Lets Get Ready to RUMBLE!

Dear Fam and Friends,

Wow, what a week! This week was full of success, baptisms, basketball, the Spirit, MORE EARTHQUAKES and a big, huge, shocking surprise!!! First of all, I am alive and safe down here in Mexico from the earthquake although this last one on Tuesday was a lot stronger and did a lot more damage to the people where I am serving. I'm sure a lot of you have heard of the damage and tregedy of those who suffered more towards the center of Mexico City and Puebla, and my heart and prayers go out to them too. And I guess I should be pretty grateful because even though we are only about 15 miles away from the center of Mexico City, we just had a couple walls of some elementary schools fall, and minor damages to some houses, but nothing too major. It was actually funny, when the earthquake happened, we were in a zone attack which means everyone from our zone was contacting in the same area. So we were just going through the normal contacting routine where we would go 5 or 6 doors in a row without anybody answering. We finally found someone interested and were in the middle of sharing a scripture when Elder Stone (who went with me to contact) turned to me and said, "Dude! There's an earthquake again!!!" So the funny part was that all of the sudden EVERYONE was home and all ran out of their houses into the streets. Yeah, even all the people who didn't answer the door lol. But yeah the quake was a pretty strong one, I tried running out into the street and the ground threw me right into a parked car, I couldn't even walk straight. Cars were just rolling back and forth, even huge military trucks and everyone was gathered out in the middle of the street. If it wasn't for all the damage done and lives lost in other parts of the city, I would say it was a pretty cool experience again, but it did actually give us some pretty cool opportunities. We decided to take advantage of everyone being outside their house who were all pretty scared and talked to them! Even the people that didn't want to open their door to us the first time opened their hearts to listen to us this time. It was interesting to see the change of heart after they truly started listening to what we offered and recognized us as true representatives of Jesus Christ. We ended up finding about 14 new investigators, just 4 of us, in about 30 minutes so I guess in a way, the earthquake was almost a blessing and brought opportunities to us in the missionary work. We found a really amazing investigator named Dimas, who I will talk about a little bit later, had the opportunity to do some service helping people reconstruct their walls that fell, and help comfort people who were really worked up and in tears by giving them blessings, singing hymns, and sharing scriptures. I felt like we did a really great work that day, helping, serving, and loving just as Christ would and I guess Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways for the Salvation of His children even by making earthquakes! 

And about the big surprise that happened this week... I must admit, I was pretty caught off guard. Got caught sleeping on defense haha. But yes, to my very surprise, I found out that BOTH Elder Torres and I have changes. They are going to white wash us here in Villada and I have been called to work in another area in this great mission. At first, like when I found out about every other change I was super sad and disappointed, but then I decided to change my attitude. I got down on my knees and before anything just had a heart full of gratitude. I gave my Heavenly Father thanks for so many blessings he has given me, specifically to serve in this amazing area, to be blessed with such a great, fun, hardworking zone, to meet so many amazing people, to have an excellent companion in Elder Torres, and to grow to love this ward and these people in my area so much even though I've only been here less than 2 months. And those are only a start of the many things that I am so grateful for. But it is pretty much a miracle how much I've really grown comfortable here and to love these people so much. After I was done giving thanks to my Heavenly Father, I asked for confirmation through the Spirit if this is truly what He wanted for me and where I needed to go. And then I had a very special experience. I felt a feeling of peace and comfort come over me, it was almost as if Christ Himself was right there hugging me so tightly, and from that moment, I knew without a doubt that it was His will for me, and if it is what He wants, "I will go where He wants me to go". It was pretty cool, since that moment, I haven't felt scared or nervous at all, and I know it will all just be another wonderful and amazing experience, where I will just find more people to love and serve just like every change has been. And I know whenever we get a hard calling in life, or we feel like we have been commanded to do something hard, we can always seek and receive this confirmation, strength, and comfort from the Spirit to keep going and know that it will only make us stronger and more like Him. Reading the Book of Mormon has also helped me a lot, seeing his example especially in 1 Nephi 3:7 and how he never murmured. I really look up to my mom and dad right now more than anything who just accepted the difficult and busy task of my dad being called bishop just 2 weeks ago. The Lord always provides a way to do what He has commanded us to do.

