Christmas in Mexico

Hey Mom and Everyone!

Wooo what a week.  It was definitely a very memorable and special Christmas and it is a little sad now that it is over.  So on Monday we went over to Esteban's house and that was super fun!  I loved talking with him and he made us basically fried waffles with Ice Cream.  He is an awesome chef!  It was nice seeing him again, and we are going back there tonight!  So... even though we didn't see that same guy that robs us every week doesn't mean we didn't get robbed lol.  I thought we were finally having good luck when another sketchy looking dude approached us. He thought we were drug dealers at first, but we told him that we believed our bodies are temples of God and we don't participate in that.  He was so confused lol.  He didn't believe us, so he just said, give me all that you have.  I was super nervous because I had my camera with my and I normally don't.  So we started emptying our pockets and gave him the few pesos we had.  Once Elder Johnson showed him our super sweet cell phone (not really), he was shocked and finally believed that we really didn't have everything.  Our cell phone is super old, mostly broken, and cracked lol.  He let us go after that, what a relief haha.  He also had a gun too, but it was just to scare us, and we are protected by God and Angels everyday. It is just really weird because in the whole year Elder Johnson has been here, he has never been robbed in person... He said he always hoped he would get robbed though so he had a story... I told him he could stop wishing for that now and I think he is satisfied lol.  I am averaging one robbery per week so that is about 104 throughout my whole mission... Can't wait!! 

So one thing that is kind of cool about Mexico City is there are little shops all over the side of the road.  This week, every once in a while we would stop by and buy a cool treat.  You can buy fresh donuts, popsicles, ice cream, chocolate covered bananas for only a few pesos (usually under 50 cents).  They also have little mini groccery stores everywhere and fresh fruit stands where you can buy a bunch of bananas for about a quarter.  That is one thing I will miss about Mexico.  Elder Johnson has a blender and makes some really good fruit smoothies.

This week was a little hard to teach people since everyone is either gone on vacation, or busy with their families for the holiday's, but we did have a few highlights!  We we able to teach another lesson to Martha  (the one I had an awesome feeling she would get baptized last week).  We set a baptism date with her! Wooo!  Also we are continuing to prepare another Martha for baptism who is only smoking one cigarette a day now and is progressing awesome! Her baptism is coming up in a few weeks.  Also another crazy thing that happened was we taught Martha's husband, Martin.  Martin is about 55 years old, he has never ever accepted any religion in is life (in fact he has a bunch of creepy tatoos), he has never prayed, and missionaries have been begging to just meet with him for the last 10 years of his life.  We aren't sure what happened, but he actually approached us and told us he wanted to meet with us!  Even his whole family was freaking out, so we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was really cool and we are going with him again this week.  I really hope he decided to pray and ask God for help.  I also gave 3 blessings this week! It was a little difficult in Spanish but it was a really awesome experience for sure and I could just feel God's love for every person I blessed.

Also I learned a cool lesson this week.  Elder Johnson was really sick again, and on Thursday he said he just couldn't go out.  He was sick all last week too... I know Elder Johnson is a hard worker too and he wasn't just using this as an excuse to sleep.  So, while he was resting, I prayed.  I just kind of asked Heavenly Father why he continued to let Elder Johnson be sick... I said I know that you can work miracles and I know that you want us to go out and work and bring people unto Christ, and so I just asked why or if there was a reason for his sickness.  I thought about how maybe I could learn a lesson from this experience.  So I got the idea in my head to fast.  I fasted for the next 24 hours for Elder Johnson to get better.  I didn't tell him I was fasting for him, and the next day, he said he felt so much better.  Now he is pretty much all better (Even though I got sick) but it was a great experience for me to build my testimony!  I learned that if we ever have struggles or trials in life, we can always turn to Heavenly Father and ask him for help, and maybe there is a lesson in it.  For me, this helped me to grow my testimony in fasting, but I didn't get a testimony until "After a trial of [my] faith" (Ether 12:6).  

Well, now onto my Christmas Story!! My Christmas was actually pretty darn awesome and memorable actually.  Even though it was a little hard and different away from my family, there were a lot of tender mercies from God and a lot of people who helped make it special.  Christmas Eve I was so happy!! We made a big Christmas Eve breakfast with eggs and quesadillas and beans and stuff, it was really good!  Then we had our lunch appointment with Hermana Martinez.  We had pesole which is like a soup they always make to celebrate.  It was pretty good and their family is super cool.  Then we went with a family in the other ward, with Elder Lara and Cherrignton too, and we had a big kareoke party!  It was sooo fun and brought back memories of our family reunion this last summer! Some of my featured songs were Living on a Prayer (I hit those high notes) and White and Nerdy.  Everyone was dying laughing at me rapping white and nerdy haha.  Then we had (you guessed it) more food... Here to celebrate, everyone just eats a bunch of food lol. We had one last appointment with the Almas.  They made Elder Johnson and I little stockings which was super sweet.  They said we had to leave them there though because Santa still had to come!  They are an awesome family.  Then, of course, we had more food, and returned to our house for the night.  I was stuffed.... So Elder Johnson and I read the Christmas Story in the Bible, I read my letter from Mom, and opened my package I got!  I loved all of it and Elder Johnson and I are stoked to go to Buffalo Wild Wings!! I also got Grandma's package earlier this week.  So with my heart full of excitement and love, my stomach stuffed with food, and my feet all wrapped up in my sweet new Kawhi Leonard socks, I went to bed.  I ended up waking up twice in the middle of the night and threw up.... It wasn't fun, but I just prayed for a Christmas Miracle that I would feel better.  In the morning, for the most part, my prayer was answered.  I wasn't tired, I felt pretty good, and I still had that same excitement and joy I went to bed with!  And the best part is, Santa came!  Elder Johnson took a video of me running out to see all the presents under the Christmas tree!  I was so happy, this was probably the happiest two days I have had my whole mission.  I loved all the the presents Mom sent me, and put up my Nerf basketball hoop just like the good old days.  We went to church (Only 32 people showed up because everyone thinks they can take Christmas off) but it was a pretty good Sacrament meeting.  We went to our food appointment, and I knew I couldn't eat very much.  I told the lady I was really sick and she was very understanding.  I told her we would come back and eat another time with her when I felt better.  Then we went over to the Almas.... I was feeling good all morning, but I think combined with the nervousness and excitement to talk to my family, and the fact that I just couldn't hold any food down, I threw up again.  But then I felt better after that lol and talking to my family was amazing! I miss all you guys so much.  I loved all the cousins singing I am a Child of God with Cade right up front.  I took a video so I will watch it often haha. I feel so blessed and loved to have such an amazing Christmas.  Even though it was super tough to say goodbye, I still had a really special and happy Christmas! So Elder Johnson and I just went back, played our new games (Sushi Go and It Came to Pass) and ended our Christmas night.  One Christmas down one to go on my mission!! I hope you guys all had an awesome Christmas too and Happy New Years!!! Have an amazing week everyone, I miss you all!

