Fulfilling prophecy; here in the Great California Ventura Mission!

This week has been ridiculous.  I've never worked so hard or effectively in my whole mission.  The Zone really took the correction from Elder Bowen well, and it's evidenced by the fact that the numbers this week almost doubled from the last.  In just our own area, we had 35 lessons!  That may not be a lot in some missions, but in ours that's unheard-of!  One companionship in our zone actually achieved the challenge he gave us already!  They taught over 40!  They're a huge inspiration to us, and our goal as a zone this next week is to accomplish it as well.  The way we've been doing it is so exciting to do: we're staying out of our cars (the "curse of the mission") as much as possible, and try to turn literally every person we see into a new investigator.  It's made for some interesting experiences, and some miracles as well!  Only time will tell what true blessings come from these efforts, and who is brought to the gospel by them.

We also went to the temple this week, and that was an adventure in it's own right!  We went with two recent converts from the ward, and they had no idea how to get there.  It turned out all right, and just as we arrived, we met a group of missionaries on their way home from Australia.  They were really friendly, but the cool part came when they found out that we're from the California Ventura Mission: it turns out that the Sister missionary there has a sister serving in our mission!  She was super excited to be able to write her a brief note and send it along with some lesson helps she'd used in her mission.  Fortunately, her sister is even serving in Ventura, so we'll be getting that to her today.  The temple was beautiful, of course, and I learned so much in the session!  I'm resolved to attend at least monthly.  On the way back from the Temple, we got lost while our ride was looking for somewhere to eat.  We wound up accidentally traveling through Bel-air, Hollywood, and even Beverly Hills!  It was exciting but we were happy when we were back on our way to the mission.

We also had two amazing exchanges this week: one was a tri-pan exchange, meaning we just got an extra missionary for the day.  It was a unique experience to be teaching in a tri-pan, and all the better because our extra was Elder Jenkins!  He's grown even more since last we served together: he's a true servant of the Lord!  His faith and dedication went a long way towards helping us reach out to everyone and reach our goal.  One special experience that day, happened when we ran into one of our friends; Basilio, on our way to visit Ruben.  It was good to see him, but we thought we didn't have any time so we were just going to set up an appointment and run.  Elder Jenkins tapped me on the shoulder however, and said "Maybe we're not that busy..." So we repented and taught him a short lesson on the Book of Mormon.  At the end, we invited him to pray, and since he didn't know how to read and was a bit nervous, he really resisted.  Elder Jenkins said a short demonstration prayer, and then I walked him through saying his own, the way you would help a small child, and although he only prayed for one thing, his son (who's struggling and in jail)  he was super touched by the spirit and was weeping at the end.  Then he said "I feel better!  so much better!"  It was a humbling reminder that in all this busyness and places to go, we need to worry more about the ONE and not the massive amounts of numbers.

The other exchange was a fantastic one, and I got to go with Elder Bautista!!! It was such a powerful experience and an answer to prayers!  Elder Bautista had learned so much from the mission conference, and is really seeking to apply it.  He's learned so much and is well on his way to reaching the next level of his awesome potential.  They're re-awakening a struggling ward, and are really starting to gain the Bishop's trust and admiration through their reliability and hard work.

Samuel is also doing awesome as usual.  We've taught him a lot recently, and he's getting there step by step.  I love teaching him because he's super sharp and yet super humble and loving at the same time.  We'll have to push his baptism date back a bit, because we're waiting for his sister to come up from Mexico, but he'll be ready very soon!

I'm super proud of everyone and all the stuff that's going on!  Keep having those scripture studies and family home evenings, it's the little things that make all the rest fall into place!  Tell Danielle that swimming is super fun but RUNNING will always be king!  I love you all and pray for you every night.

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

And the Great California Ventura Mission promptly caught on fire.

That's pretty much what happened this week.  We had our Mission Leader Council meeting in preparation for the Mission Conference itself, and then we had the number one most spiritual meeting I've ever been part of.  The Mission Conference with Elder Nelson, Elder Bowen, and Elder Garnes was incredible.  It's changed this mission, I can already feel it, and it's changing me too.

