Oi!
Just another day in paradise here in good ol´ Limoeiro! I am not sick anymore and I feel as good as new! I finally passed through all of my sickness and I am ready for another week of work. So, to recap this weekend... We had Gabriel and Eliane marked for baptism this last Sunday, and Gabriel was baptized and he is on his way to becoming another strong member of the Church, but Eliane ran into some snags. She had her baptismal interview this Saturday, but she told us that she had a few worries. She is going through a nasty divorce with her husband Silvio and the problem is that he will not move out of the house. Eliane knows 100% that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ, but I think she wants to put off her baptism until all of this messy stuff with the divorce is cleared up. I know that she will be baptized and the sooner would be better, but I know that the Lord is preparing her and protecting their family everyday. Gabriel told me yesterday after his baptism that he felt clean and also asked me how he can prepare to be a missionary. I love this Gospel and I love what it does for us. I told him that he just has to keep being the kid that he already is.
We also had a pretty good visit with one of our eternal investigators. His name is Valter and he is an attorney. His entire family are members and he has been coming to Church for the past few years with them. He has a testimony of the Church, the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith, but for some reason he is still avoiding baptism. I think he is afraid of water, but that´s just my opinion. You´d be surprised at how many people aren´t baptized because they don´t like the water lol. We did a family home evening with him and watched the movie The Testaments with him (fantastic idea for family home evening), and he and his family loved it! The Spirit was there and we invited him to be baptized... and he danced around the question a bit... his 16 year old daughter gave him the puppy dog eyes... and he still shook his head and said not yet. That just goes to show that unless your heart is opened completely for an answer from the Lord, you won´t have the will to do what he asks. Valter is a great guy and I am almost 100% positive that he will be baptized before I leave this area, but he will need a little bit more time.
So one cool thing about my name here in Brazil... Everyone knows who Superman is, so when I introduce myself everyone says, oh yeah! Clark! Like Clark Kent! So now my name has changed almost permanently from Elder Clark, to Elder Superman lol. And now my entire zone is calling me that, so I think I want to get another nametag with that on it and send it home for you guys haha.
I´m having a great time out here and picking up on Portuguese little by little. It´s frustrating to say the least, but I have learned so much and so fast, and I know it´s only because of the Lord. I am loving the scriptures so much! I love my study time out here too! I wake up and go immediately to my desk to read my scriptures because that one hour is not enough. Good luck to everyone starting school out there! You guys are in my prayers! Love you all!
Love,
Elder Clark
Monday, August 23, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Monday, Aug 16th
Oi Família!
Well, like you all have said, another week has come and gone again! I really can´t believe how fast this is going. I had quite an uneventful week unfortunately. I got sick on Monday last week with a fever, migraine, and sore throat and I didn´t recover until this morning. I was in bed for two days straight because I was unable to work. Luckily, I was able to get a blessing from Elder Stott and the second counselor in the Bishopric earlier in the week. I never realized how much pollution was in the state of São Paulo, but it was so hard for me to breath this week! I love this place and all, but the thing that´s been an obstacle to get over is the pollution in the air. When I really take a look on everything, I am really blessed that the pollution is my problem right now, especially because it could be much worse.
For everyone who is wondering back home, I am not getting fat. I don´t know if anyone was wondering or hoping that I´d get fat, but I have actually been losing a lot of weight, which is weird and shouldn´t be because all I eat is macarroni and chocolate! I am about at 82 kilos (you´re going to have to do the conversion on that lol).
One thing about Brasil that is really interesting and hard for me at the same time is that all of the music that we have in the United States, they love down here! So I am sitting here typing this letter with Kesha on the radio. It´s hard because we try so hard to keep the Spirit with us, but this music comes on and we all start thinking about home again lol But it is so weird to hear music from the U.S. here.
