Miracles

¡Hola todos!

We don`t know what happened this week, but it was good. A couple of the houses in the zone got flooded, because it`s just raining a ton everywhere! Rain is really fun, but it`s a little tricky because the people here always just go to sleep when it`s raining, and they don`t answer the door. But we always find miracles with rain. 

This week I met one of the smartest people in the world. One of the members of the church introduced us to a family that lives nearby, and we went to visit. When we entered the house, we couldn`t help but notice that there were books everywhere! I`ve never seen so many books in this country before. We found out that they belonged to the dad of the family, Cesar. He came out to talk to us, and the first thing he asked was where my companion and I were from. When my companion told him, he started telling the history and random facts of the exact state of Mexico that my companion is from. And he did the same for Austin, Texas. He knows more Texas history than I do, and while most people here have never even heard of Austin, he knows the story of the man it was NAMED after. Then, a huge lightning bold blew out the electricity, and it was all dark. So he started teaching us about lightning and why it strikes and the physics behind the static electricity that forms in the clouds from the particles of ice and water circulating around. That`s just a little bit of what he said, because he taught us a TON of stuff about EVERYthing! He was super excited to explain a ton of stuff, kind of like a really good college professor. He asked how long I had been speaking Spanish, guessing that I had been learning since I was little. I told him that I`ve only been in Guatemala for 10 months, and really didn`t learn very much in my studies beforehand. He was really amazed, and said that he had never seen or heard of someone learning a language so well so fast. But we explained to him that it wasn`t me, it was the gift of tongues that God gives to His missionaries. He thought that it was incredible, and almost couldn`t believe it. God`s power is real. And then he started asking questions about the church. You could tell he knew so much because his humility in asking questions and listening, because he asked us a ton and was really interested. He really thought it was great what he heard, and his family is going to come to church with us this Sunday! That was a really cool experience. 

This week, Hermana Blanca got baptized! She has a ton of faith, and it was a really awesome experience. A ton of people from her family came to see, and they are all interested in the church too, which is exciting. That was a huge miracle. We met her in the street just 2 months ago, and she`s literally changed her entire life. God`s power is real. 

We were going to visit her yesterday to see how she was doing, but we felt like we should go back and visit someone closer to home. We called the person and got no answer, but we decided to go anyway. When we got back to Siqui, we got a call from the sister missionaries, because they needed our help. They are teaching a woman who wants to get baptized this weekend, but she has been getting these really bad headaches, and she was really scared and didn`t know what to do. We went to her house and asked if she wanted a blessing. As missionaries, we have the same authority of God that the prophets and apostles had in the bible. And that means that if someone has faith and it`s what God wants, we can give them a blessing of health and they will get better. She said yes, because she believes really strongly that God wants her to get baptized. So we gave her a blessing, and right when we finished, she felt the pain just pull itself out of her head and go away. She was perfectly fine, and so amazed that she started to cry. God`s power is real. But it all depends on if we have enough faith to put our trust in Him. A lot of people struggle with that part, but it`s the most important thing.

I hope everyone can find miracles in their lives this week, because they are everywhere.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Guatemalan culture is interesting, because people almost don`t ever smile in pictures here. That`s why everyone looks super serious in all the pictures I send :)

Trombone, awesome people, and the copa costa

¡Buenas!

Sometimes it rains so much here that you just have to wade down the street and smile when people think you`re a goof for not being inside. Right now the thunder is sooooo loud. I think the lightning likes to strike Siqui. But the rain is awesome, because it brings a reeeally nice breeze, and the sun goes behind the clouds and it`s not so hot all the sudden. 

This week I was listening to trombone music and wishing I could play it. So instead, I drew a huge one on the board in district meeting and taught the district of missionaries how we can be instruments in God`s hands, and let Him make the music instead of us. If we try to use our "intelligent ideas" to convince the people things, they aren`t going to listen. But if we do what God wants us to and just teach the gospel, the people feel in their heart that it`s true. That`s why the trombone doesn`t move its own slide, and why I`m not playing one either right now. 

