5 More Minutes

Familia y Amigos!

Well, I am not too sure what to say about this week.  It is still pretty unreal to me that I am actually coming home soon, although it still hasn`t hit me yet.  I am still just working, serving, and loving everyone as normal and it doesn`t seem like anything is going to be changing anytime soon.  Although it is close to an end, it still seems like just yesterday I got on the plane to come out here to this strange land of Mexico City, but I am sure that is pretty cliche to say.  Part of me just wants to give my whole life to serve a mission though, and I am not quite sure if I am really ready to give it up and start my real life yet.

This week was a killer start to my last cycle though.  My companion, Elder Crandall is great (although I still miss Elder Nevarez a ton...) and we found a few new investigators that are ready to be baptized this cycle!! If all goes well, in the next few weeks we are hoping to baptize 6 (Paty, Jorge, Dario, Enrique, Valentina, and Gerardo).  I am hoping and praying they all work out becuase I can`t even describe how much I love each and everyone one of them, but when I started stressing out about it this week, thinking about how I am really going to help all of them get baptized, I realized that as long as I give it my all, and do everything in my power to serve, help, and love them, I know that Heavenly Father will be pleased with my work, even if they don`t end up making it to the baptismal font.  Always important to set high goals though and I know that the Lord is making me an instrument in his hands to bring many soulds unto Him.  This week for the first few days we were in a trio with Elder Baird until his new companion arrived, which was a lot of fun, and on Tuesday night, I had organized a family home evening in the house of the bishop with Paty, Jorge, Dario, and Chris (another investigator we have that is a family member of them).  It was one of the most successful family home evenings I have ever had in my mission, we talked about sacrifices, played a fun game that I have learned in the mission, and then the bishop had some super good pastes for dessert.  The Soria family got to know the bishop`s family really well, and little by little, they are finding the stregnth and courage to keep moving forawrd, against the sometimes frustrating remarks and attitude of their family.  I love them so much, and tomorrow night we will be having an appointment with them to put a baptismal date for later this month!! I am hoping and praying they will accept it! Chris, their cousin that we are also teaching, is a super awesome investigator as well.  She has already read well into 2nd Nephi in the Book of Mormon, and loves all of the lessons!! She is already noticing little changes of the Gospel in her life as she has made the decision to stop drinking, go to church, and just being a better person in general! I LOVE seeing the change the Gospel brings in people`s lives, I guess after all it is the fruit of our labors!! Unfortunately she is going to go live up in North Carolina for a few months and is coming back late in November or early December and says she will visit the church as the missionaries up there meanwhile, and she told me this last week that she wants me to baptize her when I come back in December! If it all works out, it would be a pretty cool experience coming back to baptize even after my mission!!! As for Enrique, we found him this last week, he just showed up to church one Sunday, his wife is a member, and we put a baptismal date with him the 22nd of September so that will be exciting!! Valentina is a 9 year old girl we found this week as well who needs the missionary lessons to be baptizing, she has her baptismal date for the 16th of September, and Gerardo, who we say yesterday, is only smoking 1 cigarrete a day!! We are super excited for him and everytime he sees us, he reminds us, "Hey! My baptism date is coming up!"  I can see how relieved he will be to finally be free of his addiction to smoking after 50 years... Wow, how powerful and merciful the Gospel of Jesus Christ is in our lives and I am so grateful for it.  So everything is going great down here and there isn`t a single moment, even if it is hard, that I don`t enjoy and cherish down here in my mission. As I have said many times before, I LOVE being a missionary!!

So that about wraps up this week, and we are down to about 5 minutes left in this game.  There has been lots of ups and downs, lots of runs on both sides of the court, and though my shoes may be pretty beat up and my clothes pretty worn, there is no time to give up now.  I guess these last 5 minutes are the most important 5 minutes since they are the only moments I can control at this point.  And I am determined to make them the best 5 minutes.  Every second counts, and just like all of the phases in life, every good thing must come to an end.  I guess the mission has taught me a lot to learn how to accept change in my life and as I was stressing out a little bit this week, I was talking to one of my best freinds I have made out here who gave me some really good advice.  One of my favorite quotes from my mission has always been "The only thing you can control in life is how you react to the things you can`t control".  And in case you were wondering, I ate some crickets this week which were actually pretty good, played a lot of soccer (I have definitely gotten a lot better since I have been down here), and of course, got some good street tacos.  Definitely going to miss those a tons.  For those of you who were wondering my homecoming talk will be the 14th of October, if anyone can make it down it would be wonderful to see you again! Love you all tons and have a great week!

-Elder Tyler Clark

Talent Show Start- Final Countdown!

Hey Family and Friends!

It`s the Final Countdown!!! Today starts my last cycle which means only 6 more weeks til I see all of you guys again! I`m super excited and I am more than determined to make my last cycle my BEST CYCLE! Being the best missionary I can be, working hard, baptizing, and having fun!! It almost doesn`t seem real to me that I am actually going to be home again because when I got here I think I just got stuck in the mindset that Mexico would be my home forever!  But I just want to make sure that I finish the mission the best I can, obedient, dilligent, and serving my Lord and Savior with all my heart, might, mind, and strength using all the experiences and lessons I have had throughout the past 2 years.  Also, we has a pretty awesome last week of the cycle, and definitely ended the cycle with a BANG! Unfortunately, Elder Nevarez will be having changes, which I am a little sad about, but I am grateful for the time I had to be his companion who taught me so much.  I am really happy and excited to be staying in my area though and recieved my final companion, Elder Crandall, from  of the mission today! And I am determined to make it my best one.  I am so grateful for every single one of my mission companions and everything I have learned from them.

