Hey guys!!! It sure has felt a little long waiting for P-Day today, we just got back from the temple and the weeks without P-Day´s sure seem a little long and tiring! But I am here and I didn´t get kidnapped by some crazy Mexican. This last week or two weeks have been pretty darn good though. We have had a ton of blessings of the Lord in the work and are doing pretty good. I can´t believe next week we will already by starting week 5 of this cycle!! Time has been going by super fast lately, not to mention I now have over 6 months in the mission! 1/4 the way through!
Alrighty, so this last weekend we had the baptism for Javier!! I was really excited and glad it all worked out, because it has been a little difficult with him, but he was excited and happy and it all ended up working out. It was a little stressful, like every baptism, because literally EVERYONE showed up 30 minutes late including him, the bishop who was going to baptize him, and everyone who was going to talk. It was literally like everyone planned without telling us that they would all show up at 10:30 instead of 10, and maybe it was just an answer to our many prayers too, but eventually everyone came and it went well and awesome like every other baptism. Elder Lopez came back for it, and I had the opportunity to confirm him in sacrament meeting. The only sad part was that there is no family support for Javier... his parents didn´t come to the baptism and really don´t like the church, which is sad. It will be hard moving forward for him without the family support so we are going to try and talk to his mom about it and maybe open a door to share the gospel with them. I hope we can help him stay active and give him the support he lacks at home. Also on Sunday there was another surprise... just like 2 sundays ago I had to confirm Yael without preparation and 1 Sunday ago I gave an unprepared talk, this Sunday during Elders Quorum, they had me give the priesthood to Yael! Maybe next sunday they will surprise me and call me as bishop or something, who knows, but it was actually a way cool experience. I definitely have a lot of love for Yael as he is growing great in the church. He is super interested, studying lots, coming to church every Sunday and it was an honor to give him the priesthood. As I gave him his blessing I could feel Heavenly Father´s love for him and the great work/mission he has ahead in his life. One of my favorite converts for sure. I really have been privileged to see many lives strengthened and changed. I also have been able to see many blessings of being a district leader too. I had the opportunity of doing the baptism interview for a 9 year old girl and that was great. An awesome and spiritual experience. We also had the district meeting this last tuesday with the topic of giving thanks to the Lord for His hand in our labors. It turned out great, I had everyone share a personal story when they have seen the hand of the Lord, and I definitely felt the Spirit strong. My district has been a huge blessing to me, I love and pray for them, and they have answered a lot of my prayers. I have really been trying to focus on giving thanks to the Lord always because this is His work and His children that I have been privileged to be called as an instrument in His hands and I am doing my best to make the most of this opportunity.
Speaking of the hand of the Lord in His work, Elder Achá and I have had some pretty cool experiences this week. On one occasion we knocked a bunch of doors and weren´t having any success. A thought came into my mind that we needed to pray for guidance and help so we said a quick and humble prayer in the streets. We prayed specifically to help us find someone prepared, someone we could baptize and someone who needed our message. Literally the very next door we knocked on a lady opened up. After talking a little bit we found out she has talked with missionaries a lot before, already has gone to our church 4 or more times, and was very willing to accept us. After that we continued to knock a few more doors and had a TON of success! In just an hour more we were able to find 5 new investigators. On another day, we found someone even cooler!! This time, we decided to contact again to achieve the goal of new investigators for the week. This time we weren´t going to forget to pray for divine guidance and help. We were in a certain street when we prayed and immediately after the prayer, I just felt the prompting that it wasn´t this street. A little puzzled, Elder Achá humbly and happily followed me until we found the street that I felt was "right". We began to contact and the 3rd door we knocked on, a man named Julio opened up. He seemed almost relieved to see us, even though we never met before. He kindly let us in, and we began talking. We learned he has been an alcoholic for some years, has 4 kids are in their teens and really wants to change his life. He really had so many desires and was willing to accept whatever we had to teach him. We taught him about faith, repentance, and baptism, and that if we truly repent, have desires to change, and are baptized we can be cleaned and change our lives and overcome any temptation. He seemed so interested we were even able to put a baptism date with him the very first visit!! It was awesome, I really can´t even describe how prepared or awesome he was and may be one of the coolest people I have ever found knocking doors. We have another appointment with him Monday night with our Ward Mission Leader who is going to help us out. I remember after the lesson he thanked us so much and said he just felt really calm and peaceful inside. I explained to him that that was the Spirit telling him what we taught his was true, and that by following the steps of the Gospel he can have these feeling forever in his life and that is exactly what Jesus Christ offers us, peace, forgiveness, mercy, and hope. I am actually really excited to teach him and help him progress and I am so grateful Heavenly Father has been guiding us to His children who are prepared.
Well a lot of interesting stuff has happened lately. One day I found a lady in the streets who knows where BULLHEAD CITY is!! I was freaking out it was sooo cool, she and her whole family new English and they lived in Orange County for a long time and said they always went over to Bullhead City and Laughlin!!! Whaaa I was so happy, I feel like she might be the only person in all of Mexico to know where Bullhead City is, haha not even the missionaries here know where it is, but it was really fun to talk and meet her. This week we also finally made the return to the gym!! Good thing because I started getting a little fat with all of the good food down here, but I am running my mile everyday and lifting weights to achieve some of my goals. Speaking of goals, the other day I printed out my life/mission goals and taped them above my bed so I could always remember and see them. I like it a lot. I got big by some random dog in the street this week, but my pants are fine, got a haircut, saw someone as at a gas station dressed like Mario, and found a car that was decorated like Pikachu!! It was funny and we got some pictures with it. Elder Achá was also talking in his sleep one night and I was talking back like we were having a conversation!! It was really funny, and to this moment he denies it all but it was true. Also we found a parrot who eats cheetos so I took some videos, that would pretty rad. We also went over to help clean some missionarys´ houses this week and found the Book of Mormon in 7 different languages!! That was pretty interesting to see. I guess in summary, living down here in México is a little hard sometimes, but I am working hard and trying to enjoy it, and finding a lot of random, cool, and interesting stuff. Everyday is a new experience and new adventure and I am trying to absorb it all. I am super pumped for Mother´s Day and not so pumped that our Mission Pres will be leaving pretty soon, I will miss him a lot. I hope you guys are all great, getting ready for summer break, and enjoying life!! Love and miss you tons,
Elder Clark
No comments:
Post a Comment