I Got Lastimated

Hello receivers of my weekly emails 

Happy Halloween everyone! I must say, this week was pretty darn LOCO! And I will probably end up looking like I dressed up as a zombie. I will start by saying that I basically had plastic surgery this week... Yep I got lastimated pretty good in my nose (lastimar is Spanish for getting hurt). We will start from the beginning of the story though. So Friday morning, I went to the gym for chest and tricep day. It was going great and I had got about halfway done. I was doing the tricep pull down machine with the rope and I finished the set. I guess I let it go a little fast and my head was a little too close to the machine because the rope shot up, and the metal clip cut my nose. It obviously hurt, but Elder Kay was working out with me and all he told me was, "Oh, you're nose is bleeding". So I ran to the bathroom dripping blood everywhere and let it all out in the sink. Then I finally looked up in the mirror and couldn't believe it. My right nostril literally split apart and ripped upwards like if you were to rip a piece of paper. It was pretty gross. I actually started feeling super light headed and super nauseous. If I didn't sit down and take some deep breaths, I probably would've passed out. But definitely my favorite part of the story was that after I felt a little better, I stuck a tissue up my nose and FINISHED THE WORKOUT. Yep, some people might call it stupid, I call it dedicated. So I made sure I got the full, good, workout in, and then went back to the house to take the next steps which basically went like this. I took the tissue out and all of the Elders were just looking at it, disgusted. I made sure I took plenty of pictures and we were almost 100% I was going to need surgery. So I gave a call to Pres and Sister Mann who sent me immediately to Hospital Cami (remember that place?) in an Uber to save my life. If you guys would like to retell the story to others, I would appreciate it if you could add a little twist like I was just lifting too much weight and broke the cable, or that I was attacked by a bear while we were tracting but I beat the bear and came away with only a little cut on my nose. Some believable version of the story like that would be nice. So anyways, I went to Hospital Cami and after an hour of waiting and paperwork, they examined me and told me I was going to need plastic surgery. I am really grateful for my great Mission President and his wife who made sure I got the BEST plastic surgeon for the job. I love them so much and I know that they love their missionaries. So we finally got a great plastic surgeon to come and sew me up. Elder Kay was there with me the whole time and watched everything. It wasn't too painful except the beginning when we put in the Anesthesia. He basically said "This is gonna hurt a bit" and Elder Kay said he was not gentle when he violently stabbed 3 different needles in my nose to numb it up. As soon as he gave me those shots, blood was going everywhere including my shirt and all over the floor. After that painful experience where I was shaking and groaning, my whole nose went numb. Elder Kay told me that he really enjoyed watching the plastic surgeon, not very gently, yank and pull the needle around my nose to sew it back up; he put in 4 stitches. After he finished the operation he uncovered me and I was just sweating buckets. He had a good laugh and I was glad it was all over. Although I'm still a little upset that they didn't get me a lollipop, I'm glad my nose will begin recovering and I really hope I don't end up with a big, fat, ugly, scar there. I had about a 75% survival rate and I'm glad I beat the odds, but I was a little concerned that I shoot free throws better than my chances of surviving. Anyways, now I don't even have to dress up for Halloween since I look like a zombie anyways, so I guess that's a plus right? Elder Kay really enjoyed watching the whole thing and said he is convinced that he could do stitches now. I still wouldn't trust him though. I guess the important part though is that I'm still alive and hopefully it will all recover fine. Plus we had interviews with President Mann that day, but I suppose getting plastic surgery is a good way to get out of interviews. I just hope he doesn't catch on to my strategies though, don't tell him but it was well worth it to get out of interview with him. Haha only kidding I sure love him lots and truly am grateful for the support of him and sister Mann. They were basically my parents through it all and I couldn't ask for better Mission Presidents in our mission right now.

Alrighty... So apart from that crazy experience, I suppose everything else sounds pretty boring right? It actually wasn't really my week at all... The night after getting stitches, I was walking in the street and totally banged my head on a pole. Pretty much all of our appointments fell as well, and worst of all, the baptism of Francisco which I was so excited for this week also fell... We had to postpone it for 2 more weeks so I hope, pray, and fast, he comes through then. So pretty much after Friday I was done with the week... I suppose I was due for a bad week though since I've been loving the mission so much lately, and I guess Satan was just really trying to get my down, but I don't go down that easy. You know what they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I also suppose though that I should focus on the good things that happened this week too though. Even though I didn't get to baptize Francisco this week, I was still blessed with the amazing opportunity to return and baptize part of Damian's family, which was a wonderful experience. I just love that humble family so much and they were so excited to see me come back for their baptism. Even though the water was freezing cold, the Spirit was definitely present and it was such a great joy to see their smiling faces enter into the waters of baptism. Also Sunday was a tender mercy because even though the work is a little harder here, a brand new family of 5 came to our ward for the meetings! We later found out they are not in our area (huge bummer) but it did lift my spirits a little to see some investigators at church with us! Love the Lord's work as always.

