Cold Water

 Hola Fellow Family and Amigos,

It was so nice to have a REAL P-Day today, and we definitely took full advantage of it by doing absolutely nothing.  It was great.  Really I basically just studied all day (which is awesome for a missionary), did a little cleaning, and then we ordered domino´s pizza!!  A day very much needed and I definitely feel prepared for the coming week.  So as I mentioned a little bit in my email last week, they had been preparing for a huuuge party literally right outside of our house.  And this week, the party went down for real.  There were sooo many people outside of our house, lots of amusement park rides, Ferris wheels, mechanical Bulls, and a new band playing super loud all night long.  I am lucky I am a pretty good sleeper because it was loud in our house all night until 4 in the morning, just a couple hours before we get up.  A couple of pretty famous bands came too though like “tri” and “tierra sagrada” and the way people were talking about them made it sound like a Mexican equivalent to a Boston or something, Elder Cruz said they were even famous out in Veracruz.  Each morning after the party though the streets were completely trashed, beer cans and bottles everywhere.  Lets just say, Mexicans really know how to party lol.  But these last few days have been great.  I must admit, after working out hard in the gym with Matsen, my arms were sore for a few days after, I really miss the gym and with my next companion, we will be going.  Also I forgot to mention some of my district meetings in my last letter.  I must admit, I am getting pretty worn out of being district leader, or at least just running out of fun ideas for my meetings every week, but I am still trying my best.  One of my meetings I set up a bunch of cups on a table that weren´t see through, and they were face up but covered on top.  I had everyone take turns throwing a ping-pong ball from far away and they one points and whatever was inside the cup (some had rocks, some had little chocolates).  We then did a second round where everyone got to move a little closer and I whispered to a couple of people which cups had the chocolates in them.  Eventually I only told them if they asked me.  It was a pretty fun and good lesson and I explained how there are 2 people (or groups of people) that know better than us where the “chocolates” or the “golden investigators” are in our area.  The members and Heavenly Father.  I explained sometimes all we need to do is ask Heavenly Father and He will tell us, guide us, and help us, but sometimes we have to do some work on our own part and come closer to His son, Jesus Christ, so we can be “closer” to the cups and shoot with a higher accuracy.  We also talked about working with the members to find the “chocolates” in our areas.  It is fun trying to turn fun or interactive activities to good lessons for the missionary work. 

So I guess it has only been a few days since I last wrote an email to you guys, but it sure was a great and eventful few days!! I do want to talk a little bit about my temple experience on Thursday.  Thanks to an idea I got from my cousin Allison, I took my patriarchal blessing with me and read in inside the Celestial Room.  It was really a cool experience for me, as I prayerfully and spiritually read it, I felt like Heavenly Father was talking to me, showing and telling me all of the promises He has already fulfilled in my blessing, and how much more He has in store for me through my obedience and faithfulness.  I also asked Him what He really wanted and needed me to know in this moment in my mission.  He reminded me of a scripture that my awesome seminary teacher made us memorize, “Look unto me in every thought, Doubt not, Fear not” (D&C6:36).  I guess that was His way of telling me to just not worry, put all my trust and faith in Him, and that He will take care of me.  I guess that is a good lesson we all can learn when we are struggling, stressing, or worrying in life.  I am grateful for the many blessings we get from the temples here on Earth.  Also in these past few days, we had 2 baptisms!!! I was so excited to be able to wear my baptism tie again!! On Friday night, we had the baptism of Alicia, the grandma of the Cortes family, and it was so beautiful.  We had great attendance and support from the ward, Elder Achá was able to come back, and even had the privilege of having President and Sister Mann at our baptism! It was a very special experience, we sang a special musical number to “Savior, Redeemer, of My Soul” (and I realized I am tone deaf), and then I had the sacred opportunity to baptize Alicia.  We got to hear talks from my recent converts (Elida and Yael) and the Spirit was very strong the whole time.  Afterwards, the relief society had made us some delicious empenadas and the ward members loved meeting our Mission President.  Of course, we had to get a selfie with President and Sister Mann before they made the trip home.  On Saturday evening, we had another baptism for Josue! Him and his whole family were just super happy, I have never seen him smiling so much.  The only thing a little disappointing about the baptism was that we decided to leave the font full overnight since we didn´t want to waste all of the water emptying and refilling it, but by the time Josue´s baptism came, the water had gone pretty cold.  I mean it wasn´t freezing or anything, but Josue definitely felt it has he went under haha.  But still, it didn´t take away from the sacredness or the Spirit and I am always just so happy whenever we are blessed with baptisms and success.  Finally, yesterday we went up with Alicia and the Cortes family, and Alicia was so excited to share the Gospel with all of her friends!! We had both of their confirmations yesterday as well, and Alicia showed us to one of her friends and told her how much we would be able to help you.  I could definitely tell she felt the Spirit and the joy the Gospel really brings and just wanted to share that with everyone! It is amazing how the Gospel really can change lives. 

