What a week!

What a week it has been!

This past Wednesday, I recieved my new comp. here in Chorrera - Elder Huallanca (why-yanka). He is from Lima, Peru!! He is so inspiring - he is a convert of only 3 years!! (kinda like how Dad went on a mission after two years) He knows SO much for being such a new convert to The Church. I think he might be my hardest working companion that I've had! He works like a real man Peruvian. The cool thing? He has only 1 more change than me in the mission, so we are both really young. Both of us have less than 10 months in the mission!! We´re gonna do a lot of growing together :)

 

Elder Clarke & Elder Huallanca in La Chorrera

The first thing we did together was decided this change we want to find a family to baptize. We fasted a couple days ago and are currently looking anxiously. I know The Lord will help us find one if we are obedient and work hard. Another thing - remember Diogene y Tatiana? They are awesome!! We have since taught two lessons to them, and Diogene is especially positive and is loving the lessons. The problem? They´re not married.... that seems to be the problem with everyone here. Since fasting, we have found another great couple, but they are not married either :( The good thing is Melánia (the wife) came to church!! She stayed for all 3 hours and seemed to love it! If we can get her married and get her husband coming to church, we might strike gold. They have 4 kids!! :) Families are SO important in this gospel, we want to focus everything we´ve got in finding a family so that someday they can live eternally forever, and also short-term to strengthen our ward that is lacking families.

Something really awesome. Shaíd hasn't been able to come to church as of late because it's really hard for him to leave his house - there is a big hill and it's hard for him in his wheelchair. So.... we contacted the ward mission leader, and a couple of elders in the ward, and we've decided to have a service project and build him a ramp out of his house!!! As soon as we solidify where the funds are going to come from, we'll organize it. With Elder Huallanca, my spanish has sky-rocketed in the past few days, and because of that, I'm also gaining a ton of trust with the ward leaders that I didn't have before because my spanish was lacking.

Other than that, there haven't been many highlights this week cuz we only had a half-week. I also said good-bye to Elder Hill on Wednesday and he should be back in Utah by now-- I love that dude and I wish him luck :)  (and saw Elder Rich at changes - he is so awesome! It was a happy reunion :)).  Elder Huallanca and I have just done a lot of contacting and not really much else quite yet. But be expecting great things from us in the near future. On Sunday night, I felt The Spirit so so strong just as we walked to our dinner appointment. I felt as if The Lord was telling me I had done a good job the past couple days - Elder Huallanca and I working so hard. It was such an amazing feeling of joy - it definately inspired me to continue to work hard so I can feel that Spirit more often.

Well, my time is up but I just wanna congratulate Dave on graduating!!! It's a great feeling, isn't it? I love you all and wish you a great week!!!

-Elder Clarke