Jack - June 22

7 semanas más

Hey everyone, how´s everything going? I hope it´s been a great week.

My week here was pretty standard, just same old stuff again. We did have a visit from the Area President, Elder Benjamin de Hoyos, and his wife, which was pretty cool. They gave a lot of motivation and excitement for the work to a lot of the missionaries, so it was a cool visit. They did obviously share on very mission-related topics, which was good. Conferences like this though do always leave me feeling a little lost, not knowing how to apply the counsel given, because I don´t have a lot of opportunity to work like a normal missionary. But the applications that I can find are always very rewarding. 

This next week should be pretty interesting (and a little trunky).

Most of the week I think I´ll be out of the office going back and forth transporting things from old houses to new ones, so that should be a nice change of pace. However this week we also have another Mission Leadership Council and well, that´s when they give out what they call 'trunky papers', which are a series of papers designed to help a returning missionary to set goals for life after the mission, and well, this time I´ll be the one receiving them. So I´m excited for that.

Time is really flying by. Looking back on the mission is a weird feeling, it´s a mix of thinking that it just flew by super fast, while also realizing that I´ve been here a loooonnnnng time. Somehow those two feelings seem to mix together. 

I hope everyone has a great week! I´ll see you soon!

Jack - June 15

Hola como les va?

This week was interesting, real busy and rather stressful, but at the same time, it´s good to be busy. Time is flying by. I´m not that trunky, mostly because I´m so busy, but I am really excited. I feel that there´s a lot that life has to offer and I´m excited to jump right in. I just hope to bring with me all of the good things I´ve learned in the mission and be able to apply them well to everything that comes afterward.

Basically, I spent the whole week juggling responsibilities of being Housing Coordinator and Registrador. It´s a lot of work, I feel like if I focus on one thing I´m behind on three other things, so it´s a great learning opportunity for me. 

Everything went well with the baptism last week, it was a really great experience, it really all came together at the last minute but it ended up being wonderful. Tomorrow will be the confirmation.

Other than that, I feel like there´s not much to say...

I´ll see you in 8 weeks! 

Jack - June 8

OK

Well.

That was unexpected.

Darn it. Oh well, anyways, many things have happened since the last time I wrote to you. This transfer I started out as the Housing Coordinator/Monkey- (office monkey is the one who sets medical appointments and updates the blog and stuff)- while also training the new secretary. Then my responsibilities as Monkey were passed off to an elder who´s in the office for his last transfer because of his bad back. Then this week we received news that Elder Pigott had to go home to get a knee surgery, so President assigned me to learn how to be Registrador (stuff with baptism records, numbers, materials, phones) in one day, to be able to also fulfill that position this change and then train the new registrador next change. So, well, I´ll end my mission in the office. With a lot of work hahaha. But at least it´ll keep me busy and make the time fly by. 

So anyways I am now officially Housing Coordinator/Registrador/Secretary Trainer.

I basically have to plan for three different office responsibilities.

Next transfer I will be Housing Coordinator/Monkey/Registrador Trainer

This should be fun.

Anyways, we´re pretty excited this week because we have a baptism tomorrow! Wooooooo!

Jack - June 1

Hola como están?

This week was stressful!!! Bueno, it always is during the week of changes. I thought it would be better though because I´m not the secretary anymore but no haha, it was a lot more because I have to help the new secretary learn the job while also working on all of the housing responsibilities I´m now in charge of. Either way, here we are at the end of the week and all is well. 

This transfer should be quite different though, now that I´ll have other responsibilities too. So I´m hoping to just enjoy that and not stress myself out too much.

Today has been awesome because we found a place to go bowling! It was a ton of fun, it´s been so long since I´ve been bowling.

Anyways, other than that, there´s not a lot of news this week. I hope everyone is doing well though!

Jack - May 25

Hey Everyone! What´s up? 

We´re getting close now! Only about 10 weeks left! It´s super crazy, I´m excited. But not too trunky.

Sorry I didn´t have time to write a group email last week, we were out most of the day on a pretty cool hike. But these last two weeks have been great! I got a random phone call from a member of one of the different wards here in the Viña stake, who wanted me and my companion to teach her friend. So that was awesome. We´ve had a good number of lessons these last two weeks, so that´s been awesome. A nice break from the day to day office work. The person we started teaching is awesome! She´s really excited and prepared to receive the gospel. She´s been attending institute classes with her friends for the past couple of months and has already taken classes about Jesus Christ, The Book of Mormon, and is now starting on Doctrine and Covenants. Within 5 minutes of teaching her we invited her to be baptized and she said yes! She was so excited that inbetween lessons she planned out her whole baptism! So we´re pretty excited about that.

