Serving with a Smile in...Monterrey!: Testimony of a Living Prophet, & Progress with a few Setbacks

I always have the spirit let my heart know that he will be going to the temple so I knew that I wouldn't hear from him until Wednesday. Funny how it all works. As I read this email, then I started looking at the pictures, you will see the one with him and Elder Gomez, his trainee and Elder Gomez' trainee. You will most likely see as I did that he is not the same boy that we sent over 16 months ago. He is a man. I had tears fill my eyes and was so proud of him and wished so badly I could just grab him and hug him. He is doing great things and only to do more before he is finished with this journey and adventure. I thought how you barely let them cross the street alone and then you send them on a mission and they do it. Every part of it. But, they do not do it alone. He is watched and taken care of from above. I know that He is watching and taking care of him and so many others. He loves each and everyone of his children and it is evident with each email that our missionary sends home. He is so in charge. I am more certain of that each an every day. Enjoy...

Hello familia! Well, Monday we went to the temple so that is why I am writing so late today! We woke up today at 3:30 and got to the Monterrey temple at 6, we took the bus the whole way and guess what, Elder Gomez stayed the night in our house! It was fun to have him over and his companion that he is training. Elder Gomez is having a lot of success, and I am very proud of him. He is a great friend and I am blessed to have him in the zone with us. This last week we were going to have a baptism on sunday, but our investigator fell back with his addiction to alcohol, it was pretty sad to see. He was going 2 weeks without drinking, he got a job, went to go see his daughter that he hadn't seen in a very long time and things were turning around and he had his interview on friday night, and saturday night we came by and he was drinking a caguama, which is a 40 beer! ah man, it sucked. This guy has nothing, and we really have helped him come out of his hole, he told us he had never felt better not drinking for the past few weeks, then drank again and everything fell! but its all good, we are working with him and he is our friend, we love him and want the best for him. We also have a family, and 3 other investigators we are teaching that are solid. and we are happy to have found them! I love it. Well, conference was awesome. As Caleb said, yes they do repeat the same thing a lot, and that's why they repeat it, because its so important. Many of the speakers in all the sessions, spoke about the Restoration and about Joseph Smith and the importance of prophets. Its true, we speak to people all day from different churches and they are just lost, man. Most of the ¨catholics¨ dont even know who the pope is when we ask them, which is funny at times, but it made me realize that the Prophet today, Presidente Tomas S Monson es un profeta hoy en esta dia, que realmente recibe revelacion de Dios y que el nos guia en esta mundo. Se que si siguemos el consejo de ese profeta y de los apostoles, nosotros no andaremos en obsucridad. les amo mucho!

Elder Clayton