Cooooolll beans mom sounds like everything is COOL:) haha good to hear that! I'll be skyping you guys for my last time on May 8th.. I prefer to do it at night when we'll be able to talk more comfortably. And I'm so pumped for Zack. I cannot believe that that was his first. That's okay though, at least got it out of the way and he's happy. He's a stud. Everyone is starting to get home.. that's crazy. It's going to be a blast... I'm excited for a summer in Alpine. Summer here is horrendous with the amount of humidity that there is, but we manage so it's okay.
I'm going to be honest, this week has been a real butt kicker. We have worked out booties off getting all the work we've had to get done done. The truth is the first half of the week we didn't have any time to be in our sector and that made it hard. We had to go to Barranco several times to go buy the quarantined Elders food and looks for a new house for them and teach their investigators and all that. The worst part is that our sector is on one side of the zone and their's is on the exact opposite; it's like the extreme end of our mission. But nevertheless it's been good fun. I've been really bumbed out with this sector to be honest. Here we have so many investigators who have gotten to the point of baptism, but just days or weeks before have flaked out. I've never had a sector with such opposition before. To add to the hardness of it, the ward here just doesn't want to help out. In the wards where I have baptized, they have always worked and helped a great amount, but here it's a two man show. We're looking at ways that we can change that to increase productivity and help the ward really advance instead of move backwards.
This week we have had to continue going to Barranco to teach some other people that the Elders there had met before they got sick. They are all doing well and we should have a baptism there this next week! Aweesome. The Barranco ward is a great missionary work ward, who really helps all the members get involved and they see baptisms quite often for that. That makes me happy :)
We have transfers tomorrow and I still don't know if I'll be staying or if I'll go. After the transfer cycle that starts tomorrow, I'll only have one more left. I'll let you all know what my destiny is!
Elder Cluff
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
April 11, 2016 Letter...
Teej is home..?! How good for him! What a boss. And that sucks about the rooming situation... they're all gonna live like kings.. but hey that's cool. I'll prolly be hanging out there a lot anyways soo I ain't worried. No worrrriess. I went to the office today cuz we had to do a million things for our Pday instead of things we wanted (that's okay) and it wasn't there yet.. So idk when it'll be there. And cool.. I like ties always :) I always need more. I also hope Diego is doing alright. He is a good kid. I hope he keeps figuring it all out! Threeee months. That's true. It's going to be crazy. Everything good though.. we are working hard.. I'm very aware of my departure date and all is well, but I feel like the time is starting to finish.. and that's okay.
This week has been absolutely hectic. We literally had about zero time to proselyte because there were so many other administrative things we had to go do. It has been a rather pain in the rear but that’s okay. We’re in the work of the Lord! Anyways I’ll run ya’ll through the week. On Monday after writing we went and ate at KFC and it was delicious. I miss American food. Plates of pure rice and a little piece of chicken with the side of boiled potatoes are starting to take their toll. Anyways later that night we had an appointment with one of our investigators who is progressing really nice. His name is Jose Luis. He is a single guy who lives separated from his ex girlfriend and kid (thank goodness it’s not together). He’s about 50 years old and had listened to missionaries about 8 years ago before his mom, who lived with him, had passed away. He took that event to be one of the hardest things for him to deal with and still thinks about it often. His dad, who is a member and lives by Cuzco, came to visit and went to our ward for about 2 months, and while there he passed us the referral. So we went and visited and we have been working with him ever since. He is progressing a lot and the good thing is that he understands everything we explain him. The only thing that he’s missing is the spiritual witness that it’s all true. He’s a had a lot of questions that we’ve had to answer, but the answer we give him from the scriptures always seems to leave him satisfied. His biggest iceberg right now is the fact that he was born and raised catholic by his mother, and even though he KNOWS it’s not true, it pains him to change because that is one of the only things still keeping him and his dead mom connected, he doesn’t want to betray her. (Even though the funny thing is that his dad who is a member already did his mom’s temple work and she is now a member. LOL.) To him we explained recently the Plan of Salvation…… finish what happened.
On Tuesday we had an absolutely hectic day. As Zone Leaders we have the opportunity every month to get together with the AP’s and President and Sister Larson and have a council, talking about problems and challenges in our zones and things we have done good and things we can do better. It’s always a great opportunity. I absolutely love working close to President and Sister Larson. I love them so much and I’m so grateful that they are hear in this time to help this work move forward. I’ve formed such a great relationship with the two of them and it’s something I’m always going to honor and cherish. Anyways, something we talked about in this council was that there is an Elder very sick in my zone with active tuberculosis (our zone has a had a load of random problems this week) and that every Elder that has had contact with him would also need to be tested. GREAT. So, afterwards, because I had lived with this Elder when he first got here to the zone (his comp still hadn’t come yet so he was with us for 2 weeks) I had to go get my chest X-Rayed. It was fun. It was about 12 hours of doing non-stop stuff. We got home from all those shenanigans at like 8:00 PM and we worked until the end of the night. But yeah, turns out I don’t have TB, but to be safe we had the whole mission do the TB phlegm tests on Friday. Oh was that fun… hahaha. Like no one had phlegm, so we had 24 missionaries just coughing as hard as they could to muster up phlegm to fill a small fluid collector up. It was hilarious.
If you think that Tuesday was hectic, Wednesday and Thursday were possibly worse. On Wednesday we had to round two of our districts up, with the medical secretaries orders, and travel after the district meetings to a clinic in San Isidro. It’s a clinic inside of our zone, but with traffic and all that it takes a good while to get there. So we all got there at like 3:00 PM only for them to tell us that no, they couldn’t do the phlegm TB tests because it was closed. Okay.. sweet. We had very little time to work that night because we ended up getting home later than we thought. We did have a great appointment though that night with our investigator Carmen. After like two weeks, we were finally able to teach her! She is doing good and knows that our message is true, it’s just that she has a little trouble accepting one of the commandments. She isn’t currently breaking it, but due to the fact that the situation she is in could lead her to break it, she has the fear and doesn’t want to commit to anything she won’t be able to complete. We spoke with boldness to her and we were very direct. We told her straight up the consequences of sin and also what happens when we don’t keep the commandments. The spirit testified of our words and she accepted the invite to pray and ask God if she really need to keep this commandment.
