September 11, 2012 (Handwritten Letter)

The following is a series of questions to Bret and answers from him.  We hope you find them enlightening.

QUESTION:  Have you gotten any of the packages we sent?
Yes, I got the letters and the packages.  I got cinnamon rolls from the Maughan Cousins and they were amazing!!!! Yes, I shared.

QUESTION:  What about the third elder in your trio?I get along with my companions really well. The third one is from Kodiak, Alaska.  He is awesome.  His mom got Elder Tasene (the New Zealand Rugby player companion) and I Alaska shirts and stuff.  We get along so well and have so much fun together. 

QUESTION:  What is the choir like?The choir is so amazing and fun, I love it!  There are alot of pretty sister missionaries.  Don't worry, I don't get distracted.  I know why I am here.

QUESTION:  Please tell me some funny things that have happened to you since being in the MTC.
Where do I begin?  Every day is an adventure !!!  My companions and I even have the same bowel schedules.  We go in the stalls next to each other and we leave at the same time to be cool.  IDK, I will be sure to write something else I think of next week.

QUESTION:  What kind of exercise do you get to do there and how is it going?I work out on the gymnastic rings and run and exercise regularly.  I am skinnier, but more muscular.  IT IS SWEET!

QUESTION:  Is there anything you need before you leave for the Philippines?
I can't think of anything.  I just need your love.

September 11, 2012

 I can definately feel the strength of the Lord with me. I am not getting sick of the MTC at all but I am super excited to head out and hit the field:) I am getting a ton of Callous on my knees from praying so much, I need His help so much. I love relying on the Lord completely, because I feel so close to Him and I will always be happy if I do. I am getting so blessed to learn so much and to serve so many people:) I am learning so much more how the Lord feels about others but I understand so much more to me is just 1/1000000 of a portion of the Lords understanding but that little portion is enough for me:) I am so gratefull for all of you and my English is getting worse as my tagalog improves so please dont mind my grammer or spelling. I am so grateful for having the opportunity to learn how to forget myself, for only then will all of myself be available to the Lord but I have faith and confidence in saying that I am giving Him my all right now. I am so grateful for repentance and being able to recognize my standing before God then turn towards Him and keep coming closer through the atonement and trying harder every day. It makes the sacrament so amazing too:) Elder Oaks said the way to become the best missionary you can be is by worthily and properly partaking of the sacrament every sunday;) I am recognizing the worth of the soul more, and every soul was worth the atonement. When I look at it that way I see people differently, and when we recognize the savior doesnt just pay for our sins and pains but the pain we cause others he pays for too. It makes me really not want to say anything to hurt anyone but continually lift them up. I love it here and I am so happy!!

Love,

Elder Blackham

September 4, 2012

I love you so much. Yea this week has been incredible. I am so grateful for all that the Lord hath given me. I need His help so much and I love to spill my heart out to Him so much. I hear His voice constantly and softly throughout my day and especially when I teach. The gift of tongues is so very real and I feel it so much. I have faith in it therefore I may obtain it according to Gods will. The principle of faith in Jesus Christ is central. According to the measure of our faith in Jesus Christ, that He is our Savior and Redeemer and that He has Atoned for all, and our faith in His attributes is the same measure to the power and strength that we can receive from that very same power of the atonement.  Hence how it says so many times in the scriptures... "According to your faith." I know that the Lord loves us with an unconditional love and feels the quiet longings and pains of our heart and has felt them and more that he may give us the strength and comfort to overcome and even be happy amidst our trials if we remember Him and have faith in Him.

 

My new favorite scripture is Mosiah 4:6-12:) I love them so much!! I can always be happy and clean and full of the love of God, for God cannot lie and the scriptures hold His words:) AHH!!!! I love this work and this gospel which is true and everlasting and there is nothing that matters more:) and I get to serve Him:) Oh how blessed I am!!:)  I feel His love and know I am doing His work. I pray you are doing wonderful, I pray for it always and I know God hears my prayers, so dont worry:) He will protect you all:)

