Are We Still Willing?

 Welp boys and girls, jews and gentiles, ladies and gentlemen, times are changing here in Buenos Aires, the next email you guys hear from me, I will have a new mission president, time flies when you're having fun i guess

This week, was a lot of learning, I'll keep it that way a lot of learning. It felt like this week was like an actual repeat of last week. Literally every single thing that happened last week, welp happened this week. Our kid who was supposed to get baptized on Sunday (Dilan), well this time his Dad woke up, but then he told us that Dilan didn't want to wake up (words that hurt worse than a break-up fr fr) sometimes i forget 10 AM for people in Argentina is equivalent to 5 AM for people in the United States. So that was just great

I know I know, the fans love my emails because their entertaining, funny, interesting, full of crazy miracles, but guys ima be honest, me and Elder Barrìa are fighting out here looking for people. Usually i share some crazy miracles, funny experiences, but its just pure obedience, diligence, and a lot of people just not interested. But we're going spiritually for ya'll this email. Gotta mix it up every now and then ya know, but don't worry the work never stops so we keep moving on

This week was actually a really cool learning moment for me, we did a mission wide study about the Sacrament and the Sabbath Day and boy I learned a TON. I remember specifically I was reading a talk from Elder Holland on Thursday and this was just after we had had a morning where we contacted a ton of people and nobody cared to listen so I was just a bit annoyed. And Elder Holland in his talk quotes the story about Jesus after suffering in Gethsemane when he asks his Apostles to keep watch. And he says “Could ye not watch with me one hour?” he asked longingly (Matt. 26:40). I think he asks that again of us, every Sabbath day when the emblems of his life are broken and blessed and passed."

This part really touched me strongly, and it made me ask myself the question "Can I watch with Christ just 1 hour, or 1 afternoon, or 2 years" Thinking about all that Christ has done for me, these 2 years I have as a missionary feels like nothing. And there are moments i'm not gonna lie being a missionary isn't all sunshine and . And i'd being lying if i said I've loved every second of my mission, but in that moment I felt Christ's love and knowledge of my situation, and it gave me the motivation I needed to keep going

But If I could sum up all my studies this week about the Sacrament and the Sabbath Day into one word I would use "willing". As I studied about the sacrament it helped me realize that every Sunday when we go to church⛪️, we don't just take a piece of bread and water, we promise again to our heavenly father that we are still WILLING to keep his commandments, still WILLING to take upon us the name of Christ. We are WILLING to put the things of the world away for 1 day, and dedicate it to God. I invite you all to think about that as you take of the sacrament next week. Are you still willing? "Are we willing to put forth more than a superficial effort into strengthening our faith in Christ?" -Elder Pearson.

Guys I'm not gonna lie with you, after studying that much about The Sacrament and The Sabbath Day, I was mad hype to go to church on Sunday. Don't think mom and dad are gonna believe me. But like its true, when you really learn about WHY we go to church, it makes it that much more enjoyful. I hope you guys can and will find as much Joy in keeping the Sabbath Day holy as I have

Love yall, miracles are comin trust

Suffer With Joy

 Welp, ladies a gentleman i will start this email out with a scripture...D&C 3:3 "Remember, remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men;"

Now i start with this scripture because it helped remind me how human i am. Because boy oh boy this week was a very frustrating week. It seemed as if every time something good would happen, something 10x worse would follow. I'll explain in a bit...

