A Visit to Macapá

April 8, 2013

So I’m here in Macapá.  The last few days I did a division in Santana that is located about 45 minutes from Macapá by bus.  It has a port that is located on the Amazon River.  It was nice to get out of the office and work like a normal missionary.  I went there because the companionship that is there now has been having problems for some time (no baptisms).  I spent 3 days there with Elder R.. Elder R got into the mission field the same time I did.  It was interesting.  He left on the mission with 18 years and 3 months of age, and I doubt that he was ready.  I am sure that a lot of missionaries are prepared when they have 18 years of age but there are a lot of others that I think need to wait.  I think that I was one of those elders that needed to wait a bit to go on the mission.  Observing him I saw that he didn’t have much going on in the area because he didn’t have much attitude.  He had problems but didn’t have the attitude to resolve the situations.  Many times when looking for addresses or when presented with opportunities to talk to people he would try to avoid it.  He is a bit closed and lacks confidence.  I tried not to be really hard with him. Instead I tried to understand what his problem was.  I tried to give I’m an example of how he could have a bit more success.  We finished the division after finding a young woman that is super prepared (she almost cried when I invited her to be baptized).

I have been really lost in the last two weeks but now I feel calmer.  I am also preparing to give a talk/training to the zone during the zone conference this Wednesday.  I will talk about resilience and consistency again and hopefully be able to use some new examples.  I have been thinking about what you guys said comparing my wanting to stay with how I play hockey and soccer.  And I thought that would be a good thing to use during the zone conference.  We will see how it works out Wednesday.

I have not had the opportunity to take a lot of pictures unfortunately I’m not here in Macapá to site see.  But I will see what I can do.  

I loved general conference and was lucky enough to see all of the sessions.  They have live translators that switch every few talks.  I thought it was interesting how many of the talks cited the scripture that says something about a stone being cut from the mountain without hands and rolling to fill the earth.  I heard a long time ago that the speakers don’t receive topics but pray to know what to speak on.  So I thought it was interesting that there where a series of scriptures that the speakers used that where the same.  I took 9 pages of notes.  

Sorry, Emma, I do read your letters but I have a hard time using my time wisely so I end up without time to send a letter.  But congratulations on the FPS triumph and the 100% on the science quiz retake.

I was really sad to hear that the Carmans are moving.  They have been good friends.  Send them a really big hug, and wish them luck for me.  

Got to go know and finish some of my A.P. work!!

I love you all a lot!!!!

Ben

Learning the Ropes

Hey Dad,

I have had an exciting week.  I have been a little stressed, and have not gotten enough sleep but I think things will calm down now.  

First off, something about emails.  I think that it would be best if you all continued to send emails on Monday morning.  Because I don't have a p-day that is the same every week it will be best for me if you continued to send emails in the same way.  If you all would like to send emails on other days of the week feel free but I may or may not be able to read them, but it is always nice to get unexpected messages.

Last week we did a division. Elder Moreno went to Entroncamento (45 min going by bus) and I stayed here in Telegrapho.  I worked with Elder Cardozo, who is from Paraguay, on Friday until Sunday.  We both were new in the area and we did not know anyone, members or nonmembers, so it was a bit rough.  We looked in the area book for a few people to visit but the records were really old -- 2008. So we spent a lot of time doing contacts.  Unfortunately we were not able to locate many of these people.  But at the end of the week, I had a meeting with the Bishop and he helped a lot.  Unfortunately for me I will have difficulties working in the area because I will be traveling a lot this month.  So that will be a challenge without work in Telegrapho.  

We had a zone council yesterday.  So the past few days we have planned the topics of our talks/trainings.  I still feel a bit lost in my calling and I don’t talk a lot in the meetings we have with Pres. Scisci, mostly because I don’t know what to say...yet.  I´m learning fast.  At the Zone council I gave training on how to help missionaries become more resilient.  There is an all too common problem with missionaries staying dedicated and constant in their work.  Many times missionaries lose their drive when they encounter difficulties.  Ironically that is the time when we need to work even harder.  I shared an article from the Liahona about how to raise more resilient children.  It was an interesting article and had a bunch of principles that can be applied to leaders in the mission field as well as parents. When I read the article I noticed a lot of tactics/principles that you and mom had already used raising us.  I think that they worked.  

This week I will be flying to Macapá to go on divisions with the elders there and have a zone conference. I will leave tonight and get back on Wednesday of next week.  After that I will fly to Santarém that is located at the fork of the Rio Negro and the Rio Tapajós.  So that will be exciting. I have to go and prepare for the trip now!!

I love you guys!!!

Ben

Ben is Called to be an AP

March 11, 2013
Dear parents,
I really liked getting so many letters last week.

This past week has been interesting, our baptisms didn’t work out and our zone is a little out of control.  Elder Guedes, a really good elder in our zone, has been transferred (emergency, but the emergency was with another elder, a missionary was sent home for beating up his companion). Note to Dan, Emma, Eliza:  if you guys serve missions don’t beat up your companions, make them apple pies and iron their shirts/skirts.   So that was sad for me, I really liked Elder Guedes.

We had a zone conference with Elder Godoy.  It was the best zone conference I have had in my mission.  Elder Godoy is a really great and inspirational person.  He served as mission pres here in Belém about 10 years ago.  He taught a lot and didn’t slam the pulpit and tell us we were horrible missionaries.  That was something I really liked, he showed us how to help others resolve their problems and in general how to be better missionaries.

Afterwards I was interviewed by Elder Godoy.  I was one of 4 or 5 missionaries to be interviewed.  It was a really great interview.  Along with the normal interview he asked what I thought the difference was between the two mission presidents I have had, Pres. Campos and Pres. Scisci.  I talked about some of the strengths of each one.  With Pres. Campos I learned a lot about loving the people I teach and with Pres. Scisci I have been able to develop more attributes of Christ.

I am out of time but I love you guys a ton.  Until next week!

Love Ben

March 18
Hey family,
Things here are going well, we have definitely seen a lot of progress with some of the families we have found.  The highlight of last week was when Dalva, Borges, Yasmin, and Ingred came to church!!!!  They really liked it and later today we will have a family night with them and the Stake Pres. will be there as well.

This past week I had a really great experience.  During a division I visited two brothers that are inactive with a young man (Gabriel) in the ward.  Unfortunately, the two brothers are really lost and are not interested at all in the church, even though it is clear that the life they live without the church is really sad.  We left without any apparent progress.  I was feeling sad about it but I really wanted to keep working so that I could find someone that actually wanted to change and hear the gospel.  I then saw a man walking in the street and felt that I needed to talk to him.  I looked over to the Gabriel with me and said he lets talk to that man.  So we ran after him and started to walk with him.  I talked to him and we made a visit in his house.  Later in the week we got to teach the whole family (Jonas father, Helena mother, Maurillon 16 year old boy, and Larissa 11).  They are really great and really prepared to hear the gospel.

We have been really blessed with a lot of families to teach.  I am afraid that I will be transferred in two weeks and not have a chance to see these families baptized.  If I stay, I think the same thing will happen that happened in Larangerieras (lots of baptisms in the last month).  I really don’t know what will happen because 8 zone leaders are going home along with an assistant to the president, so Elder Leite or I will be transferred for sure.  I attached a letter that I didn’t have time to finish that talks a little about some of the feelings I have had about finishing my mission.  Last week after I wrote to you guys I wrote my letter to President Scisci, and said that I wanted to stay on the mission for more time, I know that it won’t work out if I stay for a whole transfer so I told him that I was willing to serve until the 14th of August or the 20th of August.  President Scisci emailed me back this week and but did not give a definite answer, (it is difficult to send a missionary home in the middle of the transfer).  We will see how it turns out.

Oh fun story.  We killed an ROUS in our house!!!  Well it was actually on the patio.  It appeared from over the wall and started twitching on the ground I am not sure if the rat was doing some sort of preparatory rat yoga to prepare to attack us or if it was suffering a heart attack.  But Elder Leite and I preferred not to find out which so we killed the rat with a broom handle.... the broom broke a few weeks earlier when elder Leite failed at killing a cockroach that crawled on his pillow...  In the end we threw it in the garbage.  Thankfully the garbage truck passed the same day.  So that is my crazy story for the week.

