December 10

Howdy Ya'll!

I haven't eaten anything super amazing yet but I am growing more fond of this green chili business. I'll show you a picture of a typical New Mexican breakfast for missionaries with no money. It's awesome. New Mexico is basically the only place in the world that you can get green chili so the green chili and the balloon fiesta are pretty much its only claims to fame. It's awesome though. I don't like ovaltine as much as Nesquik. Nesquik is more chocolatey and MUCH more satisfying, ovaltine doesn't even deserve to be capitalized like Nesquik does. Anyway, I have a question. Grandma sent me a letter and I threw away the envelope so I don't know their zip code. If you could let me know, that would be greatly appreciated.

This week was quite the week. At the start of the week I went on exchanges again with a missionary newer than myself and it was in our area again. This missionary kind of doesn't really want to be on his mission so my goal was to pump him up about missionary work and ever since he has seemed to be in higher spirits than before. I decided that we were just gonna work super hard all day and that's what we did. We had basically no appointments, we dropped by almost everyone of our potential investigators within a reasonable range, and didn't accomplish much that day but we worked hard and had fun. We did a lot of tracting also and that's where we met a lot of rude people but honestly I think meeting really rude people is kind of entertaining. This one man opened the door and we gave one of our different door approach missionary shpeels (if that's a word) and then he just angrily looked at us and said "i'm already saved, are you?" We told him that we believe we definitely could be saved by living the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed to us through prophets in our age. Then he asked us what bible we read and we said King James and then he told us it must be the "new" King James bible (which does exist) and we told him we read the normal one. Then he didn't really know what to say and just shut the door on us. We thought it was funny and we just started laughing afterwards. People have some interesting beliefs and it's interesting to see how the Great Apostasy has created so many different interpretations and ideas of the truths of the gospel. That was something that I learned this week. Basically, every religious belief or idea can be traced back to the truth. Funny how that works eh? Maybe it's because our church is the true church!

We had some really great things happen this week also and some things that are impeding the progress of certain investigators. Cowboy's family made some pretty awesome progress this week. This week we met with Cowboy twice and these are the only times that we ever brought members with us to lessons with him. Bringing members with us to lessons adds so much to the quality and spirituality of a lesson. We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that went really well. I can tell that Cowboy really wants what is best for his family and he knows that for his family to be happy he's gotta be the one who makes the changes. He seems to be doing better with his drug addictions as well. Anyway, we invited them to our ward Christmas party on saturday and they really wanted to come. Tanya couldn't because she works Saturday and Sunday which makes things pretty difficult. Things happened and Cowboy wasn't able to make it but we were able to bring their 9 year old son Malachi to the party with us and he loved it. Malachi made some friends and really enjoyed the atmosphere as well. On Sunday, Malachi came to church with us also. At first he was a little apprehensive and nervous about the new atmosphere of church. He didn't really want to go to primary but he went anyway and at the end of it all he had a really great time and loved it at church. After church he asked if we'd bring him with us again. It was sweet. Later that night, we invited Malachi to be baptized and he was literally jumping up and down and it was super sweet. Cowboy seemed to be happy for Malachi as well. Cowboy won't be able to be baptized for at least a year because he is on probation but he thinks a year is probably the time that he'll need to prepare for baptism anyway. Malachi is on date for baptism on the 29th of this month so that is totally sweet!

As for Geno and Shariy, we invited them to be married again and we had a very great lesson with them. We read the Family Proclamation to the World with them and they both understand the importance of marriage and that it is a commandment. However, the response we got was yet again not what we had hoped for. They both said that they need some time to prepare for marriage and they are both unsure about it. We believe that we have finally found the reason why they are scared about marriage as well. Geno has never divorced the woman he was/is married to. That's a problem and apparently it can take quite a while to have a divorce go through and be legal and whatnot. That's a major bummer. We were hoping to at least have them married before Elder Jacobs dies but it's not looking that will be possible. Especially if they don't even know if they really want to be married. Missionary work is stressful. On the bright side though, we started teaching Shariy's grandson and he is now also on date for the 29th. We are not entirely sure if he will make it by then because he is afraid of going to church. The Catholic church told him that he is going to hell and we are pretty sure that it is because he is gay. It's a bit of an awkward situation but if he comes to know this is the path for him he will be able to resist his temptations in life and find strength through those trials. Gordon is awesome though and really wants a "new" life and he knows that baptism is the avenue that will get him there. I've come to realize that even if people receive spiritual witnesses of the truth of the things we teach, Satan is still pretty powerful in keeping people for progression. Missionaries are there to help people through this process and there is a reson that it's called Missionary WORK.

