Holy Moly...

Hi!

This week was really, really crazy. Let me explain why.

We have been working all over the place, and this week we didn´t have very much time in our area. But when we were in our area, it was kinda rough because almost nobody was home in any part of our area. It was actually really funny, because pretty much every single house we went to, even with people who had told us to come at that time, didn´t answer or couldn´t receive us. We went everywhere and walked more than I have in my entire mission, but there wasn´t much luck with anyone. We really wore ourselves out just working and talking with people and trying everything we knew how to do, but sometimes God wants to teach you something. We had one day where we just walked and walked for hours, and finally just sat down to figure out what to do. The scriptures always tell us what to do, and so I opened my Book of Mormon up to a random page, and read what it said. The scripture was Alma 41:14, and it said this:

14 Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again. 

I bolded the parts that really spoke to me. The scripture told me that if I could keep working to do good and to be merciful to the people, God would be merciful unto me, and I would be rewarded with everything good. So we got up and went to work again. We then found a house with a really amazing woman who was ready to learn and hear more about the gospel. Later, we discovered the way that Alberto and Delia need to learn, which was huge for us because we know that they´re ready to learn and progress but they´re really simple people and struggle to understand the things that they hear. So the day ended really well. Obviously I needed to learn a lesson that day, and it took a lot of walking and working before I learned it. But God doesn´t leave us alone.

One of the missionaries in our zone got really, REALLY sick this week. After a few days of her being in the hospital, we learned that she has dengue demoragia, which is like the worst form of a really awful disease spread by mosquitos. It makes you just bleed and bleed, with a super high fever and an incredible pain in your bones and muscles, and this Hermana lost almost half of the blood in her entire body just in around four days of being in the hospital. The worst part is that she is going to finish her mission in less than a week. She is finally getting better though, and we got to see her yesterday and today. She´s one of the wisest missionaries I have ever met, so it´s sad that she´s struggling so much. But she´ll be better soon.

Yesterday we had the multi-zone conference for Christmas. It was super awesome. We got to hear musical numbers from people all over the mission (some super awesome and some kinda rough) and perform one too! We also had a white elephant gift exchange and learned a ton of things from the leaders in the mission. There is a really powerful spirit in this time of year because Christ really lived and died for us. He was born to save the world, and if we look to Him, we don´t have to be sad. I love Him so much!

Love you all too!

-Elder Cloward

I was so tired from all the work this week that I actually fell asleep while praying :/. My companion thought it was hilarious and took this picture. My neck STILL hurts from being in that position for so long! Never again...

Also, some cool dudes playing music across the street.