January 14, 2013

This week was certainly a roller coaster ride! A lot of unexpected road bumps and successes. Elder Tsunoda and I are doing our best out here and  we're finding many miracles in our willingness to stay focused and obedient. On Friday we were called in the morning and unexpectedly asked to coordinate a funeral service, which went well. We contacted the branch presidency and coordinated with them to succesfully help this less active family. We expectthis will open up a lot of new doors with this family, but that took up our whole Friday. Can I just say how grateful I am that we have such a real knowledge of the Plan of Salvation? It's one of the biggest blessings of the
restoration of the full gospel, in this the fullness of times!

On Sunday, it was a glorious day! A whole less active family that we've been working with came to church, the Bullilan family. Most of the other less active members and families we've been focusing on have been able to come to church as well and are well on their way to reactivity. We've given a temple goal date to the Mari family; I
absolutely love them. We also had 6 of our investigators come to church.  It's so so gratifying to see people come to church and witness the joy they find from attendance. I really have a testimony of church attendance as a point of conversion. 

At the same time, it's been hard to see different families and investigators not be able to make it to church and to shirk on their responsibility.  Free agency is one of the most crucial blessings needed for our salvation and it breaks my heart to see people choose to live a life contrary to what they know is right.  

I think of our Savior and all that He did. In His suffering, the only thing He could grant unto us was the choice to
choose Him.  He must have known that not all would partake of the Atonement, but He did it anyways.  Sometimes it's hard to be rejected as a missionary. But I've got to remember that, as much as I want to be here, I'm not here to force anyone to come unto Christ, but to be His witness and offer people the gift of His atonement. He loves us so much.

(This next part is a reply to a comment Gaylene made about conversion to the gospel being the Surprise Stake Theme this year)
Conversion is so crucial to our attainment of blessings in this life and receiving eternal life in the world to come.  The little things are really what help us to be converted; consistent church attendance, daily scripture study and prayer.  I think that conversion is measured by the strength of our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

I love you all,

Elder Blackham

December 31, 2012

Happy New years!
No, I haven't found my camera yet. That's okay... there's nowhere in my zone that I could buy it... but I may go to the mission home zone soon because I have another ingrown toenail that might need to be removed there. When that happens, maybe I can stop by the mall there and pick one up. It would probably be cheaper for me to buy one here. My companion is super awesome and we get along great! 

This week for me was good. It was totally awesome, and weird seeing everyone. You all looked so good. When I show people pictures of our family, they say, "ehh, maganda ang mama mo elder blackham" which means, "Elder Blackham! Your mom is beautiful!" and that is so true! You are one beautiful mommy haha. The work was hard because lots of people were on vacation, but this week we had two of our brothers return from inactivity.  One of them is a teenager named Reyonelf, he's going to turn 18 in January. He now works with us everyweek and is preparing for a mission. The other is brother Mari, he and his wife have been drifting in and out of activity for a long time, and have finally been on a streak of activity and are perparing to enter the temple. It's been so neat to work with them.

We also met again with that family where the husband has a word of wisdom problem. I felt inspired to tell them that as we work to overcome his word of wisdom problem, that he could be the one to baptize his wife. His eyes soared with hope. The spirit was so strong as we extended the commitment to keep the word of wisdom. It wasn't awkward as I thought it would be, because the spirit was there and he was prepared to hear it and has such a desire to make changes in his life.  He is so grateful that we're there, and it's so humbling to hear that. Sometimes I think I expect people to be angry when we ask them to change, his willing and humble attitude humbled me as well.

There is such a strong spirit when people make the decision to repent and come unto the Savior. I love this family and am so overwhelmed every time I think about them and how much hope there is for them and the love that I felt our Heavenly Father has for them. The hope that this man now has a grasp of is the message of the gospel, I know the savior atoned for Him and wants his family to be forever.

Well mom, don't worry about me! I'm happy and healthy.
With all my love,
Elder Blackham

December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas To you Too:)
I am training another companion now.  Training is going great! I have an awesome companion who is super
stoked about missionary work. His name is Elder Tsunoda. He's probably my favorite companion so far. He's teaching me a lot too, and it's a humbling experience. Thank you for saying hi to Cody for me! I'm super stoked to hang out with that guy too, I'm glad that things are going good for him.

I did get the package!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh mom, you don't even know how perfect that was! I've been listening to that music, wearing my shirt, everything mom was just so perfect. I'm so grateful for all of the thought and creativity you put into making that such a perfect Christmas for me mom :). Thank you!

I can use my debit card, I actually might use it to buy some small presents for the people here if that's okay.

This is such a beautiful time of year, it hardly feels like Christmas to me though because I'm so far away from you. It was brought up this week in the Christmas conference about what Christmas present we could give to Christ. I felt like I'm giving him everything I am, and I'm so grateful to be out here on a mission and that He's given me the opportunity to serve Him.