In the City Central mission, there are 6 zones of coast. Every zone has around 12 missionaries, and this week we decided to all get together and have a "copa costa," which really just meant playing soccer all together. It was really awesome, because there were a ton of people, and a really good system set up so that everyone could play without having to wait very long. I`m getting a lot better at soccer, but these Latino missionaries are REALLY good. It`s honestly incredible to just watch them play. We also got new shoes for my companion, because his old ones had holes in the the bottoms, and the bottoms were peeling off anyway. It`s cool to see evidence of hard work sometimes. 

There are a lot of miracles happening right now. We are teaching a ton of people who just know that God wants them to hear our message. Sometimes the people are just so excited to let us in and listen to the happy things that we have to teach them. And the members of the church here are helping us a lot with making these people feel welcome in the church too. God is really guiding us, because there is no way that the people would listen to me like that otherwise. It`s a huge blessing.

I love you all!

-Elder Cloward

Elder Almeida and I goofing around after playing soccer. He is one of the best soccer players I`ve ever seen, and he`s also just hilarious. 

Bushwhacking

Hi everyone!

We`ve been all over the place. Last Thursday we went to the capital to learn how to be better Zone Leaders, which was super awesome. We left feeling really inspired and ready to make the world a better place. Then on Saturday we went to Sipacate to help out a little bit over there. The church building over there by the beach is really, really small. But the terrain around is huge! And it`s absolutely full of a kind of tropical jungle. So we brought a bunch of machetes and went to help chop down all of the brush. We spent the morning cutting down everything and cleaning up. We also cut open some of the coconuts that fell from the palm trees to drink the milk. Pretty darn tasty. Afterward we cooked lunch, which was tomatoes, green onions, and currasco with beans and tortillas. Even tastier. But the people were really happy that we helped to much. 

before

after

Lunch

We are teaching some really great people right now. Our friend Ronny says that he really wants to change his life, and he wants to get baptized as soon as possible. Right now he`s preparing for that. Our other friend Mishell came to church with us for the first time last Sunday, and liked it a lot. She prayed to ask God what he wanted her to do, and she had a dream where she was in the church, and she heard a voice that told her that that`s where she needed to be. She`s really excited to keep going and learning about Jesus. Our other friend Clemente tried to go to the US illegally a few years ago, but on the journey through Mexico he met some really interesting people that sort of just showed up and told him he needed to go back to Guatemala. So he knew that God wanted him here for a reason. And he feels like the reason is meeting us and going to church. He went last week for the first time too, and he loved it a ton. He also loves the Book of Mormon, and loves that it helps us in the same way as the bible to understand what God wants for us. Miracles happen, huh?

I remember writing a few weeks ago that we had three people in the zone that were on their last week in the mission. Now we have three people in their first week in the mission. They are all doing great learning Spanish, although it`s hard. It`s really fun to look back and see myself in them, and realize that it feels really daunting in the beginning, but gets manageable as you work to learn as much as you can. Life is like that in a lot of ways, and we just have to push through the hard things to receive the blessings and happiness that come after. But the most important part is helping other people, because if everyone is only helping themself, everyone only gets help from one person, and that`s not very fun. Life is good, and I still have a ton to learn. But I`m getting there!

¡Les amo un montòn!

-Elder Cloward

Our Zone

Losing my dad, and a super miracle

¡Hola muchachos!

So before anyone gets sad about that title, in the mission your "dad" is the one who trained you in the beginning of your mission. My main dad was Elder Eborn, way back almost 10 months ago. I was with him for 10 weeks in Jocotillo, and he taught me a TON. This week was the last week of his mission...and so I decided to do divisions with him in Sipacate to learn more from him, and just to say goodbye. So we were companions again for a day in his area. It was really funny to be with him, because when a missionary is finishing their two years, they get TIRED. He actually reminded me of an old man; he struggled to stand up, he would sometimes just stare into the distance, and he could fall asleep on a bus in about 3 seconds. But he was in the perfect area to end his mission. Sipacate is on the southern coast of Guatemala, and the beach is literally in the area. In the night time, we were going to talk to some people near, so he took me to the beach and we just stared into the waves. The sand here is black, and the sky was too, and it was one of the coolest moments to spend with one of my first companions on one of his last days in this country, just watching the waves and the stars and talking about anything. Today Elder Eborn took a plane back to the United States, where he will meet up with his family and friends again. Weird...

