Jack - February 19

Drumroll please!

Nah, I´m staying in Placilla, nothing that exciting.

Not much happened this week... like at all. It was pretty peaceful. I was actually hoping to move on to a new area if anyone was wondering, because not much happens here in Placilla. But it doesn´t matter because that´s going to change in the next six weeks! (That way when I actually leave I won´t want to... because life isn´t fair) 

Hahaha nobody worry, everything is going well. Valentine´s Day was weird, it was hard to plan because we wanted to avoid interrupting valentine´s day plans or getting stuck talking to people who wanted plans. I don´t know what happened, one moment I was waiting for other missionaries to arrive for the district meeting and the next we got sucked into making Valentine´s Day notes so the sister missionaries could do a "heart attack" for someone.

I decided that for the next transfer I want to do a better study of the Book of Mormon, but I didn´t want to start over without finishing it, so I read basically the whole second half of the Book of Mormon this week. Now I´ve read it in English and Spanish so that´s awesome! 

Other than that, not much happened this week, I hope everyone had a good week back at home!

We found an awesome mural

And here are the pics of the super long hike we took to see the waterfalls. It was a fun day.

Parker - February 19

Hey everyone!

So bad news, they took me out of my area, they're gonna whitewash it. My comp went home and I've come back to Tucuman, in La Estenia. 

Yeah, not to happy about it, I had a good area, good district, we had some investigators with potential, and now, its all thrown into the wind. I have suspicions that they just did it to give my replacement the opportunity to train and whitewash (cuz he was a zone leader and really wanted to do those two things.)

But anyway, it wasn't a bad week, My comp kept working until the very end. He was very sad to leave. He really likes argentina. But yeah, we found some new investigators, were able to do some good work with the other investigators. Sigh, man, I really hope that the elder that comes in knows what he's doing, because there's a lot of people there who had potential. 

Sorry for the shortness of the email, I don't have a whole lot of time, and not a whole lot to say. 

But I just want to share my testimony that everything happens for a reason. And that reason is so that we can all be happy. Even though I didn't want to leave, I know that whats gonna happen to me here is gonna be for my benefit. And I know that this is all part of God's great plan. Thats how we can gain more trust in God--learning more about his wonderful plan, and seeing that everything he does is for our benefit.

I love you all,

Elder Blaylock

Jack - February 12

¡Hola Familia y Amigos!

I say that basically everytime I make a video, and I made a couple videos this week so...

This week was long, I don´t remember what happened, then again I could say that about all of the weeks recently.

We had exchanges twice this week, maybe that´s why I don´t remember what happened, because I wasn´t in my area. At the end of the night Elder Cardozo and I were going to make something to eat but then we got distracted juggling 5 oranges between the two of us haha. We spent most of that exchange talking about the missionaries in the zone, because he´s zone leader, and how we could build more unity in the zone. It was pretty good.

Friday we did a service activity as a zone in Casablanca, to build unity, and we had to clear out a big field of weeds, then afterwards we had a barbeque. After that I stayed in Casablanca for more exchanges. Now Casablanca has bicycles, so that was interesting. It was actually really peaceful to ride through Casablanca on a bike, it´s a peaceful place. There are two bikes, and one of them for some reason is really small, so of course I had to try it out haha.

There was a baptism in Placilla this saturday, and we had to fill the baptismal font, which basically means we had to watch it while it fills up for 3 hours. But we ran into some problems, whenever we turned on the cold water it started spewing out dust, so we could only use hot water, but then it would be too slow to fill up and too hot. So we literally started filling up buckets and dumping it in the font haha. That is, until the ward mission leader showed up and showed us to a hose haha.

We had a good family home evening with some members and their extended family who aren´t members and we talked about God´s plan for us, and how our families can be eternal. Living the gospel of Jesus Christ fills us with hope. One of the things that will bring us a lot of hope in this life is the knowledge that our families can be eternal, not just "Until death" like they say in marriage ceremonies. We really can be sealed together as families for all eternity, we can find comfort in knowing we´ll see loved ones again. 

Then we played Chubby Bunny, I won with 7 marshmallows haha.

Today we wandered around for a while (a little lost) looking for a waterfall in placilla, I wish I could send videos and photos, but I forgot the cord.

Anyways next week I´ll be able to say if I stay in Placilla or if I´m transferred (I´m probably transferred) so we´ll see how that goes. ¡Hasta luego!

