Painting, Argentina style

Hey family!!

Just some random pics...

This week was super awesome!  We reached, and exceeded nearly all of the goals we had set. A very successful week!

Sorry for not writing yesterday, it was feriado, which means no one works; well, except the missionaries ;)  Haha.  So president naturally wanted us to take advantage of the no-work day to find some people at home.

Unfortunately, I’m sick again :P I don’t know why. I hate being sick, and I will do everything possible to not stay in. I hate staying in.

Obviously, this week was pretty busy. But we still found some time to give a little bit of service. We ended up painting two houses in the branch (um, ...luckily for us the people here don’t have the same "standards" for perfection when it comes to painting, so we were just able to slap it in without too much care. So that was nice.)

On Saturday we taught 6 lessons, which is really pretty good for one day; we usually only get 2 or 3.  And, totally awesome, all 6 of them were with members, now that is just epic! :D

We also had pretty good success in church last week. Last week was district conference; so a lot of people attended ...including 3 investigatores :D and 3 menos activos! :D  To plan for this success, we went on splits Saturday morning to invite them to church. I went with the Pres de Rama to visit the menos activos, and Elder Conway went with the Young Men's Pres to visit the investigators. It worked out great ...every single person we visited ended up coming to church. :) Shows the power of members I'd say. I just hope they realize that. We visit these people constantly, but they never come.  But as soon as they get a visit from a member, they're at church:D Hopefully, this will motivate the ward to start doing more of this. ;)

Also, Elder Conway taught me a very valuable lesson about faith on Sunday. We have an investigator named Julian who we taught nearly 2 weeks ago. He is super intelligent and polite and wants to learn.  Saturday night I was thinking about calling him to invite him to church (something we'd done the week before as well), but I just didn't have faith that he would come since he didn't last week. So I didn't call him and just went to bed.

Well the next morning Elder Conway got up, called him, and Julian said he would come. And he did.

Wow, I was pleasantly shocked to see him show up, and a bit humbled as well. I learned a lot in that moment. I need to have more faith in the work, and more hope in the people. I am so grateful that my comp had the faith to make the call because if he hadn't Julian would obviously not have been at church; and that would have been my fault :(

I really do love my mission. I'm actually kinda' sad to think that I only have 9 months left.

The greatest happiness is found in service to others, and what greater service (and privilege) is there then bringing them the joy of the gospel?! I love being a missionary.

I know without a doubt, that this work is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a humble man called of God to restore His church. Although initially weak, he became strong through the many teachings, trials, diligence, and his faith in the Lord. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and points us to Christ.

Christ did come, did save us, and will return. He reigns over this church and nothing will stop His work from progressing.

I AM SO EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE!!! GAHHH :D :D

Love you all!

Elder Clemons

P.S. Please write...

A week of adventures

First off, Andres Micheli came to church!!! Woot!! And he stayed for all 3 hours! All of them!! Half of the members don’t even do that! And what is super incredible is that he participated in all of them. He made a comment in Principios del Evangelio, where he said that we (meaning my comp and I) had been a blessing for him and his family because we have brought them peace and truth ...and that he too, was beginning to accept it!! Gah! :

Ya ...he has a date for the 18th! :)

We also a great blessing this week.  An area seventy, Presidente Gonzalez, came to speak to our mission. That's the first Seventy I've had on my mission so far! He was a great speaker, and he and his wife said a lot of things that really encouraged me. One of the things he said was that with true faith in the Book of Mormon, we can baptize 10 people a month.....10 people!! Gosh! That just tells me that I really need to fortify my faith in the BoM. His wife, Hermana Gonzalez, told us we need to teach in the same manner Christ taught. He understood each person's needs, and addressed those needs in His teachings. As examples, consider the symbolism of the living water, the bread of life, and the light of the world. She suggested that we too could teach in this manner.

Besides the awesome instruction, it was also super nice to see all of my friends again! I saw Elders Atwood, Sufia, Pickle, Thomas, Toldedo, Murphy, and lots of others. Super nice!

I also got to chat will the elder that is in Fontana right now, Elder Allen. He told me that nearly all the people I had worked with are still active and "miss you tons!" :D Elder Allen is training right now, and his greenie came up to me, looked at my name tag and was like, “You're Elder Clemons?” Haha.  Looks like I'm luckily well remembered in Fontana :-) 

So a long time ago, I bought these cool leather cases for my scriptures.  But it's been months now that I've been waiting for them.  Finally got them this week ...super nice! Buenos Aires temple and my name on the front, and Christ "knocking on the door" on the back. Love it!

