July was CRAZY!!!

Hey everyone! We had our Noche de Hogar last Monday night and it went very well. They watched 17 Miracles while we gave out popcorn and drinks. Everyone cried and the Spirit was very strong. I really want to watch it now. The O. and D. families came. They actually carpooled there. :) C. came, too. It was a very successful event.

C. is very smart. We taught her several times last week. We came back and followed up on the Plan of Salvation pamphlet that we left with her and she remembered 90% of it, so we focused on the Spirit World. She left for Mexico this week, to renew her visa. Hopefully she will be back soon. We have been praying she will not get stuck down there. :)

The O. family is progressing nicely. We will need to move the dad's date because he will be out of town for work this week, but they love the gospel. The daughter M. wants to get baptized really bad. We set a date with the D. family, too. We went to the Visitors Center on Wednesday and it was way cool. Most of their preguntas (questions) were answered on the tour. They came to church again yesterday, too.

Yesterday was a great day at church. We trained our ward council with the broadcast and built them up. Everyone left very excited. We all knelt to pray at the beginning and ended with hugs all around (except the hermanas). Basically we pumped them up and showed them the potential that we see in the ward. :D

It was a miracle week again. The Lord is blessing us. I am excited to keep working and "know that He is God." I hope you all are recording the blessings and miracles you are seeing in your life, too. I love you!

Most Miraculous Week!

This week was INSANELY AWESOME! We have five new investigators who are excited to be baptized and they are from three different families! The O. family came to the church to have a lesson since we got a ride there without our bikes and were stranded. V. and M. were a referral from the ward that we called Saturday night and they came to church the next morning. C. didn't come, though, which was sad.

Both of our new families came to K.'s baptism Sunday night. One investigating family gave the other family a ride! They are coming to the Noche de Hogar tonight, too! I was so grateful all day at church. We tried to organize everything and make sure they have friends, and we also helped the ward with the program for the baptism. The members were amazing and talked to them throughout the day.

M. was also baptized yesterday in my former area and I was so grateful to make it there. Brother V. baptized him and I could hardly believe I was seeing it happen! He has talked about possibly serving a mission, too. Elder Ro. says it is all my fault because I always pray for people to teach and help. My focus since the broadcast has been to help members and less actives with a slight focus on baptism. President Weidman always says, "Salvation is more than just baptism." Now we are blessed with so many people to help progress that I crash every night when I finally get in bed. It is weird to think how fast it has gone! I still have some good weeks in me and I am loving it! I will send a few pictures to y’all. Thanks for your fasting and prayers. They made this a miraculous week!

July Flyin' By

Santa Mapache! Este semana termino bien rapido y no se que voy hacer! We had many miracles this week. It was amazing! We have been working with a lot of less active members, trying to rescue them from inactivity. We met with the Obispo yesterday, and every Thursday night from now on we will go on member exchanges to visit 20 families a week. I hope it works! We are excited for this opportunity and I know the members are, as well.

On Friday we went out teaching with a returned missionary named K.; he drove us around because we don't have a car anymore. We visited a few people and then he had to leave. We had not brought our bikes, but for some reason I wasn't worried. I knew that it would all work out somehow. A youth gave us a ride to our appointment at the park, but she did not show up afterward to take us to our next lesson, so we walked to a part-member family's home. We talked to the girlfriend of one of the sons, and it turned out that she wants to learn more and come to church. One of the other sons drove us to our investigator's house for our next lesson. They hit it off splendidly! It was all a huge miracle to me. It went so well that we decided to do it the next day, too! (I have made a personal goal to "go out with a member a day to teach away".)

Friday was great, too! While we were waiting for Hermano I. to come and pick us up to go teaching, we received a phone call from a nonmember who's relative wants to learn about the gospel. We went to visit her that day with Hermano I. and it was AWESOME! Her name is C. and she came to church yesterday! She doesn't have a job, so hopefully we can teach her three times this week. I hope you are all safe and working hard! Love you!

Elder Blackham

P.S. Yes Dad, we wear our helmets while biking. I really enjoy it, but sometimes it is hard to visit everyone we would like to because we can't get around as fast. There are benefits to both (car and bikes), so we cannot complain. I don't expect to get the car back any time soon; the Tongan elders' area is our entire stake, so they really need it. I always joked about finishing on a bike just to get back into shape. I am leaving it up to the Lord.

Onward, ever onward!

TRANSFERS!  Both Elder Ro. and I are staying in Century, so I will "die" here and he probably will, too. [Editor's note: I hate that terminology!  I'm knocking on wood.]

A less-active family that moved from Hermosa Liahona Ward to Century Second Ward came to FHE, the 4th of July breakfast and church last week! We never got them to go in Hermosa Liahona, but they are coming now.  Woot, woot!

We have been "running into" people that we couldn't find, and have faith that this is the Lord guiding us to them for His purposes. The A. family is an example of this. We know they need the gospel and we know that we can help them reach it. It is pretty exciting! :D

J. just received his mission call to serve in the San Fernando mission! It was especially cool because we were able to encourage him right up until the time he sent his papers in. :) He is super excited. I already told him that he can have my bike since he goes straight to the field.

Speaking of bikes, this transfer they are taking away our car and giving it to the Tongan Elders. Maybe the Lord is telling me that I need to get in shape...;) I think it will help me to work harder and be more dedicated.

We went to a baptism for some Elders in my district, and I ran into a woman named J. who was baptized in the Long Beach mission a few weeks previously. She lives in Compton. I asked her if she knows Elder N. Parker. Turns out that Elder Parker taught her before he was transferred!! Crazy small world! I took a picture with her and e-mailed it to him.

Last crazy bit of news was the Departing Missionary Fireside. It was very strange to know that mine will be in six weeks time. Ugh. I saw many friendly faces including the B.'s. I also had a huge surprise that completely made my month! The Baldwin Hills Elders brought Mi. as their investigator!! He was the one we taught everything to and he was ready to be baptized, but then he disappeared off the face of the earth. He is getting baptized on the 21st!! I prayed he would somehow come back, but I never thought it would be while I was still here. Such a cool experience. I love that young man. I love you!! Take it easy! (I won't.) Smile!

How you be?

Well, President Baker is now home and President Weidman is our new Mission President. It was a sad day, but I am excited to get to know President Weidman, too.

A member family invited us to go to see their sealing and we received permission from President Weidman. It was way cool. I did sealings with Mitch before the mission, and comparing then to now was very cool. I am a bit more excited about my own future sealing now than I was then. :D

E. came to church with her little sister on Sunday. We tried to fellowship her hard last year, but this time it miraculously worked! She made several new friends in the YSA class and I hope she starts to come more regularly now. :)

I finished the Ensign yesterday and am looking forward to my lesson plans and D&C. There is just too much to get done and learn! Agh!

We played a little soccer with a part-member family and their cousins. It was pretty fun; I was the goalie, and three little kids were talking to me and helping me, too. Elder Ro. was working the offense...:) We got pretty dusty. If you took away the rest of the world, you could have convinced me that we were in Mexico or South America.

I hope you all enjoyed the worldwide missionary broadcast, because I LOVED it! We are working very hard to incorporate the things we learned from it into our zone goal for this month. Everyone is excited and we are beginning to show it to all the members we visit. I want you to know that the miracles you saw in that broadcast can be yours, too! We need to increase our faith so that we can see (more abundantly) the miracles God gives us. I love you!