Well, if you read the title of my email... yep... bed bugs in my new house. The first day I got to my new area, we went to home depot, buy plastic, and some bed bug spray. We took other precautions too like moving the bed away from the wall and putting the legs of our beds in buckets of water so the bed bugs can´t crawl up. We wrapped our mattresses in plastic, air-tight, after spraying them with the bug spray like there was no tomorrow. Yes, I used the ENTIRE bottle of bug spray just on my matress, I wasn´t about to let those beg bugs bite me! Don´t worry, Elder Lopez, my new companion, bought his own bottle too. I am happy to announce, I am bed bug free and now I have a cool story to tell all my kids!
So, I am here in my new area, called Atlipac in Los Reyes stake, with Elder Lopez. He is from Puebla Mexico, which is about 2 hours away from here in a car haha. He doesn´t speak English so it is ALL Spanish from here on out!! It is kind of cool, helping my spanish a lot, and so many people are surprised how good my spanish is for only being here 3 months, one lady told me today she though I was a Mexican haha. Anyways, our area is HUUUGEE. We have a bunch of huge hills in our area, and sooo many people. We could ride in a combi for an hour and still be in our area, some of our appointments are really far away. That also means there are a lot of people prepared and to find too. Our house is clean for the most part and we have our own washing machine, so that is nice. There are some cool members in this ward too, but I must admit, I definitely miss the Almas and some of my old ward. I am still feeling a little out of place here but I guess that will just come with time. Martha called me to see how I was doing and so did the Almas. I talked to Esteban last night and we are going over there next Monday to finally have my birthday cake!! I am excited for that, and really, Esteban is such an awesome guy and friend to me. He has helped me so much.
So... since there is so much of our area, there is a ton of work too! Well, when I got here, we didn´t have too many investigators or appointments, but we are filling up now! One day we had nothing to do for the last three hours. We went with a member named Hermano Jacinto and we read D and C 24 because our scriptures just opened to that chapter. Verse 12 really hit is, and Hermano Jacinto helped to motivate us, and afterwards, Elder Lopez said we are going to preach the Gospel all the night and day just as verse 12 said. We ended up knocking on doors for the next 2 and a half hours, and had a ton of success! I wish I could tell you about all the new investigators and people that accpeted us, but it was a miracle for sure. One young lady we found is named Alejandra. She accepted us and listened to our message, and I couldn´t really tell what she thought. We told her we would pass by for her on Sunday to go to church. We went Sunday morning, and I was fully expecting her not to be there or for her not to be ready... Not necessarily a bad attitude, but all the time I was with Johnson, basically none of our investigators could ever make it to church. To my excitement and surprise, she answered the door and was already to go!! She said she really enjoyed it, felt super peaceful, but has a ton of questions now and we are going to answer them on Wednesday!! And that is just the beginning of the success we had this week. This Thursday we did weekly planning, and there wasn´t very much weekly planning in the area book for the last few months. I told Lopez to fill out the sheet so I could get an idea of some of the investigators we already have, and I prayed to find someone in the area book. I came across a man named Henry, who was an old investigator. We gave him a call and he said he was interested, but would have to call us back another day. Well, he never called us back, and I was wondering if he was even worth our time trying to find in this huge area, but to our surprise, he too came to church!! I guess just calling him was enough that we cared and Jesus cared for him, so he came to church and we have an appointment with him later this week. We are also teaching this old couple, G and S who are in their 60s or 70s. G is already a member but her husband S isn´t. They just barely got married this last week and so now he is ready for baptism!! We only visited with them one time, but wow I already have so much love for them and I told them they are just like my grandparents on my mission haha. I must admit, they are a little crazy and funny, and super obsessive about understanding and learning every concept of the Gospel before baptism, but I told him he would continue to learn and progress after his baptism too! I told them we would always be with them to help them learn and I will be there when they get sealed in the temple in a year. They really are such a cute, funny, old couple and I will never forget how S always says, ´´Exactamente``. Oh did I mention we are having his baptism THIS Saturday?? I am super stoked for that. Also there is this 16 year old boy named Javier who we are teaching, his sister, Sarah, is already a member. He is really cool and he just came to church for the 5th time so we are planning his baptism for the next week, March 18th. In total, we had 6 investigators at church yesterday, and I was sooo happy. I don´t want to get my hopes super high up, but this area has a ton of potential, and I am glad Elder Lopez is working hard with me so we can have success! I wish I could say more about our investigators but I don´t want to bore you guys and I still want to have time to write you too.
I went on divisions with an Elder in our district from Veracruz, Elder Vazquez. We were working in his area all Friday, and wow, it was great!! Even though my legs were SUPER sore from leg day (Yes, I found a gym in this area and have been dragging Lopez with me too!), we probably walked 10 miles or more in his area that day. The whole day though I was super happy. I was talking with Vazquez, and we got along really well. We had a super successful day too and now are pretty good friends. It is cool that I can talk and meet people in Spanish and have a conversation about anything now!! I am trying to talk more with Elder Lopez too so we can be better friends and a better companionship, but it is a little hard sometimes. He is a cool guy though and I am greatful we are working hard. Hopefully this week we can start to bond more.
So I think I am finally starting to blend in more here and transfer over to the lifestyle here in Mexico! The night I was over at Vazquez´s house (Yes sorry Mom I spent the night at a friend´s house without permission) they didn´t have hot water, so we put an iron in a bucket of water to heat it up while it was plugged into the wall. I then showered with a pitcher and the bucket of heated water!! I don´t know why it made me happy but it is kind of fun to have experiences like that! I also got a haircut from a lady this week that cuts missionary´s hair for free and it is a little different, I didn´t know what she was going to give me, but I like it! So now, I have showered with a bucket, got the latino haircut, slept with bed bugs, and speaking basically only Spanish, I feel I am fully transferred over to the Mexican lifestyle. Haha. Well, I am trying to love and absorb this wonderful opportunity and experience of my mission, even the hard times. I also finally got Joey and Tara´s CHRISTMAS letter! Shoutout to them, I am patiently and anxiously awaiting all of the birthday letters still. Love and miss you guys as always, Til next week!
-Elder Clark
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