Elder Clements' Excellent Adventure
Monday, March 26, 2012
Bom Dia Meus amados Pessoas
Monday, March 19, 2012
I am 6 and Things are going very well!!
Monday, March 12, 2012
God is Good! understatement of eternity!
First off I just want everyone to know that I love you! That God is good, and Prayer works! this week has been excellent. I feel like god has showered me in blessing this week. He blesses me in so many ways every week but this week I felt like he just kind of let it pour. going to the temple on Tuesday was probably the biggest blessing of all! The temple is the greatest place on earth. The peace you feel and the spirit you feel is like leaving this world. I feel like heavenly father recharged me there. I had woken up very sick spending a good amount of time in the bathroom that morning and almost didn't go. I said a prayer and just asked Heavenly father to help me have the force and health to make it to the temple( like 2 hours walking of riding sardine packed buses and metros..not the funnest thing when your insides are wanting to escape) But Heavenly father heard my prayer and I made it there. and I am so Grateful for that! God is Good!
so then Wednesday was just a super productive day! I woke up feeling good, I got to do all of my personal study and comp study and was prepare spiritually and physically for the day(it felt like so long since i got to do both) , then we had an appointment with Pedro he is 21 and it was the first lesson with him and it went so good! the spirit was there, i was able to talk and think clearly...(the best part of missionary work having the spirit there! its like being high but so much better :) !) He accepted a date to be baptised the end of this month as goal. He came to church Sunday...I just feel so grateful for Heavenly father putting someone in our path ready to be taught. and then later after lunch we had a split with some members and it was so good. I left with Ricardo who turned 18 and is not sure if he wants to serve a mission. it was so good to just work with him and help strengthen him. answering some of his doubts and idk I was just so grateful for that chance to help him out.
Thursday I went on spits with my District leader. it was pretty fun to be back with a Brazilian companion of a day. I love talking with Brazilians. it not the same as talking Portuguese with Americans anyways it was a pretty good day we stopped and ate crepe which in in English is same sound as Crap... so I have now eaten crap and it was pretty good! the vendor was super cool and we talked to him for a while. a old lady who was in line heard that i was American and basically everyone that walked by as we were eating our crap she stoped them and told them I was American ...it was pretty entertaining, but we got to talk to alot of people because of it.
Friday was awesome!! So I had been praying and telling Elder Fryer that I wanted a Baptism. so we had a lesson with Carla Friday and we had already given her a baptismal invite 2 or three times before and every time she said she didn't feel ready or have a testimony yet. but I just knew from the moment we entered the lesson that she was ready and that she would accept. so we had a lesson about repentance, tithing, and the law of Chasity. It was awesome! when we were going over tithing I felt bad because I told her that only member could pay tithing and she kind like oh and seemed a bit bumbed. so then I just told her How do you feel about being baptised next week. and it she said vamos! like lets do it! we also talked about the temple a bit at the beginning and she said I am not in any rush to get to the temple because i know one day ill get to go in. I don't know it was such a good lesson and the spirit was so strong. I Know that god heard my prayer when i asked him to prepare someone to be baptised this month. and now we have two. God is good!
