Oi Família,
Unfortunately, my companion´s story of great faith did not have a fairytale ending. Last Wednesday, as we were leaving the temple, he got a phone call from his older brother that was at the hospital with his dad. We were walking on the sidewalk while he was on the phone when all of the sudden he stopped and just started crying. He told me later that his dad had died. He called up our mission president and told him that he was ready to go home. He only had one more week left on the mission and it ended in such a sad way. My companion was a great example of someone who worried more about the work than what was going on at home. Only when it reached the extreme did he finally decided to go home. He was a great help to me on the mission and I will tell anyone that this was the best time of my two years so far.
Now I have a new companion. His name is Elder Torres. He is also Brazilian, so that makes it seven straight Brazilian companions. It´s been over a year and a few months since I have had an American companion. I really like it that way actually. I will be living with Americans the rest of my life, so I will take advantage of my time with the Brazilian culture! He is from one of the hottest parts of Brazil and he is a convert to the Church, much like the majority of my companions have been. He is extremely humble and easy to work with. I am really excited for this next few months with him. We have a lot of big goals to reach, so it´s gonna be another stretch of tough work.
I was just at the temple this morning when I had a pleasant suprise. I walked in there and saw the MTC elders. I thought, how cool would it be if I saw someone that I knew from home here. Just as I thought of that, I saw some little blonde kid from Heber, UT. I went over to him and tapped on his shoulder and asked where he was from. He got all big-eyed and dropped his jaw. "Michael´s cousin!!!" Yup, I saw good ol´ Cameron King at the temple today. He´s been out for about three weeks in the MTC and his Portuguese was already really good! I didn´t get to see him after the session but it looks like he is going to be one great, excited missionary.
I love you all and hope those who went on the cruise enjoy the ride! It is extremely hot down here still and now it´s starting to rain everyday! Thanks for all the support and yes, I did get my package out! See ya!
Elder Clark
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Tuesday, January 10th 2012
Oi Família!!!
Well I can just tell you that I probably just experienced one of the hardest weeks on my mission thus far. Last Monday as I was writing my letter to you all, my companion received horrible news from home. His dad is a truck driver and has always been making extremely long and dangerous trips alone. Well, he suffered a terrible accident on Monday where he rolled the semi truck. His left arm needed to be amputated and he has been in critical condition and in-and-out of a coma ever since. It has been an absolute emotional roller-coaster for my companion, Elder Fassini, and I am feeling the aftershock as well. My companion is probably the most excited and hard-working missionaries that I will ever meet, but after a blow like this he was down and out. Instead of him being super spiritually focused on helping our investigators accept baptism, he just kept worrying if his dad would be okay. On Tuesday he received a call from his brother saying that his entire family wanted him to go home early. He only has one week left and he knew that the Lord would bless his dad if he completed his mission COMPLETELY. I saw him praying in our office that day and when he finished he popped up and said, "He´s going to be okay," and cancelled his flight home. When he did that, an absolute miracle happened. His brother called him almost immediately and said that his dad was waking up from the coma and was starting to respond. Although his dad is in extremely harsh conditions still, I truly saw a miracle that day. God loves His children, especially when they are obedient to His commandments and covenants. Elder Fassini could have forgotten all about the promise that we, missionaries, have as we are serving that He will protect our family while we are in His service. Elder Fassini showed his faith so much that his dad is being saved because of it. I know that we all have our difficulties and we want to give up sometimes, but it´s exactly in the rough moments when God wants to see in whom we trust more. If we choose to trust in God, He will bless us... always. I love this Gospel. I love my companion. I love my Savior and the miracles He´s given me. I love you all so much and I am so happy to be able to live with you all again after this life. Have a wonderful week.
