May 12, 2014

so I realized about 10 minutes after we ended the call yesterday that I never wished you a happy mothers day. so here it is....

Happy Mothers Day!!!!!!!!

I hope that covers it.

well I basically said everything that is going on here yesterday so I don't really know what to tell you all today.

Well you all looked good yesterday.

well I guess I'll repeat most of what I said yesterday about what is going on here (so mom doesn't kill me).

We are working with this one family right now and they are having a ton of problems. the husband is a less active (he hadn't been to church in something like 20 years and didn't even remember if he had been baptized) and the rest of the family aren't members. The husband has another woman with whom he had a kid (he isn't married to either of them). the whole family knows that he has two families (including his two wives). it is a large cause of why they are currently having marital problems. the wife also has two other kids (from before she was with him, she didn't cheat), one of witch is in jail. she goes to visit him basically every week... on Sunday :( and therefore won't be able to get baptized until next change (she says that she does want to). we are working a lot with the ward to help them right now. we are trying to stay in contact with them almost daily to be able to help them (we are doing pretty good so far). oh and this is the same family with which I had the prompting to visit last week.

I'm really liking the area and the ward. It is nice to see how when you really get down and work you can find people. two weeks ago when we divided the area we had only 2 or 3 families here in this half and now we have enough to fill our agendas every day (taking into account that we are trying to do devisions every day so we need twice the amount of people to be able to do that). It is amazing what the Lord gives us when we ask, and then work for it.

well that is about all I have for today...

Love you all.

Elder Jason Blanding.

May 5, 2014 Cinco de Mayo

[A reply to his father’s email]

actually they do celebrate "5 de mayo" here in Puebla!! it isn't a made up holiday it's just that they don't celebrate it outside of Puebla because it is a celebration of a battle that took place here in Puebla (the Pueblanos won obviously). 

I think you should upgrade you bike only if you get to keep the bike (I'm thinking I might look into getting one when I get home and if we happen to have one lying around the garage I think that will make my decision rather easy ;D) otherwise save the money for the next emergency because it is an unnecessary usage of money. 

as for the Skype thing I just checked to see if there was any problems (literally I read your message and checked) there are no problems with logging on or anything it doesn't even say I have sent any messages in the last 30 days.

Elder Blanding

Hey all!! 14 months tomorrow!! wow does time fly. 

So today is a holiday and so we were given the day off... not really. we were given the whole day for P-day but it is because we had interviews with our mission president and seeing as that would take some time out of our P-day they said we don't have to work today.

we are now sharing the ward with sisters. we have the bigger of the 2 areas but that doesn't really matter (more potential investigators is all). we have been working really hard to try to find new investigators because we almost didn't work over here before because we had enough work in the other half.

I had a really cool experience this week. so we were going to do divisions with some brothers in the ward but one didn't show up so we just went with one who showed up who happened to have a car. we went to visit some people and at about 8:55 or there abouts we were on our way home and drove by the house of some investigators we have been teaching. as we passed the house I looked at the door and felt we should go visit them. It was probably one of the most obvious promptings I have ever had in my life. I quickly told the brother to pull over and let us out. He seamed a little confused seeing as it was almost 9 and everyone knows that we need to be home by 9 but he let us off. we said good night and told him he could go home because he only agreed to go with us 'till 9. we went up to the door and knocked. they let us in and it had turned out that they had just had a fight (they are going through marital problems) and weren't going to go to church anymore (they had at least partially been there the last two weeks) because they felt hypocritical about it or something. To make a long story short our visit helped them to decide to continue investigating and continue coming to church (they ended up not coming this week anyways but it was because of an emergency and not for a lack of wanting to). It was awesome to feel like an instrument in God's hands.

I also am now just in the last few weeks noticing holes in my socks (in the side, where the ankle bone is) so I now have 5 pairs of socks with holes in them. if you could talk to the CTR clothing guy to send me some more that would be great. oh and also Mosquito season is back and last year I ran out of the anti-itch sticks that I brought. I could use some more.

Elder Jason Blanding.

