June 30, 2014

I just flew back to Mindoro from Quezon City where we had Mission Leadership Council and it's been a blast. This past week was a week of miracles here in Mindoro. Elder Robison and I have been having so much fun and the Lord has been blessing us with success. I really enjoy going out and doing the Lord's work and the greatest evidence is the Holy Ghost in my life:) 

Just a cool experience, we were teaching a family about the Plan of Salvation and the wife and husband just decided to talk about how they have been fighting and arguing when we aren't there.  So, we just taught about how the gospel blesses families and at the end we knelt down and prayed together and re-committed them to do this every morning and night. When the prayer was over they were both crying and filled with love:) The spirit was so strong and I got to be a part of their learning that the gospel really does bless families. 

Also we were teaching the same lesson to another family and then the father asked what Heavenly Father's name is, I told him Elohim.  Then Elder Robison my companion explained that God doesn't want to be called that; He wants to be called Father. Then he referred to the life of the father we were teaching, and asked "when your kids talk to you, would you want them to call you Von, or Daddy?" It would be so obviously weird to call them by their first name, it would be kind of disrespectful. I realized too or the spirit was teaching me that it is so important to call Him Father because it means that we have a relationship with Him. If we just called him by His first name it would not mean we are tied to Him through and unbreakable bond of love.  Not calling him Father instead actually separate us from Him. It was just a cool ah ha  moment for me as we were teaching where the spirit taught me more deeply the truthfulness of the way we pray:) 

In personal study I have been having such wonderful experiences about the Restoration of the Gospel. I have been thirsting for a greater testimony of the restoration and as I have been studying it things have been becoming so clear to me through the Holy Ghost that this is the only true church with all the truth and necessary ordinances for salvation. Reading from the Bible strengthens my testimony of the Book of Mormon so much and also just running into so many different religions, none of them have proof that its true, they all have their own version of the Bible and argue. But for us it's very simple, there is only one Book of Mormon and one version only that states the truth found also in the Bible but without the Book of Mormon you still don't know.  It's still almost guessing. I know that the restoration is true and that Joseph Smith is a true prophet and that Thomas S. Monson is his true successor and holds the Keys and authority necessary for prophets. I am so grateful for what I have. Nothing is more precious than testimony and that's what I am realizing too. 

Love, Elder Blackham 

June 23, 2014

Out here in Mindoro things are just really going well. We are consistently finding many new people to teach which helps us focus on those who really want to be taught and understand the gospel. I just love teaching so much. I feel there is no greater call than to teach. Every problem I have ever heard has always been solved with more knowledge and understanding. We taught the Plan of Salvation a lot this past week which means everyone's mostly progressing. I love teaching this and seeing their eyes open up and there is this deep familiar feeling to them when we teach the Plan of Salvation simply. I usually tell a story and then show them their role in the story.  When they learn this it's just indescribable to be there and to ask them how it makes them feel to know what we explained to them. It really helps them keep commitments and to overcome their concerns when they know and understand their purpose here on earth and their potential. I have seen it empower them to do things they normally could not or had no hopes of achieving. I am so grateful for the plan of happiness. It really does make people happy. 

Following up on those who I gave study journals too was really great too. In a few verses they wrote a lot how it related to them and how it made them happy. I don't need to teach over and over again the importance of reading when I teach them to have experience and write in a study journal the way I do. When they write their experiences in a study journal I know for sure it will work when they do do it and they will feel the power in their lives. 

We found a family that we are teaching now and have been to church a couple times. They are the most beautiful family. We all kneeled in a circle and prayed as a family and the father prayed. It was so beautiful the Father was crying and was so happy to kneel as a family with their five kids and pray. I couldnt help but to peek as we prayed just to see how beautiful it was to see that image of a family kneeling and praying together. It is so sad though because they are not married yet and the wife is being told not to listen by her preacher brother. So we are going to do all we can. In the end it is up to them but it really hurts because the wife is not joining the lessons lately and man it just hurts to love people. It really hurts. 

Love, 

ELder Blackham

June 16, 2014

This week was great:) The branch is really progressing and I am so happy to be here at such a wonderful time:) I am so grateful for being able to see the gospel work in so many other's lives. 

