Jack - June 18

¡Hola mi familia!

Hey everyone! How´s it going? This week was pretty good.

Basically the highlights are from the weekend. We did an activity with the youth of the ward playing games like dodgeball, soccer, basketball, and volleyball. It was a ton of fun, but now my companion and I are super exhausted haha. We destroyed at basketball though (I wonder why...) But anyways it went super well, so we´re gonna start doing it once a month and tell the youth to invite their friends, so we´ll see how that goes. Or will we? We find out transfers next week, but I have no idea what will happen.

This week we´re going to have a ward activity to watch Coco, and to talk about our ancestry, hopefully people come, it should be really fun.

The family we´re teaching is doing well, but the mom took the kids to Viña for some reason all weekend, so they couldn´t come to our sports activity or to church which stunk. But the Dad is doing awesome! He came to church again, and his phone finally started to work so he listened to the first 14 chapters of the Book of Mormon. It was so great, in one of the classes he was just like, "I don´t know how people say the Book of Mormon is false! All you have to do is read it!" It was great. He also really enjoyed the part with Nephi and Laban, he kept saying every once in a while "He just cut off his head!" Haha it was funny, but seriously he´s doing good, now we just need to help the rest of the family.

Seriously though the Book of Mormon is incredible, not only is it holy scripture like the bible, but it also has great stories. It´s a really interesting book, you can feel that it´s true as you read, and you can enjoy the richness of its lessons, while also reading about cool stuff like wars and miracles and things like that. 

Anyways, that´s my email for this week! Que les vaya super bien.

chaíto!

Parker - June 18

Hey Everyone!

This has been a fun week. 

We had a Seventy from our Area Presidency, Elder Packer come to our mission, and we had a special conference.  

It was pretty good. He shared some really good idea on how to find new investigators, keep new converts, and reactivate less actives using Family History. 

Also, he said something that I loved, it was so great. So in the mission, they've been focusing a lot on numbers right? And President keeps telling us that the average in this mission is 1 out of every 25 new investigators gets baptized. And he asked how we could baptize more. A zone leader suggested that we could find more investigators. Elder Packer suggested that instead of that, we could focus on better finding methods, so the 25 we have are more likely to get baptized, and improving our teaching so that we could help them understand better. He said that if you use better finding and teaching methods, you could get it up to 4 out of every 25, cuz they did a study. 

It was really great, just what the mission needs. Cuz there are a lot of lazy missionaries when it comes to actually teaching. Their idea is "well, if they want to be baptized, they'll understand."

But yeah, it was really great. I loved the conference. I also gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. I decided to focus on Unity, cuz that's what this ward really needs. And I shared a lot about looking for the positives in others, a lot of what I've been sharing in my weekly emails lately. 

And yeah, apart from that, I did the math today and I have about 49 days until I go home. It's pretty crazy. This is my last week before my last transfer. I don't think anything drastic is gonna happen with me, they'll probably let me end here tranquilo in Lastenia. I hope so, anyway, love you all!

Elder Blaylock

Jack - June 11

Hola Everyone!

How´s it going?

This week was pretty long for us, but I didn´t get much of a chance to record most of it in my journal, so I don´t remember much of what happened. It was a good week though. We found a bunch of promising leads for people to teach, so that´s exciting. 

The main thing that happened this week was the zone conference we had, it was the last one of our Mission President and his wife. It was really good, we learned a lot about faith, the Book of Mormon and the stories it leaves us, and how to exercise faith with power. It was really interesting, I just wish the mission President didn´t go so fast, I couldn´t get all the notes I wanted, but I imagine I´ve got enough notes to get me started entonces está bien. 

Also I hit 9 months this week.

Speaking of that, I´d made it pretty far without any strange food...

That streak ended this week. We ate Blood Sausage one day and Cow stomach another...

Life is fun.

