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
No comments:
Post a Comment