So like I said, we definitely ended the cycle strong.  On Saturday night, we had the actvitiy that Elder Nevarez and I have been planning with some stake leaders, for the past few months, a Talent Show Night.  And the guy we were planning it with asked that us, as a zone, present the final scene in the talent show as missionaries.  So each ward of the stake presented a few skits, dances, songs, and it was awesome! About 300 people showed up, we had about 10 of our investigators there (Almost all of the Sorìa family!) and the decorations were perfect! We had super cool lighting, a smoke machine, loud speakers, and everyone was having a blast.  I was espeically happy for our investgators.  We also had all of the missionaries in the zone bring pamphlets, books of mormon, and other materials and set up a table at the front door with missionaries handing out all of the material.  And right before the activity started, we were all outside inviting people to come in and enjoy the show and were super excited because Elder Nevarez and I got someone to come in with us, stay the whole time, and now the sister missionaries in that area have an appointment with him!! It just shows to me that there are people all around who are ready and prepared to come unto Christ and I don`t want to waste a single second without inviting people to come unto Him and change their lives.  As all of the wards presented there, acts, we got really excited (we had a pretty good crown) and then it was our turn.  We then presented the skit "la muerte de un amigo" (the death of a friend) and everyone was laughing their heads off.  I have a pretty sweet video that I will send home as well, but it was definitely the biggest success I have ever had in an activity in the mission and our investigators LOVED it! Later on one of them came up to us and said, "I just felt so happy seeing everyone having clean fun, and being together as a family enjoying activities like this"  We are really hoping that this will help some of our investigators realize that we also have a lot of fun in our church and enjoy our time in this life with our families.  After all, we are here in this life to enjoy it, and we should take advantage of every moment and opportunity we can get! After the activity we were all so happy and excited and I am also hoping this helps our zone get a little more enthusiasm to go out and give in their all working hard!! 

Also it was a great week for the work.  We are doing really well with Gerardo, to help him stop smoking, and after starting out with 2 PACKAGES a day, he is now down to about 2 cigarretes every day!! We are super excited to see his progress and his baptismal date is coming up in about a month!! We are also SUPER excited for Paty, Jorge, and Dario (The Soria Family) who I just love with all my heart.  Unfortunately, Paty´s family are giving her a really hard time for "listening to the Mormons" and try telling her that we are ruining her lives.... It was really sad to see that none of her family showed up to help her run her business that they always run together, they have a little restaurant, but she does have one sister that is really supporting it through it all.  Of course, it pains me because the Gospel is completely meant to bring people together, not to tear them apart, but we had a really special moment with Paty this morning as Elder Nevarez was saying his goodbyes.  Paty told us that with everyone she has ever talked with about religion, she said that no one else has the same love and compassion that we have, that she truly feels the love of God when she is with us, and she said that even though her family is giving her a hard time, she says, "I don´t care, because I am following Christ" and told Elder Nevarez that we will "see the fruits of our labors with her family."  So we shared a special moment with her family, a few tears, and now I just hope we can help them come to the waters of baptism before I go home.  Her kids, Jorge and Dario, are seriously future missionaries and the light of the Gospel reflects in their eyes and faith.  I love them and honestly, I can´t belive how much I have grown to love all of the people I have served here in my mission.  Also, I have been making an extra effort to contact and talk to everyone at every opportunity and we have found some pretty cool street contacts this week that I hope to have a lot of success with (amongst all of the Trump jokes and swear words we get haha).  So things are really looking up for my last cycle and I am just so happy to be a missionary.

Well, there is only about 6 more minutes left in the 4th quarter in this game, and I may be tired, worn out, and anxious to win, but I promised the Lord and I promised myself, that I would do everything I could, to truly make these last 6 minutes, the best 6 minutes of the game, and I WILL NOT give up.  I am going to finish strong, running right through the finish line, and I just hope I can bring a few more people to Christ on the way.  I love and miss you all tons and Thanks for all of your emails and support (like always!) Have a great week and can´t wait to talk to you next week!

Elder Clark

Getting Back in Shape

Hey Family and Friends!!

Well, I don`t have a ton of time this week since we had a super fun zone activity today and got back pretty late, but it was a fun day.  We played ping-pong (my companion, Nevarez, is actually super good!) and the best part was that we had a REAL table!! We played some football, which was a blast, soccer, basketball, and even played foosball as we ate some little ceasar`s pizza.  So we just kind of got a little taste of it all, and since the last week before my last cycle comes up, I suppose I better start "getting back in shape" again for our family superbowl, ping-pong tournament, and whatever else might be waiting for me after these last 6 weeks.  I will admit, I may have lost my touch a little bit too (playing ping-pong on a real table after almost 2 years made me realize) but there are no excuses and I guess that it is just more important that I get get that touch back these last 7 weeks.  

The work was pretty normal in this week, but Elder Nevarez and I are sure there are miracles coming. One night we had another lesson with Flavio and his wife, and found out his wife wasn`t divorced yet either and she wasn`t super interested in getting married.  We could see the disappointment in Flavio`s eyes since he was so excited and looking forward to his baptism before but I suppose we just have to keep working and praying in faith to see some miracles.  I must admit, that night after the lesson, I was feeling pretty down, and I am sure I wasn´t being very positive at all (Nevarez could probably tell you that I wasn´t very fun to be around that night).  But I went to bed, got up the next morning and as I got showered and ready, I listened to conference talks, and for my study I read the Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, and finished with my patriarchal blessing.  I had been praying to feel something, some sort of extra love or help from heaven after everything has been a little dissapointing lately, and as I did my study, I literally felt like was I "charging" my "spiritual battery".  It was as if someone was lifting me up off the ground, maybe a coach or my family in the 4th quarter saying, "Tyler! Get up!! The game isn´t over yet, and there is still a lot of work to do!!" In that moment, when I felt that inspiration that I couldn´t deny, I changed my attitude, Elder Nevarez and I planned an amazing day with lots of faith and goals, and went out and worked our butts off.  Ic can truly say I gave it my all that day, we contacted a lot, and I know there is lots of success just right around the corner to finish my mission.  So no matter how hard it gets or how much little time I have left, I promised myself, and the Lord, that I would give it my all and leave it all out on the court.  I still love being a missionary, I love the scriptures and the words of the prophets and the apostles with all my heart, and I love the Gospel and my Savior Jesus Christ!!