I'll talk about Mission conference first: it's the most important part after all!

We had a very strict set of instructions to follow, and I'm proud to say that all our 300+ missionaries performed every word of command with exactness!  We were ready and reverently seated long before the guests of honor arrived.  When they did, the room was already full of the spirit, but we could still feel their presence.  Elder Nelson is certainly an Apostle of the Lord!

The talks were fantastic.  Elder Bowen really put us in our place and raised our vision of what is possible!  He started out asking if we are obedient missionaries and we immediately answered "Yes!"  While he was surprised by our answer (Most people say "I try to be" or something similar) he was pleased and told us it was the right one.  After all, the purpose of this life isn't to see if we will "try" to be obedient, but "(to) prove (us) herewith if (we) will obey every command which the Lord (our) God shall give them."  (Abraham something verse something)  He told us though, that we have to do more.  We have to do ALL the "small" rules; if we can't sacrifice those things, how can we ask a man to forsake his life, at the potential risk of being disowned by his own family?  He said if he was our investigator and we asked him to quit coffee or smoking, etc, he'd ask us "Do you get up EVERY MORNING at 6:30?"  (I was very relieved THAT is something I've kept up on!)  He then talked about how we have to step up our game and do more.  We get excited over 6-7 lessons a week: we SHOULD be teaching 40.  He used the example of how the medical community believed it was impossible for the human body to run a mile in under 4 minutes, else the heart would rupture.  But then, Roger Bannister DID it, and a year later 6 others did.  It reminded me of getting past my own mental barriers in Track to beat the 5 minute mile.  I'm super excited to be doing that the next few months: but I wish I'd felt this way earlier!!!  I almost feel like I've "wasted" a year and a half to actually get the answers on how to do this!

Elder Nelson's talk was interesting.  It was largely composed of a question and answer period, and I learned a LOT!  Out of the list of questions I'd written down all of the important ones were answered fully, even though I never had a chance to raise my own hand (I was too busy writing!)  His testimony was powerful, and his final message was to obey those who are placed as watchmen over our souls (ie, President Castro and his Wife)  Elder Nelson was pretty hilarious too; a joke he mentioned as he invited a stake president and his wife to come up and bear testimony was "Ladies first of course! They always have to break the ice for the men..." So true! 

This week was amazing for the work too: After the conference our desire and ability was magnified tenfold!  The district we were in almost tripled our usual numbers.  We also had 4 investigators at church: Samuel, Alicia and her daughter Esme, and Allison!  They loved it, and we're excited to keep pressing forward!  I've run out of time I'm afraid, but I love you all and hope you feel the blessing Elder Nelson pronounced on you in our presence.

Love,
Elder Matthew David Clough

ps: The Balboa family (from Arriagas Chiapas) says Hermana Balboa would have been 5-6 when dad was there: does he remember the Nataren/Orozco family? Or Obispo Jaime Castillejo?

President Castro's pretty much the best fellowshipper in the world.

This week was amazing!  It was just as hectic and busy as I'd expect week one to be, but we got to teach a lot of great people and we saw some awesome miracles.  Working out the Zone Goals was different this time, it seemed a lot harder but then all of a sudden they clicked into place and they're perfect for our needs.  My favorite is that we're going to work on having a more positive, responsible attitude.  Basically, whenever a negative statement is made, like "This area is really hard." or "We can't teach anyone because they won't let us."  one of the missionaries will say a positive response to take responsibility, like "It does seem difficult right now, but if we work hard we'll see blessings."  One of the number one lessons I've learned in my mission is attitude really is everything!

Anyway, this week has been awesome.  Last P-day we hiked up a CRAZY trail, which was basically a game path straight up a mountainside, to the giant wooden San Buenaventura Cross.  We even had to use a rope to go straight up one super sandy spot.  Coming down was the hardest part, but we survived with no injuries.  Blessings!

