I will admit, it sure has been a long wait for this P-Day, and we barely got back from the temple so I really don't have much time. I probably won't get around to emailing most of you today, but I will catch back up on Monday! There has been a ton that happened so I will try to hit some of the highlights...
Well, I have already had two birthday parties and it isn't even February! I can't imagine what my actual birthday will be like! One of the birthday parties was just a combined party for Elder Johnson and I and they got cake and gave us ties. The other party was with an investigator, Martha (She is really cool, more about her later). She called Elder Johnson one morning and told her to keep it quiet but she got a SuperMan birthday cake for me (because everyone knows me as Clark Kent and they think it is hilarious). So we went over with our zone leaders and it was probably the biggest SURPRISE party I have ever had since I really wasn't expecting one in January haha. But it was really sweet, and they said it was a little thing from the heart, so we didn't have the guts right there to tell them that they mixed our birthdays up. It was yesterday when she asked how my birthday went when we told her that she mixed ours up... She just thought it was funny though and said we will celebrate Elder Johnson's birthday on mine haha.
So a couple things about some of our investigators... A is about 60 years old, and is on crutches. He can't really get around and usually spends his time outside reading the newspaper, that is where we found him the very first time. He was super humble, and wanted to get baptized so bad... A couple weeks ago we went back with him to see how he was doing and he was really sad. He said that his family told him if he got baptized in the Mormon church then they would just kick him out on the streets! I was super sad since he can barely get around anyways, and all he wanted was to get baptized. He said when he moves one day, he promised us he would get baptized in our church. We tried to go in with his family and talk to them but he said it was just a bad idea... so that was kind of sad for us. But, we also have a ton of other sweet investigators and are still on track to have a ton of baptisms in February/March! Only problem is their will be changes in March so we are just trying to prepare everyone we have now for baptism as quickly as we can. So M, who is scheduled to be baptized on January 4th is ready. In fact, she told her boyfriend that she has been living with for 8 YEARS that she was going to get baptized, and they were going to get married or she was kicking him out... Apparently he decided to leave. She is so strong willed, and excited for baptism. Missionaries have been trying to work with her for the past 2 years and now she is finally getting baptized!! Even more cool, another investigator, F (Who was in my last letter) is M's friend! So without even telling us, F is going to come by for M on Sunday and come to church together with their families. We have investigators passing by for investigators! It really is a miracle work and we have been so blessed. We also went with an investigator who we contacted a while back and have been helping him gain more faith in Christ and God and learn for himself how he can know God really exists. To our surprise, he told us that ever since we had been visiting him, he felt like he should stop smoking and found the strength to do it! That was really cool to hear especially because we haven't talked about the Word of Wisdom yet. We haven't even put a baptism date either but I guess the spirit can really work miracles in people. The other day, someone approached us in the street talking English. He said he had lived in California for 25 years, and has seen us around. He said he wants to get closer to God and begged us to come over. It didn't take much for us to get an appointment with him. When we came over, he invited his whole family. He has some nephews who are 10 and 12 who were born in Oregon and lived their for 8 years. They said they are way more comfortable speaking English and pretty much their whole family speaks English, but most of them prefer Spanish. The two little kids said they love football and the Oregon Ducks are their favorite team, and I told them I have family in Oregon who love the Ducks too haha. It was really fun and awesome to talk and meet their family. Basically the language was Spanglish and we just kept switching back and forth between English and Spanish. We shared a little scripture with them and they loved it. We are going back with them on Saturday to hopefully set some baptism dates, and we will pass by for them to come to church. It really has been crazy we have soooo many other cool investigators I can't even begin to explain. We probably will have a guaranteed 6 baptisms in February and if all goes perfect possible 19 or more in February and the beginning of January! We are sooo stoked and Elder Johnson said he can't believe this, he hasn't seen this much success his whole mission.
The other day Elder Johnson and I were talking about it. Really the last week and a half has been kind of long, a lot of appointments have fallen, and we have been contacting and walking our butts off. We continued to work hard, and then bam, all of the sudden we were finding so many investigators, everything was going perfect, and everyone was progressing/ wanted to come to church. We were saying it was kind of like Heavenly Father was just stirring up his big pot of blessings. He kept encouraging us to work and keep trying even though we were tired. It was a trial of our faith. And then just like that he poured out his countless blessings upon us yesterday and today. Last night we were just smiling and laughing all night because everything was working out. We have about 31 investigators right now and hope to have a bunch in church this sunday. It really is almost more blessings than we can recieve because we can barely find time to visit everyone and think about every single person throughout the week, but it is a good problem to have. So my message to you guys this week, is even if it has been long, tiring, and rough. Even if you haven't felt like you have recieved much blessings in the last week, month, or even year, keep going. Keep being faithful. And I promise that if you endure to the end, and are faithful through your trials and troubles in life, Heavenly Father is just waiting, stirring up that pot of blessings, to pour upon you and your families and he knows when you need them.
So a little bit about food this week. We went to Las Vias to eat one day with a lady in our ward. She gave us some chicken on the bone with some super spicy chili sauce. I literally felt like I was doing the Buffalo Wild Wings challenge haha, it was even hot for Elder Johnson! I ate it all though, and when she asked if we wanted more, I said I really like it, but mi boca es en fuego. I thought she was going to just laugh because Elder Johnson did, but I felt bad, because I think she felt a little bad for making to too spicy haha. She was cool though, and it really was good, I made sure she felt really appreciated and she has been helping us out a lot with lessons so we are good. One day our food was cancelled for the day so we went for tacos. We have gone for tacos before, but just for a snack. We have never GONE for tacos... So we went to our favorite taco shop and ate a bunch. I ate about 6 and they are some of the best tacos around. I also started a taco count and am going to keep it going for the rest of my mission, I have estimated to have eaten about 40 tacos so far. This week I ate pig snout tacos too, it was interesting to see them pull out the snout, chop it up, and throw it on the grill haha. I am not really scared of any food right now. Also one day, we had sooo much food. We had tacos in the morning, and then went to a member's house for lunch. She had some of the best food I have had out here and I ate so much. All of the sudden... My stomach just said no more right when she put a big bowl of ice cream on the table. I hadn't had ice cream in sooo long and I wanted it so bad, but I was feeling really sick. In fact, I just had to go to the bathroom to throw up, and then I came back out, felt great, and ate my delicious bowl of ice cream. It was a great strategy to eat all the food, but not get the calories! Haha, that wasn't really my intention, but that is just how it worked out though. Also the Almas invited us over for Johnson's birthday. To our surprise she invited Esteban over too! We had a super good cake, and talked. They are just some awesome people. I showed Alma and Esteban the video of me doing zumba from last week and they were both dying lauging haha. Also Esteban showed me a video when he met Allison and it was super funny. It was a good birhtday party.
Well that about hits the highlights of my week. Elder Johnson and I have been working out hard at the gym every week and I feel so good. It is starting to become a habit too and I am pretty much sore all the time. The day after leg day always is super hard to walk haha. My abs usually always hurt when I sneeze or laugh too but I am excited to keep working out the rest of my mission. We are hoping to be able to go to Buffalo Wild Wings next week too! Well, I hope you guys all had a great week, I will get around to emailing the rest of you guys on Monday, and talk about our temple trip today! It was awesome. Love and miss you all!
-Elder Clark
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