This week has been pretty fantastic!

We had zone conferences which were amazing, and I just realized that since we e-mailed you guys on Thursday last week you already knew that.   But either way, they were still awesome!

What's gone down since then? hmm... We dropped by a woman named Maria out in Nipomo, and while we were there, we met Efrain (Ephraim), her brother.   It was a very different lesson, because Maria is almost completely blind, and Efrain just got out of a mental hospital, but Efrain invited us in on the spot and really seems to want to be better.   He talked a lot about how he has been looking for a way to overcome his vices.   Even though the room was almost completely dark, I really felt the spirit as we taught the restoration and testified of the healing powers of Christ.   Unfortunately they weren't there when we brought a ride for them to come to church, so we were SUPER close to having somebody at church this week, but we're not there yet.

I also went on Exchanges with Elder Kingrey this week. Aside from having a fascinating name, he's also a truly fascinating Elder.  He's from Alaska and Alabama (among others) and he loves anything that makes him different. It was neat to be on exchanges with him, though, because his one weakness is that he's got a heavy speech disorder.  It's really difficult for him to get words out.  But the cool thing is that he doesn't let it intimidate him, he is SUPER bold and willing to talk to anybody.  He even turns this weakness into a true strength by recognizing that people are hesitant to argue with or interrupt him!  He says the things and speaks up when the people normally wouldn't let him.   It was awesome to see!

Then, on P-day we finally got out to play sports with the rest of the district, and it was great fun, although I'm incredibly sore! It's amazing how sitting in a car for a year can DESTROY your ability to run and jump around. OUCH! My Ego took a major blow after that!

We're excited for week six, I can't believe it's aready here!!! We're putting the pedal to the medal this week, and we're intent on setting this area up well for next transfer. I REALLY hope I get another round with Elder Bautista; he's way too much fun to be around!

I love you all, and hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving! Keep up the good work and more than anything keep those smiles up!

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

In other news; I survived my first attack from an Evangelical guy!

This last week and a half have been CRAZY. (Sorry we didn't get to e-mail on time; we had an exchange with the traveling trainers on that day, and then Zone Conference on Wednesday. But better late than never!)

This last week was interesting in the work. We haven't been able to get a hold of any of our investigators. We also went on a couple exchanges. I learned a lot on one where I went with an Elder named Elder Fridal. Unfortunately, the lessons I learned all came from me messing up all over the place. I'd ended on a really rough note, and I felt SUPER down. It was amazing to see how the Lord helped me through it though, I saw many small miracles attempting to lift my vision and help me keep going. The biggest one was the traveling training exchange; it came at a very difficult moment, and I felt really not up to it. We did it anyway though, and I learned so much. Elder Whited came with me out to Nipomo and he really helped me get the right perspective on things. We saw crazy miracles too. We knocked on one door and ran into a guy named Chris. He was super cool, about 19 years old, and the spirit was very strong as we got talking about his life, and as we talked and testified of various stuff, he kept saying "that's crazy! i was just thinking about that!!!" It reminded me of when King Lamoni was convinced Ammon could read his thoughts (People just don't work it that way anymore!) Finally, I asked him how religion has influenced him in his life and he just started crying!!! I was stunned; I've never seen anyone cry on the doorstep like that! I'm really excited to go back and see him next week!

Zone Conference was also incredibly powerful! I was amazed as I watched President Castro get up and start nailing every single one of the concerns of our district members, including my own! It really helped me renew my resolve and desire to work hard.

I'm sorry for using so much money off my card!!! I ran out of funds due to having to vacuum out the car a bunch and other random, weird expenses like that. X_X I should be good 'till the end of the month; and then we'll be getting our next payment. But I want you to know I'm super grateful for the sacrifices you make to support me.

Keep being awesome and doing your best for the Lord! Be strong with your faith and hang on to all we're asked to accomplish; life is the best!!!

(Also; Elder Bautista said to have Dad call his dad; Brother Bautista's from Tuxtla-Guiterrez, and he said Brother Bautista would love to talk to him about the mission in Mexico.

Love you all; keep being awesome!

