October 11, 2010
So P-day was changed to Wednesday this week. That is because we had Elder Pearson from the seventy come to our mission and we had a big conference with him on Monday. I'll talk about it in a little bit.
I like hearing about what is going on in everybody's life. It takes my mind off all of the things that I constantly focus on out here, which is refreshing. I'm glad that everybody is doing well. I'm glad that I have all of you as my family. I just want to say that I had better see you all in the Celestial Kingdom when it comes that time or else I will have to come and beat you up. :) I love you.
Now about the conference with Elder Pearson. Some of you might know that he used to be the mission president of the Washington Tacoma Mission and was called off of his mission to serve in the first quorum of Seventy. I've met him once before at Camp Helaman when he was a mission President and he gave probably the most inspiring talk that I had ever heard as a teenager. Anyway about the conference. It was very powerful. He spent a lot of the first half humbling us like only an ordained servant of the Lord can do (Which is kind of a funny feeling... my mind was going something like this: "Wow, this is amazing... I feel like dirt... actually dirt does what it is told so I'm less than dirt... This is so cool!!!!" haha!) and then he taught us some very powerful things about missionary work. I'm tempted to say that I got a lot more out of this one than the one about 10 months ago but I know now that the only reason I did is because my heart and mind were not open at the time and I cast out the word because of my unbelief. I feel like I missed something last time. As a result of the conference my desire to work hard to the end and to be as obedient as possible has increased dramatically. One thing that he said that I really liked: "If you are struggling on your mission, stop struggling. The hardest way to serve a mission is to be partially obedient. Stop focusing on yourself and be a humble servant of Christ. Align your will with your Father in Heaven's and your mission will become a lot easier." He talked a lot about our identity. My identity is that I'm a disciple of Christ who used to do other things. When we take on that new identity, we allow the Lord to shape our desires, attitudes, and actions. I don't think I need to explain how to apply this to our lives. Just replace the word life instead of mission and it's done.
My area is really slow right now, but I have learned how to be happy without the physical signs (numbers) of success. As long as I keep trusting in him, keep a good attitude, and put forth my best effort (which is a lot easier than trying to put forth my best effort; "do or do not, there is no try"; for example try to pick something up next to you... no i didn't say to pick it up, i said try to pick it up -- stop struggling) those signs of success will come, I just have to see them through the eye of faith first.
Well that is about it for me. I love you all. Thank you for your support.
-Elder Blakemore
October 18, 2010
Hey everybody. My weekend hasn't been all that great. Mine was a pain in the gut. Friday was a great day. We went tracting and found this lady that is really interested in learning about what the Church is all about. Her name is Sharicka. Then we taught these 3 foster kids, Adesa, Drayson, and Lukas, for the first time. They all want to be baptized but they need permission from their mother and social worker or something, so they are going to figure that all out. That night we didn't have a dinner appt. so we went home to have dinner. Our member was home and he suggested that we all go out to Arby's. We did and it wasn't spectacular... I'm not that big of a fan of Arby's anyway. After we got back, that was when the fun began. I started to feel sick and I threw up at around 10:00 and threw up every hour until 5:00 Saturday morning. Then my companion got it around 1:00 Saturday afternoon and threw up every hour until about 7 or 8 that night. We stayed in bed pretty much all Sunday (we were supposed to teach 2 more new investigators and teach the foster kids again that day... dang it!) but we were feeling better by Sunday evening so we were able to eat some soup or something. This morning we're feeling fine though my stomach is still unsure what it is supposed to do with food. So our weekend went from pretty promising to flushed down the toilet... literally.
And today we have a P-day appt. I hate it when that happens cuz it throws your whole week off and you feel like you haven't had a break in like 2 weeks. Oh well, we have been trying to meet this guy for like a month and a half and this is when he wanted us, so we'll do it.
Hope everybody else's weekend wasn't a disaster too. I love you all. The Church is true and the Book is blue.
-Elder Blakemore
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