Letter # 5

I love you all!

First week was a blast! I didnt get to Maravatio(my first area) until Tuesday after noon. Little Maravatio is split into to areas. We have some town then we visit the surrounding villages all the time. We have bikes!!!!!!!! So fun.

My first comp... Elder Juergens from Houston TX. Him and his twin brother played football at BYU... he was wide receiver and his brother is a running back. He is super obedient and a hard worker and loves to have fun. The other day we were contacting like crazy(because its the only thing you can do here) and we played this game: We would switch off every time... when we would approach someone we would start the conversation and before we started teaching the person who wasnt doing the contact would say a word in spanish and you would have to use it during the contact. one time he said platanas(bananas) and I used it... we used other words like mountain, rock, mud, tree, car. it made it a lot more enjoyable. He is good at singing and is reading about the miracles in the bible. I think i'm going to do that soon or later.

So the bike gave me mad blisters on the inside of my thumbs. but they broke and scabbed and now they just crack now and then.

We baptized 2 on Sunday and I did one of them. We have a mission rule that every companionship has to baptize at least once a week. My comp has sixty or something. we are the highest baptising mission in the world. We get over three hundred a month.

This place is so poor! Our house has two beds, two plastic tables and two chairs(thats our desk). we also have a refridgerator, shower, toilet, sink in the bathroom and "kitchen". there is some string in a seperate room where we hang our close and live out of our bags.

Maravatio... its in Machuican. It's so far west in our mission. There are things called combi's idk look them up online. They are like volts wagon vans but they are taxis. Lots of dirt roads and yeah super poor houses. Some are one room. Lots of cement.

My president is super strict on obedience thats why I can only be on for one hour and only email one person. he is all about baptizing and giving the people the holy ghost then teaching them... kind of wierd but what ev. It's Mexico... it's not like any mission in the United States at all!!!

I got a blue book of mormon and wrote a question in the front... how can i be a better missionary? Then I have underline everything in green and wrote comentary. I'm only in chapter 12 but it is so more interesting


This is actually the second week letter because I guess you didnt get the one above.

But Yesterday I saw two drunks (I contacted the one before) one punched the other guy and he was knocked out on the ground and started kicking him in the side of the head so hard like 3 times. But we ended helping the guy out of the middle of the street. They were soooooo drunk and so stupid. Qe were fine and not in any trouble we weren't in any danger.

But we had our second baptism with Nancy. she was a miracle. We found her late last Saturday night and we invited her to church and she came and told us she wanted to get baptized the following week. So I baptized her yesterday and it was a cool experience. there was a hole in the pila so the water was way low. she sat down and I got on my knees and then she layed down to get all the way under.

We hopefully have 4 baptisms next week we should have three this week but two teenagers didnt show. The food is pretty good here we eat at a members house every day but monday.

We went to the pyramids today. It was so fun. we went as a zone and it took up all our day. I love it here and i'm learning a little more every day. Conaculta Inah I think thats the place. it was pretty cool and had a great view.

If you are doing a mission prep class add the book of mormon to your list. and even some scriptures from the bible. the bible is the only thing we use here and so many peoples beliefs contradict the bible so its funny.

in the next email i want the whole story of the virgin guadelupe. the entire thing. then i want the whole story of how it was made up, all the evidence every thing, how it was made up, why it was made up how it was started. everyone here idols her and prays to her. we told this one guy that no one in america idolises her and no one knows who she is in any other country. i heard someone made up the story to control the indians when the first spanards came in. the catholic religion is different in everypart of the world. there is no ORGANIZATION.

well thats all i got for this week i hope these pics go through

love you all,

Elder Clark