Hearing Him

 HOLA MIS AMIGOS

Everyone's favorite part of the week because they get to hear about Elder Clouse's week. You know how this goes: we start with funny then we go spiritual. This week was actually hilarious though. So I wanted to share about the mornings in house 14. As far as our house goes there is no hot water in the AM. So let's just say showering in the morning can be difficult for some. But me and my roommate Elder Wilcock decided we were going to shower anyway cause we're like that. This meant war for us. No man goes into the depths of Antarctica without hyping themselves up. Who else better to hype you up then Goggins himself.  Let's just say that the second that water hit my body I felt the need to start SCREAMING "They don't know me son, WHOS GONNA CARRY THE BOATS" Safe to say the entire house thought it was hilarious. This became a little tradition every shower and all was well. One room did not take this message every morning so joyfully.  So basically they chastised us and asked us if Jesus were here would you be screaming.  I mean not to be that guy but Jesus carries all the boats but I see what he means. Safe to say we stopped but also they still don't know me son.

So if you know my brother Luke, you may know he listened to the same song every morning on his mission and it wasn't until this week that I realized why. I was begging him for the song and it is called the LDS pump up theme song. Let's just say, if it was game 7 NBA finals and I'm the coach, we're blasting this pregame. It is basically just a bunch of prophets and apostles words thrown into a nutty beat to make you get hype. Let's just say I got everyone hooked on this song and every single room in the house is blasting this at 630 in the morning. Something about Elder Holland yelling at people to "FEED HIS SHEEP AND PREACH HIS GOSPEL" gets a bunch of missionaries motivated.

But officially my favorite person Hermano Rojas had his last day teaching us on Saturday. When I say I was actually heart broken I was ACTUALLY heart broken. It honestly felt kinda similar to getting put in the friend zone. But his last class he talked about using technology to our advantage and bro made it mad spiritual. He is such a man of God. But what our district decided to do was sing "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" Some kid in our district did a crazy piano solo during it and everyone was crying and thanking him and bearing our testimonies. I love that man and I am so grateful for everything he has done for me.

Sunday's continue to be the best day for a missionary. Is it because of all the free time they give you, no. Is it because ya boy gets to go to choir, also no. It is because I get to see my favorite person on the planet President Hernandez, our branch president. When I tell you this man glows, he literally glows. There is never a second he is not smiling and he is just the cutest little man on the planet. I actually love that man, I am not gonna lie I inspire to be as happy as that man. You really never know what wearing a smile on your face all the time can do for other people.

This is one of the longer emails but you will soon see why. I am not openly saying that I am a disobedient person but let's just say our room hasn't gone to bed before midnight like all week. BUT there is reasons why, Idk if there good reasons but there reasons. Room 3, our room, is kind of known as the room everyone goes to for a good laugh, a deep talk, or just to talk. Safe to say we have built quite the rep in the CCM. So basically Tuesday night I am not even kidding you there was probably 15 missionaries in our room and it was like 11 at night. But for some reason we got on the topic of ghosts, not a good topic when it is late at night. Not our best decision and let's just say it was tough to go to bed that night, we may have slept with the light on hehe. 

But I do not wanna seem like it's all sunshines and snuggles here for Clouse at the CCM. Days someone grew to 36 hours i'm pretty sure and class without Hermano Rojas was a struggle. I want to be in the field so bad it's not even funny. Last night was especially a struggle, and Elder Springer, the goat he is, noticed something was up and he was asking me what was going on. Little did I know this little act of faith on his part would change my mission. This sparked on of the most spiritual conversations of my life. 5 of us in our room just started talking about the gospel and especially prayer. I don't think I understood the importance, the significance, the joy that comes with prayer until I got on the mission. What we decided to do last night was truly prepare for our prayer, by reading scriptures, reading our Patriarchal Blessing, etc. That prayer changed my life. Prayer has changed my life. I have such a testimony of those these things.

I wanted to close with a scripture that I was impressed to share with my roomates last night, it is Alma 37:36 which is Alma the Younger talking to his son Helaman and he says "Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support, yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord, yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord, yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever" Something I really liked someone said at a devo was "The Lord can make more out of your life than we can" Find strength in the Lord, Don't just read his words, live them. I invite you guys this week to truly prepare for prayer, then listen for an answer to the question you have. You will be amazed to see how much the Lord can help you.

I love you guys, sorry for the super long email, if you read it all I love you and don't be afraid to shoot me a message today. I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Finding True Joy

 HOLA MIS AMIGOS

This was probably the most bipolar week of my life and so I got a lot to say. I wanted to start just with a funny story. So last saturday night we were getting ready for bed. Now something they make all missionaries do is for Sacrament they do not tell you who is speaking until the meeting. So everyone has to prepare a 5 minute talk in spanish. So I wrote my talk and at night my roomate asked to read it. This was my boy Elder Springer, straight dawg, and it probably took us 30 minutes to read my talk out load because our Spanish was so bad and we were straight dying laughing. It was just one of those nights you will not forget. Then I found a fire extinguisher in my house and we proceeded to take the most icy photo with it. What a night.

