New baptism! New companion! New mission president!

Yes!!! Life is so good! For real! This week there's been a lot of changes, but all for the good! Not even getting sick could put a damper on my week (I've been sick for like 3 days now, and currently my voice is gone. I like talking in Spanish when my voice is gone :)) I will miss speaking Spanish every day when I come home. But before I say anything about my awesome week, I must comment on how dang good looking Dad's new truck is. Man :) It's perfect. Congrats, Dad.

OK so I'm gonna have to make this kind of a short email, so I'll cut it straight to the chase.  First of all, we FINALLY got GUSTAVO baptized!!! Yes!! He was the guy that got married 3 months ago, remember? We've been working with him since the first week I arrived here in Paraíso back in April. Such a good baptism - him and his wife now will be able to progress toward an eternal marriage. I'd like to come back and visit someday when they get sealed :) It was definitely a special baptism. 

So, we had changes this past Wednesday, and I must admit I was way sad to say goodbye to Elder Follette. I love that guy a lot. One of my best comps., definitely. But.... he just possibly might've been replaced by a candidate for coolest comp. ever. Welcome to Elder Paea
'Atu'ake, straight from the island of TONGA!!!!! Ya man. 100% Tongan. SUCH a sick man. When he started his mission, he didn't really speak English or Spanish..... now he knows both! This guy came straight from the islands, and is SOO dang cool. I can't get it the point across over email. Anyway, this is his first change as a zone leader and I am training him. He has 20 months in the mission, about a month more than me, and this will probably be his last area of the mission. This guy is the man. Funny story about him just to show you how humble he is..... so it just so happens that the very first day of us being companions was his birthday! The catch? He didn't even tell me until 4:00 in the afternoon, and he didn't even tell me! He told a pinche investigator! Haha! It blew me away, and I didn't believe him. Hahah. Anyway, that night after we got done with all the citas, I went and spent the last 5 dollars I had and bought us a big gallon of ice cream and little muffins :) We pigged out - especially him, as you can imagine. Being from Tonga, he eats more and faster than like anyone I've ever seen.

Well that's all I'm gonna be able to write this week.... Pte. Ward se fue :( And Pte. Carmack looks cool - I've just seen a picture of him so far. We'll meet him this Wednesday though in the leadership meeting! I'm stoked. 

Allright well I hope you all have an awesome week! Mom, I love the photo of you at girls camp :) You guys are all great :) Chao!

-Elder Clarke

¡Mas bautismos! ¡Y cambios vienen! Y "Work of Salvation"? Rivals General Conference

Man. When Elder Holland said last night that there had never been a more exciting time to be a member of the church/missionary, he was totally right!! Man. Just like it said in my mission call, I am now finding to be true... "you will find more joy than you have beforehand ever previously experienced". Dang yesterday was a good day. I`d just like to say that the worldwide mission conference blew my socks right off. It was like General Conference, but all directed towards missionary work! It rivaled General Conference for me. Man it was good.

So changes are coming this week - Elder Follette is getting changed out and I`ll be left to govern all of Paraíso with my new comp! I`m way excited. Way pumped. Yesterday, we had two baptisms - Raul and Litzi! Litzi is the result of that story I told you guys about the Kuna kid who asked us to come sing a song with his family. Isn't that great? :) I baptized her and Elder Follette baptized Raúl. Gustavo decided to wait one more week so that his yerno could be there. It kinda makes me sad that Elder Follette won`t see it cuz we  started teaching him together! But maybe he won`t get changed too far away. It will be a cool baptism to start the next change with with my new comp. Adriana is struggling now too - pray for her so she can get baptized. She`s prepared, but she said she still just doesn't feel ready. Let`s hope that changes. Joli came to church yesterday too! 

Also, as Mom, you already saw, we had interviews - President`s VERY last interviews of the whole mission. So fun! As maybe you also saw, we made my "Dream Team" analogy become a reality :) We made zone t-shirts for the "Dream Team", we put all our names and our favorite numbers on the back - like a legit team! It looks like a championship t-shirt. Hahah. (Oh btw that reminds me - I heard the heat and the spurs were in the finals.... any news on who won?? I hope the spurs kicked their trash.) Anyway, interviews were good. Pres. gave me another blessing and blessed me with some really special things for the last 5-6 months of my mission. Specific things I needed help with too. He is an inspired man. I will really miss that guy. He`s leavin` next week!

