What the heck?!!?

Hey familia!! Sooooo ...transfers happened!!! And you would never guess what happened!!!!

So I predicted and wanted ...well I'M TRAINING!!!!! BAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!  I still don`t know who yet, I will meet him tomorrow.  Right now I am waiting at the mission headquarters here in Resistencia for him to get here. But there's more ...I'M GOING BACK TO RECONQUISTA!!!!  THE EXACT SAME AREA AND ALL!!!  What the heck!?!?!?!?!  I freaked when I saw the transfer!!! Wow, Reconquista 4 ...again!

I am really hoping I get to train a Latino.  I have only had one Latino as a companion so far on my mission, and I'm really hoping he will be from Uruguay.  But whatever happens, happens.  And I am happy with it.






So I am going to miss being a Zone Leader.  I really liked being able to help all the missionaries and seeing our collective success. And I liked all the meetings with Pres. Franco every month and receiving all his inspired special training.

But what I've really wanted to do all along was to be able to focus on one Elder and start him off right; and that is exactly what Pres. Franco gave me.  I couldn't be happier. :)


Goya
Oh wow, was it hard to leave Goya!!! :(

I was there 6 months and really loved the people. They're just incredible.  I am going to send you lots of photos.  It was super hard to say goodbye.

Mirta y Joana were really sad. They were both crying when I told them that I was leaving. :( They are both incredible and sooo faithful. They were always willing to help us with the missionary work and always gave us something to eat and drink any time we stopped by.


Oh and goodness, Lucia Lopez and her children Valentina y Lucas were soooo sad. Lucia wrote me a letter saying how grateful she was for my help blessing her family and blessing her kids ...she knit me a hat!!! Super cool! I'll send a photo of it next week.  She also gave me an Argentina Flag. Valentina y Lucas drew me a picture and said that  they loved me. :) Ohhh man, that was hard!!

Yup, leaving Goya is hard to do :-(


Oh cool experience, I worked a lot with the Old Mission leader`s son Maxi. He is 14 and really converted and dedicated to the gospel. As we were saying our goodbyes he took me aside and said he received an answer from God.  He said he'd been praying to know if he should go on a mission (because none of his older siblings had gone), and he said that he'd had a dream (which even included me), and that God had recently answered his prayers to go.  How cool is that!! He just thanked me for the example and motivation and said he was going to do
everything to get himself on a mission. :) What a great kid. :)



Man, I just love the mission. There just isn't any experience in the world that can replace it. You come, serve complete strangers, and love them so easily. I really love the many things I've learned from my mission. And I love serving these people.

If there's only one thing I could take home from my time in the mission, it would be an increase of charity towards those around me. I have grown to love so many people out in the mission.

First off my family.  I haven't seen you guys in nearly 2 years, but my love for you has grown tremendously.

I've also grown to love Presidente Franco and his wife, the members, and the converts ...it is just so easy to love while you're a missionary. I really do believe that I have developed a bit more charity out here.  Completely? No. But I know it has grown.  And if I read the scriptures properly, that's probably the greatest thing that can happen to a disciple of Christ.

Christ lives. Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is the word of God as is the Bible. Humbly, we are members of Christ's true church. I know it, and this knowledge fills me with joy.

Love you all soo much! :)

Elder Clemons

We kinda' "dropped cane"...

This week was super busy!  (my first day of actual work wasn't until Thursday.)

Just some friends messing around...

On Monday we did mini exchanges with the Elderes in Belgrano because one of them had a toe operation and couldn't walk, so we went with them so they could have some time in their area. 

Leaders' Meeting
On Tuesday we went up to the leader's meeting which was pretty interesting this time. We talked about the new inciativia de la Iglesia "He Lives" That got me pretty excited. Unfortunately, we can't really participate in much of it because we don't have the technology to do it.  So our part is just going to be handing out these little cards. But I hope to eventually do what we did in the plaza with the "He is the Gift" stands and such; that was super fun!

After that we talked exclusively about the Book of Mormon and why it is so important to the missionary work in touching the hearts of our investigators. One of the activities we did was to receive 10 random questions that people commonly ask us, and we had 10 minutes to find Book of Mormon scriptures to address those concerns. It was pretty fun (and I think I surprised myself with how comfortably I was able to come up with decent answers), but others had waaay better scriptures ...so I just copied theirs hahaha. 