So that pretty much wraps up the last few days for us.  Yesterday, a lady in our ward gave us tacos al pastor for lunch and they were soooo good! Cruz and I each downed about 10, and we were stuffed full!  We also got invited to celebrate Yael´s 15^th birthday with him yesterday.  It is kind of cool that he considers us really his best friends right now, and I love him and his family so much.  Now only 3 more years until he can go on a mission and I really hope he can stay strong in the gospel to do it!  He got an electric guitar for his birthday and was super excited.  It really just makes me so happy everytime we go up with the Cortes family because I literally played a part in bringing that whole family, from Yael to Alicia, to the Gospel and you can definitely see a difference and the light of the Gospel in their eyes.  Also lately I have been trying to Lucid Dream, which is when you recognize you are dreaming and can control them just like Inception.  I have been keeping a dream journal and it is kind of interesting, you have to write in it right when you wake up so you don´t forget your dream and I realized how weird of dreams I have haha.  Almost all of them involve me being with my family and friends back home, and one time I even dreamed that I was lucid dreaming, but never really was.  It was kind of weird haha but it is a pretty cool and interesting concept.  Finally, one night this week I was a little sad, discouraged, or however you want to call it, but I found the perfect solution.  I decided to make myself a nice, big, delicious, chocolate malt! Thank goodness for the malt my family sent me, that has been a life saver and when I was drinking my malt and decided to just read the scriptures, it really was the perfect cure.  Everytime I read the scriptures I am filled with a light and hope and happiness I can´t really describe.  I guess that is how we will feel in the Celestial Kingdom one day.  But yeah, that is pretty much how my week has been and I will talk to you all next week!!  Maybe the best part/miracle was that I didn´t have to eat moronga, pig feet, or brain! Hope you have all enjoyed the summer eat and hopefully getting some cooler weather now.  Love and miss you tons and will catch yáll later!!!

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Clark

Green Bread

Hello My People! How are you guys doing! So yes, we changed our P-Day and went to the temple.  Temple Days are always great and very uplifting, but I must admit, after waiting a week and a half, and then getting up super early and taking a bunch of transportation is almost more exhausting haha, so I am really tired right now.  But I would never complain or have it any other way because I love the temple, it is a sacrifice well worth it and with a couple changed regulations, I may only be going to the temple 2 or 3 more times my whole mission! :(  That is okay though, I guess our work right now is here on this side of the veil and one day I will have the opportunity to go to the temple as much as I want!  So this week I hit my 9 month mark which was pretty crazy.  I am excited to hit a year in a couple months because then I will be on the downhill and it will be holiday season!  And also, yes I have got some green bread in the house.  I bought some bread the other day from the store, and to my surprise, just 3 DAYS LATER it started going all moldy and green on me!  I checked the expiration date and apparently they sold it to me with the expiration date in 2 days... smh, I guess I better check the expiration date before I buy stuff from now on.  And here buying groceries is a little different.  It isn´t as common to go to a big grocery store and buy everything, but on just about every street there are little "tiendas" or stores or of people´s houses and we can literally just walk across the street and ask for eggs, milk, bread, whatever you need and they bring it to you.  So I must admit, in that way, Mexico is pretty convenient, but I just am not really a big fan of green bread.  I mean I am sure I would survive since I am a missionary and I always say a prayer to bless the food before I eat it, but I just don´t think it would taste as good.  Anyways I got some other good news, the house we built is all done and is great!  The family has already moved in and it is so much more comfortable for them, it makes me happy to see our service really helped some people!  Also outside of our house right now in the big football fields, the people are preparing for a HUUGE party.  I will tell you more about in on Monday the next time I email, but there are soo many people, they are setting up ferris wheels and rides and so many booths and stores, it might get pretty crazy around here and it is so loud when we are sleeping, good thing I am a pretty deep sleeper though.  I´ve learned to sleep in a combi so I can pretty much sleep just about anywhere now, but yeah, I´m still down here, just living the Mexican life.  

So the work has been really great lately too.  We had a zone conference last week and that was fun! I definitely love seeing old friends and catching up a little, but I do admit, I miss Elder Boyer.  If you didn´t know, a couple months ago Elder Boyer had some back problems and had to go home for surgery, I just hope he can come back to this mission.  I am definitely greatful I have been blessed with health and strength in my life.  It has been raining a ton here too, just about everyday, but with my rain coat and new umbrella, it has been mostly tolerable.  When we are inside at night, I love the rain.  But we have had to do a lot of walking in the rain too.  One day we hiked up a hill for about 40 minutes in the pouring rain.  We finally got there exhausted and soaked, but it was definitely worth it.  We committed an entire family ,who have been inactive for years, to come back to church, take the temple prep classes and get sealed in the temple as a family!  It was amazing because they all came to church sunday with a good attitude and are really motivated and excited right now.  I love doing the Lord´s work.  We finished the lesson with this family (The Gomez Family) by singing I am a Child of God with all of their cute little kids and grandkids.  As I was singing, the spirit really just hit me and I felt like God was telling me how much he loved me, how much I was truly His child, and how much he appreciated me working hard and loving and serving His other children for Him.  I love little tender mercies and experiences like that that help me keep on going on with faith and hope, even during the downs of this roller coaster ride.  We also had a day where we just contacted so much, a lot of our appointments had fallen and we just kept getting rejected... hard.  It got a little frustrating, but we kept going.  Finally the day was winding down and I just said a little prayer and told Heavenly Father I knew he loved me and I had faith, but we had set some goals that we need to complete, and asked to just find someone who was ready and willing to hear our message.  The very next door we knocked on we found someone really interested who did have a lot of questions about who we were and was really sincere.  It was such a relief and joy to just find that one person, and then walking back to the house, I remembered we had set some goals to find even more investigators that day and knew that we were going to achieve them.  So as we were walking back I got the prompting and told Elder Cruz that we were going to knock just this one last day.  Well, to our surprise it was another lady who was open and willing to accept us and it made me so happy.  I know Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us perfectly, and also knows exactly what we need, even trials and struggles sometimes, the become like Him.  Even though they are hard, we should always be greatful for the trials in life because that is what shapes us, tests our strength, and if we look hard enough, we can always find the reason or the blessings that come from them.  I am certain of that and have seen it time and time again on my mission.  