April 28, 2014

Changes are tomorrow!! we kind of have changes but not really. they are dividing our area and we are going to go to the side we haven't worked very much and the house we are currently in isn't on the side we are going to so we are going to change houses today. they are going to put sister missionaries in the other half so this means that all of my areas so far now have sisters in them. it is weird to know that I can never go back to one of my old areas unless they close the area and put Elders back in. I really hope they are good sisters because we have soooo many investigators in the area and I want to see them all baptized. it also means that we are going to go to the changes tomorrow to help make sure they get back to their house with out a problem (losing about 2-3 hours in the process).

this week was interesting. we have been preparing to change houses and divide the area so it has been really busy with things other than missionary work but at the same time we were able to teach more lessons with members present than I have had in any other week of my mission. If I have one tip for any missionary about to leave on a mission it is this: "work as hard as you can and when you think you are working the hardest you can, work harder." I have found that when I accomplish things that before I thought impossible it becomes easier to do it the next time. for example, a few weeks ago i thought that contacting 100 people in a week, and having 20 lessons a week was imposable. I now feel like I'm not working at all if I don't have AT LEAST those numbers by the end of the week. those are now easy to goals to reach. we have even had weeks where we had almost 40 lessons and over 200 contacts. My first rule for missionary work is NEVER SAY IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!!! as soon as you say that, it is.

this week we found what looks like a "golden family" they went to church last Sunday and all but the wife came this week (she had to do some legal stuff with her son who is in jail). The dad is a less active but the rest of his family aren't baptized yet. we had a lesson with them during the week and when we asked them about the Restoration pamphlet we left them the wife said they hadn't finished it but they had read a little. she had read up until it starts talking about Apostasy. we read the pamphlet with them and when we got to apostasy we asked her what she had learned about it and she basically said that all of the churches have fallen into a state of apostasy because they have changed some of the gospel and fallen away from God. This really surprised us that she came to this conclusion all by her self with out any help from us (we hadn't taught the Great Apostasy yet). she is a catholic so that was something that to me made it even cooler because she basically said that her church was false because it has changed some of the Gospel. It was a really cool lesson.

Elder Jason Blanding

April 21, 2014

sorry that I'm not going to write much but we have a 4 zone activity today and being late isn't an option because it will start on time whether we are there or not.

Easter was awesome this week. we had 6 investigators and 10 less active members in church on sunday. it was really cool to see so many people there. the ward also just had a missionary end his mission this last week so he also said a few words. he looks really exited to work. we talked to him on sunday and he basically asked us when he could come with us and so he is going to come with us tonight after we finish P-day. so that is cool.

Elder Jason Blanding

(I have to add Jason now because Mike is on his way out in a few months and I need to get accustomed to it)

[a reply to my email to him earlier in the day]

didn't feel the earthquake at all. we were in a combi (the public transport here) at the time and we were probably moving at the time. with the way the combi drivers drive it would have just blended in with everything else at the time.

 I sent an email to jessie about mike (saw hers first)

oh yah I got the package and the book and all. thanks for the jolly rancher and the cookies :) I haven't really gotten into the skittles yet but i will :D

[Here was his reply to Mike receiving his mission call to California San Fernando, Spanish speaking. Steve translated it for me]

I don't have his E-mail so you will have to tell him CONGRATULATIONS for me. and you can print this part out and give it to him to see if he can understand it

"¡¡Felicidades hermano!! tuve un sentimiento que ibas a ir a una misión hablando español. también pensé que quedarás en los estados unidos. es un idioma increíble para hablar. no puedo pensar en un idioma mas útil que el español. una manera que aprenderá mejor y mas rápido es intentar hablarlo el mas que puede en el CCM. vas a tener la prueba de que casi todos tus compañeros van a saber ingles también y va a ser una tentación muy grande de hablar el ingles pero te ruego que ¡¡no lo hagas!! practica te va a ayudar mas que cual quiera otra cosa en el aprendizaje. ¡¡Felicidades en ir a la misión!!

con mucho cariño;

Elder Jason Blanding."

just print that out and give it to him. it will be his first test on learning spanish.

Elder Jason Blanding.

Congratulations brother! I had a feeling that you would go on a Spanish speaking mission. I also thought that you would go stateside. It's an incredible language to speak. I can't think of a better language than Spanish. The best way to learn it fast is to try to speak it as much as you can in the MTC. But you'll probably have the problem that all your companions will know English also and it will be a large temptation to speak English but you need to resist. Practice will help you learn it more than any other thing. Congratulations on your mission!

With much love,

Elder Jason Blanding

April 14, 2014

so today we went to cholula again. It wasn't really that interesting. once you have seen it once you have seen it all.

