April 20, 2015 Letter...

ADHD HAHAHAHA, I LOVE YOU GUYS. That class selection garbage was so hard.. most stressful time of the year. They gotta figure something better out. And haha with the car.. I'm so sorry... but luckily.. you know a guy. Haha, that was funny. And hahahahaha you are killing me... dad asked the 10 and 12 year olds to go dig up the fence? I bet you can guess how that went... hahahaha, I you bet I can. Classic dad. And Josh and Breecia are gonna live in my basement? What the fetch? That´s the weirdest thing I have ever heard in my entire life, hands down. Good thing is, Haden will stay my best friend forever and this will just make that easier. I love Joshy and Breecia is cool too. But wow.. that´s sick. Uuge.. hahahaha, you kill me mom :)

I love you most, I'm glad to hear you´re happy.. you are the greatest mom ever and you have no idea how really grateful I am to have a mom like you in my life. You are literally thee coolest mom I have ever met, just know I love you so much. You are the person most special to me. Loveeee you.

This week was good.. it was a normal week... today wasn´t Pday because tomorrow we´re taking the day off and going to Parque de las Aguas for the 7 millionth time. But hey, there´s nothing else to do here. We had interviews with the president this week and they rocked. I love this mission and I am so grateful that I'm here in Lima in this mission. Pres. Borg rocks and I love him. I'm gonna miss him. We say bye to him like June 19th and it's super sad but it's life. It's time to move on. This week we had a lot of people progressing and on May 2nd we´ll have 2 or 3 baptisms. Remember Paul? Well he received an answer about the Book of Mormon, he prayed and received, like we promised him. And he wants to be baptized May 2nd :) We are so blessed and happy. Love you guys, remember family scripture and prayer :) read the email I sent to dad.

Elder Cluff

April 13, 2015 Letter...

I love you mom. Glad to hear everyone is doing good. And yes, when I get back I want to hike Angels Landing. That would be a blast. I want to do a lot of things with the fam when I get home. I want to go to Fredonia tho, I really love it there. It has such a special place in my heart. But anyways, I love you guys a lot and tell my brothers I love them. Tell dad to write me too when he has time.

This week was a good week. A bit slower, but we taught a lot of people. I just felt like the week was going so slow. I´ve been super stressed too this week because we have a couple, Wilber and Jessica, that want to get married so Wilber (less active) can be reactivated in the church, and so Jessica can be baptized. It´s another Gian and Adela case. Which really dis-animates me, because we have to marry them, and it´s such a difficult process that we weren´t able to accomplish after 6 months in Rimac. The good thing is that this couple is a lot older and mature, and Wilber has lived his whole life as a strong member, only the last 5 years or so he became inactive. They have strong desires to change their lives, but more than anything I'm praying that the Lord will give us a way or help us find a way to get them married. There won't be as many complications this time, which is good, but we just gotta figure it out and get it done. I know we can do it. Also this week we met a cornelio (someone that´s prepared to be baptized when you first meet them) and his name is Jose Anselmo. His brother is a member, and has helped Jose learn about the church. The first day we met him and taught him, he told us he wanted to be baptized and that he knew the Book of Mormon was the true word of God, even more than the Bible, haha. He said that and it made me laugh. I was like, "Yeah, you´re prepared -- let's go to the font." He´ll be baptized this May. We´re super blessed and I really mean it, the Lord has prepared so many people for us, and we are finding them, it just gives me a stronger testimony that this really is the Lord's work, and not ours.

Also this week, we met a man named Paul Moreno. His cousins and aunt and uncle are super strong members, and he has assisted the church a few times but had never talked with the missionaries. So finally, we met him and talked with him and made an appointment to meet with him at his uncle's and aunt's house. This man too, is super prepared. We got to the house, got to know him and taught him the restauracion and the spirit was SO strong. I can´t even describe how strong it was. His two cousins were in the lesson with us and they were both able to bear powerful testimony of Joseph Smith and also of the Book of Mormon. It was sooo amazing. At the end of the lesson.. the spirit was strong.. everyone felt it. Things got quiet for a minute, and then he asked us, "Elders, is this book really true?" He asked it in such an honest way, with such a sincere desire, I looked him straight in the eyes, tearing up a bit and told him, "Yes Paul, I know this Book is true. I know it. I know that
you´ll know it, too." After this moment.. the spirit got even stronger, and it was such an amazing experience. My comp did great in this lesson, too, he is learning a lot. Paul accepted a baptismal date in May, and we´re gonna be doing all we can to help him obtain a testimony.

I just want to say that I know the Book of Mormon is true. I don´t care about whoever says it's not, whatever evidence someone can find, the Book has changed my life, and I have seen it change the lives of others. The Book of Mormon is everything to me, and I hope you guys can treasure it as much as I do. Love you guys. 

Elder Cluff

April 6, 2015 Letter...

