Monday, May 30th 2011

Oí Família!!!

Yet another week has flown by without me even noticing it. I hardly even recognize Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday anymore. But yes it is true, this week was Hump Day for me. If you would have told me that the first year of the mission would pass so fast I would have called you a liar, but it´s so unbelievably true. Let´s see... what has Elder Clark learned in one year in the Lord´s service? I actually took a lot of time to reflect on this subject this week. What can I say about this year that has passed? The year was full of learning experiences. I learned of how I feel when I am not working very well and how the Spirit truly lacks in my words when I am not completely dilligent in what I am doing. And then I learned of how fulfilling it is when I can end a good day´s work and look back and say that we accomplished a lot because of our good attitude and the Spirit that was with us. I have learned about how good it feels to do a good thing for someone and have no one notice it, because you did specifically to help that person and not to gain recognition from others. I learned about how hard it is to learn another language, but the blessings that come when you finally get the hang of it. I learned that God has many, many, many gifted and talented children in every place on the Earth. And one the best things that I have learned out here is that when you try your best, the Lord makes up for the rest. There have been so many times out here when I really thought that I wouldn´t be able to pull through. Some of the difficulties that I have faced that really left me thinking that I wasn´t good enough really pulled me down to low self-esteem. But something that has been proved true through and through this year is that my Savior has put me on His shoulders and carried me through the storm time and time again. He is truly molding me into the person that I am meant to be after the mission is all over. Whenever I make a mistake, I am happy because I already know what needs to change in order for me to be the leader, the son, the brother, the husband, the father that God needs me to be in the long run. The mission is just the warm-up for the challenges that are waiting for me. The more time that I spend out here, the more time I have to perfect my character flaws that I have still. I am super glad that I have one more year to make these corrections.

Well, I did a companion exchange on the one-year mark this week. I hadn´t even realized it until my companion asked me when it was coming up. I told him that it was today and he took me and bought this huge thing of icecream called Açaí (ahs-ah-ee). It´s really good and the U.S. doesn´t have it unfortunately. It´s this purple looking substance that comes from the açaí fruit. You´ll all have to look it up haha I don´t know how to explain it. But that same day, we received a reference from a less-active member of their ward and we went looking for the house. The only problem was that they didn´t give us the house number, just the name of the road and the road had about 200 houses on it. We started walking... and walking... and walking... and all of the sudden I felt the urge to stop and knock on the door of some random house. This guy came out and ended up being the person we were looking for. They didn´t have time to hear our message that night, but it was really special to see how the Spirit helped us find these people.

I love the mission and I love the things that I am learning and improving every day. There are a lot of things to learn still, but I am ready for the challenge because I have a family that loves me and a Heavenly Father who wants me to be happy. I love you all and wish you all a great week! Happy Summer!!! It´s Winter here now!

Elder Clark