This week we had some cool success. I contacted a family on Thursday and put an appointment for Sunday at 10 (the services start at 12) and by some miracle they were there. we taught them for a little bit and then invited them to church. the husband said he would come (the wife had other commitments). He showed up just after the opening hymn. It was awesome having investigators in church. 

The sad part was that E* didn't come this week. it probably had something to do with the fair that is going on in Sn Lorenzo. We also weren't able to have a lesson with her this week. 

We have been working really hard these last few weeks. I have probably had more lessons and contacts these last few weeks than most of my mission put together. we just need to convert all this work we are doing into people that are progressing towards baptism. the majority of what we are doing has been with a few investigators or new people that are never there for the appointments. really they just need to learn how to say "No" here. it is really easy just two letters ("no" in Spanish is "no") and we won't get offended if you just say no. it is ruder to say yes when you want to say no than it is to just say no in the first place.

We also learned that you can find a house for two missionaries in less than a week here. we got told Sunday night that we are going to receive two more missionaries in our ward so we have been looking for a house and dividing the area. I was not looking forward to looking for a house because all the other elders have said that it is a pain finding a good house. we started looking on Tuesday and that same day we called someone who was advertising a house for rent, on Thursday we went and looked at it decided we liked it, the zone leaders looked at it on Saturday and this week we will be getting the money to pay the deposit and the first month's rent. we literally found a house in less than a week and still managed to work. it was interesting.

Elder Blanding.

April 7, 2014

[He's looking a little tan and sun bleached blond!]

"Look I'm holing a pyramid"

Hey all:

So this Thursday we went on divisions with some of the ward members and I went to visit an investigator we have been teaching since I got here. her name is E*. we verified if she had read and prayed about the Book of Mormon. she had and so we decided to focus in on helping her recognize her answer. We were able to help her recognize the answerer she had received. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson we could all feel it. when we left the house we (the member I was with and myself) just looked at each other and the only thing we could say was "wow!" I don't think I have ever felt the Spirit stronger in any lesson that I did in that one. IT WAS AWESOME!! To make things even better she came to the Sunday Morning Session of conference. by far the best spiritual experience I have had on my mission.

So Today we went to Cacaxtla and Xochitecatl (I think the names are in Náhuatl, an ancient dialect of Mexico. there where people who spoke it in San Pablo so I know a few words) two ancient ruins here in Tlaxcala (also a Náhuatl word, it means Field of corn or something like that, I don't remember exactly what they defined it as). It was awesome. only myself and Elder Graff went. we invited the sisters in the district but they had already made plans to go to Cholula (to which the zone will be going next week so I don't know why they went today) so we went ourselves. There are some really cool pyramids there and unlike Cholula they actually let you walk on them. It was really cool.

Other than that the only thing that happened this week was Conference and I'm not really going to go very detailed on that here because I don't have time to. but I learned a lot. the one thing that I will say is that I loved when President Packer quoted D&C 76:22-24 and then said that their words are his words. basically saying that he knows that Jesus Christ lives because he has seen him. that was just so cool.

Elder Blanding.

March 31, 2014

[This week Jason really gave us his heart!  So wonderful!

He usually replies to my message (lots of chit chatty stuff then sends a separate email. I usually don’t add the first reply email because you’d have to read my email to him to understand most, but I’m adding it this time because he finally answers some questions! ]

yes you should really start looking into the BYU stuff. I don't want to be late getting my application in and I want to do it in the way that gives me the best chance of getting in.

wow the mud slide was worse than you said at first. 

YAY FOR ASHLYN!!! I KNOW THAT FEELING OF FINALY GETTING YOU VISA. IT IS AWESOME!

we are getting along great. It is fun to be with an american again. 

San Lorenzo Almecatla is exactly where I am (well the area also covers part of Tlaxcala called Panzacola and another called Papalotla). It is small as far as I know but it is growing because they are building a bunch of town houses (think apartment complexes) near by but they are in the other ward. The ward is great. they feed us well and they are helping us a lot (devisions and everything).

WHY CAN'T I BE PART OF BUILT ON THE ROCK AGAIN!!!!

