Octobers Letters

10/06/10

Hello Fam!
   How is everything going?  I hope  it is still good.  Everything is good in Peru.  The MTC is great.  I love my latino comp.  He leaves in 8 days to his mission so I don't have much time left with him.  On my p-day I get to go to the temple and shop.  There is a store called Tottus which is basically like a Walmart.  It has everything.  This Saturday I go out tracting to set up contacts for the Lima East missionaries.  It will be fun.  I go out and walk the streets talking and trying to say somthing.  I got a little sick this last week.  The food didn't sit too well with me.  But everything is really great.  I am watching conference now.  Well not this moment.  Isn't it amazing???  It is a lot different  from being home.  It's really spiritual.(???)  Well,  everything is going good.  I will email before you get this but I hope you like getting this.  Write me a lot.  I miss you and pray for you daily.  Love you so much.  Love, Elder Clouse

10/06/10

Hello Family.
     How is everything going?  Things are going good in Peru.  My spanish is coming OK but I still need way more work than I would ever think.  This Saturday I will be going out and prosolyting.  Spell check that for me!  I am a little scared but the Lord and my native comp will help me.  Every Wednesday I can go to the temple and go shopping.  Today I am buying things that I need.  Don't worry dad, I can't use my card until I get my Peru ID card.  It's manditory and I will not get it for two more weeks.  Every day I have to teach in  spanish.  It's really hard especially to know what's going on, it's fun.  Today is special.  I have time to email agin in an hour or so , so if you want me to answer some questions, email them to me  now and I will respond in an hour or so.  OK?  Well, I am doing great and I will talk to you in an hour or so.  Let me know how everything is going with Sheryl and all the grandkids and your lives.  I want to know.  I feel a bit lonely right now.  Not to the point of crying or anything, but just interested to know.  Well I love you, talk to you in a littlke bit.  Love, Elder Clouse


10/06/10

Hello again family!
    I just got done playing soccer with some of the town people and my native comp.  I will go to the temple in an hour and go to the Peru Wallyworld; Tottus.  There is nothing like some snickers bars and gatorade which comes in a glass bottle here.  It is so cool.  Ha ha!  Well today is really hot, but yesterday was like 60 degrees and windy, the weather changes every day, it is weird.  It isn't too humid this time of year.  Remember I am on the other side of the world and everything is different.  It will be humid mostly November through April.  That is the monsoon season.  The city is really dirty.  It never rains here so it just gets more and more dirty everyday.  This year they have had less than .50 of an inch of rain and that is a lot for Lima.  Last week when I went to the temple a lot of kids came up to us and started shaking my hand and asking me questions about where I was from.  Like two minutes later their parents came out of the temple and we talked to them for alittle bit, as they left us they shook our hands and to each one of us they said, "I love you and support you in your work".  You have no idea how much that meant to each one of us.  It was really cool.  In Provo all of the food was deep fried and greasy.  Here it is all freshly made.  I have rice for lunch and dinner,  a meat of some sort, no idea what it is most of the time. I have some nasty appetizers and some really good jello.  Ha ha, but I will say I will never eat a churro from disneyland again.  The churros you get here are really amazing.  It is really weird but from eating that everyday I have lost weight.  Breakfasts are eggs, rolls, yogurt and cereal.  Everyday and I mean every day.....but it all tastes good so I can't complain.  My native comp goes to his mission next Tuesday and I will get an American comp.  It will be harder to teach, but it will be good to be able to communicate with somebody without playing cherades.  I sing tonight witgh my district in a meeting .  Then tomorrow I will sing a solo , Abide with Me 'tis Eventide.  Then we have a general authority coming in two weeks and I will sing for that meeting.  Also my mission President comes to the MTC a lot.  I talked to him about singing and I will be singing for my first zone conference in November.  Another general authority will be there also.  So I will have a lot of opportunites to sing.  My companion doesn't want me to stop singing.l  It is really funny.  Everything is fun and happy except when I speak spanish.  But the Lord makes us be weak so we can learn from our hard experience.  He has helped me so much and I know he will continue to bless me as I work hard.  Well everything is going great and I am getting better every day. 
Thank you for your prayers, they are greatly appreciated.  I love you all and hopefully I will get the letters you have sent me.  The last and only one I got here was dated September 25, so I hope to have just a huge 'ole stack of stuff soon.  Love you all, I pray for you daily. 
Talk to you next week, love you always, Elder Clouse