I also just bought 2 Boca Soccer jerseys today. Can you see me wearing these back in the States?! The white one is the new official uniform, and the blue/yellow one is the training model.

And hey, the hair cut's getting better :)

So yesterday we decided to sleep on the roof! ...well why not. It was super fun.

But what's funny is Elder Ware thought it could just throw his mattress up on the roof ...no problem.  So he threw it, but missed just under, and the mattress bounced back off the wall and flew over the end of our building, then fell down 2 stories into our neighbor's back yard. Bahahahahah.  Oh we were dying! And even better, when he went over to the neighbor's to get it back, the neighbor laughed even harder!  Oh it was hilarious. Good times, and a good night :)

Welp, got to go!

Chau!!!

Love you Mom! :D

Whoops...

We can't play a real game, but playing PIG is still fun :-)

Howdy Familia!

So we actually had a surprise right after P-day last week. Literally 10 minutes before P-day ended Elder Ware y Elder Diaz received a phone call from the Zone Leaders saying that Diaz was going to be emergency transferred to a new area in Corrientes and that Elder Ware would receive a new companion the following day. 

So Diaz left, and a new Elder named Elder Morillo came. Elder Morillo is way cool. He's from Ecuador, but appears gringo like us. He understands English perfectly, he's super fun to be around, and he's a hard worker. So he is a great addition to the Reconquista!

P-day today was really fun. After cleaning the entire apartment again (yes, Elders do clean their apartments sometimes)  went to go play some basketball. Lots of fun!

Whoops...

Elder Ware clearly doesn't know how to cut hair !!!!!

Oh haha funny story. We borrowed some hair clippers from another Elder, and I asked Elder Ware to just take a little off the sides because they were looking pretty long (long for missionaries anyway). I told him a 3 would be about right. "Easy enough" he says.

After his first cut, he just stared at my hair in complete silence for like a minute ...then started apologizing profusely.

Uh oh ...somehow he'd set it to a 1!!! :P He had literally made one bald strip :P It looked hilarious, but clearly also not very missionary like.  So we took some time to kinda' fix it

...and now a week later, it's starting to look allright. So oh well, it’s in the past.  Haha, I have always had the worst luck with haircuts.

A bit of fix up, and a week later, things are starting to look a bit better :D

Yesterday as probably the most spiritually draining day of my mission. Such a huge let down when we realized we had no one come to church yesterday. No investigators and no members! It rained yesterday and no one came to church. And only 8 members showed up!! Kinda' funny and sad, but there were more missionaries in Sacrament meeting than members.  So we ended up doing just about everything: the prayers, the sacrament, directing, hymns, classes. Oh it was so bad. :P   Come on, people, it's just a little bit of rain!! It doesn't mean the end of the world; yes ...you can leave your house.

I went on exchanges this week with my district leader. I learned a lot from him. He taught me a lot about how to ask inspired questions, and how to use them in lessons. So I have been working on that a bit this week.

So just so you know everything is going well down here. We do have a couple people that I feel can progress. I'll let you know more about them next week.  But do please pray for them.

I love what I do and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. Love you all so much!!

Elder Clemons

...oh, and make everyone write me. :)

We have started a tradition in the apartment to buy a Grido's ice cream cake every Saturday night. Oh it is so good!! Yummy!

Super Yum!!

Progressing in the Gospel...

Hola Familia!!

This week wasn't super eventful, but we saw a lot of progression with our recent converts. :)

First off, Leonardo passed the sacrament in church!!! Oh I was so happy! It was like seeing his bautismo again. He was dressed up in his white shirt and tie, and did everything perfectly. He was so happy that he did it. And I was super happy for him.

And Luis, my old man Luis paid his tithing yesterday!! He doesn't really have a job, but almost as a hobby - sells tires.  So with the money he made from that, he paid his tithing! Ya! :D

That is why I am here. It's small moments like these that really help you realize why you're on a mission ...to help bring people to Christ. It's one thing to watch baptisms, but to view genuine progression post conversion is another. Activity in the church blesses lives.  I love seeing what the Gospel does in the lives of others. I love my mission! 

