Monday, Dec 20th 2010

Oí Família!

This week was great and tiring at the same time. We had three baptisms marked for this weekend but two of them ended up falling through. The one person who was baptized was Dion. Dion is a 12 year-old kid who really is something special. He lives in a very humble home (really really humble) with his single mom and three other brothers (all from different fathers) and he helps his mom out with all of the chores and even takes care of his youngest brother of four years when his mom is working. He is such a special kid and felt the Holy Ghost testify to him that the Church was true in the first night. We took pictures in front of the Church with our new Santa Hats that we bought and we all had a great time!

The sad part of this weekend is about the other two kids we had marked for baptism that didn´t end up being baptized. The girls are 11 and 8 years-old and both had extreme desires of being baptized with Dion, but when we talked with their moms, it was like Satan had possessed their point of view so much that they didn´t want anything to do with us. The thing that I don´t understand is that these parents will let their daughters run around at such a young age, doing whatever they want, and they never bat an eye, but when you tell them that their daughters want to follow Christ´s example and be baptized, they get all defensive and don´t allow it. This is something that Elder Fernandes and I have been talking about a lot lately; we really are in the final days because Satan has perverted the world so much that Godly things like baptism and Church are misconstrued as bad things, and bad things like drugs and sex are more accepted. We aren´t going to let these two girls go, however. We have a goal to baptize them the day after Christmas!!! Heavenly Father is more powerful.

Well, as far as the phone call goes for this Saturday... We don´t have many members who have offered to let us stay at their house for Christmas and so we aren´t quite sure where we will be, so I have two telephone numbers for you...


We should be in this house about 2 o´clock in the afternoon, so 9 o´clock for you guys. Mom, Dad, I will leave it up to you two to decide who will call first. If you call and the line is busy, just know that my companion is probably on the other line talking to his family still. We have rules on the time limit, and I will let you know when we are pushing it. Since I get two phone calls, President Moreira has asked that I try to split up the time evenly between the two houses. But don´t worry about the time, we will be fine :).

I´d love to be able to call on Christmas Eve and catch the whole family at home at Grandma and Grandpa´s house, but President Moreira moved our P-day to Christmas and we will be working on Christmas Eve, thus meaning that I won´t have any time nor phone to make the call because we have to use a member´s phone.

I am super excited for Christmas! I have really been waiting for this chance to share how much fun I am having out here. The mission is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, but it´s also the best thing that has ever happened to me. I hope I can still remember how to talk in English. It´s been almost five whole months since I´ve had a straight conversation in English. Writing is one thing, but talking is completely different. Hopefully things go all right haha. I love you guys! Thanks for all the support, prayers, and love.

Love,
Elder Clark