We Did It Joe

 After months of fighting day after day, night after night, we did it... WE GOT PERMISSION TO BAPTIZE JUAN CRUZ! It was so dummy lit, after fighting for so long we got news on friday that we got the green light to baptize him, then literally that night we did the interview and bro flew through it, I was like why couldn't this kid have been baptized a month ago what the sus. You could tell the first counselor in the bishop bric was maddddd butthurt that we got permission, no idea why bro didn't want Juan Cruz to get baptized, but hey President Doughty is a capoooooooo, he gave us permission, so the baptism was lit Sunday afternoon

Other than that crazy miracle, this week was ALOT of rejection...247 times to be exact, thats how many people rejected our message this week, kinda sad to think about but the work keeps going. God really put us in the land of the zoramites ya feel, or maybe like 4th generation nephites type beat. Feel like Mormon when i say "my heart acheth a cause of the iniquities of this people", but ya it was a rough week, everybody always says "love the challenge" until the challenge comes then its kinda hard to love ya feel. I remember it was Saturday night, I knocked on a door, a man opened it, and the only words I said were "hey, were representatives of Jesus Christ.." boom door slammed in my face, it didn't make me mad or upset, just like sad that there's some many people that don't care about learning about someone who literally SAVED their lives, but hey que se yo

Elder Smart, still an absolute dawg, trying to help him talk a little bit more, bro is mad quiet, like all the members just look at me and are like "does ur comp speak" and i'm just like "I think so" haha I love the kid to death we just gotta help him get out of his comfort zone 

Also, theres this family in my area, we call them "the cracks", its a family of 4, its the family that brought Juan Cruz to church every week and we taught Juan Cruz in this families house. And i've officially decided that I want to be adopted by this family. I don't know how to describe how nutttyyyyy this family is, but there sooo pureeeeeee, and to think they got baptized last October is crazyyyyyy. I didn't even baptize them but they are definitely my favorite family that i've met in Argentina. I feel like I could spend all day in their house and not got bored, its so amazing, so shoutout la familia guerrero, they told me i'm invited to their sealing so that would be so pure if I went

Thats all from Elder Clouse

Another One

 Lets just break the ice here real quick, ya boy has been called to train again so thats lit. Im training a kid named Elder Smart, bros a capooo, straight outta Tennessee, lives up to his last name bro is mad smart haha(he read the old testament before the mish) and I love the kid to death. Theres something about training, it just gives you an immense amoumt of love for your trainee, if its anything like being a father im sure gonna love my kids

This week was very close to being the greatest week of my life. Welp to start the week, on Tuesday we put 6 PEOPLE on date for baptism, it was nuts, then on thursday we put 3 MORE on date for baptism. So lets just say when I picked up Elder Smart I was hype, I was like bro we got 9 people on date lets go work, then saturday came...

So saturday, its the first day of Elder Smart working, and all of our appointments started to fall. All those people on date, we couldn't find. It wasn't until 5 in the afternoon when we found some of our people. We found Mariela (this grandma) and her grandson Teo. We put them on date on Tuesday and they were ELECT, they were committed to getting baptized the 25th and going to church on sunday. So we had a reallt good lesson and they were COMMITTED to go to church on Sunday, so we left there house on saturday feeling good about them

Then we still couldn't find some of our friends and then at 7 at night, Mariela sends us a text saying she didn't want to get baptized or go to church and didn't want us to come back, I was like bruhhhh, so we ran to their house, knocked on the door, and out came Mariela..but this time with her sister who I had never seen before. And immediately I knew what had happened, so i confronted the sister and it was exactly what I had expected, she was this SUPER evangelical women, just started bashing on our church, called us a false church with a false bible, then said Mariela wasn't getting baptized in our church. I'm like bruh shes 50 years old you can't control the lady. And before she let me talk she said "bye" and walked away and took Mariela into her house... I just looked at her and said "you're taking the salvation away from your sister how do you feel" and she closed the door in my face

I was straight FUMING, I was so upset, and as I'm walking away I close my eyes and think "Elder Clouse you're training, show your kid a good example", so i took a deep breath looked at Elder Smart, apologized for how I reacted and said lets go look for a miracle. And it wasn't until 8 at night on saturday that we found one...

We then passed by Carolina, this women who accepted a baptismal date on Thursday that we couldn't find again, but we found her! We also found her kid who was 13 and put him on date for baptism too! And then we found her niece who wanted to go to church with them on Sunday! Then Carolina (the mom) asked if her other kid, who was 18, could come to church and be baptized with them, we said of course! So we made plans to go to church with them...all was well, until Sunday morning. So turns out the "18 year old kid" wasn't as friendly as the rest, because he got heated when I came banging on the door at 7 am on sunday, so lets just say we got yelled at and told not to come back

So after putting 11 people on date, no one of them came to church, but I told Elder Smart "it means we gotta work harder", so sunday afternoon we left, passed by an active member, because half her family aren't members, and the other half are inactive. We passed, had a CRAZY spiritual lesson and put the active member's nephew on date for baptism! The field continues being white and ready to harvest!

