Father's Day, and The Ups and Downs of Missionary Work

Monday, August 13, 2012 6:40 AM

Hey Dad!

I wanted send special note to you for Father’s Day [Father’s Day in Brazil is the 2^nd Sunday in August, not June].  I thought a lot about Father’s Day and what it means.  I think it’s funny how sometimes I seem to relearn or come to understand some things better.  I always knew being a father is important or that there is a lot of responsibility, heartache and joy involved.  For example, the father of the prodigal son had moments of pain and grief but when his son came back he undoubtedly was the one who felt more joy and love because what was lost to him was found.  

I got to give a lesson to a family (Camila and Nilson who have 2 daughters about 7 and 5).  They have had lots of problems in their relationship, more because of the past because Nilson drank a lot.  He stopped before we met them but there are still some feelings that haven't been resolved yet.  There we taught about the worth of souls and I talked about what things make us/God happy.  When we understand what makes one happy, we will understand better what will make the other happy, and what we should avoid in order to continue to be happy in tough times.  I concluded that what brings more happiness to us in this life are things like our families being unified, seeing our friends, siblings, children, or parents succeed.   Therefore God is made happy when we succeed, and like it says in Moses, God’s work and glory is to help us succeed and become like him.  Well Dad, I love you and hope that your Father’s Day was the best!

Oh, and I thought it was funny that on Father’s Day I confirmed Pablo (an 18 year old that we have been teaching) a member of the church. 

Love you!

Elder Clark

Another letter the same day:

Hey!

Happy Monday after Fathers Day!

I thought it was interesting here for Father’s Day there were a lot of people complementing people and saying, “Happy Father’s Day.”  I thought it was cool.  At home I think that Father’s Day was a bit more reserved.  Quite a few people asked me if I was a father.  I thought that was funny and scary at the same time.  I am frequently asked if I have a family (like if I'm married and have kids).  Families start really young here.  

This picture is of me with a lot of post-it notes -- well all of the post-it notes I have received in care packages.  The post-it next to my face says “Obrigado!!” or “Thank You.”  Funny story.  Obrigado is the English equivalent of thank you or to thank and obligated.  Interesting how languages evolve.

I love you both!! Thanks for being my parents!

Your son,

Elder Clark

Monday, August 20, 2012 9:18 AM

Hi!

Man, this week has been interesting.  I had a bunch of good experiences and a few bad ones.  Remember that family, Ademir and Ana?  Well, they fight a lot but now they have separated.   (I think that he abused her verbally and physically).  The other day Ademir was really angry and didn’t want to talk to be taught that day, so I left him Matthew 7 to read and told him to read it calmly and apply it in their relationship.  Apparently when he read it he freaked out because he didn’t think that he was wrong in any way and that I should have given that scripture to Ana.  He is a really cold and stubborn person.  He said that he didn’t want me to come back to his house any more.  I think we will drop him.  I really felt that the scripture would solve their problems if they applied it, but i guess it’s better now that they are separated because i never saw them smile at one another.  I just feel bad about the two sons of theirs.

On brighter news, we had a baptism (Herrison, age 13).   And we have been seeing progress in our investigators.  We have been running in the morning.  And we did 3 service projects last week.  One included cutting down a mango tree that didn’t give fruit, so I have officially contributed directly to the deforestation of the Amazon.  But, I will strongly encourage them to plant another tree in its place!

Out of time, but I love you guys!  And I am writing paper letters!!!

See ya!

Elder Clark

Monday, August 27, 2012

Hey, gang!  So this last week was pretty interesting.  We had another baptism!!!!  We baptized Luan, a 13 year old young man.  He is a bit timid, but really smart.  I have attached a picture of Luan, Irmão Cicero (the ward mission leader), and me.  The other picture is of an amazing lunch I prepared.

So I have a request.  Mom, can you send a recipe for pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, and Aunt Jen’s rolls. (It’s for our neighbor across the street.  She is really nice!)   And recipes for pico de gallo? and homemade corn chips? 

