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!

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!

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

June 29th, 2010 MTC in Brazil

One more week down here at the MTC! Somente quatro semanas mais!!! The language is flying for me and I am getting so excited to get out there to start teaching real people. I understand that I have a lot to learn still because there are a lot of words and phrases that I don´t know how to say yet, but I know that with the Spirit of the Lord on my side, my lack of knowledge will be replaced with a will to learn. My district is exceptional at learning Portuguese. All of our instructors have told us that we have been learning at a faster pace than anyone else in the MTC, but we aren´t getting too big headed because that is when we will start to hit a wall. I was just made the new Assistant to the President this last Sunday and our branch is receiving yet another new district! It´s so funny to watch these new elders come in and see their faces after they get off the plane. I just remember how crappy that day was and I feel like I need to go let them know that everything will be all right. We getting two more elders from Provo to come into our district tomorrow and I´m pretty excited about it because there is a good chance that one of the elders could be a kid who I went to high school with, but we´ll see. So this is a pretty big week for us because this Friday, each companionship will be getting six Books of Mormon and like two or three hours to go out and place them with the people around the MTC. My companion and I have been practicing this for the past few days now and we feel pretty confidant that we will be able to place all of our books and then some. Our Portuguese is good enough to carry on a conversation with Brazilians, but our vocabulary isn´t very big yet, so that hinders some of the small talk. I am so excited to get out there and practice this because I will finally feel like a missionary instead of a student. But I do appreciate my time here because I get to study so much. We will get another opportunity to do this again in two more weeks when they will take us out into the BIG city of São Paulo and we will get to do the same thing but with less time and more books. Tell Spensor to expect a lot of weird smells around the city on P-day, and yes they let us out on the town every P-day so we can stretch our legs and speak with some of the locals and purchase really neat things. That is where my money went last week lol. I bought these leather scripture cases for my english scriptures, but I won´t get them for another three weeks or so, but I will take a picture and send all of my MTC pictures to you guys so you can put them all on the blog. I have been enjoying myself so much here, especially when I remember how blessed I am to be in this great country and be able to have the power of God with me. Sometimes I don´t know why Heavenly Father would trust me with so much responsibility, but then I remember that He is forcing me to grow up everyday, so I will be prepared. Dad, thanks for helping me with everything and keeping me updated with all of the things that are going on. Love you all! Keep pushing along and know that I love you and appreciate your prayers! Até Mais!!!

June 22, 2010 From MTC in Brazil

Hey Everyone!!! This week was so great for me and my learning here at the MTC. We are starting to learn how to teach in Portuguese and I was freaking out about it all week because I didn´t really think that I was quite ready for that. When we started forming our lessons, I was so surprised at how easily the words were coming out. The more I practice, the more confident I am in my abilities to communicate with the people here. It is so nice to have Brazilian missionaries here to help us with our language. I have two Brazilian roommates and I am constantly practicing my Portuguese with them and I help them with their English as well. It´s so crazy to think that in just 4 short weeks I have been able to come so far with a language that I knew nothing about. I know that the Lord has had His hand in all of my progress and work throughout my time here. I absolutely love this country! The World Cup is going on right now and the streets are absoulutley crazy! Car horns, blow horns, screaming, and celebrating each time Brazil scores a goal. I have never seen a more proud country for their soccer team. Brazil is 2-0 so far and in first place in their pool. We aren´t allowed to watch the games of course, but we can tell whenever they score because we will hear this erruption of craziness from all of the apartments and houses around the city. I took a picture from my room in the MTC of someone´s house that is just really poor and rundown, but it has the biggest satelite dish I have ever seen, just so they can watch the games... absolutley amazing. This story grabbed my heart this last week: As we were walking around on P-day last week, we were passing this old house and we heard so voices from above. We looked up and saw three little girls in their Brazil soccer jerseys smiling and waving at us because they knew that we were missionaries. I love being a missionary so much and that experience just solidified my testimony of the love that comes from being in a calling that is meant to serve people. Jesus Christ was loved by the children and because we are His representatives, we have the same love from the children here. This country is so loving and there is a lot that I can learn from the people about how to love. It´s a good thing you´re such a great teacher huh dad? haha I thought about you this Sunday for Father´s day. There isn´t a single experience that happens here that I don´t want to share with you Dad. I wish I was able to call you each day and tell you about every spiritual experience I have, but that will make my homecoming that much more special. Thanks for being a great example to me and teaching me how to work my hardest, even when things and people aren´t neccessarily helping you out. You have taught me more than you think. Thanks! I love you so much and I am eternally grateful for the family that you´ve raised and allowed me to be a part of. Every day here at the MTC is a spiritual experience and I fell myself grow closer to God each day. I love you all and thank you so much for the emails and letters! Keep them coming because I love to read them! Até próxima semana! Fique forte!

