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
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