Another Baptism and Feeling Like Time is Running Out...

Elder Gomez and Stetson have been together for quite awhile and he feels as if a change is coming, which makes him sad.  However, they are such a dynamic duo and having such great success.  Wayne was able to chat with him, and Elder Gomez' dad sent Stetson a letter thanking him for the blessing he was as his trainer for his son.  He said they are like the sons of Mosiah and although they may be separated they will reunite one day and always be friends.  I am most certain he is correct.

Hola family! Elder Gomez and I had a pretty good week, since Wednesday, we have had a great time. On Friday, I did divisions with my zone leader, I left the area and went to San Pedro. It was pretty sweet! We walked alot, and they have hills! There are some areas here in Monterrey that have super steep streets! because my area right now is really flat. but I had a good time and I learned a lot. On Saturday, we had a noche de hogar or family night with our investigators. we had descada! Which is super goood. Its cooked over a fire, and has meat, onions, chile, tomatoes, salchica and all cooked together. and dont forget the tortillas. Classic Monterrey cooking. It was good and we had a good time. On Sunday, we had a lot of success as many of our less active families we are working with came and our investigators. Our convert, Jose Maria is so bomb, he is our taxi for picking up investigators. So that was good. Later in the day, we had a baptism, baptism of Cristina, her mom is less active, now she is going, and we didn't know, but found out about 3 weeks ago that Cristina wasnt a member. It was a good baptism, but we didn't have much support from the ward. We notified everyone a week in advance and the bishop forgot to come! but that support we did have was enough and we are thankful for that. Today we relaxed because the past few days we have been super busy. Today we went to that buffet that is super good. A hermana gave us money one day for food and we fasted and saved up the money for today! So overall, it was a great week. Glad to hear everyone is okay! Love you all!

Famila Sena, we have reactivated them as well. They are a great family, but have always been active and inactive. They have their oldest son in Rehab, who used to drink with Jose Maria, who we baptized! So when he gets out, he is coming back to church.

And Karla, we have known her for a while, now she has two times in the church and has a pretty strong testimony of the gospel.

This is that one crazy guy, but he is a good guy. This is his wife and kids. The last time his wife came to church was 2011. The day of her confirmation!! now they have two weeks coming! Sweeet huh? 

Cristina's Baptism

 Member from Sabinas, she told them they miss him.  I'm not surprised.

This is where they get their hair cut, a bit different from home.

Here's a few things I wrote back and forth to him:

Hello mom! yeah it was fun to chat with you on Wednesday! man that is hard for Joan! once a month or more. that is pretty crazy, but its all good. haha thats funny about marc too. there are so many less actives here. and that's funny you talked about when i used to do that with the Donny Osmond play!! I though about that Friday. I was with another elder in San Pedro on divisions and we contacted a family, and we watched this little girl singing, and if anyone was talking she would stop! Just like I did, so it made me think of that. how funny! ah man I miss Scotty! Tell him or Bridger to tell him my kid is from the Dominican Republic and he is way tight. He is a good Elder and I love every day with him. i haven't had one boring day with him! he is always singing or talking to me haha.

love you so much mom! have an excellent day and love you so much. tell caleb and bridger I love them and give them a hug for me. Tell everyone hi for me too! 

Here is an email I received from Elder Gomez.  I sure love him.  

Hello Sister Clayton, maybe my father already told you we had a baptism but YEAHHH MITRAS IS RISING and its all because of our companionship, we are one voice as it says in DyC and we always try to preach with the spirit, im kind of sad cause this change is almost over and were gonna separate but my heart will always be with this family, I really hope that someday i could visit you and when you can Philippians 1 from 3 to 11, we were 28 when i came and now were 63 so its all in our desire to work sister, take care les amo familia<3

Appreciating Things He's Always Had and Letting us Know

No email this week just a quick response to my email. Which I will include it will explain his response. He is doing so great and knows his time is drawing near to moving areas as he had been in this area for almost 4 months. He loves it and will be sad but knows it's all part of the experience. Here you go. Enjoy...

Hello Pal!  Do they even celebrate it there?  Today we were green, but that's about as good as it get's here.  Nothing else.  Do you remember when you were younger and I made green eggs for breakfast?  Thinking I was being such a great and clever mom and you boys thought they looked so disgusting and wouldn't eat them.  Funny, the things you do, right?

