We did it!

¡Hola todos!

This week was crazy! 

We had the baptism of José and Flor, and by a crazy miracle, Flor´s sister Evelyn decided that she wanted to get baptized too! That was super awesome. But they went through a ton of trials to get there. José ran into some problems at work that made some financial trouble for the family. Flor got sick and we had to give her a blessing. They didn`t really like the missionary who interviewed them. Finally on the day of the baptism, we came to church and the water in the baptismal font was green and full of bugs and grass! We drained it to fill it back up, but it turned out that there wasn`t any water anymore because the young men had broken the water system in a sketchy overnight activity they had. But through everything, José, Flor, and Evelyn stayed strong and were baptized on Saturday! We had to go all the way to Santa Lucia and take the people with two trips in a bus. It was a beautiful service, and they were all really happy. We all were grateful to be able to see the family choose to follow that commandment of God. On the way back, the bus could only do one trip, so we stuffed everyone in there except us, without knowing what we would do. We just started walking, and by some crazy miracle the Stake President was passing by in his car and gave us a ride all the way back to Siquinalá. God takes care of his missionaries. 

We were walking down the street one day, and we bumped into someone my companion had been teaching in his old area in Escuintla! He hadn`t been able to progress much back then because of a lot of problems that he was going through there, but now he lives here and he`s doing way better! He has been reading the Book of Mormon that Elder Hoskins left with him, and he really loves it. He told us that he and his wife want to go to church, and if they feel it in their hearts, they are going to get baptized too. It was awesome because my companion had already started the work with him, and after leaving for a while, the guy had prepared himself to really learn a ton and change his life, and now we get to keep teaching him. We`re excited to see how that goes.

Today we took the zone of 14 missionaries to Guazacapan to drive through this auto-safari zoo place. We got to drive right up next to all of the animals, and it was a really cool experience. There was also a normal zoo part afterward. We had a lot of fun and saw some really awesome and funny things.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

The Spirit of God Isn't a Coincidence

¡Hola amigos!

This week went by really fast. A lady gifted me a ton of shoes, and most of them got soaked in the rain, so they`re drying. This missionary from Honduras almost told me what happens in all of the movies that have came out since I`ve been here, but I escaped. A kid stole my umbrella and then fell straight in the mud. When he was coming out of his house after changing his clothes, he fell again in the same place. My new companion Elder Hoskins is really super funny. He just sees life in a funny way, and lets me know his thoughts. He also is a lot safer than I am, because he served the first year of his mission in some of the most dangerous places in the country, so he really knows how to stay out of trouble. But the most important thing is that we`ve been getting a ton done together, and it feels awesome.

This week we decided to go to the Democracia to help the missionaries who are opening the area. They still really don`t have very many people to teach, so we went to meet some people. When we got there, we said a prayer to be able to find the people who were ready, and then the missionaries there told us which way to go to look. We went in that direction, but we felt like we should go down a specific street. Then we stopped at a specific house in the middle of that street. It just sort of felt like the house. We saw a woman sitting with some chairs in the back, so we just entered the property (without asking permission or anything) and sat down with the woman. We started to talk, and her husband, her daughter, and her grandson came eventually and sat with us too. We started to teach them, and we soon learned that the husband not only is a member of the church, but was once the president of the old branch in La Democracia. He hadn`t been to church in years, but when we told him that his was the first house we had visited, he knew we were sent from God.

Then we met his daughter. Her son had been baptized too, in a place called San Jose Pinula, about a year ago. San Jose Pinula is in the South Mission. One year ago, my companion was in the South Mission, in the exact area where the son was baptized, and he was actually there to see it. He knew all of the missionaries that had taught the boy, and that was really awesome. In that time, I was starting my mission, and I also knew the area because every P-day we had permission to go there to buy food, which nobody else was allowed to do. So my companion is probably the best person in the mission to be meeting them, and I`m probably the second best. We learned that the Mom had never gotten baptized, because she was living with her boyfriend, and he was awful. She asked God what to do, and felt that she needed to leave him and come here. So three months ago, she did...but she hadn`t come to church because she was nervous. When she began to tell her story, she started to cry, because she knew that God had sent us there to find her. The spirit was really strong there, and it was clear that God loves his children a ton. That day we learned that an important role of the Spirit is to be a guide, to lead us to the right paths in our lives to find what we need. We didn`t really do anything except listen to the guide of the Holy Ghost, and we were led right there. Now the missionaries in La Democracia have someone to teach :).

On another occasion, my companion and I were walking down a lonely road that we had heard was a shortcut to another part of the area. We had never been, but wanted to see if it was true. Suddenly, I just felt like I needed to stop. So I did, even though I didn`t know why. I may have kept going, but before I could it started to rain. We took out our umbrellas and went back the way we had come from, hoping to not get lost in the rain. We thought that we had felt like we needed to stop because of the rain, so we were glad. But the next day we asked someone about that road, and we learned that that road is one of the most dangerous places in the entire area. Especially in this part of year that the sugar cane is tall, we would very likely have been assaulted. We asked a couple other people, and they all told us the same thing: we should NEVER, EVER go down that road. I`m almost positive that, while we didn`t know anything that day, we felt the need to stop because there was an unknown danger awaiting us that day, and God needed us to be safe. And just in case we didn`t follow the Spirit, he sent the rain as another way to make us go back. That day, I learned another role of the Spirit: a security guard to keep us safe. 

That`s all for now. I`ll talk next week about my adventures in the capital and listening to Elder Walker, a seventy of the church. 