(more news in the official letter)

Elder Blanding

Well this week we decided to do things differently and crazy enough we had very different results. We started contacting a lot this week (201 contacts) and tried to do a lot of divisions so that we could cover more than one appointment at a time. we managed to have a total of 38 lessons this week (more than I have had any other week) and also found 3 new families. not just dad and son or mom and daughter (broken families are way too common here) but real families with two parents and kids. we now just need to be able to get them all to start to progress. that is almost harder than finding them in the fist place.

We also had a zone conference with this week and the majority of what Pres. Christensen talked about was change. how we are in a time of great change for this mission and how we should think about change. It is really interesting when you think of how we as humans think about change. as a general rule we are opposed to change. but at the same time we realize that change isn't a bad thing and is usually a good thing. our whole life has been filled with change and we welcome these changes (maturity, school, marriage and so on) but when it comes to changing the way we do things or when people tell us we need to change we all of a sudden decide that change is a bad, evil thing that needs to be eliminated. but why? we all agree that when we go through these natural changes it is a good thing. so why is it that the non natural changes are to be avoided? the answerer in and of itself is very simple: we always want to be right/the best. 

We always want to think that we are doing the right stuff and that everyone else is wrong and needs to conform to our way of thinking. we always want to say "I'm right, you're wrong. any questions?" and never want to say "I think you may be right." But if we think about it this is exactly the opposite of what God tells us. in Isaiah 55:8-9 God tells us;  

• 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
• 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Here god says that his ways are higher than our ways and then in Mosiah 3:19 it tells us that the Natural Man is and enemy to God. Therefore if we want to follow God we need to put off the natural man and search the ways of God. This means change. we cannot go about doing the things that the natural man wants to do and still do the things God wants us to do.

The Bible Dictionary describes Repentance as follows "The Greek word of which this is the translation denotes a change of mind, a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world.[...A] turning of the heart and will to God, and a renunciation of sin to which we are naturally inclined." Therefore when God asks us to Repent he is really asking us to change. To return to Him. When we think of change in this sense it becomes a good thing. something we want and look for. It is amazing that we have been given this great gift of change. The atonement of Christ enabled Repentance allowing us to change and return to the presence of our Heavenly Father.

Here in the mission we are experiencing a great change. not only in how we work but also in who we are. the mission has already changed a lot since President Christensen got here but that will be nothing in comparison with the change we are about to experience. 

here are a few more scriptures about change.

Mosiah 5:2

Mosiah 28:3-4

Alma 15:3-12 see also Alma 11 y12 (who Zeezrom was)

Alma 17-24 (story of the sons of Mosiah, focus on chapter 18 verses 24-43 the story of the conversion of king Lamoni)

Mosiah 5:7

Alma 5:12-15

the first part of Enos.

Hosea 12:6

Matt 18:3

Elder Blanding

March 24, 2014...Oh, where has Elder Blanding gone...

Hey all.

I guess I won't waste time getting to what I'm sure you're all waiting for. 

TRANSFER NEWS!!

I am now in the area of Almecatla 1 (it is a ward in the Tlaxcala stake).

My companion is Elder Graff. he is from Virginia (yup another American companion and has 15 months in the mission) and is the District Leader (I'm Junior Comp again)

We are the only missionaries in this ward (I thought this would never happen seeing as I have had my whole mission up until now sharing a Ward or Branch). There is a lot of work here but we are trying to find even more. The mission has a goal of baptizing every week and we have decided that next transfer this area is going to baptize every week (not this transfer because of the rule that they have to come to church 5 times before they can get baptized and we don't have any baptismal dates for this change). there is also the goal of teaching at least 40 lessons every week and we have also decided that we are going to surpass that with 60 or more. all of this is going to mean a big change in how we are working. we really need to use every minuet of every day to do so. we are also planning to go on divisions with the members 4 or 5 times a week (basically every weekday after the food). 

I don't really have much more to say right now. things are relatively normal other than that I had changes I will hopefully have some stories next week. 

Elder Blanding. 

March 17, 2014--Changes are coming...

So tomorrow my self and my companion have changes!! we have to close the area and get it ready for Sister Missionaries!! This means that we spent the last half of the week (we found out Thursday night) getting the area book ready, deep cleaning the house, packing and arranging things with the food (sisters and elders can't eat together) and so that they don't miss any of the appointments we have. it has been a pain. I would like to thank you Mom for teaching me how to clean a house. I can't wait to find out where I and where Elder Rosales are going to go tomorrow. It is always so hard not knowing where we are going to be sent and not knowing with whom. It really is one of the most nerve racking moments in the mission, changes. 