Family -- I love you and I'm super happy to hear the family is doing well and that everyone is doing good. That´s crazy about the conference.. I didn´t know that happened... I didn´t catch it, but yeah, they´re idiots haha, whatever. I don´t how how anyone can watch the prophet speak and not become converted in an instant. Those men are SOOO powerful, and I was able to learn sooo much this conference. I had the opportunity to watch three of the sessions in English, and it was such an amazing thing. I understand it in Spanish and all, but it's just a lot more special in English. A huge difference. But it was so amazing. I took 18 pages of notes, and honestly I can say I´ve been more impacted by this conference than any other. I loved it. The sad thing is that I actually missed Elder Holland's talk because I had to help an investigator get situated and everything, so I'll wait for the Liahona to read it :) but some of the notes I took I'm gonna share with you guys.. the thing I want you to remember, more important than everything, is the question that Russel M. Nelson did at the beginning of his talk, "Because of what I´ve heard and felt during this conference, how will I change?" This is so important. Yeah, the talks were insanely spiritual, but if we´re not doing anything to apply them into our lives, we´re wasting our time. So remember that. How can we apply what we learned into our lives? How can we become better people and better disciples of Jesus Christ because of the inspired messages we´ve heard? :) Remember like Kevin W. Pearson said, once we make covenants with the Lord, there´s no going back. We need to always keep and honor our covenants, keep enduring, even though it requires total commitment, we´ll be able to do it. Also Elder Wilford W. Anderson´s talk about the music and dance compared to the gospel and the application of it in our homes was SO SICK. Every talk was just pure gold. We are SO blessed to have prophets that are inspired of God, to speak to us, and help us through this difficult life. I could write out a billion more things I liked but yeah, I'm not going to.

"If you cant hear the music in your home, if something is out of tune, remember two words, keep practicing." I challenge you guys to read that talk by Wilford W. Anderson when you can for Family Home Evening. Or all of them. Because yeah, wow.

Anyways I love you guys. This week was a little slower because of Conference, but in spite of that, we still met a lot of great and prepared people, who have baptismal dates for the month of April. We are killing it out here , and I love you guys so much. Tell my brothers, and dad, and my sister I love them. Because I do. And Kula and Bear, too please. I love you mom. Please really help the boys understand the significance of these talks that were given. Love ya!

Oh yeah, also we moved houses this week. We now live with our pensionista.. it makes life so easy. Because we eat lunch with her and dinner, and we just have to climb down our stairs from our apartment and there we are. I'll send pics. ;)

Elder Cluff

March 30, 2015 Letter...

Yeah, I guess we can start planning a trip to Ruth´s Chris for the night I get back, haha, You´ll have enough time to start saving. That´s awesome about dad, I'm glad he is seeing a lot of success and getting a lot done. He is my hero.

Wow, and glad to hear all the family will be in town for Easter! Please takes lots of pics and let me know how everything goes :) I love you guys! 

I'm happy for Zack, Cam, and Brig. For real. They are the best. Freaking studs. The pic you sent me of them by the temple.. those kids are too smooth. I love my brothers.

And I'll send a huge good package really soon.. maybe Christmas, hahaha, but we´ll see. It's just hard to find time to be honest. Andddd I'm in the part of Lima called San Martin de Porres, in the stake of Condevilla. It's the greatest!

This week was super stressful. I´ll be honest, I was really tested with all that I´ve learned on my mission. Our ward only had four missionaries, but one missionary went home early, so they took his comp out too and transferred him. So their sector fell on our shoulders. We had to learn there "area book" and everything and find all of their investigators and everything. It was a super, super, SUPER stressful experience but we´ve pretty much got it all learned and figured out. Everything is getting a lot better. So yeah, now we´re the only missionaries in our ward and we have a huuuuggggeee area to cover. But lucky enough, it's still smaller than my last sector.. hahah my last one was ginormous. But we are seeing a lot of success here, I can't even begin to explain. Even though we have to use our time super wisely to be able to visit everyone, we have a lot of people who are preparing for baptism and a lot who are progressing beautifully. More than anything I just love to see this gospel take effect in peoples lives. It's great. And yes, this week we had another baptism! That marks 4 this month! We've had a really great month. The Lord has prepared so many and awww, it´s great. The person who got baptized is named Franklin, and he was an investigator from the other missionaries, and he had almost half of the lessons, so we finished him off, and we were able to get him baptized this week. It really was a miracle story. Their family is passing through a lot of difficulties, but we focused so hard in explaining that this is what the Lord wants for him, and his family, and we were able to commit him to baptism and he was baptized this past Saturday. The spirit was so strong in his baptismal service and I know that he was able to feel it. Great experience. Also, the elder who had worked with him a while back was able to come back to our ward to baptize Franklin. Great experience. We worked super hard together to make it happen, and the Lord blessed us, and we are happy. The month of April is gonna be another great month. Love you guys, I'll send pics, and have a great Easter weekend :)

Elder Cluff

March 23, 2015 Letter...

Wow glad to hear everyone is doing super good. That always makes me happy :)

I love all my brothers and I'm glad they are happy. I´ll get home from the mish and dad will be retired.. that will be nice. We´ll be able to spend a lot of time together! I'm excited for that. I'm glad you guys got to go to Temple Square too.. I can´t wait to do that again. Such an amazing experience. How awesome.

