Week 23

Hola everyone.

I'm very excited to write to all of you and tell you the awesome experiences I was able to have this week. I really hope that you all had an amazing week and that you all have amazingly super happy lives. Because we need to be happy and we have such a great reason to be happy and have so much joy in our lives - that reason is the Gospel! I had an amazing experience this week - the most powerful lesson or experience I think I've had in the mission so far.

We had a lesson this last Wednesday with an investigator named Julio Cesar. He's so awesome and always has so many questions to ask. Anyways, we taught him the Plan of Salvation. He started the lesson by questioning us about God and he said that God is angry at times with people. So my companion told him that yes, that's true because God hates sin and He hates when people commit sin and don't follow His commandments. My companion explained that there are many instances in the Bible where almost an entire city of people are destroyed because they refuse to list to the Word of God. My companion said something really awesome. He said, "God absolutely hates sin, but he loves the sinners!" So after this Julio Cesar asked us, "So then we should be afraid of God?" And I was able to say, "No, we have absolutely no reason to fear God if we are keeping His commandments and doing what's right. But if we're constantly sinning then yes, we should be afraid." Anyways it was something so small, but Julio is very smart and likes to argue with us. And he just looked at us and said, "Yes. I know that makes sense."

To end the lesson with Julio, we asked him to be baptized. He told us he was already baptized and then we asked him if he would again be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood authority of God because that's the only way we can enter into the Kingdom of God. That really got him going. He asked us if his baptism and confirmation and marriage in the Church doesn't count because the person doing it didn't have the priesthood. In a very respectful way, we were able to tell him no. And we explained it all very clearly. Through all of this he was literally able to understand the gospel. After we explained everything he told us nothing more than "Wow. That all makes sense!" Good heck. How powerful this lesson truly was. I wish I could explain it better, but I know without a doubt that he knows it's true. The spirit was so extremely strong during this lesson and all he needs to do now is act.

I know this church is true. I know that through the covenants we make and keep is the only way we can make it back to live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and our families again. This gospel is not an easy life, but the great promise of a blessing that we have to be able to live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again is so worth it. Yes, we will always make mistakes, but I know that through the Atoning power of Jesus Christ, we can be cleansed from our mistakes. The Atonement is real and it's so powerful. I have seen it work in my life so many times and in the lives of others.

One short note to end on. Something that Joseph Smith said that I absolutely love found in Preach My Gospel. Just think of the revelations and knowledge that Joseph Smith had and after everything he knew about the Gospel, he said this, "After all we know, the best and most important thing is to preach the gospel." There are so many people that need all of your help. Look for those people and help them. Missionary work is nothing without strong, amazing members. I hope you all have an amazing week and keep living the Gospel. I love you all so much!!

Elder Blake

Finally some pictures - no captions, but great pictures!!!

Week 22 - 5 Months!

Hola Everyone.

This week has been good. Not a whole lot happened and we are still having such a hard time finding people to teach because everyone is rejecting us right now - even our investigators. But, I've seen such a huge miracle this week that I want to share! Also, I hope you've all had an amazing week and I hope that you all remember how important missionary work really is and it can't happen without amazing members like all of you!

Anyways, my short experience. So the sister that I told you about last week - Hermana Geo - who hasn't attended church in over a year. She came to church this week!!!! I was so dang excited and my heart just rejoiced. What a blessing that was for us! We've been working with her every single week since I got here and I finally got to see her come to church. It was seriously so amazing!!! I know it doesn't sound like a huge miracle, but it really was - especially for me and my companion.

I don't have a whole lot to share this week, but I want to challenge you all to read Jacob 5 and ponder it. It's insane. I've literally been studying that chapter this entire past week. The other day I studied hard for one hour. Before my mission, I never really knew what it meant to study the scriptures, but this chapter was killing me. I couldn't understand it. So I read to about verse 30 and didn't understand anything, so I started again using the footnotes and help from my companion. I learned how amazing this chapter truly is and how much power it contains.

Anyways, I love you all so much and I hope you have an amazing week!!

Elder Blake

I found this picture on Facebook. District Conference.

Week 21

Hole Everyone.

Just like always, I sure hope you've all had an amazing week. It amazes me being on the mission now how much I'm able to feel the spirit - whether it's a super strong feeling or a super small feeling or just simply feeling joy and love and peace and happiness in my life. I hope you can all try this week to feel the spirit because I know without a doubt we can and should have experiences like this every week where we do feel the spirit. I have an experience I want to share from this week.

