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

Back to Zone Leader!!

Hey Family and Friends!

Well, this might be a shorter email today because today we have CHANGES!! Yep, I am getting changed later today, and Elder Moody will be in charge of the area and all of our investigators and he will be great!  I seriously cannot believe that 3 months have already passed by with Elder Moody, he has already finished his training and is ready to continue to grow and learn in the mission.  It has been a great blessing and privilege to have trained Elder Moody, I have learned so much from him, I think I learned more than he did from this training, but I definitely love him lots.  After all, he is my son.  As for my changes, I am not exactly sure where I will be going yet until I get to changes this afternoon, but I do know that I will be zone leader again so that will be super fun and I am really excited for that because zone leader and trainer have definitely been my most favorite positions in my mission!! Last night it was really weird and kind of hit me packing that this could be my last time packing before I COME HOME!! I could end up being in this new area for the last 4 months of my mission which is really a scary thought.  I must admit I was hoping to stay in this area a little bit longer, I just love the people here SOO much and it seemed like exactly this week we found a TON of new investigators... We had 2 COMPLETE investigator families- husband, wife, kids, and all at church with us Sunday which was awesome but made me really sad I am leaving.  We just have so much work right now and if all goes well Elder Moody and his new companion could have up to 9 baptisms next cycle without the new investigators they will find too!! I just want to make sure though in my new area I work as hard as I can, so I can finish my mission strong and keep the 20 point lead that we have here in the 4th quarter.  No time for cruising because there is so much work to do!

This weekend we did have the baptism for Karla which was really special and it was fun baptizing as well with Elder Kay and Elder Crandall.  It was a super baptism for sure, Elder Kay and I played a duo on the guitar while Elder Crandall and Moody sang and the spirit was really strong.  It was a beautiful baptism, lots of ward support, no water problems, and Karla I know was just really happy.  It was sad after church on Sunday going around and saying goodbye to the people who I have loved and served with all my heart but I suppose how that is always how the mission is.  Some people were really thoughtful and got me some sweet gifts too.  And of course, I suppose Moody wouldn`t have had a "real training" if he didn`t get a stomach bug so yes, one day this week he got really sick, was throwing up, and I felt super bad, but he recovered quickly and he almost made it through his whole training without getting a stomach sickness which would have been really impressive.  

Well I will try to get back on later to send a few pictures from this weekend and let you guys know where my new area is, but thanks for all of your prayers, love, and support, and I will talk to you guys next week!!

Your favorite missionary,

Elder Clark