CALLED TO SERVE - PERU LIMA CENTRAL MISSION - JULY 2014 ~ JULY 2016

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

October 27, 2014 Letter...

Hey Family!

No way, the little motorcycles are fixed!? How cool! Yeah someone teach Zack how to ride mine haha.. he'll fit on it great.. it's a good bike.. and they can all go ride up by the stake center! How fun... I'm glad to hear that. That was my childhood.. riding dirtbikes.. literally my life as a kid. Sometimes I miss it. I have so many good memories.. and bad.. haha. Cam and Brigham are such studs! Ah, Cam is gonna need a bigger bike soon. Make sure the boys stay safe, but make sure they take a bit of risk and have fun. They won't learn if they don't crash :)

AND YES!! NEW COMPPP!! I have no pics.. sorrrrry we've been so busy and haven't had time. But his name is Elder Pedrera, he is from Equador, he is 20 years old and has one year in the mission! He is a stud. He is obedient, and very willing to help me when I don't understand something. He acts the way a trainer should act. He is a stud and honestly an answer to my prayers. We are working really hard to turn this sector around. We have three baptismal dates, (we got 3 in two days, this dude is powerful, and together we KILL it.) and we are working really hard to get the investigators to attend church so they can keep these dates for their baptisms. Please pray for Hermana Magda, Carmen, and Luiggi, that they will know they need to attend the church, and how important baptism is. Pray they their hearts will continue to recieve our message, and that they will continue progressing. 

Have I ever told you that the bishop in this ward is a complete stud? After Bishop Rasmussen, he is the greatest bishop in the world! Seriously, he is the man. He's pretty young, but is always so willing to work with us. And he is hilarious.. he always jokes with us and shows us a good time. Especially when we eat at his house.. he always says to his wife.. ah sorry... Elder Cluff won't be eating today, he told me he doesn't like your cooking.. I was like, what?! Haha, little things like that. He is the man.

This week we have been working hard - all day, everyday - climbing up the giant hill where our sector is located. We climb up and down it - all day, everyday - finding people to teach and making appointments and teaching. It's really hard work, but it's paying off. We are killing it. We are already turning this sector around. We have one couple of recent converts, named Ramon and Corposo, and they are the best. They are both 85 years old, but so funny and such great people. We love visiting them. Please pray for Corposo that she can have good health. Yesterday, we brought the sacrament to them and taught them a little more about it. They are so receptive and thankful. They remind me of grandma and grandpa Carr.. it's scary.

Okay, have I told you also that we have one hour a week, apart from emailing, to do FAMILY HISTORIA? Yeah, well we have one hora to get on familiasearch.org and do our family history work! I absolutely looveeee it. There is an AWESOME spirit to it. Not indexing.. yikes.. I don't know about indexing.. but doing my work, adding to my tree, reading of past family members, all of it. I had a super spiritual experience while doing it. I was searching for grandma and grandpa Carr to add them to my family tree, and I came across some pictures of them and their grave.. I starred at their grave for a minute.. and the Spirit flooded my body.. something that I haven't ever quite felt before.. I couldn't keep back the tears, and it's hard to keep them back while writing this. But I felt something extremely special. Almost like I could feel their love for me in that moment. How proud of me they are for serving a mission. I could feel it. I could feel it. I know they are happy right now. I know they have accepted this gospel. I know they are diligent servants of the Lord. Even though I miss them; the gingersnaps everyday, the brownies, their love for all of their grandkids, I know they are extremely happy right now.

Anyways, that was this week. It was funny to see the new Elders come at tranfers.. haha, it feels good to not be the most green Elder in the mission.. but Spanish is coming really fast, and I only study in Spanish now. It's good. I'm hoping by December 2nd I'll be fully functional. That's my goal! Working hard to accomplish it!

Can you believe I've been on my mission for 3 months...because I can't.

Love,
Elder Cluff

Enjoy this pic from my 1st P-day in the field.. my old district.. half of them changed.. but they are legends. Super solid dudes.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

October 20, 2014 Letter...