-Elder Clark

Adjusting to Life on a Mission

 Hey Mom and Everyone!

This week was a little tougher.  Elder Johnson and I both got kind of sick this week.  We ate some weird food this week so it could've been anything.  One day I had some super spicy soup with cactus and dried fish in it haha, that was kind of gross.  We had stuffed peppers too and I wasn't a huge fan of that.  Last night I ate pigs feet and that was just super gross haha, I hope I never have to eat that again.  A lot of good happened this week too.  I love playing with the little kids here, their siblings must not play with them very much because every time we come over, they are so happy and excited and just want to wrestle, and play with cars, and race us haha.  It is super fun and makes me happy. One night it was about 8:30 and we just finished our last appointment.  Instead of going back to the house early, we decided to contact a street, and a few houses in, a 21 year old named Omar let us in.  He seemed really interested in us and we didn't have much time but he likes our church since we aren't looking for money from people, that is what has drawn him away from religion in the past.  We have another appointment with him tomorrow!  We also met another new investigator, Martha Sanchez.  For some reason when we found her, I just got this overwhelming feeling that she needs help and that she is ready to get the gospel.  That made me happy when I was sharing that message and I think she could feel some of that happiness too.  We are also going back to her tomorrow.  One night we went in with some 85 year old.  He is basically blind, he can only see stuff right in front of us.  He is from Peru and literally never stops talking.  He has so many funny stories and is hilarious, but since he won't ever stop and listen to us, I don't know if we will ever be able to teach the first lesson to him, let alone, have him progress.  For now, we have just been loving him and being his friend, and we will see where it goes.  He also apparently made himself a priest in some other church, and he always sleeps with his little Bible, so every visit he insists on giving us a "Priesthood" Blessing haha.  It is kind of funny.  The baptism got cancelled for this week, but we set another date with her January 7 because she has to get married still.  I guess they just don't have the money to get married right now, so we had to postpone the baptism.  Getting married here is super easy though and not as big as it was back in the states, it costs like $20 and you just go to a judge and he does it.  We might help pay for some of it.  We are also helping an old lady stop smoking and prepare to be baptized in January as well! It has actually gone really great, she has gone from smoking 8 a day to 2 day since we have visited her.  I know Heavenly Father is helping her.  But we continue to have a ton of success each and every day and are working hard! For that reason, time really has been going by fast.  The Weather is perfect here too.  It is never too cold or hot year round, and stays between 50 and 80 degrees the whole year.  It is literally amazing, I can still wear shorts right now on P Days and feel great!!  This week a few intersting things have happened.  I had to flush with a bucket, that was kind of an interesting experience haha, I now know the physics behind toilets!  Guess what else happened... we just happened to pass by the same drunk guy that robbed us last week.  He demanded we give him more money so I gave him 10 pesos and left.  I guess I will just have to work that into my weekly budget or pray to never see him again.  We were surprised he remembered us though because he was so drunk last time.  If we see him again, we might just run because I doubt he can run very far and if he has a gun, he probably can't aim very well either lol.  Just kidding mom, I will stay safe!  I cannot wait for Christmas though!!! Ugh I am so excited! We had a ward Christmas party the other night, and a pretty talented family set up their rock band. They played guitar, drums and sang to the Beatles, it is kind of funny and awesome too.  The food at the party was really good.  This morning we got haircuts for like $3 and they are super good at cutting hair here too!  Well that was my week, I hope everyone had a great week and had a good week before Christmas too!  T-Clark out.

