Week 1 Argentina

Hey all! FYI I forgot my camera cord, so no pictures this week. Sorry. I’m so bad at pictures.

This has been a whirlwind of a week! I am in the city of Centenario which is west of Neuquen, I believe. My companions name if Elder Hanzon. He is from South Jordan, Utah. We are getting along really well and I’m enjoying being with him! Our pension is really nice! It’s got lots of space and a fairly nice kitchen!

So the work in my area is basically at zero. Elder Hanzon has told me that basically we are opening a new area, meaning that we have 0 investigators and are basically just going through all our Antiguos (old investigators and contacts for this area) and trying to contact them and make progress. Because of this, it’s been really hard for me. I thought I would come down here, and we would be so busy teaching and visiting with people but that’s not how it is. We spend a lot of our days just walking to different parts of our area for appointments with members. The mission president has also said that we shouldn’t knock (clap) doors because it is so ineffective. So we just try and make contact with old investigators and hope and pray for the best. It’s so different than what I thought it was going to be.

Another thing I have to adjust to is the way of life here. So I thought that we would be super busy just all the time running here and there to teach and find and all these things. Wrong. So, at least where I am, the people aren’t very receptive and so there isn’t a whole lot to do. We do what we can but we spend a lot of time just kind of hanging out. It sounds worse than it is, but it’s still pretty bad. Elder Shearer, one of the elders in my district, was telling me that that is just how it is and I have to adjust. He told me he was the same way and I just have to adjust. It’s so weird. But yea, Not much happening, as far as the work goes.

A few things about Argentina:  1) everything is dirty here. The weather here is normally dry, but it’s been super wet and so everything is muddy. All my clothes, dirty. All the streets, dirty. Inside all the houses, dirty. That is a big adjust that I have to make. I like clean. 0_0    2) Dogs. Everywhere. There are stray dogs everywhere. It’s Insane!! At our pension we have 4 that follow us around. It’s hilarious! The elders here have named them. I will send a picture before I leave. 3) The food is delicious! We have eaten at members houses for lunch every day and the food is just all so good!! Yesterday, we had pizza with a family. It was homemade pizza and they made 9 pizzas. There were 8 of us there. But it was sooooo good!! All the food is so good! 4) The language. Yikes. I thought I would be able to get by but I literally can’t understand them. The Castillion Spanish is so difficult. Instead of like y sounds they use ch sounds and so the words I thought I knew, I have to relearn pronouncing them differently and the way they speak, I can’t understand yet. It’s been a real struggle. I’d appreciate all the prayers I can get! I literally sit at our lunch appointments silent because I don’t understand. Then they ask me questions, and I always need them to repeat it so I can understand and about 50% of the time, I answer a question that they weren’t asking. For example, they might ask, "How long have you been in the mission?" and I, not understanding and guessing will say "I’m from Seattle, Washington!" It’s a struggle.

But other than that, I am having so much fun and am learning so much!! It’s been a great experience so far and I know there is so much more to come! I know I’m forgetting a lot to tell you guys, but email me if you have specific questions! Love you all so much!!

 

Shout outs-

1) Sister Tryon - Thanks for adding me to your weekly letters! I love hearing about what’s going on back at home!!

2)Chelease - Probably spelled that wrong. Love you anyway! Thanks for the donuts! My district and I really enjoyed them!!

P.S. I told you all that we were going to have a General Authority speak to us in the MTC. We had Elder L. Tom Perry come and speak to us! It was amazing!! It was so cool to have an Apostle come and speak to us. But we got another surprise!! So on the Sunday before I left, we had our usual Sunday devotional. We watched a talk by Elder David A. Bednar. It was super great. It was about acting as Christ did. It was called Character of Christ. I suggest watching it! But after the video, Elder Bednar just strolls in like it’s no big deal!! It was so cool. So he told us, "Ask me anything!" basically, so they passed around mics and we could just ask him whatever doctrinal questions we had. It was amazing!! I learned so much!!

First and only PDay at the MTC

HEY FRIENDS!!

Ok so today is my first and only Preparation Day at the MTC since I got thrown into the advanced classes for Spanish. SO I will be leaving for Argentina next Monday. How crazy is that??  So in my advanced Spanish class, I am with nearly 100% native speakers and so it’s been so hard! But fun at the same time because I can literally FEEL myself getting better. It's crazy. The power of the Spirit is HERE! Craziness.

But this "week" (really only 5 days), has been crazy awesome. I have been learning so much about how to teach people and how to teach with the Spanish language. I am improving so much! It’s great! 

The first two days were pretty much just classes on how things work and how to adjust to missionary life and stuff like that, but these past 3 days have been full on study! It’s so great! Our daily schedule has three different class periods that are 3-5 hours long (but they go by really fast so it isn't bad). We have teachers for two of the periods but one of them is just straight personal study and preparation time! It’s so fun! 

