Clawson's Called To Serve: October 2020

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Week #58-59 Sept. 23, 2019

Hey everyone, sorry for the last email. Or for not even sending the last email. These past couple weeks had been a little rough for me and my comp. I had been feeling like we had been having absolutely no success with our past couple weeks. I was doing prettty much all the teaching and all the stuff but my comp had just been super quiet i felt like.

Tuesday i was eating lunch with one of my zone leaders (mostly cause we do that everyday, we live with them.) My comp and Elder Rawson didnt want to eat lunch so they left to buy ice cream or something. WHile i was there with Elder Willmore, I just opened up to him about all i had been feeling and everything that was going on. He gave me tons of advice and the thing that stook out to me was do a comp inventory. TO those of you who have served missions or are serving know the dreadfullness of a comp inventory. I hadnt done a comp inventory since my training cause i hated it so much haha. BUt I decided to do one with my comp to find out what exactly had been going on in my comps life. WE talked for about 3 hours. We talked, we shared, we cried. IT was tough but we found out what we needed to change as a companionship and how we were going to do it. It was super beautiful. That was the miracle we saw this week.

This week we just decided we would spend very little time inside the room and we just went ouit and worked. The heat has been ridiculous recently, but we didnt care. We met some awesome people and some legit weirdys haha.

We went to this house of this girl we contacted in her house, buit the mom said she wasnt there and she didnt want to talk to us. A bit harsh to be honest. But We were in the deep part of the jungle in our area so we decided to try to get a reference from a young kid inour ward. He wasnt there sadly. But right next to his house there was another house deep in the jungle. I looked at my comp and said, lets do it. He looked confused but we went and did it anyways haha. As we were walking, like 6 or 7 dogs started jumping out of trees and behind the house and we both thought to ourselves, this is the end, FOR SPARTA!!! But seriously though, I was very fearful, Ive been bit a bunch already and Im just ready to start killing dogs if they come my way haha. But we just stuck it out and TRIED to show no fear. Then this old man comes out of the house, with a big bushy handlebar mustache. He did not look peruvian in the slightest. We talked with him and right off the bat he said, oh im actually catholic. I was like, thats ok, we are just missionaries and we just wanted to say hi and maybe talk a bit with ya. Turns out he was from Trujillo area, and he has kids that live in Virginia and he knows lots of english. He told us he has a friend who knows us, but that she was in South Africa right now. Very Excitedly I said, Hey I have a Friend who is in south africa right now as a missionary too!!! HAha it was a great conversation we had with this old guy and he was super friendly. We talked and jsut got to know him for like 20 minutes then we left. But MAn it was super cool.

THis week we had a small 1 hour long zone conference with the president. It was really good, super short but awesome.
Also this week, we went to a baptism with these two investigators we have. Surmy and Wendis. THey are cousins from Venezuela. We told them a little about the baptism and they told us that they both loved it!!! BOOOOOMM! Hearing that made me so happy and AAAAAA just makes you love the time you have in teh missiona hahaah.

This was a little from my week, Sorry if you dont like it haha but I love you ll and miss you all tons!!

lots of pics.

Families we have been visiting

Messing with the settings on my camera haha

Me and my comp

Slacklining the pday a week ago

Week #57 Sept. 9, 2019

Sorry in advance this week guys. Not a ton happened.

But This week was awesome because of two things. First off, we had a huge mission conference in Cusco where we all got to meet with and talk to elder Falabella From the 70. He was super awesome to listen too and honeslty we all as missionaries felt the Desire to repent of literally everything haha. He honestly gave lots of good instruction to all the missionaries. After the conference which was from 9 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, I met a family from UTah! And Their son was Nick Chambers! Who I went to highschool with, small world right!! But what a cool experience haha!! No joke the best haha.

Then We took a 10 hour bus ride back to Puerto Maldonado which was horrible. After the ride I just wanted to sleep the whole day away. and Almost did, but we went and I Did a baptismal interview for some hermanas in my district. It was awesome! The guy was so excited and seeing him so excited for his baptism just made me so freakin excited for it too. So of course, me and my comp went to support him. While there we talked to a guy who had lots of questions and we got his number and invited him to church the next day!