Well, how's your week been.  This week was a great week here.  It was a no dr. week at work and so it was a catch up on for me.  Eileen went to St. George so I was filling in for her so it was a busy one.  Seems like I always have things to do which I can't complain.  It was also the dental convention downtown so I went to that on Friday, that was a long day.  We had to recertify for the radiology so we can take x-rays.  We sit in a class and learn about taking them and then take a test.  There are 25 questions only 2 of the questions have to do to with us. But, we all passed.  I got a 96% so that's great. It's an easy open note test. Ha ha.  I get to keep my job.  Last night dad and I went to dinner with Mike and Melanie to Texas Roadhouse and showed Mike the picture of your T-Bone, they both were quite impressed.  Needless to say, I had my usual porkchop.  That place doesn't disappoint.

Today, FSOY we had President and Sister Collins come and discuss about missions and going/preparing for going on one.  It was so good.  I couldn't help but think about how prepared you were as I listened to them both.  President Collins talked about how he could always tell the ready and prepared missionaries as they stepped off the plane.  The ones who held back, and didn't look him in the eye, or "gamers" he called them.  He told the a particular example of an elder who was just struggling and brought him in to talk to him about what was wrong and the elder broke down and explained how he had couldn't get the images of the 1000's of people he had killed in cyberspace.  Even though he knew it wasn't real it felt real to him then.  I told dad I was so glad that we had stuck to our desire of not allowing those types of games in our home and although it was a battle more than once, it never hurt you boys to not have them here, in fact as you can now attest, it helped you so much.  This young elder sobbed in President Collins office and told Sister Collins how many times the spirit would leave him as he would get an image in his mind from those games.  I hope you know how much your dad and I always tried to listen to the spirit and do the best we could and just do what we felt was right.  And now we can see that this is exactly what was best.  We were equally glad Caleb was there to hear that.

We also talked about today one year ago we headed out to the airport to see Bridger return from his mission.  Can you believe it's been one year?  Crazy right!?!  I posted a picture on Instagram for him I'll send you, it seriously was the best hug I've ever received.  I still think a piece of his heart stayed in Honduras however...

How's the teaching coming along?  I continue to pray for those sweet people to see the light in your & Elder Gomez' eyes and want what you have.  They will, just have patience.  Today I was reading in 1 Nephi where he breaks his bow.  It's funny how much patience Nephi has and yet he keeps moving along.  He never gives up and that is how we have to be.  Trick is we can't murmur.  That is the true test.

Well, I hope you have a wonderful week.  It's been a little chilly today, but the sun is shining and I'm not complaining.  I had my sunroof open yesterday, the heater was at full capacity, but it was a wonderful feeling...perhaps Spring is here, maybe.

Love you so much pal.  I'm so proud of you and all that you are doing.  You're becoming the man that will help you succeed for the rest of your life.  Be safe, and as always obedient. 

Love and miss you,

MOM

Hello mom! That is sweet you area xray certified! Wow I am gratful for you and dad and your work ethic and all that I have. people work soo hard here and still dont make ends meet. It is important to thank the Lord for all that we have. It is known in Monterrey for its working people and never resting! Thanks for always praying for me and my companion. you have never been selfish, and that is very admirable. you have always put us first. Just like Nefi, I always keep going. There are hard moments in the mission, but I always keep going. The mission president sent my a letter and told me thanks for the work I have done in Mitras. Its a really difficult area with little support from the ward. but  I have made it better than I found it. He shared a scripture with me, D &C 64:33- Great things proccedeth small things. Sp true, I have been blessed with patience, and I love being here in Mitras to help this ward. I think I am in these hard wards to help me realize what I had for 19 years in my life. Amazing wards with so much support. but, its all good! Love you so much mom! 

--

Elder Clayton 

 At the Monterrey Temple, it's beautiful there.

 With Elder Gomez, he loves this companion.

 With his companion and a family they are teaching

 With his zone at the temple

 Bandera de Mexico y Gomez, Medrano de Bolivia y yo! He used to live with us, way cool Elder 

On Monday, I had the spirit whisper to my heart that you would be going to the temple that day.  Sometimes I wait all day and then am so disappointed knowing that it must have been your temple day.  I was so grateful for the whisperings of the spirit so that I was not disappointed.  And just now I was busy working and then my phone went off with a text saying you were on.  Oh how excited I was to see that you were on.  I love you so much pal, so glad you are doing so well and look extremely happy.  We are being watched over and blessed for your obedience and service.  Thank you so much.  I continue to pray for you daily.  Keep the faith, and as you can see, your efforts are paying off.

Love you, MOM

I always forget to tell you guys. We are always informed ahead of time, but I forgot this last week! --

I was able to chat with him back and forth quite a bit.  He asked me to talk with Marc who is married to Brittney where he served on his mission.  It was fun as I went back and forth and sent Spanish sayings to him and Marc.  It was almost like being right there.  He is doing so great and as you can see in the pictures he looks awesome and is looking more and more Latino all the time.  Which, he always thought he was..ha-ha.

