Feb 9 - La Chorrera

well :) this week. I dont have anything super special to share XD other than the fact that for every bug bite that goes away, like 3 replace it. its crazy!

well, tuesday. Tuesday we were in the temple literally ALL DAY. We got up at 4 am to be able to go with our zone to the temple. I did my first session in spanish! It was super nerve racking but i could understand almost everything. 

After, our ward showed up so we stayed at the temple for the rest of the day. It was pretty fun. We had an investigator come with the ward! super cool! We got to teach him about the temple and the restoration :) super cool.

wednesday... We left the house at 8 so we could give service to our ward mission leader. it is very common here to have a lot of trash and fallen trees and things like that in your yard. we helped groom trees and rake things and clean up trash. It took 3 hours and we still didnt finish completely! it was fun though. 

Thursday... Thursday was a little rough. All of our appointments fell through. and everyone we planned to visit was gone. It was a rough day and satan got a hold of me and a felt homesick. I said a prayer that I would be strengethened and be able to endure. We went to our dinner appointment and the family and I had a great conversation :) it helped distract me and it was nice to be able to talk about something that i knew about (Even in spanish) Tender Mercies of the Lord :) it also helped my confidence with the language

Friday- basically... in the mornings... I am cleaning our house little by little. Its super dirty from elders who havent cleaned the house for at least the last 6 months. so... friday was the kitchen. the dishes have been there since before I got there. There were plants growing from the drain! How crazy! I opened a container, to clean it, and it was crawling with maggots so I had to make an emergency trip to the laundry washing sink to flush it because there is more water pressure out back. It was nasty!

... and then tragedy struck. I yanked it back up, to see it, and bumped the water spicket and.. it broke. We went through the rest of that day with no running water (this was before we showered)

the dueño de la casa was super nice and repaired it without charging us.. I think it was already broken. 

We also had a zone meeting. It was super exciting to see the new members of our zone! We have one brand new gringa... her spanish makes me more confident (i feel bad but its true) 

saturday- we really just did more service

sunday- I had a mosquito bite on my eyebrow that i scratched and it got infected... will be pictures.. 

Monday- today we went to the cascades! they are basically small waterfalls :) it was nice to be able to talk in english :) 

sorry im like out of time! love yall! thank you for all thr prayers and everything :)

February 2 Post

alright... some of you may have been able to tell that i was a little bit down last week- lemme tell you that things have definitely turned around. Patience is important in our afflictions- life isnt meant to be easy. If you have the chance read or watch the following talks- "Tender Mercies" by elder bednar "Remember Lots Wife" jefrey r holland. They are amazing talks that helped me this week. Literally changed everything about how I feel. Nothing is MEANT to be easy. Its ok to feel down- its normal, and everyone goes through it. especially in the mission field. But patience in adversity is the most important thing- and knowing that you are learning something beneficial and the Lord will deliver you. We dont go through trials that are too hard for us to handle with His help. 

and learning that, is how i have had the best week of my mission so far regardless of the fact that i have been horridly homesick, have 78 bug bites, a swollen toe, and a broken backpack. 

Now to talk about this week... Tuesday morning the Zone Leaders came for a surprise visit on basically the worst day... our alarm clock was in panga (when someone tries to do something good but really is doing omething bad) and literally forgot the time, so we woke up at 7 and were still preparing when they got there at 8. it wasnt too bad though. they understood. We practiced contacting which definitely helped my confidence. They told me that I speak for good spanish for the time that I have, and even have better pronunciation than a lot of the other gringos with more time than me. This was one of those bad days where all our appointments fell through- we decided to make a ward mission plan and implemented it through out the week. We are going to have family home evenings every night in members homes and they are supposed to invite friends and we bring an investigator- also, we are going to have free english classes