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

I've REALLY perfected that Jumbalaya dish: be excited for it!!!

Sorry we're late getting back to ya!  The Libraries were closed on Tuesday for the holiday so we weren't able to write.  We're getting it in now though!

 

Things have been pretty crazy this last week.  We had a couple of exchanges that blew my mind, and now we're working harder than ever!  For the first time in a long while, we've been meeting or exceeding the standard of excellence on declaring.  I went out to Nipomo with Elder Eggleston, which was awesome!  He was with me in Simi Valley, and it's been great having him in the district again.  He's grown BUNCHES; that Elder isn't scared of anything!!!  His strategy for dealing with people that are angry is to keep declaring restored truth to them until the Spirit calms them down. (SUPER good idea!!!) That exchange was one of my funnest days out here; we talked to almost literally everybody we saw to offer them the Gospel.  The only exception was when we were on a street with about 13 people walking on it; so we couldn't catch them all.  It was a real testament to me that if you work like mad, you'll be happy.  Elder Bautista was here with Elder Dollar who is also on his first transfer.They were a bit nervous, but they really rocked it;  and Elder Bautista is on fire now.  I'm afraid I'm the one holding him back from being truly effective!  We're stepping up our game this next coming week though, and we'll see miracles like crazy.  Elder Bautista has been really helping me loosen up and relax about myself and my progress, which is great.

 

We've not had any luck getting people to church so far, but we've got a man named Alonzo who REALLY wants to come.  He's an older Mexican guy, who lives in an old unfinished basement like I used to (I told him it reminded me of home!) ;)  He's way receptive, although teaching him will be rough, because he can't read.

 

As far as how we're doing; we're doing great out here!  Thanks for offering to help some missionaries out here, but everyone I know of is pretty well supported.  (Elder Kidd is the one you remember; and he's returned already.)  I actually am going to need another journal soon; the one I'm writing in only has enough to MAYBE finish off this year.  I can't believe I've almost finished it already!!  It's super weird. 

 

Tell Sara Judkins and her new husband congradulations for me!  That's super exciting for them!  I hope everything is going well at home and that Dad holds out against all this traveling!  I love you all, and I'll write you next Tuesday!  Love ya!

 

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

Don't EVER get fleas in your car. it's a SUPER bad idea!

(we got rid of them though.)

This week has been a madhouse!!!  We've been incredibly busy; and we had far more success than last.  It's neat, because we could feel Heavenly Father opening up the area and leading us to where we should be.  We found several cool people, and hopefully we will have this unit going strong.  Our goal this transfer is that by the end we want to have four progressing investigators, who come to church, and three of which to have a baptismal date.  Lets see it happen!

We only have one investigator right now, and he's brand new.  His name is Salvador; we went over to check up on him last night and he welcomed us into his house.  We got to know him a little bit, and when we started teaching the restoration, I noticed that he'd opened the pamphlet to the page that shows Joseph Smith's first vision, and was staring at it as we talked, and when I asked him what caught his interest, he started telling us what little he knew about Joseph, and bore testimony to US that Joseph Smith was led by a higher power, and that he believed it all to be true!  WHOA!!!  It absolutely blew my mind!  He accepted a Book of Mormon very gratefully and promised to read it, and also accepted the invitation to be baptized, once he knows it to be true.  It was me and Elder Bautista's first REAL lesson here and it was incredible.  So hopefully Salvador acts on the witness he's apparently already received!

We've also gotten to know our bishopric a bit more, and they are super excited to form the Spanish branch; they've even made goals to learn Spanish so as to help us!  There's a few ward members who are Spanish speakers, and that's starting to be a huge help.  As a matter of fact, a miracle happened sunday when we took the O'Donnels over to Salvador's house for our appointment.  He wasn't there (which is why we dropped by monday)  so I asked them who we should go see and they said "Oh!  Let's go see the Hiriarte family!"  It turns out they lived just down the road from where we were at, and when we showed up, they were both home!  That's a big deal because the husband and wife BOTH own their own businesses and are SUPER busy (which is why they never get to church)  They were super awesome, and it was very convenient because the bishop had asked us to go visit them, and Hno. O'Donnel is their new home teacher! 

