Week 44

Hola Everyone!!

Just another week here in paradise. What an amazing adventure it has been these first two weeks at the coast!! We've had some ups and downs here as always, but above all, we are here working hard in this amazing work of the Lord!! I hope, as always, that you guys truly have had an opportunity to feel the spirit in your every day lives!!

So to start off, I have a pretty dang awesome story to tell you. But, to understand the story, I have to describe our house!! It's super awesome. Right as you walk in you go up to like the first level where there's a patio and a place to wash your clothes (by hand, ha ha) and then you go up to the second level and that's where we live. Then the third level is where the owner used to live until they moved to the City of Mexico! Well, do you want to know why they moved to Mexico?? I bet you do, so I will tell you. They moved to Mexico because about a month ago, two people in the middle of the night broke into the house (it's not hard to break into the house here) and literally kidnapped the owner. How awesome is that??!! So I was pretty excited to hear that story when I got here. It was awesome!!

Anyways, on the more serious side of things, I had such an amazing experience this week!! So there is an amazing family here called the Lucero family. They are only members of like nine months or so. The dad of the family passed all of his interviews to be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood and he asked me to ordain him!! Good heck, it was such an amazing blessing. As we finished the interview, I was talking with Brother Javier is his name and I almost started crying just being filled with so much happiness for him and his family!! After nearly 45 years of being a Catholic family, they found the truth and they are so dang blessed for it!! I have only been here for about two weeks, but my love for the people and especially the Lucero family is so dang strong!!

I have seen so many miracles here in the mission field that it's unreal. I'm so dang blessed to be a missionary in these last days!! Yes, we are in the toughest of times right now, but I have the strongest, STRONGEST testimony that as we hold FAST to the iron rod, and as we do the small and simple things, we will be SO blessed and we WILL receive exaltation! As the Prophet Joseph Smith taught us in D&C 121, many are called but few are chosen!! I would invite you all, as Bishop Nielson, invited me, to read D&C 121 and ponder in your heart what it says and I know the spirit will touch your hearts!! Have an amazing week everyone and know that I love you all so very much!!

ELDER BLAKE

From Facebook

Week 43 - The Coast!

Hola everyone!

Good heck, it's been quite a crazy week here in good ol' paradise!! I hope you have all had such an amazing week and as well been able to feel the spirit in your everyday lives!!

I want to start out by saying HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even tell you guys how dang grateful I am for all the amazing examples I have had in my life, starting out with my dad and my grandpas and my coaches and leaders in the Church. Good heck, I sure have been so blessed with so many amazing examples in my life!! I hope you all had an amazing day yesterday and that you all ate a big ol juicy steak for me because I'm dying to eat one!!

Anyways, good heck the trip we had on Tuesday was terrible. 12 hours in a bus! And if you thing West Virginia was bad gramps and grams, it's a whole lot worse here! I've never been so dang sick traveling before and members from my ward gave me special pills and everything that I took. They didn't work! I puked my guts out like 5 times. But something really funny is I was going to the bathroom and the bathroom in these buses is about the same size as a bathroom on a plane. I was standing up and there were so many dang turns that I was literally flying all over the place in the bathroom. Haha.

So after 12 looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong hours, we made it to Puerto Escondido and I am finally able to tell you all that I know what true hot is. Goodness!! Literally it was raining today as we were walking to one of the members houses and I was sweating like crazy. The humidity is something else here!! Every day I take a freezing cold shower and right as soon as I turn the water off, I am sweating again. It's super awesome!!!! I definitely can't complain because we're in paradise and we're serving those people around us and it couldn't get any better!!

So to end with, we were contacting here on Wednesday and we knocked on a door about two times and said good afternoon like 5 times. Nobody came so my companion told me to let's go. But, I felt like we needed to wait so we knocked again and a lady came out of her door and let us in!! We explained that we were representatives of Jesus Christ and that we're here to share our message of happiness with her and her family. She told us that she had been looking for something like this in her life!! What a miracle it truly was!! We will continue teaching them and I sure do feel they will be baptized!!!!

I love you all so dang much and I hope that you all have such an amazing week!! You are ALL always in my thoughts and prayers!!

ELDER BLAKE

Week 42

Hola Everyone!

Well, what an amazing week we truly have had here in good ol Oaxaca. I absolutely love this place, the amazing people here, and this amazing gospel!! We truly are so blessed!! This week I have felt a little bit of every emotion - sad, happy, excited, angry - but I know that is part of life and the mission!! I hope you have all had the opportunity to recognize the spirit in your lives every single day, because I know that he is with each and every single one of us!!

Anyways, to start it all off, as you all know I'm heading to the coast baby!! I'm so dang excited but also so dang sad. I have had to tell the amazing members and people I know here that I'm leaving this week and it was extremely tough!! I have learned to absolutely LOVE the amazing people of Oaxaca and especially here in the area of Ixcotel!! I know that my Mission President, as well as my Heavenly Father, send me here for a reason and it was such a blessing to be able to serve here in Ixcotel!!

