It´s not our work, it´s yours

¡Hola todos!

Still raining here. We haven´t seen a dry day since last Saturday!

Last Monday, we had a family home evening and taught them how to make pancakes. That was really fun and they loved them enough to buy a new pan so they could make them again. I taught that our lives are like the pancakes: we start as just the mix and just as it takes extreme heat to make pancakes, we become better through trials and dificulties.

Family home evening.

Making pancakes.

 We are still teaching Samuel, the ll year old I mentioned last time. He came to church again yesterday and he is getting ready for his baptism in a few weeks. We pray that he will understand what we teach him and that he will be ready for his baptism day.

Out in the middle of nowhere.

I learned a lot of important things about Christ and His gospel that I wouldn´t have learned if I hadn´t come on my mission. There is a common phrase here that translates to "there´s only one God. I believe all churches are good because they teach about the same God." While this is true, they can´t all be the true church of God because they all teach different things and God is not a god of disorder. We have to find Christ´s church that he established when he was on the earth, because it is the only way by which we can return to live with Him. We find His church by studying Christ´s life, reading the scriptures and praying to God to know what is true. I invite each of you to read the Book of Mormon and then pray to know that it is true. I promise that if you want to know the truth and do what the truth requires, God will answer you.

Our friends in Las Toscas.

Keep praying that God´s work will go forth and that those who are ready will find the truth. Use the missionaries as a tool to help your friends come closer to Christ. It´s not our work, it´s yours and we are here to help you! Remember, your responsibility is to invite. Whatever the outcome, you will be doing your best if you invite others to act.

Have a happy week! I hope all is more dry where you are than it is here!

Ice cream! Goal for this week achieved!

Elder Cloward

A Week of Miracles!

What an incredible week!

It rained every single day this week, starting past Saturday, and it hasn't stopped. It´s made things quite exciting!

 

I had my birthday party Tuesday in a member´s home. We invited a bunch of people and most of them came. I got to share my favorite scripture with all of them (Alma 17:8-11). It made me really happy to teach about the power of prayer. They made me a chocolate cake. They stuck this crazy firework candle in it. I didn't know if I was supposed to blow it out, or what, it was crazy! It was one of my favorite birthday parties ever!

 

The crazy chocolate cake the members made me. I didn´t know what to do with that candle!

Friends at my birthday party.

There was a baptism on Saturday and the Sister missionaries invited me give one of the talks at the last moment. I kept it very simple and felt the Holy Ghost speak through me to the man who was being baptized. It was a very happy day for him and I am glad I could be a part of it. 

 

Vero invited her friend to come to the baptism and he loved it. The next day we past by his house and taught him about the church and God´s plan for him. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes! The work is moving very fast here and it is incredible! I am so happy to be God´s servant here. Thank you for all of your prayers. I know that God loves me and loves each of you. He wants you to know that. Wherever you may be, He is there to give you a hug if you just go to Him. Keep doing your best and serve others and He will be there for you.

 

Samuel (11) a young investigator we helped get to church this Sunday. It was raining so hard, but he came and enjoyed it!

Have a fantastic week!

Elder Cloward

First week in Avelladeda

¡Hola todos!

This week was fantastic! Avellaneda is even more beautiful than I imagined and there is a lot of work to do. This first week, investigators and members found us, instead of us finding them. A few times we nearly got lost, but then someone would call out to us, "Elderes!" There are so many prepared people here. I´ll tell you some of their stories.

 

We met Agustine on Tuesday. He is a 13 year old member, the only member in his family, but he comes to church regularly. We met two of his other siblings, Samuel (11) and Camila (9), who are also interested in the church. Camila has wanted to come to church for a long time, but her father won´t let her go because he wants her to be Catholic. Their mom lets her children listen to us, but is not very interested herself. This week, we´re going to try to help their parents see what the church is doing for their children so they will suport them with this exciting change in their lives.

 

Agustin made dinner for us!

Julio and Lilia are a couple with two young children who will likely be baptized this month. They are waiting on some papers so they can get married and be baptized. We are so excited for them! Their son is 7 and his father will be able to baptize him when he is 8. Julio is cutting our incredibly long grass today (see the photos).

 

The grass in our backyard is super tall! One of our investigators is cutting it today for us.

Veronica (Vero) is 13 and loves to help the missionaries in Avellaneda. When she first called us, we thought she was 20, so when we saw her for the first time, we were really confused. It was pretty funny!