-Elder Clark

First week a Success

Tyler's Companion, Elder Johnson

Hey Mom and Everyone!! I have a ton to write about what a crazy, awesome, eventful, week. I have pretty much felt every feeling you can think of haha.  First of all, the mission here is so much different than I thought it would be.  There was a bigger difference from coming to the MTC to here than it was going to the MTC from home haha.  For that reason there are a ton of adjustments I have had to make, and a lot of things I need to get used to, but the most important thing is I am super happy and working hard and loving the work.  Soooo. Where to start haha.  On Tuesday I met my Dad (My first companion)-Elder Johnson.  That is what they call them here and your first area is where you were born.  So I was born in La Perla 2 area in the Aurora ward.  So my Dad is awesome, I am so glad President picked out an awesome one for me.  He is from Layton, Utah.  He plays basketball, and he's been out for over a year so basically he knows the ropes and helps me with everything.  We are super similar, and he is easy to get along with.  I am sure you've got some pictures mom so can you post those? My President is also sooo great. Right when I met him I knew he cared about me so much already, he has helped me adjust and I am really sad because he is going home this summer, but I will enjoy him while I can!! He is from California and is super funny too.  So anyways, we got to our house and everyone says it is the best house in the whole mission.  It is owned by some guy named Pepe, he´s not a member but he is super nice and likes to try to talk English to me haha.  Downstairs there are a bunch of birds and plants it is super pretty.  We live upstairs and it is one of the only houses in the mission that has 2 other elders staying in the same house so that made yesterday kind of fun haha.  Our room is super big, we have hot water, a shower, and everything.  At first I thought it was super dirty, but I guess that is just everything in Mexico because Elder Johnson says we have one of the cleanest houses in the whole mission. Honestly out of everything that is probably one of the hardest things to get used to haha... you know me- Mr.CleanFreak haha.  It is good for me though because then I will appreciate coming home to such a clean environment.  Anyways, we got to work, and my very first street contact turned out to be a lesson, we taught the restoration, and invited her to be baptized.  She said yes, but we don´t have a date yet.  So basically I was 1/1 on my first contact haha.  I should´ve just gone home then! Just kidding! We kept working and teaching.  We went into one member´s house and I got bit by a dog haha, but it wasn´t too bad, and my pants are fine.  I don´t think I have rabies either.  We had our first meal.  I was still pretty overwhelmed and nervous because it was my first day and it was sooo much food but it was really good, and I finished it.  Just another thing I have to get used to.  Pretty much all of our meals have been like that but they have been good and I am not sick yet!  On my second day, I got robbed haha... So my first day I got bit by a dog and the second day I got robbed lol. But it was just some drunk guy who said give me some money or I am going to take everything you have!! I couldn´t really understand him, so my Dad was just like give him something so I gave him 20 pesos.  We probably could have just ran but it is alright.  Elder Johnson said he hasn´t even been robbed his whole mission in person besides that so hopefully I am safe for a while lol.  Other than that though, everything else has been great!! On Thursday, Elder Johnson said that might have been the most successful, crazy day in his whole mission.  We had 3 baptism dates that day and so many awesome experiences.  We taught this one lady who definitely felt the Spirit.  Her name is Angelica and she said she prayed that God would send angels to her.  She said the last prayer and started crying and thanked God for sending us, angels, into her life.  I almost started crying haha, we have a baptism date in January.  We also taught this other family who is awesome! I was racing with the little boy abour 3 or 4 and tickled and played with him.  It reminded me of playing with Cade or Caleb or some of my other little cousins and made me so happy.  We also have a few baptism dates in January with that family.  On Friday we had a Christmas party! That was super fun, I got to see and talk to all of my old friends from the MTC. We shared stories, laughed, and then I played some basketball! It was super fun to hang out with them again, but kind of sad because I won´t see them for a while now.  The Christmas Party was fun, and in the White Elephant Gift Exchange I got motor oil lol... I´ll probably try to sell it.  Saturday was kind of a cool day.  In the morning, all 6 of our appointments were cancelled.  Even our food (but that just meant we got some money to go buy dominos pizza lol).  But it was a little discouraging in the morning.  We were working our butts off and no success. By lunch, we were exhausted from walking all day.  I asked Elder Johnson what his record was for contacts in a day and he told me 74. I told him we were going to break that haha.  So we sucked it up, got out there and started working again.  Our last two appointments also fell through, but it didn´t phase us, we kept working.  The game was tied in the 4th quarter, we were tired, but we weren´t going to quit.  Team Satan was trying everything he could to discourage us and counter our plays but it wasn´t working.  Finally in the last few seconds, we hit a buzzer beater 3 to win.  Our last two doors we knocked on were new investigators, we taught a lesson!  One guy was really curious about where we came from and where we are going so we are teaching the Plan of Salvation to him soon! So now we are undefeated on the season, Satan can´t beat us haha.  We also broke Elder Johnson´s record and we had 75 contacts so that was cool.  It made us think of the scripture Alma 26:27, we had patience in our afflictions and God gave us success at the end of the day.  That was awesome!  Sunday was cool too, I bore my testimony in Sacrament meeting and everyone couldn´t believe it was my first week here.  Everyone told me my Spanish was 70 or 80 percent fluent so that was cool.  We went over to the bishops house for lunch after, and it is really fun to talk in Spanish and try to meet the people in the ward.  They had a little girl that kept giving me stuff. She was 2 years old, super cute, and reminded me of Khloe.  Sunday night we went over to a members home.  We had a mini little Christmas party, and made me really happy.  We helped them set up their Christmas tree, we made cupcakes with her, and invited the Spirit in her home.  I had her find you on Facebook mom so I hope you got the pictures!!  Yesterday, we couldn´t leave because everyone does bad stuff so we stayed at our house.  In the morning we cleaned really hard and studied a lot.  In the afternoon, we ordered pizza and cinnamon rolls from Dominoes, and I set up my Ping-Pong table.  It was soooo much fun, we played games, but I kept beating everyone so we just played Sting-Pong instead.  I took some funny videos too.  We listened to music and they have guitars so I played that a lot too.  It was kind of a good day to clean and relax after a week of super hard work.  This morning we did a little service project at our church and planted some new plants and cleaned up the place.  It looks nice now.  So that was my week.  Also, Elder Johnson said he would buy me street tacos if I tried his favorite kind.  At first I thought he was trying to prank me but I tried it and it was soooo good.  And it was instestines.  So I had intestine street tacos this week aha!! Also a couple more things, if anyone is trying to send me a package, tape some Virgin Mary stickers on it.  They will get here but it takes a little while, but if it has the Virgin Mary on it, it will get here.  We also have a baptism this Saturday so I am stoked for that!! And one thing I thought was weird was that all of the houses are just built into the side of the wall.  It was super weird and I wasn´t expecting that haha.  Some of the houses are nice in the inside, but every house is just a door in the wall lol.  One more thing, we bought a Gym Membership here and go every morning so I am working out a lot and hopefully I will be really fit when I get home! At night, Elder Johnson and I have dumbbells we do an ab workout and biceps so I am working hard physically and spiritually! Well I will do my best to write everyone this week! Love yall and miss you!

