Email received Jun 28, 2010

Couple of cool connections this week: The building our wards meet in is the Stake Center for another stake who was having it's Stake Conference on Sunday, so our wards were all switched around. Our first ward met in one of the buildings that was temporarily deserted for the conference, and as usual Sis Knuteson and I stood at the doors to the chapel passing out programs and greeting people. When I saw people I didn't recognize I naturally chalked it up to summer visitors or confused members, but there was one family that was different. As they walked in the father said "Sis. Cloward, where are you from?" Now this is not an unfrequent question for a missionary, but the quick succession perked my attention. I noticed the man had a polynesian look about him and guessed where it was going. Sure enough, his name is Darryn Wong and he knows the Clowards in Hawaii; Cary Cloward was his sunday school teacher when he was a boy and currently lives in their stake. (Editor's note: Dad's uncle raised his family in Hawaii.) It's so cool to meet people who actually know people I know rather than "the Clowards in Nebraska?" "Nope, but we're related!" or "so-and-so Cloward was my great-great-grandmother." That's great, I only know a few names from that far back...but we're related.

I've also had a vain hope of seeing a teaching record with the name Conrad or Knieser (Editor's note: Boys in our ward in Connecticut who served in Nevada.) or possibly even Cloward on it (Editor's note: David served in Nevada while waiting for his visa to come through for Hungary.), but since the whole program has changed since then, our records don't go back that far. Plus, only Mark (Knieser) was in this mission, and it's a big mission, so he could have been anywhere. But on Sat we had a lesson with a recent convert in the single's ward. He lives with his grandmother who joined the church several years ago, but it took him until just this January to come around for himself. I asked him how they first got introduced to the church and he said: "Oh, way back when I was about 14 or 15 we were just doing whatever when the missionaries came to our neighborhood and Elder Knieser knocked on our door - " at which point I said "Elder Knieser?!?!?! Was he from CT? Was this about 2002-2003??" They replied in the affirmative and I continued to gush that "I know him!!!" We chatted about him for a few minutes and I told them what I knew post-mission (which isn't much, I don't know how may kids they have now); apparently the grandmother didn't get baptized until 2004 or 2005 so I don't know if Mark even knows about that, let alone the grandson. I just think it's so awesome that not only do I get to see a bit of what he did a-way back when, I also get to help teach one of the same families. You have to admit that's pretty cool.

I don't think I mentioned last week, but Sis Knuteson and I got to go to Girls Camp for an afternoon. We counted it as service because the craft lady is in our ward and said she needed our help, how could we refuse? We helped the girls make bead rings for an hour or so (they're very pretty) and then had some free time to go exploring. Now I have more photo evidence of just what sister missionaries can do in skirts and illustrations for Jeremiah 16:16.

 

It was funny to see the girls (and leaders) all bundled up because "it's so cold on Mt. Charleston!" I will admit, if you sit still in the shade it's rather cool and after the sun goes down it started getting quite chilly (maybe even in the 50s) I would definitley want an extra blanket at night, but if you're sitting in the sun or running through the hills, it's actually quite pleasant to a little warm. People were so concerned that our legs were going to freeze because we had come up in skirts, but we were happy as clams. Much nicer than the 100+ in Vegas!

I believe I've mentioned the Lords family before, we were having lessons at their home every Mon night; they are awesome and we love them so much!!! Well, their oldest son just came home from his mission on the 18th and Sis Lords asked if I would sing this song (Homeward Bound, Track #3) the next Sunday as it had become one of his favorites on his mission. Somehow I got roped into singing it in the Singles Ward this past Sunday as well, I don't know if I did as well, but it's all in the Lord's hands anyhow. Enjoy, but don't get any ideas, I've still got another 7 months before I'm on my way.

-Sis Cloward

P.S. We finally put our spider in the freezer and he died. Now we have two dead spiders sitting in a tupperware container on our counter, I'm not really sure why.


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Jeremiah 16:16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

Email received Jun 21, 2010

To start with, imagine a father's day card. There were lots of Charlie Brown/Snoopy themed ones this year that made me think of you, Dad, but as I told my companion: Not spending $5 on a greeting card shows my love for my father. And for David, the father's day card of all father's day cards: you're walking through the store, you walk past the card aisle, all the father's day cards are displayed in front, your eye is drawn to one near the top, there on the cover is...Darth Vader. It doesn't even matter what the card says, that's just awesome. Some more thoughts for father's day, Sis Knuteson and I went to visit a referral a couple weeks ago who wasn't so much interested in learning about the church as he was in telling us we were wrong, but in a very pleasant and friendly manner. His son, who is a preacher, gave him a dog named Moses who says his prayers: he puts his front paws up on a chair and lays his head down on top of them; but the best story was when they showed this off to a random black lady they met on the street one day, "Praise JE-sus!! I've just seen a Dog that says his Prayers!" We chatted for a while and most of what he said was just his interpretation of all the religious studies he's done (he's chosen a mainstream Christian religion) but the phrase that pierced our hearts and won't leave our minds was "I am not a son of God, nor will I ever be a son of God." This has literally come up in conversation at least once a day since, with many references to scriptures and hymns and "See, right there, Child of God!" The thought hit me the other day that while chatting to him about other topics was very enjoyable, that was a fleeting sort of happiness, but knowing who I am, what I really mean to my Father in Heaven, and my true potential brings a lasting joy that nothing can take away. Nothing. I was grateful yesterday when many of the talks (we do go to three Sacrament Mtgs now, don't know if I mentioned that) focused on our Father in Heaven, and one even quoted from a story by Pres. Monson, "the worth of a human soul is its capacity to become like God." If anything, run-ins with people like this only cement our testimonies and drive them deeper into our minds and hearts.

Last night at dinner our host was telling us a story about a nephew, I believe; he was sitting by her and said "I can speak Spanish!" "Really?" "Yeah," as he picked up a fork, "Fark!" He's from Utah. We all laughed ourselves silly. Another home we were in recently has a full band player piano. She turned it on and I just sat in fascination while scents of specialty candies and fancy coffees danced through my head. Only this one didn't require a quarter and there was no plexiglass barrier, I actually sat down and played a little on it, it was awesome. (Editor's note: She's referencing an old-fashioned candy store we used to go to as kids which had a plexiglass encased player piano in the back.)

I don't mean to alarm you, but there's a black widow in our fridge, it's the one we caught last week. We actually caught it outside in the driveway, but we figured it was best to catch it outside before it had a chance to find it's way inside. The only problem is now we don't know what to do with it. It sat on our table for a while in one of those small Glad containers (perfect for spider catching) but we've since built a larger spider home...no, it's not a pet, it doesn't have a name...okay, it's Thad, and we may have put one of the other dead spiders in there to see what would happen. It was like watching the Discovery channel right there on our kitchen table, the horror on our faces obviously overcome by the fascination of watching it live. Now we've put the whole thing in the fridge because that apparently slows them down so they aren't quite as lively and eventually we need to put the real lid on so we can have our object lesson baptismal font back. The exciting life of a missionary in America, oh the drama. Really though, cockroaches are the drama bug; someone from our ward came and sprayed all around our apartment and the next morning we counted 15 ginormous, ucky bugs dead or dying on the sidewalk. Everything else is content to die in their little flowerbed homes, but the cockroaches have to come out so everyone can see. Get over yourselves.

Oh, I plum (plumb?) forgot, we're without a car until Wed. Someone had to borrow it to drive north to train a new car person up there, so we walked a lot on Sat, our feet hurt and we were very tired, but we really feel like missionaries. And today we had an excuse to hang out with Sis Johnson and Sis Mack so they could give us rides to the library and shopping and stuff. Okay, my comp is done so we should head out, now we have to find a ride home and figure out what to do with the rest of our day. Fun!!

-Sis. Cloward

Email received Jun 14, 2010 (a big one!)

Pics from Red Rock 5-24-10

Welcome to Red Rock

All the Southern Sisters

My Comps, Sis. McCracken and
Sis. Forred (medical missionary)

The View

All of us

Eating lunch (finally)

Terrific trio

What?! Sis. Johnson's getting transferred?!

Giant tortoise - note the sign, I was
glad to be wearing pants

The district I love

Elder Powell

Elders Petersen and Williams

Lovely sisters

Fun in the car

I swear we were parked

I don't even know what those are

Elder Powell

Elders Robison, Mabeza, and Powell

Our Zone

Elders Smith, Powell, Mabeza, Petersen, Sis Knuteson

Zone Conference training on unity (post Elders Petersen and Mabeza and Sister Johnson) - the Zone Leaders joined our district because it was too close for sisters to participate, Sis. Knuteson was bummed about that

Elder Powell

Mission Life
(Sorry, the first two got numbered wrong.)


Elders...what else can I say?



Sisters on bikes. As for the last few seconds...see comment above.



Again, no comment needed.



The other district - they had some difficulties.



Our district - we've already been together one transfer plus we had a few minutes to practice (roughly 2 min 5? sec, if I remember correctly) - my camera chip finally filled up right before the finish line - sad day!! But I believe it was approximately 58 sec. Booyah.

Final addition to the armor of God

I was gonna send a sweet video of the new spider we caught last night, but it's too big. Shapoopie. Life's going well, hope you enjoy all the evidence, there's always more, but some will be better shared in person. Thank you for all the updates and pictures. I love you bunches.

-Spider Catching Master Sis Cloward

Email received Jun 7, 2010

Another one of those crazy busy weeks where so much has happened I don't know how to write about it all. I'm working on some good illustrated stories for y'all, so if you're patient you'll get lots of pics and vids hopefully next week.

Some highlights: Churro's baptism (his real name is Diego, but no one calls him that) was AMAZING!!! He literally filled the chapel with all the friends he invited. It was really so amazing, that's about all I can say. We taught a lesson to a foreign exchange student from Thailand, she goes home in a couple weeks but we had fun watching the Restoration in Thai. Since transfers Sis Knuteson and I are covering the Singles Ward with the elders; yesterday was our first day - 8 hours of church! And on a fast Sunday! I love my life!! It's weird enough being in a single's ward again, but try doing it as a missionary - double weird. But there's a lot of return sister missionaries, so we hope to have plenty to keep us busy. Can't think of much else that won't be better with pictures, so hopefully next week there'll be lots of fun headed your way!

-Sis Cloward

P.S. I sang Mercy's Arms (Track #1) in one ward on the 16th & in the other ward on the 30th; I sang Baptism (Track #2) at Churro's baptism.


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Just some evidence of possibly the world's greatest district:
Sisters show their love
Elders show their love

 

Email received Jun 1, 2010

I hope I'll have time next week to send updated pics and songs, it's been a crazy few weeks. Transfers were this morning, three people left from our district including Sis Johnson, but she only just went to South Zone so she's not too far away; in fact, she's sitting only a few feet away from me (we both come out of zone to use this library). Even though it's only been three hours since we saw her, it feels like she's been gone for a week; we already started cleaning and rearranging the apartment. We're all pretty excited because our district this past transfer has been The Bomb!!! so we're sad to lose such awesomness, but nobody new came in (they combined two areas) so we're all going to be pretty tight still, yay!!! (D'ya like my lingo - I've been spending too much time with 19 year-old boys).

In other news, we have a baptism on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will be my first since Dec as I missed the one in March, plus this is a young boy who has been wanting to get baptized for a few years and his parents finally gave him permission. I'm so grateful I got to meet him and be a part of his journey; I'm glad it's finally working out for him, but I can definitely see the Lord's hand in the timing of everything. We've been having the lessons every Mon night at the home of the Lords family and that has been a blessing to every person involved in some form or another. I can't wait for y'all to meet them when we come visit my mission next year! That is already on the calendar, right?

-Sis. Cloward

P.S. We were talking to someone the other day about a charity they support which focuses on helping people regain well-being (something like Pransky maybe? I think the website was joyfulhope.org); they also mentioned a book by a guy whose research shows 7(?) different forms/causes of depression and how different treatments styles are required for each one (I think the book was Making a Good Brain Better). It all sounded very interesting, didn't know if you'd had heard of any of it.