March 16, 2015 Letter...

Ah yeah! Cool thanks, Mama :) and yesss I need to upload pics.. I might have time today.. but I´ll try to get them to you. I´m excited for the package, I love ya! Hey, I wonder if you can send me a hat? Did any of my hats get left behind when I packed? If so, can you send me it? If not, don´t worry about it. I love ya though:) And I'm glad you and dad are working hard to get that all done. Love you guys.

This week was a week of super hard work, trying to prep all of our investigators with baptisms this week for their baptisms. We have two this week, so that´s the goal, one is for sure set in stone, the other could happen the 28th. But we´re really seeing the Lord's hand in this work. It can be super hard and stressful, but it´s really worth it. I love seeing people gain their own testimonies. Nothing is sweeter. This week we had the opportunity to help a sister move.. she lived on the 3rd story, and the stair case was super skinny and sketchy, so we had to move everything down, and then take it to her new house, and then up 2 stories more.. it took about 5 hours with 4 elders, but we worked our butt's off. Really. But it was a really sweet experience. The sister, Sharazade, that we helped move is a single mom, and had no help, so we got there and did it all for her. Seeing the gratefulness in her face when we finished made it all worth it. I'm always going to be grateful for the experiences to serve. 

King Benjamin said that when we're serving our neighbors, we are serving our God, and I know that to be true. Charity is the pure love of Christ that he has for us, his children. When we show that love to others, through whatever way it may be, we are showing the most noble, elevated form of love and care that we can show and give to others. This week taught me a lot about charity. Sometimes we have to forget ourselves, and take that step out onto the water, and give it all we got to serve others. 

It´s something I'm learning out here, how to love people, how to really love them, I still have so much to learn, but it's something that has really humbled me and has given me so much more desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ, and really love the people. I'm learning that we demonstrate our love more with our actions than anything else, and when we do it, we are going to feel more of the kind of love the our Savior has for US. 

This week I had to give a talk on the Book of Mormon in church, and it was awesome. It was only like 10 minutes, but I felt the spirit so strongly while speaking. Cool experience. Speaking about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith said "Un hombre se acercaría mas a Dios al seguir sus preceptos que los de cualquier otro libro" (a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book). If we want to really know our Heavenly Father, and feel his love, and learn the plan he has for us, all we need to do is read. Read :) I love the Book of Mormon and hope you guys are still reading it personally and as a family :)

Anyways, love you guys! Today we went to the Zoo, and I'll send pics soon, it was SICCKKK. We saw lions and tigers and TURTLES.. You thought I was gonna says bears, haha, but yeah, we saw those too. And one of the missionaries got pooped on by a pigeon and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. It reminded me of our first time at Disneyland when Rick got pooped on, hahaha. I don't know if you remember but I do.

Love,

Elder Cluff