-Elder Clark

P.S. I am practicing my Ping-Pong and I am coming for you Jon!

First day outside the MTC

Hey Mom and Everyone!

I am going to try and be shorter today, sorry, and I will do my best to email everyone!  The last few days in the CCM were pretty cool, I´ve felt pretty much every emotion about coming out into the field.  Excited, Happy, Motivated, Nervous, Uncertain; but the most overwhelming feeling I really feel is just peace and hope that everything will work out and I am where I am supposed to be.  Anyways, I am so ready for this, this will be such an adventure.  I got your last donuts mom, thanks you sooo so much.  I got all of yours and girls letters too, I got Grandpa and Grandmas, and all of Dad´s letters.  I guess the mail was just super backed up, so I got all the letters, even the ones Saturday, all Thursday.  I was really happy to hear from you all, and I can´t thank you all enough for all your support.  I love you all and can´t wait to share my experiences with you.  So last night we had to say bye to our district... It was actually really really sad since we got super close, we all cried, I led our district in a district chant and we have plans to meet back up again one day.  I will miss them a lot, and it was really fun spending a few more days in the CCM.  But when we met our mission President this morning, he came and picked us up, he was super excited and enthusiastic.  He gave me a big hug, and I almost started to cry because I could feel how much love he had for me already.  His wife is amazing too.  We just took a bus to our mission home, talked the whole way, and I am sooo pumped and ready to serve.  I am legit convinced already that this is the best Mission in the World already.  For some odd reason, facts like this is the poorest mission in Mexico City and we are going to eat some really gross food has made me even more excited, because of all the adventures and experiences I will have.  Not to mention I am going to work my butt off to bring everyone unto Christ, baptize, and serve.  I am ready to work hard, and this mission is one of the most productive in the world.  I have recieved soo many comments on how good my Spanish and how strong my testimony is which has given me confidence, but I am striving to be humble and I know these things are only possible through my Savior, Jesus Christ, and my Heavenly Father.  On Sunday we had one last fast and testimony meeting with everyone.  I shared my experience with the Book of Mormon, and definitely had the gift of tongues as I shared in Spanish.  So Monday´s will be our new P Days from now on, but next Monday is some weird creepy Holiday here in Mexico, and we have to stay in so I probably won´t email until Tuesday. Well, I am great guys, I love and miss you all.  I don´t meet my companion until tomorrow, but I love my mission President so much already, and the people in the mission are way cool.  I took a million pictures this week haha so I will try to send as many home as I have time for and then hopefully use wifi to send the rest home.  Anyways, if you want to mail stuff, you can send it to my mission home (The address is posted at the top of the blog).  I am finally ready to get to work, and I am so excited. I hope Spanish picks up fast!  Talk to you guys next week, Adios!!!

-Elder Clark

Last Week at the MTC (or CCM)

Elder Pardo, Boyer,and Tyler

Hey Mom and Everyone!!

I can´t believe I am actually leaving this place in a few days and am going to be an actual missionary! Apparently this morning I was so excited, we left our house and got to the classroom and everyone was laughing at me because I forgot to put a tie on lol!  So I had to go back and get a tie.  This week has been pretty good though, not a ton happened since last P-Day.  On Sunday I blessed the sacrament in Spanish with Elder Boyer which was pretty cool!  My Spanish is going really well, I am working super hard and learning 25 new vocabulary words every single day.  I am trying to be as prepared as possible for the field!! I am pretty confident in my abilities to teach or talk about anything in the Church but some of my grammar is bad and street talk will probably be a little difficult to pick up on.  We got our visas and green cards this week so guess what!? I am officially a Mexican Citizen for the next year!! How neat is that??  When I get home I am going to have such a great Mexican accent lol, all of you guys will probably make fun of me.  Yesterday, we had to say goodbye to our morning teacher, Hermana Barraza, because she is heading to Idaho to study at BYU there! It was actually kind of sad to say goodbye to someone again since my last goodbye was my family!  I will attach some pictures with her.  We don´t have to say goodbye to our afternoon teacher, Hermano Rodriguez, until Saturday though, and he is just the coolest guy.  We tease him a lot and it kind of reminds me when we used to prank Seddy, but we sewed a tie for him, and yes I sewed a few stitches! (Are you proud of me mom?)  We also figured out our mission lasts for just under 1 million minutes, and we have already been out here for 40,000!! Even though the first week here was the longest week of my life, these last 6 weeks have been the fastest by far, it is crazy how fast time goes especially when I am teaching a lesson! I think the time will flyyy out in the field! I got Jon´s letter this week and was reminded that he is the reigning Clark Open Table Tennis Champ... It is okay though because I am training really hard.  I also found some pretty sweet hiding spots for Allison!! I am so excited for her to get here I wish we could be here together though!  I also got your package barely today MOM!! The post office lady was looking for the right Elder Clark here because there are a lot haha but I got your package and it is sooo cool! The Nativity Set is sweet, I can´t wait to set it up in my first area, and the notes were great, and everything! Love you MOM!! This morning, Elder Hickson, Elder Jorgensen, and I went to go work out and it felt sooo good.  I am still going strong on my pushups (56 today) and I am going to be rippped when I get home!! Haha jk, well... hopefully... Anyways, I want to end on a cool experience I had this week, and then my testimony in bad Spanish (I wrote it all myself so sorry if Google Translate fails you)  On Sunday I ready through 3 Nephi where Christ comes to the Americas and I just got this crazy overwhelming feeling.  I miss basketball a lot and the excitement and happiness I got through that, but this feeling I got when I read the Book of Mormon was 10 times stronger than any excitement or thrill I got from basketball... I absolutely KNEW that the Book of Mormon was true, that Christ lives, and that this was the most important work I could ever do, and my testimony grew sooo much.  My one and only goal is to share my burning testimony of the Book of Mormon and have all of my investigators feel that fire, a truth for themself.  Here is my testimony in Spanish:

