Letter from 5/5/2014

Hey!!!

She is not allowed to go out with boys!!!!!!!  It´s just not allowed.

Well I think the first part of your letter mad me crack up pretty hard. Every one here in the locutorio is looking at me like I am an idiot. That definitely made my p day. As usual it sounds like everyone is really busy with sports and school. I can´t believe all the stuff Kenzie is doing especially next year. She is going to be really busy. Sounds crazy. I hope Brenley can play soccer soon with here back jacked up. 

Sometimes I wish I was there to see the things that Bria says just so I could laugh at that moment but it is just as good as reading it here on the computer. 

It has been fairly warm here too but because we are in the North and on the coast it is still a little cooler but I think I am going to get transferred this next week so I might be going somewhere really hot down south. I will die of sweat. There will probably be a puddle of sweat on the pavement with my tiea and chapa so that people will know who melted. 

Wow the amount of lessons we had this last week with less active members is crazy. We had 12 lessons with them. We are working so hard on the less active list. There is one family from Peru right now that we are working with. The Monago family. They have a son who is 17 who is fairly active but the rest of them I have never seen in my life and they have been very difficult to get into their house. The dad served a mission and everything but I guess things happen to people. they have a daughter who is 10 and we are trying to baptize here but the dad is a little difficult. I think they are coming around little by little. The dad opens up a little bit more every time to us and the girl wants to be baptized but she needs to go to church and we have to teach her still. We now have to teach lesson 5 before baptism instead of after. If you read preach my gospel you will know the lessons. The first one is the restoration the second is the plan of salvation and the third is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The 4 is commandments which aren't all taught at the same time and the fifth is things like temple work and missionary work and there are a couple other things but they get taught in the same manner as the commandments. 

Well everything here is good and I am really excited to skype you guys this Sunday. I think we are skyping from a members house. and he is easily one of my favorite members. He happens to be from Mexico. I think I will be skyping at 6 to 7 Spain time when my companion is done skyping. 

anyways love you

Elder Blake Billingsley 

Letter to Mom

Hey mom,

I know I am supper excited too. I can´t wait and no this week is going to go by super slow and on top of that we get to know the transfer information the night before we skype and I have to give a talk in sacrament on Sunday. ahhh! 

Yep I got the package from Tracy and Scott I need to send them a letter. 

Yeah it sounds like kenzie and them had a good expereince she wrote me and told me a little bit about it. Sounds like it was good. 

Well the work here is going great. We had a 12 less active lessons this past week and the big push in the mission is to reactivate and reactivate and reactivate, which has been really good because we find lots of people to teach whether it is there family members or friends. 

We are working with one family right know who has a 17 year old son that is active and we really want him to sevre a mision because he is awesome but the rest of his family I have never seen until this last week. We finally got into there house and the dad is a returned missionary and is very difficult to deal with but I think he opend up to us. We met with them twice this last week. They have a 10 year old daughter who has not been baptized and we want to reactivate them and baptize her. It would be awesome but we have to take it little by little. the dad is just kind of difficult to deal with but really good in the lessons. 

well I hope you have a good Mother's Day.

I will be able to start skyping between 6 and7 pm here in Spain time so I don´t remember what time that is there but I get to skype after my companion. Maybe a little earlier depending on if our member that we will be with has a second computer when we are there. Can´t wait.

Love you 

Elder Blake Billingsley

Letter from 4/28/2014

Sounds like you are all really busy and doing good. I know how the rain goes I am in a place where it has rained all week and it is exactly like home with all the rain I have had in the last 4 months. Pero es lo que hay. Wow I miss doing yard work and seeing the grass and peoples yards. You don´t even come close to seeing that even if they have a house. 

Wow that is a good stroy about all that stuff that went down there in Ukraine. I just knew that some conflict was happening and that President Paces son might be coming home early by a few months because of it. The crazy thing is, is that we have a fairly large Russian population her in the area where I am. 

What she went to another Mormon Prom. Not cool, she needs to stay away from boys. And of course cole will make the team and be able to play both teams he is a beast. Everyone sounds good and Bria sounda like a handful.

 

Well the work here is rolling along. We had to start meeting a little less with some investigators because they just arn´t keeping commitments but we are having some success with a lot of meons activos and there is one family that has a 10 year old daughter that isn´t baptized. They have a son who is 17 who is pretty active but we are working towards the rest of the family. They were married in the temple and the dad is a returned missionary but sometimes i guess people just loose sight of what is important in their lives. But we might see her get baptized. I think that I am going to end up getting transferred here in two weeks but when we Skype I will know where I am going to go. Kind of cool that way, right before the transfer. The day after we find out I get to skype on Mother's Day on the 11 so hopefully you are at home and it might be during church we will find out and I will let you all know next week what time. 