Hey Family!  Hope you had a good week!

Don't stress about doc and all that. It's not your problem. Yeah continue helping, but sometimes you need to think about yourself and not so much of others. LOL. Usually it's the other way around, right? But in your case, you are a perfect mom and woman, you only think about others! That's what I love about you. Dad, and all us boys are beyond lucky. Honestly I can't describe how lucky we are to have a mom like you. I don't know how dad pulled you off to be honest.. hehehe. But really, you care so much about others, and pleasing others, and I love that about you. You have been that way ever since I can remember. Whenever us boys wanted to do something, no matter how tired or whatever you were, you did it. You would go out with us, or go to the store with us so we could buy something, or just whatever. These qualities are something that I admire, mom. But remember, sometimes you gotta think about yourself, and what things you need:)

HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY DAD!! I LOVE YOU!!! I hope you had a good birthday! Did you get anything cool? A spank on the rumpkin? I'm glad to hear your guns are coming along! And in all honesty with my gun, make it look as cool as possible with the colors, I want black, and maybe tan or FDE. Idk, whatever looks cooler and sweeter. I prefer probably a darker green. But like I said, make it awesome. I love you dad and I think about you a lot. Keep working hard always and the Lord will bless you. Mom and dad, remember personal scripture study:) you´re never too cool to read the word of God!

Fun to hear about those movies.. I like movies.. but don't get to watch any. I watch The District which is missionaries preaching in real life, recorded on cameras. Yeah it's like I'm watching myself in real life; not that entertaining, lol.

This week, not too much happened. Sorry for my bad English, though. My English sucks now and so does my Spanish.. haha. I don´t know what happened. I've been reading my Book of Mormon only in spanish and it's amazing. I love it. I have also been reading the New Testament. Right now I'm in Juan. The New Testament is my comic relief for the day. I honestly don't know if this is sacrilegious, but I think it's kind of comical when Jesus is trying to teach His disciples a parable or something, and they take him literally and don't understand.. and they are just bewildered and like.. what just happened? What did he say?

For example:
 11 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
 12 Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
 13 Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
 14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
Jesus is talking about bringing Lazuras back to life... but His disciples thought Jesus was talking about waking Lazarus up from a nap.. and they were like, wait why are you gonna wake him up? Aren't naps good? Then I imagine Jesus face palming... Then clearly saying, you fools, he´s dead. I'm not being literal.

This happens so much in the New Testament and it makes me giggle. They understand, but not until the Savior teaches them.

What else happened this week...? Not much. Taught a lot but very few receive what we teach. It can be difficult. Especially when I can't understand their needs that well. Continually pray for people here that we will find people that are prepared of the Lord. The importance of following the spirit is the most important thing. I´m learning everyday how to follow it more, and how to better listen.

Tomorrow is cambios (transfers)! I won't be transferred but I might get a new comp.. we´ll see what happens!

I love you guys have a killer week!!!

Love,
Elder Cluff

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Pictures!

This is Diego, an investigator of the other elders that was baptized. Here we are in the city center of Rimac. It was awesome.

 We went to the temple :)

We were visited by Peru's finest marching band outside our window.

October 13, 2014 Letter...

Congratz on the job mom! It's so good to hear that.. haha real estate.. thats so cool! I'm sooo glad to hear:) Haha you legitimately have to most extensive resume I've ever heard of.. I love it. You´ve done it all mom and I love you very much. I think about you a lot and always want you and the family to stay safe and healthy. Eat healthy :)

Dad is a stud.. working with Julie.. I'm glad that is working out. He works so hard and it's really an inspiration to me. I love him very much. Don't move to LA tho.. keep it in Alpine, haha. Thanks.

Hahahaha at the thing about me setting the bar high with school.. tell the boys I'm sorry.. Just work hard and have fun.. don't worry too much about it, just pray for the Lords help and he will give it.. he always does! That's how I got through all my work in high school. High school ended up being the greatest experience. I loved it. Tell the boys to serioulsy live up every last moment! Especially zack. You blink, and then it's over. 

