Week 5

Hola Everyone.

So this week has been a good week. It's our last week and that's super awesome because I'm so ready to get out there and serve the people of Oaxaca. It's so crazy that we have had three earthquakes in 5 weeks, but it's super awesome at the same time. It was a cool experience being able to feel the earthquake, but I'm thankful it wasn't bigger because Mexico is hurting very badly right now and I feel so bad for all of them.

This week in sacrament meeting we had the opportunity to sing a special musical number with our district. Since it's our last week we have a tradition in our branch to sing a song your last week. So we sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again. It was amazing and the spirit was very strong. I was very thankful for that.

I want to tell you all an amazing experience I had this week. So the Spanish has been tough and it is still no intends Espanola. I still don't understand Spanish so it's super hard for me. The thing is, if I could understand it, I could most likely reply because my Spanish vocabulary is a lot better. But, anyways I've been struggling with my Spanish and it's been really hard.

So Thursday I hit my knees and I poured my heart out to Heavenly Father. I just asked him to let me know that everything would be okay and that everything would work out. I didn't get an answer that night, so I just went along going to classes on Friday. And right toward the end of the day, one of the Hermanas (sisters) in our district came up to me and asked if I could give her a blessing. So right before we had to go back to our houses that night I gave her a blessing.

The spirit completely took over me and I was hit so hard with just the love of our Heavenly Father., This was the first time I've gave a blessing where the spirit completely lead me what to say the entire time and I knew my prayer had been answered. The spirit comforted me so much that night and I know and I want you all to know that everything will be alright. Ya, my Spanish is horrible right now, but the amazing thing is that I know if I continue to work hard and do my absolute best to be exact obedient, Heavenly Father will bless me with the gift of tongues. I'm so grateful that he answered my prayers and I know He will always answer our prayers - we just have to be looking for that answer because it may not always come the way we need it to.

Another amazing experience I had was reading 1 Nephi 17. I had the opportunity to teach my district on this chapter and it just blew me away. The more I read the scriptures, the more I understand and the more knowledge I get that I never thought I had. I want to invite all of you to read this chapter. But, don't just read it. Dig deep into the chapter.

One quick thing on this chapter that just amazes me is how Nephi went through the wilderness for 8 years - literally 8 YEARS! And then they come to this land, the land of Bountiful, and they think this could possibly be the Promised Land. Then out of nowhere, Heavenly Father asks Nephi to go up to the mountains and pray. There he is asked to construct a ship. Just think about that for a second. This is like 590 BC or somewhere in there and he is asked to build a ship, This is after 8 heart aching years in the wilderness. And what blows my mind is instead of complaining, Nephi asks Heavenly Father where he should go to find ore to make the tools he needs in order to build this ship. As I read this the spirit touched me so hard I was in tears. I love Nephi and his example so much.

One last thing. I always like to tell a funny thing that happened in the week and this is literally hilarious. So I came to class on Monday and there was a paper on the door that says go to reception and find out more about your travel plans. Anyways so me and Elder Porter, Elder Soldani, and Elder Boyack go to reception. All they tell us is we have our travel meeting on Wednesday. So we head back to class and right before we walk in the door, we decide to play a prank on our district. So we plan it out for about a minute outside the door. So we go in and tell them that reception told us we were here for a another whole week because the earthquake damaged the runway and they will be repairing it for about two more weeks. The thing is, we all said this with a ticked off look on our faces and we all acted mad.

Some of our district didn't believe us so we told them to go ask reception. So two of the Hermanas (sisters) go ask reception and they come back to class just fuming. Both of them were so upset. It was absolutely hilarious! But then I felt bad, so I apologized and we're all still friends - so no worries. I wish you all could've seen it. Then Hermana Walker just blew up on us telling us if we don't all apologize to her she was not going to say a word to any of us. It was so funny. But we all apologized, so it's all good.

Also, thank you Grandpa and Grandma Balch for the treats. You all know I love treats! They were awesome.

Anyways, have an amazing week. And I also want to invite all of you to go into conference with a question - something you are struggling with in life. I know that if you do that, the spirit will answer your question. I love you all so much. Sorry I don't have time to email hardly anyone today, just know I love you guys.

Love,
Elder Blake

P.S. I leave at 4:00 am on Monday to the airport to fly to Oaxaca. Our flight leaves at 7:00 am, so I think I will be able to call and talk to you guys for a minute. I'm not sure if it's in Mexico or when I get to Oaxaca. So mom, have your cell phone by you. I know it's super early in the morning but I'm so excited to be able to talk to you guys!

Oh and I've gained like 14 pound in the MTC. Is all we do is eat and sit all day. But don't worry, you can't even tell I've gained any weight. And I know I will lose it all in Oaxaca so I'm not worried at all.