I also had one of the best days of my mission yesterday and a really cool experience with an investigator.  It was yesterday.  It was probably the best day since... well, since the last time I did divisions with Elder Matsen.  I am not sure why but between me and him there is just a click.  The first time a few months ago I did divisions with him we had an amazing day, I felt so inspired and learned so much from him.  Perhaps this last time (yesterday) was even better.  We not only had fun and were super happy (and got up early to go to the gym and cook a nice healthy breakfast) but we so lots of miracles and success in just one day of work together.  In the afternoon we went with an investigator named A59+.  We had originally planned on going in teaching the Plan of Salvation, but it was obvious and the Spirit told us that we needed to change our game plan completely because he needed something else.  So we were able to scout out the defense on this play, we called an audible, changed the play, and decided we needed to teach, the Word of Wisdom.  He had mentioned a little bit that he has been struggling for a lot of his life with alcohol, but he has been loving the Book of Mormon lately and he told us whenever he reads it, he just feels the strength and the motivation he needs to stop.  He can feel it is something he needs to change in his life.  So without even explaining anything about the Word of Wisdom or that is was a commandment from God, it first made me realize that the Light of Christ is real and it is in each one of us.  Even for those who don´t know the commandments of God before, still know deep down inside that some of those worldly things are wrong and bad.  The Light of Christ is what tells us we need to change and makes us feel the godly sorry and motivation to do so.  So we started teaching the Word of Wisdom and explained the blessings and asked him what he thought about it.  The room went silent and he just started balling.  Yeah, a 30 year old, big old muscular guy, all tatted up, who has been drinking for a lot of his life just broke down and started crying.  Very few times have I felt the Spirit so strongly before in some lessons, but A told us that he truly knows that we were angels sent from God to change his life and he said he knows he can change.  The put some goals and dates with him to change, giving him lots of love and support and I have never seen a man so confident or motivated to change, and then get cleaned through baptism.  It is such a miracle work.  And to finish it all off, we offered to give him a blessing of strength to help him make these changes in his life.  I will say this, as soon as we put our hands on his head, and started giving him the blessing, a whole power and spirit just filled us that I can´t even describe.  It was really just as God himself was talking to A.  We got the chills and I just felt like the whole room was filled with light, and hope, and Christ himself.  It really strengthened my testimony so much giving this blessing to his humble, willing man.  It made me really realize that it is true- we truly do have the Priesthood, God´s power on the Earth, and that is is POWERFUL! It can change lives and can only be used to bless the lives of others.  It is more powerful and fulfilling than any thrill or high you get from hitting a big 3 pointer in a basketball game, or racing down the mountain snowboarding with everything else a blur.  I often think about how much I miss those kind of things but wow, some of the miracles and experiences I have had on my mission don´t even compare to those.  It is something out of this world and it is something REAL.  I know that the Gospel changes lives and that really God doesn´t care where we were, or who we were before, but He cares who we are right now, and where we are willing to go with His help.  That is something my Mom taught me that I love to share and teach with others.  But it is true and it is so true that with Christ´s help we CAN change, because clean and forgiven, and one day inherit the Celestial Kingdom with our family and friends forever.  What a great promise and hope that is.

Well after all, this last week and a half was great.  Some of the experiences that I have had in my mission I wouldn´t trade for anything.  And I guess that is what makes life worth it, appreciating and cherishing all of the many good times and not worrying when your bread goes green.  Or when you step in dog poop (Yep, this week I stepped in a nice, fresh, smelly, Mexican pile of dog poop), but you just got to keep going.  There were a lot of fun things that happened this week too.  We ate some really good tamales and with the pizza recipe I got from the master chef Esteban, we made homeade pizza with some members one night (Let´s just say though, I still need to practice more, I am far from Chef Esteban level) and at least it was a lot of fun.  Don´t worry Frank famly, I am saving your Massaman and I KNOW the time is near, I will make that good stuff sometime soon.  We have also gotten a few meals of seafood this week, and Cruz and I were a little worried because the fish isn´t the cleanest here, but the sisters cooked it up pretty good for us!  But like always, you gotta have your weird food for the week as a missionary and mine was pig´s feet.  Not a big fan, but it is nowhere near the level of Moronga (check blog from 2 weeks ago).  Pig´s feet is almost like a strawberry-banana malt compared to Moronga.  I have also been really missing basketball lately but it has motivated me.  Since I am sad because Elder Cruz doesn´t want to go to the gym, I have been using my exercise time in the morning to do some dribbling drills and I am about to start a vertical exercise so I can dunk when I get home.  I haven´t given up on some of my dreams and ambitions yet. Finally, we had a pretty stressful Sunday because we had to both give talks in Sacrament meeting, teach the Gospel Principles class, AND then someone from the Stake just put us on the spot and made us give an entire class for Priesthood, COMPLETELY UNPREPARED... Ugh I guess that is what you get for being a missionary lol.  You are just the backup plan for everything.  But it is good though, sometimes it is hard, sometimes it is great, and sometimes your bread just goes green.  I hope you are all having a wonderful end to your summers and are super excited to start school soon!! I shouldn´t be complaining, at least I don´t have to start school next week like my sisters haha.  Love and miss you all, you are always in my thoughts and prayers.

