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

May 26, 2013

Things are going great!!! I love having an anak and training:) Its so much fun and we are getting so much work done. I swear I am learning more than my trainee but that's how its supposed to be:) He is a 5 foot 1 inch Filipino named Elder Gako haha he is 21 years old too. He is so so so so cool I love that elder. He is so humble and tries his best and does not cease to impress me. One of the stories that happened this week was that we heard some news about a lady in our area who had lost her son, and her son was in his 20s and died unexpectedly. Well we got the news from a sister in the ward and then later that night we went to the wake. A tradition in the Philippines is that they never ever leave a dead body alone. So they usually keep the body in a casket with glass window on top to view the deceased person and then people are there 24/7 to watch and to mourn for the lost life. So we went and found the mother who was of course crying and mourning for the loss of her son, and it is really hard for her because she had also lost her husband and another son previous to this one. But as we were there it was absolutely quiet except for sniffling from crying and such. I didn't know what to say at first because its such a big deal to administer to those who mourn and I was really nervous I would say something wrong. Then I kinda put myself in Her shoes and wondered what I would want to know... then the spirit prompted me to speak. I opened my mouth and was able to promise her that the gospel of Jesus Christ and the knowledge of His plan for us can fill every gap everything that is missing in our life. The Tagalog I used uses a deeper meaning for missing something, but the spirit was so strong. I testified that she can know without a doubt they will be together again through the ordinances of the restored gospel and that God loves us and will never abandon us. It was absolutely amazing to see her smile. After sharing some of the blessings of the gospel with her we left with a prayer and asked when we could return to teach her more and now we will be going back this week to share more:) We take for granted so much the wonderful truths of the gospel. Any ways there were just so many things that happened this week that were amazing but this one I felt I should share:) 

Love, Elder Blackham

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