Anyways love you all,

Elder Blake Billingsley 

Letter to Mom

Hey, 

I know, I am super excited to Skype. I will email next week the time I will be on skype and there is a possibility it might be during church because we are going to a members house.  I will know next week. 

Everything is good here. We aren't teaching some of the normals right know we kind of had to rest them because they just aren´t keeping commitments but I think we have a visit with Silvia this week. We are working with a lot of minos activos right now and last night we had a lesson with a kid who is 18. Wow I say kid but he is my age. Anyway he hasn't been to church in like 3 years and is super into partying and drinking and smoking and he actually let us in last night and we had a great lesson on the Book of Mormon and who Christ was. I think we finally got him to open up to us a little bit. 

Well I guess I can tell you guys a little bit about what happened when we are skyping with the story but it is kind of weird. 

Send me a picture if you have one of Kenzie going to Mormon Prom.  I want to see who she went with.

You will do great in the race, but how long do you have to run for?  That sounds like a long race. 

Just don´t give up. 

Love You can´t wait to see everyone on Mother's Day!

Elder Billingsley

 

Letter from 4/21/2014

Hey, 

Easter has definitely been different around here in a country that is mostly Catholic or people that claim they are. They have holy week and I think every day they have processions with floats of Christ and drum lines and bands but it isn´t like a parade, it is super weird. They have people dressed up like the KKK and it is super dark and creepy they burn incense and have horns going and drums. Then the last night it is like one of the longest processions ever. It's interesting but really weird. I wasn't paying attention and my companion goes hey its the KKK in Spain.

I think we are doing better here this last week we found 6 new investigators and hopefully we can get most of them to stay as investigators. 

Sounds like Cole really wants this long board. What a stud. I guess when he gets the long board we will see how much longer he keeps working like that. 

I can´t wait to hear about Garrett putting in papers and getting the mission call. I'm freaking proud of him. The mission is the best. 

Still working hard. One day we had seven lessons and we just sat down with these two girls like at an outside restaurant so it kind of looked weird but we just taught the restoration and it was awesome. They just excepted everything we said and they happened to be from Brasil. haha  But we had 7 lessons that day. It was freaking awesome. 

Guess I don´t have much more to say except we get to skype in a few weeks! Can´t wait. 

Love Elder Blake Billingsley 

Letters from 4/14/2014

Hey, 

Sounds like you guys had a crazy fun time out in Oregon. Sounds like fun! I was here just working away in the rain and in the sun. I think it is kind of  bi polar here like Washington. Cole sounds like he is helping out a lot and turning into a beast. Are you sure he doesn´t want more money? Wish I could have gone out to Bend and Smith Rock sounds like it was fun. And of course Cole wasn´t to happy after lossing at golf,  he dosn´t like to lose anything. 

Well I am loving it here in Santander. I honestly think that when I leave this place I am going to cry or at least be a little bit sad. The members here are great, the investigatores are great and well of course they would be better if they would just be baptized but I guess we will work with them a little longer. And it is freaking gorgeous here. Four transfers left  this week and I will probably leave here then in four weeks, but if I am lucky I will have 2 more transfers here. Well I don´t know what to say really I just love it here and I hope my Spanish is improving. 

We had to go to Bilboa twice last week because we had a some meeting and entrevistas with president and it was a long hard week.

Hope everyone is have a good week and had a good spring break. 

Love Elder Blake Billingsley

 

 

Letter to Mom

 

Yep I can´t wait till Mother's Day either. It feels like it has been a long time since I have seen you all last, well 4 months ago. Actually it has gone pretty fast on my end. I think I have to give a talk in church this Sunday and on Easter Sunday oh what fun that will be. We have started having good weather around here but still a lot of rain. It is pretty much the same as it is there at home. I think today we are going out to a light house to do a little exploring. 

Well after conference you would think that we could ditch the jackets but no we have to wait till May first and then we can get rid of them. Well at least hang them up in the closet for Sundays and meetings. The talk I really liked was one by Pres. Uchtdorf about sleeping during the restoration and it has kind of become a talk that are president uses to tell us not to sleep during are mission. 

Wow I can´t believe that Nicole is done with a year of college already. Time flies! I even have 7 months in the mission crazy. I keep looking at it, in 2 and a half transfers I will have a year on the mission. well, when this transfer ends. 

