April 28, 2014

This was a great week. I learned a lot about gratitude and I was so grateful that we got to work and go with others. Every transfer week we are in the office a lot more than normal.  So, when we finally headed out to go on exchanges for the week it was just like being in heaven. I really think the Philippines is kinda like heaven! Well, at least it is when your sharing the gospel. I know dogs have hair in heaven, and everyone can afford clothes and that its probably a lot different, but I am just saying that it feels a whole lot like heaven. I just love to smile at everyone. I couldn't stop smiling, I just love to be out talking with God's children. I kept telling the elder I was with, "Elder I am just so happy!" He probably got a little bit annoyed, but maybe not. 

There is this one sister that they are teaching that has been taught for two years because she hasn't been able to quit smoking. So the Elders are doing something really cool to help her. They go to her every day and commit her to stop smoking for 24 hours; then the next  day they commit her for the next 24 hours. It is so cool because she is really quitting and it's the best she has ever done:) You could tell she wanted to so badly and she has gotten so close often.  But, this time she is doing way better.

I also had a really cool learning experience and it really relates well to the Plan of Salvation. A lot of the Elders in our mission have gotten new apartments and have moved.  Unfortunately, we left to go without a map or anything. We just had a kinda general idea of where we wanted to go and asked people and taxi drivers for directions. Well.... this didnt work! We had gotten lost every day trying to get to the apartments. It had taken hours to find places and it was so frustrating haha, I felt so lost, it's like a maze. I thought to myself, we have a general idea of where we want to go and where we are going, we even know the name of the place, but we are still so lost. Even asking directions, they would lead to wrong turns and places. I then realized that this is the situation of most people in life. They know there is like a good place after we die or a bad or some general idea, but I realized that if you don't know exactly where you are going, or if you don't have the right directions then you will get lost. The Restored Church of Jesus Christ has all those things including the details; the how and the right directions and a Holy Ghost that will guide you until you reach your destination safely. This also relates to when we finally called the Elders at the office who have google maps on their computer and could see the big picture and as we went they would tell us to turn left or right because they could see it all from the google maps. This relates to how important the spirit is. We need it to guide us back to our heavenly home and fill in all that is not clear to us. The gospel is so beautiful and so simple. I love it:) 

Love Elder Blackham

April 21, 2014

I had the most wonderful Easter experience. Taking the sacrament on Easter Morning was such a joy and I really felt such a power. I was so happy all that day. In the bible dictionary, under Resurrection, it says that the resurrection is the most glorious message of all. I pondered this and thought about why it's so important. I discovered  that because of the resurrection, all of our joys and good and relationships and life itself, the lessons we learned, the reason we came here on earth it... it does not end. When without the resurrection, death would be the worst because it would mean no more eternal families, you can no longer feel what it's like to hug your loved ones as you did on earth. Your knowledge and understanding that you can only gain with a body, the joy you can only have with a body will all end and coming to earth would be very pointless if there was no resurrection. I am so grateful and I remember just sharing with everyone that day that Christ lives. I wanted to shout it to the world. I love the gospel and I know how to return to Heavenly Father again:) I am so happy that joy and love does not end:) 

My week on Mindoro was pretty cool too, the people there are so simple, and very much village people. The native culture is much stronger on the islands. There are not very many people, huge rice fields, and tons of water buffalo, and farms(but Asian farms). There are also lots of huts and bamboo houses and fences. It was so so so very beautiful. 

I really enjoyed sharing with the people there, but you can't share the same way with them as you do in the city. Some of them don't know how to read or write, so it's very interesting. You have to really spice up lessons and be serious and bold to help them understand. You have to really completely relate it to their life. I really felt love for them as I shared.