June 15th 2010

I guess I was just in such a hurry to read all of your emails last week that I must have accidentally skipped over them. But thanks so much for all of the messages this week! They always lift me up and help me remember why I am so happy to spend eternity with you guys. That is so awesome about Matt and Payton! Please tell them to keep emailing me, but let them know that I won´t be able to email back. Tell them to send me their addresses so I can write back. Brady is a stud! I cannot wait to hear about his football games and whatnot! Tambi is still my bestest friend! Good job Austin for hitting the ball! You will be on the REAL Rockies in no time! And I am happy to hear that Jessica and Kailey had a great time at girls camp! I love you guys. So this week I had a great time bonding with my district. It seems like every week we grow closer and closer. I am so blessed to have been put with such a great group of guys. It looks like the AP in our branch is leaving next Tuesday, so all signs point to me to fill his position. It´s really nothing to brag about, especially because all leadership positions in the church entail that you become more of a servant than a leader, but that is why I´m here. Christ was a leader through serving and loving His people. This morning was our day to go to the Federal Police station so we could do something with our visas, so in order to make sure we were processed today, we had to be at the building and wait in line 4 hours before it opened. So we all woke up at 3 this morning so we could wait in line for 7 or 8 hours. I felt like I was waiting in line for an Aggie game all over again... except it wasn´t nearly as exciting and I couldn´t understand all of the swear words. I have been learning so much Portuguese over these past 3 weeks and I am totally and completely amazed at how fast this is coming. I hit my walls every now and again where I feel like I could be much more useful as a missionary in my native language, but it´s those good times when everything clicks and I have another peice of hope that Heavenly Father has a plan for me to be fluent in this language. It´s World Cup time around here and Brazil is playing today at 3:30 and as I am writing this message in the MTC, there are horns and stuff going off because people have been pregaming since 1. I never realized how important this sport is to the world, but I love it! Now I wish I could play it! The MTC is so amazing here. Everyday is a spiritual experience for me. I can find something to make my testimony grow with relative ease. We have devotionals and firesides every tuesday, saturday, and sunday nights and all of them are so great for learning. We even have Elder Neal A. Anderson coming to talk to us this Thursday! I go into each of these meetings waiting for the Spirit to tell me how I can become the best missionary possible, and I leave humbled because I realize how much of a blessing it is to know what I know. Each Sunday afternoon after church, there is an optional movie we can go to. This week´s movie was the Joseph Smith Restoration Movie. There is no way that this church and its ordenances aren´t from Christ... they are too perfect to be made up by a 14 year old boy. Our ancestors would not have suffered so much pain and affliction for something that wasn´t as true as the Book of Mormon. I love this church and I love my Savior, and I especially love all of you! Thanks for all of the messages! Keep going strong and keep growing your testimonies. They will carry you through any hard time you face in your life. Read Helaman ch. 5 together please. Has Brady been reading the Book of Mormon while at camps? That always helped me stay focused. Love you guys! Can´t wait to hear from you again! Ate´ Mais! Eu amo vocês!

Sao Paulo MTC Week #2

You guys have no idea how happy it made me to read all of your emails! I have been missing you guys so much over these past two weeks and I love to hear how well everyone is doing. I am only allowed 30 minutes on the computer each week, so I will try to give a summary of what I´ve been up to, but if I don´t get everything, please don´t be mad. The food here at the CTM is so amazing! I love how authentic they make everything. I have dropped a few of the pounds that I initially gained because I didn´t want to come home looking like a fatty. Each time we get on the bus to go to the temple, I get to have a great tour of the city, or at least a small part of it. The pictures that I have are so amazing and I can´t wait for you all to see just how beautiful this place is, in its own unique and special way. I know that the Lord loves all of his children, especially his Brasileiro filhos! Like I said last week, everyone here is just so friendly to us. This week was a rough one. I found out just how patient you have to be in order to let the Lord do his work on you in order to learn the language. I am picking up on it very quickly, but I get frustrated because I just want to be able to speak it fluently right now and just get to work. But I am very grateful that I am facing the majority of my challenges like this right now, instead of out in the field. I am learning a lot about myself in here. I am realizing that now is the best time for me to grow up and become the man that Heavenly Father wants me to be. I kept looking back at my life in high school and the majority of college and I see how all of my spiritual experiences have prepared me for this work. At times, I am so excited that I want to just leave right now and get to work, but then there are other days when I am humbled and find out that I don´t know enough quite yet. My main goal while I´m here is to be maticulously obedient, so I can have the Spirit with me at all times when so my learning is benifited by the Holy Ghost. I need His help now, more than ever before. Thank you guys so much for the emails! It really made my day to hear from all of you! Like I said before, I only have 30 minutes to write, so if you could keep the messages more condensed it would help me out a bunch so I can read them all and still have time to respond to them. I love you all and thank you so much for supporting me through all of my life. I want to tell you all a scripture that has been very near and dear to my heart for a very long time. D&C 121:7-9 is when Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail and he is asking God why things have been so hard for him and the rest of the LDS members. The Lord says, You will be okay, these hard times are only for a small moment, and if we make it through, then we shall find our reward in heaven. We have friends who are here to help us through everything! I love this Gospel, and I love my Savior Jesus Christ, for everything He did for us. I never really thought about how amazign His sacrifice was, and how grateful we should be. I am so happy that families can be together forever. I would hope that we would always remember that whenever you are feeling even the least bit of unhappiness, because that thought always keeps me going stronger... Love you all! Love, Elder Clark.