Anyway, it's been a good week. This morning I read in 3 Nephi 9 and I really like verse 14. Read it. 'Tis good stuff. I love reading about the Savior and the love He has for all of us. I especially love reading about His ministry in the Americas because I know it's true. It verifies His divinity that the Bible testifies of. I really KNOW that He lives and loves and that through Him we can inherit the Kingdom of God and live in His presence with those we love. The gospel is great. It heals people and provides them with strength that they need. I never want to take my knowledge of the truth for granted ever again in my life like I have before. I Love the Savior and I love all ya'll.

Peace and Love ya'll!
Elder Black
P.S. pic- typical NM breakfast (MMMM green chili)
Double P.S. pic- one of the hills we bike up daily

December 10

Howdy Ya'll!

I haven't eaten anything super amazing yet but I am growing more fond of this green chili business. I'll show you a picture of a typical New Mexican breakfast for missionaries with no money. It's awesome. New Mexico is basically the only place in the world that you can get green chili so the green chili and the balloon fiesta are pretty much its only claims to fame. It's awesome though. I don't like ovaltine as much as Nesquik. Nesquik is more chocolatey and MUCH more satisfying, ovaltine doesn't even deserve to be capitalized like Nesquik does. Anyway, I have a question. Grandma sent me a letter and I threw away the envelope so I don't know their zip code. If you could let me know, that would be greatly appreciated.

This week was quite the week. At the start of the week I went on exchanges again with a missionary newer than myself and it was in our area again. This missionary kind of doesn't really want to be on his mission so my goal was to pump him up about missionary work and ever since he has seemed to be in higher spirits than before. I decided that we were just gonna work super hard all day and that's what we did. We had basically no appointments, we dropped by almost everyone of our potential investigators within a reasonable range, and didn't accomplish much that day but we worked hard and had fun. We did a lot of tracting also and that's where we met a lot of rude people but honestly I think meeting really rude people is kind of entertaining. This one man opened the door and we gave one of our different door approach missionary shpeels (if that's a word) and then he just angrily looked at us and said "i'm already saved, are you?" We told him that we believe we definitely could be saved by living the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed to us through prophets in our age. Then he asked us what bible we read and we said King James and then he told us it must be the "new" King James bible (which does exist) and we told him we read the normal one. Then he didn't really know what to say and just shut the door on us. We thought it was funny and we just started laughing afterwards. People have some interesting beliefs and it's interesting to see how the Great Apostasy has created so many different interpretations and ideas of the truths of the gospel. That was something that I learned this week. Basically, every religious belief or idea can be traced back to the truth. Funny how that works eh? Maybe it's because our church is the true church!

We had some really great things happen this week also and some things that are impeding the progress of certain investigators. Cowboy's family made some pretty awesome progress this week. This week we met with Cowboy twice and these are the only times that we ever brought members with us to lessons with him. Bringing members with us to lessons adds so much to the quality and spirituality of a lesson. We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that went really well. I can tell that Cowboy really wants what is best for his family and he knows that for his family to be happy he's gotta be the one who makes the changes. He seems to be doing better with his drug addictions as well. Anyway, we invited them to our ward Christmas party on saturday and they really wanted to come. Tanya couldn't because she works Saturday and Sunday which makes things pretty difficult. Things happened and Cowboy wasn't able to make it but we were able to bring their 9 year old son Malachi to the party with us and he loved it. Malachi made some friends and really enjoyed the atmosphere as well. On Sunday, Malachi came to church with us also. At first he was a little apprehensive and nervous about the new atmosphere of church. He didn't really want to go to primary but he went anyway and at the end of it all he had a really great time and loved it at church. After church he asked if we'd bring him with us again. It was sweet. Later that night, we invited Malachi to be baptized and he was literally jumping up and down and it was super sweet. Cowboy seemed to be happy for Malachi as well. Cowboy won't be able to be baptized for at least a year because he is on probation but he thinks a year is probably the time that he'll need to prepare for baptism anyway. Malachi is on date for baptism on the 29th of this month so that is totally sweet!

