Apacienta mis ovejas

Part of our zone wearing Indiana Jones hats in Pomaire.
It's a small tourist site. Where they sell Chilean items.

Daniela's family

Elder Cloward, Daniela, Rafael (Her brother), & Elder Hrabar

Dear Family,

Apacienta mis ovejas-that´s feed my sheep in Spanish. The language that the Lord helped me to learn here on my mission.

These past few weeks our focus in the zone (one of the focuses) has been to motivate local leaders to do their callings. That´s not really part of missionary work if you think about it, but we´re here to help, and a ward that fulfills its callings will also have the Spirit to help them in missionary work. Elder Hrabar and I go to the chapel every Thursday at 8 p.m. to go on divisions with the Elders Quorum and help in home teaching. But there hadn´t been any elders showing up for 3 weeks to do visits. we were kind of frustrated. So we asked for time to speak in the Elder´s Quorum last Sunday and we gave a class. I read "if ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15) and then we asked the brethren: what are some of the commandments of God? They all said: don´t kill, don´t rob, obeying the word of wisdom, law of chastity, Sabbath day, tithing etc. and then we said: good answers; now lets read in John 21:15-17 where Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him 3 times and repeats to him three times the commandment: FEED MY SHEEP. We then lovingly explained to the brethren that if we love the Savior we will feed His sheep. Because if nobody feeds the sheep, the sheep will die. aka there will be no active members left in the Quorum.

So this last Thursday, 4 out of the 20 members of the EQ came to do visits. Hey, it´s a start.

We just have to be more patient with them and teach them with love. We need to show them WHY they should do the things they need to do, not just tell them they need to do it.

1. I think I'm good on all my supplies for the next few months.

2. Yes, there are fleas in the apartment, but they don´t biteme. They only bite Elder Urbina. But then when Elder Hrabar came to our apartment they started to bite him too. I guess I´m just not delicious to the fleas so that´s good.

3. I think I´ll really enjoy Brother Marsh´s New Testament class. He was my Book of Mormon teacher before my mission and his class was great!

Happy Birthday Grandma! I hope you have a wonderful day. Thanks for all the letters, and cards and packages.

I am so thankful for this opportunity that I have to serve my Heavenly Father and my Savior and the wonderful people of Chile. Serving a mission has been the greatest experience of my life. Thank you for all your support, encouragement but most of all your love.

Love you all and have a great week.

Love,

Elder Cloward

Dear Family,

This last week was a little crazy. Elder Hrabar and I had to do a class in the zone conference on Thursday. The conference was in Melipilla (a zone that is to the northeast of Talagante which is even more campo-ish than Talagante). We had to give a class about the importance about asking questions when we teach. We did an example based on an analogy between opening peoples hearts, an opening up a door. So we had 3 keys that each had a question on them like "What is the purpose of life?" and other questions. Then the missionaries had to ask my companion and I those questions (like in a street contact) to see which one was the right question for us that would call our interest and make us want to listen to the missionaries. The conference was really good. I learned two important things that I had kind of already learned before but had kind of forgotten.1. If we are not happy it is because we are thinking about ourselves, aka we are being selfish. The secret to being happy is actually really simple: we just have to do something to serve others. I tried putting that in practice after the conference, and it worked! 2. Our greatest motivation to do missionary work (or any work at all) should be love. Love towards Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and towards the people we are serving. Elder Hrabar and I have been a little frustrated lately trying to motivate the members in the Talagante Branch to do the work that they need to do, and we think that if we can motivate them to have the pure love of Christ they will start to fulfil their callings like they should. We´ll see what happens with that. In other news,Saturday Daniela was baptized!! The baptism wasn´t very well organized (the only local leader there was President Arancibia, the branch president) but it was very spiritual. Rafael baptized Daniela and they both looked so happy! It was so great to see him baptizing his little sister. Their whole family came to the baptism, too! Daniela and Rafael have 3 other siblings: the oldest is Margarita (a member of the Esmeralda branch), then comes Ariela (she´s not a member and lives in Santiago north mission) then Francisco (he´s not a member either he lives in the Esmeralda branch but we have taught him a few times in Rafa´s house) then comes Rafael and then Daniela. Ariela came with her husband, Raul, and their daughter, Vivian. They said they loved the baptism and they came to church yesterday for the confirmation too. We went to Rafa´s house to teach them the first lesson after church and they seem really interested. They gave us their adress in Santiago and want the missionaries to come teach them there! The Lord is working miracles in that family.here´s some investigator updates:1. Veronica y Nefi (that´s Nephi in spanish): yes, we are teaching a 9 year old boy named Nefi. His dad is a less active member (also named Nefi). Nefi the younger and his mom Veronica and his little sister Brenda (5 years old) came to church yesterday! They have a baptismal date for May 1st so we will keep working with them and preparing them for baptism. 2. Miriam y Benjamin: Miriam was a reference from the Esmeralda Branch, she went to church their with her aunt who´s a member. She is a 20something year old physics teacher and is a single mom. Benjamin, her son, is 9 years old and he is awesome. He knows all the right answers when we teach him. After the first lesson with him, he took out a little notepad and wrote down "me sentí bien cuando estuvieron los carabineros" that is, "I feel good when the cops were at my house" and his mom´s like "no son, they aren´t cops, they´re missionaries" then Elder Hrabar said "That´s okay, we´re kinda like cops. We´re like God´s cops" It was pretty funny.Don´t worry about the package. It doesn´t matter when I get it we´ll still do the egg fights and have great fun with that. I can buy lemons here they are way cheap. Well I love you all very much and hope you enjoy general conference this weekend,

Love,

Elder Cloward

Mini CCM and Franco's Baptism

Elder Cloward, Franco and Elder Hrabar.
Franco does martial arts and he is a body builder-
thus the fighting pose.

