"Lo que paso es que" has got to be the most used phrase.
Hey!
So I'm getting transferred. I know, the excitement. The scary part is that I'm going to be driving! Yeah, super scary. I'm going about 20 minutes down the road to a place called Norcross. What’s weird is that I'll still be in the same Zone and District. Elder May, who's going to be my new companion, is really awesome to work with, (I know because I have done it before.) The Elder that’s replacing me here in Cumorah is actually my MTC companion, so that’s all fine and dandy. :)
We've had some amazing lessons this week with investigators, and we have two more that have accepted the invitation to be baptized.
This last week, we had our branch Christmas party, and I got to dress up like a shephard (totally spelled that wrong.) The thing is you'll have to wait until next week to see how awesome I looked.
Sorry this is super short, but I actually have to go to an appointment right now, exciting!
Merry Christmas everybody!
Elder Clark
:)
Monday, December 19, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Every 8 days
Anyone writing to Jordan in the next couple of weeks should send it to the mission home since he will likely be transferred soon.
Buenos Tardes! Como estan?
Thats all the Spanish I know!
So awesome story with Stephanie. She went to a a buffet, and swallowed something she thought was a fish bone. Later, during dinner, the thing stuck in her throat started bothering her more, and eventually casued her to cough up a little blood. She went to the hospital, and they pulled out a little metal wire from a scrub brush. Because of the pain, and the drugs she had to take, she hasn't smoked since! That was 2 weeks ago! Talk about little miracles in the most unexpected ways. She's getting baptized this coming Saterday before our Branch's Christmas party. The Christmas party is going to be an awesome missionary opportunity. We're expecting a bunch of people to be there.
We found a new investigator this week, and he commited to be baptized the 14th of January! We were looking through old teaching records, called him up, and found out he's super cool. He came to church this last Sunday for the first time.
I'm getting a little better at talking to people. Before, I would be like super scared, and walk up to people, fall on my face, get up, open my mouth to talk, and nothing would come out. Now, I can say about a sentance, and I don't fall on my face anymore. Ok, so really, I'm not scared to go up to strangers and talk to them, well, at least a lot less scared than before. The more you do it, the easier it gets. It also helps to remember that everybody is a Child of God, and that everyone needs to hear about the Restored Gospel of Christ.
Sorry this letter is extremly short, but next Espero que puedo contar mas la proxima semana.
Huesto luego
Que lo vaya bien
Adios
Elder Clark
Buenos Tardes! Como estan?
Thats all the Spanish I know!
So awesome story with Stephanie. She went to a a buffet, and swallowed something she thought was a fish bone. Later, during dinner, the thing stuck in her throat started bothering her more, and eventually casued her to cough up a little blood. She went to the hospital, and they pulled out a little metal wire from a scrub brush. Because of the pain, and the drugs she had to take, she hasn't smoked since! That was 2 weeks ago! Talk about little miracles in the most unexpected ways. She's getting baptized this coming Saterday before our Branch's Christmas party. The Christmas party is going to be an awesome missionary opportunity. We're expecting a bunch of people to be there.
We found a new investigator this week, and he commited to be baptized the 14th of January! We were looking through old teaching records, called him up, and found out he's super cool. He came to church this last Sunday for the first time.
I'm getting a little better at talking to people. Before, I would be like super scared, and walk up to people, fall on my face, get up, open my mouth to talk, and nothing would come out. Now, I can say about a sentance, and I don't fall on my face anymore. Ok, so really, I'm not scared to go up to strangers and talk to them, well, at least a lot less scared than before. The more you do it, the easier it gets. It also helps to remember that everybody is a Child of God, and that everyone needs to hear about the Restored Gospel of Christ.
Sorry this letter is extremly short, but next Espero que puedo contar mas la proxima semana.
Huesto luego
Que lo vaya bien
Adios
Elder Clark
Monday, December 5, 2011
Tenemos que ear nose jaw
Bien venidos!
For those understand the title of this post, congradulations
I've decided that coinsidences (don't think I spelled that right at all) aren't really coincedences (spelled it wrong again, but differently. win!) Especially as missionaries, I've seen so many little things line up in super precise timing to accomplish something we didn't think would happen. I definitly know that this is the Lord's work, and he is going to provide ways for it to happen. Even from weird things like talking to this one guy, and then seeing him 3 seperate times after that in totally different places. Its crazy, but is awesome to realize the miracles that happen all around us continually.
We had a lot of cool things happen this week. We took one of the less active members we've been working with to a lesson with an investigator. In that lesson we talked about how important reading and praying about the Book of Mormon is in gaining a testimony of the Restored Gospel. The day after we were visiting with him, and he said that before he had never wanted do that. He just wanted to study it out and figure it out logically. Now, he wants to read and pray to get a testimony. We also found out his Mom is going to be an awesome help with one of our investigators because she had very similar experiences while she was learning about the chruch.
The very next day, we had a lesson with one of newest and most promising investigators. We brought a member with us, and the lesson went super awesome. First, our investogator invited a friend who was in the kitchen to come listen. After the prayer, the member we brought with us started testifying about the truthfulness of the Gospel and how it has blessed him. It was super awesome to hear his testimony. He even answered questions. We wondered why we had never him to brought him to other lessons before.
Another awesome thing is that we were able to visit 2 less active families and another less active member that we had never seen before. We weven found a new investigator through one of these families.
I hope that everybody also had a fantastic week, and that all is going well.
Thanks everybody!
Elder Clark
For those understand the title of this post, congradulations
I've decided that coinsidences (don't think I spelled that right at all) aren't really coincedences (spelled it wrong again, but differently. win!) Especially as missionaries, I've seen so many little things line up in super precise timing to accomplish something we didn't think would happen. I definitly know that this is the Lord's work, and he is going to provide ways for it to happen. Even from weird things like talking to this one guy, and then seeing him 3 seperate times after that in totally different places. Its crazy, but is awesome to realize the miracles that happen all around us continually.
We had a lot of cool things happen this week. We took one of the less active members we've been working with to a lesson with an investigator. In that lesson we talked about how important reading and praying about the Book of Mormon is in gaining a testimony of the Restored Gospel. The day after we were visiting with him, and he said that before he had never wanted do that. He just wanted to study it out and figure it out logically. Now, he wants to read and pray to get a testimony. We also found out his Mom is going to be an awesome help with one of our investigators because she had very similar experiences while she was learning about the chruch.
The very next day, we had a lesson with one of newest and most promising investigators. We brought a member with us, and the lesson went super awesome. First, our investogator invited a friend who was in the kitchen to come listen. After the prayer, the member we brought with us started testifying about the truthfulness of the Gospel and how it has blessed him. It was super awesome to hear his testimony. He even answered questions. We wondered why we had never him to brought him to other lessons before.
Another awesome thing is that we were able to visit 2 less active families and another less active member that we had never seen before. We weven found a new investigator through one of these families.
I hope that everybody also had a fantastic week, and that all is going well.
Thanks everybody!
Elder Clark
Monday, November 28, 2011
No pisen en un pavo
Hello my my fellow amigos.
So this week had been awesome, partly due to the facts that we finally got bikes. Sure, mine is basically a rock, but at least it works and is faster than walking. Tuesday, the first day we road them, it started pouring around in the evening, and we were biking in the rain for about an hour and a half without jackets. Yes, I was wet. But it was awesome! That day we also set the record for the most people we've talked to in one day, 17. When I say talked too, I don't mean just like "hey, here's mormon.org card," I mean lhaving a conversation with them. President Wolfert, our mission president, has asked us try to do this with 10 people each day. On Wednesday, Elder Laney and I talked to EVERYBODY we saw. Sometimes it was like, "hey, there's a person across the street" or "hey, theres some kinds playing soccer 200 ft away." We talked to 34 people that day. Well, we actually probably talked to close to 50, but had converstation with 34 of them. We discovered its super easy to talk to people in apartment complexes, becuase there are so many people living so close. We left one appoint with an hour to get to another. It took us 50 minutes to go about 200 yds becuase of how many people we talked to. It ended up taking us an hour and a half to get to the next appointment, amaking us half an hour late. If we hadn't talked to anybody, we could have made it there in 10 minutes. When talknig to 34 people, we saw a lot of cool miracles. It was a good day. Now we just have to figure at the balance between talking to everybody and making to appointments on time.
Thursday, amazingly, we only ate at one members house, and at the branch's Thanksgiving party. The four of us missionaries did super funny skit at the party. I won't explain the skit, but thats where the title of this post comes from. You all should just know it was hilarious and that you should wish you could have seen it.
Skipping foward to Saturday, we went to see Stephanie, and gave her last and final batismal date. She's had other baptismal dates that have came and went, but now is her time. Her biggest hold is still smoking, so we're praying like crazy that she'll be able to quit. She really wants to be baptize, has a lot of faith and has an amazing testimony of the Gospel.
That afternoon, the english ward had a baptism, and we invited alll our investigators to it. Only one family said they would come, and gues what, they did! Tuesday, we're gonig to talk about baptism with them, becuase they had never seen a baptism like that before, and we're gonig to invite them to be baptized.