Also this week we had family night with the Micheli and Agonils at the Micheli's home. And the father was there also! :D  It was perfect!  We opened up with a hymn and prayer, and then after shared the message of the restoration. The father had some questions for us such as, "what motivates you to go out and work?" and "how did you come to know that this was true?" We both shared stories and experiences we had had, and the room filled with the spirit.  Everyone felt the power of the message and testimonies. We then invited him to church.........but he said no. :P

...wait for it

...because he had a cold. :P  But he said that he would go to church next week! So we will see if he keeps rule number 2 of President Juchau's Rules of Manhood: keep all commitments. So pray that he does. :)

Well this week I got sick, remember how last week I got a cold?  It just got super worse throughout the week. On Tues it was bad, but I ignored it and went out and worked, which was a super bad idea because made everything worse. On Wed I ended up having to stay in.  We didn't leave the apartment, and I didn't even leave my bed. I felt SO sick ...didn't eat anything that day. On Thursday, I felt like I did back on Tues, so I went out and tried to work.  It was pretty hard, but by the time Friday came around, I felt decent once again. Hey, and I lost a good 6 pounds this week. Sweet!!

Oh hahahah this is a funny story. Every Friday night we have activities in the church hosted by the missionaries. And this week we had planned to play volleyball with water balloons and towels. But our branch mission leader didn't really want to run it. We told him we'd take care of it. Anyways, we set everything up and he announced that instead of playing volleyball with water balloons, we would watch The Testaments, which is like over 1 hr long.  Errrr what?

So all the missionaries got together like a little huddle during the movie and discussed our options. We all had investigatores and inactives at the activity, and we didn't want to bore them with the movie. So we had to figure out a way to turn the movie off so we could go outside and play. So long story short, turns out that if you turn on a lot of the appliances in the Church all at the same time, the power cuts. And that's what we did. A few of us went out of the room and turned everything on so the power would cut. Hahaha... after that everyone went outside, and we played water balloon volleyball.  Everybody loved it ...including the branch Mission Leader. So our plan worked out great, and everyone went home happy. ;)

Today for P-day we got to go play some basketball. We still can't play an actual game, but we can play Pig and shoot hoops for a while. So all the missionaries in the apartment got together to play some b-ball. Pretty fun.

Well that is about all this week! I love you all so much and I hope everything is cool up there!

Love Elder Clemons!

My famous pizza!!

Hey, family!

Congratulations to Lori and Brent on the new baby Joseph!  ...can't wait to meet my new nephew!!

I know it's a shocker, but we made these Zone t-shirts, and the zone voted me
as Superman. I'm not complaining, mind you, I just need some muscles :P

So nothing super exciting happened this week. ...And we weren't able to have the noche de hogar with the Micheli familia last week because they wanted to do something a bit more special to celebrate their baptisms! So they waited a week so they could have a bit more money! But we do have a Family Night scheduled with them for this Saturday! So we'll then try to get to the dad to accept a baptismal date and go to church!

We sadly lost our our investigadores Alsidis y Rita who have moved into the Zone Leaders' area. So that kinda' sucks that we lose them.  Of course, the real goal is to help the people come unto Christ ...and it obviously doesn't matter who does the helping :)  So I'm sure the ZL's will do a fine job.

I kinda' got sick today. I woke up with a sore throat, and it has gotten progressively worse throughout the day. No!!!! ...I don't wont to get sick. It is sooo annoying to have to walk around in the heat when you are sick. But I suspect (hope) this is just something little. 

 

Can you say "coronary bypass"?

We played some Clue for P-day last Monday. Yup, your boy Clemons won both times. ...Um, I think those are the only times I have ever won Clue in my life. It was a nice p-day.  And I made my famous pizza; it was divine!!

Elder Ware had his birthday this week, so me and Elder Conway got him a nice ice cream cake!! It was nice to celebrate a birthday.

 

 

 

 

Oh, and nothing happened to us for transfers. I'm still in Reconquista training Elder Conway. And nothing happened with the other Elders either. Elder Ware and Elder Diez are still here as well!

Love you!!! 

Elder Clemons

 

Elderes K-Pos

Brother Agonil baptised Mirian, Miceala, y Leonardo last Saturday, August 23!

Hola Familia!

This week was super awesome! ...and went by super fast!

First off, Mirian, Miceala, y Leonardo got baptized on Saturday!!! :D It was probably the happiest baptismal service I have ever attended. They were all truly happy, and the Spirit was really strong.