Sunday was my turn to finally give a talk in my branch, almost 6 months there and finally get the chance to do it haha. I was so nervous, I hate giving talks in church, I feel so much better when I am jsut teaching people. But it was super fun and I spoke about the holy ghost.

THis week we didnt get a ton of time to work, but we did receive lots of geat advise and teachings from Elder Falabella so the spirit was for sure felt this week.
I LOve youall and miss you tons

Elder Clawson

Week #56 Sept. 2, 2019 Ninoska Quispe Flores' testimony

Este es mi testimonio From Ninoska Quispe Flores

Week #56

Sept. 2, 2019

GOOG MORNING HERMANO CLAWSON..

el creador nunca te dejara sin nada..

El reemplazara todo lo que perdiste..si fue necesario que soltaras algo o a alguien es porque quiere que recibas algo mejor.

LE DOY GRACIAS AL UNIVERSO A LOS COSMOS..A LA NATURALEZA SOBRE TODO A NUESTRO PADRE CELESTIAL..POR TRAERLO A MI VIDA .. Y HACER QUE NUESTROS CAMINOS SE CRUCEN..

hermano me sinto libre..

Mi corazon esta feliz despues de 5 años.. lo quiero mucho.... porque usted ya es parte de mi vida.. gracias x todo

Week #55 Aug. 26, 2019

Hello Friends!! This week was cool and also really short haha. But this week we found a bunchh of new poeple!!!

First off almost right off after the end of our pday. I bought a drink from this lady and she said she had a question about the church and all of that!!! We talked to her and she turnes out to be a member from a really long time ago. She was baptized as a kid but went active. So we chatted with her a lot and it was fun. She had lots of questions about Joseph Smith so we cleared his history up with her And she wanted to come to church so that was awesome.

We had another visit with a Guy named Jose who works at our favorite burger restaurant. He asked us for a book of mormon! Not something that normally happens. So we went and gave him one. and He jsut opened up to us about his whole life. He is from Venezuala, and as you all know that place is going through some hard stuff. But he was so nice about it and we talked with him for about two and a half hours haha. Both me and my comp after talking to him, we both looked at each other and agreed that it was one of the most spiritual vistits we had had before. It was so powerful and He was so sincere and honest about everything. it was awesome.

Funny story for this week. Yesterday was sunday. We went to visit a recent convert named Liliana. She offered us a drink of chicha. Chicha morada is good to drink, but others are usually fermented. She told us she would like to invite us to some chicha jara. We told her if it was fermented we couldnt, she said no so we acepted. As I recieved it, I smelled it. It was a weird yeast, fermented smell haha. I asked her again if it was, and she told us it was recently made that day. SO i took a drink. And Man it for sure was fermented haha. It was just not a good tasting drink in any way. It was super fermented and really bad haha. But It was a funny experience for me and my comp haha.

Sorry about the short letter. But I love you all and also really sorry for the pictures. im trying to work on that. Im gettin there.

LOVE ELDER CLAWSON

Week #54 Aug. 19, 2019

HOly Cow this week has been nuts!!1 But super awesome.

I cant remember much form the week before, but This week i can haha.

So we had changes this week. Lots of missionaries left and it was sad to see them leave, mostly because we were such a tight zone. Like all super good buds. But thats the life of the mission.

This week a slight case of the gripa got to me. Gripa is the cold. But I have been having some major boogers this week, sorry if I said to much but I had too. But nothing that can stop the work of the lord!!!! So we went out any way!!
WE had a couple good citas so far this week. But The funniest and Besst was one with this girl we found named Milagros. She Is 18 and has a 1 year old boy. She is friends with a recent convert in our branch so hype! But we taught her and all her little siblings about the Restauration. And they were so good and atentive. At first at least. Then everything just got so freakin crazy!!! All the kids were playing and the children were crying and it became chaotic!! Until Milagros had had enough and just kicked everyone outside haha. But her and her younger brother stayed and we finished the lesson and it was awesome!!

Had a funny finding experience. We were at lunch with the Zone leaders at our favorite cafe place. I love it cause it looks like the crepery or waffle iron that are close the the great harvest in logan. But me and Elder Rawson had a bet. IT was tuesday afternoon. and the bet was to see if I could get the waitress girl to come to a Family home evening wednesday night. Just the next day! We bet 3 soles.
The next day we had a Family home evening at Ninoskas house and She Showed up!! Her Name was Surmy from Venezuala!1 She was interested in what we do as missionaries so we invited her to the Activity and she loved it. She said she would come to church the next sunday too!!! So was soo cool and It was such a fun Family night!!! We have been using FHE nights alot recently cause honestly its a great opportunity to have recent converts invite friends and meet new people!!! If you guys arent having your FHE you better start!! Best thing youll evver do. Maybe the next time, invite a friend to come with you and see what its like. Something simply that will honestly change their life forever.
This week I met 2 returned missionaries! One from Brasil who served his mission in Paraguay!! He was on his honey moon! And His wife Was a Beautiful Brazilian. Sorry i know Im on the mission!! Dont Judge me! #MISSIONGOGGLES haha. THe next was a missionary that ended his mission when I had only 1 month in the mission. Elder SKousen from Draper Utah. He was awesoem to talk to and it made me really excited to come back to my mission after!!

So My comp, the zone leaders and me, To help us to wake up and be more active in the mornings, we have been going to the park and playing basketball in the mornings at 6 till 7 with a group of youth. And today we invited a bunch of them to play soccer with us! Only one came but it was awesome! A girl name named Liseth, She turns 18 tomorrow. But she came and it was awesome.
This week was so much fun and I definitely saw the hand of the lord in all the things that we did. Yea we do some silly things as missionaries(BEtter to get aninvestigator to come to a FHE) But Really it is something that we need to do. As Missionaries we stand out. But Not everytime the people come to us, we need to go to them and talk. If you think the cashier looks a little bored one day, go and talk to him or her. be their new best friend. The Lord gives us opportunities to help people, but we need to be brave in giving that help.

#IWANTTOSEEYOUBEBRAVE hehe

Loves and Kisses

Eldre CLaxson

Week #53 1 Year Down!! Aug. 12, 2019

So this week was awesome!!! To start out everything. We had an awesome zone conference with The mission president. first we had interviews the day before, and then an awesome conference full of the spirit of repentence haha. No joke, I really needed to repent after. But if anyone tells you that repentance is a bad thing, You tell them that they are in error. Repentance is a woonderful athing that god has given us.

During the conference we talked about the armor of god. And i loved it so much that after hearing about it from the president, i used the exact same thing in my lesson with a convert!!
the next day me and my comp went out to contact a bunchof people. We found 3 people!!! Just from what i believe was following the spirit and acting on the impressions of the spirit!!. We no joke walked by a house and I just stopped and said ato my comp, hey we should knock on that door. A lady answered and invited us right in!!! It was awesome!!! We Did a little Como COmenzar a enseñar and gave her a restauration pamphlet and invited her to read it. It was awesome!!! I was pumped.

Later this week, Hermana Ninoska wanted to do a fast from Friday to Saturday afternoon. So we did one awith her! Probably one of the hardest fasts i have ever done, but it was all worth it in the end. No joke the blessings or miracles from fassting will come right after!!!! I fasted for the opportunity to talk to the father of one of our investigators who is in the prison. Right after the fast and a delicious meal that Ninoska Prepared for us, we received a call from her dad and talked with him for a little bit. It was truly such a blessing, even though we couldnt talk for a long time. BLESSINGS FROM THE FAST!!! later this week we saw her in the sacrament meeting, and she came all by herself!! OOOO I get so happy and excited when things like that happen. We also had a really good noche de hogar with Ninoska and she invited a friend. Ninoska gave the Lesson and it was amazing! It was my comp, me, and the other two elders in my sector, and then ninoskas friend! It was such a fun noche de hogar.

Alll in all this week was amazing. full of blessings and miracles no joke. I hope you all are doing good at home and Ill talk to you next week.

Elder Clawson

SAorry i forgot my camera this week, but next week though.

Week #52 Aug. 5, 2019

Week #52 Aug. 5 2019 pictures only

Week 50 im pretty sure haha. (IT's week #51)

Hello Family! How is everyone doing!? Hopefully amazing!

