They Like to Party

May 11, 2015

Happy Birthday Padre Bernardo! May 9th was the city´s Birthday and oh man, the people here know how to party. Thursday until Sunday was one big party here. With concerts every night and big parties at main square and music and Calvary of Horses and Gustavo Lima (a VERY famous singer) and everything! The parties made it a little hard to work at the end of the week because everyone was just partying, visiting with family and pretty much doing everything except stay at home. Our church attendance suffered too because of mother’s day and the parties. Almost nobody went to church. It was a little disappointing but understandable. This week we have stake conference about 2 hours away from here and we are hoping to take lots of people there with a bus! Pray that we can get a bus to take everyone!

We have ran into a problem here, It seems like the small local churches are feeling threatened with our presence here and are starting to preach against the Mormons and spreading anti-Mormon fliers around to some of the homes that we are visiting. But we are seeing that it isn’t affecting the work here because the families that we are working with are just becoming more curious as to what the big deal is! Lots of people are defending us too! One man was talking to one of our investigators and was talking bad about us and she told him he had the wrong information and that we are super cool and good people. She even invited him to receive our visits. He didn’t accept but it goes to show that the Lords work will always go forward and that nobody can stop it! It is amazing what excitement 4 young men in white shirts can do in a small city. I am loving every minute of it!

We met a super great family this week; Mom, Dad and 5 children. One of the children is Deaf and she just signs to her sister who translates everything for us. She is also teaching us sign language and we are getting pretty good at it! We are already making sentences with her! haha This family is really receptive and wants to learn more about the church! They are from the north east of Brazil and every word that ends with s, they say it as if it has sh, which is awesome too!

We are very excited because our first transfer here is over and now we are ready for the baptims! We have a bunch of people that are SO CLOSE they just need a little push! It has been hard because this little town has a LOT of faith and when something new comes to town, talking about God, it is hard to change what you already believe. But the Lord has prepared a ton of people here. We just need to find them all!

Yesterday was so great to talk with my Mom! I love my family a whole lot and can’t wait to see everyone in less than 3 months! But no time to think about that now! I still have a ton of work to do before my turn is through!

Mothers Day!

 I Love you all and thanks for all the support and love!

Elder Clark

The Church is True

May 4, 2015

This week was a week of just work.  We visited a ton of people, met even more people and are trying everything that we can think of to help the church grow here. I think the hardest thing to do is express everything about the church to help people understand that our message isn’t just another good message about Jesus Christ but it’s THE message. We are seeing miracles with the church and our investigators here! We have tons of people interested and some of them are progressing really well! Our days are full of lessons and, of course, some days are a lot better than others but we are trying to have quality visits every visit we make!

Missionaries on the radio

This week we went to the radio and did a little local broadcast or announcement about the church! That was a neat opportunity and I hope there will be some results from it!

We have one investigator that she went to church with us and wasn’t that impressed because we are doing our meetings in a elementary school and there are not many people. I think she was hoping for a little bit more. But what a miracle technology is! She started looking at the church’s site on the internet and she was very impressed with the size and organization of the church! She became very excited again and is reading the Book of Mormon like a champ! We need to have success here soon so that they will build a chapel here. Because if the church builds a chapel here, it will be the most beautiful building in the city and everyone will realize the magnitude of the church!

Taking a break!

Like I said, this week was a lot of work. We visited a ton of people and are filtering the people that really want to know more and the people who won’t progress. We tried to find more people and had success with that! We just need more prayers and faith! I love this work and every challenge that we face!

Thanks for everything!

Elder Clark