Joy Everyday of Your Life! Feb 4, 2019

hi guys! This week was awesome and I hope all is well with everyone. We had a baptism, and we are preparing people for the weeks to come, and I am loving the work here in Embarcacion! There is still a ton of heat and rain but what else is new? and our apartment is undergoing construction so that kinda sucks but once its ready its gonna be great. 

We are teaching a family that's going to get baptized soon, and in one of the lessons there was a girl that showed up and stood behind a chair. Afterwords we asked her if shed like to come to an activity in the church and she said yes but that we had to ask her mom. we went and ended up teaching their whole family! we are now teaching all of them and preparing them for baptism! 

This week I also ate two of the best mangoes I've ever had

in one of our lessons two guys ran a motorcycle into a fence and it looked like they had stolen it. but then a group of guys with machetes and sling shots appeared and they almost started to fight in the middle of our lesson. The woman we were teaching stood up and told them all to leave, and then they did so that was pretty capa! Idk what happened but nothing happened. here there's a lot of turf wars against different parts of town. 

PARAWALLO- Let me tell you about my friend. Idk his real name but the people know him as parawallo, and he speaks Guarani and Spanish. He was baptized a long time ago, and told the elders they need to help him change his life or they'll be accountable for him. really cool guy and hes fun to talk too. One day we couldn't teach him in his normal teaching spot, (he doesn't have a house) so he pointed to the side of the road and said, ¨LETS GO AND BE LIKE JESUS and we went and taught him in the side of the road. HE gave such a heartfelt prayer at the end. I shared a scripture with him that the Elder that baptized shared with him years ago, and now he calls me mini elder Christiansen ( the name of the elder that baptized him)

we played Minute To Win It in the church with the kids and that was great! 

This week we also had ZONE CONFERENCE and a bus came and picked us up at 230 in the morning to go to JUJUY argentina, another province. IT was a lot of fun and my desire to be a more consecrated missionary increased!

This week we also had some cool experiences with finding people that have been prepared for the message of the Gospel! 

What JOY is set before us? 
sometimes life can be difficult and it can seem hard to have joy with all that;s happening in the world and our own lives, but there is always hope and joy in Christ. 
When we focus on the joy that is set before us as children of God, it motivates us with the faith needed to make the changes in our lives to do his will and have the hope that his will will bring us peace and happiness. 
We can have Joy EVERY DAY when we 
look unto Christ in every thought, give thanks, and keep covenants

The purpose of FAITH is not to change gods will but to empower us to act on Gods will. 

I love you all and I invite you to come unto Christ! Life is good and enjoy every day! Our God is good, and he loves us, and his will is that of a father who wants the best for his children.

Elder Blackburn 

FOTOS de la conferencia y otras experiencias 










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