Well everything is going good here and don´t worry about sending me anything I'm good, but I should send some letters out. As far as sleep I have been getting even less sleep lately. Sometimes I just stay up at night and think about my investigators and what I can do but we never know until we are there with them. Well our investigators are dificlut so not making much headway with them but  we are paraying and fasting all time. 

Can´t wait to skype and see you. Love you!

Love Elder Blake Billingsley

Letter from 4/7/2014

Hey,

What is this family vacation without the son who packs the car for you! Not fair! Oh wait, that´s right I´m in spain right now. Sounds like some cool stuff out there in Bend. Wish I was there with you guys.

Yeah, general confernce was great! Of course we watched it in english because the ward I go to has a problem when they hook the computers up to the system, so we just watched it in Spanish. It is definitely true about needing to be tough and be an example. I think there are people that are really lazy and that is the reason for a lot, especially in the church I have noticed. As a missionary our favorite members tend to be the ones who are a little more strict with the rules. Don´t know why that is but I have just realized that over the past month or so. 

Wow that is soo cool that Kinlyn is getting the oportuninty to be baptized. When I was in Barcelona we had to give a nine year old the charlas with her family and it was an awesome experience. And I think we are going to do it again here in Santander with a Peruvian family. 

Well the work is actually picking up for us. In the past couple months when I have said we have been wroking hard I meant I was wroking hard to get my trunkie butt companion to work but he went home last month and my new companion is a little  trunkie too cause he leaves in June but we are picking the work up. His name is Elder Daines and lives in Roy Utah. We actually have a pretty good base of investigators and a couple of native Spaniards which is not normal. We are teaching this Spanish guy right now who just called us one day and we don´t remember talking to him ever. He says that he is just unhappy with his life and he is looking for something. Crazy because it is my first time I have ever heard that. We gave him the first lesson and he was like, so all I have to do is read this book ask God if it is true and go to church...sounds easy. We were like yeah it is. He understands everything we teach and it is awesome. Wish they where all that easy.  

Letters from 4/1/2014

Letter to Mom:

Hey Mom,

Wow Spencer has a girlfriend!? Better tell him that I have a year and a half left and then after that I will probably get married before him. Oh and Robbie too. haha! Well things are going good here, still teaching Fidel and Sylvia. Not really a ton of action going on here. Today was transfer week so one Elder left our piso and is going to Zaragoza which is closer to Barcelona. He was probably one of my favorite Elders in my mission. I guess after the mission I am going to have to go visit him in Argentina. He tells me they have the best meat there and I believe him because we went to an Argentina buffett before he left and the meat was incredible. I loved it!

 

Still working with a long list of menos activos and finding out that most of them don´t live here anymore. For conference we stay here in Santander, but I don´t know if we get to watch it in English. We are going to try because there will be three North Americans. My piso has flipped again from 3 South Americans to three North Americans.  We just cleaned our piso today and feel like a champ because of how gross it was, it was the most nasty thing ever. 

For now I can´t think of anything that I miss right now but I am sure there is something. Oh wait I do have something that I can´t get here SLEEP! We are always dead. 

Hope everything is good.

Love Elder Blake Billingsley 

Letter to Dad:

Hey,

It is for sure my Spanish is a little better, I can pretty much communitcate anything in a round about way but they understnad me and I understand just about everything they say to me.  It is true I am starting to have more fun now that I can make connections with people.  I know I can´t believe it, pretty soon my cousin will be out on the mission too. That's whats up! Of course Cole wanted some extra money I could never get him to help me clean our room, and then he wanted to go to scouts to see what they do there, what? Where did that come from? 

 

Wow dead lifting 200 pounds, tu eres una bestia!! Watch the back those ones will kill you if you do to much or do them wrong. Well I think I have been gaining weight. It is so hard, the members here like to make us food. We have 2 familys that feed us every week at the same time. One feeds us seafood and the other usually something from Colombia because that would be where they are from. We are always eating with other people. The native Spanish food will make you pack on the pounds too. Potatoes, bread, and eggs. I know, sounds like the staples of a missionary, but that is the main food here. They have bread with everything. 

 

Well we have transfers today, I'm still in Santander and probably will be for another transfer at least but it is possible that I could be here for 3 more. My current companion has transfers 2 left. They keep sending me all the old guys in the mission to kill them off. 

 

Not much more going on here, just teaching some of the same old people and hoping they get baptized sooner than later, but we have a lot of work to do. Actually today while we were doing our shopping for the week we got a call from some guy we had given one of our cards to in the street and he wants to talk to us on Thursday. It is starting to get really hot here and I am sweating like a dog at night. Oh yeah speaking of night, lets just say that I had an experience that made me and the Argentinian Elder poop our pants the other night. I will write a letter about it I think. It blows my mind what happened. Well I didn´t think it would happen to me, but everything is good here. 