As for Geno and Shariy, we invited them to be married again and we had a very great lesson with them. We read the Family Proclamation to the World with them and they both understand the importance of marriage and that it is a commandment. However, the response we got was yet again not what we had hoped for. They both said that they need some time to prepare for marriage and they are both unsure about it. We believe that we have finally found the reason why they are scared about marriage as well. Geno has never divorced the woman he was/is married to. That's a problem and apparently it can take quite a while to have a divorce go through and be legal and whatnot. That's a major bummer. We were hoping to at least have them married before Elder Jacobs dies but it's not looking that will be possible. Especially if they don't even know if they really want to be married. Missionary work is stressful. On the bright side though, we started teaching Shariy's grandson and he is now also on date for the 29th. We are not entirely sure if he will make it by then because he is afraid of going to church. The Catholic church told him that he is going to hell and we are pretty sure that it is because he is gay. It's a bit of an awkward situation but if he comes to know this is the path for him he will be able to resist his temptations in life and find strength through those trials. Gordon is awesome though and really wants a "new" life and he knows that baptism is the avenue that will get him there. I've come to realize that even if people receive spiritual witnesses of the truth of the things we teach, Satan is still pretty powerful in keeping people for progression. Missionaries are there to help people through this process and there is a reson that it's called Missionary WORK.

Anyway, it's been a good week. This morning I read in 3 Nephi 9 and I really like verse 14. Read it. 'Tis good stuff. I love reading about the Savior and the love He has for all of us. I especially love reading about His ministry in the Americas because I know it's true. It verifies His divinity that the Bible testifies of. I really KNOW that He lives and loves and that through Him we can inherit the Kingdom of God and live in His presence with those we love. The gospel is great. It heals people and provides them with strength that they need. I never want to take my knowledge of the truth for granted ever again in my life like I have before. I Love the Savior and I love all ya'll.

Peace and Love ya'll!
Elder Black
P.S. pic- typical NM breakfast (MMMM green chili)
Double P.S. pic- one of the hills we bike up daily

December 3rd!

Greetings from the land of Enchantment (or entrapment as others call it)

To answer questions, the most exciting thing to happen this week was probably that we started working more with some part-member families. Nothing has really happened with Geno and Shariy (I'll tell you why later) but we got some pretty solid referrals to contact so I'm excited to see where that will go! My favorite scripture I read this week was one I read this morning, It's 3 Nephi 5:13 and Mormon is talking about his role and what his purpose is. It's the same purpose as mine and it's the same purpose every member of the church has! I just really liked that one. I liked reading about Samuel the Lamanite this week and his great prophecies about the coming of the Savior. It fit in perfectly with everybody starting to get excited about Christmas and whatnot. I don't know if you were able to see the Christmas devotional last night but it was very good. They focused a lot on being giving and sacrificing for others and being a gracious receiver. I think that is something that we all need to work on. The natural man is selfish and the Christmas season is one of the best times to put off the natural man by remembering the true spirit of Christmas and serve others just as our Savior has served us!

I do have one more request actually of something you could send me. If you could send me some size 8 basketball shoes that would be great. We play a ton of basketball down here in the Querque and my tennis shoes have like no traction or anything. If that is possible for you to send I would greatly appreciate it.

Anyway, this week and last night in particular we had some interesting things happen. Earlier in the week, Geno and Shariy's grandson Gordon were helping a woman put up their Christmas lights and on their way back a ladder fell out of the back of their truck. Geno got out to put it back in and Gordon backed up the truck, nailed Geno, and as a result Geno now has a broken arm. Not good stuff. It didn't help our lessons with them this week either because he's all strung out on his meds or just in a lot of pain so it's hard for him to focus. Pretty unfortunate but it is ok, he should be well enough this week so we can have some good lessons with them and hopefully the spirit will be able to make known the importance of marriage to the both of them. The goal is for them to be married and baptized before the end of the month when Elder Jacobs dies. It's a good goal and it might be hard but I think that it can happen and I pray that it will.