Your favorite missionary,

Elder T-Clark

How Firm a Foundation

Hey Family, Friends, and Fellow Americans!

I hope you guys all had a great week! Meanwhile, I am pretty sure this week was the FASTEST week of my whole mission! I don´t know where time has been going these days, but certainly working hard makes the time go by fast.  I also had a pretty awesome week too, and one day I was trying to figure out why this week was so awesome… then it hit me! I have been wearing my Spurs sweatpants to bed! Of course I was going to have good luck this week.  Well the title of my email has multiple applications to this week.  First of all, this week we helped BUILD A HOUSE! It was just as dope as it sounds.  We went with some less active members who had asked us if we could do some service for them.  We helped them lay down some concrete in some new rooms to their house.  It was dirty and it was fun!  I have truly learned to love serving and working hard and I found a lot of satisfaction in this job.  Plus it was pretty fun too, and I mean, who doesn´t want to say that they built a house down in Mexico? That has been on my bucket list ever since I was born. I did get a pretty bad blister from shoveling so much but it was fine.  So if you guys need me to help you build your houses when I get back just hit me up.  This week I have also been really improving my cooking skills!  I have been making pancakes, breakfast tacos, and I found a really delicious way to make some quesadillas with ham and cheese and a really good chipotle salsa.  Also I am happy because I have gotten some chicken nuggets and ice cream, now I just need some chick fil a sauce.  This week we are planning on making a pizza with some members and I am super excited.  I got the récipe from only the best- Chef Esteban, my Mexican Uncle.  In fact we went over to his house just this morning and it was awesome!! We made vanilla pancakes from scratch and had some bacon and a really good hot chocolate! Esteban is the MAN! I really need to go over there more, and he really loves the missionaries.  He really is my Mexican Uncle.

The next firm foundation I built this week besides the house, was I finished reading the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time in my mission, but this time it took my 5 months! I started way back in my training (yeah, forever ago), and literally read and marked verse by verse, in both my Spanish and English scriptures.  Now I have a very marked up, rainbow set of Spanish and English scriptures, but more than that I have a firm, strong testimony that will never fail me.  I have seriously fallen in love with the Book of Mormon on my mission, I know it to be 100% true and I know we are in the true church of Christ.  I know that if we build our testimonies on the firm foundation of the Book of Mormon, we will be strong, faithful, and diligent in serving the Lord.  Every time I read the scriptures I always feel more motivated to serve and feel more charity and love for the people that I am serving.  Since I have finished the Book of Mormon though, I have started to read the Pearl of Great Price, with the guide, all in Spanish! It is amazing how the gift of tongues Works and how much my Spanish has improved!  And more than anything, I love learning new things!! I don´t know if there are many more better feelings than to discover a new piece of treasure, inspiration, or knowledge as I search the scriptures diligently.  I feel like every time I study, with prayer, my mind is opened to a new knowledge and light and I can understand more things.  It feels great and I truly feel enlightened and inspired by my Heavenly Father, especially since I have been on my mission.  It is crazy to think that in just 9 short months, I am become fluent in Spanish, strengthened my testimony 100 times stronger, become closer to my Savior Jesus Christ, survive down in Mexico living on my own, and learn how to cook and build houses!! It sure does feel good to progress and learn new things, but the coolest thing is that I am still myself, crazy old Tyler who loves playing basketball and joking around.  Some things will never change about me.

This week my testimony has also been strengthened in setting goals, especially goals for missionary work.  Ever since President Mann has got here, he has stressed a lot about setting goals to achieve the ultimate goal of having 100 baptisms every month in the mission.  This week, Elder Cruz and I set goals specifically for our areas.  One of the goals we set was to achieve the standard of excellence for finding new investigators every week and find 6 news every week this cycle.  Well, we put in our efforts, contacted a lot, and Saturday night came and we had 5.  We really did work hard to achieve the goal and I felt a little discouraged because I do not like underachieving my specific goals I set.  But, through our prayers and faith, and to our excitement, a brand new investigator came to church on Sunday, stayed for all 3 hours, and we were able to get another appointment with her and count her as a new investigator!! I was soo happy and knew that Heavenly Father really did hear and answer our prayers and helped us achieve our goals.  So far for the rest of the goals we set, we are on track and it seems like we are going to break a few of them!! Just more evidence that Heavenly Father loves us and really does help us achieve our goals and plans in life if we put our trust in Him and put in our own efforts too, even when sometimes we feel like we can´t give that much.

