I Lost at Football but I Feel Like a Million Bucks

Hola! (And also, HOLLA!)

How's it going? We didn't accomplish as much this week as we would have liked to but it was still a great week. It's time for the day-by-day play-by-play:

Monday: We golfed with two awesome members of our branch. I don't think anything could be funnier than watching our branch mission leader scream and beat the ground with his club. Except maybe every attempt I made at putting ... Bro. Fuller told me I should spend some time on the practice green ... At the end of preparation day, we taught a lesson entirely in Spanish for the first time! We mostly read from the pamphlet, but I bore my testimony in Spanish and talked a little bit. I even understood a joke the sister told. We read: "Cual es mi proposito en esta vida?" And she responded, "Comer!" [What is my purpose in life? - To eat!] It was a good lesson. Hopefully, though, we'll have an actual Spanish speaker with us next time.

Tuesday: I saw Cambria and Eric! I was totally taken by surprise as someone who was not an old lady hugged me for the first time in months! Jeff wrote me an email and informed me my call has been revoked because of my blatant disobedience! Yikes! Oh well, seeing them was worth it. The performance was really fun and we actually had a part-member family there with us, for whom it was a really great experience. (Attached is a terrible picture of Cambria, Eric, and me).




Wednesday: Half-mission activity day! This is where I lost at kickball. I let the whole Grand Rapids zone down by missing a fly ball. We lost 11-4. It was my fault. Also, I tripped during the 3-legged race. Elder Tribett has officially decided that I am the clumsiest person he has ever met. (Attached is a picture of the Grand Rapids zone. And yes, I do heart G.R. If you have a hard time spotting me, I'm in the upper right hand corner.)


Thursday: We taught a couple great lessons. One was with my favorite 80-year-olds in the world. They told us they are very attached to their church (they've been attending since childhood) but they love talking with us and they are praying to know if the Book of Mormon is true. They are about the nicest people I have ever met! Also on Thursday, we talked with a man who was in Michigan for just a week of work - he normally lives in Chiappas, Mexico. In our broken Spanish, we talked with him about the Book of Mormon, which he recognized. He was very excited when we gave him a copy. (In my terrific Spanish: "El libro de Mormon. Para usted. Gratis.")

Friday: We went to a wedding reception and buried a dog. Completely unconnected events.

Saturday: We tracted ALL DAY LONG but it was fantastico! We found lots of new contacts, taught a new investigator, and didn't even get sick of it :). Elder Tribett is the best!

Sunday: No investigators in church (we were really hoping for a couple this week) but we had a fantastic missionary fireside with President Jones in the evening. We only had about 20 people there but they all enjoyed President Jones inspiring words and my cookies and accepted our challenge to share a Book of Mormon with a friend by the end of May. (Feel free to accept this same challenge).

I'm loving Hart and hoping I get to stay. The third picture is the obligatory tank in Shelby (I'm pretty sure most Michigan cities have one). I don't know if I've sent you a picture of it before.



Love you all,
Elder Cloward

Hola!

It was great talking to you! I thought I'd send a short email with some pictures!

#1 - My last district + zone leaders, sorry it's a bad picture


#4- We peel, core, and slice apples


#5- The apple pie goes in the oven


#6- The apple pie looks delicious!

Love you!
Elder Cloward

Hello Family!

Thanks for the emails, it's good to hear from you all. I'm excited that Jacob has decided to go to BYU. This way, I don't actually have to transfer to BYU myself if I decide I want to get married really quick. I just have to make Jacob talk about me to all his friends come home for a week of dating and propose just before flying back to Philly. Sound like a plan? (All the other missionaries just ask me how I'm ever going to get married if I keep going to Penn. So .. now I have an answer, I guess?)

Anyway, in real news, there's not a whole lot to report. Elder Tribett and I have been working hard and we're seeing a little success. We found four new investigators this week, two of which are really, really promising. One of them even came to church after only having a fifteen-minute lesson in her driveway. Unfortunately, she came to the wrong church - there are two churches on 72nd Ave in Hart and she picked the Baptist one. I'm sure they had a very nice service, but it probably wasn't what she was expecting ... in any case, we'll meet with her again and I think she'll come to our branch next week.

My Spanish conversations have been getting a little better. Well, I've still been having them at least. I've got my little pitch memorized and then they start talking and I try to understand what they're saying. And then I throw in a "Puedemos visitar otra vez?" (which I'm not even sure is appropriate Spanish but they seem to know what we mean) and they usually say "Si", so hopefully we'll be having a few more Spanish lessons. Unfortunately, only one brother in our branch can go with us and speaks Spanish and he's available about once a month. Literally.

Yesterday we had a broadcast Stake Conference and heard from President Monson, Elder Perry, Elder Jensen, and Brother Beck. They were great. Brother Beck's talk was probably my favorite - he spoke to the youth, telling them/us to learn to follow the counsel of the prophets, relating a story about a young man whose decision to heed President Benson's counsel to read the Book of Mormon changed/saved/blessed his life. I'm so grateful for the Book of Mormon. I know it is true. It has blessed my life every day I have taken the time to read from it. The Book of Mormon has helped me to learn that God loves me and that Jesus is the Christ. It's awesome!

We attended the CES fireside last night at which Elder Bednar spoke. It was really interesting - he talked a lot about the dangers of virtual realities created on the internet. One thing he said, quoting Elder Maxwell, really stuck out to me: "the youth of this generation have a greater capacity for obedience than any previous generation". He then went on to say that "obedience is the primary weapon which the rising generation must use in the war against evil". Yep.

I love you and I'm excited for Mother's Day!

Elder Cloward

Bananas in Pajamas

Hi family!

This week was good and bad, depending on the day. Monday was great - we taught a new investigator, who shows a lot of promise. He's a farmer, so he's very busy with planting right now (we dropped by around 8:15 and he had just walked in the door). He said in another week or so things should slow down, though, so we'll be teaching him soon. We're slowly building our teaching pool - from the 0 when I got here to a good four or five investigators now. I feel like Elder Arroyo and I can be pleased with the work we've done this transfer.

Speaking of transfers, I'll be losing Elder Arroyo this afternoon. I'm trading him for my new companion in Grand Rapids at 5. Elder Arroyo is going to Greenville, just north of Grand Rapids, so I'll still see him at the zone activity. I'm getting Elder Tribett, who's been out just six weeks. I don't think he speaks Spanish, which is annoying. I trust President Jones was inspired in his transfer decisions, so even though I begged for a Spanish elder ... I'll just have to work harder at learning Spanish!

Also, I hope Elder Tribett likes to walk. Because we won't be driving anywhere for the rest of the month. We're almost entirely out of miles. And my bike has a flat tire. We'll work that out, I hope.

The bad part of the week was being sick. We helped out with the pole vault at the track meet on Tuesday (we had to hold the cross-bar in place because it was super-windy) and I had to hope the whole time that my stomach wouldn't explode and that I wouldn't soil my trousers. Thankfully, neither occurred. Still, I wasn't feeling too hot. Well, Wednesday I was feeling better and we worked our little tails off. It was as warm as its been yet this year and I didn't drink a lot of water, so by evening I was starting to feel really sick again. Thursday morning I woke up throwing up. It was awesome. But I got better!

I can't believe how much of my mission is already behind me. It makes me feel a little more urgent about the work; there is so much more I would like to do, so much more I would like to become before this incredible opportunity is over.

Have a happy day!
Elder Cloward

I'm Running out of Subject Line Ideas

Hallo Familie und Freunde!

We had another hard-workin', quick-passin' week in Hart. Not a whole lot of excitement this week, though. A couple of member families are loaning us bicycles, which will really expedite the work here. We have a limited number of miles and walking between farms is basically unfeasible. Hopefully we'll be able to use the bikes to talk to a lot of people we wouldn't see otherwise.

We talked to a couple people this week who invited us back, so we're hoping a few of them will actually want to listen when we come back. So, basically, no new investigators this week but potential for next week! We did teach a nice woman for the second time (we found her last week) who I think will progress and learn really well. Her parents are being taught by missionaries in Chicago and told her she should read the Book of Mormon. If nothing else, I think she will become a really great friend.

We had a mission-wide deep clean day Saturday. So that was fun. We shampooed carpets, scrubbed out the oven and the refrigerator, and just went wild.
I've got some nasty pictures attached - both from the refrigerator.


Also, a picture of me with the "Welcome to Shelby" sign (Shelby is officially a 'village' - who ever thought I would live in a village?).



And also, a picture with a deer carcasse we drove past. I love Michigan.


Love you all,
Elder Cloward

I Found a Wig in the Closet

Hello family!

I love you all! I hope you all enjoyed general conference, because I certainly did! It was amazing! How blessed we are to live in a time when the voice of a prophet can be heard around the world by millions of members of the Church of Jesus Christ! I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God; he stands with Moses and Abraham, declaring repentance and salvation!

I usually take a question or two to conference, prayerfully seeking answers and guidance. I made a list of about five this time and was pleased to receive answers to each of them. The Spirit teaches us all truth and God is more than happy to answer those who ask.

Well, other than an incredible weekend of conference, we had sort of a weird week. I felt the subject of this email was fitting, considering. Well, first considering the fact that I actually did find a wig in the closet this morning (I'll probably take pictures sometime ...) and second, because it's descriptive of some of the people we met this week while knocking doors. I won't go into too much detail, but we had several instances of indecent exposure and we met just about the creepiest man ever. (One of our branch members knew exactly who he was when we told her the story and she thankfully told us he's harmless.) He invited us in when we knocked on his door and greeted us in a very high porch, calling us "buddies". Inside his home there were mounds of dolls of every variety like something out of a horror flick (or a really creepy music video we used to watch in German class in high school). A cage sat in the corner in which a featherless chicken strutted about contentedly. We gave our new friend a Book of Mormon and left as quickly as we could. Yep.

We're doing a lot of work here, although we haven't done very much teaching. I'm hoping we'll be able to start teaching a few less-active members and continue finding new investigators.

Love you all,
Elder Cloward

Conference was excellent, and I did indeed enjoy Elder Perry's talk. Elder Arroyo was in fact waving his arms and cheering through large portions of it! Actually, during his talk, I received the strong spiritual impression that we need to focus our missionary efforts in this area on working with and through the members. I had been praying to know how to proceed in this area because the opportunities for tracting are rather limited (we've already knocked on every single door in one of the cities/villages and we're on our way to hitting every door in the others). Anyway, I was excited to receive that answer and I'm even more excited to see how the work will go.