¨Welcome the task that takes you beyond yourself.¨ - Louise Yates Robison

Man..... the mission.

This week was SO awesome!! First off, you´re probably wondering who my new comp. is..... His name? Elder HILL. (he tells me he has no relation to the Hill´s in our ward) This guy..... dang. What an amazing missionary!! Mom, I loved how you shared that experience with me last week about how The Lord knew exactly who I needed as companions - and I can TESTIFY to that!!! Elder Hill came exactly! the right time, and was exactly! who I needed as a companion. Some of the things he´s already taught me I will use for the rest of my mission. Elder Hill is another gringo from Kaysville, Utah, and he has 23 months in the mission. I am his last companion in the mission!! Last change, he was a zone leader, and has been for the past 6 months. He KNOWS his stuff. Like... wow. He is SUCH a good example to me. Farewell to Elder Rich... I will greatly miss him here in Barrio Centro, but he is now off to bigger and better things in Davíd - working as a district leader.

So about our investigators.... The Lou family should be recieving their marriage date this week!! :) :) We are so dang excited for them. They have been together now for 18 years and finally getting married!!! Elder Hill became quick friends with them, and we can´t wait for these guys. Just last night, we started delving (?) deeper into the lessons - this time with both Chino Lou and Vielka together, and we read 3rd Nefi when Christ comes to the America´s. The Spirit was there and I KNOW Chino Lou felt it. We could both see it in his countanence. He knows he needs to get baptized in our church, it´s just a matter of them (his wife included) changing some of their old ways and really receiving a confirmation from The Spirit through prayer. After we read the chapter, we had a very progressive lesson with the both of them where we talked about the importance of families and why a truly happy family with The Spirit in their home is the best kind of family. I pray for them every day - please pray for them!!

The sad news.... Aldaír didn´t come to church again for the 2nd straight week.... we met with them this week and asked him why, and he told us he´s been thinking about it and he wants to stay with the catholic church.... gah.... we told him all we could do as missionaries and as representatives of The Lord was encourage him to just ¨probarlo¨ - just test it out for himself!! The Lord wouldn´t try to force/pester anyone to do anything, so we´re not going to either :( He´s closing the book before he´s even read anything, before he´s even attended church!!! We are somewhat discouraged but hope he will just probarlo.

The good news to even out the bad news.... remember those girls I was telling you about? 12 and 16 year olds, friends of a member? Well, we got one of them to commit to be baptized the 12th of May!! Melanie, the 12 year old :) we are so so excited for her and really have high hopes that her sister, too, will commit to do the same. They have attended church and mutual every week for about a month now! I´m so happy - seeing people come unto Christ is easily the best thing to be a part of!! Baptism is such a incredible step. It´s like I think I mentioned last week - it is everlasting, o sea, it is not a temporal thing. I am continuing to try to be ¨temporal¨ in all things, and focus on the things that matter most - the eternal things.

I´ve also had a few rough days here the past few days.... when people say the mission is hard, they are definately not lying. With Elder Rich gone, I am the one right now who leads the planning, calls the investigators, and directs where we go every day (cuz I know the area). I also am trying to insert myself more in the lessons. It´s all very hard right now, but I know it will bless me in the long run. Just like dad counseled me in one of his letters in D&C 122 - our trials will be but a small moment, and if we endure them well, we will be delivered and strengthened! I have already seen some of that in the past couple days - The Lord lifting me up when I had nothing left. I am ¨welcoming the task that takes me beyond myself¨ - Louise Yates Robison. (Mom - I read that quote in the quote book you sent me for Christmas - thank you).

Well I´m gonna try to write a personal letter to Mom before my time is up here, but I love you all so much and I´m excited to talk to you soon!!

Love, Elder Clarke

P.S..... in other news, the sink broke this week in our house.... water flying everywhere....but we got it fixed.... haha. I had to spend $11 more dollars of my own personal money... I´m sorry. Haha.