So finally, yes, I did celebrate my one year mark this week too. On Wednesday I did divisions with Elder Kay and we got tacos and cookie and cream magnum bars which probably won FOTW this week. Nothing much more was really exciting about my one year mark, just another year of work and I'm excited for it! I know this year will be faster than ever and I can't believe I am actually going to be going back home eventually, right now the mission just seems like my life. But as always, I love, miss, and appreciate you guys so much for everything, thanks for still reading my emails too those of you that actually get to the bottom every week. Have another great and safe week and remember to read the Book of Mormon!

Your favorite missionary,

Elder Clark

Warning:  Graphic Pictures (Not for those who get queasy like me).  When I first got these pictures I had my youngest daughters look at them and tell me how bad it was.  I can glance but not look for long.

OHHHHHHHHH WE´RE HALFWAY THEEEREEE!!!!!!

Hello family and friends,

Ohhhhh we're halfway theeree!! In just 2 days, it is official... I have lived in Mexico for an ENTIRE YEAR! Whoooo hoo! It is pretty darn crazy where time is going and I don't think I even want me mission to end at all yet. I love it here. But I know this next year will go by faster than ever and I'm really trying to take advantage of my time here and my time as a missionary, the only time in my life I will be privileged to call people unto repentance. In fact it really hit me when this week when we went to immigration with the rest of my generation to get our visas renewed. I remember going there a year ago and now I'm a completely new and improved T-Clark. I am excited for the blessings, opportunities, and miracles I'll be discovering in this last year here. And if things keep up, I should be pretty darn big by the time I get home, maybe even as muscular as  President Mann!

So this week we found a really cool family! They are the Correon family and I love them so much. They had a lot of doubts about death and things like that, but we taught we Plan of Salvation and they loved it. It was really cool because at the end of the lesson, the grandpa, Jesus told us that whenever religious people come over to talk he never understands anything and always falls asleep, but he told us he could just feel that we had something different. He said he understood our message perfectly, he was thirsty to hear more, and he thanked us so much for sacrificing our time to come here and teach people like him who haven't found the truth yet. The cool thing is that they are super catholic, but what makes me happy is that they are humble and open enough to change. And I know if they are humble enough, they will receive an answer from God that these things are true. I felt like that man, Jesus, was part of the scripture, that he was "kept from the truth only because they know not where to find it." So I'm really praying and fasting that that family comes through. We also had an amazing lesson with Francisco who I am so excited for. When we went with him he was questioning whether he was really ready to be baptized or if he was prepared enough. We read him a cool scripture in Acts 8 and then asked him if he believed that Joseph Smothers restored Christ's true church again on the earth and if he believed Christ was the Savior and Redeemer of the world. He told us he did believe with all of his heart, and he wants to get baptized so bad. So we told him he is ready to be baptized. So I am very excited and happy to announce that this Friday at 4:00 I will have the wonderful opportunity to baptize Francisco! I truly see him as a future bishop one day, just a great guy. Also Dimas has plans to be baptized in the future weeks, Ramiro will be receiving the Priesthood in a few Sundays, and Damian and his entire family have asked me to come back and baptize them next Sunday! Like I've said before and like I'll say again, this work brings me so much joy and happiness, and there isn't any other work more satisfying than this one.

I also have been continuing to keep up with my goals reading the Book of Mormon but I've also decided to pick and study 3 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants each week. As I read the scriptures I feel like my mind is opened and illuminated to a new understanding, that I am given power and the Spirit, and there's no other feeling quite like it. I am so grateful for the scriptures in my life and I encourage you all to keep reading and trying to better your scripture study habits every day as well. I KNOW that they are the word of God. We had a really cool experience sharing a Book of Mormon this week too. One time we were running late for something so we had to take a taxi to get there. On the way there I felt inspired to talk to the guy about the Book of Mormon and his ancestors here in America. It was really cool, he was super interested and told us that we need to find the missionaries in his area and send them to his house.  At the end (and it was about a 30 minute ride), we asked him how much it would be.  He told us that we helped him out way more than he helped us and that he wouldn´t charge us anything! WOW! I mean I was left pretty amazed especially by how much poverity there is here, but I was glad we could really get to the heart of that guy.  I am not sure what will happen immediately, but I have faith that he will get baptized one day.

