Elder Isaac Blake

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

Monday, May 12, 2014

What a pleasure it was to see your faces yesterday! It feels like yesterday was Christmas and tomorrow will be my birthday, that's how fast the time goes. Honestly I don't really know what much more there is to say. I suppose I can give you a quick low down on the area and my new comp, Elder Rosano. I'm still meeting people and covering the terrain.
Oran is a smaller city than Salta, but I'd say cozy and pretty dang cool. Elder Rosano is an electric, motivated veteran, who goes home in 3 months. I should be finishing him off. I couldn't be more grateful for him - in one week I've seen so many little things that he does that I can improve and will make me a great missionary. He helps me see my room to grow. 

I think what I've learned/seen in him can basically be summed up with DyC 11:21

21 Seek not to declare my wordbut first seek to obtain my word,and then shall your tongube loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men.

Rosano is a native of Uruguay and speaks impeccable Spanish. After suffering a blow to my Castillian progress after 4 months with a gringo, we're back to getting after it. He is willing to correct my every little mistake, and is especially helping me to literally loose my stubborn, white boy tongue (still can't roll my rs). 

He also really knows his scriptures - he's always quoting scrips from the Bible and the BoM, which he attributes to much study throughout his mission. 

When I asked him what he thinks has been the key to success, he said it's been doing things out of love he has for the people. 

This is my newly renewed vision, to live DyC 11:21. I can see and feel the "power of God unto the convincing of men" in my comp, and I aspire to such a level of performance. 

The branch is really strong here. We consistently bring people to church. The members and investigators (there are a ton of part-member families) love us alike. I already have secret handshakes with all of the primary kids, many of whom have gotten baptized in the last year or so. 

I'll end with a cool experience we had the other day. We found a new family of 5 who after an initial and powerful visit with the mom and 2 daughters, convinced their dad to come listen. We taught them outside their wood shack until it got too dark to read, helping them understand the Restoration of the Gospel and the importance of Joseph Smith and the Priesthood. I touched on the Apostasy and set Rosano up to recount the 1st vision. What happened next I didn't realize until afterwards, and didn't think much of it. He says the first line, slowly, and clearly. However, he stops, and basically says to us all, "Ok, this is really important, I want to make sure we're all paying special attention." He then goes on to finish. The Spirit was really strong and I left feeling edified. 

As we are walking, he says to me, "Did you realize what happened?" "No." 

He goes on to tell me that as he said the first line, some dark, evil feeling came over him. He said he couldn't speak. Not that he forgot the words or literally couldn't open his mouth, but that for some reason, he just couldn't. He regrouped and told me he started to pray, really hard. As he said (in his head) "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen," he said the presence was lifted and was able to finish. 

Obviously a good part of you will recognize the special significance of what happened. I know that Satan is real and is strong, but I also know that Jesus is real and is stronger. My testimony is stronger than it's ever been, but like big Robin (Dad) once told me, I feel like the stronger it gets, the more I feel like there's room to grow. Luckily for me (maybe not for Mom), I still have 15 months. The opportunity to serve the Lord full-time is incredible. My cup surely runneth over. 

Love thy neighbor, and love God. 

Fight on,
Elder Blake
 




​Ald's brother in Limache
Me and big A after I told him about Oran ( a lot of tears)
Us with the Bishop and his fam (bosshog)
 
 
 
 
  Mon, May 12, 2014 at 10:33 AM, Isaac Blake <isaac.blake@myldsmail.net> wrote:



 

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