P.S.S.... Tell Matt CONGRATULATIONS for me!!! Bulgaria! Yikes.... dunno what language that is. How exciting :)

P.S.S.S.... Mom, I´m glad you got a shout-out from Elder Alley!! That´s exciting. Yes, I did meet him at changes and he seems like a real great guy. He was happy to hear you follow his blog. Haha.

4-16-12 Changes are coming!!

Hello family!!!!!! I love you so much!

So this week has been a lot more normal than last week.... just goin' out workin in the hot sun (rather than being rained into the house/being taken over by flying ants) haha. Contacting doors and continuing to work with the good investigators we have.

First, I mentioned I went to the temple last week (and seriously - what an experience it was.) A couple days after, I read an article titled ¨Prepare for the Blessings of the Temple¨ by Elder Russell M. Nelson. WOW!!!!! (and yes Mom, I´m shouting.... haha jk). Ok but really, guys! I´m SO grateful for the blessings of the temple that our family has received. Just the fact that our parents were married in the Temple, is amazing! Please - Dave, Katie, Scott, and Adam - thank Mom and Dad for doing that. More than ever now, I am so grateful that this true church has temples on the earth where we can ultimately recieve all the earthly blessings possible with the ones we love most. Just another bonus for being part of the one and only True Church :)  Being married in the temple will be amazing. But thanks parents - really. I kinda owe my eternal gratitude to you for that :)

Speaking of marriages....... THE LOU PARENTS ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!! Wha?! Yes yes yes. Elder Rich and I have been working SO hard for this. Elder Rich especially, even before I arrived here, had been so loving to them and bringing them along slowly. Finally now, with Elder Rich leaving (so sad :(), Mama and Chino Lou are scheduled to get married in the Panama court in the next two weeks. How amazing, eh? We have to remember this is just the first step though. Once they´re married, they can qualify for baptism - but we´ve still gotta teach them all the lessons and make sure they´ve both got their own personal testimonies. Pray for them, will you?

Our other real serious investigator right now is Aldaír. Man oh man is that guy cool. Problem is...... he didn´t show up to church yesterday :( mannnn. The biggest letdown!!! Once Elder Rich leaves for changes on Wednesday, we´re gonna go visit that guy and see what me and my new comp. can do to help him out. We´ve got Carlos to help us out with this guy too :) The members. BEST tools in missionary work.

So I´ve mentioned a few times now that changes are coming, and that Elder Rich is leaving. So sad. Seriously - he is a good good missionary and I´ll miss the friendship we have gained. No worries though cuz I´m pretty sure our friendship will last forever - we´ve already planned to watch the 2014 NBA playoffs together. He´ll be at my mission homecoming too, so watch out for that kid. He´s awesome :) We celebrated his 20th birthday together this past Saturday too! So ya, Happy big 20, my friend. Not a teenager anymore.

Now, at the same time, I can´t wait to see who my new companion will be!!!!! I REALLY hope it is a latino - he´ll help me get the language down pat. My language has made some improvements this week, but I now feel like I´m at the point where I can and should speak it full-time. So.... cross your fingers my new comp. is a latino!!

That´s about all I have for this week! I hope you all have a fantastic week and I love you all!!!!

-Elder Clarke

P.S...... I almost forgot!! On Saturday, I contacted a whole bus for the first time!! I stood up at the front of the bus and invited the whole darn bus to church, and bore my testimony. Such a cool experience!! I felt like a true servant of Christ in that moment. Elder Rich and I passed out folletos to the whole bus :)

P.P.S..... Dave, sing your heart out on choir tour and make sure to shave your legs into a candy-cane pattern.

Family!! Hello!