Anyways, so on Friday we had a really bad day and me and my companion were a little bit down and mad about the whole situation. So anyways, we were walking by like Main Street on Saturday heading to visit a family here and I heard this voice, Elders, Elders. But it was literally in English so I was like what the heck!! So this sister was in the middle of this street trying to get our attention. She told us that she had been chasing us for like three blocks!! Come to find out that she and her mom are from Oaxaca, but she lives in Utah!! She told us that they came to visit because her mom is a bit depressed and everything. But she told us when they saw us, her and her mom felt like they needed to talk to us and give us some money! So we talked to this sister and her mom for about 10 minutes. We took some pictures and then they had to go!! After they had left, my companion and I were so filled with joy and peace and love and animo (cheer), like they say here!! The spirit literally touched our hearts through this amazing sister!! We had the spirit so strongly with us after we had visited with them. What a tender mercy it truly was to find her here in Oaxaca - or for them to find us!!

Anyways, I'm so sad (but happy too) to leave the good ol city of Oaxaca, but I know that the Lord needs me in the coast. I will be serving specifically in Puerto Escondido and my new companion is Elder Castillo!! What a blessing it has been to serve here and see how the Lord was able to help others through his servants!! I am forever grateful for this chance I have to serve in Oaxaca as a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ!! We are so dang blessed!! I hope you all have such an amazing week and know how dang much I love you ALL!!!!

ELDER BLAKE


Part 2 of The Story (from Jordan's Mom)

On Saturday, I got a random text from some stranger. It said, Hi, Donna. Asking for ransom to give you your son back. Jk! I'm from Provo and ran into him and we gave them some money for lunch. :) He said to tell you see you in a year and three months! She attached this picture.

I thanked her and told her that we would pay anything for our son and that she was an angel to not only visit with him and give him money, but to send me a picture. I told her it was definitely a tender mercy from my Father in Heaven. Then she sent another picture and said, I'm the one in orange an my mom in blue. We chased them down a few blocks because we were on the opposite side of the road and we yelled and honked and they were so engaged in their conversation and the noise of the busy street didn't help. Finally, I found a spot to park, crossed the busy street like a crazy woman, and yelled at them. I don't know why, but I started crying nonstop! I couldn't even talk! Eventually I did and explained who I was and gave them money. They kept asking, are you sure? Are you sure? I guess random, emotional women don't stop them to give them money LOL. My nephew is on his mission in Argentina and perhaps that's what got me emotional. Or maybe the fact that I haven't been to church in a few years and seeing how happy and glowing they were made me miss it. And/or I was humbled by their willingness to be walking and sweating as they shared a message they know to be true. Who knows? But my heart is full and this may have been the highlight of my trip. I am just so touched by her story and willingness. What an angel indeed!

Maquel, don't worry. I still lick my chip bags clean! 

Week 41

Hola Everyone!!

Good heck. What an amazing week it has been!! We found new investigators and we had six investigators in sacrament this week. We are working hard here!! I don't think the mission is going to get any easier, but I don't think it's supposed to be as amazing as that either!! I know that as Elder Holland said to share the gospel and to be a missionary as our Savior, Jesus Christ once was, we better be ready to at least feel and go through a teeny, tiny, little bit of what he went through!! Yes, I have been struggling a little bit, but that's all part of life and that's a normal thing! But, I can sure tell you all one thing. And that is I have felt your prayers and your love so strongly this past week! And I can't tell you how dang grateful I am for them!!

So this week we, as a district, had interviews with the Mission President. It's always so dang awesome to be able to talk to President and feel the spirit that he brings to every single one of us!! I have now been in the city here for my entire mission and if you know me very well, yes, I love the city. But I love the little towns so much more! So I have been praying quite a bit to be able to have a change and leave the city. Before we had our interview with our President, I prayed really hard and I asked Heavenly Father to show me His will through my Mission President. So when I got into the room with the President, I quickly received the answer to my prayers!! First he asked me how I was doing. And then he asked me if I was ready to travel really far!! I quickly let him know that I was more than ready to travel super far!! And then he told me, YOU'RE GOING TO THE COAST BABY!!!!!!! Well, he didn't say baby, but I would like you all to imagine that he did!!

We are still working hard here in Ixcotel and we will be having three more baptisms this month - or maybe more! It's amazing how the Lord works and the people that He puts in your path as you are willing to share the gospel with others!! I'm sad to say I won't be able to see these three absolutely amazing people be baptized, but I'm so dang excited for them and the choices that they are making in their lives!! As I have read the scriptures over and over again, in Doctrine and Covenants 18. I love it more and more and it says in verses 15-16, And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my father! And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me! I absolutely love those scriptures so much and it's so dang true. No, I haven't had many baptisms in the mission, but my goodness, what joy I have felt when the amazing people here have made the decision to be baptized!

My goodness, I sure do know this church is true. I know that as we continue to try our hardest and be the best that we can be, we will ALWAYS see the love and grace of God in our lives. I know that the ONLY way that we can and will have happiness in our lives in these last days is when we choose to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ! What a blessing, as always, it is to be members of the ONLY true church!! I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for every one of you!! Have an amazing week.

ELDER BLAKE

 

This is a pastor for a Christian Church here.

He always asks us about our church. It's so awesome.