Not much more has happened this week. we have just been working on getting things ready to close the area. it has been a lot of tiring work. packing all your things and cleaning a house all in a day is a pain. It is almost as hard getting the area book ready. really though we haven't even worked very much this week because we have been in the house almost all week. it is a pain.

We have had a small miracle here in San Pablo. so we have these investigators who want to get baptized but can't because they aren't married yet and are still missing a few papers to be able to get so. On Wednesday we were at the food and somehow the topic turned to this and the sister who was giving us food mentioned that her brother (the ward mission leader in a nearby ward) has helped the missionaries with this problem before. she told us that if we could get his full name, date of birth and where he is registered he could look on line and maybe help us with the problem. that same day we had planned to visit this investigator. we went by, told them about what the sister had told us. they gave us the info and we sent a text to the sister with the info. the next day we got a text from her saying that she had looked into it and they should be able to get help in the local presidency of San Pablo. we had put an appointment with our investigators for that day (Thursday). we went by and although we couldn't teach them (the brother had to go work without warning) we mentioned this to them. we are now just waiting to see the results of this but I hope it will mean that they might get baptized soon.

We also got lost on our way to one of the other stake centers in the mission for a special fire side the mission president. we didn't know how to get there so we asked one of the members how we can get there. he didn't know how by bus so he told us to take a couple of busses to get us closer and then a taxi to take us the rest of the way. we followed this instructions and it would have worked except for the fact that we lucked into the worst taxi driver in Puebla. we got in his taxi at 6:40 and the fireside started at 7. at 7:50 we we had still not found the stake center. we decided to just have him take us home so we would at least be able to finish getting ready to close the area (this was friday night so we had spent the whole day getting ready to close the area). we started home but as I mentioned before, he was the worst taxi driver in Puebla. when we told him San Pablo del Monte he was like OK. we got to a place that I didn't recognize and he said "we are here in Sn Pablo" I told him  "this isn't Sn Pablo del Monte". we then lucked into a place where I knew where we were and how to get to Sn Pablo so I started to just direct the taxi driver so we wouldn't get lost again. by the time we got to the house it was 8:45 and we had just waisted almost 3 hours (the first 40min of bus ride included) and done absolutely nothing. we didn't even get where we were trying to get to. I just say we are lucky to have gotten home.

Elder Blanding

March 10, 2014

Yo sé que esta iglesia es la única iglesia verdadera de Dios aquí en la tierra y que El Libro de Mormón es verdadero. Es increíble para ver el cambio en las vidas de las personas que estamos enseñando cuando ellos empiecen a vivir los principios del Evangelio de Jesucristo. Uno puede ver cuando ellos realmente tienen fe en la expiación de Jesucristo y que pueden ser limpios de sus pecados. Yo sé que esta es Su obra y Él no nos va a dejar solos.

En el nombre d e Jesucristo, Amén.  

I know that this church is the only true church of God here on the earth and that the Book of Mormon is true. It is incredible to see the change in the lives of the people who we are teaching when they start to live the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One can see when they really have faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and that they can be clean of their sins. I know that this is His work and He won't leave us solo in this work.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I'm going to start with the things I didn't have time for last week (actually one I forgot about two weeks ago and didn't have time for last week).

So two weeks ago we went on exchanges and so I was here with our district leader (Elder Haubner). we were looking for a referrals we had received the week before from the other elders but hadn't been able to find the person yet (the house yet but no one was ever home). It was going to be the last thing we were going to do before going home. As we were about to leave a drunk stopped us and wanted help. We told him we couldn't help him (at the moment because he was drunk) but gave him a card with our number on it so he could call us when he was "ready" (read not drunk). as we were about to leave he asked us our names and so we told him. he then tried to repeat our names but wasn't anywhere close. instead of saying our names he gave us cool nicknames. I don't remember what he gave to Elder Haubner but he gave me the nickname of "Panther" it was awesome!! It is defiantly the coolest nickname I have ever gotten... and it was from a drunk person in Mexico. I thought it was awesome.

A* AND G* CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! it was awesome!! It is one of the greatest feelings when your investigators come to church. The cooler thing was that they committed to come every week from now on!! Now we just need to do everything we can to help them keep that commitment (and also get married but they are working on that).

