Real Life Mario Kart

Well this week was pretty normal and calm, but there were a couple of pretty exciting or crazy things.  One happened when we were on our way to play basketball today, and we were traveling in what is known as a "combi", or a big, white transportation van.  Well the combi got in a little fender bender with another taxi and the taxi driver got really mad and was blocking the combi in and wouldn´t let him out. Then the combi just decided (since it was carrying people for public transport) to force its way through and basically just pushed the smaller taxi out of the way leaving a pretty decent sized dent.  The combi driver had to get in an emergency lane that is only used for policeman, ambulances, and "mexi buses" or in other words, it was not supposed to be there, and the taxi driver got right over next to it, so it could not leave the emergency lane.  Well the combi driver all of the sudden turned into a NASCAR racer, or maybe he was an actor in fast and furious, because he went full throttle and was just RACING to lose this taxi... It might have been one of the top 5 most loco experiences I´ve had in Mexico and there were plenty of swear words flying around too.  I guess there was moments where I thought I was going to die, but we eventually got off safely at our destination and I guess it was a pretty fun experience.  It was pretty much real life Mario Kart.  So yep, I am just living the life here in Mexico, thanks for all of your prayers which is probably the only thing helping me survive.

Anyways, this week was also really exciting because my kid (Elder Moody) had his first baptism and he got to baptize!! We were so happy and made sure everything was all prepared and ready beforehand so we didn´t have any water problems! Everything went very smooth, Elder Moody and I did our special musical number singing and on the guitar and it was a beautiful baptism for Gabriela Verdusco.  Her whole family showed us as well who have been pretty inactive for a while, but I know they felt the Spirit strongly as well.  We were also really blessed and happy because our investigator Karina came and loved it a lot, and President Mann was there to support us too!! The member who has been helping us with Tiffany, Diana was also a huge help showing Karina around the church and helping her feel comfortable.  At the end of the service, Karina said the last prayer and did an awesome job!! So it was a very special baptism and confirmation for Gabi and the Verdusco family this week, who I love so much. We also had the great opportunity of going to the visitor´s center in the temple with Karina this week which was very special as well.  She always mentions to us that she just feels so happy and feels "the presence of God" whenever she is with us or goes to these activites.  The only downside with her is that we talked to her on Sunday about baptism again and she said that she personally wants to get baptized, but after talking to her parents, who are very Catholic, she doesn´t think it will be possible right now... It is hard because the Gospel of Jesus Christ isn´t meant to tear families apart, rather bring them together, and even though she is already 23 and can make her own decisions, you always have to respect your parents as well... We are hoping to meet her parents soon and hoping and praying as well that the Lord will soften her heart.  As for Tiffany, she got pretty sick and we haven´t been able to see her this week, but we did find another awesome family we will start teaching soon and I think they will progress really well! (Maira, Vanessa, and Dylan.)  It is sad sometimes when your investigators don´t seem to progress exactly how you thought they would (like Karina and Tiffany) but that is why it is always a constant search to find the other chosen and "lost sheep".  So even though we´ve had some pretty tough situations with our investigators lately, we are working hard to continue looking for the people who are waiting for us.  I love this work and I know it is the work of the Lord.  

Well as for other things that happened this week, we played beer pong (with orange soda) in our district meeting with a fun little twist to relate to the missionary work- our district leader, Elder Diuguid, is awesome. We also had some good tacos, the Abundes Family made my mom´s mint brownies (which honestly didn´t turn out as good as my mom´s unfortunately), retried some chicken alfredo which turned out a little better this time, and became a trompo master.  Yes, trompos are these little tops they have here that you throw them and can do tricks and they are super fun... It is kind of like a bey blade manually launched but they are sweet and I´m pretty sure they only exist here but I am getting pretty good at them.  I love the people here and all the traditions they have.  And lastly, I officially completed 18 months in the mission this week which is honestly pretty crazy, and pretty soon I will only have 5 more months to go... Ugh the time is going by wayy too fast.  Well love and miss you all, thanks for everything you always do for me and I look forward to hearing from you next week!.

Elder Clark

Me Encanta México!