Other than that, this next week we´ve got transfers coming up and finally I´ll be done with being secretary!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Well I´ll still be in the office for another transfer as the Housing Coordinater while also teaching the new secretary how to do everything. But I am excited. My new companion is awesome, he was in my zone a couple of transfers back, so I already know him a little bit and he´s really cool.

Well, that´s basically all I´ve got for this week, I hope everyone is doing well! I´ll talk to you next week! And try to avoid being any more trunky! hahaha.

Jack - May 4

Hey what´s up?

I´m so exhausted haha. This whole transfer has been crazy. Week one was changes. Week two was the meeting with Elder Andersen. And this past week was Zone conferences and leadership meetings.

I´m tired of planning it all haha, just kidding. It´s fun, it´s just exhausting. As a mission we´ve been really blessed with the advice from Elder Andersen, this past week we went over all of our goals and basically raised the bar on all of them. It´s an exciting time in the church, in all of its aspects, and that´s something that we´re seeing in the mission now. So that´s pretty cool.

In other news, I hope you don´t think I´m overly "trunky" as they say, and I promise it´s one of my responsibilities, but I did order my own return flight this week hahaha.

So things are flying by.

I hope you have an excellent week! 

-Elder Blaylock

Jack - April 20

I am so glad transfer week is over! I am exhausted!

Transfer week is always a lot of work, I´m excited to get back to a more normal schedule though. This week was cool though because there weren´t any buses to take the zone leaders and the sister training leaders back up to the north of the mission after the leadership council

so I had to go help drop them off in Ovalle. #secretarioviajante

It was cool to get to know a little more of Chile hahaha.

I hope everyone has a great easter, it is an awesome time to remember everything that Jesus Christ did for us. He offered us freedom from death, pain, sickness, guilt, worry, and weakness. If we will follow His invitation to come unto Him, all wrongs can be made right. His gospel is the only source of lasting happiness. 

I hope everyone enjoys easter and spends it with family. Have a great week!

Jack - April 13

Hey everyone, I hope things are going good.

This week has been pretty normal. I´m starting to forget what happens each week again. I always have trouble remembering hahaha. Well, General Conference was awesome. The goal now is to keep studying the messages and applying them in our lives. 

I know life is hard. But honestly the best way through it is to live the gospel. Do the simple things. Read the scriptures. Say your prayers. Go to church. When things get hard, you might have to simplify things a little, but please don´t cut out the great sources of spiritual strength that makes it all easier. 

I wish I had more to share with you guys. But honestly the simple things are the most important.

Have a great week everyone!

Jack - April 6

Hey everyone! I hope everything is going well!

This week was super long, real stressful, and frankly I´m glad it´s over. However even though I didn´t particularly enjoy it, I know that God was watching over me and watching out for me. Miracles occurred throughout the week to testify to me of that fact. I know of the importance to maintain a close, personal relationship with our Father in Heaven in and out of our struggles. Each one of us can find that same relief and comfort and support starting with the simple. Prayer. 

I hope everyone can find the peace of sincere, constant prayer.

I am grateful for the great opportunity and blessing that this weekend is, and will continue to be. Today inspiring messages from the prophets and apostles of Jesus Christ were shared. And I look forward to the nourishing words to be shared tomorrow. I invite all to participate. You can by watching at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

 I hope everyone had an amazing week, and I hope this next week will be awesome as well. 

Jack - March 23

Hola como estan?

Sorry it´s been a couple of weeks, I haven't had much to write about. 

But everything is going well, today I got to go to a baptism in my last area, it was awesome. We had taught him almost all of the lessons when I was still there, but he had to go out of town for a couple of weeks, so he just now got baptized. It was awesome though, he´s really great, he seemed at first like he wouldn't really be very receptive but every time we taught him something he seemed to already agree with it, or have no problems accepting it. At the end of our last lesson with him, before he went out of town, he gave the closing prayer and prayed that he would be able to be baptized very soon hahaha, (con urgencia dijo) 

So that was a neat experience.

Anyways, other than that, everything is going well. I hope everything back home is also going well for everyone.

I´ll talk to you guys next week!

-Elder Blaylock