So this week I passed one year. yea it really has been that long. So weird. now I am on the down side. over the hump. on my way out. whatever you want to call it I'm officially old in mission terms. I just hope I can make the most of this last year.

Elder Blanding

Elder Blanding in a tunnel. 

March 3, 2014

Hey y'all!!

We went to a pyramid in Cholula today (going to be a short letter)!!! it was really cool. And by really cool I mean REALLY COOL!!! at the top (or where it should be, the pyramid was partially destroyed by Cortez) is a catholic church and the first photo is of me at the top of the stairs that lead up to it. the other photos are of a sign that is in front of the church (ignore the bad English, I am 99.99% sure that it is a translation of the Spanish version on the other side). apparently the Cross that they put on the top was struck by lightning not once but three times, and the church was destroyed by an earthquake. I don't think that the people got the message. It was really cool. if I had time and space in the message I would send some more pictures of the tunnels that the excavators put into the pyramid. maybe next week.

so I don't have more time but I do have more to say so I will have to make a note to write you all about it next week. sorry

Elder Blanding

Elder Blanding at the top of Cholula

English...sort of

February 24, 2014 "Hump Day"

[Two emails since he usually emails a reply to my email then starts a new one which I share]

wow what a week… [I just told him about our boring normal week.]

We just use the recordings of the hymns because I really don't want to play and either way the "piano" they have here in Sn Pablo sucks (half keyboard and the sound istarable). [I asked if he played the piano for any of his meetings.]

as for cool missionary stories... not really. there have been some moments that were kind of cool but only if you know all the background, and that would be boring and take to long to write out. sorry. maybe I will include a small one in my weekly letter. [I asked to send some cool missionary stories…~sigh~]

Here is his real email to us this week:

On Wednesday (I almost wrote miércoles, Wednesday in Spanish) I will hit my adjusted "Hump Day" (adjusted because of the 2 weeks they are taking off my mission). I can't believe that in 2 days I will be able to say I have less time left in the mission than the time I have in the mission. It is a weird feeling. 

This week we had another special zone conference with Pres. Christensen. He talked to us about how it isn't enough to be Good Missionaries, we need to be Excellent Missionaries. He also told us that it won't be easy to become Excellent Missionaries. It will require a price to pay. A price of all our disobedience, all our energy, everything else we have been holding back from the work and every single thing we have been holding on to of the world. We also had interviews this week with the president and he asked each one of us individually if we were willing to pay the price. I, of course, said yes.

We also had a small miracle this week. We have been teaching a woman named E* for a while now. We haven't had very much luck in finding her at home with time to receive us (she also has a lot of family problems, husband who beats her (they are separated but still married), children who don't support her and other things). We ran into her in the street a few weeks ago and put an appointment that ultimately fell though but we found out that she is still living in the same place (we had thought she had moved out). We went by last week and put an appointment with her for Tuesday at 7:30pm. We showed up at almost exactly 7:30 and as we rang the bell we saw her walk up to the house. She had just got home. We had planed to bring a member with us so that we could enter the house even if her son wasn't there but for some reason or another he couldn't come. She went into the house to see if her son was there so we could come in. He wasn't. We told her we would come by at about 8 to see if her son was there but we didn't have very much luck. We decided to go by the next day to see if we could find her. As we were on our way to visit her that next day we were walking down the street and next thing I realize she is about 10 feet behind us. We start talking and she invites us to come to the house. We go over hoping that a man will be home and by a miracle her son is. It really was a little Miracle that we were able to find her in the street and then teach her. 

Elder Blanding

February 17, 2014

So this week has been very interesting. I would say it has gotten close to being the craziest week in my mission. [mother edited this story]  Later that day we were walking down that same street. We were walking more or less in the middle street (very very normal here) when we saw the headlights of a truck heading towards us. We moved over to the side of the street so the truck could pass. The truck then went by and I, being closer to the street, felt something wet hit my face.... the passenger in the truck spit on me.... it was definitely a weird day. But wait I mentioned that it was a weird TWO days and that all happened on Monday. The next day we were walking down a street contacting people on the way to an appointment. As we were walking we saw a man turn the corner and start walking down the street towered us. I told my companion that we are going to contact him. As we got closer he extended his hand to shake ours, this is a little weird because we usually have to start the conversation with the people. We started talking to him and he told us a lot of interesting things. I won't mention them all for time issues. But to be brief, he told us that he had just gotten out of jail (I think that day), didn't have any money to return to his pueblo and wanted to commit suicide. We spent the next 10 minutes trying to convince him that he shouldn't commit suicide and that he should try to find work to return to his home. It was a weird conversation.... Well this was the weirdest start of the week I have had on my mission.

