Hey,
Well I'm doing well here. We just got transfers yesterday and I'm staying here in Abaetetuba with Elder R. Silva for another 6 weeks. This is not what I expected but I think it will be good. I get kind of annoyed with him sometimes and I think that part of that is because I am too serious a lot of the time. Mom, I'm sure you will remember, when I would be upset with something at home, feeling a lot of pressure and stress, I would kind of close up and just be kind of moody. Well, I feel like that's the way I have been for the last 5 months. I guess a lot of it is this huge change, and a new language. It's hard to be out-going and really involved and animated when you don't understand (or when you do understand but don't know how to respond). I also think another part of the moodiness is that I understand that missionary work is a big deal and that I am inviting people to make serious covenants with God. The funny thing is that what I'm doing is serious business, but actually doing missionary work is not supposed to be really serious and moody, it's supposed to be unified with love and happiness. My message is about peace, eternal families, and joy. I often find myself walking through the streets struggling with something (i.e., trying to look unified when I walk with my comp because he is hard to walk with, or trying to figure out how to express my feelings in a foreign language, and remembering names which is really hard for me). But then I'll think hey, snap out of it, people are watching you and that's when I slap a smile on my face. I really find a lot more joy in missionary work when I spend more time thinking about my investigators and how I can help them learn and grow. So I guess those are my thoughts for you guys. I´m really thankful for all of your letters and support and I hope you both have an amazing new year and anniversary in a week!
So this is my weekly report:
We had way more lessons this last week and found a lot of new people to teach. We worked super hard during the week to help our investigators come to church, but none of them came. I hope we can do better this week. We have one baptism planned for this Saturday: Ronildo, he is 19, married to a member and has a 5-month old baby boy. He has been hard to teach because he travels for work for a few days at a time and it's kind of sporadic, but he has a problem with drinking. The cool thing is he didn't drink this last weekend which is super good he has a lot of pressure from friends and older brothers. Woot!
So another funny story. We went to see an investigator Saturday afternoon and Naiana (18) and her Mom (Nazare) where there. Across the street there were two houses right next to each other playing pretty horrible music. Both had big speakers and where having a little bit of a battle seeing whose speakers were louder. Well after a little bit, it became apparent that Naiana was drunk. She was giving me that weird look, you know, when someone is just looking into your eyes and its just uncomfortable. Well, it was getting weird and we left real quick (she even tried to hug me, can you believe it? Ahhhh ... scary!) So that was my first up close and personal encounter with a "snake" here in Brazil.
Well that's about all I have time for. Emma, Ellis thanks for the emails.
I love you guys,
Elder Clark
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