January 5, 2014 Letter...

Hey Mama, 

NO, I loved the package for my birthday and every thing in it! You rock mom, I'm serious:) thank you! And yeah, President Borg is a stud.. seriously the most chill, loving mission president ever.. I don't want him to change this June.. but yeah, sadly he has to :(

And going to Disneyland without me I would kill you guys.. don't even think about it.. haha, wait for me..

OH YEAH, TELL CAM HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND THAT I LOVE HIM SO MUCH AND THAT I'M SUPER PROUD OF HIM AND THE PERSON HE'S BECOMING. I love Cam. I miss him a ton. He is the sweetest kid and I hope he is having a good birthday. And starting Jr. Jazz? Atta boy:) That's gonna be fun. And Brig, ahh. I love him. Let him know I love him. And that I think about him every day. Tell him to just keep pushing through, because it will all pay off. I hope he can love his new guitar.. that's awesome he got one. Tell him to push through with it, and to not give up. He'll be fine. I know he will. Make sure he makes good friends. That's gonna be key to getting him happy and motivated. And Zack.. he is a stud isn't he. I love him. He replaced me as the favorite child.. WHY MUST I CRY. How sad. No, but, seriously I love him. And that's so sick he got Zuriicks... stud.

Okay, I'll upload the pics soon.. the next time I do internet, because I forgot my camera this time. Yikes..

Okay this break was amazing.. Christmas was ssoooo fun, and then wow.. my birthday was one of the best birthdays I've ever had in my life. It happened to be P-day, but not just any P-day. It was a super special one. We started the day off with me and my comp giving a training to the zone about being missionaries of success.. it was awesome. After that, we left as a zone to the rich part of Lima -- Mira Flores, by the beach to the super sweet mall complex beachside called Larcomar... we went and played pool there for a few hours then went and ate at Chili's! So smooth. Then after that we left and went and watched Meet the Mormons as a mission! We got the whole mission in a church building and watched it. It was amazing. So spiritual. Such a great movie. I love this gospel and I love being a personal representative of Jesus Christ. But yeah after that we left, went to the store and bought snacks, and then went to the stake center as a zone and watched Penguins of Madagascar! Haha, it was too good. Probably a lot funnier here in the mission. Afterwards we went to the bishops house, ate with his family, then watched fireworks with him and his family at 12 midnight. They were sweet. The whole city of Lima does fireworks and it's way cool to see. This day will probably never happen again while I'm in the mission.. because it was pure "not" missionary work, but it was super fun. And it was all on my birthday.. so it just made it that much cooler.. How cool though, right? Then the day after was P-day again, so we just went and played sports all day with all the zone leaders in the mission and the AP's and Secrataries (me and my comp were the only ones there not ZL's or AP's, haha) and then went to Chili's again. Super awesome.

I'm seeing a lot of miracles here in the mission, too. For example, we have been working with this brother named Jose. We have been working super hard to reactivate him... and in the process of reactivating him, we were able to reactivate his son in the church. His son would only go to church every 1-2 months, and didn't care about anything with the church. He is an RM, too, so it was super sad. We didn't work with him because by the rules of the mission, he was counted as active member, so there wasn't much we could do -- only invite him to church and all that. So in the process of teaching his dad, he has had the desire to make a complete change in his life. He is going to church every week now -- all three hours, and now he wants to listen and participate when we teach his dad. His reactivation in the church may not have counted as "numbers" for us or the mission, but it counts for the Lord. That's what we're here to do. Help people make and keep covenants with the Lord. I've been so blessed to see the Lord's hand in this work.

I have so many more stories from this past week, but I'll save them for next week:) I love you guys:) The mission work is going great. Such a blessing. And hold your horses because I might have a change this Tuesday... we'll see what happens, though.. I'm excited to see. 

Elder Cluff