Make Their Eyes Shine: Crazy week!

Buenas tardes!

This was one of the fullest weeks in my entire mission. We really weren´t in our own area almost at all. But we did a ton for other people and learned a ton of things too.

We helped the Hermanas out in the zone, and I went with the ones in Palin 2. We helped a lady to clean her garden, which was more like a mini jungle. We chopped wood and cleaned up things and it was really fun. We also threw a surprise birthday party for Hermana Ceballo! We had to be really creative so she wouldn´t know that we were going to do it, because it was the second time in the same change haha, but she had no idea and was really happy. We also finished making the design for the zone shirts that we´re going to buy, and they should come this week, so I´ll send a picture when we have them. They´re super cool!

We´re working really hard in the Periquera, and this Sunday we went with a ton of missionaries and stake leaders. We found a ton more people to teach, and it was a huge success. We´re teaching someone named Lilian there who is preparing to be baptized this Sunday! Please pray that she can be strong and overcome temptations. She would be the first baptism here in over a year, and it might be my last Sunday in Palin too, so it will be really special.

My companion and I had to go buy new shoes, and so we went to this incredibly fancy shopping mall and found some nice ones. My camera isn´t letting me send a lot of the pictures I have from the week, but maybe next week I´ll be able to show them. We also found one of the few IHOP restaurants in this country and ate there, and it was super tasty. Here, IHOP is like a super high-class, fancy, dress up nice kind of restaurant. I might be wrong, but I don´t remember it being anything like that back home haha.Toward the end of our "shopping" experience, I ran out of energy and didn´t even know what to do anymore. I´m still not used to being around things that fancy, and I honestly don´t even like it much. I´m more comfortable in cinder block and sheet metal houses now.

Today, we went to the temple with the zone! I haven´t been in an entire YEAR, which is really crazy to me. But it was a really fantastic experience there. The temple is God´s house, and there´s a really special spirit there. I loved it. Afterward, we went bowling, which was really fun too! We just got back from that big trip, and we´re all spent. But it was really fun!

We did a lot of things this week, but hands down, the best thing we did was on Saturday, when we got to see an apostle. Elder Ulisses S. Soares of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles came to visit Guatemala, and he gave a conference for only the zone leaders of 4 of the missions in Guatemala. So almost nobody got to go. But we did! He´s from Brazil, and speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and English. Every time I see an apostle, I´m reminded of the incredible power that God trusts us with. The apostles that live today have exactly the same function and power as the ones that Jesus himself called in the bible. And you can feel that when you shake the hand of someone like that. He told us that God trusts in us, and that´s why he´s called us as leaders of the mission in the last days of the world. He said that the things that we´re learning right now in the mission are to prepare us to lead in the life afterward. He also said that the prophet loves us a ton, which felt really awesome. I love apostles, and I know that they´re on the earth because God loves us too.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward