27 May 2013 - Simi Valley

This week has been crazy, but super good too!  It was definitely a different week for the work, but it was good.  We had a bunch of "out of the norm" things to do, like Wednesday we had exchanges with Elder Crapo and Elder Shields, which went really good, Friday we had a "District Leader Training" and Saturday we had exchanges with Elder Johnston and Elder Mgaughy.  So, as usual it flew past at the speed of light, but it was super good too!  The work has been slowly picking up pace and we actually were able to sit down and teach some people. (Although most of them were while Elder Nalder was working with Elder Shields.)  All in all, it's been a good week.

Another cool event was that Elder Nalder and I got asked to speak in sacrament meeting.  It was hilarious, because Elder Johnston and I got the call in the middle of our exchange Saturday, so at the end of the exchange, Elder Johnston offered the closing prayer and said "And please bless Elder Nalder and Elder Clough as they speak in sacrament meeting tomorrow that etc."  and as soon as it was done, Elder Nalder said "We're speaking tomorrow in church!?"  We were a bit nervous, especially since it was the first talk either of us had given in Sacrament meeting in Spanish.  He gave a fantastic talk on the Atonement, and I followed up with Repentance.  Although no investigators were there to hear it, I think it helped build the ward's confidence in us and excitement to do the work.  In priesthood meeting, Elder Garcia talked about how they've got to open their mouths and find people for us to teach.  

The exchanges were really cool.  On Wednesday, Elder Crapo and I were in his area, which covers two wards on bike.  He's a really rock solid missionary from Canada.  Right after two transfers with his trainer, he started training Elder Shields, which is just about as fast as you can possibly gain responsibility in the mission!  They're on fire, though, and they have a really ready area.  During the day he ran me through just about every obstacle course in Simi Valley; it's a miracle I didn't kill myself.  We had lots of opportunities to talk and teach people too.  On Saturday, I stayed in this area with Elder Johnston, who is a hilariously awesome Australian missionary.  It was cool to learn a bit how to work better in our area; it has a lot to do with talking to everyone we run into.  Elder Johnston and I had a number of neat experiences; when we dropped by the apartment for lunch, we heard a woman talking to somebody in a van.  As we went over and called her attention, she was obviously in a lot of mental distress, and she told us she didn't want anything to do with the Mormon church and all about how they cast her out, and how it made her mad to always be running into us.  We continued talking a bit though, and even though we didn't say much, she stopped mid-sentence while rejecting what we were saying and said "Wait... I'm hearing a voice that says that maybe there's a reason why I always see you guys around." and by the end of our conversation, she asked for a prayer.  It was crazy!  Another sadder experience happened while we were walking down the road; we stopped to talk to some rough looking guys, and while they were perfectly kind and willing to hear us out, a woman stopped by in a van and started shouting at us to "Walk away from those men" and started talking about how they were drug users and dealers and how God can't save them.    I said something back that I don't remember, but whatever it was ended the conversation and she drove off angry at us for it all.  It was super sad to see how much the world really has no idea what Christ did here.

All in all, you can see we've been busy.  We have a new investigator; Laticia, who's really cool.  Hopefully I'll have more to tell you about next time, but I'm out of time!  I love you all and I hope Utah is treating you well.  Tell Bishop Anderson that he's the man and I hope the family's doing well too!

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

I done got a mensaje por all ya'll que no hablan Spanish!

Hello family!  It's good to sit down and write a bit again. This past week has been pretty interesting, so I've got quite a bit to write ya about!  

First off; I'm suffering some of the side-effects of being an English Spanish missionary in Taft. The other day, as we left a Mexican family, I shouted "Ya'll que tengan bien dia!"   Elder Nalder was laughing his head off for the next ten minutes!  It's hilarious when we wind up mixing the languages.  

The work this week has been great, but still a bit tough to actually find people at home.  I guess that's how it's going to go for a while.  The sacrament meeting talk yesterday was on patience; and both Elder Nalder and I recognized our need for it.  As long as we keep doing our part, the Lord will provide guidance to people who are ready.  It can be a bit hard to accept that and feel successful at the same time, but we'll do it!  D&C 31 helped me know that if I work my hardest, "the laborer is worthy of his hire."

