Monday, May 16th 2011

Oí Família!!!

Well, we went through yet another transfer! I can´t believe how fast this time is flying by! My companion left the area and now I have the great privilige of training a new elder here! I am training for the first time in my mission! His name is Elder D. Silva, but he will probably be changing to Elder Felipe soon. He is from Recife! Recife is a huge tourist place in the northeast of the country. It has a whole bunch of beaches and beautiful places to visit. He is pretty much loving the cool breeze of São Paulo right now. He really isn´t much of a greeny though. He is 22 years-old and already knows how to teach and act like a missionary, so I will have a pretty easy job these next two transfers with him. It was quite the hassle going out to pick him up though. I was completely out of money last week and didn´t expect to have to travel all the way out to the city to pick up my companion, but then I found out that it was mandatory and so I had to take out all of my money! But it looks like Salt Lake is switching up the way that the mission works. Now, the most important designation in the mission is being a trainer. They have been having a lot of problems with the missionaries in the past because their trainers set bad examples for them. Our president told us that we are officially the missionaries that the Prophet trusts the most and that we have a very great responsibility. I am so happy that the Lord has trusted me with such a great calling and I got extremely happy and grateful to be able to train Elder D. Sliva. I know that it won´t be easy, but I know that it will help me grow to reach more of my potential as a missionary. Everyone has told me that training is a great big spiritual experience, but with every spiritual experience, you have to go through a lot of suffering as well, but I am ready for everything! :) My companion is really great and has great manners. We entered into a member´s house and the first thing I saw him doing was taking off his shoes to walk in. Haha I started to chuckle and the member started screaming, "what are you doing boy? This is a poor people´s house!" Haha She was joking but it kind of startled him haha.

As we were coming back out to the area, we were helping all the other trainers get back to the metro. One missionary was carrying a little cart with big brown cardboard boxes full of Books of Mormon. And what do you know? The cart broke! We had to carry four big huge boxes of Books of Mormon all the way to the metro which was about a half a mile away still. Everyone was looking at us like we were helpless young guys, but it sure was fun to be able to look back and laugh. We got a hold of another little cart, and can you guess what happened again? Yeah, it sure wasn´t a lucky day and I could tell that Satan wanted to discourage us really soon.

Sorry, I don´t have a WHOLE lot of things to write today, but I want to send my love and care to everyone at home! Thanks so much for the love and support I have from you all out here on the mission. These really are the best two years of my life and I know that I am being prepared for many things to come in my life. Know that this is the True Church of our Savior Jesus Christ! I know all this is true, without any doubts!

Love,
Elder Clark