Weekly Email #7 - Lots of Good News!

I'll let him tell you in his own words, of course.

-"12 days to go til Chile!!! Dulce! (sweet, although I'm pretty sure that wouldn't make any sense if you said it to a native spanish speaker... oh well) We get our flight plans tomorrow!!!!"

-"We finally had an Apostle for Devotional! Elder Oaks came on Tuesday night! It was pretty funny because somehow everyone knew an Apostle was coming. At 6:15 there were already hundreds of people lined up for the devotional. I found out around 5:15 it was going to be Elder Oaks b/c when Elder Low and I went to choir practice, the tech room at the top of the gym was open and one of the screens had the teleprompter showing and it said, "My dear fellow missionaries, Sis. Oaks and I are so happy to be here with you tonight..." It was pretty funny... also they had the teleprompter things up that they had at General Conference, you know the glass panes at an angle that they read from? So that kinda let us know someone important was coming, too. He spoke to us about the sacrament, and the importance of always having the spirit to be with us. He said that as we all know, every member a missionary, but we shouldn't forget every missionary a member. It was a really great devotional."

-"So we are now officially the oldest district in the zone. District E left on Monday and Tuesday. It was sad to see them go, since we knew them the longest since we've been here. Elder Lee and Elder Waites were the zone leaders, and when they left President Evans had to call new zone leaders, and on Sunday he told Elder Low and I that he felt that the Lord wanted us to be the zone leaders. He said he thought it was kind of strange since we would only be here for two more weeks and then he'll have to get two new elders to do it, but he felt that it was the right thing to do."

-"Elder Low and I definitely had an interesting first night as zone leaders. On Sunday night, somebody burned popcorn in the basement and the fire alarm went off, so we had to evacuate the building and make sure our whole zone got out, which at the time was about 38 elders. Then, around 10:35, when we were finally back in the building, getting ready to get to bed, we found out that we were missing 3 elders from the zone. So Elder Low and I, along with Elder Waites (one of the old zone leaders) had a prayer and looked for them in the building, then headed up to the main office building to look for them there. Then Sunday night and Monday morning Elder Low and I had to check out the elders from district E who were leaving. And the last 2 nights during the time when we're supposed to be getting ready for bed, we've had elders lock themselves out of their rooms so we've had to go to 1M and get keys to get them in...nice. So yeah being zone leader is pretty interesting, it's a bigger responsibility then I thought it would be. We have 30 elders in our district and 3 hermanas, so it's not too many people. Elder Low and I have just been praying a lot for guidance and trying to be friendly and set good examples for the zone. So the next two weeks should be pretty interesting."

-"Spanish is coming along great, but i've heard that it's way different in Chile. Elder Mawhinney got a letter from his friend who is in our mission and he said that he can't understand the Chilenos, and they can't understand him, even though he's speaking correct Spanish (Elder Mawhinney said his friend is way smart and was really good at Spanish). It's just different the way they speak it out there. So I'm a little nervous, but just a little. I'm way more excited then I am nervous. I can't wait to get there and rely solely on the help of the Lord and that's when I'll be an effective missionary."

-"Elder Low and I have had a lot of T.E. (teaching evaluations) where we teach to a teacher who pretends to be an investigator, and they've been getting a lot better. Elder Low's Spanish has improved so much. It's amazing how much we've learned in only 7 weeks. Last night our teacher, Hermano Jensen, told us that what we've learned in 7 weeks would take about 4 years in high school. It's amazing seeing the gift of tongues at work in my everyday life."

Weekly Email #6

"The T.R.C. was really cool too. Last week we got to teach our old teacher, Hermana Rodriguez, and yesterday she brought her parents to the T.R.C. to volunteer. They're from Mexico and THEY DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH! Elder Low and I taught her dad it was an awesome experience to be able to teach a native, but it was extremely difficult to understand him at times. I think we were able to get the gist of most of what he was saying, though. I was just really nervous when I was teaching him because i didn't want to do a bad job and make him think it was his daughter's fault."