Well, I`m practically out of time - I`d like to share with ya`ll a couple of cool experiences I had this week but I`ll save them for next week. I`ll just end with a cool thought I had this week as I read the BOM (I`m flyin` through Alma now). I was reading in chapter 53 about the 2,000 stripling warriors, right? Anyway, I thought of something I`d never had before. I don`t remember which verse it was, but it talked about how these two thousand young men were direct descendants of the Lamanites that Ammon had converted. Then I got thinking..... ya know, I really doubt when Ammon first went to teach King Lamoni and all of the Lamanites, he envisioned that valiant army of 2,000 righteous young men. I`m sure he was just primarily focused in on his goal of teaching, converting, and baptizing the King and his servants. I don`t think he ever imagined that their sons would turn out to be such strong and valiant converts. Then it made me think - and it helped me last night too as I saw that enormous army of missionaries in the Marriott Center - that the work we are doing will reap UNCOUNTABLE CONVERTS as these baptisms - even as jovenes - grow up, go on missions, and teach their kids the gospel. I mean, just look at all the fruits Ammon had from teaching the 2,000 stripling warrior`s parents. Man. What a deal, eh? Just imagine all 7,000+ of us missionaries growing up, starting families, and quadrupaling that number of missionaries, just in one generation!!!! Wow. God really knows what he`s doing to prepare the world in the last days. 

I love you guys and hope you all have a wonderful week! :)

Love,

Elder Clarke

HAPPY FATHER´S DAY!!!!

Dang... what a surprise email was this week. First though, I've got to give it up for the world`s best dad!!! Whoo!!! Happy fathers day, Dad!!! You are, without a doubt, the greatest one. You make all the other dad`s look like wimps. Haha :) For real though, I hope you had a great day. I definitely thought about you. You deserve everything you have and more...... including that (what?!) TRUCK you bought?!? DANG! That´s SO sweet :) For real.... man. I squeeled with joy here in the internet café when I read that. Way to go. Secondly now, Mom, I just wanna tell you that I can`t wait to go on a bike ride with you someday on the new trail :) Man, we´ll have a lot of things to talk about. Lastly, I read Dave`s first letter from Peru, and it sounds a lot like Panamá, except for the fact that he has a hot shower?? What is this? Man. Congrats though, Dave. Oh, and Katie, good luck this week at EFY! It really is a life-changing experience if you let it be.

Allright now lets get down to the good stuff - this week was awesome!!! Elder Follette and I did a lot of work. We had some awesome lessons with a few new investigators - one in particular who I love: a little old woman named Rosa. She`s the bomb - super catholic, raised catholic, but progressing! She says she`s comin` to church next Sunday. Another super cool guy we`re teaching is Rubén. He`s also way catholic - he`s got Jehovah`s Witness grand-daughters and we`re teaching them all! They`re a little skeptic, but we threw down a wicked sweet lesson on the Book of Mormon this week with them. Spreading forth the truth.... it is the most joyful thing to do.

So we´re heading into President Ward`s second-to-last week in the mission! Our zone is the last zone to have interviews with them and they are tomorrow! Mom, I`ll try to get a good pic with them tomorrow for ya :) I`m really gonna miss Pres. He is so great. I look forward to seeing and talking with him after the mission as well. Changes are on the 26th of this month and the new mission pres. will be getting here on the 1st of July. Fun! We don`t know for sure yet who`s staying and who`s going here in Paraíso between Elder Follette and I, but we think it`s him. He`s been here for a while, and he wants to go finish his mission out in Bocas, where he was about a year ago. He goin' back home to Utah in just over a month! It is probable that I will train a new zone leader. I`m just excited for changes on the 26th though cuz the assistant`s are setting up a surprise for the whole mission to come to hear his last talk and testimony. He doesn`t know so don`t tell that to anyone ha :) It should be exciting though!

Well we've got 5 baptisms lined up for this weekend!!!! I`m way pumped about it. One of them? GUSTAVO. We've seriously gotta put our faith in practice so that he gets dunked this Saturday. When he walked into church yesterday with his wife Elder Follette and I almost wet our pants we were so happy!!! That guy is a boss. A true miracle story, too. 

Well, I think I have written a sufficient amount today - I hope everything is going well for all of you and that you all have an awesome week! Love you!

-Elder Clarke

Davíd!