Zack.. I'm glad he´s lifting.. stud. He´ll grow. But he needs to eat more. He needs more healthy complex carbs and should shoot for around 400g a day, with around 150g of protein. He can get that from drinking shakes with a cup of raw oats, and eat eggs, potatoes, drinking two scoops of protein with a cup of oats right after lifting, and then eating an hour later. He´ll grow, he just needs to eat:) Also creatine monohydrate will help... turn him on to that. If he has questions tell him to talk to me:)

Anyways, not much happened this week. Just the usual in the beginning of the week, then Thursday we went to the temple! Ah, it's such a pretty temple. The session was in Spanish, but I understood everything until the end.. lol. It doesn't help when the worker is from the US and speaks white man Spanish, lol. But, yeah I loved the temple. I bought the missionary reference library and also these smooth scriptures cases with my name and mission emblem that are gonna be here in a week. They are super cool, I'll remember to send a pic. But, yeah the temple was SUPER spiritual.. I learned a lot and received a lot of revelation. Really great experience. Conference this week was good too! We watched it all day Saturday and Sunday with the stake! A lot of good messages! Again, all in Spanish, so I didn't get everything. Haha on Saturday when the MTC choir sang I saw 10 people I knew from the Provo MTC hahaha. Including Grant Lyman that you know.. and Jake Downs.. haha legendary. I love my friends.. I am excited though for The Liahona to learn more from the talks! I challenge you guys to do the same in FHE :) The work here is going forward!

Next week is transfers.. there is a chance I'll get a new comp and be the new guide of our sector because my comp has 6 months in this sector.. but we´ll see. I wouldn't mind that. Tomorrow are interviews with the president; I'm super stoked because our pres is the greatest man ever. Such a stud. Oh yeah, I GOT THE PACKAGE. I loved it. I also hung the decorations up :) The Twix... oh my heavens have been perfect. All the candy! I loved the letters too.. thank you :) I love hearing from the fam!

Anyways I love you guys. Keep killin' it!

Love, 
Elder Cluff

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

October 6, 2014 Letter...

Hey mama,

How is everything at home? This week went by fast, but not a lot happened. On Monday for P-day, we went and visited my comp's old sector and the families in it. It was good. Then the rest of the week was just normal normal normal. Our house is really far away from our sector, the area where me and my comp specifically teach, and every day we have to walk sooo far to get there. Sometimes we take mototaxi's though, which is really nice. Mototaxi's are like motorcylcles with two wheels in the back, and a huge cab for people to ride in built over them. They are super interesting and are all over Peru. It's funny they don't even exist in the US...

We didn't have much success this week, people didn't really want to hear what we had to say, and when they did, they were never home. There was one day this week where we knocked probably 20 doors of less active members and investigators to teach, and only one person was home and able to hear our message. It's pretty difficult sometimes. I'm getting more comfortable with talking during lessons and slowly I'm becoming a better teacher. 

We have been praying and praying for a couple we teach (the male is a less active member) to want to be married so the girl could be baptized. She received and answer that our message was true and that the Book of Mormon was the word of God, but couldn't be baptized because her and her partner were cohabitating and not married. They discussed and settled for a date in January, which is just too far. They need it now. So we prayed they would want a much sooner date and the Lord answered our prayers! We set a date for October 25 for their marriage and we're so excited! We also set the same date for her baptism! Our goal in this mission is not the just the baptism, it's enduring to the end. We want to help all people endure to the end, and that involves family history, baptisms for the dead, and eternal marriage. It's really awesome that the Lord helped us with this, and it's really a miracle because they were dead set on January. I know the Lord answers our prayers!!! 