Franco's baptism

Photo of all of the youth and missionaries at the end of the mini ccm

Dear Family,

This week was pretty crazy but it went really well. During the week we talked to Rafael and he told us that he wanted to wait another week to baptize Daniela because he didn´t feel ready yet. He was ordained an Eder a week before Maximo, so we figured that he was worthy to baptize. But he told us that he wanted to talk to President Arancibia (the branch president) before doing the baptism. Elder Hrabar and I were both very impressed by his understanding of the Priesthood and the importance of using it worthily. Rafael talked to President yesterday and he said that everything´s cool now and the baptism will be this Saturday, the 27th of March.

On Saturday there was a mini MTC (CCM in Spanish) for the whole Talagante District. All of the young men, young women, and young single adults received a call letter (similar to the mission call letter that all full time missionaries receive) explaining that they would serve for a period of 12 hours and they had to report to the mini MTC (which was just the chapel in Talagante) at 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning. There were over 50 youth that came (that´s a really good attendance). They all had assigned companions and had to stay with them all day. In the morning they studied preach my gospel and practiced teaching Lesson 1 (the message of the restoration). At 1 o´clock the full time missionaries (there are 16 in the zone) came to the chapel. We ate lunch with the youth that were there, then we practiced teaching with them. At 3:00 the missionaries from the MTC in Santiago got to the chapel. Then from 3:00 to 6:00 we all went out proselyting here in Talagante.

The assistants (aka my old companions, Elder Butron and Elder Marin) also came to the activity. I went with Elder Butron and Elder Hrabar went with Elder Marin, and each companionship of missionaries went with a companionship of young men. It was way cool and a lot of the youth are excited to go on missions. I was really impressed by their testimonies and how valient they were sharing the gospel.

Then, at 6:00 we came back to the chapel and there was a devotional/testimony meeting and some of the youth shared the experiences they had while proselyting. Then, at 8:00 was Franco´s baptism. It was really special and very spiritual. He and his mom shared their testimonies after Franco was baptized. He said that he was never a very religious person, but then he felt the Spirit the first time he prayed and knew the church was true and that he had to be baptized. Then he said "if any of you here are investigators, and you´ve felt the Spirit, you all need to get baptized, like I did" it was awesome.

Here´s some other investigator updates:

1. Fernando- We saw him for the first time 2 weeks ago yesterday. We went with Fernando to an FHE with the young single adults yesterday. He felt really uncomfortable and left right after the closing prayer without saying bye to anyone. He´s going through a hard time right now, we are praying for him a lot so that he will feel the Spirit again like he did at the beginning.

2. Fernando the carabinero ( carabinero= a police officer here in Chile)- this guy is way cool. his wife, Margarita, is a less active member (but she came to church yesterday!) The family was a reference that Margarita´s mom (an active member) gave us 2 months ago when we ate lunch at her house, and now we are teaching them. Fernando and Margarita have three kids: Cristina, 6, Emilia, 2, and Benjamin, 6 months. It is really fun watching the kids run around and seeing the little girls take turns holding their little brother. It reminded me of growing up with 2 older sisters. I told them that my family was the same way! They are very receptive and have felt the Spirit a lot recently. The only complication is Fernando´s work schedule, since he´s a police officer. But we´ll worry about that later.

3. Francisca- she is twelve years old. Her mom, Isabel, is a less active member (but both of them came to church yesterday and last week!) and they live almost right in front of the church. The only problem is that Isabel´s husband, Francisco, won´t let his daughter be baptized until she is 18 so that she can "choose for herself" We´ll keep teaching her and pray that the Lord can soften the Dad´s heart.

4. Familia Rios- This family is awesome. We found them when Eder Marin and I were together about 4 weeks ago. They have come to church once, but they feel a lot of pressure to be baptized and are reacting badly to that. The mom still hasn´t prayed to know if the church is true, but she knows she has to. We think she´s a little scared to get a testimony, because once she does she knows she needs to be baptized. Elder Hrabar and Elder Marin visited them on Saturday.

That´s all for now, hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Cloward

P.S. We haven´t felt any aftershocks this week. I think everythings going back to normal!