We've found a lot of really super cool places lately though!  We've seen apartments that probably cost more to rent than a bad house payment, houses that make the apartment complexes look small, and a part of town called "The Knolls"  I really think I want to retire there.  I'll have to take some pictures.  The houses in that section of town are super weird; none of them are a standard house.  The roads are tiny, winding mountain roads that barely let our little car by.  It's super forest-y and downright beautiful, and there's a bunch of Peacocks wandering around.  We got lost up there looking for a referral from the media missionaries at the MTC, who apparently asked for the lessons and wants to be baptized!  The only problem is the missionaries haven't been able to find her for a while; the message we got was way confusing.  We think we know where she's at now though; the only problem is it's in a gated-community.  Wish us luck!

It sounds like this week's been pretty nuts for you all.  I hope it's all going well and that the work isn't killing you guys to badly.  Hopefully the van get's worked out.  I hope Dad travels safe, that Brittney and Danielle rock the school as usual, and that Mom has a little more peace and calm.

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

Meanwhile, in Simi Valley...

Hello from Simi Valley!  It's been a fantastic week out here.  Simi Valley is a really nice place.  The best way to describe it is it's basically like Taft, just bigger, richer, and more up to date.  It's a pretty good sized city, and we cover the whole thing, so it'll take me quite a while to learn the area.  But that's how it goes.  

The work here is about to explode!  We've got a number of super solid investigators, and we keep getting rock solid referrals.  It's been a bit tough to actually catch them at home and have a lesson, but hey, that's how it goes! We've got a ton of exciting appointments set up for this week, so we should get quite a bit done.  I'll let you know more about investigators, members and so forth as I go and get used to the area and the people.

One thing that's been really cool and a bit tough too is that here, we don't actually teach a lot of Mexicans.  We've been teaching everyone else!  People from Honduras, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia, etc.  It's super neat to meet a bunch of different cultures and see them coming together in the branch, but it also makes it hard to understand what everyone's saying.  I'm okay listening to Peruvians, Mexicans, and Bolivians, but all the rest throw me for a loop!  It's also harder to distinguish their houses out of the English ones, because they all look the same out here!  So we also have been giving out a couple referrals.

Neat miracle of the week; While planning, I was staring at the map across the room, and we decided to go tract the road I'd been staring at.  When we went there, the first door we knocked on turned out to be a member of the English ward, who told us to go visit a less active member that he home-teaches, whose non-member wife speaks mostly Spanish.  So, we booked it on over there, and talked to him a bit.  We helped inspire him to start preparing to move forward in the gospel again, and he told us he'd give us a call if they needed anything.  It was pretty neat!

Yesterday, we had Elder Lynn G Robins of the Seventy visit our mission.  Literally all day long was spent listening to him and President Castro help us understand what the Lord is asking us to do right now.  There was so much fantastic revelation we recieved, and it really helped my perspective on how I can work better as both a missionary and a District Leader.  He talked a bunch about how Agency and Responsibility are completely connected; you cannot have choice without being responsible for that choice.  If you deny responsibility, you ALWAYS end up in bondage without agency.  It was all stuff you've taught me my whole life (Mom and Dad) but it was super profound this time to me.  It made so much sense!  (Hopefully I get the message this time)

Well, I definitely miss Taft and the friends I've made there, but I'm excited to work out here in Simi.  The district is FANTASTIC.  They're some of the hardest working missionaries I've ever seen in my mission.  They're almost foaming at the mouth, they're working so hard!  It's kinda wierd too, because they're all younger than me in the mission. (A First) and they're such great examples to ME!  Elder Nalder, My companion, is a total boss, who knows exactly why he's here and knows very personally the difference the Gospel makes in people's lives.  With friends like these, how can we fail?  This is the Lords work after all, and they are all super faithful.  Hopefully I can catch up!