Rewind to Tuesday really fast. One of our newer investigators that we found last week basically excepted to be baptized, but they want to talk about with the dad, who was always worknig whenever we taught them. Unfortunantly, we still haven't been able to met with the whole family yet, but its coming soon.
Fastforward to Sunday. We found somebody super prepared to recieve the Gospel. We actaully had talked to the other 2 people that lived in that apartment before, and we went looking to talk to them, but then we found him. He said he was looking for something to guid him in his life, and also basically asked when he could come to church. We definitly can help him with both of these questions.
Wow, I wrote an essay today. Please don't grade it. I hope its entertaining enough to read. :)
Thanks everybody!
Pasen un bien semana
Elder Clark
So this week had been awesome, partly due to the facts that we finally got bikes. Sure, mine is basically a rock, but at least it works and is faster than walking. Tuesday, the first day we road them, it started pouring around in the evening, and we were biking in the rain for about an hour and a half without jackets. Yes, I was wet. But it was awesome! That day we also set the record for the most people we've talked to in one day, 17. When I say talked too, I don't mean just like "hey, here's mormon.org card," I mean lhaving a conversation with them. President Wolfert, our mission president, has asked us try to do this with 10 people each day. On Wednesday, Elder Laney and I talked to EVERYBODY we saw. Sometimes it was like, "hey, there's a person across the street" or "hey, theres some kinds playing soccer 200 ft away." We talked to 34 people that day. Well, we actually probably talked to close to 50, but had converstation with 34 of them. We discovered its super easy to talk to people in apartment complexes, becuase there are so many people living so close. We left one appoint with an hour to get to another. It took us 50 minutes to go about 200 yds becuase of how many people we talked to. It ended up taking us an hour and a half to get to the next appointment, amaking us half an hour late. If we hadn't talked to anybody, we could have made it there in 10 minutes. When talknig to 34 people, we saw a lot of cool miracles. It was a good day. Now we just have to figure at the balance between talking to everybody and making to appointments on time.
Thursday, amazingly, we only ate at one members house, and at the branch's Thanksgiving party. The four of us missionaries did super funny skit at the party. I won't explain the skit, but thats where the title of this post comes from. You all should just know it was hilarious and that you should wish you could have seen it.
Skipping foward to Saturday, we went to see Stephanie, and gave her last and final batismal date. She's had other baptismal dates that have came and went, but now is her time. Her biggest hold is still smoking, so we're praying like crazy that she'll be able to quit. She really wants to be baptize, has a lot of faith and has an amazing testimony of the Gospel.
That afternoon, the english ward had a baptism, and we invited alll our investigators to it. Only one family said they would come, and gues what, they did! Tuesday, we're gonig to talk about baptism with them, becuase they had never seen a baptism like that before, and we're gonig to invite them to be baptized.
Rewind to Tuesday really fast. One of our newer investigators that we found last week basically excepted to be baptized, but they want to talk about with the dad, who was always worknig whenever we taught them. Unfortunantly, we still haven't been able to met with the whole family yet, but its coming soon.
Fastforward to Sunday. We found somebody super prepared to recieve the Gospel. We actaully had talked to the other 2 people that lived in that apartment before, and we went looking to talk to them, but then we found him. He said he was looking for something to guid him in his life, and also basically asked when he could come to church. We definitly can help him with both of these questions.
Wow, I wrote an essay today. Please don't grade it. I hope its entertaining enough to read. :)
Thanks everybody!
Pasen un bien semana
Elder Clark
Monday, November 21, 2011
There are 2 of them!
Bienos dias!
This week we discovered there were two different Ladies that sell tomales(bet I spelled that wrong) in the same complex. The new one we discovered yesterday gave Elder Laney and I one free. This is only one of the many blessings we receive as missionaries. Yes, the tomales were good.
We had another awesome week of talking to a bunch of people. You never realize how many people are around until you talk to everybody. Yep, there are a lot people. Elder Laney is pushing me and helping me become better at having conversations with people. Wow, that makes it sound like I don't know how to talk to people.
This week, we discovered that an investigator who the missionaries had been working with since before I got here is finally ready to hear the Gospel. There was an awesome Spirit as we were teaching him. In the beginning of the lesson, there were lots of distractions, but in the end, everybody else left, and we were able to teach with the Spirit. It was an awesome lesson.
With our newest investigator family, the dad and his sons have been coming to the weekly soccer games we have in the church building, and the mom has been reading in the Book of Mormon. We feel like this family is going to progress really well. We were able to have a dinner with this family in the house of our new ward missionaries, who are great at friendshipping anybody. The family still likes us, so all is well.
So with the new addition of Elder Laney and Bealer, and our branch mission leader's new wife also becoming a ward missionary, we're going to have some great things happening in our Branch. The spirit of missionary is lacking in our branch, and we're going to fix it. With all these new people that have a lot of experience with new ideas, our branch is going to be pushed back to how it used to be, with lots of missionary work done by the branch, and achieving more baptisms.
This has been the Elder Clark weekly report.
Ojala que ustedes tuvieran buenos semanos la ultimo semana, y que tengan buenas semana este semana que viene.
Adios!
Elder Clark
P.S. If you can't read the Spanish, don't worry. I probably wrote it wrong anyways. :)
This week we discovered there were two different Ladies that sell tomales(bet I spelled that wrong) in the same complex. The new one we discovered yesterday gave Elder Laney and I one free. This is only one of the many blessings we receive as missionaries. Yes, the tomales were good.
We had another awesome week of talking to a bunch of people. You never realize how many people are around until you talk to everybody. Yep, there are a lot people. Elder Laney is pushing me and helping me become better at having conversations with people. Wow, that makes it sound like I don't know how to talk to people.
This week, we discovered that an investigator who the missionaries had been working with since before I got here is finally ready to hear the Gospel. There was an awesome Spirit as we were teaching him. In the beginning of the lesson, there were lots of distractions, but in the end, everybody else left, and we were able to teach with the Spirit. It was an awesome lesson.
With our newest investigator family, the dad and his sons have been coming to the weekly soccer games we have in the church building, and the mom has been reading in the Book of Mormon. We feel like this family is going to progress really well. We were able to have a dinner with this family in the house of our new ward missionaries, who are great at friendshipping anybody. The family still likes us, so all is well.
So with the new addition of Elder Laney and Bealer, and our branch mission leader's new wife also becoming a ward missionary, we're going to have some great things happening in our Branch. The spirit of missionary is lacking in our branch, and we're going to fix it. With all these new people that have a lot of experience with new ideas, our branch is going to be pushed back to how it used to be, with lots of missionary work done by the branch, and achieving more baptisms.
This has been the Elder Clark weekly report.
Ojala que ustedes tuvieran buenos semanos la ultimo semana, y que tengan buenas semana este semana que viene.
Adios!
Elder Clark
P.S. If you can't read the Spanish, don't worry. I probably wrote it wrong anyways. :)
Monday, November 7, 2011
Its longer than a Giraff's scarf
Hola!
You all may be wondering what is longer that a giraff's scarf. Well, lots of things. Its a phrase peruviens use.
So this morning, we got transfer calls! And guess what!?!?
I'm training!!!!!
Ok, not really. Elder Johnson is going home, and my new companion is gonig to be Elder Laney. I haven't met him, but I've heard that he's cool and he'll be an awesome companion. Yep, its exciting. He appearantly also goes home in December, so I again get to be the new missionary with the uper old missionary, wwhhoooo!!!
Elder Uffens, one of the other two Elders that lived in our apartment, is getting transfered for his last six weeks in the mission to an area he's served in before, so we're gonig to have two different missionaries in our apartment. Its gonig to be a big change, but still awesome!
So this last Sunday, I was sitting in church (I do that every sunday) and in walked in one of our investigator families! I couldn't believe they came. They had said the week before they were gonig to come and hadn't, and we hadn't been able to talk to them all week. When they showed up with their, I was so exctited! Stephanie also came, which I was excited for because we hadn't been able to talk to her all week becuase she had been super busy, and hadn't come to church the week before.
Yeah! People coming church!!! Whoo!!!
Well, there are the most exciting events of this week, but I have pictures, so it makes everything better.
I hope y'al are having as much of an awesome time as I am.
Elder Clark
You all may be wondering what is longer that a giraff's scarf. Well, lots of things. Its a phrase peruviens use.
So this morning, we got transfer calls! And guess what!?!?
I'm training!!!!!
Ok, not really. Elder Johnson is going home, and my new companion is gonig to be Elder Laney. I haven't met him, but I've heard that he's cool and he'll be an awesome companion. Yep, its exciting. He appearantly also goes home in December, so I again get to be the new missionary with the uper old missionary, wwhhoooo!!!
Elder Uffens, one of the other two Elders that lived in our apartment, is getting transfered for his last six weeks in the mission to an area he's served in before, so we're gonig to have two different missionaries in our apartment. Its gonig to be a big change, but still awesome!
So this last Sunday, I was sitting in church (I do that every sunday) and in walked in one of our investigator families! I couldn't believe they came. They had said the week before they were gonig to come and hadn't, and we hadn't been able to talk to them all week. When they showed up with their, I was so exctited! Stephanie also came, which I was excited for because we hadn't been able to talk to her all week becuase she had been super busy, and hadn't come to church the week before.
