Jack - November 6

Hey Everyone! This week was both good and bad, lots of tough things but at the same time I think we´re making progress in this sector. We received a reference for a family that were very receptive to us, and they also really need our help though, and the help the gospel can provide because they don´t have any running water and hardly have any food, so they´ve got quite a few difficulties so we hope that we can help them. This week we met an atheist named Jerusalem so that was funny haha, not very interested in our message, though. We also did some service pulling weeds a couple times this week. One time while we were stopped on the sidewalk writing something down in our agendas this little tiny man stops by us and asks us where we´re from, we were able to teach him quite a bit but he didn´t really know his address very well so we don´t know where he lives, later in the semana though we ran into him again in the street. It was weird, I hope to find him again and actually find out where he lives so we can teach him, because he´s interested whenever we talk with him. Again this week most of our lessons fell through which makes for pretty tough days because we spend time planning each one specifically for these people, but we´re still pushing forward. Exchanges this week was with the Zone Leaders which was awesome, though it did make me grateful that my area doesn´t have very many hills haha. Apparently, this mission is known for the hills so I´m glad my area is pretty flat. The zone leaders area though was cool, and my companion for the transfer was very helpful. It helped first of all to have lessons to practice teaching in, and it helped that he gave me plenty of time to talk, because I don´t really like interrupting people and my companion doesn´t give me very many opportunities in the few lessons we have. The whole 12 week training program seems pointless with it´s self evaluations because I´ve only been in like 2 lessons in my area. The exchange was awesome though, the people we taught were a little more understanding that I was learning Spanish than in my sector, and so I understood most of what was going on. We had an incredible lesson answering the question of why are there so many churches if there's only one Bible. So we taught about the restoration and even though the man had been taught by missionaries a couple times before he said we finally answered his question. Also, it was funny because my companion was the elder who looks like a North American but he´s from Brazil. So I gave the example that the best way to lie is to include truths or things that seem obvious, and that´s how Satan influenced people to form many different churches and hide the ways of the Lord with confusion and arguments about doctrine. I said, if I told you my companion was from the united states you´d be able to believe me easily because he looks like a gringo, but if I told you he was from China, you´d have a much harder time believing me. This is why with so many different churches, many have parts of the truth. But I know of a surety, that the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ is in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, because the gospel has been restored in its purest form through the same ways gospel was revealed in days of old. I encourage everyone to seek for themselves the truth, seek it out, ask God, because God only gives us things that are good. Even if something happens and it seems bad, God knows us perfectly, as a father knows a son, but better, and He knows how to help us progress, for that is the purpose of life, to progress and to eventually return to our Heavenly Father. If our purpose is to return to Him, I´m pretty sure He knows how to tell us how to get there. Sometimes, the way is hard, bad things happen, but often times it is to prepare us for something else, or to teach us and help us progress. It´s not easy, but it´s worth it.

Elder Blaylock

I´ve added some pictures from our zone activity last pday.