It sounds like Christmas is going to be exciting!  It's going to be a great opportunity to serve someone outside the family during the holiday.  The only suggestions I can think of is to be very real about everything;  the more sincere the focus on Christ, the stronger the Spirit will touch his heart.  As he asks questions; answer them.  Maybe you could read from the Book of Mormon AND Bible on Christmas Eve?  Keep things simple!  That's how we stay focused on the Celestial kingdom.  

Love you all, and be awesome!  I gotta roll, but keep on being bosses.

Love,

E. Matthew David Clough

Welcome to the Five Cities!

That's our new area!  Five whole massive cities all stuck together; Arroyo Grande, Pismo Beach, Oceano, Halcyon and Grover Beach.  There's literally no gap between, they just all mesh together.  Our area itself is huge too!  We cover all three wards that meet here, and our eastern boundary actually touches my old area; Taft!!!  WOW!  It's crazy being so close but... not...  How I miss that place!

My new companion is Elder Juan Bautista.  That's right; I'm with John the Baptist!  It's crazy!  He's about that awesome too.  He's from Salt Lake City Utah, but he was born in Tapachula, Chiapas!  He's got perfect Spanish AND English, and he's ridiculously good at missionary work.  He just walked up and handled business with the very first person we saw outside our apartment! Another cool fact about him is that his older sister AND younger brother are all serving missions right now.  It's gonna be a sweet transfer.

Our assignment here is a bit crazy; I noticed you asked if we were still spanish speaking, and the answer is yes.  We are on a secret mission to start a Spanish Unit!!!  (It's not actually secret)  Although, when President Castro pulled me aside to "debrief" me at transfers on what we're actually doing here, it felt like it!  There's a lot of balancing to do between the three wards and the stake, so it's kinda like walking on eggshells.  At this stage, we have only one native spanish speaker in the ward (who speaks perfect English and is married to a guy who doesn't speak spanish at all)  and NO TRANSLATION EQUIPMENT!  So that's our first objective: 1: find equipment, 2: find members, and above all, find investigators!  We had two but one's out of town for the next 3 weeks, and the other dropped us on the door.  So we'll be doing a LOT of tracting. It's also been tough because I had to wait 'till this morning for my wallet to catch up to me. XP  oops!  So we've been on foot for a while, but we should get rolling just nice now!

Transfer meeting was the most amazing meeting ever.  Elder Buckmiller finished his mission and returned in honor!!!  I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!  I love that Elder so much; he's a HUGE part of the change I've made this past year.  It was a very emotional parting; but I can't wait to see him later (And married too; she waited!!!)  Elder Mortimer and Elder Lewis are training!  Elder Jenkins is my Zone Leader!!!!! WOOHOO!  And one of the best parts was that the morrow family from Taft came to see Elder Buckmiller off, so I got to see Samantha, who's heading off to BYU Idaho in a bit, Travis, who's turned in his papers and is expecting a mission call, Cami who's looking just great with JACKSON!!!  SHE HAD HER BABY AND HE'S SOO DARN CUTE!!!!! I was so happy to see them all, it was a huge moral boost! Taft's also got SIX MISSIONARIES in it!  I was like; NANI!!?!?!!?!!? (Ask Brittney if you don't know what I just said) (Danielle says this means "What?" in Japanese.)

We've got ten missionaries here in the five cities; and they're all awesome.  Sorry I didn't e-mail yesterday, We couldn't work it out.  I love you all, and hope everything is going awesome.  keep up the good work; pray and seek missionary oportunities!  I'm seeing the importance of that now!!!

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

Transfers are in and...!

I'm leaving again!  I'm taking off for Arroyo Grande!  I can't believe I'm leaving Oxnard already.  It's been a total blast out here with this ward and Elder Law!  He's going to be staying here (Although he's opening a new area) and being follow up trained by Elder Fairbourne!  (Elder Jenkins trained him!)  Also, Elder Jenkins is going to be my Zone Leader out there!  WAHAHA!!!  This is gonna be too much fun!  I'm also going to be white-wash training district leader again!  Hooray for stress!