I have really grown to care a lot for this family. I have worked with them from day one, and I am so grateful to God that he permitted me to stay here long enough to see them take their first steps toward God. And it's wonderful to see the obvious new blessings in people's lives as they draw nearer to God. ...God be thanked for all the miracles He worked through us.

And I'm happy to report that the baptisms went quite smoothly :-)  And the dad even went to the service!! He is HUGE!!! He can like eat me. But he came to support his family. Annnnnnd he loved it!!

"Elderes K-Pos" means cool elders :-)

He said he especially loved the “Elderes Capos” cake we made! He come up to me and said in English, “I like....cake” YA!

And we were able to set up a Family Night with his family and the Agonil family. Brother Agonil is also the one who performed the baptisms. Hopefully we'll have more opportunities to work with the Dad and help him see the real blessings of the gospel!

Corrientes

So a lot went down this week. We literally had like no time to work because we were constantly traveling. On Wed we had to get up at 1:30 am again to ride up to Corrientes to do some paper work for Elder Conway. We got there at like 8 and finished at 9; so we had almost 4 hours of free time to go site-seeing because our bus didn’t leave until 1:30 pm. We first went to the river (not really a beach, just some piers) and took some pictures and relaxed.

Clearly,  "Elder Clemons" was here :D

...kinda' like the Vegas strip!

And then afterwards we went to this one long street that had a bunch of stores and mini shops and stuff. It reminded me a lot of the Vegas strip ...without all the bad stuff. So that was super fun. We took a lot of photos, tried several random foods, etc.

Then we took our bus home which got us back at around 6, and we went to work until 9:30.

Zone Conference

The very next day we went to Saen Peña. We once again had to get up at 2 am in order to be there by 10. Oh, I was so dead tired. But it was really uplifting. We had a multi-zone meeting where president gave us a lot of good training and such. I learned a lot about how to work with members and recent converts.

...and we had pizza for lunch!! Woot! I love pizza!

Then we set off for good old Reconquista. ...and got back at 12:30 am :P  I'm sure you can image how dead tired I was ...2 days straight without proper sleep. Eh.

So FYI, we have transfers this coming week.  But I think I'm going to stay here with Elder Conway to finish his training, but who knows ...I’m rarely right. ;)

Welp, that is all I have for you this week. I just want to let you know that I love my mission. Sure there are always trials, trials that sometimes shake your soul.  But I know what I am doing is good and true.

I love serving here in Argentina and love testifying to the people about the Lord's restored gospel. I try hard to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. And when I succeed, it's one of the greatest feelings knowing that the Lord can use you.

I know that the restored gospel is true, that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is true.

Love you all so much!

Love you lots!!!

Happy Anniversary, mom and dad!  Here's a nice pink tree to celebrate it :D   -- Love you lots!!!

Found 2 of these in our apartment this week :p

Hey family!!

This week was probably the most successful week of my misión! Although I got sick on Monday, I feel better now; and we had huge success with menos activos, finding new people to teach, and with the M_____ family! We also had 5 families in church yesterday!!! :D Gah! That's unheard of in this area…

The M______s went to church again last Sunday ...which means they continue to be on track for their baptisms this Saturday! :D We're all super pumped! So please pray that they will make it.

We also found a super awesome couple named A____ y R___. We found them while visiting with a menos activa sister who gave us their reference. Holy Cats! ...they've already read the Book of Mormon, prayed about it, and know that it's true. And they came to church yesterday! How's that for a golden family.  But they do have a problem ...they aren’t married yet, and A____ still has to get divorced. :P -- he's been separated for over 9 years. So we are starting all that paperwork this week. So please pray that they will continue their excitement and continue to progress in the Gospel.

Riding in the mission car.  Woot!, haven't done that in a while!!

We also got to take a little trip up to Resistencia last Wednesday to do some paperwork for Elder Conway. We got up at 1:30am to be up there by 7. Ya, it was fun to be up in the middle of the night. I also enjoyed the traveling because it's something different. Also, I got to hang out with the office elders and APs for a while ...and got a ride in the mission car!! Wow, haven't done that in a while :) 

And just like 5 seconds ago I got a call saying that we now have to go to Corrientes this coming Wednesday to do some more paperwork. Hahaha, so looks like we're takin' another road trip :)

Yesterday, we got invited to a birthday party for the kids of a member that we recently reactivated. It was super fun; and the cake was amazing. The sister let us share a message with all of her friends after the party was over ...so now we have a few more investigators to work with :P

Fakundo loves Dinosars

Now that's a cake!!