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

Jack - February 5

All right it´s true, they exist. I finally had a zone conference this past week. Normally there´s one every transfer, but in my first transfer there was a review of the pension and in my second there was a Christmas Activity. So I always joked that they didn´t exist. What´s funny is that my trainer was still able to be there for my first hahaha. We had a zone conference with the other zone of Valparaíso, where he´s a zone leader so we were able to see each other. We did our complicated handshake with our matching ties, everyone in the room stopped to watch it haha.

The zone conference was really good, the Mission President gave some really good lessons. The first was about the parable of the ten virgins in the Bible, and something that stood out to me is that in the parable the husband comes after it had seemed like it was too late. And I thought, my area has been a little tough for me for a long time, and I´ve been very low on patience, but sometimes the Lord likes to test us, maybe even to show us that we´re better and stronger than we think we are. So even though it seemed like I was almost about to fall apart, I decided that maybe the help is there just a few steps farther. And so that was my attitude for the rest of the week...

...Or at least until that night.

Let me tell you a story, Once upon a time, before I got to the mission field, some zone leaders were playing soccer inside of the pension, Elder Gutierrez told them to stop and went to the bathroom, while he was in there, he heard a loud noise and the zone leaders said, "Elder, we don´t know what happened, all of a sudden your window just broke!" Fast forward a little, after some attempts by the 5 dogs of our neighbors to get in, we had barricaded the window pretty well... after the zone conference though, when we got back and were planning, a dog burst in and lay herself down in all our papers. I tried to shew her out and she jumped up on my bed!!! I pushed her off and eventually we got her out of the house. A little crazy, but all was well. We soon left and went proselyting. When we got back in the night my companion discovered that my bed was wet...

I was so done with everything hahaha.

The dog peed all over my down comforter and the other blankets the mission gave me. I had to actually use what I had brought with me haha ( ok maybe I was being a little lazy, either way, thanks, mom and dad) The other thing is that I don´t even know how to wash a comforter.

But no worries all is well now.

If you didn´t know an important holiday also happened this week... Groundhog´s day, or as my friend Greg likes to call it, Dirtpig day haha. No, but seriously it was my birthday and I´m old now. It went well haha.

Other than that, this week was really long, hope yours went well!

Elder Blaylock

Parker - February 5

Hey Everyone!

So yeah, wasn't too sure if I was gonna be able to write today, but yeah!

So, first of all, this week wasn't too bad. Trying to work hard, but my comp's going through a rough patch though. He's sick of the mission but doesn't want to leave yet, it's really weird. But, yeah, it was a little rough, cuz we've been trying to work hard, and even though we set up appointments with people, when we get there, they cancel them. 

But we have managed to have some amount of success. Last Sunday, a member helped some new people get to church, we were able to meet them and we set up an appointment. The son is a member, but no one else is. Last Wednesday, we had our first appointment, and they seem really receptive. We're mainly working with the mom and daughter. We had another visit Friday morning, and they are the only investigators who came to church yesterday. We have been working with a lot of different people, some members were gonna bring an investigator, and we even stopped by some investigators' house to bring them to church, but they all fell through, they're the only ones who made it. And the mom got really weepy, and just gave thanks to God for bringing her family to church. It was really powerful. 

And yeah, other than that, nothing too interesting this past week. Just missionary work. 

THIS week, however...

Well, tomorrow, we're gonna have a special training meeting with Mission President for Leaders. And, since we're in the farthest away zone, we left this morning at about 10, and just got here like an hour ago. It was an interesting drive, caught the last hour or so of that Point Break remake, then, we had to get off our bus and hop on another one. It was pretty crazy, cuz we had to get to another city, get off, then hop on another bus in order to get to Salta, but our first bus was late, so we got there with seconds to spare. And then on that bus, we got the first bit if Bridge of Spies, with Tom Hanks. I didn't pay much attention to the movies though, cuz I slept through the first ride, and then was talking with the other missionaries on the second ride. But it was fun. 

And now, tomorrow, we're gonna have a rousing training session. We suspect it's gonna "singe [our] eyebrows a little," to quote Elder Holland, but it should still be good. 

Then, Friday, we have interviews with Mission President. So, yeah, it's gonna be an interesting week. 

Anyway, I love you all!

Elder Blaylock

PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK (Last Friday) and HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROCK (this Friday)