Yeah! People coming church!!! Whoo!!!
Well, there are the most exciting events of this week, but I have pictures, so it makes everything better.
I hope y'al are having as much of an awesome time as I am.
Elder Clark
 |
| This creek runs through the middle of one of the apartment copmlexes we work in |
 |
| Leaves! Anywhere we look, we see trees like this. Its so beautiful this time of year here |
 |
| The four of us with Stephanie and her daughter |
Monday, October 31, 2011
I like bliving
Donde fue la semana? No se, pero se que estoy aqui in el proximo semana.
Hola from Georgia!
It seems this week that a lot of awesome things happened on Saturday. So it began actually before Saturday when we left cards with our numbers in the apartment complex offices so people could call us if they needed help moving. Somebody actually called us! So Saturday, we helped a member move, then went straight to helping this person that called us and helped them move. She was English speaking, so we called the English Elders to help us move to. This lady we helped move wants to come to church and excepted to listen to the lessons to. New investigator for the English Elders!
While we were unloading the truck, Elder Johnson was talking to all the Hispanics that walked past. He noticed somebody in particular that seemed to be watching us, so he went and talked to them. This person thought we were the ones moving, and Elder Johnson explained that we were missionaries and we were just offering service and helping them move. Well, this lady Elder Johnson talked to said she wanted to hear more about the Gospel. New investigator for us!
After we finished the move, we went to our Branch's Halloween party. Due to a miss communication about who needed a ride, I went with a member to bring one of our investigators families. We got there, and they said they hadn't asked for a ride, and had actually went to the church the night before, thinking it was last night. As soon as I said it was tonight, they basically said, "ok, we're going right now" and they came. What was also amazing was that I was able to understand all of that in Spanish. =)
The person who needed a ride in the first place made it to the party. We found out she was a Less Active who had moved and hadn't been able to be contacted for a long time. Now we know where she lives and that she has two kids that are baptismal age. Its so awesome how so much can happen in one day!
Our new Ward missionaries are also super excited about missionary work. They're actually recent converts of about 8 months, and have a super strong desire to work and help with the missionary work in the Branch. The wife's brother isn't a member, but he always eats dinner with us in their home in Wednesdays, and he finally opening up to talking about the Gospel!
When I look back at it, it’s really amazing how much we've actually done. Sometimes it doesn't feel like a lot, but the Lord makes sure that his work gets done.
Have a good week everybody!
Elder Clark
Hola from Georgia!
It seems this week that a lot of awesome things happened on Saturday. So it began actually before Saturday when we left cards with our numbers in the apartment complex offices so people could call us if they needed help moving. Somebody actually called us! So Saturday, we helped a member move, then went straight to helping this person that called us and helped them move. She was English speaking, so we called the English Elders to help us move to. This lady we helped move wants to come to church and excepted to listen to the lessons to. New investigator for the English Elders!
While we were unloading the truck, Elder Johnson was talking to all the Hispanics that walked past. He noticed somebody in particular that seemed to be watching us, so he went and talked to them. This person thought we were the ones moving, and Elder Johnson explained that we were missionaries and we were just offering service and helping them move. Well, this lady Elder Johnson talked to said she wanted to hear more about the Gospel. New investigator for us!
After we finished the move, we went to our Branch's Halloween party. Due to a miss communication about who needed a ride, I went with a member to bring one of our investigators families. We got there, and they said they hadn't asked for a ride, and had actually went to the church the night before, thinking it was last night. As soon as I said it was tonight, they basically said, "ok, we're going right now" and they came. What was also amazing was that I was able to understand all of that in Spanish. =)
The person who needed a ride in the first place made it to the party. We found out she was a Less Active who had moved and hadn't been able to be contacted for a long time. Now we know where she lives and that she has two kids that are baptismal age. Its so awesome how so much can happen in one day!
Our new Ward missionaries are also super excited about missionary work. They're actually recent converts of about 8 months, and have a super strong desire to work and help with the missionary work in the Branch. The wife's brother isn't a member, but he always eats dinner with us in their home in Wednesdays, and he finally opening up to talking about the Gospel!
When I look back at it, it’s really amazing how much we've actually done. Sometimes it doesn't feel like a lot, but the Lord makes sure that his work gets done.
Have a good week everybody!
Elder Clark
Monday, October 24, 2011
Uno es Superman, uno es super loco
Que tal?
Referring to the subject of this post, I am superman, not super loco, and thats all you need to know :)
Hello, and welcome to my post! I hope you'll enjoy it.
So on Wednesday, I got to spend a whole day preaching in English. We went on exchanges with the Zone leaders, and I went up their area for a day. I liked that I could understand everything that was said. But the best part of the day was when I was able to talk to somebody from Cuba. He said that for having only been speaking Spanish for four months, I was really good. His English was pretty good, so he spoke in English and I spoke in Spanish, and I even understood when he spoke in Spanish. Yay for my Spanish improving still! It was a good to talk in English for a day, but I still love Spanish.
Friday: We thought we were going to teach a lesson, but when we showed arrived at our investigators apartment, they were making tamales, so we learned how to make tamales instead. They were absolutely amazing, but probably would have been more amazinging to eat if we hadn't already eaten dinner, and they hadn't already fed us soup while we were waiting for the tamales to cook. Oh well.
Our investigator, Stephanie, is still doing amazing. She is so close to baptism! We have just been encouraging her to keep reading the Book of Mormon to increase her faith. She said she hadn't had a lot of time to read, but she had read 4 chapters in a week, which is a lot better than most. We're going to start the quite smoking program again one last time, and then she'll be ready to be baptized!!
I love being a missionary! I love sharing the Gospel of Christ and inviting others to come unto Christ! Its the best thing ever!
I hope yo'al (that's southern for 'you guys' or 'everybody') have a good week.
Elder Clark
Referring to the subject of this post, I am superman, not super loco, and thats all you need to know :)
Hello, and welcome to my post! I hope you'll enjoy it.
So on Wednesday, I got to spend a whole day preaching in English. We went on exchanges with the Zone leaders, and I went up their area for a day. I liked that I could understand everything that was said. But the best part of the day was when I was able to talk to somebody from Cuba. He said that for having only been speaking Spanish for four months, I was really good. His English was pretty good, so he spoke in English and I spoke in Spanish, and I even understood when he spoke in Spanish. Yay for my Spanish improving still! It was a good to talk in English for a day, but I still love Spanish.
Friday: We thought we were going to teach a lesson, but when we showed arrived at our investigators apartment, they were making tamales, so we learned how to make tamales instead. They were absolutely amazing, but probably would have been more amazinging to eat if we hadn't already eaten dinner, and they hadn't already fed us soup while we were waiting for the tamales to cook. Oh well.
Our investigator, Stephanie, is still doing amazing. She is so close to baptism! We have just been encouraging her to keep reading the Book of Mormon to increase her faith. She said she hadn't had a lot of time to read, but she had read 4 chapters in a week, which is a lot better than most. We're going to start the quite smoking program again one last time, and then she'll be ready to be baptized!!
I love being a missionary! I love sharing the Gospel of Christ and inviting others to come unto Christ! Its the best thing ever!
I hope yo'al (that's southern for 'you guys' or 'everybody') have a good week.
Elder Clark
Monday, October 17, 2011
Read the libro!!
Hi Everybody!
How are we doing? I hope all is well. :)
So I forgot to mention in my last email that somebody thought I also spoke Portuguese because some words I said sounded Portuguese. To those of you who are wondering if I speak Portuguese, I don't. Maybe I should learn it since I can apparently speak it.
I decided it’s hard to remember all them names I make up for our investigators (again, its because we've been told not to share the names of our investigators.) But the one I do remember, Stephany, she is doing awesome. We had started a program with her to help her quit smoking, but then she ended up moving in the middle of it so it wasn't really a good time to quit. Luckily, she still lives in our area, and we restarted the program, and so far she's doing awesome. She only has about 4 days left to go, and then she'll stay a non-smoker! She is so close to baptism, it’s only a couple of weeks away, and she is totally going to make it!!
So I've talked before about a family with 8 people living together, and they are such an awesome family. When we explained the Book of Mormon, they wanted to read it, and they want to come to our Branch's Halloween fiesta. They also call me Super Clark. (Clark Kent, Superman.) They had some good questions about the Plan of Salvation, so we're going to talk to them about it this week, and help them get a testimony of the Gospel.
Sorry, but this is going to be one of those short letters.
Thanks for those who write me. For those who don't write me. Thanks for reading my posts! For those who don't read my posts, I'm sorry.
Tengan un bien semana.
Elder Clark
How are we doing? I hope all is well. :)
So I forgot to mention in my last email that somebody thought I also spoke Portuguese because some words I said sounded Portuguese. To those of you who are wondering if I speak Portuguese, I don't. Maybe I should learn it since I can apparently speak it.