So we had divisions with another area this week and my companion went to the other area and a missionary from the other area came here with me to our area. We had three or four appointments lined up and I was so dang excited to teach because we haven't been having a whole lot of success here and the people haven't wanted to accept us much. Anyways, we went to every single appointment and every single one of them cancelled on us. Good heck, I was so bummed about this. But we kept working. We started contacting and we contacted quite a bit. After contacting for quite a while and no one letting us in, we finally found someone who wanted to listen and then we found another and another. We ended up having three people this day that are possible investigators and we were able to teach them all a little bit about the gospel. What a BLESSING this was. I know with all my heart that when we do all that we can and we really don't think we can do any more, Heavenly Father will step in and help us out.

Anyways this same day, we had another appointment with an inactive lady in our area. She hasn't gone to church in probably a year or more. She's about 60 years old or so and she's super stubborn and she knows it too! Anyways, we have been teaching her for the whole time I've been in this area about once a week, and she hasn't changed a bit. And that really makes me wonder why and what we are doing wrong.

So we decided to teach her about the restoration. So we taught her a little about the restoration and she remembered quite a bit. Then she started talking about how she struggles with members because they put their shirts and ties and dresses on and go to church on Sunday. They act different on Sunday and everything and then they come home and then they act no different then every other person on the street. I told her that yes, that might be true with some people and that we need to act different because we are different than every one else. I then started talking about how great of a blessing it is to know what we know - to literally have the knowledge that we have. I told her that we know what happens in the end and we know that we can live with our families forever. Since we know all of this, why in the world should we not live this gospel like we know we should. Through this experience and lesson, Heavenly Father allowed me to just be overwhelmed with JOY because WE KNOW we have everything that we possibly need - we just need to persevere to the end!! She ended the lesson by saying that she wants to change and that she's going to start changing now and she hasn't even made a move to change in all the time I've been here, so I was amazed to hear that from her.

Anyways, I sure hope you all have another amazing week and I sure hope you can all think of the blessings that we all have, especially the knowledge we have alone in this gospel. We are truly blessed. My heart is full of joy to share this gospel. Just like President Monson said, "May we always choose the harder right than the easier wrong."

I love you all so much. This church is so true. Heavenly Father blesses us so much and we can and will be healed through our difficult times if we come unto Him. The atonement can and will heal us of our sins and problems if we truly repent. I love you all!

Elder Blake

Week 20

Hola Everyone!

I sure hope you all had an amazing week. I know that the news about President Monson was so dang hard to hear for us all, but I also know what a blessing it is that we all know where he's at right now. And he is at peace and in a way better place. The life of President Monson is an absolutely inspiration for us all to follow. What a blessing we all had to have him as our beloved prophet. Just remember his last talk. He probably knew it would be his last conference talk and he talked to us about the Book of Mormon and how important it is to read the Book of Mormon EVERY SINGLE DAY!!

Anyway, here was an experience I want to share with you. So we had an awesome day planned on Friday because we had two or three appointments that we were really excited about. So we go to the first brother's home and he's not there. Then we walk probably 4 miles or so to the next appointment and this sister wasn't home either. We were super bummed. It's really hard when you have appointments on your mission and you plan for the lessons and pray for them and then they're not home or are too busy and don't have time to listen.

Anyway so we headed in another direction for another sister we wanted to hopefully find and teach. On the way I saw two men. One man had his arm wrapped around the shoulder of the other and the other was trying to help him up a mountain of stairs. And they were literally on the first step. So I told my companion that we needed to go help them out. So we went and got a chair and sat this man in it and the three of us carried this man up all of these stairs. And when I say a mountain, it's literally straight up. It was probably about the same amount of stairs as going up four or five flights in a hotel. It was so AWESOME!!!!

So we got this man in his room and we asked if there was anything else we could do to help them. His friend that helped carry this man up the stairs told us to teach him about Christ. So we had the amazing opportunity to teach this man. We found out that he was in the hospital because he had literally almost drank himself to death with alcohol. The hospital had to drain the alcohol or water or something out of his stomach. Anyways, we taught him and he accepted another lesson and the second lesson we taught him the restoration and he accepted to be baptized the 17 of next month. I know it's possible for him to change and I know we are going to work as hard as we can with this man to get him ready and willing to accept the amazing covenant of baptism.

I want you all to know that as we serve others, our Heavenly Father blesses us tremendously in our lives. I have seen service work so many times on my mission already. Just like the scriptures say, "When we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God." How true that saying really is - that is for sure!!