Mardeson was confirmed this week and we received three more investigators and two more marked for baptism this next Sunday in spite of me being sick. Blessings still come even when you aren´t at your best; this is how we really know that the Lord loves us. The two who we marked for baptism have quite the story. So, their names are Eliane and Gabriel, a mother and son, and they were investigators of the missionaries before me. Eliane is a surgical assistant, one of very few in the state of São Paulo, so she is always on call and very difficult to mark any visit with her. Gabriel is a 13 year old boy who absolutely loves American music like Kesha and Pink, so everytime we go over there, he puts on one of their CDs. I would tell him to turn it off while we are there, but here is his story. His parents are still together, but his father is very abusive to him. His dad does not want anything to do with the Gospel. The hard thing for Gabriel is that he has a little sister who his dad absolutely adores and wouldn´t harm, but to Gabriel he is very different. Gabriel doesn´t many friends and doesn´t get to talk to many people during the day, so when we get there to share a message with him, we are his only friends that he has, so he wants to talk about other things than just the Gospel. It´s very sad to me, but I am hoping and praying that Eliane will be able to get work off this next Sunday so they can be baptized. I know that the Lord has great plans for his family, and he will have a better life within the Church. They know so much already and have great testimonies of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.
I love this mission that the Lord has chosen me to serve for Him. He is molding me everyday and helping me with the language day by day. I know that this Church is true, and I know that our Savior is leading and guiding it even today.
So school is starting up already??? I do not believe it! Don´t let Brady scare you Jessica haha you and Kailey are going to have a blast! Oh and Kailey, I had a half locker in D hall too!!! Brady is going to be a big bad sophomore already! I still remember walking into Payson High my first time... My advice is to notice how the seniors act. Not just the regular seniors, but the really awesome seniors, the ones that have plans to serve missions and be the type of man they need to be. I hope Brady finds a Derek or Dustin Rowley, or a McKay Massey. Good luck everyone! I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Clark
Well, like you all have said, another week has come and gone again! I really can´t believe how fast this is going. I had quite an uneventful week unfortunately. I got sick on Monday last week with a fever, migraine, and sore throat and I didn´t recover until this morning. I was in bed for two days straight because I was unable to work. Luckily, I was able to get a blessing from Elder Stott and the second counselor in the Bishopric earlier in the week. I never realized how much pollution was in the state of São Paulo, but it was so hard for me to breath this week! I love this place and all, but the thing that´s been an obstacle to get over is the pollution in the air. When I really take a look on everything, I am really blessed that the pollution is my problem right now, especially because it could be much worse.
For everyone who is wondering back home, I am not getting fat. I don´t know if anyone was wondering or hoping that I´d get fat, but I have actually been losing a lot of weight, which is weird and shouldn´t be because all I eat is macarroni and chocolate! I am about at 82 kilos (you´re going to have to do the conversion on that lol).
One thing about Brasil that is really interesting and hard for me at the same time is that all of the music that we have in the United States, they love down here! So I am sitting here typing this letter with Kesha on the radio. It´s hard because we try so hard to keep the Spirit with us, but this music comes on and we all start thinking about home again lol But it is so weird to hear music from the U.S. here.
Mardeson was confirmed this week and we received three more investigators and two more marked for baptism this next Sunday in spite of me being sick. Blessings still come even when you aren´t at your best; this is how we really know that the Lord loves us. The two who we marked for baptism have quite the story. So, their names are Eliane and Gabriel, a mother and son, and they were investigators of the missionaries before me. Eliane is a surgical assistant, one of very few in the state of São Paulo, so she is always on call and very difficult to mark any visit with her. Gabriel is a 13 year old boy who absolutely loves American music like Kesha and Pink, so everytime we go over there, he puts on one of their CDs. I would tell him to turn it off while we are there, but here is his story. His parents are still together, but his father is very abusive to him. His dad does not want anything to do with the Gospel. The hard thing for Gabriel is that he has a little sister who his dad absolutely adores and wouldn´t harm, but to Gabriel he is very different. Gabriel doesn´t many friends and doesn´t get to talk to many people during the day, so when we get there to share a message with him, we are his only friends that he has, so he wants to talk about other things than just the Gospel. It´s very sad to me, but I am hoping and praying that Eliane will be able to get work off this next Sunday so they can be baptized. I know that the Lord has great plans for his family, and he will have a better life within the Church. They know so much already and have great testimonies of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.