This week was crazy! But crazy fun!! We did a lot to help Ninoska get baptized this week. First Ill tell you guys about the interview that Elder Willmore did with her.

So just a little about Ninoska, She has lived in Puerto her whole life. She is 31, although she looks like she is 22 haha. But she is probable one of the most prepared person I have ever met to listen to the lessons and be baptized!

SO on Thursday, We went to Ninoskas house to pick her up to go to the interview. As we were walking she kept tell us how nervous she was and all, she had studied all the pamphlets we had given her and all to get ready for the interview haha. She really wanted to pass it! WE helped her out a but and just gave her some encouragement. So we get to the church, the zone leaders are there but they wanted to do a small divisiones with us. So we separated, my comp went with Elder Rawson to a quinsinera, or that party they do for a 15 year old girl that we all know. And I stayed with Ninoska and Elder Willmore. Then they went in to do the interview and i stayed outside. They were in there for an eternity it felt like. I kept thinking something crazy is gonna come up and prevent her from getting baptized! Eventually about an hour later, they came out. With big smiles and all. I Looked and Elder Willmore and he gave me the nod that she had passed!!! BOOOM! Then we talked alittle bit more to Ninoska and then bounced to the party. Later I asked Elder Willmore about the interview, he just looks at me and says, It was Crazy! He said that he had never done an interview where the spirit was so strong, and never met someone so willing to change everything just to be a member of the church! IT was music in my ears cause i had been thinking all those things at the same time!! How spiritually prepared she actually was!! SHE WAS PREPARED!

Then we went to a 15 years birthday party that ill show some pics of. But it was for a girl named Rosa that I had met while going on divisiones with the zone leaders. She knew all of us and We spent the rest of the night with them and ate cake and talked and joked with all of them. It was a lot of fun.

Then on saturday we had to no joke get everything prepared for the baptism. So my companionship and the Sister leaders we all went to the church, started to fill up the font, set up chairs, a TV, And clean up a broken mirror in the girls bathroom, and then just waited for people to show up. And then Ninoska came with her niece, Sister, cousin and a friend!! IT was awesome, man I can see her definitely going on a mission. Sadly none of the Young single adults could come to the baptism, cause it was during a big old YSA convention they are having in Cusco! But It was still the best and the Spirit was there. After Everyone left we stayed to clean up everything and later that night i sent a Congrats text to NInoska and A BIENVENIDOS to the church family haha. After she sent a very kind and grateful message that said, "Hermanos Thank you for finding me and teaching me. I know that my heavenly father loves me cause he sent me two angels to search for me." It was a testimony builder for me that I know this work is really the work of God, and that there are so many people out there that need the gospel in there lives.

The Next day at church we waited for her in the chapel. And She didnt come when we started. Turns out she had to do something at work and was literally running from work to get to the Church!! She was confirmed member of the Church and it just made everything even more special. To See someone start from the beginning, slowly progress, but in the end see that complete change in everything that they do and in everything that they are!! The Gospel really changes lives for the better!

Week #50 July 22, 2019

Hello everyone!! I hope you are all doing well.

This letter wont be too long but ill get what i can inside of it.

This week me and my new comp got to know eachother better. Last week everything was hard and awkaward but this week we worrked together like crazy!! We foud tons of new people to start to teach and I found again my love for gooing out and contacting haha.

Alot of this week was helping Hna Ninoska getting ready for her baptism. We went over the interview questions with her to see what we stil need to talk to her about. She didnt know a ton about the living prophet we have today. So for the next two visits we had with her we taught her alot about Russel m nelson! Shared how we came to know he is a prophet of god and asked her to read and pray about im to see if he was a prophet!1 it was fun cause she let us look up videos on her phone to try and show more about him. O how glorious technology is!!!!

But Me and my comp no joke went ham this week finding tons of new people. Before my results of finding news were very low, but this week we se4ioulsy changed that. WE Worked NONSTOP!! and Lots of people said no, a couple said maybe, and very few said yes, but it was still shared what we could and we just tried to talk to everyone we saw haha. It was a killer week haha.

