August 2011 Letters

August 29 2011

       

        Well hello family. How is everything going in the U S OF A? Things are going really well here.Just its hot. But thats life. We now have 6 families in the branch that want to get married. The branch will grow really quickly if we can get these people married. The biggest problem that we have is the cost. It costs about 150 soles for every family, just to get married. Some of the families have other debts that they have to pay off. If not, they can't get married. Just to put it in perspective, 150 soles can feed a family of ten for 3 weeks. So its a litle bit of money that we are dealing with. Yesterday in branch council, we talked of the ways that we could earn money. We have decided to do a bake sale. Here there are a lot of bakeries and other bread shops. We have four members that have different ovens and other ways to bake breads. Now when I talk about an oven it is not an ordinary oven. It's a mud igloo that is heated by firewood. But with these ovens we can sell candy, breads, cakes, and other things. All of the members will get together one saturday and bake all of the morning. Then for mutual in the afternoon, all of the young men and women will go out in different areas to sell everything.  This should get us about 400 soles. So we will do this activity 2 times to get the money for the marriages.  The branch is working good and hopefully these families can get married.

      With the Murayari family, we have plans to get them married the 17th of September. Then the next week, will be their baptisms. This week we will be going to the government offices to fill out all of the paperwork.  After that will just be the wait of the marriage date. It should go really well. At least we are hoping and praying that everthing will go well.  We also have some other ladies that want to get baptised and other children. But we are really trying to get these families in this church. With these families we would qualify as a ward. Then the church will build our own building. which would be the happiest day of my life. Hopefully by November we could have the assistance and priesthood we need.

       We are working with a lot of less active members, that used to be really strong in the church. We have a less active broher that use to be a high councilman, and another that was a counciler to the bishop, and other people.  We have goals to get them reading the book of mormon and praying, just to start their testimonies growing.  We also have alot of support from our stake president that has now come out to our ward 5 weeks in a row, and branch council 3 weeks in a row. He is really cracking down hard on the leaders to get them working like they should. So the work is growing really well.

      One of our families lives 3 kilometers into the jungle. He has his own land and walkway all the way to  his house. I took some awesome pictures of the walk way. I hope you enjoy them. Also the other picture is of a mini parrot. He is awesome. These kinds of birds don't talk but screech really loudly.

        The work is moving on and we are doing really well. I Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week. Love Elder Clouse

August 20, 2011

               HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME... Its my birthday today and I am doing great. Well this week was really great. On Saturday I had a baptism. Maria Elida Canaquiri Huayuanga. We have been working with her for about 5 months now and finally she made the decision to be baptised. She asked me to baptise her. It was a wonderful meeting and the spirit was really strong. My favorite part was when she gave her testimony. She could hardly keep the tears from coming. When she could speak, you could feel the spirit and we all knew that she was really converted to the gospel and the church. Right now I am talking with my branch president to get her a calling. She really likes children and so I am trying to get her into the primary. The just released the entire presidency and so I think a councilor for her would be great. She is really excited and wants to keep learning and growing. She is awesome.

              Well this week I got my package from the family. I have really enjoyed my candy from the united states. I really liked the fun size skittles and starburst. But what I did with half of the candy, is I put it in my backpack and started giving it out to all of the children in my area. All of them started running around me and yelling really loud  "Candy from the United states,candy form the United States. HA HA, it was hllarious. It was a really great way to contact the people it the streets. We ended up getting 3 new families to teach. All the kids here are awesome and always yell out from their houses. Brother! Brother! Hi Brother Clouse. HA ha, they have'nt gotten use to the elder thing yet. But thats ok.

                 Well all of the families that are getting married are doing really great.  All the people in the government office know me by name. Its pretty funny. Also we have recieved four references  for other elders to teach some of the people there. And so it is going great. I have recieved copies of the proclamation to the world and placed them in the office buildings. On the back I put the information of how they can come in contact  with the missionaries to be taught. So far I havent heard anything about people calling, but some people have taken the copies home. So we hope that something happens there. We are planning one marriage in september and another 2 in october.

                 Yesturday I gave a talk in church. All of the people told me that it was good and my spanish is improving. So that is great. After church the stake president came to the ward council. He taught the leaders how to be leaders and practically burned all of them. It was needed badly. Now there is a different feeling in the branch that we need to improve. So hopefully things can go better and the branch can keep on growing. That is in my prayers everyday.

                   Tommorw are transfers and I am staying in my area for another change. This will mean I will be in my area 6 months. Wow how the time flies. This next change I should be out  of here and into another area. But the only person that know is God. Hopefully this change goes better than before.

              The pictures are of me shaving and one of the families that are getting married in September. Its really funny. Next week I will send pictures from my baptism and more families. Well life is going good and I am really happy. I hope things go great at home. You are all in my prayers everyday. I love you all. Love Elder Clouse

August 15, 2011

               Hello everyboody, How is life going over there? Life is good here: just working hard and doing well. The missionary work is going really well. Right now I have 3 baptismal dates that are set and ready to happen. One is this weekend and 2 & 4 of September . All of them are women that either have husbands that are members or have some family members that are members of the church. All of them are progressingg and coming to church, so that is really exciting.  As for playing Elvis and helping the families get married, this week we are going to go to the city of Iquitos to help the families get their birth certificates. This is the most dificult part of it all; trying to get them stamped and approved. So far it is a headache just to figure out what we have to do, not even including the money, time, and effort just to get them married. I have to keep reminding myself the reason why we are going through all of the headache and stress.  To add it all , we found 2 more families this week to help get married and baptised. Now we have 5 families that we are fighting to get married. This should be alot of fun times  in the next few weeks; but that is what the missioonary work is all about, looking at challenges and overcoming the challanges. So far we are still fighting. But we are still happy and excitied. Marriage has gotten to the point now that it has been a problem just to teach the families. The teaching is where all of our strengnth comes from. If the family can feel the importance of marriage from the holy ghost, they would act a little bit quicker in finding solutions for the money and marriage requirements.  Thats what we are going to focus on this week, the lessons.

