Man!

Man, I just love you guys :) Mom and Dad, you are the best letter-writers in the world. I want you to know your letters are seriously a strength to me every week. I love them - thank you so so much. I wish I had time to respond to everything.

Allright, the highlight of my week? We had a big zone conference with all of the city missionaries as well as the missionaries in Colón, and guess who was the head speaker? Elder Carlos H. Amado, of the first presidency of the quorum of the seventy. WOW!! After hearing from him, I think (and hope) he will be an apostle someday. He´s been in the seventy for 20+ years, and his manner of teaching was truly incredible. He said all the right things to boost my enthusiasm, renew my spiritual side, and give me hope. A couple things he said that I really liked: "You can´t teach something by The Spirit unless you have learned it by The Spirit¨. Also, he asked us why we thought Christ was compared to ¨The Lamb¨. He went on to explain that the lamb, of all other animals, is the most indefensless animal. I thought it was so cool because of all people who have ever lived, Christ was the most powerful and defensible being. But yet, he humbly and willingly submitted himself, with all power to deliver himself out of the situation. What an incredible comparison. Elder Amado went on to teach us how to become better teachers, and then gave us advice for after the mission: get married, study, work, and fulfill church callings. It was the best conference of my whole mission, I think.

So here in Juan Diaz, this was a tough week - this place is totally dead - deader than I thought beforehand. Basically all we´ve done this week is contact and visit old investigators with little success. I am hoping for a miracle soon - I have gone awhile without a positive investigador. One fun thing, is now that I´m in the city, contacting is a little different. My new favorite thing to do is teach a lesson to whoever is sitting next to me on the bus. Get their name and number, and reference them to the missionaries whereever they live. We ride the bus a lot and for a long time. With traffic, it takes us two hours to get to the heart of the city (where we have district meeting), when in reality we only live about 30 min. away! Man. Oh! Before I forget, tell the Parson family in our ward that my zone leader is Roger Whitcomb from Massachussetts - he´s a friend of theirs.

Another cool thing is I spoke yesterday in sacrament meeting for about 15 min. They gave me the topic of ¨whatever I want¨ and so after talking with Hno. Marín (strongest member here in the ward I think - total stud.), I decided to talk about progression in the church, and enduring to the end - specifically the importance of family, fullfilling callings, and remaining worthy of the priesthood. I feel like it went ok, but I will deliver a better message next time.

Allright well I´m just about out of time for today, but I love you all so so much and hope you have a wonderful week. Mom, all that stuff in the package is for you guys - I kept all my stuff here with me :) That tie is for Dave. Did the navitity arrive in 1 piece?? Love you all.

-Elder Clarke

P.S... Wish Krissy a happy late-birthday for me :)