Week 4

Hola Everyone.

This week has been so awesome. I didn't think I'd be involved in two earthquakes in the MTC, but I have been and it's been quite the experience. So me and Elder Porter were sitting in our classroom alone studying and we felt the room start to shake pretty bad. So we looked at each other and kind of just sat there. Then we stood up and looked out our classroom window and the palm trees were swaying. It was pretty crazy. Then the alarm for the MTC was going off so we ran outside and gathered up where we were supposed to.

It was me and Elder Porter and a bunch of Latinos together. We all knelt down in the middle of the pavement and said a prayer together in a big circle. I don't know if you've seen the picture on Facebook of the people kneeling down and praying, but if you have that picture is us. It was such an amazing experience to be a part of that.

I can't believe how bad Mexico is getting hit. I know Oaxaca got destroyed and now Mexico City is pretty bad too. So I'm sure we will be doing an extreme amount of service when we get to Oaxaca. I think that will be a great opportunity to spread the Gospel through service so I'm super excited about that.

I leave the MTC on October 2nd and we take about a 40 minute flight to Oaxaca. I haven't got the flight information or anything yet. My Spanish is coming along but it could always be better for sure. I know I'm improving little by little, but I still don't understand much of the Spanish the Latinos speak here, including our teachers. So it's pretty tough for sure. But nothing good comes easy in most situations.

This week has been good. We're working hard and I'm still loving it. I know once we hit the field the mission will get 80 times harder for sure, so I'm worried for the people that are already struggling in the MTC. But they are good people and I hope everything goes great for them.

I just want to finish with a quote by President Eves, the Second Counselor in the Presidency here at the MTC. President Eves is a retired fighter pilot in the Air Force so you can only imagine how straight forward and serious he is. I absolutely love this guy. He's so awesome. Anyways, he told us this and he's referring to missionary work and spreading the Gospel. "Doubt and fear can't exist with faith - It's impossible." I love this quote so much. It's so powerful and so true.

I want to challenge you all to share the gospel and your testimony every chance that you get. And never be afraid to do it. I love you all so much and I just have to say I'm so extremely excited for Dylan and Generra. I was overwhelmed with joy when I heard that. Have an amazing week everyone. I love you guys so much!

Love,
Elder Blake


Pictures from our trip to the Temple last week.

2nd Earthquake

When you read the headlines that say, "Breaking News: Major Earthquake jolts Mexico City," your heart just drops. I honestly can't believe that Jordan has experienced 2 earthquakes in the past 2 weeks. But, I am sooooo thankful for Social Media. As soon as I found out about the earthquake, I got on the MTC Facebook page and this is what it said:

All the missionaries are safe! We can see the Lord's hand protecting our missionaries. We had a practice earthquake drill this morning and during lunch a real earthquake hit. Here are photos of the missionaries gathered safely outside after the earthquake. Many knelt to pray for those who were impacted by this quake.

The pictures were so touching, I had to share a few - even though I have no idea if Jordan is in them or not.

This earthquake comes on the anniversary of one in 1985 that destroyed hundreds of buildings and killed thousands of people. Hopefully they will let him email tonight. I know he is okay - he is in the Lord's hands - but hearing from him would really ease this worried mother's heart.

And I finally heard from him. Here is his letter:

Hey, there was another 7.0 earthquake by Oaxaca and it destroyed stuff again. I'll be doing service for quite some time when I get there, but anyways I'm fine down here. We felt it pretty dang good at the MTC - like the trees and whole buildings that we were in were shaking. It was pretty awesome. Everything is all good though and I'm excited to hear from you guys on Thursday. I love you all so much and please tell Aunt Kristy THANK YOU SO MUCH for the donuts. They were amazing. Love you all so much! And I barely saw the start of Generra's email. Tell them I'm so freakin excited for them. That's so dang awesome!

Week 3

Hola Everyone!

It's so amazing to hear from you all, even though I've only read my mom's email right now. But every time I read everyone's emails they send me, I'm filled with the spirit and they truly do touch me. So thank you guys so much for that. I hope you all will continue to email me when you have time because you have no idea how much it helps me out reading your emails - even when I don't have enough time to email you all back. Just know I would if I had time and know that I love every single one of you so much.

I want to share an experience I had this week that was very hard for me. So we had splits this week to teach an investigator - an investigator that we've never taught before. But I was teaching with a Latino companion and my companion was Elder Soldani, an American that is basically fluent in Spanish from taking it before his mission for 4 straight years. Our Latino companion is Elder Mendez, so we were in a trio. Anyways, I can't even understand much Spanish at all right now, so I wasn't really able to talk to them a whole lot planning, but we only had a 15 minute lesson. So we all got to talk a few times during the lesson.

