Week 41 (Bario del Norte, Mexico)

My new companion is from Arizona his name is Elder Neumann. We are getting along great. He has 18 months here in the mission. It is pretty funny because he was actually in this area before during December. He actually turns 21 today hopefully we can go do something fun for him. 

And yes, I am still district leader as well. In my district there are two other elders. Elder Valentine from Dominican Republic (he has like a year in the mission) and Elder Jimenez from Mexico City (he has like three months). 

That story about the two missionaries is really cool thanks for sharing. It is really cool how the lord works and how you are exactly where he wants and with whom he wants. 

Sounds like the heat is starting up everywhere. Here it just keeps getting hotter and hotter. I have no idea how hot it has been getting and I can’t make a very good guess but it has been hot and the sun is crazy strong. 

This next week the investigator Nicha is going to be baptized. She was going to do it this last week but we had stake conference. She got an answer that the Book of Mormon is true this last Sunday when we were in church when my comp was giving a talk. He said I know this book is true and she said that he looked right at her and she felt as if it were God telling her it was true. It was cool to see that she could get an answer. 

Yesterday we had stake conference and we heard some pretty cool talks. One was about this guy who talked about how he got into running and told about how he prepared for his first marathon. He tied it into making goals and told of the importance of making spiritual goals. He said he never would have progressed if he hadn’t been training with goals and how we will never progress to become more like Christ if we don’t make spiritual goals.

Another guy said something pretty cool he said the in this church there are a lot of good people, a lot of not so good people, and some bad people. It is the same as other churches there are a lot of good people a lot of not so good people and some bad people. So what’s the difference? In the Church of Jesus Christ people come here on the own agency using their own free will, not because someone sprinkled water on their heads. The people make covenants or promises with the lord to better themselves and to go from good, not so good, or bad to more like Christ. 

Love Elder Blanchard

Week 40 (Bario del Norte, Mexico)

That is way cool that you guys get to feed the missionaries. That sounds like a crazy long waiting list. Ha-ha the moms will love the pictures. 

This week I do get a new companion. I am the only one in my district that is staying. In my zone only Elder Hogan, Elder Anderson and Elder Garcia are staying (they were in my district in the beginning). The rest got switched. Today at 2:00 we find out who are our new companions. The six weeks did go by crazy fast, feels like I just met Elder Rolon and now he is on his way back to Jalapas Vera Cruz, Mexico.

This last week I have noticed that when I miss a day of studying Spanish, like on Monday when we had the meeting, the rest of the day people struggle to understand me.  And when I do study, while I’m talking with the people I don’t feel like I speak any differently or am more understandable but the people are able to understand with ease.  Shows the power of the gift of tongues and how the spirit doesn’t work as hard to help the people understand what I’m saying when I don’t do my part. 

We had a lesson this last week with an investigator named Nicha and she had a couple Christian buddies over and we were sharing about the pre-earth life and they really liked the lesson and said things like wow I have never heard that before, that is so cool, when we were telling about how we lived with God before and how he knows us. It adds more to my testimony of our knowledge of the fullness of the gospel. 

This last week I went with my zone leader to the area of some sisters in my zone to help with some interviews and on the way we helped this guy jam pack his little truck full of furniture. It was cool how it all just seemed to fit; the final product looked very Mexican ha-ha. 

On Thursday we showed the video of Meet the Mormons at the church and had people come to see. We were able to get our investigator Nicha to go and her Christian buddy dropped her off at the church and we were able to get him to stay for a bit too. The investigator, Nicha, told us that we have the power to convince people because in the beginning the buddy didn’t want to stay. Before the video, we had lesson with Nicha and she told us that she was going to return to her congregation in the Christian church. We explained to her the importance of the sacrament and taking it every week (her church only does so every month) and why we took it, and she ended up saying that she would come with us for sacrament meeting every week then go to her congregation after. This last week she came for the first hour of sacrament meeting and what was cool was that we had forgotten to say anything about picking her up and giving her a ride to the church and she was planning on taking a bus to get there on her own (she didn’t have to because we showed up with a ride). It was cool to see that she had the desire to take the sacrament. 

On Friday I helped this investigator named Oscar with his English homework and because of the help he committed to go to church on Sunday and showed up too. Also I was able to do an interview for this guy in the area of the zone leaders named Axel. All went well and he was way prepared but the president of our mission wants us to wait another Sunday before we baptize him. 