So that about wraps it up for this week.  We are planning as a zone, a super funny skit for a talent show night that we have been planning as a stake activity for this Saturday which will be super fun.  I will try to send the video home.  Apart from that, next week is already changes again so we will see if I will be staying here for my last cycle, or if the Lord wants me to serve in one more area.  Love and miss you guys a ton have a great week!

Elder Clark

1 Week Not Getting Robbed Streak!

Querido Familia y Amigos,

Well, after maybe one of the most eventful weeks of my mission, this might have been one of the most boring weeks of my mission.  Although even though it was boring, it doesn´t mean it was bad! I mean I went a WHOLE WEEK without getting robbed so I guess that is good right? But here are a few of the highlights of my week.

Well, we were a little disapointed because we went with all of our investigators Saturday night and they ALL said that they were going to come to church (well about 7 of them).  So Sunday morning we were super excited, and after sacrament meeting we looked around and realized only 1 of them had made it. I suppose 1 is definitely better than none and it´s not like this has never happened to me on my mission, but I must admit, Elder Nevarez and I were a little bit sad because thought we were about to make it to baptism wonderland, but I guess it never comes THAT easy... I am just hoping and praying with all my heart that I can help some of these people get baptized before I go.  It was also a little disappointing because everything was going perfect with Flavio and just barely this week he admitted to us that he isn´t married.... But I guess the hardest things bring the most blessings, joy, and satisfaction, so even with Flavio, we will have to work with a little bit more.  The good news is after teaching the lay of chastity, he told us that he knew he was in the wrong, and needs to get married so hopefully his faith in Jesus Christ will bring him to the light.  On the bright side we are helping a guy, Gerrardo, stop smoking and found out that he has been smoking for the last 50 years!! What is even crazier is that he started when he was 6 YEARS OLD! The miracle of it all though is that has made a ton of progress, he has seen the hand of God in his life helping him, and he is getting closer.  We placed a baptismal date with him this week for the 22nd September so hopefully he can reach his goals!! We are super stoked for him and it definitely would be a miracle to see him leave his cigarretes behind after 50 years.  It so so true that the Gospel changes lives and I love being a missionary and part of that process!

Well, every cycle I say that this cycle was faster than the last, but it is so true! I can´t believe we are alredy on week 5, and my time with Elder Nevarez might ALREADY be coming to an end soon! I hope not though because I would love to finish my mission with him.  I did divisions with Elder Baird this week who is from Spokane, Washington, and it was super fun to hang out with him. He was so shocked that I knew what Silverwood was since that is the amusement park right by his house so we talked a little about my family reunion up there.  But I am so grateful for all of the friendships I have made here in my mission. Well, love and miss you guys tons and have a great week!

Elder Clark

Getting Robbed, Tacos, Coup, and More!

Hello Family and Friends!

Well, this week was a little bit loco, honestly... It was probably a reminder that I am still not quite done with my mission and I still have lots of new adventures, experiences, and more work ahead... I will start out by saying I got robbed two times two days in a row this week which was pretty crazy, and now I am at 5 on the mission! Not that I want that number to go up at all though... one of the times was when Elder Nevarez and I were robbed on a micro (little bus) that we will never be taking again, and the very next day I got robbed on divisions with Elder Stone.  So yeah, if you want more details you can ask me personally but the most important part is that I am safe and still alive. I just have to survive 2 more months.  Hopefully I can make it home all in one piece!  

This week Paty and her boys, Dario (or Felipe) and Jorge, came to church with us and LOVED IT! All the members were super kind and helpful to them showing them around and the classes and testimonies were PERFECT! I especially enjoyed fast and testimony meeting this Sunday as almost half of the ward got up, including all of the young men and women to bear their testimonies.  It was actually really cool to see and how grateful I am to share the same standards and beliefs with people all around the world! When a testimony is truly born of the Spirit and from a divine witness, it is more powerful than anything else and I`m grateful for how much more my testimony stregnthened by just listening to the testimony of others.  We also took Paty and her family (The Soria Family) to the visitors center at the temple on Tuesday and they left impressed and inspired.  Later Sunday (yesterday) we taugh the Gospel and put 3 baptismal dates with the Soria Family who went to church for the 26th of August.  They are a little scared about what their family and friends might think if they get baptized but we will be working, praying, and maybe even fasting to help them get baptized! It is one of my biggest desires before I go home to see that family enter into the waters of baptism.  We are helping another guy, Gerrardo, to stop smoking so that he can get baptized soon and we just have so many other investigators, (Flavio, Alma, Emilia, Judith, Faustino... to name a few) that could be potentially getting baptized soon which just makes me so happy and excited! I just want to baptize the world before I go home in 2 months!  

Well apart from getting robbed twice and lots of success, this week was also full of lots of tacos (we went out for tacos every night that I got robbed to help ease the pain haha), teaching a family to play coup (which was SUPER FUN!), and today I bought a nice, new, blue suit to come home in as well.  It is so weird to think that I only have 7 more P-Days left here and there are still so many more things that I want to do!  But everything is still going great down here in Mexico, I am happy and safe, and thanks for all of your guys support back home! Love you all and talk to you next week!

Elder Tyler Clark

Indescribable Joy

It was an AWESOME WEEK! My companion and I are getting along GREAT and have really bonded this week.  One night we were up late just talking and relating and we decided we are definitely going to be hanging out after the mission.  He has a lot of family in Las Vegas, and visits there often, and doesn`t live too far from Arizona (Ensenada, Mexico) so it will be fun to have new friends and relationships, both Mexicans and Americans in the future.  He has been bragging about how good he is at Ping-Pong though so it might be time again to break out the ping-pong set and humble some people.  Plus I got to get back to 100% to win the family ping pong tournament in October!

This week was full of success, busy days, and spiritual experiences. On Tuesday we had mission council and as Russell M. Nelson says, it became a "room of revelation".  I definitely felt the Spirit and knew that God inspired the ideas we came up with.  One idea was brought to my remembrance when I first started the mission and we read the Book of Mormon in 90 days as a mission.  We were talking more in the mission about how we can help the missionaries have their own conversion so I suggested that we read the Book of Mormon again as a mission.  Then in zone conference we call got a program to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days so it will be a great experience to start off and finish the mission the same way, strengthening my testimony of this sacred and special book.  On Wednesday night we had an appointment with an investigator, Flavio.  We had planned to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ focusing on baptism, and at the end of the lesson we gave him the baptismal invitation.  When we invited him to do so, he simply replied, "Yes.  It is necesary.  Do you guys work with dates so that I can get baptized a specific day?" His question shot directly to my heart and I think my companion and I were both surprised.  We then put a baptismal date with him for August 25th but by the way he is progressing so fast we may need to baptize him before! Leaving the appointment Elder Nevarez and I were just filled with the Spirit and joy, and realized that these are the "chosen" investigators that we try so hard to find.  It is so amazing how the Spirit can work with our investigators to change their hearts, help them understand the true doctrine of Christ, and when they open their hearts and minds, our message is simple and powerful, that even little children can understand it, and it is clear that what we teach is crucial and necesary to the Salvation of God`s children.  We also had another cool experience with some investigators last night (Sunday) with the Soria family.  We taught them the Plan of Salvation, and when they heard and understood it, they were filled with joy and realized that what we were teaching was really true.  They are progressing wonderfully and I want so much to baptize them before my time is up here in Mexico.  After teaching the Plan of Salvation, Jorge, the 16 year old son, said that hearing about the Plan of Salvation just makes him wish that all of his friends and family could hear this message too.  Tomorrow we are going to the visitor`s center with them in the temple and I am so excited!! They will be the coolest converts ever and Jorge is definitely a future missionary.  After the lesson last night, I was just feeling sooo happy and grateful to be a missionary.  I just felt like I wanted to keep working, and that I didn`t even need a P-Day (although yes, today was really nice to relax, wash clothes, and prepare everything for this week).  I am just so excited for the week ahead and the full agenda we have.  The satisfaction of teaching a lesson, feeling the Spirit, and having the family understand perfectly the message you wanted to get across and inspiring them to change their life and follow Christ is truly indescribable.  I can`t describe in words of how much love I feel for these people and the true, real joy that comes from serving the Lord and bringing others to Christ.  And these were just two of the appointments we had this week, not to mention the 5 investigators who came to church, 3 new baptismal dates we put this week, and finding new investigators through other creative ways like English classes.  Last night I just wanted to give everything to my Lord and Savior for all that he has given to me and for the opportunity to serve in this great work.  Truly the blessings and feelings are indesribable, although sometimes I wish you guys could just feel or know a portion of the joy I feel out here and I hope some of the words in my weekly emails help transmit that message.  I have 50 more pages to read in Jesus the Christ this week and it is amazing about how much more real Christ and His Atonement seem and mean to me in my life more and how much my testimony has grown in my mission.  I also finished the Book of Mormon again this week.  I know this church is true.  I know the Book of Mormon is true.  I know that Christ lives and loves us.  And I know that the Lord is preparing the "hearts of men" each and every day so that we can go find them and feel just a little part of the joy our Heavenly Father feels as he sees His children progressing and taking steps in their lives to come back to Him.  I love being a missionary, I love this work, I love Mexico and the people here and I love my Savior Jesus Christ!

Well this week we played some more foosball which was good, taught some English classes which attracted some new people to the church, and played some more soccer and basketball with some investigators! We also had zone conference which was really good, Elder Nevarez and I gave a fun training that everyone loved, but probably just because candy was the reward for people participating haha. My convert, Ricardo, also went to zone conference to share his testimony and inspire all of us and he was so happy to see me.  I am so grateful for all of the converts and success I have had in my mission.  But at Zone Conference as I watched the Elders who were going home share their last testimony, and as we sang the last hymn "the armies of Helaman" it really hit me that I am almost done.  Now, next conference, I will be the one up there sharing my last testimony, and I only have a handful of days to work hard, and only a few more P-Days to write you guys and take advantage of my time here in Mexcio exploring and having fun! I never thought these days would come and it seems like the more I enjoy my time and lose myself in the work, the faster and faster it goes... Sometimes I think I don`t even want to go home because I know I will never have another opportunity quite like it but I know a lot of other fun and wonderful experiences and adventures are awaiting me ahead back home as well.... Life is just a wonderful blessing and journey.  Also one night we were up on the roof because the moon and sky was super cool so I will attach some pics below.  I know I am slacking on pics a lot so sorry.  Thanks for everything and have a great week! Love you guys!