So the work is still going great here in Villada. We has an amazing baptism for Guadalupe on Saturday and the Spirit was definitely powerful there. Before the baptism, a group of us Elders sang, "I love to look for Rainbows" (Spanish edition), and Guadalupe just burst out in tears. I could tell she was just filled with joy and comfort as she was baptized and I just love seeing that change and happiness in people. Damian and his family are still progressing and doing great, loving the church, and we even had the opportunity to take his kids to the temple's visitors center with us this week! I'm so happy and love them in so much and hopefully the new elders here can continue working hard and I can come back for their baptism in a couple of weeks!

Our zone has also thrived in success this week. And we are starting to see more and more fruits of our labors and efforts. Like I mentioned earlier, we found a really great investigator named Dimas during the zone attack. It just worked out that the next day was my turn to do divisions with Elder Diuguid in that very area! So I had to opportunity to help teach him and it was then when we realized truly how prepared he was. We taught the Restoration which he understood and accepted perfectly and agreed to be baptized towards the end of October! But maybe the most special part was when he invited him to pray at the end.  Before we started talking he was telling us that he was pretty content with his life, his alcohol and cigarettes, and that he was sure in his beliefs. But I will never forget this strong, tough, man's prayer. As he started to pray, the Spirit filled the room and he completely bursted out in tears. He humbly cried and pleaded to his Heavenly Father to help him and I could just feel so strongly how much Heavenly Father loved this man. Afterwards I told him he just talked to His Father in Heaven for the first time in a long time since he told us he's never prayed like that before and I asked him how he felt. And I don't think I will ever forget his answer. He said, "I feel very calm, but I realized I need to make some changes in my life." It just strengthens my testimony so much and amazes me how much The Restored Gospel, and the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ motivates and helps people change their lives. And seriously there is nothing more special or powerful than to see these people humble themselves and change. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! Even though he's not part of my area, I already love him and hope the Elders there can work hard to help him too. I'm also excited because another contact that I found knocking doors a few weeks ago in another zone attack is on track to get baptized soon! It is really cool being a zone leader because not only can I see miracles and blessings in my own area, but through my efforts I can help other areas have more success and see the fruits of my labors there too! Finally, perhaps the biggest zone highlight this week was when I was invited to the baptism and weddings of Elder Kay's investigators since I have helped teach them a little, and have seen them at activities. I feel like they are basically my investigators too and it was such a beautiful and perfect baptism and wedding on Saturday night. The investigators, Omar and Pilar, even had asked me if I could give a talk at their baptism so that was pretty cool. Being a zone leader is more responsibility but pay days like these make everything worth it!  

So I'm sure you can tell it was another great week and I hope you guys haven been enjoying my letters lately and can tell how happy and excited I am! Today is officially my 11 MONTH MARK in the mission so just one more month and oooooohhh we're halfway theeeere!! Wooah oh! Livin on a prayer! I'm thinking about going to celebrate at Buffalo Wild Wings on my year mark since it falls on a Monday! I've also still been able to get some good exercise in the gym lately and play lots of basketball. Finally, like always, we had some pretty awesome food this week so just combine all of that with the great missionary work and I'm just living it up down here! This week the bfotw (best food of the week) probably goes to this super good hamburger I got in the street for dinner one time this week. It was called a Texas Burger and it had bacon, cheese, egg, hot dog, and a super good Chipotle sauce!!! Mmm! It may even go in my TOP 10 burgers I've had in my whole life, and that's saying a lot. But we also had some pretty good carnitas street tacos that come pretty close to the hamburger... And we finally got some churros that we've been trying to get FOREVER and they are never open. They are these huge churros like at Disney Land and they are filled with whatever you want: chocolate, strawberry, lechera, yum! Definitely the bomb .com (don't click on that link) and oh, did I mention they are only 50 cents???!!! Gotta love Mexico!!! I've also added to my watch collection with a super cool, silver, Calvin Klein watch for 6 bucks. I think it's my favorite watch yet. So I think that about wraps it up, surviving more earthquakes, still undefeated in ping pong, changes, miracles, and FOOD!! Got it all covered. Wish my luck in my new area and like always, thanks for the prayers, love, and emails! Have an amazing week!!!

