Monday, Aug 15, 2011

Oí Família!!!

Well how exciting it is! I still can´t believe that everyone is getting ready to go back to school! It feels just like yesterday that everyone was just starting last school year! The time is going by so ridiculously fast that I am not able to keep track of things. I will actually be back home before this school year ends. How weird is that?! I also got the goosebumps hearing about Brady´s Green-and-White game! He tells the stories so well that I get imagining everything in my head and I want to be there watching in real life. But I will be back for the senior year! And now all the girls are in braces hahahahahaha I already went through all that. Oh all those school days after orthodontist appointments where I could only eat the Campell´s Chicken Noodle Soup that Mom made me... :)

This week was pretty interesting. I actually felt super strange because it finally came to the time for me to renew my visa!!! It really hit me because I can still remember when I went to the Federal Police Station the first time in MTC!!! I couldn´t speak and I felt so stupid around all the Brazilians, but not this time! This time I could actually communicate my way to wherever I wanted to go. Then, to make it all better, we saw about 30 missionaries there from the MTC as well. They all looked at us and we looked at them and we already knew that they were from the MTC because all of their white shirts were still white! Ours are turning that yellowish color already haha. They all asked things like, "Is the language hard?" or "Does the mission go by fast?" All the things that we asked when we were in their place a year ago... poor things lol. I learned so much after the MTC. It was a great learning experience in itself, but I learned much more in the field and I know that my testimony grew more in the field. I met up with the secretaries from the Brazil São Paulo North mission there as well, and he let me call and say hi to all of my friends in that mission that I met in the MTC! It was just a big day of remembering things from the past! I was going back home and I saw a McDonald´s on the side of the road. I looked at one of the other Elders that was with me and said unto him, "Let us partake." It had been just a little over a year and three months that I hadn´t eaten McD´s! It´s super expensive here, but it was SO worth it! A Big Mac has never tasted so good.

We also had a blast today for our Zone P-day. We all got up early and went fishing and caught absolutely nothing! Imagine the Spring Lake Trout Farm only really dirty and no trout... ya that was pretty much it. My pole broke and it was a grand ol´ time! We all left happy and cheery still. Then we went to a barbeque (churrascaria) and ate a ton of meat! Then we went to a big park and played around and took pictures with everyone! It was nice to get out and enjoy the sun today... but I think I enjoyed it a little too much because I got burned again. The downside of being a whitey haha.

Well, we had an amazing baptism this Saturday. His name is Benjamin and he is the friend of a member. He is the father of a huge family and he is SUPER spiritual. When we invited him to be baptized, he told us automatically that he knew that he needed to be baptized in this Church. He got all prepared and stopped drinking alcohol and coffee right off the bat. The only problem that came up is that when it came to the baptismal day, his family didn´t want to come and watch. They all told him that they had better things to do. I found it so sad and odd because it is so hard to get men interested in the Gospel, so when one does want to follow, usually the rest of the family is behind him, but this was a different case. He got a little discouraged, but didn´t let it affect him. He showed up in the chapel with normal clothes and when he was baptized and came out of the bathroom, he had put on a white shirt and tie and social pants he had bought the day before. He said that he is here to stay. I saw a future Elders Quorum President in him.

We also saw that one sister of the ward brought her husband to Church for the second time in a row. We decided to ask if we could pass by their house and talk with him and he accepted! He later told us that night that Christ had appeared to him in a dream and asked him a very serious question. Christ asked, "When I was on the Earth, everyone rejected me... Will you be the same?" Him telling us that allowed us to help him realize that he had been called to follow by the very Savior. He accepted to be baptized this weekend! I can feel the work that Heavenly Father is doing here in this ward! I love it! I know that what I am doing is true! I wouldn´t rather be anywhere else! I love my family and I am so grateful that I had the chance to grow up in this Gospel. It is the place that my future family will be forever! I love you all and thanks so much for the thoughts and prayers you all give me.

Love,
Elder Clark