Jack - April 30

Yeah. I get it. Infinity War came out this week.

Alright I`ve decided it`s better to start telling everyone I hate movies, just so nobody wants to give me spoilers, because honestly it doesn`t bother me to not see it as long as nobody spoils anything. But when everyone is talking about it and spoiling things, it`s pretty lame.

Anyways, this week was a little long, pero bueno, let`s get right into the powerful spiritual thoughts.

I`ve been thinking and studying a lot about the power of the thoughts and desires we have, as well as the free agency we`ve been given. And do you want to know the coolest part? 

By giving us free agency and the power to think, God has allowed us to be makers of ourselves.

We have the power to become whoever we want to be, to use our agency to be happy (living the gospel God has provided) or to be sad (Bueno, sería el opuesto) In this life, there is no flat point. We don`t only change, but we are constantly changing. We`re either progressing, or we`re moving backwards. We`re constantly making decisions, not only in our actions and in the obvious things but also in our thoughts and desires. And these decisions are a vital part of our personal progression. Often we think that our failures and weaknesses are a part of who we are; "Oh I`m just an impacient person." "It`s how I am." or "I`m just timid"

"It`s my nature"

That ^ is a lie.

To believe that our weaknesses and deficiencies are an unchanging part of our character is to deny the central truth of the Plan of Salvation. We are all children of God, with a divine nature, constantly changing and evolving, always trying to progress towards perfection.

Our "Attributes" are not a definite part of us, but rather choices we make. When we`re impacient, we`re impacient in that moment, for something. When we`re prideful we choose to be prideful of something. That doesn`t mean we`re prideful or impacient people, rather that we choose in that moment to be prideful or impacient. Our "Attributes" are a lot more like habits. As we make the same choice over and over again, that choice becomes easier and easier to make. However, we can always choose to do better, we just need to break our bad habits. Focus on good, uplifting, positive, happy, peaceful, humble, loving, faithful, patient, dilligent, obedient thoughts, that`s how we build those good habits and become happy people. Do you see it now? We`re the makers of ourselves. We choose who we want to be, what attributes (or in other words, habits) we want to have. We develop them. For this reason, the guiding influence of the Holy Ghost is so important, if we listen, He will guide us to make good decisions, to become good people, in order to progress towards perfection.

You are, in this moment, the complete sum of all that you have thought, said, seen, heard, and done. What we think, say, hear, and do changes us, for better or worse, to be stronger or weaker. We are responsible for who we become. 

Thus, guard your thoughts, choose them wisely, choose to develop Christlike attributes. Choose to be happy.

Well, those are my thoughts for this week, as for things that happened. Not much.

I hope everyone has a good week this week and takes an active role in choosing who they`ll be.

(hopefully a good person who doesn`t mention a word about the fact I haven`t seen Infinity war)

Haha just kidding! Have a great week!

Elder Blaylock

Parker - April 30

Hello Everyone!

This week was fairly interesting. 

The problem is that we couldn't work in our area Tuesday or Wednesday. Tuesday we had a Tormenta Blanca in Bellavista and Wednesday my comp got sick.

The reason why he got sick is cuz we had to cancel lunch on Tuesday cuz it was gonna be late and we had to get to Bellavista. So we bought food to make in the apartment. My comp bought a kind of meat patty that wasn't meat, it was a soy substitute, and it made him really sick. 

Anyway, before he got really sick, Wednesday morning we went to go do some service with two other elders in our district, we were putting that roofing up. That's what those photos depict. 

And on Thursday we had Zone Conference, and it was a really good Conference. We talked about the Christ-like attribute of Virtue. Which was sorely needed. There's a ton of problems in this mission. Let's see if I can try and explain it.

Something that our Mission President keeps telling us that this mission is a "5-Talent Mission." Which has reference to the Parable of the Talents. Basically what it's trying to say is that we are blessed with a mission where people are more receptive that somewhere like the Netherlands. It's like that saying, "Everytime some missionary knocks on a door in Finland, Someone's getting baptized in Mexico." It's kind of like that.