Still alive,

Elder Tyler Clark

Happy Independence Day!!

DEEEAARRRR FAM AND FRIENDS!!!

Happy Independence Day!! No, don't worry, I didn't hit my head this week and think it's the 4th of July, I just wanted to wish all of you guys a very happy Mexican Independence Day this week which was on September 15th. And unfortunately, no we couldn't go leave the house to party haha. This week was pretty amazing though and really busy. We really didn't have as much time to work as normal since it was filled with conferences, meetings, and on the evenings of the 15th and 16th we had to go back to the house early. But even though there were a lot of different things this week, it sure was just as great, fast, and amazing as always. But I think this week was so amazing because we definitely had an awesome start. Yes, last week I went to my 3rd favorite place in the world, only behind the temple and the basketball court. One week ago on Monday, I got together with some of my best friends in the mission and we took a trip to... (drum roll please) BUFFALO WILD WINGS! It was definitely a blast and I was sooo happy. We got a bunch of boneless wings out of a group of us, and were daring enough to each order one BLAZIN wing to try. I didn't think it would affect me that much since I've gotten pretty used to and actually enjoy pretty spicy foods now, but wow, it was soo HOT. I don't know if I should admit that we were all crying, but my throat and tongue burned forever just after eating one wing. And I also will admit, it was not fun and pretty blazin coming out too. But we decided at the end of our mission to prove that we've become part Mexican, we have to do the blazin challenge. We will see how I feel about that in 1 year though haha. But yeah, I suppose it wouldn't have been such an amazing week without this fantastic start but  we also had an even more special finish with the baptism of Lizeth!!

So even though we didn't have as much time to work this week than normal, we still had a ton of success and I'm so happy. Damian's kids have literally LOVED everything about the church, they already go to all of the activity including mutual and stay all 3 hours every Sunday. It is so amazing and such a miracle to me that the light of the Gospel is already shining brightly in them and that Heavenly Father truly put Damian in our path to bless his family. Damian should be getting more time to rest soon so hopefully next week he can find a little time off work to come with his kids to church. I'm so excited to baptize their whole family and in one year watch them all get sealed in the Holy Temple! We've also been able to continue to find many new investigators to keep teaching and blessing. We will also be privileged and blessed with the opportunity to have another baptism this week for Guadalupe Silva. She is so ready and excited and will be an amazing, strong, member in the church. The other Sunday, as an investigator still, she was already faithfully fasting and paying her tithing and fast offerings. I was just filled with joy and love to her to see her faith and I know that she already loves the church, the Book of Mormon, and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And I'm so grateful for the sacred opportunity and trust my Heavenly Father has given me to bring His children to the knowledge of the truth. Finally, like I mentioned before we were blessed with the baptism of a faithful, 11 year old girl, Lizeth. She's just super cute and sweet and reminds me a lot of Brea. But I will never forget the smile on her face or how happy she looked as she entered into the waters of baptism. And I certainly felt the great joy promised to me in Doctrine and Covenants 18, bringing another child of God to the Gospel. I love this Gospel, I love this work, and I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Nothing makes me happier than seeing someone that I helped teach and convert enter into the sacred covenant of baptism. Now we hope we can help her dad and sisters also come to the light of the Gospel and make this saving covenant with Heavenly Father as well. I just have to say that I love Mexico and my mission so much. I love the Spanish language and I especially love this people and this ward right now. I feel so blessed with charity to feel such a deep love for this people and wherever I am called to serve.

