January 20, 2014

Things are doing great:) We have been having tons of success. We have a few new families that we are now teaching consistently and are progressing and its so so so amazing:) I love it so much:)

I love to see people question and wonder and ask to know things. THis one family just had so many questions about the plan of salvation in our first lesson so we decided to start teaching that instead of normally teaching the restoration first, it all goes together anyway. Their questions were like "how will I know if I can see my husband in the next life? or my children? What is the purpose of life? Where did we really come from? How do you pray?" I just can't stop smiling when people are excited and ask  the perfect questions ever:) Haha I almost had palpitations in my heart again!  Haha, joke, but seriously I get so happy to teach :)

The best thing ever too is to help some one discover true repentance for the first time. Repentance really touched some of our investigators this week :) They are so amazing:) They poured out the their heart in understanding to us this week. We taught the Plan of Salvation also to a sister who had a baby and then her child died three days later. 

We are just having the time of our lives out here, my e-mails must sound unreal and stuff because of all that happens and all the great things like every week but that's just really how it is going right now. I know it's because we are trying our best to be exactly obedient and to do all we can to help these people:) All blessings come from obedience to the law in which those blessings are predicated:) We aren't special or anything this is the same priesthood and Church as in the time of Christ so we can expect these things to happen if we obey:)

Love,

Elder Blackham

January 13, 2014

The beginning of the letter is a reply to Elder Blackham's Mom regarding the problem he has been having getting sleep due to the fact he lives next door to pig slaughtering house and can hear the pig screams throughout the night.  The italics is what Mom wrote to Elder Blackham: (I am really concerned about your lack of sleep and exhaustion.  I am still studying about prayer.   I have learned that I need to be specific in my prayers.  So, this week I have been specifically praying that you can get sleep and be rested and that you will not be woken up by the screaming pigs.  That is a pretty specific prayer for me.  I am working on my faith, so I am not sure that I have enough faith to make this happen.  But, I am daily praying that you can get rest and not be woken by screaming pigs.  Has it been any better?)

BRET'S RESPONSE TO THIS QUESTION:

I actually have been getting more sleep and I have been surprised why I haven't heard the pigs for a while. SO your prayers are working :)

It's just so fun to be a missionary.  The baptism of the Nebit family will be next Saturday and we have quite a few lined up for the next two months. This really has been a miracle because when my companion and I got here and whitewashed the area we had no one to teach and the history of the area was not good either.  But, we prayed and fasted and believed that if the Lord could do anything, why not His work? :) SO, we just put our nose to the grinder and it's just so amazing what the Lord can do if you just put your trust in Him:) 

This last week we had a lot of great experiences with investigators. One investigator had a dream about the temple and His dead father was in there waiting for Him. He said he saw workers there dressed in all white and it was so cool. This investigator had never been to the temple and did not understand his dream.   We then explained his dream to him.  He said he had asked many different people about the dream.  They had tried to explain this dream but he new their explanations were wrong.  He told us that he knew and felt that what we said was right. We explained about temple work and work for the dead and it was cool to see His face light up.  Wow that was just a really cool spiritual experience:) 

We also taught another lesson to this family who wasn't taking the lessons so serious. I just got super upfront with them and was constrained by the spirit to just pour my heart in explanation and pure testimony. I love this family so much, I explained the Plan of Salvation and our purpose on earth and the requirements for the 3 kingdoms. I explained if they want the lowest kingdom, they don't have to do anything.  I told them if they want the second kingdom, they just need to be good and follow some of Christs teachings. But, if they want to make it to the Highest kingdom and be together as a family they must have faith in Christ, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost and endure to the end. I explained that is why we are here as missionaries in their home.  I told them we aren't there just to visit because it's fun.  We are there to change their lives through the gospel and that they can't make it to the happiest and best kingdom (which is the kingdom of God) without the gospel.  But, that with the gospel they can be together forever:) It was amazing!  They went to church as a family the next day for the first time without us even asking them to come to church. They just really wanted to do so. I was just amazed at the change that happened to them. The next day we saw them, they were so engaged in the gospel and I feel and could see they set the goal in their hearts to be a forever family:) They now ask us to come back and remind us instead of us reminding them:) 

I learned a lot this last week about how to love others and how to love the Lord and to give more of my heart to Him. It's hard to explain as a missionary when these changes you feel in your heart happen. It's just I see things differently and feel about things differently and understand things differently as I am striving to give my all. I feel more calm and more peace. I feel it when I testify with the power of the spirit and my heart and there is no greater feeling. The Holy Ghost is guiding us in everything, and I know that the happiest and most successful missionary is just the missionary who has the Holy Ghost with Him. That comes as we give up our desires and just desire what the Lord wants, as we constantly align our life with Him, and are constantly accountable for our covenants and everything we learn and feel what we must change to be more accepted by Him. I guess this week I was blessed to feel the change in my heart that I am searching for and trying to obtain, and that the Lord though His spirit is telling me that He is pleased:) 

Love,

Elder Blackham

January 6, 2014

Things are great!  It was kinda a rough week or just a slow start this week but then it turned out all right in the end. Elder Montejo and I are really trying to rise up and step it up. 

