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