This week we also have had the wonderful opportunity to have an area seventy, Elder Valenzuela, come visit out mission. On Thursday we had a special zone conference where he spoke to the whole mission and on Friday we had a mission council with just him, our mission president, their wives, and the zone leaders in the mission. I wish I could share everything I learned and was enlightened with in these days but I will share one thing. As he gave us some examples, I learned how to better use the Spirit in the lessons with our investigators. He asked us lots of questions to really get us to think for ourselves and combined with the Spirit, we were able to receive personal revelation for our own lives, investigators, and wards. I realized that is what we need to do with our investigators more often and Elder Valenzuela asked us to do an evaluation of the commitments with our investigators every time before we begin teaching. On Friday, Elder Torres and I had the opportunity to put this principle in practice. We were with an investigator who really just needs help going to church, reading, and praying so we just focused on 4 verses in the Book of Mormon. The whole time we just asked her question after question so that the Spirit could work in her, and give her personal revelation for what she needed to do in her life. It was really cool instead of just telling her the things she needs to do in her life, she was able to receive personal light and revelation through the Spirit and by the end she promised us to read the Book of Mormon and to make the necessary changes in her work to be able to go to church. After the lesson Elder Torres and I felt so good about that lesson, that we truly followed and trusted the spirit instead of just teaching and spitting out a bunch of information and we definitely taught according to her needs. We are so excited to keep applying this with all of our investigators! Another great thing I learned from Elder Valenzuela is that we need to be specifically reading the Book of Mormon literally every single day of our lives. Sure, the Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the Bible are great blessings in our lives, but the Book of Mormon has a special kind of power. The prophet specifically asked each one of us to read the Book of Mormon every single day, knowing perfectly the challenges of our day. So I made it my goal to still keep studying my deep study of the Doctrine and Covenants, but to study at least 30 minutes of the Book of Mormon everyday. It is just so amazing though, even though I've already read it 3 times in the mission, every time I read it I just fall in love with it and never want to stop. I just feel so strengthened and so happy when I study it and I know that Book can only be of God. I know without a single doubt of my heart, I would bet all my ping pong, mechanical bull riding, and 3 point shooting skills and championships that that book is true. I love it and invite all of you guys to do the same, to follow the prophet and make the Book of Mormon part of your every day life. I promise you blessings, power over temptation, and happiness and hope during the heavy and dark trials and burdens sometimes life brings us. I came to the conclusion I will NEVER EVER regret a single second I have spent dedicated to studying the Book of Mormon. It is a strength we all need every single day. Scripture Power! So I learned so much from Elder Valenzuela this week and was so grateful to be blessed and enlightened by him. I know the Lord truly guides His work through His servants, the general authorities.

So it was just another great week again! I also had the opportunity to do divisions with Elder Kay and it was soo fun! I'm convinced Elder Kay is most like me and my friend from back home that I know in the mission right now. And I have the great announcement that I am still UNDEFEATED in ping pong, although Elder Kay brought the toughest competition I've ever had, but I'm still alive and proud of it! We also made a SUPER good breakfast the morning after divisions with eggs, bacon prepared in pancake mix (it's a secret but it's really good), and some guayaba juice. And of course, like always we had a miracle day in the missionary work putting another baptism date with someone really excited and interested. I definitely love the missionary work. So I've eaten really good this week, starting with BWW, we got some delicious street tacos where we mixed al pastor and suadero meat, we've made some french toast, and one night that we had to stay in we ordered a BOMB domino's pizza with pepperoni, bacon, and cream cheese! So we've been eating pretty awesome lately and I feel great. Also, of course, still getting a good dose of basketball in too. And finally, we cleaned the house super good one evening when we had to stay home so now I can walk around barefoot and it feels like heaven! I miss carpet so much though. I hope you guys are all doing great, love and miss you soo much! Have a great week!

Still undefeated,

Elder Clark

Surviving Earthquakes to Mechanical Bull Riding Champ

Hello Everyone!!! 