I decided it’s hard to remember all them names I make up for our investigators (again, its because we've been told not to share the names of our investigators.) But the one I do remember, Stephany, she is doing awesome. We had started a program with her to help her quit smoking, but then she ended up moving in the middle of it so it wasn't really a good time to quit. Luckily, she still lives in our area, and we restarted the program, and so far she's doing awesome. She only has about 4 days left to go, and then she'll stay a non-smoker! She is so close to baptism, it’s only a couple of weeks away, and she is totally going to make it!!
So I've talked before about a family with 8 people living together, and they are such an awesome family. When we explained the Book of Mormon, they wanted to read it, and they want to come to our Branch's Halloween fiesta. They also call me Super Clark. (Clark Kent, Superman.) They had some good questions about the Plan of Salvation, so we're going to talk to them about it this week, and help them get a testimony of the Gospel.
Sorry, but this is going to be one of those short letters.
Thanks for those who write me. For those who don't write me. Thanks for reading my posts! For those who don't read my posts, I'm sorry.
Tengan un bien semana.
Elder Clark
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Good morning Starshine, the Earth says.... hello
Hola!
Como Estamos? Bien!
This has been another interesting and exciting week, from mistaking a garbage bag for a snake to having the Cops called on us.
The experience with the cops was actually quite awesome. So Elder Johnson and I get dropped off in an apartment complex. This random guy comes up to us, and says that we can't solicit or knock on doors. First of, as Missionaries, we don't solicit, we do what is called canvasing, which is totally legal. Elder Johnson has also had the cops called on him before, and he knew the cops can't do anything about us. So anyways, we went did what we planned on doing, and we eventually return to the where he first told us we couldn't solicit. There was a group of Hispanics gathered, and we found out that this same guy told the Ice Cream vendors and the lady that sells Tamales that they couldn't sell them anymore. He then apparently called the cops on all of us, we missionaries and the vendors. The cops came, and Elder Johnson explains what this guy did. Elder Johnson even ended up translating when the cop wanted to talk to the tamale lady. So as this whole thing is going on, more people have gathered, so there's about 30. Apparently, this guy had also actually search through the ice cream carts and pulled a knife on one of the vendors. In the end, he ended up going to jail, and we were able to show people that we really here to help them. The cops told us, like we knew they would, that we had all rights to be there, and if anybody bothered us, we could call 911. The manager herself even told us again (meaning apparently she had already told the missionaries) that we could preach there.
This whole experience strengthened my testimony of this work. Joseph Smith stated: "The standard of truth has been erected; no un-hallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, and calumny may defame, but the truth of God shall go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, until it has penetrated every continent, visited every continent, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, until the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say 'The work is done.' " This guy said we couldn't preach, but in the end, everything turned out to be in our benefit. The truth rocks!
Also, the Lord answers prayers, even if its about being able to eat a lot. On Saturday, we were fed three times, a late lunch and 2 dinners. We were almost fed 4 times, but it didn't end up happening, which is another way the Lord answered my prayer. At the end of the day, when I thought I didn't think I was going to be able to physically eat any more, I realized that the Lord had answered my prayer, and I didn't feel like a stuffed turkey. I actually don't know what stuff turkeys feel like, but I'd imagine its not pleasant. I know that The Lord answers our prayers, even if they seem like small things. The Lord loves us so much, so even if the things that matter to us are not big, those things are important to Him because they're important to us.
Another experience we had further strengthened my testimony that the Book of Mormon is true. We had a lesson with a convert who never really gained a testimony of the Gospel and has lots of questions. She shared with us a dream that she had, and asked us if we thought she was weird. We told her no, because her dream was extremely similar to a story of the Book of Mormon. Its amazing how the Book of Mormon was written so long ago, the same time the Bible was written, but it was written specifically for our days, to help us. One of the other Elders had also had a similar dream, and was able to share it. This also strengthened my testimony of how our personal experiences can help others. Its amazing that God gives us experiences that He knows will not only help us, but help those around us.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know it is. That's why I'm a missionary.
My name is Elder Clark, and I will close my epistle.
Thanks everybody! Have a wonderfully amazing week.
Elder Clark
Monday, October 3, 2011
Good morning starshine, the earth says hello
Hello everybody!! This is your weekly report form the one and only Elder Clark.
About the lack of updates last week. It was my fault. I can say though that the stuff I wrote out for you to read was pretty awesome.
I've began to see a pattern. It seems like every week is AWESOME! This last week was no exception.
I've decided I'm just to start giving out other names, "nicknames" for our investigators.
This last week we were able to get in with investigators that we haven't been able to see for a while, which lead to some way awesome experiences. One of these experiences was with Jessica. We taught her the Restoration of the Gospel, and invited her to read form the Book of Mormon and pray to know for herself if it was true. She said that, because she grew up Catholic, it will take a while for her to know these things are true. Now, that may sound bad, but it actually means she is willing to find out that the Book of Mormon is true. Yes!! We're going to start reading with her in the Book of Mormon, and help her see she can receive a testimony faster than she thinks.
Second awesome family story. Now, I don't actually know the name of anybody in this family, which is convenient for my purposes of nicknames. I only know the name of the Son in law, who shall be called David. There are apparently l8 people that live in this apartment, but I haven't seen them all yet. Anyways, so we stop by and have an awesome visit. First I love Hispanic people because they always offer you food. We had just come from dinner, and this family asked us if we wanted to eat, and the dad basically said "yes, of course they are going to eat." So we got to eat a second dinner. (I've also begun to see a pattern of second dinners, its the 3rd time in two weeks.) So as we were talking with them, they told us the exact number of days since our last visit, and they wondered why we didn't come by more often. After we left, we decided we definitely need to work with them more. Its amazing to me that with just a little time, the Lord can change people's hearts and give people the desire to have the missionaries teach them. This family already told us that they were going to feed us dinner on Thanksgiving.
Conference was again amazing. I don't have a favorite talk because there were so many good ones, but Elder Johnson's favorite was when President Monson announced the temple in Wyoming. (Yes, that is where he is from.) He had two minute personal
Of course, my Spanish is still improving. No, I'm not fluent, but the my understanding of Spanish is probably what has improved the most. I realized my biggest problem is that I need to really listen. with my amazingly short attention span, this is really not that easy, but when I do focus and listen I can pretty much understand the general conversation. Excitement!
So there, another exciting update.
Thanks to those that write me.
Until next time.
Elder Clark
:)
Monday, September 26, 2011
9/26 Email from Elder Clark
This is all we got this week. We're not sure what happened to the first part of his email.
***So i thought I sent the first part of this email, buts its not in my inbox at all, so I'm confused. I'm going to just start where I left off, but if you didn't get the first part, then I guess this part won't make any sense.***One of the things they asked us is to give them scriptures in the bible that support the Book of Mormon. Well, if you read the bible, there is no verse that definitly says "yea, behold, I will bring forth the Book of Mormon." The Lord doen't work like that. He requires that we have faith to belive, to do, to act. Once we excersise that faith, then we can come to the knowledge that things are true. That is one of the many reasons why prayer is so important. We have to excersise faith to pray. We even have to have the faith that our prayers will be answered. In the introduction and the very last chapter of the Book of Mormon, the reader is told that is they want to know is the Book of Mormon is true, they need to reed, ponder, and pray. Sure, we can try to prove the Book of Mormon to be ture from the bible, but the Knowledge of God is so much greater, and He will only give the truth as answers. I have a testimony of prayer, that God, our Heavenly Father, really does want us to talk with him. I know he will answer our prayers, He will talk back to us. Its amazing.Everybody, I hope you have a good week. Until next timeElder Clark
Monday, September 19, 2011
Gracias por su bendcion en mi vida
HOLA! Como estamos? Bien!
I set some records this last week. Record #1: I ate 15 chicken wings for dinner. There was a miss comunication, and we thought we were going to teach this less active member a lesson, but they thought they were going to feed the four of us dinner. Well, only two of us went, and we were supposed to eat it all, so we did.
Record #2: We walked past the same place 5 times in one day. Due to many weird and unexplainable cirumstances, we ended up walking back and forth a lot.
I know, so exciting.What is more exciting is that one investiagator I keep refering to, she who shall not be named, is still being an awesome investigator! Last week, we translated the quit smoking program for her, and she started it the next day! She has so much faith, and it keeps growing! She knew smoking was bad, and she really wants to quite because she really wants to be baptized! Boyah!We've been working a little bit with this other investigator, who seems to be progressing. In his spare time, he makes Rosaries and braclets. (I have pictures!) To bad we can't wear them And we were given some of them. After a game of onesided phone tag, meaning we called him more a few times, and he never called back, he didn't end up coming to church, but thats ok! He seems genarlly interested from what I can tell. The problem with working with Hispanic people is they all say we can come back. They all like learning more about God, which is awesome, so we just have to figure out who's interested and who isn't. We're working on it. People love to play onesided phone tag with us! Its ok, people have their agency whether they want to accept the Gospel. It also helps us know who is really interested and who isn't.So the Church has been doing this push and advertising in some areas, and we're one of those areas. The church has received a lot of attention because of it, and has also found that it increases the number of baptisms, so its worth it. Its different for us spanish speakers, but the English members are going to have a oppurtunity to talk to more of their friends about the Gospel becuase so many people will see the commercials and advertisments. The more missionary work the better!Sorry its a short one again, I have some pictures this time!Thanks to those who write me!Your blog authorElder Clark
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I have pictures of Elder Neri chasing the geese, and also of him gigging in the dirt with a spoon, but I figures you all didn't need to see them. =) We have fun while we work hard. |
Monday, September 12, 2011
My Parents asked me if I knew everything yet. No.