Whoo! It`s a great day to be alive. I had a great week this week! Really! A very good one. I want ya`ll to know that I wore my tie on the 8th this week, and I started running stairs in the morning! Whoo! Gotta start gettin` into shape haha :)

Anyway...... there were many great things that happened this week - most importantly, Davíd Alexander Barahona Gómez got baptized yesterday! Whoo! He asked me to perform the ordinance and we all had a really awesome/spiritual time. Actually a really cool story behind it - Davíd has a grandma that lives in Arraijan (about an hour away from the city) that is a long-time, faithful member of the church. Well, she came to the baptism yesterday! Her name is Marìa, and she was so awesome! She told us how she had been praying so hard for so long that her grandchildren would receive and accept the gospel - and she was OVERJOYED to hear that Davíd was getting baptized! Whoo! It was great to see her during the service as she sat in the front row and cried for joy :) That means we were instruments in the hands of The Lord in answering someone`s prayer! Yes :) Also in the service, Davíd's sister, Adriana, who has been investigating the church for a while now too, came to church with a dress on! What! She is so getting baptized this month! Then Marìa will have TWO grandchildren in the gospel! Anyway, it was just really cool. Not to mention María`s daughter, Jenni, is not ACTIVE in the church! Whoo! We totally helped reactivate her - she`s involved in the activity planning and everything! Man. If this computer would let me send some photos, I could let you see a picture of this beautiful family. The Gómez family :)

I`d like to share a personal insight I had this week that is somewhat related. Elder Follette and I went to teach a lesson to a couple of converts that he had before I arrived - they are also grandchildren of a member. Anyway, they haven`t been coming the last few weeks so we went over to see what was goin` on. Well, I guess their grandpa is a huge evangelical dude and is now prohibiting them from coming to church. So sad. Anyway, we shared with them that they have a secret weapon they can use when their grandpa and nobody is looking - they can read the Book of Mormon! Hah! Anyway, during the lesson, and it happened throughout the week a few times I think, I just kept getting these impressions about how this country of Panamá is gonna EXPLODE with the gospel in the next generation..... and a large chunk of it will be solely due to the strength of the YOUTH. Man. Here I have just seen SO many challenges with the youth..... for real. If you think American Fork has temptations, just come spend a day down here in San Miguelito. Man. But even with all that, I just feel so at peace when it comes to these guys. It`s like my eyes have been opened to really just how much our Heavenly Father loves and has prepared His chosen children for these last days. I just see these youth in the future all growing up, beating the world, going on missions, returning home and starting families, and strengthening the church here in Panamá like never before. Just so cool. I look up these guys so much.

Well I should probly try to wrap this up pretty soon but I`ll summarize a few happenings from the week: we had consejos for all the mission leaders, and a new program was introduced for Pte. Ward`s last month here in the mission! I`m way stoked to present it tomorrow to the zone. We`re gonna have SUCH a good month in June for baptisms! Oh! Which reminds me, we made a zone t-shirt (maybe you remember a similar one I sent home last year from when Elder Rich and I were together? I really hope it`s there cuz I don`t have it anymore.... anyway). It is gotta be the coolest shirt I've ever seen. Once they get printed, I don`t think I`ll ever take it off - I might even wear it under my white shirt and tie. Ha. Oh! OK last thing - I forgot to tell you guys last week but I finished the New Testament! I finished Revelations in less than a week - MAN I loved that book. The whole New Testament in general helped me strengthen my testimony so much and really get a better grasp on who Jesus Christ was during His personal ministry.

Well, I am loggin' out! I wanna end thanking all the family, as well as grandma, for the hand-written (typed) letters in the mail! I loved them! I hope you guys all have a wonderful week! I know I will.

Love,

Elder Clarke

P.S.... DyC 19:38, 33:17, and 128:20-21. All AWESOME!

Another Week on the Books

Whoo! Another week on the books. I cannot believe how fast time flies here. This week, sobre todo, I just wanna congratulate big dog Elder DAVE CLARKE for getting his visa to PERU!!!! I`m sure he`s on the airplane in this very moment. Ademàs, I wanna say I've got the best family ever. Mom, Dad, Dave, Katie (pórtate bien), Scotty, and Adam. Pure show-stoppers right there.

Bueno, this week was decent - what made it good was yesterday. Sunday in sacrament meeting is always how Elder Follette and I measure our success - in how many people came to church. The week of working is like practice, and Sunday morning is game day. We had a decent Sunday with 4 people in church. Davìd`s baptism next week should be great! 