As you can see, this week was full of blessings.

I love my mission, and I love the people I have the opportunity to teach. Thanks for all your support and love!

Love Elder Clemons

Service turns to opportunity :D

The zone hit all the goals we set, so pres bought us ice cream

This week was full of miracles!

First off, the familia M______ is progressing really well! We went over there on Monday to give M_____ a blessing because of her appendicitis, and it was such a powerful experience. The member (Hno A_____) couldn't make it, so I was privileged to give the blessing. It was one of the most powerful experience I have felt on my mission. You could literally feel the power of the priesthood flowing in our hands, as well as the Spirit filling the room. Everyone was silent after the blessing. Everyone knew that the power of the priesthood was real, and that we held it. After the blessing, we bore testimony of the restoration and that God has restored His Priesthood authority to the earth. It was super powerful.

Also, last Saturday, we had a family night with them where we talked about temples and eternal families. They loved it! Then after, we all built temples with tooth pics and those little puff ball things. But the best part was ...after we left, the M______ family stayed to hang out with the A______s!!! :D L___ went off to play with some of the other boys, and M______ and M______ stayed to chat with the girls!! Woot!!! And they all came to church!! Keep praying for their baptisms for the 23rd!!

We also had a random service activity! We walked by right when these people needed help moving. It was perfect! We helped move everything: beds, fridge, couches, all! We ended up moving a giant and super heavy armario from outside up to the second level. That was scary! Elder Conway nearly died. It was super fun though ...and now we're teaching them! Woot!!

Whoops, gotta go! Love my mission!

Me, Elder Conway, and Elder Ware (an Elder we live with) all buzzed our heads because it's hot now! Super hilarious!

The Power of Member-Missionaries

Elder Conway and I bought some sick soccer jerseys!!

Hola Familia!!

This week was full of trials and tender mercies, just as every week in the mission. 

The familia M_______ is making great progress. We still haven't been able to meet with the father ...he just won't talk to us. But he is super ok with his family going to church and getting baptized :-) His childhood friend is the 1st counselor in our branch, so we have brought him multiple times to their house to talk with him and such, but he just hasn't made it out to talk to us. :P Apparently, he had a rough childhood, and his dad was strictly Catholic. But we're obviously not giving up! I am going to talk to the dad before I leave!!

We had a super successful family night at the home of the 1st counselor. We watched the Restoration video and after bore our testimonies. The testimonies of the 1st counselor and his wife were key. The Spirit must have really guided them in their words because they said exactly what the M______'s needed to hear. After todo, the M_____'s then bore their testimonies!! It was so cool! The son, L__, told us how reading the BoM has brought him closer to God, their daughter, M____, told us how she used to be afraid of the dark, but after kneeling and prayer, God strengthened her, and mom M_____ testified that her home is more peaceful. Powerful witnesses of conversion!  Made me so happy. :) 

I'm the Elder that takes care of all the apartment expenses,
so I always receive a ton of money every month!

Sadly, they were not able to come to church. :( M_____ got appendicitis Saturday night, and got operated on Sunday morning. :( I called the family, and we talked a little bit and set up a time where we could go over there and give M_____ a blessing. We are going over tonight with Hno A____ (the 1st counselor) so that he can give the blessing. That should be a powerful experience. I hope that their dad is there so that he can see his friend helping his family.

Although we had no investigators at church, we still had success ...a lot of it!

Besides our work with the M______s, we also had 2 inactive families at church ...families that haven't visited the church in months. We also had 2 baby blessings on Fast Sunday from these families! :) So, all in all, I think Sunday was a good day!

The kingdom of God is growing surely and steadily. :) 

Hey so there isn't much time. Just know that I appreciate your prayers on behalf on me, my comp, and those whom we teach. I ask that you continue to pray for us and the work we are doing.

I love my mission ...with both words and actions. I love it and wouldn't give it up for the world. I am putting everything I have into this work. I know it is true, and I know that happiness is found in service to our fellowmen.

Love you and thanks so much for your letters! 

Elder Clemons

Editor's note: regarding Travis's comments last week about starving, he now reports that he and his companion have received their money, and they're eating just fine :-)

We had so much success!!!

Hola Familia!!