I am just so absolutely exhausted, haha. But its so much fun. The Lord has been quite literally been my strength this week. Even though I am exhausted, as I submit to His will, things and stress just seem to go away and I am encircled in the arms of His love. I am just the luckiest Elder ever because I have a temple inside of my mission, very spoiled as a missionary. I can't imagine going through the mission without the strength help and revelation that I feel when I go through the temple:) 

I really like what it says in 2 Nephi 4:32 about how when we have a broken heart and contrite spirit that the gates of Hell are closed to us. I am really trying to learn how to have that all the time.  I am understanding that it doesn't mean that you are super hard on yourself;  it means that you are just really trying and willing to change. The sorrow that brings discouragement comes from satan and is not Godly sorrow.  The sorrow that leads to action and renewed commitment is Godly sorrow:) 

I really like how the gospel is the answer for everything and is the key to accessing the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ, and I love how families can be together forever:) I love finding new people to teach because it allows us to open up a whole new world to them. We get to find out what they want, what their dreams are,  what's important to them.  Then we let them know that they can access the atonement of Jesus Christ through the Gospel and that they can be healed and that they are loved more than they know. I love to see the look in their eyes:)

I know this is true, I have had undeniable experiences and blessings from the Holy Ghost. The gift of testimony is a key to getting the gift of eternal life which is the greatest of all gifts of God. Even if I didn't know this was true I would want to know.  The blessings are so amazing, the feelings are undeniable and the love is so great:) 

Love, Elder Blackham

December 16, 2013

I had a great week this week haha. I keep saying I am so happy and eventually I had to go to the hospital this last week because I was so happy haha:) At the Christmas conference I started to have heart palpitations and my heart was beating like 200 beats per minute. I blacked out for a bit and went to the Hospital. They heard I came from a Christmas party and thought it happened from too much alcohol and stuff like that and immorality and everything, haha.  Little did they know that we were just singing Hymns earlier and that we teach people not to do all that bad stuff. They then asked me what I was feeling before I had heart palpitations, I told them I was just feeling really happy and just moments before I was explaining to a sister that I feel really happy and then I stood up and then my heart started beating super fast. 

Heart palpitations can be caused by too much stress, too little sleep and things all adding up, they can also be caused by extreme emotions.  We were celebrating Christmas and all missionaries are tired so maybe that is it, haha.  But the medical diagnosis was that I was too happy and my heart couldn't take the happiness, haha. The emotional force of my joy was too great and created a hyped level of heart beats. So that's a pretty awesome story:)

I hope that will convince someone to share the gospel more because that's just what happens, haha. You get too happy. They also told me not to drink coffee, or alcohol and stay away from women for a while to help me heal and I laughed because they don't really have to worry about that. 

The family we are teaching and I have been sharing about is so amazing. They just keep coming to church and loving it more and more. They are really excited for Baptism and are working hard together. They stopped drinking coffee and alcohol and tea and I am just amazed how every principle we teach they accept openly and lovingly, excited for the blessings that we promise them. They keep reminding us about their Baptism. We were teaching a new investigator yesterday and we asked Him why is it important to know that the Gospel is true. He then opened up and shared how He really wanted to know who Jesus Christ was:) Then my companion and I looked at each other and smiled and said in our minds "Yes!! He is ready!"  and then continued teaching and shared John 17:3 and that by knowing Him He will also find Eternal life. WE explained how to get to know Him and how to pray and it was just so awesome. All missionaries need or actually all the Lord needs is that we ask a sincere question, just like Joseph Smith and it allows the whole gospel to be unfolded unto us:)

We know that all it takes is a sincere desire to know and that eventually He will find His answer:) 

Love, Elder Blackham

December 9, 2013

 THis week was great:) The blessings and success just keep coming, sometimes we have no idea how we are going to reach the goal but we just say to ourselves, that it doesn't matter the odds, what matters is the faith:) We just put the nose to the grinder and it all works out in the end:) 

There is a family we are teaching that is so incredible, every time we teach a lesson everything goes wrong. The baby starts crying, neighbors are yelling and partying and its so hard to focus and so loud. But no matter how bad it goes in my view it goes so great to the family and when we come back they remembered everything and are keeping the commitments and testifying on how it is changing their family. They came to church as a whole family and brought friends and extended family and loved it. It just shows how powerful the spirit is:) It is the spirit that touches peoples hearts as they strive to live the gospel and keep commitments.

It doesn't really matter how good the lesson went as long as they read, or pray as a family they will receive the blessings of the gospel. The gospel will have no effect on you until you begin to live it. So no matter the principles we teach or how we teach;  the more important is that they act and try it, then they will know. The blessings of the gospel are not something taught they are things and experiences that are caught through living it and having the Holy Ghost testify of its truthfulness to us. No one will ever be converted to the gospel without living it. That's why if you try to convince someone the gospel is true through telling someone, they can just say, "No its not, haha. But once they try it,you don't even really need to say anything because they will know it. As missionaries we just need to get out of the way of the spirit. Plan commitments first and then plan on what to teach to help them keep commitments, and you might see a lot more conversion:) 

In my gospel studies I was studying about charity in the 7th chapter of Moroni. I was wondering why all things must fail except for charity. I was thinking, "what that's not fair to virtue or to other good things." So I pondered it and thought about it and I realized that charity is the motive behind the other principles, and the sincerity of it. In Romans 13:10 it says that love is the fulfillment of the law. We cant just keep Gods laws, we also have to keep Gods laws and be happy about it and sincere and do it because we love. Other wise it wont benefit us and it will fail. For example if everything went Satan's way we would be forced to do everything and we could not choose to follow God out of Love and freedom and choice. All of our obedience means nothing and we wouldn't learn anything.  We couldn't prove anything or grow. In God's plan we learn to obey because we love Him, then we truly gain the blessings, because it is an act of our own agency and free will. We must learn to do what Christ does while thinking and feeling the way He thinks and feels. That is what charity is. That is why in verse 48 it says we will be like Him because we have not only acted like Him and obeyed but we learned to feel like He does and think Like Him. :) This does not mean that we shouldn't obey any commandment we don't want to, it means we obey them because we Love God. As we live the commandments out of our own free will and choice our love will increase and we will learn that only when we obey can we gain that thinking, and feeling that Christ has:) 

Love, Elder Blackham

December 2, 2013

Over here we had an amazing thanksgiving:) We taught really great lessons and were able to help people come closer to the Savior. We are just having the time of our lives preaching the gospel here:) Just giving it our 100% all.

We had a couple families we are teaching show up to church and it was so amazing! They loved it and we taught them later that day and they thanked us for sharing the gospel with them. I am so grateful too and I looked at their whole family smiling at Elder Montejo and me and I couldn't help but to tear up:) The spirit was so strong as we testified of the restoration and they are reading and praying as a family and it just doesn't get any better than that. 

This man that came up to us on the street is so cool too and is so excited to be baptized and change his life:) All these things are just miracles in my eyes and I love to serve the Lord, there really isn't anyone else worth serving, because when you serve others you are also serving the Lord:) 

As far as things that I learned this week I learned a lot about the gift of discernment by reading a talk by Elder Bednar called "Quick to Observe". It really expounds on the blessings of this gift and how it can be used and how there are 4 main things or ways we use discernment. The most valuable ones are the ways we recognize good and evil within ourselves. I learned how to better recognize my thoughts and feelings to realize if my perspectives or very thoughts were in line with God or not. It really helped me feel the spirit in greater measure and recognize the things I can do better. I am really trying to learn to use it so I can recognize and help bring about the good in others and in myself. He said that this is the highest form of discernment and not just recognizing the hidden concern in statements or distinguishing the falsehood in something but to recognize truthfulness in a testimony, or in our own testimony. We need to see the good intents of others or in ourselves:) It really helped me teach and listen better:) The church is true:) 

Love Elder Blackham

November 24, 2013

Dear Mom,

This week was another great week. We really took a leap of faith setting the goals we did and it just keeps working out in the end. Every time we start the week its a big leap of faith. I am seeing so many miracles and I love helping the Lord. I am really doing my best and I love it:) 

Obedience really is the big test of this life. What's crazy is that we are always blessed more than the sacrifice it takes to obey or let go of something we normally do and exchange it for what the Lord wants. It teaches us to exercise faith and it helps us do what is right. Also sometimes we just really need to just let go. We need to just let go and trust. Take a breath and say whatever happens happens and choose to be happy and just do the Lords will:) 

We have one of the survivor Elders from the Tacloban Mission in our Zone and it is really great to have him.  There really is nothing better than serving others. 

This week one of the biggest things I learned is that we need to have personal time with the Lord everyday. I was getting pretty stressed out because of all we had to do and I was so worried about every person we had to teach and keeping track of all the referrals and all the activities we had to plan for missionaries and training. It was just building up and I started to feel anxiety and it's a lot harder to feel the spirit when you feel like that so it was rough haha. What solves that for me every time is taking a time out and just opening the conference talks, and praying and listening to Heavenly Father. That quiet time or personal time just gets me back in order and helps me just trust and do things one step at a time:) Especially that talk called being accepted by the Lord. We all just need to have personal time with Him everyday, and just ponder His will and ours, our standing and what He would say to us for that day.

I know that the Church is true and I keep getting witnesses all the time that it is in the name of Jesus Christ Amen:) 

Love, 

Elder Blackham