 

Actually, I'm hyper excited for this.  I'm going to be taking over the area that Elder Buckmiller just opened; so it's gonna be great.  Also; Elder Buckmiller has finished his mission!  I get to see him go home tomorrow! WHOO!!!  It's been incredible to see his growth and the power he radiates now!  Elder Johnson will also be starting his last transfer, and after that, I'm gonna be the oldest out of all the companions I've had!  That's super wierd to think about; I'm still not quite used to the idea; even though in my past four transfers I've been the oldest in my district.  Also; Elder Lewis is training already; and he'll be staying here in Oxnard!  One of the sisters in our district has been waiting on a Visa to go to Argentina, and she just got it; she leaves wednesday.  All in all, CRAZY exciting stuff is going down as usual! 

 

This area has been incredibly fun to work in.  I have complete confidence that Elder Law will take care of everyone here; including getting Saul, Coralia, Gloria, and Raquel ready to accept the covenant of baptism.  I'll be waiting for the pictures!

 

We also had stake conference; and it was intense!  The whole adult session was about hastening the work, and of course President and Sister Castro came and owned it.  It really put a huge drive on the members to work with us and help the massive amounts of missionaries we're receiving get stuff done.  The adult session had super bad audio; they wound up having to cut it off and use a cell phone feed instead.  Without the picture, and with the weird recording, it felt like we were watching conference in the 20's!  It was super good though, and had a lot of stuff I really needed to hear.

 

We also were able to go to the Temple in L.A. this week; and it was AMAZING.  The journey was great; we saw miles of beach and cool places like Malibu and Sher's house and the location where Iron Man stopped for strawberries in Iron Man 2.  It was a great drive!  We got to go with Alex Martinez and Anna Reyes; two of the most BOSS recent converts ever; and the temple proper was incredible.  The spirit was insanely strong and the session is rediculously amazing!  Obviously I can't say much, but if you haven't been to the temple in a while, GO!!!  Also; while I was there, we got in a session with four of my friends from Bakersfield!  Elder Flores, Elder Parra, Elder Fernandez, and Elder Scott were ALL THERE!  They're finishing up, and it was so great to go through there with them.  I love the mission!

 

I gotta run, but ya'll know I love you and pray all the time for you.  Keep that apostasy at bay, and be awesome!  Weird thing is; it's not actually that hard!

 

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

Oct 14, 2013

Wow!  This week has BLASTED past!  I'm still not sure where all the time we supposedly have goes, but it gets there fast.  We worked really hard this last week, and while we weren't able to meet with a lot of our progressing investigators, we did get a lot done. 

 

The best part about this week was president's interviews.  This is only the third one I've had, but they all seem to be powerful enough to help me know how to get through the next couple months.  My interview with President Castro was incredibly helpful.  I have no idea how he crams so much inspired comments into about 7-10 minutes.  I was kinda thrown off though, because most of the discussion was centered on what I should do with my life.  When I answered that I hadn't yet gotten to college, he said, "Don't settle! You have the potential to have an influence much farther than your circle of friends!  Whatever it is you do, it needs to be somewhere you can do that, like, using your art, or teaching or something."  I thought it was hilarious because the two options I feel most strongly for are the two examples he gave! (Funny how it answered and didn't answer anything at the same time!) 

 

The work has been interesting again; the car definitely makes certain things easier and others not.  The bike is harder to get places, but the car restricts your ability to talk to people on the streets.  So hopefully we can continue to find ways to use it wisely. 

 

We were able to attend the baptism of Juana, and Elder Lewis Baptized her!  It was a very spiritual meeting, and she is being way solid and strong.  Unfortunately we weren't able to go to the temple, but we're planning on Thursday of this week.  Fingers crossed!  Also, Saul, Rosa and Anthony's baptisms will all have to be postponed because of Stake Conference.  Saul is doing awesome; him and Claudia have been talking to the Bishop a lot about eternal marriage, and he showed up at church in brand new shiny clothes and shoes!  He's lightened up so much since we started teaching him!

 

I love you all, keep up being awesome and helping people out!  Share the gospel; Utah's not totally converted yet!  Love ya!

 

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough