The Best Two Years - Elder Clifford in Argentina

Saturday, July 25, 2015

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!

Thursday, July 16, 2015

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

Saturday, July 11, 2015

¡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.