Dear Family and Friends

This week was awesome!! And it is INSANE to think that a whole cycle has already gone by with Elder Moody, he´s already halfway done with his training!! And now I only have 4 cycles left in my mission... Ahhh! This week was really fun because the cooking continued.  One night we made fresas con crema which is really easy but it is a super good treat here.  Then today were changes and we didn´t have to go, so we went with the Abundes family in our ward, who are AWESOME and they taught us how to make flour tortillas from scratch, we made burritos, AND my mom´s cookie recepe!!  The mom said she had tried a lot of different missionary cookie recipe´s before but she says my mom´s won EASILY! So that was a lot of fun and I love that family so much. I must admit, I got pretty good at making tortillas too, they said that I was basically a Mexican now so I will have to make some homemade tortillas with you guys on the way back. So like every P-Day, we had a lot of fun today also with a trip to Walmart, and haircuts!

The work this week was just as amazing as always as well.  Karina is progressing great and has a lot of questions that show she is really interested in baptism.  This week we are taking her to the visitor´s center in the temple. too which will be awesome. We were also SUPER excited this week too because Tiffany came to church!! Even though she couldn´t understand that much, her husband came back for the first time in about 8 years (I think), and her two little girls.  We were so excited when they walked in and they told us that they really liked it here and will be coming back every week.  The husband (Enrique) is really trying hard to help us right now, since he wants his wife to get baptized and is super cool.  In fact, this week they invited us to their house for lunch one day and made real american hamburgers and french fries which were super good.  I love that family so much (the Suarez family).  And even though we were planning on it, they couldn´t make it to the visitor´s center with us after church on Sunday, but they said we could replan it for this week which will be awesome as well. AND to top it off, there are a couple english speakers in the ward that went to their mission´s in the US so they were a huuge help for us.  Especially Diana, who served her mission in Compton, translated the whole time for her during relief society and invited them over to her house after church for lunch. She said they had a great time and Diana has been coming to a lot of lessons with us as well which has been super helpful.  I want SO BAD that Tiffany gets baptized and that in one year from now, Enrique and her can get sealed in the temple.  It will also be really exciting this week though because we will be having our own baptism for Gaby!! She still hasn´t decided who she wants to baptize her yet, but I´m hoping she picks Elder Moody so he can have his first baptism in the mission.  And speaking of baptisms this last weekend I got to go back for the baptism of Macrina, Arcelio, and Alexa, a mom, dad, and their daughter.  It was a family in Chimalhuacan where I found and taught them with Elder Warnick.  It was so sweet and special, even though we had trouble getting water (AGAIN!) everything eventually worked out and it was a great baptism.  I ended up playing guitar and Moody sang to "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" during the baptismal services which turned out awesome, Moody has an amazing voice.  And the ward is soo excited to help them prepare to enter in and get sealed in the temple in a year from now which would be great! Warnick and I already decided we would be flying down here if they get sealed in the temple.  And lastly, talking about temple sealing´s I talked with Ramiro yesterday who will be completing a year of being baptized next month on May 21!!!! And he said all is looking great for him and his wife to be getting sealed in the temple! I am sooo excited, and seriously after seeing all of the blessings and progress in my investigators and converts this week, I was just filled with an indescribable joy.  I seriously love these people sooo much.  I never thought I could come to love literally each and every person that I serve out here with that same Christlike love, but I really do.  And this is why I love being a missionary too.  There is no more satisfying, or joy fulfilling work.  I love this church and I love being a missionary.

Well that pretty much about wraps up this week. I also have another funny story where I made this old lady in my ward´s day.  Her name is Sister Garcia and everytime the missionaries ask her if they can help her with anything, she tells them, "No! You didn´t bring your apron!" So this time when we finished eating dinner with them, I asked if we could help with anything and that is when she started to tell me I didn´t bring my apron.  But that is when I pulled out my BYU apron, that my Grandma made for me before coming out here. I told her I was ready to help and I don´t think I´ve ever seen her happier.  She said that I was the only missionary in 20 years of her knowing missionaries that has ever brought their apron so she gladly let me wash the dishes, and took some pictures with me too.  So shout out to my Grandma for making me that apron and helping me make this lady happy.  That is why I love being a missionary too, just to serve and love the people here, and occasionally make them laugh and smile.  I think that is what I am good it at least.  And lastly, I definitely have been repping ALL of the Spurs gear that I could this week, socks, ties, shirts, jerseys, and I think it worked becuase they won one game against the Warriors this least.  And I heard Popovich´s wife died which is really sad but I hope the Spurs will be better for next year when I am back.  Love and miss you all, thanks for everything you do for me, and have a GREAT week!!!