Zone Meeting
On Wednesday we had our Zone meeting where we again talked about everything we had discussed at the leaders' meeting on Tuesday with President Franco.  We also talked about our "Zone Specifics" ...the zone has dropped in essentially every statistic. :P I don't really understand what happened, but all of our numbers dropped, so we kinda' "dropped cane" (which is an Argentine saying that means "we threw down.") We then taught about all the keys of success: working with members, contacting, using the Book of Mormon, diligence in general, etc. It was actually a very productive meeting.  I think we all learned a lot from the meeting, and I hope our numbers will improve. :) 

Divisiones
Then after we got back to Goya from Wednesday through Saturday, we did divisiones with the Elders from Goya 3, Elder Calderón y Elder Diaz. I always enjoy these times getting to know other elders, and I had a super fun time and learned a lot from Elder Diaz. It was good to be with a friend from the mission. You'll recall Elder Diaz and I were together for over 4 months in Reconquista.  We lived in the same apartment there; so this was a good opportunity to catch up while doing some good work. 

Investigators
So even though we had very little time this week to work in our area, we still found some great people! We found this one girl named Margarita who 8 years earlier had investigated the church and nearly got baptized.  But then she moved to this other city called Esquina and kinda' lost touch with the church since we don't have a ward or branch there. About 2 years ago she moved back to Goya where just last week we found her again ...and she was suuuuper happy we did! We've really enjoyed teaching her; she's super nice and faithful, and she already understands the importance of keeping commitments (which is verrrrrry rare here). I am confident she'll get baptized. :)

Also we found a FAMILY!! ...and with an adult male!!! What!?! Like that never happens here!!! And he is nice and wants to learn and wants to go to church! I gotta' tell you, my mind was blown when he said he wanted to go to church. We have already taught the family 3 times, and the even better news is they already have a member as a close friend. They have already accepted a date to be baptized (which ya, is awesome!), but we still have plenty to teach them before they'll be ready. 

Transfers
So the next letter you'll get from me will probably be from my next area. Yup, transfers are next Monday (May 23), and I'm certain I'm going. I want to train in Formosa, so keep your fingers crossed! 

Hermana Scadlock
So I'm sure you know what happened to Hermana Scadlock; it really is a tragedy. Needless to say, the mission took it rather hard. We are all kinda' deflated down here. I personally didn't know her all that well; just met her a couple of times at zone meetings and such. It is really sad to know that she passed away while serving our Lord ...but the Lord's thoughts are not our thoughts, so I trust she is in His comfort and care.

I know that families are eternal and that we can be sealed to one another in the temple. God's purpose is to give us joy and eternal life. And for that reason we have the Church. If one is faithful, they will live forever with their families in eternal happiness. I know it is true.

Please pray for the family of Hermana Scadlock.



Know that I love you and pray daily for you guys. And know that I am working hard out here. :)


Love you!!

Elder Clemóns

We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked...

The mission gave us each some motorbikes to help us preach in our area...

...we got to design our own.  Here's mine ;-)

Hello Familia,

How are you walking?    ¿Como Andan?    I hope you walk well  :)

Nothing super big happened this week.  We did divisiones with the Elders in BellaVista, but I already talked about that in my last letter. We also did some mini-divisiones with the Elders in Belgrano because one of them had had laser foot surgery on his in-grown toenails, haha.  That cost over $3000 pesos (editor: US $340)!! So we went over to their area to help them out because he couldn't work the whole week.


So Mirta and Vivianna are just as happy as ever ...to be baptized, to be clean, to be members of the Lord's true church. Fills me with joy to see them so happy. And this week, we set a new goal with them... to go to the TEMPLE! Mirta is super excited to go, and has already started to plan things so that she can go. And Vivianna would like us to teach her more about the temple in preparation.


So I kinda' feel like this week was one of those "trial" weeks ...and it was bound to happen, eh? We've had so much success lately, that I suppose we now have so suffer a little bit. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. I must have lost some weight, but I doubt it 'cause no matter how hard I try I just can't seem to lose any here.

After all that walking, we found 3 new families to teach, had incredible first lessons with them, and then never found them again; they just wouldn't answer the door the 2nd time we came around. Just as an FYI, this has happened many times before ...but never with people so prepared as they were. We'll continue to visit them, and we'll see where it goes.


Tomorrow we have Consejo de Lideres, a big meeting of all the leaders. I'm pretty sure this will be my last one because transfers are coming up soon. And then the following day (Wednesday) is our next Zone meeting. I'm going to take advantage of that one, and try to talk to Presidente about our zone's new goals and progress since this week wasn't so good.

