Guess what I learned to make?? Pão de Queijo!
Remember the cheese balls at Tucano's that Jordyn loves? I will make it
for her when I come home. Also popcorn on the stove. I'm a pro.
Monday morning the zone leaders called to tell us that if we
didn't make 100 contacts this week President Scisci would call us. So we
made a goal to talk to everyone and really made it a focus. Well, we
made 102 contacts. We had FHE Monday with Denis and Suellen and their
family. We watched The Testaments and their oldest son who's 11 cried at
the end. I love that family. So we were full of the spirit when we left
and we decided to contact their neighbor that was sitting outside. Only
thing is I didn't realize he was sitting in a towel.... there goes the
spirit.
Tuesday
we cut open some coconuts and ate the inside. It tasted like almonds.
Basically we just had days of contacting and appointments falling
through. It was a very long week this week. I've never been so tired on
my mission. And the sun is getting hotter now. It's starting to burn my
eyes. I don't think I can wear contacts. So we were working so hard to
find people this week. Although a lot of appointments fell through, we
have some pretty great investigators. One of our investigators received
an answer that the church is true! We just have to help her recognize
that now she needs to act. We're teaching 2 families. They just have to
get married.... and it's always the men that say they don't want to make
the wrong decision. Get married and then 5 years down the road are
unfaithful or want a divorce. Years and years together and children and
they're STILL unsure? It's actually really sad. I feel bad for the
women.
We had our first English class Wednesday. It was
really fun and we had quite a few people. 5 non members came! I prayed
in English and it was really hard. I don't know how to speak English
anymore. What's it going to be like when I get home?!
Yesterday we went on splits with members and I went
to see a man that the other sisters found. He's been reading the Book of
Mormon and really likes it! He said he feels that this is the right
path. Only problem? His "wife" (they're not really married legally)
talks FOREVER. She talks about stuff that's completely irrelevant. And
then they started fighting. This happened after I invited him to say the
closing prayer and she started talking about how he needs to ask for
forgiveness and blah blah blah. Finally I yelled (because they started
to fight again) "someone has to pray! We have another appointment". Oye.
We're going back again tonight.
Also they have a dish here in the state of Para that is made with a poisonous plant. They cook out all the poison. I ate it on Saturday. It wasn't too bad. They also eat Piranha. That's the next thing on my list to eat.
It was a really slow and hard week. And pretty much
all I could think about is what are we doing wrong? What did I do wrong
to deserve this? Basically just throwing myself a little pity party. But
really, missions are not supposed to be easy. What reward would it be
if the mission was a breeze? Christ's mission definitely was not easy.
Why should it be any different for us? The important thing is even
though it's difficult, we stick it out. For 18 months, for 2 years. Why?
Because this is the truth. Because we don't want to arrive in the
Celestial Kingdom alone. Because this is true happiness. Eternal
happiness. This is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I have no doubt
about it.
Love you mom. I will pray for the business!
Sister Clark
Week #60
I finally bought a hammock! I'm going to use it in our new house because we're probably going to move. Into an ACTUAL house. It's so cute I'm really excited. We have a coconut tree in the backyard.
OK this week was kind of long. We're basically STILL
starting from scratch because we want to focus on the area closer to the
church. So this week was full of contacts and appointments that fell
through. Good thing I'm already used to that thanks to Ohio. We had an
awesome lesson Monday with our investigator Luiz. Denis and Suellen came
and she shared her conversion story. The spirit was super strong. It
was awesome. We're still working on baptism with him. He hasn't come to
church for the past 2 weeks. This has been our biggest challenge -
getting people to church!
We received a referral from a member. A family! (not
officially married) but they're awesome. They're reading the Book of
Mormon and ask lots of questions - except they didn't come to
church....
I have to do some more paperwork for my visa. So
that's kind of annoying. We travelled to Santarem Wednesday night.
Sister Oliveira and I bought a camarote. A little room with a bunk bed.
So we didn't have to sleep in hammocks! It was awesome and it even had
air conditioning. We had zone meeting in Santarem Thursday and we talked
about using our time more wisely and effectively. It was a really good
meeting. After we returned to Oriximiná on the lancha!
We're working with a member's mom right now trying
to baptize her. She's always at church and loves it and loves all the
people. She's really old though and forgets a lot of things so our
lessons are always interesting and a little funny. She just repeats a
lot of stuff. But when it comes to baptism she is super serious and
finally said she would pray and think about it! So we'll see. it's my
dream to baptize an old person because they're so stubborn!
Saturday we were on the radio! We got invited to
talk about what we do. It was awesome. We're going to a different
station Tuesday, also. And Wednesday we're starting an English class!
We've been inviting EVERYBODY and the whole town is excited.
Funny little story of the week. Sister Oliveira
wants to learn English so I decided to talk about my family with her to
see if she could understand. Well, turns out I forgot how to speak
English. I was talking super slow and mixing in Portuguese. It'll be
interesting when I come home.
More Americans will arrive in the mission next week
so we'll be having a mini transfer. Who knows what will happen or if
Oriximiná will be effected.
Well I sure love you mom and thanks for always supporting me!
Love Sister Clark
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