Hello family and friends. How is everything going over there in Mesa Gilbert and all the other states. Who knows how many people read my letters. Sorry if they are boring. Well I just got back from yelling at the bank. We went to get out the money for November to start paying for all of my bills and stuff and there was a huge problem. The system failed when I tried to get out my money. I tried the card again and it only said I had 5 bucks in my account. The bank didn't want to look to see if there was a problem with the system and tried playing this kid cant speak Spanish. They said. Tal vez este joven no pueda entendernos Maybe he can't understand us, and started speaking slowly and really clearly. That didn't sit to well with me and I started letting them have a piece of my mind. Everyone started looking at me with their mouths wide open. My companion started laughing and the people started to work. They found the problem and I was out the door in 20 minutes. Luckily my missionary tag wasn't on because we don't use it in the bank. It was fun. But at the end I asked for forgiveness and we walked out the door with a free candy bar. HA HA I would do it again I think.
Well the family Murayari have a marriage date of the 10 of November. I tried making it this weekend, but the government office wouldn't allow it. SO they will get married and baptised the last week of this transfer. We also had a baptism on Saturday. Jose pizango sandoval was baptised and confirmed and was very spiritual. He will be a good member of the church and wants to leave on the mission. HE turns 19 next June. He already has a preach my gospel and is attending missionary prep seminary and other institute classes. He is doing awesome. This weekend I have another baptism and then the family and then the transfers are here. It has gone by fast but tomorrow I have 8 months here in Iquitos. I think its about time to go. I already know pretty much everybody and there aren't many other people that want to hear us. But we'll see in 2 weeks.
Yesterday I went to a new little village. I had to walk about 50 minutes into the jungle to get to it. 300 people live there and many people accepted us very well. It just a little bit further than we would like to be. But who knows. We ended up finding some members of the church there. They called us over and presented us to some of their friends. We taught them and they said that they will come to church next week. We will see what happens next week.
Well life is going good and I am enjoying my mission. The work is hard but worth it. Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week. Love Elder Clouse
Hello family and friends. How are things going there in the United states? Well everything is going well for me. The work is moving right along and we should be having a lot of success this week. This week we have a baptism and a family getting married. The Murayari family finally have all of their papers ready. Tonight I will go with them to put their papers in and set a date for them. From there we will will set a baptismal date and re- teach all of the lessons and commandments to make sure they know them all. Finally they are getting hitched. I have ripped out a whole bunch of hair trying to get everything but it should be great to finally get everything done before the next transfer. We have 2 other families that are planning to get married in November and three other ones planning to get married in December. We have othesr that are getting baptised that will bring us some priesthood and we should only have 2 more Priesthood holders to become a ward. So I am happy with the work I got done.
Well yesterday in church, another person got their mission call. A sister will be leaving in January and the mission is one that we all are familiar with; Guatamala Guatamala city north. When I told her that I had a brother who served there she a started to ask me a whole bunch of questions. I didn't even know how to answer about 95% of what she asked, but I did my best. It's only been 12 or so years since Brent left so I remember a lot.....not.....But its always exciting to see another missionary leave from our tiny little branch. The whole branch is pretty excited too.
Well I wish I could send pictures but the USB port doesn't work on this computer. It will have to be next week. Sorry guys.
Well this week we are going to have a dinner with our stake president. He gives us an opportunity to tell him everything that we need in our wards and how we think our ward or branch could improve. My list is going to be really long. But hopefully he can help us out.
Well life is still good and going really fast. Love you all and will pray for you all. Love Elder CLouse
October 24, 2011
Hello family and friends, how is everything going. Well things are going good for us here in Peru. Just the normal stuff is going on. This week we had 2 baptisms. A mother and daughter. Their names are Leidy and Fiorella. The baptismal service went really well, except nobody in my branch showed up on time. We set the baptism for 5 o'clock, but after the baptisms is when the relief society and my branch president decided to show up. It was almost to the point where we didn't have witnesses. It was a little sad for the Sister but she is a little bit shy and doesn't like to talk to many people. She says that we are the first people that she has opened up to about her life and all of her hard trials. So in a way it wasn't good but in another it was OK. She was confirmed and welcomed to the branch and we are doing a family fight night with her tonight with some of the people in my branch. It should be a cool experience.
Well all of the families are coming along good. We have plans to marry 6 families in November. There is a massive wedding next month and we are working hard to find all of requirements that they ask for to get all the people hitched and baptised. These next couple weeks we will sell bread and do other things to raise more money. All the people always tell me, "your a greengo, why don't you just go to the bank and get all millions of dollars out and pay for everything? Then I joke with them saying that I should just give all of my millions of dollars to them. Then I say " no Soy Missuo", which means,
" I am poorer that dirt. I don't even have one dollar to buy a soda." HA ha, its pretty funny!
" I am poorer that dirt. I don't even have one dollar to buy a soda." HA ha, its pretty funny!
Well me and my companion get along great. We joke around alot sing alot and eat alot. We now have 4 months together and I haven't killed him yet, so we are doing pretty good. I make alot of jokes about him being from Chile. A lot of the Peruvians have bad feelings with Chile because the lost a war with them about 200 years ago. Chile took some land of theirs and a few other things but I always make fun of my companion that Peru is going to kill him if he doesn't buy me a soda. Usually it doesn't work but its worth a try.
Friday morning I received a call from my mission president at 6:45 in the morning. It scared the living junk out of me when I heard his voice. Of course it had to be the day whenIi didn't want to get out of bed. I was really tired from the long day I had before. But he told me that grandma died on Thursday and asked me how I was doing. I talked to him for about 10 minutes and then said if I need anything to let him know. He speaks very soft and kind and has a way to make things seem a little bit brighter. But its a reminder how great and important my mission is let people know about our heavenly fathers plan. I hope and pray everything goes well at the funeral. Tell Her bye for me.
Things are still rolling here. I love it all. That seems about it for this week. I hope things go well. I love you all and will write next week.
Love Elder Clousito
Oct. 10, 2011
Hello everybody. How is everything going? Well Life here in Iquitos is going really good. This last week was pretty good. The worke is marching on with baptism every Saturday to finish out the month of October. We are really excited to see a lot of our efforts come to a reality. This week the family Murayari are traveling 7 hours in a boat down the river to get out their birth certificates. Then they will be ready for the wedding bells to ring. Yesterday all 9 of them attended church and had a good experience. They all said that they felt the holy ghost and know that the church is true. So we are really excited for their progress. It should be really good for our branch. Yesterday in church, we had over 94 people in sacrament meeting with 13 of them being families, So we are really seeing the progress that we are having in our branch.
These pictures that I have is of a lady that I am teaching. Her name is Betty. She is going on a vacation to see her parents in a village that takes 5 days to get too. She will be staying there for 2 months. She hasn't seen her parents in 15 years. When she is there she will find her birth certificate to get married when she comes back. She and her husband should be married and baptised by Christmas. We are excited for her. The other picture is of a little baby that is in my branch. She was born 3 months ago and has gotten really fat. I call her Senorita Gordita. Her mom calls me her uncle and so I had to show you all my new niece.
We are really working hard to get all of the bread sold and get all of the requirements ready for marriages and baptisms. Our mission plan is to marry and baptize at least 2 families every month for the next Year. We should start in November with three families. With all of this work it has made me realize how much we depend on the lords help. How much pray faith and hope a missionary really needs to complete all of the gaols. With trying to complete our purpose as missionaries which is find, teach, baptize, and confirm, I have found out there are a few other things that we do as missionaries in Peru. We find, teach, marry, search, pray, fast, cry, baptize ,and then confirm our investigators. But with all of the sacrifice that we do, the lord is with us as long as we depend on him. When we found ourselves doing it our self is when it is harder to do the things.
This week I had my 3 month interview with my mission president. He asked me how I was doing and then told me how good of a job I was doing there. Then he asked me how would I like it if I stayed or a little bit longer. I told him what the lord wants is what I will do. Then we talked about my area and all of the challenges that my area has. He told me that he may open or divide my area. Its really hard for the people to travel to our church. So we might start a family group. Which is just a meeting of a few families in a little house. That would be the start of another branch in the future so I am pretty excited. So I may stay here for a little while longer than expected. Then sister Blunck came to my house and looked around. She still says I have the cleanest house in the mission. I hope I make you proud mom. ????
Well things are going great and I am happy.I love you all and hope things go great this next week. Love Elder Clouse
Oct.3,2011
Hello family and friends. I have just received word that i will be staying in my area for another transfer. I will have 7 months in this area. In the last training President Blunck said that I am doing a really good job in my area and so I am taking that as if I may stay for a little while longer. I guess the lord wants me to see these families get married and baptised. We should be able to do some in this next change so I am pretty excited. Wasn't conference amazing. Its crazy that I actually enjoy conference now. As of 1 year ago I still wanted to sleep and text, but now I have cherished hearing the words of them men that I testify to be prophets, seers and revelators. The really are men called of god and we can hear that as they speak and testify of Christ. I was able to watch conference in English. Well all except for one session. But it still is the same. The only sad part is that you can't hear the emotion in their voices as they testify and teach. But the doctrine is the same and it was all really good. I was thinking yesterday that it was a miracle that I can speak write and understand Spanish in only a year. Its only through the lords help and the importance of his work. In conference they really focused on missionary work. As I know there is not enough missionaries. I found out that my area is 50 Kilometers Long. But with the restrictions of money I can't go to far down the road. Also I have to have permission to go past Kilometer 22. It gets a little dangerous past there so the missionary's never have gone there. But we need at least 8 missionaries to cover my area and there are only 2. Just shows you how much the lord needs our efforts.
I wanted to tell you about that one talk in conference when the guy talked about the royal palace here in Lima. I have walked past it and admired how beautiful it is. I wanted to go in too. But I will just have to wait like the member of the 70.
Well the families are doing good. We just need to find a few things and schedule marriages. Now that I know I am staying I will make a plan chart of the families and what they are missing to get the marriages done and the baptisms done too. I will also mark a chart of the scripture study and spiritual growth. I want to make sure that the people are growing spiritually and in their worldly marriages. We have found some awesome new people to teach and have grown our family chart to 24 families that are receiving the lessons. We are really working with the members to keep up the spiritual growth. Because we cant visit every family like we would like to. Its really hard to keep everyone in track and to keep the excitement of baptism and marriage going. But the things are going good.
Life is going good with only a few hard moments.I am trying to find solutions. In our mission, it is one of our goals to be a finder of solutions and work out our own problems. But as we all know some times it is really hard. Well things are good and I still am very happy. I love you all and will write next week. Love Elder Clouse.
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