A Wet Week!

Hola family!

So this has been a really wet week! It was pouring rain from Tuesday until Saturday. We had Zone Conference on Tuesday and that was so awesome! I've been looking forward to this one for a while, since my old zone came!! We met at my church!  That was so great to be able to see them! Almost the whole zone is the same, so I was able to talk to my old district and Elder Sheen! Haha he's a funny guy, but he's doing well! He's about to go home, just a couple months left, that's crazy. Elder Luna was still there and we were able to catch up, he goes home in a few weeks. He and two other elders who are about to go home were invited to stand up and bear their testimonies. Boy that was so powerful, I was crying the whole time. All three of these elders had been Zone leaders and one was an AP. They just had a great appreciation for their missions and the experiences they had, and they had a great love for the time they had here. My favorite talk given was by President Giuliani. He talked about change. He addressed how we're struggling as a mission and what we need to do to be successful, and what we need to change. He spoke on faith and revelation, personal as well as for our investigators. How we are in the last days and the importance of this work for God's children. He said a lot of things I don't remember right now, haha but that I have written down.Before he started he said he had been studying and praying and fasting for this talk, which he hasn't written. And he said he was going to let the Spirit guide his words, and it was powerful listening to him! He taught with the Spirit and I feel like he addressed a lot of needs, and something everyone can do to be better. It was awesome!

So like I said it was raining all week. I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but the family Chaparro moved even further, and now live in the middle of a big field, in a one-room house made of tin walls and roof. I have never seen such a big number of people live in such humble circumstances. The parents live there, with 6 kids, the oldest daughter and her boyfriend and daughter live somewhere else. And because they live in a field, they were surrounded by a pond and mud, so they didn't leave their house this week. But we stopped by every day to visit them, and to help them in any way that we could. On Thursday, during my personal study, I read a scripture from Alma, that said something (a small verse to end a chapter) like how the people were lawyers and only focused on their money and looked forward to that. And that made me think of the scripture in Mosiah, how the people of God faced their tents toward the temple and were facing it. I didn't really think much of that connection, but it hit me that we could share that with the family, when we were with them. So I talked about the riches, and mainly on the temple, how the greatest blessings are found in the temple, and that families could be together forever. I talked about Deklan and how I had the opportunity to see him be sealed to our family. The Chaparro family talked about how they are really so greatly blessed because they have each other and they have the gospel, and they are going to go to the temple together and be sealed, in the coming weeks. I'm so excited for them :) I'm grateful for their examples, which remind me of my own parents' examples, in the midst of great sacrifice and fear when we didn't know where we were going to live. I love you guys :)

It's a battle to get to the Chaparro's house, haha. With the rain and everything we walked through inch deep mud for a while to have to get there, and on the way we always see frogs! So Saturday, when it stopped raining, I brought my camera with me! And it was so pretty :) we saw a beautiful rainbow that was so close! I could almost see that pot of gold there haha. And I also got a picture of a frog. Saturday was Elder Petersen's birthday, and for his birthday he wanted to do something loco. So he caught the frog in his bag, took it home, and boiled it and then ate a little bit. I had a little bit too (just to say I did it) and it wasn't good, haha. It makes a good story at least! The funniest part about that experience, we took a video of him putting it in the pot and it starts freaking out and trying to jump out and on the video we're just screaming and the camera is going crazy and we're freaking out haha. Maybe Elder Petersen can post the video somewhere so you can see it :)

I've had some silly experiences and some spiritual ones, as well as some incredible trials, in this short week. I want you to know that I love you so much :) All of you, and I really hope we recognize all of our many blessings. Which a great blessing undoubtedly is our family, with the eternal promise from God that we could be together forever. I hope you feel God's presence every day, which I know brings great comfort and peace.

Los amo mucho!

 Elder Alek Clubb