Elder T-Clark

4th Quarter Cookin´

Dear Family and Friends!

So this week we were definitely an awesome week and a very hot start to the first quarter. We came out swinging and aren´t taking any chances these last 6 months.  Plus I did a lot of cooking this week which was kind of fun, I am starting to like cooking a lot more, and especially going to the gym, I´ve been trying to load on protein and eat a ton of good food.  I usually cook a bunch of rice I eat throughout the week and a couple slices of chicken breast at night, but this week I decided to stretch my talents a little bit and make some chicken alfredo.  My first attempt at some homeade alfredo sauce honestly wasn´t too bad and I will definitely be trying it again maybe this week.  Today we actually went bowling and went to Chili´s afterwards too for Elder Kay´s birthday party where I got a nice bbq ranch burger and a chocolate molten cake... Yeah, I´ve had some pretty good food lately of course with some occasional tacos. So I definitely started this 4th quarter off cooking on fire.

The work honestly was AMAZING this week, we had our break-through finally after it has been a little hard opening an area. One day (Wednesday) we had a ton of appointments fall and it just seemed like everyone we were looking for wasn´t home... But we didn´t get discouraged and kept working hard.  We got to another appointment in the afternoon where our ward mission leader was going to come with us and called and told us that he would be a few minutes late so we waited outside in front of the appointment.  And in this those few short minutes we were there, a lady, Karina, contacted us, telling us she wanted to hear more about what we did and wanted to practice her english too! So of course we got an appointment with her and invited her to church since we do that with everyone and we were SO HAPPY when she actually came to church on Sunday!!! The members were very nice and helpful to her as well, sitting next to her, and taking her to class, and we had another appointment with her later Sunday afternoon.  She told us that she loved church and felt very welcome and peaceful there. We also had another member there with us at the lesson where we taught the Restoration and the powerful presence Spirit was definitely with us. And at the end, she TOTALLY accepted the baptism invitation.  The best thing is that she lives with her brother, sister, and parents too, who we could totally start teaching soon and she just seems like the perfect investigator, coming to church on her own after just a simple invitation and being so humble and willing to get baptized, and of course we helped her recognize that she was feeling the Spirit in her life. And it is awesome to see that even though we don´t always have success contacting, or a lot of appointments fall, I learned that the Lord always blesses us and will just put the chosen and ready people in our path if we are willing to show Him we are diligent.  And that is exactly what happened, we would´ve never met Karina if our ward mission leader wasn´t showing up a little late, or if our appointment before wouldn´t have fallen, but sometimes the Lord can just tweak all of the little, tiny details in our life, that sometimes seem insignificant, but that really can affect as much as the entire salvation of a son or daughter of God.  Some people call those coincidences, I call it divine intervention. Another really awesome divine intervention I noticed this week was another lesson we had with Tiffany.  Even though Tiffany is still struggling to accept the Book of Mormon and has a lot of doubts, we brought a member with us to a lesson with her too, someone who just moved to the ward and served her mission in Compton California, so she knows English, a perfect friend for Tiffany.  And we had a very powerful lesson especially sharing our testimonies at the end and because her husband, Enrique, finally opened up and shared her testimony as well.  Enrique told us that the exact day that we showed up and found Tiffany, is was a really, REALLY hard day and had been a really tough time in her life.  But ever since we´ve been over, she has been happier and more hopeful, and she admitted it was also nice to find some other people that speak English haha. But we talked about how God always loves us and sends other people to help us, we talked about how before Elder Moody and I got here, there were two latinos here who would not have been able to teach Tiffany at all, but President decided to "white wash" the area and send us here through revelation.  We talked about how Diana (the member that speaks english) just moved to the ward as well and will be a great friend for her. So Tiffany agreed to keep reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and we are super excited because she is coming to church with us this week and after the meetings we are heading over to the visitor´s center in the temple! It will be an awesome and wonderful experience for her and her family there as well and we are really looking forward to that. And then we finished off the week GREAT by having 3 of our investigators at church on Sunday (Lazaro, Gaby, and Karina) so we were super stoked about that.  So things are finally starting to get rolling here in Palmar and we are super excited for another 7 weeks at least to keep working together and having tons of success. And did I mention I am going back for 3 baptisms to Chimalhuacan this week (The area I was with Elder Warnick) for Macrina, Arcelio, and Alexa, a complete family that we found and taught together which is sooo exciting! Can the work get any better here?!?!

