Parker - May 22

Hey everyone!

First of all, Jack's going to CHILE!!!! Nice! I´ve met about three or four chileans in the mission, they´re pretty crazy, but they´re also pretty cool, one of them was Assistant to the president, and another is my current zone leader. And sounds like Viña del Mar is a great mission. 

As for stuff going on here, we had to do splits on wednesday cuz my companion had a leadership training meeting. He´s new to being a district leader, and I was in another area called Famaillá with one of the gringo elders from the MTC, so that was pretty fun, we mostly just ate lunch though. 

And Friday we had conference with President and interviews. It was pretty great. One of the assistants talked about what exactly is a sucessful missionary, and how it´s really easy to do. The interview was good, we talked about some of the stuff I was telling you guys in the mother´s day call, so that was pretty good. 

And apart from that, we didn´t have a too eventful week, just working working working. 

Today for Pday, we went and played soccer, it was kinda fun. 

Anyway, I love you all and can´t wait to hear from you guys again!

Love

Elder Blaylock

Brock - May 22

Hey everybody! It feels like it´s been four months since I talked with you all on Skype. For real. Anyway, this week was fine. Unfortunately, we weren´t able to take anyone to church this week, even though we had a big group of people we wanted to bring. We also had a fairly uncomfortable Sunday lunch with a non-member family that have a son in the mission-field ("You Americans are like this! Trump is doing that! Pentecostalism!"), but afterwards, they gave my companion a brand-new shoulder bag and gave us both a bunch of food. Also, it rained so much this weekend. I was very wet. My umbrella that I had purchased for 25 reais had lasted about 25 reais (three weeks) so I was left with only a rain jacket, which doesn´t protect your legs. Technically speaking, I have that trenchcoat that Dad used in his mission--but I don´t feel like being robbed immediately upon leaving our apartment.

Well, I´ve only got nine weeks left. Man, it is so weird. Even though I said it felt like so long since I talked with you guys, the week felt like it passed by really fast. I guess that´s why it seems like I don´t have that much to write about. We changed our focus area, but we might not stay there for very long, because my last companion almost literally knocked at every door. Today my companion had a seemingly-elect lady make contact with him--during P-Day--so that is always fun. Memorable quote from the last transfer that I actually forgot until now: "Those Mormons are just like those Dead Poets´ Society Boys--nobody knows what they´re up to." (Maybe it was funnier because I didn´t expect her to reference this movie).

Anyway, I love you guys. Until next week.

Elder Blaylock

Parker - May 15

Sorry this email is a bit earlier than normal,my comp wanted to write early today, and I don´t know if we´re gonna be able to write later. 

But yeah, the mothers day call was really great, really helped a lot, thanks guys. As for my week, nothing too exciting happened, just more biking around in tough conditions, trying to teach people. But its hard, on Saturday we had almost zero sucess, almost nobody was home, and the investigators weren´t able to get to Church yesterday.

Speaking of Church yesterday, when we did the sacrament meeting in the twig, I had to direct the meeting, do both of the sacrament prayers, and give a talk, all with about five minutes of preparation, it was interesting. 

Yeah, sorry, I don´t have much to talk about with this letter, I basically told you guys everything yesterday, anyway, hope you´re all doing great, I love you all

Elder Blaylock

Brock - May 15

Yesterday was great. So glad to have had the chance to talk with you guys face-to-screen. I hope you are all doing well and were able to talk about everything you wanted to. I got out I think everything I wanted to, as far as I can remember, so I don´t have much to say. (vote for pedro reference). ha ha.

Anyway, I love you guys. Sounds like Jack got his call today, so can´t wait to hear where he´s going.

Love,

Elder Blaylock

Parker - May 8

Hey everybody!

So yeah, I´m in a new area. It´s a branch and not a ward. And we have a twig attatched to our branch. So every Sunday, we do our sacrament meeting like normal, then we take a Pirata (the word they use for the fake, slightly illegal taxis here, means Pirate, kinda cool) about a half hour away and do another sacrament meeting for the members in that area. It´s pretty weird. We also have bikes here, and while I can handle myself pretty well on the bike, I´m always way behind my comp and I cannot hop the curbs like he can, first time I tried I crashed, hard. Messed up the wheel a little bit, not to mention my palms. Also, that area that´s like a half hour away has the worst roads I have ever seen, I´m constantly bouncing up and down on them, and it doesn´t help that we are there while its night, and there aren´t hardly any lamposts there, so I´m also in the dark. It´s a pretty cool adventure, but also terrifying. 

On the subject of Mothers Day, yes, I will be able to call you guys, I´m just gonna have to do it in a internet bar and I have to use kinda sketchy headphones and a mic, I don´t know how well it´ll work out. But if it does, I´ve got at the very least a good hour to talk. We´re doing our meetings in the other area earlier next sunday, so around 4 or 5 I should be signing on. With luck, me and brock could overlap. 

I´m doin ok. Just kinda bummed cuz in my other area, I would´ve had basically the perfect situation to call home, and I could´ve stayed there for another transfer without any problem. My companion says that he thinks that I´ll only stay here for this transfer, maybe the next two transfers. So I don´t know, I´ll try to make the best of my time here. It also stinks cuz this transfer its my birthday, and if I had stayed, I could´ve celebrated it there with all of the people I had gotten to know. I don´t want to sound too down, I am doing alright, I just find myself writing a lot more in my journal to kinda get my feelings worked out. 

Anyway, hope you guys are doing great, thanks for all the support and the prayers.

