September 19, 2011 Hello Ye Blessed!

Alma 26 Anyone? no? yes?

The blessings are amazing this week. If you do not see, hear, FEEL, and acknowledge those blessings I do not know another way the Lord can try and get your attention you stubborn family! I call you stubborn because I can and because I know the Walton/Blackburn blood runs through your veins whether hereditarily or by marriage you acquired some of it! How have your prayers been this week? Have you marvelled at the blessings the second the Lord chooses to intervene? How his timing is more perfect than all else? If you are really wondering how it all happened maybe you feel like Enos.

"Enos 1:5 And there came a ^avoice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are ^bforgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.
6 And I, Enos, knew that God ^acould not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.
7 And I said: Lord, how is it done?
8 And he said unto me: ^aBecause of thy ^bfaith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee ^cwhole."

Because of your Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ whom you have never before heard nor seen. Go To, Your Faith has made you whole. Go To? What does that mean. Well, in Enos' case it could be Go and start actually hunting before you die, but I do not think that is the case. More or less it means go and start progressing. Don't just stand here and be in awe, but go and better your situations! BECOME what God would have you BECOME. Begin now enduring with a new resolve to not make the same mistakes or to take these blessings and talents and gifts that he has given us and improve on them. Continue from this point Enduring to the End.

The Gospel we teach, live, and love, is FAITH, REPENTANCE, BAPTISM, GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST, ENDURE TO THE END. Well, what happens after we are baptised and confirmed and try our best and fail? Well guess what, its necessary that you fail at SOMETHING in this life or else you would never humble yourselves to need Christ. Why will every knee bow someday? They will understand their need for Christ. Enos was already a member. His path and our path is now FAITH, REPENTANCE, SACRAMENT, OBEDIENCE...That is ENDURING TO THE END.

So, my brothers, sisters, mother, father, grandfather, cousins, aunts, uncles, and NIECE- GO TO, Thy Faith hath and WILL make you whole.

I love you,

Elder Blackburn

PS: Some blessings I saw this week here in Wrexham.

1. 12 new investigators...our goals are normally 4.

2. Bike is fixed

3. Theory Test is passed for my UK drivers license. ( I am almost a left road master)

4. Understanding Authority of a District Leader a little more even though I should have known this 6 months ago...

5. Elder Gordon is almost not scared of talking to people. I think it may just be nerves and now we can actually start being excited! WOO! haha

6. Dana sent me AdvoCare and I am officially doing a hefty diet this week! LOVE WEIGHTLOSS GOALS! PMG chapter 8. Learn how to reach our goals! =D

7. Lilly is beautiful.

8. House is sold.

LOVE ALL OF YOU

Elder Blackburn

September 5, 2011

Hello Everyone!

I thought about what I would write you this week and I figure I will report to you what I sent to President Preston as well as give you a taste of the accents here and in the rest of England. Elder Kearon is a little more dignified sounding than 98% of the people here, but the accent is about right. Elder Webb, my last companion was his home teacher as a Deacon, so he hasn't been far from us here. This is a video depiction for the youth website about his talk about the scorpion. It drives home the point.

https://lds.org/youth/video/sting-of-the-scorpion?lang=eng

We saw a great miracle happen this week. We found a man that had been here for just over 3 weeks from India. He is from one of the higher classes. His name is Amit Singh. We taught him at the chapel after walking with him for 30 mins to show him where it is. His English is "something poor" or at least that is how he describes it. Amit said the he would come to church so we organized him a ride with one of our faithful members, but then Amit said he wanted to walk. I was unsure about it, but said ok. He called us 5 mins before church started and said he was lost but he did get close! Our faithful member and Elder Gordon went out for the search and rescue party. He got there just in time for the sacrament and the rest of testimony meeting. He was the only one with us and our Ward Mission Leader in Gospel Essentials and so we broke down everything about the Gifts of the Spirit. After that class he went outside and made a call. I didn't know what it was about. Then after priesthood we went out and he pulled me aside away from other people and told me in his broken English, "I call my family. To ask if ok to make me a Christian...They say ok. You make me Christian?" We had explained baptism in our first lesson with him by going to the part of John the Baptist baptising Christ. He understood as we read from a Hindi Book of Mormon as well. He has a calendar and is dated for the 8th of October.

That was a long paragraph but it was all the same topic. Elder Gordon however has made amazing strides this week. Something clicked in his prayers and he was able to use that as his motivation in speaking to people. He has been learning a lot about doing and not just about observing. I am grateful for this because I was not sure how else to motivate him. Our numbers have been lower in finding, but luckily we have the Lord on our side and the miracles are still happening as we put our best foot forward.

We have also seen some great successes in our working with the members efforts. Our Ward Mission Leader finally let us help him in his kitchen and I have been asking for 2 months now. We had a tea appointment at our RS President's house and she and her husband are both such a strength to the ward. They have 4 boys and they are all Less Active. The youngest 2 are still at home. Last time we were there 1 ate with us, but then left for the spiritual thought. This time they both ate with us and then both sat and listened and Participated in the spiritual thought which was about the Family Proclamation. Also, a non-member sister of Brother Bullock was there! She has always thought her brother was a religious nut because he went to church every week, but she was finally able to see why it was so important to do those things. After the lesson, Sister Bullock asked us on the drive home if we adapted the lesson we had planned the night before and we told her no and that we had planned to do the Proclamation to the Family no matter what. She was amazed because of how well it fit for the people that were there. Revelation during Nightly Planning.

And For myself, I am almost done with my back to front reading of the Book of Mormon. I have learned a lot from it and I am glad I followed the idea!

I love you all and hope to hear from each of you. I cannot wait to be an uncle Logan and Liz! Take pictures for me!

Love,

Elder Blackburn

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