I love you all and hope that your Spring Breaks were wonderful!!

Love Elder Clark

P.S.  I attached a pic of me Elder Leite and Elder Anderson the assistant to the president from Burley, Idaho that will be heading home in a week and a half.

March 24, 2013
Hey Mom & Dad,
I have been called as an Assistant to the President, I have already left Satélite and will live close to the city center I will work in the mission office and likely travel a lot.....we will see.  So today I don’t have p-day.  I’ll write a letter tomorrow.

Love you guys!!!!
Ben

March 28, 2013
Hello family,
So first off sorry for not sending an email the last few days.  My p-day is different as an AP from now it should be on every Tuesday but it is subject to change depending on what I will have to do during the week.

I have a lot to say and not much time to write... we will see how much I can write.

Starting with last week, I went to Outeiro to do a division with Elder Lopes (who is going home within the month).  It was nice to see some of the people I taught and it was especially nice to see João Paulo, an 18 year old that I baptized.  He is very active.  Outeiro is having problems right now and I hope that the work I did there will help the Branch.  They moved into another meeting house that is a lot better. Unfortunately church attendance didn't raise much.  That was a bit sad to see.

When I got back to Satélite after the 2 day 2 night division, I was a bit tired, but we worked hard.  The group of people we where teaching had changed a bunch, Elder Leite had taught a few new people.  I didn´t plan on being transferred, so I tried to get caught up.

On Sunday we left early in the morning to bring people to church.  We went to the house of a new investigator.  No one was there, so we started walking to the next house and we ended up walking right into one of our investigators that had committed to go to church.  He was heading to the Igreja Universal  (a really crazy church that asks for offerings every meeting and does a bunch of other things, sometimes they fake miracles and sell holy water).  So we stopped and talked to our investigator and invited him to church.  We walked with him to church and he loved it.  He will be baptized this Saturday if everything goes well.

Sunday afternoon.  We went to Paracurí, an area in my zone where Elder Gonzalez, my son on the mission, is serving.   They had a couple that would be baptized after Sacrament Meeting.  We were there to do the interviews.  They went well and the couple was excited to be baptized (they had also been married that same week).  While I was doing the interview with the man that would be baptized, two of my converts from Laranjeiras,  Ulisses 18 and Denise 23 (I taught Denise but she didn´t get baptized while I was there she had more preparing to do) came.  It was really nice to see them.  Denise is now a councilor in the Young Women’s and a ward missionary and attends Institute.  Ulisses is now a ward missionary, the 1st councilor in the Elders Quorum and is also active in Institute.  Super cool!  They were really glad to see me and I was happy to be able to converse with them a little.  Denise got a bit emotional telling me how much I helped her join the church.  I didn’t know that I had made such an impact. It’s nice to learn that our efforts to do good bore fruit.  Both of them want to serve missions and there is a good chance that next transfer they will serve short term to help out.

While I was there in Paracurí I got the call from Pres. Scisci.  He called me as an Assistant to the President and briefly told me about my responsibilities.  He also told me that I would need to buy new white shirts because mine are almost all yellow.  So we will see what I can do.  I got a few slacks from Elder Anderson (from Burley Idaho, the old AP that was trained by Elder R Silva my trainer) because almost all of mine have ripped above the ankle.  During the transfer I got a few white shirts that other missionaries left when going home.

Monday I got to the mission office and started learning about the system we use to record numbers and get their weekly reports.  We had the going-away dinner with all of the missionaries going home at President Scisci´s house.  That was nice but also sad.  A lot of friends I had were going.  It made me miss home a bit.

Tuesday the new missionaries got here and I gave a briefing/training to the trainers.  Then I helped give an introduction to the Mission that night at the House of the President.