The house in Sipacate actually has air conditioning (a very rare thing here), and I wasn`t ready when we spent the night at 17 degrees celsius. I think it was bad for me, because the next day in the night I was really, really sick (seems like my body gets sick a lot in the coast, huh?). Coughing, stuffy nose, and a really bad headache. But the day after that was Sunday. I felt terrible, but I wasn`t about to not go to church, just in case miracles happened. And so I went to church half-dead and half-asleep. But after the meeting, the miracles DID happen. There`s a little 9 year old girl named Martina whose parents got baptized a few months ago, but she`s always been too shy to do it. She knows it`s a good thing that God wants and that it will bring her more blessings, but she is so shy and grouchy that she usually doesn`t even want to see us. So we`ve been visiting her with candy and playing with her and her siblings to make her feel more comfortable. This Sunday, her friend Jeidy was going to get baptized. But she still didn`t want to...until after church when we asked her, and she said YES! She wanted to get baptized with her friend! So we went crazy finding white clothes for her, filling out some papers, and doing a baptismal interview for her (usually we have a week or so to get all that done, but this time we had about 30 minutes. Yikes!). And we did it! And she got baptized! And it was awesome! To me, the fact that I was reaaally really sick just right in that time is evidence that we were doing something good, because Satan does all he can to stop good things from happening. But even though he works hard, God is stronger than he is, and so he doesn`t have to have any power if we don`t give in to his temptations. We can always choose to be good people no matter what happens and no matter what anyone does. And when we do, everyone is just happier, and the world is a better place.

Thanks for being awesome!

-Elder Cloward

Honduran people make tasty food.

This week went by incredibly fast. Most of it was actually spent outside of our area again. We went through a ton, helping everyone in the zone with the awesome things that they were working on. It`s actually really crazy, because we have three people in the zone right now who are right now in their last week of the mission. In one week, they won`t be in this country anymore. They`re are a little bit nervous about that, because the mission life is VERY different from the life before and after, and they`ll really be going through a big change, going back home. I`m lucky that I don`t have to worry about that right now. 

Today we had a fun zone activity where we made baleadas, which are a type of Honduran food involving wheat tortillas, beans, eggs, cheese, and some other tasty things. It`s kind of like a breakfast taco, but actually shaped like a taco, and with a home-made tortilla that makes it really awesome. They were super tasty. We also had a huge water balloon fight and all got soaking wet.

This week my companion and I have been thinking a lot about faith. There are a few different types of faith, and some of them bring us more blessings and happiness than others. One type is the faith to try. If I have faith that something is good, I`m going to try to do it. But if my faith is only in my own physical abilities and talents, I may give up when I find out that I don`t know how to do it. Faith in ourselves is something that can be defeated. But if I know that God wants something, I can have faith in Him. This is the faith to DO, not just to try. If it`s what God wants, he will make it happen. And if what I want is what He wants, I don`t have to be worried if I go in without knowing how I`m going to make it happen, because I`m just the tool God is using to bring to pass His work, and He will make sure that everything He wants gets done. I`m not perfect, but it`s okay because God is, and he`s using me in the best way possible. 

I love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

A birthday surprise...and then another one.

¡Hola amigos!

This week really flew by. I`m not even really sure what happened. That`s all folks. See ya!

Just kidding haha. I do remember a few really awesome things. I am learning about just helping everyone in the zone to feel awesome, and it`s really fun to just make people happy. Our zone is doing INCREDIBLE right now, and together we have a TON of people who are preparing to be baptized this week. One area has a family of 7 people that are all planning on getting baptized this Sunday. Please pray for all of the missionaries working hard in the Zona Siquinalá. 

We are teaching some really amazing people. One lady, Blanca Rosa, couldn`t come to church this week, and when we went to see why, she said her son had come to ask for food and she had to make it for him, and couldn`t come to church. But she told us that this week she would make all of the food on Saturday instead, just to be prepared. When we asked if she had read the part of the Book of Mormon that we left for her, she said that she "read a little bit." Usually when people say that, they mean that they read either nothing, or a teeny tiny bit. But we soon learned that she had read the part that we left for her, and also had started from the beginning and read the first few chapters! We were super excited, but she just said that she had to know, instead of just trusting us. That is exactly how we want everyone to be. They don`t have to just trust us, because the truth doesn`t come from us. That`s why we ask everyone to ask God if it`s true, because HE`s the one they need to trust, and HE`s the one who will tell them. 