Holy cow, this was just another crazy, happy, awesome, fast week down here in Mexico as a missionary! I suppose one of the highlights was that I survived the biggest earthquake that Mexico has had in 100 years! Yeah, it was pretty crazy. Thursday night, all of the sudden I woke up at about midnight and our bed was shaking uncontrollably. My initial thought was, "what is Elder Torres doing underneath our bed haha" (since we are in bunk beds and I'm on top.) Then I looked out the window and realized EVERYTHING was moving and swaying back and forth. There were electrical explosions from telephone poles and bright, colorful lights were being shot up into the sky, blue, green, and yellow (I later found out when tectonic plates hit they shoot lights of energy into the sky). Still being half asleep, you could imagine how much of a strange and frightening experience it was, Elder Torres legitimately believed it was the second coming and was checking to see if Christ was descending from the Heavens. We quickly got dressed in case we had to leave, checked the safety plan, and just tried to stay covered and safe. It was pretty crazy, our whole entire house was just swaying back and forth, left to right and we couldn't walk straight. We kept trying to make some phone calls, but we had no service because of all of the telephone wire explosions. The swaying and shaking and the fear for my life lasted for about 5 minutes and then everything was calm. We went up on the roof to go check everything out, and everyone was outside wondering what had just happened. After a while we realized that we should just go back to bed, even though it was pretty hard to sleep after that! I later found out it was an 8.4 on the Richter scale, the biggest earthquake Mexico has had in over 100 years! And I survived and experienced it. What an awesome story that will be to tell my kids! I must admit though, it really made me think a lot about the second coming. That it is close. We are in the last days. The signs and disasters and wars have already started. I began evaluating myself and thought, would I have been ready to meet Jesus that very night in that very moment. Are we truly prepared for this great day any second of our lives? We know that He will come in "the hour least expected", "like a thief in a night" and by the way the earthquake caught me by surprise, I suppose we can all change something to be better prepared for the second coming of the Messiah. 

Well I have to admit, this week was definitely one of  the MOST AMAZING or maybe even THE BEST week as far as the missionary work goes. We had the wonderful opportunity to have interviews with President Mann this week and then were blessed to have him work with us for the rest of the day! It was an amazing day of finding lots of awesome, new, investigators, but also teaching and testifying. Our mission President always has a special, powerful faith and spirit that just makes me so excited for the missionary work. But not only was that a great day, but literally every single day this week was loaded with success! And one, really, amazing, miracle. On Monday, a man with a little bit of alcohol in him, Damian, approached us in the street, basically almost in tears telling us how much he wanted to change his life, come unto God, and strengthen his family. I could just tell he was in so much pain, regret, and burdened down, he kept repeating, "I just can't do it anymore" over and over again. Usually it is a little difficult to talk to people if they aren't sober, because they usually don't remember the appointments or commitments we make but this guy I could feel it, he was special and I couldn't help but just be overwhelmed with love for him. I could literally feel his determination to change and his willingness to follow Christ. We got an appointment with him the very next day and I was really excited. Well we went back the next day and he was so ready and willing to listen to our message. I've never seen someone just so anxious to listen to us and change his life around. I could feel his sincerity. And he happily and enthusiastically accepted a baptismal date in October. I will never forget how relieved he looked as we taught him because of the sacrifice and example given by our Savior Jesus Christ, that he could be cleaned and freed from the chains and power of sin and guilt in his life and could literally become a new person through Christ. this life. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to be called upon by God and to bring this family, who I knew before, unto the hope and light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this life. As much as I loved the Cortes family and Ramiro in Atlicpac, and as certain as I was that I was put in their lives to help them come unto Christ, I am also certain that I have been called to serve this Jacobo family and I've never been more determined or excited to watch their entire family, dressed in white, enter into the waters of baptism, and in one year, be sealed as a family for all eternity in the temple of the Lord. Even though finding and meeting Damian and the Jacobo family was probably the highlight and biggest miracle of this week, that is only just one clip of the extended highlight reel for the week. I wish I could explain every single experience and every overwhelming feeling of joy I've had, but to summarize, we had a MONSTER week achieving every single standard of excellence finding, just in our area between Elder Torres and I, 20 new investigators, reaching 9 set baptism dates for September and October (not even including the Jacobo family yet), and were so blessed to have 6 of our investigators come to church with us on Sunday. Looking back, I don't even know how we did it.. I have just been exercising more faith than ever in my life lately, and I can't say it enough, when we really put our WHOLE heart, faith, and trust in our Lord, He just works miracle after miracle in our lives, and I've seen it week after week, almost day after day in my mission. I seriously can't describe it in words how I just stand in awe at all of the blessings and miracle God works in my life in each day. I feel so blessed, humbled, and I'm happier than I've ever been in my entire mission right now. Heavenly Father is just pouring down His blessings of success upon me these days, and sometimes I wonder what I have done to deserve them all. I am also very excited and happy to announce we will be having a baptism for Liseth Cuin, an 11 year old girl who is super cute too. She reminds me exactly like Brea, and it amazes me that she is so strong and sure she wants to get baptized, an 11 year old girl, even when NOBODY from her family is a member. That just shows that Heavenly Father speaks to all the little children too. So I'm super excited for this baptism and then we will another baptism the following week for Guadalupe, the mom of Luís, a recent 15 year old convert. Lots of baptisms too look forward to, and lots of work to do. The Lord's work sure is busy, but also the most satisfying work in the world. I love being a missionary and representative/disciple of my Savior Jesus Christ!!! :)

