🎄🎅Merry Christmas 2021 🎅🎄🤟

 

I'm happy to report that I got nothing for Christmas from good ol Santy Claus. I'm not sure why he didn't get me anything though because this was the year I think I was on the best behavior. I was a missionary this whole year. Maybe I was a bad one?🤔 Nah, that can't be it. I think he's just jealous because I serve God and don't succumb to worldly things as easily anymore. It's also getting really hot here. I have had 3 summers in my mission all with lots of heat.🔥 On the brightside I have lost 30+ on my mission thanks to the heat. Now I fear exceedingly that I might sweat into non-existence.

Folks, it's a Christmas miracle: we can now go street contacting! I've missed street contacting since being here but, oh boy do I feel like a noob again.😂 Street contacting is one of those things you have to continue to do or you kind of lose confidence. Plus it's in Spanish. Something that happened that was interesting was that we walked past a guy by his house and he gave us a Book of Mormón. It's usually the other way around. The dude said that the Book of Mormón he gave us has been sitting in his house for 40 years. We tried to see if he would read it but he wasn't interested at all. He was also crazy. For whatever reason all the crazy people live by the Cemetery here. I also saw a Gringo this week that wasn't a missionary. We were walking down a road and a guy drove past and was like "What's up" with his window down. I was a little confused and then while he was driving off he was like "I'm a gringo too!" I shouted back "Let's go!" It was pretty epic, not going to lie. It was also by the cemetery.

This year because I wasn't receiving anything I decided to give instead. We bought presents for the Diogos who are a Senior Couple in the town where we live. I got Hermana Diogo a matte cup that says Rocha on it and I got Elder Diogo a couple ties because he has like three. To be honest I think giving might be funner than getting so that's cool, also the Diogos are super dope.

I had a cool experience last night. We were at the Diogos for Christmas dinner last night and I was just chilling on the couch and my heart was full of gratitude and I reflected on life and thought about so many things I'm grateful for. I thought about my mission, my family, Jesus Christ, the Gospel, my friends, about all of you that take the time to read my goofy emails, and a lot more things. Life is good. Even in the heat of the refiner's fire, life is still good. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and his Atonement for all of us. I'm grateful because he suffered all he did even so that he bled from every pore. He died on the cross and he was resurrected again so that we won't have the sting of death and the grave has no victory. I've never realized how extensive his Atonement was. It's infinite. It covers us from before the beginning of time and on forever and ever. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. 

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and remember the reason for the season. I love you all and hope the best for you all. Love you bye!

-Love Elder Clegg

WEEK 71 It's Getting Hotter

 

It was a pretty good week this week I'd say. The funny part is people have been kind of making fun of my Spanish so that's funny. The awkward part is that I understand them most of the time on what they are saying but, I don't know how to defend myself so I'll just live in ignorance. It's also getting hotter over here. That's right One mission 3 summers!

We did walk around a lot this week searching for those that are less active. That might be one of my favorite activities right now is inviting less active members to repent. There was this one lady in we were looking for named Fabiana and there was a dude outside so we asked if Fabiana lived there and he went to get Fabiana and when she came out we asked if she was Fabiana and she said no even though The spirit of discernment told me she was Fabiana or maybe it was other context clues. Anyway, she finally admitted that she was Fabiana and she kind of made fun of me for being from the United States. I don't know how people keep figuring out I'm from the U.S.🤔.I'm just going to start saying I'm from Montevideo. Fabiana wasn't interested at all in coming back to church. There's also a lot of people we look for that are currently in the spirit world so that's cool. We were looking for this one lady and the neighbors told us that we were too late and that she died and said, and I quote "a thousand years ago". I didn't know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was on the earth a thousand years ago in Uruguay. The more you know! 

Another thing to note is that I read the Pearl of Great Price in Spanish and as you would imagine it blew my mind and I've never read it in English. Another cool thing that happened this week is I caught a fish! That's right! I was once a fisher of fish, then I was a fisher of men and now I'm a fisher of fish and man. We also ate the fish so I think my Grandma will be proud! Hopefully Jesus will be proud too. I also read about Alma and Amulek's adventures in Ammonihah and the moral of the story is don't be like Nehor otherwise your whole city will be destroyed by Lamanites. You could probably figure out how that can apply to you.

Love, Peter...I mean Elder Clegg

WEEK 70 Dogs? 🐕🦮🐕‍🦺

This week we had too many experiences with dogs and they are everywhere. For some reason they always want to eat me. I mean I know I'm a snack but, now I'm kind of scared of dogs. One of the incidents is when we went past somebody's house there was a big ol dog with a chain on and it was in a yard and this dude charged me and freaking broke the chain. It scared the crap out of me and it also scared the crap out of the dog because it just ran in circles. There was also another incident when we tried to knock on this less active ladies door but, these two stupid dog were freaking guarding the place. We couldn't get too close otherwise the dogs would try to eat us. I think the dogs were possessed by the devil but, who knows. There was also another time when a bunch of dogs started charging us out of a yard but, luckily the owner stopped them before they got too close.

On a different note we were in Montevideo to go to a conference with one of the 70s named Elder Costa and I could understand the whole conference. I was kind of shocked the whole time. I think the reason I could understand was because they were trying to go slow and also the Spirit helped a ton. I also got to see my MTC district which was cool and also got to see a fellow Sin City missionary named Elder Hickman so that was cool. We went to McDonalds after the conference in Montevideo and it is like a 5 star restaurant here compared to the ones in the US. It was tasty homeland food. 

We got in contact with a bunch of less active members this week which is always great. We also had a lesson with this guy named Federico who is in a part member family. He's really dope. The thing that might hold him back is the things that have happened in Rocha in the church (I think I explained it in my last email) so that's kind of rough. It does show there are consequences for every action and shows a butterfly effect so that's cool I guess... 

I hope you all are going to have a good week this week. My Spanish has been improving but, sadly, it's not there yet. Who knew it was hard to learn a language? Those lucky missionaries before the Tower of Babel incident could always talk and teach in their own language. I wonder what would happen if the tower of babel was never built?  On that note Love you bye!

-Love Elder Clegg