Hola Everyone!
It's been a great week here in good ol' Juchitan, Oaxaca. You gotta love it!! No, we didn't see any baptisms this change, but my companion and I were talking about the last six weeks we've had and really how many miracles we've seen here together. It's been such an amazing ride - it really has!! We've also been working sooooo hard and helping to prepare so many to be baptized. I will finish up my mission here in this awesome area, so I sure hope we can see the fruits of our labors these next six week and see many people enter into the waters of baptism!!
This week one of the biggest miracles we saw after working hard the entire week was we were able to have four investigators come to church on Sunday! My goodness, you guys should have seen our faces as they came through the doors. My companion and I were just smiling like crazy!! Three of the four that went to church are ready to be baptized - they just have to make the right decision and be baptized!!
As you know we definitely don't obligate the people here to be baptized. But we invite them as Jesus Christ himself would invite them! But as you also know, when Jesus Christ himself was here teaching the people, there were many who didn't accept his teachings. Goodness, it sure does hurt so bad to see so many AMAZING people that could be awesome members of the church when they don't accept the gospel in their lives. Through my mission I have come to know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for each and every single one of His children and his time is PERFECT!!
I have also come to know that even as a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ I am FAR from perfect. But I know without a doubt that He sees when we are striving to do what's right and to be better people and He blesses us because of that!! I've come to learn that He doesn't expect any more out of us than our very BEST!! This is the Church of Jesus Christ. He is the leader! and He speaks to President Nelson face to face!! I know that He lives and that He loves us and that if WE as FAMILIES do ALL we can in this life, we WILL return to live with him again!! Just remember like President Nelson taught us, "Salvation is a personal matter. Exaltation is a FAMILY matter!"
I love you all so dang much. I'm so grateful to be here teaching our brothers and sisters "the Lamanites" in Oaxaca. WHAT A BLESSING!! Have an amazing week everyone!!!!
Elder Blake
Jordan
Monday, June 24, 2019
Monday, June 17, 2019
Week 95
Hola Everyone!
It's been a pretty disappointing week, I guess I could say! We've been working super hard out here and we've done just about everything to try and get our investigators motivated to be baptized and to try and get them to church! And we had 0 investigators that went to church this week, so that's why it was pretty disappointing!
But, we had some great experiences this week as well! I'd probably say that my greatest experience was a little contact that I did in a taxi! So we went to a super small colony that has like maybe 20 houses and it's in the middle of Juchitan and Union Hidalgo. So anyways, we were heading back in a taxi and you know we had 6 people crammed in that baby - ha! So I started talking to the lady that was sitting next to me and I just got to know her a little bit. She told me she was going to pick her kid up from school. Just before she got out, I just simply asked her if we could visit her one day and she told me YES!!
So on Saturday we had a few appointments fall through and I told my companion that we needed to go visit Karina! Anyways, we went and right as we got there, her husband arrived home from work as well, so it turned out perfect! We taught them the restoration and we invited them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon! Then we asked the sister to say the closing prayer and her husband was like, "No. I will say it." So we told him to go ahead and say the prayer. So he said this in his prayer, "We ask thee to know if these things are true and if they're not may things go bad for these missionaries (que les vaya mal)!" We were laughing a lot about his prayer. It was super funny! It doesn't make as much sense in English, but in Spanish it was hilarious!
So something super funny. About a week ago, my companion told me I wish I would've bore my testimony in sacrament meeting last fast and testimony meeting because that would've been my last time sharing my testimony in sacrament here in Oaxaca (he goes home next week). I was like, hey, don't worry about it. You'll get your chance! So to top off the week, we got a text on Saturday about 11:45 at night. And you know it was from the 1st Counselor asking us to give a talk on Sunday! So we had a solid 30 minutes on Sunday to plan our talks, but that's the awesome thing about studying the Gospel of Jesus Christ every day - you can usually throw a talk together pretty fast! Everything turned out well and we were so thankful to be able to talk!
My companion and I were thinking about what we can do to have more baptisms here and how we could help more people come to know the truth. We couldn't figure out why our investigators weren't progressing like they should when we've been trying to do all we can to help them! Anyways, we were talking to a member of the church about this and he told us the people have their agency too! And that just hit me so hard. But I also know without a doubt that if we try as hard as we can, the Lord will bless us! Just like Elder Holland said, "We are the Church of Jesus Christ. This is the TRUTH. Why would we think this would be easy when it was NEVER easy for HIM!" I absolutely love that talk and I know that to be true!!
I love you all so dang much and I hope you all had an amazing week. Also, I want to wish you all a VERY Happy Father's Day, especially to my dad - the BEST father a son could ask for! Thank you so much for all you guys do for us!!
Elder Blake
It's been a pretty disappointing week, I guess I could say! We've been working super hard out here and we've done just about everything to try and get our investigators motivated to be baptized and to try and get them to church! And we had 0 investigators that went to church this week, so that's why it was pretty disappointing!