Elder Clark
Well I can just tell you that I probably just experienced one of the hardest weeks on my mission thus far. Last Monday as I was writing my letter to you all, my companion received horrible news from home. His dad is a truck driver and has always been making extremely long and dangerous trips alone. Well, he suffered a terrible accident on Monday where he rolled the semi truck. His left arm needed to be amputated and he has been in critical condition and in-and-out of a coma ever since. It has been an absolute emotional roller-coaster for my companion, Elder Fassini, and I am feeling the aftershock as well. My companion is probably the most excited and hard-working missionaries that I will ever meet, but after a blow like this he was down and out. Instead of him being super spiritually focused on helping our investigators accept baptism, he just kept worrying if his dad would be okay. On Tuesday he received a call from his brother saying that his entire family wanted him to go home early. He only has one week left and he knew that the Lord would bless his dad if he completed his mission COMPLETELY. I saw him praying in our office that day and when he finished he popped up and said, "He´s going to be okay," and cancelled his flight home. When he did that, an absolute miracle happened. His brother called him almost immediately and said that his dad was waking up from the coma and was starting to respond. Although his dad is in extremely harsh conditions still, I truly saw a miracle that day. God loves His children, especially when they are obedient to His commandments and covenants. Elder Fassini could have forgotten all about the promise that we, missionaries, have as we are serving that He will protect our family while we are in His service. Elder Fassini showed his faith so much that his dad is being saved because of it. I know that we all have our difficulties and we want to give up sometimes, but it´s exactly in the rough moments when God wants to see in whom we trust more. If we choose to trust in God, He will bless us... always. I love this Gospel. I love my companion. I love my Savior and the miracles He´s given me. I love you all so much and I am so happy to be able to live with you all again after this life. Have a wonderful week.
Elder Clark
Monday, January 2, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
Oi Família!!!
Well, I have to apologize once again for not writing to anyone these past two weeks. I really have been running around with my head cut off trying to organize everything during the holiday weekend. My companion and I were put in charge of putting together the Mission´s Christmas Conference. We had to arrange all of the missionaries´ travel tickets and we had to plan the lunch and we had to plan all the pictures and whoa!!! It was a lot of work but very well worth it! At the end we all got to play around with President Moreira. He made a slide show presentation about Preach My Gospel. It was exactly like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The ask the audience was all the zone leaders, which was hilarious because none of them knew any of the answers. We had a good time.
I loved being able to talk to everyone on Skype this year. I can´t believe how big everyone has gotten. It was so wierd, you know? Here, in Brazil, I feel like time has gone so quickly and that I really haven´t changed too much in 1 year and 7 months, but when I saw all of you guys I realized that SO many things have changed. It´s like I´ve been asleep for the past year and a half and I had a huge awakening! This, to me, just means that the mission really has been great. I litterally have not been thinking about home for the longest time. I love my family and I pray for you all daily, but throughout the day I don´t think I have a single thing from home that goes through my mind. I have learned very well from great companions that if you love the people whom you teach, your mind will always be turned towards their needs and not your own. We have been teaching so many people that I haven´t even had time to think about home, and so when I saw you all I got a little weirded out! But it was great!
On Christmas we were blessed with a family to baptize and in total we baptized 11 on that day. Well, on New Year´s it was just about the same thing. We baptized 10 more people! We had a couple who was working on getting married and finally did! The whole ward was surprised when they saw them in white! Next week we have another father whose whole family we already baptized and his daughters have been begging him ever since for him to stop smoking. He came to Church and told us that he quit and would be baptized next week! The Lord has been pouring blessings on this ward. Just to give you an idea, on Christmas and New Year´s, a lot of members didn´t go to Church, but the Chapel was full every Sunday. More than half of the congregation is our recent-converts. They never miss Church! I am so proud of them and I am so extremely happy to be serving the Lord here in this ward. I have been so extremely blessed for being here. I can literally say that I love working, and I will never stop!
I also had a chance to revisit a few of my areas that I used to work in this week. I found out that a lot of the men we baptized are already Melchizidek Priesthood holders! And another ward I used to work in finally finished the chapel they had been building when I was there. The attendance when I was there was about 80 or 90, but now it doesn´t ever get lower than 130-140! I still remember having to take investigators to a broken down garage for Church, and now they have a beautiful chapel!
Now that the year has ended, we looked back at how the mission went this year. We ended up baptizing 2,700 people! We shattered our record from last year which was 2,000. The area presidency is going crazy about the work that is going on here and all of the Stake Presidents are amazed at how many changes have happened already. They always tell us that never in the history of the Church in São Paulo has anyone baptized more than this. I truly do look at the brothers of Mosiah as an example. They went about the Lamanite people and baptized over SEVEN cities! I have a dream to go to some city here in São Paulo that has never heard of the Church and just start from scratch there! I want to know what the brothers of Mosiah felt like after seeing the Lord´s blessing after so much hard work and suffering. The mission is the best thing in the world! There really isn´t a more fulfilling feeling seeing the people you teach accept the Gospel and be baptized unto repentance. There really isn´t anything that I´d rather be doing.