I can tell why missionaries love Sundays so much. They are so spiritual. i lowkey got absolutely nothing out of Sacrament meeting but you can still feel the spirit so strongly. We also got a banger of a devotional from our CCM president and later that night we had a devotional from President Nelson about the importance of Joseph Smith. You can literally feel the power from President Nelson and his words are straight fax. I know Joseph Smith is a true Prophet and I know God has called Russell M Nelson to be a Prophet at this time.

Something I have found I am super grateful for on my mission is my district. After devotionals we get to go back and gather together as a district and talk about the things we got from it. We have some of the most powerful discussions and everyone usually shares there testimony and I have grown to love my district with all of my heart. As you know I was struggling with my companion in a lot of the first week. I have been praying to love him more everyday. On Sunday after the discussion me and him had such a deep conversation and I told him everything and at the end of it I told him I loved him. I have grown to love that kid despite our differences and God has really helped me throughout that process.

Tuesday night was a really life changing moment for me. Elder Bednar got to speak to every missionary in all the MTCs. He spoke about the joy that comes with True repentance. He spoke with so much power and so much authority and it really hit me to the core. But something I can testify of is of the power of repentance. The scriptures teach us that if there was anything we could teach it would be repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. I have found so much joy in repentance. I know that true joy comes with true repentance and coming unto Christ with a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

Idk if I should be saying this in my email but later that night me and my boy Elder Springer had one of the deepest conversations of my life. We literally were talking all about our struggles and our spiritual experiences and everything that has happened in our lives. We did not go to bed till like 2 AM whoopsie, but it was such a powerful experience. i love the CCM, I love learning and coming closer to the savior more and more each day.

I always close on a spiritual thought and an invitation. Something I loved from elder Bednars devotional is he said that true repentance is not just a change in behavior and attitude, true repentance is a change in nature and giving our complete thoughts to the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that with repentance comes joy. I am so grateful for the atonement in my life and the blessing it brings. I invite you guys to not just change you attitude and behavior, change your nature of your life. Then watch and see how much easier it is to see God in your life.

I love you all you guys are amazing, feel free to text me today I would love to talk to all of you

1. Kobe Bean Bryant

2. Mi hijo Elder Cook

3. Elder Springer type beat

4. El libro de Mormon

5. My district

6. Candid

CCM!!

 HOLA MIS AMIGOS

Gosh I feel like I have so much to say and I do not want to make this too long but I got a lot to say. It does not feel real that I have already been here for almost a week. I will be honest time lowkey flies. I feel like we are doing something 24-7 and I have no time for a break or anything. But I will try to give you guys some key highlights of the week while trying to keep it short.

First off, the plane ride took forever. I remember when I first got on the plane I thought I would be the only missionary. Turns out 80 percent of the plane was missionaries. It was so cool when I sat down in my seat and everyone started talking to me. It was really cool. When we landed though we waited like 2 hours and then we had an hour bus ride to get there. Then when we got here they just through a ton of stuff on us and we were STARVING. But they fed us with little caesars and all was well. But when I finally got in bed i'm not gonna lie I was struggling. I remember just already missing everyone and being so scared, but safe to say I got over it and all is amazing.

The next morning I woke up at 630 feeling pretty good. However I began to get frustrated pretty fast with my companion. He was taking a really long time to get ready and I was getting really upset. And he is a very smart kid but it just seems like we a very different. He is not a really sporty guy and I remember him telling me the only thing he did not want to do during gym time is basketball. I was so annoyed. But we figured it out. I became really frustrated and then I ready my dads email about when you are frustrated to just love and serve. So safe to say I have been praying to love him more and more and it has been working. God really does listen and he knows our struggles. He will be there for you during your trials so pray to him and he will bless you. 

Honestly after the first day, everything in here is a lot of the same. I did get to see my boy Elder Cook, I actually see him every morning and its cool being here with some of your friends. I have also seen some of my volleyball friends back home here like reed and troy. Most people in here are super friendly and its a very fun environment. My district is SO FUN. I think I have the best district in the whole CCM. They are all so hilarious and we are all ballers. I feel like I have been friends with all of them for so long and its been like 5 days. Super blessed cause of that.

I know its long but bare with me. My favorite part of the entire CCM is singing hymns. Especially in spanish. The spirit is so strong and we sang called to serve the first day I got here and it was such a cool experience. Who knew songs could bring such a strong spirit. Also I met my branch presidents on Wednesday and they sat me down and got to know me and they said my spanish was nice. Again IM HIM. They are the nicest people and you can feel the spirit around them. Even if I do not understand what they are saying because they do not really speak English. This entire experience has been so good for me.

I know you guys all wanted to hear about the food. Ima be straight up, when I got here, my first day the food was so bad. After that everything has been solid. What is a struggle though is there is no snacks. I can not tell if the food is bad or I am hungry. I barely make it to every meal and then by the time the next meal comes you are starving again. They got this yogurt granola thing in the morning though and that is straight fire. 