Well, we also did divisions this week and they were GREAT! I went to an area of another brand new Elder, Elder Boynton just 4 weeks old in the mission! Just like always, it was a blast, we had a ton of success, I taught him a lot, and most importantly, I'm still undefeated! We were able to find 4 new investigators that day and put a brand new baptismal dates with one of the 4 investigators we met that day! I'm not sure why divisions always bring blessings but now, every week I've done divisions we've always been able to find someone new to set a baptismal date with, so I hope that streak keeps up! I'm super excited for next week when I will be doing divisions with Elder Kay! And yes, Elder Boynton and I did have our 7 game series of ping-pong and once again, I kept my crown. Still undefeated and no one has been able to beat me in the mission, we will see how Elder Kay is! We also received the great revelation to make FRENCH TOAST when we were on divisions and they were delicious! It was the first time I've had French Toast since the CCM and they were delicious, I ought to make them more often now. So apart from the great week in the missionary work in our area, it was another great successful divisions.

Finally, to put the cherry on top, this week was so much fun. We seriously have one of the most fun zones ever and I love my friends in this zone right now. On Friday night we had a stake activity called Noche Mexicana or "Mexican Night" where everyone came from the stake, dressed up, made food and it was just a huge party to celebrate the Mexican Independence Day which is actually next week but it was a blast! We didn't stay very late but the time we were there, we were really enjoying it. I got to see the Almas, Esteban, and a ton of our investigators came and had a blast including Damian's family. But, the highlight of the whole night, my pride and glory, was the mechanical bull. Heck yeahhh! There was a mechanical bull there and almost all of our zone got on to ride it. Being decorated with Mexican Flag eye black and a sweet mustache (it only took me a few days to grow it out), I was the last one from our zone to ride the bull.  Even though I was screaming the whole time, I held on for about a whole minute and it just stopped! I had beat it! I lasted longer than anyone and they couldn't get me off. Then it started again and I hit a dab on it and finally I got super dizzy and fell off. But I finally achieved my dream. Not only am I the mission ping pong champion, but now I can be throned México City Southeast Mission Mechanical Bull Riding Champion! (MCSMMBRC for short). I must admit, the Noche Mexicana was lit, and Mexicans really know how to party. 

Well, I'm sure you can already tell that I just had the time of my life this last week. Seriously I'm loving my mission so much right now that I almost don't want it to end! (woah, did I really just say that??) I'm just starting to really enjoy living in the moment and having fun, working hard, finding satisfaction in success, strengthening my testimony, love Mexico, the people, and the food, and of course, a could healthy dose of basketball, at least twice a week. As for food this week, it was pretty good. We officially found the one golden taco stand in our area that are sooooooooo good and don't make us sick and we are going there quite often for dinner now. Also, one night after an activity in my old ward of aurora, the Almas invited us for some really good huaraches which were in the form of a burrito and it tasted just like a carne asada burrito from Humbertos, but 10 times better and more Mexican. It was sooo good. We also found some pretty good Hawaiian burgers in the street this week too which were pretty good too. Also, even though my email might not sound like it, I really am trying to stay humble. I know that all the success we have had has only come from God, and that we are merely instruments in His hands to do His work. I don't take any credit for this great and marvelous work. Also I really am not that great at riding bulls, eating elotes, and I'm sure I'm just used to playing on the low quality ping pong tables here, however, I do like to win :) I just get really excited about the missionary work sometimes, especially with so much success and I like to be fun and funny to have good stories to tell you guys. Well I hope you guys are all having as good of a time as I am down here! I love and miss you all lots and like always, thanks for everything! 