So yeah, here is another one of my weekly emails that I'm sure fill your days with excitment and wonder.Probably the most exciting thing that happened this week was we found out what was holding one of our investigators back. This is the same investigator I've mentioned I few times already. We felt we should teach her the Word of Wisdom, and we found out that she smokes, but that she knows its bad and wants to change because she really does want to get baptized. Now that we know that, we can continue! The Church has an swesome program that helps people quit smoking in seven days, and Elder Johnson said he has seen it work many times before. Excitement!On Wednesday, Elder Johnson and I went on splits with the Zone Leaders. I got to stay in our area, so I was in charge of what we did, which was only a little bit intimidating at first, but it was good. The Zone leader I went with is a Native Speaker, so that was helpful. We didn't have any appointments, so we just knocked doors and talked to everybody we saw outside. It was an awesome day, and we gained quite a few potential investigators.My understanding of Spanish is improving, and by improving, I mean that I understand about everyword out of 20. No, its really better than that, but sometimes I just sit there with a confused look on my face. Then people try to talk to me in English, and I still don't understand becuase I'm already confused. Sometimes, I don't even understand what english people are saying. One day when we were walking up to a potenial's apartment, this guy like 20 feet away asked us who we were. I said we were Missionaries for Jesus Christ. He then asked if we were non-profit, but I thought he asked if we were Prophets. I said that we weren't Prophets, but that we believe in them. Elder Johnson then quickly stepped in and saved me. I'm glad I can provide you all with stories of my awesome adventures, and give you something to laugh at.Sorry, this week wasn't as exciting as others, but I beleive I did a good job at writing a lot of words to explain things that were in fact very simple.For those people who love missionary pictures, sorry. I've been failing at taking a lot of them. Don't worry, eventually, there will be more pictures, and one of them might even have me in it.That is my entire week written in four 3 paragraphs. Hope you've enjoyed your reading experience. Thanks to those that write me, because I also enjoy hearing about what people are doing. It also feels better because I actually get to know about the lives of the people who get to hear so much about mine.Elder ClarkRemeber, Smile! =)
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
There is an alien on my door
So this has been an exciting week. First off, in the food catagory, I was able to try oysters for the first time, and I've also added to the list of fruits in water mixture: watermelon and someother hispanic fruit that I don't remeber the name, but it tasted way good. Appearantly they're like the shape of peanuts, like a big bean, and brown.This week has also been an interesting week as far as people go. On Wednesday, we went on exchanges withing our apartment, so I spent a day being a companion to Elder Uffens (its pronounced like muffins without the m.) The first interesting character we met was born in Jerusalem, and he spoke 5 languages. He was the he was agnostic, and talked to us for 15 minutes about why he didn't believe in God. I said he talked to us and not with us becuase he really didn't let us talk. Whenever we tried to bear testimony, he would just bring up some other point and not let us speak. He wasn't bashing us though, and said he respected us for being missionaries. Later that day, at the gas station, we invited a lady to the International Night that we were going to have on Friday. It was really cool because she said she had been thinking about coming to an LDS church. She's had the missionary discussions before, and has a copy of the book of Mormon. She even has a name of one of the Characters in the Book of Mormon! We tried to get her address and phone and stuff, but it didn't quite work out. She was way awesome though, and seems totally prepared to hear the gospel again. We didn't see her at the International Night though. =(So last week, I talked about one of our ivestigators who opened up more to us and we were able to find out more of her concerns. Well, she keeps amazing us, and she asked us to teach two of her friends! Booyah! She knows the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and she allready wants her friends to know about it! We've talked to one of them, and during our first meeting with her, she basically agreed to be baptized! The second friend who we haven't talked yet appearantly has taken the missionary disscussions in California, and moved before she was able to be baptized. I really hope that's the story. There actually might also be a third friend of our investigator, but there is a whole other story thats started unfolding last night about that, and I'll have to wait until next week to share it. =)So the International night was awesome, and we had a ton of people there. Unfortunantly, I was only able to try one kind of food from the many different countires that had food there. I also missed a lot of performances of the natives dances because we were busy with missionary type stuff. Everybody that came got a name tag that had the flag of the counrty they were from. Now, there was a big plan in place for how we could use this night as a big missionary oppurtunity as well. The whole thing went pretty well.Now, I write in Spanish. =)Yo se que La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es verdadera. Yo se que Jose Smith vio padre celestial y jesucristo. El fue llamado por Dios, y el plentetud del Evangelio de Jesucrust fue restoruado a la tierra. Jose Smith recibio el autoridad de Dios, la sacerdocio. Yo se que la impartance de este aurtoridad. Solemente por medio de la Iglesia de Jesucristo, de las ordanansaz del templo, podemos recebir nuestro salvacion, y la vida eterna, con nuestras families en la presencia de dios para siempre. Este es por que estoy aqui en Georgia, compartir, ensenar, y predicar este mensaje a la gente que escuchara. La obra de misional es super importante, y necisitamos abrir nuetras bocas con todo.Being a missionary is awesome. =)I'm afraid this comming to an end.Thanks to all those that have written me!That one Elder in GeorgiaElder Clark
Monday, August 29, 2011
Yes, I am green!
Hi!So this second week has gone by much faster than my first, and I feel more at ease now, but still ready to work super hard!So Monday, when we went to dinner with a member family, they pulled like the biggest ever welcome joke on a greeny possible. It was ridicuouls, but I'll save it for the end of this post. However, I got to try Cucumber mixed with sugar in water. It was interesting. So far, I've had cocunut, pineapple, and cuucumber water. Hopefully, eventually have the chance to consume all the kinds of fruits and vegtebles in water.Two Native speakers complimented my on my Spanish this week! Booyah! Not that I speak well, or understand them, becuase I still don't really know what they're saying, but they said I know a lot for how long I had been speaking and that I spoke very clearly. I don't know even if speaking clearly counts for anything, because Native speakers don't. Maybe I should mumble all the time, and that would help me understand understand them.So, the Cumorah branch is awesome. When we start the meeting, I don't think even half the branch is there, but they make it at some point during the meeting. Hispanic people are way nice, and still make jokes about me being green. We've been asked to not share the names of people in our branch of our investigators through email for various reasons, so I will either resort to using ridiculous false names, just leave a blank space, or refer to people as "that one family and/or person we are teaching/is in our branch." I can tell you the name of our Branch mission leader, Elder Osmand. He is super awesome, one of those guys who is super funny and just talks about whatever whenever. He is really a great resource for us, and makes sure we have everythnig we need and that we are doing our best as missionaries.Next random thought: Before I came here, our mission president, President Wolfert, told Elder Johnson that Elder Johnson should try to get at least 14 baptisms during his last two transfers. Since I'm with him these last two transfers, I get to be part of it. We made these calanders for all of our progressing investagators, planned when we wanted to teach them each week so they can be ready for their baptismal date that we will give them this week. The calanders were even color coated! Yeah, they're pretty awesome. It will be so cool to have 14 baptisms in my first 2 transfers!Ok, so, here is how dinner went at the one families house we mentioned earlier. We show up, knock on the door, and as we walk in, the wife wants us to touch a windchime hangining on the front door. We go in to the front room, where the curtains our closed, the lights are dimmed, and there is a picture of Christ with candles in front of it. I asked if was a shrine, and the other three elders were laughing and said they couldn't believe it. They were taking picutes of it, which made me believe them. They also told about how weird the mom was, how she's bi-polar. They also said weird things always happen when they come over, and that I had to be super nice and not mess anything up. When I said the prayer at dinner, they all started saying their own prayers, with random "amens" heard during the time of my prayer. Throughout the whole evening, the mom would want here kids to do something, and none of them wanted to cooperate with her. I thought family needed counseling. The kids were yelling back at their mom in english, saying mean things, and she pretended not to understand english, and would ask us what they were saying, which was an awkward situation for us to be in. One of the daughters talked about how she hated he physcologist, and she never wanted to back, and then asked her dad if was still taking his pills becuase he was "seeing things." He said he didn't need them. So it was like this for about an hour, with the kids yelling and being rude to their mom, even the husband said she was to lazy to actually cook for us. I seriously thought this family needed counseling, and the other elders told me the Branch president had wanted us to "work with" this family becuase of these weird things they did. To end their joke, thay all put on green shirts, gathered around the table, and told me bien venidos, (welcome) and I still thought they were a weird family. Then they explained to me it was all a joke, and that Elder Johnson set this up with them the week before I came. Yeah, it was pulled off really well, and did make me feel more welcome.So there is some of my week gone bye.Thanks to those that write me!If you write me, there is a 30 day guarantee that i'll write you back in 30 days, or your money back. If I don't, I'll eventually get back to you anyway.el campo de misional es super bienuntil next week (I almsot half way done with my first transfer!)Elder Clark
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His MTC teacher Hermano Cunnigham.
