Months of work and prayers pay off....

7/20/15 

Wow. Sometimes I just feel so unworthy of the blessing my Father in Heaven gives to me. Correction: not sometimes, always. These last two weeks have been crazy cool. Let’s hope I remember some of the good stuff going on:

1)      JAS of Puerto Madryn - JAS stands for Young Single Adults in Spanish. We had like 15 of them come up from Puerto Madryn (like 6 hours away) to work in our branch. We had 4 of them working with us in Lamarque. They went around contacting less and inactives and also doing a bit of door knocking for us. It was only for like an hour and a half but it was a real help and it got them all excited about missionary work. IT was awesome. They also hosted several activities in the church all weekend and then stayed for Sunday church. 

2)   M and his family - This was a direct answer to lots of prayers: mine, my companions and I believe to yours as well, so thanks you!! As we waited in a park for the people from Puerto Madryn to finish up so they could drive us back to the church, we had this guy flag us down in the park. He talked kind of quiet and was a little odd. We thought he was just drunk, but we decided to talk to him anyway. Turns out, he is a member and lives here with his wife and daughter. They moved here 7 months ago and haven’t been able to find the church. We talked with him and he asked us where and when we have church. We told him where and that actually the next day we had to go to the actual church in the other city. He asked is we could go together and totally came with us. Met him Saturday and was at church on Sunday. AMAZING!! We have spent some time in his house and he told us that that day, he just felt the need to go to the park and so he went off on his motorcycle. Then we were just sitting in the park when we showed up. Who knew that the Lord would guide us to go take a break and sit in the park while waiting for other people. Amazing. They have come to church 2 weeks in a row. YAY FOR WORTHY PRIESTHOOD HOLDERS IN LAMARQUE!!!!

3)   Late blessings from the fence - I think I told you guys that a couple weeks ago we helped out some people build a fence? Well, we are teaching the daughter and her family who were out there helping us and its going well. They have lots of questions and are starting to read in the Book of Mormon. And they are already married!!!! That is rare down here. We are excited to work with them.

4)   The house was full - Yesterday was a beautiful day for sacrament meeting. Our normal attendance here in Lamarque is like 6 or 7 including us with no priesthood holders except us in the little, humble house. Yesterday, tears came to my eyes as the house was full. We didn’t have enough chairs. We had 16 not including us with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!!! FIVE!!!! Priesthood holders, Aaronic and Melchizedek. Granted they are less actives and require a bit of work before they can help us out, it was amazing. Thank you for your prayers for Lamarque and please keep praying. The Lord is working MIRACLES here! 

I don’t really remember anything else major, plus I’m almost out of time. Thank you for everything. I testify that prayers are answered in the Lords time and when it suits His will. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father. They are so good to me. 

I love you all dearly.

Elder Clifford 

Us and the members from Puerto Madryn that came up

 The picture we took after Sac. Meeting 7/19/15

Us with a family we are teaching and a Clifford cup. 

This one is one of my favorites pictures yet in the mission.

7/13/15 P-day by the River

We went to the river to fish for Pday last week and 

had come hamburgers over open flame. YUM! 

Us by the river playing TRUCO! Truco is a card game they play here

Pictures

 The REALLY nice Plaza here in Lamarque (5 blocks from our pension) 

Its one of the nicest I've seen in my whole mission so far. Really pretty

  Our district from the begining of this transfer. There was an emergency transfer for 

health stuff so now its a bit different.

We got 4 of us cramped into the back seat of a small car!

Sorry for the short letter!!

7/13/15

Hey everyone! I am so out of time and a little out of my element today because we are writing in a different place today.

BUT, know that I love you all! We are seeing many miracles here and I will try and include them all in next week. I invite you to think about how you can be more obedient in your lives. My companion and I have put a big focus on obedience and we are REALLY seeing the blessings
and miracles that are coming from it. Our Savior lives. He came to this world and dies for each of us. I have no doubt about it. I love the mission and the opportunity it gives me to feel His love every day.  The Atonement is a real thing. It’s real.

Thank you for everything you do for me. Every single person who takes time out of their day to come on to this silly little blog where I ramble about little things that are happening means a lot to me. 

Thanks for being the Village that helped raise me. I’m grateful for everything you guys do for me, have done for me, and will do for me. You truly are the best and never let anyone tell you otherwise.