The MCSMMBRC, Ping-Pong Champ, and 3 Point Specialist, 

Elder Tyler Clark

Undefeated!

Mi querido familia y amigos, 

This week I would like to announce, I am still undefeated. I always LOVE doing divisions, since I've been a district leader. Even if you have a really awesome companion, like Elder Torres is to me, just the fact that you are always within sight and sound of the same person 24/7, it always is nice to change things up for a day, and like last week, I feel like it helps me love and appreciate my companion more, and divisions always seem to bring miracles or to reanimate people. I know that I also learned a TON when I did divisions with Elder Matsen as my zone leader. So this week I had the great opportunity of doing divisions with just a 4 week old Elder, Elder Stone. It was awesome, it was like I was training for the day. It was also fun talking because he lives super close to my family in Utah and went to Riverton and has even talked to Elder Boyer since he's been home! After emailing Elder Boyer last week also, I have great news and he will be back to the mission in just a few weeks! I'm excited to see him again and glad he is doing better. On divisions with Elder Stone, we hit leg day super hard at the gym, I made him a super good breakfast taco breakfast, I tried to teach him Spanish and how to contact, and it was a lot of fun. He told me that he learned so much that day. And like always, we had a day full of success finding 4 new investigators and adding 2 more baptismal dates towards the end of the month! Things are also starting to roll here in my area, Villada, and we are up to 5 baptismal dates! We've got some good momentum now and if all works out, in a couple of weeks we should be able to start having baptisms almost weekly again. Our goal is 4 baptisms in the month of September which will definitely help us reach the mission goal of 100 baptisms each month and I've always learned that when we set our goals higher than we think, the Lord can pull the rest of the load. I just can't believe how fast these weeks are flying by right now. It is already September again which is just nuts. Now I have officially experienced at least one day of every month here in Mexico as a missionary! In just one short year from now I will be getting ready to pack my bags and head back home to see all of you guys!

The work is going great still too! This week we were able to put two baptism dates with some ladies that are super excited and understand super well. We are really excited for them (Karina and Silvia) and also still having lots of other success teaching and helping Guadalupe and Liseth progress to their baptisms in September. The miracle work just keeps going forth and now we are working extra hard to achieve to newer, raised, key indicator goals each week. Our zone continues to thrive a flourish as well. We have continued to do zone attacks and divisions ever week to get everyone excited for the work. No time to get bored or be lazy in this zone! Lots of work to get done. We didn't quite reach 56 new investigators like last week (we "only" got 51) which has honestly,  truly just been such amazing miracles, and also since starting out with just 6 baptism dates as a zone when I got here four weeks ago, we now have almost quadrupled that number with 20 baptismal dates! I know the Lord certainly blesses us when we "put our shoulder to the wheel" and work diligently to seek His will for us. 