I love this mission that the Lord has chosen me to serve for Him. He is molding me everyday and helping me with the language day by day. I know that this Church is true, and I know that our Savior is leading and guiding it even today.
So school is starting up already??? I do not believe it! Don´t let Brady scare you Jessica haha you and Kailey are going to have a blast! Oh and Kailey, I had a half locker in D hall too!!! Brady is going to be a big bad sophomore already! I still remember walking into Payson High my first time... My advice is to notice how the seniors act. Not just the regular seniors, but the really awesome seniors, the ones that have plans to serve missions and be the type of man they need to be. I hope Brady finds a Derek or Dustin Rowley, or a McKay Massey. Good luck everyone! I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Clark
Monday, August 9, 2010
Monday, Aug 9, 2010
Hello my Family!
Well, Mardeson´s baptism fell through... in the water! It was such a great experience this last Sunday. I was getting so nervous throughout the week as we were building up to his baptism, but when I arrived at the chapel on Sunday, I felt fine. We had nearly half the ward there at the service. It is so amazing to me to see the support that the ward members have here in this ward. All of them love to support the missionary program because almost all of them are converts themselves, so they were brought to the knowledge of the Restored Gospel by a missionary once before. Well, they don´t necessarily have water heaters here in Brazil, so our baptismal font was about as cold as Payson lakes in the spring. I only had to put him under one time, but I had to repeat the baptismal prayer a couple times because I couldn´t get his name right. Mardeson Lucio Almeida e Silva plus the rest of the prayer in Portuguese! Foi bom! haha We got out and were getting redressed in the bathroom and I asked Mardeson how he felt. He looked at me and said, "Puro, puro demais" which translates, clean, clean as ever... This kid is one of the elects that Heavenly Father has prepared to help build His kingdom here on the earth. I can almost bet money that Mardeson will serve a mission before I even get home from my mission.
Let´s see, what else has been going on here... So us four missionaries have been having a great time in our house after each day. As of late, we´re stuck on one joke in particular. It´s one that the comedian Frank Caliendo says when he is impersonating John Madden. He says, "the field is half grass and half turf... but Brett Favre is ALL man!" So now we add that into our work. We´ll be walking down the street after we had just been turned down by some guy, and we´ll say, that man was half catholic and half evangelico... but Brett Favre is ALL man! It definitely helps get through the day. We also made french toast last night! I´m having a great time out here!
I´m learning a lot everyday whether it be Portuguese or the Gospel, but I truly cherish everything that has come from my mission. The people here are extremely kind and it makes me grateful that I am in a great area or the world.
I cannot believe that Brady is already 16 years old! This is absolutely crazy... Happy Birthday Brady!!! Take care of the Jeep for me, even though you already have girl troubles haha That is so cool to hear about the things you all are doing right now. Keep me updated on these things. Thanks for all the messages Aunt Roxy and Uncle Bi Ri!
Love you all!!! Have a great week!!!!
Love,
Elder Clark
Well, Mardeson´s baptism fell through... in the water! It was such a great experience this last Sunday. I was getting so nervous throughout the week as we were building up to his baptism, but when I arrived at the chapel on Sunday, I felt fine. We had nearly half the ward there at the service. It is so amazing to me to see the support that the ward members have here in this ward. All of them love to support the missionary program because almost all of them are converts themselves, so they were brought to the knowledge of the Restored Gospel by a missionary once before. Well, they don´t necessarily have water heaters here in Brazil, so our baptismal font was about as cold as Payson lakes in the spring. I only had to put him under one time, but I had to repeat the baptismal prayer a couple times because I couldn´t get his name right. Mardeson Lucio Almeida e Silva plus the rest of the prayer in Portuguese! Foi bom! haha We got out and were getting redressed in the bathroom and I asked Mardeson how he felt. He looked at me and said, "Puro, puro demais" which translates, clean, clean as ever... This kid is one of the elects that Heavenly Father has prepared to help build His kingdom here on the earth. I can almost bet money that Mardeson will serve a mission before I even get home from my mission.