This week was incredible!!! We had so much success!!! We had 4 people in church, and for the first time ever, were able to teach more lessons with members helping us than just on our own.  We almost achieved every goal established by the zone! So yup, we feel pretty good this week :-)

We have not yet had a chance to meet M____'s husband. We've tried several times, but he keeps avoiding us. But igual, we have received permission from him to continue to teach his family :D Since then, we've had two super powerful lessons with their family (M____ y her kids); they've even been able to come to a baptism this last Saturday! They loved the hymns and the whole atmosphere of the baptism. It was really rewarding to see how happy they were. And best of all, all 3 of them came to church!!! :D And they were all so excited ...they've been waiting for this day for nearly 3 weeks. I'm certain that they loved it. We've already made plans with them for this coming Sunday, and tonight we've got a Family Night planned at a member's home. So things are looking really good for this family. They've scheduled a tentative baptismal date for the 23rd of August, but that might actually be moved up to the 16th depending on how they feel.  Please continue to pray for this family so that they can have the animo (editor: courage) to continue onward and reach their baptisms. 

P-days have gotten super fun these past few weeks as we now get to play frisbee, ping pong and vollyball ...so that's pretty much all we do now on p-days! And it's so much fun since we haven't played sports in over a year!

But sad news ...we didn't receive our monthly money this week for some reason, so I think I'm going to starve this week. :p I only have 10 pesos to my name, which is only about 1 dollar. :p I really have no clue what I am going to do. 

Some of the greatest joy on this earth is being with your family and helping others come into the gospel.  And I have learned so much about both during my mission. There is no greater joy than living the gospel and the certainty of eternal famillies. I love seeing the happiness people recieve as they begin to take those early steps towards baptisms. Seeing them happy makes me happy. I hope it's not too trite, but I do love helping people.

I can never properly express to you how much I love my missoin. I love it thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssss much! Although on some days it's ridiculously cold, on others it's unbearably hot and sweaty, and you never get enough sleep ...I do love what I do.

Love you all so much! 

And hey, please ask the family write me!!!  I may not be able to reply, but I do love the letters :D

Elder Travis Clemons

...this Elder knows how to play ball :-)

Elder Thomas got transferred to Corrientes

Hola familia!!!

So Transfers were this week!!! Elder Thomas left to Corrientes, and I stayed here in Reconquista with a GREENY!!!

Elder Conway, is from American Fork ...um, yes, he plays basketball :-)

...I'M TRAINING!!!!

I was super shocked when they said that I was going to train. I don't feel ready for it at all. But I do feel privileged, realize it's a significant responsibility, and am committed to do a good job and to learn and grow.

No, he's not Latino, but obviously that doesn't matter. His name is Elder Conway, and he's from American Fork! Wow, super close to us! He went to school at Pleasant Grove and played basketball. Too bad we can't really play sports on our missions :p 

Elder Conway is going to be a great missionary. As a greenie, he doesn't yet speak Spanish particularly fluently, but that doesn't stop him from throwing himself out there and contacting, teaching, praying, and doing everything the Lord asks of a missionary. He's got a powerful testimony.





I do realize I'm a bit unprepared to be a trainer.  But I trust in Presidente Franco's inspiration, and I know that sticking to the "12 Weeks" program and relying heavily on the Holy Ghost will start us out on the right path.

Wish us luck!

Here's an update on our golden family: M___ and her 2 kids. They really are my favorite family that I've had the privilege to teach on my mission. We've had many lessons and Family Home Evenings with them; and they just love the gospel. They always keep their commitments and recognize the blessings they are receiving.

But we do have a little kink -- M___'s husband (I've not met him yet) won't let them go to church just yet. :(  We'd made plans with the family to go to church together, but when we passed by Sunday morning to get them, they weren't there. We passed by again that night to see if they had returned, and the kids came out to talk with us.  They told us they know the church is true, that they've received personal answers to their prayers, and that they'd like to get baptized. We told them their father is an important part of their family, and the entire family should talk together about the good things they are learning from the missionaries, and explain to him that this really is something that they want.

My comp and I are going to fast this Tuesday for them. We'll also try to set up some times when the dad can participate in our conversations (of course, we've attempted this many times before). Once we get that opportunity, we're certain the Spirit will take over the lesson. So I'm asking everyone to keep this family in your prayers, and ask that the Holy Ghost be with us during our lessons, and that the father's heart be softened. 

I really love this family. We will do everything we can to help them. 