Saturday. was a day where i just kinda of saw god working his magic to bless us and letting us bless others. So we had planned to go to jordanopolis to work a for the day which is like going to west rich land from my house. anyways we went to lunch and decided that we were not going to take our umbrellas because the Sky's were clear and it didn't look like it was going to rain. The lady at the restaurant told us randomly that it was going to rain later in the afternoon. so we went home to get our umbrellas. this was the first time a saw god hand working in our day. next we were walking to head to jordanopolis and a member and his wife that we hadnt seen for a couple of week stoped us and bought a ice cream. usually i would have declined because we were already a little late but i felt like we should accept and talk to the couple. Hand Two. it was a great visit and I felt like that some of the stuff he told elder fryer helped him alot. (he has been worrying alot about his girlfriend lately who is not a member who is really close to being baptised but her parents have been giving her alot of crap that they found on the Internet about the church. not of which is true) anyways the visit seemed to brighten every ones day. then we started walking again and then we ran into Lewis a counselor in the bishopric he was walking to pick up his car that was quite a bit away right as we met it started to down poor and he didn't have an umbrella so I was able to share my umbrella with him and we walked him to his car. he told us that he had been asking heavenly father why his other car had broken down and how come he now had to walk to get his other car and was going to get soaked and be late for some party his family was going to. and then we showed up. and he was able to get his car and be dry and he was able to drive us to Jordan. It was just awesome! God is Good! then he dropped us off in Jordan and the down poor stopped for a bit. we were able to walk to our appointment and then the moment we entered it started again. it down pored like crazy the whole time we were at that lesson and then right as were leaving it stopped. we walked to the next house and then it started again when we entered. and stoped when we left. we walked back to Rudge Ramos and once we got back to the church for our next appointment it started again. heavenly father is so good to me. I Have just felt his love and presence around me all week and I am so grateful. oh I almost for got I was asking Lewis where i could get my suit cleaned because it needs it bad. and turns out he has a dry cleaners and he is washing it for free! I just feel so incredibly blessed! I am so grateful for the the chance I have to be here on the mission for the difficulties that i have had and will have. For the chance to Have heavenly Father teach me and mold me into someone better. I know more then ever now that Prayer works! That we really do have a Heavenly Father that looks after each and everyone of us!
I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you can remember that prayer works and the lord will bless you for doing what is right. I love you all and pray that you can feel Gods love in your lives!
Love
Elder Josiah Clements
Okay so I have been asked by a couple of people to make a list of things that i would like or want that people can send me.
so here is a short list of ideas.
A salt and pepper shaker(the fresh pepper crusher if possible but ill be happy with either), Candy ( any kind Its all good, the Brazilians love it and it fun to share American things with them) Socks, ( black ones gold toe are pretty good), Peanut butter! (its so good) Thumb drive with music on it( efy, Mo-tab, any music that wont be a distraction to my calling) Pens. a new study journal. maple syrup. Pancake mix. Cookies or cookie mix, fruit snakes, granola bars, Cereal, Pictures! and picture album( of people, Houses, place from home. taco and ranch seasoning. maple and root beer extract. Cologne, ... that's really all i can think of. Surprise me with other stuff. I feel like i have forgotten a lot of stuff. please don't feel obligated to send me stuff these are just ideas that people had asked for.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Bom dia!
Olá
First off I would just like to say thank you all for the prayers and for fasting for me on sunday! it is wonderful to know that I have so many people supporting me and loving me!
This past week was a good one, It was incredibly hard but it was good.
Monday, so after emailing I went home and tried to start writing a few letters, but the new meds I got for the rash kicked in and I was gone...I was out until the next day.
tuesday: tuesday we woke up and went and taught a english lesson in our chapel with a guy called neilton. I dont know if i have told you about him yet...anyways he is like 45 and he called our Disrict leaders a couple of weeks ago wanting to know if we gave English lessons. he already know english just needs to practice. so basically we just talk in english for an hour. He is/ was a Methodist preacher and is now a psycho-analyst. he has some very interesting ideas about god and humans. for example he was telling us that god is diffrent for each person based off what that person wants god to be. he has done a really good job of mixing sigmond Freud's philosophies in with religion. anyways it was an interesting conversation... after that we ate lunch and then i had to take another really big douse of my meds and it kinda sucked. The meds dont make drowsy like the benadryl does but man does it suck the engery out of you. the rest of the day was just me trying to put one foot in front of the next. all of our appoinments fell and so it was a day of just knocking doors.