Wednesday... I had to wake up at 330... my comp knows I like to exercise so he made a joke that we should have woken up at 230 so we could have exercise time...XD we had capacitaciones in the city... basically zone conference where the assistants teach us about missionary work. It was nice to see them, because they are my closest friend so far, because I spent so much time with them in the office. They told me theyve seen a huge difference in my companion since Ive been with him... Im trying to slowly improve our obedience. In our mission, we have a big problem with obedience, and missionaries forget why its important to be obedient and follow the rules... even in the small changes I have made in our companionship, we have been blessed with a few investigators and people who are interested. 

that night we talked to a lady we had found the week before. we sat down to talk with her for a minute and we ended up talking to her, all of her children, and her sister, and all the neighborhood kids about the book of mormon and the temple. it was amazing and super spiritual. I can tell how much they wanted the gospel. when we talked about families being together forever in the temple their eyes lit up

On the way home we realized the street lights were out... we had to walk home through a creepy forest in the dark. luckily we carry flashlights. We got to the house and... power was out. luckily we still had water. Im thankful I was prepared with lanterns that I got for christmas XD thanks santa!

Thursday.. We visited a bunch of members to get them to agree to have family home evenings in there homes. it was great to share spiritual thoughts in the homes of members. It was good for me to be able to share my testimony to members instead of investigators. 

Basicallyy... as you can tell from the pictures of the house last week, our house is super dirty. And Really, honestly, I hate living in a dirty place (yes mom... worse than my room...) and so... according to the member we were with I didnt have the "valor" to clean the house XD so he helped me while my comp watched XD now our house is clean because I keep up on the cleaning... the only dirty places left are his part of the bedroom and his desk. so at least im living clean mom XD

Friday- we went to the grocery store because friday was "pay day" to check to see if my mission cards works. It doesnt. So we had to call my good friend Elder Bird to help us out. He gave my 15 day allowance to the zone leaders. After that, we quickly bought some things we really really needed for the house (since we didnt have money before) and went to go give service to an investigator. 

Saturday- Saturday was a depressing day. all of our plans (including potential investigators) fell through completely. We walked all over the entire area all day trying to find people and nobody was there. Our area is filled with hills... but i feel like they are mountains XD we had to walk to the area of the zone leaders to get my allowance as well.. that was basically scaling a cliff to get there. but we made it and got my money XD It was nice to see the zone leaders.. Elder Bradburn wwas feeling a little homesick so we bought ice cream and peach juice. his favorite comfort food here in panama XD

Sunday- Today started out super hard. Its hard to see other families going to church together and I really just want to go to church with my family.We had a random guy in our area just decide to show up to church... He has been to the "mormon church" 7 times in the past and wants to get baptized... no idea who he is. we just barely met him. HUGE blessing! I read my patriarchal blessing and read the book of mormon in my spare time at lunch... It was then that I realized that we just need to be patient during our trials. The Lord will deliver us- of that i am sure. 

on a side note, i gave the opening prayer in church. in Spanish. wasnt so bad at all :)

Choose the right, and follow the light of christ and do what you know youre supposed to be doing- no matter how hard it might be

MONDAY!!!! Well... today was difficult at first XD My comp decided to sleep in till 8 since it was "pday" so I had to wake up alone and exercise and study alone. later we met up with 4 other companionships of missionaries to go to Costa Antigua... Old Coast. Super pretty! its a very old section of Panama City near the coast. We baught a bunch of Panama stuff and took a bunch of pictures and stuff. it was nice to see other missionaries and have a day for ourselves. super fun :) I loved it. we visited a bunch of old chapels and stuff. 

Sorry dad... my backpack that you bought me is slowly dieing... all the metal parts are starting to fail... its been jimmy rigged and im going to use it till its no longer usable... but I bought my eventual replacement bag today XD

looking forward to the coming week! I love you all! family and friends :) Talk to you all next week! Vaya Con Dios!

Week of January 26 - La Chorrera

All right. Im starting this out with some interesting facts. So in Anatomy class we learned abot this called cilia that are hair like things that increase the surface area inside your intestines. Lets just say that I now know what those look and taste like.

2nd... The mission is freaking hard. Im in a foreign country this time, my comp doesnt speak english, i dont know the lessons as well as i thought i did, and i have strange bug bites all over my body that itch. I swear that it is 100 degrees outside everyday and nobody has air conditioning. and Dad, just for your knowledge, the showers are not ¨"unwarm" water. turn the faucet in the kitchen all the way cold. That is my shower every morning. 

amongst all that... I guess im learning a hard lesson. The Lord calls us to do dificult things, to teach us tough lessons. 

Lemme go into a little bit more depth... 

Basically this week consisted of hanging out in the office and really doing nothing. So the reality of the mission never hit me. On wednesday I got to go with the assistants to work in their area. that was super fun.

On thursday... I found out where Id be going. Chorerra, in the biencherry 3rd ward. To replace my comp from the MTC, Elder Mcgraw. I know this is where the Lord needs me. For whatever reason he needs me in Chorerra, in an area that needs seeds planted. 

My companion is elder Martinez and he is from Paraguay. he seems like a cool guy but its hard for us to communicate a lot of the time.

friday we went to have lunch with an hermana in the ward. she made us some kind of soup that was made from pig spine. It was good... I guess. the meat was very chewy. After that we taught a few good lessons to some inactive members and that went great. 

Sunday was pretty great. I did not understand most of what happened at church, but I felt the spirit and that was something that I really needed. After church we went to the house of the ward mission leader to have a meeting and lunch... we ate lunch and he fell asleep... so we were there for like 3 hours and got nothing accomplished XD it was kinda fun tho. After we went out with a member of the ward to go out teaching. We taught the restoration to a cool kid that we are going to see next sunday. After, This lady asked if I wanted to try mondongo and I said yes.. nobody told me what it was... turns out that it is Cow intestine. (back to the anatomy class...)

Anways :) I am out of time. I love you all! Ill talk to you again next week :)

Finally...PANAMA!!!!

Dad's Prologue:

Tuesday, January 13 at 11:30, Blake received his travel plans for Panama and 48 hours later, we said goodbye. Suffice it to say, Cynthia and I are ecstatic that Blake has finally made it to Panama! It has been a challening few months, but I can say through all of this that I have never been more proud of Blake. He has kept his focus on his goals and persevered. We are grateful for Blake and his example he sets for those around him, his family...including his parents. Saying goodbye was easy this time. We were so excited!!! The only tears were tears of joy and relief. And now, back to Blake and his first four days in Panama!


Monday, January 19:
Alright... first things first... I apologize in advance for any typos... spanish keyboards dont have some symbols and things are all in different places. 

Thursday - THE FLIGHT- I had a very boring long uneventful flight. I got in around 1130 Panama time so I didnt get to bed until almost 130. I'm so very thankful that i learned spanish before I came... I almost didn't make it past customs.

Basically, there is paperwork that you have to fill out and they arent allowed to let you into the country if you dont know the address of where you are going. and BASICALLY, no one told me about that so I had to leave it blank. I had to talk my way past both security desks at customs, because there were 2 different forms for different things. I had to explain in spanish that I didnt know my address and that i was a missionary and that there were other missionaries waiting outside to take me to my house. sooo... they filled in an address for me XD 

Friday- We went to the office first thing in the morning after we woke up. I read my scriptures and stuff until president arrived at around 12 for my new missionary interview :) He as an amazing man and im super excited to serve in his mission. So grateful to finally be in panama!! Basically, president told me he had 2 places i could go, and that he would pray and let me know by the end of the day, and if he didnt receive an answer, then the lord wants me somewhere else... aaaaaaand I havent gone anywhere yet. I get to hang out with the office elders and study scriptures all day everyday :)

Some interesting things I learned on the first day... there are 4 forms of travel. Walking, obviously, but that is unrealistic a lot of the time. 2nd, taxis, which are expensive so also unrealistic. 3rd, is the metro bus. Which is like a city bus. We mostly use those. the 4th, is something called Los Diablos Rojos. The Red Devils. They are basically school buses that are spray painted all over and have lots of bright lights and very loud music. They also drive very fast and dangerous XD The office elders told me outside panama city they are the only form of transportation.