It´s been an interesting week.... but another good week of learning in the mission. We didn´t get to do as much work this week as we wanted for 3 reasons:

Number 1) Elder Rich got sick this week and we had to stay in the house for about a day and a half..... que triste. I gave him a blessing though (my first blessing ever in english - haha), and he´s doing fine now. For the time he was sick, I basically just studied all day, but I learned some fantastic things as I studied the Ensign issue about temples - preparing myself for the temple. Family is so much more eternally important than we can even grasp!! I had great insights. I´m so thankful each one of you is part of our wonderful family :) I´m so lucky to be a part of it!!! And we all have the privilege of loving each other and being part of each other´s lives FOREVER!!! After this life and forever. Fam.... I love you :)

Reason number 2)........ ¨AGUACERO¨!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Guys..... holy COW. The rain season really came with a bang. Like... dang. It rained so hard for a couple days that there were times we literally couldn´t leave our house. Flooded the street, and even a nearby house! Quite a shock to me really - I´ve only seen rain like that a couple of times in my life.

Reason number 3) Our house um........... got taken over by insects. We had to sleep outside for a night cuz it was so bad. I´d send you pictures, but the computer I´m on doesn´t give that option. Anyway.... just know that it was bad. Haha.

The good news? We have recovered from everything, and life is wonderful!!!! We had a good couple of days of work, and even got another baptismal date! Aldaír is his name. He goes to his grandma´s every day after school and takes care of her - he is such an example! He´s ripe and ready for the gospel. About 17. Our goal is that he be a future priesthood holder and strengthen the ward here in Panama (not to mention he could be friends with Carlos Lou - another recent convert about the same age.).

We also have a wonderful investigator named Elisa - a 16 year old friend of a young woman in our ward named Caroline. Caroline got her to come to church with her, and Elisa loved it!! So much so that she made it known she wanted to meet with the missionaries and learn more. Caroline and her mom are present at our lessons with her, and they are going super super well! We are planning on getting her a fecha soon too - we feel strongly she´ll get baptized. The members here are absolutely wonderful and such a help :)

Ok so Sunday.... Happy Easter everyone!!!! I loved my morning - nothing can ever take away that feeling of peace and joy of knowing there is still a day where the whole world acknowledges the birth of our Savior :) It turned out to be a FANTASTIC day at church. Carlos Lou recieved the Aaronic Priesthood and was called to be the 1st counseler in the teacher´s quorum!!!!!!! He is AWESOME. I love that kid. (P.S.... Dave, keep writing him - he is legit.) Also??? Shaíd recieved his temple recommend today, and is planning on going to do baptism´s for the dead soon with the ward!! SUCH a rewarding day to be a missionary.

So you´re probly wondering why I didn´t write until today, instead of Monday. The reason being? Today, I went to the TEMPLE!!! YES! Finally!! A session in the Panamá temple. It was so great. Just what I needed actually. I didn´t understand quite everything since it was in Spanish, but nothing can take away from the love I feel there while in The Lord´s house. I recieved some much needed guidance there this morning and I can´t wait to get started working tomorrow!!! It´s really amazing how much The Spirit will guide your thoughts and feelings if you are trying to live worthy of It and doing all you can to be the best you can. Especially in the Temple - I wish we could go there every P-Day.

Anyway, that´s all the time I have for today!! I love you all and hope you had a great Easter!!

-Elder Clarke

4-2-12 Conference . . . WOW!

Greetings family!!!!

Wow, it's already April. Crazy how time flies... in just about a month I'll be calling home for Mother's Day!!! :) Sweeeeet. Can't wait to talk to all of you, and Dave, I still wanna hear that piano piece :) Also, Happy April Fools!!! It also marks the 12th anniversary of us living in our home in American Fork!!!! Good ol´ AF :) 

Ok, enough of the silly stuff. WHAT AN AMAZING WEEK!!!!!!!! Seriously! This past weekend was quite possibly the best of my mission with our baptism of Shaíd and CONFERENCE!!!! I´ve never been more excited for conference in my life, and it definately did not let me down! Such amazing messages. My two favorite talks were Neil L. Anderson and Richard G. Scott. Elder Anderson talked about the ever-famous but perfect question of "What would Jesus do?" and also talked about our daily duties, and my favorite.... miracles. And Elder Scott? I LOVED his discourse on recieving revelation and tips of what to do and not to do to better recieve it. It´s especially such an important topic for me right now, being on a mission and all. Ahhh :) They were all so fantastic though. I also really loved Elder Russell M. Nelson´s.

