This has been a pretty crazy, interesting, exhausting week
for me! I got my new companion and his name is Elder Constantino. He is from
Oregon, but originally from Mexico. He speaks English and Spanish both really
well so that is a huge blessing. We try to talk in Spanish to help me out. It’s
very hard understanding people when they speak 100 MPH. He is a nice guy and
has only been in Las Vegas for 3 months. We aren’t that similar, but we get
along good and just try to help each other out. It was a double transfer so
that has been the biggest issue this last week. We both have to learn the new
area.
Our area is Desert Bloom 1 which is in Las Vegas. The mission office is in our area. Our little branch is called Desert
Bloom. The branch attendance is maybe 50 so it’s pretty small. All the members
are awesome and we have meals with them all the time. They want to help with
missionary work!
So the day we left Mexico, I had the privilege of paying
over 1000 pesos for my luggage. I guess they were too heavy, even though I had
checked them before. There was another
Hermana that this happened to as well and while we finished paying the flight
attendant was trying to rush us because the plane was going to leave. She told us to "Corre, Corre, Rapido,
Run like a champion" and took off! It was so funny. We started laughing
and then started sprinting through the airport! It was quite the experience and
I’m glad I got to pay $80 for all of the books I received in the CCM!
This week after we finished all
the newby missionary meetings we had to do we were able to finally get to work.
Thursday night was awesome! We went to visit a lady that has meet with missionaries
for years and we had just recently contacted her again. We were lucky to have a
member with us, Hermana R, she was perfect! The lady’s husband was there but he is not as
interested, but L knows all of it is true and believes in everything, but told
us that whenever the missionaries ask her to be baptized she gets super
nervous. I don’t think her husband wants her to change religions. But, they are
the nicest people ever and I really think we can work with her. The member we
had with us shared her experience that her husband wasn’t a member of the
church either and that it was still amazing to be baptized. She told her just
to do it! They became good friends so we will see what happens there!!
It is pretty funny when Latinos feed you! They love feeding
us and they give us tons of food. But they don’t take no for an answer on
seconds. So when they keep pestering you to eat more, you finally say okay a
little more, and then they give you a huge plate full-haha! They’re great. We had dinner on Saturday at
this couples home that was baptized in Feb. I think they are from Bolivia and
they are so awesome!! I ate a habanero pepper there, and I ate the whole thing
in one bite and I almost died!! It gave
me the hiccups and it was super funny - we were all laughing!
So this last story still just has me
baffled. (Miracles do happen).
Last night we were contacting referrals we had received from
members and missionaries. It was getting late and we hadn’t had much success
with the referrals so far, and so we said a prayer in the car really quick and
then went to the door of J. He answered and said we could come in. We started
talking and he told us he had seen temples before and that his daughter just
got baptized, but that was about all he knew. So I testified to him about
temples and then we taught him the whole lesson of the restoration. During the
entire lesson he just kept saying “que bueno” and “me gusta”. He loved all of
it. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read and pray about it,
go to church and be baptized. He gave the closing prayer and thanked God for
the joy we brought into his life! I was so shocked that he accepted our message
so easily. My Comp said that my face lit up with a huge smile when he said he
would be baptized! The Lord truly does prepare people for us to teach. The
people are ready - all we have to do is reach out to them and share what we
know!
Hasta Luego!
Elder Clark
Last dinner in the CCM
This was our basketball buddy. He was a football player and wasn't the best basketball player but he would make some amazing threes, so we called him Lebron James. His name is elder Boyer. He is awesome and we got along great!
Elder Clark with President and Sister Snow
This is our apartment in Las Vegas. It is actually one of the biggest apartments in the mission. It has two bathrooms and two bedrooms, so I have my own closet and bathroom. It has a big living room and a decent kitchen.
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