Well, I´m sure as you can tell I am very excited, happy, and grateful to be a missionary. There just isn´t any other work quite like it.  The blessings and the joy felt when seeing your investigators progress, or come to church, is just something uncomparable with anything else. And I invited all of you guys as well to help participate in the missionary work in each of your wards.  Thank you guys so much for all of your continual love, prayers, emails, and support, and I can´t wait to hear from you all next week!

Your favorite Elder,

Elder T-Clark

4th Quarter

Hellllooo Family and Friends!!

Wow! Today starts the 4th quarter in my mission, especially because exactly 6 months from now will be my very last P-Day... But that is no excuse to stop now, I have been in and seen way too many basketball games where the other team has came back from down late in the game and won it, so even though I may be up by 20 points right now, I just gotta keep on working and pushing until I make it to the finish line.  And as much as I love being a missionary, I will admit, I DO NOT want this game to go to overtime haha, I think a nice, satisfying 20 point blowing "win" to my mission and then coming home to see all of you guys again would be perfect.  So good thing there has been no major "injuries" in this game and my coaches (President Mann, President Stutzneggar, and you guys back home) have done an amazing job supporting me, helping me, and cheering me on so far.  Plus, all of my teammates (companions and mission buddies) have always been awesome and have been there to have my back too.  So even though there have been some ups and downs this game, I´ve definitely had some good runs too where I´ve been on fire, and now I just got to finish the job in the 4th quarter.

So the work was awesome this week!! We were a little sad when the other team him a big 3 pointer and when Brenda, Edith, and Cesar told us that "they just wanted to teach us, not to baptize them" which was a little sad to hear but at least they knew why we were here as missionaries and were grateful for our help we brought to them. Even though that was a little disappointing though, we still had a ton of other success putting baptismal dates with Lazaro, and Abraham who we found earlier this week.  They are both super excited to get baptized and are such humble old men so hopefully we can keep helping them progress.  And we were SO EXCITED when we FINALLY got another appointment with Tiffany!! It was super hard these last couple of weeks because they were gone on vacations and cancelled on us about 4 times but we finally got our groove back with them and they said they will for sure be coming to church with us this next week! If you don´t remember Tiffany is our investigator who we found from Houston Texas, who only speaks English. We talked a little more to her husband this time too, Enrique, who actually has quite an interesting story.  He was fully on his way to go on a mission and come back and play football for BYU when some problems came up in his life and he moved to Houston.  That is where he met Tiffany being her waiter at Olive Garden and then he was having some visa problems so he came back to live here with his parents and brought Tiffany and his 2 little girls with him. They seriously are such a cool family and even though Tiffany is super smart and knows a lot about religion and the bible and has a lot of tough questions for us, she seems to be progressing, they always love having us over, and I am just so happy when I am with them. I truly love them.  And it is weird but right now my biggest desire is that she gets baptized and that they get sealed in the temple in one year from now.  It makes ALL the difference I think when you truly LOVE your investigators and the people you serve, and DESIRE their salvation more than anything else.  And it is crazy how much you find yourself praying for these people and thinking about what you can do to help these people better as you study, or are just walking in the street. And I feel like God has definitely blessed me with revelation, as they counselled a lot in the general conference, for each one of my investigators when I truly love and care for them.  Also, it has been hard lately trying to get Ramiro´s number, but I finally got it today, and will call him tonight, and from what it sounds like, he is still going strong in the church and is on his way to get sealed in the temple with his wife next month!!! Seriously coming into the mission one of the things I most wanted was to see one of my converts get sealed to his family in the temple and I think I will get AT LEAST 1 with Ramiro next month! I have been so blessed with so much success and joy in the fruits of my labors on my mission.  So even though the other team hit a big 3 pointer at the beginning of the week with Brenda and Edith, we came back with a big run that gave us some cushion going into the 4th quarter.

And now for some of the fun highlights of my week.  Today we got to go visit Esteban at his house who made us carne asada and we made some homemade sherbet afterwards!! Man does that guy know how to cook, I am so grateful for him and he always tells me that I am his favorite because I am the only missionary who continually goes back to visit him haha. I mean I guess I am just trying to take advantage of some really good food.  But I really do love him a ton too, and I always call him my "Tio Mexicano".  We also found a really good taco place in our area this week and Elder Moody still hasn´t gotten sick so I guess that means either I have done a pretty good job taking care of him, or he has a REALLY good immune system haha. No cold, no stomach flu, not even diarrhea I don´t think, which is pretty impressive.  Although I don´t normally ask him everyday if he has diarrhea, that might be a little weird.  We also had interviews with President Mann and Sister Mann this week which were such a great blessing as always and got to see Coco again for a zone activity!! This time with investigators and members and we talked a little bit more about how we can relate it to Family History Work.  I love that movie so much. And on divisions, Elder Diuguid and I helped fill up water balloons at a church primary water day which was really funny.  I love little kids a ton, and even though it took us a good 30 minutes to fill all 200 of them up, they were gone in about 38.6 seconds haha... I guess that is how all water balloon fights are though.  And for some reason that thought it was SUPER HILARIOUS to get the missionaries all wet who were only filling the balloons up!! Hmmm.. okay, okay, maybe we were egging it on a little too though and threw a couple ourselves.  Good thing too because it has sure been BLAZING HOT and sunny this week! And finally shout out to the very best mom and family in the world who put together the most AWESOME Easter package for me!! Love you guys so much! I can´t believe it is only a month away to make my last skype call home! Ahhh!!! Well anyways, love and miss you guys a ton, thanks for everything, especially your emails, prayers, and letters, and I look forward to hearing from you next week!!!

Tu Hijo, Hermano, Sobrino, Nieto, Primo, o Amigo Favorito,

Elder T-Claaarrrkkkk!

Calm Before the Storm

Hey Family and Friends!

I must admit, this week nothing too exciting happened and I don´t have as much time as normal today so this email might be a little short.  We had an AWESOME P-Day playing basketball (of course), starting in the gym, and now I have SUNBURNT! We got back a little late to our area but it was a lot of fun and thank you guys so much for all of your emails and support.

As far as our investigators go, everything just keeps moving along.  We had the blessing of finding a lot of new investigators this week, and are trying to keep helping our current ones progress.  It is a great work and I love it. Saul is still scheduled to get baptized in just a few weeks so that is super exciting!! And of course conference was AWESOME! Definitely a one to remember... One of the best I´ve ever seen.  Lots of new and exciting changes from President Nelson and it is obvious the work of the Lord is hastening in these last days. How exciting that we will have a temple in Russia!! I got out of conference that as members, we need to focus on loving and forgiving others even more by administering to them because of our love towards them and the Savior and that it is important to remember we are all one eternal team or family trying to find our way back home to our loving Heavenly Parents.  I learned a lot that we need to seek even more for our own personal revelation and learn to be masters at following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  That is definitely something I will be working on more these next few weeks.  And also, Elder Diuguid and I counted all of the conference jokes that were made and there were a grand total of 58 through all 5 sessions!! Haha gotta love those conference jokes, especially the Spanish ones which were awesome! Some of my favorite talks were those of Lynch G. Robbins, Devin G. Durrant, Larry Y Wilson, and of course Holland and Nelson´s talks were amazing as always.  To be honest, I am kind of sad conference is over, I was looking forward to it for a while, but now it is our time and job to apply what we learned from our prophet and apostles.  How glad I am for a prophet and apostles in these latter days to lead and guide us. I love this church!

Well, like I said, it wasn´t a super eventfull week for us, and I like to think of it as the calm before the storm.  This week I will be wrapping up the 3rd quarter in my mission because after next week I will only have 6 months left! It is weird to think that 2 days after the next general conference in October, I will be flying home to see all of you guys again! I guess there is still plenty of time and a lot of work to do between here and there, but I better get my game face on and push even harder to make sure I can secure this "win" in the 4th quarter.  Love and miss you guys tons, as always, thanks for everything, and have a GREAT week!!!

Love,

Elder T-Clark