Monday, January 10th 2011

Oí Família!

Yet another transfer down! Today is the last day of the transfer and it looks like Elder Fernandes is leaving. We haven´t gotten our phone call yet, but he has been here for three transfers already, so all signs point to him leaving and me staying. This transfer has been a good one... no, it´s been a great one. I have learned so much from this transfer with Elder Fernandes. One thing about my personality; I have always been the kind of person who was nice to everyone and loved to make friends and hated making enemies. I always said soft things that always made people feel better, but not necessarily helped them improve. Elder Fernandes, one day, told me after a lesson, "man, you talk like you have cushions in your mouth." I looked at him and was a little taken-aback, but then I really thought about what he said. As a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ, we need to be as Christ-like as possible, but also we cannot let any opportunity to teach Gospel truths slip away. I took his comment to heart this past month and a half and I have been much more confident in my words. I am still the nice guy, but now I am the nice guy who knows what is right and will show you how to find the truth. This has always been something that I have wanted to develop, and of course I haven´t mastered it, but now I have a starting place.

Oh, just to give you all an idea of how my week started, I will tell you all about my trip home on Tuesday. So we pass through a jungly looking part of our area to get to the place where we usually teach. We cross a brigde that passes over a river, and the name of the bridge is "I hope it falls" and really is about to fall at any minute to my doom of walking the rest of the day with wet shoes and socks. Well, when it rains a lot (everyday almost), the rain fills this little river. Elder Fernandes and I were coming home from our day of work and we had finished passing all the mud and puddles and finally got to the bridge... yup, the bridge was now completely under the water, leaving now way to pass and get home. We turned around and walked the entire way back and grabbed a bus that took us home, but it was quite the adventure.

Well, I am quite short of words this week. I will have more to tell next Monday I hope! I love you all and thank-you so very much for all of your prayers and support! Have a great week!

Elder Clark