Jack - January 7

Happy New Years!

How`s everyone doing?

This new years was way different than my last one. Last time I was a little shocked by the fact that I`d be away from home for all of 2018, I remember the shouts of other missionaries as the fireworks started "I`m going home this year!" or "I`m gonna get married this year!" 

Well, as we begin 2019, I can join in saying "I`m going home this year," as for the marriage one I highly doubt that, let`s everyone calm down hahaha.

 

Anyways I`m excited for this year, it`s going to be a great year of change, progress, and joy. I can promise you that. That`s something you`ll see in me when I get back, and it`s something I hope to see in you too.

Anyways thats all I really want to report on for now, let`s get to work!

(This was for the new years activity I put together with my companion for the zone. It`s some tradition from Ecuador and Colombia and places like that to make dolls and burn them with your new year's resolutions to celebrate)

Jack - December 31

Hola Todos,  Como fue su navidad?

We had an interesting week, inbetween Christmas and New Years everything always just kind of dies off in missionary work, so it was kind of slow in that sense. We Also were planning a baptism all week, luckily it all turned out well, even though the ward kind of exploded trying to put it together, and well because of other things. But anyways the baptism went really well, President Romeu even came and played violin so that was awesome. This week only Andersson was baptized, Victor, the kid, didn´t feel quite ready so we´re going to keep teaching him a little bit. But Andersson was really excited for everything it was awesome. Afterwards he even gave his testimony.

Now, like I said about the ward, this week we didn´t have any members sign up to give us lunch due to a big lack of communication. We had lunch all week thanks to an awesome family that fed us well (really well actually, they make good food). But anyways once the Bishop found out that we hadn´t had lunch set for the whole week and that we were basically planning and preparing the baptism on our own, he basically flipped out and got mad at everyone for a lack of communication and for neglecting their duties. (well, he got mad at us too for not calling him) But the good news is, now all of the leaders who are supposed to be in charge of missionary work in the ward are going to start working. So it was kinda rough, but it should actually turn out better haha.

But yeah, that´s basically it for now

Que esten bien!!!

Jack - December 24

Feliz Navidad a todos!

Espero que todos pasen una navidad llena de felicidad y amor y que podamos recordar a la parte mas importante, el nacimiento del Jesucristo.

Hey Everyone, this week has been pretty good. Today I`m a little bummed out because I had to run around Viña all morning to do a bunch of paperwork for my visa, on Christmas Eve. Oh well, at least along the way I ran into Elder C. It was so great to see him again hahaha, we had a good time remembering Quintero and joking around while we waited in line. Unfortunately I also received some bad news. It looks like Elder C will be going home this week, the church mission department thinks he`s not healthy enough to be in the mission. So that kind of stinks, since the beginning we`d known that he had a bunch of health problems, but he seemed to be doing really well. It`s ok,

24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.

(2 Nephi 2:24)

Anyways, we`re pretty excited this week, part of the family I mentioned last week are going to be baptized this friday! We`re so happy, hopefully everything goes well this week so that they can be baptized.

As a missionary, sometimes this time of year is even worse than usual, at a time when you would think that more people would be focused on Christ, less people have any interest in Him. This week we contacted a lot of people who rather rudely expressed that they didn`t have time. It`s kind of sad, but it makes sense in a way, at the time of the birth of Christ nobody had room or time for Him either, and so, He was born in a manger. I`d like everyone to consider the importance of Christ`s birth in our lives, and what we are doing to celebrate it, and I hope that everyone makes more time and place in their lives to consider the birth of our Savior.  

Merry Christmas

Elder Blaylock

This week we also had a Christmas activity with a couple of other zones 

Elder G is almost done his mission! :( Time flies.

Jack - December 17

Hola mi familia, como les va?

This week we had transfers, I´m now with Elder Rosado from Ecuador. He´s pretty chill, and we´ve been working pretty effectively together so that´s good.

This weekend was pretty great for us. On Friday we got a call from the assistants about somebody from our sector who was looking for the missionaries and the closest church to them. So we called them and went to visit them and they´re awesome. They´re Venezuelans that moved to Chile a couple of weeks ago because everything is going really bad in Venezuela. But they´d been looking for the church ever since they arrived because one of them was baptized as a teenager but left the church for family conflicts. But they had found missionaries when they were in Concepción in the south of Chile and sent their address, then they went looking in valparaíso for a church building but it was closed because it was Saturday and no one was there, then they found the mission office and talked with Elder Gutierrez (who also served in my area, so he knew where they lived) and finally we met them. We found it hilarious because they´d been searching for so long, and it ends up that we live in the same apartment complex hahaha, and there´s a church just up the hill hahaha. 