Something that I’ve realized towards the end of my mission, is that I’ve become very direct with people. Elder McPhie and I are very direct with the people we teach and sometimes they take it to be hard, but it’s the truth and the guilty sometimes take the truth to be hard, but also they realize the importance of what we teach, that it’s not some pretty message we’re sharing, but rather something their eternal happiness depends on. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but more time in the mission has given me a lot less patience with evil and lies and people who don’t want to progress.
This week ended very normally. We were able to finish strong. Sadly we didn’t get to work on Sunday because finally the whole country voted on who will be their new president (thank goodness, now the annoying campaigns can end haha). We weren’t allowed to leave the house unless we had fixed appointments, due to the high rate of public disturbance, and all ours fell through and no one would answer their phone so we had to stay in. We ended up playing Phase 10.. great game. If I remember correctly we used to play it as a family in the camp trailer.
Today has also been a bit hectic, we had to get the zone gathered again to do a second phlegm spit test.. then we had to run all the samples outside of the mission, then we had a meeting with President and Sister Larson and the secretaries to come to an agreement on what we’re going to do with the Elder that’s sick. WEEHOO.
Good week tho... love y'all...
Elder Cluff
This week has been absolutely hectic. We literally had about zero time to proselyte because there were so many other administrative things we had to go do. It has been a rather pain in the rear but that’s okay. We’re in the work of the Lord! Anyways I’ll run ya’ll through the week. On Monday after writing we went and ate at KFC and it was delicious. I miss American food. Plates of pure rice and a little piece of chicken with the side of boiled potatoes are starting to take their toll. Anyways later that night we had an appointment with one of our investigators who is progressing really nice. His name is Jose Luis. He is a single guy who lives separated from his ex girlfriend and kid (thank goodness it’s not together). He’s about 50 years old and had listened to missionaries about 8 years ago before his mom, who lived with him, had passed away. He took that event to be one of the hardest things for him to deal with and still thinks about it often. His dad, who is a member and lives by Cuzco, came to visit and went to our ward for about 2 months, and while there he passed us the referral. So we went and visited and we have been working with him ever since. He is progressing a lot and the good thing is that he understands everything we explain him. The only thing that he’s missing is the spiritual witness that it’s all true. He’s a had a lot of questions that we’ve had to answer, but the answer we give him from the scriptures always seems to leave him satisfied. His biggest iceberg right now is the fact that he was born and raised catholic by his mother, and even though he KNOWS it’s not true, it pains him to change because that is one of the only things still keeping him and his dead mom connected, he doesn’t want to betray her. (Even though the funny thing is that his dad who is a member already did his mom’s temple work and she is now a member. LOL.) To him we explained recently the Plan of Salvation…… finish what happened.
On Tuesday we had an absolutely hectic day. As Zone Leaders we have the opportunity every month to get together with the AP’s and President and Sister Larson and have a council, talking about problems and challenges in our zones and things we have done good and things we can do better. It’s always a great opportunity. I absolutely love working close to President and Sister Larson. I love them so much and I’m so grateful that they are hear in this time to help this work move forward. I’ve formed such a great relationship with the two of them and it’s something I’m always going to honor and cherish. Anyways, something we talked about in this council was that there is an Elder very sick in my zone with active tuberculosis (our zone has a had a load of random problems this week) and that every Elder that has had contact with him would also need to be tested. GREAT. So, afterwards, because I had lived with this Elder when he first got here to the zone (his comp still hadn’t come yet so he was with us for 2 weeks) I had to go get my chest X-Rayed. It was fun. It was about 12 hours of doing non-stop stuff. We got home from all those shenanigans at like 8:00 PM and we worked until the end of the night. But yeah, turns out I don’t have TB, but to be safe we had the whole mission do the TB phlegm tests on Friday. Oh was that fun… hahaha. Like no one had phlegm, so we had 24 missionaries just coughing as hard as they could to muster up phlegm to fill a small fluid collector up. It was hilarious.
If you think that Tuesday was hectic, Wednesday and Thursday were possibly worse. On Wednesday we had to round two of our districts up, with the medical secretaries orders, and travel after the district meetings to a clinic in San Isidro. It’s a clinic inside of our zone, but with traffic and all that it takes a good while to get there. So we all got there at like 3:00 PM only for them to tell us that no, they couldn’t do the phlegm TB tests because it was closed. Okay.. sweet. We had very little time to work that night because we ended up getting home later than we thought. We did have a great appointment though that night with our investigator Carmen. After like two weeks, we were finally able to teach her! She is doing good and knows that our message is true, it’s just that she has a little trouble accepting one of the commandments. She isn’t currently breaking it, but due to the fact that the situation she is in could lead her to break it, she has the fear and doesn’t want to commit to anything she won’t be able to complete. We spoke with boldness to her and we were very direct. We told her straight up the consequences of sin and also what happens when we don’t keep the commandments. The spirit testified of our words and she accepted the invite to pray and ask God if she really need to keep this commandment.
Something that I’ve realized towards the end of my mission, is that I’ve become very direct with people. Elder McPhie and I are very direct with the people we teach and sometimes they take it to be hard, but it’s the truth and the guilty sometimes take the truth to be hard, but also they realize the importance of what we teach, that it’s not some pretty message we’re sharing, but rather something their eternal happiness depends on. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but more time in the mission has given me a lot less patience with evil and lies and people who don’t want to progress.