I love my family and I know that the Church is true. As for my New Year´s Resolution I will try not to miss another week in writing you all :). Love you all and wish you all a great year of 2012!
Elder Clark
Well, I have to apologize once again for not writing to anyone these past two weeks. I really have been running around with my head cut off trying to organize everything during the holiday weekend. My companion and I were put in charge of putting together the Mission´s Christmas Conference. We had to arrange all of the missionaries´ travel tickets and we had to plan the lunch and we had to plan all the pictures and whoa!!! It was a lot of work but very well worth it! At the end we all got to play around with President Moreira. He made a slide show presentation about Preach My Gospel. It was exactly like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The ask the audience was all the zone leaders, which was hilarious because none of them knew any of the answers. We had a good time.
I loved being able to talk to everyone on Skype this year. I can´t believe how big everyone has gotten. It was so wierd, you know? Here, in Brazil, I feel like time has gone so quickly and that I really haven´t changed too much in 1 year and 7 months, but when I saw all of you guys I realized that SO many things have changed. It´s like I´ve been asleep for the past year and a half and I had a huge awakening! This, to me, just means that the mission really has been great. I litterally have not been thinking about home for the longest time. I love my family and I pray for you all daily, but throughout the day I don´t think I have a single thing from home that goes through my mind. I have learned very well from great companions that if you love the people whom you teach, your mind will always be turned towards their needs and not your own. We have been teaching so many people that I haven´t even had time to think about home, and so when I saw you all I got a little weirded out! But it was great!
On Christmas we were blessed with a family to baptize and in total we baptized 11 on that day. Well, on New Year´s it was just about the same thing. We baptized 10 more people! We had a couple who was working on getting married and finally did! The whole ward was surprised when they saw them in white! Next week we have another father whose whole family we already baptized and his daughters have been begging him ever since for him to stop smoking. He came to Church and told us that he quit and would be baptized next week! The Lord has been pouring blessings on this ward. Just to give you an idea, on Christmas and New Year´s, a lot of members didn´t go to Church, but the Chapel was full every Sunday. More than half of the congregation is our recent-converts. They never miss Church! I am so proud of them and I am so extremely happy to be serving the Lord here in this ward. I have been so extremely blessed for being here. I can literally say that I love working, and I will never stop!
I also had a chance to revisit a few of my areas that I used to work in this week. I found out that a lot of the men we baptized are already Melchizidek Priesthood holders! And another ward I used to work in finally finished the chapel they had been building when I was there. The attendance when I was there was about 80 or 90, but now it doesn´t ever get lower than 130-140! I still remember having to take investigators to a broken down garage for Church, and now they have a beautiful chapel!
Now that the year has ended, we looked back at how the mission went this year. We ended up baptizing 2,700 people! We shattered our record from last year which was 2,000. The area presidency is going crazy about the work that is going on here and all of the Stake Presidents are amazed at how many changes have happened already. They always tell us that never in the history of the Church in São Paulo has anyone baptized more than this. I truly do look at the brothers of Mosiah as an example. They went about the Lamanite people and baptized over SEVEN cities! I have a dream to go to some city here in São Paulo that has never heard of the Church and just start from scratch there! I want to know what the brothers of Mosiah felt like after seeing the Lord´s blessing after so much hard work and suffering. The mission is the best thing in the world! There really isn´t a more fulfilling feeling seeing the people you teach accept the Gospel and be baptized unto repentance. There really isn´t anything that I´d rather be doing.
I love my family and I know that the Church is true. As for my New Year´s Resolution I will try not to miss another week in writing you all :). Love you all and wish you all a great year of 2012!
Elder Clark
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Christmas Week (Dec 26th, 2011)
We got to Video Skype with Steven this week. It was awesome. He looks great, nice and Tan. He said it was 110 degree's in Sao Paoulo. They had 11 baptisms on Christmas day. He's doing great and I told him that he has to send an email this next week, since he's missed two weeks now. Although we did get to speak and see him.
Til next week...
Til next week...
Monday, December 19, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Oi Família!
Once again, I am really sorry that I didn´t get around to sending an e-mail last week. We got stuck in the office arranging the transfers and I was really worried about how a few missionaries were going to make it to their new areas and I just couldn´t get myself to the computer to write a good letter to you guys. So I hope that this week´s letter makes up for the lack of last week´s.
