This Week In History

Me and a lame (or, rather, flightless) butterfly

Hello Family!

I'll start out with the sad news. Gary passed away yesterday, so we'll be attending his funeral some time in the next week. He was a very good man and I'm glad I was able to know him, even if it was only for a couple months. I look forward to visiting with him more on the other side.

Otherwise, things are going pretty well. Elder Weaver is great! It's a lot of fun working with a missionary who hasn't yet discovered that some missionaries are lazy and disobedient and who definitely doesn't want to be one of those missionaries anyway. We've been able to do a lot of good work.We found six new investigators this week; that's a record for my mission so far, so we were pretty excited about it. Unfortunately, only 3 1/2 of them speak English. We talked with a great Spanish couple on the street last week and have taught them twice last week. After reading the Book of Mormon after our first lesson, they had lots of questions and were very excited about learning more. I just wish we spoke the same language. I don't think I've taught them anything totally off-base yet, but it's kind of hard to tell when I'm guessing at all the words ... (Thanks for sending "Predicad mi Evangelio" mom, it helped a bunch.) They want to be baptized, though, so definitely more evidence that the Holy Ghost does the teaching if we do it right.


Elder Weaver y yo

I also had an awesome-miraculous experience while on a trade-off in Grand Rapids last Tuesday. Elder Lacock, one of the zone leaders, and I decided to spend the morning contacting in downtown Grand Rapids during the morning since we didn't have a lot going on. The first man we stopped told us he didn't speak English. So, I told him hablo un poquito Espanol and we started to speak with him. Once he realized who we were, he excitedly told us all about how he was just in Salt Lake as part of his vacation (he actually lives in Peru, not Michigan) and he LOVED it! As in, he wouldn't stop talking about it! He told us about how much he loved the temple and the special feeling he had there. He just sat at temple square all day and reflected and thought because he felt so good there. He asked us if there were any temples he could visit in Grand Rapids because he needed to do some more pondering! (I might also add that the Gift of Tongues was doing a lot of work here - Elder Lacock doesn't speak Spanish and neither do I, yet we understood everything he was saying!) He was especially excited to meet us and talk with us because he's stranded in Grand Rapids - it was his last stop on his US vacation but he tripped over a construction barrier and fractured his skull, so he has to stay in Michigan indefinitely getting medical treatment. He kept telling us that he was sure God sent us to him because he knows no one in Michigan and suddenly he had two friends! Anyway, he invited us to lunch and we accepted. On the way to McDonald's we met a man who was baptized the Saturday before into the Spanish branch in Grand Rapids! Ahora tenian tres amigos! We called the Spanish elders, who met us at McDonalds. Cinco amigos! As Elder Lacock recently updated me, he has now been taught twice and gone to church. Talk about someone prepared to accept the gospel ...

I love you all and hope all continues to be well with you.

Elder Cloward

P.S. Attached are pictures of Michigan country roads in summer,


Hart Lake, and


President and Sister Jones with the assistants and all the trainers and trainees.

I Have the Swine Flu!

Hi!
The subject line is a lie. That was just to get you excited about the contents of this email. Elder Weaver, my new, fresh-out-of-the-MTC companion, says he doesn't think he had swine flu, although his MTC companion, Elder Merrell, did. He does have a deep cough, though, which is apparently a symptom of the swine flu. If I sprout a curly tail, I'll know something strange is going on.

So, Elder Patrick Weaver is my new companion! He is from Gardnerville, Nevada, the last of eight children (his parents are almost as old as my grandparents), and awesome! He's sincerely excited about being a missionary and serving the Lord and the people of Michigan. It's a little intimidating to be a 'trainer', realizing that I am, so far, his only impression of "real" missionary work. I hope I do an all right job.

We had some very sad news this week - our top investigator, Gary, suffered a major heart attack Thursday night. When we visited him in the hospital Saturday night he was still non-responsive (he'd been semi-comatose since the heart attack) but we gave him a blessing and trust that things will be all right. Prayers on behalf of him and his family would be much appreciated.

We taught a new investigator this week who happened to know a lot about our church and our missionary program because he follows college football very closely. He told us all about missionaries who leave Utah football teams for two years and then come back and keep playing. He was also kind enough to pull out his college football magazine and rattle off BYU's season for me. Sounds like it should be a good one :).

When we started teaching him about the Book of Mormon, he briefly excused himself and returned the room a moment later with a stack of five Book of Mormons. He's never been taught by missionaries, but seems to have had significant contact with us or other church members over the years. It reminded me of a similar story I read in a church magazine once and of the moral of the magazine's story - we need to get the book(s) off of his shelf and into his heart.