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Elder Uffins, one of the other Elders
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Elder Neri, he is a native spanish speaker
Sunday, August 28, 2011
A Couple Pictures
A couple quick pictures that Elder Clark Sent us this week before his letter tomorrow.
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| Elder Clark with the Mission President and his wife |
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| All the Arriving Missionaries |
Monday, August 22, 2011
Myth Confirmed
Myth: it is impossible to understand Native speakers when you first get to the field.
Myth confirmed. Every missionary says it, and its true. I catch a few words at a time, but that's it. Don't worry, I'm not discouraged! Everybody says they all went through that. My trainer, Elder Johnson, actually got switched from English to Spanish speaking in the field, so he learned all his Spanish in the field, and he's good.
Elder Johnson has been out for 22 months, and is going to end his mission training me. I know, he got stuck with me, what a bummer. He's from Wyoming, likes to outdoor things, like hunting. He is an awesome missionary. He understands everything people say, and really cares for others.
So my first area is in Roswell City. I serve in the Cumorah Spanish Branch. Elder Johnson and I live with two other Spanish Elders who cover the same area we do. (our apartment is our entire district.) We have nice apartments, so don't worry. There are a lot of apartment complexes around here, so we have spent a good amount of time in them. The other companionship in the apartment uses the car, so we walk. The farthest I've walked is about 40 minutes, so its not too bad. When we got here, the weather was actually nice to me for a few days.
Our first day here (Tuesday), right after we got off the plane, we left the airport using public transit to give us an opportunity to practicing contacting in the real world. (when I say "we", I mean the three Spanish Speakers and the 11 english speakers that flew out) It was interesting, and I got rejected by an old lady. =) After we got off the train, one of the AP's, who came with us, took me over to a guy, said that he didn't speak much spanish, but I did, and then I got to explain about the Book of Mormon in Spanish. Well, I didn't scare him off, and he seemed interested, even asking where the closest church was. Yeah, that was a cool first experience. We drove the rest of the way to the Mission home, where President and Sister Wolfert met us. They fed us, and talked to us about the mission, and gave us encouraging words. We spent the night in the Mission home.
Wednesday at transfer meeting, I found out my companion was Elder Johnson. We didn't do a whole lot of work that day, but I found out Walmart is about a 20 minutes walk. Like I said, it wasn't too hot. That night, we had Peruvien food, which was delicious. The ward members pretty much feed us every night, and make sure we are fed. So far, I've really only Peruvien and Mexican food, but it has all been not too crazy and good. My fellow Elders assure me that I will get to eat weird things in the future. Yay!
So on the 2nd of September, our branch is having their annual event called the Day of Nations. Our Branch has people from at least 10 different countries, and there will be food from all of those countries! There's also going to be dances and other culture performances. We pretty much invite every one we see to it, because we wan't it to be an awesome missionary opportunity.
I haven't been able to meet any of the investigators Elder Johnson is working with because everybody is never home when you go to their house or is just busy.
Oh, something else exciting! Thursday, my first experience tracting! We were knocking doors for a couple of hours, and we had three people tell us they were interested, and another guy actually let us in and teach him right then and there. So maybe we haven't been able to contact them again due to fake phone numbers and their general lack of being present in their apartment after we've walked 35 minutes to meet with them, but Elder Johnson says people are rarely interested at all. We got 4 that said they were interested in a time span of 2 hours! Yeah!
The other Elders in our apartment had a baptismal service on Sunday. So people do get baptized here, there is hope!
Yeah, Georgia is beautiful and a little hot, but I missed the hottest part!
Don't worry about me out here. The Lord's got me in good hands.
Love
Elder Clark
Myth confirmed. Every missionary says it, and its true. I catch a few words at a time, but that's it. Don't worry, I'm not discouraged! Everybody says they all went through that. My trainer, Elder Johnson, actually got switched from English to Spanish speaking in the field, so he learned all his Spanish in the field, and he's good.
Elder Johnson has been out for 22 months, and is going to end his mission training me. I know, he got stuck with me, what a bummer. He's from Wyoming, likes to outdoor things, like hunting. He is an awesome missionary. He understands everything people say, and really cares for others.
So my first area is in Roswell City. I serve in the Cumorah Spanish Branch. Elder Johnson and I live with two other Spanish Elders who cover the same area we do. (our apartment is our entire district.) We have nice apartments, so don't worry. There are a lot of apartment complexes around here, so we have spent a good amount of time in them. The other companionship in the apartment uses the car, so we walk. The farthest I've walked is about 40 minutes, so its not too bad. When we got here, the weather was actually nice to me for a few days.
Our first day here (Tuesday), right after we got off the plane, we left the airport using public transit to give us an opportunity to practicing contacting in the real world. (when I say "we", I mean the three Spanish Speakers and the 11 english speakers that flew out) It was interesting, and I got rejected by an old lady. =) After we got off the train, one of the AP's, who came with us, took me over to a guy, said that he didn't speak much spanish, but I did, and then I got to explain about the Book of Mormon in Spanish. Well, I didn't scare him off, and he seemed interested, even asking where the closest church was. Yeah, that was a cool first experience. We drove the rest of the way to the Mission home, where President and Sister Wolfert met us. They fed us, and talked to us about the mission, and gave us encouraging words. We spent the night in the Mission home.
Wednesday at transfer meeting, I found out my companion was Elder Johnson. We didn't do a whole lot of work that day, but I found out Walmart is about a 20 minutes walk. Like I said, it wasn't too hot. That night, we had Peruvien food, which was delicious. The ward members pretty much feed us every night, and make sure we are fed. So far, I've really only Peruvien and Mexican food, but it has all been not too crazy and good. My fellow Elders assure me that I will get to eat weird things in the future. Yay!
So on the 2nd of September, our branch is having their annual event called the Day of Nations. Our Branch has people from at least 10 different countries, and there will be food from all of those countries! There's also going to be dances and other culture performances. We pretty much invite every one we see to it, because we wan't it to be an awesome missionary opportunity.
I haven't been able to meet any of the investigators Elder Johnson is working with because everybody is never home when you go to their house or is just busy.
Oh, something else exciting! Thursday, my first experience tracting! We were knocking doors for a couple of hours, and we had three people tell us they were interested, and another guy actually let us in and teach him right then and there. So maybe we haven't been able to contact them again due to fake phone numbers and their general lack of being present in their apartment after we've walked 35 minutes to meet with them, but Elder Johnson says people are rarely interested at all. We got 4 that said they were interested in a time span of 2 hours! Yeah!
The other Elders in our apartment had a baptismal service on Sunday. So people do get baptized here, there is hope!
Yeah, Georgia is beautiful and a little hot, but I missed the hottest part!
Don't worry about me out here. The Lord's got me in good hands.
Love
Elder Clark
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| Jordan, BYU Roommate Elder Blake, Cousin Alec Judd |
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| A view of the neighborhood. . .apparently there are lots of trees around everywhere |
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| Elder Johnson, who apparently has normal moments too |
Thursday, August 11, 2011
I'm looking at the arrows, and they're not doing anything!
Thanks to all those who have written me. I won't be able to respond to everybody, since I need to get some packing done, but I'll try my best.
So Last Thursday, I had a really high tempurature, went to the health clinic, who sent me off the MTC campus out into the world to a doctor. I found out I was getting strep throat. On Friday I took two 3 hour naps, and felt a lot better on Saturday. My throat never even hurt that much so
that was awesome. That's definitely the fastest time I've recovered from being sick, which was an awesome blessing.
Saturday: My mind was enlightened and past subjunctive become clear in my head, I shouted for joy.
Fast Sundays are awesome, with a 2 hour mission conference, sacrament meeting, and then a fireside in the evennig. So much learning and instruction in one day, so awesome!
Monday: in class, Elder Spear and I had an awesome teaching experience, where we both felt the
Spirit, both Testified and worked togther to teach really well. It's moments like that here that
make me so excited to get to the mission field and teach the Gospel to the people in Georgia!!
Teaching by the Spirit is amazing!
Tuseday, we had another awesome lesson with our progressing investagator. Our teacher told us
beforehand that we would teach the lesson with our eyes closed as a learning experienece. We
started the lesson, and then the lesson didn't go how we planned at all, and we ended up adressing a concern she had. Having our eyes closed really helped us understand the importance of listening to the investigator and the Spirit, and we did both of those. After the lesson, we felt like we had said what she needed to hear, and it was just another awesome experience.
I've really learned a lot here. There are so many important things missionaries do, focous on and think about to be able to listen to the Spirit, to teach by the Spirit, to help the investigators feel the Spirit. With all the practice we've had here, we're almost there! In the field, we're going to learn so fast.
So, as a recap of the MTC, I've managed to break to vacuum hoses (not my fault), vacuumed up a
white board marker (accident),learned a lot about myself, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and teaching others. I've had my testimony strengthened in so many ways, and am now ready for the mission field.
The next time you hear from me, I'll be in Georgia
Elder Clark
=)
Excerpt from a letter home per Jordan's request
"I'm so excited to leave this place and get out into the field where I won't understand anything
anybody says! It's going to be awesome. The weeks here in the MTC have gone fast, but the time feels like forever.