No, there aren't any terrorists here and we can go home as late as we need to. There is not an earlier curfew or anything. There are no terrorists or anything haha. 

Everything is relatively quiet here. Its a very peaceful little island. We are having a lot of success in our work and we are really learning how to work with the branch. I feel so grateful to be able to work with them, they just really lack confidence and need a push and to know that they are trusted. That is one thing that really helped me when I was an assistant was that when I felt the love and trust of president I really did all I could. 

It is interesting to deal with so many people who are so burdened with sin. I like how it says in Lehi's dream that the Love of God is the greatest and most delicious to the soul and brings them the most joy. I hope that people feel that love. I know that thats true:) 

Love,

Elder Blackham 

June 9, 2014

Life is so awesome:) I love being here on the Island of Mindoro. It is very different because here the missionaries kinda run the church. The doctrine and teachings of the church are the same, but the way things are run are very different here, haha. We have already seen lots of improvement and have prayed and fasted for help and now we need to set goals and make plans and expect miracles to happen:) I love the Gospel, that it is a gospel of change:) I know that we can do all things through Christ:) 

The people here are so sweet and I love to teach them and help them realize that there is more to life than a little Island that they live on. There is a recent convert in the branch named Apollo, a 25 year old man and  he has cerebral palsy and it's pretty extreme. He is perfectly fine mentally, but physically he can't walk or even hold anything in his hands and just has zero control of his body. He has a hard time talking but can still talk.  Well, he actually is also a branch missionary and works with the missionaries a lot. We just push him to our lessons in a wheelchair.  The first time I taught with him and heard his testimony it just pierced me through the heart. He talked about before he thought he was worthless and just a burden. He really was thinking, "Why am I here?  I can't move on my own and I can't even hold anything or just it's so hard for me to exist!" He  used to drink a lot of alcohol. His friends would just pour the alcohol into his mouth and they would get drunk a lot together. He said that he knew that everyone in the village knew that he didn't care about life. Then he learned the gospel and quit drinking because he understood finally that he was so valuable to God, that He has a purpose on earth and needed his body the way it was and now he can help others know their purpose too:) He just says, "I really had no idea why I was here, I can't even feed myself. Now I know why I am here and that I am loved even more than I can imagine and that Christ atoned for even me:)"  It's just so cool to see how happy he is, he is the happiest person I have ever met:) This really is the joy and hope the gospel gives:) 

Love, 

Elder Blackham

June 1, 2014

This past week we went on exchanges in Antipolo, Marikina, Cogeo and Quezon City this last week and it was so much fun:) I love going on exchanges every day:) We did so much work and I felt so happy and blessed to be able to support and love the missionaries and help their work:) I know I have learned so much from them:) They really are inspiring and so much fun to be with:)

This week is transfer week and now I am getting transferred to Mindoro the island in our mission, where they have black outs every day and no stores. It will be so much fun!!!! I get to help out God's work on that island and help the zone reach their potential and help the district over there become the best district in the Philippines,  but only through Jesus Christ:) But I know that with Him all of that will happen:) 

This last week was so awesome:) I hope you don't think from my letter that that feeling of compassion was just for those in poverty or about poverty.The principle is that when we love people we will sorrow with them and be given compassion. This last week we had President Christensen one of the presidents of the Presidency of the Seventy come talk to our mission. It was so cool and He spoke so much about the Holy Ghost. He also talked about becoming a true disciple and that we can know we are becoming true disciples when our hearts will ache when we see others struggle. We will feel this overwhelming compassion when someone is having a hard time and we will long for their welfare.  That compassion will motivate us so that every family we pass we will open our mouths and testify with boldness.  We will feel as the Savior does and not just act like He does. You will not be okay when someone rejects but be consistent and loving. This is what I have been noticing as a gift as I am striving to give my all.

I have been reading Jesus the Christ lately and it is so cool that Heavenly Father created the earth by the power of Jesus Christ. I am just amazed that even God used faith in Jesus Christ to make things happen, I feel we are doing so much less than we can or just living so below our abilities.