This week we were able to meet with Michael again finally! I was on exchanges with Elder Armstrong who is even newer than me and we had a really good lesson with him. We read Ether 12 with him which talks a lot about faith and talks about how are weaknesses can become strengths. The spirit helped Michael to understand what it was saying. He said he never really knew what that meant but it made a lot of sense to him. Michael has a really strong testimony and it's cool to see him grow and to see his desires change in life. He wants to quit smoking and I know he can! He will do it because he knows it's something that will really help him to come unto Christ and be a better person. He went to church in his home ward with his dad so that is good! We're going to teach him the stop smoking lesson next time we see him and that will be awesome!

We also met with Cowboy again this week and that went well. We brought a member with us who is really supportive of Cowboy and the changes that Cowboy wants to make. The thing with Cowboy is we aren't really sure how sincere he is sometimes. I really think that he is trying to change his lifestyle and one of his great motivators is his family. His biggest fear is of losing his wife and kids and he would do anything to have them in his life. We watched a Mormon message about the atonement with him and how if we use it in our lives that burdens can be lifted from our lives. Cowboy made the comment that he can't do it without the Savior and he is absolutely correct. Trusting in the Savior and utilizing the Atonement is the ONLY way that we can make lasting changes in our lives and become what are supposed to be. We invited Cowboy to church and he said that he would come if he could get a ride and we found him one but his kids woke up in the morning sick so he wasn't able to make it. He promised that he would be ther next Sunday and I really hope he actually comes! This journey for Cowboy could take years but I am happy that I have been the Lord's instrument in helping him start his journey. I have learned a lot about Cowboy and I've learned a lot about the Atonement from him. I've seen him grow and it is great! I remember a missionary in my district in the MTC asked us once, "is it better to be 2 feet from Christ and walking away from him, or 1,000 feet away and walking towards Him." Walking towards Christ is what brings happiness in our lives and true peace. I know that is true. In the short time I've been a missionary I have changed from believing in the restored gospel and in Jesus Christ and His Atonement to knowing it is all true. I know it and I feel the spirit confirm this to me each time I bear my testimony. My testimony has grown so much just by simply bearing my testimony. I love it. I love the gospel and I love all ya'll and am extremely grateful for your support!

Peace and love,
Elder Black
P.S. have fun in Hawaii
Double P.S. you've asked for a picture of me so here's the goofiest picture I could find you
Triple P.S. The other picture sent to you is a picture of the Rio Rancho/Santa Fe zone at zone conference last month.

November 13 and sprained ankles

So Josh messed up his ankle on P-day. It looks a little scary! Please send extra prayers and happy thoughts his way! We're hoping it doesn't give him ongoing trouble. Poor kid :(


Howdy ya'll,

Yesterday was Veteran's day so the library was closed.

Thank you for the package and please let Belltower Inc. that I am very pleased with his handiwork. It's pretty boss. Yes, I still have a desire for the onesie if you can make that happen. Also, a neck gator would be greatly appreciated as well. It has been insanely cold here the last couple of days and I am dying slowly in the cold weather. It got to freezing temperature and it doesn't help that it is always insanely windy here too so when we ride down the hill and get to where we need to be my face and fingers are frozen. I need to invest in some gloves pretty soon. Also, I thought I would let you know that last P-Day playing football and I screwed up my ankle pretty bad so let Jake know that I feel for him in the ankle department right now as well. It got pretty bruised too. It looks like there is a growth off of the side of it but that's just because it is swollen. Yesterday we played basketball but I probably should've sat it out. Now it's bruised again but I can walk on it and ride a bike with little to no pain at all so it is nothing to worry about. As for the politics, most people down here are liberal so they are happy with the way the election went. President told us we should vote but I didn't get the absentee ballot from you in time but it's fine so don't worry about that.

Interviews with President and Sis. Miller went great also. They are really awesome people and they really care about all of us missionaries. Sister Miller said I taught the Atonement well to her so I was relieved. Speaking of the Atonement, can you send that humpty dumpty poem? That's how I taught the Atonement but that poem is so money so I would like to have that in my possession once again. We also had a trainer/trainee meeting in the Querqe at the mission home with President and Sis. Miller also and that was great. They talked a lot about how we measure our success as missionaries. Our success is measured by our commitment to find, teach, and baptize God's children and strengthen the units where we are serving. Some of the other greenies have baptized people already so that was pretty cool to hear their stories and it makes me want to have my own stories like that as well. We're working hard and hopefully we can find, teach, and baptize some people in the near future!

