The Book of Mormon is the key.

Whoo!

Hello wonderful family. I sure hope you´re doing great! I am doing awesome. It´s a great day here in Panamá. Nice, rainy, cool morning we had. This week has been a sanctified one, I feel like. I am learning so much :) But hey, before I get goin´ here, let me answer a few urgent questions for Mom :) 1) my favorite P-day in the past little while was when we went bowling!! Here in the city, Albrook Mall is the place for everything - and bowling is the hot thing to do lately. Hah. 2) the craziest food I´ve eaten is called mondongo - it is the insides of a cow. It´s really gross. When members ask me if there is anything they shouldn´t give us, that is the only thing I insist on them not feeding us. Hahah. Lastly, I wanted to tell you that I recieved your letter from August 8th this past week!! It was so nice. I told Elder Whitcomb that he has to give you a hug for me for that letter - it was exactly what I needed and it´s still sitting on the desk by my bed - I´ve read it a couple times. Thanks again :)

So I was reading through my journal this morning to get some ideas of what I should write to you all, and I realized that I learn so much every day! I wish I could write it all - but just know that every day this week has been awesome. Great week of learning. I feel like now, comes the trial of diligence - of putting all these lessons into practice, keeping them a part of my daily routine throughout my whole mission and whole life. Of course it won´t be easy - Satanás is always there buggin us. But I love the challenge.

Allright first I told you that I´d tell you about our temple trip last week with Pte. Ward. It was so good! We went two Friday nights ago with the Rodriguez family and they even brought Aerton - their autistic son. It was special. Elder Whitcomb and I stayed with him just outside the temple grounds while Pte. Ward and Roberto and Heidi went on a walk around the temple and talked about what we do there. He is so amazing. Man - when it was time to leave, Aerton didn´t want to leave - it was so great. He wanted to go into the temple so bad and even tried to walk in a few times! I know it´s because he is a special child of God and could feel the love of his Savior there. The Spirit there we felt - the three of us - was so beautiful. There was hardly any talking - just sitting there, looking at the temple :) The love of God is special. Afterwards, Pte. Ward took my comp. and I to Dairy Queen - haha. He has gotta be the best mission president ever.

This week we´ve seen a lot of our investigators continue to progress - our baptisms are looking more and more secure! Knock on wood. Ruth, Sofía, Emilivia, and Rachel. The only problem there is we are missing men - missing priesthood. We´ve gotta find some men to baptize. Pero no importa, we are changing lives and saving people in the kingdom of God!! How sweet. Isn´t it cool I get to be the tool through which God works to bring people into His kingdom? Best job in the world!

Well, my time is just about up, but I just wanna let you guys know that I love the Book of Mormon. It is the physical evidence of God´s love for us in these latter days!! It was saved by the hand of God up until now to be a guide to us in THESE LATTER DAYS! More than anything else, it helps people to draw closer to Christ and become converted. Since bringing people to Christ is my purpose, I need to make sure I always help them understand the importance of the BOM. I am amazed how after just reading a chapter or two in the morning changes my whole perspective on the day - it just makes me happy. It gives me The Spirit. I know The Book of Mormon is true.

Allright well I hope you guys have a great week and READ THE BOM! Love you all.

-Elder Clarke

P.S...... my comp. and I spoke in church yesterday with the stake president of the Panamá stake. It was so sweet. I spoke about becoming unified as a ward through missionary work.

P.S.S...... I forgot to mention... um.. I think our baptisms now are actually going to be the 30th of September, and not the 29th... :( Adam, I´m so sorry!