November 12, 2012 letter

November 12, 2012

Hola familia!

Thanks so much for all of your emails! Ive been trying to write back to all of them! It was really great to hear from all of you! 

Last P-day we cut it off a little shorter and had a lesson with Oscar and Mariana. We were only able to talk for 15 minutes, but we left him with a commitment to read the pamphlet and pray about it. It's been super hard to get a hold of Oscar so it was good to finally talk to him! We have another lesson planned this week. 

I had a great birthday! :D Thanks so much everyone! I could feel all of your prayers for me on this day, and I felt really happy all day, so thanks so much :) I got pooped on by a bird for the first time in my whole life on my birthday (what are the chances...) and I was totally fine with it! It was awesome! 

My companion got up early and cut out some colored paper stuff and wrote 'feliz cumple e' Clubb!' and sang to me with another elder on the phone. It was a surprise but it was really neat! I bought some bon o bons and handed them out to some people. For lunch the family we ate with put on some old school bonanza and the Ingalls family haha. 

All of the missionaries seemed to think I was a lot funnier as well and laughed more at the stuff I said. We had a zone meeting and all of the missionaries in the zone sang to me for my birthday, and that was cool! It isn't every day the whole zone sings to me! 

Elder Argueta and I did service for an elderly couple in our ward, we shoveled a lot of dirt haha and that took up most of the day, we got fodged out of a lot of lessons that day unfortunately. I heard about the elections.I got a birthday call from president too! 

I don't know if I've said this already but a few weeks ago they said this is the hottest it has been this early in the year in 57 years, how crazy is that?? I feel like it's the middle of the summer! I get back to the pench at the end of the day just soaking wet. Although it was pouring tons of rain a couple of days ago, and it got super cold haha, so a little bipolar weather moment.

I went on divisions with Elder Donjuan from Kissimee, Florida, and we did more service, this time painting a room! We got pretty covered in paint haha, it was fun though. Some random drunk guy stopped us and was talking to us for a while, saying he was a member and had callings in the stake and talked about how Joseph Smith gave money to people in need, and said missionaries in his area could go to his house if we called them, stuff like that, pretty relaxed conversation. Then he asked us for some money to take a collectivo and chau, his whole attitude and behavior changed and he got so ticked. Asked for his address back, started saying how he's apostate and all this random stuff, so I just shook his hand, said it was a pleasure and we'll see him some other time, and we left. Poor guy though, he seemed really unhappy, the missionaries in his area should stop by him. 

My comp and I taught this guy that's a total alcoholic that is homeless and just finds places to live, so he's told us. He works right next to the church building and we've talked to him before, so we had a lesson there. He said he really likes the church and the message we share, the biggest problem was that he was really drunk :P he talked about the great peace he felt when he walked into the church building, and a few times he just said he was too overwhelmed and started crying. So a really great guy, who's been having a lot of health problems and wants a change in his life, and we're going to have another lesson with him this week.

Last Saturday there was an activity in our church building of all of the young adults attending seminary in our whole mission, there were tons of people! It was so neat! The first thing that happened when we walked in, we were asked to give a blessing. So I gave a blessing totally unexpected to someone Ive never met before, and I felt the power of God in the blessing, and they were His words, I don't think Ive given a blessing like that one before, it was really neat. I saw some people from Pergamino though that I knew! There was even an Investigator of ours who I taught right before I left! He hasn't been baptized yet, but he came to the activity with a friend of his, who is a member but inactive. 

That day we taught 3 lessons in the doors contacting, which almost never happens. One lady was told us she used to talk to missionaries but there were a few things she didn't believe that they taught her. So smiling my companion asks what the doubts were if she didn't mind telling. And she told us and we were easily able to answer her question and clear up the confusion. However no matter how perfectly we can teach a lesson, or how much of the Spirit we felt, people still have their agency. And she said the only reason she doesn't believe us is that she would have to change. So we'll be going by her more and hopefully explain more to her. 

Oh yeah thanks for the miso soup packages! The smell sent me straight home for a little while haha! It was so great! And my comp loves it! He might go to BYU after the mission, so I tell him we'll have a Japanese food night at my house! He'll love the way you make Japanese food! I said I'm the only one who doesn't know anything haha!

Yesterday was super bizarre, there was a baby blessing so a lot of people were at Sacrament Meeting! I met this lady who lived in Lindon for 5 years, by Los Hermanos, which I just barely realized yesterday actually means something in Spanish haha. And then she introduced me to her family who also lived in Lindon, and they live in my ward! I've known them and talked to them and had no idea I live right next to them, and drove by where they lived every single day! It blew my mind haha, they talked about all of their favorite places in the area and all the food. I just couldn't believe they lived there :) It was super cool! Last name is Carbajal, if by some chance someone knew them once.

There was a guy who came to our ward yesterday who had never in his life been to our church before. He isn't a member but his wife is active, and previously went to a different ward. Her husband was super nice, really great guy! He sat by us in the priesthood class, and we had a great lesson! Except the teacher (he does this a lot) started getting really ticked at everyone because the chairs were set up with an aisle in the middle, and went off for a long time on it. I always get really uncomfortable with things like that, especially when we have new people in church, because that will be their first impression of the church and it will last with them. Some random arguments took place during the class. But he seemed to really enjoy it, and said we could go over to his house :)

I love you all so much! I'm so proud of you, for everything you are doing and achieving. I hope you are all doing great, and I pray every night for you. Take care, thanks for everything you do and have done for me, it's something that really humbles me, to have such great family as you :) and friends. 

Los amo, cuidense,

Elder Alek Clubb