Other than that, we´re pretty excited because our main family of investigators is really changing for the better. We´re seeing a lot more spirituality in their home. The parents have a bit more trials such as finding work, quiting smoking, and getting married, but we´ve seen a lot of miracles. One day we went their and they were pretty down in the dumps because they didn´t have any electricity in their house, o mejor dicho, they had too much electricity and it fried everything. Also they´re in the process of building their house and they still lack a lot of things such as running water, but we taught them a great lesson about prayer, faith, and hope in the promises of the Lord, and we invited them to pray as a family. The next day they were jumping for joy because they suddenly had light, and water in their house, so I´m pretty sure they understand the importance and power of family prayer now. 

That was pretty neat, it was a good week. Here´s some photos:

(We had a lunch that was just huge)

(It also rained a lot this week, Elder Robinson wanted to protect his bag)

Parker - June 11

Hey everyone!

This week's been fun. 

On Tuesday, we had a Zone Meeting. 

Thankfully, we have a good zone, so the Spirit was felt. 

Also, that day, we found quite a few new investigators who are pretty receptive. 

Wednesday, we had an activity in the church, Meet the Mormons with Popcorn. It went over pretty well, we had about five new investigators go. 

Thursday, we had to go to a Dermatologist for my comp. Turns out he contracted a skin virus from his last comp, who's from Bolivia. He's gonna be ok though, we got some meds.

On Saturday, I TURNED 21 FREAKING YEARS OLD. I feel so old now. How do I explain this? A family put a movie on at lunch on Sunday, and my comp would whisper to me (hey, that girl looks pretty hot) referring to someone in the movie. And I would be like: "Eh, she's pretty young." 

Maybe it's not so much a symptom of being 21 years old, than the fact that my sister now is 16 years old. But anyway,

We had Stake Conference on Sunday, where our Mission President and a former Mission President spoke, it was pretty good. A couple families also gave me a bunch of food for my birthday. It was fun though. I bought myself a tie for my birthday, it's green, it's sick. 

And yeah, that's pretty much it this week. 

Sorry I don't have any special spiritual thought this week. I've had a lot on my mind. 

Still love you all!

Elder Blaylock

Jack - June 4

Hola a todos, como están

Whew, this week was tough. For a lot of reasons, but it´s all good. Life moves on forward, we have to too.

I don´t really know what to talk about this week, not much interesting really happened. It was just a stressful week in general for me. But everything is going well, everything is still basically the same. Just lots of work here in Quintero. Today we´re going to play soccer with another zone, and next week we´re going to play with the Mission President against my old zone, Valparaíso, where my old companion still is. So that´ll be fun. 

I wish I had more to report on, but I can´t remember much that really happened this week. One day we went to Viña to do an open house in another ward building, before that we had lunch in a pueblito, and when we got back we had a lesson in another pueblito so we were basically just traveling all day.

Since my email is a little boring, I at least hope everyone else had an awesome exciting week, I can´t wait to hear about them, and I´ll see what I can do about spicing things up this week.

¡Que les vaya super bien!

¡Chao chao!

-Elder Blaylock

Parker - June 4

Hey Everyone! 

This week was fun. We've just been keeping at it. 

The cold hit us this week with a bunch of rain too, and we have one radiator in the apartment that doesn't work too well. So even though it doesn't get as cold as in the States, literally zero buildings have been built to insulate heat, so we still freeze our butts off at night if we don't sleep right next to the radiator we have. Also showering is a daunting task. 

But anyway, we've been visiting people and trying to help them out. Something pretty awful happened this past week with some members. Basically there's this one house that is home to like three families. The grandparents and the little children they're taking care of. (The little kids that are over eight are baptized). That couple's son and his family, (only one of the grandkids is a member.) And the couple's daughter and her family, (all members, really nice). So, the son and his wife (as his sister, the member, describes them) are cruel to their kids, and are anti-mormon. Their kid who's member got baptized after turning 18, when he no longer needed his parent's permission. And he started going out with a girl from church and spending less time with his family. 

And this past week, they basically kicked him out of the house. It's kicked up a hornet's nest. The grandparents are furious because it's their house, and they shouldn't kick anyone out. The son and his wife are so prideful and stuck up that they can't see that they've done anything wrong and are blaming everybody else but themselves. The sister feels terrible cuz she's tried for years to try and mend the scars that her brother has caused with his apathetic attitude, and all for nothing. The bishop is pretty apathetic too, to helping him, cuz he blames the kid's relationship with the girl and spending too much time with her for the kid's situation. 