Today we went to the rio tambopata as a zone to try and go fishing. We had no success, but it was SOOOO trunky to be around water and to walk a little without socks or shoes in the water haha. Had a little water splashed on me. Didnt catch any fish, but it was awesome. Also I got really burnt haha.

I love you guys all so much. If any of you guys are having doubts about anything. First ask god. He will give you the motivation to do it, but in the end, the decision is ours to eventually act on our part. That is one thing I learned this week from faith. We can have faith, but faith is believing and then acting on our part. Ether 12,12.

Love and Kisses (chocolate kisses haha)

Elder Clawson

Week #49 July 15, 2019

Thanks mom for the email. I hope you guys have a blast in lake powell. I love you and miss you all. The end of this week has been really good. It was good to finally get out and do some actually work for a couple days and get my comp out in there. Its been a bit odd i will say that. Maybe its just cause ive been out here for sooo long and he is brand new. I guess im just used to people knowing how to do things and not really having to explain almost everything that we do haha. But My comp is really awesome. He is super willing to try and teach although he is not super experienced yet. But I love watching him at least try his best to teach the people here. I for sure need to teach him a few things haha, but He will be a good missionary. One odd thing is that i think latinos dont really see personal boundaries with personal belongings haha. My comp saw my electric razor and just started to use it haha. I didnt think to much of it, mostly cause i dont use it, but haha whatever. But I am happy to say is that we placed a baptismal date this week with our investigator Ninoska!!!! She is 31 and crazy, but hilarious to talk to and really interested in being one with the church. She has lots of problems with friends and has just been wanting to find some friends that will actually help her progress in life!! And the young single adults here are amazing!! She knows a couple of them, but she is getting better at knowing the members. Her baptismal date is the 27th of July!!!! She are so excited for her and she is way more excited about it haha. I was talking to E Willmore the other day and we both talked about Ninoska. While there we both came to the conclusion that we had never met anyone so willing to drop everything just to go to the sunday meetings, or to activities! She is really doing all she can to be prepared for this day. Im worried if we will be able to keep up with her haha. This week we truely saw some miracles and It was amazing. Im grateful for all that we have gone through, the good and the bad haha. But Thats all for this week mom! I love you guys and miss you tons!

Week #47-48 July 11, 2019

Hey Dont have a lot of time. But I got a new comp. And im training him!!! His name is elder calderon from Piura Peru!!! Love you all and bye bye

Here I have some pics from the week.

My old comp left, and i went to cusco to pick up mijo. Love you tons

Week #45-46 Forgiveness Please!!! June 24, 2019

Week #45-46 Forgiveness Please!!!

June 24, 2019

Please forgive me for last week. I Cant remember what happened last week but I might have forgotten to write a big letter. But Im writing a letter now so thats awesome!!!

So this week was super fast. But Most of the week we spent most of our time helpin out one of our investigators with a baptismal date! WE visited her a bunch just to get her ready for her baptism on saturday.

First thing that was good was I did divisions with Elder Snizek from Montana. At first i was not thrilled. But I learned a lot. That guy asked me some crazy questions haha, like what is faith, or what is love, why does god love us, what is the whole purpose to love. Stuff like that, and at first it was just a joke ya know, but then we actaully talked about that stuff in the sense of a missionary and why we need those things as a missionary. It was insane! and To be honest I was sad to see the divisions end!! Haha im pretty sure im like the only missionary to say that haha. But It opened my eyes to more and it was awesome! GUYS THE MISSION IS JUST AWESOME!! GO ON A MISSION, ITS THE BEST!

But So we had to get this girl Liliana who is 13 to go to do her interview. We went to her house, we werent expecting her to be there but she was there! So we had some time to kill, so we decided to sit down and answer any questions she might have had. And she did.... Turns out she had looked up a lot of information about the church to see if it was the church she wanted to be apart of. She found alot of antimormon stuff and asked us about everything she had read or seen. So I just responded to everything she asked in the best way I could, which was suficient for her. But Then she said she watched a video about another church talking about when joseph smith saw god and Jesus christ. She told us that in the video they said that the devil came to joseph and thats how the church started.