Yo sé que esta iglesia is verdadera y me trae tanto felices.   Estoy muy agradecido por esta opportunidad servir un misión y mi Padre Celestial.  Yo sé que mi misión me traerá pruebas, y desfacios, pero tambien, Yo sé que my misión me traerá mas grande bendiciones and feliz cuando confiar mi Señnor y Salvador y trabajo diligemente.  Tengo un testimonio fuerte y verdadero en El Evangelio, mi Salvador, y en El Libro de Mormon.  Mediante estudiando El Libro de Mormon, he aprendado, he orado, he obtenedo un conocimiento perfecto que estas cosas son verdadero.  Ahora, esta es my deseo mas grande a compartir mi testimonio con todas my investagadores.  Estoy muy agradecido por El Espiritu Santo, por esta iglesia, y por todas las bendiciones El Evangelio me trae.  Estoy muy muy agradecido por familias eterna, porque yo amo mi familia muy mucho, y quero compartir esta mensaje de esperanza y paz con todos los hijos de Dios.  Estoy agradecido especualmente por my Salvador, Redentor, y Hermano, JesuCristo, El Hijo de Dios.  Sin JesuCristo, no puedo ser aqui ahora y mi vida no tiene un propositó o esperanza.  Estoy muy agradecido por La Expiacion, y la sacraficio de JesuCristo entonces peudo arrepentirse por mis pecados y regresar a mi amoroso Padre Celestial otra vez con mi familia.  Yo animo todas la personas leer El Libro de Mormon y orar si estas cosas es verdadero.  Recibirá un respuesto, porque Dios nos ama todas los hijos.  Mucho gracias, madre y padre por esta opportunidad y por todas sus apoyos.  Yo espero todas my amgios y familia son bien en Los Estados Unidos! En el nombre, de JesuCristo, amen.

Have a good week everyone! I am not sure if I will be able to email this Monday so it might be a while before my next P-Day, but wish me luck and I miss you all! I will keep you in my prayers, T-Clark OUT (of the CCM)

-Elder Clark

Thanksgiving

¡Hola! Mom and Everyone!

I hope everyone had a greeat Thanksgiving!  This week has been pretty good for me too, although it is almost time for me to get out in the field and do some real work!  I am super excited and know I will love it, but I am pretty nervous and I really hope I have a good first companion (someone who speaks English preferably).  I have also grown to be pretty comfortable here so it is like I am just leaving on my mission again.  A lot of people have told me that my Spanish is ready though and that I will be a good missionary so that is reassuring.  In fact, after one of our lessons, our teacher pulled us aside and said that he said that during out lesson, he felt the Spirit so 

strongly, and told us how great we did.  He said it was a "muy bonita lección"  He never told anyone else that so it really helped boost my confidence and help me know what I need to do to be a better missionary.  We didn´t have TRC this week though, so we never had the opportunity to teach real investigators... It is okay though because that is all I am going to be doing for the next two years and I couldn´t be more stoked!!  Last friday we went to the Mexican Consulate (not the fake one in Vegas) to get our visas. The bus ride was actaully super sweet, we got to see a lot of the city and made me really anxious to get out there.  Everything went smoothly and on the way back, Elder Boyer and I made friends with Elder Pardo, a latino who only spoke Spanish.  It was pretty fun to talk to him and I found out he likes the OKC Thunder.  We made plans and are going

to play basketball later today, it seems like a lot of latinos like basketball which is pretty dope, and we passed many basketball courts on the bus ride.  I was missing basketball a lot this week though, especially with Mohave season starting, I remembered all the sweet memories I made during basketball and the excitement of playing.  I hope Mohave does well this year, wish I could be at the games!  I definitely love being a missionary though, and the blessings I have already recieved are incredible.  During my personal study, I learned in Alma 30:9 that it is a privilege to be here and to serve God and that anyone who has the desire to serve is called to the work.  We have had a lot of uplifting devotionals lately, and yesterday we got to hear from Elder Neil L. Anderson for thanksgiving!! Everything I hear helps me become more humble, and recognize my blessings.  I have learned that all the trials we are put through are so that we can be prepared to be blessed in the future and that sometimes we can´t even recognize the blessings we receieve until the are in our rears.  So if I have a bad day, I know I will have some pretty dope blessings on the way.  Anyways, Thanksgiving was awesome, we  had a huuge feast and the food was amazing!  All of the latinos were confused about why we were eating so much lol.  There is chef named Estaban, he said he found me on instagram because I am going to Mexico City Southeast and he lives in that mission! He is soo cool, he always hooks me up with extra food and says he has the missionaries over every P-day.  He shows us videos and stuff of missionaries making homade donuts, brownies, pizza, and lasagna, whatever we want.  He made us a homeade donut to try one day and it was sooo good, and he said on Christmas he has a huge Christmas feast with all of the missionaries! I am way pumped.  He also said he always posts pictures on Instagram 