Well I guess the weeks have just been going by so fast lately, it just seems like there isn't as much to tell as normal. I have started this week a new little hobby, or collection of watches. One day we were eating with the Jimenez family (the family where the dad is a professional boxer) and we were talking, laughing, and sharing stories. At the end, the dad decided to give me a super sweet chain black watch with little diamonds inside as a gift. I was super happy and grateful, that family is just awesome. I had to go to the teanges afterwards to have them put in a new battery and fit it to my wrist. I used that and a couple other things I got to bargain with the guy and got a super cool gold, Rolex watch with a genuine leather band and I got down the whole price to just about 7 bucks! That is definitely one of the reasons why I love Mexico. I have learned that I actually like watches a lot and I think I am going to make good use of my time here in my mission and collect some of these super cool watches that I can get for really cheap. I have also decided that the daughter of the Jimenez family that is now home from her mission is literally the Mexican clone of my awesome cousin Allison. Sometimes it is super weird how much she reminds me of her haha. As for food this week, it has been pretty usual and delicious. We got a pizza from Little Ceasars one day again (and for those that are wondering, any restaurant like Little Ceasars, Domino's, McDonald's, KFC have the exact same taste as the ones in the US. No Mexican twist except that everyone thinks they need to add a bunch of salsa and ketchup to their pizza which I don't do because I still don't understand it), and we also went out for some really good tacos one night that my taste buds REALLY enjoyed even though my digestive system didn't as much. Still didn't get sick though and they were way worth it. I always love me some Mexican food, especially the street tacos!! (I just really miss a good chick fil a sandwich with that sauce). We actually did have some pretty good deserts this week though. I had a super good flan from this guy who makes it from scratch, which is kind of like a creme brule but this flan was amazing. Also yesterday (Sunday) a lady made us a SUPER GOOD caramel cheesecake! Ugh I told her it was probably the best dessert I've had since I've left my house, it was seriously amazing. I must admit, it is kind of rare that I find a really good dessert like that here, mostly Mexico is good for tacos and other "real" food but that lady knew how to cook. She also has a super cute 2 year old who loves me! She is super curious and loves to get into everything which is frustrating for the mom, but she sure wasn't shy with me, laughing and playing and letting me hold her. It reminded me a lot of my little cousins who I miss so much and she would definitely be considered a "cute potato". I told the mom if she got tired of her I would be happy to take her with us. I don't think it would be too bad to keep a 2 year old baby in our house with us.... Right? Haha. I definitely love the little kids so much, got that from my mom.

To finish, I have some good news and kind of bad news. More good news though. One of those is that we got some gas again so we can now shower comfortably with some warm water without any other hazards! For those wondering as well, yes, here you don't pay a gas bill or something like that, you just have a tank of gas, and every time we shower we have to turn on the water heater and turn it off when we finish. When our gas tank runs out, well, you just have to suffer without hot water (unless you do the bucket trick) until you find someone to come and change your gas tank. It is really unfortunate, as it happened to us, when you run out of gas at the end of the month and don't have the money to pay for a new tank until the next month. There's just a fun fact for something that I've just gotten used to living with down here in Mexico. The other good news, I'm not sick any more!! I guess just a mild cough and a little congestion, but other than that, I am sick free and it feels so great!! As for the bad news... I think I got Elder Torres sick... Yeah we had to come back to the house one day for a couple hours for Elder Torres to rest because he was just feeling miserable and I felt bad for him... I hope he doesn't blame this on me haha. But he doesn't have strep throat or anything and seems to already be getting better with some over the counter medicine so that's good. I'm hoping to clear our whole house of sickness this week! So I'm just still really enjoying my time as a zone leader and in this awesome ward in Villada. I do still miss Atlicpac a lot and the members and my converts out there but I have definitely grown to deeply love the people wherever Heavenly Father sends me. As we had a ward family home evening this week and were playing a game and laughing I just felt comfortable. Just I miss my family a lot and always had a special relationship and fun experiences with them and my friends, but it is amazing how much I have truly grown to love, with a special and powerful Christlike love, not only the members of each ward, but the investigators, and just the people in the street wandering without the light of the Gospel in their lives. My love and desire to share the Gospel with this people has definitely grown tremendously as I have prayerfully and diligently sought it. I love these people and I love Mexico and my mission (especially the food) no matter how many trials or challenges it brings to help me grow. I love and miss my family and friends who always love and support me more than I can ever repay, and I love and support my leaders like my wonderful Mission President Mann and our beloved Prophet Thomas S. Monson. But more than anything I love my Heavenly Father and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who I thank for the opportunity to come to this Earth, learn and progress, and return to Their presence one day with my family and loved ones. I love my Savior and for His sacrifice that I will never be able to repay that made it possible for us to overcome the powers of sin and death and find hope and happiness even in the darkest times of temptation and trials in our life. 

Thank you all, as always, for your emails, love and support and prayers. Have another fantastic week! 

Your boy, 

Elder T-Clark