Well, I am not too sure what to say about this week. It is still pretty unreal to me that I am actually coming home soon, although it still hasn`t hit me yet. I am still just working, serving, and loving everyone as normal and it doesn`t seem like anything is going to be changing anytime soon. Although it is close to an end, it still seems like just yesterday I got on the plane to come out here to this strange land of Mexico City, but I am sure that is pretty cliche to say. Part of me just wants to give my whole life to serve a mission though, and I am not quite sure if I am really ready to give it up and start my real life yet.
This week was a killer start to my last cycle though. My companion, Elder Crandall is great (although I still miss Elder Nevarez a ton...) and we found a few new investigators that are ready to be baptized this cycle!! If all goes well, in the next few weeks we are hoping to baptize 6 (Paty, Jorge, Dario, Enrique, Valentina, and Gerardo). I am hoping and praying they all work out becuase I can`t even describe how much I love each and everyone one of them, but when I started stressing out about it this week, thinking about how I am really going to help all of them get baptized, I realized that as long as I give it my all, and do everything in my power to serve, help, and love them, I know that Heavenly Father will be pleased with my work, even if they don`t end up making it to the baptismal font. Always important to set high goals though and I know that the Lord is making me an instrument in his hands to bring many soulds unto Him. This week for the first few days we were in a trio with Elder Baird until his new companion arrived, which was a lot of fun, and on Tuesday night, I had organized a family home evening in the house of the bishop with Paty, Jorge, Dario, and Chris (another investigator we have that is a family member of them). It was one of the most successful family home evenings I have ever had in my mission, we talked about sacrifices, played a fun game that I have learned in the mission, and then the bishop had some super good pastes for dessert. The Soria family got to know the bishop`s family really well, and little by little, they are finding the stregnth and courage to keep moving forawrd, against the sometimes frustrating remarks and attitude of their family. I love them so much, and tomorrow night we will be having an appointment with them to put a baptismal date for later this month!! I am hoping and praying they will accept it! Chris, their cousin that we are also teaching, is a super awesome investigator as well. She has already read well into 2nd Nephi in the Book of Mormon, and loves all of the lessons!! She is already noticing little changes of the Gospel in her life as she has made the decision to stop drinking, go to church, and just being a better person in general! I LOVE seeing the change the Gospel brings in people`s lives, I guess after all it is the fruit of our labors!! Unfortunately she is going to go live up in North Carolina for a few months and is coming back late in November or early December and says she will visit the church as the missionaries up there meanwhile, and she told me this last week that she wants me to baptize her when I come back in December! If it all works out, it would be a pretty cool experience coming back to baptize even after my mission!!! As for Enrique, we found him this last week, he just showed up to church one Sunday, his wife is a member, and we put a baptismal date with him the 22nd of September so that will be exciting!! Valentina is a 9 year old girl we found this week as well who needs the missionary lessons to be baptizing, she has her baptismal date for the 16th of September, and Gerardo, who we say yesterday, is only smoking 1 cigarrete a day!! We are super excited for him and everytime he sees us, he reminds us, "Hey! My baptism date is coming up!" I can see how relieved he will be to finally be free of his addiction to smoking after 50 years... Wow, how powerful and merciful the Gospel of Jesus Christ is in our lives and I am so grateful for it. So everything is going great down here and there isn`t a single moment, even if it is hard, that I don`t enjoy and cherish down here in my mission. As I have said many times before, I LOVE being a missionary!!
So that about wraps up this week, and we are down to about 5 minutes left in this game. There has been lots of ups and downs, lots of runs on both sides of the court, and though my shoes may be pretty beat up and my clothes pretty worn, there is no time to give up now. I guess these last 5 minutes are the most important 5 minutes since they are the only moments I can control at this point. And I am determined to make them the best 5 minutes. Every second counts, and just like all of the phases in life, every good thing must come to an end. I guess the mission has taught me a lot to learn how to accept change in my life and as I was stressing out a little bit this week, I was talking to one of my best freinds I have made out here who gave me some really good advice. One of my favorite quotes from my mission has always been "The only thing you can control in life is how you react to the things you can`t control". And in case you were wondering, I ate some crickets this week which were actually pretty good, played a lot of soccer (I have definitely gotten a lot better since I have been down here), and of course, got some good street tacos. Definitely going to miss those a tons. For those of you who were wondering my homecoming talk will be the 14th of October, if anyone can make it down it would be wonderful to see you again! Love you all tons and have a great week!
-Elder Tyler Clark