But to start we had our last zone conference with President Ferrizo. Bro was giving us some last words and it was really powerful. It's crazy to think that my next zone conference will be with a new mission president, kinda nuts ngl. But i think the greatest part about zone conference is seein all the boys back together. Zone conference always be a mad vibe and always just puts me in such a good mood

But ya back to reality as eminem would put it. I don't know what is happening in our area but it feels as if someone put a curse on us (cough cough mom). Everytime we find a crazy miracle, Satan just smacks us in the face. For example, on Tuesday we found this ELECT lady. Like fr fr, no problems with the word of wisdom and she had a crazy necesidad and we put her on date. We passed by the next day and she told us she would never get baptized if she had to pay tithing because the Jehova's Witnesses told her that it wasn't a commandment. So for like 3 days straight we tried explaining and teaching about tithing and invited her to pray and everything but then we ended up giving up because her heart was too closed. It was really sad because she really needs the gospel but the Jehova's Witnesses just be out here spreading false doctrine to people

Then on Sunday morning we went to pass by some of our recent converts to help get them to church and 3 of them BLOCKED us. Like literally out of nowhere just blocked us on Whatsapp. Me and my comp were so confused because we passed by all week and everything was going good and then just like out of nowhere 3 of our converts just blocked us and we didn't bring a single recent convert to church. It honestly made me so sad because nothing makes me happier then seeing recent converts grow in the gospel and going to church so it was a sad moment for me. And then Dilan, the kid who was supposed to get baptized yesterday, ya well his Dad slept in and didn't bring his son to church for his baptism. Everything wrong that could have happened on Sunday, well happened, asi que we are vibin our here in La Florida

But i guess i did have a pretty cool experience, because while partaking of the sacrament, ngl i was kinda lettin god know how i was feeling. I dont know if i was frustrated, sad, upset, or confused, but i just remember feeling all of those at once. And i remember as i was sitting there partaking of the sacrament i got a feeling that just said "but christ overcame all of that", and although my feelings didn't go away, it just made me ponder and think about how grateful we need to be because we have our Savior. We can be certain we will all have trials, but we can also be certain we never have to go through them alone. So even though it was a kinda a rough week, you just gotta learn

Love yall

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WvF1yDF9QnZbX6KA7

Humility

 Welp my weekly emails are now turning into Christ-like attributes that I have devoloped through out the weeks, and this week was.....Humility

Now, after proceeding to have one of the greatest weeks of my life last week, 3 baptisms, an amazing sunday, all was looking perfect out here en La Florida. Then the reality of everything set in... and for the next 7 days, me and my companion proceeded to contact over 215 people, of those 215 people, I think maybe 20 of them stopped to even talk to us. Of those 20 people that stopped to talk to us, about 10 of them were Jehova's Witnesses and the only 10 were super nice catholics that didn't care about our message but were just really nice. The people literally like wouldn't even acknowledge us. We would go "Hey how are you doi..." and we would recieve "busy dont talk to me" so yes it was a very humbling experience to say the least. We literally went to contact a lady and we said "hey were the missionaries from the church of jesus christ!" And she hit us with "que bueno me alegro mucho, chao" which basically translates in english to "hey i dont care at all please stop bothering me, see you never". Me and my comp just started laughing because we were just in such shock. Like i dont know what was more disrespectful, Jayson Tatum dunking on Lebron in game 7 of the ECF or that lady saying that to us fr fr

I guess what was kinda the hardest part about it is that me and Elder Barrìa have kinda been going crazy these last 2 months, finding like crazy, seeing some nutty miracles, that it almost felt normal to just find, find, find so easily. But this week was a big reminder that EVERYTHING that I have accomplished, all the baptisms, all the miracles I have seen in my mission, is because of the Lord. It's a really humbling experience to know that I really am nothing as a missionary without the Lords help and that I haven't accomplished anything on my mish, but that the Lord has accomplished his work THROUGH me

Obviously its never a missionaries dream to bring 0 people to church, but sometimes it happens. Sometimes it's a good moment to reflect and learn. I'm, nautrally speaking, a very competitive, prideful person not gonna cap. I like being the best at every thing i do and when i'm not the best, I can get very frustrated and I just try to work until I'm the best  Now that may be a very good trait to have in the world, but as a missionary that's not gonna get you very far, and boy I have learned that. So lots of learning and reflecting this week, but I know that me and my comp will continue to be blessed as we keep being obedient and diligent.