At any rate, I'm grateful to be out here, and for the opportunity to grow in my love of the Lord and my understanding of His work. I love you all, and I hope all is well.  Tell Ron McEntire he's a boss, and I hope he's doing well too!

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

PINKWASH!!!

My time in Taft has come to an end...

And so has Elder Mortimer's, oddly enough!  We're both getting transferred!  They're taking us out and replacing us with Sister missionaries! (Which is reffered to as a "pinkwash" instead of a whitewash)  It's gonna be a hectic day saying goodbye to everyone here and making sure the car and apartment are spotless enough to not gross out Sister (Spidler? something like that) and her companion.  There's not enough time in one day!!!

So Elder Mortimer is taking off for Santa Barbara!  I can't believe they're moving him from his first area already!  It's a very unusual turn of events.  He's going to be with Elder Cole (Whom I do not know).  I'll be going to Simi Valley, wherever that is.  (Somewhere near Thousand Oaks)  I've heard it's a lovely place, so I'm a bit excited.  It'll be great to be there for the summer though.  As it turns out, I'm apparently going to be the district leader too, so that'll be different.  I'm super nervous and quite excited about it at the same time.  At any rate it'll be a great time of growth for me.  Wish me luck!  I'll be serving with Elder Naldor, whom I also do not know.  Sounds like a blast!  Another thing that's interesting is that it appears that Elder Mortimer and I will be in the California Ventura Mission for good.  I think that this is the transfer that decides it.  (I've heard Elder Jenkins is moving too so I hope he's coming out to Ventura with me!!!)

This past week has been a madhouse for the work.  We taught 9 lessons with a member there and 6 others!  We've been truly blessed to have a bunch of lessons fall out of nowhere.  Also, Eliel came to church!  He's a way cool guy who called us over to his car while we were tracting.  He's kinda been bouncing around churches looking for one that teaches truth.  He'd left a few because they strayed from the teachings of the bible, and he's been leaning towards the Seventh Day Adventist church, because they do a pretty good job of following what's there.  We had a perfect Restoration lesson with him, and then, he's the first investigator we've had come to church in forever!  He loved it, and probably the coolest bit was when we were walking down the halls, he started asking about the paintings we have of Mormon, Moroni, and Joseph Smith getting the plates.  He thought they were really cool, but he LOVED the painting of Christ visiting America.  

At any rate, I'm so proud of Kali and Grandpa for taking such huge steps in the Gospel!  It's awesome that the Missionaries there got so close to them; that's really the best part.  I'm so glad they came by and blessed our family like that.  I hope everyone's doing well, and that Dad and Danielle get feeling better!

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

29 Apr 2013 Letter from Taft

This week has ALSO disappeared into the gaping jaws of the past...  I could have sworn I was writing my last e-mail just yesterday.

We're coming up on week six now, so transfers are coming up.  YIKES!  I can't believe this transfer's already on the way out.  It seems like good old Elder Mortimer just barely showed up!  I guess that's what happens when you're having fun.  

This week has been really really good.  Elder Mortimer and I have finally fallen into the right rhythm, and we've been feeling fantastic!  It's been a great week too in terms of the work.  Probably the neatest thing is we finally went back to see Jose, an investigator we haven't seen since earlier this month.  We finally did find him though, and when we started talking he said, "I'm sorry, I haven't read much."  We were both like, Cool!  It's just great that you've read!  So then we got ready to start the lesson, so I asked him to bring his book of Mormon, and when he did, I saw he'd read to page nine!  We were shocked!  Some people think they've read a ton when they've read a single page!  What's more is that the way I knew that he'd read that far, was that he'd been using a pencil to underline and circle phrases he felt were important or stuck out!  We were both like  again.  It was crazy!  It also turns out that he's taking Dr. Pease's class at the college, which is awesome because he's only the greatest member missionary on the planet. (Just out of the people I've taught, Dr. Pease played a huge role in bringing Jose, Cami, and Josh into the church!)  So we're excited for that.  He's doing a great job at understanding the Book of Mormon too; he can recite everything that's happening in the story to you.  The only problem is that he's having a harder time relating it to his personal life.  So we had an awesome lesson on how to use the Book of Mormon to answer personal questions, the example we used was his question, "What should I do?"  It was really cool!