10/13/10

Hi Mommy!
  How are you doing?  Things are going good for me.  I am going on my tour in ten minutes so I thought I would send you a little love letter.  I love you so much mom.  I want you to know that.  I think of you everyday.  Our picture together is in my Spanish and English scriptures so every time I open them I see you.  I love you and hope you have a fun time in the pines.  Love you, talk to you next week, your son who loves you with al his heart , Elder Clouse

Hello!
   How is everything in the US?  I am doing great here.  This morning I went to immigrations so now I am legal and they can't kick me out for being white any more.  I get my Peru ID in two weeks so I am very excited.  This afternoon I get to go on a tour of Lima.  They are taking us to a plaza to shop.  I am getting a soccer Jersey there so I can look like I know what I am doing.  I can eat at a hamburger place, I don't know what it is called, but I am really excited to eat something else than rice.  My latino comp left yesterday and I got into a trio companionship.  One of them is the zone leader and the other one is  an average joe like me.  Their names are Elder Heath and Elder Walker.  Elder Walker  is the zone leader and is from New Mexico and Elder Heath is from Wyoming.  So Brent needs to go say hi to his parents when he goes on his hunting trip.  Tonight I get to stay up and wait for all of the north American missionaries coming in.  I already have Elder Beans info and I will hopefully be able to show him around a little tonight.  I am excited.   I rememnber my first night.  I was tired, weirded out and wanted to go to bed.  Hopefully I can make his few
moments here at the CCM good.  I am really looking forward to the next three weeks because I can actually comnmunicate with my companions.  I learned a lot from Elder Roldan but my gospel study was struggling a little bit.  I am now better at speaking and I can teach every lesson or the basics of every lesson OK.  Here at the CCM  they do a lot of situations and from those situations I have to figure out, number 1 what they just said and number 2 what I need to teach them.  It is exactly what I will have to do in the field so it is really helping me to learn how to use the lessons in different ways.  It is great.  In my new room there is the elder that lives in grandpas ward.  He is going to Lima Central so he isn't in my mission, but we stayed up a little bit last night talking about our families.  He says I look a lot like Uncle Bill.  It is cool that we actually met and I will get to live with him for three weeks.  I am glad everyone is taking vacations and having fun.   Today is my little vacation it has been and will be a fun day for me.  I am glad the Cardinals pulled their heads out of the dirt and put max in.  I wil laugh at my comp because he likes the Saints.  Tge suns are starting up huh?  Man times really flies. I only have three weeks left then I will be out there teaching wow its crazy!!!!!!!  Well, mom....,. I am healthy.  I am eating fruits and veggies for you and I play soccer for an hour everyday.  Also I work out with a buddy who was a starting safety for the Notre Dame fighting Irish last year.  I now have a six pack.  Not even kidding.  Elder Badger is crazy and he is kicking me into shape.  Notre Dame is holding his scholarship which is really cool for him  He wants to be as strong as he can be when he gets back.  So things are going really well so don't worry....well things are great.  Life is good and I am working hard for our Savior.  It is His work and he has helped me out so much.  I hope you all have a great week.  Love you so much....Elder Clouse

