Hello family

Hey i have had a week packed with learning. I found out a boy I contacted on the way home from church his name is Andy and I referred him to my friend elder Dunn he not only has been coming to all of the youth activities and came to church on Sunday but in two weeks he will be baptised almost exactly one month from the time I meet him. He is so golden I saw that miracle I know that there are truly prepared souls out on the road and I just need to keep talking to people that is my second one I have referred that will be baptised just from talking to everyone. Do you remember that Dan Jones night? the video that they sent you? yeah I had a guy that I referred get baptised from that too. I am just so happy. next week we will be having a baptism for a n investigator named Matt he had a tea issue but he is gradually getting over it and we will keep praying for him. he has been doing great he has amazing English we mostly teach him in English which is weird but I can at least understand everything that is being said. Oh we also have a member referral who has been to church twice and is a really prepared soul. he got in a car crash in 2004 and his arm was severely injured and now he cant really close his hand but he is faithful and he reads and prays and is attending church so all is well there he will keep progressing and he and Matt will be baptised on the same day Saturday next week. The weather over here has been two faced. we had two days where it was raining cats ,dogs, and some other small four legged animals, it was ridiculous I had rain gear on but five minutes and I had my shoes full of water my pants soaked and my shirt soaked ... it was so fun It was like swimming there were huge puddles in the road and the rivers were higher by about 3 feet then after the faucet was on full blast we turned on the sauna, hot, and wow it has been humid I felt like a steamed vegetable. I love it here the work is beautiful and I have just started to see a few of the fruits of my labor and I love my people i am serving.

Love Elder Blackham

PS : do you remember my investigator that dropped out of his baptism twice while i was in wufeng? Zhong chong nan? the dring guy, he had an amazing smoothie he made. anyways I received a letter from my friend in wufeng named Peja he said he is getting baptised this saturday!

Salutations to the best family ever!

Ok so this week was great i learned things everyday I have found the miracles everyday and I am really finding what I love about Taiwan everyday. The joy of the work i have found in the small things the process is where the pleasure comes. I love talking to all of these wonderful people in Taiwan there are things here and people here I would never see in Utah. I am still getting used to the weather last night we were visiting a new member and they were not home so we decided to write a note to them outside of their door in their muggy apartment building well it only took us two minutes before my shirt was soaked from sweat being inside is really hot without AC. Ok so I had an amazingly eventful week my grandpa we have been teaching brother Cai was baptised on Saturday, yeah on Thursday morning we received a call from a member of the bishopric that helped us teach the night before and he had talked to him and he decided to stop procrastinating and do it on Saturday! It was so good! I love our ward it is the newest ward in taizhong and has some really awesome leaders and members. they are all so in tune with the mission effort here. I have an investigator named matt who is great and has a lot of faith he reads everyday and prays but he will not go without tea he drinks two cups a day and says That it is his favorite- I realize we all have favorite sins but guess what they are still sins, sinning is fun but wickedness never was happiness. anyways I will tell you how he goes over the next few weeks he should be baptised soon just stop a drinkin.. oh my grandpa I forgot to tell you on Saturday he was so excited for his baptism he bought me and my companion new belts and then as he gave them to us he said hey i want to make them shinny first then he took them laid them on his porch and spray painted our belts black, spray painted them! I laughed so hard he was just making them shiney for us. we left them there to dry and went to eat at his favorite vegetarian restaurant then to his baptism. my companion E.Rodriguez kept saying "he ruined our belts, spary painted" Sunday was a great fast Sunday I loved the meeting we have afternoon church so our fast is long then our correlation meeting was pushed back from 4:30pm to 6:15 and they kept saying hey in a half an hour we will start then hey after this interview , no after i teach this scripture class to the children for twenty minutes anyways sister Su the first counselers wife gave us a cookie thing and it was great I loved it. god provides for his missionaries even if it is just a cookie,He knows our needs. oh on Monday an District training meeting my companion looked at his shoes that I had freshly shined that morning without telling him and he stated' Wow! my shoes are beautiful!" we laughed so hard. Hey we went and sat next to a fisherman and taught and talked to him it was fun I can see why your brother did it so often on his mission they dont just ride off it is fun kind of casual, but a good atmosphere. I love the work here and This past week at mission conference I really learned what the importance of the title Teacher in Chinese and Taiwanese hearts. they really feel honored to have that title. I thought of my favorite teachers I have a lot but will you do me a favor and just tell Dr.(Uncle Roy)Ellefsen,Ed Staker,Ben Cox,and Angy Daley,Chris Junker and Patty Sego them i love them and am so greatful for the things they have taught me and the person they have helped me become I guess that that is a really big chore but I have no way of telling them but through your help. Mom Dad You know I realize that you love me so much that you will sacrifice for me to help some people you have never meet come to Christ Thank you I love you so much. I hope with all my heart that I may stay worthy all the days of my life that I may live with you in the celestial kingdom. To have eternal happiness and joy. I love you and wish you all well in what you are doing

-Elder Blackham

hello famillia!