Lots of cool things happened this week. We did another division - this time with Elder Sierra from Guatemala. He is so cool! I will be sending pictures but not today because the computer is lame. Anyway, we were looking for a recent convert`s house when we kinda got lost in the ghetto... haha. Then out of nowhere.... boom! We find Hermana. Olivia`s house who`s been a great member for many years. Before that moment, I didn't even know where she lived! But anyway, we talked with her, she showed us around the neighborhood, and then accompanied us to the lesson! Not only that (here`s the good part), but she introduced us to her son-in-law who`s not a member. Alexander. Another sweet investigator! I`m pretty confident in the fact that God helped us find her house. The lesson we had was sweet too - we taught the Best family, and we gave them our missionary badges and had them teach us! We set up a family home evening with them for next week and we should get some more investies that way too.

Another great thing that happened this week was we were walking down the street when a little Kuna (San Blas indian) kid waved us down from his house. Whoohoo! It turns out he was a member visiting from Arraijan and wanted us to come sing a hymn and pray with his family! So, we did so, and then afterward talked to a Kuna mother there and found out she was a member too! She told us she has a 10 year old daughter, Lizty, that she wants to get baptized. We told her we could help her with that! Haha. So ya, we've had some nice acontecimientos this week :)

The temple trip we had planned with Pres. unfortunately never happened, because our Nica family nor the Gomez family were able to go. But that`s ok! We knew it was The Lord`s will we shouldn't go. Which brings up another thing! Elder Follette and I have been learning lots together about fasting recently. Yesterday was a good fast. We've come to realize that as you fast, you MUST be praying and having faith in the fact that we can understand The Lord`s will in the fast. It`s awesome. I wish I had more time to explain it. Lastly, we've seen many service opportunities recently in the street where we've been able to help, and we think it`s because we've been putting our faith to the test and asking in prayer daily for an opportunity to serve. Man. Learning is awesome. My favorite thing about being a missionary. 

Anyway, I should probly log out now - it`s time. I love this work, I know it`s true, and I`m always tryin' to do better! I hope you guys do the same and that you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Clarke

Whoo!

Man, I am FULL. Before I say anything I´d like to tell Grandpa that I finally took his advice and went and had a good lunch with my companion with the money he sent me. We went to Johnny Rocket´s here in the mall and we are stuffed. Thank you Grandpa. Wish you were here.

All

Elder Cuellar & Elder Clarke

right well this week was a tough one, I won´t lie. This is our second rough Sunday in a row. Even more, remember Joli? She was (is) SUPER ready to get baptized - we had her interview set up and everything, and then she talked to her mom about it and her mom didn't permit her to get baptized. Here´s the jist: she's 19, so technically she could go against her mom´s wishes without getting in trouble, but she decided better (and we agreed), that for now it would be better to wait (she still lives in her mom´s house). We were kinda frustrated though cuz it was definitely out of nowhere. For now, we´re gonna try teachin the mom now if she´ll let us. Joli´ll get baptized with time though, I am confident in that. 

Speaking of baptism, wanna hear some good news?! I called Penonomé yesterday to see how some people were doing, and bueno, I don´t know if you guys remember Lina - she´s the mom of the girl we baptized and had many spiritual experiences with. En aquel entonces, couldn't get baptized because she was having some serious marital problems. Well, when I called yesterday she told me she finishing the marriage papers and now should soon be getting baptized! They put sisters in my old area and the sisters and working with her and everything! Whoo! I knew baptizing Abdianis was the start of something special. 

Some quick stuff for the week: I am eating up the new testament and will be in Revelations by the end of today. John the Beloved is awesome - I've been studying up on him and Judas and all of those guys with the help of the scripture guide in the back. Also, I had an awesome division this week with Elder Cuellar from Guatemala - I went to his area (Don Bosco). We contacted a TON that day and had some sweet experiences. A special lesson we had was an old guy that came to the door and couldn't speak. He wasn't gonna let us in because we couldn't really communicate. Well, we insisted and so he finally let us in. It turns out that he could hear perfectly fine - but couldn't speak - his voice box had been removed I´m assuming. Anyway, it was just a really special lesson because he was so humble! Every time we asked him a question, or he wanted to comment, he just wrote it down on a piece of paper. It was a really quite, spiritual lesson. It just made me think in the love of Jesus Christ. I feel like I was able to feel a little bit of Christ-like love toward that man. It didn't matter that he couldn't talk - I know Christ still loves him just as much as me and so I tried to love him like that too. It was cool. 