So this week, we finally came to an end with Ademir and Ana.  After I left the scripture with him, Ana, the woman that he was living with, left.  I explained the scripture to him but he didn’t apply it.  For some reason, Ana came back (I really don’t think that was a good idea).  We sat down to talk to them yesterday and they started yelling and fighting before we got to the opening prayer.  I prayed (silently) then we stood up to leave.  Ademir said that he didn’t want us to come back and gave us his Book of Mormon.  We then left and prayed for them, just me and my comp, in the house of some other investigators. 

  

I felt really sad that I couldn’t help them.  Unfortunately the problems there were not resolved and we were imperfect in the way we tried to help them.  I will learn from what happened and I pray for them often.   

So the work goes forth.  Our ward has made a few changes in the bishopric and we have had a lot of promising investigators that have been to church (we had 14 investigators in church last Sunday) and we have the marriage and baptisms of Magno, Marilene, and Kezia this week!!!!  After 4.5 months they are almost there!!!  My district is carrying the zone in baptisms and I feel satisfied with the work I am doing.  We have a lot to improve but the work is getting done!

I love you guys and hope that all the changes are happening smoothly!! 

Eliza, jump in there and don’t look back!

Ellis, I hope the semester of commuting will not be too stressful and that you do well in school!

Emma and Dan, don’t drive mom and dad crazy and continue to do activities in the family!!

Mom, Dad, thanks and I love you both more than you know!!!

Love,

Elder Clark

Ben helps his companion use a non-nerdy accent and assures us of his safety

Sorry, Emma, for not writing very frequently.  I have been very short on time but I hope that your life is doing well.  It's pretty good here for me.  I have a new companion and I'm starting to like him more and more.  Funny story.  When he talks English he has a very nasally nerdy accent which I think is funny.  I told him that we would try to help him with the accent because he would never get a girlfriend in the U.S. with his accent   ; )  I really liked what you wrote about journal writing.  I have a hard time writing in my journal but I found what you said helpful.  Oh, and have you really been writing in your journal and reading the scriptures every day for the past year?!  Way cool parabems! (congrats!).  I love you and hope you have a wonderful week.

 

Love, Ben

Hey everyone,

 

This week has been interesting.  I tried to prepare a lesson for my district this last week and ended up not working out very well.  I planned a family night with a member family and brought investigators but I botched it, and it turned out a not being super organized, and we had a devotional that I was in charge of for the ward (like a ward family night called Noite Integração).  Unfortunately, none of these activities turned out super well.  But I guess that it's just a sign that I need to keep working at it and maybe spend more time preparing and planning.  Oh, do any of you have ideas for fun games that I could use for some of these ward activities or family nights?

 

So, in my area 3-4 people where murdered.  All of them 16-21 year old males.  In fact, one of them was killed last night a block away from our house just a few minutes before we got home 9:30 in the evening.  The guy who was murdered by our house was shot 8 times -- one in the chest and 7 in the face.  But don't worry, all of these guys were involved with drugs and had owed money to the drug dealers.  It's really not   way dangerous for regular people, but for the Ladrãos  (robbers) its really dangerous.  But don't worry I'm doing fine.    

 

I've attached a picture of Antonio and Rosa who are preparing to be baptized this next Saturday. Rosa is trying to quit smoking!  I also dedicated a house yesterday for Dayana who was baptized last week!!!

 

Oh, Antonio and Rosa gave us 7 packets of coffee after we taught them about the Word of Wisdom and burying your sins (see Anti-Nephi Lehi's).

 

I'm doing great and people are progressing.  Sorry that I didn't get to the really good stuff in this letter!

Sorry I'm out of time.  Got to go!!!

 

I love you guys !!!!

 

Ben

Ben is made District Leader, and has more mini-missionaries

Eliza’s Question:  I friended some people for you on Facebook.  One was named Maicovale Pingo.  I saw that he had several photos of you.  I looked at them and it was nice to see you.  We just couldn't guess who this guy was.  Was he your companion?  (if so, he was breaking some rules) or just some other dude who was stalking you two and posting all your pictures.  

Ben’s Response:  So, Eliza, my comp was only a temporary missionary.  The mission expected a missionary from the Brazilian MTC that didn’t actually come, so I have been the missionary to pick up the slack, working with temps from the area.  Elder Vale is Maicovale Pingo and he is at home now.  He also wasn’t an ordained missionary, so he didn’t have an email account and just used Facebook. 