I had the assignment of introducing us as missionaries at the door and asking the investigator if we could share an important message with him centered on Jesus Christ. Anyways, so I did that and then I gave him a few commitments towards the end of the lesson and I bore my testimony and ended with a closing prayer. This doesn't sound like it was very difficult, but as I was doing this, my Spanish is so bad that the investigator is basically trying not to laugh at me and when the lesson was over I was extremely humiliated.

I'm so very grateful for this experience I was able to have because I haven't let it take me down, even the littlest bit. I have a fire that is lit inside of me and I will not stop working as hard as I can until I can speak Spanish - with my hick accent of course. Heavenly Father is letting me struggle very much right now, but I know that it is because He loves me so much and He has to break you down before He can build you up. I haven't had a single easy experience since I've been here, but I'm so grateful for that.

Just a quick story to end with that hopefully will make everyone laugh a little bit. So every Wednesday night, we meet the new district that comes in and we go around the room and say our name, where we are from, where we are going, and one thing about ourselves. We always try to say funny stuff to make it a good time. Anyways, a little background on the story is that no one in my district knows where Blanding, Utah is - which totally doesn't surprise me at all. So they are always messing around, asking me if I have an antenna TV and stuff like that. It's hilarious. So I said, :I'm Elder Blake and I'm from Blanding, Utah. I'm going to Oaxaca Mexico and I ride my horse to school." It was hilarious and everyone was laughing really hard. It's always good to have fun when it's the right time. I have to find ways to have fun in between classes here so my mind can breathe a little because it is constantly going - which is awesome.

I'm so grateful for everyone of you and I love you all so much. Never forget that Heavenly Father is there for you, no matter what. And He's waiting to bless you with so many things - you just have to ask. I'm so grateful for the humility I've felt since I've arrived here, like I said He has to break you down before He can build you back up. Have an amazing week everyone. I love you all so much!

Elder Blake

Don't worry, Mom. I sent this picture just for you!

Mexico Earthquake Update

So Friday morning (September 8), I got up to go walking and saw that Mexico was hit with an 8.2 magnitude earthquake that night. It totally freaked me out. It said it was the largest earthquake to hit Mexico in a century and at least 35 were confirmed dead. The MTC in Mexico has a Facebook page, so I logged onto it really quick to check things out. They had posted pictures of their buildings, the guard, and a statement that just said, "All is Well." What a relief that was to know that Jordan was safe. They did say that their earthquake alarms went off and that some of the missionaries felt it, but it did not do any damage at all.

Then that night I had this quick email from Jordan:

Hey, I got permission to send you an email and tell you everything is okay in Mexico from the earthquake, so no worries. We didn't even feel it or anything, so everything is good here. Have an amazing week. I love all of you so much.

And one more thing, you can send packages here through the Mexico MTC, like food wise, so you don't have to send it clear from home. You can go online and send me a package to the MTC, so you should send me some snacks because I have already spent so much money on snacks - and you know I need my snacks!

I love you guys so much!!! And please update me every week on football with varsity and Kolar and the Cowboys too. Love you guys.

I seriously had to laugh at his email. There was a massive earthquake and he was worried about football scores and snacks! But, that's so Jordan. So, of course, I had to go online and order him a package! Since you can't ship from the US because of the custom taxes, this is the best alternative - and they did have Doritos and Snickers, so that's a plus!

Week 2

Hola Everyone.

This week was another hard working week in the MTC, but it was awesome. The language is so dang tough and I feel like I should be fluent already, but I know that’s not possible, so I’m getting more patient as the days go on. I feel like I haven’t improved a lot on the language since I’ve got here, but the investigator we teach every day tells me I’ve improved a lot. But I still think I should be doing better than I am. The food here is still pretty good, but it’s not any home cooked meals from mom.

Something that just really blows me away is how immature some missionaries are and how they’re really not looking to come closer to Christ. Like this week, there was a huge rainstorm during the night and the draining systems here aren’t very good. The water backed up the drains and got about a foot and a half deep in some spots. Some of the missionaries went out into the water and were like swimming in it in just their garments – and it was around 10:00 at night. So I’ve just been really surprised by that and the bad attitudes some of the missionaries have. There’s just so many people here that are negative towards everything. But I really hope that changes for them.

I just want to share a very humbling experience I had this week. It was about 3:00 in the afternoon and there were some missionaries in our class teaching the investigator who is actually our teacher, Hermana Rodriguez. We were supposed to be studying and we kind of got distracted. Me and Elder Braza started to play a game of who could turn the lights off by throwing a whiteboard eraser first.

