February 4, 2013

I got the Christmas cards from the ward and I am really grateful for them. I felt the spirit of the West Point Ward and their love and I am very grateful for the letters:) I am also very grateful for those who are writing me on Dear Elder. I am getting them and they are awesome, special shout out to Danalyn, Madelyn, and Brother(Bishop) McLaws:) haha.

 

So this week has been pretty awesome!! I am really feeling like I am scratching the surface of the power of Faith and its connection to grace and strength from the Lord and yeilding my heart to Him:) Really when we recognize the power of God, life becomes so much more amazing!:) It sounds so simple but we must constantly confirm and strengthen our understanding of these concepts, sufficient to draw on the powers of Heaven to ultimately put off the natural man and become like Christ through His atonement. Much of this comes from our understanding of God and the Savior and the Holy Ghost. As our understanding of them increases our ability to exercise our faith in them increases also.  But when our lives are not in harmony with what we know is right we cannot have faith enough in ourselves to exercise faith in them. The more obedient and faithful we are the more faith we will be able to have in them. When we know we are clean and doing God's will then we are essentially free from worry and care. Not necessarily self confidence but confidence in God that because we are clean His power can have a great lasting effect on us and work through us to bring out much greatness. These are simple truths that have just been sinking deeper into my heart as I feel the Holy Ghost more and more in my life and testifying to what I am doing is true.

 

 So basically I have also been learning about agency this week also and its connection to Jesus Christs atonement and that because of the atonement we need not ever have a real excuse for our sins, to sin and say "I am only human, I cannot do this, or this is only natural to be this way", or whatever our excuse for being the natural man is to deny that the atonement gives us the power to choose what is right. Through the atonement we always have the choice to do that which Christ would do and choose eternal life. The plan of salvation is here that we may change and progress and grow:) This is all made possible because the atonement allowed us to have the choice to choose what is right. To choose the path of eternal life. Do understand that the atonement gives us the choice to put off the natural man, repent and change will allow us to access that power and do so. There really is no limit to the power of the atonement, it truly is infinite:)!! Though our sins be as scarlet they really can be white as snow. No matter how many times I was told this it wasn't until I had faith in it through the atonement that it actually made a change in me or actually happened. The Savior would often question a person's faith before he healed them. Over and over again that happened, to illustrate the choice that we need to make to believe. 

 

Also about grace I love grace:) As people we are nothing without the Savior but with Him we are everything;) The Saviors light is infinite and our light is so weak. But the amazing thing about that is that our light can be the Savior's light and His grace can consume our dim or dark areas of our life. Even when we feel we do not have the faith, the Saviors faith can be ours, every single weakness can become a strength as we exercise our faith in His atonement and His infinite power. We accept His grace by doing His will, and giving him our whole heart. Really we need not fear anything because of the infinite power of the atonement, so what I do not have the strength and power to teach this gospel on my own, but with the savior there is not a heart that cannot be touched, there is not anything we cannot do as long as I throw away all of myself and allow Him to work His power through me. Which is a lot harder than it sounds but depending on your faith its easier too. It really is a life long process but I am so glad I have the chance now to begin to give Him my all:) 

 

Any ways I love yous alls and my English will be getting worse the better I get at tagalog haha. :) 

 

Love, Elder Blackham

January 28, 2013

So basically I have been sick this whole last week and its been a total bummer but I learned a lot and have read and studied a lot. The day I was able to go out was the most beautiful day ever!!!!! I am just so amazed about how important this work is. I read about Abinadi and the apostles and I was reading Jesus the Christ and just everything was screaming out that nothing else really matters but the Gospel.  There is nothing more valuable and more precious or more beautiful. When people say I am too busy to listen, if it wasn't rude, I would say back, "This is eternal life, this is a forever family, no matter what you are doing now no matter what you're thinking; the message we have to share is more valuable than it all, this message is for you and we are the ministers to bring unto you salvation, is that not worth your time?" But that's rude and unless the spirit prompts me to I am not going to be over bearing, and that would be overbearing especially in this culture. But I just wish people would understand, and just open up and hear and let the spirit touch their lives. I wish I could speak with the tongue of angels, I can when the Lord permits through my faith but it is a very foreign thing to me naturally to do so. Basically what I learned this week is even more the importance of this work and a new-found deeper and more powerful conviction and desire to teach and share the gospel:) I feel the spirit enter my heart as I go out without doubt or fear and just go:) Its so amazing!! I love the answers to prayer, I love that I can communicate with God:) Its something so amazing that the King and Creator of all takes time to talk to me personally and every one of us really:) The gospel is for everyone and yet it is so personally powerful to each individual person. It is the power the answer to every problem every heart ache every sin, and is life eternal, and I get to give it to people:) WOW now that's awesome:)