              Well my birthday is coming up in a week from today.  I hope that everyone will celebrate it in someway special, like make a cake and  then eat it in memory of me. Then the week after that it will be a year  in the mission. In a short time I will be home before you know it. 

              Well yesterday it rained for the first time in 2 weeks. It just happend to be on Sunday. That killed us for church attendance. Nobody wants to leave when it is raining. But thats what its all about, fighting for whats right.

            This week I have a training with president blunck. I always look forward to have that. Its always fun to hear and learn from him. I always feel uplifted and want to work more when I hear something spiritual. 

                 I will send pictures when I get my camera chord in my package. I should get it this week when president comes. Hopefully I can send pictures homes of the families I am teaching.  I love you all and appreciate all of the things you do for me. Keep my families in your prayers. We need all the help we can get. I love you all and will write you next week.

          Love Elder CLouse

August 8, 2011

   Hello family and friends. How are things going over there. The things here are going really great and we are really working hard.  This week we have found more families to teach and we have really progressed with the families that we have already found. At this point we have 4 families that want to get married and baptised. I really feel like an Elvis in Las Vegas that will marry anyone that wants to. I have already told like 20  families that we can help them get married if they want. My area has not had a family get baptised in over 2 years. So these will be great to help out the branch grow. We are really working hard to keep the branch alive and to get the  members to work.  At this point we are planning a lot of activities to have all the branch and the families to get used to one another, to help them all be friends and to strengthen everyone. Its like killing three birds with one stone.

    This week we have had a lot of experiences with animals. A lot of people have birds and other animals that are really cool. People have parrots and other types of birds that look and act like parrots, monkeys, and snakes.  We were teaching a family and the spirit was really strong. We were teaching how they could all be together forever if they accepted the gospel and lived it here on earth when all of a sudden a bird flew in and landed on my companions head.  Then it started biting my companions ear and really causing him a lot of pain. My companion leaped up and started dancing around trying to get the stupid bird off him, but the bird just didn't want to leave his head. He clinched onto his hair and was riding the bull, and yes it made I think 25.4 seconds. The whole family was laughing their heads off and didn't stop laughing for like 10 minutes. It was hilarious.

     Then we were walking to an investigators house when we saw a huge group of monkeys coming towards us. Seriously, like 50 monkeys were swinging in the trees and throwing stuff at each other. It was really cool. Then we saw 9,000 different fish in the stream that were going crazy when we gave them some crackers. It was really awesome.

    Well the fight continues to keep get the families married and baptised. It takes time, money, and at least three fights just to get them married. Well, I love you all and thank you for all that you have done for me.  Love you all.   Elder Clouse

Hello everybody how are the things going? I hope everything is going great. Well this week we had two baptisms in the branch; two little girls that always come to Church but have not been baptised. One of them the mom is inactive and the father is not a member. But last night we talked to them and the dad accepted to talk to us and try to stop drinking the hard stuff. So we will be working on them. Their daughter's name is Maria Magdalena Zumba Baos. She was really bright and learned very quickly. The other little girl the father left and her mom was baptised 7 months ago. She is also very bright and learned very quickly. The meeting was at 8 at night on Saturday. It lasted about thirty minutes and was very spiritual. So we are happy and are ready to work again. The families that are going to get married are progressing and we are getting all the papers ready for the wedding bells to start ringing. Other than that all of the investigators that we have are doing really well and are progressing. 

      This week I have a meeting with the stake president to talk about how the branch could be better from the things we see as missionaries. We are having a lot of problems with the members not coming through with their callings, including the branch president. Usually the missionaries can't say anything, but when it affects the missionary work is when we can come a little unglued.  At this point I feel ready to do so. The members are all really great and strong, just don't work very good together and get offended really easy. But we are now going to work with the stake and hopefully we can grow. I have visited 10 families that are not coming to church.  They all say its because of the leaders that we have. They have all done something wrong in the past. But if we could get the leaders to do visits and say they are sorry for their errors, we would become a ward and have our own church building built in my area. But we have  to overcome a few things. 

          Last night the power went out for 4 hours and I am outside of the city. I could see all of the stars and it was really beautiful. It was a little hard to walk around and do the work. But it was cool. This week a gringo or a missionary that was in my area came to see all of the investigators that he  baptised. He is here with his new wife and have been working in a city called Trujillo, Peru for three months. Its really funny to talk to white people and remember all of the funny sayings in English. Last night we went out with them and worked. His wife served a mission in California Spanish speaking and both of them were awesome in their testimonies and finding some new people to teach. So that has been really cool. 

       Well today is 11 months and it has gone by really fast. My birthday is in three weeks and I will be 20. I hope you all have a fun time on my birthday.

          This week we had interviews with President Blunck. I literally walk in, said a prayer, told him about the families we have, how my companion is doing, ended with a prayer and was out in 3 minutes. Everyone was shocked to see how short it was and said "you had nothing to confess????" I said "no?", thats' what you get when you do what your supposed to do. The only reason the mission is going fast is because I am doing what I am supposed to do. I know the church is true and obedience is the key to everything. Well I love you all and will talk to you next week. Love Elder Clouse