Elder Caden Cluff: February 16, 2016 Letter...

That is so fun that you guys went to the Provo Temple open house... Freal. What a blast. I want to go to that temple when I get home. I've seen fotos of the temple and wow... it is gorgeous! For real. absolutely beautiful! I love it. Glad the family could get together and have a little bit of fun:) That's good news! Tucanos... I miss that place. I hope you had a good bday tho. You were definitely on my mind! I'm super happy to hear that everything is going super good mom :)

This week has been solid. The Lord gave us so many blessings. I have been praying a lot lately for more success and that the people will be more receptive and that the appointments we have won't fall through. The Lord this week has answered me completely. We had some really cool appointments, but the most cool and most spiritual and most rewarding was the appointment that we had with Stefani. She is the 19 year old daughter of a recent convert that moved here about 2 months ago from Huancayo. She was born and raised catholic, and even though her mom was recently baptized she wanted to continue being so. We have been focusing with her recently in helping her understand the doctrine, but more than anything feeling and knowing for herself that the church is true. Today she told us she had read and prayed and had received an answer, and she is really excited to be baptized!!! We have seen such a big change in her since the first time we taught her, but it's amazing to see the difference that comes when someone acts for themselves to arrive at a conclusion regarding the truthfulness of the restored gospel. She has acted for herself and completed with the commitments we have given her, and for that reason she is progressing so wonderfully and has the desire for HERSELF (not for us) to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized in this church. She has gained her own testimony. What a blessing. We explained a little bit more about Joseph Smith and the Restoration and she understood it perfectly. This is just one more piece to my collection of testimonies that the Lord really does bring to pass his own work, and prepares people and blesses them as they act as their own agents. As Lehi said, there are two types of things in this world: Things that act, and things that are acted upon. For an investigator to become a convert, and not just a baptism, they need to act for themselves, and that’s how they obtain the spiritual witness of the truthfulness of the gospel which leads to true conversion to Jesus Christ and his gospel. Great stuff, really.

This week we had a wonderful and powerful lesson with our new investigator Rashel that we contacted in the street a few days back. We taught her again with the family Vicente (wow.. powerful family.. Utah material hahaha.. they are super solid... we also had a family home evening there last night in their house with Rashel... super awesome.. the cool thing was that we didn't plan the family home evening.. but rather they invited us to their family home evening in which they had already invited OUR investigator... that is the mission at work!!!! They are such an amazing family.. we just showed up and listened... really cool:) and the lesson was absolutely spiritual, understandable and direct. We talked to her about the fruits of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon being one of them. She comprehended the importance of everything, and accepted a date again to be baptized this 12 of March. What an elect young woman! Such a blessing from the Lord. We are finding so many wonderful prepared people. She also told us she will be coming to church on Sunday with the family Vicente.. that’s right baby.. working with the members in the richest part of the sector.. Santa Catalina. DOPEEE. That’s the way to do. This sector is super virgin and hasn’t been worked in years, so we are getting it worked now, contacting a lot of people there little by little, and teaching those people we meet in the houses of the strong members that are there. It’s working out great and we are seeing really real cool results.

Anyways.. The time goes by too fast when I write... but yeah that's this week in a nutshell. Good stuff and chill.

On Sunday night I ate a dinner that's called Aji de Gallina... and turns out, that for the first time in my mission the sister cooked it with peanuts (it's always with pecans). I had taken two bites when it hit me like a bus going 80 mph. As soon as I felt it, I had to go vomit and I felt my throat close up quick. I was talking with the voice of a grandpa hahahaha. I was trying to be a hero and I was like "I don't wanna go to the hospital.." but the Elders who we live with (Elder Pearce my MTC comp) was like yeah, we better go and I was like "crap this is bad we gotta go." So I had to epi-pen myself, which was awesome (it was a first) and then yeah.. we got to the hospital.. in taxi.. it was like 11 at night.. and they gave me an IV and everything got better. What a wild night. I'm blessed that I'm in the city and the hospital is close.. cuz if I was in Rimac, that would have been ugly. But everything is good.. I'm alright.. and now I'm going to be even more careful than before. GOOOO epi-pens!!!!!!

Don't freak out though, I'm 100 percent okay :)

Anyways love you mom I'll send pics :)

Love,

Elder Cluff