Haven't shared a scripture in a bit in my emails, like to keep em entertaining, i lowkey don't read the scriptures in my friends emails haha, but this scripture actually helped me a lot this week, its D&C 123:17 "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." I kept repeating this to my comp all week because i love how it says let us do everything WITHIN our power Cheerfully. So you best believe me and my comp were getting rejected all week with the biggest smile on our face. We can't control who decides to accept our message, but we can control how we react 

To sum this email up, elder clouse is trying to say in the most humble way possible, that he is now humble...i will now proceed to study this attribute again

Love yall hit me up

Charity-The Pure Love of Christ

 I don't think I can describe the amount of joy, the amount of love that I felt from my father in heaven this week. I know this is God's work and I know Jesus Christ lives!

Wow what a week! We ended up having 3 baptisms on Sunday and the process of all of 3 of them was quite incredible...

To start we had Claudio, the man who told us the first vision was like Kung-Fu panda, but ima be honest, bro studied a ton this week and literally had no difficulties in his process. He literally would call US to confirm appointments it was so easy, and bro literally told us all he wanted to do in life was serve and keep the commandments. What a stud

Now eva and owen, their story is quite incredible. Originally their baptismal date was for the 9th, but me and my comp during weekly planning felt very strongly to change it to the 2nd. But she wasn't really answering our texts during the week and we didn't find her until Wednesday, so we find her on Wednesday and she then began to tell us all the difficult things that were happening in her life with her ex-husband, and me and my comp just kind of stood there and listened. Then we did what we felt was right and explained to her the blessings of baptism and how she and owen could get baptized on Sunday and that her problems could be resolved with the holy ghost. And when we said that her face lit up like a Christmas-Tree  it was so pure. So we changed their date and they were baptized on Sunday!!!

Joy, is what I feel in the service of God. I want to tell you guys about an experience i had on Sunday that changed my life. I titled this email "Charity" because I was studying and praying for it a ton this week. So basically Sunday morning, all of plans kinda fell into place. We passed by the family that we baptized 2 weeks, picked them up and started walking with them, we then swung by Owen and Eva and picked them up, and as we were walking with them, we saw the Alarcon family, the family we helped reactivate and who's kids we baptized 2 months ago, so we started walking with them too, and right before we got to church we saw Claudio walking to church, who just got baptized, and so just imagine us walking into the church, i kid you not there was like 15 of us. And as we walk into church, we then see Dilan, a PF we have been teaching whos on date for next sunday ALREADY at church with his dad. A smile did not leave my face all morning, and then i heard someone call me by my first name, something i hadnt heard in a long time, and proceeded to see Ryker, a hometown friend, at church. I had never felt more joy in my life in that moment...

That leads me to the moment that changed my life, as I was sitting in church, and listening to the testimonies, I was just looking at everyone at church just filled with joy, and then all of the sudden Valentina, the little girl who was baptized 2 weeks ago, told me she wanted to bare her testimony. So i went up with her and then she got too scaredso i ended up just giving my testimony. But I remember just looking out, seeing all the converts at church, all the people preparing to get baptized, seeing Valentina right beside me just smiling, and just feeling an overwhelming amount of love. Just feeling this charity, the thing i had been praying for all week. And in that moment I remember I was up there and just started tearing up, i was so dumb founded by this love i felt from my father in heaven, not just for me, but the love he has for his children. It really was one of those life changing moments, and i just remembering sitting there eyes filled with tears and thinking "wow god really does love all his children", and it also made me think "wow this really is the most important work on earth, the gathering of Isrel", i wanted to close by saying I know god loves each and every one of you, i know it because I've felt it, i know it because i have seen Charity change my life. Christ's love has changed my life, and to think that there are people out there that have never felt this life makes me so sad, so that is why i am still here, because there are people out there that need this love, that need to experience the pure love of Christ, a love that I know exists and i have felt personally! I love you all so much!!!!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WvF1yDF9QnZbX6KA7

1. Aguante solano 

2. Eva y Owen

3. La villa

4. Claudio

5. Todos

6. Water Boys

7. For Jared

8. Ramirooooooooo