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)