doing amazing and I sure hope everyone had an amazing week. I know Mondays are probably the worst days for all of you, but Monday is such a blessing for me to be able to have the opportunity to talk to all of you. It's amazing the spirit that I am able to feel every week when I read all of your emails. Anyways, this week has been awesome - but of course, every week has its ups and downs. That's just life.

So to start off, we had an amazing lesson with the family Silva on Wednesday. It's an older lady and her son. They're so dang awesome. We taught them about prayer and then we gave them a baptismal date and they accepted. I was so excited. They're awesome investigators, but they have the hardest time going to church. And after this lesson I just knew they were going to come to church. The spirit was present and they accepted their baptismal date and everything. It was just awesome. Anyways, they didn't come to church, and it was a real bummer. We have 10 or so investigators right now and we only have one attending church. It's heart breaking because we are literally trying to do everything we can to get them to come to church.

An amazing experience I had this week was after one of our lessons, I just felt like I needed to ask my companion to give me a blessing. It was really different for me, but that night I asked him for a blessing. And it was absolutely amazing. He literally said so many of the things that were in my Patriarchal Blessing and it just gave me so much comfort. It was such an awesome tender mercy.

Anyways the Spanish is rough that is for sure. I can understand more and more every week, but it's an extremely slow process that takes a LOT of patience. This whole mission is helping me learn so much patience. It's like some lessons I can understand almost everything and then we go to another lesson and I can't understand a ting. It's tough, but it's helping me learn about patience and the Lord's timing.

A funny experience I had that I didn't mention a few weeks ago was this. So they have road blocks here quite often because the people will start protesting for who knows why and it gets crazy. So they have a bunch of road blocks all over the city to cool things down. Anyways, we made it to the church for a District Meeting and we had to walk a decent ways because the bus could only go so far. It happened to be that we weren't even having the meeting because of the road blocks. So when we got there, we had to turn around and come home. On our way back home, we were walking - and it's probably 10 miles or so (I'm not kidding). After walking forever, we finally found a bus. So we got on the bus and it was a smaller bus with the engine in the front, so there wasn't a whole lot of seats. All the seats were taken as usual, so we just had to stand. And it got so crazy, I'm not even kidding. There were literally probably 75 people on that small bus. It was insane and I thought we were going to die. The drivers here are super crazy. They go 50 miles an hour until they are 10 feet from the car in front of them and then slam on their brakes. It's an awesome experience here that is for sure. I learn something new every day.

I love all of you so much. Have an amazing week and most definitely an amazing Christmas season. Share the gospel and your testimony every chance you get. Also serve the people around you every chance you get too. I love you all so much. Keep doing it.

Elder Blake

Sorry, Mom. I forgot my camera again. But we did get the package with food and a Christmas tree. My companion and I decorated it. It's so awesome and we took a bunch of pictures. I'll remember my camera next week!

Week 14

Hola Everyone.

How was everyone's week? I hope that everyone is doing amazing. I can't tell you how much of a blessing it is to be out here on a mission - but also how difficult it is. I had a couple of experiences I want to share from this week that were tough and amazing.

So yesterday (on Sunday) I felt a little discouraged not being able to talk to anyone and truly just express my love for the people and for the gospel. It is really tough some times and it was a little rough yesterday. Anyways, in church I said a prayer. I just asked my Heavenly Father to let me know why I'm here because right now I can't communicate very well at all with the people and my companion has to teach every lesson alone. I do as much as I can with the knowledge I have right now of the language, but it doesn't feel like enough.

Anyways, we had dinner with a sister that same day and I absolutely love her. She's so darn awesome. For some reason she really likes me as well. After dinner she walked with us to wait for a bus and I just started asking her random questions. We were talking and laughing and having such an amazing time. Through this experience I was able to know why I'm here and I was truly able to fee our Heavenly Father's love.

I know how dang hard life gets sometimes, but I also know that every single time when life gets tough and we don't think we can go any more, Heavenly Father will lift us up off of our feet and carry us if that's what He needs to do. What a blessing it was to have this experience.

I forgot to share a funny experience I had a few weeks ago. So I can't say I haven't listened to Eminem on my mission because the other day we were on a bus going to a meeting and this kid, probably about 18 years old, gets on the bus with a little speaker and starts playing beats and then he started rapping in Spanish. It was so dang funny. Me and my companion looked at each other and said "The Real Slim Shady." It was hilarious. I had another really funny experience to share as well, but I totally forgot so I will have to share it next week.

Anyways, I hope you all had an amazing week and an amazing Thanksgiving with your families. I also hope the Cowboy's got a win (NOPE), but who knows down here in Mexico.

I know that a lot of you are having hard times in your life or will come across some hard times in the near future. I want you all to know that when you come across that trial, simply ask with faith and sincerity and I know without a doubt that you will receive all the help that you need. I know without a doubt that the Atonement is real. I know that our Savior died for every single one of us - good and bad. What an amazing opportunity we have to celebrate His birth and His life. Never forget the real purpose of Christmas. I love you all so much. Have an amazing week and keep doing it.

Elder Blake

Note: I (Jordan's mom) received this picture from a lady that Jordan baptized, Sister Xochitl. She said, "This is the gift that I gave your son and his companion for Christmas. You have a son very devoted to the things of God." A tender mercy for sure! How thankful I am for people willing to send little messages and pictures. They mean the world to me!

Week 13

Hola Everyone!

How are you all doing? It's so awesome to have the opportunity to talk to all of you every single week. I just have to say that I'm so excited for all the soon-to-be missionaries getting mission calls right now and getting ready to serve the Lord. I'm so grateful for your choice to serve and I know that the Lord's so grateful for your choice as well.

Anyways to start out I had an awesome experience this week. Times get tough on the mission and this week was really tough. We didn't have a whole lot of success and our investigators haven't been progressing or coming to church and it's really tough for me because I love these people so much. I really just want the best for them so when they don't show up to church or aren't progressing like I think they should, it's rough for me. Anyways, it was a tough week and me and Elder Sac were studying and I was just praying so hard for the spirit. We watched this video as part of our study and to end the video Elder Holland spoke. I can't even remember what he spoke about, but the spirit hit me so extremely hard. I'm so dang grateful for this experience because I needed it very much. I know that our prayers are always answered no matter how long it may take. And I also know that Heavenly Father is always, always here for us. We just have to get on our knees in humility and talk to him.

I always have a funny experience to share as well. So we always eat with members for comida or lunch. We had a lunch appointment yesterday at 2:00. It's always at 2:00 and we made sure it was with the right member and everything in church. We were getting ready to head over to eat and we get a call from another sister in the ward asking us if we were coming to eat because we were late. Anyways, so they both prepared meals for us and so we couldn't just say no. So we called the one and said we would be a little late. We had a huge meal with the one sister and then we left and went to the next lunch. I was hoping with all of my heart it wasn't a big meal because I was absolutely stuffed. We showed up to the members house and it was literally a buffet of rice and chicken and salad. It was ridiculous. But I knew that they spent all this money on the food, so I literally had to ask my Father in Heaven to help me be alright eating again. I was able to put down 5 huge pieces of chicken. It was insane. Anyways, I didn't die or anything, but if I come home fat you all know why!

I love this gospel so much. I know that a mission is extremely tough. I knew it would be hard, but I can't describe how tough it really is. But, I also know that when you need that extra burst to keep working as hard as you can - when you don't think you can go anymore - Heavenly Father is there to touch you to give you that burst, you just need to ask. I can't tell you how grateful I am for all of you and for this opportunity in my life. What a blessing this truly is. Have an amazing week everyone and never forget how much our Heavenly Father loves you and wants what's best for you - even in the toughest of times. I love you all so much.

Elder Blake

I found this picture on the Mission Facebook page. 

The missionaries all had to get their flu shots.

Week 12

Hola everyone.

I sure hope everyone is doing amazing and that you've all had an amazing week. This week has been interesting. Not a whole lot has happened, but I've had quite a few awesome moments - and moments where I was thinking, "What in the world?!" I always have a serious story to share and a funny one, so I guess I'll start out with the serious one.

