Double Digits!!

What´s Up Guyssss!!!!!

This week I hit double digits in the mission!!! Friday was my 10 month mark and it was definitely a day to celebrate. It is crazy that I've really been living in Mexico for already 10 months now and how much I've learned, changed, and grown in these short 10 months. Just a couple more months and I will be halfway done at a year mark, and then  Christmas is basically here so definitely lots to look forward to here the next few months! And time is definitely going by so fast these days. I got a little sick again after all my medicine ran out and worried my sickness was coming back, so I had to take a couple days break from the gym and give my body a rest, but with lots of prayers and help from Heavenly Father, I didn't have to go back to hospital Cami and now I almost feel completely better. I think it was just a nasty virus that took time to go away. Oh! And I'm still on my happy streak! I've learned that really your mind and attitude is really powerful and combined with faith, you can be the happiest person in the world in any situation! I hope I can keep this happy streak up for the next 14 months on my mission! Also it was pretty fun on our 10 month mark I did divisions with Elder Jensen in my zone (he was in the MTC with me) and we were able to celebrate our 10 month mark together! The member gave us money for lunch that day so we got some good old Little Ceasars Pizza and some Crazy Bread to celebrate this great mile stones in our mission. After all when we got here 10 months ago, the first meal we had was pizza! So yeah, I'm still just chillin out here, working hard and having fun!

Our zone has been improving so much lately and I am so excited. 2 weeks ago we found 47 new investigators, almost an average of 8 per companionship which is really just a miracle and really awesome, but to my surprise, this week we took it to another level and found 56!!! More than 9 per companionship! I'm super excited and pumped, the zone is super animated and excited and we are working hard to achieve our mission goals. As zone leaders we have been trying to do a lot of zone activities to get everyone excited and working hard and so far it has been a success! We've been doing zone attacks where we all work in one area for a couple hours and divisions every week. This week specifically I went on divisions with a companionship and area that have really been struggling a lot lately. I feel bad for them because I know they are trying hard but just haven't had much success in their area for a long time. You can just see it in their faces a little too, just a little down and disanimated, but even though I was only going to be there for 1 day I was determined to change that, because I'm always excited for the work! So we didn't have any appointments that day except for 1 which was at night with some members. But we decided to put some goals and plans for that day for what we wanted to accomplish. So we decided that we wanted to find someone who we could put a baptism date with that day and that we were willing to work our butts off all day to find that person. We tried a lot of different strategies including choosing 3 streets after looking at the area map and contacting the one that matched up with our choices. I must admit, it was a harder day (even our lunch appointment fell through), and we worked until we literally couldn't anymore but I had faith and I knew Heavenly Father would help us achieve our goals that day.  It was getting pretty late, and I can't say we weren't blessed with success because we ended up finding 13 new investigators in just 1 day, probably one of my mission records, but as the night was coming and we just had that one last appointment with some members and honestly I began to doubt if we were actually going to find that one prepared person who we could invite to the waters of baptism that day. I was still trying to hold onto my faith, but it just seemed so unrealistic and now out of reach that we were out of time with just this one last appointment.  Well, we went with these members and to our excitement and the answer to our prayers, the members just decided to invite an investigator over to listen to us that night. It was a miracle!! Before we even started talking I knew that was the person who we needed to find that day and knew Heavenly Father loved us and answered our prayers that day. Maybe He was trying to test our faith that day, to see if we were really willing to work diligently even until the last minute of the day to reach our goals. And when He saw that we were faithful and hopeful, that we weren't just going to give up and go back to the house and cry ourselves to sleep, He answered our prayers and helped us achieve our goals. Yes, we had a great lesson with this investigator and she accepted a baptism date by the end of the lesson. And we were so happy. At the end of the night the Elder in that area thanked me so much for coming and bringing life back to their area, but I knew it wasn't me, and that we can truly work miracles in our daily lives if we put our trust in the Lord and seek His will diligently for us. The next day I saw this companionship and they were super excited because their agendas were filled with appointments and new investigators and had work to be done! I was happy and excited for them. So yes, we still have been having lots of success and miracles on our own area with Elder Torres, but I'm especially enjoying the extra blessings as a zone leader to be able to work and help the Elders in our whole zone in their own areas and have a little more responsibilities. And now every single companionship in our zone has at least one baptism date and had at least one investigator at church! Sure more responsibilities is more work, but it definitely has brought new, challenging, and testimony-strengthening experiences and blessings and I thank my Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and my mission president for these wonderful l opportunities and experiences that I have been blessed with in my mission. 

