Family!! Yah. How was your week? Hope everything went well. Sounds like Dave brought the house down in AF. Glad to hear it. You´re gonna be the best missionary! Krissy, also, thank you for the awesome letter. I love your letters (oh and let me know how that watermelon turns out).

         As for me, not gonna lie it was a pretty tough week. Pretty tough. Our brilliant fecha fell....... José just found it too hard on his faith to get baptized. With Easter Sunday and all, he couldn´t find the strength to break away from his catholic faith in time. He said the catholic priest came and paid him a visit....Super sad.... I kinda let it bother me for a few days too.... man it made me sad. To see God answer prayers, and to see the love He extends to someone, and then have them reject it. Saddest thing.

                  In other more positive news, I am LOVING the new testament. Holy cow! Currently in Acts reading about the martyr Stephen, and also about Paul - his conversion and later preaching and miracles. Reading about the apostasy that started so quickly after the death of Christ makes it apparent that there was a need for a restoration. Ah! Which brings me to another point haha...... being Easter weekend and all (here we call it "La Semana Santa"), people try to focus back in on Christ and what´s important in life. The only problem? Every time they try to look for peace or comfort, they find it in the wrong way! Example: Friday night, we´re eating dinner with the flia. Arrocha, and they had the TV on. On the channel (it´s the channel that the WHOLE country watches every day), they are showing a "special" on Christ´s life, resurrection, etc. (kind of like a "The Passion of Christ" novel movie but really toned down.) Anyway, the show was a bunch of bogus!!! Seriously! Wow. Christ is throwing out false doctrines left and right - things that TOTALLY don´t line up with the bible. Like, Jesus choosing his 12 apostles at His sermon on the mount! Wha? So false. And not to mention the doctrines they messed up.... like Jesus came "only for the Jews" and not for the gentiles. This nation is being brainwashed! It kind of upset me. Another thing me and my comp. were talking about is how the film just mortalizes Jesus Christ. While it´s true He dwelt in a mortal body, he was not your average human! And that is what the films made Him out to be. Jesus Christ was PERFECT! Ah. Jesus was not your average mortal. He never sinned! If you want to watch a movie that emmulates Christ properly, you can pretty much just watch "Finding Faith in Christ" and that´s as far as you can go. Anyway.

                 Last thing for the day (I didn't have a whole lot of time but I sent pictures in return hope you enjoy them) is how I've been trying to implement while teaching that we teach the BLESSINGS first. When we arrive to a house, we bear testimony and teach what blessings are available to them. Elder Duncan taught us that that, more than anything else, will attract their attention and help them want to hear more. So, we've recently been showing more pictures of the temple, teaching about eternal families, and I've been talking more about my family to people and bearing testimony to them about how happy you all make me :)

                 Well I´m leaving Penonomé this week.... I´m sad but I can´t wait to see where I´ll be serving next! Just praying that The Lord sends me where I need to be and with who I need to be. Love you all! Have a fantastic week! And Dave, live it up there in AF for the next 9 days! 2 years is a long time!

 

Love,

 

Elder Steve Clarke