April 2012 Letters

April 30, 2012
       Hello family and friends. Well, I am getting transferred. I will be going to Lima. I am pretty sad about it because I feel like my work here in Moyobamba isn't finished. It feels like I just got here. I am pretty bummed out but I will be able to receive new responsibilities: I will be having a child…..In this mission we say "a child" when we will be training a new Elder. So we will see what's up. I have no idea who he is or where he is from. But it's going to be a Latino, so we will see...

       This week was a wonderful week in our area. My old area??? We now have 9 baptismal dates for May. With 2 families and 4 adult men. It was an absolutely wonderful week. The Lord has really blessed us in our efforts. I will be waiting patiently to receive all of the pictures from my companion. So we'll see how things go.

       Well, today I don't have much time. I have to go and get ready to go to Lima. Everything is going to go good! I hope it will be interesting to see where I go. I will fill you all in next week.

                                                                                                Love you all,
                                                                                                Elder Clouse
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April 23, 2012
       Well another week has flown by and everything is going very well. This week in the mission field, we have found some really good people to teach. We have had 5 people accept a baptismal date for May. They all act like they are really excited so we are pretty happy. The only problem is that in order to count as real baptismal dates, they have to attend church. But when I woke up on Sunday morning, to my astonishment, it was raining. When it rains here in the jungle, nobody ever leaves their house. This is including the members. We showed up to sacrament meeting 5 minutes before it started and there were only 5 people in the room. It was pretty sad. But the rain stopped at 9:20 and everyone showed up at 9:40. The good thing in all of this is that one family brought another new
family to church. So now we have another family to teach that is very excited to learn about the gospel. So we are excited for this next week.

       This week we also had to speak at the Young Adults fireside. The district presidency asked us if we could share a few experiences that we have had in our missions. It was about missionary work because the district has a goal to send out 15 new missionaries in the next 6 months. So they are pushing really hard the principle and blessings of serving a mission. I think the blessings of serving a mission are endless, but it's hard to explain that to a bunch of young men and women. It's something that you have to experience for yourself. But I think I did a good job. At least I got soda and a piece of cake at the end of it, so I guess it was worth it...ha ha ha.

       Our zone keeps getting better. For 4 months in a row we are going to have more baptisms than we had the previous month. So we are really excited and have high hopes for May. We have some really good people to teach and we are really pushing the missionaries hard on inviting the people to be baptized and helping them keep their commitments. We hope, through our hard work and diligence, that we can once again do better in May than we did in the month of April. But we
will see.

       Well things continue to go well. This next week I will know if I will get transferred or not. We will see and will be hoping for the best. But who knows? I hope things go well and I will talk to you all next week.
                                                                           Love you all,
                                                                           Elder Clouse
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April 16, 2012
       Hello family and friends! Well this last week has been really good. I will start out with the baptism that we had on Saturday. Juan Willy Cardenas Rodriguez was baptized by his uncle. He is a person that has taught me a lot about repentance and how it blesses the lives of God’s children. He really had a lot of problems and he was able to overcome those problems and get baptized. It really has brought me a new understanding: baptism is for repentance and will help all mankind if they will accept it and work towards it. Well the best part is when the new converts give their testimony. He really has a strong testimony and is
a very good kid.

       Well, this week I had another work visit with an elder. Elder Blanco is from Monterey, Mexico and is a very hard working missionary. He was joking around with me the whole time and we really made progress here in his area. We had 2 people accept to be baptized for May. So we are really happy about that. The best part is that this Mexican speaks English. Ha ha...he was singing country songs also. But the wierd stuff
like the old country songs from the 90s. Ha ha...it was hilarious hearing a Mexican singing country. Ha ha... But it was a good experience. I learned a whole lot from him.

       Well, yesterday we received 2 huge blessings. Well 2 people showed up to church and said that they wanted to get baptized. I always love it when that happens. It lets me know that the Lord is willing to give
us good people to teach especially after working so hard. But I hope that through my efforts the Lord can bless the people that I have found with my companion.