Just another typical week...and pebbles in his shoes, too!

 This week's email was pretty much nothing too much had happened, but I was able to be one with him and I had written about my lesson in Young Women's  So, I will include my letter this week too as it will explain him his response back to me.  He sounds so great and his pictures that he sent are of him and his companions that were taken to a buffet and treated to a T-bone.  You will see that they are not just eating rice and beans.  He looks so happy, and for that we are extremely grateful.  Enjoy and thank you for following his journey. He always says to tell everyone hello and this week he said that he has learned more and more to appreciate the members and neighbors of the Orchard Fifth Ward.  Funny how much you learn when you get taken away from all that is familiar and comfortable from you.  Enjoy...

Hello Familia! This week was pretty normal haha. It went by pretty fast, but not much happened! We have a lot of investigators but not many are going to church. So Elder Gomez and I studied hard this week to commit our investigators to church, because its really important for them to understand why we go to church on Sunday. So I studied that a lot this week, and I found a lot

of help in Moroni 6. Where it talks about the Dia de Reposo, or Day of rest! It is a little bit hard in this area, but its possible. The church starts at 9, and its not that far away. That last baptism in this area before us was in October! but its possible every week. Our mission is pushing so that every companionship can baptize every week. So yeah...other than that not much happened! From the pictures I sent, we hit up Sirloin..the buffet here in Monterrey. Wow it was great haha. We are going to start to run in the mornings because we are eating to much haha. but I am happy, and happy to be here in the work of the Lord. I hope you are all well, I pray for all of you all the time. Love you all!

--

Elder Clayton

My letter to him:

Hey Pal.  How are you.  Well, first of all today we spring ahead with our clocks.  So, I believe we are now on the same time zone again.  I'm having a hard time staying awake at the present time, because although it's not even 10:00, it was really 5:00 that I got up this morning to cut fruit for Jordan's homecoming.  So, it feels like I've been up forever and am so tired.  Not a fan of Daylight Savings time, just sayin...

Today, as mentioned it was Jordan Peterson's homecoming and he did such a great job.  He looks so great.  He lost a lot of weight and is really quite thin.  He had about six of his companions there and it was the usual crowded fun garage party after.  They all said to make sure we told you hello.  He gave a wonderful talk and that same guy that spoke at Josh's spoke again.  He is a wonderful speaker.  Letia said that he has a pack with them that he just speaks at all of them.  Although we were going to that it started at 1:00 and our church is 9:00 so dad and I went to ours.  I'm so glad I did.  I was to teach in YW today and in our ward it was the sister missionaries that spoke.  AMAZING!  The one sister is from Wisconsin and so darling.  She told about how her dad had her at age 17 and was a tattooed gang member from LA.  Her mother was 15 when she had her.  They divorced after about 3 years and had a little one-year old brother.  One day the sister missionaries contacted him and he noticed that something was different about them.  One of those sisters became his wife and this sister's step mom.  She then told about at age 16 she left church activity for about two years.  She then talked all about the Atonement and the importance of it and how it is for everyone.  Funny and ironic thing is I was to teach on Sunday and it was on Forgiveness.  So her talk and the other sister's was on Love One Another and how we need to make certain, they know who much we care and love everyone.  Especially through service.  We seriously have the best missionaries on the earth.  They are amazing. 

My lesson was on Forgiveness like I said and I told of the story of the boy who would not forgive his brother for running over his bike. The brother apologized profusely however the brother never accepted his apology.  This story was told and then said how this is like a pebble in your shoe.  It really won't hurt you much, but to get the benefits of a nice journey, you have to take the pebble out of the shoe and get rid of hit.  It turned out so great.  This message was a great one.  I passed out a pebble to each of the leaders and YW and told them to put that in their shoe, and although it wouldn't hurt them that much, they would feel it and then how much better it would fell to let it go and take it out.  Just like repentance and forgiveness.

Never easy, but always worth it and better off.  Well, nothing much happened in our week, either.  The weather is still unseasonably warm and I'm thinking we are going to get dumped on any day now.  Ha-ha.  But, I'm happy with all that white stuff staying on the mountains where it belongs.

Well, I will let you get back to whatever you were doing.  I love you so much and am so proud of you and all that you are doing.  Your pictures last week were so awesome.  Love you so much, son!

Stay safe,, and as always...OBEDIENT!

Love you,  MOM

eating at the buffet. we went here with the mom of the bishop, they have a ton of money. the buffet alone is 160 pesos, like 14 bucks, we got there and she was like (Elders you cant come to Sirloin and not get a t-bone...haha so we all got one and the buffet) so the total was 1,200 pesos!! like 100 bucks!  It was super goood! 

Hello mom! Wow that's sweet about the sister missionary! The Atonement is really special, and covers  everything.  Funny thing about pebbles in shoes. In my last area, it was all dirt roads, not 10 minutes went by and I didnt have a rock in my shoe. it still happens but not that much, its amazing that such a small thing can be such a big burden! Oh and I have worn out my soles in my black shoes! I bought new soles with gel! But, I still have my brown ones that are basically brand new.

A Super Fast Week, and in Charge of the Primary Party

Hello everyone! Well, this week went by super fast, but it kind of went by fast with nothing much happening! Elder Gomez and I are working hard in Mitras, and we have helped this ward come around. Its a really old ward, everyone says it was the first in Monterrey, but everyone claims that haha. We had a noche de barrio this Friday night, we weren't in charge...until the primary called us in the morning if we could do it. all my comps didn't want to do it, but I knew that no one would else do it. So I said yes, and it turned out really well. we talked about families, have you guys seen the Mormon message Earthly Father, Heavenly Father? its freaking sweet and we got the members crying haha. But we had a good message and it turned out really well. We found a lot of new people to teach this week and our convert, Jose Maria, is doing really well! So not much happened this week, but it was good! Love you all!

--

Elder Clayton

This is Lupita and her family. We contacted her in her house like a month ago. we walked pass and I felt like we should go back, so we went back and talked to her. she has come to activities but first time Sunday!! So sweet. Something really cool, in her house she has about 40 Virgin Mariah statues and San Judas Tadeo. So over the course of our visits we have taught her to pray to our Nuestro Padre Celestial. She still prayers to her saints but she tells us that she feels more in peace after her prayers how we have taught her to pray. She has a testimony and its sweet!

--

Elder Clayton

 Turnout from the bario

 Pogo sticking with one of the members

Training Two...and Loving Every Minute of It!

This email is a great one with the news of him training an additional elder.  Two "greenies" is quite unique.  When I have mentioned it to some being a trainer with only at the time six months into his mission was awesome.  Now training two is so great.  I know that these elders are being taught by the best.  Stetson was so prepared to go and now is teaching them how to be while out there in the heart of the mission.  We are so proud of him and can see what a leader he is becoming.  Read on, it's another great one...

 

Hello everyone! So on Monday night we had changes!! The two other elders left! Elder Gomez and I were sad, but its all good. So where all the Elders meet, its at a Bus Station in Monterrey, and our one companion left a spare backpack at the house! So on Tuesday morning, they left and we found it and went to give it to him. Oh and its in our area, so we had all the right to be there. So we are talking to different missionaries and our Zone leaders were mad that we were there talking and not studying like we should have been haha. And in that moment our Zone leader got a call from President for Clayton and Gomez to go to the offices to pick up a new missionary!! in the mission when there are emergencies, there are Camibo chicos or Cambio Locos. So we were right were we needed to be! How funny right? so we got in a taxi and went to the office and picked up Elder Beteta from Guatemala! So we were in a trio for a week but tomorrow he will get his own companion. It was a different week, a trio is hard haha. To teach and everything, Elder Gomez and I get along well and have jokes and all that, but we all got along for the short time we were together. Yesterday, we confirmed Jose Maria to be the newest member in the barrio de Mitras! He is a future leader and is already helping us pick up investigators and work with us. He is a really good man that we found in just the right time. I am thankful for the power of pray and what it can do. I have seen miracles in my time here. This area is pretty hard, the ward has many challenges, but we still baptized and had success. I will stay another change here in Mitras to be here for 4 months just like my last area.  Love you all and tell Elder Peterson hello for me! 

--

Elder Clayton

He also wrote me a personal message which I will include.  I actually wasn't sad that he had not remembered that it was my b-day.  You want them to lose themselves while out there, and as you can see he has done just that.  Well done pal...

Hello mom!! I completely forgot to tell you Happy Birthday. I am so sorry. So, Happy Late Birthday! Mindy Clark, well now Jones wrote me an amazing email. Tell her thank you from me. really, it made my day. Tell Cindy and Kim I got their Christmas cards! what did our Christmas cards look like this last year? oh and that's cool you taught that class.  6 weeks is a lot, but you would be the one in the stake to teach it! that's so cool. this week was pretty hard in our trio, but it was good! I will write more in my letter. love you mom! 

 

 Elders Clayton, Beteta, and Gomez