Anyway, this week has been the slowest and least successful week I've had so far and it was pretty disappointing. We were working hard but things just weren't happening the way that we had hoped they would happen for us. We were able to meet with Shariy a couple of times though so that went pretty well. We have been praying to know what we need to do to help her to be married and we were able to learn of her main concern about marriage. She is afraid that Geno might not want to be married or might not understand the importance of it. It's been made known to us that we need to work a little harder with Geno and involve him more when we meet with Shariy. Geno doesn't really know what's going but when he hears the message of the restored gospel I think his heart will be softened and he will have a desire to be baptized and live the law of chastity also! I know that it can happen and I've been praying for it. Miracles happen all the time so why not hear with Shariy and Geno? It will happen.

We have to get going here because we have a lesson with Shariy in about 20 minutes so I'm sorry but this is all I really have to share! I know that the Lord lives and he speaks to us through a modern day prophet and through the scriptures as well. This morning, more than ever I felt like the Savior was speaking to me as I read about Him and His teachings. The spirit teaches us of truth and allows us to feel of the love of God and the peace, joy, and happiness that we all desire. The gospel brings all of these gifts and feelings and I am very proud to be a bearer of this message in the place where I am supposed to be. The gospel is true, no doubt about it.

Peace and love,
Elder Black

P.S. Favorite scripture that I read this morning was D&C 6:34-37.

November 5th

Howdy!
To start, yes mother our area is probably the most ghetto area in the city of Rio Rancho. Don't be worried, the Lord will protect us because we are doing His work. Our apartment is pretty nice and we do not share it with any other Elders, but when we bike down to the hill where most of our work is, that is where it becomes more and more ghetto =) Yes I have been getting the emails from the siblings as well so you don't need to worry about that. Father, that's crazy that Justin Barcia won. Wasn't he in the lights class last year? GO DUCKS! GO PACKERS! WIN THE 'SHIP!
This week has had its pros and cons. One of the main things I learned this week is that even if you are guided or led by the spirit to go somewhere or to talk to a specific person, they still have their agency which oftentimes is a bummer. Anna, who Elder Cloward and I tracted into on exchanges was not there for our appointment that we had and then didn't answer the phone so that was disappointing. Also, the same exact thing happened with Hannah. Roxy and T.J. live super close to us but sometimes it has seemed like they are avoiding us. T.J. is more willing to talk to us than Roxy though. That's what it seems like anyway. They are never home when they say they will be. The other family we had set an appointment with were named Ramon and Elaine and they also were not home when they said they would. Something funny happend though too. There was a family named the Halls who Elder Jacobs was teaching before I existed and they said they couldn't meet with him anymore because they were moving to New York. Well, we saw them driving their car one day and then we decided to go by and see them and they said our religion isn't for them. The things people say sometimes...
On the bright side, we have found quite a few new potential investigators that we are planning to meet with tomorrow. Tomorrow is a very busy day and we have plans for almost every single hour of the day. I also have my first interview with Pres. and Sis. Miller tomorrow and we are supposed to teach sis. miller the atonement as if she were a 9 year old. That's going to be a tricky one because I have met/talked with hardly any little children but it should be a good learning experience! I am excited for tomorrow especially because a while back we received a media referral from Temple Square for a woman named Sally that we will finally be meeting with. On the referral it said that she wanted a copy of the BoM and to meet with missionaries so that should be fun!
