Ben works through transfer logistics

Friday, May 3, 2013 7:48 AM

Dear Family,

So the Transfer is over.  It has been really stressful   I was not prepared for the transfer and because of that I did not have a very nice week.  The transfer was passed to me on Sunday afternoon (really late because President Scisci had to resolve some problems that appeared when he filed his taxes, he is really super rich owns his own IT business so you can imagine how there can be a lot of things to resolve).  So Sunday afternoon I had to handle almost all of the logistics.  Thankfully the secretaries helped a lot.  But it got really complicated with 48 missionaries being transferred to different areas.  That means a whole lot of logistics.  Many of the missionaries had multiple parts to their trip and had to go by taxi, plane and boat to complete the transfer.  Along with the planning that it takes to not leave anyone alone, it got really frustrating really fast!  Only one elder lost his plane home and only one other elder was stranded at a rural airport when his flight was changed.  In the end, it all worked out.  I didn't get enough sleep about 5 hours a night for a few days. And I didn't have much of an appetite.  But it is over and I got to go running today and eat breakfast!!!!!  I wish that I had been briefed on how I could have handled it better.  Needless, to say I will resolve these problems before the next transfer.

Last week we finished the last zone conference here in Belém.  Many people commented on how my presentation was nice.  I have attached the presentation I used.  I just remembered that it is in Portuguese.  I also incorporated a practice on how to "follow up" on the commitments we extend to help our investigators progress.  And at the end I showed a clip that I edited from "the First Ascent (the part from the hanging rocks in Thailand) I would recommend the film if you have not seen it already, (it's about rock climbing).  I edited a part where a bunch of young climbers where trying a route and the fall a lot at a specific part.  But at the end one of them make it to the end.  It’s cool because they don’t use ropes they just fall in the water.

My new Companion is.....    .... Elder Leite!!!!   

It has been nice to have him as my companion again.  We worked well together in Satelíte.  I am excited for this next transfer!!!!

Got to go now!!  I will have my first real p-day for weeks today!

Love you all.  I’ll write more next week.

ELDER CLARK

MISSÃO BRASIL BELEM

AV.NAZARÉ ,532 SALA  412  

66035-170 Belém PA Brasil

A Return to Abaetetuba

4-24-2013

Hey family,

I have been really busy with stuff here.

But I have a good story for you all.  Last week I got back from Santarém and had a really short p-day that really was not a p-day, because I had to finish a lot of work here in the office.  After that I talked to Pres. Scisci and made plans to go to Abaetetuba for the dedication of the chapel there.  So the next day I traveled to Abaetetuba with President  Scisci and Sister Scisci (that is the second time I have gone by ferry to Abaetetuba with the Pres. and his wife -- once I went with Pres. Campos when I arrived in the mission and the trip last week).  It was a nice trip.  I got to see a lot of people I baptized.  I also got to baptize a man that I had taught more than a year ago.  He found the missionaries a few weeks ago and he started going to church.  I got to do the baptismal interview and he chose me right before the baptism to baptize him!  I didn't have clothes but it all worked out.  Luckily I was wearing mesh garments so I dried fast.  The dedication was nice and I loved visiting.  Apparently I'm well known there and everyone liked calling me Clarky Kent.  The Brasilian accent is funny.   It’s like “Clarky Kainche” it sounds like they say “quente” which means “hot.”  It´s pretty funny.  I think the best part was seeing that a lot of the people I baptized are going to church and then one of the young women even went to the temple this week.  A lot of family members of these members have also been baptized, so that was really sweet.

 I think that I saw almost all of them.  There were just three that I could not find.  I know that I should use more details but I'm a little stressed out and tired because of the constant traveling.  My companion, Elder M., went to visit one of his old areas with some other elders and so I have been pretty alone here...  Well, you know, not alone because I have been with other missionaries, but being without a normal companion has been a bit sad.  