Conference was also cool cuz I got to watch it in English!!! They had a seperate room set up for all the gringos in the stake so we could watch it in english :) It was perfect. It was so clear to me the most important topics of the conference: sacrifice, prayer, and most of all, FAMILY. Family, family, family. Biggest topic by far. I just might refer back to this conference's notes when I have a family of my own. Haha :) Anyway, I´m just so excited moving forward to re-read and ponder the talks to help me come to a definate answer on my question I brought to conference, which was how I could become more like Christ and represent him better. I fasted for my answer earlier in the week and everything. Ah. I really just loved this weekend.

Now, for the baptism :) First off, I got to conduct the music for the whole meeting! That was fun :) I'm just trying to be like Dave. Anyway though, because Shaíd is wheelchair-bound, Elder Rich and I had to carry him into the water, and place him in a plastic chair that was pre-placed in the font. It was so precious to help that man not only become spiritually clean and make an amazing change in his life, but to have to physically carry him into the water. It was really quite amazing. Elder Rich performed the ordinance while I held his lower body and legs down. We had to perform the ordinance 3 times before finally getting his whole body under the water, but it was awesome. We then confirmed him yesterday in between the Sunday sessions. This guy Shaíd....... future bishop I´m thinkin. He has SUCH a powerful testimony and is already so strong in the church!!! I love and respect the guy.

Anyway, sorry the letter is short this week but I'm all out of time! I hope everyone is loving life and keep reading your scrips and praying!!!! It is the base of your relationship with God and His Son.

Have a great week!

-Elder Clarke

Scroll down for more new pictures sent by Elder Clarke this week.

3/26/12

Family!!!!

I love you so much I LOVE reading your emails :) Dave, Mom, and Dad, thank you so much for your emails. They really make my day :)

Anyway, I have SOOO much to say this week!! I hope I remember everything. It has been a WONDERFUL week! The Lord has blessed me so much this week as I´ve tried to push through the hard times and replace it with working. ¨Work, work, work. There is no suffiecient substitute.¨ (In Preach My Gospel - I love it). He is so merciful and will sometimes bless us and help us even when we feel like we´re not deserving of his blessings. This week Elder Rich and I have been working on truly taking Christ´s name upon us and take our calling even moreso to heart. It has been such a good experience. Striving as hard as we can to be better representatives of Christ in everything we do, say, think, and feel has been so rewarding!! More than anything, it has helped me to gain an even greater love, respect, and reverence for my Savior.

Shaid and Me at the Panama City Temple

Ok so probably my highlight of the week: we went to the temple with Shaíd (I figured out this week I had been spelling his name wrong all this time). Guys ah, I can´t even tell you how amazing it was!!! The Spirit was SO strong and powerful!!! I was so happy to not only be edified myself, but so grateful because I knew the experience helped Shaíd so much. I´ve attached a picture of us at the temple. He´s an amazing man - such an example to me. He is so prepared and we CAN¨T WAIT for his baptism this Saturday!! Because of his paralysis, we are planning on both (Elder Rich and I) getting in the water with him for extra support as we baptize him. And yes Mom! We´re planning on doing the exact same thing as Elder Alley - using a chair in the water and everything :) So stoked.

Also happening this week, we had a multi-zone conference with President and the assistants! The message I took away from it was a needed reminder of the importance of the Book of Mormon both in teaching and in the conversion of our investigators. Good good stuff.

