Progress and Opposition

April 27, 2015

This week absolutely flew by... I don’t even know what is happening with the days. The work is going really well here and the days pass by so fast. There is so much to do and so little time! This week we had a lot of success but we have had some setbacks too...

We have met a lot of incredible people here and they will be a grand force in the church here very soon! We are very excited because it turns out that some of our strongest investigators are a family the other elders are working with.  This family seems like they will be the pioneers here. They are so great. They are reading and defending the church against people that are starting to talk bad about the church. This is the same woman that told us that she wants to be able to say the same things that we say about our testimony. If she doesn’t get baptized this week, I think next week, for sure! We are excited for these upcoming weeks because we are hoping for a lot of success and the beginning of the growth of the church here in Padre Bernardo! We have a lot of people and families that are progressing really well! But with all this progress, there is opposition too. Almost all our families are facing problems or friends and families are discouraging them to participate with the church. Even so, they are going strong!

Coconuts!

We are trying to just get the name of the church out in the open with a good reputation... and one way we have been doing that is we visit other churches... and boy it has been super cool. We have visited some already and the people love it. They appreciate that we are willing to visit churches with other people. It has gotten to the point that when we are walking on the street people yell for us to visit them in their church. We have learned that some churches here are better than others. We visited one that I will not name, but they just screamed and then when we had to leave, the pastor came up to me and started talking in a language that wasn’t Portuguese... nor English.... and then she took my hand and told me that she took away the band of death... because I would have died that night is she had not blessed me... man... I left feeling a bit strange.  But mom, your son is still alive thanks to revelation! I love the gospel music here. There are a lot of churches with bands that play really good music! haha for sure,  has been a really neat experience to learn about other churches first hand!

We have one more missionary here from Arizona. He was waiting for his visa for 3 month and got here this week. He is in a trio with the other elders. His name is Elder Adams and he has the best area to start out his mission here in Brazil.

I am super tired and working hard. I am so grateful for all that I have and the opportunity to serve my mission here. I am loving every minute of every day! I love you all and thanks for all the prayers!

Elder Clark