Love,

Elder Blackham

August 28, 2012

I am so grateful to be here. I am trying so hard to totally forget about myself. I love praying a lot, because I get to ask for help, A LOT of help. I feel His strength and His guidance and I also feel when I cant feel it so then I pray again. Heavenly Father loves us so much and so many blessings are so conditional on our asking of them. If we truly believed He loved us I feel we would pray a lot more knowing that we would receive help. This week has been had many many trials, but the Lord does not cease but to carry me when I am too week to stand. The District is doing so great, I am constantly crying for them on my knees and praying for them by name one by one.  I also learned a ton this week about listening deeply to the things the District says, and loving them. I learned that people and their problems are like ice burgs and that you only see 10% of people and that the rest is under water and it takes discernment and listening with love and seeing with spiritual eyes to know someones true emotions and truly help them. I have asked and begged for that this week. I even asked to feel what they feel to understand them better so that I could love them more even if it was painful. Any way I love you guys so much. I pray for you all the time, I cry unto the Lord for your behalf and I love to hear from you:) Thank you so much for being my family I truly am too blessed and life isn't fair in that I am given too much.

love, Elder Blackham

August 21, 2012

I see Josh, Kenden, and Rizek and I talk to Nate a lot. I could write like 3 novels now on what I am learning.  I am teaching an investigator and its so amazing to study for others because all of your spiritual needs get met. I can't stop smiling everywhere I go! I love it so much to be serving the Lord and the revelation flows like Niagra Falls. I am learning a lot about individually helping those in the District as Christ did. I look back on my life and I am so overcome with gratitude that I can't help but to fall on my knees and thank the Lord for preserving me and preparing me to serve Him. I realize, though, that I am not different from others and that He does the same for others everyday, but they just don't realize it. I love the temple so much!! I learn so much in the temple every time.

 

Yeah mom, I am eating good.  I eat more than my companion from New Zealand and yeah I eat a lot.

 

The language actually makes more sense than English but it's so hard to make the switch.

 

Elder Bednar invited us to start a new Book of Mormon on one question that we have, so I went and bought a new one and started it on a few questions haha. 1. What are the attributes and Characteristics of Christ. 2. How can I more fully apply the atonement in my life and put off the natural man. I am learning so much. I was being super hard on myself in the beginning. My goal for my mission was to unyeildingly give all of my heart, might, mind and strength. Then I realized I can't even give Him my all without His help, even in giving myself to Him I need His help, and that myself without Him is not giving Him very much at all. But, yeah, so I can go on and on. I also learned that setting goals allows the Lord to help us in our strivings to be better than we are, and it helps us hold ourselves accountable and use the atonement, and repentance regularly.

 I am in the choir and its totally amazing, I love it so much!

 

(This paragraph is a response to a question about if it annoys his companion when Bret starts talking with the New Zealand accent. ) When I mimic my companion's accent he doesn't even notice.  Sometimes he will say that I should be a New Zealander.

 

I love you guys and I pray for you always, thanks so much for helping so much in my life and for loving me.

 

Love,

Elder Blackham

August 14, 2012 (First Letter Home)

I do miss you guys, don't be silly. I love the MTC a lot!!!!!!!!!

 I am learning so much. I am learning so much about listening and about Christ. I am also learning so much from my district they are good Elders and I am so proud of them. My companion is a professional rugby player from New Zealand and I actually started picking up his accent and I can't help but talk like that. Tagalog is going pretty well. I can bear my testimony and say prayers and my companion and I have been doing teaching an investigator in Tagalog. The gift of tongues is real and I felt the spirit 100% guide my speech the last lesson, it was amazing!!!

The food here is good, I eat a lot, but it does not affect your bowels well at all. I am giving the Lord my whole heart and inspiration comes here so immediately. The Provo temple is amazing and I just love being here so much!!  I love you guys so much!!!! There are not words that describe how amazing it is and how much I am blessed. The best talk I have ever heard is called the "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar. Everything I have been learning here has been testified immediately in my heart and feels and sounds so familiar as if the Lord has been telling me these things all along. I am sorry that I was mean entering into the mtc, I just could not wait to go inside.

I have learned a lot about how different people are, and how to attend to their individual needs. I have learned a lot about how important repentance is. I love it when I continue to realize that I have an immeasurable amount of things to learn, because I get to learn them with the Lord, and He is with me and I feel Him so close to me. The Lord has been preparing me for this the whole time and I need to completely forget about myself. Its not about me, at all. I must turn outward and through the atonement put on His Character and His love. Wow I have so much to work on, but I love it so much!

I pray for you guys and I love you so much. I am so busy and I love it. My companion is amazing and, wow, I don't know what else to say. I see Elder Vance a lot and he likes to talk. There are so many pretty sister missionaries here and they are glowing but I stay far away from them, ha ha.

Love,
Elder Blackham