We've been working really hard to reactivate the members here because our ward has about 40-55 (somewhere in there) people that come every single Sunday. But our ward also has 300 or more inactives. It's insane. So this week we worked super hard on finding inactives and teaching them lessons as to why it's so important to come to church. So Tuesday we didn't have any lessons until 8:00 so from about 2:30-8:00. We were walking the entire time looking for inactives and we only found two or so. As we were walking to a couple of houses, there were some super drunk people and they were kind of mocking us, calling us momones and walking with us not saying the best things. And this guy walking with me asked me how I'm supposed to teach the people here if I don't know Spanish. I just said that I'm learning Spanish and that's all I can do. Anyways, you all know how super competitive I am and I wish I could've just went at him in Spanish. But I realize more and more every day that it doesn't matter what people think. It only matters what our Heavenly Father thinks. To end the story, on Sunday we had about 8 inactive members come to church and that was a really awesome tender mercy for the week. I'm very grateful that Heavenly Father let us see our work pay off.

So the funny story is really short and super crazy. So just last night we were walking to one of the members house to ask him if he wanted to play soccer with us for p-day. And as we were walking I was looking down the other streets and there was literally a guy with no pants on going to the bathroom in the middle of the street with people walking passed him. It was so crazy, but it gave us quite the laugh, that is for sure.

I really hope everyone of you are doing super good. To all of you reading this that could go on a mission, make sure you do. It's an awesome experience and I've only been out for 3 months. It's the hardest thing I've ever done, no doubt. I can't explain how tough it is, but it really does get harder every day.

Always remember when you need help in your life or answers to your questions, Heavenly Father is always there for you. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve our Heavenly Father. Share your testimony and the gospel every chance you get. I love you all so much. Please forgive me if I don't reply to your messages. We only have one hour every week to read all of our emails and respond to people. Have an amazing week everyone.

Elder Blake

Week 11

Hola Everybody!

I had some amazing experiences this week, and of course every week I always have to get something funny in there as well - because I love to laugh that's for sure. Anyways so I want to share these experiences with you all.

So the first one, Elder Sac and I always have comida or lunch here with the members and when the members can't cook for us, we get 100 pesos for the both of us (which is like $6). Anyways, we decided to spend some of our money and buy Domino's pizza. And of course we had to buy two large because one just isn't enough. So I got to my last piece of pizza and I had one bite left. I look at Elder Sac and acted like I was putting the piece in my mouth and then acted like I was puking with my sound effects. He had just taken a big drink of water and he spit it everywhere. We both died laughing for probably 10 minutes. It was awesome.

But, the story doesn't end there. So that was about 4:00 and I was absolutely stuffed. So we had more appointments at 7 and 8, and our 8:00 was a dinner appointment and I already knew I couldn't eat any more. So we get to the 7:00 appointment and they offer us more food. So I ate 2 tamales there and then after that for dinner the sister made probable 40 salquichas or hotdog things. So I ate a lot of those too. It was a horrible, but amazing day. Literally when you're to the point if you eat one more grain of salt here you are going to throw up, that's when they bring out another plate.

On to my other story. So I had the amazing opportunity to baptize our investigator, Luis, on Saturday, The baptism was at 12, so we had to get to the church at 8 in the morning to fill the font and clean the church. Anyways, it came time for the baptism and we both got in the water. I knew exactly what I am going to say, because I practiced the Spanish a million times in my head. I was a little nervous so I was worried about remembering all the words. I only said the baptismal prayer and baptized him, but I totally forgot to say his name so we had to do it again. But don't worry. I got it right the second time. It was super awesome and funny all in one. When we were changing I told him that he's extra clean now.

After that I had the opportunity to give a little talk on the holy ghost. So I got up there and said, "Perdoname (forgive me) Gringos man." It made everyone laugh pretty hard. The Bishop even got a huge kick out of all of it. It was a super awesome experience and definitely one I won't forget.

Anyways, everything here is good. I'm learning Spanish poco y poco (little by little). I can understand a lot more that is for sure. I'm very grateful for the blessing and the opportunity to be serving our Heavenly Father. It truly is an amazing opportunity and has already strengthened my testimony a lot. I hope everything is amazing for all of you. Never stop serving the Lord.

Also, just one more thing - one of the biggest things I've learned being in my first area. It is how important members are in missionary work. It's ridiculous how important members are and without member to help, missionaries don't have much success. So help the missionaries out as much as you can. Share the gospel every change you get. I love you all so much. Have an amazing week.

Elder Blake

I found this picture on Facebook of Jordan's Zone Conference. 

