Brownsville, Letter 3

Rachelle at her first Zone Conference

Hola Familia y Amigos!

This week has been a full one! Just like every week as a missionary, haha, there is no shortage of things to do! Right now my companion and I are the only missionaries covering an area that covers an hour of driving distance. There used to be 22 missionaries in this ward alone, to cover the entire area, and now it's just us two. The ward has over 900 people on the ward records, but only about 110 people attending church every Sunday, so there is A LOT of work to be done! But I am excited and optimistic about what is ahead. We made a lot of progress this week in figuring out the direction we need to go with the work in order to strengthen this ward, which is great! I am starting to develop such a great love for the members here and the people we teach. There are so many people here with such great faith and such great strength it astounds me. We have made some visits to members who are going through some of the worst things imaginable, but they hold on to their faith with such strength it is amazing to me. I love being able to teach them and to teach the amazing people here in Brownsville! The goal with the work here is to get a temple here! Many of the people here cannot cross the immigration checkpoints to reach the temple, so many go their whole lives living here not being able to go to the temple. We want to be able to bring a temple to them so that they can receive the ordinances of salvation too.

We had zone conference this week and oh my goodness President Torres is fantastic. He is a spiritual giant and it is a privilege to learn from him! I learned so much and it made me so excited to be a missionary in this great mission. President also quoted Grandpa during zone conference. :)

I have been studying a lot about the greatest missionaries in history from the Book of Mormon this week. I have loved getting to spend the time we have as missionaries every day to delve into the scriptures and treasure them up. Something I have loved that I have learned this week through my studies is that many of the greatest missionaries in the Book of Mormon (and the Bible) were those who had once been the "vilest of sinners", but who had been redeemed by the Atonement of Christ. Missionaries and prophets like Alma, Amulek, Saul, the Sons of Mosiah, Corianton, even Peter who denied Christ - all of these were people who had committed some of the greatest sins, but were redeemed by the Atonement and became some of the greatest missionaries and prophets who brought many unto Christ. This is a testimony to me of the power that the Atonement has to change us as people, and the miracle that redemption is - that even if we have gone completely astray, that there is still a place for us at the table and that the Lord can and will still use us to do much good on the earth. 

I have learned so much about my calling, and what a privilege it is to have been called to do the Lord's work in these latter days. I have felt my love for the people here grow and grow, and I am so excited for my love for them to continue to grow. I love my Savior!

I love you all - keep firm in the faith! 

Con todo mi Amor,

Hermana Clarke

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P.S. Here are some details about the work from Sister Riley's (Rachelle's companion) weekly email home.

​​Hey friends and family! This past week was another busy one! 

Monday: we had a visit with Alexis who is a recent convert. Her brother is Robin (if you remember him, the one we had been working with but we list contact with him). We were in the middle of visiting with her when Robin walked in! So we had a lesson with the both of them! It was super nice! Robin still has the goal to be baptized so we are working with him to be able to be baptized. Then we visited a family who is less active. And they are super sweet, we are just working to help them get back to church! A lot of them have super strong testimonies! 

Tuesday: I turned 20!! We had district meeting. The other sisters in my district (Sister Underwood & Oliver) made a cake! A Krispy Kreme cake! It was so good and we just ate it all during the meeting. We had a few set appointments that night, which all canceled, but we also walked a street and found 3 pretty cool potentials! We found a lot in Spanish that night actually! Then we went to a member's home to help the brother stay for all 3 hours at church! We talked about how Sundays are the days to show gratitude to the Lord for all He and God have done for us! He committed to stay! :) 

Wednesday: we had a wonderful zone conference in Harlingen! We learned so much that we are trying to apply and bring to thus area! We are trying to find new ways to find people. The ways that we had been using aren't working. So we need to change some things up. And using technology now that we have it is a good way the President Torres was talking about. That night we visited with this super cute member. She has so much faith. She isn't able to walk, so she is bed ridden, but she has so much faith & hope that she will walk again!

Thursday: we had an appointment to visit a referral, who his actual purpose in this meeting was to try to convince us that we are wrong. Like all respect was there, but the way that he would respond was as if  he was telling us, how can you believe that. So we left promising that if he read the Book of Mormon, he will know and come to understand the truth. Then we had dinner with some awesome members! We meet one super awesome lady named Marta and set a time to come back and see her.  We found a door that had this huge web and spider on it! Ewww so gross! 

Friday: we weekly planned. Then we had a set appointment with Robin, we we drove down there to his place. On the way there, there is a version of Becuase I Have Been Given Much in Spanish that came on. And while listening to that, I just had this thought that we are working with one of God's previous child right now. One day Robin will get baptized! And I could see Robin all dressed in white ready for baptism. It was a tender moment. The lesson we had was the Plan of Salvation and that was really good! He is super excited about baptism! Then later that day. We went by a recent convert Marielena! She is so sweet and has such a strong testimony! We met with Lluvia that night too and gave her a Book of Mormon! She was so happy to be able to receive it and read from it! She is only 12 years old. But she is so sweet and she has such a light about her! :) 

Saturday: we were asked to help clean the church with the Elders quorum because no one except for 1 brother showed up! Then we visited a member Crystal! She is a powerhouse mom! She has 2 jobs to help support her family and she has such a strong testimony and faith in Jesus & God that They will help her through anything. We visited a few less actives that night too, to invite them and help them to church! 

Sunday: I had to give a talk! It was super good! It was on receiving revelation through personal worthiness! I had 10-15 minutes to talk. I think I was there for 20 minutes. I didn't mean to. I surprised myself that I was able to do that! I really do not like talking in front of a lot of people. Then we had a meeting with the Riddells and talked with them about our goals to reactivate people! They are so ready to help us! They have done this before with a ward They were in of reactivation a lot of people! Then we visited a few less actives, and a super strong member family that I had never met before! That was so awesome! 


This week I hit my half way mark and am determined to give my all these next 9 months! That is all I want is to look back and say that I accomplished all that God sent me here to do! I've learned so much from my sweet companion! Mainly how to think more positively. And that's something that I will strive to work on too is work positively with God's perspective always in prayer to God. Just as the scriptures say to pray always, I have learned how important it is to be in constant prayer with God & the Lord.