(EstabanNava) and Facebook (Estaban Nava).  You guys should go check him out.  But Elder Hickson´s mom sent him a football as a package so we are going to have a turkey bowl

today!  I´ve never seen someone so excited to get a football lol but I am excited to play too.  Although it may not work out because we aren´t allowed to play even catch with a football here, we were playing catch early and they got mad at us so we will have to find a secret place.  I also played cage soccer earlier this week and scored 7 goals! It was super fun, Talmage would be proud.  But today was great so far! We played basketball all morning and took some videos, I will attach them.  I hope you had a great birthday mom!!  One last memo, we have a bunch of orientation for the field next Friday so our P-day will be on Wednesday next week.  Email me by then por favor!! Have a great week guys! I will talk to yall for the last time in the CCM on Wednesday!

-Elder Clark

Hey Mom and Everyone!!!

Holy cow this week went by soo fast I can't believe it is already P Day again!  Time has already started flying by and I'm not even out of the CCM yet!  I am almost finished with my 4th week, it is nuts.  Anyways, this week was pretty darn amazing.  The temple trip was super great again and on the ride there and back, Elder Hickson and I (He is the guy from Texas who I can talk sports with) had a challenge and tried to see who could get more people to wave at us.  It was pretty fun, and most of the people were super friendly and happy!  It made me so excited to serve and I already love the people here I just want to talk to them.  As we were walking into the temple, a member was walking out and said in Spanish "I want to touch the hands of angels" as he gave us all high fives.  It was super cool at made me feel happy because in some people's lives we really are angels.  I bought three new sweet ties at the temple store because they were less than 4 dollars each and some people brought like 20 ties!  Everything is so cheap here, our teacher said you can get a really nice suit for 50 bucks.  I said bye to Brigham on Monday, and we got a picture.  I hope he does well out there in the field! I wonder how his first week went, I heard it is hard in the field your first week so I hope he is okay.  I continue to laugh and share stories with my district and roomies, and I have got really good at waterbottle flipping lol.  My record so far is 10 in a row, but I have also done some pretty cool waterbottle flips.  I wish we had snapchat lol.  My Spanish is getting better and better each day my testimony is growing equally as much.  I have seriously learned to love the Book of Mormon, it brings so much hope and joy in my life, and the stories in it are pretty interesting too!  I invite everyone to read this amazing book.  We had a devotional broadcasted from Provo this week and heard from Elder Gary E. Stevenson.  It was pretty cool and it helped me realize that I have so much to be thankful for in my life.  We watched some more movies on Sunday and one was the story of a man named John Moyle who lost his leg.  Even after that, he limped 23 miles every single week to the Salt Lake temple to work on the stone.  As he explained to his wife why he still did this he said, "callings are seldom convenient."  How true is this, I will be the first to tell you the calling of a missionary isn't convenient or easy, but as we put our trust in the Lord, and work dilligently to magnify our calling, we will recieve blessings and growth inteded for us when God gave us this calling.  Whether you are a nursery leader, home teacher, or the prophet, everyone's role is important and we are given our calling for a reason.  As I was reading out of Preach My Gospel this week on page 2 I read, "As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase."  How true is this, I love this gospel and the more I learn about it, the more I want and feel obligated to share this brilliant message of hope and happiness with as many people as are willing to accept it.  Yesterday we had something called TRC.  It was our first TRC and let me just tell ya, it was one of the most amazing experiences I have had here in the MTC.  I was super nervous going into it, because we were going to be teaching real investigators or inactive members who only spoke Spanish.  Elder Marker and I first got put in a room with a man named Tony.  The spirit was so strong as we taught about prayer and as I bore my testimony of prayer.  He said a prayer at the end of the lesson and then he gave me a huge hug that lasted like 30 seconds. I knew he felt the spirit and I could feel mine and Heavenly Father's love for him as we taught.  It made me feel soo happy and excited to teach, and I have't gotten a hug that big since I left my mom haha!  We also taught two teenage boys which was humbling becasue I realized my Spanish wasn't that great then because they kept correcting me.  I think I said something funny too because I asked them a question and they just looked at me and started laughing as they realized I was waiting for a response.  So that was a pretty cool experience though.  Anyways thanks so much for the package and pictures and letter mom, it made me soooo happy to get mail and I love you so much.  Thanks for the scripture, I really have learned to appreciate every single day, because God created it.  As we were doing a service project this week we were singing and laughing as a district and I felt so happy and ready to work hard.  How is everything back home??  How are the lessons going with Michael? And how is Mohave Basketball season?? I am waiting to hear from some teammates or coahces!  This week we had fajitas and it made me miss my friends a lot.  And I was right, the fajitas down here aren't quite as good as the amazing ones I got back home.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone and Happy Birthday Mom!!! I hope you guys have a wonderful week and have some fun for me, I will be thinking about you guys.  Love and miss you guys, have an awesome week!