Let´s see, what else has been going on here... So us four missionaries have been having a great time in our house after each day. As of late, we´re stuck on one joke in particular. It´s one that the comedian Frank Caliendo says when he is impersonating John Madden. He says, "the field is half grass and half turf... but Brett Favre is ALL man!" So now we add that into our work. We´ll be walking down the street after we had just been turned down by some guy, and we´ll say, that man was half catholic and half evangelico... but Brett Favre is ALL man! It definitely helps get through the day. We also made french toast last night! I´m having a great time out here!
I´m learning a lot everyday whether it be Portuguese or the Gospel, but I truly cherish everything that has come from my mission. The people here are extremely kind and it makes me grateful that I am in a great area or the world.
I cannot believe that Brady is already 16 years old! This is absolutely crazy... Happy Birthday Brady!!! Take care of the Jeep for me, even though you already have girl troubles haha That is so cool to hear about the things you all are doing right now. Keep me updated on these things. Thanks for all the messages Aunt Roxy and Uncle Bi Ri!
Love you all!!! Have a great week!!!!
Love,
Elder Clark
Monday, August 2, 2010
August 2nd 2010 in Limoeiro, Brazil
It has been amazing these past two weeks! I really do feel like I´ve felt like I was missing a part of my week without hearing from you all. Let´s see, where to start... Well, my last week at the CTM was pretty special. I was flipping back and forth from thinking that I was prepared enough and then thinking that I needed a little more time to learn Portuguese, but by Monday, the day before I left, I was just fine and extremely excited!
I met my mission president and his wife in our arrival meeting. They are so nice and Sister Moreira really helped me feel more comfortable about being here. The arrival meeting was my first real meeting that was all in Portuguese without any translation, so it was a little difficult to follow everything, but I handled all right I think. We learned about all the things that we need to watch out for and how to stay healthy and how to take care of our allowance for the month. We also met the Assitants to the President. The Americans were speaking in all Portugues as well and they were speaking exactly like a Brazilian! I was so impressed and a little bit envious that they could speak so well. It made me want to speak fluently already!
I met my trainer at the mission home a little bit later. His name is Elder Austin Stott from Idaho Falls! Elder Stott is really good at his Portuguese as well. He has been such a good boost of confidence with my Portuguese. He keeps helping me with my pronunciation and especially with learning five new words every day. He is extremely smart too! He went to a year of college before his mission in Daytona, FL, to study Aerospace Engineering! He knows that Utah State has a fantastic program for that too, so he and I have been talking a lot about USU and it sounds like he will be coming to Logan with me when we are both returned from our missions! He teaches so well and he allows me to participate in the lessons as much as I am capable. I am so amazed at how well he can relate the principles to the people and he is just an all around nice guy. Every one of our investigators and members loves him!
We are in Limoeiro, São Paulo, right now... my first area in the mission! We live in a... I guess you can call it a house... with two other missionaries. They are both Americans named Elder Chad and Elder Meilke. Elder Chad and Elder Stott both knew Chad Marvin from the CTM by the way! Elder Chad is our District Leader and he is a way nice person too! I really got lucky with my first area. I really found out that I´m in a foreign country when they told me about what we have to do for the bathroom. So, our bathroom consists of a toilet and right next to it is a drain with a small fosset above that is our shower, but wait! there´s more! São Paulo drains aren´t very big, so when nature calls and you need to do your business, you can´t put the toilet paper down the drain! Every bathroom in this city, even in the chapels at church, have a waste basket where you can dispose of your... stuff. Gross, I know, but you know what this means... I really am a missionary in Brazil!!! But anyway, about the city. If you thought that L.A. or New York City had dirty streets, I think that this place would win out of both of them combined. It´s very dirty on the streets and the houses are not much better. But the amazing thing about Limoeiro is that I absolutely love everything about it!