But, we had some great experiences this week as well! I'd probably say that my greatest experience was a little contact that I did in a taxi! So we went to a super small colony that has like maybe 20 houses and it's in the middle of Juchitan and Union Hidalgo. So anyways, we were heading back in a taxi and you know we had 6 people crammed in that baby - ha! So I started talking to the lady that was sitting next to me and I just got to know her a little bit. She told me she was going to pick her kid up from school. Just before she got out, I just simply asked her if we could visit her one day and she told me YES!!
So on Saturday we had a few appointments fall through and I told my companion that we needed to go visit Karina! Anyways, we went and right as we got there, her husband arrived home from work as well, so it turned out perfect! We taught them the restoration and we invited them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon! Then we asked the sister to say the closing prayer and her husband was like, "No. I will say it." So we told him to go ahead and say the prayer. So he said this in his prayer, "We ask thee to know if these things are true and if they're not may things go bad for these missionaries (que les vaya mal)!" We were laughing a lot about his prayer. It was super funny! It doesn't make as much sense in English, but in Spanish it was hilarious!
So something super funny. About a week ago, my companion told me I wish I would've bore my testimony in sacrament meeting last fast and testimony meeting because that would've been my last time sharing my testimony in sacrament here in Oaxaca (he goes home next week). I was like, hey, don't worry about it. You'll get your chance! So to top off the week, we got a text on Saturday about 11:45 at night. And you know it was from the 1st Counselor asking us to give a talk on Sunday! So we had a solid 30 minutes on Sunday to plan our talks, but that's the awesome thing about studying the Gospel of Jesus Christ every day - you can usually throw a talk together pretty fast! Everything turned out well and we were so thankful to be able to talk!
My companion and I were thinking about what we can do to have more baptisms here and how we could help more people come to know the truth. We couldn't figure out why our investigators weren't progressing like they should when we've been trying to do all we can to help them! Anyways, we were talking to a member of the church about this and he told us the people have their agency too! And that just hit me so hard. But I also know without a doubt that if we try as hard as we can, the Lord will bless us! Just like Elder Holland said, "We are the Church of Jesus Christ. This is the TRUTH. Why would we think this would be easy when it was NEVER easy for HIM!" I absolutely love that talk and I know that to be true!!
I love you all so dang much and I hope you all had an amazing week. Also, I want to wish you all a VERY Happy Father's Day, especially to my dad - the BEST father a son could ask for! Thank you so much for all you guys do for us!!
Elder Blake
Monday, June 10, 2019
Week 94
Hola Everyone!
Well, I don't have a whole lot to say this week. It's actually been a bit of a rough week for sure! But, we were still able to see a miracle!!
So anyways, this week on Tuesday, we had divisions and I went to the famous "septima" here in Juchitan. It's just the 7th seccion (section) - literally where the people here tell us that "they kill for free there." It was super awesome. We got to know a lot of less actives and invite them all to church on Sunday.
But finishing up the day, we went to go eat a little dinner and I ate a Tlayuda (kind of like a Navajo taco, but on a fried tortilla) - probably my favorite food ever here!! So on Friday, I absolutely felt like I was dying. I couldn't even leave the house because I was puking and going to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so. It was probably thee best day of my life - haha! Despite all of that, Elder Arce gave me a blessing and I was good the next day!
The miracle that we saw this week was the baptism of Felipe - a super great kid from Union Hidalgo. He's 16 years old and has a lot of desires to do good! I know a lot of times that our Heavenly Father gives us challenges so that we can come out being better people and learn from every one of our challenges!!
I love you all so dang much and hope you all have such an amazing week!!
Elder Blake
Well, I don't have a whole lot to say this week. It's actually been a bit of a rough week for sure! But, we were still able to see a miracle!!
So anyways, this week on Tuesday, we had divisions and I went to the famous "septima" here in Juchitan. It's just the 7th seccion (section) - literally where the people here tell us that "they kill for free there." It was super awesome. We got to know a lot of less actives and invite them all to church on Sunday.
But finishing up the day, we went to go eat a little dinner and I ate a Tlayuda (kind of like a Navajo taco, but on a fried tortilla) - probably my favorite food ever here!! So on Friday, I absolutely felt like I was dying. I couldn't even leave the house because I was puking and going to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so. It was probably thee best day of my life - haha! Despite all of that, Elder Arce gave me a blessing and I was good the next day!
The miracle that we saw this week was the baptism of Felipe - a super great kid from Union Hidalgo. He's 16 years old and has a lot of desires to do good! I know a lot of times that our Heavenly Father gives us challenges so that we can come out being better people and learn from every one of our challenges!!
I love you all so dang much and hope you all have such an amazing week!!
Elder Blake
Monday, June 3, 2019
Week 93
Hola Everyone!