It was weird not being at transfers meeting for the first time in what seems like forever, but I'm glad we could stay: we've had so many miracles this week!  We didn't get a chance to teach Samuel yet but he did come to church.  He's such an awesome, chill kid.  It was cool, because even though he's only ten, he was really excited to come to church, and got his uncle to take him even though the rest of his family stayed home.  It's amazing to see how humble he is.

We also taught several lessons on keeping the Sabbath day holy to families that can't come to church because of work.  We used the example of Nefi getting the Brass plates and really threw down on how important it is to sacrifice and do the Lord's will.  Felipe, one of our most solid investigators, REALLY loved it, and said: "You know what? This is really hard for me.  Work is what I AM, I work 3 jobs, 30 hours a week EACH.  Nobody works like I do.  But I know I've got to do this.  I know that God loves sacrifice."  It was incredibly humbling to be the ones asking him to step down from his pride a bit.  But they came!  We attended the 9 o' clock English ward with them, and it was perfect.  It was fast and testimony meeting, and all the testimonies were super focused and specific to their needs.  All of the ward, including President Castro, welcomed them with open arms and President Castro even gave his testimony specifically in Spanish, just for them!  Felipe even took a whole page of notes from the testimonies (I've never seen ANYONE do that!) and one of them (I had to peek)  was "We need to be Eternal Family"  Afterwards, they left super happy, and said they could FEEL the difference the moment they crossed the doorway of the church back into the world.  I can only describe it all with one word: Awesome.

I'm very excited for what the future holds: we're going to work hard and see great blessings.  Elder Lee has really gotten into the mode as a Zone Leader, and we'll work super hard to build everyone up. 

In the last letter you wrote me you mentioned you're signing me up at Weber for the same stuff I had; and that's perfect.  Even though I've grown so much as a person, a lot of my life-plans are the same, so I'll start there.  Due to that and comments made by other loving (but ignorantly cruel!) missionaries, I've really felt the time crunch this week:  So much to do, so few weeks!  I know we're doing what God wants us to do, and I'm excited to do that in some way for every stage of my life.

Keep up the good work, love everyone, and love yourselves too!  Keep looking for people to encourage and bless, and let Brother Lowder know I'm mindful of them if you get the chance.

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

Round two in Ventura!

For the first time in a LONG time, I'm staying with my companion!  We're super excited, especially since last week brought so many miracles and blessings.  This next transfer we're going to hit the ground hard and get a lot of work done.

I LOVED Conference!  It was incredibly uplifting, and I really felt the power and love of God in those meetings.  A lot of my questions were answered in that meeting, either directly or by the subtle impressions I felt.  It was interesting how small comments and stories that the General Authorities used to introduce their talks often carried a subtle side message that answered a question I'd been praying about, instead of the main theme of the talk!  All in all, we felt a huge burst of hastening again in the work, and I know that during the next six months, things are going to get hard but so much will be accomplished.  It was really enlightening for me to realize that in President Monson's lifetime, the number of temples in the world has increased times 10!

This week we saw great success in the work, in spite of limited time.  Our most promising investigator right now is a little 9 year old boy whose whole family are members, who just moved here from Mexico.  His name is Samuel, and though he was a little shy and timid at first, he's started running up to us as soon as he sees us.  It was amazing to me how fast he grew to love and trust us.  That's why kids are so Christlike!  He doesn't have a whole lot of Gospel knowledge yet but we'll work with him bit by bit, and he's set to be baptized on the 3rd of May.

We also had a great night after conference.  Fired up with the Spirit, we were led and tracked down several investigators that had fallen off the map for a long time.  We even found Alicia, who was SUPER close before I showed up, but who disappeared after week one.  She only had a moment to talk, but she's still interested, and we'll meet again with her tonight.

Another tender mercy of the Lord was that even though we were very busy with conference and end-of-the-transfer paperwork, we taught many lessons, and by talking with everyone we could we even exceeded the number of "declarations" that the mission has set as our weekly standard!  This was a testimony to me that if we just dedicate ourselves to it, we can accomplish the Lord's goals.