So since time just seems to be going by so fast lately (I have no idea where this week went) and I've already been out here 10 months, I have been thinking a lot and especially how one day I will be back home living a normal life, and a lot sooner than it seems too. Also the other night I had a dream (not a lucid dream) that I finished my mission and I was home again with my family and friends again. I was happy to be with my loved ones and knew I had a wonderful and amazing mission, but I felt like something was missing. It was almost as if my mission filled a gap in my life that I didn't know was there and brought a special kind of satisfaction and joy to my soul that I couldn't find in any other way. I almost felt sad that my mission was over. As I've thought about life, my mission and this dream lately I've realized that I really don't have that much time and I need to make the very best of it and most of all enjoy it. I guess in comparison, we don't have much time on this life as mortal beings either and should definitely be trying everyday to make the best of this life, be happy, enjoy the good times with our family and friends, and always trying to get closer to Jesus Christ and better our lives, especially if we are going to live forever one day based on how we chose to live this life! Sometimes we get so caught up in trials, hard times, and sometimes just the daily stresses in life like work, school, and taking care of the kids, that we forget what our true purpose is in life, what our Heavenly Father's purpose is for us, and we forget to be grateful and enjoy the simple blessings that we have every day. Everything sure seems a little different when we look at things in the eternal perspective and maybe we would change our view and perspective on life and on other people too if we always had that attitude. Just a little thought I wanted to share with you guys this week.

So it was just another great week to be a missionary here in La Perla. I always talk a little bit about food too in my emails and we definitely had some good food this week! It is a lot more common in this ward that the members get caught up in something and have to give us money for lunch instead of having us in their home, but then we can explore our options a little bit and get some good food in the streets. Every once in a while we will order a pizza or something too, but this week we had some pretty good street food, I must admit. One day we got some tacos al pastor that were huuuge and were sooo good. Ugh I'm going to miss these tacos a lot. Another day we got some really good quesadillas and something called huaraches. A huarache is basically a gigantic, oval-sized tortilla loaded with meat, cheese, onion and salsa, but it really is super big. Probably about the size from my neck to my waist, or in other words, bigger than Brea, but it sure was delicious. We've also had some pretty darn good tortas lately which are just sandwich loaded with a bunch of different kinds of meat. One thing I have to say, Mexico knows how to make some pretty good food. I also got myself some ice cream again so I should be back in business for the malts soon! Zone conference was this week as well so those are always good, plus we got costco muffins and got to catch up a little with some of my friends in the mission which was fun also. Finally, I will finish with something funny that happened this week. One day we were knocking some doors and this guy came out super happy and was like "Hey Elders!!" I soon figured out why he was so happy, no it wasn't because he was playing a lot of basketball, reading the scriptures, or telling himself he was happy, but he was smoking a huge, roll of weed. He actually seemed really knowledgeable about who we were and what he share and it made me laugh when he said, "You know, the most important thing to me is just to love God and keep His commandments" as he took a big puff of his smoke. Haha well at least he was happy and did accept another return appointment with us so maybe we can help him find some real and lasting happiness in his life. So that about wraps up our awesome week. Oh yeah we also ran out of gas and haven't had much money to pay for it yet so it has been cold showers or the famous old bucket showers for the last few days! Have a great week everyone, love and miss you lots and hope you haven't forgotten about your favorite son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, or friend down here in Mexico!! Talk to you guys next week!

Your homie, 

Elder Clark 

Key to Happiness

Hey My Favorite People! 

So this week I found the key to happiness. A very valuable and useful lesson in life and I'm glad that I finally learned it! It is simply called, basketball. Haha just kidding, but I did play some basketball this week. It was AWESOME! I've been hitting the gym hard lately doing a vertical workout so I can dunk and then lifting weights after. At night I do some dribbling drills to work on my ball handling. And on Saturday morning is my shooting day so I found a couple of people that like to play basketball and every Saturday morning for exercise I go to the church to work on my shooting. I've honestly felt so amazing, there is nothing like being in a good exercise routine, I'm still working towards my goal to play college basketball, and I've often said basketball is really my best medicine to any problem that I have. But, that still isn't the "real" key to happiness that I found. Every morning, and night and very often throughout the days I would just simply tell myself that I was happy in that moment. And I really was! Just by telling myself that I was happy so often made me happy. And I got in such a habit that now  I'm habitually happy ALL THE TIME. You guys should try it. And no, if you are wondering, I didn't take some kind of drug or overdose on those pills the doctor gave me last week, it is just a good combination of exercise, the Gospel, and hard work make me super excited and happy and I'm just loving being a missionary and zone leader right now.

This week the work was pretty great as well. On Wednesday night, the first time we reported with our district leaders, we had already doubled our baptismal dates, and found a ton of new investigators. It was awesome!! I've really just been trying to get everyone excited for the work and have the faith that in each one of our areas we can achieve the mission goals. We have a ton of new people in the zone right now too, so I've just been trying to tell everyone that they are in the best area and zone and that the Lord has put them there because He knows that is where they can have the most success. Honestly I could not be more happy and excited about our zone right now and where we are going with the help of the Lord. We are planning lots of zone attacks and divisions so that we can get closer as a brotherhood and help the areas that might need an extra push right now. It truly is a miracle work and it is a miracle at what we can accomplish when we seek diligently for the spirit of revelation and have the faith and determination to achieve our goals and plans. Perhaps what has changed the most in me from my experience in the mission is that now I know and I have a firm testimony that Heavenly Father really does hear our prayers, but not only that, it is that if we truly have the faith to do something, we work diligently at it, obeying God, we have the power to do anything and He WILL help us with our goals and ambitions, according to His will and according to our faith. I know that Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ live and that they are always there to help us. 

Also this week we were able to find and put another baptismal date with Guadalupe, the mom of a recent convert. We had an amazing first lesson with her, and since then, she has gone to the temples visitors center and she loves reading the Book of Mormon! I am so excited for her and all of our investigators that we are teaching right now. I have also been very blessed to see another fruit of my labors this week. Unfortunately I wasn't able to go back and see the baptism, but I am very happy and excited to announce that Dana, the 14 year old girl from Atlicpac got permission from her mom to get baptized and was baptized two days ago on Saturday! Although I was sad I didn't have the chance to go back and see this amazing step in her life, I feel very happy and content that Elder Cruz and his new companion were able to reap the seeds that I planted and I know they have many more baptisms coming up that maybe I will have the privilege to attend such as Jesus, the grandpa of the Cortes family!! There is no work more satisfying than missionary work!

Finally I had a really cool personal experience this week. One night we were walking back to the house from our final appointment of the night, and as always I was taking the opportunity to greet the people on the streets with a smile and a "buenas noches". I have definitely felt a deep love and care for the people here that I have been called to serve especially in some of my old areas, but a certain feeling that came into my heart that night was something different. Something indescribable. It was almost as if I could look deep into the soul of each person I saw that night and truly see their personal worth and potential in the sight of God. I suppose I was just feeling a little bit of that charity, "the pure love of Chrsit", and the love that Christ has for each of these sons and daughters of God. I was able to look past their imperfections and physical experience, I didn't judge, and just loved. It truly was something incredible, something words really can't describe, but it was something real, and powerful and made me just want to run up to everyone and give them a hug and tell them how much they were loved (but that would've been a little weird and maybe a little illegal so I didn't). It made me really think that maybe that is how Christ felt as he walked among the Earth serving and loving, and that is how He feels for each and every one of us right now, just pleading and begging us to come and be perfected in Him. I am so grateful for that sacred privilege and opportunity to just feel a glimpse of that Christlike love for these people down here in here Mexico. Someone this week said that to be able to love a people that you don't know is a gift from God. It truly is amazing how much I have grown to love these people down here and it really is the best motivation to serve and work is when you truly have a love for the people that you are called to serve.

So yep it was just another, super fast, and great week in the missionary work. I also found out something scary, the last week after I had special changes, Elder Cruz and his new companion got robbed out in Atlicpac! I felt super bad for them but it also kind of showed me that Heavenly Father knows and loves me. If I wouldn't have had special changes, I might have been there and could've lost my camera, scriptures, or other things... It is really sad that people feel it is necessary to rob other people to get along in life, but it made me think that even though Heavenly Father's plans aren't always what we were hoping for or expecting at first (like special changes) He truly knows us best and has a perfect plan for each of His children. We have been able to have fun this week as a zone doing some stake activities and today we are getting together in Los Reyes with some of my best friends in the mission to play basketball!!! I am so excited and happy. We also had the opportunity to have a mission council this week with President Mann and all of the zone leaders in the mission to plan out this cycle. It was a cool experience and we will also have the privilege of having an area seventy visit us in a couple weeks! We also have had some pretty good food this week (no moronga) including a good ol Domino's Pizza! There are these donuts right outside of our house that this guy makes fresh every right and they are delicious! Street Donuts!They make me really happy but might also make me really fat if I'm not careful haha. Finally, we had some of the best street tacos I have ever had in my mission one night that really reminded me how much I will miss Mexico... Well, like always I'd like to thank you all for all of your support, love, emails, and prayers, and for being the best family and friends who get me through this mission each week. Have a wonderful week and I hope everyone is adjusting back into school and work! Love and miss yall. 