Oh and yea there are tons of mangoes here and they are the best tasting things in the world, I miss milk more than anything but Its all good:)

 

Love,
Elder Blackham

January 21, 2013

I got letters this week from Dear Elder, anyone who sends dear elder, just to let them know it does get to me and I am grateful:) 

So this week I have been pretty sick, we were on splits and I was taken to this families house and I was pretty sick.  They layed me down on this wooden bench and gave me a pillow, then they anointed my head with their oil and also my feet and treated me like a king, I was so blessed by them, and learned a great lesson from this family about charity. They then cooked and fed me and I was just amazed at their love. They gave me the best of all they could, I know its not a lot as far as the world goes but it was all they had and wow, I am just so grateful for them it touched my heart to the center:) 

We had a vietnamese person show up to church he doesn't speak Tagolog and his English is less than a two year old child, but he just smiles super huge to everything. It will be interesting to teach him, I am requesting a Vietnamese dictionary and Book of Mormon so that we can teach him:) 

Also another investigator showed up to church, his name is Omar and he is awesome, I see him being a great Father some day, he is listening because of how much he heard the gospel blesses families even though he is 21 and doesn't have a family of his own yet. We taught him the restoration and he was really receptive, the spirit was so strong while we were there. I have been reading about Abinadi in the Book of Mormon and I am so amazed at how he layed out such beautiful and simple doctrine about the plan of salvation and the atonement, no other book has this amazing doctrine about Jesus Christ:)

I am understanding the language a lot more, there was a rap Tagolog song on the radio on a Jeepnee and it was going super fast and I understood it all, and I am able to engage anyone in conversation now and its super fun, Gods children truly are amazing, and its such a blessing that every day of my life can be about them:) I am learning so much about satan and the things he does to try to prevent me from being the best I can, if he can just get me to not open my mouth about this truth then he has succeeded, I love to just prove him wrong and rise up and whenever I have a thought that I can't or something, I just simply do it anyways to prove him wrong and be the best I can, it makes it kinda fun :) I love this work:) Shall we not go on in such a great cause?

 

Love, Elder Blackham

January 14, 2013

The tender mercies of the Lord are amazing.  One of the greatest lessons I am learning is the blessing of partaking of the Sacrament and the strength and change I feel when I partake of the Sacrament worthily and renew my covenants. I make it a point to read and study about the atonement every Sunday and ponder on all that my Savior carries for me and all the burdens He frees me from:)

I was recently reading Mosiah 14 and I love the verses 4 and 5 so much:) As I read those verses over and over I replaced every time it says our or we with my and I:) The atonement is so personal and I would challenge anyone to read that chapter and to replace the 3rd Person with the First Person let the spirit fill your heart with the Love God has for you.  We can receive so much strength from the Savior:) As I would repeat these scriptures in my mind through out the day I couldn't help but tap into a real power beyond my own, and speak and love with more energy and love and joy:) 

The Savior truly is our personal and loving friend, and we are perfectly understood and he knows our pains and has bore them.We can never ever say, no one understands me, no one knows how I feel, because there is the One who does; the One who is there, the One that can free us from all those feelings if we allow Him to comfort us and carry our burdens and give our heart to Him :) 

The greatest battles of Faith I am finding are with our own selves and our unwillingness to give our all to the Savior. If ever we feel discouraged or we feel down and we are tearing ourselves down more- that is satan trying to tell us we are not good enough or deserving of the Love of God, we are not worth the time.  But I promise and assure everyone, myself included, that we are worth the time, we are worth the atonement of Jesus Christ, His perfect life, His love, His all and everything for us to come back to Heavenly Father, clean, and like Him:) 

To everyone who feels down, that is what the atonement is for.  To anyone who wants to give up, don't; the Savior has never and will never give up on you and Heavenly Father wants to see you again:) Let his peace and grace enter into your hearts, through exercising your faith, repenting always to change and become, renewing your covenants constantly and letting Him bless you by doing so, listening and receiving the Holy Ghost more in your life by doing so:) Then strive harder and harder even unto the end of your lives that ye do not shrink and finish the race and forsake the prize even eternal life:) I Love this gospel and I am so grateful I can be a missionary for the Lord in bringing to pass his great purposes and I cannot help but to smile and be filled with joy even to overflow in my trials, that they allow me to be more humble and rely more on the Savior and use His strength because I am so weak.

 

Right now it's really just so much fun!  We talk to almost everyone we see about the gospel and I just love people.  How boring it is to just pass by others without getting to know them and how you might help them in their life. We are getting about 4 or 5 new investigators every week.  But all of their only available times for discussions are on Saturday or Sundays so we just spend the whole week finding people and then go on splits and do all we can to fit tons of lessons on Saturday and Sunday. 