 

Love Elder Blake Billingsley

Letter from 3/24/2014

Hey Dad,

I think I am going to miss doing all that yard work....Not! Actually I will miss it especially with summer right around the corner. Sounds like everyone is still super busy as usual and going to get even more busy. There is a four year old girl in my ward here in Santander and I was like holly cow when I terminar my mission Bria is going to be so big and a really big handful. 

Kenzie will do fine with everything she just needs to relax. She is smart enough to get into what ever school and with all these freaking guys from Utah they are always tell me to never go to Provo. But they are all Utah fans and have either gone there or are going there when they are done. But she is doing all kinds of things that will be good on her application. 

I actually just got a email from Garritt and he says that the semester ends here in two weeks and he is going home to work on his papers. I can´t believe that April is almost here. In a couple of weeks I will have had my mission call for a year and general conference is next week. and mothers day is next month and we get to skype! and my cousin gets to turn his papers in and get going on all that good stuff it is crazy. 

They are pushing everyone pretty heavy with the less actives everywhere. Reason number one is that it is great missionary opportunity to baptized part member families and friends of menos activos and 2 because the church has an archive of names that they don´t know if they exist any more so they are suppose to send a list of names to each ward every so often and the ward and the missionaries are suppose to work with it and try to find these people. Here in Santander we have found that most of these peoples address and numbers are wrong like these people just left and never told anyone. Most of them are people who have gone back to their country I think.

It is kinda crazy how much the work is being pushed. They are really pushing for the members to be more involved. Actually in our mission we have to memorize this quote from Thomas S. Monson.

" ahora is el momento de que los miembros y los misioneros se unan y trabajen juntos; que trabajen en la viña del señor para llevar almas a Él. Él ha preparado los medios para que compartamos el evangelio de muchas maneras, y el nos ayudara en nuestros esfuerzos si actuamos con fe para llevar acabo su obra." 

Sorry I don´t now it in English but at least I know what it means. It is a really big push here right now and we are hoping that the members start getting more evolved in there own wards because when they do that they can fill our planners for us and we can just teach their friends and the less actives that they know. Work will be more effective if that happens. 

So last night was The Barcelona and Madrid game. We were invited over to a members house for a "noche de hogar" and the game just happened to be on at about the same time so we got to see some of the game. It was such a good game 4 to 3 and Barcelona won. Messi had 3 goals. My companion and I actually got really into it. Never thought that would happen. 

Love Elder Blake Billingsley   

 

 

Letter to Mom

 

Hey mom,

Well everything is good here. Coming to the end of another transfer this week but I will probably be here for one more transfer. We had some awesome weather for a while but then the last bit of bad weather is coming in for about two more weeks they are saying.  Here in santantder it rains all the time usually kind of like Washington. My companion is great, we get along good and we have been doing a lot of work. His Spanish is reall good and I hope I am getting there. There is still so much that I don´t understand. I´m not gonna lie this last week within a day it went from sunny and beautiful to rainy windy and cold and I got a little trunkie kinda all I was doing was thinking about home and tired the whole time. Everyone says that you go through that crap every once in a while. Well, it pretty much sucked. 

We are teaching two different people right now that have some potential. One is a lady named Silvia and she is just really stubburn and does not want to be baptized. I also have a very hard time teaching here because she is confused so easily. Kinda drives me nuts.

The other guy we are teaching is name Fidel. We call him Fidel Castro but he is a stud. He is a member reference that we were given and lives in a pueblo about 40 min from Santander. So this last week we had our first lesson with him and we asked him if he would be baptized on the 19 of April. He said yes, if he found out all this stuff we said was true and if the Book of Mormon was true. So we are hoping he starts progressing. 

Yeah, I have been counting down for general conference since I started wearing the suits and sweaters fulltime. It can be raining outside and I am freaking sweating in those things. My suits are going to be completly ruined after next winter and smell horrible.  I am excited to listen to genreal conference and then the month after that on mothers day we get to skype! 

Sounds like grandpa and grandma had a good anniversary. I didn´t know that they had been married that long but I guess Uncle Chris is like 42 or 43 now right? Monday´s are my favorite day too. I get to write you guys and take a nap. I swear I have never been so tired in my life. When you go to sleep and then wake up you feel like all you did was just lay down and the alarm went off. All the days just kind of blur together. I guess that is the whole point of our agendas otherwise I would forget everything I am suppose to do. 

Love,  Elder Blake Billlingsley