We have actually been training a new misisonary these past two weeks. His name is Elder Amorim and he is a Brazilian from the north zone of São Paulo, but he isn´t your ordinary Brazilian. His first day he told us that he wasn´t going to stay with us for very long because his actual mission was Toronto, Canada. He is just here waiting for his visa, but he has lived almost half of his life in the United States, including two years of studying at BYU. He speaks English better than I do! He doesn´t like to tell people but his family are pioneers in the Church down here in Brazil. His grandpa was the first Brazilian general authority and his dad was also the mission president in Lisboa, Portugal when they were the highest baptizing mission in Europe. So basically he´s a stud! But he is such a humble and good guy, and a tremendous missionary. Everyday, when we are working together, he always acts super happy and energetic and talks with everyone on the street about the Gospel. He came on the mission pre-trained practically. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working with him, but fortunately for him, and unfortunately for me, he got his visa this week and he will be heading for Toronto this Wednesday. He is going to be a great missionary there and I am excited for him.
This Elder Amorim helped me out big time this week. Just this Saturday, we went out working and trying to visit all the people we found this week to take to Church on Sunday morning. Earlier this week we had met a woman with her kids walking up this giant staircase. We stopped her and started explaining to her about the Church and she told us that she really wanted to find a good Church for her family to go to. She was married legally, didn´t have a determined religion and really liked our message, so I thought "golden investigator!" Well, we passed by the next day and she said that she couldn´t make it to the ward activity because it was raining. The next day we passed by again to invite her to the other activity that night as well, but it was still raining so she didn´t come. Then, on Saturday, we passed by once again. I knocked on her door and she answered. I asked her how she was doing and she answered me very shortly, "I´m really busy and you are really annoying!" I felt like I had just witnessed a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde thing because it most definately wasn´t the woman whom I had talked with just a few days before. I asked her was still interested in visiting the Church and she answered me saying, "No! I told you that I would go and you still kept coming by and you are annoying. Go away!" She slammed the door and I walked away. I was a little shocked and I tried to joke around saying, "Well, that could have been worse." But I won´t lie, it hurt a lot, and it affected my Spirit a lot. I went the whole day thinking about that woman and how I felt like I had blown it with her and her family. I kept thinking that it was all my fault and that they wouldn´t be baptized because of me. Elder Amorim kept trying to cheer me up because he could tell that something was wrong. I just kept praying in my heart that Heavenly Father would help me snap out of this trance that I was in. We went the entire day without getting into one single house until our very last appointment at 8:30 at night. It was a family whom we have been teaching for two weeks and finally had a free weekend to go to Church this week. We sat down and started teaching about the Restoration of the Gospel. We had already talked with them about baptism and they didn´t really understand the whole concept of needing the priesthood to baptize someone. Elder Amorim was teaching with such a great Spirit that I ended up catching it as well. There was a huge party right outside their house and they were playing this really loud music, but it didn´t even matter because EVERYONE was paying attention. When we got to the part about Joseph Smith´s first vision, the whole family started to cry. Every single one of them committed to be baptized on the 18th of this month after coming to Church today. I looked at Elder Amorim after that visit and he just kind of smiled and looked at me. I know that my simple prayer had been answered and my Heavenly Father really took care of me when I needed of comfort most.
I know that God lives and I know that Jesus Christ really did die for me and everyone else in this world. I know that he loves me like a real SON. When I am sad, He really does take care of me. When I am happy, He really does rejoice with me. When I am teaching the Truth, He is there with me at my side. I know, because I feel Him. There are so many things that I still need to learn and improve, but as long as I have a loving Heavenly Father by my side, I will never be afraid. In this Church, there is no such thing as fear. I love my family and I am so grateful that I came on a mission. This experience is changing my life. There was a talk at conference by a Brother Richardson, I believe, where he says that his mission was the two years FOR his life, and not OF his life. I agree. I love this Gospel and I wouldn´t switch places with anyone right now.
Love,
Elder Clark
Once again, I am really sorry that I didn´t get around to sending an e-mail last week. We got stuck in the office arranging the transfers and I was really worried about how a few missionaries were going to make it to their new areas and I just couldn´t get myself to the computer to write a good letter to you guys. So I hope that this week´s letter makes up for the lack of last week´s.