I went to church this week and met all of the members. Everyone was so kind and they really made me feel like I was at home. I even had my first "uh-oh" missionary moment this week. So the bishop intivited me to bare my testimony because I was new and it happened to be fast Sunday this week. So I got up there and bore my testimony in Portuguese and I felt so good. Not only did I feel the Spirit as I was speaking, but I was doing it in a different language! But when I returned to my seat, my companion told me that I completely butted in front of a whole row of people who were waiting to bare their testimonies... whoops!!! Haha, it was a little embarrassing, but I played the "I´m new" card and everything was fine. It made for a great story with the other elders when we got home for the day.
I have been having a hard time with a few things since I arrived last week. I really realized that I am not as good at Portuguese as I thought I was. I have a really hard time with understanding everything the people are saying and they speak so quickly that I need them to repeat a lot of things a little slower and I feel really embarrassed sometimes. It´s been a goal of mine to be able to understand as quickly as I can so I will be able to start being able to help people with their problems. But I know the Lord has been watching over me and after church this Sunday, I had nearly all of the members come up to me and ask me how long I´ve been in Brazil. Nearly all of them were shocked when I said that I had been in the field for only four days. They told me that I was speaking like I had been in for six months. I still don´t feel secure in my Portuguese, therefore, I will continue to work at it, but those compliments definitely helped me out at a time that I really needed it.
Oh, and I have one amazing story to tell you... On my first day, Elder Stott and I were knocking on doors and trying to make some contacts with the people. He was doing all of the talking and finally got a little tired of all the people saying no all the time, so he told me to do the next one. I clapped my hands and out came this really happy 18 year-old kid named Mardeson. I started to talk to him about our message and asked if we could come in and teach him more. He said yes and we walked in. I taught the first part of the message of the Restoration to him Elder Stott taught the rest. He was very receptive to the things that we taught and he understood that he needed to pray and ask God if these things were true. We returned the next day to see how things went for him. Mardeson told us that after he prayed, he felt like he was lighter and that he had received an answer from God. We continued to teach him about the Word of Wisdom and then the Law of Chastity. He understood everything and said that he already obeyed them. Well, to tell you the really amazing thing... He will be baptized this Sunday, August 8th! I cannot believe how prepared these people are. We truly found one of the elects of Heavenly Father´s children.
I love this work... I love being a missionary... I love my family... I love my Savior. This is definately the hardest thing I´ve ever done in my entire life, but it´s also the most rewarding thing I´ve ever done. I see how the Lord has blessed the people here in Limoeiro when they obey His word. The ward members´ homes are so clean and happy, even when they don´t necessarily have a whole lot of things or a big house (no one has a house much bigger than our garage). I see other places here where they are using a broken treadmil as a bed for their child, and even families who don´t have a lot of money for food, and yet they still offer to give us something to drink and eat each time we go there. I feel so guilty because I know how much I took for granted the things that I had growing up. These are the happiest people in the world, even when they don´t have much... just their families. That really shows me that they know what is important... the things that we can take with us to the next life.
Thanks for all of your love and support. I love my family so much! Have a great week! Fique forte!
Love,
Elder Clark
I met my mission president and his wife in our arrival meeting. They are so nice and Sister Moreira really helped me feel more comfortable about being here. The arrival meeting was my first real meeting that was all in Portuguese without any translation, so it was a little difficult to follow everything, but I handled all right I think. We learned about all the things that we need to watch out for and how to stay healthy and how to take care of our allowance for the month. We also met the Assitants to the President. The Americans were speaking in all Portugues as well and they were speaking exactly like a Brazilian! I was so impressed and a little bit envious that they could speak so well. It made me want to speak fluently already!