Tu misionero favorito, 

Elder Clark

Celebrity Ward

Hello Family and Friends! 

So I just got to say... This new ward is SICK! Literally, I got super sick this week and had to take a trip to a hospital called Hospital Cami. I didn't know Cami had her own hospital or much less down here in Mexico but thanks to her now I feel much better. Thanks Camster for taking care of your brother! The only thing though is that the medicine they gave me is really gross... Mental note-Mexican food is good, Mexican medicine is not.  I must admit, it is times of being sick where I definitely miss my mom taking care of me haha. I guess I just caught a mild case if strept throat with a really bad cold. But anyways, the new ward, Villada, that I got changed too is pretty sick too. Just not as sick as me. There is one family here, the Jimenez family, that is really cool. In fact, their dad, Alberto (boxing name-el ratón Jimenez)  was a professional boxer and has fought in some pretty sweet places including South Africa, Thailand, Anaheim California, and... Cesar's Palace in Las Vegas!  Apparently he was pretty good so I'm definitely going to try and learn something from him before I leave so I can defend myself from all the robbers in the street. There is also another young woman in your ward, abish, who sang on the voice, so maybe I can learn a thing or two from her too since my voice definitely needs some help. Finally, there is a recent convert named Jorge but I am almost 100% positive that is just his cover name. He has long, shaggy, hair and a long beard and looks exactly like Hagrid from Harry Potter. In fact I actually do think he is a wizard and it is only a matter of time before I uncover his true identity. So yeah, I am pretty pumped, they basically put me in a ward full of celebrities. I'm sure this week when we are knocking doors I'll find out where Kawhi Leonard lives on vacation and he's probably chilling down here with good ol Timmy Duncan and Tony Parker. Who knows, maybe Thomas S. Monson is in our ward too! 

So despite me being pretty sick and having limited work hours this week, we were still showered with blessings and success. One thing I always do right before changes are coming up is fast. I fast for the ward I will be working in that they will support us in the missionary work and also trust and love us, I fast for the investigators and that I will be able to find the prepared children of God in the area I will be working in, and I fast for my new companion, that we will be able to get along, work hard, and be good friends. Maybe it was a little ironic but also had a great purpose that literally just 3 hours before I was going to finish my fast was when I got the phone call from President about having special changes. After all when I was leaving my first area I was scared out of my mind and Atlicpac turned out to be such a blessing, and I am sure this will be a wonderful blessing and opportunity as well. As a zone leader I have new and different responsibilities too, and now I have to work harder and prayerfully seek to help my whole zone out as well. I must admit, I do not like to be negative, but there is a lot of work and improvement to be done in the zone right now especially if we want to reach the mission goal of 100 baptisms each month, but instead of it discouraging me, I have used it as motivation. I am completely determined and have fill confidence and faith that through me, Christ can turn this zone around, we can arrive at where He wants us to be, and we can reach our goals and eventually the 100 baptisms for the mission. Even though it will be a lot of work, I have all the faith I need to be able to get there because I have seen how many miracles and how much success the Lord has given me when I have faith, work hard, and be obedient. On the first day I got here  realized that our numbers weren't very high so I got on my knees and prayed and then got on my feet to work. In just the first day we were able to find the number of new investigators that reached the standard of excellence for the week! (6). We are also really struggling with baptism dates after being in Atlicpac and consistently having about 6-8 from week to week alone in just our area and when I got here we only had 6 as a whole zone. On Thursday I was feeling pretty cruddy and came back to the house after lunch in the lot of pain and drained of energy, so I layed down to rest for about 30 minutes. However, I started feeling like I really needed to get out and work and that we had some important appointments in the afternoon that would answer my prayers of helping us put some more baptism dates. So I asked Elder Torres for a priesthood blessing and found the strength I needed to get out and work. We were definitely to blessed. First, we went with a mom (Karla) of 3 kids, 2 of whom are already members (Saira and Gael). She has talked with lots of missionaries before and needs to still get divorced and married before she get baptized (a VERY common and frustrating problem here) but we were able to help her see that the Gospel is really something that she needs and wants in her life and can strengthen her marriage and family and were able to put a baptism date with her for the end of September. Right after that, we went with another, new, investigator who we had planned to teach the word of wisdom.  Her name is Viridiana and she is a super cool investigator. She has been having problems smoking but we had a super spiritual and powerful lesson with her too and at the end she just burst out in tears. We felt the spirit very strong and afterword we gave her a priesthood blessing. She told us that she knew we were sent from God to bless her and her family. We were able to put a baptism date with her as well and I was so happy. I already love her and her family so much. I especially love helping people change their lives for the better through the Gospel and Christ and these small miracles make me love being a missionary. It is a work more satisfying than any other and brings more joy to the soul than anything else. I really liked a quote I found in the morning studying Doctrine and Covenants and the institute manual by George Albert Smith who said “My understanding is that the most important mission that I have in this life is: first, to keep the commandments of God, as they have been taught to me; and next, to teach them to my Father’s children who do not understand them." I felt like that was a good theme for the day after helping people put goals and dates in their lives to change, come unto Christ, and keep God's commandments.

