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.
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.
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.
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