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.