He said that Elder Valenzuela and Elder Villanueva (both of the 70) spoke.

Week 10

Hola everyone!

It's been another amazing, tough week out here in Mexico. But, I'm just so dang grateful for this opportunity. I probably don't need to put it every week, but the language is tough and it doesn't get easier that is for sure. I can understand more, but I can't speak a whole lot. Although I don't know a lot of Spanish, I actually do a lot more talking in the lessons and I know that will help with the language for sure.

We had another baptism this week and I'm so grateful that another one of our Heavenly Father's children have accepted the Gospel. What an amazing blessing that is. The sister who got baptized is named Adriana. She's 20 years old and she's super awesome. I'm really grateful for her. It's crazy because her brother who baptized her has been a member for about a year now, but her parents don't want anything to do with the church. They didn't even come to her baptism. It's dang tough for people to accept the Gospel here because most of the time their family doesn't want them to.

I'm so dang grateful for my family - especially my parents and them always making me go to church, even when I didn't want to. And always being discouraged when I would do something wrong. Being out here just makes me have so much more respect for my entire family. And so much more love for my family and each one of you.

We got the opportunity to do some service this week. It was pretty awesome. One of the houses got destroyed here from the earthquake and so we got to clean up some of that. And the other service project we did was literally break bricks into tiny pieces with hammers and whatever they had. Then we took a shovel and filled all the holes in this one street. It was crazy. All of the roads here are horrible and every single driver is crazy. You have to be to drive here in the city! Also, there are no laws here what soever. I've already witnessed two crashes! And I also forgot to tell you that there was another small earthquake here about two weeks ago that we felt during a lesson. It was pretty cool.

Anyways everything is good here. The Spanish is tough, but I'm working hard at it and I know that it will come with time, work, and the Lord's help. It's hard to see now that I could possibly be a fluent Spanish speaker, but I know it's possible through the gift of tongues. Have an amazing week and keep up the good work everyone. I love you all so much!

Elder Blake

Week 9

Hola Everyone.

It has been an amazing week but yet another tough week. But, that's alright. The language doesn't get any easier that's for sure. I can understand more and more every week. Little by little I'm learning the language and little by little I'm also developing a lot of patience through this tough process. It's been another good week and we have another baptism set for this Saturday. I'm super excited for that and that another person is coming unto Christ. It literally makes me so happy.

We've had many blessings given to us here and not all blessing are huge and amazing, but you have to find the many tender mercies in life that Heavenly Father gives us. A couple experiences I have had this week. So first we were having a couple of tough days, not teaching many lessons at all and we were knocking on doors for probably two hours - and absolutely nothing. No one would let us in. Then we hit this street and this lady let us in. She was the nicest lady and we gave her family and home a blessing through prayer. She said she wanted to hear more so we are going back to her house again on Wednesday to visit with her.

A couple more little miracles I've received this week. So our investigators have been doing bad at coming to church and that's been really hard because we've really been praying hard for them to progress. And yesterday we had 3 investigators come to church. That was an amazing blessing for us.

One more experience I had that literally happened probably 10 minutes ago. So we were walking down the road to email our families and I ran into a guy who had been in jail for the past 9 years of his life. He happened to speak English, so I was able to talk to him a lot about how my dad had also been in prison. But how amazing of a person he is and that through the atonement of Jesus Christ every person in this world can be forgiven of their sins. I gave him some money after so he could get some food. I'm very grateful for this amazing tender mercy. The man also said how grateful he was for a person like me to leave my family where I live in Utah and come to Mexico to help others. What an awesome experience this was!

I want you all to know that I know this church is true. I know without a doubt that the atonement is real and every single person that truly wants to change and wants to be forgiven of their sins will be through the atonement. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to struggle and be humbled in my life so that I can come closer to our Savior. I'm so grateful for Him and for our Heavenly Father's love for all of His children. I love you all so much. Have an amazing week everyone!

Elder Blake

Forgotten MTC Pictures

Week 8

Hola Everyone.

This week has been awesome, but it's been rough too. That's just how life is and that's just how a mission is as well. The language is so tough, but I'm not going to give up. I know my Heavenly Father will bless me with understanding and speaking the language in his time and not mine. It's helping me learn to be patient a lot. Although it's super tough because there's so many things I want to tell people that I know could help them, but I do my best to share my testimony with the knowledge I have now.

