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Thursday, May 8, 2014

May 5, 2014

Elder Hall and I get a long really well. He is a great companion:) 

We traveled a lot this week and we went to the mountains of Antipolo to the province of Binangonan, to the city of Taguig. We had such a blast and were able to share with many of God's children. There was a lesson we taught in Binangonan that was so wonderful. All the lessons are so wonderful and everything, but there is just something so awesome about teaching repentance. We taught a lesson about repentance and the spirit was so strong and so powerful. I learned so much about repentance as we were teaching.  You can tell the spirit is there is when you and the person or people you are teaching are both learning from the spirit. The spirit really broke down repentance in such a clear way for us to explain. As we were teaching about the restitution part of repentance, we went into how i'ts much deeper than giving something back that you have stolen. If you damage a relationship you must try to build it back, if you lose someone's trust you must go to them and strive to gain it back. It is the replacing of the bad with good that happens with repentance. You can't break a friendship and trust; then say sorry and still hate them.  If you hate them the process is not complete. Sometimes it takes time to forgive and repent,  but that's why we need the Atonement. If you have damaged your own heart or self you must seek to make it whole again. I know that part is kinda deep but repentance is like as if we are all glass bottles filled with little white and black rocks. When you repent you get rid of a black rock; but you must replace it with a white rock or else you will be just as bad as you were before. To summarize the spirit just kinda opened my eyes to a part of repentance that creates the inner change necessary to become more like the Savior. 

In Taguig we found and taught a new investigator on our way to another appointment. We taught Him how to pray, and that God is our loving Heavenly Father. Sometimes missionaries will teach that God is our loving Heavenly Father, but that doesn't really mean anything until someone prays to Him. You can teach someone the gospel for years and they won't gain anything or begin to progress, or even come any closer to God until they start keeping commitments to come closer to God. As a missionary we must not focus so much on what we are going to say, or teach because we already know the principles in pamphlets, preach my gospel and scripture.  But, we should focus more on how we are gong to help whoever we are teaching to take their own steps towards the Savior. No one can know God without speaking with Him. No one can know truth without asking. Then when we teach that the gospel blesses families, instead of telling them how it blesses them, we should commit them to have family prayers and scripture study so that they can experience it. There is a big difference there, and we must never be afraid to commit others to living the gospel and then asking and finding every way to help them do it. I know this is the true and restored gospel in these latter days and that God knows it too because He is the one who told me. This is true and we should help people experience it. The gospel is like a "you should have been there story" where we can never truly explain how good it is without actually experiencing it. 

Love, 
Elder Blackham

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