Elder Tyler Clark

Championship Foosball Companionship

This week was super awesome with Elder Nezarez!! He has been a really fun companion who has also pushed me harder and has taught me a lot in just a week.  We have been going out to run every morning (since I can´t get fat my last couple of months!) and it has been great.  We run about 3-4 km (about 2 miles) around a track at a park by our house.  The first day we timed it and got the whole lap in 15 minutes, but we decided that by the end of the cycle we need to be running it in 12 minutes.  We are also going to run a 5K one day since my family all showed me up last week.  I have also found out that we are a pretty aewsome foosball companionship.  We are visiting a less active family that has foosball and they always love playing with us but can never beat Nevarez and I haha.  We have also been playing a game with a dog at our house (Camila) where we try to kick a little ball back and forth without her grabbing it.  It is actually pretty fun haha, our record right now is 35, but we have a goal to get 100 by the end of the cycle.  So we have been working harder than ever, but having a lot of fun while we do it too.

This week we were greatly blessed in the Lord´s work.  We ended up finding a new family of 4 yesterday (The Soria Familu) who are family members of our upstairs neighbors.  The Mom (Paty) and the two kids (Jorge and Felipe) are just awesome and I love them so much.  They literally live right in front of the church which will be nice, and whenever we teach they always have the best questions and are super interested.  I made it my goal to baptize at least 7 more people before I go home and if I could just bring this family to Christ I would be more that grateful and happy for all of the tons of success I have had in my mission.  I also had the opportunity to do a baptismal interview this week which are always cool experiences, and our zone is doing great.  Elder Nevarez and I are reading 10 pages every day from Doctrine and Covenants for companionship study and made it a goal to finish it all this cycle, and this week  I will finish the Book of Mormon for the 5th time in my mission (probably the deepest study I have done up to this point). This week I will also finally complete the task of finishing all of Jesus the Christ and this cycle I am going to read all of the New Testament.  It is crazy how much I have truly fallen in love with reading, studying, and pondering the Holy Scriptures.  How grateful I am for them in my life, the evidence of how much our Heavenly Father loves us and truly a way to bring power and the spirit into our lives.  How so much of the time we take the scriptures and words of the prophets for granted, but I know that they are true, and feel deeply blessed to have them in my life.  I am working hard to achieve my reading and study goals since I am starting to kinda realize,  I don´t have as much time in the mission left as it seems like... Sometimes just when you want time to go by slower, it starts going by faster.    I am really just trying to take advantage of this special and sacred time I have as a missionary to study and understand the scripture and especially to bring others to repentance.  One thing that Elder Nevarez has really taught me this week is the power and authority we truly have as missionaries.  Although we all can help and have a part in the missionary work, no one else in the world, besides the Apostles, have the divine power, duty, and privlege of preaching the Gospel and bringing others unto Christ through baptism and repentance.  As I get older in the mission, sometimes I feel like I wish  I had this same knowledge and understanding of the importnace of our sacred calling and am trying my best to make the most of these two years or 3 months that I still have left, because they will never come back and I will never have an opportunity quite like it.  It is sometimes sad to think that in the moment, we aren´t always as grateful or don´t always make the most of our opporunities because we don´t truly understand or appeciate them until they are coming to an end.  So that is why I have always made the decision to "leave it all out on the floor" and make the most of every moment in my life.  How blessed we all are to live in this great day.  How grateful I am to be a missionary and especially to be a member of the true and living Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

Well this week should be great as well, my second to last zone conference which is kind of crazy to think about, and with our ward mission leader we are planning English Classes every Friday at 6:00 since we have our normal church building back and some other ward activites.  This last Saturday we had a ward missionary activity for the young men and woman where they had to "live a day in the mission".  They had competitions like ironing their clothes, cooking breakfast, doing exercise (everything a missionary does daily) and then at the end we went out with them and taught lessons to investigators.  I know it was a really cool experience for them and they all seemed really excited to serve a misison of their own one day.  Finally, this past week I ate tacos 6 times! (5 of the times in 3 days haha) which is all the more reason to keep running in the morning.  But seriously, nothing else is quite like the tacos al pastor here and I will especially be taking advantage of this blessing the most I can in my time left here.  Thanks for all of your emails, prayers, and support and love and miss you guys tons! Have a great week!

Elder Tyler Clark

New Changes Already!!!

Hello Family and Friends!

This week will probably be a shorter email because we just got back from changes and we got to get to work soon, but unfortunately Elder Mercado had changes and I had to say goodbye to him.  He was an amazing companion for me, taught me a lot and I will miss him, but now I will get to make new friends with Elder Nevarez who is from Ensenada Mexico! Maybe I saw him when I went down to visit a couple of summers ago haha.  But anyways, even though I will miss Elder Mercado, I am SO excited for the cylce with Elder Nevarez and we are going to baptize a ton.

So this week we worked hard and put a few more baptismal dates.  We found another new family who are super cool and finally our local church building opened back up again, so now it will be SO much easier for our investigators to come to church since now they can walk and don`t have to pay for transportation.  I am hoping to truly make this one of the best cycles of my mission.  And our zone had a lot of changes as well but we will have a TON of success here now and we have some really good District Leaders and Elders in a zone to help us here.  Finally, this week we had a zone attack this week and got over 40 references.  The sisters in our zone drew out the whole plan of salvation on the sidewalk of the stake center, and we invited people on the street to come in so we could explain the Plan of Salvation in 5 minutes.  Almost all of them, after hearing what our message truly is, opened their hearts and accepted a return appointment.  It was a really good idea and will help us out a lot this week.