Well, that's about all that happened this week.  See ya next week!!!

Viva la vida!!!

Elder Clemons

The Spirit said to take a taxi and chase the bus...

Hey, so the power went out again in Goya yesterday, so I didn't get to finish writing my letter. Sorry. And today, I'm in BellaVista doing exchanges....

Miracles do happen ...both Mirta and Viviana were baptized :D

Mirta & Viviana
So it happened! Both Mirta and Viviana (not related) were baptized this past Saturday!!! :D It was such a great feeling to be a part of their baptisms; we've been working so hard and for so long with both of them ...to finally see them be baptized was amazing and fulfilling.

Both Mirta and Viviana have had huge obstaculos on their road to baptism, but with a bit of diligence, faith, and patience, they were able to overcome those obstaculos and get baptized. That's why I feel like these baptisms were so fulfilling, we worked and worked and worked, had tons of ups and downs, moments of high hopes and expectations, and other moments where those hopes and expectations were nearly destroyed. But all in all, it worked out, God providing the way.

The baptismal service was well attended and went smooth, the baptisms were performed without errores, and everyone was just happy and in good spirits. For the snack after there was pizza, empanadas, facturas, and pop. But sadly for the missionaries, were we all fasting, so we didn't get to participate haha. But overall, this was just a happy spiritual experience.

Volleyball on the beach ...if you can see it on the sand, it says Parana ....our zone is Rio Parana 1!

P-Day

Ya ...we're cool ;-)

P-Day yesterday was super fun. Presidente Franco gave our zone permission to meet up and play volleyball on the beach! Super fun! You'll be pleased to know that this time I remembered to put some sunscreen on ...but I forgot to also put it on the tops of my feet, so those got burned :-( But it was sooooooo worth it. I don't think I have walked barefoot for my whole mission, and walking through the sand was just incredible. I'm serious, I was so happy just to be able to walk on sand.

It was also really nice to just have the zone playing volleyball together.  It's really quite rare that we can play sports here, but we had to end at 3 because our bus left at 4 to go to BellaVista....

We were running late, so we bolted home, didn't even change into proselyting clothes, grabbed our stuff for exchanges, and ran to the terminal (bus station). Right as we showed up ....it left! :D

Oh I felt so bad. But as we were returning to the apartment, the Spirit said to take a taxi and chase the bus.  I thought "Bueno, done!!" And so we jumped in a taxi and literally chased down the bus, caught up to it, got in front of it, got out of the taxi, and made the bus stop. We then entered and paid and successfully made our way to BellaVista. I truly felt like a boss at that moment. :-)


Oh, so every Monday Presidente Franco calls us to talk about the zone and the work. This last time we talked about the work in February, which was really pretty good for our zone. Presidente Franco said that he had given each of the individual zones a goal, and the goal he had set for our zone was ....to not change anything, just to keep going as is.  Needless to say, that made me feel pretty happy knowing that Pres was happy with the work here in our zone.  :-)


I love the mission.  Life is good and enjoyable.  It is easy to be happy out here.  Love you all!

Elder Clemons! :D

Baptisms and Miracles

Hey family!! So this week has been busy! ...like super busy!

First off, we had like no time to work this week. (I realize that doesn't quite fit with the first sentence).  Argentina just had it's "Carnival." It's a huge parade thing, but missionaries are asked to stay inside during most of festivities. Also, there have been fairly constant protests in all of Argentina against the President, so missionaries stay inside during those too.


Zone Conference

On Thursday, the entire zone headed up to Resistencia though for a multi-zone conference which included all the missionaries in Corrientes. We were able to rent a minibus for the day, so we rode up in style ...very nice. During the conference, Presidente and other leaders talked about the importance of baptism and what we need to do to encourage investigators to come unto Christ. I was actually pretty surprised about this because our zone is baptizing a whole lot more than we used to, but you can always do more, right!? Also we made these 72 hour kits which was pretty fun. Oh, we also got to watch the "Meet the Mormons" movie (awesome!) and a slide show of the mission. So all in all, the multi-zone conference was effective and fun.



Valentina y Lucas

Sooooo Valentina y Lucas were baptized this week! :D :D These are the 2 happiest kids I think I have met on my mission. They are so sweet, and they just love the missionaries sooo much. :) They were truly HAPPY to be there, just laughing and smiling the whole time! The mom was thrilled as well. She sent us a message at the end of the night thanking us for what we have done for her family, and arranging everything for the baptism.