I haven’t eaten breakfast since last week.  It’s been really crazy.  I also have gotten very little sleep.  But now it should be calmer.  My Companion is Elder Moreno.  He is from São Paulo.  He is cool.  He was suppose to go home this week with the other group of missionaries but is going to stay until the last week of the transfer to show me all of the AP duties  so that I can train the next one that will be called in 4 weeks.  Crazy!

So that’s all for now I will write next week.

P.S.  I always read all of my emails, but sometimes I don’t have time to respond.

Love you guys!!
Elder Clark

Two Letters, Three Baptisms

February 24, 2013

So this past week was crazy.  We baptized 8 people in our zone this last Saturday, on the B-day we planned.  It was really great.  We had a baptismal service for our whole Stake.  It turned out really great.  Two of the baptisms were from our area,  Ana Clara and Adria.  We had a bunch of other baptisms that fell through as well.  Ana Clara almost fell through as well because she got really sick and a lot of women from the church that she used to attend went to her house and started telling her a bunch of lies about the Church and tried to convince her that she shouldn’t get baptized.  But she stuck with it.  I was really amazed she really has worked to gain a testimony and repent.  She is probably the most prepared person I have ever baptized.  When people really search for God and are willing to follow Christ, God always provides a way for us to overcome.

Elder Leite has been a bit stressed these past few days and yesterday he got sick and spent the day at our apartment resting with a young man from the ward, while I visited people.  When I got home at about 7:30 to let one of the young men go home on time, I walked in the apartment and found E. Leite sitting on his bed in only his garment bottoms with a fan blowing on him.  He was looking really sick.  He taken his temperature and he had a fever of 104.3.  That is really high.  I had never seen someone with a fever that high.  So I quickly ran to the house of a member that lives on our street, and only the mom (who is very pregnant) was there, but because of the situation we brought her to our apartment to help out. We decided to take him to the hospital.  At the hospital they gave him a shot and a prescription.  By that time the fever was passing and he was feeling better.  That was an interesting experience.  

While waiting at the hospital, the Oscars report passed quickly on the news and I realized that I had not seen any movies this last year...  I’m not sure how I feel about that.  

When we were about to leave, a bunch of policemen (they where SWAT... well the Belém equivalent) appeared in the hospital because they had a prisoner that was in terminal condition.  We conversed briefly with one of the officers who said in essence that the man was caught in the act of robbing someone and that a police officer had unloaded a clip on him, but the officer used a bunch of slang to say that.  Apparently the prisoner had killed a police officer because he had a tattoo of a clown on his leg (apparently that bandits here in Brasil get a tattoo of a clown on their legs if they kill police officers). Crazy story.

So that’s my crazy story for the week.  I am doing great and I am being safe, Mom.  E Leite is doing better.  

I hope that your week was great and that this week will be productive.

Love,

Ben

P.S.  Mom, your shelves look great! 

March 4, 2013

Dear Dad,

Thanks for the e-mail.  I really liked the description of Dan's testimony.  He is really great.  It seems like everything is warming up there [in Moscow].  Here in Satélite, things have been a bit cold because of the rain.  For the past few days I have slept with my Trogdor hoodie because it has been a bit chilly -- I think between 19 and 22 degrees Celsius.  It will be interesting to come back home and sleep in a bed and not a hammock.  But I have been thinking about ways to secure one [with hooks in the walls] at home…

This week has been pretty hard.  We have not had much progress with our investigators and we have found about 5 families that need to get married so that makes it a lot harder to help them, and more complicated for us missionaries. During the week we had a lot of important appointments that fell through and yet again our bishop did not come to our baptism (probably because we told him about it on Tuesday and called to remind him on Saturday.)  Well usually when we make mistakes we learn better.

So this past week the most important thing that happened was that we Baptized André!  André was the boyfriend of Ana Clara.  We taught him and it was clear that he was really prepared.  During the week he went to the other side of Belém to get his Sunday clothes from the house of his grandma.  He went to his baptism and the church on Sunday in a white shirt, tie, dress shoes and he even took out his earrings!!!

So that was nice to see.  Oh and I got to confirm him a member of the church which is always a spiritual experience.

I´m doing great here and thankfully my zone is doing a lot better.  So things are looking up.  

Oh dad, I will think about the UI Hockey team but I still don´t know.  The UI is really.... cheio de iniquidade.  But I’ll give it a look.  Oh, I also got a letter from Josh today which was really great.

Love,

Ben

February 18, 2013 Letter

So this week we didn't have a baptism.  But this week it looks like we will have 3!

I started the week with a light cough that steadily got worse as the week progressed.  By Thursday my tonsils and lymph nodes  were super swollen it started getting hard for me to swallow and then my voice started to get lost ; )  Yeah, so that was really frustrating   I ended up going to the doctor Saturday morning and he passed a prescription for anti-inflammatory and antibiotics.  I also asked him about a small cough or "err hmm"  I have had for a long time (a few years)  I just started noticing it because a sister in my zone (that sings almost professionally) and asked me about it.  I guess I always thought that it was something normal because I sing a lot and played a bunch of sports that required a lot of yelling.  I started trying to remember when I started with the ''errr hmmm'' and I remembered that in my sophomore year in high school during a soccer game I was hit in the throat and coughed up blood,  and afterwards I lost my voice for a few days.  Well the doctor said that I could be a scar or mini laceration that is causing irritation or producing mucus.  So he said that I could see a specialist who could resolve the problem for me.  I don’t think that it’s something that is really urgent so maybe when I get home I will look for a specialist that can take a look at my throat. 

So other than that stuff, the week was good.  I got to visit Outeiro again on Sunday as part of a Stake activity that I planned to help the branch.  I visited José Gabriele and Lourdes.  Gabriele was a girl I baptized there.  The family has had some problems with health and because of that they have a lot of debts (unfortunately the debts are with a loan shark).  But because Lourdes got so sick she wasn’t baptized.  During the visit I taught about the necessity of baptism and the healing effects of the gospel (I used Alma 36,I think, when Alma recounts the agony and pain of sin and the peace and joy that comes through the atonement of Christ).  At the end of the visit I challenged Lourdes to be baptized this next Saturday.  It was a powerful visit.  Oh and she accepted, but wanted to pray about it first.  I also told her that if by Saturday she had received an answer that I would love to baptize her.

I think the mission is really tough but definitely worth it.  I learn so much each day and it’s exciting to meet new challenges.  

We have just finished one more transfer and I will be staying here in Satélite for at least 6 more weeks with Elder Leite.  But our zone has moved a lot.  It’s not going to be easy with a some of the missionaries that are arriving in the zone but I will do my best to help them be their best.

I love you guys so much!  Eu amo Voces!  Yeah that’s right.  I love you guys in English and Portuguese. ; )

Love,

Ben

4 Weeks of Letters

 January 21, 2013

            So this week was pretty good. Last Monday after I wrote to you all I made a delicious apple pie in the shape of a heart and made an N+E out of pie crust to put on top for Nilse and Edimilson who are a couple we are teaching.  We made a surprise for Edimilson.  Nilse wanted to get married and we came up with a plan to help her propose to Edimilson.  It involved the pie I made and Cupuacú ice cream.  It turned out really well and he said yes.  I joked with her that she was a modern woman because she took the initiative.  I thought that was funny.  They will have plans to get married legally on the 10th of February.   We found a lot of people that have a lot of potential,  

            I have a special story, so yesterday we had splits with two young men and I was with Gabriel.  I was a bit frustrated because we had a lot of  investigators that didn't come to church and life on the mission is just stressful in general (but rewarding to) and we had no one to visit so we went to visit a friend of Gabriel who had been visited by other elders in the past.  We talked to him a bit, then I taught the Restoration and the friend (Ian) accepted the invitation to pray and be baptized on the 9th of February.  I was thinking, “Cool.  This kid is understanding really well, and he has a desire to learn.”  So I was a bit happier.  Then Ian´s dad Amiraldo wanted to talk to us and get to know us.  Man, I was impressed.  Amiraldo is one of the smartest people I have met on my mission but at the same time he ´´fears God.´´ He is 42 and is a self-employed graphic artist.  He is one of those types of people that dropped out of high school but study a lot and read a lot of books. Like Bill Gates -- really smart, but didn’t go about being smart in system.  He talked with us for a while and because we did not have other people to visit I spent more time getting to know him and the conversation was excellent.  He had some really interesting thoughts about Mary the mother of Jesus that were clearly inspired.   He grew up in the Catholic Church but now he said to us that the Catholic Church is not for him because of doctrinal inconsistencies.  He told us about some of the problems he was facing in his marriage (his wife is sick and that puts more weight on his shoulders.)  So by the end I taught the Restoration and invited him to pray and then he told us that he had already read the pamphlet and wanted to go to church and that he had really been waiting for us.  Man, it was really special.  I felt really connected with him like I had already known him.  He reminds me a lot of Mom and Dad in his reasoning (and he likes U2 and the Doors, Jimmy Hendrix).  I felt really good and nothing felt forced when I talked to him.  The Spirit was there to testify with me and we left feeling really great.  

            I believe there are people that I knew before in the pre-existence and that are waiting for me to find them.  This man was truly prepared to meet me and hear my testimony of the restored Gospel.  

I hope everything is going well for you all!  Don’t miss me too much.

Love,

Ben  

January 28, 2013

                So Mom, thanks for the letter.  The shoes fit but gave me blisters so I am working them in slowly. These past few weeks have been a bit tough for you guys in terms of deaths, I hope that everyone is coping.  

                Thanks for talking to my counselor and researching about my options for school. I think that it is a great idea to retake a few of those classes, especially because I don’t feel really secure with the material that was taught.  I would love it if you could talk to Coach Weiss to see if it will be an option for me to play with the team at BYU.  

               

So this week was pretty stressful.  We didn’t have a good p-day last week so it started off on the wrong foot.  We did two different divisions with other areas in our zone.  I got to go to Outeiro and see a few people that I taught there.  We have been short on time and our investigators started to get soft.  We had a group that was pretty good;  like the Doctrine and Covenants counsels:  search for the rich and learned.  Well, we found a lot these last weeks and had a lot of progress with them until Sunday.  No one we taught this week went to church.  That is tough.  But this week will be different.  Amiraldo worked, or something like that, this Sunday but he has promised to visit and told me that his intention was to learn more about the church and in the future maybe become a member (he did not accept a baptismal date).  It’s not easy to teach smart people.

                I also got sick on Friday, with what I don’t know.  And Saturday and Sunday I felt really weak with body aches and symptoms of a fever minus the fever.  That was really frustrating.  I felt really tired these days but we worked like normal because the work does not stop.  I am feeling a bit better today. The body aches stopped but I feel a pain in my stomach like its empty even though I have eaten things last evening as well as this morning.  

                I am doing well other than that stuff. 

                I will make an apple pie this afternoon and I will eat it with E. Guedes and E. Stacy who are from the next area over. They are both Americans and really crazy.  E Guedes is a citizen of Brazil as well.  His parents are Brazilian but he was born in Utah.  Logan I think.

                Love you all!!!!!! I will try to write letters today.  Oh and big news:  I found out yesterday that I will come home on the 23 of July because transfers fell on that day.  I am thinking about talking to Pres Scisci about staying one more transfer but there are a lot of things to consider like school, work, and my siblings falling ill from missing me so much... etc... so we will see.

Love,

Ben

February 4, 2013

Dear family

So this week has been interesting, I got better from the whole stomach problem.  We had a zone council with all of the zone leaders in the mission. That was nice I feel like I learned a lot.  I am writing this letter super fast because we are at the end of our p-day and we still need to take the bus to return to our area.  We found a really cool old man the other day, he is 80 years old and his late wife was a member.  Apparently he had a dream where his wife told him that he needed to join the church and prepare for the next life the next day he talked to a member that lives close by who took us to his house Sunday night.  He will be baptized next Saturday.  

Our baptism fell through this last week and that was really frustrating.  Suane (our baptism) was really solid until Saturday night when we got a text from her saying that she would get baptized the next day.  Later she sent a text saying that she would go to the Catholic Church instead.  That was super sad after all we taught her she turned her back on it. Even after she got an answer to her prayer.  We will visit her again to try and resolve her doubts and maybe stop teaching her. 

We are still animated despite this and we have other people to baptize.  

I think that I will stick with the 23 of July as my return date.  

I love you guys a lot!!!

Ben

February 11, 2013

Hey Fam,
So I wrote part of a letter to you guys and took a picture of it and attached it to this email.  So I think it would be best to read the attached letter first because I will explain the rest of the letter now.

Read the attached letter:

Dear Family,

Yesterday I passed the 18 month mark on my mission.  That is a long time, but I feel like it has been time well spent.  I’m looking forward to the last 6 months.  They should be productive now that I have much more experience.  I have really learned a lot in the time I have been here, especially about helping others through the Gospel.  When we teach the gospel we begin to understand with much more clarity.  That is one of the reasons why the church does not have paid clergy – because everyone needs to learn and teach to reach our full potential. 

So the same old things have been happening around here.  I gave a talk last Sunday about faith and cairns in the fog.  I thought it turned out alright, even though I didn’t have any time to prepare.  I told a story about Granite Peak and the fog there.  I also used the first verse of “Lead Kindly Light.”  I think that helped the talk communicate the need for faith and illustrates well the fact that we won’t always have a perfect knowledge of our path but that the light of our Savior will never lead us astray.  I also “played” the piano in Sacrament meeting.  Well, it was more like “operating” the piano because it is electric and pre-programmed with almost all the Portuguese hymns. 

So last P-day was pretty tiring and difficult.  We went to the mission office in Belém 1.15 [an hour and 15 minutes?] one way by bus to be interviewed by the Assistants.  It took a long time, mostly because it took 3 hours to renew my visa, but now I’m legal again!!! We got back to our house at about 5:15 and then Elder Leite realized that he had left our keys in the mission office.  Why he left our keys in the mission office, I do not know.  So, we visited a member close to our house (where we had family night planned) and then returned to Belém.  We had to stay the night at the mission home (where the staff lives).  We didn’t get back to our house until 10:00 the next morning.  I got to talk a lot with Elder Anderson, one of the assistants to the President.  That was nice.  He was trained by Elder R. Silva (my trainer) and he is from Burley [Idaho].  So because of these things in common there was a lot to talk about.  He reminded me of Mike and Hayden. 

So while I was at the mission office, Elder Anderson showed me some watches that a member was selling.  The member is a policeman and was selling the watches through a police auction (the watch had been confiscated entering the country illegally).  They were all TAG Heuer watches.  In the store these watches are really expensive. 

                Now I will continue.  So the watch I bought was a ´´Tag Heuer GRAND CARRERA Calibre 36´´ I bought it for 200 dollars but it is sold on the tag Heuer web site for 9000 dollars so I thought it was a good deal.  I had to think a lot about it because it’s one of those economic decisions that are a bit shady.  but I figured that if I didn’t want to use were a really expensive watch, or if I get really poor and need money for college I can pawn it or sell it to a rich person and get at least what I paid for it.  

                Oh dad I had a question did you transfer money from my account? Because a few months ago I had more than 5000 real in my account that is equal to about 2500 dollars but I looked at the balance at the ATM today and I only had 750-ish real or a bit less than 400 dollars so I was wondering if that was right.

                So this week has been a bit stressful in terms of work.  I feel a lot of stress trying to be a good zone leader, helping my zone and working to have success in my own area.  Thankfully things worked out alright in the end.  We baptized an 11 year old boy named Claudio.  He is pretty cool.  

                We have had problems getting people to commit to coming to church.  A lot of the time they say they will go but then end up sleeping, make up excuses or say that they will spend time with extended family.  That has been frustrating but it will work out we just need to keep working hard and maybe teach more about the importance of going to church.  

I am doing great overall I’m working hard and trying to become a better missionary.  

I’m also coming down with a cold but it’s not too bad.

I love you all a lot!!!!

Ben

Ben Turns 21 in Satelite, Brazil

January 7, 2013

Dear Family,

This week has been interesting.  We didn’t have a lot of time to work normally because we had a bunch of meetings and Ano Novo was really hard to work with (no one was at home and if they were not partying they were all hung over).  We got transfers and I will stay here in Satelite. Elder Carvalho is going to his last area to be a Zone Leader for Cidade Nova.  They are reopening the zone there.  So now my zone is more manageable:  only 7 companionships. I am liking my area but I think that I need to get to know the members better.  So I wanted to plan visits and teach the families here to help them get more involved with the work.

It has started, the rainy season.  It is raining almost every day in the afternoon.  The rain comes in fast and is like a wall of water. It’s pretty cool but you get soaked super fast.  

So I made a peach pie last night and it turned out pretty well.  I think that I will start to make pies a lot more often because they are easy to make, relatively healthy, and they are really delicious. This week we went running a few times as well it was great but I am afraid that I am gaining weight again; the members here make really good dinners for us that frequently have a dessert.

I am really sorry for two short letters in a row; I have had problems using my time wisely, reading and writing letters so I promise that next week will be better.  I have to go know but I will write letters this afternoon and send them next week.

I love you all and thanks for all the birthday wishes!!!

Love,

Elder Clark

January 7, 2013

Daniel,

Hey bud, what’s up?  I hope you are doing well.  I have been missing you a lot.  I wish that I could be there to go sledding and have snow ball fights with you.  I hope that you had a great Christmas and that this New Year will be spectacular.

I have a few questions for you:  1) What was the coolest thing you did this break?  2) What did you give for Christmas?  3) What did you get for Christmas and how will you use the things you got?

I didn’t get much for Christmas in the form of presents but it was still one of my best Christmases ever, because I got to give some really good gifts.  Next year maybe we can go caroling together and shovel snow for old ladies in the ward. : )

I was just thinking about service and thought about the priesthood and how you will be ordained a deacon in May.  That is really exciting.  I hope you are preparing and are excited to help and serve others! 

Dan, I love you!!!

Your brother, Ben

January 14, 2013

Hey Dad/ Family,

So my week has been good. Elder Leite is pretty cool and we are working well together.  We had a baptism on my B-day and Felipe chose me to baptize him!!!!  That was a really nice birthday present.  My zone is full of problems but we have made plans that I think will help a lot.  There is a companionship of sisters that is really new in the mission. One is finishing her training and the other has finished her 3 transfer.  They are in an area that is really tough as well.  We will visit them a few times this next week to help out.  

Thanks so much for all of the birthday wishes!  I felt loved.  This last week I got my b-day package so I have been enjoying my new PJ's and Saturday I made the brownies with the fudge topping. Man, talk about good.  In the evening there was a cake at the baptism.  During the day the mother of a young man in the ward that helps us a lot gave me something that is close to fudge, and after almoço Irmã Maria (recent convert) gave us guiabada which is like a fruit preserve that is really good with cream.  Yah, so I felt really unhealthy but it was my b day.  Pres. Scisci and Sis. Scisci called me to wish me happy b day and that was nice.  Also E. Oliveira called me to wish me happy birthday as well.  So it was a good b-day.

Elder Leite is from Minha Gerais which is in the south of Brazil and they say it gets cold there but I don’t believe them ( : We have gone running two times already and that has been great.  I have gotten a lot better at doing exercises in the mornings and I am hoping to be more prepared to run with Emma when I get back, and climb Kings Peak.

I had an interview with President Scisci this week and that was really nice.  I felt a lot better afterwards and I will try to apply more principals of planning and leadership in my area and zone.  My zone has problems....  but we are working with that.  

We had some really cool experiences teaching unmarried couples about the law of chastity.  I feel like I have come to understand the law of chastity much better recently and we are having a lot of success teaching these couples and we are going to help them get married.  Thanks mom and dad, for keeping the commandments.  Our family is so blessed.

Oh dad, not many people knew about my b-day but I was sung to multiple times.  It only drizzled a little but was cloudy so not super hot.  It was a swell day and I felt your love.

Got to go!!!! Hope that you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Clark