November 21, 2011

Emails:

Amy Ellsworth- Congrats on your call!!! Ohio Cleveland Mission!! Kirtland Visitors Center is awesome!!How exciting!!!  Scott Maughan´s sister is in that same mission! I will drop you a letter here soon.

Grandma Clegg- Thank you so much for your words of support and for sharing how things are going. I hope that all is well and thank you for your prayers.

Lindsay Hayes- Thank you so much for the letter. I sent you a letter but with the address thing I don’t know if you will get it. I’ll try again…

Letters from the Faithful Family:

Dad

Mom

Mikesell

Brennen

¿Que Tal?

Hello the people that I love the most. From what I have read it sounds like everyone is doing really well.  Another busy but great week it sounds like! Que bueno!

This last week has been really good.

We really grew our relationship with Branch numbers this week and that was good. The disappointing thing was that we worked really hard to get investigators to church and we had success. We had 6 investigators at church on Sunday!  However, there were only 25 people there with those six investigators. That was a little disappointing.  The meeting was really good still and it all worked out ok. We taught a class, blessed the sacrament, and then gave talks. It was a good experience. I am amazed at how the lessons in church always seem to apply themselves to the investigators. The promised blessing of going to church is real.

Jose accepted a baptismal date for the third of December. We have set dates with him several times but this time was different. When he accepted the first thought that came to my head was... wow my family really must be praying for him too... He seems to be progressing and was at church this week. Keep praying and I will work harder.

Trinidad also has a date set for the 3rd of December. Her family has some problems but hopefully she can lead out and they will follow.

The miracle of the week was that we had a family of four come to church Daniel and Sonya. We found them six weeks ago but they have not been coming to church. This week they did. I love this family and I want them in the water bad. We have not asked the ¨Are you married¨" yet and knowing what I know of Argentina, I am going to guess not. But we can hope they don’t need to be divorced to anyone else and that they can get married quickly. That is the investigator report. We had more success this week but I still have this hunger for baptism and seeing the change come in someones life. Please pray that I will have greater desires to give of myself and work harder to be a more "fluent" missionary with my language skills. I can understand pretty much everything within a lesson setting. They just can’t really understand me.

So we -boy oh boy - did we have a zone conference this week!! I am still shaking with a little bit of fear. But before I talk about that I want to talk about another little thing that happened.

Things that touch my heart:

Thursday night I was on Divisions with our zone leader, Elder Carlico.  I am going to spoil something for you Dad but I found this guy who makes home made shoes. I had asked him to make me some about a month ago. I got them praying that I would be able to give them to you Dad and also to be honest as a backup if my shoes don’t make it. But I think they will. So I was in the same area with a different zone leader and we went to contact a family who was getting in a car….turns out they were members. But then a man calls out ¨Elder” from across the street. It was the man who makes the shoes. I hadn’t noticed that we were in front of his house. So we came in and he gave me the shoes and  we went on contacting. We had appointment with a less active member right after and we had a great lesson. There was a young man there - about 17 or 18 years old and you could tell he was struggling. He has 4 sisters and an angel Mom and no Father. They didn’t know what was in the bag I had but for some reason we found out his shoe size was the same as yours and mine Dad. I still did not say anything about the shoes. We had a great lesson and they sang us a primary Hymn on the guitar for the closing Hymn. The Mother asked the young man to say the closing prayer but he said no. The Mother said the prayer and then we left. We got about one ten steps down the street and I told my companion we had to go back. We called this young mans name out... his name is Yvonne and I gave him the shoes and told him to prepare for the mission with some directness. I don’t know why I did.. I just felt like that was the right thing to do. The thought came through my mind “Dad would want me to give them to him". He was really excited and lit up a little though all this. We then left and Elder Calrico said ¨How did you know he needed church shoes?¨ I told him that I really didn’t know if he did or not… I just kind of figured he didn’t. He then told me that Yvonne had come to church last week with shoes that were really beat up and embarrassing. I hope you can make sense of this story. I am not here to help out people temporally which I realize. I am here to baptize…. but I think Heavenly Father gives us opportunities to learn and to test us. SO Dad… know your pair of Christmas shoes is on the feet of a future missionary in Mar del Plata Argentina. I don’t tell you this story to brag or prideful but rather to teach that it killed me to watch the love this Mother had for her son and to watch him just sit there and be selfish. He owes her and his Heavenly Father more.