-Elder Clark

Tyler loves mail.  Email is great, but he loves to get stuff mid week when he cant email too. He leaves for his first area on December 5th.  If you decide to mail a letter after he is in the field, you can mail it to his mission office address which is:

Mision Mexico Cuidad de Mexico Sureste 
Elder Tyler Clark

Av. del Taller No. 540

Col. Jardin Balbuena

Delagacion Venustiano Carranza

C.P. 15900 Mexico City, Distrito Federal Mexico

Another Week in the MTC

Hi Mom and Everyone!!

Still alive and healthy down here in Mexico! This week was pretty darn great! So much has happened I dont even know where to start (sorry having a hard time finding the apostraphe again) First of all the temple was amazing!! The Mexico temple is super sweet. I will attach some pictures and one of the happiest I have ever been since I have been here came when I was in the temple.  I felt so much peace and blessings and I learned a lot.  If fact, we are actually going to the temple AGAIN today in just a few hours and I am pumped.  The next week we will have our first normal p day though because the temple trip takes 6 hours.  The bus ride there is kinda sketchy too haha it reminds me of when we were riding on the bus in Jamacia!  On Sunday I bore my testimony in Spanish, which was cool not a lot of new people did, and I also found out Elder Marker and I are teaching this Sunday in priesthood meeting... I was a little scared at first but now that I have studied our topic I learned a lot and am excited to teach!  Fasting went great too, I felt a lot of peace and blessings from it, thank you so much to everyone who included me in their fasts.  Of course I have some hard times every once in a while and homesickness comes every now and then but each week I am learning how to better adapt and deal with it, and each week goes by faster and faster already.  Some scriptures that helped me a lot lately are (Alma 26-27, D and C 100-1 and D and C 31-1-5) you guys should look them up.  I know my family is in the hands of the Lord the best place they can be.  This week we watched some videos of some pioneers (specifically John Tanner) and about Jesus Christ.  After seeing what some people have sacrificed for this church i realize my sacrifice is nothing and that 2 years is so small in the eternal perspective.  My roommates and I have shared a lot of laughs this week and my district is fun to talk to.  We have talked a lot about Psych lol and pretty much all of them are obsessed with the office.  Every single night I dream soo much it must be because I am tired i guess but it is always about being with my friends and family so it is kind of a dissapointment to wake up and have them not be there haha.  It has rained a lot this week too and one night we didn't have our raincoats so we were running through puddles in the rain to the cafeteria.  I don't know why but I felt just super happy and I knew life was such a great blessing.  I am super thankful for my raincoat though and it isn't even rainy season!  Also I have played basketball pretty much everyday too haha it is sooo awesome and it makes me happy and I can shoot just as good down here.  I will miss gym time out in the field.  Also Spanish is coming along greeat! I have seen my hard work pay off a lot, and I feel like I work harder than most of my district because my Spanish is really good and I have memorized so many more scriptures and stuff.  My testimony has grown a lot too.  Although, I thought this was a coincidence at first but our teacher ALWAYS pairs me up with a missionary in our district that doesn't really have a testimony and is not willing to work hard.  I pray for him and try to help him but it is tough.  Anyways we found out Donald Trump won here and there were protestors outside the CCM gates! Apparently someone let out the beans a bunch of white americans are in here.  Also, I would love to get some letters from people!!!   Also send me some of your guys adresses and I will try to send you some letters too! I know it takes a long time to send them but I will try my best.  One kind of silly but aweseome experience I had this week was when I lost my watch and it didn't show up at lost and found for a couple days, but I prayed and had faith and when I went back a couple days later they had my watch! I was seriously so happy I yelled "The church is true!" Or "La iglesia is verdadera!" Anyways my testimony has grown a lot.  When I was reading the Book of Mormon this week, I just felt an overwhelming feeling of happiness and I knew it was true.  Thank you so much mom and dad for giving me the opportunity to serve a mission, I know these two years won't last forever and I will only be in the MTC once so I am trying to make the most of it!  I am glad Lindsey is okay, that is kind of scary.  Also super happy for Michael! That is awesome dude the gospel will be such a huge blessing in your life.  Also happy Grandpa and Grandma Metcalf got to go see Grandma one more time, that is touching.  Anyways love you guys, have a gooood week!!

-Elder Clark

At the Mexico City Temple

(they are doing construction on the angel Moroni)

Tyler and his companion

He's Alive!!

Wow that was a long wait for a mom to hear from her son.  Here is his weekly email.

Hi Mom and Everyone,

   Waking up today was like sooo happy me and my roommates were singing and excited to email our family and friends.  Ugh I have so much stories and things to tell I will try to get most of it and I am sorry if I did not get the chance to reply to everyone´s emails today, we have very limited time and I will  try to get around to everyone.  Anyways, Mexico is awesome and beautiful.  The birds are so colorful, there are palm trees everywhere and it is so green.  The MTC (we call it the CCM) is really nice.  Sometimes it still feels like I am in America because there are so many white people around haha. I am both excited and scared to leave here and go to the field.  The houses are so close together and packed, it looks so sketchy to drive and stuff. Also a teacher here knows a lot about our mission.  He said it is really cold, and it is one of the smallest missions, our area will only be a few blocks it is almost like Utah! He said everyone knows the missionaries but I asked him and he said we will have no problem finding investigators so that was a relief.  MOM!! Thanks so much for the donuts!! I was sooo happy when I heard I got a package, I was the first one in my district.  The donuts were a bomb and a tender mercy to me! If anyone else wants to send me packages feel free, missionaries love packages! 

(I ordered from some missionary delivery service in Mexico...If any of you want the info, i ordered from missionarypackagemx.com.)