Anyways, a little experience I had this week is that Heavenly Father helped me know I'm improving little by little. We were in a lesson and I was just able to know some of the things that the brother was saying that we were teaching and I felt super good coming out of that lesson. Then we went to the next lesson and I didn't understand a single thing. It's tough but it is most definitely worth it.

I don't have a whole lot to say this week, because nothing big happened. But, I have seen many miracles in my life. Just one more experience I want to share with everyone. So church on Sunday is always tough because I don't understand much at all. But, I'm focused and I try to understand more every week. So by the time church is over, my head is pounding. Anyways, it was a super tough day yesterday because we taught Sunday School - more like my companion did because I probably said two words the entire time. So it was tough. Anyways, after church we went to our apartment to change out of our suit coats and my companion was going to the bathroom, so I was just sitting there waiting for him. And a thought came to me that I needed to read one of my mom's letters she sent me in the MTC that I had kept. So I picked the first one and read it. And it wasn't just comforting, but it was EXACTLY what I needed to hear. I'm so dang grateful for that tender mercy.

I'm so grateful for my family and for everyone of you guys. I'm sorry I don't have time to write to everyone. Keep up the good work and know how much I love you all. A mission is tough, but it's amazing and it's worth every single second and every single struggle. Have an amazing week.

Love,
Elder Blake

P.S. If you need some good scriptures to study, look at Psalms 23. It's amazing.

Me and my companion - Elder Sac

These pictures are at Monte Alban in Oaxaca. Last week's p-day. It was so awesome. This is where the Lamanites lived. I bet it was super cool!

For the curious, here are some of Jordan's answers to my questions:

How are you doing? Everything is good.

How are you getting along with your companion? I love my companion. He's an awesome dude and has a lot of patience with me. We work together well.

Are you eating good? Do the members feed you or do you have to cook for yourself? The food here is absolutely amazing. The members feed us way too much - it's insane. We have breakfast and dinner on our own, but they feed us comida (food) or lunch at about 2:00-3:00 every day. It's a really big meal in Mexico.

Week 7 (Week 1 in the Field)

Hola de Oaxaca!

This week has been awesome. Yes there's no doubt at all that it has been one of the most difficult - definitely the most difficult - thing I have ever done in my life. But it's just so amazing. I really don't know how to put it in words. I know that our Heavenly Father needs as many people as possible to help build His kingdom and that's what I'm here in Oaxaca to try my best to do.

The language is different, yes, and I've been laughed at multiple times, but I'm alright with that. I'm just allowing that to make me work even harder. When people somewhat laugh at me because my Spanish isn't great or I can't understand the language I just think of what Heavenly Father is thinking right now and I know he doesn't care. The thing he does care about is how hard we are trying. I also know without a doubt that he didn't send me here to fail!!!!

This week we had our first baptism. It was so dang awesome. Her name is Hermana Xochitl (pronounced Sotchil). It's a very different name that's for sure, but she is so awesome! We had visits with her and she really wants to learn English so I was basically helping her out with everything I knew in Spanish and helping her translate it to English. It was awesome. She was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. What a blessing it was to see that.

Mexico is so dang different though with absolutely everything - like they wait until 15 minutes after 10:00 to even start Sacrament because everyone is late. Like Hermana Xotchil's baptism was at 5:00 and she didn't even show up until 5:30. We were super worried, but she made it.

It's also crazy how much my companion has me participate in the lessons. It's so awesome because it helps me out a lot. Like I thought I'd just kind of listen for the first little bit, but he's pushing me really hard. Most of the time he will just kind of look at me during the lesson and I won't really know what's going on, so I'll just bare my testimony about what we are teaching and how important it is.

Anyways, a couple of funny things this week. So I had two crazy things happen. The first one was we were at Hermana Xochitl's house for dinner and she made stirfry. And you all probably know how bad I hate stirfry. So as she's bringing me the plate, I just happen to notice how much is on that thing. It was literally loaded to the max. I said a prayer in my heart to let me eat this meal so I don't offend Hermana and it was literally the best meal I've had since I've been in Mexico. It was amazing!! It's crazy how much I'm already starting to love vegetables down here - especially cooked onions.

