Sent: Mon, Feb 14, 2011 1:46 pm
Subject: Hello
Hola Familia,
How is it going? It was a good week here in Santaquin. Monday night we visited a new guy named Pedro Figeroa. He is younger and recently devorced and just going through a rough time in his life. We basically told him if he was willing the Gospel could change his life and get him through his challenges.
Every Tuesday the district does service at the local food bank for a couple hours in the afternoon. We helped fill orders and it was fun to help out. Also, every Tuesday night we eat with Sister Flores, the Branch President's wife. She is quite the cook. I am growing accustomed to, and enjoying, eating piles of tortillas with every meal. There was really no need for all the table manners I was taught. Most people don't use eating utensils, instead, they rip the tortillas apart, then grab each bite of food with a piece of tortilla. Also, intead of using napkins the proper method to remove grease of food particles from fingers is to lick them off. It is very enjoyable. Later Tuesday night we visited a guy named Fernando. We found him my first day when we went to visit a recent convert. He looks like he is in his forty's and is here working and his family lives in California. He is possibly the most hospitable person I have ever met. The first day we went he gave us water bottles, then some tacos, then some soda, and as we were leaving, fruit. Anyway, we had a good lesson with him on profetas and he seems pretty interested.
Wednesday after our district meeting we headed out to Elberta. That is where the Church dairy is as well as some other large operations. President Pitts wants us to focus some more out there becuase there are tons of hispanic workers. However, it is about 30 minutes from the chapel in Santaquin so we are working on a way to have a meeting closer to them. We met with the bishop of the ward out there and we are considering having a translater with headphones for everyone. We are meeting with the Stake President tomorrow to talk more about the situation.
Thursday we went to the temple as a district. Our assigned temple is Provo now. It is always fun when the workers ask "Where are you headin' Elder?", or when MTC missionaries ask "How many weeks have you been out?" Way out near Elberta there is a "town" called Mosida. It consists of a large landfill and the Bateman Ranch. The Bateman's are members and have a huge ranch and have four or five duplexes where most of the workers live. We talked to them and they said we could try and teach some of the workers. So far we are in the process of teaching William, Juan, and Rafeal, who all live in the same building. We initailly found William last week then Thursday we also taught Rafa and Juan. Additionally, we had a first lesson with Jose Chavez, who is living with a member and showed up at church a couple weeks ago. He is a short guy from Guatemala who seems to be kind of angry at the world. At one point in the lesson he went off talking and mumbled about who knows what for like 15 minutes. To finish off the day we had another good lesson with Pedro.
Friday we had an awesome lesson with Fernando. The Spirit was really strong and we finished teaching the Restoration. At the end we talked to him about getting baptized and he said it was something he wants to do, but he just needs a little time to think because it is so different from his family traditions. I was teaching with a convert during the week and he said some awesome stuff to a catholic lady. He basically said the Hispanic catholic traditions they have such as praying to Mary aren't religion, just tradition. He invited her to open up and think about the Restoration. It was cool to hear that coming from someone who gave up family traditions to follow his testimony of the Gospel.
Saturday morning we got to go the Temple again. In the mission we are now allowed to go twice a month. Once as a district and once as a companionship. We chose to go with the Branch Saturday morning and it was awesome to experience a session in Spanish. We taught Jose Chavez later on during the day.
Yesterday there were several people who came to church so that makes the week feel successful. We had an appointment with a guy named Santiago but a guy named Omar answered and said he wasnt there. We told Omar who we were and asked if we could talk to him instead and actually ended up having a great lesson with him and his wife.
There is a family history center here so that is where we do emails. In a couple hours we are going with Jeff Pereda, who is in the branch and leaving for his mission in a month, to work out with a UFC trainer. There is a guy here who trains fighters in a gym in his basement. We arent allowed to spar but it should be fun.
Thats about it...everything is going great!
Love you, Elder Clark
Subject: Hello
Hola Familia,
How is it going? It was a good week here in Santaquin. Monday night we visited a new guy named Pedro Figeroa. He is younger and recently devorced and just going through a rough time in his life. We basically told him if he was willing the Gospel could change his life and get him through his challenges.
Every Tuesday the district does service at the local food bank for a couple hours in the afternoon. We helped fill orders and it was fun to help out. Also, every Tuesday night we eat with Sister Flores, the Branch President's wife. She is quite the cook. I am growing accustomed to, and enjoying, eating piles of tortillas with every meal. There was really no need for all the table manners I was taught. Most people don't use eating utensils, instead, they rip the tortillas apart, then grab each bite of food with a piece of tortilla. Also, intead of using napkins the proper method to remove grease of food particles from fingers is to lick them off. It is very enjoyable. Later Tuesday night we visited a guy named Fernando. We found him my first day when we went to visit a recent convert. He looks like he is in his forty's and is here working and his family lives in California. He is possibly the most hospitable person I have ever met. The first day we went he gave us water bottles, then some tacos, then some soda, and as we were leaving, fruit. Anyway, we had a good lesson with him on profetas and he seems pretty interested.
Wednesday after our district meeting we headed out to Elberta. That is where the Church dairy is as well as some other large operations. President Pitts wants us to focus some more out there becuase there are tons of hispanic workers. However, it is about 30 minutes from the chapel in Santaquin so we are working on a way to have a meeting closer to them. We met with the bishop of the ward out there and we are considering having a translater with headphones for everyone. We are meeting with the Stake President tomorrow to talk more about the situation.
Thursday we went to the temple as a district. Our assigned temple is Provo now. It is always fun when the workers ask "Where are you headin' Elder?", or when MTC missionaries ask "How many weeks have you been out?" Way out near Elberta there is a "town" called Mosida. It consists of a large landfill and the Bateman Ranch. The Bateman's are members and have a huge ranch and have four or five duplexes where most of the workers live. We talked to them and they said we could try and teach some of the workers. So far we are in the process of teaching William, Juan, and Rafeal, who all live in the same building. We initailly found William last week then Thursday we also taught Rafa and Juan. Additionally, we had a first lesson with Jose Chavez, who is living with a member and showed up at church a couple weeks ago. He is a short guy from Guatemala who seems to be kind of angry at the world. At one point in the lesson he went off talking and mumbled about who knows what for like 15 minutes. To finish off the day we had another good lesson with Pedro.
Friday we had an awesome lesson with Fernando. The Spirit was really strong and we finished teaching the Restoration. At the end we talked to him about getting baptized and he said it was something he wants to do, but he just needs a little time to think because it is so different from his family traditions. I was teaching with a convert during the week and he said some awesome stuff to a catholic lady. He basically said the Hispanic catholic traditions they have such as praying to Mary aren't religion, just tradition. He invited her to open up and think about the Restoration. It was cool to hear that coming from someone who gave up family traditions to follow his testimony of the Gospel.
Saturday morning we got to go the Temple again. In the mission we are now allowed to go twice a month. Once as a district and once as a companionship. We chose to go with the Branch Saturday morning and it was awesome to experience a session in Spanish. We taught Jose Chavez later on during the day.
Yesterday there were several people who came to church so that makes the week feel successful. We had an appointment with a guy named Santiago but a guy named Omar answered and said he wasnt there. We told Omar who we were and asked if we could talk to him instead and actually ended up having a great lesson with him and his wife.
There is a family history center here so that is where we do emails. In a couple hours we are going with Jeff Pereda, who is in the branch and leaving for his mission in a month, to work out with a UFC trainer. There is a guy here who trains fighters in a gym in his basement. We arent allowed to spar but it should be fun.
Thats about it...everything is going great!
Love you, Elder Clark
No comments:
Post a Comment