So as you can tell, it was another terrific week! We had some cool opportunities to do service this week for some older ladies in my ward and it is so cute how much they appreciate help with just the little things in life.  Also I did divisions several times this week as well.  It was really kind of funny, I am not sure why this week but we had a ton of racist comments thrown at us.  One guy begging for money and offering us drugs, and then one time we were just knocking doors.  A guy answered the door and literally the first thing he said was, "Why are you not Mexicans?" I kind of wanted to ask him why he wasn´t Japanese but we started talking more and actually got another return appointment with him.  Also this week we were walking around the "tianges" (The Mexican Street Stores) which are usually super cheap, and I spotted a GEM! I found a super old, Dennis Rodman Spurs jersey!! Usually everything is fake and cheap in the tianges and to neggociate well, you always start off way low, so I asked him if he could give me the jersey for 15 pesos.  Well I guess he felt a little disrespected and gave me a super annoyed look and told me, "No, this is 750 pesos..."  So I guess he just really knew what he was selling or I was just really off... Maybe a little bit of both haha. But I will admit, I was pretty sad, and was pretty ready to drop some bucks on that Spurs Jersey... Just not 750 pesos lol.  And to finish the food of the week definitely goes to.... BUFFALO WILD WINGS!! We just got back from there to celebrate my year mark and it was a blast.  I am convinced there will be a BWWs right after the gates in the celestial kingdom.  Well I hope yall have another great week and thanks for everything and still reading these emails!! 

One year down, ONE MORE TO GO!!!

And now that the NBA season has officially started... GO SPURS GO!!!!

Ya boi,

Elder T-Clark

Lights Out!

Buenas Tardes Familia y Amigos!

This week was basically like the scary movie, Lights Out, just this one was in Mexico. All of the sudden one day our electricity cables burned out and we didn't have light or water for 3 days! The first night we just roughed it out with flashlights and stuff like camping but then we just had to stay with some other Elders for a couple nights to get a good shower, charge our phones, and actually be able to see so we can study. So yeah that wasn't too fun. It made me realize how much we take for granted the simple, yet very necessary things like electricity and water. I literally couldn't really do anything! The worst part of it all though is that one day I got home to a big, brown, puddle leaking out of our fridge all over the floor... My ice cream melted :( So that was pretty depressing to have $10 of good ice cream go down the drain, and a lot of other food go bad too. But I guess it's just all part of the adventure of being a missionary right? Who else can say they they've lost electricity and water for 3 days while living in Mexico and had all of their ice cream melt? 

So the work has been going well still too. Although I must admit, it was my problem when I was here a year ago too, but seriously no one will go the church. It is so frustrating because we find so many cool investigators every week but they just won't go to church which means that they can't get baptized.. We'll just keep trying though and working hard until the day I die though. One cool story though is that Dimas (the guy I contacted and taught a little bit after the earthquake and on divisions) is doing awesome!! He is getting baptized in a couple weeks and I am so happy. But what is even cooler is that church representatives might be coming for his baptism to interview me, Dimas, the missionaries teaching him, and try to publish the story!! Wouldn't that be cool!

As always, I had the opportunity to do divisions with Elder Boynton and Elder McCain this week which was great as always. I love being a zone leader and getting the opportunity to work and love everyone in my zone. Our zone is also still doing super awesome and we've reached 40 baptismal dates this week! Also we are going to be having 7 baptisms as a zone this week which is really cool. It's funny to think that just this week we will be baptizing more than just the number of baptismal dates we had as an entire zone (6) when I was put as zone leader. When we put our trust in the Lord, he can make miracles about any situation 

