November 20, 2012 letter

November 20, 2012

Hola Family! :)

Thanks for your emails! Tomorrow we have transfers again, and I'm with my companion again! So 3 transfers together, and I'm sending the guy home haha, so that'll be fun. I was really worried I was going to be transferred out, but I'm glad I get to stay :) A lot is happening this next transfer and I love this ward so much. 

Last P-day we went to Subway! that was pretty cool haha, of course it's different but I still enjoyed it! Also, best part, I saw 5 black people! It was awesome! And I talked to one for a while, he's from Haiti just hanging out in Argentina. So I guess that makes him Haitian. It was pretty neat. They have these things called collecividades, and it lasted a week long, where people from different countries have food and booths and shows and dances and music and stuff. We couldn't go since it was out of our area and it starts at night, but we did see some of the booths during the day on P-day. Kind of lifeless but it looked like a cool show!

We just found out we've been giving away Books of Mormon that are missing 50 pages in the middle of Alma, that is a little awkward.

We had a mission fast this past week, it was really good. We usually have a mission fast every month, and then the normal monthly fast. So I'm losing some weight I think! Don't freak out, I'm just kidding :)

SO I have mentioned Mariana and Oscar before in my emails. Mariana is the investigator that is super prepared, practically a member already, and Oscar is her husband. They aren't married which is why she hasn't been able to be baptized. We've been praying for this family, as well as the whole council in the ward, they can get married and baptized. And there I learned the teaching of Jesus, to pray even for our enemies. Although Ive always cared about this family, my love for them grew so much! And I  also learned that through constant prayer for people even who drive me crazy, helps me to feel more love for them. 

Well with Mariana and Oscar, the hardest thing has been trying to get a hold of Oscar, since he always left to work or was gone whenever we stopped by. But we finally got a hold of him a couple weeks ago, and then we had a lesson this past week. We got to their house and waited for ever for him, and he was having problems with his car, and it looked like we weren't going to get a lesson with him, but sure enough he came in after a while and we were able to teach him. And WOW this was a really spiritual lesson! It was just so neat, the whole family was there. This was his second lesson ever with missionaries, the first being with us a few weeks ago. He has been reading the pamphlet we gave him, and we were able to talk about the Restoration in greater detail with him. We talked about how they need to get married, and that they can be baptized and all this stuff, so that they can go to the temple in a year and be sealed for ever and ever, so that the greatest joy felt within the family can grow. I showed them pictures of the family when we went to the temple and how my little brother is now sealed to my family. It was really neat and he accepted everything! We talked to someone in the ward next to us, who has connections with a judge, and they're getting married on the 30th! And Mariana is getting baptized the same day! And that's the day I hit a year in the mission :) Happy birthday to me haha, I'm just so happy for them. 

It is so fetching hard to get people married here. They have huge problems with divorce and with people getting married, it takes so long! Usually for that reason nobody gets married, which is why everyone we talk to lives together. So this is really exciting for them :) Oscar has been telling his non member family that they're getting married and getting baptized :) Their kids have been members for a year, and they are all active, and during the lesson while I was talking I looked over at the kids, and they were all really serious and attentive, more than I've ever seen them before, and I realized how big of a deal this was for their family. Oscar didn't want to say the closing prayer, but little Santiago was like 'it's easy dad, you can do it, it goes like this', and he eventually said it, and it was great! This has been an incredibly joyful experience to be with this family and teach them. If all goes well, they can be sealed right when I go home :) I love this family so much, and I'm so excited for them. 

Later that day we were in the church building and we saw some of the members from the ward council, including the bishop and his counselors, and when we told them they jumped up and celebrated and were super happy. It was really neat to see all of our many prayers answered in this way :)

We did a lot of service this week as well, I tried blood sausage! It is really weird, I wouldn't say bad, but the texture is strange haha. I can say I've tried blood sausage now :) 

Last Saturday we had a mission activity, combined with the ward next to us and it went so well! The Primary President is like 20, the one who lived in Lindon before! She went to the activity and brought a friend from school, who was really interested and said she was really happy :) She doesn't live in our area though, but she liked the activity we had. It was a talent show and then halfway through we had a tour of the church, and in various rooms we had people talk about the church organizations. It went really well :) Elder Donjuan did breakdance with some other guys, and my comp did a rap and I was there too and dancing (I can't dance so I was just moving around doing weird stuff haha), and we have some investigators who came, one of which is Pablo and he sang. This guy can freaking sing holy cow, like he can be famous if he wanted. He's really humble about it, but he sand 'nessum dorme' I think I spelled that wrong, but everyone jumped up and gave him a standing ovation. He just rocked it. We didn't get as many people as we would have liked at the activity but I consider it successful. I have all of the talents on video to show you all later :)

All of these things only add to my testimony that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ, and that this is the work of God, to touch the hearts of so many and push them to change their lives.

I got invited to a Thanksgiving this Thursday! The family that lived in Utah invited me and my companion over :) I'm pretty excited, it should be good. That was nice of them to invite us. They don't have Thanksgiving here so this will be neat! 

I love you guys! Thanks for writing me and letting me know how you're all doing. Hearing from you really helps a lot and I love it. 

Cuidense, Los amo :)

Elder Alek Clubb