Also, this week we had a zone activity where we came to the Gomera and played ping pong, basketball, and soccer. We also planned a surprise birthday party for Hermana Jacobs and Elder Araujo, because they both have their birthdays this Sunday. We bought a cake for them, and lit all the candles and hid it in the kitchen. They were super happy when they found it. Little did THEY know, the candles were actually trick candles that we found in a really cool 3 Quet store, and so they relit themselves everytime they were blown out. It was kinda crazy because they relit themselves until they literally started burning the cake, so that was almost a problem. And then we got Hermana Jacobs to take a picture with the cake, but as if she were eating it. But closer! Because it doesn`t look like you`re eating it unless you`re close! No, closer! Meanwhile, Elder Almeida was sneaking up behind, and before she knew it, he had slammed her face into the cake! We somehow managed to do it to Elder Araujo too, and so we have some great pictures of them both with cakey faces.

Hope you are all loving life and being happy. 

Love you guys!

-Elder  Cloward 

She`s happy, and he`s coming

She doesn`t have any idea.

Boom! And now he`s getting out of there as fast as he can. ¡Oof!

Lots of happy stuff this week

¡Hola todos!

It´s been a crazy week. I´m now with Elder Alcazar, who is one of the coolest guys I´ve ever met. He´s incredibly humble, and he likes to listen. But when he talks, it´s either really really funny, or it hits you really hard with inspiration and power. I´m not sure how he does it. He also speaks English really well, and so we speak a lot of English together. Neither of us have been Zone Leaders before, so we don´t reeeally know what we´re doing, but we are showing a ton of love for all of the missionaries in the zone, and they´re working really hard. So I think we´re doing good...? It´s really fun. We´re also trying to figure out the area, because neither of us know it that well. It´s really funny just to be launched in without much warning. We have everything we need though, and we´re finding a ton of miracles here in Siquinalá :).

I now have 9 months in the mission! That´s pretty crazy. I´m in between having no time at all and kinda having a little bit. I still feel pretty new though. It´s funny to think that I´ve been in Guatemala for the length of an entire pregnancy already. 

This week we got to hold this enormous iguana that some friends found and brought home. It looked like a dragon, with spikes going all the way down its back and scales of all different shades of green. Pretty crazy. Also, one day it rained so hard that we found a fish in the street. With some effort, we managed to return it to the nearest river. 

I switched companions for a day this week to be with a new missionary from Brazil! His name is Elder Araujo, and he is suuper cool. He speaks Portuguese, and is just now learning Spanish. He has a super cool accent, and lots of cool stories. Portuguese is really really similar to Spanish. I can understand almost everything that someone is saying when they speak it, because it sounds like they´re speaking Spanish with a weird accent. It´s really interesting, and I had him teach me a bunch too. When you learn one language, it seems like it´s probably easier to learn others too. But the coolest thing about him is that he loves God. He wants to be like Jesus, and he does everything he can to help the people. He can´t speak very well yet, but he still talks! He doesn´t know everything, but he loves the people, and they know that, and so they love him too. I learned a lot from being with him. Honestly if we just show more love in life, everywhere is a better place. 

This week has been a leap of faith for Elder Alcazar and I. We went to leadership counsel, and then had a zone training where we taught everyone the things that we learned. We feel a little bit inadequate, like "who picked us too to teach all these people?," but I think Peter did too when he was a fisherman and Jesus called him to be an apostle. Jesus called me just like He did for Peter. But Peter´s calling seems a little more difficult to me, so I think maybe I´m doing fine. God is guiding us a ton, and we find miracles everyday :). Life is happy.

Love you all!

-Elder Cloward

We have a pair of older missionaries who come to church with us, and they bought as a ton of awesome groceries from the capital! They´re the best.

The Zona Siquinalá. They´re so awesome!! My companion is the one with glasses to the left of me.

Me with Elder Araujo in the house. He´s super great and it was fun to be with him for a day.

We went and got ice cream at Sarita one last time with Elder Richens, because he loves it, and also to say goodbye to our friend Katy who works there.

 Katy is a little shy, but she´s super great. She likes to give us an extra little scoop of icecream on the top of the cone for free ;)