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
6 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.
7 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.
8 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:
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.
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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.
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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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