One thing I learned more this week is the power of the Book of Mormon. It is really the convincing power. It's so cool, because people will say, I have already read the bible and blah blah and basically say they are not interested but then we say have you heard of the Book of Mormon? Then they say no and then ask what is that? Then we explain and introduce and they read and understand that all good things come from God and that when they read we help them recognize how they feel and when they understand that what they feel is from God because He is the director of all goodness and good true feelings then they know its true:)

Another thing that was cool about what President Christensen taught about the Holy Ghost is that we have it constantly as a gift but that it will not be constant the magnitude of feelings from the Holy Ghost even though He is always with us. This is necessary for us to recognize the gift, because if we felt the Holy Ghost in the same magnitude all the time it would be the same as if we never had it all the time, it would be hard to recognize promptings and when He is or isn't okay with our actions. He is always with us but the magnitude must change in order for us to recognize it. Those that have the gift will always feel impressions when danger is present and things like that but others that don't have the gift don't have that right. 

I am so excited to go out to the island. I am so pumped to have miracles happen there! :)

Love,

Elder Blackham

June 24, 2013

That is so so so amazing about the missionary work I sure hope they have something like that here. I can't express to you how much more success there is when we get a referral than when we just go out and find, haha. The statistics say that 1 in 8 referrals are baptized here in the Philippines and 1 in like 3 or 4 thousand that you talk to on the street are baptized so haha. Don't quote me I don't know that exact statistics.  I think it is actually a lot more that 4 thousand. So things go so so so so much better when someone hears the gospel through a friend. Luckily we get lots of referrals so we are very blessed. 

It's definitely the rainy season and it rains about every single day but I absolutely love the weather. I keep hitting my head on peoples' roofs haha. My trainee Elder Gako is still as amazing as ever and he learns so quickly and I am  so impressed with him.

 As far as the work its going really well and the people we are teaching are making lots of progress which is the most exciting thing ever as far as being a missionary. The biggest hope in the whole world is that after all that you do and say that the spirit will get to them and they will act, and use their agency and come closer to the savior, one step at a time. Our whole goal is to get them to act, and to pray and to just try it. We do all we absolutely can to get them to just try it with sincere wanting to know, or to come closer to the savior. We don't convert people, the spirit does and we invite them to act and allow the spirit to teach them on their own and gain their own testimony by using their own freedom to choose. It must be them, they must be the ones to ask and to gain their own testimony, we just teach them the what the why and the how:) A funny thing that happened this week is a whole litter of kittens came out of a bush and started following me and my companion for at least a half mile, it was really sweet.

I learned how to cook so many things here and I cook all the time for my companions and roommate missionaries. My mission president is going home next week so that is pretty crazy but I am excited to learn so much from two amazing mission presidents and I feel so lucky to have them both for almost a whole year each. I am just loving life!! This gospel really is what we all say it is. I know it:) I am so blessed to be a part of it:) In the name of Jesus Christ Amen:)

Love, Elder Blackham

June 17, 2013

Things are going great here:) 

Always there are so many miracles and I am so grateful to be here and a part of this work. One of our investigators that has really been progressing and is the one who sometimes testifies that she knows what we are teaching is true has just realized that we are inviting her to change her entire life:) It was a pretty cool, she is very very smart, because most investigators don't recognize this until they are about to be baptized. It was really cool and the spirit is so strong, and you could tell in her eyes that she realized how important this was and how life-changing this is and the effort it will require. I am so excited to teach her more and see her progress. 

We finally got the conference talks and i just love them so much. My favorite ones right now or the ones I am studying right now are about being accepted by the Lord and the other one is called the words we speak. Conference talks are always exactly what I need when I need it and open a new door of understanding and spiritual guidance as I feast upon their words:) I love this so much:) 

The best and most gratifying thing as a teacher is when someone understands. But really only the Holy Ghost can impart that true knowledge to the heart but its so great to be a part of it:) teaching and learning is so much a way of life and not just a missionary thing, I will do it with my children and I just love learning and teaching and finding and, well just pretty much everything about life!!! haha  Especially the wonderful powerful things pertaining to salvation. You can live better tomorrow that you did today, the hurt and pains of today can be swept away as you live the gospel today:) Why wait?! I have no idea, haha.

Love,

Elder Blackham

June 9, 2013

(The first paragraph is a reply to Mom's question about how Elder Blackham gets water.  We heard the water there will make you very sick and drinking to much of it can give you worms.UGH) 

The water here is bad but we filter the water with the filters that the mission provides so we are all good and set:) And if I get a worm it is just that much easier to lose fat haha. 