So yeah, it's been an interesting week. 

So, lately I've been studying a lot. (I'm a missionary, I gotta study). And well, it's all about trusting in The Lord, and being guided daily by the Spirit. We really gotta trust in the Lord. And learn to forgive as it states in Doctrine and Covenants 64:9-11: 

9 Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.

10 I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.

11 And ye ought to say in your hearts—let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.

In other words, it is more important for us to forgive and let God judge our righteousness and the righteousness of others than for us to forfeit our keys to Heaven. It also has to do with the Higher Law that Jesus taught. To turn the other cheek when one strikes us. To go two miles with him who obligates us to go one. To give not just our cloak, but our coat as well. 

I've also been studying what true fast is, and the real blessings we receive when we obey the law of the fast. (It's Isaiah 58, the whole chapter, so good). 

But basically I wanted to draw attention to a particular blessing that fasting grants us. 6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 

It's promising us that we'll be able to break the bands of iniquity. Overcome sin, addictions, or oppression. It gives us spiritual power. 

Sorry this letter's a little all over the place. I've got a lot on my  mind. 

But yeah, love you all!

I'm hanging in there!

Elder Blaylock

Jack - May 28

Alright, here we go...

How`s everyone doing? Things here are all same old same old.

Not much really happened this week, a bunch of traveling for me. My companion had to do a baptismal interview in Concon which went on for a super long time, also there was a bunch of traffic going there and coming back. Then we also had a zone meeting in Viña where the zone leaders presented the focus of the zone for this transfer and we had some training. And another day my companion had a district leader meeting in Viña, so I was in exchanges until we went to pick him up. I did get to see Elder Bahr for a second though which was pretty awesome.

Speaking about exchanges, they were really interesting. I was in Quintero with Elder Pinheiro, our new zone leader, who just so happened to start his mission in Quintero. So that was interesting, most of the recent converts here are people that he baptized or at least taught. We had a good day though, I really felt the Spirit in all of the lessons we taught, which was pretty neat. One of them was in an apartment of a young family that was really struggling with a lot of problems, in their house it is really hard to feel the spirit because there are always so many things going on, especially their three little kids who spend the whole day screaming. But as we were trying to share a message, I felt prompted to change the topic, testify that we are representatives of Jesus Christ sent to help them, and set some goals to really help them find more peace and happiness in their lives. It´s not something I can explain really well, you kind of had to be there, but for the first time their entire apartment was silent, there was a really strong peace throughout the whole house, it was powerful. After meditating a little bit more in why later that night, the thought came to my head that Charity really is greater than anything. All of the lessons or visits that I`ve had in my mission that have been the most powerful, have been when I`ve really felt a Christlike love for the people. Obviously I`m trying to love everyone, trying to be able to help them. But when I can feel that desire deep in my heart, that´s when I´ve been able to bring the spirit to a lesson really strong. But more on that later.

I also had a really neat experience with my companion this week. We get along super well, but sometimes we really get frustrated in the way we want to work. So we did a good companionship inventory and figured out some reasons why we´re getting so frustrated in planning things out, we offered some advice to each other on how we can each improve, I´m glad we were both pretty humble about it. That´s why I love this companionship is that we both really want to work, that we both really want to do our best. (And I´m not saying my other companions didnt want that either, I´m just being grateful again). But the part that most impacted me was what we did at the end of our companionship inventory. We decided to take 5-10 minutes and really think about ourselves and each other, and we made three lists; 5 good things about me, 5 good things about him, and 5 good things about our companionship.

It was a really cool activity and it was really neat to see some of the things we both realized or to see something he knows he´s good at that I hadn´t thought of. Really it was a really neat exercise. But the best part about was the spirit of positivity, unity, and happiness that it brought. Often I have trouble thinking positively about myself because I´m a bit of a perfectionist, so my weaknesses really frustrate me. But putting forth the effort to think more positively, and then having someone else help you see the same was really cool. So I wanted to invite everyone to try it, to think of someone close to you, a family member, a good friend, someone in need, and make a list of the natural talents and gifts that they have, then share it with them. Do the same for yourself, ask someone to help you determine your strong points, what makes you, you.

