Whoo!

Man. I just love reading your guy´s emails. Mom´s and Grandma´s especially - you two are the nicest women. (although Dad´s email kind of depressed me and made me want to stay here and live in Panamá forever...ha). Please tell Grandma that I haven´t recieved any letter yet but I should soon :)

So this week was kinda crazy but it finished just the way it should - with a baptism. :) Ariel was baptized, and he chose E´ Stegelmeier to do the ordinance!! I was so happy. One of my goals for this change was to get my comp. in the water to baptize someone in his first change, just like I did. Cha-ching. Now we´re working on getting Ariel involved in the ward activities and getting to know the bishop better so that he can leave on a mission in a couple years!! That would be so amazing.

Allright so you all wanna know about my birthday.... man. I hate to break it to you all, but it was a pretty normal day. I will confess right now that I opened my birthday package a week early..... hahaha. Man, family!!!! I LOVED loved loved my package!!! I feel so dang spoiled. Way too spoiled. The Nutella, the reeses, THE IPOD?!? Wow. I don´t deserve anything for the rest of my mission. That package was life changing. Thank you all so so very much :) I now jam out to Josh Groban and listen to one of my favorite songs - ¨Thankful¨. I don´t know if you remember but we all used to sing that song in the car every year at Christmas time. I love that song so much and it reminds me so much of you guys!! Thank you guys so so much. Really. Mom, I ask your forgiveness for opening the package early cuz I know how much of a to-the-day person you are, but I will say that I saved the Reeses Puffs for my birthday breakfast to keep the tradition going. Elder Stegelmeier and I enjoyed them together. Thank you so much :)

 

So I was saying last week how I finished the Book of Mormon. (Mom, to answer your question, yes I read it in spanish). I have now started over and read one chapter a day in the BOM, while now focusing the bulk of my time on the New Testament. Fetch. I couldn´t be loving it more. Just reading about the daily happenings in Jesus Christ´s life. I´m only in chapter 14 of Matthew, and my testimony has already grown of Him so much. My favorite is when he reprends all the fariseos. He ran that town in Jeruselem. He didn´t let anyone mess around with Him or His ministry. Also, his discourse from The Sermon on the Mount (also found in 3rd Nefi) is quite possibly some of my favorite scripture ever. Having just recently read it in 3rd Nefi, and now again in Matthew, it´s just wonderful. Jesus Christ. Wow. My admiration has gone to a whole new level reading about Him in the New Testament.

Well, now that I know that I will for sure be changing areas (I found out today) this week, my main goal is to finish strong here in Juan Díaz and get some good fechas for E´ Stegelmeier for next change. We had an investigator in church yesterday that stayed for all 3 hours!! I think that´ll be the next top prospect. I´m leaving Juan Díaz in much better condition than the way I found it (in large part due to the help of Elder Whitcomb), but de todos modos. That´s what the goal is for my next area as well.

Allright well that´s enough for today. I´m excited to get to work in a new area! I will surely miss my son - Elder Stegelmeier. He is such a great companion.

We´ll definately be life-long friends.

You all have a wonderful week! I love you all!

Love, Elder Steve Clarke

P.S..... I got sick yesterday for the first time in the mission! Huge headache and stomach problems. After the baptism, we came home and I took an hour long nap. But I am feeling great today :)