This week ended very normally. We were able to finish strong. Sadly we didn’t get to work on Sunday because finally the whole country voted on who will be their new president (thank goodness, now the annoying campaigns can end haha). We weren’t allowed to leave the house unless we had fixed appointments, due to the high rate of public disturbance, and all ours fell through and no one would answer their phone so we had to stay in. We ended up playing Phase 10.. great game. If I remember correctly we used to play it as a family in the camp trailer.
Today has also been a bit hectic, we had to get the zone gathered again to do a second phlegm spit test.. then we had to run all the samples outside of the mission, then we had a meeting with President and Sister Larson and the secretaries to come to an agreement on what we’re going to do with the Elder that’s sick. WEEHOO.
Good week tho... love y'all...
Elder Cluff
April 4, 2016 Letter...
I thought of Stacie when Elder Holland was talking also. She came clearly to my thoughts. That´s pretty awesome how the spirit works in us. I have a lot of hope for her and I think about her often. I plan to work with Aunt Stacie also when I get home. I do love her and want her to be so happy. People really do change. Sometimes it takes big events to stir us up to remembrance, but the Lord will always provide the way to make it back to him. He just wants us to be obedient and wants us to have light in our lives! President Uchtdorf spoke of that Sunday morning. He said "It is by obedience that we gather light into our souls," while talking about the parable of the lost sheep. The goal for her is the temple.. that's where she needs to be. We need to do all we can to help her receive her endowments. That's the goal.
Zack got a 26.. that's what I got.. good for him! Now he just needs to write killer essays to get into BYU and then he's good. I'm so happy you are a grandma! You guys rock.
This week has been a little bit better than last week! On Monday we got to clean the house and rest up a little bit. Cleaning is always just a blast. Then on Tuesday we had interviews and my heavens it was the longest day of my life. My comp and I had to go to the offices at like 8:30 in the morning and then all the zone arrived. We were waiting for like 30 minutes then we're like.. where is President and Sister Larson.. so we called them and come to find out they had gone to our stake center in Limatambo when the assistants had told us go to the stake center of Magdalena where the offices are. Bigggg confusion. So President and his wife had to turn around and drive through a whole bunch of traffic to get to the office where we were. They finally got there and we got the interviews started. My comp and I had interviews first, we talked about the zone and it's progress and it was great. Then we had our personal interviews and mine was awesome. I love President Larson, he is one of the straightest, most obedient men I know. After our interview we had to go tell the rest of the zone to come up one by one... and then my comp and I had to go with this chauffeur and drive from literally one point in the mission to the other doing room inspections of all the missionaries in our zone. It took like 5 hours and in the Peruvian heat, in Peruvian traffic, and it was miserable. We got through it though and made it back to the offices. We thought that everyone would be done now because usually the interviews don't take too long, but we got there and there were missionaries that still hadn't been interviewed, so we had to wait and stay there to help out. We talked to Sister Larson most of the time. She is great. The only thing that stinks is that the mission is apparently going to start cracking down on weights and protein powder. WHAT. Apparently people have too many weights and they are losing their focus (don't look at me). There are also missionaries who are buying protein with mission money and ruining it for everyone. Hahahaha. I just think it's so funny how the culture of the mission is. Like how it's actually gotten to the point where they have to ban weights and protein powder, like 6 months ago it wasn't like that. Everyone is starting to get ripped so they had to put an end to it. I'm fine with it though, I accept Sister Larson's decisions. I'll be home in like 3 months. I'm mean I guess I'll be skinny when I get home which stinks, but I'll be able to throw it back on within a month at my house at GOLDS. Yeah!
On Wednesday we literally walked all day and got let into no where. Suck. But we did have one good thing! We had the feeling to start walking towards the house where our investigator who was going to get baptized then disappeared (her name is Carmen) works in, so we followed the prompting, not knowing why or not really even thinking of Carmen we started going, as we got there, we saw a car driving away and someone closing a gate! It was Carmen!!! We were like.. noooo way. After two weeks we have found her. She told us that she had just been busy lately with work taking care of an old lady, but that she was good and happy. We took out an appointment for Friday and invited her to the ward mission night that was on Thursday. She was super excited and it looked as if nothing had happened. The Lord really answered our prayers and even though that Wednesday had just sucked, we did find one diamond in the rough! It was a miracle! On Thursday we had a ward mission night.. it was like.. more or less. We passed out like a thousand flyers and like 20 people went. It was a great turn out... ha. A cool sister did come though and we got her info and she was way excited and we are going to visit her. So if she gets baptized.. then it will all be good :) Carmen is currently doing well. We are going to have a solid appointment with her today to get her baptized this 16th!
I'm pumped for this month. We have worked really hard with the zone to get them focused and get them going and we are finally going to see the fruits of our labors this month. We have a lot of people ready to make covenants with the Lord and we are going to be setting records this month. Nothing can stop this work from going forward! I read a talk this week on the Book of Moses and how it came to pass, it's a super interesting story of how we have our actual Book of Moses. What else happened...
I absolutely loved this weekend, watching general conference. In the Saturday morning session I was completely struck by the spirit during President Eyring's talk and the testimony he bore at the end. I have never seen so much conviction and power in a testimony. Just listening to the prophets of God speak is evidence enough that the are called of God and that the everlasting gospel has been restored. I love those men with all of my heart. I sustain them and support them.