Haha one last funny sorry for you guys and then I will wrap up. So last night my teacher told me  I had to get a haircut. My roomie told me about this guy named Elder Blends. So we knocked on his house at like 930 and I was like yo can we schedule an appt with you for tomorrow. This guy is like the barber at the mtc. He said let me do it right now. Safe to say this guy was ABSOLUTELY PURE. I felt like I was in a black barber shop it was sick. He did me right safe to say.

I want to end with a spiritual thought. One of my favorite quotes I have heard this entire trip has been from someone in the branch presidency. She said The temple is the house of the Lord, The CCM is the house of the spirit. That was such a sick quote. It is so true. The holy ghost has guided me so much so far in the CCM and I do not know what I would do without it. I said I would make an invitation every week. My invitation this week is to seek the companionship of the holy ghost everywhere you go. If you are in a position where you cant. Then get out of there. I promise as you do that you will make better decisions and come closer to Jesus Christ.

I love you all. Thank you for reading this far. Shoot me a text today, I would love to talk to all of you!!!

Pictures

1. Night life CCM

2. My boys Elder Jackson y Elder Garrison

3. The district elders

4.  Beautiful CCM

5. Crazy rainstorm we had

6. suit flick

7. Mi y mi compañero

Baptism By Fire

 HOLA MIS AMIGOS; Wow what a week. I can not believe that this first week is already almost over and I know it's online but I feel like I already have so much to share. So, in case any of you were wondering how my schedule looks like for home mtc I will describe it to you.

 I wake up at 6:30 everyday and I workout and eat and shower and I get on a call with my Companion at 7:30. I then daily plan and I have a Spanish class from 8-11 and then a doctrine class from 11-12. I take a break for lunch and then I am right back at it at 1 with my personal study and then at 2 I have my companion study and then at 2:30 I have my language study. Then I get an insanely LONG break from 3-3:30 I KNOW.  Then I have class from 3:30-7:30, I finish up, I go eat con mi familia and then me and Luke go and head to the church where I proceed to dog on him in basketball. I get home around 10 and I am asleep by 10:30.

This may sound like a super long day but I have grown to enjoy my schedule so much, I feel so productive yet so tired. The funniest thing happened though, on Monday I was getting on my first zoom call where they were going to give us instructions on what to do, Our instructor was like hola my friends by the way you guys have a class in 5 minutes and it's in spanish only good luck! Haha you should have seen the look on my district's faces. But I did give the opening prayer in Spanish. I'M HIM.  But it has been really good because my Spanish is coming along slowly but surely.  The gift of tongues is real, I can already bare a short testimony in Spanish and say my personal prayers in spanish. I also memorized a missionary purpose in Spanish and Moroni 10;5. But most days have been AMAZING but Thursday was especially a struggle. I did not get up till 6:32. I know Ima bum, and Mommy wrote me too hard of a workout, and the classes felt really long. And usually my favorite part of my day is personal study and it was hard. But I prayed like 50 times and God helped me get through it and Friday was amazing I felt the spirit so much.

But I have experienced so many blessings in such a short week. First of all, I LOVE my district. There are so many homies in there and my companion, Elder Hernandez, is so funny and I love talking and studying with him, and I know it is going to be better in person. My instructors are amazing and I experienced so much joy from this gospel it is ridiculous. I CAN NOT wait to be in Mexico online mtc can be boring but the spirit is still so strong. But my district all tells me they're nice at basketball so we will see... But a blessing I can say I also recognized is that my handwriting has gotten way better since I have been set apart. Obviously it is not great, still kinda trash but I will get better. But I also can recount probably like 300 times where God has answered my prayers. GOD HEARS YOUR PRAYERS. Dios contesta nuestras oraciones. 

I know this email is long but I feel like I have so much to share and it has only been 6 days. To start, something I have noticed about being set apart is I feel like I can ALWAYS feel the spirit. And when I can not feel the spirit then I know I am not doing something right. I feel so much more joy in my life. ALSO, scripture study goes so hard once you are set apart. I kid you not I could probably read the entire Book of Mormon right here right now, also I went to bed a little late last night because I just kept reading Joseph Smith History. It's amazing! 

But something I want to do in all my emails is share a spiritual thought and at the end share an invitation. Because as a missionary my job is to invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo, which is to invite others to come unto Christ.  But as I was doing my personal study I was reading one of the first vision accounts in preach my gospel and I read the part where Christ was talking to Joseph Smith and he stays

"They draw near me with their lips while their hearts are far from me." 

This line really hit me. As I was thinking about life before my mission and all those times I would read my scriptures to say that I read my scriptures. I wanted to be able to say that I read them and I was doing the right thing but I was not learning. But what I wanted to invite you guys to do this week is to focus on WHAT you're reading not HOW MUCH you're reading. I promise you will receive more inspiration and you will get more out of your personal study. The gospel is amazing, turn to Jesus Christ, he loves you and is there for you!

I love you all!!!!! Message me today, I would love to talk to all of you and if you read this far thank you :)

1. My amazing set up

2. my handwriting before

3. handwriting after being set apart

4. Mi companero

5.  Beautiful AZ sunset (gonna miss those)