This week was great. We were able to have two baptisms, one of Sabastian, and the other of Luz Maria. They were so happy and are still super happy and we´re all happy so everything is good. My comp´s name is Elder Mera from Trujillo, Peru. He is solid and he´s learning a lot. I have 8 months and I'm coming up on 9.. the time goes by soooo fast out here. We have a lot of investigators who we're working with who have dates for this April, so pray that we can complete with their goals. I´ve really seen the Lord´s hand in this work. I´m really so grateful for him and for the blessings he´s shed upon me and my comp. Really it´s amazing to see the hearts of people change, when they accept this gospel. There is nothing better :) I'm also so grateful for the Book of Mormon, the most powerful tool we have to teach with out here. One of the most powerful tools we have in our day-to-day life. Like I sound like a broken record, but my testimony of the Book of Mormon is much more powerful than anything else that I know, and it has helped me personally out here and my investigators, too; more that I would have ever thought before the mission. The book is SO powerful. It was written for our day and age.. and we are taking part in it. I LOVE IT :) I'm reading right now in Alma 44 getting into those war chapters... It just talked about Alma and how nothing was ever heard of concerning his death or burial, so it´s supposed he was translated. I believe that. I'm so grateful for prophets like him in the Book of Mormon, for all they went through to conserve the records, so we can benefit from them. Alma is one of my favorites, that dude had no fear, and he taught the gospel such an effective way, solemnly and by the spirit. I´ve been able to learn so much from him and his example. I have decided that Alma is my favorite book in the Book of Mormon. Purely missionary work, and I love it. Anyways I love you guys, everything is good here. We are getting a lot done, we just gotta remember who´s work this is, and that it´s not ours. The Lord will direct his work and his servants, we just gotta be ready and worthy so we can receive that inspiration. Loveee you guys. Read your Books of Mormon.

Elder Cluff

-- Now, some pics...

Sabastian's baptism :)

Luz Maria's baptism :)

Jean Franco's baptism :)

 Me and my son -- Elder Mera (from Trujillo, Peru)

 Elder Pedrera, and I with our Peruvian grandparents, Ramon & Corpusa.
 They are the sweetest people and Hermana Corpusa cried when I told her I was leaving
because I was transferred. I love them so much and I miss them everyday.

Elder Cluff and Elder Mera at the Zoo :)

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

March 9, 2015 Letter...

Hey Mom! I love you guys, freal. That´s so weird Skyler´s friends are getting married.. I never thought it would happen. Lol, jk.. but congrats to them. Send my congrats or however you say that in English. Thank you for the pics of Gma and Gpa. Finally gonna complete my booklet :)

Tell Zack he is a stud and congrats! I´m glad to hear he´s killing it. Seriously I mean it when I say
he´s my hero. Hahaha dating days.. what a stud. Tell him to not worry about it and just give it all
he´s got and just be himself and have fun. Don't get caught up in the details. I often did and it´s something I really regret. Just have fun in high school and don´t worry about anything. I´m glad to hear tho that he got his license and is a priest :) tell him to go on group dates, it's a lot less pressure. Just tell him not to be nervous and just be himself; don´t over do it. 

Yeah, I don´t have pics today, but soon, don´t worry. Things are great here and I'm a little short on time today, but I love you all and I hope everything is well. This week Elder Waddel from the '70, (president I think) of this part of South America, came and talked at our stake conference because we got a new stake presidency.. and can I just say, it was one of the most powerful things I´ve ever heard. A true and living general authority, coming and talking to us. Ahh.. It was the coolest thing ever. It was cool too, because he talked to our stake, and wasn´t talking to a group of missionaries, so we all got to hear to a message not focused and missionaries and it was a refreshing change that was cool. He spoke on so many different things and I feel terrible, because I didn´t bring my notes, but one thing he talked about was the importance of showing our faith through actions and now only saying I believe. We have to have faith in the Lord, but faith is so much more than saying I believe, I believe. It's action. It's firm action. It´s showing that we believe, not saying so. If we have faith, which is one of the first principles and ordinances of the gospel, how are we gonna show it? What are we going to do to prove that we believe, through our actions? Something to ponder on this week that I liked. He talked about sooo much more stuff, but I don´t have my notes, but next week I´ll share more. This week was awesome, and we have two baptisms coming for this next week the 21st of March, andddd my comp rocks, he is learning a lot, and this sector really is a blessing. We´re really being blessed out here, I can feel all your prayers. A lot is gonna be happening in these comings weeks and months, so be ready. The work of the Lord is the greatest. Keep reading your Books of Mormon, personal and as family, every day when I read I'm filled with such a special feeling brought on by the spirit, that makes me want to never stop reading them. The book is true. And the promise is true, if we read it, we´ll receive the help and support we need in our lives. I love it. Oh yeah, today we went to Larcomar to ride bikes on the beach again, but my comp crashed bad, yikes, so I had to walk our bikes back while he limped by my side. Poor guy, but we went and played pool instead. Pray that Sebastian and Luz Maria and Jean Franco can be baptized this 21st :) Love y'all. I´ll keep you informed. 

Love,

Elder Cluff