"We finally have enough people that are good at volleyball to get a decent 6 on 6 game going. One of the new elders, Elder Larson, played on the Utah State team so he's really good."

"Short little story for the last two minutes. About a month ago, one of my shirts got ripped (just the pocket) in an extreme game of thumb war. You should be very proud of me i sewed it back up and it looks just like new. So no more extreme thumb war for me... "

Weekly Email #5 ("It's hard to remember")

"So just another standard weekend in the MTC, not too much to report..."

"TRC was cool. We gave the 1st lesson in Spanish, for the first time in the TRC, although we've done it many times in teaching appointments and in the class. But the funny thing was that the volunteer was our old teacher, Hermana (sister) Rodriguez! So we got to teach our teacher haha I hope we didn't make her feel like she did a bad job, we did the best we could."

"I had a pretty cool experience on Tuesday for the devotional. The man who gave the devotional on tuesday was James Paramore Jr. (the son of the man that ordained Grandpa an elder). I saw that and got really excited and told Elder Low we would have to go talk to him after so I could talk to him about my line of authority. Anyway, I was really excited to meet him after the devotional, then, to my astonishment, I was informed that I would be giving the opening prayer for the devotional. Now this was somewhat nervewracking... I knew that our zone/branch was in charge of ushering and saying prayers, but I figured that they would assign the person giving a prayer more than 15 minutes before the start of the devotional... so I was basically pretty nervous, having to pray in front of 2200 missionaries, the MTC mission president, and a general authority. Keep in mind that it's been over a month since I've prayed in English... haha so I was pretty nervous, but I managed to say a prayer, and after the meeting I talked with Elder Paramore. I just thought it was cool that out of the 50-ish branches in the MTC it was ours that was in charge that night, and that our branch president assigned me and one other elder, out of the 30-ish elders in our zone, to give the prayer"

"I got to bear my testimony in fast y testimonio meeting last Sunday in Spanish. It was pretty cool, I thought I should do it since it's my last fast Sunday in the MTC... time flies, right? haha kind of but sort of not at the same time..."

Thanks for all the postcards, letters, packages, etc.! And Jonah, thanks for the cool pictures!

Weekly Email #4

More updates from the MTC:



-"The choir is pretty fun. It only takes an extra 2 hours a week. I sing bass every time we go, because it's the manliest part, and also cuz my voice cracks when I try to do tenor or baritone. On Sundays we learn the song and practice for 1 hr, then Tuesdays we practice for another hour, eat dinner, then perform the song for the devotional."



-"This next week is our first week teaching in the TRC in Spanish. We are teaching Lesson 1. From here on we will probably be doing lessons in Spanish. It should be fun. In the TRC we start off with a Spanish task (getting to know the person, helping them move, setting up return appointments) then we take a 10 minute planning period, then return and teach a lesson for 35 minutes. We only go to the TRC Wednesday nights, usually 6 or 7."

Halfway to Chile!

It's Elder Cloward's halfway-through-the-MTC mark! We dropped him off four weeks ago today, and he'll leave the MTC four weeks from yesterday!

Weekly Email #3

(Sorry this is posted so late. I've been celebrating my heritage all day, as you'll see below.)

-Happy Pioneer Day! For those of you who aren't in Utah (and are missing out on the state holiday and multiple fireworks shows, rodeos and carnivals), today we celebrate the arrival of the pioneers in Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Elder Cloward's thoughts on the holiday: "Pioneer Day is such a huge deal here it's ridiculous. tThe bookstore closes early and we don't get any mail! Oh Utah... there'll probably be a parade or something ridiculous like that haha gotta love Provo." (FYI, there is a parade, but it's in Salt Lake. It involves the Prophet and Apostles dressed like pioneers riding in covered wagons down the middle of downtown.)

