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 ;)

Painting, saying goodbye, and burning in Tiquisate

¡Hola todos!

Wow. We are doing tons and tons of stuff. It feels like everyday is an adventure of things that I`ve never done before. As Zone Leaders we are always helping out the people in the zone, which means we spend a lot of time out of our actual area. But the things we have done in our area have been super great. It rains a ton here (even more than in Santa), so we`ve been pretty drenched too :).

We helped a family paint their house this week, and that was super fun. The houses here are mostly made of concrete, and they usually just paint the front and call it good. So we painted for the "Chambea`s" and helped them out with some other things too. They bought a weedwhacker to start a small landscaping business, and I told them I would help out because I spent a lot of the time before the mission working for a landscaping company, and so I used weedwhackers all the time. The funny thing is that they haven`t EVER used a machine like that before, and not only did they not know how to turn it on, but they treated it could explode at any moment, and made me wear all of this safety equipment that they bought. They all stood really far away while I showed them how to cut down the weeds. It was really funny for me, and fun for them too.

We also went to Tiquisate this week so that my companion could say goodbye to some of his old friends in an area he served in about a year ago. Tiquisate is really, really hot. It`s kind of incredible how humid and just burning it is down there, and I`m kind of glad I`m not still down there...yikes. But the people were suuuper cool, and it was really fun to see my companion go down a memory lane that I`d never seen before. We met some of the people that Elder Richens had helped to get baptized, and they`re still really strong in the church and they look really super happy. So we sang hymns for them, and all of the different families we visited gave us lots of food, which was fun too. 

We are teaching some really awesome people, including our friend Marvin, who is really excited to be learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He used to drink and live with someone who isn`t his wife, but now he`s a completely different person. All he wants to do is know what God wants for him, and do it. And he`s so happy. When people do the things that God wants, they have more happiness in their life than they could ever have imagined before. And if you don`t believe me, I challenge you to just pray everyday, asking God to help you to be happy...and it will come. God loves all of us, and He wants us to have joy. It`s something I`ve felt so much on my mission, and it`s the best :).

Love you all!

-Elder Cloward

Mandarin oranges are green here :0

The inside of a Tuk Tuk, which is like a little three wheeled taxi. We use them all the time here to get places quickly. 

My whole life is different...by fifteen minutes

¡Hola amigos!

This week was ridiculous! My compaion had to go to the hospital to accompany another missionary who got suuuper sick. We thought he`d be there for a day or two, but he left last Thursday and probably won`t be back until next Sunday. It was ridiculous because it meant that I was with random other people from the zone all week, running around everywhere and helping everyone. We had lots of baptisms in the zone too, so we had to do a ton to prepare for all of them and help everyone. I think the pouring rain is what is making everyone sick, because literally everyone got sick at some point this week. But we finally finished everything we needed to do. I also had to say goodbye to Santa Lucia, my home of the last four and a half months, because the change ended and I got changed. It was really hard to say goodbye to some of the people who have literally been my best friends for a really long time. And I actually didn`t get to say goodbye to my companion, because he`s still in the hospital. Butttt...the funny part is that my new area is literally just 15 minutes away in bus from Santa! I am suuuper close still.

My new area is called Siquinala, and I love it. My new companion is named Elder Richens, and he`s the greatest. He loves life so much. He is just full of joy all the time, and he really doesn`t NOT love anything. He`s really teaching me a ton. He actually has about 21 months in the mission, which means he`ll have to go home in less than 12 weeks. I think while some missionaries get really tired toward the end of their mission, he`s just gotten more happy and excited. He`s super goofy, and reminds me a ton of my older brother Matthew. He`s also super tall. 

Another interesting thing is that we are the zone leaders! So we get to serve over like 12 missionaries in the entire zone of Siquinala, and it`s crazy! It`s a huge responsibility, and I have a TON to learn still, but I`m really excited because God is giving me a ton of help.

Today was awesome because we went to Antigua again! I went about two weeks ago with the Santa Lucia zone, but this zone decided to go today too, so I got to go back. It was super fun, especially because I got to spend time with the whole zone and get to know all of the people here. They are SO cool, and I`m super happy. 

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

The familia Hernandez. They are super great, and the two on the right are going to get married soon.

Miguel, one of my best friends of all time. He knows a lot of English, and I`ve gone through a ton with him.

Elder Croft and Elder Jesperson, two of my best friends in the mission. They`re both going to the new Antigua mission that is going to be created, and I`m staying in the Central Mission. That means I probably won`t really be able to see them again, which is kind of sad. But they`re fantastic, and I`ll get to write to them a lot.