There was one experience where we taught a teenager with other teenagers and found out her father wasn't a member and we wanted to meet him and ask permission to teach to his children while inviting him to be taught as well. He was very happy we asked and we just started asking about his family and life and found out his wife had recently died. I felt this wave of compassion come over me as I looked into his eyes and felt a little bit of the sorrow that he had. I then opened my mouth and proclaimed to him the Plan of Salvation. I have done this before but not with this amount of love and compassion and I was brought to almost tears as I wanted him to know that he could see his wife again and this will make him happy. I felt desperate and willing to say whatever it took and do whatever it took to bless this father. He accepted with joy and the spirit was strong. We had many other great experiences in Mindoro this week. It was great and very humbling experience to see such simplicity in life. 

In response to how I motivate people to keep commitments there are many ways. It really depends. When they don't keep a commitment I act completely devastated, and then  apologize that I didn't teach them well enough and tell them that they do not yet understand how important the commitment is, because if they did, they would do it. I re-teach the commitment and ask them what prevented them from keeping it.  Then we come up with solutions together. Another thing that helps is giving them a baptismal date, because without it there really is no reason to keep the commitments, because there is nothing they are working towards. Also you must teach the doctrine with clarity and always remind them and follow up with them. However important we treat commitment is how important they will treat it so you must do whatever you can to help them keep it. Another thing is that you must be very specific and have them keep commitments that will help them be converted. Instead of just asking them to read their scriptures, I like to teach them how to study their scriptures, by starting with a prayer and keeping a study journal and then close with a prayer and to write down how they feel. When I invite people to repent I tell them to write down all of their sins on a piece of paper and repent of every single one. That is certainly more powerful that just inviting them to repent without teaching them the real deep process. I don't read the list or anything but it helps them understand the importance of being completely clean and feel the difference more in their life, and when the baptismal interview question comes around they can say yes with full confidence about the one that asks if they have repented of their sins. So I hope that answers the question:) 

Love, 

Elder Blackham

ps. My companion Elder Balolong will go home tomorrow because he is ending his mission, and my new companion is Elder Hall the one that knows the fenners, isnt that crazy. My health is amazing so dont worry. :) 

April 16, 2014

Going to Mindoro is so cool.(This is a different island than the one Elder Blackham has served on for most of his mission.)  It's just the other side of the Philippines that I never really see very much. Every  one is so much more relaxed on the island, not the missionaries, but the culture. Civilization hasn't really hit here yet haha. It's pretty cool to see the beach and walk along it and play. We joined their zone activity out here with sports on the beach and it was sweet.

People are really accepting of the gospel out here but the chill relax culture prevents themselves from living it too much haha. I had a blast teaching out here and finding people to teach on the beach. To help people get over the lax culture and understand how amazing the gospel is; out here on the island you must be pretty bold, and direct and be more serious. We had a great experience helping people understand things as we testified and were devastated about them not keeping commitments, as elder Holland said we should do. Well I love you mom and it was a great week. 

General conference was just so cool. I am so amazed every time with the ability of General Conference to answer all my needs, I felt like they were talking specifically to me and I am so so so so so excited to read them all. There are many things that I want to do to improve myself and that I learned. I summarized my notes into like 4 main points that God wants me to do for the next six months, and I am excited to dig into it. Well I love you mom and it was a great week. 

Love, 

Elder Blackham

April 6, 2014

What a wonderful week this last week. I saw many miracles and felt the Lord lift me when I literally felt that I could not stand. I felt his love and his strength and I know that we shared with people who are ready to know and live the gospel:) 

We went to Taresa, Quezon City 1, Baesa, and Bogong Bantay. Out in Taresa it is a province or small country town (that's what province means, it's out in the wilderness kind of). So it was pretty far and so beautiful and I had a blast with the Elders there.  I definitely am learning a lot from them. We had someone come up to us on a bike and we just started talking to him and next thing you know we were teaching his family like 20 minutes later. We had great lessons and we were able to truly invite others to come unto Christ and give that day our all. 

Then in Quezon City 1 we found some amazing new investigators and had a lot of fun. The elders are really improving as we are able to go on exchanges with all of them and checking up, it's so cool to see the growth and the change in the mission. 

