Blacker, Chandler

Hello everyone! Happy Easter! This week was incredible. Not because of the actual missionary work we accomplished, but simply because I studied and taught about the Atonement of Jesus Christ all week. We opened this area about 6 weeks ago and honestly we still don't have many friends here. Nobody is progressing and that makes me kinda sad. But thanks to Jesus Christ, I'm happy anyway. We had so many times this week where we simply had nothing to do. It's kinda rare for missionaries to go door to door contacting here. We usually find people with help from members, street contacts, or from other people we are teaching. But we went contacting door to door all week. The visible fruits of our labors were few but it's all good because I know I'm doing my part. I can't think of any cool story to share or anything. Though... fun fact, if I were an hermana I would be getting home tomorrow. Love y'all!  Élder  Blacker Photos: I gave an Easter talk and we made chipa

Op! I love that greeting.  Paraguayans are very specific about the way they greet people.  Op is used to acknowledge the presence of someone you know, but you don't necessarily want to talk to them.  It's almost like honking your car horn in passing. Anywayyy.... I hope you're all doing well.  My week went by really quickly.  We honestly didn't see much success.  There are days where I don't see success and usually I know that I could have done better.  This week was different.  I gave it my all and still nothing happened.  My area is the exact same as last week.  But that's okay.  I feel really happy about it.  I was really focusing on my love for God and for the people this week, and I saw the results.  I was simply really happy and ready to serve, success or not. Also crazy story.  Being inspired by an old comp, we decided that every morning we wanted to wake up and immediately do 50 push-ups to get us going. ...

Hola!!!  How is everyone? These last two weeks have been rather odd.  Everyday this week I have realized that my life is not normal.  We were on our way to the church to make lunch with other missionaries before the conference and someone gave me a weird look.  I thought, "what?  Did I do something wrong?"  Then I looked down and realized that I was a very white american guy wearing a full suit and carrying a giant pot and a bag of chicken.  Then I realized that nothing about that is normal here in Paraguay, but for me it's just life.   I feel like I have grown a lot recently.  I love that the mission provokes so much change.  One thing I started doing was putting a way bigger focus on having the Spirit with me always.  In every single lesson I wanted to feel the spirit and show our investigatores that this is the truth.  We had some very powerful lessons and frankly stopped wasting a lot of time with those that aren't wil...