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Me when I wake up in the morning

The nicest part of Siquinalá.

The capital.

Changes

¡Hola todos!

We had changes...yesterday. And I`m still here in Siquinalá! I`m excited to get to stay, because I really love this area. But Elder Alcazar got changed to Guazacapan to finish his mission there, which is kind of sad. I`m going to miss him a lot, but I`m sure he`ll do great things over there. And the good part is that it`s only about 30 minutes away from here, so he`s still close. But now, I`m with Elder Hoskins! He`s from Utah and he`s awesome. He has 13 months in the mission, so I`m pretty close to him in time, but this is his first time being a zone leader. He really likes sports, and before the mission he was a linebacker. He`s lost a ton of weight on the mission, but he`s still a pretty big dude. It`s going to be really fun to be with someone who has about the same experience as I do, because we`ll be able to work together really easily. 

This week was CRAZY, because we were out of our area every single day, in the capital, La Democracia, La Gomera, and random other places to do everything to prepare for changes and help the zone. I feel like we have been more away than home, and so it`ll be really exciting to be able to come back and work here again. We have a lot of work to do. I think we`ll able to work a lot faster now, and it`s gonna be really fun. 

Because of changes, almost every single area lost someone and got someone new. We`re going to have a lot of fun meeting everyone. In the Democracia, there haven`t been missionaries in years, and we just put two there yesterday. They don`t know anyone, or anything that`s there except for their own house. We went into the street with them last night to do the only thing that they can do: talk to people. We just went out and talked to everyone we saw and met a ton of people. They`re starting from 0, but we found some pretty cool people for them to start teaching. They`re gonna be awesome. 

In the little time we had here this week, we went around saying goodbye to people for my companion. I have a picture of us with a really cool family that teaches us where to look to find super complicated and interesting things in the bible and the Book of Mormon. There`s a lot to find if you just look for it.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

Some kids gave me a pretty gnarly hairstyle on a rainy day.

Elder Alcazar saying goodbye to a super cool family of church members here.

Elder Hoskins and me

PS - Don't forget that you can email Elder Cloward directly at the following address:

icloward@missionary.org

What always happens

Hey!

So this week went by super fast for us. We spent a lot of time traveling to other areas of the zone or the capital to do a lot of things that had to get done for the zone. We`re going to open up a new area in the zone called "The Democracia," and so we spent a lot of time down there finding a good place for the new missionaries to live who come to serve there. It`s funny going to places where missionaries don`t go very often, because nobody is used to seeing us and everyone stares a TON. It makes you feel special...or scared. But it was really fun to explore down there and prepare the area.

This week Ronny and Mishell got baptized! They aren`t friends or family, but both wanted to get baptized on the same day, so we did their baptisms together, and it was awesome. Except for one thing...I was sick the whole time. This seems to be a pattern. It doesn`t matter what the sickness is, but every time we are doing something really important, I always get sick. It ALWAYS HAPPENS!!! It`s almost funny, because it`s obviously not a coincidence; Satan wants us to not do God`s work, and so he tries to stop us. And he almost did, because I was really not doing well; I could hardly smile for the pictures without throwing up. But I promised myself to never be the one that stops people from coming closer to God and getting more blessings in their life, so I came to the baptism on Saturday and the confirmation on Sunday. And all of the time in between was spent sleeping and recovering. But they were really happy, which was super awesome. Yay!

Changes come next week, and it`s possible that this is my last time writing from Siquinalá. You never know, and can never even guess, but it`s possible. But we`ll see what happens. Maybe I`ll leave the coast and stop getting sick. Or maybe I`ll go somewhere even hotter! It doesn`t really matter, because the mission is awesome no matter where you are, and I`m just happy to be here.

Love you guys!

-Elder Cloward

The Prophet

Hi!

This week was really special. We had a couple surprise birthday parties for some of the people in the zone, and it was really fun sneaking cakes and decorations around without being discovered. And we also had some really, really awesome experiences teaching people who are preparing to be baptized soon. But the coolest part was the prophet coming to Guatemala.

When Jesus was on the earth, He established His church, by giving His authority to prophets, apostles, and other disciples to help to teach the people and do the work of God. A lot of people don`t know that the same organization still exists. There are still 12 apostles, and there is still a prophet who guides us under God`s direction. His name is Russell M. Nelson, and he goes all over the world preaching the gospel and helping people to be happy. And this week, he came to Guatemala! It was super cool! He came to the capital, along with one of the apostles and some other local church leaders, and he talked to all of us about the things that we need to know specifically in this country. And the best part is that he spoke in Spanish! That was totally unexpected, but really amazing because he spoke to the people in their native language, and so he spoke straight to their hearts. We learned that we need to make sure that we have strong families, are paying tithing, standing out for our beliefs and standards, and are ministering to the people around us by showing them the love of Christ. It was really super cool. I didn`t get to see in person, but we all filled up the church and watched the live broadcast together. I found some cool pictures of the event.

We are working really hard here, and I`m learning so much that I feel like I still don`t know anything. But God gives us what He wants us to have, exactly when we need it, if we`re doing what He asks of us. So we never have to worry that we aren`t good enough, because He is, and He molds us into the clay sculpture He wants us to be. 

Love you all!

-Elder Cloward

Elder and Hermana Mann, the senior missionaries that are super kind and always joke around and bring us groceries from the capital.

A super cute drawing from the mission president`s 6 year old daughter of all of us in Jesus` arms.

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.