At any rate, I haven't heard much about what's going on with my old companions and friends this time, but I trust they'll do great!  I hope Mom and Danielle get feeling better, and that we can apply the stuff we learned at Conference.  Life's the best!

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough

It's not over yet! Transfers is next week. (Don't scare me like that!) Mom thought transfers were this week!

This week has been awesome!

We had a lot of interesting stuff go down this week.  It's been a little bit of a tougher week; I'm afraid we had a lot of investigators struggling to meet with us let alone progress.  But we saw some miracles as usual, especially in the weekend. 

One neat event was that I got to go out and work in Fillmore on an exchange, and while I was there we met a man named Berry.  He's from the dutch colonies in Indonesia, and he's an incredible man!  He's seen a lot of experiences that have taught him to trust God and seek his council, and the way he goes about it is perfect!  Especially in reference to the Book of Mormon, he says he reads it, studying out what is REALLY there, and then he "metaphorically lays it on the Altar of God" to see what God says about it, and if he feels good then he knows it's right!  It was amazing how close to the Lord's council to Oliver Cowdery in the Doctrine and Covenants it was. 

We had three baptisms in the Zone this transfer; and two of them yesterday!  I got to do the baptismal interview for one; and it was a very powerful experience.  I really enjoy doing the interviews; President Castro has really emphasized the importance of doing these in the correct, spiritual manner lately.  It's a somewhat awful responsibility to stand in the Lord's place and give the permission for someone to be baptized into the Lord's kingdom.  Fortunately, I've never felt like I was the one doing the job in these interviews; the Spirit is always very clear and gives me what to say, what to ask, and if they are sufficiently prepared.

We're super excited for General Conference!  I'm kind of intimidated by the fact that some of the revelation I'll receive this time will be directly connected to returning home and what I'll need to do when I do get back; since it's the last conference of my mission. :(  But I'm also excited to find out what the Lord wants me to do to finish strong here and start off sprinting there.  On that note, it's interesting for me to look back and see how my mission has mirrored the way I used to run the mile.  Sprint at the start, stride the middle, struggle through the third, but I intend to give it my all at the end.

I love you all so much and hope you're doing well!  I loved hearing about Danielle's mishaps with pictures;  it's incredibly endearing!  Tell her I'm preparing a special letter for her, but I'm not sure how long it'll take me to finish: it's a complicated thing.  I'll send pictures too, as soon as I find my other memory card. ^-^;  In the meantime, I'll be working and sending prayers!

Love

Elder Matthew David Clough

Prepare for the coming!

We're going to be having Mission conference this next month: On April 19th, we're going to be visited by Elder Russel M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve, as well as Elder Bowen and Elder Garns of the Seventy.  It's super exciting, and we're going to start preparing right away!  I can't wait to see what guidance and direction we receive from an Apostle of the Lord.

In the meantime, the work has been awesome.  Elder Lee and I had some amazing miracles, and we've been working with some really awesome people.  The Lord is truly working hard out here for us!

First off, we got back in contact with one of our main investigators, Mariela!  Last Sunday, we'd gone to invite her to church, but after we knocked on her door, we saw her silhouette come up to it and then *Click!*  It seemed like she'd locked us out!  It was super sad and a little weird.  So, we decided to give them a break, thinking that maybe they were annoyed at us coming by a lot.  Eventually, when we talked to her mother in law (Who is a member) we found out that in reality, when she tried to open and talk to us, the door had broken!  She'd been stuck in the RV they live in for hours while someone came to get them out!  So, we went back, and on exchanges Elder James and I had an amazing lesson with them about Agency, Obedience, and the Word of Wisdom.  This was once something they struggled with but now they are determined to live it.  She's been reading the Book of Mormon too, which is progress!