Then I got so sick I thought I was going to die.  But, I prayed and begged to go out and work that day in Baesa. I drank tons of Buko juice (coconut water) and then when we started working.  I didn't feel it at all, and it was a miracle we got 12 new people/families to go back to with appointments, 5 lessons to new investigators and just had a miracle of a day. I learned a lot about meekness from the elder I went on exchanges with that day. Then as soon as we got home the sickness came back.  The next day we left for Bagong Bantay.  I was able to work but it was a struggle.  I am so glad I was able to head out. 

Then we went back to the office and now I am writing a book/packet about working with wards and getting referrals and helping to harness the powers of the members here. This is a  project that president has me doing and I feel a lot pressure because we will be using this book with all missionaries to build relationships with the wards and the stakes.  We are hoping it will help us get referrals and train leaders and it's just going to be great if it all works out. I want this book and information and everything to be perfect because we are hoping to make a huge change in the mission through this book/packet that I have been assigned to write. I am always on my knees asking for help as I am making this.

It's crazy to hear about i-pads and things in America and hastening the work. There is nothing like that in the Philippines yet.  The church is so new and it is very different than it is in America. The gospel is the same but the church isn't yet the same, but it's coming along.  So this could be a huge change and a strength to the work if it goes the way we envision it. So, yeah, I will be in the office this week working on that. 

My companion is going home, his name is Elder Balolong.  He is so cool, and such a genius!  We are great friends. He is more of a travel buddy, because we have just never worked together in an area. But we do teach work shops together, and training and stuff.  I am so grateful he is my companion. 

I get to see Eric tomorrow night at the temple; president gave me permission to go see him. I am excited for general conference, it hasn't come yet here because we are 15 hours ahead of you so we see it the next week or else everyone would have to stay up till midnight to watch it. 

I will also be going to the island of Mindoro for about 8 days to go on exchanges and do some training so next time I e-mail you I will be on an island. Well the Philippines is an island, so i guess I will just say I will be on a smaller island, haha. 

Anyways I have been studying about covenants a lot lately and they just amaze me with the strength and power we get from them. They have been a great strength to me:) The greatest strength I receive is when I stop and have my personal time with the savior and He helps me so much get a hold of everything and then keep going from there. I need Him literally every hour. 

Love, 

Elder BLackham

P.S.  All the missionaries are so nice to me. They even sleep on the floor so I can sleep on a mattress sometimes and cook and they are so very kind to me. (This is an answer to a question from Mom about what it is like to work with the other missionaries.)

May 6, 2013

This week was pretty awesome, my companion was sick so we were not able to work that much but I am so grateful for what we were able to do, and I felt such a great joy and manifestation as I administer to others. I simply cannot stop smiling sometimes and I am taken back by the joy of surrounding your whole life on how you can bless others and help them in their lives. I love fasting as a missionary and praying because the blessings are so immediate and it's almost as if the windows of heaven are right there in your own apartment. Most of your prayers are for others and to fulfill God's work, to fulfill what He wants as a steward of the area where you serve, and if you pray for yourself its for strength and gifts to help others:) There is no greater joy, I know it:) 

One thing that I learned in my study this week was about how I can better keep my covenants:) I was studying about purity and being cleansed through Christ and followed footnotes which lead to the priesthood and covenants and as we keep our covenants we are more cleansed by the Holy Ghost and our prayers are more likely to be fulfilled because of our righteousness.  But, always the best blessing ever is the blessing of being cleansed and pure before the Lord. So I was like thinking to myself what are all my covenants with the Lord, I was surprised that I had to think to remember them and then I looked them up to make sure and I wrote all of it in my notebook. Then I asked the question how am I doing and what can I do better to keep my covenants to the Lord? I wrote down what I could do better as I pondered and honestly evaluated myself and my strivings to serve the Lord. Then I made a goal that every time I take the sacrament and every Sunday I will account to the Lord and rewrite the covenants again so I can keep track of how I am keeping my promises to Heavenly Father. As I did this I felt  as I took the sacrament with the strivings and thoughts to fulfill my covenants and need of help to better fulfill them, that I was in the temple. A great feeling of peace and strength came over me comparable to being in the temple and I could not ever stop smiling the whole day:) I promise that as we take the effort to remember our covenants we will be more pure and more clean before the Lord. We will feel to sing the song of redeeming love, over and over again in out lives. Our prayers will be more answered because we are more prepared and clean to receive the blessings and we will always learn what more we can do for the Lord:) 

