Monday, Feb6th 2012

Oi Família!!!

It´s burning up down here! I can just tell you that I am just about as tan as I can get right now. Just to give you all an idea of how I feel while walking under the hot sun here, one night I was fast asleep with one elder snoring louder than Grandpa Clark´s tractor and 90 degrees in our room. I started to dream, and it was one of the best dreams of my entire life! I was walking on the street with my companion on yet another hot day in the dream. It was so miserably hot in our room that even in my dream I was feeling the heat. In the dream, I was looking around desperately for some sort of refuge when I saw a giant mound of beautiful white snow out of nowhere! I ran and jumped into the snow pile and then... I woke up. Good stuff huh...But it was good for a few seconds, right.

Looks like my former companion, Elder Fassini, the one whose dad passed aways a month ago, is already working at a newspaper as the general manager of distribution! He sent me an e-mail telling me that the mission really is blessing him at home. He is already the manager!!! I got really happy for him because he really does deserve all the blessings he receives because he was the hardest workers I have ever seen! I have been blessed so much with my companions. Looks like this companion I have right now, Elder Torres, will be my last companion according to the words of my mission president. He is really great as well because he is humble, but really good at squeezing the best out of the missionaries. The best part is that he really respects my opinions knowing that I am the senior assistent. We work super well together and the mission is going perfectly. I love all of my companions and I can honestly say that every single one of them are my friends still to this day and I never had a companion who I can say that I did not like. I think this is something extremely important for me when I get home. My relationships with my friends, co-workers, family members, should be this way too. Sometimes we may argue and fight, but it takes a lot of humility and patience to work with them so that you can still show your love and work together.

I read something very interesting in the book of Mosiah this last Friday. I absolutely love King Benjamin. His example is perfect for all families because he talks so much about service and love and raising your children correctly. I coud really tell that King Benjamin was a fantastic father because his children were great men as well. I started to think a little about what Elder Ballard had told us at that conference that we had with him. He told us that we needed to study with our companions everyday because we will start the habit of reading the scriptures with our family and having family night and saying a family prayer. If we don´t study with our companions it is very unlikely that we will study with our family. I was reading in Mosiah 1:2 where it tells us how King Benjamin always taught his sons in the language of their fathers so they, too, could understand the scriptures. Then in verse 4 he states that he taught the scriptures to his sons so that they, too, were able to teach their sons. I saw that in this scripture that even King Benjamin´s time the Lord had established Family Home Evening. Then we can see in verse 5 that the Lamanites did not practice these things and they turned into a wicked and hard-hearted people, not wanting to know about God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true because I was able to learn this little bit of truth about Family Home Evening. I know that the Church is true because this book is true! I love the little things that we can learn when we read it.

I love you all for everything you all do for me! Thanks for all the love and support that I have received! Take care this week and I will pray for more snow! haha

Elder Clark