Not much more happened this week. Yesterday we had thee biggest lunch of my life... like you know those half plate, half bowl things? We had a giant one of those filled past the top with rice, beans and meat. After eating I felt like my stomach was gonna blow... So then we went on and visited a less active member, and she ended up feeding us a huge bowl of soup, and spaghetti. At this point I felt like I was seriously going to die. I´ve never felt my stomach so stretched and so full of food, but nevertheless I ate all of it. Haha. Yeah... the members treat us really well here, they are great. But sometimes they don't know when to stop feeding us, haha. A *little more food* never means a little more... I'm just glad my stomach is better, and that I can handle all the food!

Yeah, thanks for the package! I can't wait to get it:) I should get it this week or if not, the next! I don't think customs will be a problem if it's in her suitcase... but we´ll see. And yeah don't worry about the backpack:) I'm using my black Jansport one and it's great!

I'm glad you guys got to go to Lagoon, and that you gave your notice! I know the Lord will bless you and that you will love your new job:)

And yeah we didn't watch conference this week because it was national elections week, and all public meetings of any kind were prohibited. So we're gonna watch next week. We are super excited. I love hearing from our Prophet and the Apostles. It's such a blessing to have a Prophet that leads and directs our church today.

Haha and the dude that called... yeah 2 years please call back. I want to talk to him. Lol.

Anyways, I love you and I love the family so much. I'll talk to you next week:)

Love, 
Elder Caden Cluff

September 29, 2014 Letter...

First and foremost, mom - thank you for your letter. It was beautiful, and it helped me so much:) I'm gonna try to print it if I can find where to print it and how, haha. 

Anyways, thank you for your prayers and everything.. this week was really better. We did a lot of teaching and found a lot of new people to teach.

Okay, cool.. packages... ahh okay yes that sounds amazing! I want a care package more than anything!!!!! I enjoy candy a lot here.. I don't know why but, I have a sweet tooth.. so some chocolate, white chocolate, air heads extremes, umm yeah, the good stuff. Hand written letters from all of the family.. yeah. Think of things to send me that will make my life. Send it to the office, and our zone leaders bring it to us every week. So I'll get it way quick! Yayyayayay..

Did I tell you our mission is the most people dense in the world? There are like 3 million people, and even cooler, 2 million stray dogs. There are so many stray dogs here. I didn't even know stray dogs were a thing before I came here. But there are sooooo many. They poop in the streets, so everywhere you step there is a landmine, but if you make your comp step in it you get 3 points, so I guess that's cool. Really stinky tho. 

This week I was super sick, only for one day, with diarrhea and a huge headache, and freezing cold, yeah it's winter here, and a giant sore throat. It was terrible. I'm over all of it now, thank goodness.

Okay, this week we ate at a members house and had something called (actually I forgot) but it was cow stomach.. and wow it was TERRIBLE. It had all these little tubes and veins all over in it and ahh, it was so gross. Nevertheless, notwithstanding my desire to falter, I continued on eating and with the scripture talk.

Another thing, I have pictures to send.. but because of the sketchy computer I'm using today, I won't be able to attach them. I don't want a virus! But next week for sure.

We have had many spiritual experiences. One experience was last week. We had a burning spiritual prompting to knock this door.. not only me, but Elder Fernandez felt it too.. so we knocked it and this boy answered and said his parents weren't home, so ya. We were a bit confused.. Then this week we passed that same door again, and again, we felt a burning Spirit. Even more, it was the only house with light coming through the front door (all the doors are glass). So we knocked again.. this time an hermana answered and invited us in to teach. We taught her the restauraciĆ³n and the Spirit helped us so much. She is super elect. She is one of those people you meet and would assume is already a member because of her happiness and how kind she was. Anyways, at the end, we showed her the correct way to pray, and asked if she would. She agreed, and began to pray. Immediately the Spirit filled the home, we all felt it. She ended the prayer and began to cry. She said she felt such peace and tranquilidad. It was a great experience. She agreed to continue to pray and ask God if our message is true. 