8.8 Terremoto

I want to apologize for not posting Elder Cloward's email sooner. Life has been a bit crazy. This is his email from March 8, 2010 and it was very brief because he had to get back to the pension to meet with the assistants.
Dear Familia,
That´s how you say earthquake in Spanish. Anyway, everything´s fine here in the zone. All of the missionaries and pensions are okay. When we felt the earthquake we decided it would be better to get out of the building. We thought that staying in the door frame wouldn't help us too much if 5 stories of apartment building came crashing down on us. So Elder Marin and I woke up the other Elders, and then we ran outside. The earth shook for over one and a half minutes and then it ended. Elder Marin and I went to the sister missionaries apartments to make sure they were okay and they were just a bit scared. Then we went to visit Maritza and her family and they were fine. Our branch president was next and his family was also fine. We went with him to check on members near our apartment. Then we went back to our apartment and tried to sleep a little. But we are all okay.
But here´s some news from the week:
1. President Jones called Elder Marín today at 12:30 to be the assistent with Elder Butron, and in 30 minutes we have to be in the pension waiting for Elder Butrón to come and pick him up. Therefore I have very very little time to write a nice long email like I would like to. Sorry but I´ll write as much as I can in the time we have.
2. Barbara had her interview yesterday and passed!!! She is getting baptized this Friday (the original date was on Saturday but her Dad works that day and he wants to be their obviously so now it´s on Friday)
3. Daniela has her baptismal date for March 20th
4. Franco also has a baptismal date for March 20th
5. Fernando has a baptismal date for April 3rd.
All of the investigators are doing really well. I´m anxious to know who my new companion will be. there are 5 weeks left in this change.
I´ll send some fotos but I´ve gotto go the assistants are coming for my companion!!!
Love,
Elder Cloward

Hello Everyone

Conferencia with Elder Amado

Zone BBQ

Cristofer's baptism

Dear Family

So President Jones has asked us to read parts of Preach My Gospel with members when we visit them for lunch or in other opportunities. But carrying around a big PMG is a bit of a struggle, as Cara would say. So Elder Marín and I thought of asking you for the mini PMG that you told me about (obviously we need it in spanish, Predicad mi Evangelio). I wanted to ask if you could send us 2 copies, 1 for me and 1 for him so that he can have one, since we have changes next week and we most likely won´t stay together. The other 2 elders we live with also asked for one, and said they´d pay me for it. So please let me know what we can do with that. I´m not asking for another package, all we need is the mini predicad mi evangelio.

This week was cool. Today we played soccer for two hours, and then we played volleyball for an hour in the chapel. It was so much fun. A lot of people just don´t know how to play volleyball and are really impressed when they see me play. It has been fun teaching my zone and helping with the Chile team in the wards and stakes I have been in.

Yesterday Cristofer was ordained a Priest. He´s just super excited about everything, which is great. Barbara and Daniela both have baptismal dates for March 13th!! Daniela´s brother, Rafael will baptize her and we think that Maximo will baptize Barbara.

There´s a couple new investigators that I want you to know about.

1. Franco. He is Bernardita´s son (Tity´s brother) and when I got to the sector 4 months ago he was like "hard core rebel I listen to heave metal music and I don´t believe in God..." And out of nowhere he had this miraculous change of heart. He came to Cris´s baptism last Saturday and he came to church Sunday the 14 and yesterday. He wants to get baptized but he doesn´t have a specific date yet. Elder Marin and I are praying to know what day his baptism should be, and he will pray to confirm it.

2. Fernando: Tuesday I was doing divisions with Elder Cummings (of the 16 elders and sister missionaries in the zone, we are the only 2 male gringos, and Elder Cummings has 4 weeks in the mission). As we were walking to the Chapel for a meeting, some guy on a bike (Fernando) called us over to talk to him. I thought he just wanted to make fun of us (people do that a lot, shouting stuff in poorly spoken English) but such was not the case; he told us "hey, I have your Bible, the one that Moroni wrote! I want you guys to teach me about your church!" So we got his address, and on Thursday we went to his house and taught him about our Church and shared our testimonies with him. The spirit was so strong. He has a baptismal date for March 20th, providing he meets the attendance to church requirement. We have a cita with him today at 8.

Other than that everything is cool here in Talagante. We`re all having a good time, just sad for changes next week. I`ll be sure to let you know who has changes in the next email. But until then have a great week everyone and keep doing the best you can at all you do!

Cloward Power! Haha I remember when Dave Williamson used to say that to me!! Good times.

Thank you for your prayers, love and support. The church is true and I love serving my Heavenly Father and Savior.

Love,

Elder Cloward

Cristopher's Baptism

Dear Family,
So Cris got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. He is so excited to be baptized and after the baptism he gave his testimony in front of about 30 people that attended the service.
On Thursday we had our first zone conference of 2010. Elder Amado (the President of the Chile Area) came to speak to the missionaries. He basically told us that we are doing good as a mission but we need to do a LOT better. So that will be fun. We´re doing the best we can and things are improving a lot.
Today we had our zone activity. we went to Bernardita´s country house. We brought a volleyball net and tied it to a tree and a pole and played. We had an awesome BBQ. I´ll send pics of that and the baptism next week.
Happy Birthday Janessa!! Love you -Have a wonderful day.
Hope everyone is well!
Love you all
Elder Cloward.
P.S. I need President Marco´s phone numbers: home phone and cell phone. Please send them as soon as possible.
Thank You!