One also very exciting surprise that I just found out a couple days ago was that mama Martha, from my very first area finally got baptized yesterday!!! I was so excited because when I was with Johnson we worked so hard with her and loved her so much and now finally we were both able to go back yesterday and see the fruits of our labors. It honestly made me so so happy and it is definitely moments like these too where I love being a missionary :) I don't really think that I had ever been more excited to see a baptism before but after 4 years of working with the missionaries it was a miracle she finally made it! Plus it was good to see some of the other families from my first area who are now surprised to know that I speak Spanish. As I sat there thinking I remembered how much I loved that ward and all of the good memories with Johnson... I miss it. And yes adjusting to a new area and ward is hard for me but I know eventually I will have just as good of memories and love for the members here too. I definitely have grown to the people here in Mexico a lot.   

So even though I got pretty sick, the first week here was pretty good. We also had an activity yesterday in the stake called "trip to Hawaii". No, it wasn't quite as awesome as our family trip to Hawaii but it was a really organized and well planned activity and we had a ton of investigators there! First we had everyone seated as if they were on an airplane on a trip to Hawaii, and there was a plane crash and they all died. But then we took them on a tour through the Spirit World and the 3 Kingdoms of Glory. I was in charge of the Celestial Kingdom and the Spirit was definitely with us there and I know the investigators felt something special. Also since it was a stake activity, I got to see Alma for the first time I left Aurora. We definitely have a good stake here. So yeah after all I guess I am pretty happy here, or know that I can find my happiness here. Elder Torres, my new companion is really cool too and he is a great guy. He is almost 9 years older than me (he's 27) so it is a little different than other companions that I have had but I love him and we are going to work hard together and have lots of success. I have a lot of respect for him too, he is a convert to the church of just 4 years. A couple years after his baptism (2 years ago) his parents passed away pretty young. Sometimes I don't know what I would do without the support of my mom and dad every week who I love so much, but he has a strong testimony in the Plan of Salvation and I admire him a lot for that. Well the good news is that no one has given me moronga here! I suppose every week without moronga is a great week. I love and miss you guys lots, thanks for your prayers and emails, and have a GREAT week! 

Your favorite missionary, 

Elder T-Clark 

Elote Eating Champion to Special Changes!