A tender mercy we had this week was the renewed success we started having with the Lou family! On Wednesday, we had a GREAT talk with Vielka (the mom) about her desire to change and basically how we love her and THAT´S why we want her to get baptized. I shared D&C 18: 14-16 (my mission scripture) and just bore my testimony to her that I love her and I want to have that joy with her in heaven someday, and that is why I want her to get baptized. It was spiritual. She is now onboard - we´re working on her husband - Chino Lou (I don´t know his real name - that´s just what everyone calls him. Haha...) The problem is we have to get them married before they can get baptized, and Chino hasn´t filled out the marriage papers - he´s had them for weeks. We ended up having a fast for him after reading Isiah 58 (the law of the fast), and a few days later, he agreed to finally fill them out and work with us again!!! Now if we can just help him see WHY it is important :)

So I found a new favorite chapter: Corinthians 15. It talks about the 3 kingdoms of glory, and baptism. So good!!

Ok my time is almost up so I´m gonna have to write the rest reeeeallly fast.....

1) Mom, I got your DearElder! I LOVED LOVED LOVED the letters from Elder Hyde and Garner. Elder Hyde especially´s was incredible. He is an example to me and I can´t wait to see him again someday.

2) KATIE!!!! I got to see you!! Hna. Carmen let me watch it last night on lds.org before dinner. You did amazing!!! It was really cool to see everyone there. I bet it was such an amazing experience to sing for the prophet.

3) Elder Rich became a District Leader this week!

4) Tell Nathan Garner happy b-day for me and that I remembered :)

OK fam I´m all out of time, but I will try to write more next week individually!! Mom especially - expect a letter soon.

Love you!

-Elder Clarke

3-19-12

Hola familia!!!

Happy St. Patricks day! Haha. We celebrated here with our first rain of the season! The rain season starts at the first of April next month, and I hear it gets pretty crazy. So we´ll see soon enough :)
This has been another hard long week, but a good week. Elder Rich and I are striving to edify ourselves before The Lord so that we can be more receptive to The Spirit and be better instuments in His hands. I have grown alot this week though, and I love how the hard times build you up higher and stronger.
UPDATE ON INVESTIGATORS: 
- Shaít is at the top of the list right now - he is on FIRE!!!! He´s keeping almost all of his commitments and is attending church every Sunday. He has truly had a change of heart and we can´t wait to baptize him on the 31st!! We´re planning on baptizing him in-between sessions of General Conference :) (I have more to say about that later.)

- Melissa is coming along..... we haven´t had as many lessons this week with her as we would´ve liked to, but there is progress. Right now we are trying to help her keep the Word of Wisdom. She struggles a bit with it - she usually likes to chill out every weekend with friends and with a beer or two. I know as long as we stress to her gaining her own personal testimony though, The Lord can help her if she has that desire. We are only instruments in The Lord´s hands - we will do everything we can to try and help her gain a personal testimony.

- Rod..... eh..... has not answered any of our calls this week. Haha...we are beginning to think he just wanted to speak english to someone? :)

- New awesome investigator:: Jenny!!!! Wow. This lady is real awesome. Elder Rich and I are SO excited to start teaching her. We got her as a reference from the sisters (Good ol´ Hermana Lopez) and we weren´t able to get a hold of her for a few weeks, but this week we finally tracked her down and she is amazing!!!! Very humble - and that is what The Lord is looking for. She has a 10 year old daughter as well that we would love to baptize also! Hopefully things continue to go real well with her in the coming weeks.

        All right, so Friday, we had a stake activity, and it was SUPER sweet! The stake is putting on a cultural month where we will celebrate different countries and cultures once a week, and they are PERFECT activities for investigators to come to. This first week they celebrated Dom. Republic and Columbia. We brought Shaít along and guess what?? His Dad is from Columbia!! We got his Dad to come too!!! And man did Shaít love it. A good, good Friday night, folks.