This week was amazing. Really gave it my all and I learned a ton. Life is so much better when you look at the big picture and have an eternal perspective. We taught the plan of Salvation a couple times this week and I just love it so much. It is so amazing to see the faces of the investigators as their faces light up and shine when they learned where they came from, why they are here and where they are going. It seemed to fill all of their longings to know and I felt so blessed to be able to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord in bringing this priceless knowledge into their lives. 

I love also the part at the end of the lesson when I testify to them that we would not have this knowledge if it was not for the restoration of the Gospel. I get to testify about Joseph Smith and that because of living prophets we can know and understand the truths of the gospel and the plan of salvation, because otherwise it would just be a mess of opinions, but this is the truth and the Book of Mormon solidifies the correct doctrines of the Bible so that it removes all doubt about the truths found therein. Its just so amazing this message:) 

One of our investigators that I didn't know if they understood everything, testified to us that she believes that this is true and that she feels in her heart it is right, and that it answers the questions she has always been longing to know:) She was glowing and it was just incredible to be there and to feel the spirit and to have the opportunity to bring this into her life:) There were many times this week that this happened, another time we were teaching the restoration to a family and the mom randomly asked where do we come from? I almost exploded with joy and we proceeded to then teach the restoration and she just loved it and the cool thing about it is that you can't gain a testimony about the plan of salvation without gaining a testimony of the restoration:) 

We were also teaching another family about reading the scriptures and trying to teach them how to study and gain knowledge and answers on their own. As we were teaching about the vision of Nephi and the first thing he did was desire to know. We taught how important desire is, and then in our first lesson with him the 18 year old boy Romel said, "I really want to know how to know and thank you for teaching me about this."  It was just amazing, there is nothing better than being a missionary:)  

It's just a blast to let go and lose yourself in the work:) This week was just so amazing, in one of our days we taught 8 lessons in one day, and I know it's a blessing that the Lord has given us for our obedience:) I am so grateful for the strength He gives and as I strive to serve Him He shows me my weaknesses. But it's just another mountain to climb:) This week in my scripture study I was reading in Alma 36 about repentance and how it all came to pass because first remembered in verse 17. I learned a lot about remembering Jesus Christ and in order to establish our life on Him we need to first remember and think about Him more and more in our lives. I also leaned that it is easier than we think it is in Alma 37:44-46:) Wow isnt the Gospel amazing!!

June 3, 2013

Things are going so awesome here. I love my trainee so much!! He is so awesome and has such a great desire to serve the Lord with His all. Something that happened this week that was unexpected was that on Sunday I named and blessed a new born baby. There is a less active family that we have been teaching that has gone to church for the last couple of weeks, and they asked me to bless their baby. I thought that they were joking but when I showed up to church and they called me up to bless the baby, I soon realized that they were not joking at all. The baby's name is Avherie Jhamie Jonson Bancoro and she is just a couple weeks old and the cutest little thing in the world. I was pretty nervous because naming and blessing a child is a pretty big deal.  I am so grateful I was able to do that. I wish the Father was able to because that would have been so much better, but I do feel blessed to be able to have done that.  I really wanted to bless that new child with absolutely all that Heavenly Father wanted to give. I will never forget the love I felt from Heavenly Father for her. 

We have had a pretty awesome week and worked our tails off every single day!! I am working my trainee and myself to the bone!! The Lord is abundantly blessing us and I am so grateful for Him:) 

One of the things I learned this week was the power of honesty and humility in your efforts to serve the Lord. I love to serve the Lord and when you are totally honest with your weaknesses it allows you to face them with the help of the Lord. When you are 100% honest with yourself and the Lord about your weaknesses; it's as if the barriers between you and Him fall away and His power, help and love flows freely into your heart and strengthens you in all that you do:) Things will always, always, always work out better when doing what the Lord wants than doing anything else. So many times we are nervous and I love how President Monson puts so much emphasis on having courage because its our courage that allows us to follow what the Lord wants no matter what and show our love for Him, show Him the crowning characteristic of Love to Him which is always loyalty. Loyalty because no matter what happens we obey and we strive to do His will:) So yea things are going amazing and I am having a blast!!

Love, Elder Blackham