While I´m talking about cool contacting stories I´ll just finish up with another one that Elder Follette and I had. Yesterday in my morning prayer, I prayed way hard and was asking God if I could see a miracle that day. Well, a couple weeks ago we had contacted this Nicaraguan lady and had a really cool lesson with her. Well, when we went back she was never home until we went back yesterday - and she still wasn't there! But what happened is this time here husband came to the door, and let us right on in without any prior conversation! Just so humbly let us into his home. As we talked, we found out there are like 6 Nicaraguans living in that house, and that they all just recently arrived here in Panama. They are renting a house and they came here for work. Anyway, the cool thing is missionaries in Nicaragua were visiting them in January of this year before they came here! They have a Book of Mormon and everything. We had a lesson with the husband - Keyton - and his cousin, Brusly. We put a fecha for the 16 of June! Super great hopes we've got here. Now let´s just hope they´re married :) It was a super great experience though and I know it was an answer to the prayer I had prayed that morning. God is so merciful with us and will work with us according to our faith. 

OK last thing - it just reminded me of something else. Faith. This morning as we were preparing for our temple session, (that´s why I´m writing today btw - we went to the temple today! I love being in the city :)) I had a great conversation with Elder Hinckley from Evanston, Wyoming. He has about 4 months in the mission and was telling me recently how he has received such a boost of testimony in the principle of faith. Well, I don´t know if you guys remember, but early in my mission, I too, had super awesome faith testimony building experiences. As he recounted what he'd learned, it brought my testimony of that subject back to full-light. It also helped me learn something new. At some point - and many points - in our lives, God will help us gain a testimony of a certain principle. However, after that principle is learned, He expects us to USE it, and APPLY it. OFTEN. I feel like I had let my testimony of faith (and more the practice of it) "get rusty", so to speak. I had "puttin it on the shelf" and kinda forgot about it. It motivated me to look back and brush up on my spiritual experiences more often and continue to apply them. 

Well, I´m glad I was finally able to get a long letter in - it´s time to go now though! Next week should be good - we´re planning a temple trip with investigadores with President and Sister Ward. I love you all!! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Clarke

P.S... wha?? Dave has a CAR in the mission?! Not fair. Haha. Congrats though, Dave, on arriving to Oregon. Aren't plane rides the best? WORK HARD!

Otra Semana

President Ward shining Elder Steve Clarke's shoes.

Bueno, this week has been a little slower.... I dunno why but it seems like forever since I talked to ya`ll last Sunday. I will admit I was sad not to be able to talk to Gma, Gpa, etc... :( But I`ll see you all in like 6 months por alli! :) Real quick I just wanna wish a happy late birthday to SCOTTY! Already a teenager?? What is happening! I remember when you were born! Congrats though, buddy - your nike frees are sick. :) Also, CONGRATSSS to Dave for getting to go to Oregon! That`s so cool! Like, for real. I always wondered what it would be like to be a missionary in the United States - now Dave, you`ll have to let me know. Way to go, dude. 

         So this week was a big week of changes. On Wednesday, we had cambios, and everyone went to new areas and such. Elder Follette and I will be staying together another change, but OH how the rest of our zone changed. I`m gonna try to make a good simile to explain what happened on Wednesday.... I feel like I was placed back in 1992 in the Barcelona Olympic games when they announced they`d let professionals play bball, and therefore, the DREAM TEAM was created. I feel like the coach. President gave us all the tools to bring home gold..... ok, so I hope that made sense, but if not - my zone is AMAZING!!!! We now have an ex-assistant here that is gonna come finish his mission in our zone, as well as two former zone leaders who are also leaving soon. What an unbeatable squad! The whole mission knows that PARAÎSO is the tightest zone in the mission... hahaha. Also new here in the zone is an Hermana Tryon from Arizona? She said she shared a bunk-bed in the MTC with Savannah Kendall! Ha! So crazy. She`s in my ward now. 

Elder Follette & Elder Clarke at a service project.

     Allright so apart from that we had an allright week proselyting.... it was kinda slow, I don`t know why, but we didn't have the success we had in sacrament meeting last week. Looks like we`ll have to re-group and try again. Also, I am CRAVING the New Testament - for real though. I`m currently in Hebrews and I`m just flying through the books. I can`t wait to start reading Revelations again. I've found a scripture that I REALLY love: 2nd Corinthians 6:11-12.... I don`t know if it`s the same in english but in spanish it is awesome. Look it up if you've got time. 

Elder Steve Clarke     

         Well, I just completed my 18 month mark.... so nuts! Where has the time gone?! I can`t believe I've already been out here so long! I don`t wanna get closer to going home... gotta aprovechar my time out here!!!! Well, I know this is a really lame letter - but my time is up. I will talk to ya`ll next week. I love you all so much!!!!! Too much. Well, until later.

Love,

Elder Clarke