        Ok and yesterday..... what a GREAT Sunday! It was a televised conference from SLC for ALL of central America!! I didn´t understand all of it cuz it was all translated to spanish, but holy cow it was sweet :) The speakers were Ann Dibb of the Young Womens, Don R. Clark (One of the Seventy representitives for Central America), L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Boyd K. Packer!!!! It was seriously like General Conference - but it was only for central america!!! Super awesome. Such a testimony of how this is The Lord´s true church to me - the church works in such proficiency (I really forgot how to spell that word). But anyway.... my favorite part of the conference? The closing hymn :) It was ¨Grande Eres Tu¨ (How Great Thou Art) and I was singing with Shaít. The Spirit was SOO strong!!!!!!!! Wow!!! While singing, I just pictured Christ up front at the pulpit smiling down at all of us Panamanians and being so pleased as we praised him through song :) The Spirit was so strong to me, and I know Shaít felt it too - which was a great testimony builder for him. After the hymn, he turned to Elder Rich and I and commented on how powerful the song had been, and that he loved it! He also asked us if we could somehow get him a hymnbook - we´re hoping to when we go to the temple sometime. I keep hoping we´ll go the the temple one of these p-days as a zone, but it´s hard to set up an appointment, and you have to go as a zone. I really wanna go before I leave Chorrera :)

       Another reason I loved the conference yesterday is cuz it got me SOOOOOOOO excited for General Conference!!!!!!!! It´s only like two weeks away!!!!!!!! What a blessing it is to have a modern day prophet who recieves direction straight from The Source of All Truth, our Savior, and then tells the whole world!!! The church leaders and Apostles are so inspired and I´m so dang excited!!!! I´ve been told we might even be able to listen to it in english too, which would be cool so I could catch every last word :)
I love you all SO MUCH!!!! Keep doing well and praying and reading and I know The Lord will bless us for our efforts.

-Elder Clarke

P.S...... Katie, I want to see you perform SO BAD!!!! It´s so good to hear you have been doing so well with the singing and such with the YW conference!!! Good luck with it this upcoming week, and I will really try to write back in the coming weeks. You´re a studdette :)

3/12/12

Hello family! This week was probly my hardest one yet.... a lot of hard hard work and a few small trials here and there - but a good week nonetheless! I know trials make you stronger so I´m not worried :)

So I had immigrations on Tuesday - had to go back to the city and fill out paperwork with a new group of missionaries that arrived. It was fun - except for the fact I was seperated from Elder Rich for a few hours and I started to miss him!! Hahah.... it was a weird feeling.

The next day (Wednesday) we had changes - LUCKILY Elder Rich and I have another change together. We´re really grateful and excited - we´re gonna do WORK! our goal is to have 3 more baptisms together before we part. Wednesday though, Elder Magnusson chilled with us for the first half of the day while his comp. went to the city for changes. We had a great morning study together, and I liked seeing how another missionary worked other than Elder Rich. Later in the day, we met our new zone - they are awesome!!! I LOVE our new Zone Leaders - Elder Villalobos from Puerto Rico and Elder Biesinger from Utah. They are sooo sweet. Our district leader is sweet too - Elder Lainez.

Here is a picture of my house.

So I mentioned we´re gonna get three more baptisms...... let me introduce you to some investigators :)

1) Shaít (pronounced Sigh-eat). About 50 years. He is amazing!!!!!! So amazing. We are for sure baptizing him on the 31st of this month. He has been so prepared by The Lord - I feel so blessed to teach him. This guy had an accident about 10 years ago that paralyzed him from the waist down - so he's in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. When all that happened, he started drinking hard core - he was always drunk. Ever since I arrived here, Elder Rich and I would pass him and see him at a Chino (just a little shop they have everywhere here). We would always just tell him to stop drinking, haha. But this one day he told us he would do anything to turn his life around - he told us he knew we could help him, and he was just miserable. We told him that we could only teach him when he was sober, so we planned a day to go and teach him..... turns out, he wasn´t drunk!! We took advantage in that first lesson, and challenged him to baptism and to stop drinking right there! The Spirit was so strong!!! Elder Rich and I were on the same page and everything. So where is Shaít now? He stopped drinking COLD TURKEY. He hasn´t yet taken another drink of beer! Like, seriously? After 10 years of drinking every night, he hasn´t! WHAT AN EXAMPLE. His desire to change and strong will is unbelievable. We made a compromiso with him that if he couldn´t drink beer - we couldn´t drink soda..... Elder Rich and I haven´t drunk soda in two weeks! Haha! He´s so awesome. Also, he hasn´t missed church yet! Wow! What a guy.