I know the church is true; I've never doubted it, and never will. I can't properly express to you how much I love my mission. But, well, I love it. I wouldn't give it up for the world. I love the work and the people. 

...and I love you all so much!

Elder Clemons!

A nice roof-top dinner while Argentina loses to Germany :(

Our first district activity in Argentina.  Ping-pong was fun; but let's just say I'm not so good ;-)

Hola Famillia!! 

I got to have my first activity in Argentina! The very first time that we were allowed to get together as a district to do something on p-day!! Woot! We played some ping pong! I was super bad, but it was fun!

Otherwise, this week was pretty hard since we kept having to go in because of the World Cup games. Our numbers suffered a lot as a result :(

But we did find 2 families which gives me a little bit of hope. :) Gabriela and her 2 kids, Allen and Gloria, and Mirian and her 2 kids, Leonardo and Mikaela. They are all interested and want to learn more. :) We haven't had a chance to meet their husbands (if they even are married ...no one here gets married; they just live together); so that might be a problem.  Unsurprisingly, it's often the men that stop their families from progressing. But I have a lot of faith and hope in these people, so please pray for them that they can receive answers to their sincere prayers :)

But Mirian and her kids are progressing! They read everything as a family and are super pumped for the church. Mirian has even testified that she knows that they are receiving blessings by listening to us.  She's noticed more peace and happiness among her family. :) Sadly, they couldn't go to church yesterday, but we have meaningful plans for this next week. So please pray for them so that then can continue progressing, receive answers to their prayers, and eventually get baptized. :) 

And pray for us to find more people that will accept God's message.

Argentina has been crazy with the World Cup. Everyone and their dogs wear the Argentine soccer jerseys ...and yes, that's not just an expression ... their dogs really are dressed up in little Argentine jerseys. It's quite hilarious.

Missionaries have to be in their apartments any time Argentina plays. But believe me, we hear everything that happens. Every time a goal goes off, the city explodes ...literally. Cannons go off, fireworks launch, car horns toot and blow horns go wild. People run through the streets screaming.  Ha ha hah, it's seriously funny ...and makes studying hard. And then when the game ends with an Argentine win, then things really go loco. Everything I just described happens x 10 ...for like 2 hours. It's really quite crazy to me. But it's also quite fun to be in a country that loves soccer this much.

Sadly the States lost to Belgica, but that was probably for the best; I suspect it would've made the work super hard.  But we'll come back in 4 years! :D  As for now, I'm rooting for Argentina, my second home! We gotta win!

 

 

We were on top of our apartment for the Argentina v Holland game.  The city literally went crazy. Fireworks everywhere.  We couldn't hear a thing because everyone was screaming and yelling and cars were honking. So fun!

 

We had a super nice dinner on top of the roof. We had to stay in the whole day Sunday. So we made a super nice dinner. We made hamburgers by hand, with eggs, lettuce, tomato and all. We also made our french fries by hand. Topped off with some nice drinks ...it was a really nice, relaxing day. 

 

And and Elder Thomas made us some super good flan!!! Flan is like the main dessert dish here in Argentina! It made for some really good comfort food after the big loss.

It was the best meal I've had here in Reconquista. We enjoyed the weather, watched the city, and played some board/card games. :)  A very fun night!

 

 

 

But it was a serious bummer when Argentine lost against Germany.  Here's a video from on top of our apartment after the World Cup finals. Super sad. I have never seen so much sadness in any city ever before. You could just see it in their posture the next morning. Everyone was dragging their feet, barely able to smile, walking real slow. And no one had their Argentina shirts on ...not even their dogs.  I couldn't find an Argentina flag anywhere. The Argentines took quite the hit yesterday ...and so did I. I wanted to win sooo bad! But oh well, next time. ;)

 

 

So we have been working with the menos activos in our area lately.  We're trying to reactive them by encouraging them to help us do the work. We recently had a family home evening where we made tacos, and they invited some of their friends! It was soooo good, and quite successful! ..and spicy!! (I actually burned myself!) Their friend was super interested, and we have a second cita already set up for this Wednesday with her!

Hey, so transfers are this week.  Elder Thomas is definitely gone this week; so I'm assuming I will finally get my long-awaited Latino companion!!! :D  Woot!!!

So that's about it.  Not much happened this week. But Just know that I am working hard and loving what I am doing! Love the work, and love the people! :D

Love Elder Clemons