We have also been having a lot of success inviting investigators and less active members to play soccer and basketball with us every Saturday morning to help them get to know the church a little more as well.  We always have a lot of fun and that is how we have specifically gained the trust and have started teaching a little bit to our landlords.  They are a super cool family that live above us and always invite us to eat and hang out with them.  We have also gotten to know some of their family members and and going to be teaching a whole new family this week thanks to them.  So everything is going great here, and I couldn`t be more excited.  I can`t believe how fast last cycle went by and it is even crazier to think that I only have 2 more cycles left.... Today I watched some of the first people I knew here in the mission, some of the people that got here around my time, finally go home. So I guess I better give it my all with Nevarez these last 3 months!!! Love and miss you guys tons and have a great week!

Elder Clark

Week 6

This week was pretty normal and fast... I can`t belive it is already week 6 of this cycle, either me or my companion could be having changes next week (although I hope not) and now I will only have 2 cycles left, 3 more months to go from tomorrow! I can`t believe how quick time is passing by, and when I think it can`t be going faster, it somehow goes faster.  It is truly interesting to me that the more you enjoy life or where you are, it seems that the faster it goes, almost unfair, but I guess that is the trick to life, just learn to enjoy it all, and always think positively with a grateful heart.  This week I am going to be more focused on being positive and stop myself everytime I am have a negative thought.  Sometimes I feel like I am so far away from being like Christ but I know that one day we will get there, although it won`t be in this life.

This week I did have a couple of cool experiences, on Thursday, I felt like we needed to walk by the church on the way to lunch although my companion wanted to go a diffrent way.  As we walked by the church a lady with an 11 month old baby approached us, with lots of fear in her eyes, and saying she was just abused by her husband, was ran out of the house with her baby and a suitcase, and was just looking for help... Apparently a lot of different places didn`t want to take her in to help her, so for some reason, they sent her to a Mormon church, I am not really sure what she would have done if we weren`t there.  So we called our bishop and relief society president to see if anyone could help us, our bishop was really working hard but was out of town for work and couldn`t do much... Unfortunately, we couldn`t find any members who would take them in but we bought them some food, and spent the next few hours looking for a place where she could go.  I felt so much compassion for her as she told me this was the most alone she had felt in her life, no family or friends who could take her in... I wanted to help her so bad, and wished that somehow I could let her and her baby into my house, and I remember thinking that I would just give anything so that they could be okay.  Unfortunately we couldn`t find much luck, so we paid for a taxi to take her to a humanitarian aid place as from then on we could only hope and pray for her.  We didn`t end up eating that day, and we walked away a little sad from the situation that we couldn`t do more, but we gave her a Book of Mormon and I hope she has been okay since.  It is definitely experiences like these in the mission that humble me and make me truly grateful for the wonderful, blessed family and friends that I have in my life, and my heart goes out to those that haven`t been blessed as much as me.  I have seen it my whole mission and it has truly changed my life.  Well this week we also had a baptism for an 8 year old boy, and the bishop asked us to organize it all so even though it wasn`t our baptism, it was a less active family that we have been working with and we were very happy that his older brother, who is a priest, was able to have to sacred opportunity of baptizing his little brother.  That family was so happy.  We have also been teaching this one lady who has a mom with alzheimers and we love going over there and making the old grandma laugh.  We always joke with her that she is still 20 years old, and she was very excited to get cake and some presents on her birthday this last week.  Even though it is a little sad, it is cute seeing old ladies like that who are truly just like little kids.  We also were able to take Alma (an investigator) and her husband Alejandro to the visitors center in the temple this week which was a really special experience for both of them and Alma is really excited to get baptized.  And to top of the week we had 7 investigators at church this Sunday which was really awesome and gives us a lot of hope for next cylce!! This cycle has been kind of hard for some of our investigators to progress because they have been remodeling our church building and everyone has to go to the stake center which is further and more expensive, but in one more week our normal building should be ready and we are hoping to start filing people into the baptismal font soon!! I love this work and it was nice to see a lot of our hard work pay off this week with some investgators at church.  I am definitely going to be sprinting through the finish line these last 3 months.

Well, that is about it for this week, we had a YSA and youth activity on Saturday where we played a little soccer and basketball and gave them a tour of the church building.  We had a lot of success and a lot of the people were really impressed with the church.  This week we are hoping to find lots of more investigators.  And today we went to the centro and found some cool souveneir stores and places to shop for when I go home.  Other than that, we are just ready to work hard another week.  Love and miss you all and keep on enjoying summer!!

Elder Tyler Clark

Electric Bus Guitarist

Hey Family and Friends!

I don`t have that much time this week, but probably the most impressive thing I have seen in Mexico in a while happened this week when we were taking a bus (micro).  Normally on the buses here, people will get on, try to sell some chocolate or candy, sometimes they will beg (and rob) if they are desperate, and some people will even share their talents like free style rapping (One time I was carrying a basketball on a micro and they rapped about basketball so they won a few coins from me :)).  I have even seen someone with a sack of glass pour it out, and roll around in it expecting someone to give him money for hurting himself... Definitely did not get my money lol.  But this week someone got on with his electric guitar, amp, and a microphone tied around his neck.  He sand and played some sweet songs, but what was most impressing to me, is that he stood up, playing the guitar the whole time, and didn`t ever stumble or miss a note for all of the potholes, speed bumps, and not to mention the rain and traffic too.  I mean I can`t even get to my seat without stumbling and falling over 10 people on the micros so this guy definitely earned my respects and a few pesos.  So yeah, that was probably one of the most interesting things I say this week.

