“Stay in the Boat” Matthew 8:23-27

May 18, 2015

Baking Sweet Rolls and Cheese Bread

Wow, what a week. This week passed by SO fast but when I think about last Monday, it seems like almost a month ago. Time is literally playing with my head. We started the week with a little trip. We had to head into the city for a Zone Meeting and we spent almost the whole day Tuesday traveling. Our meeting was productive but it about killed us with the traveling. I don’t know why but it seems like the days that we have to travel and I don’t work very much are the days that I become most tired on my mission. There something about traveling on the bus that just drains your energy.

Speaking of draining energy. Man oh man. We started English classes this week for anyone who
wants to learn. Elder Kesler and I are the Americans who give the class. I don’t know how but I got stuck with the children 8 years old to 12 years old. (Think of the funniest class ever.) We have been doing the classes for two weeks and we only do them two times a week. Each Wed. and Sat. and we already have a ton of people coming. One day I think I had about 30 children in my classroom. It was pretty hard to keep control. But, the cool thing is they are actually learning! We play lots games and they are learning pretty fast. It is super funny too because we walk in the streets the children yell “Hey teacher! Hey guys, that is my English teacher!” “TEACHER!” There is one kid who wanted to teach everyone the word teacher so that they could call me teacher, but the thing is all the kids remembered the word as TIO (TCHEE-O) which is the word for Uncle in Portuguese. So during class, when the young ones have a question they yell “Tio! Tio!” (Uncle, Uncle) I can’t help but to laugh. Oh what an adventure it is! There was a little miracle that happened. A kid brought his deaf brother to class Saturday and we started to play a game where I yell out a color in English and the kids have to find the color on the board. Not wanting to be left out the small deaf boy stood in line, but also not wanting to play because he can’t hear when I yell the words, he always let the next kid go in front of him. (I don’t know if I have already told you but we are teaching a deaf young woman and she is teaching us sign language.) I got his attention and started to sign the colors that I would choose. He became super excited and started to participate and even won many times! I was very happy I was able to help him have a good experience and I am so grateful for the opportunities God gives us to help other people, even in the most simple ways!

Stake Center

We spent this whole week preparing for our stake conference that happened this weekend. We were super stressed because it was to happen far away, like everything is from us. It was a huge challenge and we were all super stressed because it seemed like we were going to have a wasted Sunday without church here. But, that was the miracle. It was one of the best Sundays of my mission! We were able to get a Bus to take people to the conference, organized with the stake to have food after the conference before our trip home and confirmed investigators to take the journey with us. The stake center for our stake is one of the biggest and most beautiful church buildings I have ever seen. We wanted a whole lot of people to go with us to see a church building and how the church really is a worldwide, super organized church. We took about 30 people with us and had one of the best, most spiritual conferences I have been too. The giant church was FULL of people. Everyone is excited to see Padre Bernardo grow and so when we arrived, many people came to greet us, and to help direct everyone. Our investigators from a small town without one big building were all eyes as we entered the beautiful church building, full of happy, shining people in shirts, ties and skirts. The talks and messages of the conference were amazing, each person was very, very inspired! The theme of the conference was “Stay in the Boat.” Everyone talked about how we need to have courage to follow Christ! Just to wrap it up, everything went perfect. Nobody wanted to leave to come back home. I can’t even describe all the miracles and tender mercies the Lord helped us with! I don’t think I will ever forget this stake conference.

Elders and a cow

I am so grateful for my mission and everyone that I have met. I am so excited for Padre Bernardo the upcoming weeks! I think the conference lit a fire in us, the stake and our investigators! Thank you so much for your prayers and support! I love you all!

Elder Samuel Clark