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

Dropped Gators, Soccer, Food and Spanish

Hi All!

We've had sort of a rough week in Hart, but we're still plugging along. Two of my all-time favorite investigators, the old couple we were teaching, dropped us this week. It happens. They're still two of the nicest people in the world. We had two investigators committed to coming to church this week but they both changed their minds/plans. It would have been the first week Elder Tribett and I had an investigator in Sacrament meeting. We'll keep trying though.

We did have some fun this week. President Jones has encouraged us to attend local sports events since a large part of the community will be present. We went to the Shelby v. Hart girl's soccer game, which was intense! Hart is Shelby's biggest rival and we know a number of the girls on Shelby's team. After terrible calls by the ref and a dropped ball by Shelby's goalie Shelby came back to win it on a PK by one of the girls in our branch. It was a lot of fun.

In more spiritual news, we had an excellent time talking with Spanish investigators Sunday, accompanied by one of the Spanish-speakers in our branch. We talked with several people; no new investigators, but a couple of return appointments, which was fun.

I don't really know what else to write this week. We had a fun Memorial Day - a big family breakfast at the Hawleys and a picnic dinner at the Myers saw me eating more food than I've ever eaten in my life. Honestly. As a natural result, Elder Tribett and I are starting a diet today. I even used a measuring cup to pour my cereal. A 1 cup serving of Apple Jacks is hardly enough to get one's metabolism going. Ah well, I'll let you know how it goes. (We were inspired by Elder Tribett's purchase of a body fat-measuring scale.)

I love you all and am so glad to be doing what I'm doing. I know this work is led by Jesus Christ; He has overcome the world! That means we can at least overcome the little bumps along our individual roads, right?

Love,
Elder Cloward

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