Hola de Aldo // March 23

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This week has been one of much thinking and learning (let´s hope). I´ve been learning about the Atonement of Christ and I think this time it´s more through experience than straight book-learning. I start to realize how much I need Him. I often forget Him, often don´t work the way He deserves, but I know He loves me. I like the quote from the Scriptures when he calls Peter and Andrew to leave the life they were used to behind and follow Him. But he didn't stop at "come and follow me", He added the promise, "and I will make you fishers of men". It´s only through Christ that we really become better people, better missionaries. Christ and Christ alone can reach in the deepest recesses of our human, imperfect hearts and make changes. It reminds me also of Moroni 10:32-33, which says "Come and perfect yourselves in Christ", or something to that effect in inglés.

Edson, our Peruvian investigator, came to church for the third time. He accepted as well the Word of Wisdom, though we forgot to follow up to see if he´s living it. We´ll make better plans to help him avoid temptation this week, and if he does well and reads the LDM, I think he´ll be baptized in April.

We also are teaching an evangelico investigator in the city proper of Aldo Bonzi, se llama Hugo. He´s reading well but we´re unsure of his actual testimony. However he has great desires to bautizarse so, if we help him, he´ll make it as well.

Thank you alls for the birthday loves and wishes. They were wonderful and very meaningful to me. Will you please send me the email of the Foutz so that I can thank them for bringing me the package?

Con amor,

Elder Blake

Bautismos // March 16

¡Hola familia y amigos!

I don´t have much time to write this week, so I´m sending a few photos (worth 1000 words a piece, right?). Thanks for everything you do. I had a good week. I love you all.

Transfers - Me quedo en Bonzi // March 9

¡Hola familia y amigos!

Well, we received the transfer announcements last night and... I´m staying in Aldo Bonzi with Elder Smith! It will be great to stay here with him and in this zone of missionaries. I learn a lot and we´re starting to have some good success in finding families to teach. Last week we found a family from Paraguay. The mom had visited with and loved the missionaries 20 years ago, but never got baptized. We were looking for a referral that the famila Cruz (from whom we rent our apartment) gave us when we found her and her family. She remembered lots about José Smith and the "black book" that the missionaries had given her. We taught them the Restoration and they understood it not too bad; planned on coming to church too! Unfortunately they couldn´t make it because of other pesky schedule commitments.

Also, the two older sons of our recent convert, Roxana, are getting baptized this weekend! We´re really excited for them to be a family together in the church. The boys are named Damian and Bruno, and are capos (studs). Damian agreed to give up coffee and tea yesterday, and we really hope he sticks to it because he can´t get baptized if he drinks this week. We bought him some WordofWisdom-approved substitutes that we´re going to give him later today.

God´s grace is real.

Con amor,

Elder Blake

Another Week in Also Bonzi // Feb 23

¡Hola familia y amigos!

Así pasa otra semana en Aldo Bonzi. This transfer has flown by. There are only 2 weeks left! I wonder if I´ll stay longer here or get moved out. Probably the former, but we´ll see.

This week Roxana keeps going strong. She bore her testimony in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and continues to love everything about the Church. We had a family home evening with her family and another member family this week about the Sabbath Day, which went really well. We had planned this noche de hogar to be big, having invited all of the members/menos-activos that live in our little neighborhood behind the Mercado Central, but only Roxana and her family showed up :/ Oh well. That happens in the mission. Her boys continue attending church and mutual as well., and they love it. We had had baptismal dates for them this weekend, but now they are having second thoughts :( We´re going to visit them a lot and do all we can to help them.

We have started teaching another man in our neighborhood named Edson. He´s from Perú, and we met him in a little peruvian restaurant owned by an investigadora of ours. Later we met him at his apartment, which he rents and where he works as a siemster (person who sews) all day long. We taught him how to pray in the first visit, and he did a good job. We came back and taught The Restauration, which he also seemed to understand pretty well. After that we´ve missed him for a few days, but we hope to see him again tonight and see how he´s doing.

That´s all for now! I hope you all have a great week. Keep being the wonderful people you all are.

Con amor,

Elder Blake

Baptism! //Feb 16, 2015

¡Hola familia y amigos!

I have hardly any time to write this week. We went to the cyber late. HOWEVER, there is one piece of fabulous news: Roxana Luna se bautizó! She is a great mother of 3 who was blessed a lot to learn the gospel. Her baptismal service was great and she felt the Spirit strongly. She´s already involved in the Relief Society and will be a great asset to the ward. 

Con amor!

Elder Blake

This Week in Aldo Bonzi

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This week has been bastante bien in Aldo Bonzi. We got to do some service at the bishop´s house raising his roof -- literally! Many roofs here are made of big sheets of corroguated metal called chapa pinned together with screws and attached to the house with cement. He broke the cement, we lifted the roof, and added new walls to make an additional story of his house. haha, it was fun, but we left early to go to an appointment.

Roxana keeps coming to church and loves it, as well as her three kids. it´s a family that really received the gospel like a breath of fresh air. Roxana is super excited to be baptized. She changed her own date to the 14th of February because a few years ago her family was hurt badly on that date, and she wants to "turn a new page" in her life by getting baptized on that date. We´re super excited for her, as well as the ward, and we´re honestly rushing to teach her everything she needs to know before she gets dunked.

That´s all for now. I hope you all ahve a great week!

Con amor,

Elder Blake

Saludos de Aldo Bonzi

¡Hola familia y amigos!

How are you all doing? I hope you´re enjoying the cold while I "enjoy" the heat and humidity :)

This week finds me back in my own area with my new compañero, Elder Smith from Roy, Utah. He has 15 months in the mission, is great in working with the members, and is very happy and loving. He´s also a little reserved like me at the same time, which is great. I am blessed to have him and he helps me a lot.

This week has been interesting. I´m still trying to figure out and have a stronger testimony of the importance of missionary wory, and also of the principle of work. I can´t deny that this week I wasn´t my best in my desires to put forth all my "heart, might, mind and strength." But the Lord, Elder Smith, Presidente Robertson, and other experiences this week helped me at least get through it, for which I am grateful.

We had an awesome lesson with several investigators yesterday. After church we showed them all the baptismal font in the chapel and, with the help of our ward mission leader, taught about the manner and covenant of baptism. One of the investigators, Roxana, is super stoked about baptism, and has a date set for this month. Right now it´s set for the 7th, but we might have to move it in order to make sure we teach her everything she needs to know before that. But she´s super sincere, and we have a lot of faith that she´ll make it (and that she´ll set the example for her three sons as well :)

Love you all! I hope you all have a wonderful week. Remember that this is the true church of Jesus Christ in the earth; the Book of Mormon is true; Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God; repentance and change are real through Christ and obedience. 

May God bless you all!

Con amor,

Elder Blake