 

A miracle happened this week. We received a reference from the asistants to the president of a lady who is interested in the church. Alejandra is a single mom with a young ten year old daughter. One day someone living in Chile asked her to be his friend on FaceBook and she accepted, which she told us she never does. This man from Chile served a mission just like I am serving and invited her to learn more about the church. She began investigating online and even read a little bit of the Book of Mormon. However, the complete Spanish Book of Mormon is not avalable online so she asked us to come and visit her. She lives in Las Toscas, about 1.5-2 hours away from Avelladeda, but we got special permission to visit her. We went on Thursday and she is amazing! She has so many questions and is prepared to learn more. We taught her about the Restoration and she feels that it is true. 

Elder Felkins and me on the way to Las Toscas.

 

Though she didn´t have enough money to make the trip to church, she watched General Conference from her house. We are so excited for her and plan to go back this next Thursday.

 

General conference was great. We got to listen to the living prophet and the apostles and we learned a lot about how to help our investigators. We got to watch it in English fortunatly, which made it easier to understand, we only missed two talks because of a black out. It´s been raining so much here.

 

Two really great members here. Vero and Hermano Villalba, who has an incredible conversion story in which God helped him stop drinking.

There are so many more amazing people here, but I can´t tell all of their stories now. I am so happy God gave me this chance to work with all of these people. I am learning so much from my companion and hope that I can change to be the missionary that God wants me to be. Because of Jesus Christ I can!

You can! Have a happy week!

Elder Cloward

P.S. Tomorrow is my birthday! We are celebrating with a member here. It´s going to be great!

 

Two young members Agustin (13) and Vero (also 13) waiting with us at the bus stop to go to church.

 

Last Week of Transfer 3

What a great week! So much has happened.

 

Argentina Landscape

The weather has been really fantastic the past few days. It rained and it actually feels cold.

It rained a lot and got really cold. The temperature actually reached the 60´s!

We had a activity for the branch on Wednesday and spent a good portion of the first half of the week inviting people. In the activity, we learned more about how service benefits both the person serving and the person served. We each brought an item and put it on a table. Then we traded it for another item, demonstrating how we always get blessings back. It was fun.

 

Taking a shade break. It got really hot again this week!

We also have been searching for more people to teach and there were a few days where we felt guided to specific houses. We found a family who hasn´t been to church for a very long time that used to be very active. We look forward to helping them come back. We also found a man who is almost always working in Santa Fe, another province, but happened to be home and available to listen to us. He invited us in and was very open to learn more. As we spoke with him, he asked a lot of questions and it was clear he was searching for the truth. I testified to him that we can pray to know what is right. God listens to us and answers us too. He answers through the Holy Ghost. When we feel the Holy Ghost, we feel peace and joy. As we taught this man, we all felt this joy. It was incredible!

 

I know that God lives! He answers us. He sent His son, Jesus Christ to die for us so we can live with our families with God again!

Have a great week!

 

Elder Cloward

My really nice boots and a rubix cube I bought last week for 100 pesos. 1 minute and 33 seconds is my record time!

We bring the truth, invite people to come closer to Chirst... and do cartweels.

This week we walked a lot, and taught a lot. That´s it!

Just kidding. Some really amazing things happened this week and I am learning so much.

First, I bought boots! I don´t have a picture, but boots are a must after it rains here.

My companion loves to describe games and movies to me as we walk between appointments. He´s really good at it and I feel as if I´m watching them with him. It´s really fun. He´s taught me that I don´t need to feel stressed out to know I´m working hard and doing my best.

We are teaching three or four different young mothers in Villa Angela who are searching for the truth for their families. Mother´s are almost always more open to receive the gospel, it´s miraculous! We taught one lady who is 26 with four children. We taught her about Nephi in the Book of Mormon when he obeys the commandment of God to get the Brass plates of Laban. He feels very lonely as his older brothers lack the faith or desire to obey God.  Yet Nephi knows that what ever God asks him to do, he can do it (1 Nephi 3:7). As we read with her, she was learning things for herself that my companion and I didn´t at first see. After reading, she told us that she felt peaceful and happy; that there was nothing to worry about. All the while, her children were screaming and playing behind her. Yet we all felt the Holy Ghost. It all testified to us that the Book of Mormon is true and that God loves us. The lady hugged her Book, she was so happy. She began to speak more softly to her children and we could see a change in her. She is progressing and is finding the joy of the gospel.

After the lesson, Elder Sender and I tried to do hand stands and cartweels to the delight of all of the children there. They all started trying to do it to and asked us to do it again and again! It was super funny, but we had to go. That is who we are as missionaries. We bring the truth, invite people to come closer to Chirst, and do cartweels. I love it!