Wednesday we had ZOne Conference which was AWESOME! I love being with all other elders and getting to see how there doing. I got to talk with Elder Cambell for awhile which was awesome.... He is such a stud and is doing so awesome! It was also crazy to say good by to Elder soucy who goes home this transfer. It crazy it seems like he just trained me and now I almost have 6 months. but the best part of zone conference is getting to be trained by president and sister Tanner!! they talked alot about true conversion and real growth in the church. I also got my meds to kill off my friends, but have not been able to take the yet( I take them tomorrow WAHOO!) because I had to finish off the allergie meds. .....I Hate meds , just saying... but will be so happy when I can be Healthy!
Thursday through saturday were just hard! I still was not feeling the best. by friday the rash had pretty much gone away completely and i was able to start a taper off which was so wonderful because missionary works is tiering enough without Meds that make your muscles feel like jelly. but I have been learning alot about depending on the lord. I have done so much praying this past week. praying just to have the force to make it through the day, praying for the force to be able to get out the door. I dont remember saturday, laying in my bed, feeling crappy, feeling discouraged, feeling like i was done and feeling like I just didnt have anything left in me to give. I was just laying there and told heavenly Father that I didnt have anything left in me and that if i was going to be able to get up and work he was going to have to help me...I layed there for a minute and then i felt like someone just like lifted me up to my feet. lt was like someone grabbed me and pulled me out of bed. I know that Heavenly Father Helped me in that moment and I am so Grateful for a Father in Heaven who answers prayers. I dont know how many times I prayed for strength, spiritually physically emotionally. I so grateful for the Help that he has given me so I could go help others. Sunday we were able to go visit and give the sacrament to a sister in the ward who had eye surgery a couple of weeks ago and her sister who is taking care of her. we went there with our ward mission leader and the elders quorum president. we had a mini testimony meeting before giving them the sacrament. I felt like the visit did more good for me then it did for them. I can only hope that one day I can have the kind of faith those two sisters have.
So, one of the things that I prayed for alot this week is peace. Heavenly Father blessed me with it many times this week but today we got to go to the temple which was so good. It is amazing the peace that just rushes into your body the moment you walk through the doors. I have never felt so grateful temples as i was today. I could not help but just let out a huge breath of relief. I love the temple and if you can go...GO! it is such a blessing!
again thank you so much for all of your prayers! thank you for your emails!
I love you and Hope you are doing well!
Love Elder Clements
ps. Kim Nelson: I got your letters you sent me in febuary through missionties this week thank you! I even got the pictures. and congrats on the Morgage!!! and good luck with all of the wedding plans! I am sorry that i have not got back to you sooner about idea for stuff to send me. I sent a list 2 times with letters to alyse a month or two ago but as far as i know those letters have not got there so sorry and I will try again. I will send a list of things to everyone so if you want ideas you will have them.
Ashley Nelson: Congrats kid!! it is a little weird to me that your getting married but I am happy for you!!! good luck with everything!
Kamora: I miss you too! there is a little girl here in the ward who reminds me of you and everytime I see her I miss you like crazy!! Keep being good and way to go on the basketball game!! and make sure you´re real nice to your mom and help her lots with nate and addie!! ;)
Asa: thanks for the email and the prayers in portuguse :) Eu te Amo! e Boa sorte com suas Aulas!
Ben: Are you alive? I have not heard anything about you from anyone since x-mas. I would write you a letter but i dont have you address. I love you!
Lauren: I am way stocked for you and congrats on going to BYUI...try to stay focused and make it through the last semster strong. enjoy high school while it lasts you only go there once...unless you fail ;) I love you sis!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Well Mom....I got Friends and Allergies
Monday, February 20, 2012
Happy carnival!!! ....Its really quite here!
Well its week two here in Rudge! and its been a really slow week! like really slow! But it had some pretty sweet highlights!
first Highlight Fabio!!!