 I got the package in just 2 days so whatever strategy you used worked! Also I love getting letters too, letters make me happy too because I do not have to wait a week to read them.  My roommates, companion, and district are awesome though.  My companion is named Elder Marker, and I am in a room with Elder Boyer and Elder Metcalf! (No I don't think we are related to Elder Metcalf he is from Syracuse, Utah) But they are so funny!! My companion is positive and also goes along with me.  We work really well together especially teaching investigators who are really just our teachers.  But it is nice, I kind of take the lead and he compliments and supports me, but we have to do it all in Spanish... Ahh! He is not athletic but he will pretty much do anything with me.  My best friend so far though is Elder Boyer though, he is super cool and happy and funny, we get along really well and we are in a room together so hes basically like my companion too.  The four of us roommates get along so well and I am always so happy at night because we laugh and tell stories and just have fun! We even made a 10 commandments for our room lol.  Maybe I can tell you more about that next week.  But the MTC here is such a cool expérience.  We live in little houses and I am super comfortable I have pretty much everything I need! On the night of daylight savings, we set out clocks back an hour so we got an extra hour to sleep and me and Elder Boyer were so happy we ran out in the hall screaming and dancing! The food is really good here too, I have enough to eat and can always find something I like.  The beans and rice are always available of course and so far my metabolism has handled everything great haha.  For those wondering I have played basketball pretty much everyday we have gym time I love it! They also have ping pong tables here but we are going to try and set up my portable ping pong net soon!  I also do push ups every single night with Elder Boyer.  I do one more every single night so at the end of my mission I am going to be doing 750 in theory haha.  We will see how that goes.  The devotionals are awesome here, we had a visiting athourity in Provo speak and it was broadcasted to all the MTCs.  It was Russell M. Nelson.  Spanish is a little frustrating at times, but the gift of tongues is so real! I have picked up a lot and I am trying to learn as much as I can but I never really did suspect how hard learning a new language would be... And honestly, when I opened my email one of the first messages I saw was from Cole that the Spurs won, I was soooo happy and I yelled to everyone in the email room that the Spurs won haha!  And then I saw the pictures of Grandpa I am glad he put my shirt to good use! I repped my Spurs shirt out here on some gym times and everyone tells me what a sweet shirt that is.  We have a couple guys in our dirstrict from Texas and New Mexico and they love the Spurs too but no one can love them as much as me. My district is awesome though I got super close to them and they help me a lot when I feel discouraged.  Everyone is pretty much from Utah though haha it is weird.  But for our first P Day we are going to the temple! I am pretty excited for that.  Sorry for my grammar everyone I know it is bad, I am trying to just type as fast as I can maybe my mom can fix it.  I will attach some pictures in my next email but I will end on a spiritual thought I guess since I am a missionary.  In 1 Nephi 9:5-6 it hit me a lot because Nephi did not know the blessings his words would bring to sooo many people, but he obeyed God and trusted in him.  I may not know all the blessings I may bring on my mission but I am trying to just trust that God has a plan for me and I think of that whenever I get discouraged. Reading the Book of Mormon is kind of like our new source of entertainment since we don´t have phones anymore haha. I can´t wait to read all of your emails, thanks everyone! 

(I just copy and paste his emails as he sends them. There are too many mistakes to correct. :) I can tell his mind is moving so fast and his typing cant keep up.)

Tyler and Elder Boyer

Tyler and his companion Elder Marker

Tylers District (Just the Boys)

Tylers District

Tyler and his roommates (Elder Marker, Elder Boyer, Elder Metcalf)

Arrival to Mexico City

Tyler's first email home:

Hi mom! I dont have too long, just a few minutes, but I wanted to let you know I got here safely! Everything went pretty smooth, in LA I was rushed through security because I had to get to my flight quickly, but it was fine.  They had to open one of my Christmas presents smh, but i told them I cant look and they laughed and told me when they closed it back up haha. But everything was super smooth especially when I got to Mexico! They didnt even check my bags here, it seems so American if everything wasnt so Spanishy haha.  But I love you guys.  Pretty much Ive met my best friend here already, his name is Matt Boyer! Please tell Allison that i found him, she knows him.  Hes from south jordan utah in my same mission, and we get along so well. Weve been together through everything.  I took a few pictures so far so Ill try to upload them soon.  Thanks for everything mom, I love you and dad and our family so much i feel so blessed (and kind of spoiled) I have everything I need and more. I love the photo albums.  I miss you guys already but when I landed here i feel super safe and I know its home. I love it here already and Im not scared or nervous or anything.  Sorry I cant say more I have so many more stories but Ill have to share them on P Day. My P Day is Friday but unfortunately we dont get one this week... So everyone will have to wait til next Friday to hear from me! Well I also found the boys from grandpa and grandma metcalfs ward and from Ralinas ward! Small world, but Im so ready for this.  Matt Boyer isnt my companion and my companion is Elder Marker, but Elder Boyer and I have every class and district and apartment building together.  Sorry for the bad grammar, correct it all before you post this on my blog haha. This spanish keyboard is kind of weird and I cant find the apostraphe! I dont feel like wasting time looking for it either.  Well good luck I hope everything is going good with the family! You will be blessed and dont worry about me, I love it hear.  My ankle is great too Ive already mastered my backflip.  Haha jk but my ankle is great.  Love you Ill update you in a week and a few days! Adios!!!! T-Clark out.

-Love, Tyler Clark

He knew exactly what I needed to hear.  It's crazy how a letter can make you laugh and cry at the same time.