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