We have also had a lot of success this week with our investigators.  We found a new investigator- Javier Armas, when we were just walking in the street and both said, “I feel like we need to contact this door”.  Well, we knocked on the door and a polite man greeted us and said “Oh! Hey Elders, what do you have new for me today?”  Apparently Javier had been talking with missionaries before and was very open to let us in because he loves to hear the opinions of all religions.  We set up another appointment with him and when we went back, we had a great lesson!  We taught the Restoration and really focused that he needed to pray and ask God to receive his own answer if what we taught him was true.  He said he was really interested and that he wanted to go to church with us on Sunday! So Sunday morning, we passed by for him, and he was all ready to go! I later found out that is he a paramedic, and got back from his work at 6 A.M.!  Well, he didn´t even sleep a wink that night, and stayed up until we passed by for him to go to church! I was shocked to see the faith that this man already had, someone we just met a few days before, that he was filling to sacrifice basically all of his rest time to go to church with us.  It is amazing how the Spirit can really work in the hearts of the investigators so fast if they are willing and open to it.  We also met another really cool lady knocking doors one day, Elena Garcia.  At first, she was very reluctant to let us in, and seemed a little annoyed.  I assume she had probably talked with some other religious people before and didn´t like it.  I felt prompted to explain to her that what we are doing isn´t for us, that we are only here to help her and that this time we wanted to share something was for her, that we didn´t receive a single peso for doing this.  I felt prompted to talk about the Plan of Salvation and how it brings happiness and hope to families especially who are going through hard times.  Eventually she let us in and we briefly talked about the Plan of Salvation since she said she was really busy.  But as we talked, I noticed a change in her, in her face and in her heart.  It was almost as if the Spirit went in and flipped a switch, she just became super interested and open and I could definitely tell she was feeling the Spirit.  After we finished, she offered a prayer after we taught her how, and she gladly accepted us back for a return appointment.  I am not sure if she will progress and get baptized yet, but even if not, I feel like we planted a good seed that day and I really could tell that we touched something inside of her.  I am so greatful for the Spirit in this work, because without it, we wouldn´t be able to do anything.   We are also very excited because Alicia, the grandma, is ready and excited for baptism next week!  We will have to work with Jesus (the grandpa of the Cortes family) for a little bit more time and have his baptism a few weeks later, but if all goes well, we should be having 4 baptisms next week!! I am super excited and I know I have been slacking the past few weeks without one, but I will make up for it next week by having 4.  I truly feel so blessed with so much success here in Atlicpac, and the ward is so strong, and excited for missionary work too.  I know that the Savior Himself is with us right now.

Well, it really has been a great week.  We had interviews with President Mann and I also got to talk with Sister Mann a little bit too!  I had fun showing her some of my family pictures, and we talked about how family reunions are so fun (Since all my family is having a blast right now together).  Turns out they haven´t missed in 35 years before coming on the mission!  One thing she said really hit me though, she said that it is always hard leaving them, or missing them, because when you are having fun and laughing and playing with your family, that is what heaven feels like.  I sure hope Heaven will be like that, and I am so greatful for my Eternal Family.  It has also been raining basically everyday now, but good thing I got an umbrella to keep my dry.  One day, almost an entire road flooded and we were stuck in a combi for about an hour! It was kind of crazy, flooding gets REALLY bad down here in Mexico, and people get REALLY impatient, REALLY quick haha.  Crazy drivers…  We have also enjoyed some games of Ooga Booga look, some domino´s pizza, a fun zone meeting, and the Mexican version of Root Beer that I discovered this week (Toni Col).  Also a lady promised us pizza and CHOCOLATE MALTS next time we eat with her.  The coolest part was that I never even told her I loved chocolate malts! I guess she just received that valuable piece of revelation from Heaven.  Shout out to the Larson family who I got a letter and pictures from this week and I seriously love and miss all my cousins, aunts, and uncles so much.  As I was finishing the Book of Mormon, I came across kind of a funny scripture that I can really relate to when Moroni said in Moroni 8:17 “I love little children with a perfect love”.  I truly do feel so much love for the little kids who make me so happy, and that is why I love my family and little cousins so much.  Well I am doing great out here, I also found someone with a HOVERBOARD (The first one I have seen in Mexico) and I was showing them all the funny tricks I knew on it, they were cracking up haha! It was pretty fun, I hope our hoverboard back home hasn´t blown up yet.  But I love and miss you guys soo much, I hope you are having a lot of fun especially my fam at the family reunion and that you guys are having a great, safe, summer.  Love and miss you guys tons, I am going to the temple next week and will be changing my P-Day so you won´t hear from me Monday, but sometime later next week.  Have a GREAT week!!!!!!

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Clark

Ups and Downs!

Hey Everyone!!

I must admit, I have felt like I have been on a super crazy roller coaster ride lately, with lots of ups and downs.  I mean, sure you know me, I would LOVE to be at Six Flags or Disney Land or something right now riding a roller coaster, so maybe I should just enjoy my mission that much more since it is basically a roller coaster.  But yes, like always, I have had my ups and downs, we have had our good runs and quarters, and our defensive breakdowns, and everyone always told me the mission gets easier with time, but I have found that it doesn´t really magically change or get easier, I still have problems, and stresses, and new surprises and tender mercies every day. I guess I just never know what to expect and maybe it is different for everyone, but yes I still have my hard times.  I guess "the trick", just like President Gordon B. Hinkley said, "is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride".  That is what I am going to really try and focus on from here on out because no, it isn´t always easy, we walk alot, eat gross food, sometimes go without food, knock lots of doors, get rejected over and over again, but really I have NOTHING to complain about.  I sure am greatful for my Heavenly Father letting me have this roller coaster ride, and yes, his tender mercies are ALWAYS there.  I guess the other trick is to recognize those tender mercies because even in the hardest times, He never ceases to be a merciful God or a God of miracles.  One thing that is definitely certain is that the velocity of this roller coaster ride just keeps speeding and speeding up.  I am almost positive that somehow, we skipped some days this week, because this P-Day got here WAY too fast.  (Not complaining though, I always love my P-Day!).  So yes, from now on I will do my best to "enjoy the ride".  And I am so so very greatful for such wonderful and supportive family and friends to love and cheer me on and keep me going every week.  I love you guys.  

