Monday, May 7, 2012

May 2012 Letters

May 28, 2012
       Hello family and friends! Everything is going very well here in my new area. We have come across a few problems that don't really help us very much. The new people that we have found are almost never home or can't meet us at a new time. So we can't commit them to do anything. It's a little hard, but we know that we can find them again with the Lord's help and with a lot of faith. We will continue on and pray harder so that we can find the people that are prepared by the Lord.

       This last week we went and played soccer with another zone and we got killed. It wasn't very fun. My zone doesn't play very well. Especially because half of us are gringos and the other team only had 1 gringo. So the odds were a little off. Well, I broke a chair this week. I hit the ground pretty hard and my companion came in and laughed and took a picture. It was pretty funny but now my chair isn't very comfortable...ha ha!

       Well we have a few families that can progress. But as usual we need to get them married and/or divorced, and solve all of the other problems that there are here in Peru. I hope the Lord helps us so that we can get them all married and baptized before I have to go. But we will see. The work continues to grow and we are gaining the confidence of the members. In 2 weeks we will have an activity as a branch. It will be the first activity in over 6 months and so we hope that the members
will be excited to help us out. And that they will bring some new people to teach. Let's see what happens...

       Well my companion continues to grow and to be able to explain things better and better. It's a help and I am very glad that he is progressing and will be a great missionary. Things continue on and we are trying to turn things around in my area. Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Say hi to Hunter Shaun.
                                                                                           With much love,
                                                                                           Elder Clouse
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May 21, 2012
        Hey family and friends. Well this last week we had a very good week. We were working hard to find new people to teach. The people here in Lima are a little bit harder to get to or to teach but we were able to find some very good people to teach. We just hope that they can progress this next week and be there when we go back. My companion, Elder Oceguera is doing really well. He is learning very rapidly and we are working hard together.

       This last week we went to the center of Lima. It's a very old city where the Spaniards conquered Peru in the 1500s. It looks a lot like what you would see in Spain. There we can buy a bunch of gifts and go on a bunch of tours of how everything was done in the early days of Peru. We spent about 3 hours there. And at the end, where did we go….. McDonalds. It was the first time at McD's in over a year and a half. And as you can see in the picture, we had a fun time playing. It was awesome!




       Well a few baptisms that we had this week fell through. One of the girls thinks that the church has too many rules. Or basically she would rather be in and of the world. It's sad but we are going to continue on so that we can help them see the reason why we believe in having a higher standard of conduct. But we will be there to help her out. Well everything is going well and we are going to continue to work hard.

                                                                                             With much love,
                                                                                             Elder Clouse
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May 14, 2012
       Hello! Well, as most of you know I had 2 baptisms on Saturday. They were Kevin Junior Quispe Vila and Ronaldo Martin Llatas Guetierez. Both of them are really cool, and they were really happy to get baptized. On Saturday, Martin had to get married, then have his interview and get baptized all in one day. It was very .... well, frustrating. But we got it all done. My companion baptized them and then I was able to confirm them both on Sunday. It was only the 2nd and 3rd time that I had comfirmed somebody. So it was a cool experience to do it again.



       Well, we are working really hard to try to find more people to teach in the area. The members just want to be our friends and not work. But with faith we can get new people to teach and baptize. But we will see.





       My companion is doing well. He is working hard to learn how to teach. But we will see how things go here in the next few weeks and how far he can progress.

      


       Everything is going well here and we are working hard. I love you all and will fill you all in this next week.
                                                                                          Love,
                                     Elder Clouse
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May 7, 2012
       Well, I can say "hello" to Lima. It's crazy to think that I am in my last area. The time has flown by really fast. I am in an area that is called Quiñonez, Caraballyo, in the Caraballyo zone. It's literally on the backside of the offices of the mission. In Independencia In Lima. I am a District Leader. My district consists of me and my companion and 2 sister missioneries. Ha hahahahaha. What a district......hey.... I am training a new missionary. His name is is Elder Oceguera. He is from Mexicali, Mexico. You know as you go to California and you go through the border control and that little road that goes to Mexico about 15 minutes away. He is from threre. You can spit and hit the United States. He speaks very good English and is very excited to work. I have not laughed so much in all of my mission. He calls me "white boy." Ha ha. I am working in a branch: the Quiñonez branch. It is from the Caraballyo stake. We are only lacking 2 adult men that pay their tithing and then we can become a ward. So I know what I need to do in my last few months. So we are working really hard. Also this week I had another Elder with us. The Elder was supposed to go to Mexico this last week but it was held up for another week. So  he showed us the area and and the members and we got right to work. This week we should have 2 baptisms and we have 2 more in another week or two. But after that we have nobody, so we have to start to find new people to teach. We  hope to find a lot of new people this week with the help of the members.



       Well, I must say I love training so far. It's amazing to see a new missionary bear his testimony. Nervous and not knowing really what to say, just bearing a pure tesimony. It's been a great lesson of how much a testimony works on the people. I talked for 20 minutes on the lesson material, but my companion bears his tesitmony and it hits the hearts of the people. It's cool.

       My area isn't very big. I can walk from one side to the other in 5 minutes. In Moyobamba I would need to take a taxi and drive for 10 minutes going 80 kilometers per hour. It's amzing the difference.

       When I was in Iquitos I met a lady whose sister was my next door neighbor. She is a member of the church and very active. I came here and I found her house and began to talk to her. About 10 minutes after I talked to her I realized who she was. It is so cool to be in her branch now. She is an amzing person. Her name is Elena. It just shows you how small a world this is.

       This whole week the other Elder that was here has told us all of the bad things about this branch and how you can't find anybody to teach. It started to make my new companion feel a little bit down and not wanting to contact people. Of course that made me a little mad, but in a loving way. I said a quiet prayer to our Heavenly Father that we could find a new family to teach. I talked to my companions and said, "Let's be positive and find a family." The other Elder said, "Suerte," or "Good luck." The first 6 doors we knocked there wasn't anybody. Then I said, "Let's knock this door." It was dark and didn't have a single light on in the house. My companion said that nobody was home. I told him, "Nope, we are going to knock." We knocked and a little girl came out. Then her dad came to the door. I made my companion talk. He presented us and then the man said, "Come in." It was a famliy of 6 people that listened to us. My new companion that I am training said, "So that's missionary work?" I just said, "Yup." It was cool to show them that if we have faith and do what we need to do, we can find people and families to teach.

       Well life is good. I love the work and we are giving it our all. Talk to you next week.

                                                                                 Love  you all,
                                                                                 Elder Clouse

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