Riacho Fundo

Nov 17, 2014

First of I want to apologize for all my spelling and grammar errors in my emails. Earlier today I wrote a letter in English and when I proof read it, I was embarrassed how bad it was, and I don’t ever proof read my update emails. So sorry, if they are hard to understand or if you can’t stand grammar mistakes.

The 1 real bill has been discontinued

BUT ANYWAYS! This week passed by so so fast! This week we just were running from place to place with so much to do! We have found a lot of great people to work with and most of them are in Riacho Fundo! We walk around a whole lot because we don’t know the city there very well at all. BUT it’s getting better. The city isn’t too big so it’s not TOO bad. We are receiving a lot of help from the members that live there too because they are way excited to try and start their own branch in Riacho. We are teaching a young woman there that moved with her mom from São Paulo. Her mom is not active in the church but this 12 year old girl will go to church alone until her mom goes too! She is not baptized but we are planning to baptize her in December! Things are looking real good out there in Riacho!

We also found a couple that really special. They will be baptized in December too! They are great! We have been teaching them and they are reading the Book of Mormon and everything! Their dad was there one day and he started to be real rude to us. It was awesome because they were defending us!

The ward here got a new Bishop too when I arrived, and he is GREAT! He has lots of great things planned and the ward is so excited. There are going to be a whole lot more activities for the members. The Bishop is working a lot with us too!

This week was just work. We left our house sometimes at eight in the morning and did not get home until nine at night! We are dead tired, but there is no better feeling then knowing you have done all that you could!

I love you all! Until Next week!

Elder Clark!

Just Do It.

Nov 10, 2014

Elder Clark and His Helping Hands

This week was an interesting one. We have been planning what we are going to do to REALLY help the church grow in our city here. We came to the conclusion that Recanto has had missionaries since the dawn of time, and the people here need a break from us. haha Our area includes the city of Recanto Das Emas, and then on the other side of the highway  there is another city call Riacho Fundo (he-ashe-oh fu-n-doh).  where there has NEVER been missionaries. There have been missionaries from Recanto that go there to visit some people but they never have really WORKED there. We think that there is SO much potential out there. So starting this week, we are going to work there, it’s going to be harder because its super far from our house but we think it will be worth it!!

We a probably going to move to a house this week! No more apartment! Because it has been practically impossible to work with Elder Magana with our zone in 2 houses, so this week the 4 of us are probably going to move in together!! Life is more fun with more roommates!

Elders at Helping Hands

This weekend, in our chapel, we had Helping Hand, which is the charity organization of the church. It was great! This year we had free clinics happening inside the church. Vaccinations, messages, physiotherapy, haircuts, food storage, blood sugar tests, a tramp, English lessons, dance lessons, cooking lessons, ANYTHING YOU CAN IMAGINE. It was cool to have a chapel full of volunteers and visitors. Thursday we spent most of the day inviting EVERY SINGLE person on the street to go! We had over a thousand invites and we gave them all away, explaining what was going to happen to every single person. It was so much fun. The four of us were literally running around the city talking to everyone. One elder would go running along with the runners and talk with them, we talk to the people that were at the stop light, bus stop, coming home from school. I have never talked to so many people in my life. Friday we helped clean the chapel and set things up and Saturday was the big event! It was so much fun and so cool to see everyone get together to help! There was a fire truck there too and we got to climb to the top of it!

It was also a great missionary opportunity. We meet many people who became very curious about the church and the next day, a lot of them came to our services!! We will see where that all goes!

Life is good and we are just working. I love the work and I love the Lord.

Elder Clark

The Return....

Nov 3, 2014

This week was absolutely nuts! But, that is my life on the mission, haha when I really get in my groove and I am comfortable, EVERYTHING changes.

The beginning of the week was great! The rain started and almost every day we have had rain! It’s been wonderful, and not nearly as hot. The last few weeks we have been searching really hard for people who are ready for the gospel and we finally found a few of them and things were looking great for our area. We had been praying and praying for ideas to help our area and we came up with great plans and we set up meetings with different leaders and everything was going so well! We marked a couple baptisms for the weeks to come, the first baptisms in this area in over a year!

Everything was perfect, and that is why the Lord changed everything on me! Friday we were making lunch in our house when the assistants called, I answered it and they told me that me and Elder Magana will go to Recanto Das Emas... and I said ``cool, what are we gonna do there´´ and they told me that we would be working there from now on, and that we will leave tomorrow.... what...? So we spent Friday packing our bags and cleaning our apartment. Saturday we arrived here in Recanto... yes, I returned to my only other area. We also split up. He is working in the south part of Recanto while I am in the north part. I am now companions with Elder Bento from Sao Paulo. Sunday was real funny, no one believed that I come back to stay. So I will be here in Recanto for at least the next 4 weeks. As for our people in Taguatinga, we passed them all on to Elder Beale and his companion so now they are missionaries of almost 3 cities. I hope they can continue to help the area there grow!

Elder Magana and I are still Zone Leaders, but we are separated now and spend a lot of time talking on the phone. We don’t live in the same house so that makes things a lot more difficult but we will figure out how to work with it. The Lord is full of surprises but life is good, and it keeps me on my toes. I love this work and it doesn’t matter where I serve.

I love you all and until next week!!

Elder Clark

Just Keep Working

October 27, 2014

Each day it feels like the alarm clock go off just a little bit earlier. Man, have I been tired this week. Elder Magana and I are working real hard trying to find and teach and help people. But, to be honest, we haven’t been finding the success that we want. It is a little discouraging at times, but there is no room for discouragement on the mission so we just have to push it aside and work even harder. This week me and Elder Magana have been trying to discover new ways to work, because the things we were doing before have not worked. We have seen a whole lot of miracles but at the same time, it is amazing how some people we work with don’t recognize that it really was a miracle. But there is nothing we can do but keep working and trying to become better every day. Brazil is shaping me to be a better man and I am grateful for that.

This week we did a lot of walking and teaching on the streets. We had a family night in Elder Pinho´s home (The Seventy) and it was great! And afterwards we had chili, American style; It reminded me so much of your chili mom. The Pinho’s lived in the states for 10 years, so they are very ``Americanized`` and I am not complaining. It was a little taste of home, literally! haha

The rain started this weekend and I am pumped, because Brasilia has a season of rain. It will be really rainy here until almost February! That is a huge blessing because I will walk in the wet, rainy weather any day. It’s so so so much better than the heat. Also, more people have been giving us rides! Like today! We were coming home from buying food and two random strangers gave us a ride! Turned out they were our neighbors and are missionaries for their church!

Our Zone is having the same difficulties that we are having too, so this week we talked to everyone and made the theme of our transfer ``Diligence`` because all we can do is work with diligence and then the Lord will do his part. I have been studying how I can become more diligent almost every day and I have a long way to go to get to where I want to be.

Young Men from the Ward

We are teaching a whole lot of people right now, but really none of them are progressing, but we are working hard to help them, or some we have stopped visiting because they just aren’t that interested. Life is sweet and I am happy, tired and frustrated at times, but really happy. There is no place I would rather be. 

Love you all!

Elder Clark

Jacob 1:19 And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day.

Moroni 9: 6 And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.