2nd. We really dont have hot water. and not only is it not hot, it is FREEZING cold. so.. we are the only house in the mission that has a water heater (office elders and APs get priveleges) . It is connected to the electricity in the house and can{t go above "lukewarm" or the power blows out. lukewarm showers are still cold when you wake up in the morning XD

3rd. Panama is so very very hot. like mississippi summer hot. and nobody has AC. the only house that has AC is the house of the APs. 

4th. the people here take southern hospitality to a whole new level. We can literally knock on any door and talk to someone we have never met for 30 minutes about anything.

5th. It is too hot to sleep with a blanket... but at 3 or 4 am it drops to the 70s and  it is nice to have a blanket (thanks mom for telling me to take my blankey)

Saturday- We woke up early to go do a service project, but the elders forgot to call ahead. and on the way home it started raining! apparently the term "dry season" means it is very peculiar to have even a little bit of rain like that. 

Later we went to the office, and had a group meeting with president (I wasnt really a part of it because Im not an office elder), and did a little bit of teaching that night. 

I inherited a panama license plate! we found it that morning in the apartment and nobody wanted it :)

I discovered that my desire to buy a machete is not misplaced... Elder Nysenvoldt recommended I buy one because we use them a lot... they cost like $3 or $4 for a nice one. 

Sunday- I love sundays :) Me and Elder Fernandez (another elder who is stuck with the office elders) had the blessing of being able to bless the sacrament in our ward. I took a lot of notes in sacrament. Even though some speakers are hard to understand.. you can still learn from the thoughts and feeling you get from the spirit in the room. 

After church... me and elder mejia had 3 lunch appointments. and everybody tries to make you eat seconds. and then there was a dinner appointment. Me and elder mejia ate 5 plates of food between 3pm and 8pm

we went tracting between appointments. It was fun being able to tract without being told "oh Im a member" XD #provo mission probs.

Anyways :) I love you all! I hope everyone is doing well at home :) 

The lord accomplishes the things he wants done in the way HE needs it done. and i am finally here at the right time :) Keep the faith!

Week 12 - Still in Provo

Dad's Prologue:

Blake's mom and I are so proud of him. We can see his growth through what shares with us. He has handled challenges and disappointments so well. Blake continues to run into people who knows him or his family. This week it was Brady Adams. Brady was an older youth when Blake was just starting in our church youth program and I was the Young Men's President. Blake looked up to Brady...it was cool for me to see the two of them together...one a returned missionary and one serving. Both a lot more grown up than the last time they were together 4 plus year ago. And don't blame Blake for the dishwasher mishap. His dad still hadn't learned that until much later in his 30's :). Also, Blake has always loved origami...here's hoping his latest creation photographed below brought as many smiles to his face as it did to ours.


Week 12

Well, I just got some news this morning. I am being transferred to a new area, and I will finish out my time here in Provo in a trio! 

Alright- The news of this week. 

Monday- We went to the temple before emailing :) I love going to the temple. The feeling inside :) I know that it is the right place to be, and it was definitely a huge stress relief for me. After I left I felt so much better about everything that is going on. We had piano lessons after emailing. We were an hour late.... Our ride bailed on us so we had to walk 40 blocks to piano. Sister Sikes was mad we didn't call and ask for a ride XD She gave me 4 songs that I will hopefully pass off today :)

Tuesday- We had exchanges... My companion is District Leader so we exchanged with another set of elders in the district. He decided to put me and another greenie together in our area. I basically had to run the area and The Lord helped me so much- I was able to speak spanish to everyone. Probably the biggest time I have seen the gift of tongues in my mission so far. We had service with Brother Moore. We had to shovel manure for him. So gross, and hard work but it was fun. He bought me and my companion new tennis shoes. 