2) Melissa. About 40-ish. This girl...... awesome. Again, we feel like she´s been prepared. She is really good friends with the Lou family, and so that´s how we met her. Idk why, but we never thought to contact her or teach her. We thought maybe the missionaries before us had or something, idk. But anyway, one day she was like "so when are you gonna come teach me?" haha! What the! She contacted us! She is awesome - she has a desire and has been to church before with the Lou´s. We´re gonna start teaching her the lessons cuz we just got serious with her this week.

3) Rod. My man Rod :) this guy is like in his 30´s, and he´s the MAN! And the best part? You´ll never guess but... he speaks english! I´m really happy about this cuz I can say more in the lessons and stuff. Rod is from the states (I think Louisiana?) and he came down here for work since the economy is so bad in the states, and he also has some family here. On a p-day, we were eating at our favorite chicken joint by our house (the chicken here is In.Cred.I.Ble.... they work magic down here with it.) and he came up to us to see if we could speak english! (Anyone and everyone that even speaks a little bit of english always wants to talk to us.) Your best contacts always contact you. He has been so prepared too!!! He had really good questions about our church and has done a lot of research on religion! He wants to know the truth, and we´re giving it to him. Haha :)

So ya, those are the three investigators we´re most excited about right now. The Lou family has really been struggling lately - they won´t come to church and just don´t have time to sit down and listen to the lessons.... it makes me so sad.

Anyway, it sounds like everyone is just doing WONDERFULLY back at home! Seriously, I love to hear that everyone is doing so well. Mom and Dad, you both seem to be recovering from your injuries well. I love you :) Also, AWESOME news about my tax return!!!! Seriously! I am so blessed. I´m gonna thank Heavenly Father for that in my prayer tonight :) Dad, thank you for your letter and i´m really workin on writing back. You guys are the best, I love you so so much and I´m so happy to be on a mission! Bros and Katie, I love you too!

-Elder Clarke

P.S.... this week at investigators, I ate cow liver and octopus. Sweeeeet. Haha :)

This is a picture of my ear soon after surgery.  I wasn't able to send the picture until now.

A few questions & answers---sent by Mom and answered by Steve this week:

Q:  Are the Panamanian people nice to you? You know, on the streets and at church, wherever you go? 
A:  Everyone is so open! So different from the states, really: And EVERYONE beleives in Christ and openly lets it be known. Pictures of Christ everywhere, and almost in every home. Very down to earth and religious people here. I love it!

Q: Do you sleep well? Are you well-rested? 
A: I hit the bed every night like a ROCK. I¨m soooo tired after the day is over. I get tired throughout the day too - missionary work is rough! I sleep really well all through the night (except for the nights when Elder Rich and I have to keep an eye out for cockroaches on our beds... .yikes) haha.

Q: What do you do on P-day? Do you ever have combined activities with your Zone?
A: Ya, sometimes we have combined activities, but Elder Rich and I haven´t been to any lately cuz we...... play BASKETBALL!!!!!! Yep, that´s right. We´re SO LUCKY..... there´s a court by our house. So we do that. :) It´s the best. I´m hoping to go to the temple soon on the p-day (but you have to do that one as a zone since it´s outside of our area). I´m really so lucky I have a companion that´s so alike me.


Q: What has been your favorite food you have eaten there? What has been your mosted disliked food? 
A: PINEAPPLE!!!! It is CANDY here!!! OH my gosh seriously I love it so so so so much. It tastes nothing like the pineapple in the states. It´s soooo good. Gosh. My most disliked food here is I had to eat some "chocolate flubber" thing - but the reality is I had no idea what it was. I could barely swallow it. haha. This past week though, I ate octupus and cow liver at investigator´s houses. They were pretty good! And ya, coconut water is pretty good!! I like it.