I would like to end with one more story that just makes me super happy, maybe the coolest thing that happened this week. But one night, at 2 in the morning I got a text message. It was my good old convert Ramiro who I miss a ton, and he said "Elder Clark, I just finished the Book of Mormon exactly 1 minute ago. On November 5, I will be ordained an Elder and receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and I need you to be there." Wow. It is an amazing feeling for sure watching the fruits of your labors enter into the baptismal font, but the joy is seriously 10 times better watching those same converts grow, continue to strengthen their testimony, and then take steps in their life like receiving the priesthood, and eventually enter into the temple. As I reflect about it, there is seriously nothing more I want than to be there in 6 months when Ramiro gets sealed with his wife in the temple. The joy and satisfaction that come from just imagining that just feelings more deep and indescribable than I've ever felt. It gives me motivation to wake up everyday and work my butt off to find even just one more lost soul that is ready to accept the Gospel and start on the path to the Tree of Life. It makes me so happy, and also makes me really worried about the Cortes family who I love and miss so much but are struggling a little bit right now. I just love being a missionary though and it is amazing how much I have grown to love these people. And in two weeks Damian and his whole family are getting baptized!!!! I am so excited and happy for them too. Man oh man, does the missionary work get any better??!! So even though the work isn't exactly where I'd like it to be in my ward right now, I feel like all of these other blessings are the Lord's way of saying how much He loves me and shows me His tender mercies and great blessings from my work each day. It was just another great week that went by like lightning and I'm ready for another one! And I really have already began to love the members in this ward a ton. They are super nice and welcoming and it will be a great area for me. We had a zone conference this week too which was great and I had the opportunity to do an activity. I did a basketball activity (of course) and taught a little bit about something called "The Golden Hours" and it went great. We have a fun mission that works really hard too.  Also this week I have gone to the gym everyday again, taking creatin and protein.  It feel like I am getting super big and the gym just gives me such a good energy for the day.  I feel amazing physically right now, and it is a great thing.  Finally, I guess I better talk about the food of the week.  Last monday we went to a place called Sur 12 which is a REALLY GOOD Torta restaurant.  Tortas are basically a sandwhich filled with Mexican meat, so I got a HUGE al pastor torta and it was delicious, one of the best things I´ve ever tasted down here.  UGH I´m gonna miss the food so much! And of course I´ve had a few good rounds of tacos and pizza this week! Life is just amazing right now!!

Well it is pretty weird guys.  In about a week I am going to be celebrating my one year mark in the mission. It definitely does not feel like I´ve been out here for a year and I am pretty sure this next year will just fly by.  I still don´t feel like a super experienced missionary either and one day I was just in my bed thinking about how much I truly love, deep down, preaching the Gospel and helping to change people´s lives.  I thought about how this will be my only opportunity my whole life and now I don´t want to waste any second of it.  I already know I am going to miss my mission so much when I go home and I don´t want any regrets.  I still have a year left too so I feel like I´m in a pretty good position right now.  Plus we are going to Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate next week (YESSS!!!) so how could I not be happy?!?!  Well have a great week, I love you all as always and hope you are getting ready to enjoy the Holiday Season!!

P.S. Do you think it is time to listen to Christmas yet? Some Elders have already started and I´m pretty tempted... Only 2 months away!!

Your favorite missionary,

Elder Clark

No Earthquakes This Week!

My Favorite People,

So this week was pretty darn amazing, and maybe one of the fastest weeks I've ever had in the mission. To be honest I hardly know where it went, and barely remember what happened. And I'm sorry I don't really have another cool story to tell like getting ran over by a motorcycle, or being in an earthquake, or riding a mechanical bull, I guess not every week can be as fun, adventure-filled week, but I will admit, the work has been amazing and full of miracles this week so I suppose I can focus on that. After all that is why I am here on a mission, I just enjoy telling you guys fun, interesting stories each week haha.

So first of all our zone is continuing to do amazing. We are continually growing in baptismal dates and this week we were able to find MORE than 100 news!! It was truly a miracle and I'm do grateful for this great zone I have this opportunity to work with. Also our area here is now flourishing with work and I couldn't be happier. After not having a baptismal date for 2 whole months, we were able to find 3 different, prepared, children of God and set 3 baptism dates this week! I am so excited and hope to help this area turn around and be one of the best areas in the mission! We also have found some other awesome investigators this week that we hope to put some more baptismal dates. One of my favorite investigators who we have right now, Francisco, will be an amazing convert. He always told us that he wants to get sealed with his wife in the temple in a year from now, and wants to get baptized so bad. We have his date scheduled for the 28th of October. And of course I've been able to see miracles and the Lord's hand guiding us strongly on our work. One day we passed by someone in the street, and I guess my companion, Elder Revolorio, waved and smiled at her. We kept walking and my companion mentioned to me, "that lady seemed super nice and friendly." After walking in silence for a few more seconds I stopped and said, well, we better go talk to her. So we turned around and tracked down this lady wherever she went so we could contact her. And good thing we did because she was very warm and friendly and open to accept us. We have a return appointment this week. Maybe my favorite miracle though came on Saturday. On Saturday I started fasting and I decided to fast specifically that we could find a new family of at least 3 kids that we could find, teach, and baptize. Walking back to the house Saturday night, we found a mom with her three little girls walking in the street and we stopped to talk to them. We soon found out that the mom is deaf, and couldn't hear us, so her 15 year old daughter translated everything we said. The girls were really interested and excited to hear from us, but the mom said she feels uncomfortable going to church because she can't hear anything, but they've been looking for a church with a translator... Well, after thinking for a minute we told excitedly told her, YES! We have someone who can translate for her in our church! It just worked out perfectly that we have a family in our ward as well that has a couple deaf people with them and who know sign language. It was a miracle to me that it just happened that we were able to find that family with special needs, in our ward specifically who is one of the only wards who can provide for those needs. I feel so grateful that Heavenly Father answered my prayer and fast, and that He could provide the way to Salvation and Exaltation for each of His children. And I especially love seeing all of the many blessings and miracles that come when we diligently seek the Lord's help.