I’m glad the mini-surgery went well and that you are playing more music.  I think that is the thing I miss the most on the mission --  music, especially singing in English and playing the guitar. 

My new comp is Elder Tavares.  He is an 18 year old from Vila Dos Cabanos, a city close to Abaetetuba.  Oh, and he also dated Janaina, the first person I baptized here.  I think it was my first or second week in the field.  So it was fun to work with him for a while.  It was like training because he didn’t know much about teaching.  But today his cousin is going to trade places with him because he needs to register with the army here. 

Funny story.  The bishop told my comp he was going to speak for 20 minutes in Sacrament Meeting a few days ago, I think Wednesday.  I felt pretty safe so when we got to the church the first councilor pulled me to the side and said that I was going to speak as well because the scheduled speaker didn’t show up.  He gave me 20 minutes to speak.  So, I whipped out a talk I gave in my last area about missionary work, modified it in Sacrament Meeting, and ended up giving what I thought was a really good 15-20 minute talk in Sacrament Meeting.  I think just to be safe I will write another talk and carry it around with me so that when I get called to talk on short notice it’s not a big deal. 

Oh, can you accept Jordan Tavares when he sends a friend invite on Facebook?  Thanks, Eliza.  Love you!!!

  

-Ben

Hey, parents! 

This week has been interesting.  My comp, Elder Vale, finished his mini-mission and went to the beach.  I got another temp who is getting replaced by his cousin today and I was made District Leader.   The District Leader thing is a bit funny because my comp from the MTC, Elder Childs, is in my district, we share the same chapel [Ben was also the District Leader when he was in the MTC with Elder Childs].  So, it’s been interesting to have more responsibility.  I think I work much harder when I have more responsibility. 

So the week has been OK.  I had a really cool experience with an investigator yesterday.  Ademir is 49  (born in ‘63) and he is living with his (I think it’s pretty funny here in Brazil because they often refer to wives as “mulhers” being translated as “woman;”  they say, ´”minha mulher” -- “my woman”) mulher Ana (30’ish) and two sons about 3 and 5 years old.   They have been visiting the church with some other investigators we have and they were really interested and skeptical at the same time.  Ademir, in particular, had a hard time understanding that the Book of Mormon isn’t more important [to us] than the Bible.  But after I explained to him about the priesthood, and how they needed to know that the Book of Mormon was true to know that we had the priesthood, after a while he understood.  And it was cool because I explained and the ideas were just flowing.  I had never thought about the Book of Mormon in exactly the way I explained it.  The Spirit was working and at the end Ademir understood and said that he needed to read the Book of Mormon.  Then, yesterday we taught him and Ana about the Word of Wisdom.  But when I started teaching I showed them a picture of the Joseph Smith without really knowing why.  I like to explain about how Joseph Smith received the commandment from God, but I don’t always show the picture of him.  But this time I was prompted to show the picture and Ademir ended up stopping the lesson and explained that when he was 19 he walked in front of one of the first chapels the Church built in Belém and had a dream where Joseph Smith told him that he needed to help the church.  He accepted my invitation to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God, and will try to get married.  I think that missions are great.

I’m out of time but I love you guys!  Oh, and thanks for the paper and insoles!!!!

 Love, Ben

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

Two Weeks of Letters from Belem During Rainy Season

Monday, July 2, 2012

Oi,

Hey, everything here is going OK.  We had a ward party here Saturday and it turned out to be really cool.  The youth of the ward had some dancing presentations, and I filmed a bit with my camera.  

Good news: we have set a date to go to the Cartolio to get Magno and Marilene hitched!  They are doing well and we have a bunch of other families that are close to getting married here as well.  

I have finally settled everything with the members in our ward (their problems with me) and they are starting to bring new families to church!  Some members just don’t understand that their food is good but that I won’t overeat, they get really self-conscious if you only eat one full plate of food, and I feel like I’m eating Thanksgiving dinner every day.  

It’s pretty rainy here these days, well, it is really hot then we have thunder showers in the afternoons.  Thankfully I have two pairs of shoes and I switch them each day so I don’t have to wear them wet.  

We got our new mission president and we will meet him in person this week.  

My skin irritation left but I am left with a minor skin infection that blisters around my waist line and in my groin.  Yeah, that’s pleasant.  But it doesn’t hurt, it just itches after the blisters pop (the blisters are under just the top layer of skin).  But I have a cream to put on them every night.  