Then I, Being a bit heated I will be honest, said to her, That is not true. There is something i want to share with you that we as missionaries dont normally share about when joseph smith was in the woods that day.

Then I just told her about when he was praying, and how satan literally tried to stop Jospeh from praying to god to receive an answer. How satan was there, but he tried to stop Joseph! then As I talked about the Part when he sees the light, I almost couldnt say it cause It was just so powerful! I was on the verge of crying and man, I know that see felt it, i have never seen anyone so atentive in a lesson. I know it hit her hard.

After that, I was thinking we should push her baptism back just so we could have more time to work with everything. I said, so about your interview.... and she jumped back and was like, yep Let me just change my clothes and we can go!! I was dumbfounded! She was so ready to go!

She passed her interview and was baptized on saturday!! I couldnt watch all of it cause I was in charge of buying all the refreshments. But It was awesome, we had a noche blanca, or white night. 7 people were baptized and it was awesome!!

Sad news, today I said the last goodbye to one of my good buds today. RIP to Elder Clancy. But for those of you going to BYu this fall, look him up!!!

I love you all and miss you all tons!!!

La Noche Blanca

The Traditional peruvian picture, without any smiles

Us at the baptism

Random kid almost knocks me over

Lastnight goodbye with E Clancy and E Vilca

Week #44 June 10, 2019

HOly cow everyone! This week was crazy!11 I have not had such an amazing week before in my whole lifew!!! It was a long week but super productive and just amazing!1

Tuesday We had some district meetings, we all shared about our goals and why they are importand for everyone of us!

Wednesday was when things got really crazy for us. We decided to go contacting,. One thing I lov enow about having a mini missionary is that he is pretty much down to contact anyone ahaha. So pretty much he would just find someone and we would both jsut talk to them and it ended up to be awesome!1 WE found a whole family that was actually really interested. WE talkked weith the mom and the dad and then the next day they wanted to visit with us again!! It was crazy!! They even came to Church!!! But we are not there yet😉

Thursday WE did a service activity for an investigator we have wh0o is really awesome. Her mom is the only dificulty we have with her right now. She knows the church is true and all, but her mom wants her to get baptized in the catholic church for school reasons!! WHAT!! I was freaking out to my comp about the situation and now we got a plan for how we are gonna talk to her mom when we see them again.
Friday was good. A bit slower but we just visited with Joyce again helped her clean some dishes for a big party they were gonna have haha. I also received a letter from my friend rachel Heaton! haha It was hilarious.

Satuday was good. Cause we visited with the Ruis Family again and invited them to all come to the church with us!! They accepted!! We also received 2 references from La Joya, 2 girls that were pretty much ready to be baptized!!! They are both 13, Liliana and Briyette! WE met them witht hte elders from La Joya and it was a supér awesome and fun Cita.

SUNDAY!!! I was waiting for sunday to come the whole week!! We went to pick up the Ruis family, The dad couldnt make it cause of work, but the girls and mom all came!! In our Meeting we had so many new people and so many new faces. WE had planned to pick up Joyce to bring her to a later meeting but she wasnt there!! As I was running out of Ideas of what to do for the day, cause lots of plans and back up plans fell through, I gave my comp a number of a girl we taught once a little over a month ago. SHE ANSWERED and we met with her within the hour and just got to know her and shared a small and sweet message with her!! It was very awesome and she was very sweet. Her name is Ninoska and she is a friend of Marcos, Our JAS buddy!!
Just saying, this week was insane, but i definitely saw the lords hand in literally all that we did and in all the lessons that we taught this week!! I Am so pumped to work this coming week!!! I Love you all and know you are all doing so good!! Sorry I Could only write a bit but Just know I am doing so well and loving the hot climate and the wonderful people of Puerto Maldonado Peru!!!!

Con Mucho Amor y Cariño!

Elder Clawson

Us with Joyce

Bunch of children

Us with elders from la joya and liliana and Briyette

As you can see one kid is fllipping off the camera haha.

Week #43 June 3, 2019

So im gonna be quick this week sorry!