Shariy (our only progressing investigator) is doing well but I hope this marriage ordeal doesn't prove too difficult for her to overcome. She is just really scared of marriage because of her previous marriage that went south after about 30 years. We had a member come out with us named Bro. Witt and he is just about our only really supportive member in our ward besides the bishop. He is awesome though. We watched the John Tanner story with Shariy which is about a 15-20 min. video and basically, John Tanner is a great example of how through faith and putting your trust in the Lord, you can accomplish whatever you are supposed to accomplish. Shariy was amazed by John Tanner's story and it was really good for her to see such great miracles that can be wrought by faith. We asked her to exercise her faith and to ask the Lord if being married to Geno so she can be baptized is something that He wants her to do. This is where Bro. Witt showed his bossness. He told Shariy that he felt impressed to invite her to fast about the issue as well and he invited her to do that and she said she would. Then, we all told her that we would all fast with and for her. She came to church yet again (5 times in a row!) and she just seemed really happy about it. I can't wait to ask her about how her fast went!
We also met with Michael in the heart of the ghetto a few more times this week. We talked a lot about his good memories being raised in the church and all the fun things he did and the happiness that he misses in his life. He gets really emotional talking about all of that. It's kind of funny because he's pretty convinced that the 2nd coming could be happening pretty soon. Whatever motivates him to start coming back to church and changing his life around is a good thing right? Anyway, he came to church and it was so awesome! A bunch of the ward members came up to him and gave him hugs and told them they missed him and that they were so happy to see him. That was some awesome support and he was feeling the spirit so strongly at church. I loved it. Michael also was 1 of 3 individuals who volunteered to come and clean the church on Sunday. He's just a boss.
Last night, we were supposed to meet with Cowboy and his family (and they were also supposed to come to church) but neither of those things happened so we visited a member who lives nearby (in the ghetto by Michael). We watched a Mormon Message with him and he just started crying. We didn't really even know what we were doing there but that is another one of those small instances where we were guided by the spirit to help invite someone to come closer to Christ. I thought that was pretty sweet.
Oh! I also went up to Santa Fe on Friday for zone meeting so I thought I'd let you all know that I have been up to Santa Fe now. It looks weird. There are these weird green tree looking things but they don't have trunks so they're just sitting there on the ground. Our zone leaders are great though. There names are Elder Chalk and Elder Turnbow and they are super awesome examples to me and they are just full of the spirit all the time. It's awesome. We learned about how to teach people so the people KNOW what we are saying and understand it too, FEEL the spirit and our love for them, and DO things that help them gain the desire to have faith unto repentance and then to be baptized and have the Holy Ghost with them! It was awesome and I learned a ton!
Anyway, this all I have for ya'll. I also have sweet pictures of the moon and a glorious sunset. The sunset is glorious, but the gospel is more glorious. I know that this is the true church, the BoM is the word of God and Joseph was a prophet. I know the spirit guides us and teaches us important things that we need to know and feel. I know these things more and more everyday. The Savior loves us and loves all ya'll!
Peace and love!
Elder Black

October 29!

Howdy ya'll!
First of all, I want to let you all know how stoked I am that USC lost because I really don't like USC at all. The beavers losing is good too though but not quite as good of a thing I suppose. It's also good to hear that the Packers are dominating again and it also sounds like the world series is pretty boring this year. Who won the Monster Cup in Vegas? My guess would be Villopoto but what do I know? Is football season halfway done already? That's crazy if that is the case but I'm pretty sure the Ducks and packers will both be champions. That's how it should always be. I haven't heard much about how Cam, Kiley, and Kait are doing. Fill me in please. Also, your idea with the package is fine. Thank you!
Anyway, this week was a pretty interesting one. Remember that crazy less-active member I told you about that told us that we need to learn how to have the spirit with us and that we need to pray to Jesus and not God? Yeah, we had another interesting experience with her this week. She started talking to us about politics (no bueno) and asked us if we have voted or anything. Elder Jacobs has voted and she asked him questions like who he voted for and stuff and she basically was just trying to get us in a position to argue with us. She said that Elder Jacobs could have been electing the anti-christ since he wasn't really an informed voter and things like that. He admitted that that maybe it isn't the best idea to vote if you don't have any idea of what's going on but we were told by Pres. Miller that we should vote. She told us after that how messed up the church is for letting something like that happen and then I pointed out that the church takes a neutral stand on politics and doesn't tell us who to vote for or anything like that. She told us that's wrong. She also told us that she basically left the church because in sacrament meeting she couldn't hear people bearing their testimony because of babies crying and stuff like that. People are crazy.
We learned that Shariy has NOT been baptized before and is therefore not a member of the church. She set up an appointment with the bishop this week and he told us that he is gonna make sure she leaves their meeting knowing that she needs to marry Geno so she can be baptized. Bishop Caldwell is the man. All of our ward leaders are supportive and helpful but the members bail on us pretty frequently for help with coming to lessons with us and dinner and things. Bishop Caldwell is going to change that though because he is awesome. He has a son on a mission in upstate NY whose mission president told him that with the new announcement on missionary ages their particular mission is expecting 250 more missionaries. Crazy. Also, his mission president said that there are 50 new missions to be opened up across the world. Crazy. Also, our bishop told us that before the announcement there were 300 missionary applications sent in each week, now there has been about 4,000 a week since that announcement. Crazy awesome. A marvelous work is coming forth all right! That's cool to hear that people are starting up on their papers earlier now. Missionaries are going to be all over the place in much larger numbers!
This week I went on my first exchange and I was really nervous for it because I was the one who stayed in our area so I was large and in charge. The missionary that was with me is Elder Cloward and he has only been in the field one month longer than myself so it was the two newest missionaries in our district in the area of the least experienced missionary in the district... We didn't really have any set appointments or anything during that time so I really had no idea what we were going to do and Elder Jacobs didn't really help me out too much with ideas or in the planning department. We tried visiting a lot of potential investigators that we had been trying to teach because we are running out of people that are willing to meet with us. So we went over to this girl's apartment near where we live named Hannah. She had been taught once before and said that she didn't want to meet with the missionaries again. Elder Cloward and I went over there and we asked if there was a time we could meet with her and she told us Wednesday so we finally have an appointment with her which doesn't seem like a huge deal but it was pretty awesome. Then we went over to another potential investigator family that we had tried to get appointments with many times and they finally allowed us to set up a time with them on Friday and that was way legit also. At about 8:30 at night, we had run out of people to visit and we had nothing planned so then I brought up the hated "T" word. Tracting. Nobody likes tracting because it means your members aren't helping you enough! Anyway, we knew that that was all that we could do so we knelt down and asked the Lord to guide us to where we needed to be and we went on our way. We walked out of our apartment complex and Elder Cloward said we needed to go straight so we did. Then we came to an intersection and he said we needed to go straight again so we did, and then we went straight again. Elder Cloward saw a house with a red truck in the driveway and he said that was the house we needed to go so we went up and knocked away and we met a girl named Anna! She is catholic and has a couple of Mormon friends in her jiujitsu (don't know if that's how it's spelled) class. She said our religion is interesting to her but she isn't sure if it's for her because she is catholic and then the spirit told us to tell her that we don't want to take away from her beliefs, but that we feel we can add to her beliefs. We bore testimony that our message can bless her life and she told us to come back on Wednesday. It is so awesome when the spirit guides you to the place that you need to be. I know that is what happened and it happened for when we found Roxy and T.J. also!
The next day we met with a less-active guy named Michael who grew up in the church and has a very strong LDS family that lives in another ward. He has an 18 month old daughter and lives in some very humble circumstances. He's about 21 or 22 years old. About the time that he was planning on going on a mission he had a cousin come to town that was a bad influence and got him doing all sorts of drugs and stuff that he knew he shouldn't do. He really loves his daughter and feels horrible about the decisions he made. He wants his daughter to grow up in the church and be one of those young women who live happily and marry in the temple instead of one of the women running around his neighborhood getting themselves into all sorts of trouble. He said his greatest desire is to go back to church and to get his life back in order so he can provide his daughter with the life that he had as a kid. We told him that he can make all of this happen through the Savior because the Savior knows him and what he has been going through and what his wants and needs are. Michael knows that is true and he said he would come to church but he didn't have a white shirt so we gave him one. He is a really awesome guy and we were really excited to have him at church yesterday. Sadly, he didn't make it because he got in an argument with his girlfriend about their daughter. That was pretty disappointing but I know he will get to church soon!
I know that the Savior is real and he loves each and everyone us individually. He didn't just die for us. He suffered for us. Pretty much every horrible feeling you can ever feel he felt for each of us. That is why through Him and only Him we can change our nature and be forgiven of our sins. We can be made whole through Him. The Atonement can help Michael (and everyone) get their lives in order! That's all I've got for the week!
Peace and Love!
Elder Black

October 23rd :)

I have to say I pretty much have been waiting on pins and needles since Josh's email didn't come yesterday! Now I can breathe a sigh of relief....silly mom I know. Anyway, have a terrific Tuesday everyone! Thanks for your support for the missionaries! It means so much to them and to their mamas! :)