And so do I....which leads me to my Zone conference experience:

We had the great opportunities to hear from Elder Aidukatius, a member of the Seventy. It was humbling beyond belief. They pulled up the stats of our zones baptisms and they were not good for the last 5 months. He asked us to stand up and proceeded to give us a Christ-like Coach Krum chastening. I was sitting in the front row and he asked me a couple of questions. I just prayed I understood him right and tried to answer right. Oh man - it was so intense.  I am still shaking a little. Needless to say that is why I titled this letter “repentance”. Because that is what I really need. I am not living up to my potential as a missionary right now. I am very grateful for all that I have and I know that I will be blessed with success as I just put forth that extra effort. I know that if I continue to be obedient we will see some baptisms this December. That has to be my main focus.

Dad- Thank you for your letter.  I look forward to reading it later this evening. How is your preparation for the Christmas party coming? I hope that you have a great time in Boise on Thursday and then Muldoon. I will never forget that time we stopped and looked at the stars. I feel that day like yesterday. Please send my love to Uncle Alan and family... they are in my prayers. And of course to Grandma and Grandpa Clegg and Papa and Grandma Crouch. What you said about some people here not liking the United States is true. I am excited to share stories with you one day about that. I don’t have the time to say them all in this email each week.  Love you Dad so much. You the man!  Oh this week was amazing  - I heard “Every tear drop is a waterfall” in its entirety on our taxi ride to Zone Conference and then “Speed of Sound” later haha. A tender mercy. I think Heavenly Father really does have a sense of humor. Dad - you are one of the most thoughtful people I know.

Mom--

Hello you Angel! Well good news... Your packages are sitting in the zone leader’s house and I will get them tomorrow. They called and told me... they were nice. I am hoping Mikesell´s letter is there also. Thank you so much. I will let you know the details next week. Sounds like you had a good week. Thank you so much for your encouraging words, journal entry, and everything. It really means so much and is a great strength to me. I love you very much. I feel your prayers. This week I figured out how to go running with my comp. We have a park right next door and so sits and he reads on a bench while I run circles around him. It has helped me have more enthusiasm and I feel better. The water is fine here... most of the time…? So far so good. I will use good judgment. Thanks for everything Mom. Have a great Thanksgiving. It doesn’t feel like Christmas at here. There is Papa Noel stuff up but it is not right. It helps with the homesickness though. I love you Mom. Thank you for your thoughts on Gratitude. It truly is a power that cannot be stopped.

Mikesell-

Hey there dancer lady.... sounds like you had a great time with Spencer at Sadies. He is great. I am glad you asked him. Don’t worry the stuff you forget to tell me usually gets covered in Mom’s journal… so I have a heads up. J Good luck with all your tests and enjoy your Thanksgiving break. I love you Mikesell. Thank you so much for your letter. You are such an inspiration for me. Have a great week. You are unbeatable!  Keep the faith. Do you have seminary next tri? Have fun and   keep enjoying your senior year.

Brennen-

Sounds like we both spoke yesterday! That is great. Honesty is such an important principle. How was your first week of real practice for Basketball? Keep working hard! When is your first game? My companion is doing really good thanks. He goes home in April. We are getting better and we are working together. I am learning how to be a better ¨helper” for him.  I love you so much. _Have a great Thanksgiving. I am excited to hear what songs you  put on the Ipod. Thanks for everything man. I love you so much. Have a great week . Thank you for your example. Keep being awesome!!

Alex -

Hey man! Sounds like you did awesome at your tourney in Boise. What a stud!! You would be more studly if your dropped me a email with your stats at least. I want to hear how life is going for you man. I love you Buddy. Have a great week this week and enjoy Thanksgiving. I miss you man! Keep being a great stud and example for your siblings. I love you man. Be your best Alex!

Harrison-

Hey man. How are you? I miss you. How are all of your friends and school? Have you made any turkey hands? I hope that you have a great Thanksgiving Harrison. Keep being the energetic awesome person you are. You are such a good person. I love you so much.

McCall- It sounds like you might be able to read this letter on your very own here soon. Congratulations you smart little whippersnapper. (bet she can’t read that word)  I love you so much Callie. Have a great Thanksgiving and remember I love you. We have so much to be grateful for. 

Well everyone! I love you each so much. Have a great Thanksgiving! I will be there with you in Spirit! I promise you all to keep working and do so harder. Tell Amy Congrats on her mission call!

Have a great week. Tell the entire family hello.