Week #66

Mother!

I'm in the zone!

This week was really good. We have found a ton of service opportunities. We are doing service for a christian thrift store. All the volunteers are Mennonites and speak German.....some speak English too so we are not too lost, but other than that everyone is speaking some form of German or Russian and you have no idea what is being said. I am grateful that I know some words in German, Russian, and Tagalog.

We found 4 people this last week. We met this man Arthur, he is from France. He said that we could come teach him more. He  missed some of our appointments, but he said that he is really excited to learn.

We also met some guys from South America on the street and I contacted them in my somewhat Spanish haha. Then when we were done with service at the thrift store I saw this guy and he looked Filipino,  so I went over and said hello how are you. He said good. I told him I was new here and he said where from? I said Washington, and then I said where are you from? ( I was being sneaky) he said the Philippines. So I said Kamchatka! which means hello. He got all excited that I knew Tagalog!! haha. He then said, I have seen missionaries in the Philippines and when I saw you guys I had goosebumps! he said that he talked to missionaries when he was back home, and that we could teach him early next week. So we will be seeing him sometime this week.

There are so many Mennonites! it is crazy like 80% of the population is Mennonite. This place is great.

Here is a funny story....hahaha

OK so Brother Valdez is a member here and he is Filipino. He is the president of the Filipino community. So every Friday and Saturday, there is a Filipino basketball night and he is the announcer. On Fridays they have basketball at a Church and Saturdays at the middle school. When we went on Friday we were at the church and the pastor does spiritual thoughts before the games.  He did his thought and then he got up during the game to go use the washroom, and  brother Valdez turns his head to watch him leave out of the door and when he leaves the gym brother Valdez quickly turns the mic on and says...."Special welcome to the Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they are here to help us and watch our games. Welcome to Steinbach Elders."

We are also helping out in the soup kitchen. And this past Tuesday, we were walking to go check out a service opportunity and we saw this music store so we went in and they have open mic night on Tuesdays and they provide the instruments. The owner said that 30-40 people come out every Tuesday. Tomorrow night I'm going to open mic night and get on the drums and do a drum solo! all four of use are going to sing a hymn! ha

 We have the nicest apartments in the mission it's ridiculous.

I am glad to hear that everything is going good.

We were walking last night and it was -20 it is getting really cold. The cold winter is coming sooner than last year it seems like.

But I know the church is true that the Gospel is in its fullness. I know that God will always prepare a way for us to accomplish what he wants us to accomplish. I love my life, but time is going way to fast.

p.s. We are getting Tagalog name tags.

Love you sooo sooo much and miss all of you :)

-Elder Clark