October 18th 2010

Oi Minha Família!

Wow, well you can chalk up yet another transfer come-and-gone already! Tomorrow is transfers again and I cannot believe how fast it went by. If all of these transfers go this quickly, I am going to blink and already be home! But as much as I miss you guys, I don´t really want it to go that fast. I am having the time of my life out here and I am learning so much! I never realized how much the mission really makes you learn and grow. The real trick is that you have to be willing to work your hardest and you have to WANT to learn. Studying the scriptures and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is something that has to be a desire if you expect to learn more about them. It can´t be a chore that we "have" to do everyday. I have always held to one lesson that I learned from you Mom; that the only things that we "have" to do in our lives are blink and die, the rest are our choices. I have made the choice to learn as much as I can here on the mission, and I have already seen the blessings from the Lord.

So I have a funny story for you guys that happened yesterday. So, Elder Roblyer and I were really excited for this Sunday because we met a lot of people, including a few families, to bring to Church in the morning, so we were pretty pumped! We had talked with some of the ward missionaries to meet up with them at the chapel at 8:20 and then do a division and we would bring all of the investigators to the Church. When we got to the chapel, we saw that there were a lot of cars there already and people in the classrooms. I was a little confused, but I didn´t think much of it. We poked our heads in and asked the ward missionaries if they were ready to go grab the investigators and they said, "Elders, it´s already 9:20" Turns out that it was Daylight´s Savings Time here in Brazil and no one, not even our leaders, bothered to tell us. We still went to grab our investigators, but no one was home, unfortunately, and I was pretty bummed.

The other thing that is getting to me right now is that all of the young men who I helped be baptized are already falling in-active because no one in our ward is visiting them. I get really sad because of this because there is only so much that we can do as missionaries, the rest of the work is up to the members and unfortunately we aren´t getting a lot of help from them with visits to recent converts. But I will keep my head up and keep working and bringing more people to the Gospel, and just keep praying that the rest will be taken care of.

So I am thinking that there is a theme to this week with everything that is going on with Jennifer (Jill's Sister) and Grandma Spears. I want everyone to know that I know that the Plan of Salvation is SO real. We are passing through difficult times right now with our loved ones, but I know that our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us. This life is a time for us to prepare to meet our God, and in the end, we will be an eternal family in Heaven with Him once again. I know that life is not easy, but I know that we have a better place prepared for us after this. I love each of you and, I will keep saying this until the end, that I wouldn´t pick any other family to spend eternity with. I know that this Church is true because the things that it teaches gives us so much hope and happiness! I love you all and to Grandma Spears, I will miss you very very much, and God be with you ´til we meet again :) I will grab a lot of coins out of the big boot at Christmas Eve when I get home just for you!

Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Elder Clark