Okay so last sunday(first sunday here), after sacrament meeting This lady came up to us.. her name is sister Rocha. she introduced herself and told us that she had two sons serving missions right now, one in florinapolis and the other was serving in Fortaleza but came home and had knee surgery and then spent a transfer in our mission before going back to fortaleza.. I was so excited because I know Elder Rocha he was in my Zone last transfer and we became pretty good friends anyways I Was super excited to be talking to his mom and be in his word because he is a stud! anyways she then told us that she had a person she wanted us to teach that night, his name is Fabio. Fabio is the fiance of sister rocha´s daughter. anyways we went there that night and taught him and it was a super good lesson! and we marked to eat lunch together last Pday. anyways we had lunch with him 3 times with him this week and we have just clicked! he is 23 and I swear we have known each other forever. He has been talking to us asking us questions and its been awesome. we have only been able to teach him once because of his work schedule and then he left for the weekend but he has already been talking about him being babtised with out us saying anything. He was asking us when the next transfers were and we told him in like 5 weeks and he said `oh then we got plenty of time to get me babtised´ I was so stoked and he has been talking about when he gets sealed in the temple and how he wants us there! I cant begin to tell you how much I have come to love this guy in the past week! Oh and another thing so the other son of sister Rocha was with me in the CTM and we were pretty good buds aswell .... I can´t tell you how excited I am about this family Sister Rocha has been inactive and so has her daughter for like 4 years. she is divorced and went inactive after that but she is coming back and talked with the bishop sunday and is working on things THis is one of those times when I know that I was sent her for a reason. I feel like i am connected to this family. and I love them so much!!
second Highlight Meeting with Elder Mazagardi
on wednesday we had a meeting with President tanner and Elder Mazagardi. It was focused on familys and helping them become eternal!. It made me a little Trunky and miss home a bit :) ( I just want to say that I am so Grateful for my family! and for all the things they have taught me and all of my crap they have put up with! ) anyways it was super good!. and i learned alot and realised I Have so far to go in becoming the missionary and Man God wants me to be! its a long road but I got to start with the first step. so I am trying to work on my love for others and trust in Heavenly father.
speaking of love for other that leads me to the next thing. so like wednesday night we went to the store to get something to eat becasue we had been knocking doors all day and not gotten in anywhere.( this is basically why this week was so long we knocked doors allday everyday with like 3 lesson total this week.) anyways we met this old lady at the store who is a member. she asked us if we could come over and give her a blessing becasue she was going to have surgery the next day. we said yeah and went there. she had already gotten a blessing with oil so it was just a blessing of comfort we had to explain this to her. anways so she has called us everyother day since then to give her a blessing because she has a lot of pain and complications with this eye surgery.problems breathing, her eye was bleeding.... she has a long history of illnesses and has allergys with jsut about everything. anyways and becasue its carnival and everyone leaves for the beach including her doctor( this Place is Dead! like its SOOO quite) she has called us to go give her a blessing of comfort which I am more then happy to do but i feel bad becasue there is nothing more that we can do. for the sounds of it the medical system here in Brazil is way Crappy!
OKay so that really is all i got right now, This week has been trying one. with everyone leaving, not having anyone the teach, and knocking doors all day its been.... Hard and i am trying really hard to stay positive and put my faith in Heavenly father to guide us. I really do know that this is where i am suppose to be and despite all the adversity I am Happy here and excited to be able to serve these wonderful people here in São paulo!
I love you all and want to know i am praying for you!
Love Elder Clements
Monday, February 13, 2012
Hello from Rudge ramos! (who-ge ha-mos)
well I am now in São Bernardo do Campo.... and I love it!!!! Elder Fryer is my comp. He is from Grants pass oregon which is the southwest corner of the state. Elder fryer he has been out in the feild for 7 months and is just a little bit older then me but is 20 as well. The mission is really young right now and seems to get younger every transfer 20 new missionarys showed up this transfer my group was huge and so was the 2 before me. so about now over half the the missionarys in the feild have less then 8 months. But its all good i am super stoked about this transfer and area!
