Monday, February 19, 2018

Parker - February 12

Hey everyone!

So yeah, we've had a fairly interesting week.

We got to Salta last Monday, and after writing, we went to the mall to finish off the pday. We looked at some of the shops and spent a while looking through the bookstore. Apparently, according to the Zone Leaders, it's ok to buy them, we just can't read them...interesting...(don't worry, if I do buy anything, I'll do it in a couple months, while buying souvenirs)

But yeah, then we just ate dinner there. And when I went to a little convenience store thing in the food court, guess what I found? A chocolate bar that literally weighs 2 pounds (It's a kilo here, which is roughly 2 pounds). I wish I had my camera so I could've taken a picture, but isn't that ridiculous?

And yeah, then we got back to the hotel, met up with all the other missionaries who came and went to sleep. In the morning we went to the conference. While we were setting everything up, I got to talk to some of my former comps. It was pretty great. 

And then we started the conference. We started at 9:30 am and ended at 6:30 pm. Nine hours of learning. It was crazy. but also very helpful. They basically cleared up any confusions there were about certain aspects of being leaders, what exactly do we need to do, what can't we do, stuff like that. For example, one of the assistants gave two lectures, one solely on Exchanges, and the other on District Meeting. And president Orquera in total must have talked about 3 or four hours, maybe more. But it was really great, he taught us a lot. 

And then, all of the rest of the missionaries had to leave to get back to their areas. But because we're the farthest away, they arranged things so that we travelled Wednesday morning. So in the afternoon, we visited some of the other elders' former areas and converts. 

Wednesday, we thought we could catch a bus at Nine and get to Santiago at like 5, but there were no buses leaving at nine that day. So we had two options, get on the bus going directly to Santiago at 12, and get there at nine at night, or get on a bus that went to Tucuman at Ten, and then take another bus in Tucuman at Four, arriving in Santiago at like Six thirty. So we did that. And it went all smooth, we even got to Tucuman early, and were able to have lunch there in the bus station before heading down to Santiago. But yeah, then we got some work down. We were even able to find a new family of three. They seem pretty interested, the only problem is gonna be finding them all together, cuz apparently they're pretty busy. 

Then, Thursday, we did a service project for a member, painting their windows. then had lunch with them, and were able to find more investigators that afternoon, as well as have some pretty good lessons with other investigators we found the other week. 

Friday, we had interviews with Mission President, so I've had quite a bit of contact with Pres this week. And probably more to come, cuz this is my comp's last week in the mission field. Which is pretty exciting. 

And on Saturday, the ZL's came to verify our weekly planning, and I don't want to brag, but they said it was a very good planning session, and that they didn't have many suggestions for improvement. 

And then, Saturday, we finally had some progressing investigators in Church, which was pretty great. 

And yeah, That's pretty much it for the week. 

I'm gonna close with something that caught my attention this week. 

The Higher Law that the Savior teaches, The first commandment being Love thy God with all thy heart, might, mind, and strength. And the second being Love thy neighbor as thyself.

What caught my attention was the fact that there are actually three commandments here. Can't see the third? Let me help you:

Love thy God with all thy heart, and love thy neighbor as thyself.

For all those who suffer from feeling inadequate, or from feeling that they will never measure up to others, or for people who constantly compare themselves to others. Love thyself. I don't mean in the sense of being self-centered and prideful. I mean accept thyself. Accept who you are. Like who you are. And keep trying. 

Love,
Elder Blaylock

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