Also, I just want to say a quick something to all those who are preparing for your missions. Find this book called "Suit Up" and read it. It's a story about 7 missionaries and their advice and experiences on their missions. It will help you tremendously to prepare for your mission. The advice and the stories they give in this book are absolutely amazing. I've very grateful to my family for sending me that book!!

I want you all to know that this gospel is true. We are in the only true church on this earth. What a blessing that is in our lives. The atonement is so real. I have seen it work so many times in my life and it continues to help me on a day-to-day basis in the mission. Something Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said that hit me so hard was the love that Heavenly Father has for us. He talks about Him sending His son and then he says something along the lines of, "Think of what He (our Father in Heaven) had to go through watching His perfect son suffer the way He did for the world." Thanks to the amazing, indescribable gift of the atonement, each and every single one of us will always have HOPE! I'm beyond grateful and humbled to have this opportunity to serve our Heavenly Father and the people of Oaxaca. This gospel is amazing and it's the only way we can live with our families and our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again. Prepare now for what is to come in the future of your lives. I love you all so much and I say that with all of my heart!!

Elder Blake

Week 19 - Happy New Year!

Hola Everyone.

What a week it surely has been. I sure hope you all had such an amazing week and an amazing time with your families during the holidays. I have a couple of experiences I want to share with you all this week.

This week was really tough. They say the holidays is the best time to find people to teach because families are together and everything, but it has been super hard. Absolutely no one will let us in their house. We have contacted for 3 to 5 hours every day this week because we don't have any appointments because everyone is gone or busy or they don't want to accept the lessons this week. Anyways, we were planning our day on Wednesday and as we were thinking where we should contact, this road popped into my head. It's called Callejon Number 5. So I wrote that down and I said we needed to contact this street today. So we got there and what a Callejon here is it's a tiny street in the mountains and it's just straight stairs with houses on both sides. So we knocked on every single door and we literally got to the last door and I was like this is it. So this younger guy answers the door and he lets us in. We taught him and he accepted another lesson. What a tender mercy that was for me. I really think he is an awesome investigator and can be baptized. I'm so excited to teach him again.

So right after that lesson, we went back to contacting in another Callejon. We heard people working behind the first door and my companion was like, they're busy and he was going to move on to the next door. But I told him that we will help them. So they answered the door after we had knocked and they were reconstructing this house. They were mixing a huge pile of cement on the floor so we asked if we could help. And they said you'll get all your clothes dirty. We said we don't care so we grabbed a shovel and starting mixing this concrete. After it was all mixed, this man went up on a ladder sort of thing and we filled buckets of cement and handed it to him. He filled in all of the walls.

So we finished this entire mix of cement on the first floor and then we moved to the roof of this building and we mixed another huge batch of cement and did the same thing. It was so crazy. We literally didn't stop working for like 2 hours straight. But it was so awesome. I was so happy the whole time to help these guys out. I was able to work the two hours without stopping and I know Heavenly Father helped me out so much because it wasn't easy work or anything that I was used to. And there were only 5 of us with me and Elder Sac. But what an awesome experience that was. My shoes were literally cement and so was my shirt. It was awesome. I will attach a picture sometime so you can all see.

My last experience is quite the experience. So we got invited to have dinner with two members we know yesterday for the New Year. And they are both about 20 and the only members in their family. Anyways, in this house there are aunts and uncles and cousins and everybody, but only two members of the church. So we ate and everything was all good and about 30 minutes before we left they started asking some really crazy questions and they gave us this drink. They told us it was just grape juice, but thanks to the Holy Ghost I knew it was wine, so me and my companion refused to drink it.

Then the last little bit, they just tore me apart, asking me questions like am I attracted to the girls here and things like that. I told them I wouldn't marry anyone outside of our church because I will be married in the temple and they told me how ridiculous that was and all this other stuff. They basically talked a lot of smack on me and the church. I'm so surprised with my reaction to all of this, in a way. I just shared my testimony and was really calm about it. After I got home and we were in our apartment, I went outside and I was really mad inside, but for some reason Heavenly Father blessed me in this moment to just be extremely grateful for this experience. So, I said a prayer and I told him how grateful I was to have this experience and how I knew that it was tough right now, but in reality it was nothing. I really wanted to be so mad and just talk back to them and stuff, but He allowed me to have patience and respond in a respectful way, even though they weren't being respectful at all.

I'm so grateful for each and every one of you. And I'm so dang grateful for this opportunity to serve our Heavenly Father. Good heck, it's so dang tough right now, especially with the language and everything, but what a huge blessing in my life. I hope you all have an amazing week and you all get an opportunity to share your testimony. I sure do love you all so much. Keep doing it!!!

Elder Blake