Dear Family,

Mission life is great! I have been having a blast down here preaching the gospel. This week was a lot of administrative duties, but we still got to work in our area a little bit. We also had a baptism!!!!!!!!! Naomi got baptized and we had Elder Adams (one of the senior couples) do the baptism. He was thrilled to do the baptism and she was thrilled to get baptized. When she got baptized, she could hardly contain her happiness. She wanted it so badly and loves the opportunities that being baptized is going to bring into her life. She is doing great and loves reading the Book of Mormon. She even had things marked with a highlighter in the Book of Mormon that we gave her.

We also went out this week and had to spray all the mission houses with an insecticide. It has been really tiring and a bit rough being out of our area so much, but it was also really fun at the same time to see all of the missionaries and get to talk to them a little bit. We have some awesome missionaries out here. One of the highlight trips was going out to the city of San Pedro that is out on an island. We had to take a boat to get out there, so we got to cruise through the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean. When we were loading up to come home, we thought it would be super cool if we could ride up top with the captain instead of inside of the boat. We figured the worst he could say was no, so we went and asked him. He said that was fine with him, so Elder Hacking and I got to ride up on the top with him. While we were driving out, we saw a huge fish as well. It had a pretty good sized dorsal fin and was maybe 5 feet long. I didn’t get a super good look at it, but I am guessing it was probably a little shark. That made me want to jump in the water pretty bad! Haha.

We have changes coming up next week. We haven’t told everyone about their changes yet, but I am going to be heading back to El Salvador. I am super excited to be able to go back and get my Spanish a little better for the last 4 months of my mission. I am not really allowed to tell anyone about that yet, but you guys are family and not here in the mission, so I think I am good telling you.

Well that has been my week. It was a crazy one and this next one probably will be too. Have a great week! Love you!

Love,

Elder Black

Naomi’s Baptism

Jungle Drive

Visiting San Pedro

Dear Family,

This week has been a pretty normal week, well about as normal as weeks get for me right now. With administrative duties that I have, I guess our weeks are never really normal. I have just gotten used to it.

We went on interchanges this week and I got to work with Elder Fiu. He is an Australian missionary and we have gotten to be pretty good friends over the last little while. I brought him back to Belize City to work with me in my area and we had a lot of fun. We worked hard and had a great couple days.

We will be having a baptism this weekend. Her name is Naomi. We found her a little over a month ago just contacting. We contacted her at her house and set a return appointment, but when we came back, she wasn’t there. she wasn’t there the second time we went back either. We figured she must not have been very interested in our message. Then on Sunday, she showed up to church and said that she wanted to get baptized. She really loved church and especially liked the lesson about the priesthood that was taught in the gospel principles class. She was progressing really fast, but then one day, we just couldn’t get ahold of her. Her family said that she had gone off for something personal and they didn’t know when she would be back. We tried calling her a lot, but couldn’t ever get ahold of her for a little over a week. Then, she just walked in to church yesterday morning. There was something that happened in her life that made her feel pretty down, so she decided to get out of the city for a little while. She told us that she really missed the peace she felt in the church and felt that she needed to be there. As she told us about the trial she was going through, we explained the peace that the gospel brings and the comfort that the Holy Ghost can give us after baptism. She told us that she wanted to be baptized and was really excited when we told her that she could still get baptized this weekend. She is a really solid investigator. She even highlights key points in what we ask her to read and always has really good questions. I am really excited for her!

Other than that, there is not too much to report on the week. It was a good one and I am loving every minute out here in the mission field! Love you! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Black

We made the sisters dinner and took it to them last week Sunday. Sister Rodas was still a little slow moving from her surgery and it was hard for her to eat. She was having a hard time keeping the food on the fork, so her companion, Elder Hacking, and I decorated her with napkins…… a lot of napkins. Haha

At the Zoo in Belize

Dear Family,

This week has been really crazy. We spend the entire week with President Adams and his wife showing him the country of Belize and interviewing all of the missionaries. I didn’t really get to spend any time working in my area at all. We had a couple of pretty interesting events that happened this week though.

On Friday night when we were driving back home, we got in a car wreck. We were in the mission van with Elder Hacking, myself, President Adams, and Sister Adams. Elder Hacking was driving and the car in front of us slid a little bit. We rear ended the car in front of us. When came to a stop, the other car just began to drive off. I feel bad for him, because that is the second time he has wrecked that car in three months. So we got in a hit and run accident in a $50,000 van with our brand new mission president. Luckily everyone was ok, and there was no damage done to the engine, so we were able to drive the rest of the way home. While we were driving home, I got a phone call from the mission nurse. There was a sister that needed to get to the hospital to get her appendix checked on. The only hospital that you won’t die in if the operate on you is here in Belize City. When we got to Belize City, I jumped in our other car with the Elder that is serving as the mission nurse in Belize and we drove up to Orange Walk to go pick her up and get her to the hospital. When we got to the hospital, it was about midnight and we were there with her until about 3:30 in the morning. They took out her appendix and I get we got her there just in time for them to get it out before it ruptured. Needless to say, I am pretty tired right now still! Haha.

Well I hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Love,

Elder Black

One of the swamp bridges that we have to walk across sometimes.

Hey familia! I hope you have a great 4th of July! I hope to see lots of pictures. I am going to be celebrating mine by running errands with our new mission president. I am actually sitting in our truck at the airport right now waiting for his flight to get in. I think we are going to make some root beer floats and get some BBQ food to celebrate a little. Mostly we are going to be helping President Adams though. We have a lot of stuff to do to get ready for the multizone we are having tomorrow. I will probably be writing you guys tomorrow night or just a little here and there when I have the time over the next few days. I just wanted to send this email to let you know. I love you all and hope you have a great 4th of July!

Love,

Elder Black

(a few days later)

Dear Family,

Well this has been an interesting week. I didn’t really get a p-day because of preparing for the multizone and the coming of our new mission president. It has been a crazy week. After the multizone, we went out to do interviews and are actually doing them today and tomorrow as well. I am actually sitting in a car on my way across the country right now while I am typing this email.We didn’t get to bed until about 11 last night and I had to wake up at 5:30 this morning. Our schedule has been really crazy! Haha.

The multizone was great. We talked about how water boils at 212 degrees, but is just hot water at 211 degrees. Boiling water creates steam that can power things and hot water is just hot water. We talked about how much of a difference that extra degree makes and related it to giving an extra effort in missionary work.

I had kind of a cool experience this past week. We were talking to a less active members daughter that is about 10. She was talking to us about superheroes, so naturally I had to ask her what my superhero would be if I was one. She told me that my superhero name is Smile Guy and my superpower is making other people smile because I always have a smile on my face. It made me feel pretty good to have someone say that and notice that I am always smiling. It has been one of my goals to be a happy and positive person, and I think my goal is beginning to pay off.

Well I hope you guys have had a great week! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Black