No, do not take the title of my email the wrong way, it just means that I am going to train the next two cycles!! Wooo I am so excited. Last Monday night, I got the call from the Assistants, and they told me that I would be training! I was super excited and after the phone call I went to shower and screamed YESS super loud, Lopez probably thought I was weird. I always wanted to train since the day Elder Johnson started training me, and it surprised me it was so soon! I was a little intimidated when I went to the trainers meeting and ALL of the other trainers have at least a year and a half in the mission or more!! The more it sunk in this week, I have felt a little overwhelmed, inadequate, and nervous, but I always go back to my intial reaction and am really so excited to see my first kid tomorrow in changes!!
Well, this week was pretty awesome too even though it started out a little rough. Something made me super sick, on Monday night I woke up every 30 minutes. I was throwing up, and I had... yes... Mexican Diarrhea. Don´t worry you don´t want to know what that is. But it was really hard to sleep, and it was the longest night ever. I felt terrible in the morning, but, I got on my knees and told Heavenly Father I wanted to keep my goal and not miss a single second of work because of sickness. Of course, if I am about to die, I will take a break, don´t worry Mom, but I told him I had the faith and I knew he wanted me to work so I prayed for the strength and energy to get through the day. I got a Priesthood Blessing from Lopez, and yes the day was a little rough and I was drained, I made it through. I was feeling a lot better then next night, slept the whole night through, and when I woke up, I was 100% better!! It was a miracle, and a tender mercy, and another reminder that Heavenly Father guides, loves, and blesses the Missionaries and missionary work.
Well, we did it! We had our two baptisms this week and they were much more planned and organized than the one we had my second week here. Honestly, somehow, there weren´t very many problems or obstacles, and everything went pretty smoothly. We had a ton of people and support from the ward for Henry´s Baptism. I made the programs which I was pretty proud of, Henry´s wife said they really enjoyed the programs and the Spirit was so strong. I had the privledge of baptizing Henry and I was so happy for him. In the night, we ordered Domino´s Pizza to celebrate!! We found out that Domino´s delivers to our house, so that was pretty cool. The following night (Friday) we had a baptism for Yael!! Not as many people showed up, but it was still just as beautiful and great as always. I made some more programs, we had hot water, and Yael´s whole family, who aren´t members either, all came to support him. Actually his mom really enjoyed the service, and yesterday we went with her and set a baptism date with her!! Yael bore his testimony after the baptism and just said he felt super, super "Dope". Haha, he couldn´t stop smiling, and we heard all week that he was so excited to get baptized. Being just 14 years old, he was really curious and interested in our lessons always, and always read the pamphlets and chapters of the Book of Mormon we left with him. He will be an awesome young man and hopefully a missionary one day. This Sunday we couldn´t confirm them because it was Stake Conference, but this Sunday they will be confirmed as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I will always remember the faces so happy and bright of my converts coming out of the waters of baptism. I hope to continue to be able to teach them, help them learn more, recieve the Priesthood, and in a year come back for their temple ordinances!!
Well, I was always excited for the baptisms of Yael and Henry, people that Lopez and I were able to find, teach, and baptize together. But, we are still blessed with so much success. We had a lot of investigators to hear President and Mama Stuz´s talks in Stake Conference, and they all said they really enjoyed them. We are actually having ANOTHER baptism this coming weekend, so I am excited to let my kid baptize someone his first week here. It is a 10 year old boy named Ruiz. We also have 9 other baptism dates right now, we are still working with sister Conception lots to find more people, and I am pretty confident in 3 or 4 of our baptism dates withing the next 6 weeks! This area is great, the members are awesome and excited, and God is blessing us with a lot of success. I pray everyday to be guided by His Holy Ghost and I try hard to learn how I can listen better to His promptings.
This week we went on Divisons a few times to help me learn the area better, and I was surprised that I remembered how to get to an investigators house who lived super far away. I have had a lot of confirmations this week from the Spirit that I am prepared and ready to train. There are definitely times when I am super scared for this great responsibility, but I had some experiences this week that helped give me more confidence. I listened to Elder Eyering´s talk in Priesthood session when he said that if we didn´t feel a little overwhelmed and inadequate at what the Lord had called us to do, he would be worried for us. He said if we do feel these feelings, we have just a little glimpse of the trust that God has for each one of us. That helped me feel a little better. I also read in Alma 17 this week where it talked about how the Sons of Mosiah were called to preach against the lamanites, "A wild and hardened, and ferocious people". But they certainly didn´t give up or get discouraged, in fact, they "gave themselves to much prayer and fasting" so that they could obtain a portion of the Spirit of God. I have tried to follow their example this week, praying and fasting, and seeking the Spirit because I know I can´t do anything without His divine guidance. More than anything, I try to mirror the same attitude Nephi had, our mission scripture and one of my personal favorite scriptures,
"And it came to pass that I, N
Not too many exciting or interesting things happened this week. We did run out of gas one night so it was back to the iron-heated shower. I made sure we went to go get some gas the next day. Today I have been cleaning like crazy (Now I REALLY miss my Mom) to prepare the house for my kid. It really does feel super good to clean though, and have a home where the Spirit can be. It will feel refreshing when it is all done. I also saw a little girl playing Minecraft this week in the food appointment, there are so many new things, I feel like I have been gone for 20 years!! We have had to take a lot of combis and walk a lot as always, we have a ton of work, and yesterday we went around to some families so Lopez could say bye. It even made me a little sad, and made me realize how much I already have grown to love the people here in this wark.
Well, training will be a new, challenging, and wonderful experience, just like every change will be in my mission and the rest of my life. I have been studying hard out of Preach My Gospel this week to learn the basics so I can lead in teaching. Just like I told my Mom and Dad as I left on the airplane out of the Las Vegas Airport, "I am ready for this". I am so thankful for all of the wonderful opportunities my parents, mission president, and more than anything, the Lord has given me. I have been so blessing, and I am so excited for the mission ahead! We had interviews this week, and I really love my mission President. He made me promise to write in my weekly letter home, that he personally loves you guys so much, and can tell we have an awesome family. He said he is so happy to know that there are still many rightous and loving families in the Gospel. I will admit, I will really miss him since he is going home when I finish training, IN JUST 3 MONTHS!! I am a little nervous what the new mission President will be like, and I hope he is as awesome as President Stutznegger. I still miss and love you guys a lot, I hope some people are still reading these blogs. Thanks so much for your letters, emails, packages, prayers, and support. You guys are always in my prayers. I am also already getting pretty excited for Mother´s Day, I guess this year, my whole family is excited for MOTHER´S Day!! I´ll talk to you all next week, have a good one!!!
-Elder Tyler Clark
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