-They won their volleyball game, "but it was just for fun"

-Their district is down to six elders, all going to Santiago! A sister missionary who went to Santiago West came in to talk to them about it. Here's what Elder Cloward had to say about that: "Apparently in Santiago they stay up late, so our schedule is to sleep from 11:30 to 7:30, so that should be interesting. They apparently also have a national nap time between 1 and 3 (it's called a siesta), so we will have lunch at 1 and do an hour of personal study at 2. They don't let us take naps with the rest of the country. She said it gets pretty cold in the winter and rains a lot, but whatever I can deal with it. I just want to get out there!"

-Elder Low and him are in the MTC choir. At first they did it for better seats at the devotionals and to find friends in other districts, but now they also really like to sing.

-Yes, Diane, he is taking his vitamins, washing his face, brushing his teeth and eating his fruits and vegetables (just no salad for breakfast...yeah that would just be gross)

-They taught the second discussion (on the plan of salvation) in English at the TRC yesterday. One set of volunteers was a returned missionary and his very pregnant wife. "Elder Low and I saw a golden opportunity and talked a lot about eternal families and what not. It was really cool to teach them." At the RC, most of Elder Cloward's phone calls were wrong numbers, but one of the wrong numbers talked to him for awhile and then asked for the missionaries to come tell her more, and even gave him two referrals!

-His branch president is President Evans from Fresno, CA. He's "pretty laid back." Aside from Elder Low, Elder Cloward's roommates are Elder Krainik from Lonetree, CO, and Elder MaWhinney from Midway, UT.

-Here's a peak at an average day at the MTC:
6:30 Wake Up! (but if they want to get ready, they need to get up at 6:15)
7-7:30 Personal Study
7:30-8 Breakfast
8-12 Class
12-12:45 Lunch
Gym for 50 minutes, or straight to class
2:30-5 Class
5-5:45 Dinner
Either gym or straight to class
5:45-9 Class
9-9:30 Plan
9:30-10:30 Get ready for bed

Whew, that's a long post! Elder Cloward says thanks for all the packages, letters and Dear Elders!

Weekly Email #2

Some things are better said in Elder Cloward's own words. Here's what he's been up to this past week:

-(Shout out to The Best Two Years) "We received a notice from the mission president that we shouldn't say "Book of Mormons" or "Books of Mormon" but "copies of the Book of Mormon"... I thought it was pretty funny"

-"So yesterday in the R.C., Elder Low received a call from a man that was a member of the church already, but he was calling to file a complaint against his bishop!!! It was so funny. Elder Low answered the phone and then just said "Can I put you on hold?" He had to ask the guy that ran the R.C. what he was supposed to do. We're not supposed to take complaints about bishops! So Elder Low spent about ten minutes talking to the guy and trying to get him to just talk to the bishop about his problems. It was pretty torpe (Spanish word for awkward)."

-"This Saturday my district is challenging another district in our zone to a volleyball match. It should be pretty interesting but I think we can win! Elder Moser, who is going to Santiago North, is from L.A. area and he played volleyball in high school too so we play pretty well together. We also have Elder Mahwinney, who's 6'5", so he's just automatically going to dominate... so that should be pretty fun."

-"The food at the cafeteria is a lot better than the CANC (Cannon Center at BYU, where he was supposed to eat last year, but usually didn't). They usually have 4 different meals to choose from, and at least 1 of them is edible."

Other updates:
-They taught the first lesson in Preach My Gospel (about the Restoration) in Spanish in the TRC on Tuesday.

-He's seen lots of friends, including Elder Williamson now, and a lot of BYU friends! "I guess in a sense it's kinda like BYU all over again, except for the whole 'missionary' thing... haha"

-He's already getting a haircut (lol) because, as he puts it, "my hair is mas o menos (more or less) out of control." It's the Bellino in him.

Thanks for sending him letters! He loves them and you!