Mailing Address

Elder Matthew David Clough
California Ventura Mission
3301 West Gonzales Road
Oxnard, California 93036

Phone: 1-805-485-1034 (only necessary for packages)



Monday, February 18, 2013

So transfer calls are in and I'm going...

To stay in Taft! Whoo! Matter of fact, for the first time so far, my companion is staying with me, and we're both hyper pumped about it. It's gonna be another fantabulastic transfer here in Taft!


However, it's going to be a weird, short one. Because of the change in the MTC schedule, they've shortened this transfer to five weeks instead of six. Which also means our missions have been cut down by seven days. Hopefully I can get an extension or something... it's going too fast as is.



Because Friday blew my mind. It shouldn't exist! FRIDAY WAS MY 6 MONTH MARK!!! NO!!! I'm not quite ready to accept the speed at which it's passing; if it gets any faster than this, I'll wake up to find myself 80 years old by the end of the month.



At any rate this week had it's ups and downs, but it was overall excellent. We met a lot with Cami and Josh to keep them excited and ready for the Gift of the Holy Ghost. They're both doing a lot better. The confirmations were excellent and the blessings were very very good. It was really cool to help them progress, and Josh is really turning into a champion.



In other news, we met with Jose this week, and talked a lot about Missionary work. Unfortunately, he doesn't want to go; and he's not sure if he'd be able to money-wise. So, I talked about how I got together the funds to go; in spite of a number of expenses (and unnecessary spending as well.) and we left him to read the story of Ammon in the Book of Mormon, and asked him to then pray to find out if he should go. We're still waiting to see what happens, but Elder Buckmiller and I both know; he's gonna be a GREAT missionary, pretty soon.



Another awesome story is about CJ; sister Beare's sister. We've been unable to meet with her for a while now, because she's been ill; but we finally were able to make it over. And she's been busy. She read all the way through the Book of Mormon, and through the Doctrine and Covenants up until section 36! <-- We could hardly believe our eyes! She didn't understand a whole lot; it was mostly just burning through it all, but the fact that she's been reading this much is mind-boggling. We're still working on a way for her to efficiently attend church; she's rather frail so we'll probably need a wheel-chair, and she's also mostly deaf, so we must find a way for her to understand the speakers. But, the Lord will help her find a way anyhow. She's more than ready to be baptized, she just needs a bit more help getting there.



We ended last week on a truly awesome-possum lesson; we went by to teach Miguel and Jessica, two contact's we'd only spoken to once. Miguel wasn't there, but Jessica and her daughter and son were; Anna and Jose. So, we taught the Plan of Salvation to them, and it was one of the most intense times I've taught it yet. The spirit was really strong, the mom was even getting a bit emotional, and her daughter recognized it (which was really really cool!) They accepted a "soft set" which in missionary speak essentially means "IF you knew this was true, will you be baptized?" and they committed to read and pray to find that answer. A cool side note; when we invited them to read, we asked Jose and Anna if they wanted a copy of the BoM for themselves, and Jose didn't really say anything but Anna asked if it was in Spanish, because, if it's in Spanish she can't read it. (So we gave her an English one, which made her happy.) We're very excited to see where they're going with this!



So, this week is gonna be cool. It'll be sad that Elder Foote is going to Oxnard and Elder Shurtz is going to Camarillo, but things'll be great! Gotta go!
 
 

 
 
 
Love
 

Elder Matthew David Clough