Brock - February 20

Can I just say that the most wonderful thing in the world is getting a call from the senior missionaries at 7:30 Saturday evening letting us know that the daylight savings time will end we´ll get an extra hour of sleep? So glorious.

So my companion´s name is Elder L. He´s from Rio de Janeiro, the countryside. He has eight months in the mission, and, as the picture that I´ll send will prove, he is also a fan of Captain America. So that´s cool. 

So this week was more door-knocking, but we finally were able to visit an English school, because they only just now got off from holidays. Unfortunately, we were only able to visit real quick, and the follow-up visit we marked they pushed forward another week. But, they were so excited to have us, which is great, considering that the other places we went to didn´t seem that excited. C´mon, people, free American here! How often are you going to have access to a native-English speaker? Anyway.

So it´s pretty weird because the sisters from my group went home last week. Time goes by really fast here. 

One of the things thatI have learned here is the answer to one of the greatest "loss-of-faith" questions of all time--or, at least, one of the answers--the question being, "How can a loving God allow terrible things to happen?"

After the year and a half here, seeing poverty and struggle, passing through my own tribulations, and hearing of wars, rumors of wars,and disasters in far-off places, slowly but surely I have come to the realization. What God aims to build among us is charity. Or, pure love. The pure love of his Son, manifest in us. I have seen and participated in this love, as a result of the afflictions of others. If we had no afflictions, we would have less opportunities to grow and show this love. In every terrible thing that happens, hundreds of thousands rise to the call to "love thy neighbor", whether it be a large-scale natural disaster or terrorist attack or emotional or financial needs or family trouble at home. We are blessed to live in a world where the conditions of the world cause us have our hearts yearn and feel for our fellow man. It is truly an incredible and bewildering sensation that simply has to be felt to begin to be understood. I love you all. Have a great week.

Elder Blaylock

(Why, oh why can't people focus a camera?!? - Jenny)