I'll run you guys through some of my favorite talks.. Saturday morning I really enjoyed Elder Renlund's talk and when he talked about the more distanced we become from God, the more entitled we feel to his blessings and divine help. SO TRUE. I've seen that come to pass in my mission about every single day with about every single person. I also love how he said murmuring is the scripture equivalent of childish whining. He said something along the lines of "Christ is much more happy with a repentant sinner that a self-righteous judger who looks for faults in everyone else somewhat like a Pharisee." I've also seen that come to pass many times on my mission with many members of the church. What a great talk. On Saturday afternoon I loved M. Russel Ballard's talk on having Family Councils!! What a great idea. Apart from having family home evening, we need have family councils! He made me laugh. In the priesthood session, every single talk was just a home run. I LOVED Russel M. Nelson's talk on priesthood power and how we can increase it. Just a great talk. I learned the priesthood power isn't a free gift, but rather a price every priesthood holder has to pay in order to use such power to perform miracles for the ones he loves. Also he talked a lot about the way we treat our wives; to love and cherish her. I think I might have even liked this talk more though, President Uchdorf's talk. He gave some amazing and inspired tips and councils to be able to keep a marriage alive and afloat. He also gave a council to us (in a few months) returned missionaries, that we shouldn't waste our time trying to look for the perfect wife, because in the first place, if she existed, why would she be interested in us? HAHA. Great point. I realized that the key to any marriage is charity. I guess it's the key to any real relationship we have on this earth. He spoke of the great enemy of charity, which is pride, which accelerates its own strength and ignores that of others. He was pretty clear that pride is one of the most dangerous sins. Then President Erying spoke again, and this time he counciled us to make sure that everything we do and that every choice we make leads us to celestial marriage. He also said that when we get home, we shouldn't waste time, that marriage is the single most important thing we can do. COOL.
The second day of conference was just great. And hey! There is going to be another temple here in Lima! I have no idea where, but I would really love to see it after it's finished. I loved the Prophet's short but sweet message. He is the best. Also I loved Bonnie L. Oscarson's talk on how clear our belief is that this is the only true church that counts with priesthood authority of God. The point is getting the gospel message from our mind, to our hearts. I could go on and on about the talks, but I better stop. I loved Jerry R. Holland's, too. What a boss.
Zack got a 26.. that's what I got.. good for him! Now he just needs to write killer essays to get into BYU and then he's good. I'm so happy you are a grandma! You guys rock.
This week has been a little bit better than last week! On Monday we got to clean the house and rest up a little bit. Cleaning is always just a blast. Then on Tuesday we had interviews and my heavens it was the longest day of my life. My comp and I had to go to the offices at like 8:30 in the morning and then all the zone arrived. We were waiting for like 30 minutes then we're like.. where is President and Sister Larson.. so we called them and come to find out they had gone to our stake center in Limatambo when the assistants had told us go to the stake center of Magdalena where the offices are. Bigggg confusion. So President and his wife had to turn around and drive through a whole bunch of traffic to get to the office where we were. They finally got there and we got the interviews started. My comp and I had interviews first, we talked about the zone and it's progress and it was great. Then we had our personal interviews and mine was awesome. I love President Larson, he is one of the straightest, most obedient men I know. After our interview we had to go tell the rest of the zone to come up one by one... and then my comp and I had to go with this chauffeur and drive from literally one point in the mission to the other doing room inspections of all the missionaries in our zone. It took like 5 hours and in the Peruvian heat, in Peruvian traffic, and it was miserable. We got through it though and made it back to the offices. We thought that everyone would be done now because usually the interviews don't take too long, but we got there and there were missionaries that still hadn't been interviewed, so we had to wait and stay there to help out. We talked to Sister Larson most of the time. She is great. The only thing that stinks is that the mission is apparently going to start cracking down on weights and protein powder. WHAT. Apparently people have too many weights and they are losing their focus (don't look at me). There are also missionaries who are buying protein with mission money and ruining it for everyone. Hahahaha. I just think it's so funny how the culture of the mission is. Like how it's actually gotten to the point where they have to ban weights and protein powder, like 6 months ago it wasn't like that. Everyone is starting to get ripped so they had to put an end to it. I'm fine with it though, I accept Sister Larson's decisions. I'll be home in like 3 months. I'm mean I guess I'll be skinny when I get home which stinks, but I'll be able to throw it back on within a month at my house at GOLDS. Yeah!
On Wednesday we literally walked all day and got let into no where. Suck. But we did have one good thing! We had the feeling to start walking towards the house where our investigator who was going to get baptized then disappeared (her name is Carmen) works in, so we followed the prompting, not knowing why or not really even thinking of Carmen we started going, as we got there, we saw a car driving away and someone closing a gate! It was Carmen!!! We were like.. noooo way. After two weeks we have found her. She told us that she had just been busy lately with work taking care of an old lady, but that she was good and happy. We took out an appointment for Friday and invited her to the ward mission night that was on Thursday. She was super excited and it looked as if nothing had happened. The Lord really answered our prayers and even though that Wednesday had just sucked, we did find one diamond in the rough! It was a miracle! On Thursday we had a ward mission night.. it was like.. more or less. We passed out like a thousand flyers and like 20 people went. It was a great turn out... ha. A cool sister did come though and we got her info and she was way excited and we are going to visit her. So if she gets baptized.. then it will all be good :) Carmen is currently doing well. We are going to have a solid appointment with her today to get her baptized this 16th!
I'm pumped for this month. We have worked really hard with the zone to get them focused and get them going and we are finally going to see the fruits of our labors this month. We have a lot of people ready to make covenants with the Lord and we are going to be setting records this month. Nothing can stop this work from going forward! I read a talk this week on the Book of Moses and how it came to pass, it's a super interesting story of how we have our actual Book of Moses. What else happened...
I absolutely loved this weekend, watching general conference. In the Saturday morning session I was completely struck by the spirit during President Eyring's talk and the testimony he bore at the end. I have never seen so much conviction and power in a testimony. Just listening to the prophets of God speak is evidence enough that the are called of God and that the everlasting gospel has been restored. I love those men with all of my heart. I sustain them and support them.