Later we had dinner with Hno Inga. He is a super cool guy, and that is the biggest time the gift of tongues helped me. We talked the entire time in spanish, and the elder I was with never said a word, so I had to keep the conversation the whole time. It turns out he is applying to Medical School. 

We got lost trying to find a referral that the AP's gave us. Here is what we were told "this is her address. We don't know her name, what language she speaks, or if she is a member. go see what she needs" XD it was interesting. They NEVER gave us an apartment number! So we went and stood outside, late after being lost, staring at the doors. Randomly a lady runs out "Misioneros! estuve esparando! Yo necesito un bendicion" So... I got to give a blessing in Spanish haha. que bien.

Wednesday- We were walking down the street and this lady saw us, and we said hello, and she looked at me in the eyes, and sprinted past us. I'm still confused haha. Elder Sanchez finally got an email from his family that night- they are fine and everything is good :) gracias a Dios

Thursday- We went to eat dinner with a super sweet old lady, but there wasn't a man there, so we had to take the food she made us to the old people home dining room XD it was interesting. We were preparing for exchanges the next day- I was so nervous and preoccupied by that.

I also learned the hard way- DO NOT PUT REGULAR DISH SOAP IN THE DISHWASHER. Will attatch pictures haha

Friday- Exchanges- I had to do an exchange with one of the Zone Leaders. they were so great. probably the hardest day of work we have had so far. I was SO exhausted but it was an absolutely amazing day. We literally got handed a $100 bill in the street, and free haircut coupons. It was such a blessing because we were completely out of food at the house.

Our recent convert got new about her cancer... Her first doctor did not surgically remove all of it, and the rest of her lungs have been taken over by the cancer. It is too bad for surgery, and the doctors outright told her that they will do chemo, but they don't think it will work. We are taking her to the temple next week :) 

I definitely learned a lot from Elder Taylor.

Saturday- This morning, we helped a hoarder pack a few boxes. We packed like... 8 or 9 big boxes, and we barely made a dent. the door still didn't open all the way. Just so you know mom, some people have messier rooms than me ;)  I also started making a Paper Bird :) I'll add a picture, because I finished it this morning :) 

Sunday- We had an amazing lesson with a referral named scott. It is amazing to see how the Lord prepares people! He said that he was impressed because our religion doesn't throw it in peoples faces. We taught a Book of Mormon lesson, and invited him to pray and read to know that it is true for himself. I was totally blown away by that response. He has a baptismal date for the 12th of October.

We also walked a TON contacting different referrals before lunch. We have 2 new investigators (including Scott) and 1 potential :)

Monday (today)- I bought ink and a new fountain pen on the way here.. they are so beautiful.. we are in a trio right now because Elder kepoo left to Costa Rica this morning. 

Also, we are finally going to deseret book today. haha.. I hope. Well, thats all the time that I have.

I just want to share my testimony about a few things. I KNOW that our savior and heavenly father are there for each and every one of us. I have felt his love and guidance for me specifically these last few weeks. Everybody struggles, and this gospel, and our savior and father in heaven, can help anybody through anything. The other day during the Temple Dedication I felt a prompting, and a thought from our father in heaven- Christ did not suffer for all of mankind. He suffered for each person individually. It wasn't one event for everyone who did and will ever live, it was for each person, individually. I know that if you turn to our father in heaven, he will comfort you. Like the scripture in Mosiah 24 that talks about Christ making our struggles light, and that he does that so we can stand as a witness for him hereafter. I am here to stand as a witness that our Father and Christ are REAL people who love everyone, and I stand as a witness of this church and this gospel. I know that it was restored by Christ, through Joseph Smith.

HAve a good week :)

Elder Blake Bradburn