In other news, we had a BOSS lesson with the Recent Convert Jose, where we sat down and watched the District 2 episode one.  He'd been "complaining" that we never show him the rough parts of missionary work, only the best. (which is NOT true, we're always throwing him in the worst lessons on accident, It's more like the spirit is telling him he needs to go!)  The first episode of the District 2 is perfect for that, because it shows a lot of excitement and joy, as well as some of the hardest things to face in a mission, such as tough companion relationships, a lack of obvious success, and even tragedy at home.  After we watched it, he said, "Yeah, I know I'm going to go.  I've just got some mixed feelings about it."  He's such a total boss! we're taking him to a dinner lesson tonight with an investigator who knows his family. It's gonna be good!

Other than that, the work here in Taft has been pretty much the same!  I'm kinda starting to figure out some of how this missionary business works, so hopefully we'll start having some success.  I'm super stoked about Kali's baptism.  I'm super proud of you, Kali!  As well as Grandpa, for the chance he has to baptize her!  I'm so glad everyone's doing well.  Keep up the good work.  I'm glad Dad made it home safe.  I love you all!

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

Mormon Messages for the Win!!!

Finally, a relaxed P-day!  Between getting the car fixed, and doing e-mails in Bakersfield and stuff, we've not had a good Monday to really sit down and let off some steam.  It was a really good day so far; we had to get a lot done really early because of Apartment Inspections, but that just means that we have more time to chill in the afternoon!  Phew!

This week has been a really interesting one.  Honestly, not a bunch of things have happened.  We did get to teach a bunch of lessons, but unfortunately, actual progress has been slow.  We did get to do quite a bit of Less active work this past week, which is always important.  

One cool thing is that Elder Mortimer got the "Mormon Messages" DVDs over this week, and we've been using them like crazy!  The messages there are super good and powerful.  They were so good that they even got Josh (Who's been a bit of a stick in the mud lately) to think about it and tell his roommate that they were pretty good.  They've definitely been useful in inviting the spirit and providing a good atmosphere to start a lesson in.  I highly recommend them; you can find them on Youtube and Mormonchannel.org.  They make great, short faith boosters.  Another good one; Joseph Smith the prophet of the Restoration.  You can actually download the entire movie for free on Mormonchannel.  (Do it! It's really REALLY good!)

We did a bunch of service this week too; we OWNED a yard-full of weeds at the Hannon's house and at Mellissa's (Good thing I got good practice cutting bushes via "Zelda,") and we washed Sherry's dog Rascal, and dug a big trench at the Estill's home.  It's always nice to get working hard and break a bit of a sweat.  It helped provide a chance to think out how I can be better and more effective in the work.  

It was crazy to find out about the Boston Marathon.  We'd overheard stuff about it, and before long people eventually let us know what had happened.  It was pretty scary for a second, because Brother Bryan, who owns our apartment and runs with us too, usually runs that marathon, and when the bomb went off was just about where he'd likely have been.  Fortunately, he'd decided not to go this year, and he's absolutely fine!  Thank heavens for spiritual warnings!

All in all, it's been a good, but not outlandish week.  Sorry I don't have more to write about, but I'll try and have more adventures next week!  Maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention this time around. Either way, I'm glad to hear all is going well with the family, and tell Lauren congratulations on the upcoming wedding!  That's SUPER exciting stuff right there.  Keep up the good work and do what you can to help out others!  I love you all, and hope everything goes good next week too.  

Love, 

Elder Matthew David Clough

That was a week? I thought....

This week has been a bit crazy!  Actually, it's been extremely awesome.  We've seen a lot of really cool things this past week, and we're seeing a bunch of success out here!

We've been able to talk to a bunch of people this past week, and while we don't actually have any "progressing" investigators; many are close, and some miracles are definitely in the works.  

