August 30, 2011

Hello!

Well it has been an interesting couple of days training again. I am extremely grateful for the new training manuals that we have received from the First Presidency and everything that they have been helping me out with. Because if I was back in December training for the first time, I would have lost it by now, but I actually think I may have grown a bit since I left Indy now! I love Elder Gordon and have been doing my very best to help him get settled in. I have done everything I can over the last couple days to ease him in all phases of the work and not throw him into the deep end. Now we are working on me just holding him while he paddles! (But he has to paddle first) That is what we are really at at this point. We are working on overcoming fears and growing from the opportunities God is Giving us.

It will be an interesting time, but missionary work is not as hard as learning Welsh! I will give you a sentence here

TROWCH EICH FFON SYMUDOL I FFWRDD!!!

English: Please Switch off Your Mobile Phone!!!

haha I LOVE YOU!

Elder Blackburn

PS: The letters don't make the same sound as ours do either.

August 25, 2011

Good Afternoon,

Or at least it is when I am writing. I want to thank everyone for writing SO MUCH. It has taken me 90 mins just to read and respond to the emails I had and I had to skim some of the long ones haha. But moving on, A lot has happened the past couple days.

Last Monday, Elder Webb and I were told to give a full week a go and we were able to go out and work hard and see miracles. We far exceeded all of the finding standards. Whether it was just being cooped up all the time or simply Elder Webb being amazingly in tune with the Spirit, we saw lots of great things happen. The weather was nice too. I can hardly remember recovery time anymore. Transfers happened this week but I was not transferred. Elder Webb was transferred to South Ribble near the Historic River Ribble where the first baptisms in England occurred back in 1837. I am here with a new missionary from South Africa! He is larger than I am in height. We are about equal in girth though =P. I AM WORKING ON CUTTING THAT DOWN THOUGH. I am excited to train...again. Elder Feith who came out with me is training for the third time and Elder Ballantine is training now who also came out with me. It is probably the most stressful situation I have ever been placed in, but as long as I am trying my best and I mean REALLY trying my best, I should set him out on the right path!

Well, it is time to go and see what he has got! AKA WORK!

I love you!

Elder Blackburn

August 15, 2011

Hiya!

This was an interesting week. Saw the workings of Satan a lot this week with our recent convert. We have seen him rear his ugly head all through her teaching process. She has overcome all of the opposition he has thrown at her but the last one...the big one for most people he left until after baptism...family opposition...We are working with the ward to help her overcome it, but we shall see how it will go. Can't force the gospel. People have to choose it.

2 Nephi 10:23, Helaman 14:30-31

Be happy! It is your choice! The power is given to you, which means you are accountable for yourselves!

I don't have any more time!

I love you all!

Elder Blackburn

August 8, 2011

Hello Everyone,

This has been an interesting transfer with people falling through and other things but the main rollercoaster we have been on, besides the wayward appendix of Elder Webb, was Elaine Arnold and her teaching process. One day she was ready and then a new concern would pop up but as we held tight to the Book of Mormon and as SHE read, she felt more and more at peace with Baptism. She was baptised on Saturday and I felt a weight lifted from my shoulders. I was starting to understand that Jacob 1:19 is a lot more than just going finding diligently. We have to be willing to do all we can do to help them get there.

Elder Webb and I are trying to clean up a mess left by another missionary at the moment, and the ward is slowly coming around. But the Bishop and WML are at least coming around and having more and more confidence in us. Everyone Else...well they will take some time but I was at least able to introduce myself this week finally.

We had some great miracles this past weekend where our WML's daughter was blessed. His wife is from Zambia. It is a nice cocoa baby named Nyombai or something like that. If you say that you will be close to saying her name! haha. They had a good number of former investigators there and we were able to talk to a lot of them and went to tea later and talked to some more. We now have 5 or 6 potentials that we can go and try by!

Well, I am done with another pair of shoes that lasted me almost the summer haha. I am going to go and look at some GOOD shoes and hopefully they can last me till april...doubt it...!

I love you!

Elder Blackburn

August 1, 2011

Paris-http://mormon.org/feature/paris/eng/
Shawna-http://mormon.org/me/4M1X/
Alexis-http://mormon.org/me/3X9D/

Those are 3 people that I thought would connect with lots of you back home in some way or form. Paris is from the streets and is serving in the mission right next to me. Shawna is apparently a 1st grade teacher and Alexis is a student studying special ed who blasts Justin Bieber so if that is not a variety, I do not know what is.

Anyways, I have had some experiences this past week that are really driving home being an example and "living the gospel as conspicuous as you can"-Elder Holland.
Good
"Ye are the light of the world"
"Let your Light So Shine before men that they may see your good works and Glorify your Father which is in Heaven"
"I give unto you to be the light of the world"
"Ye are the Salt of the Earth"
"The light of the body is the Eye; if, therefore, thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light"
Bad
"If the Salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall the Earth be Salted?"
"It is Henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men"
"But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!"
AGENCY
"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

It comes to a point in our lives where we have to choose God or choose Mammon (Satan, Lucifer, Devil, Beelzebub, Leviathan, etc...).
That point comes to everyone. In actuality, we are doing it every day, every decision. We are choosing to stand a little taller and extend our stride or we are choosing to sink into mediocrity and to not improve. We are never stagnant in our search for the Kingdom of God. We are losing and gaining ground every second of every day. The reason is up above this paragraph.

Doctrine and Covenants 93:28,36 tell us, "He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things...36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.

It is up to us to obtain this light, this truth, and use our agency in order to receive that Eternal weight of Glory that Heavenly Father has obtained.

Make good choices this week.

I love you,

Elder Blackburn