10/20/10

Hello Family!
   How is everything going?  Things are going good down in South America.  Last week I went out into the city for a tour.  It was really cool.  I went into a shop and bought a soccer jersery and a jacket.  I was with two other elders at this time I didn't have my comps yet so we could go with  whoever we wanted to.  After we bought the stuff the kind lady was so gracious and asked... what are you doing in Peru????  ...and my mind immediately thought... oh its go time.  Well????
We started talking to her about our purpose and then she told us she always wanted to know more... and soooo we started teaching her the first lesson right then and there in the store...it was so cool to actually teach a real investigator.  She asked questions that led us straight into the next points and it flowed.  We gave her el libro de mormon and asked her to pray about it.  We gave her the challenge to meet with the missionaries in her area.  She lives in the west mission and she did contact the missionaries and is taking the lessons with them.  So pretty much she is number 2 investigator that I was able to getgfor the missionaries.  I can't remember if I told you about the other one or not so let me knmow if you don't know about Maria....she is cool... and is getting baptised in two weeks...well the people here are really nice and will talk to you even if they don't wan to...I have had a lot of interactions with people asking us if we are the mormones.  Of course we say si!  and they either ask us questions or say oohhh bueno and leave...so its really fun.... well dad, I don't have a favorite scripture yet so I will study it out this week and let you know next email...or I will figure it out and write a short email tonight before dinner.  Everything is going good for me, My mission President was here again last week and out of wonder I asked him...so where willlI be serving for my first area....and he said,"well, Elder Clouse you will be serving in  Lima for the first two transfers.   I was like, "are you serious????"  And he said, "yes,
Elder Clouse, do you want to know who your latino comp is too?'  At this time my mouth was on the floor and he said,    I can't let you know everything...so for at least 12 weeks I will be in Lima.  I would expect me to be there for three transfers or 18 weeks, so it's pretty cool I know that much....Well, on Friday I will sing with Elder Thurnman... Its a sally Deford arrangement of "Write Thy name on my Heart".  It sounds really good.  I am really excited for it.  Well, life is going good for me and I am still working hard.  The spanish is coming but I learn subjunctive this week which is what I am told is the hardest grammer part of spanish...,.so start praying for me.  I will need it.  
Well, everything is going well.  In three hours I will go to the happiest place on earth, the temple and then the second happiest place on earth...Tottus...(to some of you, don't be jealous or homesick.....Uncle Don...haha)  and I am getting doritos.  I am getting too skinny, I need meat...haha...well I hope and pray everything is going well at home.  Talk to you all next week or if I have time tonight OK?
 Love you all, Elder Clouse

10/27/10

   Well, where do I start to tell my amazing week?....it was so awecome...we went to a city to do some teaching to less active members.  The city is Chancay and it was a 2 1/2 hour drive to it.  It was so amazing.  We went to knock on the less actives doors and not a single perion was answering.  We knocked doors for 2 hours and no one was answering.  This city is really really poor and most of the time I was walking through dirt and other stuff that I didn't even know what it was..it was like a clay stuff???..  But noone was answering and we were getting the gitters to speak our spanglish...the city is by the ocean so I walked along the sand to get to some peoples houses.  It was cool.. So we went to the plaza that they have there and starting getting contacts.   We ended up handing out three books of Mormon and were feeling pretty good about ourselves.  We went back to the chapel and ate lunch and then it was knocking on some more members doors....I now quote from the movie the best two years...you have to say in this thick accent..and I say quote "we got up to the last door and knocked and guess what happend?.."other elders ...'What?"... "nothing."  end quote..haha.  A few moments before we stopped I saw a lady sitting outside of her work.  I didn't think anything of it but I said should we teach her?  to my comp, and he said " no, lets finish the doors"...when that was finished we were really bummmed because we prepared a lesson about coming to church and the blessings of it and we wanted to teach it... the entire week we planned for somebody and we were a little bummed.  We started walking back to the church and we were not talking because we were bummed..   But all of the sudden the spirit hit me like a ton of bricks...we need to teach that lady....it was really cool because my companion recieved the same feeling and we stopped walking and looked at each other and said together...we need to teach that lady...so we went back.  She was actually a less active that was not on our list...we ended up talking wiith her for an hour.   It was so cool being able to recognise the spirit and then act on it.  The ladt went to church because we get a count of everyone we taught and which one of those went to church.  Our efforts blessed that branch in Chancay because they had no room for everyone who went to church from our teaching.  It wa awesome.  
Well toinight I am singing.   I know my redeemer lives in a fireside with Elder Nash .  I think is the area authority, but don't quote me on that because I really don't know.... all I know is that the President of the MTC called me in and asked me to sing for him.  He said he wanted the best singing for him and I would be the one who did it.   so I am doing that hoy...on Sunday I am singing with Elder Thurman again.  I am singing "Who at my Door is Standing", and it is going to be great.   Today is fun day because of Tottus and the temple so it will be a good day...next Tuesday I will go to my mission... I will go to the mission office, meet my companion and immediately go out to my area of service.  I don't know when I will email next but I know for sure I will be able to because I will be in the cit. y I think it would be on
Thursday or Friday....most of the chapels I will be serving at will have a computer so I think emailing won't be a problem...you can send packages to my mission home   That is the safest place because someone is alwys there to pick it up.   Mormon 9:27-28 is my favorite scripture.  It's cool..  well, everything else is going great.  I am a little scared of going out into the field but it will all be OK.  Everything is great, hope everything is going well for you.
Love you and talk to you next week.  Love, Elder Clouse