I'll run you guys through some of my favorite talks.. Saturday morning I really enjoyed Elder Renlund's talk and when he talked about the more distanced we become from God, the more entitled we feel to his blessings and divine help. SO TRUE. I've seen that come to pass in my mission about every single day with about every single person. I also love how he said murmuring is the scripture equivalent of childish whining. He said something along the lines of "Christ is much more happy with a repentant sinner that a self-righteous judger who looks for faults in everyone else somewhat like a Pharisee." I've also seen that come to pass many times on my mission with many members of the church. What a great talk. On Saturday afternoon I loved M. Russel Ballard's talk on having Family Councils!! What a great idea. Apart from having family home evening, we need have family councils! He made me laugh. In the priesthood session, every single talk was just a home run. I LOVED Russel M. Nelson's talk on priesthood power and how we can increase it. Just a great talk. I learned the priesthood power isn't a free gift, but rather a price every priesthood holder has to pay in order to use such power to perform miracles for the ones he loves. Also he talked a lot about the way we treat our wives; to love and cherish her. I think I might have even liked this talk more though, President Uchdorf's talk. He gave some amazing and inspired tips and councils to be able to keep a marriage alive and afloat. He also gave a council to us (in a few months) returned missionaries, that we shouldn't waste our time trying to look for the perfect wife, because in the first place, if she existed, why would she be interested in us? HAHA. Great point. I realized that the key to any marriage is charity. I guess it's the key to any real relationship we have on this earth. He spoke of the great enemy of charity, which is pride, which accelerates its own strength and ignores that of others. He was pretty clear that pride is one of the most dangerous sins. Then President Erying spoke again, and this time he counciled us to make sure that everything we do and that every choice we make leads us to celestial marriage. He also said that when we get home, we shouldn't waste time, that marriage is the single most important thing we can do. COOL.
The second day of conference was just great. And hey! There is going to be another temple here in Lima! I have no idea where, but I would really love to see it after it's finished. I loved the Prophet's short but sweet message. He is the best. Also I loved Bonnie L. Oscarson's talk on how clear our belief is that this is the only true church that counts with priesthood authority of God. The point is getting the gospel message from our mind, to our hearts. I could go on and on about the talks, but I better stop. I loved Jerry R. Holland's, too. What a boss.
Love you guys!
Elder Cluff
Monday, March 28, 2016
March 28, 2016 Letter...
I don't need anything in the package.. or wait maybe I do... hmm... no I don´t think so. There is just some stuff I want. Pilot G2 pens would be nice.... also... umm... what else. I think that´s gotta be it. Guess what... I honestly didn´t even know it was Easter until last night.. I´m honestly terribly confused right now -- why is Easter in March this year?! What the heck. We are an eternal family :) that makes me really happy. But yeah, college is going to be fun and great.. we´re excited! And hey, Haylee Evans is really going to Peru?! That´s great! I´m going to give her some tips.. if I tell her everything though she isn´t going to want to go anymore hahaha. Oh beloved Peru... and the letter last week.. I totally got distracted reading talks.. forgive me mother :) I´ll make up for it right now!
Mason Wells.. I know him actually pretty well. That´s crazy. I´m glad to hear he is doing better though! The Lord really is watching out for him. He really needs to become like a navy seal and get back at those terrorists. Thanks mom for letting me know though!
Mason Wells.. I know him actually pretty well. That´s crazy. I´m glad to hear he is doing better though! The Lord really is watching out for him. He really needs to become like a navy seal and get back at those terrorists. Thanks mom for letting me know though!
Well, this week has been a longgggg week. I wanna fill ya'll in on last week.. everything was good. My comp and I gave a sweet training to the zone on miracles and how we can receive them in this great work. We shared the classic story of David and Goliath and related it to missionary work. David was a very small blonde and beautiful kid (like us, lol) that didn't have much experience, but he had to take on a big powerful enemy. If he would have fought Goliath with his own strength, he probably would have been completely destroyed. But David understood that; he understood that he couldn't do it alone. His eyes were set on the Lord and his power to save and free, not his own skills and talents. He told Goliath that it wasn't his battle, but rather the Lord's and because of that, the Lord would free him. David trusted and ran towards Goliath with all his might. Goliath did the same; he ran towards David, full speed, full power, ready to kill him, but David, with the strength of the Lord was able to kill him and defeat an enemy that was supposedly undefeatable. We related this story to us. We are in the richest zone in the mission, and supposedly the hardest zone to baptize in the mission, but that is the limit that we as missionaries have put on ourselves; it's a false belief. We taught that our zone may be different from the rest, but because of that we need work in different ways to see different results. We can take this giant on walking, and we can't do it by ourselves, but rather, this is the Lord's battle, not ours, and we need to do it at a full run, giving everything we have. Doing so, trusting in the Lord and recognizing that he directs the work, will make the complete difference so we can see fruits of our labors and baptize the elect that the Lord has prepared for us. Great stuff.