I wasn’t trying to be disobedient at all and I didn’t really realize what I was doing, but our teacher saw and she pulled us out of the room. She made us study the Obedience section in Preach My Gospel and that really hit me hard. Even though I was trying to be obedient every day and do what I am supposed to, I wasn’t having exact obedience. There’s many things I’m doing to try and become a better missionary because I have many faults in my life, but I truly want to become the best missionary I can possibly be and I know I need to be exactly obedient to accomplish that. After our teacher talked to us, I apologized to the class and I told them it wouldn’t happen again. But, I am very glad Heavenly Father allowed that experience to open my eyes and my heart even more.

Just one more quick experience I had. So I was reading the Book of Mormon and I was reading in Mosiah chapter 28 and verse 3 just pierced me in the heart. I was very touched by the spirit. This is talking about the sons of Mosiah preaching to the Lamanites and it says, “Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.”

That verse hit me so hard and I know that it’s our responsibility as members of the church and missionaries to make sure as many people as possible get to hear the message of the restored gospel. I’m so grateful for this opportunity. And I want to challenge all of you who read this every chance you get to share the gospel and your testimony to someone, anyone. You never know the impact it can have on their lives. I love you all so much. Have an amazing week.

Elder Blake

Heading to the Temple

Week 1 - The Most Humbling Experience

To start it out, if I could title this on the email it would be, "The Most Humbling Experience." Just another thing to throw out there to all the people that read the email is the MTC is AMAZING! This honestly has been the hardest 11 days of my life - but who wants easy. Maybe some people think that you show up and that's doing your part, so Heavenly Father let's you speak the language that same day. But, I promise that's not how it works. I always think of the Jesus Christ picture that says, "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be work it." What an amazing thought that is. Anyways, please tell every future missionary that the MTC is amazing. You just have to go in with a good attitude. Just around campus I've talked to a lot of people here that are in their 5th week or so and they say how bad the first week sucks and I'm like, "My first week has been so amazing!!"

So the second day we were here, we got to meet our Branch President. His name is President Muchado. He's such an amazing guy! They talked and interviews us and prayed. Guess what? They called me to be the District Leader. I think it's really tough because there's so much to do here and now I have a lot more responsibility. But I'm grateful for that. What an amazing blessing it is to try and help my district out. Our district is amazing and I love them all so much.

My companion is Elder Porter and he's been struggling quite a bit with anxiety. That is pretty hard because he's always kind of down and negative, but I had the opportunity to give him a blessing last night, so I really hope that helps.

Just some of the things that happened our second day here. We start teaching an investigator the lessons in Spanish and we teach them every single day except P-day and Sunday. So that is so tough and humbling. Every time we've taught her, I just want to pour my heart out to her and tell her this gospel can bless her life in so many ways, but my Spanish isn't good at all. I know it will take me a while to learn the language, but I will keep working as hard as I possibly can and I know Heavenly Father will do his part and bless me with the gift of tongues. But I also know it won't come easy.

We don't have a lot of time so please forgive me for that. But just know I'm praying for everyone of you and please know how dang much I love all of you guys.

I have truly been humbled so much in these last 11 days and I'm so grateful for that. I have felt the spirit so many times and I want to share just a little experience I was able to be blessed with.

So in one of the lessons we had with our investigator - who isn't a real investigator, but you still take her super serious and she is very serious about it too. Anyways we got talking about the Book of Mormon and we had her read a scripture in 1 Nephi and she asked who Nephi was. Through the spirit and the gift of tongues I was able to tell her that he was a prophet in the Book of Mormon. And then she said she thought his father was the prophet. And somehow I was able to explain to her that after his father had passed, Nephi became the prophet and she completely understood. It was super amazing and it was an awesome blessing. Even though it was just something little, I know it was only through the spirit I was able to do that.

Just to end I want to say the food is super good - for the most part. The bread here is absolutely amazing and I'm not even kidding. Throughout every single meal, I eat 5 pieces of bread. And through these past 11 days I've probably had like 7-8 full cubes of butter! So on Tuesday I decided to go on a butter diet because I didn't really want my heart to stop! And then I went back to butter on Wednesday because I couldn't handle it anymore!!!

I want you guys to know how much I love you will all of my heart. You are all in my prayers and I love you so much. I'm not good at expressing myself so I hope this email is okay. I'm so excited to learn Spanish and to teach the people of Oaxaca. What a humbling experience and blessing this is to serve our Heavenly Father. Please read the scripture Moroni 7:47-48 and truly know how much our Savior loves each one of us individually. I know this gospel is the most important thing in our lives and I have a huge testimony of that. Never forget it! Have an amazing week and never forget the love I have for all of you!

Elder Blake