19 Investigators in church, 1 baptism

July 16, 2012

Hey, Dad,

I really enjoyed your thoughts here.  Especially your comments about the youth not being accepting to people that smoke or that sort of thing.  I just laughed a bit.  I think their perceptions about smoking and that sort of thing are a little bit sheltered.  On the other hand, I grew up in that high school and in my experience those people that were smoking and involved with those sorts of things were the last people you wanted to hang out with because it would just lead to trouble for you.  I think that I found a good way to work with that problem  I interacted with everyone at school and was fairly open to talk to and work with others but when it came to some situations I didn’t like to stay there.  Unfortunately in the high school if you smoke chances are you swear a lot and are involved in other things and it’s not pleasant to be around those sorts of people.

So this week was good too. We had 19 investigators in church and they are doing great.  I don’t really have a hard time remembering their names, which I think is amazing.  Before the mish I had a really hard time with names but here I have been blessed with an ability to remember names more easily.  In fact, about 6 months ago I was struggling to remember names (it was especially hard with Portuguese names that were strange and new), and I started to pray and ask for help to remember and at the same time I tried to focus more on learning their names. (I drew pictures and made notes) and from then on it has been a ton easier to remember.  Fortunately our ward is really good with the investigators and most of them have friends that are members.  We only walked with one investigator to church and she was already walking to church when we met her.  Unfortunately most of them need to get married, but if everything works out we will have 2 baptisms this Saturday.

Everything is pretty good here.  Today it was over 100 degrees behind our house in the sun (it was only 10:15 in the morning).  I was a bit surprised because I wasn’t feeling too hot.  I think it will be interesting to come home and feel the cold again.

Oh, and the package hasn’t arrived yet but should soon.  Oh, and in the package you will send you can leave out the photo album I asked for but it would be way cool if you could send more pictures of home.

I think I have been struggling a bit with my comp, getting everything done in the morning and evening, and we have been having trouble teaching together.  Fortunately it’s getting better and we talked about some of this stuff and it’s getting better. 

I love you guys.  Keep up the good work.  Eliza, congrats for getting your Patriarchal blessing. Pay attention to it because they really do help in the tough times.

 Love,

Elder Clark

July 23, 2012

Hey, so this week has been pretty good.  We didn’t break our record of 19 investigators in church but we had some other really good things that happened this week.  We have been teaching a couple, Rosa (the mother of Marilene) and Antonio.  They have been progressing rapidly.  Rosa smokes a lot, but the day after we taught the Word of Wisdom she burned the rest of her cigarettes.  But she has some other health problems like diabetes and chronic daiahria  -- yeah, I don’t know how to spell.  So when she stopped smoking she got really weak and was feeling horrible.  But we passed by and gave her a priesthood blessing.  Elder Vale anointed and I sealed the anointing.  The blessing was simple but the Spirit was strong in the room.  The following day Rosa went to the doctor and they tested for diabetes and the test said that she didn’t have diabetes anymore.  Ever since, she has been a lot more healthy.  I think it’s amazing to see people’s faith work in them.  A lot of times their problems don’t go away completely or right away, but according to their faith they receive renewed strength.

Elder Vale will be transferred and I don’t know who will stay with me here in our area.  President Scisci had another temporary missionary to fill Elder Vale’s spot but it’s still up in the air.  I think this whole situation here is strange because this will be my second transfer with a temporary missionary. 

Oh, I haven’t received the package, and I wanted to ask Liza if she could check my Face Book and accept the people that have sent friend requests.

Yeah, so that’s what has been going on.  Oh, we had a baptism this week (Dayana).  I can’t remember if I already told you all about her.  She likes to make sweets and wants to open a café but fancy.  She is 25 and has a 2 year old son named Rafá who looks like the son of an American -- blond, blue eyes.   The baptism was really cool and we had a lot of people there.   The room was over flowing and we had a bunch of investigators there as well.  Things are going well here and it looks like I will stay here for awhile so that I can baptize these families. 

A ton of missionaries are finishing their missions this week and it’s pretty interesting how time has been flying by.   By the looks of it, I will only have 4 areas during my mission because I have been staying in my areas for quite a while.

I hope everything is going great there.  Thanks so much for your letters and support!   Keep living up the summer!!

Love, Elder Clark