We also got to teach a young father of 3 named Reuben. He's also been reading, and loves meeting with us.  He told us at first that he didn't understand much of what he'd read, but then was able to tell us back Nefi's whole story!  We read Chapter four with him, which was very timely because he kinda struggled with Nefi killing Laban.  He got through it though, and even though he was a bit sick, he was sad we stopped reading and said "I could've read the whole book with yall right now!"  It was great!

We also found out that Hermano Torres, an Eternal investigator we visit every Wednesday, had cracked open the Book of Mormon last week, and just read one verse.  He later told his wife though, that what he'd read was true, and that it felt really good.  Slowly but surely!!!  He's progressed a lot since he first came in contact with the church.

We also had a somewhat sad lesson with a woman who'd joined the church a long time ago, but married a catholic man and so decided to go back in order to avoid contention.  We talked a lot about what her plans are for her family, but while she plans on coming back eventually and hopes to bring him along, she isn't doing anything about it.  She decided to raise her children catholic, and teach them good values and then hope that they can make that decision and join the church for themselves later.  I was saddened because it was very clear to me that she is witholding something very precious from them.  It's an eternal principle that the Lord will work no miracle if we don't do our part first.  I learned a lot from that lesson; I determine to be the kind of parent that I had; that left me my agency but made it very clear what was true and what was false.  We will do our best to help her start doing that as well.

I hope everyone has a great week and sees lots of blessings!  Look for the feelings of the Spirit in your life; if it's not there, do something that puts it there.  And if it's there; rejoice and keep on keepin' on!  The Spirit is a sure sign of God's approval. 

Love everyone!

Elder Matthew David Clough

 

The week when it rained miracles

As opposed to previous weeks, I don't mean to say that there was rain which was the miracle, but rather that it's been down-pouring blessings!  The area has been positively exploding: we had more lessons than I think I've ever seen in a week.  But not only have we gotten lots of work done, the people we've taught and the things that have happened have been incredible.

I'm not a hundred percent positive where to start, but I'll give it a go.  First off, last Monday we were walking to a lesson when we met a woman buying corn from a paletero.  We tried talking to the paletero, but he just wasn't having us.  The woman, however, wound up being very interested in what we were up to, and as we got talking, a member walked up too and started helping us out!  She helped us out so much!  The woman was so engaged in the conversation she completely forgot about the corn she'd bought.  It was cool to talk to her, because she kept bringing up views she has about society that are practically the Church's standards about things that most people have a very different perspective on.

I also had a fun moment to teach a less-active young man named Carlos using a guitar!  I played a famous song and asked him how he recognized it.  (Because he'd listened to it a million times!)  We talked about how it's the same way with the Lord's voice.  We must get so accustomed to "hearing His voice" that we instantly recognize Him.  He liked it a lot, but work keeps him from coming.

I think one of the craziest miracles we had this week, though, was while we taught Gilbert; an investigator who's been a bit off and on.  He's had some tough things going on lately, and when we got talking, he REALLY started getting it.  He has some member family, and he's noticed how much he wants the gospel now.  But right in the middle of the lesson, as he was explaining all this to us, his 7 year old son opened the door and ran across the room, and Gilbert said: "Hey guys, I'm having some pretty crazy Dejah-Vu right now!  Ten years ago, when I was in prison, I had a dream about this moment!!!  I was sitting here, and a kid -My SON! walked across the room, and I was talking about something to two guys sitting right there but I couldn't see their faces!!"  It was a very spiritual moment!

This week we also took some time to work in the areas of other members of the zone to find people to teach.  We had them pray about where we could go, and every time we've done this we've had amazing experiences!

I'm sorry to hear about President Reed's wife.  I love that man!  If you see him please let him know I'm praying for his family and their loss.  I'm also certain I'll see his son out here at some point; the mission isn't completely segregated yet!  It's an exciting thing to have him coming out here to the Great California Ventura Mission!  If he want's, I can send him some notes about this particular mission.

I'm praying for you all, and I'm working hard!  I know God answers our prayers and knows our necessities.  I love you all, and can't wait to hear from ya in a week!

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough