Monday, June 6 2011

Oí Família!

My, oh my, what a great time it is to be in Lorena! It´s absolutely freezing here at night and in the morning! I am turning into the biggest wimp! I can´t even stand the 65 degree weather here in Brazil. How am I going to be able to move back home to the -10 winters of Utah? Seriously, I wake up in the morning all refreshed and renewed, and once I take off the covers and put my feet to the frigid wood floor of our house, I get back into bed and put on the covers again! It´s crazy! Right now it´s like 70 degrees and as I am typing, my fingers are trembling. I am going to have to buy another sweater out here because I gave my only one to my companion out here, who is from the North part of the country... right next to the equator haha.

I am doing pretty well out here in Lorena! I am loving the ward, too. We have done a great work here in this little town. That family that we baptized is looking to go to the temple this month to do baptisms there. They also got super excited this week because the ward is having a dance this weekend! They said that they will bring ALL of their friends! The oldest one, the one that looks like Big Mike, is wanting to help one of his friends get baptized because he wants to be able to do the baptism himself. Yesterday, after Church, he started talking to me how he is wanting to go to the temple so badly and that he is going to start going to Institute every Saturday! I can tell you that the ward is really excited to have this Jadson, and I am so thoroughly grateful that the Lord trusted me with these special children.

Speaking of my companion, I am really liking him. He´s a good missionary and really knows how to hold himself during our discussions with people and looks like he´s been in the field for almost six months in spite of this being his first month in the field. The problem is that he and I have our differences in opinion, which is normal, but he doesn´t like to hear my side nor understand my side. It´s really difficult because I feel like I have to teach the investigators and my companion at the same time because doesn´t agree with the way that I phrased a sentence or something like that. Last night, however, the Spirit really helped me find a solution to my problem. As we were talking with the mother of a member of the ward here, she started to talk badly about a lot of the members whom I have grown to love a lot over the time here. I told her that I didn´t appreciate what she was saying and told her that she shouldn´t be saying things like that about others, and my companion started to try to explain things his way to her. When we left he let me have it. He started saying how I don´t have any patience with anyone and that I need to learn how to hold my tongue and say things differently and as he was saying all this stuff I was just getting angrier and angrier. I almost reached a point where I would have exploded and started playing the blame game. But out of nowhere, I felt something whisper to me to not say anything. I put my hand out and shook his and said, "thank-you, I will do better." And I said it with all sincerity. With a lot of people, we can argue and argue and plead our case and try to show them that THEY are the ones who are wrong and not us, but this only results in hurt feelings and pride. I was really glad that I was able to hear the Spirit above my anger because it may have saved our companionship. It was a humble pill to swallow, but pride is something that cannot abide in my heart. Maybe I was right, maybe I was wrong, but I know that I reacted the way that Heavenly Father wanted because I felt a peace fall upon us afterwards.

Sorry I don´t have much to say this week. Just thought I would share with you all what I learned. I hope you all have a great and wonderful week. I love you all! Remember who you are and what you stand for! :)

Elder Clark