This week was pretty good though.  Last monday night we had a little family home evening with this grandma and her 4 little grandkids.  We played a game called "cat and mouse" at the end, and even though I didn´t lose, all of the kids thought it would be sooo funny if I took some bites from a really hot pepper, because last time I lost and had to eat some raw onions and they enjoyed it a lot.  I guess it will always be this way but little kids just like watching me suffer I guess... Haha so to please them, I ate a really spicy pepper and suffered for about 10 minutes.  Maybe my mom can attach the video in my blog.  But it was funny and I guess it was worth it to make some little kids happy :)  I always love the little kids.  We started off the week on a really high UP though in the district meeting on Tuesday, which I was sooo excited for.  Thanks to my awesome mom, I had an AWESOME idea for the district meeting, and yes I was really really excited for.  And if I was that excited for it, you probably know it has something to do with basketball.  Yep, we had the famous Mexican Missionary 3 POINT CONTEST!!! With the mini basketball hoop I got for a Christmas present and lots and LOTS of masking tape, I got the hoop taped up on the wall, just like the good ol´ days.  This 3 Point Contest consisted of 2 rounds, the first round with everyone taking 3 shots from the 5 spots outside the arc, and then anothing round with 5 inside spots.  It was really fun and the zone leaders showed up to our meeting too for a little extra competition.  Elder Matsen gave me some good competition, but in the end, I found my groove and won with a score of 24.  Apart from it being fun and exciting though, we had a really good discussion afterwards.  We pointed out that all of the numbers were higher the second round, for one reason, we were closer.  We related to baksetball hoop to Jesus Christ, our perfect example and Savior, and when we are closer to Jesus Christ, we always have more success and blessings.  Sure we have all seen disobedient or rebellious missionaries have success too, but when we are as close as possible to the Savior we have a way higher "shooting percentage" and never fail.  We have to Spirit and revelation for our areas.  So we had a really good discussion about how we can get closer to Jesus Christ, things we can do and change, and everyone said they left feeling more inspired.  It also showed this week and everyone had more success including us!! At the end, Elder Johnson told me, "Elder Clark, if you aren´t an apostle one day, the church isn´t true".  Even though it was a joke, and I really hope he isn´t basing his testimony on that because his chances are pretty slim, our zone leaders, Elder Johnson and Elder Matsen, always make me feel good, motivated, and excited for the missionary work.  They are awesome and yeah it was a pretty sweet district meeting on Tuesday. 

The work was really great this week also, lots of ups and blessings and tons of new success and opportunities.  We found out Jesus (the grandpa of the Cortes family) loves reading the Book of Mormon.  I was seriously so happy to see their family at church on Sunday and so excited for the baptisms of the grandparents!  They will be such awesome, strong converts.  It turly makes me so happy to see that we literally helped an entire family, starting with Yael, and moving all the way up to the grandparents, come unto Christ.  I love them so much.   Last night we had a family home evening with them and watched the video called The Testaments when Jesus Christ came to the Americas.  Sister Tobón made us all popcorn and I felt so happy and it just reminded me of those movie nights back with my family, only this one was in Mexico.  Just like President Mann said last week, "you can really see the light of the Gospel in their eyes".  Ramiro and his daughter, Abigail, are also doing great! Ramiro is loving the Book of Mormon and sometimes they read together.  I am SO excited to go to the sealing of Ramiro and his family even though it is still about 10 months away.  I have seriously been blessed with such awesome converts and success here in Atlicpac.  But the work continues on!  We have found a few new investigators, Olivia Bravo and her daughter Ariadna Bravo who are really interested.  I was a little frustrated and dissapointed this week because they were waiting and excited to go to church this sunday, and a member was going to pass by for them... Well, the member showed up at Sacrament meeting without them and we were worried.  We gave them a call and they were ready to go but didn´t know how to get there!! Ugh it was a little frustrating, and even though they live pretty far, we told them we would go pass by for them ourselves next Sunday.  They are pretty awesome investigators though.  We also had lots of success finding new investigators and putting baptism dates this week with more of Heavenly Father´s children like a 9 year old girl, Ariadna Avilez, a 9 year old boy Josue Salinas, and a mom with a baby on the way, Araseli Jimenez.  I love them all a tons and hope to have success with them! 