I would also like to announce that Damian and his whole family went to church this last week!! Elder Robinson (the new missionary in my old area in Villada) said he was just walking around to all the memebers and telling them, oh yeah! I love it here and I am getting baptized the 28th! I am so grateful that Damian got other great missionaries that are taking care of them and I am super excited to go back and see the fruits of my labors in that area.  

I also had the opportunity, like every week, to do divisions! But this week was even more cool! Now that Elder Matsen is an Assistant to President, he was able to come to my area and do divisions with me! (remember all of those good times in Los Reyes that we got to do divisions?) And yeah, it was just as awesome and amazing as before. I told him that he had to show me his contacting skills one more time before he went home, so I learned a lot and we found some pretty cool new investigators. Of course we also had to go our for tacos for the last time and it was a little sad that this would be the last time being with each other until BYU. But I'm so grateful for all the awesome people I've met and friendships I've made in the mission. I love being in the mission!

So to finish, it was just another great week in the missionary work. We also had a really cool mission council this week where we gathered as leaders of the mission and talked about what we can do better. I always love the mission council and leave with so many cool ideas to apply in our zone. I also will admit I killed it at a basketball activity that we had too haha and won a couple of candy bars. Another great thing is that we've gone to the gym everyday this week as well. I am in a really good habit right now of hitting the gym, studying, and working hard and the combination of it all makes me feel amazing and makes time go by really fast. Pretty much my whole body was aching on the weekend and I've also set some goals get pretty big in the gym. And to finish, I'm still loving the food down here. For the FOTW it was probably some tacos that I've found. They are super good, clean, and cheap tacos in my area that I've found this week. One of the most important things to do when arriving to a new area is find the best tacos, and I feel pretty confident on these ones. But of course, there's always room for improvement and the constant search for something better which I will also be applying these next few weeks. So in all, I am doing great, still alive, having lots of success, and couldn't be happier. As always thanks for everything you guys do for me week after week and I love and miss you all a ton. Haaaaaave an goood one!

Never Forget,

Elder Tyler Clark

Ran Over by a Moto-Taxi!

Helloooo Everyone!!

So this week I was ran over by a Moto Taxi... Yep. One night we were eating flan outside with a member (the best flan I've ever had in my life) and all the sudden this motorcycle comes super close, everyone laughing and out of control and the trailer part behind hit me right in the chest. It kind of put me in shock a little and knocked me to the ground and the motorcycle crashed, but I haven't even got to the worst part yet. The saddest thing was that I probably had 2 big, delicious bites of flan left and I didn't have the opportunity to finish it as it went all over my shirt and tie... It looked like someone threw up on me honestly haha. But don't worry, I was completely fine as well as the people who crashed, but I am still a little bummed out about the lost flan... But at least there weren´t any devastating Earthquakes this week so I suppose a couple lost bites of flan is okay.... right?

