July 23, 2012

(This is a response to Elder Blackham's mom saying she is worried he is not eating enough because he looked very thin in his last pictures home.)
Haha, I don't know about that - I think I have lost weight, but yeah, I usually eat. Sometimes we don't have enough time to eat dinner, but that's okay! haha, it's way cheaper for me to just buy things here than for you to send it! Don't worry about me, I'm doing great. The food is good - my stomach is always on a roller coaster ride haha. I think that it's just because of how much rice and salt I'm eating, but that's what we can afford!  It's great mom, I'm really doing awesome! I ate fish the other day... the whole thing! I even ate the head lol. It was wierd, but just tasted kind of like salty chicken.

Elder DelaCruz speaks English. It's sometimes broken English; but it's cool in our mission because they are really trying to push and teach all of the Filipino Elders and Sisters how to speak English. We've been helping each other learn new languages. Some of the members can speak a very broken English. But, it helps - usually it's what they call "taglish" here that I am able to communicate with most people. It's kind of weird, because they conduct, sing, and do the sacrament in English. I wonder how much of it everyone really understands, but it is good :). Elder Dela Cruz and I are the only Elders in our city, there is one other companionship in our district and they live about a 25 minute jeep ride east of us. In order to get to San Jose (which is what zone we're in), it's about an hour jeep ride away. There are like 5 companionships of elders, and 2 pairs of sisters in our zone.

I'm so grateful for the prayers, you have no idea. I need them and use them everyday!

I also had some fun things happen this week; on Saturday we were walking by a group of workers who were obviously drunk. There was one guy who didn't have a shirt on, but had a pink-and white striped towel tied around his neck like a cape and was running around with his fist in the air, yelling, "I'm superman!" haha, they just did it to me because I'm American. It's awesome, people just like to yell whatever English they know at me, I guess it makes them feel smart. But as we walked back past this guy, he began jumping and saying, "I'm flyyyying!" haha, so hilarious.

I"m doing good. Usually for my personal study, I"ll spend 30 min in the Book of Mormon, and 30 minutes in Preach My Gospel. I'm still in the beginning of 1 Nephi - there just is a ton to learn! Like, in chapter 16 - I realized that they kind of had a lot of trials in the chapter, and I realized that it was only when they stopped to take a rest that bad things seemed to happen. We just have to be diligent, and always strive to be close to the Savior. It's been neat to realize how much Nephi's claim of Heavenly Father providing the way for us to accomplish the commandments is fulfilled. I love the Book of Mormon, that book is so true and gives me the strength I need everyday.

Repentance and the atonement make our purpose here on earth possible! I'm so grateful that we are so loved by our Heavenly Father. That is one of the simple truths that we tell people every day, when explaining the gospel. "The gospel is God's plan for us to have peace in this life and joy in the life to come; the Atonement of Jesus Christ is central to that plan, and as we have faith, are baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and Endure to the end, we are promised eternal life".  That's what Jesus taught when He was here on the earth, and it's what all of His Prophets and Apostles have taught since.  At the center of it all, is Jesus Christ. His love, His life, and His example make all things possible. I'm so grateful for His love for us,  for our family :).

This week was pretty awesome! It's so neat to be here. We didn't have as many lessons as we planned, but in the lessons we did have, we were blessed with the spirit. We had two investigators come to church on Sunday! That was waaay sweet. They both seemed to enjoy it, and it turns out that the nanay we were teaching is the grandma of one of the members! That was cool, and the other, a young man named Wilburt, has family in the ward as well. It was a huge blessing to be there and see them progress in a way that they only could through going to church. I love this gospel! The church is so true!


I love you a whole bunch mom! please give all the fam my love, and tell them to keep the faith!

Love you Mom,

Love,

Elder Blackham