So yes, this week it has definitely been raining SO HARD.  Not only raining blessings and success, been pouring rain almost every day! I guess this is just how Mexico is in the summer, and I have definitely been greatful for my rain coat these days.  It has also been pretty cold at night and in the mornings.  It is also hard to find time to hang up my clothes to dry these days (since dryers don´t really exist down here) and one day I literally got my clothes down 5 minutes before it started pouring! Talk about timing!  Also I have some pretty creepy news this week.  I ate something called Moronga.  If you would like to stop reading right now, that is okay, because maybe you don´t want to know what it is, your discretion advised.  But Moronga is literally pig blood mixed with some eyeballs, veins, and guts.  Yeah.  I probably have said enough already but it is by far the most horrible thing I have eaten here.  The hardest thing to get down.  I really had to gag it down with lots and lots of soda because man was that hard.  It also didn´t help as Elder Cruz laughed and made fun of me and pointed out all of the eyeballs I had to eat.  As I told the story to a few other people they agreed with me, it is NOT food, and especially NOT food for a white American missionary.  Ugh I hope I never have to eat Moronga again in my life.  Maybe it was worth that one time just so I can tell my kids about it... maybe...  Nonetheless, I was also blessed with some really good food this week too.  One week a lady cancelled on us and gave us money (always a tender mercy) so we ordered Domino´s Pizza!!! Now you don´t get that very often down here!  Also we have enjoyed some good tacos this week, to which my taco count has gotten up to 248!  Not too bad, but still I have been slacking, not where I would like it to be.  Especially if I want to reach my goal of 1000 before the end of my mission.  I have also been learning and enjoying to cook for myself more!  I have been some peanut butter, nutella banana pancakes one morning and some breakfast tacos with flour tortillas, I think I am going to save up and buy some bacon this week.  But yes, I always enjoy it more when I cook for myself and especially enjoy some of my favorite breakfasts from home as a missionary!  I also had a little scare this week (I think the tacos got the best of me one day) where we were literally running (or waddling as fast as I could) back to the house because I was having a Mexican emergency.  I´m not going to spell it out too much for you guys, but one brother from the ward saw us and said, "Elders! Who scared you guys?"  I turned to him with a very urgent face and said, "Brother, it is just that I REALLY have to go to the bathroom".  So yeah, I am proud to say that this brave soldier is still standing, and did not fall that day, but I really don´t know if I could´ve survived even 30 seconds more.  Never underestimate the power of Mexican food.  One of the greatest lessons I have learned on my mission.  Finally, I had a really tender mercy which helped lift my spirits one night when I got a text message.  The message read (translated) "Elder Clark, I am Esteban, your Mexican Uncle.  This is my phone number, I have missed you and hope you haven´t forgotten about me.  "Love U Buddy" (in English)".  So yes, Esteban, the chef from the MTC and my "Mexican Uncle" texted me because we lost contact with each other a few weeks ago when we lost all of our contacts in our phone.  I called him the next morning and he always helps me feel happy.  We had a good talk, in which he told me he has never eaten Moronga and never will, and we planned a day where we could go visit him soon!! He is just awesome, and to me, he has been an angel in my mission comforting me and being my friend.  I have been so blessed. 

So yep, I am doing great, just hope this week no one gives me Moronga!! I hope you guys are having a super fun and safe summer and staying out of that Bullhead City heat!!! I love and miss you guys lots, and you are all in my prayers.  I don´t know what I would do without all of your support and I love your emails!! Have a great week and I will hear from you all again next week!!

Your favorite missionary,

Elder Clark 

Awesome Season Ahead

Hello family and friends!! Well as you know, we have had some offseason trades in the league lately and though I am still playing for the still team (Atlicpac), I now have a new teammate and coach!!! But even though the changes have been different and hard at times, I know it will be a great season and I am excited to keep on going!!  My new companion is named Elder Cruz.  He is from Veracruz and is really cool!! He has been playing in the league a little longer than I have (15 months in the mission), so it is nice to have someone with experience.  It is way different than having Elder Achá, because he knows how to teach super well, and is already used to the missionary life, so that is a little nice that I can rely and depend on him more when teaching lessons.  He is also a clean-freak like me which I have enjoyed a lot haha, the house is super clean and organized right now and it feels great!  I must admit though, I never thought I would say it or it would be this real but I miss Elder Achá a lot.  He was a great kid/comp and I love him tons.  The good thing is he called me the other night and is doing great and loves his new area.  I am happy for him and will always remember him as my first son in the mission!  Another recent change we have had is in our Mission President!  It was really sad saying goodbye to President Stutzneggar at the changes last Tuesday; we sang "God be with you til we meet again" and everyone cried and hugged.  I have a lot of respect and love for them and have been praying and fasting to have that same love and respect for the new mission President and his wife.  Well I must admit, my prayers have been heard and answered.  When we first saw President and Sister Mann at a little conference on Saturday I was filled with love and happiness! The spirit manifested to me that they were the perfect Presidency for our mission.  Ever since I saw- them I just wanted to get to know them mom and I am so excited to be working with them.  I think having two mission presidents in my mission will be such a blessing- as Mama Stutz said, double the love!!  I am so greatful for the Manns and their willingness to serve.  Lastly we have had a few changes in our district too, so Elder Nadauld is gone now which is kind of sad, but just more opportunities to make more friends! For the first district meeting we played some companionship ping-pong again and it really does help to build that companionship chemistry!! I am district leader again here so I still have to plan a meeting every week.  One thing that hasn´t changed though, and never will, is that this is still the work of the Lord.  These are His children, and He is still blessing and guiding me along every step of the way.  This week the work was GREAT and we have still been so blessed with success here in Atlicpac.