Well, we can start out by saying, this week was CRAZY.  But I am alive here in Mexico so I suppose that is what is most important right?  I will start first by saying just yesterday I received a phone call yesterday from President Mann, and got some pretty startling news.  I had special changes today, so I had to say bye to everyone, pack up all my stuff and get here to the mission offices in all less that 24 hours.  It was sad because there are still a few people I didn´t get to say goodbye to including the Cortes family up on the hill, but I guess the important thing is that we have already built an eternal bond together.  I love that ward so much, and I didn´t realize just how much I would miss them or how much they would miss me either until I had to say goodbye.  Although it was a huge surprise and a little heartbreaking because I thought I would have one more week to visit everyone, I am grateful for the opportunity I had to serve here in Atlicpac.  It was really cool because the bishop, his counselors, the relief society President, and more all told me thank you so much for what I did in their ward.  They said that I helped animate and reactivate them.  I brought success to their ward, and that now everyone is excited and willing to help in the missionary work.  Some of them told me I was the best missionary they have had in their ward for years.  But I know none of that was really me, just the Spirit and the Lord bringing to pass His work among His children, but honestly I feel like maybe the biggest impact was made on me.  I really have never grown to love a ward so much.  Every single one of them almost brought tears to my eyes as I had to say goodbye, and it is amazing how in just the short 6 months I served in this ward, how much it changed my life, how much it changed their ward, and how many eternal friendships I have made.  I don´t know if there is such thing as "areasick" instead of being homesick, but if there is I have it haha.  I never would´ve imagined that leaving them would be almost just as hard as leaving my family.  But I love them.  And I know they love me.  I guess the lyrics to the famous song prove true. "You never know to love [them] til you let [them] go".  So many people were super sad that I was leaving and it was tough to do it all in one day, but I just hope and pray they can keep working hard together with the missionaries and the work will move on!  I know that if the missionaries keep working out there, there will be endless success and they will grow to love the ward too just as I did.  Yesterday, Elder Matsen shared something with me really cool, that the ward Atlicpac is the 3rd or 4th best ward in the whole mission in baptisms for this year, after not having too much success last year.  I am so SO grateful for these last 6 months I have had to work here and to be blessed with so much success.  I thank my parents, my mission President, and my Heavenly Father for that opportunity.  But the work goes on! And now I have been called in a new ward where I have been called as Zone Leader!  I know too, that it will be a wonderful, new, and maybe challenging experience also.  It will help me learn and grow, and I know we will be blessed with success here also.  Sometimes I feel super young or inexperienced in the mission to be a Zone Leader but if it is where Heavenly Father wants me be, "I will go where He wants me to go, and do what He wants me to do".  I guess I should really be excited more that anything about this new, wonderful opportunity. 

Well, now onto this week a little bit.  So yes, this week, Elder Cruz caught me sleep talking and it was super funny.  It was about 1 o´clock in the morning and I guess Elder Cruz got up to go to the bathroom.  As he came back he said he heard me talking and got a little scared.  When he approached my, I had my hand up to my ear like I was talking to someone on the phone.  I was asking questions like "how many" and "what are their names" like I was reporting with my district haha.  His first reaction was "Who is he talking to so late at night?!" But he soon realized, I didn´t have a phone in my hand, and the fact was that I was fast asleep haha.  He gave me a little shake to wake me up and I just faintly remember looking into his bewildered and confused face, he was even a little freaked out haha.  I just said, "what?" And he just started busting up laughing.  I was still only half-conscious, so I didn´t remember the whole situation super clearly in the morning, but we had a really good laugh about it in the morning.  I was also pretty proud too because everything I was saying in my sleep, was is Spanish! I guess I am pretty fluent in the language now.  So that was pretty funny, only downside is that I didn´t have any lucid dreams... Another, (more scary) story this week was when I had a near death experience (kind of).  We were walking in the street and I guess there was an open telephone cable that was fallen down from the power lines.  I really didn´t notice it and just that it was a normal pole or something so naturally as we approached it was I going to grab it with my hand.  As Elder Cruz saw me getting closer he yelled at me and I immediately stopped.  I was just about 2 feet away when I realized the sparks coming down from the bottom of it and burning the concrete! I was pretty freaked out and really couldn´t believe that there was literally a live and open dangerous cable just in a common sidewalk for any little kid to grab! I sure hope it wasn´t the cause of any danger to anyone later on that day. Also, we had a pretty fun Family Home Evening with Ramiro and his family on Thursday night.  We had a good message, played a little game, and afterwards, they made us Elotes!  For those of you who don´t know what Elotes are (actually probably all of you), they are the corn on the cobs that are covered in mayonase, cheese, chili powder, really whatever you want to put on it.  And even though maybe they don´t sound like it, they are pretty good.  So I had a brilliant idea to see who is the Elote Eaiting Champion, and who could eat an elote the fastest.  Elder Cruz, Abigail (Ramiro´s daughter), and I entered into the competition, and began gnawing away at the elotes as fast as we could, we kind of looked like beavers.  Finally, Elder Cruz and Abigail finished at almost the exact same time, even with slow motion replay, it was a photo finish, so we went to the judge, brother Jacinto.  Even though I am not super fast at eating elotes, brother Jacinto made the final decision, and crowned ME the ELOTE EATING CHAMPION! So I am pretty proud of that. Lastly, the rain has kind of stopped lately, but now has started the dreaded MOSQUITO SEASON!  Yeah I am getting a lot of mosquito bites but so far haven´t caught any contagious disease so we are all good there.