We are teaching several more people that are reading the Book of Mormon and learining for themselves that it is true. Yet each of them don´t feel prepared to go to church or be baptized yet. We pray now that they will each have a change of heart and come to church.

God is real! I feel his presence and His love for His children more than ever before. He has given us our families so that we can be happy. He guides us through a living prophet today, Thomas S. Monson. When we have faith, change and repent, and go to church, we will be happy and progress.

Love you all!

Elder Cloward

More Ice cream

A train in our zone leader´s area.

A water tower in Villa Angela. This is very strange, because here, every house has it´s own basen of water on the roof to create sufficient water pressure.

A Week of Testimony

A lot of little things have happened this week that add up to a great big whole. This is how God works, through lots of small things that make a huge difference. I feel like I have changed a lot, my perspective especially.

Monday, my companion and I got ice cream at a place called Grido. This is probably going to become a tradition. Elder Sender got a kilo for his birthday. Ice cream traditions for missionaries here are really silly.

 

My ice cream, yum!

 

Elder Sender`s ice cream, yum, yum!

 

Tuesday, we were looking for new people to teach and a little dog came up and bit me. It was`t serious, but he tore my pants a little, and now I have to pass by every so often to make sure he`s still alive and doesn't have rabies. That`s a bit scary, but I think I will be okay.

 

We are continuing to teach a pre-MTC class for six young men in the branch to prepare them for their missions. They are all really amazing and most of them have callings in the the branch. It was incredible to practice teaching with many of them and see how strong their testimonies are and how much they already know. I look forward to the class again tomorrow.

 

This week, a lot of our plans have fallen through, so we have had to walk a lot. We are finding a lot of new people to teach and that is exciting! We are teaching a new family tonight that has a lot of potential.

 

We are teaching several people that have desires to be baptized, but have a lot of obstacles that are pushing against them. Mabel loves learning from us and has begun to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning to learn for herself if it is true. She has trouble going to church because of her work, but she feels that the church is right. We are also teaching a young mother who also feels that baptism is right, but is having a lot of challenges in her family. We are excited to keep working with them!

 

God lives! He loves us! He wants us to return to Him, so he gave us prophets and the scriptures to guide us. He gave us His son to die for us so that we can return to live with him. Jesus Christ lives, and because He lives, we can live together with our families forever. When we follow God, we are happy!

Have a fantastic week!

Elder Cloward

 

 

My first spagetti!

Hair Cut Before

After... woops, that was a buzz cut. I hope it grows back quick!

 

Another Step Closer

This week may have been the longest of my life. It´s really exciting to be with my new companion. He´s very different from my trainer. We both don´t have a lot of experience in our missions and we have to work together to be understood sometimes.

Yummy Argentine hamburgers with Elder Sender.

On Wednesday, we had a missionary broadcast for our area of Argentina. Elder Bednar, an Apostle of the church taught of the importance of acting in faith. All that we do should be in faith, meaning that we should first believe that God has power to help us, and then we do all that we can afterward. We read the Book of Mormon and go to church with the intention to act on what we learn. We also pray, with the intention to do what we say. For example, he told us, we pray "Heavenly Father, after this meeting, we are going to go help those who couldn`t come to church today. We only ask that you will help us not all go to the same house!" When we show God we are willing to do, or to act in faith, there are miracles. This idea completely changed our invitations during lessons. "Will you read this book and pray to know it is true? When you do know, will you act on your answer and be baptized?" This comitment is difficult, but powerful and those who are ready will accept it.

Empenadas we made! Eggs and meat.

We´ve seen many miracles and God is guiding us here. I have felt the Holy Ghost guiding me in many lessons, helping me know what to say.

 

Sunday, I got to sit next to an investigator that lives in the sister`s area during Sunday school. I helped her understand how to use the scriptures and asked her questions to help her learn and understand better. She began participating in the lesson and sharing thoughts with the class. It was so great!

 

Six wild horses on the chapel grounds Sunday. Not something you see every day in the States!

I know that I am weak. I feel really awkward sometimes as a missionary and have a lot of anxiety. I learned in my studies that anxiety is like empty hope, hope without faith. It`s "I want this now" and "I don`t know if things will be okay." However, I know that if we do all we know how to do and really want to do what is right, God will make everything okay. I am happy to serve Him and I am doing my very best!

Have a happy week!

Elder Cloward