First off, one of the highlights of the week has definitely been the discussion at the college.  We showed up Wednesday at noon at the school and found where we were supposed to meet; which was a small open amphitheater in the middle of the campus.  We were a bit nervous about it, because when we showed up there was nobody there.    fortunately, the person who arranged for us to come and speak found us and took us to the room where we were supposed to meet.  We waited for a little bit, and before long we had a decently sized audience of 20-30 people.  So, since none of the other religions showed up to speak, we had the floor for all of the 30-ish minutes.  So, we figured we'd just declare the Restoration as usual, since it explains everything we believe.  Elder Mortimer did a fantastic job, and we both felt the spirit super strong while we taught.  The students were surprisingly attentive, a few were even taking notes.  At the end, we passed out a bunch of Mormon.org cards and "business cards" to get a hold of us if they had any more questions.  A couple students asked some good questions. Hopefully some excellent seeds were thrown out there.  On the way out of the college, a teacher called us over, introduced himself as a member from Delano, and gave us a referral for the man sitting directly in front of him!  It was a tiny bit awkward but the man took it well.  We had to run to make it to President's interviews on time, but he invited us to come back and talk at the same time another day.  Miracle!

My interview with President Castro was superb.  It truly goes to show how inspired he really is.  I was a bit worried about going in, because of my inadequacies as a missionary (let alone a trainer!) but he helped me feel comfortable and excited as always.  We talked about a lot of things that really helped me overcome some problems, and I've been feeling pretty fantastic ever since!  In kind of a strange way, I feel more "like a missionary" now.  He also mentioned how he's seen artistic talents bless his own life and the lives of others, and encouraged me to continue using them to lift others, but be sure that's what's happening.  As we talked on that, I felt a spiritual confirmation of what I hope to do someday.  I'm really grateful too for the way I've had the opportunity to do exactly that out here as a missionary.

After that, we had the Traveling Trainers come out to help me and Elder Mortimer improve.  Elder Gigena served with Elder Mortimer out here, which I was super excited about; Elder Gigena is a BOSS!  They worked hard and he learned a ton!  I got to work with Elder Aguirre, who follow-up trained my follow-up trainer; Elder Johnson!  He's a really spiritual, awesome guy.  That came in a lot of handy when we went to teach Jasmin; as we taught the Plan of Salvation, she expressed a lot of the trials and heartaches that cause her to disbelieve what we were teaching.  Elder Aguirre handled it wonderfully, testifying and teaching in such a powerful way that they both shed tears.  It was really hard to see her struggle so much due to the intense trials she has faced.  I can't even imagine!  At any rate, Elder Aguirre and I learned a lot from each other, it's a pity he and Elder Gigena are finished with their missions this transfer!  AHHH!!!

Sunday was one of those crazy roller-coaster days!  We didn't have any "investigators" come to church, but if you remember how we'd run into Layla, she did!  She came with the Morrows, and although the testimonies were super weird (we were dying over there worrying about how she was taking it!) she enjoyed it pretty well, and even came to the YSA break the fast dinner at the Pease's home.  She's accepted a book of Mormon from Sam, and she seems super ready for the message!  As soon as she is ready to meet with us, things will roll just fine!  At the Pease home, I'd been talking with Brother Pease about his "born in the church conversion story", and mentioned how hilariously ridiculous my own is.  He invited me to share it as the spiritual message, so I did.  I've told it so often by now that I've got it down to a pretty funny, but for me and for some, a pretty powerful account.  I felt the spirit super strong, and when I testified of how grateful i am to be a missionary and see people grow and change, it was really hard to keep my cool.   Cami and I both broke down.  I really do love this work so much now!!!  

At any rate, I've got to get moving, we've run out of time, and we've got to get the car's brakes changed so it's another P-day in Bakersfield!  I love you all, and I hope all is well!  Thank you for the card; the message has been repeated to me over and over this week.  Gotta Love those trials!

Love, 

Elder Matthew David Clough