But also, Happy General Conference!! I hope you guys all enjoyed General Conference as much as I did. I would love to share all my notes I took with everyone but I'm sure you would get bored pretty fast. My favorite thing I did though was make a to do list of things I will change and start doing in my life right now according to the Spirit. So they weren't things that they necessarily said to do, rather things I felt inspired by the Spirit to do based on their messages and I must admit, I am very excited to start applying them in my life. I always love conference because I just feel such a desire and hope to change, to be better, and more motivation to both share and live the Gospel. I know that we truly have living prophets and apostles of God who receive revelation from God himself to lead and guide this church. Once again I loved Russell M. Nelson's talk about how important the Book of Mormon is in our lives EVERY SINGLE DAY! I love the promises he gave us as we read it every day in our lives. I have seriously been loving reading the Book of Mormon lately for the 4th time in my mission and this time I'm reading it a lot slower with the institute guide. It is amazing how much love and power I feel as I read and how much more my testimony strengthens in this great book. This week I spent about 3 days straight just studying in 1 Nephi 7 and I just can't fall away from this book. As Joseph Smith said, "[it] is the most correct of any book on earth" and I love how Nelson told us if we read it everyday of our lives we will develop a love so strong for it that we will not want to go a single day without it! I have definitely felt the power and truth about this Apostolic promise and have no doubt about it's truthfulness. I invite all again to start reading the Book of Mormon today, and continue to read it every day. It seemed like a lot of talks were centered on the Book of Mormon and I guess since we didn´t get to hear from Monson, we should take his last message even more to heart.  I also really enjoyed Hallstrom´s talk about miracles (Yeah mostly because when he was talking about Clark and everyone thought I was him haha) but I loved how he talked about if we truly have the faith strong enough to see miracles in our lives, we should have the faith strong enough to know everything will be alright and not to lose our testimony if miracles don´t happen. I think he could be one of the next Apostles. And of course my heart and prayers go out to Hales and his family, but overall I think this was an amazing conference and I am excited to put my new goals into practice including studying the Book of Mormon literally every single day for the rest of my life and also rereading some of these great talks!

Well I guess I should talk a little bit about the changes too. It is kind of funny actually, I got changed to a ward called Chimalhuacan (have fun pronouncing that one) which is literally right across the street from where I started my mission in Aurora. So I'm here where Elder Lara and Elder Cherrington were when I started the mission, right in the same house, and it does feel kind of weird, I have to admit. My new companion is Elder Revolorio and he is from Guatemala. He is super cool and I love having companions like him and Elder Torres who are converts of just a couple years because they know why they are out here and honestly have a better perspective than me of how to help a convert. But one thing I will have to admit... My area is super hard right now. I guess we haven't had a baptismal date for over 2 months now and the ward isn't as excited for the missionary work very much. But I am not going to complain or be negative at all. I am grateful my Heavenly Father has put me in this situation and gives me hard tasks to teach me to be humble, but also teach me to act in more faith to bring forth His work. So this area might be my hardest challenge yet in the mission but it will be a great experience and I know through faith we can always work miracles.

The zone is actually doing amazing as ever. What they did was combine two little zones (La Perla 1 and La Perla 2) into just one, gigantic La Perla. So it is a lot more work for us as zone leaders and we have a ton of elders in our zone now, but with more work comes more blessings too! This week as a zone we were able to find 97 new investigators which like never happens! It was amazing!! We did a huge zone attack in one area that was struggling and just found so many new investigators for them. We also have a lot more elders to do divisions with this cycle which should be fun. This week I did divisions with Elder Robinson who just came to our zone and is super fun. He actually went to my old area in Villada so I went over there to teach him the area one day, where all the investigators live, members, and most importantly, where the best street tacos are (always one of the most important things to know about a new area haha). It was great and I know he will take good care of all the many investigators we have over there. We also went with Damian which, honestly, his family was pretty devastated that me and Elder Torres had changes and they couldn't quite understand why, but I got to teach them a little with Elder Robinson and now they are so excited to read the Book of Mormon. So yeah that is just a little bit about our awesome zone who I love so much right now.

And now for the interesting stuff of the week. Last Monday morning we had a double elimination zone ping pong tournament with one of Clark's crazy brackets and it was great. I must admit I had a rough way to the championship and had to play pretty much all of the good ping pongers in my zone but after much diligence, I was crowned Official Ping Pong Champion of La Perla (OPPCoLP). I must admit, I was pretty proud, and now everyone is mad that no one can beat me so this cycle I know there's definitely a target on my back haha. But it was so fun we made French Toast as well and just chilled until we went to changes. Today we went to a park where there was basketball and football fields and we invited some of the best ballers in the mission.  It is literally soo fun, I had the time of my life and I love playing with our zone, we make a great team.  And tomorrow I am excited because I will be starting up the gym again! A good mix of studying, exercising, basketball, and BWWs every once in a while just feels amazing.  And to top it off, the FOTW (food of the week) has to go to a super good bacon, six cheese pasta we actually made ourselves in our house... So yeah that was pretty good, but I think I will still always miss those last 2 bites of flan.

Well I love you guys a lot, as you know, have a great, fun, and safe week!!!!!

Love,

Elder T-Clark (OPPCoLP)