The devotional on Tuesday was about faith. The speaker explained that the precondition for faith is hearing the gospel and having a soft enough heart to receive it. Then after this we act on hope and will eventually receive a witness that these things are true. Since the witness comes after the actions, we can't act on the witness. We can only act on our hope. That is the trial of our faith. I will draw a diagram of this process.
(diagram deciphered and re-created by Spencer)
That's it for now. We're looking forward to hearing from him next week!
So Last Thursday, I had a really high tempurature, went to the health clinic, who sent me off the MTC campus out into the world to a doctor. I found out I was getting strep throat. On Friday I took two 3 hour naps, and felt a lot better on Saturday. My throat never even hurt that much so
that was awesome. That's definitely the fastest time I've recovered from being sick, which was an awesome blessing.
Saturday: My mind was enlightened and past subjunctive become clear in my head, I shouted for joy.
Fast Sundays are awesome, with a 2 hour mission conference, sacrament meeting, and then a fireside in the evennig. So much learning and instruction in one day, so awesome!
Monday: in class, Elder Spear and I had an awesome teaching experience, where we both felt the
Spirit, both Testified and worked togther to teach really well. It's moments like that here that
make me so excited to get to the mission field and teach the Gospel to the people in Georgia!!
Teaching by the Spirit is amazing!
Tuseday, we had another awesome lesson with our progressing investagator. Our teacher told us
beforehand that we would teach the lesson with our eyes closed as a learning experienece. We
started the lesson, and then the lesson didn't go how we planned at all, and we ended up adressing a concern she had. Having our eyes closed really helped us understand the importance of listening to the investigator and the Spirit, and we did both of those. After the lesson, we felt like we had said what she needed to hear, and it was just another awesome experience.
I've really learned a lot here. There are so many important things missionaries do, focous on and think about to be able to listen to the Spirit, to teach by the Spirit, to help the investigators feel the Spirit. With all the practice we've had here, we're almost there! In the field, we're going to learn so fast.
So, as a recap of the MTC, I've managed to break to vacuum hoses (not my fault), vacuumed up a
white board marker (accident),learned a lot about myself, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and teaching others. I've had my testimony strengthened in so many ways, and am now ready for the mission field.
The next time you hear from me, I'll be in Georgia
Elder Clark
=)
Excerpt from a letter home per Jordan's request
"I'm so excited to leave this place and get out into the field where I won't understand anything
anybody says! It's going to be awesome. The weeks here in the MTC have gone fast, but the time feels like forever.
The devotional on Tuesday was about faith. The speaker explained that the precondition for faith is hearing the gospel and having a soft enough heart to receive it. Then after this we act on hope and will eventually receive a witness that these things are true. Since the witness comes after the actions, we can't act on the witness. We can only act on our hope. That is the trial of our faith. I will draw a diagram of this process.
(diagram deciphered and re-created by Spencer)
That's it for now. We're looking forward to hearing from him next week!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Insert Creative Title Here
This has been yet another interesting week at the MTC. On Saturday, we had a sub that was a native speaker, and Native speakers talk a lot faster and are harder to understand. He made us feel like we didn't know Spanish at all. He wasn't trying to, he was just so good at it, and his presence seemed to make us all start failing. District members were making mistakes they had never made before, it was like mass carnage of our pitiful attempts spread all over the classroom. Ok, it wasn't that bad, but we all felt like we had a so much longer way to go after his class. The great thing is he comes back on Saturday for another round of destruction.
On the bright side, Sunday's fireside was awesome. It was about God's love and Charity. The speaker explained that since God's love is endless, we should have endless love too. We are commanded to have charity. Charity doesn't run out and get restocked over night. The more you give of it, the more you'll be able to give. Obviously, charity is super important to missionary work. If we don't love the people, we won't be good missionaries.
Monday was another day with a little bit of failure. We were teaching another sub for the first time. when we first knocked on the door, he asked me what message we had, and i wasn't totally ready to answer that, which was failure #1, so I said we wanted to talk about how Heavenly Father has a plan for us. So we went in, I was thinking we were going to teach about the plan of Salvation, which not usually the first lesson. I didn't know where to start, because he didn't know anything about the church, (it didn't help that he cut off all of his s's while speaking.) so elder Spear starts talking about the Great Apostasy, and how the all the Apostles were killed and the priesthood authority was taken from the earth. Elder Spear did this to lead me in to talking about the Restoration of the Gospel, but I didn't talk about that. For some reason, I wanted to talk about the Atonement of Christ, which is not what should come after talking about the Apostasy, because it doesn't make sense to transition into that. I did anyways. Elder Spear led right into the Restoration, and just threw in the Atonement out of who knows where. Yeah, that was failure # 2. Don't worry, I won't do that again.
Later that week, we made up for it though. We were teaching one of our progressing investigators about the Word of Wisdom. The lesson went so well, and we were asking her questions, and we committed her to live the Word of Wisdom, and it was just awesome! I felt so good to do that here, I can't wait to do that in the field.
Anyways, another update will come later this week, including my travel plans, which are probably the most exciting thing ever!
Hasta luego
Elder Clark
(Here is some from a handwritten letter we received this week)
...
To encourage you to have family prayer, and to complete my purpose of bringing people unto Christ, I'm going to share a scripture with you: 3 Nephi 18:21 "Pray in your families unto the father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed." There it is, in the Book of Mormon. You have to do it now! (a reminder is always good)
One of my teachers was gone for a few days and my other one is going to be in Mexico for 10 days, so we're getting some more practice in teaching new investigators. We've been taught a lot here about finding out the investigators needs so we can teach them what will help them th most. Of course, a lot of discerning their needs happens in the first lesson.
On Tuesday, Elder Judd (Cousin, now also left for the mission field) and I said our last goodbye to Elder Blake. (College roommate) He is going to the California Fresno mission, Spanish speaking. He's going to be a fantastic missionary!
Tuesday's devotional was given by Dennis M. Simmons of the Seventy. He talked a lot about how the Mission is also a time for sanctification of ourselves, or the beginning of a life long process of sanctification. He also told us that studying was reading 12 times and wrestling it to the ground. After the devotional, our district had and awesome testimony meeting. It's always amazing to hear each other's testimonies.
My testimony and love for the Gospel have been increased and strengthened as I have been here. I love "Preach My Gospel" (PMG). Every sentence in PMG is Inspired. It's so much more than a training manual. It's for everybody. I'm so grateful to be serving a mission right now.
Elder Clark
Thursday, July 28, 2011
I'd like to bear my toasted money
Hola cada una!
Ok, so people have asked me if there is any food here that I don't like, and I have finally discovered it. It’s Broccoli chicken casserole. So the color is bad. Just think of a casserole type dish, except colored like broccoli, and a little more yellow than that. Yeah, it looks terrible. They melted cheese over the top to try to make it look somewhat appealing, but the cheese didn't look like it belonged on there at all. The worst part is the cheese was the best part. If the melted cheese on top of the food is better than the food its on, you know there is a problem.
Thursday: P-day is really long when we don't get to go to the temple. However, people have been soliciting me to fix their ties, because I'm the only one in our district that knows how to sew, thanks to my awesome mother.
Friday: The TRC (teaching resource center, where we practice giving lessons) is still a really interesting experience. It’s hard to share a scripture with return missionaries to help them come closer to Christ. They always know all the scripture we share. I guess its helps us learn the lessons, and it is really good practice for us to figure out the needs of our investigators.
Saturday: Our teacher inspired us to get these awesome study journals. They're small binders with sections, so you can sectionalize your study journal, and even put pictures in the front and back, which is just way awesome. Our teacher also shared with us what he had in his, and the coolest thing was a personal topical guide. It’s so awesome! You can write down scriptures under each topic, give a brief summary of the story and the meaning of the verse. Yeah, I'm excited to fill up my sweet journal.
Sunday: Sundays are always awesome. We always hear about five different talks in one day, and then there are the evening firesides. Stephen D. Allen, who is the president of the Missionary department, or something to do with missionary work, spoke to us. He is so funny, and knows how to make people interested. He showed us a bunch of commercials the church produced that have punch lines like "Its not who you aren't, it’s who you are, and being yourself is being great." During one of these clips, the Spirit flooded me so fast. I felt ocean waves of the Spirit going through me. It was so awesome! That was probably the strongest I've ever felt the Spirit before.
I love the gospel of Jesus Christ so much! I learn so much everyday, and the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know, and I want to learn so much more!
I'll send another letter home with more information about my week, so be expecting another update!
Elder Clark
Monday, July 25, 2011
mid-week letter
This is the letter that came along with the pictures
I'm so happy that Elder Spear is my companion. During companionship inventories we have talked about our testimonies and experiences that have strengthened our testimonies. Even talking about this strengthened my testimony. Some say the Lord works in mysterious ways, but I say he works in awesome ways.