Valentina y Lucas were baptized this week! :D :D

Bummer ...can't eat either one :-(
Made somebody happy though :-)

Oh get this, so often after baptisms, the branch opens up this little snack area behind the chapel -- for cakes, pop, cookies, etc. So our Branch President went out and bought 2 cakes because we were anticipating like 50 people at the baptism ...turns out one of the cakes was a coffee cake, and the other one had alcohol in it. Bahahaha, I mean bahahah, bahahahah ...it was a complete accident, but super funny. We ended up giving them to strangers in the street, and went out and bought 2 more. Other than that, the baptismal service was awesome.




Miracles
So I have 2 miracles to tell you. Do you remember Viviana? She had the sister that wanted to sue us. Ya, so last Thursday she came and found us and told us that she wanted to get baptized, and she didn't care what her sister thought. She came to church, and then to the baptism on Saturday, and she is now set to be baptized this coming Saturday. Whahoo!! We've already called Presidente and explained to him the situation, and he gave us the green light to go ahead and baptize her.  So she is going to be baptized this week if all goes well!

Next miracle. Remember Mirta? She has been an investigator of ours since I arrived here in Goya. She hasn't been able to be baptized because she and her boyfriend have been living together without being married. But they have been working on the paper work to be married. And the entire time I've been here she's gone to church almost every week, pays fast offerings, allowed her daughter Joana to be baptized, read the entire BoM and is currently reading DyC, and many many more remarkably faithful things. She is just incredible. So out of nowhere, she and her boyfriend have decided to live in separate houses to fulfill the commandments, and will move back in together when their paperwork is finally finished and they eventually do get married. So now she is worthy to be baptized, and we've scheduled that also for this coming Saturday!! :D

I would like to believe these miracles were blessings from God in answer to our prayers. Elder Felkins and I had a special fast this last week asking God to help us find new people He has been preparing for baptism, and to help our current investigators overcome their obstaculos ...and look what happened!!


Micheli's

Oh another noticia!! I received 2 letters from the Micheli family in Reconquista!!!!!!! :D They are so faithful!!! They go to church every week! And are preparing to go to the temple!!!! :D :D Bah! I am so happy!!! :D They told me that their dream is to be sealed as a family. :D I can honestly say I have never felt such instant happiness as I did when I read those letters. It just made me so happy to know that they are going strong and are happy to be in the true church. :)





I love the mission. I just love it, and I don't want it to end. I love being able to help people receive the blessings of the Gospel and see the amazing changes in their lives. Like I have said many times before, true happiness is found in the service of others. I know it is true, for I feel the joy that comes from it daily. I know the BoM is true, that this is Christ's church, and that He leads us to salvation.


I love and miss you all,

Elder Clemóns

A simple truth that has now been engraved on my soul

Hola Familia!

This last week was a little busy because transfers happened a little bit early. But everything has finally settled down, and we are back to normal work. :)

Right now, our mission's goals are to baptize more, retain more, and reactivate more. We've also made these the focus of our zone here in Goya. After nearly 4 months, I believe I have finally gotten a grasp on how to be a Zone Leader. And I think we're doing pretty good as a zone; I think we're on track to have more baptisms this month than for the past year. The goal was 10, and we have 5 scheduled already so far, and have 3 more we can set later this week. On the retaining goal, we are making sure that each new convert has at least the first lesson re-taught every week, and has multiple visits each week. So far, very few of the new converts have gone inactive. Yay! And we are really working hard with reactivating the members. Each week the zone reactivates around 5 people, and for Elder Felkins y Yo, we have reactivated around 23 members so far.  We've also had tons of success just sitting down with members and recent converts, and just reading the BoM with their families. So things are looking pretty good.

There is a part of me that wants to stay in Goya as a Zone Leader, I really enjoy being able to influence so many missionaries.  But I also want to train again! Haha. I have mentioned it multiple times now to Presidente Franco, so I am pretty sure this next transfer I am going to train again.  That'll be fun!. But whether I stay as a Zone Leader, or become a Trainer again, or just work in the Lord's vineyard as a normal missionary, the calling is the same; to just serve the people. And that is what brings true happiness, service.