Such a cool experience. I know the Lord prepares people to hear our message. I know that He loves us and that all we need to do is be worthy and ready to listen when the spirit whispers to us. Whenever I have bad days here, all I gotta do is remember the good days. Remember that I've been called by a prophet to declare that Jesus is the Christ. Remember that it won't always be easy, but as we strive to work with diligence, we are always blessed.

I love you so much family and pray for each one of you individually every single night. Keep killing it. Zack is a freaking stud at lax, so is Cam, so is Brig. Ah, I love them so much. Tell them to keep having the time of their lives.. and to not stress about anything. Tell Zack to live high school up to it's fullest, and to be himself. Don't change for anyone. 

And ahh dad. I love dad. He is such a hard worker. He is my inspiration. Tell him I love him. 

Congrats on your new job; I know it's right for you. The Lord knows it too. He wants you to be happy, and that's why he has given you this new opportunity, mom. I love you. Keep working hard and keep being the honest to goodness greatest mother in the world. 

Love, 
Elder Caden Cluff

Monday, October 6, 2014

September 22, 2014 Letter...

Hi mama and family... 

I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well and you and dad had a fun trip:) you guys definitely deserve it!

This week was rather difficult to say the least.. I can see now why people say missions are the most difficult times of their lives haha.. It only gets harder though.. Can't wait:)

Anyways, apparently there is a lady in SL who sends packages for like six dollars a pound that this elder here uses. He says she is the best, but couldn't remember her info. Google around and ask around to see if you can find it, but if not I emailed him and asked for it!!! Hopefully I'll be able to get some care packages, hehe. 

This week was funny. We were walking back from a meeting at the church, and the police stopped us and started questioning us like we were criminals. Come to find out they though we were selling cocaine hahaha. Funny stuff.. 

Okay, I don't know if I told you this last week, but the food here is amazing. Soooo much chinese food, I love it. I haven't had any problems with soy which has been a really nice! But chaufa, aeropuerto, lomo saltado, arroz con pollo, sooo good. I love rice, and they do so many different things with it here. For about three American dollars, you can buy enough chaufa (best fried rice evvvveerr with chicken) to feed you for two nights. There are so many street vendors and restaurants that sell it. Also, there are little stores everywhere that sell candies, treats, food, ya. All of it. It comes in handy. On Sunday we ate at a members house, as we do every day, and she made french fries and fried chicken... soooo divine. 

This Saturday we had 4 hours of stake conference and then 2 more on Sunday.. wow they were really good and I understood a lot, but also they were tough because there was a lot that I didn't understand. When I don't understand I tend to zone out, and then I'm lost, lol. But it's getting better for sure. 

I really love teaching people and helping them. We teach a lot of lessons. I'm starting to talk to people more during lessons and on the street. I feel more comfortable every day, but still need work. I'll be honest, Spanish is extremely hard. At least it is for me right now. It's baptism by fire, really. But I need to rely on the Holy Ghost to teach me and to help me during the lessons, and during whenever I talk. We almost have another baptismal date, but we gotta keep working with her. A lot of people are so ready to hear and live this gospel, the only problem is where to find them. 

Our whole sector is on the side of a giant hill; Google Rimac Lima Peru, and the hill with the big cross on top, right under is our hill, our sector. It's difficult at times because there are people who are ready to hear to gospel, a lot of older people, but they are all unable to come down the giant hill to come to church or be baptized, etc. It's a huge problem. I always wonder how the older folks even got up the huge hills to their homes in the first place, haha. 

The Spirit is always strong here. We had a new missionary conference with the President and his wife, and oh I absolutely love President and his wife.. They are the sweetest, most loving people I know.. anyways we had a conference and mainly just went over rules, but we also learned that this is gonna be hard, but we can all do it. We can do this. 

I'm really grateful for this opportunity to serve and pray that I can have strength from the Lord to do it, and have strength from the Lord to learn the language so I can teach effectively, how he wants me to teach, so I can help His children how they need to be helped.

 I love you so much, family!

Love, 
Elder Cluff