Love

Elder Blaylock

Brock - May 8

Things are going good here. My new companion is from Fortaleza, Ceará, and this is his fourth transfer. He´s a good worker. We had an okay week, though, and weren´t able to find many new investigators. I´ve been spending some time trying to be happier with things as they are, so I focused on that a lot this week.

On a good note, I have made progress with my pizza! I finally got the dough to rise for the first time today! So that was exciting. Also, while looking through a pile of recently-discovered Lianhonas in our house, I unearthed a beautiful treasure that I´m bringing home with me.

A vinyl record of an A-ha album.

That has Take On Me on it.

Oh, yeah.

So, in other news, I marked with our ward mission leader to Skype from his house around 4:30-5 on Sunday. 

Other than that, I got basically nothing. Well, one more thing.

So, I´ve been pondering a bit in the slow moments at home, ironing my shirt and other such tedious tasks about my life. What I´ll do and the like. 

Later, I´d been reflecting on another thing. I´ve realized that I don´t like attention. Maybe it´s from being an American in another country with noticeably less diversity, and having countless drunks/children calling, "Hey, German! Hey, German, speak English!" Having members and non-members make a big fuss because I´m American or tall or have blue eyes and blond hair. It makes me uncomfortable And I´ll admit, I´d been nurturing the thought, "Well, when I get home I can just live a quiet life without attention." Then my current companion unearthed a box full of previously unread Liahonas (mentioned above), and I began reading. On Saturday, I was reading in one when I found a scripture reference, Matthew 5, 14-16, a scripture I often associate with Ella, as it had at one time been a favorite of her´s.

14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

I felt something that can only be described as repentance. If God decided that I was to be tall, that I would be one that naturally draws attention, who am I to reject it? If I have chosen to go into a career path that would involve a fair amount of publicity, how could I expect to escape it? God had given me to be the light of the world, having the privilege and blessing of being born into the true Church. If I am to garner attention without any effort or desire, then I need to use that to reflect the light of the Savior. I must "let [my] light so shine before men, that they may...glorify [my] Father which is in heaven." 

I love you all. Have a great week. Until Sunday

Elder Blaylock

Parker - May 1

hey Everybody!

First of all, yes today is labor day, and what that means is that we have a day of purgatory, where we can´t do the transfers because none of the bus drivers are working, but we can´t really do anything fun because everything else is closed, we can´t even do shopping. Luckily we´re able to write still because the Bishop´s first counselor lent us the key to the clerk´s office, so we´re using this computer. 

Transfers are in.........I´m leaving this area! But I´m not heading very far, just an hour or so away to the thrid zone in Tucuman, Concepción. My area is called Aguilares, which means Eagles is spanish. it´s not a ward, its a branch. My companion is named Elder A, who´s from Brazil, so that´ll be cool. I already have mostly everything packed, and everything fits fine, but of course, I am leaving some stuff behind, mostly books I don´t need anymore, as well as some ruined clothes, stained beyond cleaning, torn up due to being robbed, or ripped crotches on pants. So far I have three shirts left, but I´m not worried about that because I have back ups tucked away, I have like four or five pairs of pants left, I think I´ll be fine until the end of my mission. As for shoes, I think I´ll be fine, but just so you know, I´m down to just two pairs of church shoes, way back in november, my shoes that I used before the mission were torn apart by a mixture of the rough terrain and torrential rainstorms. But I still think I´ll be fine until I end, if I run into an emergency, I´ll let you guys know. 

It´s so great to hear about Jack´s mission papers!!!!! I´m so excited. My guess is Portugal. Because there´s some various theories goin around in my head about Jack. Because there´s the possiblitly that we´ll finally get someone to go to Europe, but then there´s the fact that Jameson served in Argentina, Brock served in Brazil, and I served in Argentina, so there´s the likelihood that Jack will go to Brazil, so I´m bringing it in the middle and saying that he´ll learn Portuguese, like Brock, but he´s goin to Europe, which would mean Portugal. there, that´s my guess. 

Anyway, that´s really all I have for you guys this week, hope you´re all doing great!

Love,

Elder Blaylock

Brock - May 1

It´s May! Mother´s day month!

Anyway, as Parker also observed, it is indeed Labor Day here, so we went all the way to another area (basically the middle of nowhere) to the only operational LAN House in all of Brazil. I have only about til 5:00.

So we had transfers as well (I guess now we´re in sync with Parker, due to the five week transfer) and I´ll be staying in Jandira with Elder C, who´s from some place and has some amount of time. They don´t really pass us that much information when they give us the transfer news. Also, I´m kind of "nem aí", which roughly translated means "I don´t even care". I don´t know what happened but this transfer IT GOT REAL. The fact that I´ll be going home soon sunk in these last few weeks. This basically means less time sleeping and more aches and pains due to anxiety. I just hope I can make it through the next (last!) twelve weeks because it is getting tough.

On a good note, we did baptize this week. Because this LAN house is of poor quality and my camera broke I can´t send pics, but Elder C (my last companion) will send them to me next week, probably. But we baptized part of a family we brought last week. The mom and the older daughter didn´t feel ready yet, but the other two were baptized on Sunday. That was good.

Yeah...so...that´s kinda it. We had a churrasco (barbeque) with the zone leaders and the district leader today at the zone leaders´ house, so that was fun. They´ve got pics, and I´ll send them to you when I get them. Mother´s day is the second Sunday of May, right? I don´t have a place to skype yet, so I´ll work on that this week. I love you guys.

Elder Blaylock