Well the work goes on here in Tepalcates! Elder Mercado and I have put some goals to baptize the next few months and we have had really good, powerful, spirit-filled lessons with our investigators this week.  Something we have really been focusing on a lot lately is teaching the Sabbath Day and explaining the imtortance of keeping it.  It has always been a huge challenge here in my mission both for members and non-members.  I definitely love being a missionary though, teaching the Gospel and calling the people to repentance, and I am definitely working as hard as I can and enjoying every last second of these finals months.  This week one of my old investigators in Neza, is getting baptized as well!!!  I have had to be the one to plant a lot of the seeds in my past areas since for a lot of them, I have been there for little time, but it is awesome to see that the other Elders there are working hard and harvesting the seeds that I have planted to see the fruits of my labors.  I have been SOO blessed in my mission with so much success, so many awesome converts, and I give thanks to my Heavenly Father every day for it.  I have just been in a grateful mood in general these last few weeks because I truly have been so blessed in my life.

Well unfortunately Mexico lost today so everyone will probably be a little grumpy this week... Hope it doesn`t effect the work too much lol.  But Thanks for all of your emails, prayers, and support and I hope you all back home are having a great summer!!! Love you guys and have a great week!

Elder Clark

Trip to Hawaii!

Well, this week we had a stake activity that we have been planning to go to Hawaii.  It was a lot of fun, a ton of investigators showed up, and it was a HUGE success.  First we played some games and had some activites and all "boarded the plane" to go to Hawaii.  Unfortunately, the plane crashed on the way there and we all died... We then had some angles explain to us that we were in the Spirit World and there were missionaries there handing out Books of Mormon, pamphlets, and teaching to those who were not members.  Then we had guided tours as we passed through the "Telestial Kingdom", "Terrestial Kingdom", and "Celestial Kingdom".  We assigned YSA from each individual ward in the stake to set up a kingdom of glory and it turned out awesome.  We were really excited to have some of our own investigators there and I think everyone really enjoyed it.  Somehow we all resurrected though and are back here safe in Mèxico, so don`t worry family, I am not dead.  It was a fun, creative activity though and took a lot of work on our part but it was really satisfying.  Sorry I don`t have pictures of the activity because I didn`t bring my camera, but I will try to get some for next week.

This week was pretty good in the work as well, that family we found contacting last week after the falled baptism ended up being really cool and interested so I am hoping they are able to progress.  It is a little frustrating right now because we have a ton of investigators right now, but they all seem to have just one big challenge that they need to overcome to get baptized... whether it is they need to get married, have a family memeber sick and need to take care of them, or working on Sunday, but we are working hard with them so that they can continue progressing and if all works out we should have a lot of baptisms coming up.  Crossing my fingers, I just want to baptize as many as I can before I go home.  Also Ricardo did get baptized this Saturay, and realy wanted me to go back and baptize him, but unfortunately we had the activity and it didn`t work out... I was a little sad but I sent him a message and he is happy and said he will be getting sealed in the temple in a year so I can just come back for that :) This week I have been studying a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and there is just so much to understand, but whenever I study it in the morning, I learn something new every time, it seems more and more personal to me the more I come to know Christ, and the coolest thing is whenever I study it, I just feel soo excited and animated to preach the Gospel to everyone.  It is true what is says in Preach my Gospel, "As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase.  You will feel, as Lehi did, the "great importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth".  I have definitely felt this desire grow and grown throughout my whole mission, but especially as I learn more about the life of Christ and His divine mission as our Savior, Redeemer, and Lord.  I am so grateful for the Atonement of Christ, after all, without it our lives would be without any hope or happiness, with no chance of a remission of our sins or the opportunity to overcome death and return to live with our Heavenly Father and families forever.  We owe everything we have had, we do have, and everything we will have to Jesus Christ for His ultimate act of love for us.  I invite you this week to study and ponder about the Atonement of Jesus Christ as well...

Well this week we also achieved a pretty great accomplishment, we found some AMAZING TACOS! Yes, I still love Tacos Tepalcates in my area but we tried a new place that had Tacos de Suadero, Longaniza, and Tripa and they were some of the best tacos I have had of that stuff, since Tacos Tepalcates is mostly tacos al pastor which are really good too.  But we didn`t know what we were getting into when before this new taco placed open, there were already about 20-30 people waiting outside and the people even passed out little tiles to know who was first as if we were at a ride in Disney Land!! I have NEVER seen something like this for tacos before but apparently you have to get there at least 30 minutes early if you want a good spot in line.  But it wasn`t exaggerated because they were probably the best tacos de tripa I have ever had in my mission, and if you don`t know what tacos de tripa are, I invite you to look them up ;) But if they are cleaned and cooked well, they are delicious.  So that was a pretty exciting part of my week, also Mexico won again so that was pretty exciting and everyone here is getting pretty excited.  It is kind of funny, whenever Mexico is playing here, or any big game of the World Cup, the streets are completely EMPTY and everyone cancels the appointments we had with them.. No one comes to the door when we contact so it is just kind of a dead time... Every single store, bus, and shop on the side of the road has the world cup going on so it is impossible to miss... I think I am going to watch more soccer when I get home because it seems pretty exciting... I definitely miss sports a lot. Well, that pretty much wraps us this week, still raining here everyday all day so we have been getting pretty wet but at least it isn`t schorching hot! Love you all and have a great week!!!

Today I hit 20 months in the mission!!!

Your favorite missionary,

Elder Tyler Clark

Gana México!!!