So remember that package you thought would take about 6 weeks to get here, the one with the Super Bowl stuff in it... well I already have it. Yup I got it today. It was weird, we went to play football (amarican football not soccer) at a field near the offices (they are at the stake center here in La Paz) and the assistants went with us so they opened up the offices so we could change. While we were about to leave they went in the offices and took out the mail so I got the package a day early (there is a special training meeting tomorrow in the stake center so I would have gotten it tomorrow anyways). I took a picture and attached it to the E-mail. 

GO HAWKS!!!

Elder Blanding

February 10, 2014

Hey y'all greetings from Mexico. I am still on the high from last week's Super Bowl.

so this week we didn't have as much success this week. but we did have a little. The last week we found a new investigator and this week we had another appointment with her. we went and she had read a little in the Book of Mormon and we helped her realize that she had [received] and answer. it was a true example that it helps to have a member there. It was a really spiritual experience. I can't believe how awesome it is to be a missionary.

Elder Blanding.

February 4, 2014

So I am writing today because we went to the "Africam Safari" yesterday and didn't get back to our area until almost 6 pm. it was awesome! we had to get special permission to go because it is in the south mission (this makes twice that we have gotten permission to go to the south mission). 

I want to really start off with a resounding cry of GO HAWKS!!!!!! when I found out yesterday that we had won, 43-8, I was off the wall!! first Seahawk super bowl win in history!! (and I didn't get to see it;( ) I hope you keep the recording for another year so I can watch it. If you would be so kind to buy me a commemorative jersey and send it to me :D that would be awesome. 

This week was a great week. we were able to teach a few lessons, find new investigators and even get the family we have with a baptismal date to church. I would probably say that number wise this was the best week of my mission up to date (I haven't checked to verify that but I feel like it was). I just hope that this wasn't a phenomenon and was instead the starting of a new leaf in the area. we just need to get the couple married (they are waiting on some papers they need) and they can get baptized in two more weeks (they only need to come twice more before they can get baptized). We also found a new investigator this week. we have an appointment with her later today and we hope she will have gotten an answer about The Restoration. If she keeps progressing she will be the first baptism I get from a contact (I don't count the Espinoza family (my last baptism in Álamos) because they contacted us). I just hope that we can get this area into a baptizing area while I am here because I really want to leave it a lot better than when I found it.

Oh and today are the cambios [changes] and we are staying put.

Elder Blanding

Elder Blanding In Puebla

January 27, 2014

so this week will be a short one because I only have a few minutes to write.

so we just got finished with some special zone conferences that we have been having for the last three weeks. it was very cool. we learned a lot of better ways to work. now my goal is to put them all in practice (and not for just a few weeks). I am very thankful that our mission president is willing to take so much time out of his schedule to give us training individually.

this week has been a rather good one. we still have a lot more that we can be doing, but over all things are looking up. two less actives came to church this week! that was awesome. we also had our first good coordination meeting. it was nice that we are finally starting to work together (something we have yet to do up to this point in the branch). we also had our first real branch council meeting (the first one was last week but all they talked about was what a branch council meeting is and who needs to be there). I wish that we could just wave a magic wand and all of a sudden everything worked like it should but it doesn't work that way. the good thing is that we are now on the right track.

in response to all the people who think that it is hot here I include the attached photo. this is what I have to do almost every morning to keep from freezing to death. (not exactly, I don't usually have the hood up or the hat on but everything else it 100% accurate)

Elder Blanding

It's cold in Mexco!

January 20, 2014

Hey every one!!

I just want to start off with a resonating cry of "GO HAWKS!!!!!!!! " 1st Super Bowl since the "Cinderella season" and this time we aren't going in as the under dogs. In two weeks I hope to see a front page of the Seattle Times saying "SEATTLE SEAHAWKS WIN THE SUPER BOWL!!!" or its equivalent. 