una angelita

Dear Family,
Yes our visa only lasts for one year so I had to get it renewed last week because without it I can´t leave Chile.
The weather has gotten a little cooler over the past few weeks and I am not too happy about it. We´re supposed to be in the middle of summer right now. Elder Marín and I both love the heat. He is from Cali, Columbia, and I´m from Cali too! Isn´t that cool??? But we are both used to hot weather and even though the sun beats down on us we just love it. But it is still hot during the day right now and in the morning and and night it´s a little windy and it's a little cooler. Winter doesn´t start until May. So we´ll just see what happens with that.
Investigator update!!!!!
Cristofer: He had his baptismal interview this past Saturday and we are preparing the baptismal service for next Saturday, February 13th at 7:00 p.m. He´s a pretty funny kid. He got excited when we told him that a couple of weeks after being baptized that he can receive the authority to baptize too (he just turned 17). We are going to try teaching his younger brother Matias, but he is way flaite (ghetto/gangsta)
Daniela: Came back from Santiago. President Jones said that if she comes to church 3 more times she can be baptized and she came to church yesterday. If she doesn´t go back to Santiago she could be baptized Saturay the 27 and confirmed the 28. But she might have to go back to Santiago. The only thing that matters is that she is ready and she wants to make her first covenent with Heavenly Father - so she is going to be baptized.
Barbara: came to church yesterday with the family for the 4th strait week. She´s not going to girls camp though because she went to the beach on a family vacation. So we´ll see how she´s doing when she gets home.
Tity: Bernardita´s daughter. She has a fecha bautismal for March 7. She needs to come to church though!
Carla: girlfriend of an inactive member, Freddy. They have a little boy named Renato, who has some problems. He is two years old and just learned how to walk. He always seems so happy everytime we see him. But it has been hard for Carla and Freddy. We will keep teaching her though. Freddy´s parents and sisters are active (his sister Maritza is leaving on the mission to Argentina in April) and they have supported him during all this time.
We had a really cool experience on Tuesday the 26th of January that I forgot to tell you about. After we got back from Concilio, Elder Marín and I were on our way to an appointment with a family. They live at the end of a dirt rode that leads to a rodeo stadium where they work. As we started walking on the dirt rode, there was a little girl there (she looked about 3 years old but she was really 5, we later learned). We were a little late for the appointment, since we had just gotten back from Santiago. The little girls asked us as we walked by, " are you going to visit Mrs. Rosa? She lives in that light blue house over there." We were in fact not going to visit the Señora Rosa, since we didn´t know who she was, but we felt very impressed to go to the house that the little girl had pointed to, even though we were already 10 minutes late for our appointment. We called at the door (HALO!) and asked to speak with Señora Rosa. We gave her a picture of the Savior and told her that someone had sent us to meet her. She asked us who and we said we would tell her, but first we wanted to offer a prayer in the house with the family. She accepted, and we met the whole family. We did the blessing for their home, then told them that a little girl had sent us to the house. They all knew who she was. They had been wanting to find a church and they were very happy we came. We visited them a couple of times last week, and yesterday, 3 of the kids in the family came to church! Marjory, Juan, and Janira. It was really inspiring to see how a little 5 year old girl lead us to that family. I know without a doubt that the Lord's hand was there as well.
I got the package on Wednesday. Thank you so much!!! I just want to make sure you only sent one tie, right? I love the tie it is pretty cool!
I found the memory card inside of the bottlecap box. Very clever Mom
Yes I have two Santiago West DVDs, one from 2008 and one from 2009. I didn´t want to send them home for fear of losing them, but we will watch them together soon!
I got an email today telling me to change my email address. I´ll let you know if I have to change it, and what the new adress will be.
I got the pic of the little cousins from Dad. They are all so big!
Sad news, I got my go home papers this week (popularly known as trunky papers). I had no idea they would come this soon. My official release date is June 29, one week early (it was supposed to be July 6). It´s one week early because President Jones goes home on July 6. I´m assuming that he´ll be so busy get the new President settled in during his last week that he won´t be able to spend any time with us (the go-homers, as they call us) So he will spend time with us in our last week then have one more week to do what he needs to do before heading back north. I need some info though to be able to send to the office. I need the Bishop´s name, adress and possibly telephone number.
If there is anything else I need I´ll let you know next week.
Happy Birthday Cara!! I hope you have a great day! I love you and thanks for being a great sister!
Well that is all for this week. Hope you all are well. Thanks for your love and support. You are in my prayers always.
Love,
Elder Cloward

Very busy week-but a very good week!!!

Dear Family-

I'm glad you had a busy week Mom. Same thing happened here!!!

Let me give you a quick lo-down of what´s happened since last Monday morning when I last emailed you.

Lunes-Monday night after p-day Elder Marín and I traveled to Maipú. We spent the night in the assistant´s pension with 2 other missionaries.

Martes-Tuesday morning we went in the assistant´s car to the mission home to have the Concilio meeting with all of the zone leader's and President Jones so that he can explain to us his vision for the new change. We then traveled back to Talagante, getting back around 6 p.m. Then left to go work in the sector.