We have a multi-zone conference in Resistencia this coming week. So we've rented a mini-bus to travel up there together as a zone! Oh man, I am so excited! a MINIBUS!! Traveling by mini bus is a lot faster than using the local Collectivos. While it usually takes about 5ish hours to get up there, with the minibus, it'll only take about 4, and it'll be lots more fun. That'll also give us more time to sleep! :D

So Elder Felkins and I are hoping for 2 baptisms this week, Valentina y Lucas. They are the children of a recently reactivated member named Lucia Lopez. Valentina y Lucas are twins! Pretty cool! And the kids are super intelligent, like super intelligent. They understand nearly everything. In fact, we basically don't even really teach them.  We just tell the mom what we are going to "teach" on our next visit, she teaches her kids ahead of time, and we just verify to make sure it's all good.  And I feel really good about these baptisms because we will be completing a family. So far, only the mom's been a member; but after this week the whole family will be members. My only fear is that the kids won't go through with their baptisms because they are super shy. I don't know if they're going to be able to handle having a bunch of people watch them as they get baptized and confirmed. But we will practice a bit with them to help them get more comfortable with it.


This brings up another point I've been feeling for quite a while ...I've been getting a little frustrated in the mission because I have not baptized very many adult males. While I've had lots of opportunity to bring the Gospel to several women and children, I'm having a much harder time reaching the men. My frustration has nearly reached the point where every time I see a man sitting outside somewhere, I go and contact him and try to share a Gospel message.  All too often, they just don't accept our message; or sometimes they'll let us in, but only to talk with their wife and kids, but not with them. Haha. But that's exactly what the church needs down here: Priesthood leadership.  I'm obviously "a man on a mission," and so I'm energized to teach the Gospel and bring people into the church.  But I'm starting to realize the best way to do that is through the Priesthood. I'm really hoping that if I  keep striving and contacting, I'll start to find some men prepared for the gospel.


I love bringing people to Christ. When returned missionaries say that the mission was the best 2 years of their life thus far, I can vouch that it's not a lie. I have loved every moment of my mission. From walking in the baking sun to walking through flooded streets, I have loved every day of the mission. My nightly prayers have become really special for me as I reflect back on my day and just thank God for how great the mission is. It's really a sweet moment as I feel a ton of gratitude and love for my mission during these prayers.


I know God lives, and that he loves us. This is a simple truth that has now been engraved on my soul. The Book of Mormon is true, and everything else follows. The Gospel is simple and brings happiness. I love being able to be a messenger in the hands of God to bless the lives of others. Yup, I love the mission.

Love Elder Clemóns

Each one was just shining with the Spirit...

Wow, I am going to miss Elder Leon!!

Hey, good news ...we now have 2 hours to write all of our letters home!!!! WOOOT!!!! I'm so glad the rule has finally changed! :D


Transfers
Also, we had transfers yesterday, we were going to have them this Wednesday, but for some reason we had them yesterday, so I will tell you what happened to me.

Sadly, after 4.5 months, Elder Leon and I are no longer companions. He was called to be a trainer in Saenz Peña, and I stayed here as a zone leader with my new companion, Elder Felkins!!!!!!

Elder Felkins has been in the mission only 6 months! ...and has already been called to be a Zone Leader. And it's no surprise to me because he's super dedicated, faithful, and hard working. I'm super excited to learn from him.

Elder Felkins is my new companion ...only 6 months in the mission!

Also, every single companionship in the zone changed again, except one, La Valle. So once again, I get to "get to know" a lot of new missionaries. :)

Saying goodbye to Elder Morrin y Elder Sibaja

Zone Conference
Our week was pretty busy. On Tuesday we had the big meeting with all the leaders in Resistencia. We talked about the new rules in the mission and how to improve our teaching abilities. We also got to watch Meet the Mormons! Wow, a super good movie! I loved the part of the Navy Coach. Also, the part of the missionary mom made me a little teary-eyed. It's just impossible not to miss your family while watching this movie as a missionary. I just want to watch it again.

Also at this meeting, we got to hear the testimony of of the "honrables" (the missionaries that are going home). This was my favorite part of this meeting. Each one was just shining with the Spirit, and each one of them had these just amazing experiences. Each time one got up to talk, you could just feel the room fill with the Spirit. Their testimonies were so real and so sincere. I hope one day my testimony will reach that level.

My Zone just before the transfer...

Investigators
Right now in our area we have a lot of potential. We are working with Mirta, Marta, Taresa, Valentina y Lucas, and Telia y Mingo. I would asked that you can pray for each one of them.