We have actually been training a new misisonary these past two weeks. His name is Elder Amorim and he is a Brazilian from the north zone of São Paulo, but he isn´t your ordinary Brazilian. His first day he told us that he wasn´t going to stay with us for very long because his actual mission was Toronto, Canada. He is just here waiting for his visa, but he has lived almost half of his life in the United States, including two years of studying at BYU. He speaks English better than I do! He doesn´t like to tell people but his family are pioneers in the Church down here in Brazil. His grandpa was the first Brazilian general authority and his dad was also the mission president in Lisboa, Portugal when they were the highest baptizing mission in Europe. So basically he´s a stud! But he is such a humble and good guy, and a tremendous missionary. Everyday, when we are working together, he always acts super happy and energetic and talks with everyone on the street about the Gospel. He came on the mission pre-trained practically. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working with him, but fortunately for him, and unfortunately for me, he got his visa this week and he will be heading for Toronto this Wednesday. He is going to be a great missionary there and I am excited for him.
This Elder Amorim helped me out big time this week. Just this Saturday, we went out working and trying to visit all the people we found this week to take to Church on Sunday morning. Earlier this week we had met a woman with her kids walking up this giant staircase. We stopped her and started explaining to her about the Church and she told us that she really wanted to find a good Church for her family to go to. She was married legally, didn´t have a determined religion and really liked our message, so I thought "golden investigator!" Well, we passed by the next day and she said that she couldn´t make it to the ward activity because it was raining. The next day we passed by again to invite her to the other activity that night as well, but it was still raining so she didn´t come. Then, on Saturday, we passed by once again. I knocked on her door and she answered. I asked her how she was doing and she answered me very shortly, "I´m really busy and you are really annoying!" I felt like I had just witnessed a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde thing because it most definately wasn´t the woman whom I had talked with just a few days before. I asked her was still interested in visiting the Church and she answered me saying, "No! I told you that I would go and you still kept coming by and you are annoying. Go away!" She slammed the door and I walked away. I was a little shocked and I tried to joke around saying, "Well, that could have been worse." But I won´t lie, it hurt a lot, and it affected my Spirit a lot. I went the whole day thinking about that woman and how I felt like I had blown it with her and her family. I kept thinking that it was all my fault and that they wouldn´t be baptized because of me. Elder Amorim kept trying to cheer me up because he could tell that something was wrong. I just kept praying in my heart that Heavenly Father would help me snap out of this trance that I was in. We went the entire day without getting into one single house until our very last appointment at 8:30 at night. It was a family whom we have been teaching for two weeks and finally had a free weekend to go to Church this week. We sat down and started teaching about the Restoration of the Gospel. We had already talked with them about baptism and they didn´t really understand the whole concept of needing the priesthood to baptize someone. Elder Amorim was teaching with such a great Spirit that I ended up catching it as well. There was a huge party right outside their house and they were playing this really loud music, but it didn´t even matter because EVERYONE was paying attention. When we got to the part about Joseph Smith´s first vision, the whole family started to cry. Every single one of them committed to be baptized on the 18th of this month after coming to Church today. I looked at Elder Amorim after that visit and he just kind of smiled and looked at me. I know that my simple prayer had been answered and my Heavenly Father really took care of me when I needed of comfort most.
I know that God lives and I know that Jesus Christ really did die for me and everyone else in this world. I know that he loves me like a real SON. When I am sad, He really does take care of me. When I am happy, He really does rejoice with me. When I am teaching the Truth, He is there with me at my side. I know, because I feel Him. There are so many things that I still need to learn and improve, but as long as I have a loving Heavenly Father by my side, I will never be afraid. In this Church, there is no such thing as fear. I love my family and I am so grateful that I came on a mission. This experience is changing my life. There was a talk at conference by a Brother Richardson, I believe, where he says that his mission was the two years FOR his life, and not OF his life. I agree. I love this Gospel and I wouldn´t switch places with anyone right now.
Love,
Elder Clark
Monday, December 5, 2011
Monday, December 5th 2011
Hey All:
Steven sent an email today to let everyone know that he was in the office today for his P-Day, however he said he wouldn't have time today to send an email. He was working on transfers for his mission president.
Brent
Steven sent an email today to let everyone know that he was in the office today for his P-Day, however he said he wouldn't have time today to send an email. He was working on transfers for his mission president.
Brent
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