But anyway, this creates an issue with the missionaries. Because of the focus on helping others, they justify being disobedience with the fact that they're baptizing. Something that a comp once said to me that had happened to him earlier in his mission really paints the picture:

They had just experienced a setback, and my comp said to his current comp "Creo que llegó la hora de ser obediente." (I think the time has come to be obedient)

His companion responds: "Callate, estamos bautizando." (Shut up, we're baptizing.)

Basically, as long as you're getting results, whatever disobedience is justified. But every time I hear that, something the Savior said comes to mind:

36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall again the whole world, and lose his own soul?

There's a missionary who served in this area and baptized 14 people in six months, but that missionary wasn't obedient in this mission (He's well known as a disobedient missionary) and now we hear from his converts who have contact with him that he is inactive. 

Therefore, it's not about the results. The Lord's work is going to move forward, no unhallowed hand can stay the progress. But we need to move along with it. The missionaries that are disobedient but baptize are missionaries who ride the current and then get off. They go through the mission, they don't let the mission go through them. 

Now I'm gonna quote a little bit of Paul: 6 For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth.

I quote this because my companion was talking to me the other day about things he has learned from his companions. And he told me that he learned patience from me. Cuz as he puts it: "He visto a otros misioneros que están soportando la misión, pero usted ha superado la misión." (I have seen other missionaries that are just holding on until the end of their missions,  but you have overcome the mission.) Basically he was telling me that I have allowed the mission to change me. And yeah, I find solace in that, if anything in the mission, I have at least changed a lot in the mission. 

I love you all,

Elder Blaylock

Jack - April 23

Alrighty then! Here we go!

This week felt super long, and we didn`t get a whole lot of work done, it was pretty stressful at some point because our investigators that we have right now all have very complicated situations, so we`ve had to really focus on planning for those and sometimes just leaving it up to God. But all in all, here we are at the start of another week.

This past week we had interviews with the mission president in our pension to review everything, and we had to do a ton of cleaning. When I got there the other elders had completely trashed the place and left it, figures though. I leave Placilla nice and organised and spotless, then arrive at a mess. Either way it is clean now so maybe I`ll take some more pictures. My interview with President went way better than any of the other ones, he talked a lot about how he realized the best way to do missionary work is to work with the local members, which is something I`ve always wanted to focus more on, but when you`re junior companion and none of your companions wants to do anything different there`s not much you can do. President also challenged us to a weight lifting challenge with the super heavy weight that`s been sitting around in our pension. Elder R and I both did our best and did about 20 reps using both of our arms, then he went and pumped out 30 with both arms solo like it was nothing haha. Then the Assistants tried and they couldn`t beat him either haha.

Anyways the best part of the week was that we passed by for the investigator I talked about last week, his name is R, and he`s really starting to progress, it`s still a fight and there`s a lot to do but we talked with him and had another powerful lesson, he wants to be baptized but he works on sundays and he said he`s been feeling like it`s a fight within himself. And I shared a scripture that says that God knows about his needs and will provide for him if he has the faith and then explained that right now he`s really focused on his temporal needs, build his house, work, provide for his family, and that basically he`s starving spiritually, because he knows these things are important but he`s not doing them. Then we basically planned his life, helped him realize he can switch jobs soon and be baptized in a month, he was so surprised at how close he was. So it was really cool, now we just have to do all of the follow up. The best part about this was that before we visited him that first time, the missionaries had given up hope because he never progressed, but when I showed the hope and desire to help him, miracles have passed and now he`s preparing for baptism.

Also we explored a little bit of one of the small towns that`s in our area, and it turns out it`s not so small haha. And that`s only one of them, I basically find out about another town in our area, every other day haha.

I dont really have many pictures, but we did make tacos this week, super rico

I`m weirdly bent over because there`s some random really low parts of the house, oh well

Parker - April 23

Hey everybody!

This week has been pretty hectic, but this coming week is gonna be even more hectic, Tormenta Blanca tomorrow, big service wednesday morning in another area, zone conference on thursday, and a baptism. 

Let's start with the baptisms.

Yeah. Lately we've been having baptisms every week. First of all, it's pretty cool, never had it before in the mission. Second of all, it's a ton of work and incredibly stressful and it's gonna leave us with zero investigators and a bunch of recent converts to visit. And third of all, we're having this much success mainly cuz the members are actually working here. They're not working together or very efficiently, but they're at least working. 

Really that's where the missionaries have the most success. When the members help. I've met several missionaries who don't work with members and just separate themselves from them. They spend their days contacting and contacting and contacting. Occasionally they're gonna have a baptism, and maybe even once in a while, they'll happen upon a really strong convert. But those missionaries have never read preach my gospel or the scriptures. Because everywhere is the evidence that when a member helps a missionary find an investigator, that investigator has a higher chance of getting baptized and staying active in the church. Even if they don't get baptized right away, they'll still have contact with the church and will have a chance later on. 

Anyway, back to my week. 

We've had a lot to do. We're heading to a neighborhood that's pretty far away, so we can reactivate the members there and baptize some investigators there. Two people from that neighborhood are getting baptized this week. 

We've also had to do exchanges with the other elders in the district cuz they had six baptisms last week. Seriously. It was crazy. We also had to go to the zone leader's area and do an interview there. 

I'm getting pretty pensive now I'm getting close to ending, so I apologize, but I'm gonna take this chance to reflect on my time as district leader.

I've really enjoyed it, to be honest. I have the opportunity to help in missionary work in a special way. Helping out each individual missionary in my district. Doing baptismal interviews. Preparing District Meeting. That's why, even though I'm getting pretty burnt out in the mission, and it's getting harder and harder to find the energy to do things in the mission. But something that doesn't bother me at all, and gets me really excited is doing a baptismal interview. I don't know, maybe I'm weird like that. 

But anyway, to finish off with the week. We're also visiting K and J. We finally got the booklet for the 12 step program, and we've begun to do it with Javier, so he can quit drugs. He's progressing really well. The thing that's really helping him is reading the Book of Mormon. 

And yeah, then yesterday, we had a baptism after sacrament meeting, cuz that's when the dad could make it, we baptised this kid. Nicknamed Chachín. He's a rambunctious little devil, but he was so excited to get baptized. And his dad (nonmember) was so happy to see his kid get baptized. He's the cousin of a couple of members who's got some problems with drugs and other things, so his aunt takes care of Chachín. We want to work with the dad, but the problem is that he doesn't come around too often. 

But yeah, that's pretty much all I got for this week.

Here are a couple pics from the week.

I love you all!

Jack - April 16

Hola Amigos! ¿Como estamos?

I am so glad to be in Quintero... wait, that`s a lie I`m in Viña again...

Well it`s been an interesting start to the transfer, I`ve been out of my area more time than I`ve been in it. Literally anything that could make us have to leave the area happened, we are kind of tired of not being in our area. There`s been interviews, exchanges, divisions, activities, Easter concert put together by the mission, flu shots that never showed up. It`s been a long week haha. Anyways, this next week we should be in our area more haha.

Bueno, this week has actually been pretty good though, I`ve learned and realized a lot of things, so I`m feeling pretty excited to continue working. The one experience I want to share though is about a lesson we taught to some investigators. That day was a pretty full day, all of the missionaries of the zone came to do contacting in our area, to kind of pay us back for always being in a different area working for nearly a week, and afterwards my companion and I went with some of the youth of the ward to visit some less active youth as their activity. It was a great idea, but one of the adults who showed up to help them is... difficult. We ended up visiting the person but this adult spent the whole time talking and laughing and basically being an obnoxious center of attention, we didn`t even have the opportunity to talk, let alone share anything! So it was pretty hard to invite the Spirit to help the less active youth and he ended up turning down their offer of a barbeque later that night. So we left, and I was a little frustrated at being stuck doing nothing for a good hour of the night, especially after being out of the area all week, I just wanted to work. Afterward we were invited by the youth and this adult leader to the barbeque, but I just told my companion no. There was a rumor that there`d be an investigator there at the barbeque, but I knew that if we went we wouldnt be able to do anything and we`d just be wasting time. So I asked him who we could visit instead, and we ended up finding an investigator who the missionaries stopped visiting because he never attended church, because he works sundays. This lesson was powerful. Even though I didn`t really know him, beforehand I had been praying pretty hard that the Lord would help us be able to do some work that day. I started out by trying to find out his beliefs by asking "Who is Jesus Christ to you?" After hearing his answer I could tell that he believed, he just lacked a little bit of faith to follow Christ. I ended up sharing 2 scriptures, the first in 1 Nephi 3:7 and the second in 3 Nephi (I don`t remember exactly) But these two scriptures explain that God always provides a way for people to keep His Commandments, such as keeping the Sabbath Day holy and going to church, and the other explained a little about prayer. Something I realized was that the scriptures are true, God will provide a way to obey the commandments, but only if we want to obey them. Let me explain, Everyone has Free Agency, that`s a divine gift from God. He will never go against our Free Agency, it is a central part of His plan for our happiness, so if we don`t want to obey the commandments, He won`t provide the way. But if we use our Agency to follow Him, we will be richly blessed. Many times I`ve looked at these scriptures and not understood why so many people arent able to attend church if God provides the way to obey His commandments, but now I understand that to provide the way without them wanting to, would be to go against their free agency. We have to want to obey. 

I invite everyone to ponder a little bit more on this, even though I`m pretty bad at putting my experiences into words, I want everyone to try to focus a little bit more on understanding what God wants, and what we want, and then try to want the same thing. That`s when the blessings come. I also want to invite everyone to ponder on the words of the Prophet and Apostles from the last General Conference, they talked a lot about seeking and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost and seeking personal revelation, and I can testify that their words are true, I`ve seen the difference it`s made in my life, and I hope everyone can experience that happiness.

Until next week!

This letter is a mess, sorry, I`ll have to get better at storytelling.

Parker - April 16

Hey everyone!

We've had a fairly interesting week, we've been getting our baptisms ready!

And they got baptized!!!! K and J. They're really excited, and J's been changing a lot. We're still gonna keep visiting them, cuz we want to make sure he doesn't drop again. 

But yeah, apart from that. a couple other things have been going on this week. We did exchanges so my comp could start going to this one neighborhood that's pretty far away. But the investigators he found there made it to church on Sunday, so we've got a couple more baptisms coming along. It's pretty exciting. 

Another bit of exciting news, the email came letting me know that it's time to start planning the trip home!!!! Yup, August 7th is the date. That's about three and a half months away. It's weird, for some people, it's something sad, cuz they wanna keep working in the mission, for others, it makes them more trunky and lazy, but with me, it just gets me excited and makes me want to work harder. 

But, returning to la obra misional, they also got confirmed members yesterday. It was pretty great. We're also visiting some members and we're trying to unify the ward more. Because the problem in this ward isn't that they aren't working, it's just that they aren't working together. Or well. Partly it's the bishop's fault, he thinks that whenever a problem comes up, it's a trial he has to endure, rather than a lesson he can learn from. It's created a lot of issues in the ward. Just the other day, we stumbled onto him arguing with his first counselor about who's suffered more as a member of the church. 

But, don't worry, we're gonna keep working hard. I have a few strategies I'm working on the help everybody. 

I'd just like to share something I've been thinking of for a while now. 

About a month ago, President asked us to think of one verse from the book of Mormon that held the most significance for us. I thought about it a great deal, and in the end, I chose Jacob 5:4, which reads:

4 And it came to pass that the master of the vineyard went forth, and he saw that his olive tree began to decay; and he said: I will prune it, and dig about it, and nourish it, that perhaps it may shoot forth young and tender branches, and it perish not.

I find it the most significant because when the Lord of the vineyard saw the dry tree (wicked person) the first thing he thought was "how can I help them?" and not complaining that this tree was drying up again and he'd have to throw it into the fire soon.

It's basically how I work as a missionary. It's how I'm starting to act towards people. And I can promise all of you that when we act with charity, the pure love of Christ, things always turn out better. 

I love you all

Elder Blaylock