On Tuesday morning we had a service opportunity and shoveled a huge mountain on concrete bricks into a big dumpster truck.  It was fun and I have learned to love serving, especially serving the people I love!  This week I have especially been praying lots for success in this area, since I will be staying here another 6 more weeks, and Heavenly Father has definitely been raining his blessings down.  Literally it has rained almost every single day this week and when it rains it pours!! It pours literally but it has been pouring blessings lately as well.  We have been able to go back with the Avilez family (the family which we dedicated the mom´s grave a few weeks ago) and the daughter and the husband both seem really interested in getting baptized.  We haven´t been able to teach a lesson quite yet, but I am super excited to go back with them this week.  One day this week just didn´t seem like our day.  Literally every single appointment we had fell through all the way until 6:00 in the afternoon!!  It was really rough and seemed hard at first.  We even got rained on super hard, but we just kept working.  We knocked a lot of doors that day and after thinking about it as the day was over, I truly believe we found some people that are prepared and are waiting to hear our message.  I am excited to go back with some of those people this week and it was cool to see that even through the stormy weather and fallen appointments, I still felt so blessed and guided that day.  Even though they are hard in the moments, I am greatful for those experiences that help me to have more patience and faith in Jesus Christ.  Finally, perhaps the highlight of our week was yesterday, Sunday.  I was sooo excited and filled with joy when I say the entire Cortes family came to church.  Not only Yael, and his siblings and mom, but they brought BOTH of their grandparents!! Their grandma has already been taking the discussions and has a baptism date, but the grandpa is completely new!! It was a WONDERFUL surprise!! I was sooo stoked to see them at church, probably the most excited I´ve ever been to see anyone come to a sacrament meeting and we get an appointment scheduled with the Grandpa (Jesus) yesterday in the afternoon.  Then, after sacrament meeting, we found out that our new Mission President and his wife, wanted to go on divisions and teach with us that day!  At first we were a little nervous and felt some pressure that on just their 4th day here in Mexico, they wanted to do divisions with us, but my nervousness quickly turned to excitement and I was sooo glad to get another opporunity and chance to meet and know them better!! We met in the stake center and they took us in their car to a few of our appointments.  The first appointment was with the Salinas family.  It was actually the first time we have been able to meet with all of them.  They have a son who is 9 years old but hasn´t been baptized yet so it was our privilege to teach him and prepare him for baptism!! The rest of the family were less actives but have really been reactivating lately.  We had a wonderful lessong with President and Sister Mann, with testimonies and I truly felt the Spirit.  Josue (the 9 year old) accepted a baptism date at the end and we are excited to keep working and helping him along for another baptism!  After that, I was SUPER EXCITED because we had the appointment with one of my most favorite families ever- the Cortes family.  It took a little while to get there, we have to drive up a big hill in the pouring rain, but it was all so worth it.  The drive was a little funny, I found out that Sister Mann doesn´t like offroading all that much, and that President Mann really knows how to kick it into gear haha.  No it wasn´t anything crazy haha, but I was a little scared that we might not have made it up in the rain, but it all worked out fine and we were safe.  When we got there, the whole family was there ready to listen.  And we had an amazing lesson.  It is probably one of the most powerful lessons and one of the most strongest I have felt the spirit before.  The whole family was participating, Yael was sharing scriprutres, everyone was bearing testimony and I know that Heavenly Father had blessed us with His spirit in that lesson and I know that it touched the hearts of each and every one of them.  At the end, Sister Mann bore a beautiful testominy in her best Spanish and started crying.  I almost wanted to start crying with tears of joy and a truly humbled and happy for the opportunity to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to this family who I just love so much.  Jesus accepted a baptismal date as well, for the same date as his wife, and we have their baptism scheduled for the end of the month!! I am so excited for them and like I always say, the joy that I feel when I am teaching and loving them is just so indescribable.  It is moments like these where I just LOVE being a missionary and make all of the hard times worth it.  Afterwards, President Mann congratulated us and told us that you can really see the light of the Gospel in their eyes and it is so true.  In each and every one of them, you can tell that they love the Gospel and that is had changed their lives.  Genesis, Yael, and Angel will be great missionaries one day, who all want to serve.  So yes, I was so greatful for the presence of President and Sister Mann with us yesterday and for these two appointments and already I have grown to love them so much.  They remind me a lot of my grandparents honestly and I love them like they are my mom and dad on the mission.  There will still be lots to learn and a few more adjustments to make but I know these new changes will be wonderful.  I honestly don´t have anything to complain about, this week was wonderful and humbling, and I have been SO blessed in my life.  Sometimes I don´t even know how to begin thanking my Heavenly Father for all of His blessings and tender mercies but I know he is there and hears and answers every one of my prayers.

Well this week was pretty good, first week of the new season, and so far we are undefeated.  A couple funny things happened this week.  I was eating a mango one day at the food appointment and put the pit aside after I finished it.  Elder Cruz was examining it more, and all of the sudden, little tiny worms started crawling out of it!!! NOOOO I was sooo grossed out, and really REALLY did not want to get parasites... Elder Cruz was laughing about it the whole time and made sure to keep reminding me of it so I would stay grossed out haha, but luckily I have been pretty good. I haven´t felt sick yet and that was on Tuesday so I think I will survive this one, thankfully.  I just don´t know how long it will be before I can eat another mango haha.  On Saturday we ate with Ramiro and his wife who are doing awesome!! Ramiro is such an awesome convert as well who is now working hard in his calling in the young men Presidency.  I am so happy for him and he and his wife both are on track to be sealed in the temple in just a little less than a year!  But  when we were eating with him, he was showing us his favorite parts of the chicken to eat... He was eating the chicken liver, lungs, stomach... everything!!! Apprently he really likes it and here in Mexico they don´t waste any part of anything.  They eat the whole animal... I guess that is just the culture down here.  I was just fine with my chicken meet off of the bone though.  Also a really hungry dog in the streets followed us around for about 30 minutes one day because it could smell the scent of some barbeque chips on our fingers which we just ate.  Yeah there are a lot of hungry dogs here and it took him a while to figure out we didn´t have any food.  Eventually it started chasing after this chicken in the street.  It was actually really funny watching this dog chase around this squaking chicken and I was pretty impressed with the chicken´s speed and agility.  In the end, the dog came out with nothing more than just a mouthful of feathers... Poor dog...  We also got some curtains for our house windows which are really nice and I got my Preach My Gospel rebinded which looks really cool!! I feel really good and comfortable in our house which is nice, we are just missing carpet.  When I get home I am just going to lay down and take a big nap on carpet because I miss it so much.  I hope all of you guys are doing great and I love and miss you tons!! You are always in my thoughts and prayers and I hope you have a GREAT week!!

Love,

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder T-Clark