So, we had a really great week; Christmas was especially good stuff, and
after that the days just seemed to fall into the normal groove. The
highlight of the week was definitely seeing Brother Palmer get baptized! It was
really cool to see and affected a lot of the members in a very positive way.
They all knew that if he didn't know VERY deeply that this was absolutely true,
he'd never be doing it. But he did. Brother Bryan baptized him, and then
Sunday we all stood in the circle to confirm him and give him the gift of the
Holy Ghost. I can't wait to see how it's affected him over the course of a few
days. I'd never realized how much it completely changes people as I have out
here. Seeing Rosario, Ernestina, Guillermo, and now Carmen grow so much in a
few short weeks has been absolutely miraculous. Another cool thing that
happened just last night was when we finally got around to going to the Savea's
house again. So, as we were talking, waiting for dinner, Fusi comes into the
room, and guess what? Fusi's opened his mouth! He's speaking in both English
and Samoan. Sometimes he tries to go back to his hand guestures and babble, but
Sister Savea tells him off when he does. It was
really awe inspiring to me, to see a blessing like that work so suddenly. I
felt very grateful to be part of that.
Another cool experiance that happened this week; Elder Marquez and I were
on exchanges, teaching Katrina (Benjamin's wife) in Maricopa. He was sick and
couldn't meet with us, but she told us she'd read, and she really loved the plan
of Salvation when we taught it. Unfortunately they didn't make it to the
baptism, or to church, but she told us she loved that Matthew is really starting
to like us. She says we're good people to look up to, which is nice to hear,
all things considered. Anyway,
after that we decided to go tracting, so we picked a street, walked along it a
ways, and then I just walked up to a house and knocked on the door. Inside I
could see an older woman and a teenager, and she answered the door. Right after
she did, I hear this old man shout "Come in!" A bit perplexed (this is a VERY
uncommon occurance. It's never happened to me before.) we walked in and he
asked us "who we were with" so we told him we're missionaries from the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He then replied "Oh. Well I go to the
Church of Christ, so I'm not interested." But I figured we were in there for a
reason, so I said "that's fine." and started talking to him anyway. He's got a
pretty interesting life; he was an electrician on airplanes; specifically, he
helped work on and design? the really cool black triangle bomber, the air force
uses all the time. He's got a cool picture of him and a bunch of guys standing
in front of one of them, and on the front row is Neal Armstrong. Very cool. At
any rate, we taught him and his wife the Gospel of Jesus Christ (article of
faith #4) during which she gave us some newspapers from the Church of Christ
(interesting stuff, mostly true. closer than a lot of other peoples stuff I've
read) so we took the opportunity to give them the Restoration pamphlet, and we
taught them the whole restoration. The spirit was incredibly strong.
So that's been our week. Yes, I did get the packages for Christmas, and
I'm really very grateful for everything you all do for me. Also, tell Dad I
finally realized why he never uses punctuation correctly. Spanish is worse on
your punctuation than it is on your spelling, believe it or not. They use
question and exclamation marks like parentheses in the middle of the sentence,
run on sentences are completely legal and in fact required (I've read paragraphs
in Predicad Mi Evangelio that are a single HUGE sentance whereas in Preach My
Gospel the same paragraph is composed of 12 different sentences) and so are
double negatives. (some passages in the Book of Mormon REALLY confuse spanish
speakers because they're not in Double Negative format.) So I've developed
sympathy for him.
At any rate, I love you all, and can't wait to hear what you've all been up
to. Stay feelin' good!
Love,
Elder Matthew David Clough
