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
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