April 29, 2013

Things are going great this week. I was able to cut my own buko (not sure but I think this is a coconut) and drink out of it and it was fun. Yes we had a baptism and it was wonderful a less active member became active and baptized his wife and it was really beautiful. The priesthood ordinances are so wonderful and they are such a great blessing. they bring about salvation and just to think that God grants that power unto men is incredible:) I am so grateful I get to bless others and preach this gospel. I love to teach so much:) I always learn so much and I feel I often get more out of teaching than the people that we teach. I wish they got more.

 I am really fasting and praying for this area and I know that prayer changes things. I love to fast and receive new insight and understanding for my calling and for what God specifically wants me to do. This work is so connected with Heaven. I walk into a home for the first and have no idea what to say but as I listen I always know what to teach the spirit helps me know and whispers to me the deep desires of those we are teaching. For example I will say... Sister.. I know you are looking for blank in your life and that would mean so much to you, and i am so happy and excited to tell you that through the Gospel and using the atonement that you will obtain those blessings that God so dearly wishes to give unto you and that you desire:) Is that not the most amazing thing anyone could get to do at just 19 years old to people they just barely meet? Haha I think that it is just simply wonderful. 

At the same time it blows my mind that the Lord entrust this most amazing work with such simple and young weak things of the world such as I. I am so grateful He has felt to preserve me and allow me to work with Him in this most sacred calling. Some of the things I am doing in my study is highlighting the parts that talk about opposites and every time it mentions the redeeming power of Christ. It fills my  soul with joy and confidence that the Lord does and has and always will save and redeem. It so often states the bondage of people in the Book of Mormon, that they were surrounded by dark and so often because of faith and repentance they are are in the light of the Lord and the chains are loosed over and over and over again the Lord loves and saves:) I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ Amen. 

April 21, 2013

This week was absolutely amazing!:) The Sacrament is exactly what I needed and the atonement is what everyone needs its a one size fits all:) I felt the very grace of Christ enter into my heart this sacrament because the Lord knows I have been giving it my absolute all!!  I felt absolutely and totally clean and renewed and I am so excited to take it again next week:) 

So this week as we were out teaching the gospel we obtained a new investigator and it was so cool. I have taught people how to pray before but this time was amazing not because it was any different but because I allowed it to enter into my heart just how amazing this work is:) We taught that God is our loving heavenly Father and that he loves to hear us and speak with us and we taught about how the Gospel blesses families:) We invited her to pray and ask if it was true and then we told her to not be shy in asking questions because we want her to come to know all she wants and can, and that we are here to help:) Then she looked at us and kind of quietly, as if she was a little embarrassed but as if she has wanted to know for the longest time; she asked how do I pray? As we taught her to pray her whole countenance lit up and we invited her to pray right then.  Normally people shy away but she accepted and then began to pray and as she prayed the baby in her arms stopped crying and the room got quiet.  There was a thick peace and comfort about the room and tears could not be restrained, it really sounded and felt as she was pouring her heart out to the Lord, like she had wanted to talk to Him and now she finally can like a dam filled up with emotions and longings and then finally breaking and flowing freely and without restrained. As we left the lesson I said to myself, "I taught someone how to pray!" Then I said it again a little louder and then louder and then it finally hit me all that just happened. We had taught one of God's children how to pray.  Now if this is not one of the most amazing things in the entire universe,  I mean someone that before did not know how to commune with their Father in Heaven can now do so freely and joyously. I was absolutely ecstatic and I know this work is true:) I love it so much!! 

I also beat a big New Zealander at a chicken eating contest at KFC this week so that was pretty awesome, I am really proud of myself, haha. 