The work was really good this last week too... mostly.  Just with a couple of major dissapointments.  It was really cool because we went up to see Alicia and the whole Cortes family a few days after her baptism.  They were all so happy as always and Alicia just told us that she felt so good.  What was even cooler though is that afterwards we went and she presented us to her friend, Leticia.  We started talking a little bit with the, both,of them and it was really cool, the Grandma Alicia talked about how the Gospel has changed her life so much- she argues less with her husband, she is happier and feels better about herself, and she said that as she thought of these changes that the Gospel has brought her in her life, she started to think of her friend Leticia, and how much that it could help her too!  It is so true, when we really experience the Gospel and Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives, there is just such a desire to share that with everyone.  For example when I find some really good street tacos I just want to tell everyone about them so they can all come and enjoy them too.  I guess the Gospel is the same and it makes me really happy that Alicia has felt that and has that desire to share that with her friends.  We had a great lesson with her friend, Leticia, afterwards and were able to put a baptismal date with her.  She really like a scripture with her Matthew 11:28-29, and how the Gospel could really life her burdens and after all of these years she could be clean and have a new start.  We were super excited and happy to see both her, and Alicia´s husband, Jesus (The Grandpa of the Cortes Family) at church on Sunday with us!! We also had another experience this week that was really disappointing.  On Wednesday, we went with Dana, a 15 year old girl who we have been teaching, that has been going to church and was SUPER excited for her baptism that was going to be this week!  Even though she hasn´t had much family support, she knew that is what she wanted and she knew she was doing the right thing.  She had already talked to her mom about it too and her mom told her she could, so everything seemed like it was going in the right path.  Then, on Saturday, we went back with Dana, and I could tell something was wrong from the start.  Eventually, she just started bursting out in tears and told us her mom changed her mind and wouldn´t let her get baptized.  I felt so bad for her... through her tears, it told me that she really did want to get baptized and it was really frustrating because she already talked to her mom about it beforehand.  Also, her mom is a member too so I really don´t understand it.  I guess all we can do right now is fast and pray for her, and keep on having faith.  And that is what we did, I know she will get baptized one day, so just got to keep on having that hope.  It was even harder because I couldn´t make myself a chocolate malt to cheer me up because it was fast Sunday! That is okay though, we were still blessed with lots of more success and blessings this week.

So that about wraps it about up.  We did have some pretty fun days this week too.  One day I did divisions with Elder Rodas and we got to play a little bit of Ping-Pong, it was super fun and I really miss a good ol competitive game of Ping-Pong, especially with my dad or uncles.  (I´m coming for you Jon!!!)  Also, the sister missionaries from my district in the MTC reminded us this week that they are already at their half way mark!  Wow does time sure go by fast.  Finally, I saw a horrible abomiantion this week walking in the street, people were literally eating and BUYING MORONGA street tacos... I guess some people really like that stuff down here, it wasn´t just a harsh prank from that sister that gave it to us a couple weeks ago.  Well my new companion is named Elder Torres, he is from Tamaulipas, Mexico, and he is pretty cool so far.  Also I have AMAZING news, because I was really sad leaving my last house and the washing machine behind, but I was blessed with a tender mercy because this house has a washing machine too!!! Wow how blessed am I.  I am serving in an area called Villada, in the Zone, La Perla 1.  It is actually really close to my last area, where I started out the mission so I wonder if a lot of things will be similar.  One thing that I hope is definitely NOT similar is getting robbed 3 times.  I definitely enjoyed a safer environment (or just luck) for my 6 months in Atlicpac.  Well I am really just trying to stay positive right now, stay excited, and get ready to work hard with my new responsibility as zone leader!! Thank you guys so much for all of your support, emails, love and prayers.  I think about and pray for you guys everyday too.  I have the best family and friends in the world.  Have a great week and I will talk to you guys again next Monday!!!  

Con mucho amor,

Your favorite missionary, Elote Eating Champion, and future Family Ping-Pong Champion,

Elder Clark