Novembers Letters 2011

( This was a letter sent to Elder Clouse as he was made a zone leader and was transferred)
Dear Elder Clouse,
   I know that your transfer from Los Delfines to Moyobamba has been difficult.  I know that it was difficult to leave behind many families that ytou were teaching and who in the future will get married and baptized.  Please know that even if you will not be present when the families are baptized your blessings in heaven will be the same, and you will forever carry in your heart the feeling that you performed a great work in Los Delfines.  You have trained Elder Olguin well and he is carefully watching over and helping the families progress.
  Before you were sent to Los Delfines several sets of missionaries had told me that the area was small, that it was difficult to find families to teach, that the members don't help much with the missionary work, and that it is hard to baptize in Los Delfines.  You, however entered the area with the faith to believe that Heavenly Father would help you find, teach, marry, baptize and confirm families, and after many months of labor and being creative, that is exactly what is happening.
   You have now been sent to another city (Moyobamba) where missionaries will often say that it is hard to find, teach,marry, baptize and confirm families.  I hope that you have not been influenced by "los Incredulos" and that your faith in the promises of the Lord remain strong.  Like Los Delfines, you will need to seek revelation and will need to be creative as to the methods you use to find families.  Like Los Delfines it may take several months, but I believe that the Lord is preparing families to accept his gospel. 
We have already seen a huge improvement in the district in the last four or five months.  We need your faith, your enthusiasm, your talents, your creativity, and your inspiration to accomplish the Lord's work in Moyobamba.
   Thank you for being a great missionary.

   With great love and appreciation,
   Presidente Lawrence Paul Blunck
   Mision Peru Lima Norte


Hello family and friends how is everything going. Here everything is
going really well. I am adjusting to being a leader. The sister
missionaries are really keeping me busy..... but other than that
things are going really well. Well, as a zone leader we have a cell
phone. It's really weird to have a cell phone again. I am still waiting
for Sheryl to text me but it hasn't come in yet.
     Well here in Moyobamba is a lot like my old area. Nobody wants to
come here because its hard and the people don't want to hear the
message of the restored gospel. All of the missionaries that are here
are saying the same things. So I have to help all of the missionaries
with the excitement of " yes there are families here that want to hear
the message of the restored gospel and we just have to find them." I
don't know how long that will be but we just have to start to work and
find and keep teaching, praying, and hoping that the Lord will extend
his loving hand to help this zone out. But we will keep on working
hard.
     Yesterday I had to speak in my new branch. I spoke about how we
need to trust in the Lord and do the things that he commands us to do.
everyone said I did a good job.  The only problem here is that there
isn't a piano.  Its a little hard to sing without one. So I am looking
for opportunities to sing but I don't know how much I will be able to.
    Well for Thanksgiving I worked. I actually forgot it was
Thanksgiving day until 8:50 at night. When I remembered, I went and
bought some country fried chicken and 2 liters of soda and had a nice
little party by my self. My companion was tired and went to bed early.
But I called every white person in my zone that night and wished them
a happy Thanksgiving and thanked them for the work they are doing for
the Lord. It was really special to hear every single one of them thank
me for the little reminder. I could feel the spirit during every call.
It was really cool.
   Well  I am looking for new families to teach. My companion and his
other companion only had 2 families. So this week we went out and
found 4 new families to teach. I think 1 of them could progress and
the others will take a little time.
         Everything is going great. I am sorry that there aren't
any pictures. Next week I will definitely send pictures ok?  I love you
all Love Elder Clouse



               Hello family and friends. I hope everything is going well and that you all enjoy this Thanksgiving week. I was transferred this week. The changes came on Monday after I wrote you all. When we receive the changes we only hear if we go to the jungle or Lima. Nothing more. My change said  that I was going to the jungle and nothing else. I wasn't expecting it but that's life. Then I asked at what time was my flight. my zone leader told me that he would call me and let me know. So I was waiting that night and he finally called me. He said that my flight was at 4 in the afternoon. But not the jungle, but to Lima. Then I asked why to Lima, and he responded, Because you have to go the zone leaders council to talk about your new zone. Then I said what the..........  then he said that I am zone leader. So here I am as zone leader. My area is called Moyobamba. which is about and hour plan ride to a city called Tarapoto. Then it is a three hour car ride to Moyobamba.  . Moyobamba has about 400,000 people and has a lot of fields of fruits potato's and other vegetables. A lot of people work in the fields and is hard to find them in their house. But I  am really excited to be here.

                Well on Tuesday night I flew  to Lima and stayed the night  their in the apartment of the assitense. For dinner we went to CHILES!!!!!! The first time in about 11 months that I have eaten anything from the united states. It was glorious. I swear I heard the Mormon tabernacle choir singing praises. It was absolutely wonderful. Then the next day we ate subway and papa Johns. It was a glorious 2 days just for that. This was for the zone leaders council. we have this every month in the first week. I will be going there for a long time. With only 9 months to go I think I will stay here for the rest of my mission. So we will see. In the zone council we talked alot about the mission and we placed alot of goals for the next three months. It should be cool as I will be able to see how the mission is doing. Then we were trained in a few things that we have to train the other missionaries about and and then waited for our flights out. This was on Wednesday. that night we slept in Tarapoto with the other zone leaders there. The zone leader there is Elder Molina, my old companion in las Galeras in Lima.  It was really cool to talk with him about how everything has gone and the time has flown by. Then on Thursday we drove from tarapoto to Moyobamba where I am at now. 

           Well the zone moyobamba also has a few other areas. 3 other towns called  Nueva Cajamarca, Rioja and Soritor. Soritor was opened last Tuesday and the missionaries have done really well there. We have gone there to look for a church. The church will rent a house there like it was in in Los Delfines. But as the zone leaders, we are in charge of the money and all of the number things so we have to be there. Its about 30 minutes from moyobamba.  Yesterday 9 people attended for the first time at church in Soritor and we are hoping that we can grow alot more. Right now I am in Rioja. Its better for the missionaries if we meet here  and do the Internet stuff here. So we had to travel in the morning. Nueva cajamarca is an hour away from moyobamba so its better if we meet here witch is only thirty minutes from there. We now have 16 missionaries with 4 sister missionaries. So   I am excited to be here with all of them.

            Well one of the new families is the Moreno family. They are really special. Yesterday we went and taught them and they were all really emotional. The father of The mother is on bed rest with his eyes closed not eating and practically waiting to die. It was really sad to see all of them crying and all worried. What we did is we taught them the plan of salvation. As we taught it you could see them changing. They were so happy to know about the plan from our loving heavenly father. I know that the church is true and blesses our lives everyday. Its a huge help to have the gospel in our lives and I give all my love and gratitude to my Heavenly Father that I can serve him as a leader and help other people to know of and receive the blessings from the church.

               I love you all and hope things go well this Thanksgiving week. I love you all Elder Clouse

       Hello family and friends. How is everything going over there. This week was a very exciting week. Starting on Monday, we went to a city called Nauta. There we saw the amazon river. I took a nice picture, played soccer and ate lunch with the 4 other elders that are there. It was only about 2 hours from Iquitos and was cool to ride in a car again. It has been a long time since I have sat in front of a car and it was cool to feel the movements of the car. It made me miss the sonata. But we had a lot of fun walking around  and talking to all of the people. Tuesday was a normal day. Wednesday I went to the city to get out the requirements for another marriage for another family that will get married this December.

               Thursday was the marriage of the family Murayari. Finally they got married and everything was settled in and went smoothly. We went to the government office with ll of their family and watched the ceremony. I was so happy just to see them get married. They said afterward that they felt like they did the right thing and felt as if a huge relief came over them. It was cool to see them finally happy. Friday was a normal day. We went to the city with another family and got some of the marriage requirements out for them. It was cool.

                  Saturday was the baptism. All of them were baptised and also another little girl for our branch. It was the first family baptised in the branch in over a year and a half. The branch was so happy and everyone was crying during the service. It was awesome....

                  Sunday we had another miracle happen. We went to the house of a family that has been attending church for a year and a half. The problem has always been the mom. She has never wanted to attend church at all. But she went on a vacation to see her parents. She found the church and has been attending for 6 weeks now without saying anything to her family. She called yesterday and said she wanted to get married and baptised. So we are staring to work on her papers this Wednesday. If I am still here...... 

               The changes  are tomorrow and to this point I haven't heard anything if I am going or not. We will have to wait and see.   

                  Well the miracle's are rolling in and the work is going really well. I love you all and appreciate all of your love support and prayers. Love you all Elder Clouse

                   The family Murayari:

                    Diomar Murayari Manihuari

                    Eva Estela Java Yasakama

                    Jin Kevin Murayari Java

                    Jesus Manuel Murayari Java

                    Jhonatan dioamr Murayari Java

                    Heydi Carito Murayari Java
                    Susy Gabriela Murayari Java
                    Evita Lucerito Murayari Java

           

November 7, 2011

   Hello family and friends, I hope everything is going well for you all. Things here in Peru are going pretty good. Today for  P day we are going to another city. Its Called Nauta. Its about a three hour taxi ride. It's the city where the Amazon river starts. I will be able to see and take pictures of the three rivers coming together to start the river and walk above the river to see fish and other cool stuff under the water. I will definitely take alot of pictures. It's not everyday that you see the Amazon river. Other than that, we will play soccer with the other missionaries and have lunch. Then I will come back at 3 in the afternoon. It should be cool.

                 My baptism on Saturday went well. Juan Pedro Chavarria Ocumbe was baptised by my companion. The service went great and we didn't have any worries. It all went smoothly. The spirit was strong and it was a nice service.This week on Thursday, the Murayari family will get married. They are all excited and happy and the branch is excited also. It will be the first family baptised in the branch in over 2 Years. So it's a landmark week for los delfines. On Saturday is their baptism and we will see how many of them I get to baptise. I have never baptised more than one person on the same day so it should be cool to get to do it twice or three times or Four. I don't know. There are 7  of them. So this week it should be exciting. This week we will start the marriage papers for 4 other families that will be baptised in December. If I get transferred next week, my companion will look like the best missionary in all of the mission. Who knows, I could be in the branch another change. When we help the branch out a lot the missionaries stay for a little longer. We will see next week.

                   Well I hope things go well for you all this week. I will send alot of pictures next of my little vacation. I love you all Elder Clouse