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
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