So we taught Viviana and her son Victor and committed them to be baptized and they were really excited and said that they want us to teach the rest of their family living there with them too, so the next day we returned and taught their cousin, German(He´s the member) and their friend Anderson. The lessons were great. We committed Anderson to be baptized as well. And they almost all of them came to church yesterday! Viviana had to work, unfortunately, but she´s already looking to change to be able to go to church. And then in the nighttime, we were able to go with them to a Christmas concert in Viña! It was a pretty crazy weekend. 

But anyway, that´s all I´ve got to say,

I hope you´re all doing well!

Jack - December 10

Well, another transfer goes flying by, it definitely was the fastest one yet. As for transfer news I`ll be staying training someone else on how to be zone leader. My new companion`s name is Elder Rosado, but other than that I don`t know him.

Here at the end of another change, in a little bit of reflection, these past two changes right at the end, I`ve learned some powerful lessons on love-(not romantic love, just love in general)

Here are my thoughts.

I was in Quintero for 7 and a half months, throughout that whole time I was teaching a family. Right at the end, the two boys were able to be baptized, which was incredible. But with them I learned as I said a powerful lesson. When we started teaching them, one of the boys wasn`t really interested, he didn`t pay much attention, he didn`t want to be baptized, but he enjoyed being there with us. His brother, always surprised with his spirit and maturity with regards to the gospel. And so, when I arrived I focused more on the one who was more receptive and I always tried hard to gain his trust. Meanwhile his brother, took a particular liking to me. As time went on the two of them started to gain interest and participate more. Then we lost them for a time. And finally, in my last transfer with Elder Cenname we baptized them. And now, as we went to say goodbye. The hardest was to say goodbye to the one who at first, wasnt as focused. I felt the amount of love he had for me and that he was truly sad to see me go. Obviously everyone was sad, I`m amazing. But what I learned was that even though I tried so hard in the beginning to "earn" the trust and love of the other, his brother had simply loved and trusted in me.

Love, cannot be earned. It can only be given. Give freely

At the close of this past transfer, yesterday my companion Elder Cruz and I went to say goodbye to one of the families of the ward. It was a heartfelt moment. Even more special than any normal goodbye. Since the beginning of his mission, this family has supported and loved Elder Cruz. Their son served a mission in Brazil, and after seeing how the members looked after their son, decided they would do the same for any brazilians who came to the mission. And so from the beginning Elder Cruz` mom and the family have been in contact, sending him little treats from brazil or things like that. Until, Elder Cruz arrived to serve in their very area. Now watching their goodbyes was a powerfull experience. Afterwards he just said to me, "this is awful, Like at the beginning of my mission, I just said goodbye to my family again." Anybody who`s served knows the pain of saying goodbye to their family to go on a mission.

Love, is home. Love is belonging. 

There are so many out there longing for gifts of love and belonging. There are so many longing for home. Love unconditionally.

Have a good week.

Jack - November 26

I am so grateful...

...that I was bit by a dog on thanksgiving. Twice.

No, broma, hahaha

But yeah some dog bit me twice in my legs, but it´s all good.

This week was a lot of the same. Talking with just about everyone. It was a good week, just like normal though, not much to comment on. Actually looking back at my agenda now it´s true, we just contacted all week. Had the opportunity to teach one or two people but other than that just a lot of the same. Yesterday one of the young men brought a friend to church though, and we were able to teach him, which was pretty good. He seems cool.

But yeah. I hope everyone is doing well!

Chaito. Chao. Chao. 

Jack - November 19

The work is going... slowly.

This last week we had one of the assistants to the president with us to help out the zone and inspire them and help everyone to work more effectively and all that, and it went well. It was kind of a busy week because of that, we did a lot of exchanges with all the elders of the zone, it went by pretty quickly and it was pretty cool to see some good results from the zone, but our sector is pretty much the same. We´ve got basically no one to teach and so we´re contacting a lot. Our contacts are all really good too, but in the end the people don´t want anything to do with us and are quite rude. So the week has gone by quickly, but slowly at the same time.

Haha, all of the receptive people we find live in other areas hahaha.

Anyways that´s basically all I´ve got for this week. I hope everyone is doing well.