Miracles

¡Hola todos!

This week was crazy. We sort of just were better at all of the things this week, and it was really cool. I`m not sure how it happened, but we felt really good about the work we accomplished this week, and we feel like God is helping us a lot. 

My companion had been struggling a little bit with being shy, and not wanting to talk to people very much. I found a talk for him called "The fourth missionary" that really changed my mission when I read it. It talks about putting everything you have into your work, and focusing 100% on serving the people and serving God. I`m not sure if it was from the talk or just from the Spirit, but after reading it he all the sudden wanted to talk with everyone! And he did. He talked to everyone he could, in the street, in their houses, in the tienda, everyone! And he talked so much that he lost his voice and couldn`t talk anymore at the end of the day. It was really funny, but it was also really awesome to see him change so drastically and gain a desire that he really didn`t have before. Talking is what missionaries do, and so I`m really happy that he`s learning to meet people and invite every one to change their life. 

This week a bunch of our friends came to church, including a boy named Lester that said that he "didn`t like church" because it was boring and he wasn`t interested. At least that`s what he said going in. But then when it ended he was practically jumping up and down with excitement about all the things he got to learn and the other kids he met and how excited he was to be able to come back next week. It was great! His mom Silvia really wants to come to church too, but it`s hard for her because she works every Sunday selling fish. We`re working on a way to help her with that. They`re a really great family though. 

We also met a miracle this week. We met this woman named Nanci, who went to church for the second time on Sunday before we met her. She is dating a member of the church who wasn`t going anymore until he got this really strong feeling that he needed to start going to church again. So they both started going. We met them last Sunday, and Nanci now wants to be baptized as soon as possible, and they both want to get married. We are going to help them a ton, and it`s very possible that they will get married this Saturday and baptized this Sunday. If not, it would probably be until the next week, and I might not be here anymore to see it because changes are coming up soon. But either way, they are super cool, and they have a huge desire to do what God wants them to do. We are really excited to be helping them out. 

The email next week will probably be full of tons of crazy changes, and my whole life is probably going to be different by the time I write again. But we`ll just have to see.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Ruins of an ancient Catholic cathedral

A really pretty market in Antigua

A guy we saw fixing his bus while going full speed on the freeway. I can`t really say stuff like that is uncommon here. 

Antigua

Hi everyone!

I don´t have much time to write this week, but it was a really short week for us. We actually got really sick and had to stay in the house for a lot of the week. I think we got dengue, which is this mosquito born disease that makes you pretty useless physically. It was okay though, because I got to read and learn a lot, and we´re pretty much better now. 

We didn´t have much time to teach, but we actually had some really, really good lessons with people when we did. It felt good to know that we were working efficiently with the time that we had. God always blesses us. 

Today we went to Antigua. It´s probably the biggest tourist city in Guatemala. It was really fun, and we saw a lot of really cool things. I´ll have to share some more next week, including some of the really good pictures I have. 

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward 

The Police took my watch

¡Holaaaa! How´s it going?

We had a very full week. Lots of rain, teaching new people, and finding awesome ways to spread the word of God. 

Today, for our Pday, we all came to Rio Santiago and had a water balloon fight. That was really funny, and we got super wet. Another fun thing we did this week was an English class we taught in the church. It was super cool because a lot of people here ask me to teach them English, and we finally started classes for people. We taught them all how the alphabet works, and how to meet someone and introduce yourself in English. The people all said that English is weird, and I agree. But they were super excited and liked it a lot. 

Before the class, we had an interesting experience because we got locked outside of the church, and nobody was there that would have the keys to let us in. We called everyone we knew that would be able to help us, and none of them answered. So we did what we always do when we need help: we said a prayer. We asked God to send us someone with the keys if he really wanted us to be able to teach the people in this way. And so then we opened our eyes, and a lady from the church was right there walking up to us with the keys in her hands saying "I´m here, I´m here!" It was super cool. God looks out for us, and He always listens to our prayers. 

This week one of our police friends told me he liked my watch. I´m not sure why, because it´s a really simple watch that doesn´t really do anything besides tell the times and the day of the month. But he kept talking on and on about how much he liked and wanted the "beautiful watch" that I was wearing. He wanted to pay me for it, and I told him I didn´t really need money but I did need a way to tell the time. So he went out the next day and bought a brand new watch for me, and came and gave it to me so that I´d give him mine. The one he bought has an alarm and a stopwatch and a light that flashes rainbow colors...so I said it was a deal. It was really funny, and I still don´t really know why he wanted the old one so much. 

My companion is learning a ton about how to be a diligent missionary. And he´s teaching me a ton also. He´s always joking around, but he has a really strong spirit about him and has some really strong roots in the things that are important to him. The people all tell him his accent is different, which makes him really confused. It´s very true, and it makes me wonder if my brother Josh will also have a weird accent in Spanish, because he´s serving his mission in the country that my companion is from. 

We met this guy on the street this week named Adrian, and he was smoking, but he was really excited to hear our message. And then on Sunday, he came to church! Usually people need more time of learning before they feel comfortable, but he has a lot of faith and is really excited to learn about the things that God wants him to know. We are teaching a lot of awesome people right now, and it´s really fun to be able to make them happier every time we visit. God really touches the hearts of the people, because I don´t know why anyone would actually want to change their life just from the invitations we give them without feeling that they´re really going to receive blessings from what we invite them to do. Prayer and reading the scriptures everyday honestly changes people´s hearts, and even the lowest, most distressed and struggling person can find peace in Christ.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

A Seiba, a huuuge type of tree and a symbol of peace here in Guatemala :)