This week we had a few lessons but still no one came to church. why is it so hard? why can't they just come when they say they will come? oh well we just have to try harder this week. We have a few Investigators with baptismal dates but they won't come to church so they might not get baptized on their dates. it is a very sad situation. 

I got a few packages and cards this week and I would like to say thank you to everyone who sent me something. It is always nice to get something as a missionary. It can get rather lonely out here. I read it a few times in some of the letters I got that it must be so nice and warm here. I would like to clarify one thing... IT'S NOT! If you have heard anything of Puebla or Tlaxcala (the other state that the mission covers) it can get quite cold here. even more so in my area because I am right next to the volcano La Malinche (don't worry it is a dormant volcano). during the day it can feel hot if you are in the sun (it is very strong here and burns quickly, being up high and relatively close to the equator will do that, well not really close but closer than Seattle), but at night and early in the morning it gets very cold.

Elder Blanding.

January 13, 2014

Hey all!!

This week was kind of a downer. we had very few lessons and no one came to church. it sucked. I hope that this next week will be different.

Today we went to one of the catholic churches they have here in Puebla (there are a lot). this one had a mummy in it here are some of the pictures I took (the last one is the mummy). the story is interesting of why he is mummified, the reason is that they didn't do anything to mummify him. they just buried him and one day opened up his crypt and his body was still preserved. they then closed up the crypt. A few years latter when they opened it again nothing had changed. they then decided to move the body and put it on display. it was weird to think that that was a living person.

oh and I don't know if you have been keeping up with the weather here but it is getting cold here. I know, cold in Mexico who would have thought. I have actually been thinking about buying gloves but I can't find any that have the fingers cut off so I can still write without a problem. 

Elder Blanding.

Catholic Church

Catholic Church in Puebla

The Mummy

January 6, 2014

so today make exactly 10 months since I went into the MTC. I can't believe it has really been that long. I still feel like I am the new Elder who doesn't know what he is doing. what is even weirder is that I am now in the time frame where Elder Swenson (my trainer if you don't know who he is) was when we were together. 

So this week was a down week in terms of lessons. we only had a total of 6 all week. I hope it was just because it was the week of the new year and everyone was out doing things. But hey there is always people in the street. 

So I have received a few of the letters you all sent me. Chris asked me a question and I decided to answer it. the answer is not always but when we feel like we should, we do. 

we also had a interesting experience on new years. we were trying to sleep and at about 12:00 we got woken up by all the fireworks going off. later at about 3:00 some drunk guy decided to ring our doorbell it was really anoying. I wish I had thought of something clever to say to him but I didn't.

that is about all I have this week. so see you.

Elder Blanding.

December 30, 2013

ADIOS 2013 Y BIENVENIDOS 2014!!!

I can't believe it is almost 2014. where has the time gone. It is weird to think that I will have less than a year left in my mission in just 50 days (yup that short).  

So this week we have been focusing a lot on contacting more. it has been weird to see just how easy it really is to contact people when you actually start doing it. Before this week I hadn't contacted more than about 25 people in a week, and that was my best week. this week however, we contacted 75 people. that wasn't even very many. there are missionaries in the mission that contact 200 people a week. we are planning to contact more this coming week and even more farther on. the idea being that we increment the goal every week until we are contacting almost everyone we see. we are also planning on starting to contact in the buses (by contact I mean stand in the front with a book of Mormon and contact everyone in the bus at the same time, not going person to person). It will be interesting to see the results.

oh and funny thing that happened with the contacts this week. it has something to do with the question that Jessie had about the crazy people. we were on the way to visit a member and we decided to contact an old lady that was walking the other way, this was a bad idea. she spent the next 5-10 minuets telling us we didn't know God, the 10 Commandments or anything really. from this encounter I learned a few things about the 10 Commandments. First, not worshiping Idols is not one of the 10. Second, I have been reading the commandment about keeping the Sabbath day holy (santificar el día de reposo) wrong all my life, it really reads keep the parties holy (santificar las fiestas). I left the contact enlightened about the 10 Commandments, and also about how much ignorance there is in the world.

Christmas was interesting. We didn't do anything special really. the food on Tuesday was good and the family of the branch mission leader invited us to eat with them on the 24th. However, the best part was Skyping on the 25th. either way it was a nice Christmas.

well that is about all I have to say about this week. productive but relatively boring other than Christmas and some of the contacts we had.

Elder Blanding