But wow it was a crazy week, not gonna lie being a DL and a trainer is taking a lot out of me. But grateful that God trusts me enough to give me these responsibilities! Love yall!

Story Time

 It was a Monday night, we had just finished zone counel and us 4 elders of "El Cruce" called an Uber back to our house. The other 3 elders got in the back so I sat in the front. As the elders behind me started chatting, I decided to get to know our Uber, he was a nice man, married, 2 kids. I asked him if I could share our beliefs with him. He then agreed and said he would like to listen. I began teaching him the restoration, as I quoted The First Vision, the car became silent and was filled with the spirit, everyone could feel it to strongly, it was a reaffirming experience of my testimony of the restoration. He did not make us pay that Uber

It was a saturday morning, sun was shining, little bit of a breeze, it was a good day. I saw a man sitting down outside his house scrolling on his phone...I dedided to go talk to him. He began to share with us how Jesus Christ changed his life, it was quite beautiful. He then said something that changed my life, he says "I used to make blunts with the bible... now I read it", I was blown away. Never in my life had I heard someone speak such bars, if anyone can get into contact with Kanye West, please tell him to put that bar in his next album

Saturday afternoon ,5 oclock to be exact, it was a bit chilly. We arrive to the church to hear news that horrified us, there was no hot water in the baptismal font. Natalia was arriving in a few minutes. We then began to remember a flashback of the day before when Natalia told us she did not want the water to be cold. We did the best thing we could think of... we didn't tell her, as she entered the font, she was not shaken one bit. Not even a facial expression, straight dawg status. She is now officially a member of Christ's restored church

Sunday morning, Elder Clouse woke up sick....thats all to it

That same Sunday morning, its fast and testimony meeting. The other 2 elders (our zone leaders) in our ward were asked to give there testimonies first because they were both newer to the ward. They were both baptized 3 years ago, there conversion story is quite increible. As they shared their testimonies the spirit was visible. I then began to think of how cool their conversion story was and it made me reflect on my own conversion. Now I am not a convert to the church but I have had my own proper conversion story. I don't remember a moment when I recieved a testimony of the church, but I give 80 percent of the credit to what I have learned on my mission here in Argentina🇦🇷. I have deepened my relationship with Jesus Christ, I have found a deeper love for my neighbor, and I have come to know that God loves me and his aware of me. Even though I may not be a "convert", I have been converted during this time on my mission

I hope you guys liked my story time, hasta la proxima

Weak Things Become Strong Unto Them

 This week, I made myself a challange. Everyday, I studied one attribute of Jesus Christ, and I focused on developing just one Christ-like attribute, definitely was challenged this week but it helped me focus on what is really important on the mission, becoming like Christ

On Tuesday, we had an "almost miracle", now what does that mean you might ask, les explico. So basically on Tuesday I studied about FAITH! Now we all know whenever we try developing a Christ-like attribute we end up getting shown just how far we are from him. Because boy oh boy my faith was tested. Me and my comp were insistent that we were gonna find someone to put on date for bappy, welp 80 contacts and 0 new people later and we were like bruhhhhh. It was 8 pm and we decided to put our faith to the test and keep knocking. That was until we knocked on Laura's house...

So basically we knock on this door and the first words we hear are "ooo missionaries come in", and me and my comp just looked up to the sky and said "hallelujah", so we enter this house and its a narrllyyyyy family of 6. We sing a hymn, everyone's paying mad attention we were like what is happening rn. Everything was going well till we started talking about baptism. Then the mom started arguing with us how the Catholic Church has it right and its the true church. And the spirit was started to leave so i said "hold up hold up hold up, give us 5 minutes then we can leave", I looked at my comp gave him the little nod, and we then proceeded to teach the most POWERFUL restoration lesson I've ever taught in my mission in 5 minutes, when i got to saying The First Vision I made sure i said it REALLLLLL slow, emphasized every word, and to this day might've been the strongest I've ever felt the spirit. Like it seemed when I was saying The First Vision, everything went still, you could like hear crickets chirping it was nuts. And in my mind im like "hehehe we gotemmm" But after we invited them to read and pray they said no, so we ended up leaving kinda sad, but I know every single person gained a testimony of the restoration in that house even though they chose to reject our invitation. But that experience strengthened my what was already testimony of that this is the true church

Other news that happened, Natalia (super elect lady) randomly sent us a text one day and said she saw anti-church videos on Youtube and didn't want to get baptized anymore. I was like bruhhhh what you doinnnn, so we went and talked to her, and I shared a quote from President Nelson's "Think Celestial" talk that says don't find answers to your doubts from other doubters. She was like you right you right sorry for overreacting and blocking you guys on WhatsApp, so dont worry shes getting baptized on Saturday

We brought someone new to church this week, he really liked it, hes getting baptized next Sunday

Also Juan Cruz will probably get baptized this Saturday too

After 2 long months of planting seeds day after day, we will finally be harvesting this weekend

Had a stake conference and my old mission president, now area 70, was there, it was a nutty reunion. So our stake conference persisted of our new mission president giving a talk, and our old mission president giving a talk, straight barz