But this week was good I got my new comp and he is a mini missionary for 6 weeks! Kinda weird right, But he is cool and I love him to death.
On Saturday we just visited with converts in the branch so they could get to know my new comp and they all loved him. I showed one of our converts Juan a cool magic trick that blew his mind and he loved it haha. On sunday we just worked and set up so many appointments to meet with families and cousins and new people and it was awesom!!! We had around 5 new contacts just from yesterday that we are gonnna go and find this coming week!1 So pumped to meet all these amazing new people. Met with a couple new Investigators and A girl who was baptized 6 yearrs ago but had been inactive since. We are working with her and she was excited to be part of the church again. Lots of blessings and crazy random miracles every day. Sometimes we dont see them but Try to notice them and give thanks for all of it. I love you all and Pray for you all.

Les amo mucho, Cuídense, y recuerden a leer sus escrituras cada dia jaja!!!

Elder Santa Clawson

Week #42 May 30, 2019

Hello friends and family. Forgive me for not writing last week. Last week nothing really happened and I had some family things that took my attention for the day.

But the week before i was just helping my comp to not be trunky and to try to work, sadly i did not succeed and it was a very unproductive week. But he ended his mission and i was stuck in a trio for all last week with the zone leaders for the last week of the change. Last week was difficult cause its hard to be in a trio. Usually I was with the zone leaders till around lunch then i had to find a comp to come with me and help me out in my sector, which at times was very difficult. But I did get a lot of work done and it was good to get back in the groove of the work again. All last week I will say that I had about 5 different companions haha. The zone leaders, elder snizek and Elder Willmore, Leo who is a priest in the district, Marcos my bud from my branch, and Tino a cool returned missionary who is very funny. SO i was with those guys alot of the week. It was a rough week cause more of it was with leo, who is preparing to serve a mission. He doesnt know alot about the lessons and all, and a bit shy when it comes to talking to cute girls haha, but he was fun to be around and to help out and in a way teach him. Sunday I was waiting to recieve the changes to see what my change was. IL was hoping some thing awesome was gonna come, training someone new missionary, getting a cool new comp, i dont know something. I recieved a mini missionary. That was very rough that following day. I felt so mad and sad and a mixture of feelings cause i just wanted a change that i would like!!! But I received some counsel from my zone leader elder Snizek. He told me about the story about the man that steadied the ark when good told them not to touch it. He thought he was helping the ark or helping god by doing things his own way, but later he was destroyed or turned to dust. He told me that sometimes we feel as if we can do things better than god can, especially in the mission. But You cant correct god, and he knows all and is all powerful. Just follow the will of god and he will help you and in the end help you to accomplish the things you need to accomplish, if they are in accord with Gods will.

I heard my comp wasnt gonna get here till thursday so from Monday to thursday, I stayed with Elder Clancy in La Joya. And we had a grand ol time. Worked out really hard that i felt like i had a hernia, Worked hard in his sector. Went to my house o grab some things one day and saw a monkey on the capilla wall. SO we named him Jonny the Mission monkey and fed him bananas haha. I cant remember anything more but it was a good two weeks tecnically haha.

LOve you all and here are some pics from the past two weeks.

Me in a trio

Me and Tino

A FROG IN MY HANDS

Leo(17) Diego(14) and me (19) posing like models

SIgn that says, thieves will be burned alive

One year shirt burning of Elder Moore from CANADA eh

Making some original kraft mac and cheese in la joya with elder clancy and his new comp elder vilca

Just a Mono

Hello friends and family. Forgive me for not writing last week. Last week nothing really happened and I had some family things that took my attention for the day.

LOve you all and here are some pics from the past two weeks.

Me in a trio

Me and Tino

A FROG IN MY HANDS

Leo(17) Diego(14) and me (19) posing like models

SIgn that says, thieves will be burned alive

One year shirt burning of Elder Moore from CANADA eh

Making some original kraft mac and cheese in la joya with elder clancy and his new comp elder vilca

Just a Mono

Week #41 May 20, 2019 (pictures only)

Week # 40 May 13, 2019 Fleas are eating my feet!!

HI GUYS! How are you all?? I hope you are all doing so great!

Im doing soo great here in the hot jungle of Puerto Maldonado. But right now a big storm came and now its actually really cold! Or maybe i just turned into a wuss i dont know haha. But i had to sleep with a blanket last night!!! Like a thick blanket haha!
This week was good, i bit long but thats about it. Me and my comp and the zone leaders here have all been getting alittle sick from the food our pension is giving us so that hasnt been too fun hah. But We had some really good citas and new investigators this week.
We taught our investigator Tania about the Book of Mormon and it was super strong and The spirit was definitely there and super strong. Both me and my comp at the end gave our testimonies about how we came to now that the book of mormon was true cause she was wanting to receive this great experience about how the book of mormon was true. WE shared with her how the spirit will tell her can confirm to her that it is true and from god. I could tell it was strong for her so we promised her that if she prayed with real intent she would receive a respuesta. After she showed us how to make these cool peruvians chocolates haha.
WE also recieved an awesome reference from our great friend Marcos! It was one of his friends from his work. At first it started off weird, we would be talking and she would just jump to some random topic about how she wants to learn english or something haha. But as we talked to her more, we found out that she really loves her family and that she feels like she has no purpose in life. We started out with families first with her, she was super intentive and really showed some desire to listen more to the message of the restauration. It was super amazzing. I am sorry if i say super too much. Thats just a thing all the people say here haha.

So to what the titles said, My ankles are literally bleeding from bed bugs haha, mostly cause they are so itchy that i scratch them to death haha. I am ok though, i am not dying haha. Just got really itchy ankles haha.

I Challenge you all, if you dont know with if the book of mormon is true, if it really is from god, Read IT! And ask god in prayer if it is true. But ask with a sincere desire to know the truth, cause he will respond to your prayers. All he wants for you is to find out for yourselves if it is true or not.

Elder Clawson o Elder Santa Clawson here in Peru

Mom thank you for that letter. Is jed going to be able to use his albanian in Montenegro or no. Oh ya lizzy told me about that. I thought it was awesome, i just told her not to get married too fast ahaha. One weird thing., here in puerto i havent seen as many JWs here, only like once or twice, but it was a lot of them haha, they are kinda startying to do what we do as missionaries and go out in big groups here to preach. I havent actually talked to any here, they kinda avoid us, we say hi and they say hi but they never want to talk or listen to us. Thanks about the advice with my comp, I think i will do taht just cause i want him to not be lazy this week haah. Thank you mom and i Love you tons!!!

Week #39 May 6, 2019 It's Going HAHA

Hi Friends and Family!!

This week was super good! Not a whole lot happened but we are pumped cause we got a couple progressing investigators. Most of our week we taught this girl named Tania. Shes 17 and her cousin is a member. She is super awesome and has been taught before by missionaries but many years ago. But she remembers bits and pieces. So mostly we have been meeting with her and trying to visit her. OUr last visit we gave her a goal to be baptised the 18th of May. She said she would think about it so we are just waiting now. One thing I seriously love about this place, is that the branch here has a very large JAS, which is young single adults, and a lot of them are returned missionaries!!1 ANd we have this one guy that seriously always comes with us and helps us find new people or gives us references! His name is marcos and he is the funniest guy I have ever met haha. Ill show you a pic of him in a minute. But all the Young single adults are all super awesome and willing to help us with anything. We are always having fun activities with the branch and all that jazz.

This week was just a fun week, a different week too haha. My comp went to Cusco to buy his ticket to go to macchu picchu. So For P day last week i was in a trio with my good pal E CLancy from Sicuani, and his comp E Moore from Canada. They both are the funniest and super awesome dudes haha. BUt the next day I had CItas to go to, so I had 17 year old member come with me the afternoon to citas, his name is Leo and he was also super cool haha. Then my comp got back and the zone leaders left for Cusco haha, for a leader conference. Super cool haha.
Today for P day we went to play soccer in the morning, and then went to a zoo after haha. I held a freaking big snake hahah. I held hands with a monkey. Fed them a banana too haha. It was cool!!!First time I saw a monkey, and a puma, and a jaguar, and lots of weird animals haha.

Love you all fam!1! im working hard and loving all the times i get, both hard and fun haha.

Elder Clawson