Favorite Scripture

Doctrine and Covenants: 35

13 Wherefore, I call upon the aweak things of the world, those who are bunlearned and despised, to thresh the cnations by the power of my dSpirit;

14 And their arm shall be my arm, and I will be their ashield and their buckler; and I will gird up their loins, and they shall fight manfully for me; and their benemies shall be under their feet; and I will let cfall the dsword in their behalf, and by the efire of mine indignation will I preserve them.

15 And the apoor and the bmeek shall have the gospel preached unto them, and they shall be clooking forth for the time of my coming, for it is dnigh at hand—

Monday, May 27, 2013

Another Boring Week? NO!


Ok, to answer questions. Things are going well with my companion, we have a few differences, but we work things out pretty easily. He has 1 year in the mission, and he was in one area for the majority of that time. His english isn't bad, but we're working on it, he's a lot better that others though. Yes, we still have a piano in the house, but I don't really play, it's not that big so I can't really play the songs I know... And the piano actually belongs to the church, so there isn't a piano in the church, so I don't play at church. Congrats to Dad, that's great news!!! And also, congrats to Carter for his great hit, just gotta keep working on it and he'll have a home-run in no time. And Cooper, good job with graduating from pre-school, that's pretty sweet. Feliz cumpleaños a Brielle! Oh, and no, we haven't gone on excursions, there's nothing in my area, it's pretty lame.
 
We are still having really uneventful weeks, we are really working to have investigators but it's pretty hard here. Many people are very hard hearted and won't even let us talk about Christ with them. We've been contacting a lot, but it hasn't really led anywhere, we are trying to work with the members, but it's pretty tough, they still don't understand the importance of "every member a missionary". About the only cool thing that happened this week was that we had just gotten done teaching Milton and Blanca, and we were walking towards President Araya's house when Elder Brindis and I felt like someone was going to talk with us, there was a big, muscular guy walking towards us and said that he had a question for us (to me he seemed drunk, so I was a little nervous). He said that he wanted to know what the Mormons are about, so I started to explain, but he just kept talking and asking questions, and after just a couple minutes, he started to tell me a story about his life, all in English. He said that he had seen Pres. Araya walking with his wife many times and that he (Pres. Araya) always seemed to be happy. He then said, "I have more than him, as far as materials, but I'm not happy, I want what he has, I want to be happy." He then told me how he had felt like he needed to talk to us, that when he saw us, a question popped in his head and he just had to ask us something. It was a really cool experience, except for the fact that my comp didn't understand anything that happened haha. Other than that, I tried ceviche for the first time yesterday, and hopefully we will be having the baptism of Melissa (daughter of Milton and Blanca) this week, but we'll see, it's a bit harder with young people. And also I have to do a lot of planning for a youth activity that we are going to have to hopefully get some investigators. We will be having a movie night, minute to win it games, and then a talent night, hopefully everything works out.
 
And that's my boring week, but I do have one question for Bro. Nelson, we are having difficulties getting the youth involved in church, and for that we want to know what we could do to make the lessons better/more entertaining, to help them want to be there, any advice that anyone has would be great.
 
Love,
Elder Black

Monday, May 20, 2013

Changes!




New Companion, Elder Brindis from Mexico
So, like this says, I'm still in Naranjo. But yes, Elder Ramírez had changes. So Mom is going to laugh about the name of my companion and then have to explain it to everyone else, his name is Elder Brindis, and he's from Mexico. The truth is that his, to me, his face is similar to someone we're related to, but I want to see if you guys agree before I say who. He is really quiet, humble, and very well mannered... we are getting along really well :) To answer a couple other questions, from last week, mom, if you ever want to send anything in a package, ties are always a good idea. I can just check my email next week about dad unless it's really important, then you could email president. Congratulations to Carter for hitting the ball in a game, eso es muy chido. Like my Mexican spanish? Anyways...
We had a fairly boring week again, Elder Ramírez had wanted to say goodbye to people... so the majority of Tuesday and Wednesday we were in members houses... not teaching lessons. And then Elder Brindis got here and wanted to get to know the área, so we were spending time walking around a lot. So we had the worst numbers that I've ever had in the mission. So about the only good thing that happened was that we contacted a lady, she's really interested, and gave us a reference in the first visit! We will be going back this week so hopefully things work out. Milton's family had a baptismal date for this week, but it's not going to happen... he hasn't been praying to know if it's all true and he wants to be sure about his decision, so I told him that if he isn't doing what he needs to to know, he's not going to know, duh! So hopefully we have some progress with them this week. Other than that, I spoke in church yesterday, about mission work, of course right? I don't remember if it's an expression in english but I really chopped their heads off, in a loving way :) But that was the first time I've had to speak, normally the members do it. And that was my boring week.
Random things this week: I learned how to make balloon figures (basically just the swords), also, I had two drunks on at the bus stop that were so happy to know me, and protect me cause I'm their "American brother", they kept fist bumping me and it was hilarious, but weird. And also a saying here, when it's raining lightly/sprinkling, they say that it's raining cat hair. And also, I still write in my journal every day.
Hasta la Pasta!
Elder Black

Monday, May 13, 2013

Done Training!

Ascencion and Juana get Married!

Eating his first Guanabana
So first, to answer your one question that you had for me... I don't have anything that I would like for you to send.
First, I just wanted to say congratulations to everyone who has recieved their mission calls, it's awesome that so many people are ready to serve. And I had actually been wondering when Mack was going to get his call, so it was good to hear that.
Now for what happened this week. On Monday, after 2 weeks of waiting, the guanabana that we had was finally ripe enough to eat. We took it to Pres. Araya's house and he cut it up for us, and we tried it plain, and also as a smoothie. It was really good. The next day, we were so sore and sunburnt from playing soccer on P-day that we could barely walk. We were waddling up and down the hills and had a hard time doing anything. So we just contacted for the day and went to less active members houses so that we would be able to sit down. And we spent the majority of the week contacting cause we are losing our investigators really fast, we are running out of people to teach. So we had the worst week yet as far as numbers go... and we didn't have much success contacting either. And then on Wednesday we had a zone meeting and then 3-way divisions with us in Naranjo, Grecia, and the zone leaders in San Ramon. I stayed here because Elder Ramirez went to Grecia to do baptismal interviews, and I was here with Elder Nape (from Mexico) to do interviews here for Chino and Bernardita; the two that just got married about a week ago.  Chino had had word of wisdom problems and that's why he had to have another interview. But good news, he passed this time! So they decided to be baptized on Sunday. So Saturday we went to the church to clean the font (it's outside and always gets dirty) and that's when we found that half of the main hallway of the church, the primary, and the kitchen were all flooded with water. So we were there for an hour sweeping all the water out, and then mopping up what was left. But then on Sunday the baptism went well, there were only about 10 people there, and we had forgot to make assignments on who would speak, so I had to give a talk on baptism right there on the spot. But everything went well, so that was good. And then after 3 hours of struggling to be able to talk with the family for Mother's Day, we were finally able to figure out a solution and talk. And yes, I cried a lot cause I'm baby. After that I couldn't keep myself together very well, and then just ended up crying for no reason... just cause I had been crying or something, I don't know, thanks a lot mom... dumb genetics. After that I was finally ready to go teach a lesson to Milton and Blanca and they are loving the lessons, they are reading, they are progressing very well, we just need them to pray to know if it's true, but hopefully they will be baptized in 2-3 weeks. And that's about all that happened this week, changes are this week so hopefully I will have something exciting to say next week.
Con Amor(sh),
Elder H. Black 

Monday, May 6, 2013

May 6, 2013


First off, Irina talked with me yesterday and she said that she realized she could've emailed you in spanish, but had forgotten haha. (she's only about 22 or 23... fyi, she just got back from the mission about 2 months ago.) Also, tell Mckenna and Carter that I'm sorry, but I can't write them this week, we are very short on time today. And we get mail and stuff when the zone leaders go to the capital too, but only when we meet up with them after that, so it's still not too often. And I don't know how much time it will be, I just now got a leader from someone that had sent it 2 months ago... so we'll see. And Dad, I can't say that I have any experiences for you, we're probably in the same boat, I just can't feel as much as others say that can.
 
Anyways, we had another kind of slow week... but, some interesting stuff happened. First I wanted to tell you a little about an investigator family. They are Milton (dad) Blanca (mom) Rut (daughter, 15 or 16) Melissa (12 or 13) and a baby girl. Milton is super direct with us, he says things the way he thinks they are... he didn't really like church yesterday, and it was his first time. But he said that he'd be willing to give it another chance. This family is our only family that I think will progress... sad huh? And also, just something funny for you guys, Rut has a crush on me... so yeah, that's interesting. Also, this week, our baptism fell through, because the guy has Word of Wisdom issues, but hopefully they will be getting baptized on Sunday. And that wedding of Chino and Bernardita, this guy that I just mentioned, happened secretly. Bernardita didn't like how the wedding was being planned, so she "canceled" the wedding and just had it in secret. And also if you remember Eilin, she was a really great investigator, turns out they moved back to Nicaragua without telling us... :( We did pick up an investigator family this week, and they have a baby of 6 months that has to be on oxygen all the time... sad huh? And we'll see how they are, I don't really know anything about them. Also, we found an inactive member who now says that she's not a member and attends an evangelical church... so she invited us to attend, and we went yesterday for a little more than an hour. That was so weird and funny. Everyone stands up and puts up their hands to "absorb the spirit", then they dance and sing to the music, while they absorb the spirit. And the main guy who sings, sometimes would tell them how to dance, basically they "raised the roof" and stepped side to side, and at one point he had them flap their arms like birds... it was so funny and we were trying so hard not to laugh. And yeah, that was that church... And also with that, the preacher would talk and the people would shout "amen" or shout to answer questions like "Who loves Jesus?" "Whoooo!!!!!" Yeah, it was new, different, weird, but now I have a story.
 
So that was my week, and yeah, other than that I just thought I'd share some slang. Hupe = knock knock, hup/ huuuu = sup, salado = deal with it, guila = teenagers, and chunche = thing.
 
Hasta next week my followers!
Elder H. Black