Pray for Mirta so her lawyer can finish up the paperwork so that she can be married and baptized, Marta so that she can stop smoking and have more peace in her home, Taresa so that she can receive and recognize the answers to her prayers, Valentina y Lucas so that they can understand the doctrines of the Restored Gospel and want to be baptized, and for Telia y Mingo so that they can feel the Spirit testifying to them that they should be married.

Please pray for them all so that they can overcome their obstaculos, and pray for us so that we can know how to help them.


Telia
We had a really spiritual experience with Telia. She's 20 and lives with her boyfriend. She has a friend who is a member, and the friend has come with us to most of her lessons. We had a baptism in the zone this last Saturday, and so we invited Telia to go to see it. It was a nice service. There were about 60 people in assistance. The branch president somehow found out that I'm able to sing, so they asked me to sing "Abide With Me" in Spanish with another Elder. I'd say it went pretty well, and I think one could easily feel a spirit of love and truth during the meeting.

As we finished up the baptismal service, we went to the back of the room to eat some snacks and cake in celebration. My companion and I noticed that Telia and her friend were slow to get up, so we went over there to invite them to eat some of the deserts with the rest of the group. We found Telia silently crying, and her friend trying to comfort her. When she calmed down a little bit, we asked her what had happened, and the first thing that she said to us was, "When can I get baptized." She went on to tell us that she had never felt such love and unity in her life like she had felt during the meeting. We testified that these feelings were from God as a testimony of the divinity of the Restored Gospel, and that this was indeed the Lord's true church.

We asked her what she would be willing to do to get baptized, and she said "anything."

The very next day she got herself up and walked to church with her member friend. She stayed for the entire 3 hours. And once again, after the meeting we found her teared eyed but happy. We have another lesson scheduled with her today, so we'll see what the Lord would like us to do to help her progress.

This just stands to me as another witness of the truthfulness of this work.


God loves each and every one of us. And for this reason He has restored His church. What Telia said was correct, that love and unity are found in Christ. I know Christ died and rose for us. I know that as we come closer to Him, we also grow closer to one another.

I love the mission, I love the missionaries that I work with, and I love my family.

Love Elder Clemóns

Billions of missionaries...

Ya sorry, but there isn't very much time this week to write home. :p But, this week was pretty good.

Investigators
In recent days we have been finding some new, solid people to teach.  We now have 5 solid people. 2 of them are the twins Valentina y Lucas; they have baptisms scheduled for the 14th of this month, and everything is going well with them.

We are also teaching an old investigator named Marta.  Missionaries had passed by her home and taught her some of the lessons about 3 years ago, but she wasn't able to get baptized at that time because of a smoking problem. When we met her again about 3 weeks ago, she was still smoking about 10-15 a day.  But she wanted to commit to quitting.  I know it's hard, but she's already down to 2-3 a day, so that's huge progress!

We are also teaching the sister of the branch secretary, Teresa. She's had billions of missionaries pass by her house, but we are the first ones that have been able to make the right connection with her.  For some reason, she's able and willing to understand the message of the restoration from us.  Don't know what we're doing different, but whatever it is, it seems to work! :D  She recently came to church for the first time ever! :D

And we've started working again with Mirta, who I've written before about in past weeks.  Her lawyer finally got back from vacationes, and we can begin to work on the marriage paper process.


So random news
I got sick this last week ...and I'm still at this moment :P  Ummm, I think it's because of my sun-burn from last week.  My whole neck peeled off and also the back of my legs.  I don't quite know how that happened.  And now I'm even more white than I was :p

Tomorrow we have our big leadership meeting in Resistencia.  So, yup, I gotta get up early again tomorrow :p!  Woot!!!  You never stop as a missionary!


Love the mission! sooo much! :D

Elder Clemons

Ouch!

The power goes out here in Goya about 3 times a day!

Hey, so here's the latest that's gone down this week.

My companion and I were pretty busy. We did 2 exchanges durante this semana with other Elders. We only worked in our area for 3 days, haha.

We went on exchanges with the elders in BellaVista; I stayed in my area with Elder Vasco. He is from Ecuador. He has a super cool conversion story. Basically, he was a bad kid that did not do great stuff, but the missionaries found him, and he describes that he felt such joy when they were there that he was willing to do anything to keep that feeling with him, even to the point of leaving his girlfriend so that he could get baptized. His story is so touching ...essentially, everyone was against him. But he followed what he knew to be right, and now look where he is at!

I also went on exchanges with Elder Reynolds who is new to the zone this transfer. He is from Pima, Arizona.  I can't easily explain him. He's just a really big crazy guy that had crazy friends that did fun crazy stuff, but he still stayed a faithful member of the church. He has so much energy, and it is hard to control him haha.  But I have never laughed so hard during my mission. It was just awesome to be with him.

So the work here has kinda slowed down for us, but we still have some potentials for baptisms. We are working with a mom and her 2 twins. The mom's name is Lucia; she's been a member for about 2 years, but is now less-active. We have been reactivating her recently, and she's already gone back to church 3 times! :D Her twins, Valentina y Lucas, are 9 years old. Lucas wants to be baptized, and Valentina is scared of lots of people and water, so she doesn't quite yet. But Lucas is going to be baptized on the 14th, and hopefully Valentina along with her! :D They are both super happy and really intelligent kids. So they are our main focus for the moment. Please pray for this family so that they can continue faithfully to their baptisms and afterwards as well!

But we do need to look for some more people to teach.



Hey, so I got scorched this week!  Like, serious sun burn!!  We did service for some recent converts this week. The sad thing is every time it rains here, the water floods into their house because they basically live in a bowl.  So we decided to literally raise the house a couple of feet so that the water couldn't come in any more; we also cut their lawn.  So, needless to say, it took quite a while (4 hours), and, well, um, I forgot that I'm a white guy who's legs and neck haven't seen sun for months. Oh, they got soooo burned; and it kills super bad. And believe me, wearing this white shirt and tie does NOT help :p

But everything here is good.  And the mission is always great.

Please pray for my investigators :)


Thank you so much for all that you do, for helping get things ready for when I come home, for the genealogy information, for the letters (please write more), and for all the support. I truly love you.

Ciao!

Elder Clemóns

Telma

Bella Vista has this huge cross.  Awesome!!

Hey family! So this has been a really good week! Sorry for not writing yesterday, the power in all of Goya cut, so we couldn't write.

Telma gets baptised

Telma, David's cousin, was super happy on her baptism!

To start off, we had a baptism this week! Random right? Kinda' came out of no where. haha. Her name is Telma. She is the granddaughter of Walter Gomez, the ward mission leader, and the cousin of David, my first covert here in Goya. We've been teaching her since I arrived here in Goya. She was unsure about baptism for a long time, and out of the blue decided to get baptized. :) It was an incredible feeling to be present durante her baptism. It clearly felt like more of a family baptism, a ward baptism, rather than a missionary baptism. Her whole family was with her every step of the way, from beginning to end. We only provided the teaching. As you can see in the photos, her whole family came to support her, and there was just a happy family spirit during the whole thing.

This is how baptisms should be, the work of the members, with the support of the missionaries. The Spirit was just so strong, and Telma was so happy.  She even arrived 2 hours early to make sure everything was perfect haha. I loved it.  Was definitely a memorable baptisms. 

Also our interviews with Pres. Franco went well, and the sleepover with the assistants was fun. We all ordered pizza and stuffed ourselves ...because Goya has the best pizza in the mission. Wow, we ate so much. haha.

First sign I've found in town that actually says Goya!

Then we talked through the night, and of course woke up early in the morning dead tired. We started out with interviews with Pres. Franco, and then we shared with him our training plans. Afterwards, President drove us up to BellaVista in his truck!!! That was so dope! First time I've driven with President anywhere haha. Then we did our training and had some more interviews in BellaVista. I asked Presidente if I could finish my mission training, I loved training Elder Conway and would love to train again. I'm pretty sure I have one more transfer as a ZL, and then I'll get to train again hopefully! :D But we'll see what happens. 

Goya's not always the prettiest place
...but the people are great!

I hope you know that I love my mission. There really is no greater happiness than serving our fellow brothers and sisters. I love bringing them the gospel and being a small instrument in the hands of my God. I love seeing the affect the gospel can have in the lives of people individually, and as families.

I loved seeing the joy the Gomez family had when Telma got baptized.  I loved seeing the happiness grow in the Micheli's home as we taught them.

I have so many evidences of how the gospel brings true happiness to people.  It certainly has brought me a great deal of happiness in my years growing up at home, and now here on the mission.

I know it is all true, and I promise I will always work my hardest to bring people to Christ. 

I love you!

Elder Clemóns

...but sometimes Goya IS the prettiest place!!

 P.S.  I have already told the office that you are coming to pick me up ...so ya. :)  I love you all!

I got my papers today...

I'm in about a foot of water. Fun to be in a flood ...but it's slowing down the work :-(

Well, this semana was difficult.