       Well, things are going well here. I am happy and working hard. I love you all and hope the best for this next week.
                                                                                         Love,
                                                                                         Elder Clouse
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April 9, 2012
       Hello family and friends...once again from the mountains of Moyobamba, me dirigo a ustedes. Well everything is going pretty well here in Moyobamba. The zone is getting better, and with the baptismal dates that we have now we are once again going to have more baptisms than we had last month. We are really excited for this. We are all working hard and praying hard so that the Lord can bless us. This weekend we have the baptism of Juan and we have another young man that we are hoping can get baptized at the end of this month. Well, we have other families that we are teaching but the progress of  the families are always slower than the people who are single. However, we have a few families that can progress and be baptized.

       Well this week I had my usual trip to Lima. It was still the best thing in all the world. I have gotten to the point where the traveling wears me down and it takes a few more days to get over the exhaustion, but it was still cool. We are seeing that the mission overall is getting a lot better. We have improved all of our numbers in all of the different categories, including the number of baptisms...So we are pretty happy for that. But President Blunck is a mission president that always pressures us never to settle for anything. We need to be consistent in our lessons, number of new investigators, and in our baptisms. It's so true. I think everyone in this world needs to work on always working harder and not having one week of just blauuuwww. I have realized after a week of not working hard it takes about 2 weeks to get into the groove again. And as a missionary, we can't afford that.

       Well this week after the little "vacation" (so we can say), it's always hard to reach our weekly goals. For example, we have a goal to make 100 contacts during the week. Without 2 days to work, it's pretty hard to make that goal. But my companion and I said, "We need to make that goal this week." And we did it, and now we can see that we have found 4 new families to teach, two of them being married already. It's a blessing. I can see now that as we make our goals and try to do the best we can, the Lord blesses us. So it's another testimony to me how hard work and being constant helps us as missionaries and in our daily lives.

        Well things are going good. I have had another wonderful week and hope that this next week is the same. I love you all and will talk to you next week.
         
                                                                                      Love,
                                                                                      Elder Clouse
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April 2, 2012
       Hello family and friends. Well this week was another wonderful week. Conference is always special to me. It's so cool to be able to watch the people that I testify about as prophets, seers, and revelators. They are really very special people. It's amazing to hear them speak and we know just by hearing them that they are call by God to lead and guide us. Every talk had something special in it for everyone. It's wierd to think that the next conference I will be home to hear it. Time is flying by, as yesterday I celebrated my 19 months in the mission. It's crazy, but cool.

       Well this week we worked really hard so that we could still have a good work week even without 2 days of work. We did pretty well and we did a good job of finding new people to teach. This week I did a work visit with an elder from Texas, Elder Baker. We ended up spending 2 days and nights together as there was no point of coming back on Friday if they had to come to us on Saturday. So lets just say we spoke a lot of English and sung a lot of country songs. Josh Turner, George Strait, and many other songs. It was a great vacation from Spanish and the latin culture.

       Well we have a few people that are getting ready to be baptized. We have a young man who is preparing for baptism: Juan Cardales is 15 years old. He is from a small village about 3 hours from Moyobamba. I was teaching him the Word of Wisdom when he spilled the beans about a few addictions. From family problems he picked up smoking and drinking at the age of 12. He has been addicted to both for 3 years now. Well during the lesson he started to cry, which was showing his sincerity in the repentance process. He told me that he never felt the atonement of Jesus Christ in his life. Well it got to the point where he was just balling his eyes out. I stood up walked over to him and gave him a hug. In that moment we both felt a connection with the heavens and felt the love and forgiveness that the atonement gives us. It was a very special moment. After the hug, which felt like it lasted for an hour, Juan said, "I can feel my Savior's love." It was a very special moment.

       Well everything is going well. I am here just working hard like normal. I love you all and will write next week.

                                                                                      Love,
                                                                                      Elder Clouse