Hey Family and Friends,

Well, if you haven´t heard yet, Mexico beat Germany yesterday in the World Cup and it was definitely made known here.  It wasn´t really a surprise that pretty much all of our members and investigators showed up about an hour late to church... Just about every house has the game on, and every micro or bus had it on the radio.  And then when they won everyone was partying yesterday like they had already won the World Cup though haha.  I did get a Mexico jersey in the streets a few weeks ago and have been enjoying repping it for a while here.  We will see if Mexico can make it somewhere in the World Cup this year.

This week was great in the work as well! We have been teaching an awesome couple, Judith and Faustino who came to church and really love the church.  They have had a lot of prayers answered when they had doubts about Joseph Smith or some of the commandments and we are planning a zone "noche blanca" or "white night" for July 7 when we will have all the baptisms at the same time on the same day in the stake center.  We are hoping to bring a few investigators ourselves, not just Faustino and Judith to the waters of baptism that day.

Honestly, this week was incredibly fast, and I can´t believe it has already been 2 weeks in my new area here.  I´m not sure how it is possible but time seems to be going faster and faster exponentially which really scares me and I can´t believe that I will be home so soon... I have really been working hard this week. studying lots, and trying my best to love and serve this people.  It was really disappointing this week because I showed up super excited to baptize Ricardo on Saturday and just minutes before he called and cancelled... We were super frustrated because we think it was a bad situation with something that happened with the bishop, and we haven´t talked to him since... It was really frustrating to have already gone over there too and have it be cancelled, but I decided there must have been a reason it was cancelled and we went out to contact.  We contacted another family that afternoon in the street and if they end up working out this week, maybe that was one of the reasons I had to be working in my area.  So hopefully it was all part of the Lord´s plan.  Well this week we had zone conference, it has literally rained EVERY SINGLE DAY ALL DAY so we have gotten pretty wet (not sick yet!) and today we went to a shopping mall and I ate some of the biggest hamburgurs I´ve ever seen!! I was pretty hungry so I finished it all but they were super good.  Well love and miss you guys all tons, thanks for everything, all your emails and have a great week! Talk to you later! Go Mexico!!!

Elder Tyler Clark

Tacos Tepalcates

Dear Friends and Family,

Well, the first week in my new area, Tepalcates, was AWESOME! It was one of the coolest areas in the mission and I am super happy and excited to be here.  I hope I finish my mission here too because I am definitely tired of packing up my suitcases haha. No but for real I love my new companion too, Elder Mercado, he is awesome and we worked really hard this week.  I have been able to see a lot of tender mercies from the Lord, felt the guidance of the Spirit, and have had a ton of success as well!! Plus we are planning some fun things for P-Day this cycle including maybe even a cool hike to a waterfall.  So I am super excited.  AND, we might just have the best tacos in the whole mission here... They are soo good and they are called "Tacos Tepalcates".  We will definitely be making it at least a weekly tradition, maybe even twice a week since I only have 4 more months to enjoy this legit Mexican Food! Ahhh!!

So like I said, I had a lot of tender mercies and cool experiences this week.  First, on Sunday morning, I prayed to feel more that God loved me and was satisfied and happy with the work that I have done so far in my mission, and promised him to work as hard as I possibly could these last 4 months.  In the afternoon I got a phone call from Elder Kay, who is in my old area in Benito Juarez and said they had just did the baptismal interview for Ricardo, one of the investigators I was working with when I was in Neza.  I was trying really hard to get him baptized but he couldn´t because he wasn´t married yet.  We took them to the visitor´s center, taught them a lot, and they came to church every week, but it just never happened while I was there.  Well, he had asked me to come back and baptize him this Saturday and I couldn´t be more excited! Elder Kay and I decided we are going to come fly back down for his sealing in the temple with his wife.  Next, we were walking home from a meeting we had in the stake center last night when someone yelled "Hola Elderes!" to us.  When I turned over, I realized that is was RAMIRO!! My convert from Atlicpac about a year ago who is going to get sealed in the temple soon.  Him and his wife were both there and we were just shocked we ended up running into eachother.  It was nice to talk to them again and I can just tell they love and appreciate me soo much which really humbles me.  They said they are still working on final plans but Ramiro has an interview with the bishop this week so he can get his patriarchal blessing, and in 2 months they have planned to go to the temple.  They are so awesome and I am so happy that he is still going strong with a great testimony.  I knew the Lord put him and Ricardo in my path yesterday to help me feel just a little of the joy and blessings that come from preaching the Gospel.  As for our area, there is a ton of work, we are teaching an awesome, humble family right now- Faustino and Judith, and their two little kids who are awesome investigators.  I already love them a ton and will be really strong memebers one day.  A cool part about my area too though is that it has a lot of interesting areas, and a lot of really humble houses too.  The people are so willing to accept us here and it is cool to see a different part of the mission since most of my mission has been in the big, populated city of Nezahualcoyotl.  When I was in Atlicpac, it had a lot of little towns, hills, and outskirts too and that is where I had the most success so I am definitely hoping to make this last area one of my best!

Well today was a fun P-Day as well.  We got a big group of us together and played some basketball, volleyball, and Coup!! I have seriously got a ton of people hooked on Coup now and it is pretty fun.  Everyone else likes it a lot and we had some pretty intense games.  I have also been studying a lot this week and I love studying.  I know it will be harder to read my scriptures and such when I get home so I have put a lot of study goals and am trying to also take advantage of my sacred time I have out here to study and learn all that I can about the Gospel.  I am reading Jesus the Christ a lot right now and am loving it.  I also love being zone leader again to try and motivate and animate the Elders in my zone.  So basically I couldn´t be happier right now.  Well thanks for all of your emails, love and support and have a great week! Talk to you next week!

Elder Tyler Clark