We are having some family/legal problems with Viviana and Antonio. Viviana's sister doesn't want them to get baptized.

Telma was going to get baptized this Saturday, but didn't make it to church because it rained.  Although she's ready, I think we're going to wait one more week.

Did I mention the rain?  Wow, it's rained sooo much here! Of the last 5 Sundays, it's rained 4 of them! And not just rain, it's completely flooded the area! It's crazy!

Church just started ...yup, it's only us 4 missionaries. Where is everybody?

And as you can see, church was jam packed when it started at 9:00 haha ...we were the only 4 at this point, even 2 of the Elders didn't make it in time haha  We eventually had 9 people in church, but still 6 of them were missioneros! What the goodness! The rain is literally destroying the work here in Goya.

But tomorrow we have interviews with he Pres. Franco. They come tonight to sleep over (gotta start cleaning now!) and we have them bright and early at 7:30 tomorrow morning. Elder Leon and I will travel with them to Bella Vista to finish the interviews up there. So tomorrow should be a bonding day with Pres. Franco, haha.

So we could be having some baptisms soon, but we don't know when all this will happen.

I love you all!! Pray for Viviana, Antonio, Mirta, and Telma!

Yep, I got my papers today, June 16th is when I come home.

Bye!

Elder Travis Clemons

P.S.  Oh!!! Do you think you could make me a little booklet of My Family? Just something electronic. I need to do it before Feb 3rd. But all I need is to go back 3 generations including birth dates, death dates, cities, marriages, todo. Ask Lori! or Grandma!!

So we had the zone meeting last week, we asked an hermana
to make us some home made donuts, oh it was just divine.

New Years...

So once again I don't have time to write. :(

New years was pretty fun. We invited some other Elderes to come over to the apartment to spend the night and play some games. Elder de la Peña y Elder Coates come over. Some members had brought over some asado (ooo, so yummy!!), and we bought some ice-cream, and we essentially spent the night playing a version of Risk.  Pretty fun.  I won! :D  Woot!




So sad news, Viviana and her son Antonio were supposed to be baptized last week.  But Viviana decided she wasn't ready yet to get baptized. So we'll give it a week, spend some time with her to resolve her concerns, and try to reschedule the baptism for next Saturday.  She's been super solid the whole time, even calling us asking for more scriptures to read from the BoM. We had a lesson with her just yesterday, and had a total of 5 member friends come with us (yup, we brought a little Mormon battalion with us) to help us help her. We went in with no plan, just hope and faith that the Spirit would work through the members.

And boy, was it strong!!  The Spirit worked fervently through the members to provide the needed comfort and direction. My companion and I did nothing, we hardly talked, but the members were able to comfort her, and motivate her to continue on in her studies and faith. It was a really touching lesson, and testified to me the power of the Spirit and the importance of member missionaries ...when both are present, success is guaranteed.



Tomorrow we have a big meeting with all the leaders, which means once again I'm getting up at around 2:00am!  Ouch :P

Oh, I forgot to tell you we had transfers this last week. Nothing happened to me, but once again the entire zone got changed up. :P  So, I guess I'll get to know lots of new faces again! :D

I'm going to miss my zone...   :-(

I love and miss you all.

Elder Clemóns

Men in black ;-)

Gabriel

Sorry family, no time to write a long letter home today!!

This week was once again super crazy.


Plaza Activity
The actividad in the plaza was a huuuuuge success! We got tons of references, and we have already begun to teach some of them.



Christmas
The zone party was super tight. The restaurant that we ate at was really nice. We ate outside where there was a pool (of course, we didn't swim. haha) and all-you-can eat asado (meat) buffet and other foods. Very delicious.  Good times.

Christmas was also nice.  We worked the day, then came in around 7 that night.  We invited 2 other Elders to spend the evening with us, and we played Risk and ate ice cream.


Gabriel's Baptism

The baptism of Gabriel was incredible! He is the second person I have taught that accepted a baptismal date on the first lesson and actually went through with it. An unbelievably faithful man.

Next week we have Vivianna and Antonio!!


I love the mission!

Elder Clemons


P.S.

It rained so hard core that the city was literally flooded. Water poured into people´s houses and everything.

Heavy rains for 3 full days. Made the baptisms and Church super hard to attend. It was like we were in Venice (I've never been there). But I loved it, took off my socks and shoes, hiked up my pants, and trucked through it all. it was awesome!