So our teachers are Hna. Casades and Hno. Barfuss. They are so great! They have so much insight on not only how we can be better teachers, but how we can be better missionaries. It’s so much fun to listen to what they have to say, that is, when I can understand it because they only speak Spanish to us! But it’s great! As I've been praying for help with the language, I have been able to improve so much and understand everything I need to! I say need to because I still can't understand when they make jokes and stuff, but when they are teaching, I understand. It's a real blessing.  

So we have been teaching "investigators" who are really just actors this week. It’s been REALLY hard!! Especially since I can only say such limited things and understand such limited things. Yesterday Elder Reyes and I had, what I though, were our best and worst lessons. The first was our worst. We were teaching this Catholic lady and she was totally struggling with the Apostasy, because Catholics believe that the authority of God was continued on through Peter and such, and Elder Reyes and I just froze. We couldn't think of any sort of answer to that (at the time) and just rambled for another 15 mins and then told her to pray about it and we left. It was so bad.

BUT THEN! Wow. So we had a lesson with Hno. Barfuss. He was playing the role of Israel (a real investigator at one point, but he was just playing the role). Anyway, Israel has a slight drinking problem. He isn't an alcoholic, but just has a few drinks here and there. We told him that drinking is holding him back from feeling the Spirit. He asked us, why is only a few drinks on holidays and family get-together's so bad? Well guess what! Before we went in, I felt prompted he was going to ask us, so we were prepared! So we told him that in order to really feel the Spirit, we need to be always obedient. We read to him DyC 130: 20-21, which talks about how in order to receive blessings, we much be perfectly obedient. (Go read it, it’s good!) So after we shared that, I was like "YESSS! Nailed it!!" But wait, there's more!!

After that explanation, he totally understood and was saying 'Well yeah, that makes sense!' and so that was amazing. Then he asked, but "what am I supposed to tell my family, won’t they think I'm weird?" And I kid you not the Spirit took over. I testified to him that when we are following the commandments of our Heavenly Father, everything will work out. When we put Him first, it'll all work out in the end. I also told him his family is going to love him no matter his decisions. He totally understood and I think it really helped him. I was able to get across everything that I wanted and I did it all in Spanish. It was a blessing.

 This place is amazing. These people are amazing. This work is AMAZING! I love my Heavenly Father and I can feel the blessings pouring in already and it’s been like, what, 6 days?!? Insane. This Church is true. This work is called of God. I love you all so much and am so grateful for all of your support!! Till next week!

 

P.S. We have a MTC devotional tonight and it is GUARANTEED that a General Authority will be there!!  I CAN'T WAIT! So look forward to hearing about that next week!! ;) 

P.S.S. I would love to hear from all of you!! Don't be afraid to shoot me an email! Don't send me a package unless it can get here in the next couple of days because I'm leaving and won’t be able to get it!

 

Farewell Talk - Obedience. (April 13th)

Good morning everyone! I think most of you know me, but for those who don’t, my name is Tyler Clifford and I’ve lived in this ward for my entire life. I am 19 and will be leaving in 24 days to serve my mission in the Argentina, Neuquén Mission. I am ecstatic to be able to go down there and teach the people about the gospel that brings me so much happiness and direction in my life and I can’t wait to share that happiness with them.

As you can tell, the theme for today is Obedience. I was pretty excited to have this topic because I think obedience is the single most important aspect to the gospel.

Let’s start from the beginning. Long ago, we all lived in Heaven with our Heavenly Father. He had a plan for us: that we would come to earth to learn and grow and be tested to see if we would follow the laws of God. That is our whole purpose here: to see if we will be obedient to the commandments of our Heavenly Father. Abraham 3:24-25 confirms this to us. It states: “, and we will make an earth whereon these (us) may dwell. And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.” Easy right? We come down, and we obey. It’s as simple as that. I wish. We all know that there are so many temptations that can distract us from obeying the commandments of our Heavenly Father. Luckily for us, our Heavenly Father provided us with a perfect of example of obedience; He sent his son Jesus Christ to be that example.

Jesus Christ did endure many temptations in his life, but through his undoubting love and trust in his Heavenly Father, he obeyed and overcame. We too can do the same. When Christ was suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, he cried unto God asking “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me:..” And I think at so many times in our lives, this is how we feel. We come to some many different test and trials, and we plead “please make this happen” or “please end this” but Obedience to the challenges we have been given, and following the words of Christ will get us past these trials. “:… nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” That is how we must treat everything that we go through. We must be solidly obedient in all things, not as we want, but as the Father wants. That sure obedience is critical in our endurance to the end. We must have faith as taught in Alma 38:5. That tells us that inasmuch as we put our trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials and your troubles and your afflictions and ye shall be lifted up at the last day.  As we continue in faith and have obedience towards the commandments, we can work through our trials, because only through our trials can we gain faith.