Once you know these things, the best way to strengthen these talents, or develop them further is through service, love, charity. For example, something I was able to realize was that, like I said earlier, I´ve had quite a few experiences where I´ve really felt the spirit really strongly testifying to what I´ve been saying. That´s something I´m good at, inviting the Spirit. That´s something that I´ve noticed even more prevalent when I´ve had more charity for other people. But anyways, that´s the news for this week, I´ll be talking to you next week!

-Elder Blaylock

Parker - May 28

Hey everyone!

It's been a pretty normal week here. We're just focusing on working. My companion's really chill. I can't remember if I told you guys, he's from Mexico, name's Elder H. But yeah, we get along great. 

And yeah, this week's been more of the usual. Work work work. I'm trying to remember interesting things. Let's see. Tuesday we had District Meeting with our new District Leader. It was pretty weird to just be a normal missionary in District Meeting. I will say that after being District Leader, I do participate more in District Meeting than I did when I was Junior Comp. But yeah, the District's pretty cool. 

Oh, in the Mother's day call, Jameson mentioned a kind of special Mate that I could try called Mate celestial. With Coconut and crushed peanuts and warm milk. We tried it on Thursday while we were doing Weekly Planning. It was good. 

On Friday, it was 25 de Mayo, which is a holiday here. So there was a bunch of parties and we didn't have a whole lot of appointments. Though we ate so much that day that I was ready to barf by the end. (I may have lost weight in the mission, but if I'm not careful...) Cuz everybody was just inviting us to eat their food. 

Let's see, yesterday we found three new investigators, really sincere, it was really nice to find people who genuinely want to learn. As opposed to what happened earlier this week. Last week we contacted a kid, who told us to come back another day. We went back and his dad comes out. And he's super evangelist, and just wanted to fight with us. He was talking all pretty and stuff and insisted that he just wanted to hear about what we teach about Salvation, but he gave himself away when I tried to share with him a part of the Plan of Salvation pamphlet. He was just like "No, no me interesa eso." So we told him the address to the church and left. Here in the mission, I've come to realize something: Atheists are so easy to teach. Cuz all you gotta do is convince them that God is real, and they'll accept your teachings. Whereas other people, well...let's just say I like a quote from that Avatar movie, with the blue people: "We cannot fill a cup that is already full." Or something like that. 

But, onto another topic, that has to do with what you guys said Grandpa was talking about. The Light of Christ. This also has to do with my letter from last week. 

Lately, I've been trying to figure out more about the Light of Christ and what exactly it is. Cuz it's pretty vague in the scriptures. And basically, I've come to the conclusion that it is "every good thing that makes us one."

I used to read a bunch of articles before the mission, where lots of people were talking about some kind of psychic force that unifies the human race or something like that. And now I realize that those people were trying to study the Light of Christ. 

Also, the Light of Christ is made easier to understand when we study it by contrast. What is sin? Spiritual death. And what is death? Separation. Therefore, sin means separation. What does the scripture say? Mark 10:9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Or as it reads in Spanish (translated) Let no man separate. 

We are joined with God as we worship him. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Separation. God placed man's spirit into his body. Thou shalt not kill. God created familial bonds. Honor thy father and thy mother. God sealed man and woman. Thou shalt not commit adultery. (fun fact, Adultery and Idolatry come from the same root word.) Wherefore everything that is "bad" in the world, that is, everything that is darkness, are those things that divide us. And so everything that is "good," that is everything that is light, are those things that unite us. 

That's what the gospel is about. That's what Atonement means. Reconciliation. Mankind amends. Bringing together two subjects that were once estranged. 

So, I invite all of you to put away anything in your lives that divide you from others. I'm not saying lose your individuality, I'm saying to put away things that are divisive. Bitterness, Unforgiveness, racism, sexism, discrimination. 

I don't know, for me, when I think about it like that, it changes everything. 

Also, if you want a better sermon on this than I could ever give, read Moroni chapter 7. It's amazing. 

I love all you guys,

Elder Blaylock

Jack - May 21

Alllllllrighty then, how is everyone doing this week?

