Hello and happy new year!

I've got to be really brief because we don't have much time. We scheduled a lesson in the middle of our preparation day so that Elder Morales and Elder Alder could join us before they're transferred.

This week was fun, if a little bit slow. We had a number of appointments fall through because of Christmas plans. I've also decided that the week after Christmas is the sleepiest time of the year; probably 75% of the congregation came in late to Sacrament Meeting Sunday morning.

We had transfer calls on Christmas Eve. Elder Morales and Elder Alder will both be transferred; Elder Morales is going to Greenville, North of Grand Rapids, and Elder Alder will be with the Lansing zone leaders in Portland. Elder Morales was pretty upset about it; we had definitely expected that I would be the one transferred. He's excited about it now; there are a lot more Spanish-speakers in the Grand Rapids zone that he may be able to help with.

I'll pick up my new companion, Elder Taylor tomorrow. We're starting off immediately with a district leader council, which we planned over the phone Saturday night. I think it will go well; we are conducting training on using the Book of Mormon as a powerful resource in conversion since the transfer theme is the Book of Mormon. We'll be specifically focusing on using the Book of Mormon to help the other missionaries we serve strengthen and deepen their own conversions.

Love you all lots,
Elder Joseph Cloward

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hi!

I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas from Bay City, Michigan! The Christmas season is the best time for missionary work! Let's remember the Spirit of Christ this Christmas by sharing our testimonies of Him and His gospel with those we love!

Love,
Elder Joseph Cloward

P.S. Attached is a picture with my companions - Elder Alder and Elder Morales.

Hi Family! Merry Christmas!

We've had a great week. For the first time on my mission we reached (actually exceeded) Elder Perry's goal that each companionship teach 20 lessons a week. We'd been really close before but we finally taught 22 lessons this week. Here's to many more weeks of the same.

The baptisms went really well. There were lots of people there - family, friends, and church members - and I think it was a really good experience for the three who were baptized - Roxanne and Christian and Kendra (the last two are brother and sister). Christian and Kendra's brother Jacob has set a baptismal date for January 10th.

I got to have my first trade-off at MSU, which was fun (the last two times, I've been here in Bay City with one of the Assistants to the President). People on college campuses will talk to you! I also enjoyed being able to spend the day with Elder Barney, who started his mission the same time I did.

We had a really neat experience yesterday. We decided to get a little creative and spent 20 minutes yesterday singing Christmas carols (specifically, Christmas hymns celebrating the birth and mission of the Savior Jesus Christ) outside the entrance to Walmart, which was extremely busy, as you might imagine. It was awesome! We didn't really talk to many people, so we have to figure out how to improve upon that, but it was incredible to see how moved many people were just to hear, for a brief moment, a simple reminder of the reason for the Christmas season. It's nice to have strangers smile at you for once. We liked it so much we're doing it again today and every day up through Christmas - it's probably the only time of year we'd get such an opportunity.

I also included a part of my Christmas gift - Elder Morales has a voice recorder and let me record a little Christmas message for you. And some pictures!

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Elder Cloward


PS -
Picture 1 -
elder Alder looks cold, doesn't he?

Picture 5 - The three of us and the Assistants with the Bad Axe - Caro district.

Hi Family!

We had a good week, if a crazy one. Winter's here in full force, starting with a bad storm this last Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, just in time for everyone to drive to zone conference. It didn't help that we didn't have a car because it was in the body shop, getting some superficial repairs due to an incident with a rogue mailbox.

Zone conference was good though. It was our Christmas zone conference, which was fun. President Jones spoke about the progress our mission has made this past year and challenged us to step up our efforts in 2010.

We had a couple of trade-offs this week, which added to the craziness. Elder Morales went to both Houghton Lake and Bad Axe while Elder Alder and I stayed home with another missionary. Driving back from Houghton Lake Thursday afternoon, we hit a total white-out on the freeway, which was a lot of fun. Elder Morales said he was just glad I was driving.

Our Ward Christmas Party was a lot of fun. Chris, a young man who was recently reactivated, played the part of Santa Claus and Elder Morales and I got to be elves. The kids were way fun and we had our investigators and recent converts there, which added to our excitement.

We're excited for the week ahead - we've got a zone leader council and Christmas Party at the mission home tomorrow, a trade-off with the assistants, and - hopefully - four baptisms on Sunday (we'll have at least one).

Hope you all have a great week! Merry Christmas!
Love,
Elder Cloward

Hello all!

Another good week here in Bay City. It's officially Christmastime now that we've had our first snow - just a light dusting on Friday. I understand we're supposed to get a bunch more soon, though.

Elder Morales and I each took a turn being sick this week, although it must have been some 24-hour bug. Neither of us could talk the other into taking much of a break, so we taught 9 lessons between the two sick days. I hope we didn't infect anybody ...

We were pretty excited about the number of lessons we were able to teach this week. We've been working for the 20 lessons/wk Elder Perry has challenged us to reach and got so close this week with 19. This week it will be hard to get because we've got zone conference on Wednesday and no car for a couple of days (it's in the body shop) but we'll do what we can.

Sunday was awesome. Mike Arquette was confirmed and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. Roxanne, who we've been teaching for just over a month, came to church for the first time and loved it! She got so excited about her upcoming baptism that she asked us if we could move it up a week. (It helped that we had a really good fast and testimony meeting and that she stayed for the baptism and confirmation of a girl who just turned 8.)

Elder Morales, Elder Alder, and I all bore our testimonies during Sacrament meeting, which was exciting, because immediately after Elder Morales (who was last) finished his, the Bishop stood and bore his testimony. He told the congregation that if they had not yet had us in their home, they needed to have us come teach them because of the special spirit we have. I love this ward and I'm excited that they're excited to have us - I think it would be so easy for the work to take off here, even to the point of having 50 to 100 people reactivated or baptized within the next year - there's just so much potential!

I hope you all have a great week!

Remember: His strength is made perfect in weakness! (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Love you all,
Elder Cloward