Miercoles-Wednesday morning we had cleaning inspections in the pension, then we had to go do the leadership meeting (a meeting we do every two weeks, which is only with the zone leaders and district leaders in our zone, where we explain to the district leaders the things we learned in Concilio), then, Wednesday night, I went with Elder Burgos ( a Peruvian Elder in our zone) to Maipú, where we spent the night in the assisstant´s pension again (this time with 10 elders in one pension, we slept very little) to go get our visas in Santiago the next day.

Jueves-Elder Burgos and I went to Santiago to get the visa and waited in lines FOREVER but hey it was cool we contacted a Venezualan lady. They have really strong accents, just like the Colombians. We then got back to our sector at 5 pm, bought a completo for lunch, then left to work in the sector.

Viernes-met back up with Elder Marin and Elder Burgos went back to his sector.

Sabado-Zone meeting in the morning.

Domingo-divisions with Pato and Fabian, two of the future missionaries in the branch. It has been a busy week, but awesome. I am so excited for this change. It might be my last one here in Talagante. Who knows. But time is running out very fast and we have to get back to the pension at 3 to eat lunch. It´s a long story and I have no time to tell it...sorry! I will try to fill you in next week if I can.

Have a great week. Thank you for support and love. I am so thankful for my Heavenly Father and Saviors love. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Cloward

Elder Cloward and Elder Marin shearing Dolly. They are helping Barbara one of their investigators out.

Chile Santiago West Mission Christmas Party

Sheep Shearing!

Dear Family,
Thanks for all the emails and the motivation. This week has been kind of stressful, but not in a bad way. It can just be a little overwhelming sometimes all the things that we have to do. But I am just trying to do the best I can and I know that the Lord will help me to do His work. That's just part of the life of a missionary. If we don't have challenges in life we wouldn't progress and grow closer to our Heavenly Father and Savior.
So this week was good. On Tuesday there were changes, but Elder Marín and I didn´t have changes so we stayed here.
We had the opportunity to shear sheep this past week! That was definitely a first. Her name is Dolly and she lives at Barbara's house. I will send pictures!
On Friday we had a karaoke activity. Barbara came with the whole family, but none of the young women from our branch were there. It turned out well though. We visited barbara with Magdalena, the young women´s president, a recently returned missionary. If Barbara can go to girls camp (next week) it will help her a lot to form friendships with the girls and be baptized later on. But Barbara told Magdalena that she doesn`t want to go. She´s just a difficult little girl. But she did come to church yesterday. So that´s good.
The person that´s not being difficult is Cristofer. He went to the young men´s camp last week! There were only four boys from our branch that went, and Cris was one of them and he´s not a member! But he´s very excited and should be baptized in 2 weeks. He couldn´t come to church yesterday because he had to go visit his Mom in Santiago.
On Saturday we had an activity with the Elders Quorum. We weren´t planning on going, since they were going to play soccer and have a barbecue and there´s no point in us being there. But one of the investigators called us at 7:30 (the activity was supposed to start at 6:00) and said that he had been waiting and hour and a half and nobody was there to play, and he was going to leave. So Elder Marin and I ran to the Chapel and organized a soccer match. We played for about 15 minutes (in white shirt and tie) until the rest of the quorum members got there, then we left and continued working. good times. Yesterday we went to visit Familia Meneses. They are all members and the Dad was the Branch Mission leader when I got to Talagante. The only problem is that they live in a vineyard as grounds keepers and haven´t been able to come to church for 2 months because the owners of the vineyard don´t let them leave. So we went to their vineyard. The Hermana has a huge garden in front of the house and gave us bags of tomatoes, chili peppers, bell peppers, peaches, and corn. So that will be nice to have in the house. Tell Cara I said hi too and way to go on not using the company´s money. That´s a good idea and they´ll see that you are an honest employee.
Let me know if I forgot something in the email.
Well I hope you all have a great week.
I love you all very much and you are in my prayers always.
I am so thankful for this opportunity to serve my Heavenly Father, my Savior and the people of Chile. The church is true!
Love,
Elder Cloward

The New Chilean President Is....

Dear Family,
So the name of the new Chilean President is ... President Sebastian Pinera. He was elected yesterday. Good for him. He will be in office for the next six years.
We went and visited Margarita and Daniela Saturday and one of the sisters, Miriam, came to accompany us. We read the family the proclomation to the world. It was good because Margarita was able to open up a bit more and the two talked a lot. Margarita and Daniela came to church yesterday. Daniela is supposed to leave to Santiago next Saturday. We`re pretty sure that she won`t turn Jehovah`s Witness in a month. We`ll see. Barbara came to church yesterday with her whole family! That was good. What wasn`t good was when she asked to talk to us and told us that she doesn`t want to get baptized because she feels more comfortable in the Catholic church than in the Mormon church. But that`s actually only because the young women here have practically ignored her. So we will have to talk to the young women and tell them that if they are members of the Church of Jesus Christ then they should start acting like Jesus Christ did. And we will have to talk to Barbara and explain to her that just because a group of teenage girls didn`t accept her doesn`t mean that she shouldn`t be baptized.
So that`s what`s gonna happen this week. Teenage drama. I thought I was done with that. Then there`s Chris (16 years old). He`s come to church four times. He has a baptismal date for January 30th and we`re pretty sure that he`ll get there. He`s a funny little guy. We just have to teach him a few more things so he can be ready for a baptismal interview this Saturday or Sunday.
Are there really 88 stakes in Southern California? That`s a lot. There`s like 7 in our mission, and two districts. we`re still working on that. But hey congrats to dad!
I`m not gonna lie, I totally forgot to take a picture with the tree this week. But we`re gonna take it down this week for sure and I told the elders we can`t take it down without taking a picture. So that`s gonna happen. Also, family, there is no need to worry about where we are in life and what not or whatever we might be waiting to happen and hasn`t happened yet. If we are keeping the commandments, then we`re good. We can trust 100% in the Lord because we are doing our part. Also, reading the Book of Mormon and Preach my Gospel is good. I'm glad President Marco has given the Stake that challenge. It is always good to read the Book of Mormon over and over. We learn something new each time we read it, because each time we are in a different point in our lives and our lives are touched in a new way by the teachings in the Book of Mormon.
Well, hope you all have a great week.
Let me know if I am missing anything important.
Love,
Elder Cloward

It's 2010!!!

Dear family,
Yesterday we had three investigators come to church!!
1. Daniela, Rafael`s little sister. She has come to church 5 times now, but she has to come 7 more times before she can be baptized. She is really excited for her baptism. Rafael is progressing a lot too. He had a mullet (those are very popular here I don`t know why) but he got his hair cut last Wednesday.
2. Titi (pronounced tee-tee) Bernardita`s daughter. she`s taken the discussions a few times already. She will probably get baptized later on.
3. Josè Tomàs is Ana`s boyfriend`s little brother. He`s in the Chilean army national guard. He`s only going to be here until January 13 then he has to go back to the army, but he finishes his military service in April and then he will bet baptized.
4. Pablo, Rafael`s nephew. Notice that he is number 4 out of 3. He doesn`t count as an investigator attending the chapel because he technically lives in the Esmeralda branch. We will have to work with the missionaries from Esmeralda so that he can start attending there. I`ll get a pic of the christmas tree before I take it down.
Yesterday morning before church we went to Barbara`s house so they could go to church with us. They were all asleep when we got there. We`ll see what happens with that. They have to make a little more of an effort. But all is well.
Yesterday Maximos blessed the sacrament, and shared his testimony in the young single adults sunday school class. That guy is tearin it up.
Have a great week y'all and a happy new year!
Love,
Elder Cloward

Hermana's and Elders Cloward and Marin decorating

for ward Christmas activity
President Jones crowd surfing once again at the
Chile Santiago West Mission Christmas party
(see Elder Cloward right by President Jones' head).

Ana Karina's baptism

Happy New Year!!!

Dear Family,
It was so great to talk to all of you on mom`s birthday! I hope you had a wonderful birthday Mom-thanks for everything and I love you!! Sorry I didn`t call on Christmas but it was just really complicated for us. But next year I can call you on Christmas if you want! We`ll give it a try. I loved the ties and my comp loved his too! Grandma and Grandpa thanks for all the gifts. Elder Marìn was also very happy to receive our matching ties. We wore them to the branch Christmas activity on Saturday. Thank you so much for all of the gifts! We forgot to give the pencils and CTR rings to the primary but we will do it next Sunday.
Christmas dinner was nice and delicious. One of the sister (Hermana Perez, also colombian) made colombian food so Elder Marìn was very happy and it was very good. On Christmas day we went back to the same members house and ate again because there was a lot of food leftover.
I decided today that I`m thinner but not because of a lack of food (we`ve been eating a lot lately). I`m pretty sure it`s because we play soccer for 2 hours every Monday. That along with all the walking is keeping me in pretty good shape. We walk a lot; all the time.
About the memory card: I was talking to Hermana Maples and she said that her family sent her a 4 GB memory card, but she can`t send or print fotos because the memory card is too big. Can you please send me 2 - 2GB memory cards instead? Thanks!
I would really like gingersnap cookies and bottlecaps and any of your homemade candies and my companion was asking for a white hat that says "California" on it. Just if you see one.
We took a Christmas pic of the whole mission, but they haven`t sent it to us yet.
The familia Gaete came to the Christmas activity, but not to church, so Barbara lost her baptismal date. We have to explain her that if she wants to be baptized she`ll have to make more of an effort.
That`s good that Mitch still wants to room with me. I would prefer Liberty Square. We`ll have to see what he thinks. I was talking to my homeboy Elder Finter (from Mesa, he knows the Giles and Gulbrandson families) and we want to room together too. How many people can live in the Liberty apartments? I`d like to live with Kevin and Nick too but I don`t know if we`ll be able to. Plus it`s likely that Mitch has found someone in his mission that he wants to room with too. We`ll just see what happens. Well hope you all had a Merry Christmas and enjoy new years eve!
Happy New Year and love you all,
Elder Cloward


Thank you to my family, friends and ward family who sent me ornaments, cards and letters. It is wonderful to have family and friends who love and support me as I serve our Heavenly Father and His children here in Chile. I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas and I wish you a very Happy New Year. May the Lord continue to bless each of you!
Love,
Elder Cloward

Ana Karina's Baptism

Dear Family of mine-
Hope you are enjoying the sights out there in New York!!! Hope you are enjoying shopping!!!! HaHa! Sorry Dad we`ll go do a bunch of manly guy activities when I get home (remember I still haven`t even seen the second batman movie!). I`m glad you are all having fun!! I remember when we were there in 200.....7? visiting with Melia and Josè. Remember when we went to ground zero and they said that they were going to build another, bigger building on that spot? how`s that going? Just a thought.
So Ana`s baptism on Saturday was GREAT. Honestly in my life I have never been in a baptism that was so spiritual. Ever. There were only about 15 people there (because that day there were 5 activities going on in the chapel AT THE SAME TIME!!!) But it was honestly incredible. One of the sisters in the ward (the district choir director, and one of Ana`s co workers and best friends) sang a special number from a Y.W. disc called " You are a daughter of God" and it was such a good song. Half way through the sister that was singing started to cry and so did Ana and so did I (almost). In a part of the song it said something about how before we were born our Heavenly Father had us in His arms right before we left His presence, hoping that some day we would be able to come back to Him. I could honestly see that happening with Ana right before she came to earth, and I could feel (in a very small degree) how happy and pleased Heavenly Father was because He knew that as she took the step of baptism it was making it possible her return to Him. It was great!!!!
Also, we had another really really good experience this week with a family called Familia Gaete. When I got to this sector 2 months ago, there was a letter in the apartment for that family from one of the missionaries that used to be in this sector. But Elder Butròn didn`t know who they were. Every once in a while when I saw the letter sitting there I felt that we had to find them. But every member we asked didn`t know who they were. Until.......last Thursday we were teaching Carla (she`s a whole different story) with Maritza (a member of the church who`s preparing for a mission, and Carla`s sister in law) and after the lesson with Carla we were going to go visit Max (a recent convert who`s 90 and says he used to be a Mason. He`s really inteligent but a little crazy) and we asked Maritza if she knew who Familia Gaete was. She was "heck yes I do, why haven`t you guys been visiting them?" I said "cuz we don`t know where they live!!" So Maritza brought us to their house! The mom, Wilma, is a member, but inactive. Her daughter, Barbara, is 13 and is not a member. The missionaries were teaching her about 3 months ago but they stopped coming by. We sang some christmas hymns with them and then shared "Permanaced", the lesson to invite inactive members back to the church. They said they would come, but they didn`t come to the chapel yesterday, but we had a cita with them at 5:00 and we went. They said they didn`t come to church because they couldn`t wake up on time, but next week for sure! Then we started teaching lesson 1, the restoration. After the lesson, Barbara asked her mom if she could please go outside for a moment and talk with us privately, so her mom went outside. Then Barbara started to tell us why they missionaries stopped coming. She was preparing to be baptized, but started to have some doubts and insecurities, The missionaries thought she didn`t want to get baptized so they stopped visiting her. But she said that during those 3 months that the missionaries stopped visiting she felt like something was missing in her life, and she couldn`t stop thinking about the church. She said that she knows that this is the path that she wants to follow and has January 16th as her baptismal date!!!!!! So that was way cool. This year for our christmas gift to President Jones, each companionship has to think of a miracle that they have had in the last two weeks, then do a 1 minute recording describing the miracle. Today we recorded all of the miracles in the zone before we played soccer, and we have to burn them onto a dvd tomorrow. So there will be 90 minutes of miracles for President Jones! Elder Marìn and I decided that Barbara should be our miracle. I gave a talk yesterday about the "family mission plan" That was a wonderful experience.
Yesterday Maximo received the Aaronic priesthood, and was ordained as a priest. and I did the ordenation!!!! Màximo asked me to do it for him. This was the first time I have ever done a priesthood ordenation. Màximo is incredible. He will be going on a mission some day. We talked to President Jones about Daniela, since she is so young and her parents aren`t members she will have to attend church for 3 months before she can be baptized. Sad bears. We need to focus on Rafael, her brother, so that he can be worthy of his priesthood. If he stays active, so will she. But without him it will be very difficult. There is much more to tell, but i`ll save it for the phone call!! I sure do hope that you`re flight doesn`t get canceled so that you can be at home when I call! Because answering machines don`t replace families! Everything will be fine. No worries. Suave, porque sauve es todo, as Elder Marìn always said. And by the way I love Elder Marìn. quite possibly more than any other companion. Although I also really love Elder Butterfield and my boy Elder Cannon. We are having a great time now. I`ll send another email with details about the phone call. Happy Birthday Mom!!! Thanks for all you have done for me. I love you so much!
Much love!