that is a lot of news i can barely take that you know life is so precious I can barely even express my love for all of you but I want to say that life is as good as we make it. it we lose everything we have is that a tragedy or a new beginning? life is all how you look at it. i learned a lot this week and today I just want to say that time is like a bank account we are charged with a new deposit everyday it doesn't carry over from day to day you have to magnify your time, every second,minute, hour time is a gift now is the time for men to perform their labors and prepare to meet god. every sickness is a blessing because it makes us appreciate our health every sadness is a blessing because it helps us know our happiness. my companion and I are doing well we work hard and have been blessed I have seen miracles everyday and I am starting to record them to see what God has done for me and for my brotheren. I am teaching a beibei(grandpa) who is about 72 yrs old and he got in a car wreck on Thursday so he said he definately would not be at church . he was really cut up some lady just ran into him on his bicycle with her scooter, he has road rash all up and down his arms and on his knee poor guy. so Sunday morning came and we went and visited him to invite him to church he said no we asked him why he said he was too sore and he just hurt too much. we asked him what he had done that morning and he said oh i just got back from exercising, riding my bike. then we said why cant you come to church and he said I cant wear pants it hurts too bad, his concern wasn't that oh I don't want to go to church it was I have to wear pants. so we said no you can come in your shorts and he said ok I will be there and he came to church. That was a miracle. sometimes the concerns of people are as simple as wearing pants instead of shorts. the miracles came it small things resolving the small concerns increasing understanding. sometimes all you have to do is listen. you have two ears and one mouth use them proportionately.well I hope you know I love you I have had many times here that I wish you could be here with me but I have felt your prayers. the work is sweet because of the bitter trials don't wish them away.your missionary on a little green island

elder blackham

PS: wow Chess Died I loved that man so much! he was so hardworking and loving I really appreciated his help with the city and the youth city council. wow i want to ask you can you go tell Bev i love her I haven't talked or heard from her in forever but will you do that for me? They were always so good to me Bev and Dennis they helped me learn so much.

OOPS :)

Hey everyone this is Emilee again. I just received an email from Brigham and he told me that his mission rules only allow him to receive emails from immediate family members - So he has asked me to have his letters from his friends to be sent to me and then I will forward them to him so that he can read them. Thanks for understanding, my email address is posted on the side bar for you. Thanks so much for supporting him, all of you are really great!

Dear family

well I want to say I am really grateful for my companion Xie he has helped me develop more patience and love than i ever could have just having things go easy. having difficulties is part of making the sweet times more sweet. the bitter is only as bad as your attitude lets it be. I have learned that you cant have a fight if you don't have two people fighting I tried to just wear a perm-i-smile this week and work as hard as I could and the week flew by. Our relationship was really just me trying to make things better i can only influence what i do and how i react so that is what i will do is choose to be worthy obedient and diligent and happy.wei zhi han and lu qin jin will be baptised on Saturday they are so great I am positive they will be amazing members I love them so much, i am leaving wufeng so i will not get to be there for there baptism but i am so happy for them. Move call!---I am now in da ken and am with am amazing companion named elder rodriguez from colorado. Wow it is such a relief to speak in english for a change my mouth is still getting used to it. well i love you all and am grateful for your support and love

LoveElder BlackhamPS

i can't reply to anyone but immediate family members through email so can you relay to elder and sister dan andersen that i am so greatful that they sent me that nice email and It really helped I love them and that i know how they feel with the heat and the rain.

ok so my week was pretty crazy. Yang jian Hua didn't get baptised this saturday he lost his desire to be baptised and he really just needs to keep reading and praying and going to church. I was able to baptise the sisters investigators named chen guan yu and chen yi fan that experience was great I really can feel the spirit in the ordinence of baptisim and on sunday I helped confirm guan yu and I had a great spiritual recharge there aswell. I know that the lord will provide for us, our heavenly father really does love every one of us. The work is hard but it is worth it, I love doing hard things things that are above my own ability that the lord can help me to accomplish. I know you can learn from good and bad examples there is good and bad in all of us we need to find the good iin eveyone and the more good we find the less bad we have. I hope that I can overcome the hard times and focus on the good , my companionship has been on the rocks recently but I will keep compamenting , changing and copping with the change, repenting and forgiving. I know that heavenly father wants me to learn somthing from my companion and every situation I am in always progessing and always need to stay hopefull.I love you and pray for you. find the good

elder blackham

hello my beautiful family

ok i have had a great week thank you thank you for your the love and support from the homestead I just realized I have been away for nearly half of a year, but when I talked to you on monday----sunday for you ----- I really felt like it was only yesterday I left home. The work is beautiful here and everywhere our mission is preparing to merge soon so that is going to be exciting here for the next few months. I am so glad I was able to hear from Granma and Grandpa I love you all so much I couldnt immagine not being able to know that I will be with you all forever if i stay worthy obedient and dilligent, the gospel is a beautiful gift that we need to praise heavenly Father for every day of our life. I just want to tell you how much I appreciate your love and encougement. I had the most expensive day of my mission on monday I realized I needed a new tail-light so I bought thst then i bought new grips for my bike because my previous grips were bad and anyways I am just greatful for eating so cheaply that last month because it was around 90 dollars for one day... anyways I will love you and leave you but before I do 2 timithy 2:21 +24 this is a great scripture about all of us in the church. you can use this as my contribution to familynight this week. Dad way to go with the bithday gift i think that is great I am excited for you. Ok Mom I just want to say happy birthday and I love you all

Elder Blackham