I met my trainer at the mission home a little bit later. His name is Elder Austin Stott from Idaho Falls! Elder Stott is really good at his Portuguese as well. He has been such a good boost of confidence with my Portuguese. He keeps helping me with my pronunciation and especially with learning five new words every day. He is extremely smart too! He went to a year of college before his mission in Daytona, FL, to study Aerospace Engineering! He knows that Utah State has a fantastic program for that too, so he and I have been talking a lot about USU and it sounds like he will be coming to Logan with me when we are both returned from our missions! He teaches so well and he allows me to participate in the lessons as much as I am capable. I am so amazed at how well he can relate the principles to the people and he is just an all around nice guy. Every one of our investigators and members loves him!
We are in Limoeiro, São Paulo, right now... my first area in the mission! We live in a... I guess you can call it a house... with two other missionaries. They are both Americans named Elder Chad and Elder Meilke. Elder Chad and Elder Stott both knew Chad Marvin from the CTM by the way! Elder Chad is our District Leader and he is a way nice person too! I really got lucky with my first area. I really found out that I´m in a foreign country when they told me about what we have to do for the bathroom. So, our bathroom consists of a toilet and right next to it is a drain with a small fosset above that is our shower, but wait! there´s more! São Paulo drains aren´t very big, so when nature calls and you need to do your business, you can´t put the toilet paper down the drain! Every bathroom in this city, even in the chapels at church, have a waste basket where you can dispose of your... stuff. Gross, I know, but you know what this means... I really am a missionary in Brazil!!! But anyway, about the city. If you thought that L.A. or New York City had dirty streets, I think that this place would win out of both of them combined. It´s very dirty on the streets and the houses are not much better. But the amazing thing about Limoeiro is that I absolutely love everything about it!
I went to church this week and met all of the members. Everyone was so kind and they really made me feel like I was at home. I even had my first "uh-oh" missionary moment this week. So the bishop intivited me to bare my testimony because I was new and it happened to be fast Sunday this week. So I got up there and bore my testimony in Portuguese and I felt so good. Not only did I feel the Spirit as I was speaking, but I was doing it in a different language! But when I returned to my seat, my companion told me that I completely butted in front of a whole row of people who were waiting to bare their testimonies... whoops!!! Haha, it was a little embarrassing, but I played the "I´m new" card and everything was fine. It made for a great story with the other elders when we got home for the day.
I have been having a hard time with a few things since I arrived last week. I really realized that I am not as good at Portuguese as I thought I was. I have a really hard time with understanding everything the people are saying and they speak so quickly that I need them to repeat a lot of things a little slower and I feel really embarrassed sometimes. It´s been a goal of mine to be able to understand as quickly as I can so I will be able to start being able to help people with their problems. But I know the Lord has been watching over me and after church this Sunday, I had nearly all of the members come up to me and ask me how long I´ve been in Brazil. Nearly all of them were shocked when I said that I had been in the field for only four days. They told me that I was speaking like I had been in for six months. I still don´t feel secure in my Portuguese, therefore, I will continue to work at it, but those compliments definitely helped me out at a time that I really needed it.
Oh, and I have one amazing story to tell you... On my first day, Elder Stott and I were knocking on doors and trying to make some contacts with the people. He was doing all of the talking and finally got a little tired of all the people saying no all the time, so he told me to do the next one. I clapped my hands and out came this really happy 18 year-old kid named Mardeson. I started to talk to him about our message and asked if we could come in and teach him more. He said yes and we walked in. I taught the first part of the message of the Restoration to him Elder Stott taught the rest. He was very receptive to the things that we taught and he understood that he needed to pray and ask God if these things were true. We returned the next day to see how things went for him. Mardeson told us that after he prayed, he felt like he was lighter and that he had received an answer from God. We continued to teach him about the Word of Wisdom and then the Law of Chastity. He understood everything and said that he already obeyed them. Well, to tell you the really amazing thing... He will be baptized this Sunday, August 8th! I cannot believe how prepared these people are. We truly found one of the elects of Heavenly Father´s children.