Why do we need to be obedient? What’s in it for us? People always asked me these sorts of questions in school. “Oh you’re a Mormon? Isn’t it just horrible to have all those rules?” And my answer was always no. Commandments are not and should not be burdens. We have these commandments and rules to protect us and make us better people. I’ve heard an analogy, I’m not sure where I first heard it, but it compares life to a funnel. Without commandments, the funnel starts out very large. We are able to try so many different things and do all sorts of stuff and make all sorts of questionable decisions. But as those bad choices catchup to us later in life, that funnel gets smaller. The choices we can make from there are much smaller. Our poor choices early in life, show up on our record and can severely affect what jobs are available to us, how we spend our money, if we suffer from addictions, and on and on. But if we follow the commandments set up for us by our Heavenly Father, it’s the opposite. Sure we may be a LITTLE more limited in our decisions as we grow up, but not suffering from addictions, not having criminal records, knowing how to treat people correctly, and many more will lead us to some many more opportunities as we grow up.

The scriptures also list so many blessing that can come to us from being obedient and following the commandments of our Heavenly Father. In section 130 of the Doctrine and Covenants, Joseph Smith teaches that when we obtain blessings, it is through obedience to the laws we are given. So if we want to receive blessings, we must be obedient to the commandments given to us. Mosiah 2:41 teaches us that when we are faithful to and keep the commandments of God, we will be blessed in ALL things, both temporal and spiritual and will be received into Heaven to dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness. How great of a blessing is that? That alone should be great enough for us to want to obey the simple things that our Heavenly Father commands us. And again, in John, we learn of even more reason to keep the commandments. John 14:15 says If you love me, keep my commandments. Keeping the commandments is how we show direct love to our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. Later, in John 15:10, Christ expands on that notion. He says “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and I abide in his love.” There is our reason. This is why we keep the commandments of our Heavenly Father and be obedient: To abide is His love. What greater blessing than that. 

So we know we need to be obedient, but just how obedient must we be? In Elder Hales’ talk last week in General Conference, he outlined some of the types of obedience. The first type of “obedience” is, as Elder Hales calls it, “Natural Man’s Obedience”, which ironically, isn’t obedience to God at all. This type of obedience is following the ideas and thoughts of our own mind or of another mans. We directly reject God’s law in order to obtain our own wisdom, our own humanly desires, or even some sort of temporary happiness or popularity. In Isaiah 55:8-9, we are warned of this type of obedience and are taught against it. It says:

“For my (my being our Heavenly Fathers) thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

These scriptures again lead us into the next level of obedience: Selective obedience. We fall under this category if we choose to obey only partial of our Heavenly Fathers commandments. Elder Hales taught us that this is almost always because we cannot perceive all the reasons for a commandment. So again, we need to look to the words spoken in Isaiah. The Lords ways our higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than ours. It is our purpose to obey. Bro Litchfield often tells a story of when he was in a situation and someone wiser than he told him to run and his initial thought was “Ya, but…” This story has always really impressed me. If we go about this life always questioning the commandments we are giving with “Ya, but…?” how are we ever to be able to get through anything? It’s not our job to question. It’s our job to follow whole heartedly. And once we get to that point, we can finally realize the full measure of obedience; “the Saviors obedience” as Elder Hales calls it. Can you imagine the love and inspiration we can feel when we follow the Lords commandments whole heartedly? Can you even imagine the love we will feel when we pass through this life and are greeted by our Father with the words “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” I honestly get chills every time I imagine that glorious moment, when we walk into heaven and claim our mansion that is waiting for us there. I’ll end with this verse in Ecclesiastes. Its chapter 12 verse 13. It states so clearly this eternal importance of obedience. It says “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the WHOLE duty of man.” I believe that with every ounce of my heart. It is our duty to be completely faithful and willing to obey Gods commandments.

I bear my testimony that I know this church is true. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be giving up these next two years of my life to serve our Father and teach this gospel. I know that the family unit is a perfect plan. Having people to surround us with their love and support is so essential to our growth and this plan that our Heavenly Father has set up. I include the ward family in that as well. I have grown up here and been raised by all of you. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well guess what? You’re my village. There isn’t a single person in this room that hasn’t helped shape me into who I am, whether it has been something you taught me, something you’ve said to me, or the example you’ve been. Even if we haven’t met, I promise you that you too have shaped me through your example. And it’s because of each and every one of you that I’m standing here today, preparing myself to serve my Father, and I can’t thank you enough. I know that our Heavenly Father blesses us in everything and every way. Through our obedience we will be blessed in ways that we cannot even comprehend. The blessing we will receive through our obedience are not proportional to how obedient we are: they are so much greater. And I know that to be true, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our savior and redeemer. Amen.