So also last week we had a super poopy experience, we have two investigators, a mother and a daughter named Carmen and Camila. I've told you guys about Carmen, she is a wonderful woman who has progressed beautifully over these past weeks. Her daughter Camila has about 21 years and she is also progressing very quickly. We have been teaching them very frequently and both of them have accepted the invitation to be baptized, because they have been able to feel that it is true. On Sunday night last week, we went to their house to be able to prepare them for their baptisms and teach them the commandments. We walked in their house with our ward mission leader, sat down, and began conversing before we taught. Before we said the prayer, through the door in walks Camila's friend. We greeted her and she sat down and began also talking with her. She was like a 22 year old spoiled party brat and come to find our she was an inactive member of the church. She then went on to tell us, in front of Carmen and Camila, that she got baptized when she supposedly knew it wasn't true and that the church is false and that God's actually not a person, just a magic unknowable spirit essence that fills immensity. WRONG. We told her God is a perfect and exalted PERSON that has a tangible body of flesh and bones. Then she continued with her schpeel of apostasy and began talking about how the "church" makes dumb rules like not drinking or having sex before you're married (listen brat, it's not the church, it's God). She didn't give us much room to talk and correct the here-says she had taught and we also couldn't teach Camila and Carmen the truth, because she stayed there in the room, doing another thing, but listening still. Awkward. Carmen and Camila were super suprised at the stupid things that girl said and it made them start thinking and second guessing. So yeah, we took other appointments out all this week we've gone by, but we haven't been able to find them all week... We actually found Camila on Saturday, but she was super discouraged due to the opposition in her life; her ex partner, her father, her friends, everyone is telling her NO, the Mormons are BAD. I invite them to read Mormon 9:3-5. boooo. Carmen's baptism was supposed to be this week too, but her boss decided to take her on vacation with him and his wife. Dang it. And now she can't be baptized until the 16th of April due to the general conference next week and national elections that take place on Sunday (there won't be church in all of Peru) in two weeks. But I guess it might be better though, because now Camila and Carmen, when we are actually able to teach them and get everything settled, they can be baptized on the same day. That was pretty much my week in a bag. We worked our keesters off this week. We also found a lot of new families to teach and many of them are progressing. Our ward mission leader named Jimmy Chuan has helped a lot this week, that's been nice. We got a new pencionista and she now delivers the food to our door every day, so the other Elders come over, Elder Pearce and Elder Cancino, and we eat with them. It's nice. Elder Pearce was my comp in the MTC, and he is a super solid dude! We usually end up talking about guns and things we're going to do when we get home.
This week while reading Preach My Gospel I was reminded of the very point of missionary work. Declaring the fact of the fullness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ and the authority of the holy priesthood that has been restored to the earth. That if we live in harmony with the teachings of Jesus Christ, we will be presented before the Lord in the last day and we will receive mercy from the Savior, and will enter into the presence of the Father to dwell with him in his eternal mansion.
The gospel is great. I love it. I pray for the apostates who have left and hope they come back.
Elder Cluff
So also last week we had a super poopy experience, we have two investigators, a mother and a daughter named Carmen and Camila. I've told you guys about Carmen, she is a wonderful woman who has progressed beautifully over these past weeks. Her daughter Camila has about 21 years and she is also progressing very quickly. We have been teaching them very frequently and both of them have accepted the invitation to be baptized, because they have been able to feel that it is true. On Sunday night last week, we went to their house to be able to prepare them for their baptisms and teach them the commandments. We walked in their house with our ward mission leader, sat down, and began conversing before we taught. Before we said the prayer, through the door in walks Camila's friend. We greeted her and she sat down and began also talking with her. She was like a 22 year old spoiled party brat and come to find our she was an inactive member of the church. She then went on to tell us, in front of Carmen and Camila, that she got baptized when she supposedly knew it wasn't true and that the church is false and that God's actually not a person, just a magic unknowable spirit essence that fills immensity. WRONG. We told her God is a perfect and exalted PERSON that has a tangible body of flesh and bones. Then she continued with her schpeel of apostasy and began talking about how the "church" makes dumb rules like not drinking or having sex before you're married (listen brat, it's not the church, it's God). She didn't give us much room to talk and correct the here-says she had taught and we also couldn't teach Camila and Carmen the truth, because she stayed there in the room, doing another thing, but listening still. Awkward. Carmen and Camila were super suprised at the stupid things that girl said and it made them start thinking and second guessing. So yeah, we took other appointments out all this week we've gone by, but we haven't been able to find them all week... We actually found Camila on Saturday, but she was super discouraged due to the opposition in her life; her ex partner, her father, her friends, everyone is telling her NO, the Mormons are BAD. I invite them to read Mormon 9:3-5. boooo. Carmen's baptism was supposed to be this week too, but her boss decided to take her on vacation with him and his wife. Dang it. And now she can't be baptized until the 16th of April due to the general conference next week and national elections that take place on Sunday (there won't be church in all of Peru) in two weeks. But I guess it might be better though, because now Camila and Carmen, when we are actually able to teach them and get everything settled, they can be baptized on the same day. That was pretty much my week in a bag. We worked our keesters off this week. We also found a lot of new families to teach and many of them are progressing. Our ward mission leader named Jimmy Chuan has helped a lot this week, that's been nice. We got a new pencionista and she now delivers the food to our door every day, so the other Elders come over, Elder Pearce and Elder Cancino, and we eat with them. It's nice. Elder Pearce was my comp in the MTC, and he is a super solid dude! We usually end up talking about guns and things we're going to do when we get home.
This week while reading Preach My Gospel I was reminded of the very point of missionary work. Declaring the fact of the fullness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ and the authority of the holy priesthood that has been restored to the earth. That if we live in harmony with the teachings of Jesus Christ, we will be presented before the Lord in the last day and we will receive mercy from the Savior, and will enter into the presence of the Father to dwell with him in his eternal mansion.
The gospel is great. I love it. I pray for the apostates who have left and hope they come back.
Elder Cluff
Elder McPhie and Elder Cluff emailing on P-day
Thursday, March 17, 2016
March 14, 2016 Letter...
Thanks, that makes me feel more comforted what you said about dad and his job. That's awesome. Maybe he can work on the side with Kula for the church or something like that:) Who knows.. but I'm glad to hear all is well and thanks for all you did with the room! We are going to have a lot of fun! Now I just need to see what job I can get to be able to pay for school and pay rent. But cool :) I'm super pumped. Life is a continually progressing. This week has had a lot of good fun things in it! On Tuesday I received a new comp, and I am now training a new Zone Leader. His name is Elder McPhie from St. George!! He went to Desert Hills HS and knows a lot of the same people I know!!! Like he was on swim team and stuff and he told me he knew Taylor our cousin! Such a small world. It's super fun. It's nice having a USA comp I'm not going to lie... Anyways. We are taking the Zone Limatambo to new heights and we have a lot of new things we are implementing here and we have already seen the differences! The investigators I told you about last week, Carmen and Rachelle, they both will be baptized next week! We are stoked to get it done! They have made such progress and especially Carmen, her conversion story is just amazing. She has received many answers to her prayers and she is just pumped. The ward is doing a great job of helping them feel comfortable also.
This Thursday we have a training from Elder Robbins from the 70 presidency.. it was awesome! I was definitely spiritually enlightened. He talked a lot about obedience and how we have to do it, even when we don't understand. He mentioned that we need to learn to trust in our leaders and those who receive revelation for us, and do what they say and trust in their promises. It was great. Then afterwards we had the leader council with Elder Montoya from the 70.. he was super direct and used a little bit of fire with us and it was awesome... it wasn't really fire for us, but rather in the mission, some things that have been happening that really shouldn't be. I enjoyed it. Then yesterday we had another meeting with my comp and I, Pres. Larson, the stake president, and Elder Alvarez from the 70. It was also a solid meeting. He gave us some new ideas to help the zone, and did some follow ups to make sure we completed with the assignments that he had given us the last time we talked with him. We went SUPER prepared and we able to answer all of his questions and defend the zone. Great experience. I love preparation.
This Thursday we have a training from Elder Robbins from the 70 presidency.. it was awesome! I was definitely spiritually enlightened. He talked a lot about obedience and how we have to do it, even when we don't understand. He mentioned that we need to learn to trust in our leaders and those who receive revelation for us, and do what they say and trust in their promises. It was great. Then afterwards we had the leader council with Elder Montoya from the 70.. he was super direct and used a little bit of fire with us and it was awesome... it wasn't really fire for us, but rather in the mission, some things that have been happening that really shouldn't be. I enjoyed it. Then yesterday we had another meeting with my comp and I, Pres. Larson, the stake president, and Elder Alvarez from the 70. It was also a solid meeting. He gave us some new ideas to help the zone, and did some follow ups to make sure we completed with the assignments that he had given us the last time we talked with him. We went SUPER prepared and we able to answer all of his questions and defend the zone. Great experience. I love preparation.
Anyways, I love you guys,
Elder Cluff
Elder Cluff
March 7, 2016 Letter...
Good to hear everyone is good motherrr :) I hope Ashley has her baby this week.. that would be cool. I got the shaving oil and YES I love it. It's solid and I thank you for it. Transfers are tomorrow and I'm about 100 percent sure I will be receiving a new comp. Idk if it will be a new zone leader or an old zone leader that will come. Either way it'll be a solid missionary. That's the good thing about being a ZL.. you always get good comps! I'm pumped to hear about Zack and the ACT. I'm positive he'll score much higher than me. I really hated that test to be honest... I''m glad I'll never have to take it again. Glad everyone is working hard and having funnnnn :)
Not much happened this week to be honest. We were able to find a lot of new people to teach and our current investigators are progressing really beautifully. We are seeing a lot of blessings right now! We have two investigadores that are pretty sure for this month. One is Rachelle and the other is Carmen. Rachelle is progressing wonderfully. The most solid family here in the ward, the Vicente family, are helping us a lot with her. One of the daughters from that family recently returned home from the mission in Brazil and is helping us a lot with Rachelle. They are doing a great job of befriending her and helping her go to activities and church. We honestly don't have to do much, well we do, but we don't have to worry about going and picking her up for church or calling her to remind her about appointments and things like that, the family does it.. it's nice :) My comp and I have been able to note a significant difference in her conversion as compared to someone who we have done everything for and members nothing.. She has been able to progress a lot faster and has been able to be more sure about the answers to her prayers and her questions thanks to the family who has completely adopted her into their loving home and dedicated themselves to her eternal well being. That's the way it should be! Members and missionaries... working TOGETHER. I love it.
We had an appointment with Carmen yesterday and she is rocking it. She is a single mother who works alllll day as a nurse in the house of a church member taking care of their old mother who is unable to do things for herself. Carmen is a very loving and patient and receptive person. I remember the second appointment with her she started calling us her angels. Haha. AWESOME. Anyways she went to church yesterday and the members did a fabulous job of befriending her and making her feel comfortable. Carmen LOVED IT. What a great spirit was felt yesterday. Then in the appointment we taught the Restauration and she accepted a baptismal date for this month! She has 3 older kids that live with her and we are going to be able to work with them also :)
We have a few other people who are progressing and possibles for this month. We are loving it. It's amazing to see how much the Lord blesses us when we are diligent and when we remember him.
I love you guys,
Elder Cluff
Not much happened this week to be honest. We were able to find a lot of new people to teach and our current investigators are progressing really beautifully. We are seeing a lot of blessings right now! We have two investigadores that are pretty sure for this month. One is Rachelle and the other is Carmen. Rachelle is progressing wonderfully. The most solid family here in the ward, the Vicente family, are helping us a lot with her. One of the daughters from that family recently returned home from the mission in Brazil and is helping us a lot with Rachelle. They are doing a great job of befriending her and helping her go to activities and church. We honestly don't have to do much, well we do, but we don't have to worry about going and picking her up for church or calling her to remind her about appointments and things like that, the family does it.. it's nice :) My comp and I have been able to note a significant difference in her conversion as compared to someone who we have done everything for and members nothing.. She has been able to progress a lot faster and has been able to be more sure about the answers to her prayers and her questions thanks to the family who has completely adopted her into their loving home and dedicated themselves to her eternal well being. That's the way it should be! Members and missionaries... working TOGETHER. I love it.
We had an appointment with Carmen yesterday and she is rocking it. She is a single mother who works alllll day as a nurse in the house of a church member taking care of their old mother who is unable to do things for herself. Carmen is a very loving and patient and receptive person. I remember the second appointment with her she started calling us her angels. Haha. AWESOME. Anyways she went to church yesterday and the members did a fabulous job of befriending her and making her feel comfortable. Carmen LOVED IT. What a great spirit was felt yesterday. Then in the appointment we taught the Restauration and she accepted a baptismal date for this month! She has 3 older kids that live with her and we are going to be able to work with them also :)
We have a few other people who are progressing and possibles for this month. We are loving it. It's amazing to see how much the Lord blesses us when we are diligent and when we remember him.
I love you guys,
Elder Cluff
February 29, 2016 Letter...
Yeah that's a great idea about the house.. be sure to stay in contact with Sue Mika and get her in on it so you guys can decide together!! That would be super awesome though. Let me know what happens.. and if I have to sign something electronically that's just fine. Good to hear the fam damily is doing well and everyone is playing lax and haveeeeinnngg fun. That's a straight blessing. I'm excited though for this package you sent! I want that shaving oil super bad! Its going to be cool. Anyways keep me update with Ashley also! I'm super pumped cuz I'll be a tiooooo! Uncle Caden.. coolest uncle ever. RM.. dope. Anyways your letter was good you can always make them like that if you desire. It's good stuff.
This week was cool. On Tuesday with half of the mission in Magdalena. It was a great training. Well it actually wasn't much of a training… more of a remembering things and getting everyone on the same page. Me and my comp had to give a 15 minute training on what Elder Alvarez recently taught us.. we did it awesome and it was a good time. The spirit was strong!! I absolutely love teaching people and training them. Before the mission I was terrified of speaking in front of people and especially teaching, but now, I love it. I teach with Dad's style.. without even trying.. it just naturally happens haha. We also found out the other day that missionaries from the East mission baptized someone from our sector.. that's apostasy, but whatever.. what are we going to do. He's actually an old investigator that the elders tried to teach but couldn't because he was too old to listen and understand. So yeah... que palta.
On Thursday at 6:30 AM we left with brother Miguel Quintanilla, the new water boy of the mission hahaha. I met him when I was in Amakella, because he is the ward mission leader of Proceres who shared a church with us. Anyways we had to go with him for 5 hours delivering water to the whole zone. It was so tiring, to be honest. We had to deliver like fifty, 20 liter things of water. Anyways we had a good time delivering water and seeing all the missionaries in our huge zone.. Then in the afternoon we had to go to Limatambo, the stake center and I interviewed one of Elder Caipo's (he is a DL here and was my old comp in Condevilla) investigators for his baptism. Soooo prepared and ready to be baptized! Wow. He surprised me. His name is Alejandro and he has such a strong testimony of this gospel. I love doing the baptismal interview because there I'm really able to see the conversion of someone. Such a great opportunity.
El Saturday was awesome! We had a baptism! Estefany.. she that was able to obtain a strong testimony of the gospel, and was baptized!!! We are super happy and excited! She was baptized in the stake center because there was an activity there of YSA and we wanted all them to be able to be there. Really spiritual baptism. I had the honor of baptizing her .. and wow it felt so good. There is nothing like performing a life saving ordinance! We are happy here and will continue baptizing our converts :) Also on Saturday we had lunch with the family Tafur.. the wife is an active member, but the husband isn't a member and wants nothing to do with the church. But during lunch on Saturday we were able to gain a lot of his confidence focusing on him and the things he likes and he was smiling and laughing and it was cool. Little by little.. the focus is on HIM. Not us, He is my goal before I go home.. help him come unto Christ!
This week was cool. On Tuesday with half of the mission in Magdalena. It was a great training. Well it actually wasn't much of a training… more of a remembering things and getting everyone on the same page. Me and my comp had to give a 15 minute training on what Elder Alvarez recently taught us.. we did it awesome and it was a good time. The spirit was strong!! I absolutely love teaching people and training them. Before the mission I was terrified of speaking in front of people and especially teaching, but now, I love it. I teach with Dad's style.. without even trying.. it just naturally happens haha. We also found out the other day that missionaries from the East mission baptized someone from our sector.. that's apostasy, but whatever.. what are we going to do. He's actually an old investigator that the elders tried to teach but couldn't because he was too old to listen and understand. So yeah... que palta.
On Thursday at 6:30 AM we left with brother Miguel Quintanilla, the new water boy of the mission hahaha. I met him when I was in Amakella, because he is the ward mission leader of Proceres who shared a church with us. Anyways we had to go with him for 5 hours delivering water to the whole zone. It was so tiring, to be honest. We had to deliver like fifty, 20 liter things of water. Anyways we had a good time delivering water and seeing all the missionaries in our huge zone.. Then in the afternoon we had to go to Limatambo, the stake center and I interviewed one of Elder Caipo's (he is a DL here and was my old comp in Condevilla) investigators for his baptism. Soooo prepared and ready to be baptized! Wow. He surprised me. His name is Alejandro and he has such a strong testimony of this gospel. I love doing the baptismal interview because there I'm really able to see the conversion of someone. Such a great opportunity.
El Saturday was awesome! We had a baptism! Estefany.. she that was able to obtain a strong testimony of the gospel, and was baptized!!! We are super happy and excited! She was baptized in the stake center because there was an activity there of YSA and we wanted all them to be able to be there. Really spiritual baptism. I had the honor of baptizing her .. and wow it felt so good. There is nothing like performing a life saving ordinance! We are happy here and will continue baptizing our converts :) Also on Saturday we had lunch with the family Tafur.. the wife is an active member, but the husband isn't a member and wants nothing to do with the church. But during lunch on Saturday we were able to gain a lot of his confidence focusing on him and the things he likes and he was smiling and laughing and it was cool. Little by little.. the focus is on HIM. Not us, He is my goal before I go home.. help him come unto Christ!
Anyways, love you guys.. the time is coming to an end. :( Only 3 more transfer cycles.. and chau chau.
Elder Cluff
Elder Cluff
Estefany's Baptism
A lady put this whole fish in hot oil and it was so delicious... I loved it!
The Beach
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