Mission Adventures of Elder Clark Lovell

Hello everyone! We had an awesome week here in Alta Vista and South Valley Ranch! We had an amazing lesson with Ana, in the home of a recent convert who was baptized about 2 years ago. We felt prompted to have a lesson with her, because the Book of Mormon, as it always should, played a huge role in her conversion. Before she was baptized, she read the Book of Mormon in 22 days! Ana was very intently listening to her, and we bore fervent testimony that as she studied the Book of Mormon daily. She accepted to be baptized on February 15th!! Why is the Book of Mormon so critical? Because of it's powerful witness that Jesus is the Christ, and that God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Man will get closer to God by reading it, than by any other book. I have seen this book change my life, and the lives of others. Yesterday we had Zone conference, and it was amazing. President Youngblood taught us to break through the barrier of faith, and accomplish miracles in ou...

Hello everyone! This week was a good one! It was full of your usual ups and downs. Some highlights were: -the Overfield family came to church in our English ward! That was awesome! They really enjoyed it! - We somewhat learned how to make Plátanos fritos! It took a try or two, as you will see by the picture I attached, but they were good! We put them in our Arepas that we made, which is a huge Venezuelan staple. Arepa con plátano, but like I said... The first plátano didn't turn out so well. Then we learned a few days afterward that we needed to wait a few more days for the plantain to ripen a little more, so when you fry it, it is more chewy, and less like a potato chip. My favorite part of the week was our last lesson with Ana. It was on Tuesday, and we taught her in Hna Pecjak's home. We taught her about how we have a living prophet today, and that we can receive personal revelation from Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost. It was...

Hello everyone! Hopefully you have all had a great week! We saw some incredible miracles this week, including the Zarate family coming to church, because Hno Zarate finally asked to get Sundays off! Also, last Tuesday night we had an incredible lesson with Ana. We talked to her about what she had learned at church, and she basically bore her testimony of the things we have taught about Joseph Smith and others. We watched a video of Peter walking on water towards Christ, and then we invited her to be baptized. She told us something that she believed was holding her back from baptism. She told us some things that were so personal to her, and the reason why she told us them, was because she knew that she could trust us, and knew that we had her best interests at heart, and that we loved her very much. She knew that she could confide in us and her fellowship. That was a very touching experience. One that I will never forget. I can't go into details of what she said because they...

Hello everyone! Well, another transfer has come and gone, and I have been given the tremendous blessing of staying in the Alta Vista Branch for another 6 weeks. This is by far the longest I have stayed in an area, and I am glad. There are so many amazing people here, and I can't wait to find more. I am also still in the South Valley Ranch ward as well. This is the first time since last February where I haven't had to go to transfers! Also this is the first time in 6 months that I havent had to change apartments! Yay! The highlight of the week was definitely on Thursday when we were able to attend the temple with Hna Coreas and her two older daughters. That was such a special experience in which we got to assist those who were unable to receive the saving ordinances of baptism and confirmation in this life. They loved it as well! I love the temple. I testify that it truly is the Lord's house. The second highlight was having Ana coming to both hours of church, a...

Hello everyone! This week was a really good one! We saw a lot of really cool miracles, including us finding a part member family that have a desire to learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, in an almost completely new neighborhood, for the Spanish speaking branch that I am in. That was fun!  The highlight of the week were the sacrament meetings that we attended this week. Sacrament meeting is the first church service on Sundays in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The significance of it is we partake of the sacrament, bread and water, representing the body and blood of the Savior, and we renew our covenant, our promise with God that we made at baptism to always remember His Son. That is the primary reason for why Latter-day Saints go to church. A secondary reason, is to be edified by the Spirit of God by listening to talks/sermons given by members of the congregation. I always love this part of sacrament meeting as a missionary because I get to hear...