I am doing well. I hope you all are doing well too.  Today we spent a few hours with an RM and made lemon bars with maracuja [passionfruit, picture downloaded from Google] instead of lemons.  Out of time.

 

I will write a letter later today!!!

Love you all!!

Ben

Monday, July 9, 2012

Man this past week was bit crazy.  It had the regular ups and downs.  We have a lot of people almost baptized we just need to finish teaching then and give them a baptismal date.  We are going to marry some people in the next few weeks as well.  

My comp is interesting.  He is pretty good.  We will have transfers in two weeks and after that I don’t know what will happen.  I really want to stay here because I have prepared a lot of people to be baptized but it will take a while for some of them to get married. My comp (after a few weeks) told more of the story about how he messed up his knee.  Apparently that was only part of the story.  Well, there were a ton of things going on in his mission, and he didn’t like the cold, so he said that he wouldn’t go back to his mission and he is resubmitting his papers.  From the stories I have heard from him, his mission there was really disobedient and a ton of missionaries where sent home dishonorably.  That sort of stuff is always sad to hear.  No one is perfect on the mission but to get sent home from the mission dishonorably for breaking commandments is pretty close to denying the Holy Ghost.

Well cool things that happened this past week.  I met the mission president.  He was really nice.  And I took a shower in a rain storm last night on our back patio (it is surrounded by a wall so no one could see).  We got 12 investigators to church and I tried the classic açai and peixe food combo at one of the biggest open markets in South America [fried white fish with purple açai pudding/sauce on the side, pictures downloaded from Google] .  That was pretty cool.

I love you all a lot I hope that the summer is great up there.   

Eliza, Happy B-day!!!! Man,18 is pretty old.  Remember, seize the day!

I am out of time, but say hi to everyone for me and tell the grandparents I love them and that I got the letter about the Manaus Temple!!

Eliza look up the Coldplay song “Paradise!”

Love,

Ben

President Campos' last goodbye, June 25, 2012

June 25, 2012

Hey, Dad, thanks for the emails.  Today was a bit interesting because we went to Belém for President Campos´ last goodbye/hurrah.  We got back just a little bit ago. 

I have been having an interesting week. My companion is a bit fubeca and that has been a little bit trying. 

I have become more and more acquainted with Macumba -- some sort of devil-worshiping African religion.   And a bunch of our investigators are starting to reveal problems that are really beyond my capacity to deal with.  I am trying to better my studies and prayers because I feel like everything is falling through and I can’t do it all alone. 

But today has been great.   The dispedido da president [president’s farewell] was pretty good.  He is a very inspired man and I will definitely apply what he has taught me throughout my life.  When I got into the field in California I was confronted with all this “deep doctrine” -- you know, when people talk about where the three Nephites are or if Cain is Bigfoot.  I really didn’t like that, and thankfully Pres. Campos has been able to help me direct my studies of the gospel,  find more purpose and meaning to the basic principles of the gospel.  I always liked the simple parts of the gospel more than the other stuff.  Today Sister Campos said something really cool today about the Book of Mormon.  You all should read the Intro to the Book of Mormon as a family.  There is a paragraph that I like a lot.  Joseph Smith bore his testimony about the Book of Mormon and said that it was more correct than any other book on the face of the earth and that by following its precepts we will come closer to God than following teaching from any other book.  It made me remember something that a visiting branch president said in the MTC.  He told us to focus on the Book of Mormon because it is the most effective tool in conversion.  He told us that we should send our Bibles home because during the mission the Book of Mormon is the converting tool.  So we should give more attention to the Book of Mormon.  Here we read 2 chapters a day in the Book of Mormon.  It’s something I really like.  It has been strengthening my testimony. 

I hope everything is going well there in Moscow and that your summer will be nice and relaxing.  Iwill read your letters later today and try to respond with a written letter.  I love you guys and hope all your wildest dreams come true!

I really am starting to like my area.  It’s very pretty  and the members are becoming more helpful and friendly.

Love you Dad!

P.S. If you see Liz again before she leaves, tell her I said hi and wish that her Russian spy endeavors turn out well for her!

Love, Ben