Howdy ya'll
I'll try to answer questions first so I don't miss out on anything. The bike is good. Elder Hopkinson won't let me pay for it though so I figure I'll just return the favor and give it to somebody else when the time comes. Yes mother, you can do what you're doing with sending me emails by mail. That way there is at least one day in the week that I get mail! Yes, I have received the box, the pictures, and other things as well. If you ever get around to sending another package I request that you send those puma soccer cleats that don't fit Cam because we play flag football mostly on p-day and also I request (you're gonna think this is weird) a pair of onesie garments for onesie wednesday. My dad says I need a pair so I better listen right? Right. So those are my only requests and I probably won't need/want much more for a while! I forgot my camera but I was gonna send a picture of my dad and our sweet watermelon that was given to us. I'll take pictures of the hilly terrain of Rio Rancho too. Something funny about Rio Rancho is that the highest point of the city is the dump. We went there for service and it was awesome! Also, I am glad to hear the Packers are getting things going and that the Ducks are still undefeated. I heard that the Yankees got schooled. Everybody who is a baseball fan here was really happy about that.Thank you for the sports updates Jake and Cam. Jake, you should be receiving your letter sometime this week or next week. I have like 10 minutes in the morning while Elder Jacobs is showering and that's when I try to respond to letters so it probably takes like 3 days to finish a letter. Family can email though too. Anyway, I hope that is all the things that ya'll have asked about.
Well, this week wasn't so glorious... at all. Appointments fell through and some people's doors that we knocked on were really rude. "Don't knock on any of the doors on this street, everybody is sick of you guys! Tell the other ones not to come here either!" Yeah that was kinda frustrating. Probably the most frustrating thing of all is that we couldn't meet with T.J. and Roxy! Both times we had scheduled meetings with them something was going on so that was disappointing. But on the bright side, in the brief moments that we spoke to T.J. he said he has read from the BoM and is hoping to find the answers to his questions in it. He will find the answers for sure! I know he will, and Roxy will too!
We did have one really super awesome experience though! There is a less-active family called the Elsmore's and we don't visit them very often but everytime we do sis. elsmore says that she really needed us to be there. Her grandpa is dying and he lives in Las Cruces and there are a lot of family members down there in Cruces that don't go and help take care of the grandpa at all but she makes the drive down there pretty often with her little daughter and she just feels like she is the only person doing anything to help at all. She is also really sad that he is dying and even with her knowledge of the Plan of Salvation she is scared that she might not see him again. Elder Jacobs pulled out his bossness and shared a sweet scripture in the BoM and she knows that her grandpa was a good man and will be resting in paradise so that really comforted her. She started crying. When people cry and you are a missionary a lot of the time it is a good thing because it means they are feeling the spirit. The spirit was very strong in the room and I just felt full of joy and that I was really helping someone! I almost shed a tear bearing testimony that I know the Plan of Salvation gives us all comfort and that it is true. Then she asked for a blessing because she is really stressed and being part of blessings is always awesome! Bro. Elsmore gave the blessing and it was soooo awesome to see them feel the spirit together. Now they need to get their butts in gear and in church EVERY SUNDAY!
Speaking of church, I had my first almost normal church meeting in month and it was great! It was ward conference and our investigator until proven member Shari came so that was awesome! She always has really good questions to ask and she is really excited about learning more about the gospel. If she isn't already a member she will be pretty soon. She just needs to marry Geno. We try to talk to Geno sometimes so that we can talk to them both together about marriage. I can't wait for her to be baptized. I just wish everyone was as ready to receive the gospel as she is! That would be really convenient. I was talking to one of the other missionaries in our district and he said that the reason we call it missionary work is almost everybody will have problems like word of wisdom and law of chastity. We have to work hard to get them to the point where they are willing to give those kinds of things up. It's crazy stuff but it's worth it. I think the thing I've learned about the most so far actually being in the field is that if you don't love the people where you are serving no matter what, you won't be able to lose yourself in the work. I really pray to develop more and more charity all the time.
I read about Moroni today and it really inspired me. If everybody was like him, Satan would n't have any power over anybody. That was very inspirational to me and I'm trying to be a mini Moroni. The church is true! It's either the greatest hoax of all time or it's the greatest blessing of all time! Guess what? It's the greatest blessing of all time! Everyone can receive that witness through the power of the Holy Ghost. Moroni told me.
Ya'll will hear from me next week!
Love,
Elder Black
P.S. the internet went down in the library yesterday so that's why you got this today.