I am doing absolutely amazing!! I am having a blast and I love teaching the Gospel so so so so so so much. It changes lives everyday and it's God's work and glory and I am part of it, every day:)!! For the rest of my life:) The Lord is blessing us with much success at the moment:) I also have had special witnesses from the Holy Ghost that this is truly the work of the Lord and His Kingdom here on the Earth. Every day Heavenly Father is putting more and more drops of oil in my lamp and the Flame is growing brighter and is becoming the Lords flame and not my own:) Infinitely bright:) 

Love, Elder Blackham

ps. I just got your Easter package haha I guess it really just took a long time to get here

April 8, 2013 (pictures)

April 8, 1013

So as far as this week goes I am getting transfered for the very first time. That is pretty crazy for me cause idk its just new to me haha but i am so happy, it really is impossible to not be happy if your serving the Lord with all you got, your worries, fears, and even weaknesses turn into strengths. I do not know where I am transferring but I will get to tell you next week. We did not have general conference yet because we are 14 hours ahead on time so we will have it this weekened and I am so excited to listen to God speak to be personally through His ordained and called servants:) One thing that I have noticed this week is the power of integrity faith, by simply doing what you know and feel is right you will rise up to the next level of what the lord wants you to be and He will be able to trust you and give you the ability and capability to do those things even if you have never done it before or wether it requires a miracle. Miracles and the normal result of faith in the correct principles:) 

I must share that I love testifying of the atonement of Jesus CHrist:) A less active shared that he feels that his most is not good enough, but I loved to testify that our best is always good enough for the Lord, that the power of the atonement is infinite. then i ask what does infinite mean, it means without boundaries or compulsory means that absolutely nothing can stop it, no matter what, it means nothing is impossible, its not just infinite in time but also depth and height and space, we are never too low for the atonement to lift us up,  it is perfect and therefore we cannot say it does not work for me, because that is God's whole work and glory is for us to become like Him to be clean and overcome and endure to the end:) The atonement makes life perfectly fair, we have all the power of the atonement to overcome:)

Love, Elder Blackham

April 1, 2012 (pictures)

April 1, 2013

The city is so empty during Holy week. The traffic is usually bumper to bumper 24/7 but during Holy Week its an absolute ghost town. We were all quite shocked at how empty it could get. Not a single person car or anything in sight haha. It was crazy only a few homeless people there were even hundreds of less homeless people on the streets haha. 

But its pretty crazy what happens in the other places of my areas. On Thursday and Friday people walked around whipping themselves on the back and there are drops of blood everywhere on peoples houses and cars and streets. We made sure we were not in that part of the area at the time they do that, and in the other barangay they crucified a couple people. They really try to reenact the atonement here, so we were in the city to not be around that. 

It was a pretty amazing week this week and we got to teach a lot. We  worked our tales off to teach people even though it was so empty. One thing I learned this week is the power of a testimony and being sincere and transparent. When talking to people just letting them know why your there and what your plans are for them. Its so important that you be as transparent as possible so people can make a clear decision in their lives. Let them know the blessings and what its going to take and so and so forth. Many people when you show up at their door will shew you away but if you teach them right there some simple truths of the gospel and how it can change their life and what our plan is for them they open up. The spirit touches their heart and they say... well when can you come back. and then we set an appointment or teach more while we are there. 

I also focused my studies this week on the atonement and it was pretty amazing:) It is amazing the divine help from the atonement that we can receive, even just simply waking up in the morning can become a joy if we remember that Christ atoned for us and gives us the strength to live another day. We need not settle for living a normal every day mundane life, if we constantly keep our mindset on what the atonement makes us and our faith in Him, all those little things we do every day become a joy and a great light in our lives. As we recognize the little decisions that we have to make every day and then trusting the atonement and grace that we can be better than we are, and always choosing the better of all those little decisions we will become like the Savior and become so happy and everything in life will become a joy and a wonderful experience. We never need to be sad or bitter or mean, the Savior atoned for us and made it possible for us to choose the better always. There will be sad moments where we do mourn but our mourning will be accompanied by comfort, as we continually choose the right. 

Love, Elder Blackham