This next week we are going to have stake conference.

Love Elder Blanchard

Week 39 (Bario del Norte, Mexico)

It was great to talk with you guys this last week. I did enjoy it even though the connection made it difficult. It was cool to be able to talk and see you guys. Glad to hear that my Spanish is sounding good. Ha-ha although my accent doesn’t sound Argentine I’m glad it at least sounds Mexican and not too gringo. 

Ha-ha that is great that Emily was able to give a lesson on the restoration. It is crazy how such a simple event had such an impact on the world. 

That is crazy I can’t believe great-grandma went to the hospital, hopefully everything turns out well and she is able to get back to normal quickly. I hope all is going well with grandpa’s treatments as well.

That is way cool that you guys have the elders over there now and that Daniel has a chance to work with them. from what I have seen here in the mission the first time is always awkward and weird for them, but as the youth warm up to us as missionaries they actually start to enjoy it and it always helps the youth learn a bit more. That will be interesting to hear about make sure you let me know what happens I want to hear a bit about how the missionary work is over there.

This last week went well. The teenage that we found wasn’t able to come to church last week because of school. She did have a baptism date but it fell because she didn’t go to church, and this last week she went out of town because it is vacations right now and she went back with her family. But there is this lady named Nicha she is way cool. When we first found her she only wanted to listen without any commitment, because she was Christian and liked to hear about God. But the other day she told us that she was praying every night to ask if the things that we told her were true and if she should change churches. It was way cool to hear. We then had a lesson about the restoration and she said oh wow now I see what is different about this church. She went to church on Sunday and she clicked immediately with the relief society and one of the ladies. It was way cool. She already committed to coming the next week. 

The visit from General Authority was cool, he talked about remembering who we are: children of God and how we need to help other understand this and what it really means because many say they know but they don’t really know. They know it in their heads but not in the heart. I didn’t have to speak luckily, I was really happy that I didn’t get called but it was really beneficial to prepare. 

That is way cool to hear that you were praying on Thursday because that is when we had the lesson about the restoration with Nicha and the whole day was really cool. I remember thinking there is not enough time in the day because we were constantly working and had something to do and the day flew by. I like it when we have a lot to do like that. 

This last week we were walking in the street and this dog came walking by us along the fence. My companion took a heavy step towards it to started it and make it jump. But instead it tried biting him and ripped his pants. He wasn’t too happy but it was hilarious. Both me and this guy in a nearby delivery truck were laughing.

This week during the food there was this little kid and he was crazy. We were all sitting at the table and this one year old was sitting there with his little plate and we all looked over at him just in time to see him dump almost the entire container of chile dust onto his food. His mom then took away the powder but she didn’t take away the food and the kid took a giant bite of pure chile dust, luckily it wasn’t very spicy. 

This last week I went to do an interview in the area of the other elders. I went with Elder Vuyk from Utah but the family told us that the dad was going to come out and yell at us if we didn’t leave. The girl told us that her dad had never been like that against any other church she had tried to become a part of. Interesting how Satan works. 

Today in the morning we had the meeting with Elder Christiansen of the Seventy. We got there early and I got to talk with Elder Hansen my old comp and Elder Rojas, Elder Babbs’ old companion and Elder Camuzano my old zone leader who is now in Anahuac. They told me that Juan Manuel the ward mission leader now. It was really cool to talk to them and catch up on old times. I talked to Elder Johnson he is in the city Cuauhtémoc and he works in the area where I went on divisions for two weeks. While there the person I was with and I we found a family and we taught them a bit, this Elder Johnson told me that there daughter got baptized and that the mom wants to but can’t because she isn’t married to the person she is living with. But it was way cool because Elder Johnson said that they had remembered my name and when I went to visit them. 

Elder Christiansen gave a cool training on the atonement. How we need to study and apply the atonement in everything we do. He went on to explain how the Book of Mormon contains around 55 or 52 (can’t remember what the number was) and only talks about in the Bible a few times. He said that we know more about the atonement that anyone else. He said that in training he had received from Elder Nielsen of the Twelve he said that SIRI knew more about the atonement than the world did. He said that as missionaries it is our role to explain the atonement and testify of it. 

Love Elder Blanchard