I love this work... I love being a missionary... I love my family... I love my Savior. This is definately the hardest thing I´ve ever done in my entire life, but it´s also the most rewarding thing I´ve ever done. I see how the Lord has blessed the people here in Limoeiro when they obey His word. The ward members´ homes are so clean and happy, even when they don´t necessarily have a whole lot of things or a big house (no one has a house much bigger than our garage). I see other places here where they are using a broken treadmil as a bed for their child, and even families who don´t have a lot of money for food, and yet they still offer to give us something to drink and eat each time we go there. I feel so guilty because I know how much I took for granted the things that I had growing up. These are the happiest people in the world, even when they don´t have much... just their families. That really shows me that they know what is important... the things that we can take with us to the next life.
Thanks for all of your love and support. I love my family so much! Have a great week! Fique forte!
Love,
Elder Clark
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
July 20th 2010 in MTC
This week really cruised!!! I was just thinking about how long these last two weeks at the MTC were going to go, but they have not slowed down yet. Like I said last time, this will be my last week here and I am getting so anxious to get out. My district is now the oldest district in the building. It´s so weird to think that no one here has been here longer than us. I don´t know how my transfer will go next week, so if you don´t receive an email from me next tuesday, don´t be scared. Today for P-day, my district and I went to a place in town called Rodízio! It is exactly like Tucanos or Rodizio Grill, except better and way cheaper! I stuffed my face so much and I didn´t even care lol. I got to go proselyting once again this last Friday and it was such an amazing experience. I´ll tell you about one of the six people who we handed Books of Mormon. His name was Ronaldo and he was wearing his motorcycle gear and walking down the street, looking very intimidating. My companion and I just kinda were pulled to him like a magnet and we started to get to know Ronaldo. He said that he didn´t have a religion but he had studied the Bible for about a year. I piped up and told him how amazing that was and that we were here in Brazil for two years to not only study the Bible and about Jesus Christ, but to teach people about him too. We then introduced the Book of Mormon and said that it was another record of the teachings and life of Jesus Christ to the people in America and Ronaldo got very interested. When we finished he looked at us and said, what a coincidence it is that you two would stop and talk to me out of all of these millions of people in São Paulo. I stopped him and plainly said that this was not a coincidence and that, as representatives of Jesus Christ, we were meant to talk to him. I had no idea what I was saying, but it felt so good! Ronaldo accepted the Book and also agreed to call the missionaries´ number on the front. We saw him reading as we walked away... I know that this work is true, and I know that the Spirit of the Lord would not be with me if I was doing something wrong. My mission has only just begun but it means everything to me right now. I am amazingly excited that the language is coming along just fine and that I will be entering the field in week from today. I hear it all the time, but I will work my hardest so that I don´t regret one minute of this! That is so nice of the Darby´s to let you guys crash there. I am so glad you get to watch all of these amazing baseball games while you´re out there! I would love to do that someday. Please let me know how the temple goes! I hear that the Celestial room is so pretty there. You´re right dad, I do love going to the temple. I am eternally grateful that you were there to show me the ropes. You definitely started my fire to serve in the Lord´s house. I appreciate so much that you all do for me. I really do feel your love each day. Thanks for the support! Até próximo semana!!!! I love you guys!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
July 13th 2010 Brazil MTC
Well, I am officially starting my eighth week here at the MTC! How crazy is this? I cannot believe how quickly everything is going by. By the way, if you send me anything to the mission home, they won´t forward them to me here, but they will hold them for me until I get out there. I sometimes feel like my MTC depature date couldn´t come any slower though. Each and every day I get more and more anxious to leave this place, but I know that I still have a lot to learn, but on the other hand I know that I´ll learn more from the field than in this place. My Mission President came and spoke at a fireside here this last Sunday. Presidente and Sister Moreira are the coolest people I´ve ever met so far (no bias there). They reassured all five of us who are going to the São Paulo East Mission that we will be placed with an American as our trainer so we don´t get too overwhelmed about what we need to learn. Meeting them did not help my