First and Foremost I want to
better explain my purpose as a missionary. I regret at how poorly I
explained the purpose of a mission to people that were genuinely
interested. I missed a lot of missionary opportunities! My purpose for
the next two years is to simply invite others to come unto Christ by
helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ
and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. It's awesome how simple my purpose is and
how simple my life will be for the next two years.
Okay
now that I got that off my chest lemme fill y'all in on my week! As I
mentioned last week (I think) I went went on splits all day Friday.
It was my first true test as a missionary and I got those pre-game
butterflies that I miss so much. (Hope the raiders are doing well) I met
up with my companion, Elder Riviera, a savage from Guatemala who
doesn't speak a lick of English at a church in Santo Domingo at around 1:30
and took a forty five minute metro ride to the middle of no where. By
the time we got to our area it was raining buckets, hardest rain I've
ever seen in my life. I went to pull out my umbrella but Riviera digo,
"No necesite" haha so I said okay and walked through this small town in
the pouring rain, I got soaked but it was sweet. The roads turned into
rivers and the sidewalks into streams. Everyone threw their trash out of
their houses on to the streets. No one cleans up the road and its dang
gross. We walked five minutes and then took a "taxi" it was a tiny
little truck to our real area. I haven't been able to think of a way to
describe it that does this town justice. The closest I have gotten to is
it was like the hedge maze in Harry Potter Four but with cement and tin
houses. There was one main road and if you took a left or right you
enter a labyrinth of cement and tin....talk about humbling. My companion
and I had three appointments that went really well. We talked about 1st Nephi in two of the lessons and prophets in the third. In between
lessons Elder Riv had me lead contacts. In the labyrinth people don't
have doors. So as we walked I would just yell into peoples shacks
"Saludo! Comó esta! Tiene una minuto por un cuarto mensaje?" And
whatever else I needed to say to get into these peoples "houses".
Of the six contacts I led we got into four houses and taught four thirty minute lessons and set up five appointments for this week. Dang these people are awesome! I couldn't really understand everything that people said but I understood basically all of our lessons and was able to help teach a little. But my duty was primarily to bear testimony and pray. It was dope. I can't wait to go out tomorrow and then start the real deal on Tuesday!
Of the six contacts I led we got into four houses and taught four thirty minute lessons and set up five appointments for this week. Dang these people are awesome! I couldn't really understand everything that people said but I understood basically all of our lessons and was able to help teach a little. But my duty was primarily to bear testimony and pray. It was dope. I can't wait to go out tomorrow and then start the real deal on Tuesday!
Okay
other news. Everyone in my district has just been counting down the
days to the field. Our teachers have kind of cooled down and we've had
every grammar lesson so basically we just review grammar and teach all
day long. The CCM has taught me a lot, but it's time to move on to
bigger and better things.
Sunday
we had two awesome tape-delayed devotionals from Elders Holland and
Bednar. Two of the biggest spiritual savages in the league. Bednarz devo
was basically a big Question and Answer. I forgot the notes in my room,
but take my word for it. It was dang awesome. But Holland's was wicked
awesome. He took us through our missionary objective word by word. He is
like the Ron Artest of Apostles. He'll throw some spiritual elbows and
get in your face.
Other weird tid bit of info.
Dominicans are really weird when it comes to holidays. They don't
celebrate Halloween because they're afraid of evil spirits or something.
And obviously they don't have Thanksgiving so people are already
getting ready for Christmas. At the store last Tuesday about half of the
store was dedicated to Christmas decorations. Haha it is ridiculous. I
miss the United States and our holidays. As nice as it is to walk
outside every waking second of the day and be hot, I miss the New
England fall!
Gosh I don't really have much
else to write about. I know every week it sounds like I'm homesick and
miss home. But I'm sorry, I really don't. I love this gospel and this
work so much.
Also, huge shout out to Earthworm Dean for the mission call. San Antonio Tejas! My home town, you're going to love it.
I
know this next week will be one of the hardest weeks of my life. I get
to take the training wheels off and just ride. I know that I'll fall
down a few times, get a few cuts but it's all about getting back on the
bike. This might be a bad analogy because I learned how to ride a bike
in one day. And I think it'll take a few more days to adjust to Spanish
and Santiago. But hey I'm ready!
Love you all and hope you have wonderful week.
Con Amor, Elder Blake  |
Me and Oldroyd, best CCM companion I could have asked for |
 |
Me and my Jamaican friend Elder Banton. I don't know if I'm throwing up
gang signs. But he said if I do this I'll be a "true Jamaican"   |
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