The second funny experience I had was I was at another members house and the plate she brought out was just loaded. I was super hungry so I was excited and I took the first bite and it was absolutely horrible. My tongue died when I tasted it. So I said another prayer asking Heavenly Father if he could help me finish that place and literally, by His grace, I was able to put it down!!

One more super short experience. So Sunday was Fast Sunday and everyone was sharing their testimonies just like normal and I got the prompting to share mine. I was just kind of like my Spanish is not good. How am I going to do that? But then the thought came to my head and it was basically this: How is Heavenly Father going to bless me with the ability to speak Spanish if I don't even have the courage to share my testimony. So I got up and I shared my testimony. It was very short, but I'm extremely grateful for that prompting and thought that came to me. I know a lot of times things may be tough, especially sharing the gospel, but we HAVE to be courageous!!

There's so much to talk about but I don't have a lot of time, ever. I just want you all to know how dang much I love you and how truly grateful I am for this opportunity to serve. Have an amazing week, everyone!

Love,
Elder Blake

Outside and inside my apartment and my neighborhood.

My washing machine - yep, this is where I get to wash my clothes.

And my dryer - new experience for sure.

Sister Xochitl outside the church. Me with my companion and the Bishop.

Week 6 - Part 2

Hola Everyone.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to email much yesterday, but they let us email today for an hour since we couldn't really email yesterday. Anyway, this change has been quite the change. So yesterday we made it to the airport where the Mission President met us. After that, we drove to the mission home, ate breakfast, and then we got to take about a two and a half hour nap because we had to wake up at 2:00 am to get to the airport on time. So the nap was much needed. After the nap we got up and they basically gave us all the mission rules and told us a bunch of stuff. After that we just kind of sat around while the President interviewed a few people. Then he interviewed me and introduced me to my companion.

My new companion is Elder Sac. He's from Guatemala so he's a full native to the language. He doesn't know any English - like at all - so already this past day has been pretty tough because I still can't understand Spanish. I know it will take a while for sure, but I'm very grateful for him and I know he's the companion that I need right now!! As far as I know, he will be training me for the next three months and I have very much faith that I will learn a lot in these next three months.

We literally have like 5 lessons to teach today and we are going to invite one of the investigators to be baptized. We already have two set baptisms so that is so cool. I hope they keep doing what's right so they can get baptized.

Anyways, it's so crazy how they live down here. I'm in the city and my area is called Marquesado. It's in the city and they have it super rough. The living conditions in the nicest house here are probably the same living conditions in the worst house in the United States. Our apartment is good, but I don't have any sheets or anything, so I just slept on the mattress last night. I'll have to be getting some soon.

I'm so grateful for this experience already. It has completely humbled me so much with the language and culture and everything. I'm so grateful for conference. It was so amazing and through conference I was able to receive a lot of personal revelation.

Despite the language, I'm fired up and ready to serve the people of Oaxaca. I want to let as many people as possible know that the Savior loves them beyond their imagination. And that every person who is willing to come unto Christ can be saved. Through Christ we can become cleansed from our sins no matter how deep we think we are. I love you all so much. Have an amazing week.

Vale La Pena (Worth It)
Elder Blake

Week 6

Today has been awesome! We made it to Oaxaca so no worries. I tried a million different phones in the airport and none of them worked. I was pretty mad.

We have met the President and we find out in just a little bit where we are going and who our companions will be. We might even leave tonight! It's so awesome!

I was able to talk to the lady next to me on our flight. She knew Spanish and English and she helped me a lot with my Spanish. I was able to talk to her a lot about our religion and everything, but I'm so mad because I didn't even have a Book of Mormon to give her.

But anyways, I'm super sorry about the call. I wish I could've been able to talk to you guys but believe me, I tried for sure. I don't think I'll be able to email until next week now. This is going to be one awesome, crazy week that is for sure.

Let everyone know I made it. I love you all so much. And wasn't conference just so amazing. What a blessing it is to be able to have prophets and apostles that lead and guide us today.

Have an amazing week everyone. I love you all so much!

Elder Blake

Last picture from the MTC - Loved my District!

"The Boys." That's what all the boys called each other in our District.

My teacher, Hermano Hernandez

First pictures from Oaxaca

And some more pictures were posted on Tuesday. You gotta love Facebook - especially when your missionary is so far away!