First ill give you a recap of my week and give you some more details about my comp and area.
Monday. It was a hard day not going to lie. I didnt think saying goodbye would be that hard but it was. jefferson when i told him looked like someone punched him in the stomach. and that kind of what i felt like two. He such an amazing kid and was the first person That I found and taught from the start. I freaking love that kid!! and will hopefully be able to go to the temple with him in a year when hes getting ready to go for a mission. anyways we had an interview for a couple that night aswell Robson and Luana. I love that family and they will or got babtised this sunday. I know that President was going to have to interview them again this week. (they had such a diffrent life,Robson was basically in charge of the drug trade here and luana was also very involved with it. but that was like 8 years ago and they are just completely diffrent they stopped doing drugs smoking drinking swearing, Robson knows the Bible better then anyone i have met and Luana is Just a saint. I have incredibley spiritual lessons there) so we will see.
Tuesday: I woke up and was feeling kinda crappy. then we went to transfers I Met Elder Fryer and then we drove to our area with a member ( It was so nice to be in a car and just relax for a bit) we got to our area and wow!! completely diffrent. Campanário is just favella and here the worst house here is was nicer the then the best house in Campanário. It feels alot like parts of seattle but less ghetto. big apartment buildings. really nice houses. the only down side is our area is about the size of all of richland. it takes about an hour and a half to walk from oneside to the other. the other downside is our apartment is SO Small. but that really the only thing i can complain about and really its not that bad and I will live. anyways so we got to our building and I unpacked (sort of...there isnt very much space for clothes I have one droor so most of my clothes are still in my suit case.) and then we went to lunch. after lunch we came back and put my bed together. Elder fryer splet on the floor last transfer because the his companion said it was missing parts ( it wasnt) anyways that took a long time because all we had is one little screwdriver to put everything together but we did it and i have the blisters on my hands to prove it. anyways bythis point i was feeling really crappy.
Wednesday we had a training first thing in the morning with one of the counselors to presidnent tanner. It was super good and i Got some super good ideas on how to improve this area. so from the sounds of it this area has pretty much stopped mainly i believe becasue of the Elders here. the 3 sets of missionarys before us from what the ward has said really didnt do much. Elder Fryer is a super good guy but all of his companions have been really bad and he has not seen a good example of how to do missionary work so and when he is discouarged forsure. so I have deciced that this transfer i am going to make it my goal to help him get excited about missionary work and try and be a good example of how to do missionary work. I still have so much to learn but I am just going to be super positive and move forward. So this is how i felt on the inside wednesday but on the outside I offically got the flu with all the works so i was basically out of it and pretty miserable until friday. (MOM can you send me more nyquil and DAyQuil!)
Thursday I got out of bed thursday to go teach Giovana and Neia (they are the only two people that we had in our teaching group when i got here...but that has changed :)...more on that later.) anyways they are awesome and we invited giovana to be babtised and she accepted and was babtised sunday... were working with the mom. They were a referrence from their aunt who is couple missionary in sao paulo Interlagos
Friday: was good day we just knocked doors and we found alot of new people all in all a pretty good day and I could see Elder Fryers spirits picking up! i just told him we were going to work hard gain the trust of the members and put our faith in Heavenly father to pick up the rest. so friday and saturday thats what we did and Sunday Heavenly father poored out the Blessing. Giovana was babtised. and I know the spirit had a big effect on her Mom. I got to speak in church (didnt know about it until right before) and after i got 2 references and we taught one of them and hes so good his name is Fabio (there will be more on him in the coming letters) and then Carla whos is 25 just showed up at church and wants us to teach her and is super super awesome! Man I Love Heavenly Father!!!!!
okay I need to go But I want you all to know that I am super Happy, Excited and working my butt off. I know with out a doubt that this is the work of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and that they lead it! I know that when we work with faith Heavenly father does the rest! I Love you all and Hope you are happy and doing well!
sincerly Elder Clements!