Elder Clifford

¡MILAGROS por todos lados!

7/6/15

Wow. What a week. First off: Happy 4th of July! And ¡¡Feliz 9 de Julio!! This week was crazy busy and full of lots of miracles.

1)   Roca! - This week we took a surprise trip to Roca (3 hours away by bus) to go meet the new Mission Presidente, Presidente Casariego. They are so wonderful! They are from Uruguay and have 4 children. One lives in Rexburg, ID, another in Los Angeles, CA, another in Toronto, Canada and then one daughter is going to be living with them here in the mission. They are both returned missionaries and are really excited to be here with us. It’s going to be a great year with them!!

2)    A Place of Our Own!! - This week, after fighting for two months and waiting and looking and working, we FINALLY got news that the place that we found to rent got approved to begin renting. It is literally a miracle because our little group in Lamarque has 5 active members on a good day and no active priesthood holders. Incredible. The Lord and the stake has put a lot of confidence in this place and I know without a doubt it will be worth the effort. It was a long hard wait but it’s a HUGE blessing for Lamarque. 

3)  Less Actives - These past weeks we have seen lots of progress with our less and in active members. We had one start coming and she now wants to go to the temple in September. Yesterday, without really inviting anyone, we had 3 less actives show up to church in Choele Choel. Keep in mind it is pretty hard for members to get to Choele because they have to taxi there and it’s like 15-20 minutes. But 3 showed up and one is a Priesthood holder!! Wow. It may not seem like much but it is a HUGE deal!

Other fun things:

We did a lot of service this week which is fun, but we are very tired. Lots of shovels and dirt. Argentina lost to Chile 1-0 in the final of the American Cup. Sad.

We ate horse meat for lunch one day. Surprisingly delicious!! 

All in all it was a fantastic week. We can really feel the love and mercy of the Lord in our area here in Lamarque and He is ever present of what we need and is so willing to give it to us. Miracles are happening and I am grateful to be able to be here as an instrument in His hands to be able to do it. This truly is His work and when we work hand in hand with Him, working to accomplish His will, there is nothing in this world that can stay His mighty hand. I am learning that more than anything. This is His world and what He wants will happen. Trust Him. Always.

I love you all. I feel your love. I will always be true to the Kirkland First Ward even though I may be part of the Willows Ward now. I love and miss you all. Thank you for everything! ¡Hasta luego¡ 

Elder Clifford

 The message we got from our Stake President this week. Translation: "Recently today the rent got approved. I hope that during the week I'll have more information to know what to do." Lamarque is getting a building to rent!!!!!!!!!! We are pumped and it is literally going to change everything here!!

President and Sister Lovell with our new President, President and Sister Casariego

Short Messages and Pictures

6/29/15

We had a lesson with some new people yesterday. On Thursday we were walking past these people trying to put a fence up so we stopped and helped. They were really nice and after invited us in to have some juice and wash our hands. Funny story. They originally offered us Mate, which we can’t drink, then offered us tea, which we can’t drink, and then coffee, which we can’t drink. They were confused and it was funny. But they let us in yesterday and we were able to get to know them a little better and teach a bit. It was good!

7/6/15

GOOD MORNING!! I am doing well.

We are kind of still teaching the fence people but we are not sure if it’s going to progress. They are old and don’t understand very well. But we'll see.

We had a very interesting and tiring last couple days but it was a lot of fun. We went to Roca this week to meet the new President and we had some extra time so we took some touristy pictures downtown with the Big Apple.  The new Mission President is great. He and his wife are really loving and it’s going to be a lot of fun. 

 A different Big Apple in Villa Regina. Took the picture in the bus as we went past so it’s not a very good one. 

My companion Elder Stoddard went fishing for oranges from a tree near the elder’s pension. Don’t worry, we had permission to take them, but were too lazy to go downstairs and pick so we used a squeegee and tied a frying pan to a pole and fished them from the second story window. 

Service Work

6/29/15    Pictures from S. Campos 

Elder Clifford hacienda servicio en casa.  Lamarque, Rio Negro, Argentina.

Making Pasta Frola

6/24/15

Pictures from S.Ocampo - Elder Clifford haciendo PASTA FROLA en mi casa.