I think that my companion is a bit ticked off at me.  The day before I left for Abaetetuba we had a dinner for a missionary that was leaving the mission and afterwards, during the interview of that elder, I had to wait for him to finish the interview with Elder.  Sister Scisci put us to work putting the dishes in the dish washer while she left to run an errand.  I did most of the work with the dishes while Elder M. went to sleep on the couch of the Pres.  I ended up washing all the dishes alone, but I felt good about it because I didn’t have anything else I could do and for the moment washing the dishes was, well,  what I had to do to Magnify my calling : )    

Google picture, not actual dishes.

The next day I called Pres. Scisci to talk to him a little about how the mission was in terms of baptisms,  and Sister Scisci answered the phone and said thank you for the work I had done with the dishes, she said, “Thanks for doing all the dishes while Elder M. slept.”  (Apparently she came back for a moment and saw my comp sleeping and me working.  She is pretty stealthy because I did not hear her).  Then the next day she saw Elder M. she chewed him out in front of me.  That put me in a tough spot because what I did made him look bad.  Luckily the encounter was when we were loading up the car to leave for Abaetetuba so he had a few days away from me to cool down.

P.S. The internet fell and I wasn’t able to send the message earlier.

4-27-2013

So Elder M. finished his mission and is in São Paulo right now.  And I am here in the office working on the transfer with the secretaries.  I don’t have a new companion and will only get one on Monday I think.  So this week end will be really crazy, especially because I have never done a transfer before.  But like Mom always says, keep calm because it will all get done... well she said something like that when I had a lot of big school work and stuff.  

Love you all!!!  

Ben Visits Santarém

April 15, 2013

Dear Family,

I’m now in Santarém.  Look for it on Google maps.  

It’s in the middle of the rain forest and has very few paved roads. There is a stake here that was formed about a year ago.  The zone is doing well with the exception of a few areas, with whom I have done divisions with to help out.  Yesterday I had a really great experience helping a family prepare the papers to get married they are really fun and where really excited to marry so that they could get baptized.  I attached two pictures.  One is of the family I helped get married (they are Raimundo and Jess, and they live in Santarém) the other picture is the view from the super cool 3 story house where I live (the staff house).  [The pictures weren’t attached so I’ve put in a pic I found on Google.]

I also got to teach a man (Rodrigo) that is was really prepared to be baptized about tithing.  It was really cool.  Afterwards I did his baptismal interview.  It was amazing to get to know him and play a small part in his conversion.  He was a referral from a member.  The member was old friends with him and invited him to an Adult singles retreat, and the young adults of the stake all helped him integrate into the church.  It also helped that he is 27 good-looking single and plays the guitar...  he probably won’t be single for long.  So give referrals to the missionaries!!!! Comparing my mission with the mission in Moscow, one of the largest differences is that here the members talk a whole lot about the church with others and are not as shy about inviting friends.   There are a few other differences but that is one that we can control regardless of our culture of population.  There is a part in PMG that says that "nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach".  Before my mission I preferred to bear my testimony with my actions, and be an example to nonmembers.  This sort of tactic in missionary work I have come to realize is a little bit unbalanced.  We also need to invite.  Without an invitation it is almost impossible for people to change.  So Dad, you talked a little about how there will be a lot more missionaries in our area with few people to teach personally I think this is one thing that is lacking that could help a lot.  Our family is really good at the example part showing others what we believe and that we are Mormons but our family I think can improve a lot on the other side of the missionary work that is the invitation.  Remember to help the ward with this they will need some strong leaders to show them the way.  The best leaders lead by example!

To finish up...

Ellis, my favorite food here is Tacacá, and the craziest thing I have eaten is Turú (worms that eat wood, you eat them raw) 

Emma, I hope you took don’t get nervous about the track meets, you just need to beet yourself the others don’t matter.

Eliza, what did you end up deciding about the mission?

Dan, I hope you passed your belt exam!!!

So I’m a little out of time to write.

Love you all!!!

PS. I sent a letter to Quincey so I hope she will respond here in about a month.

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