Elder Isaac Blake

Elder Isaac Blake
Email: isaac.blake@myldsmail.net

Monday, December 9, 2013

December 9th, 2013

Hola,

Pres changed the rule to 45 mins. Gonna be quick.

It's been a good week but I struggle a bit with patience. We're working with Anabel and Carlos Espinosa (again) but it seems like we might need a few weeks to baptize them. It's hard at times to maintain a ton of faith with the day to day roller coaster of changes, but as always my BoM studies help a ton. I'm learning how to balance patience and diligence, endurance and performance. 

3 Nephi 1:6-8  
 And they began to arejoice over their brethren, saying: Behold the time is past, and the words of Samuel are not fulfilled; therefore, your joy and your faith concerning this thing hath been vain.
 And it came to pass that they did make a great uproar throughout the land; and the people who believed began to be very sorrowful, lest by any means those things which had been spoken might not come to pass.
 But behold, they did watch steadfastly for athat day and that night and that day which should be as one day as if there were no night, that they might know that their faith had not been vain.

Background: The Nephites are waiting the sign (36 hours of light) of Christ's birth -fitting for this time of year. As they face the mockery of the unbelievers (the battle in my head), they start to doubt their faith a bit. However, they keep hoping for the sign of the glorious triumph of the coming of the Son of God. 

In verses 12 and 13, we read of the reward of their firmity. 
 12 And it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord aall that day; and behold, the bvoice of the Lord came unto him, saying:
 13 Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the asign be given, and on the bmorrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be cspoken by the mouth of my holy prophets.

The voice of Christ rains down and confirms the doubts and fears of the unbelievers. 

In the mission, there is a lot of pressure to baptize every week, fulfilling the mandate of Jesus Christ to go forth and baptize in all nations. 3 weeks without a baptism is killing me, but I think this is more selfish than Christ-like. I need to find the patience to accept the will and timing of the Lord, only after I've done all I can. This is where diligence comes in. 

I'm sure many of you (Matt) marvel at the schedule I put in. The simple, honest truth is that I know for a fact a manifestation of the Holy Ghost is the gift to be able to literally give every minute I have to serving the Lord, for 2 years, with hardly any thoughts of wanting to be doing something else. I marvel at the quick change I made after 8 months of ultimate laziness, and thank God everyday that I actually want to do this. It is a blessing.

Fun, non-gospel highlight: We were out trekking with a member and his freaking dog followed us like 2 miles from home. All the guys on the block were sniffing her (checking her out pretty hard). This one was all over her. This offended me, so the true defender of truth and justice in me picked up a nice sized rock. Wound up from 50 or so feet, and BOOM - head shot. The adulterer screamed and ran away. Steeeeerike out for Elder Blake. Took me back to the glory days of pitching for the Marlins in 5th grade.

Random stuff:
Christmas conference was great, and the combo of Christmas hymns and your letter Mom (Hermana Lev. told us that only a few parents wrote specific letters for their sons and daughters b/c that wasn't the original idea, and I immediately knew you would be one of the few) had me tearing up a bit. Thank you!! 

We got a member to skype from, but you guys need to make me an account and set everything up, and send me the info next week. I can't call beforehand, you have to give me a user name and password and make sure it will work. Please test it out from someone else's house because if it doesn't work, it'll just be by phone. Mom, if you have qs I'm sure you won't feel uncomfortable asking Hermana Levrino.

This first pic is me on Thanksgiving, channeling my inner-Julia as we helped an Investigator family prepare for their play. I'm painting a cloud. This would have been as the Raiders were warming up.





Receiving my gift from Elder Alvarez in the Christmas Conf. I got a mate bombilla with the inscription Salta Oeste - our zone.

 I will write more (paper letters) but you guys need to too! I still haven't received a hand written letter and its killing me.
 
BTW - no time now but could you tell dad to curtail the sports updates. I appreciate them but they do more harm than good.

 

Love ya'll

Elder Blake

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