Elder Isaac Blake

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

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Jan 27, 2014

Hola Familia y Amigos (Familia),

I love you. Another great week here in the 387. It was mega hot unto Friday when it poured overnight and then rained off and on until Sunday. We woke up actually a little cold Sat and Sun. Weird.

Hmmm, lets work backwards. We had 3 investigators in Church, 1of whom is this 10yearold boss whose gonna get baptized Saturday - Santiago. We went on splits to hunt the 'gators and my comp spent 15 minutes trying to wake him. He lives the teenager schedule already. 

Saturday we had a dope baptism of the niece of our 1st Councilor. She basically taught herself - super prepared because of the rest of her fam. Watch out for a handwritten letter coming soon with more details. All in all, it was probably the best baptism I've had. She left the water crying and the Spirit was just so strong. There is a difference between baptism and conversion - baptism is just the first step. She's already being converted.
 
 

The rest of the week was business as usual. We taught a bunch of lessons and the work is going great. Time is FLYING.

I wanna touch on something Brigham mentioned in his letter. He said that he's been a little worried about his mission and that it'll be an eternity. I think he even had a dream that I came home and we were just talking, and that I said every day was like a year. He said that just after that he read my email from last week, where I said time flies, and that calmed all his fears. His testimony of the experienced hit me hard: 

"The comfort and peace it just gave me is outstanding. I really don't think this was a coincidence. Even though it wasn't a vocal prayer, the way you're living was an confirmation I needed desperately."

I'm so grateful to have been able to be the medium of the Spirit to help a brotha out, and I know that it wasn't a coincidence either. 

We had interviews with Pres Friday, and mine was awesome. I was impressed with how friendly/normal he is. Many missionaries are scared of authority. Frankly, I have no clue why. Perhaps my years in the company of Coaches like Davis, Griff, and Magpiong have gotten me used to being around authority figures. Hahaha not sure where that's going. Anyways, he helped me a lot to realize that the Spirit almost always works so subtley that we can barely discern it from normal thoughts etc. We have to diligently search Him. I can say with surety that I am guided by the Spirit literally every second of the mission. It's incredible, and I quite frankly don't really look forward to having to take off the badge in 18 months (wow). I'm so grateful for all of you and your love, but I'm starting to not miss you so much. Not because of you, but really because of how incredible it is to be immersed in this Spirit and to be able to see the fruits of repentance in our investigators. So, lets keep enjoying life. It's tooooooo good.

Questions: 

I would LOVE the raincoat from Donkey Wonkey. The sentiment means much more to me than the material. Quite honestly, I miss him sooo much even though I barely knew him. Seeing the growth of a mission in myself, and then imagining Tonga in freakin 1950 WITHOUT the MTC, I have too much respect and admiration for him. Please, I would be honored to wear his coat on my back.

I'm good for winter - bought a pea coat in an American Fair (literally Savers clothes that gets shipped here). I think I'm good without boots - it hardly rains in the winter, never snows.

I paid $50 more for the first package, the second one still hasn't come (i think). Our registrar in the offices, the missionary in charge of packages, isn't very friendly nor organized, so we'll see. I basically never know.

Alfajores are nothing special. I almost don't even like them. Milanesa is plain but actually quite good.

The dude I'm duking it up with is a semi-pro soccer player who lived in our ward but moved. He went inactive from 18-30 years, but last year his wife got baptized,he re-activated, and this week they're at the temple getting sealed. He's a boss!!

I listen to conf talks by downloading them onto a flash drive. I bought a music player thing that has a usb port and plays them. I listen to the talks while I'm getting after it in the mornings, cooking, and showering. 

Brigham, you're in my prayers as we await the BYU app. I'm confident God's plan for you will lead you on the path to true happiness, regardless of the school you attend. Always remember to pray, study the scrips, and keep the commandment. Thus, you will prosper in the land!!

Love ya'll

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