I’d have to say that it’s been a week of MILAGROS (MIRACLES)!! Because my goodness, we sure have seen so dang many that is for sure!!
So to start it out, about two months ago my companion, Elder Ixmata and I went to a place called La Colonia Simona Robles. Anyway in this colony, there are about 20 houses and it’s basically in the middle of nowhere . . . kind of like Blanding haha! But we found out that there are a lot of members there, but they are less active and have family members that aren’t members of the church. So we went by their houses and talked to them for a bit.
Now two months later and my companion and I are having difficulties finding new people to teach. As we were planning the day, the Holy Ghost whispered to me that we need to go back to that colony. So we went back and we visited two families - Sister Elizabeth and her family and Sister Abigail and her family. Their husbands and kids aren’t members yet! So we invited Sister Elizabeth to church because we visited her on Saturday. We didn’t visit Sister Abigail until Sunday. Anyways with a single INVITATION they went to church! They as in Sister Elizabeth and her three kids. And she hadn’t been to church in 8 years!!! And soon we hope that 10 year old son Saul will be getting baptized!! WHAT A MIRACLE!!!
Anyways, so there’s one miracle and here goes the second!! So after church on Sunday we went home before we ate, basically just to fill up my little bottle with more consecrated oil because it was about running out. So I took it out of my bag and put it on the table and the spirit immediately told me to put it back in my bag. So I obeyed and we couldn’t even find any more oil. So we went to eat with our missionary leader, a super cool dude named Melvin. He’s super straight forward about everything! Anyway, we finish up with him and every Sunday at 4 we help a sister give English connect classes - and they got cancelled for the very first time in the 4 months since I’ve been here! So we were walking back to an appointment we had as a backup plan and we had to pass by the hospital to get there. So as we pass by the hospital, a recently returned missionary stopped us and asked if we had consecrated oil with us!! We gladly responded yes and he told us that his mom was going into surgery and he wanted to give her a blessing before but he forgot his oil at his house!! We weren’t just able to give him the oil, but we were able to help give his mom a blessing!!!
It is so amazing how our Heavenly Father works with us!! It was so amazing to see how everything had to fail or go bad at first so that the miracle could take place! I know that miracles still do exist and if we have faith, we will see so many miracles in our lives!! I didn’t see angels or Jesus Christ himself. But I sure did see a lot of miracles this week - even if they might have been small things, they are still miracles!!
I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!!
Elder Blake
I’d have to say that it’s been a week of MILAGROS (MIRACLES)!! Because my goodness, we sure have seen so dang many that is for sure!!
So to start it out, about two months ago my companion, Elder Ixmata and I went to a place called La Colonia Simona Robles. Anyway in this colony, there are about 20 houses and it’s basically in the middle of nowhere . . . kind of like Blanding haha! But we found out that there are a lot of members there, but they are less active and have family members that aren’t members of the church. So we went by their houses and talked to them for a bit.
Now two months later and my companion and I are having difficulties finding new people to teach. As we were planning the day, the Holy Ghost whispered to me that we need to go back to that colony. So we went back and we visited two families - Sister Elizabeth and her family and Sister Abigail and her family. Their husbands and kids aren’t members yet! So we invited Sister Elizabeth to church because we visited her on Saturday. We didn’t visit Sister Abigail until Sunday. Anyways with a single INVITATION they went to church! They as in Sister Elizabeth and her three kids. And she hadn’t been to church in 8 years!!! And soon we hope that 10 year old son Saul will be getting baptized!! WHAT A MIRACLE!!!
Anyways, so there’s one miracle and here goes the second!! So after church on Sunday we went home before we ate, basically just to fill up my little bottle with more consecrated oil because it was about running out. So I took it out of my bag and put it on the table and the spirit immediately told me to put it back in my bag. So I obeyed and we couldn’t even find any more oil. So we went to eat with our missionary leader, a super cool dude named Melvin. He’s super straight forward about everything! Anyway, we finish up with him and every Sunday at 4 we help a sister give English connect classes - and they got cancelled for the very first time in the 4 months since I’ve been here! So we were walking back to an appointment we had as a backup plan and we had to pass by the hospital to get there. So as we pass by the hospital, a recently returned missionary stopped us and asked if we had consecrated oil with us!! We gladly responded yes and he told us that his mom was going into surgery and he wanted to give her a blessing before but he forgot his oil at his house!! We weren’t just able to give him the oil, but we were able to help give his mom a blessing!!!
It is so amazing how our Heavenly Father works with us!! It was so amazing to see how everything had to fail or go bad at first so that the miracle could take place! I know that miracles still do exist and if we have faith, we will see so many miracles in our lives!! I didn’t see angels or Jesus Christ himself. But I sure did see a lot of miracles this week - even if they might have been small things, they are still miracles!!
I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!!
Elder Blake
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