Eric (the investigator, not my brother)  is still progressing really well. He is so awesome and I know he will go on to do amazing things, he is just so amazing. Something funny is that in his house they don't have clocks and go off the position of the sun.  Haha. That's wierd but cool, he just looks at the sun and then goes to school or anything that he has be at at a certain time. 

This week was pretty awesome, many many adventures haha.

 

Love, 

Elder Blackham

January 7, 2013

We are teaching a boy named Eric thats sixteen and he loves the gospel. Its so awesome, he says he feels so so happy at church and I just love his simple acceptance and understanding of the gospel. He is getting baptized on the 16th of Feb. He asked if he can be mormon and catholic and basically I said we are adding to his knowledge of Catholicism but essentially no you cant. He said that thats not what he wanted to hear but thats totally okay with him and that that's what God wants for him. We also found a less active this week as we prayed and found inspiration to go to a specific street. We were just walking when someone yelled out "Mormons"  which actually happens a lot but we went up and talked to him. He said he was baptized in the ocean and he loves the church but didnt know where the church was when he moved here and that he has been here five years and hasnt gone to church. He said he prayed just the other night if mormon was the right church and to send missionaries to him if it is. Then the next thing he knew we showed up and now he has gone to church and is baring his testimony to everyone he meets haha. So things are going so great!! The Lord is lifting me up in every way:) So yea basically this is the best ever!!

 

I also have been studying diligence and have been loving it!!! It really is the way we show the Lord our true desires and give him our whole heart. It is really the secret to achieving anything we ever want whether it's serving the Lord or getting good at basketball  But serving the Lord is the best no matter what. I love to show Him that I love Him. That I am grateful and no matter how tired I am or whatever it will keep going on in the greatest cause ever:) The focus this year is establishing the priesthood here in the Philippines because establishing the priesthood establishes the church. SO now every time I see anyone that could hold the priesthood I go and talk to them and share our message. Its so much fun finding people:) It truly is an adventure:) So that's whats up this week. OH and our less actives are going to church now so that's awesome too!!

 

Love, Elder Blackham

December 31, 2012

Here in the PHilippines World War 3 just happened over New Years and it was crazy, ha ha! It sounded insane and fireworks go off from everywhere 4 hours before and after New Years, we even saw a ton when we were out yesterday. They really know how to party it up here in the pines:) We haven't been able to get a lot of work done this last week because I was sick and we had zone conference and the Holidays we weren't allowed to proselyte that much for safety reasons. But I am happy as ever and learning tons and tons of amazing things!!:) I am about half way through Jesus The Christ but I started a couple months before I left on my mission. I am just taking it slow and I don't move on till I know how I might apply it to my life. 

I am going to be with my comp another transfer and he said I would be his longest companion, haha. So that's interesting. I feel a great amount of hope and excitement in my heart for this new year and it is so amazing:) I am so excited to just keep on workin and that the Holiday season is over so that we can work a ton more and people won't be gone and it will just be sweet!!!  I am so grateful for the power of the atonement to free us from not only our sins and guilt but also our weaknesses and shortcomings to help us become more than we are:) 

 Its so simple:) Matt. 11:28-30:) Faith makes the whole world beautiful and hope anchors us to the gospel and to good works:) As we use the atonement we gain a personal realtionship with our Savior and come to know Him personally and as our friend and Savior:) The more personal experiences you have with Him and the more you allow Him to be in your life and help you, the better your relationship will be. I know that through Him all things are possible and we can overcome all and become what we came here to be:) In the name of Jesus Christ Amen:)

Love, Elder Blackham

December 24, 2012

This Christmas was amazing!! I wish we could have gotten more work in, the mission rules at this time is to not work so much and be home at 7:30 every night because its dangerous, haha. People are so giving and wonderful here in the Philippines, if you are their guest you are given all they have without asking anything in return. That is the culture here and its so humbling to be in it. Lately I have just been learning a ton about Charity and how charity truly is the greatest:) I think to have charity is to think and feel as Christ does:) If we do that then we would of course act and be like him. You can act like him but to be him is greater and I think that starts in the true fabrics of our thoughts and feeling and love for Christ and submission of our will to his:) We cant just give we must love to do it to be like Christ and we do that by giving our heart to the Lord and allowing to change us. Its so so so hard but oh it is so so so so worth it. Notice how there is one more so on the worth it part:) Any ways I ate so much I feel sick, haha and I definitely feel the Love of the Lord and all who love me during this Christmas season.

 

Love, Elder BLackham