Elder Cloward

Tiempode de elecciones

Dear Family:
So yesterday was the day of the Chilean Presidential elections. Here politics is a lot differente. Instead of just two big parties they have seven. And there were 4 presidential candidates. But in order for one of them to win, one person had to get over 50% of the vote. No one did, so they took the top two candidates and there will be a second election in January. Sadly there were 3 investigators that commited to come to church but then didn`t because they went to vote instead. But they will come next week! I`ve learned to be patient with things like this. All that matters is that people accept the gospel. If they do it after I leave the sector, it doesn`t matter. So I decided that this week, due to a time scarcity, I will share my funny stories with the whole family. So there are two new missionaries that we live with, Elder Johnston (from new york, he has two weeks left in the mission), Elder Urbina (from Honduras, he has about 8 months in the mission), and my new companion is Elder Marìn from Colombia. We are both staying here in Talagante. He got to the mission the same time as Elder Krainik, Elder Mawhinney and I. He lived with Elder Mawhinney on the coast for our first 6 months in Chile. He is a great missionary and works very hard. I think we will get along just fine. So yesterday, due to the elections, there is a law about public buildings not being in use for more than one hour, so that everyone can vote. So we had a big combined Sacrament meeting with our branch (Talagante) and the other branch that uses our chapel (Cordillera). So the two new elders, my new companion, and the two sister missionaries that just got here (5 missionaries in total) were asked to introduce themselves in the Sacrament meeting. So the two new elders went first, and after they finished, this little old man walked up to the stand, and stood up to go share his testimony. It was really sweet because he thought we were just doing a testimony meeting and wanted to share his testimony! So he stood up but the branch president explained that it wasn't a testimony meeting. So the other three missionaries introduced themselves, and they let the little old man share his testimony with us. Later on in the sacrament meeting, one of the sisters was giving her talk. There were 3 people that had been assigned talks, but due to the 5 missionary introductions, plus the little old man`s testimony, time was pretty short. And the hermana talked for a long time! So the branch president passed her a little paper, which we all know said something like "your time is up, please finish your talk." but the hermana just kept talking and said "the little paper they just passed me said "your doing a great job with your talk!
keep it up!"" We all laughed pretty hard. When she finished her talk, the sacrament meeting ended and the other two people that had prepared talks didn`t give them. Next week! Also, after the sacrament meeting Ana had her baptismal interview. and passed! So that`s good news. Màximo now comes to church in a suit that one of the members gave to him. Yesterday he was sustained to receive the Aaronic priesthood in the office of a priest, but he will have to be set apart next week. We found out that his grandma was a member. Rafael came to church too, the third time in a row. but his mom went to vote and Daniela was sick.
So being a zone leader is a lot different from being a district leader. In some ways it is easier, but in other ways it is harder. The good side is that my companion and I are both zone leaders, and we both have almost a year and a half in the mission, so any challenges we have we can face them together. In our zone there are two districts, one has 4 companionships and the other has 5. The district leaders do the interviews for the investigators of the companionships in their district, and we interview the investigators of the district leaders, since they can`t interview their own investigators. Instead of doing district meetings every week, we only have to plan one zone meeting every 6 weeks. We also have to plan with the district leaders, the iniciatives of every change. There are usually three iniciatives each change, which are all like fun little plans to help the missionaries improve and learn how to do the work better. On the first Friday of every change we have a meeting called "concilio" where all of the zone leaders (about 18 in total) go to the mission home and we talk with President Jones and he tells us about the vision that he has for the next change and what we wants the missionaries to focus on the next 6 weeks, and he asks for ideas from all of us. We had the meeting this past Thursday in Santiago. It is from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and we eat breakfast and lunch in the mission home. The weird thing about the meeting this Thursday was that President Jones never took time to just talk to all of us. He made most of us talk about how to make the mission better. He usually takes the last half hour of zone conferences and concilio to give one last super spiritual class and then finish with his testimony, but he did it differently this time. He stood up and said "I want all of you to think about who Jesus Christ is and pick the scripture that the spirit indicates to you." and so we all picked a scripture and read them one by one. here is a list of the scriptures that we read:
Alma 7:11-12
Mosìah 3:7-81
Nephi 9:19
Mark 15:24
Alma 34:14-15
Moroni 7:47
D&C 6:363
Nephi 11:10-14
Ether 3:13-14
Mosiah 3:172
Nephi 2:26
Isaiah 40:29-313
Nephi 27:13-14
Mosiah 14:2-7
D&C 45:3-5
D&C 50:41-45
D&C 19:16-19
Luke 22:40-443
Nephi 15:9
Alma 42:23
Mosiah 15:8-91
Nephi 21:14, 16 (my favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon, but nobody read it during the concilio, I put it in after). It was a very spiritual meeting. I have come to realize early in my mission, that the only reason that this work even exists is because of Jesus Christ. And the only thing that can truly motivate us to participate in His work is Love. Nothing else is a strong enough motivation to keep working as a missionary for 2 years. I know that He is sustaining me in every step that I take. President said in his closing testimony that day: "I am here so that I can use every last bit of energy that I have in the service of my Saviour Jesus Christ. Every time I think that I can`t go any farther, that my energy has all run out, He gives me more energy, He makes me stronger and helps me keep going." I know that this is true. I hope you all have a great Christmas and can feel the love of the Saviour and help bring that love to other people, as you have already done to me. I love you!!!
Elder Cloward