My week went well, but lets get into the spiritual thoughts:

Faith. What is it? What does it mean to have it? How do we increase it?

Normally, we define faith as a belief in something, as a missionary you learn pretty quickly that "Faith without works is dead" like it says in James 2:26. Therefore Faith, is a lot more than just a belief, Faith leads us to action. In the Guide for the Study of the Scriptures, Faith is defined like this: (more or less, I wrote this down in my notes in Spanish so I´m translating right now) " Have trust in something or in someone." In general, " Faith is the someone´s trust in Jesus Christ that leads them to obey Him." 

Prophets and Apostles have testified in the scriptures that Faith is like a hope too. For Example, Alma testifies, "...if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." Alma 32:21. I also know that in the Bible, Paul says something super similar, but I don´t have the reference on hand right now. From my personal studies about Hope, I know that Hope is also a trust. Hope, generally, is trusting in the promises that God makes. Trust that God, being a perfect being, has no need to, and would never lie. So we should know, that we can trust completely in what he says, and in what he promises us. Faith then, is a hope in something, that leads us to act. Let´s think about it then, using related words too. More specifically, Faithful.

Faithful, seems to mean full of faith, right? Why then does it seem to take on another meaning? Is it really something different? Or is it what it really means to be full of faith? Whenever I think of the word faithful, I think more of Fidelity, Loyalty, or Trustworthiness. It means perseverance. Perseverance even when we don`t understand why. We persevere faithfully, trusting in our hope, even when we don`t understand why. What I`m trying to say is that faith, is more like fidelity, dedication, or devotion. Someone who is full of faith, is someone who´s faithful.

Let´s return then to the teachings of Alma. In the same verse I shared earlier, Alma says, "And now as I said concerning faith- Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." Like Alma said, Faith is not a perfect knowledge. In fact  faith isnt even wanting to believe something when we don´t know if it´s true. Faith isn´t a replacement for a lack of knowledge, they´re not related in that way. Rather, Faith perfects knowledge, by practicing fidelity to it.

How does that work? Alma also teaches that. (He`s basically the expert). Some people told him, "If thou wilt show us a sign from heaven, then we shall know of a surety; then we shall believe." and Alma replied, "is this faith? Behold I say unto you, Nay; for if a man knoweth a thing he hath no cause to believe, for he knoweth it." Alma 32:17-18 This still doesn`t mean faith is an incomplete knowledge, there´s a reference to another scripture that explains why we wouldnt need faith when there is a perfect knowledge. The reference is for Ether 12:12, which goes like this, " For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore he showed not himself until after their faith." Ok, so no miracles until AFTER faith...

in the same chapter it says the same about a testimony, "faith is things hoped for and not seen; wherefore dispute no because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." 

Alma, in the same chapter we were in earlier (Alma 32) gives an example comparing the word of God to a seed, which if we plant in our hearts, and with diligence, patience, perseverance, and faithfulness  will grow until we have a perfect knowledge of that thing. Do you understand yet? I`m not the best at explaining things simply (just look at the length of this letter) but I`m trying to say that faith, is a lot more like being faithful then wishful thinking. If we`re faithful to knowledge, when we don´t quite understand everything, if we persevere in the study, the result of our faithfulness is a more perfect knowledge. If we`re faithful to a belief, even during tough times, the result of our faithfulness is a testimony. If we´re faithful in our prayers, even when the answers don´t seem to come, the answers will come. These are the miracles of faithfulness. The miracles that come after our faithfulness. From now on rather than saying "Have faith", I´m going to focus on saying, " Be faithful." A more precise knowledge of things, helps us get one step closer to the perfect knowledge.

Lastly I want to explain the most important thing we can be faithful to. I know, that faithfulness in Jesus Christ is the only way to receive salvation. Not necesarily in some dreary sense that we´re all doomed, but rather, salvation from the burdens and trials of this life. From depression and sadness, from darkness and hopelessness, from loneliness. From every pain or trial we could ever pass through. To be faithful to Him, to be worthy of His trust by keeping the commandments and living His Gospel, is how we receive this Salvation. 

May we all try a little harder to be faithful.

...And there it is! Now I have basically no more time to write, but this week was awesome. In other news, some members from my other area came to visit which was awesome, and we attacked a tree all week for service.

(tree pose)

I am the tree.

I am Groot.

Parker - May 21

Hey everyone!

So yeah, first week of the new transfer, and it's been really great, actually. Even though I loved being district leader, I can free up some brain space now and focus more on just working. And it's shown in this past week, I think I've worked harder this past week than I did the entire last transfer. 

But anyway, mainly I've just been helping my comp get to know the members. Like always, there's mixed feelings, mainly due to the missionary who leaves. Some were so tired of my last comp, some of them are gonna miss him a lot. But the coolest thing is that we were able to finally sit down and teach Chachín's dad. I don't know if you guys remember Chachín, the kid we baptized a few weeks ago. But he was really receptive. The main problem we're gonna have with him is the fact that we can only see him on the weekends and he smokes. (though he wants to quit). 

But yeah, also, yesterday, we had a bunch of people in church. It was great. 

And for pday today, my current comp was trained by one of my former comps in an area a little bit south. So we went there so they could visit some of their converts and stuff. It was pretty fun. I was just along for the ride. 

But yeah, I don't got a lot to say. I guess I just want everyone to know that I'm way less stressed now in the mission. I just wanna work until the end. Which is why I think pres made me senior comp, to let me just focus on the work until the end. 

As for a spiritual thought, I've been studying Gifts of the Spirit a lot lately. And something super important for all of us to understand is that it is through the Light of Christ that we can exercise these gifts. What is the light of christ? To put it in simple terms, it's understanding one another, become one. When we are one, we can overcome any barrier caused by the "curses" we all deal with, like foreign languages, disease, confusion, spiritual blindness, etc. This is how Christ was able to overcome death, because what is death? In a word, separation, yet Christ can overcome death because He is one with the Father, and we can be one with Him. And when we are one with Him, we are no longer separated. 

But the key to the Light of Christ is love and charity. So, I exhort you, just as Mormon and Moroni exhort us at the end of the Book of Mormon, Moroni 7:48

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

I love you all

Elder Blaylock

PS Got my flight plans today, Wednesday, August 8th. I will be HOME!

Jack - May 14

Hello again, how`s it going everyone?

This week was pretty good, pretty normal though. As far as transfers go both me and my companion are staying.

It was a pretty normal week of teaching people, not much to report on there. There was an activity in Viña on Friday, we had a big poster with a picture of a family tree with spots where you could put your face and we invited people to get their picture taken and learn more about their ancestry and it was a pretty cool idea, just not the best place to do it, not very many people wanted to talk to us. But it went well either way.

I wish I had more to write about, but I don`t really remember if anything interesting happened this week, it`s been a little stressful.

One thing I wanted to share is to invite everyone to do a little more listening and a little less talking. This can apply in many ways but often times, in a conversation people seem to hook onto the second word that`s said and think they understand everything that`s going on. But if we really listen to one another we`ll really get to know the needs, desires, hopes, fears, and really who is the person we`re talking with. As a missionary who has to talk to many people everyday, it`s a little sad to see how many people I talk with hear so little of the incredible message we share and think they don`t need it. It also goes the other way for us too, if we don`t really listen to people we could never know some vital facts about a person, we may find a problem on the surface but completely skip over what`s really troubling the person. So this week I want to invite everyone to have a good conversation, instead of immediately replying to what someone says, ask a question, or encourage them to share more, don`t interrupt people. Let`s all practice being a little more Christlike, listening and helping others once we`ve really come to understand them.

Either way I hope everyone has a good week, I`ve got tons of pictures to share with you today. (Viña del Mar is super awesome)

Parker - May 14

Hey everyone!

It was really great to see you all and talk to you. Sorry not everything turned out like we may have wanted, but it was really great. 

And yeah, this past week, we haven't done much. Last week of the transfer is sometimes like that. But yeah, some changes with these new transfers. 

First of all, I'm no longer District Leader. Don't panic, it doesn't mean much. It mostly just cuz these transfers are always super hectic, and President made some pretty funky changes this transfer all around. Putting Zone leaders together who end at the same time (ie this transfer), sending people up to be zone leader when they've got one transfer left, and yeah, its pretty wacky all around. I think that pres just likes to whitewash alot, and he's preparing to whitewash the mission. Shrug. All it means for me is now I gotta focus more on just doin the work and ending my mission well. 

But yeah, thank you all so much for the support and the prayers, I'm looking excited to these next twelve weeks. My new comp is named elder Hernández, from Mexico. And so far, he seems pretty cool. 

And anyway, I just wanna let you all know that I love you and to not worry about me, I'm doing fine in the mission. 

Love you!

Elder Blaylock

Jack - May 7

Helloooo all my people! This week was weird again. Super short. Super long.

Nah but seriously it was a good week. We played Volleyball with the Mission President last monday and it was pretty fun. The craziest part though is when he serves the ball... He throws it up in the air then bashes it with his elbow! And it works! Really well! Hahaha, it was fun, I think we`ll do it again today.

Last tuesday was a day bien milagroso. We had some experiences that were pretty awesome. First off there´s this grandpa of one of the recent converts here, named J, who is awesome. He´s a funny dude who just loves to chat with us and crack up laughing. The problem is, when we pass by for his house, he normally leaves to greet us and chat for like 5 minutes, then tells us he doesn´t have time to talk with us today but that he´ll call when he has time. Then he never calls. But this time was different. I ministered to him! I felt like the Prophet Russell M. Nelson in his story about ministering! J left to greet us like normal and as he was chatting he mentioned how he used to work as a photographer and still has a bunch of equipment, and suddenly I thought to mention "Hey my brother and my Mom also love photography, it sounds pretty cool, I´d love to learn a bit more about it sometime." He got pretty excited to show me one day. Then I realized "Hey look, I´ve got some of their photos here!" Then I showed him the pictures I had with me of my family and friends, and he really enjoyed it. Then he mentioned a little about his family and I said to him, "You know what, we share a special message about families, we´d love to share it with you for just 10-15 minutes" And he let us in! We taught about the Plan of Salvation and it was awesome! Then at the end he went and brought out some of his old camaras, and I´ve gotta admit they were pretty cool. I didn´t understand them. But they were fun haha.

We also went to visit some less active members later that day and it was awesome as well. They didn`t have any power in their house for some reason, but they invited us in and at the beginning they really didn`t want much to do with us. They even told us that they hadn´t felt the spirit or anything special to do with the church in over a year. So we tryed to get to know them a little more and figure out the message they needed to hear.  (side note, this week I gave a training session in the district meeting) and I decided to apply the things I´d been studying. The main focus of my studies was how to help people realize that we´re representatives of Jesus Christ, sent to help them. And I found the answer in the Book of Mormon, in Moroni 7:13. Which says that all good things are from God, all that invites and persuades to do good is of God, and is inspired of Him. (I don`t have it with me in english right now, it´s a rough translation) But applying that scripture I invited one of the members to repent. I testified, and promised him that if he did it he would feel the spirit again. Later we started sharing our testimonies again and invited them to do the same. He didn´t say much, but he just looked at me and thanked me. He said that it´d been so long since someone had made a promise like that to him, and that he knew he could trust it. I testified again that even though it was only like the second time I´ve met him, that I was sent by Jesus Christ to help him personally in his life. That even though I didn´t know him that well, Jesus Christ did.

And really that´s how it is as a missionary. We´re called of God to minister to others, to guide them back to Him. He has sent us to wherever we are to be representatives of His Son. Listen to the missionaries. Invite them to your home and listen to them. If you´re a member or not. I know that the missionaries serving wherever you are were called their to help you. Let them. Let Christ help you.

Those are the thoughts I´ll share this week, along with a bunch of pictures of like 2 places in Quintero. Feel free to get a little jealous, because it´s pretty beautiful and that´s only a small part of it. Though we can´t go down to the beach so don´t get too jealous ;)

Also random fact from last week I forgot- Last week during an activity to go contacting in Viña with the zone, I contacted a chinese family who had just moved to Chile about two months ago. They were really excited to meet with us and even though we couldn´t communicate much with them they ended up going to church the next week. It was awesome.