anxiety to start working like a realy missionary. It´s hard because we see all of these Brazilian missionaries come in and it seems like I blink and they´re already leaving for the field and I still have two weeks left! But next Tuesday is my last P-day and I probably won´t get to contact you on the day that I leave, which is the 27th of July. This week we will get to go proselyting once again, but this time it will be in downtown São Paulo! It will be so incredibly fun because I can speak a lot more Portuguese than I could the first time we went. I have this strong urge to tell everyone about the Restoration and how important this book is to our lives. I have learned so much about how the Lord really does prepare people in his own way. I had a "Best 2 Years" experience during last P-day. This guy pulled up to me and my district on his motorcycle and started talking to us in Portuguese and then he automatically switch gears and spoke in perfect English and I had no clue what he was saying for a little bit! He started asking us questions like how we study the Book of Mormon and the Bible together and that he prays for us every day because he knows that Brazil needs more people to preach about Jesus Christ. He asked if we believed in miracles by laying on of hands and if he could come visit church. Well, after I picked up my jaw from off the ground, we told him about the number that he could call for other missionaries to come and teach him more. He said "great! We can sit down, talk about Christ, have some coffee..." Hahaha He was extremely prepared for the message and it felt so good to be able to talk to him about what a blessing this Church has been for me and my family. I love being a missionay! I am way jealous about that San Diego trip Dad and Jill! That is so awesome! Tell the Darby´s that I say hi! Or Oi, I suppose haha. Sounds like my siblings are going to be twice the athlete I ever was! Not that it was difficult. I am glad that you all got my letters too! I hope you liked them! I am sorry if I ever miss any of your questions, I get so rushed with my shortage of time. I love you all! Have a fantastic week!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
July 6th 2010 in MTC
Oi Família! I hope you all know that you can translate my Portuguese sentences through the internet if you don´t quite understand them (except for Uncle Jeff, he already speaks Portuguese). This week was absolutely amazing! I felt like a real missionary, not just a missionary in training. We had the opportunity to go proselyting in the city around the MTC here and give out Books of Mormon, or Livros de Mórmon! My companion and I were each given three books to place and only two hours. I was a little apprehensive at first because I didn´t know what to say to people to begin talking about the Book of Mormon, even though we had been practicing that for the past four or five days. The first person we talked to completely shut us down and told us that we are devil worshippers and that we don´t really believe in Jesus Christ. That definitely knocked the cobwebs out of my head and I was determined to not let my testimony be bashed like that again. So said a prayer in my heart for Heavenly Father guide me to someone who would be more receptive, and sure enough we found him! We were walking up the street and this guy had his iPod in and I didn´t think he would stop to talk to us, but I stuck out my hand and said "Tudobem Senhor?" and he talked to us and I bore my heart to him about how this book, along with the Bible, has helped me grow so much closer to Jesus Christ. He took the book and said that he would read it and call the number if he had any questions about it. I was so happy and I smiled for the rest of the time. I didn´t care that nearly everyone else wouldn´t talk to us or were rude, because I knew that we had been accepted just once. We continued and ended up passing out ALL of our books and when we returned, we were the first companionship finished so our instructor gave us one more to pass out. We wanted to make this one extremely special, so we both waited until we felt the Spirit really tell who to talk to. We failed three times until we finally came across an old man waiting at a bus stop. I am not exaggerating when I say that he was litterally reading the Book of Mormon before we had even left. We were so happy to finally be able to practice doing what we had been called out here to do... to invite people to come unto Christ through His restored Gospel. This was a complete testimony builder for me, especially when I would see that these people were happy to take a book that they knew would help them grow closer to Christ. I love this country so much as well!!! Brazil is my home away from home and I love it here! It´s so good to hear from you all! I am really jealous that Brady is already taller than me and that he is still growing. And I am especially jealous about the Stadium of Fire! That is really cool! Dad and Jill, you guys are so lucky to be able to go to Cali and watch baseball!!! I love you all and thanks for the letters! Fique bem e eu amo vocés muito!!! Love, Elder Clark
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