It's a good time to be in the Michigan Lansing Mission. It's beautiful and warm (although very humid), and great things are happening this mission. We are working on stepping up to the challenge of truly becoming a "Preach My Gospel" Mission and reaping the harvest the Lord has promised us here.I know this is the Lord's work; He directs it and it must be done in His way.

Thanks for all your love and support.

Love,
Elder Cloward

Drive Time

Hello all!
I'll have to make it quick because we need to get on the road this morning.
Yesterday, zone conference, was excellent! I'm hoping the one I attend on Wednesday will also be excellent. You see, today we have to drive down to Battlecreek, where I will drop off Elder Tribett and pick up Elder Darley (who needs to meet up with his new companion, Elder Hermonat, in Harrison) and then drive up to Lansing. We'll spend the night in Lansing (as will the new missionaries who are flying in today) and then head up to zone conference in Harrison early Wednesday morning where we'll have trainer-orientation and learn which missionary will be our companion and then we'll attend the Harrison Zone Conference. After which we'll ride back down to Lansing and then I'll drive home with my mystery companion to Shelby.
So ... we've got to go wash the car and finish packing really quick.
Love you all!
elder Cloward

Hola!

I don't have much time to write, but we had a good week and I love you all! The definite high point of our week came yesterday when Gary came to church! He was the first investigator we've had there in two months. It was sort of an interesting testimony meeting but I think Gary enjoyed it; in any case he told us he was looking forward to seeing us again on Wednesday and he promised he'd stay for Sunday School next week.

We found four new investigators this week and at least three of them seem fairly promising. I'm excited to teach one of them - Andy - tomorrow because a member will be going with us who happens to know him very well. That's one thing that's convenient about being a missionary in such a small town area - everyone knows everyone so those you teach instantly have a friend to welcome them and help teach them.

We've been car-less for most of the week. If you'll recall, Elder Arroyo damaged the bumper pretty nicely a couple months ago. The body shop called Tuesday and asked us to bring our car in that day since they finally had our part in. We're getting it back today.

Elder Cloward

Pictures

A picture for y'all:

Elder Tribett and I rode the beautiful Hart-Montague bike trail to the Sanderson's where we had a branch activity planting a community garden.


Love you,
Elder Cloward

Hello all!

I may not have time for any individual replies, so I decided I'd better start with my newsy letter. Because there's a lot of crazy news!

So ... a couple of weeks ago President Jones told both Elder Tribett and me during interviews to get comfortable in Hart because we'll be staying for quite some time. And we were excited! Then President Jones came to our branch for a fireside and told all the members he intended to keep us both here for a while. And we were even more excited! Then President Jones called us for transfers on Friday morning.

When two missionaries will be staying together, President Jones doesn't bother calling them - the zone leaders do. So we were initially surprised to get a phone call from the mission office. "Oh no," I thought, "he's transferring me out of Hart."

I answer the phone. "Hi, President."

"Good morning, Elder Cloward. Am I on speaker phone?"

"You sure are."

"Good. Well, elders, I'm sorry to do this to you. Elder Cloward, you'll be staying in Hart. I'd have liked to have kept you there too, Elder Tribett, but I want Elder Cloward to train this transfer."

"Oh ... okay," I said. Elder Tribett turns to me and mouths, "What the heck?!"

"Elder Tribett, I bet you'd like to know where you're going." President Jones continues. "You'll be heading down to Paw Paw with Elder Thompson and Elder Baros."

So - that's our transfer news. Elder Tribett said all his goodbyes over the past few days and has been a little upset to be transferred after just six weeks. It seems he's not going to get to spend more than six weeks in any area.

This morning we went golfing with Brother Fuller and Brother Girardot, which is why we're emailing a little late (sorry mom). Anyway, there we were at the sixth hole when Elder Tribett, who has the phone, gets a call. He waves me over in the middle of a putt - "Elder Cloward! Get over here, quick!"

As I hurried over , I was surprised to hear President Jones' voice, yet again on speaker phone. "Elder Cloward, there's been a slight change of plans. The elders who were supposed to get here from the MTC this next Wednesday will be delayed at least two weeks because of a breakout of swine flu in the MTC. Elder Tribett will be staying with you for at least the next two weeks. We'll let you know more as soon as we know."

"Oh ... okay," I said. Elder Tribett pumps his fist and mouths, "Yes!"

So - that's our newer transfer news. I'll have to let you know what's going on when I know what's going on. Until then, Elder Tribett and I have to find things to do for the next several days, which, until this afternoon, I was planning to spend in Lansing.

Things continue to go fairly well here. Our best investigator, Gary, told us last night that he believes Joseph Smith was a prophet and he thinks he'd better get baptized. He doesn't want to do anything too quickly, but we're very optimistic. And we're working with a number of other people as well. Nobody in church this week, though. That's been tough for us. We'll keep working on it.

Have a fantastic week. Happy June!

Love,
Elder Cloward