So to give more information about my week. . .At the Sunday fireside, a member of the District presidency and his wife spoke. His wife shared and awesome story about how the Lord has his eye on us. The story goes that a young man from Japan was called to a Spanish speaking mission. He struggled with Spanish throughout his mission. He could never really communicate completely. At the end of his mission, he found a Japanese man that wanted the missionary discussions. When the missionary went to this man's house, there were 65 other Japanese people that all knew the church is true, but hadn't been able to find missionaries. . In their first meeting, all 65 were committed to baptism. One of them wanted this missionary to write his testimony in the Book of Mormon. When the missionary wrote in the Book of Mormon, he found there was a testimony of another elder. This elder was his dad, who had given the Book of Mormon to this Japanese man many years before.
The Tuesday devotional was also amazing. A member of the Quorum of the Seventy spoke about the power of the Book of Mormon., As a mission president, heard from people that couldn't read that they felt the power of the Book of Mormon when they held it to their hearts. His wife also talked about how during their 3 years as mission president, 2,000 people were baptized (Lisa note: might be 12,000-his writing wasn't quite clear-looks like there is a 1 in front of the 2, but we don't want to inflate the number inaccurately) 62 chapels were built, and a temple was constructed. All of that because of the testimonies of the young elders and sisters, who put Christ as their first priority, and wanted to share their testimonies with others. This is what I'm doing - sharing my testimony of Christ, and I love it.
Elder Clark
I'm so happy that Elder Spear is my companion. During companionship inventories we have talked about our testimonies and experiences that have strengthened our testimonies. Even talking about this strengthened my testimony. Some say the Lord works in mysterious ways, but I say he works in awesome ways.
So to give more information about my week. . .At the Sunday fireside, a member of the District presidency and his wife spoke. His wife shared and awesome story about how the Lord has his eye on us. The story goes that a young man from Japan was called to a Spanish speaking mission. He struggled with Spanish throughout his mission. He could never really communicate completely. At the end of his mission, he found a Japanese man that wanted the missionary discussions. When the missionary went to this man's house, there were 65 other Japanese people that all knew the church is true, but hadn't been able to find missionaries. . In their first meeting, all 65 were committed to baptism. One of them wanted this missionary to write his testimony in the Book of Mormon. When the missionary wrote in the Book of Mormon, he found there was a testimony of another elder. This elder was his dad, who had given the Book of Mormon to this Japanese man many years before.
The Tuesday devotional was also amazing. A member of the Quorum of the Seventy spoke about the power of the Book of Mormon., As a mission president, heard from people that couldn't read that they felt the power of the Book of Mormon when they held it to their hearts. His wife also talked about how during their 3 years as mission president, 2,000 people were baptized (Lisa note: might be 12,000-his writing wasn't quite clear-looks like there is a 1 in front of the 2, but we don't want to inflate the number inaccurately) 62 chapels were built, and a temple was constructed. All of that because of the testimonies of the young elders and sisters, who put Christ as their first priority, and wanted to share their testimonies with others. This is what I'm doing - sharing my testimony of Christ, and I love it.
Elder Clark
Pictures From Elder Clark
We received a letter from Elder Clark with some pictures of his time in the MTC so far.
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| Elder Clark and his Cousin Elder Judd |
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| The Cousins being strange as usual |
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| Elder Clark and his Companion Elder Spear pointing to Atlanta |
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| Elder Clark and His college roommate Elder Blake |
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| Elder Clark and his District |
Sunday, July 24, 2011
The window is like your own personal TV, except there is nothing happeing.
Another good week gone by!Thursday afternoon, some of my zone got to clean the temple! We used toothpicks and q-tips to clean out little crevices for abouty two hours. If I could clean anything for two hours, it would be the temple. Friday, my district had a fiesta with chips an salsa to celebrate our one month stay here! Today, I have a little under 4 weeks left here, which is absoulutly crazy. I'm so excited to get into the field and work. Saturday was also an awesome day, and we learned about the subjunctive tense. The subjuctive tense, from what I had heard about it, always seemed so difficult and weird, and that it was impossible to master. It was like subjunctive was what really makes or breaks how well you speak Spanish. I had this imagry of subjunctive being all hard and crazy and mighty, when in reality, its pretty much changing an e to an a or vise versa sometimes. I was a little disapointed that I wasn't going to be a able to conquer the beast I once thought subjunctive was, but atleast I know about it now. Sunday was again awesome, complete with an awesome fireside and a viewing of the Jospeh Smith video. During the Joseph smith video, I always feel the spirit, but this time, I felt it so strong testifying to me that Joseph Smith was a prohpet of God. It was amazing!Monday, we discovered that the entire plan of salavation can't really be taught in 20 minutes, so we left our investigator with a super suspensful cliff hanger, promising to teach him about the attonment and Eternal life after. We had to stop teaching right before we explained the Atonement of Christ, which is central to God's plan. Tuesday, we found out Elder Spear is going to be our new district leader! It seeed like everybody new it was coming. Now I'm going to be the asistent to the District leader, which isn't really a leadership position doesn't really mean anything at all.I will write home with other stories from this week, so expect another update!Elder Clark
Thursday, July 14, 2011
During our languege study, we'll figure out how to call people weird
Refering to the subject of this email, we did not spend our language studying doing that.It's hard to believe I've been here for a whole month, and I'm almost half way done with my stay in the MTC.Sunday: was a good day as always, throughout the course of the day, we learned about charity, virtue, repentance twice, and in the fireside in the evening, we learned about daily repentence. That was a really awesome fireside. The speaker talked about how we often think that when we have to repent, we feel bad. His point was that repentence leads to Joy. It's when we don't repent that we fill bad for what we've done.Monday: We had oppurtunities to teach other missionoaries in our zone. I really love that we have so many oppurtunities to practice teaching. I can see that I've learned from past mistakes in teaching, and its better to make mistakes here instead of in the field.Tuesday: speaking of mistakes, I learned that it is not a good idea to set a baptismal date for an investigator for less than a month away. I definitly wasn't thinking about the calendar when I asked one of our investigators to be baptized the 6th on August when it was already the 12th of July. No bueno. Oh wellWenesday: We had an interesting lesson with our other investigator, and we didn't really end up teaching anything we had prepared. We did, however, answer a few questions he had, and the most important thing is to teach people, not lessons, and I felt like it was good we skipped the lesson and helped him with his needs.Being a missionary has made me want to work harder than ever before. In college, I definitly could have worked harder, but here, I want to be studying or practining all of the time. It's definitly not a bad thing, but its an awesome thing. I want to learn everything, Spanish, Preach my Gospel, and the scritpures. I know this is an extremly unrealistic goal, because I'll never be able to learn everything, but I'll try.Today, Thursday, we get to clean the temple for 3 hours! the temple is closed, and some selected group of missionaries help clean it.My roommates decided that every P-day is gonig to be comb-over P-day, and they started today. My hair is too short, so I can't join yet.Sorry that I'm a man a few words in my emails. You all know I can talk a lot in person, and that I like talking alot, but talking to a computer makes everything more difficultAnyways, the MTC is still awesome, and Missionary work is awesome.Con AmorElder Clark
Friday, July 8, 2011
To me are Pleasing the Tacos (MTC week 3)
SíOk so, I'm sure everybody is wondering what we did for 4th of July here in the MTC. Well, we didn´t do anything special on the 4th of July. But its ok, because we did something on the 2nd of July instead. We had a special celebration about the freedom of our country and because of this freedom, the true church of Christ was able to be restored here. The celebration was awesome, and we sang songs like Yankee Doodle and Yankee Doodle Dandy. At one point, they showed an animation of missionaries running all of a world map to the over 300 missions in the world. But the best part was still to come. Five bagpipers and a small drumline marched in playing the typical bagpipe melody, which happens to be the tune of Praise to the Man, which we were talking about anyway in the clebration. While the bagpipes were playing, about 30 flags from different countries also came marching in. It was cool. After that, the whole MTC got to stay up late and watch firewroks that BYU was launching. Usually, we have to be back to our rooms at 9:30 and in bed by 10:30, but and Saturday, we didn't return to our rooms untill 10:45. I know, it was so late.Sunday was had more meetings than usual becuase it was fast Sunday, but it was still awesome. The fireside in the evening made it even more awesome. Jenny Oaks Baker, who is the daughter of Elder Oaks, performed for us. She is a professional violinist who's soloed with about every major orchestra there is. She explained experiences of how her testimony was strengthened, and played songs that were related to the experience. Even her daughters, who were 8,6 and 4 played "I'm a Child of God" on the Piano, Violin, and Chello. Her daughters got a standing ovation.
On Monday, Elder Spear (my companion) sprained his ankle playing basketball. He was on crutches for a half a day. The good part him being injured was that we got to use the elevator instead of climb up 4 flights of stairs to our classroom multiple times a day. Don't worry, his ankle is doing much better now.This week, we kind of made a district theme song, but not really. Its the lyrics of "Listen to your Heart" translated into Spanish. Yeah, its awesome. My district also likes to make up what my teacher calls Spanish aposatsies, which is slang phrases in English we translate into Spanish. These include, but are not limited to.Alto cincoJusta KaQue AbrirOther quatable quotes from this week include: Fiesta in the elevator and You from the desert?Any ways,The MTC is still an awesome place, and thanks to everybody that writes me.LoveElder Clark
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