November 16, 2015 Letter...

Hahahaha freaking Carrie and Packer that was hilarious ... I could not believe my eyes. That's too funny. I'm glad they got to see each other though.. Carrie is such a mother coon. She will forever be so. Also, it's good hearing about Kula... gotta get him socialized around other dogs. I'm pumped to see the dogs again. How is Bear doing? Just chilling around still? Is he healthy? Good to hear about the family and that all is well in Zion...I love you very much.

This week was interesting. We had some super spiritual experiences and also some super not so great experiences. To start the week off, on Monday we were doing business all day searching for a house for the sister missionaries... we found one finally right next to the house of the relief society pres and we had to help them move and that was hard, but it was fun at the same time cuz service is fun and when we do service we feel good :). Haa. What else happened... so my comp had an interview with pres this week.. everything is good now, which makes me happy. I don't like it when people aren't obedient.. it hinders the spirit and when the spirit is hindered, the work doesn't move along, and when the work doesn't move along, the church doesn't grow and we waste our time.. But yeah, right now we are going chill and teaching with the spirit and we are happpy and that's what the mission and life is all about. It's been a struggle lately getting people to go to church, because the Sabbath day here is not respected at all. Literally, no one cares. The Sabbath day literally doesn't exist here, even the majority of the members don't respect it and it drives me INSANE. So this week the mission had a training that had to do with the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy, and we watched the training that the 12 Apostles gave in April before General Conference where they talked about that day. WOWWWW. It was amazing. First off, the Sabbath day has become one of my favorite days. I must say I have recently come to know how important this day is and how sacred it is to the Lord and how sacred it should be to us. Before the mission I guess I just didn't really understand the doctrine (understanding the doctrine is always the answer) of why the Sabbath day is so important, but I can say that now I do and I'm doing all I can to make the Sabbath a delight for me so it can, in turn, be a delight for my investigators. ALWAYS STRIVE TO KEEP THE SABBATH DAY HOLY IN THE FAM:) ...

Anyways, we are working with some real cool investigators right now.. and we are going to get them baptized, because they are cool and need those blessings. We have a family right now that is Juan, Melissa, and their daughter Silvana. They have to get married so they can get baptized, as always, but this family is super promising. Melissa's side of the family are all recent converts that we baptized; so now they are just waiting for her to get baptized. Anyways, they have a goal to get married this December and be baptized the same day. Letsssss get it. The good thing is that there aren't any problems with their papers or anything; so that makes it easier. Oh yeah, we had a super spiritual experience with Melissa the other day, we were giving the closing prayer and we gave it kneeled, and at the end of the prayer I felt such a strong witness from the spirit that every thing that we taught was true, and I know that everyone else felt it, too. As I looked over at Melissa there were tears in her eyes, and I didn't ask anything, I just simply told her, "Melissa, what you feel is the spirit. The spirit will continue testifying like that, as you continue reading the Book of Mormon and praying and asking if it is true." And I said nothing more and let her meditate on that. Wooooowwwww...amazing. The Lord is watching out for us and he is blessing us. It feels good. Our other investigators are good too, we just gotta get them to church and they´ll be baptizeddddddddd. Woooohooooo.

We taught a good amount this week and contacted over a hundred new people to visit for next week. The work is progressing and it feels so good. I gotta say that this ward is one of the hardest yet, because we don't have a lot of help, but we are pushing through. All of my converts here are doing well, too. Two of them received the priesthood yesterday and are going to help prepare and bless the sacrament next week :)

Sister Larson (pres wife) baked cookies this week and when we went to my comps interview she gave me one. I love her. She makes good cookies. A little piece of the UNITED STATES. In Peru cookies don't exist. Neither does milk.. anyways what else.. she always talks to me about church politics. I love it because that news doesn't arrive here to Peru. It usually stays in the US. But she is my source of what's going on in the church. Pres. Larson and Sis. Larson are really my heroes.

Anything else? Nope. Love ya fam :)

Elder Cluff