Pictures 6/12

 La Familia Zamora, fed us and helped us out a lot

 La Familia Solis de Mexico, also fed us and helped out a lot, 

La Familia Abila

 La familia Lopez, with the most well behaved kids in the World

Ulysis's baptism! 

There will be more pictures next week!

Ganamos(we win)

Jordan mailed a short message yesterday(Monday) and finished his thoughts today, so here are the combined letters.

We heard it had been flooding in Alabama, so we asked Jordan about their weather

Begin forwarded message:

Parents!!!

so I'm actually going to most of my email tomorrow, but I'll write a little bit

I don't know about the rain, and I just asked member,ans she said supuestamente its supposed to rain all week, but she doesn't know how hard or anything. The weather here recently has been weird, rain and not to hot.

My adress is:

2627 Tree Park Cir
Flowery Branch, GA, 30542

So we did finally get moved in to our apartment, and its really nice apartment, especially since missionaries haven't lived in it. (Jordan had to call me last week to get his SS# because they were moving into a new apartment)

I don't really believe I've been out almost year, and I don't really think about it until people ask me how long I've been out or my parents bring it up

Ok well, thats all for today, I'll finish tomorrow

Love

Jordan

Que pasa?

So I know everybody wants to hear about my new area and my new companion and all that, well at least my dad does. For the record, I'm serving in the Lanier Branch in the Sugar Hill Stake. I was confused about where I was going when I last emailed home, and it was a miracle that I made it here. We just moved into a new apartment in a city called Flowery Branch. Sounds super exciting doesn't it? The Atlanta Falcons training center is here though, so that makes it kind of cool.

Elder Andreasen, from Apple Valley California (Cali!!!) is my new companion. Apple Valley is about an hour east of LA. I think I might have talked about him a little bit last time, but we came to the field at the same time. He was first called to serve in English, but then got switched to Spanish when he got here in Georgia. He speaks really good Spanish, so we can both teach equally during lessons. He ran Marathons back at home, but we've only gone running once since we've been companions.

Our branch is awesome too. There is about 50 to 60 people that attend every Sunday, so a little less than the Norcross branch. The weird thing about this branch is that like half the members speak English fluently, where as in the Norcross branch there was like 2. This branch covers a lot bigger area. The last zone I was in is one of the smallest in the mission, and we only worked in like 1/5 of it, and it was all in the city. This zone not one of the smallest, and we cover half of it while the other missionaries in our branch cover the other half. Its very country out here, so we have members that live 20+ miles away from the church. Fun times :)

This Saturday, I did get to return to the Norcross Branch though. I ended up being able to see the baptism of Ulysis and Ulysis Junior. I would say that I was the guest of honor, but President and Sister Wolfert came, so they get that title. Ulysis and Junior were baptized by Ulysis's cousin, Wencis, who was baptized my first Sunday here in this branch on Christmas. It was an awesome baptism, with lots of people there, followed by a fiesta with lots of food.

In the Lanier branch this Sunday, a recent convert Antonio got confirmed, and we had an Investigator come with her 6 kids for the first time. Great things always happen my first Sunday in an area.

Well, that's the exciting news of this week.

Thanks everybody!

Elder Clark

Does that make sense?

There is so much exciting news this week! Well, maybe only 2 things, but still.

The first is that our top to investigators, Ulysis and Ulysis Junior have commited to be baptized on the 9th, this comming Saturday! They are so ready to be baptized, its amazing how prepared by the Lord they have been.

The sad news is I won't be able to go to the baptism, but its because of the exciting news that I'm getting transferred! I do like really like this area though. I'm going to miss it, but it's good to have a change. I've been here in Norcross for 6 months, and in this zone for my entire mission. I'm going to the Lawrenceville Zone in the Sugarloaf Branch, or maybe its the Sugarloaf Zone and the Lawrenceville Branch. Quien sabe?

This week we met a lot of special people. We ran into a prohpet and somebody who was baptized into the church at the age of 4. The age of 4 was especially confusing, because I'm pretty sure the age of accountability is 8. Oh well!

Awesome, thanks Everybody, sorry for the shortness.

Have an awesome week!

Elder Clark

Apearantly I'm not from California

Well hello everybody.

We had a really amazing experience this last Tuesday with one of of top investigators. She has been taught by the missionaries for 2 years, knows the church is true, wants to get baptized, but doesn't feel ready yet. We recently been struggling to know what to teach her because she 's been taught everything multiple times and has a really good understanding of everything. So we go over there kind of winging it, with a very vauge outline of what we want to talk about. The first part of the lesson seemed pretty vauge, and I felt like we weren't really sharing anything useful. But then I felt like we needed to all share our testimonies. Her boyfriend started, shared and awesome testimony. She followed, and for having never born her testimony before, she rocked it. Elder Dudley and I both shared our testimonies after. When all was said and done, there was more than one person crying. We also found out from her soon to be mother in law that she is going to marry her boyfriend soon, which we think has been a big hold up for her.

On Saturday, this man called us over to talk to him. Actually, he asked if we were Jehova's Witnesses, but we continued the conversation. He told us he would read anything we gave him, so we have him pamhplets about the Resteration, Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What followed was a realy awesome conversation about how he was searching for the truth, and we promised him that this was it. To bad he only speaks english, so we gave him to the English missionaries. As we were leaving, he told us the reason he stopped us was becuase he liked that we were walking with confidence and smiles. Lesson learned, be confident, smile, and people are always watching you.

So those were the 2 best highlights of the week. Other than that, we're on the hunt for more people.

I hope you have an awesome week, and thanks for reading my boring posts. :)

Elder Clark

I won a blender

I really did win a blender this week. We were volunteering at a health fair to translate this last Saturday. We also got our health checked, and so we got put in a raffle. I was lucky enough to be choosen to win the blender. The only thing is we already have one in our apartment, and I don't use blenders anyways.

We did get free lunch at the fair though, so that was cool.

Also on Saturday, we had a baptism in our branch! A couple of weeks ago I talked about the brother of a member who had a sudden change of heart at 4 in the morning, well, he made it. The only bad part of the baptism was I had to play the piano again... But it really was an amazing baptism, and he got confirmed a member the next day. We also had a less active that we had talked to for the first time only that week come. Now this is also a funny story. We taught her the Restoration, and I asked her if she believed that Joseph Smith was really called to be a prophet. She promptly and firmly answered no. now this was confusing to me because before she was talking about how good the church was and how good she felt when she was baptized. So puzzled, I asked her if she had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and she said yes. So I asked the first question again, to which she responded that she thought I had said something else the first time, like if he was a bad person or something, and that she did have a testimony of Joseph Smith. I obviously don't speak perfect Spanish.

This week, we found a new investigator who seems promising. After we taught her, she told us she thought it was awesome that we told her that the Book of Mormon, and not the Bible, is the evidence of our message. That's probably one of the best responses I've gotten when inviting somebody to read the Book of Mormon.

Well, It was a good week. :)

Thanks Everybody!

Elder Clark

Being a janitor runs in the family

Hola!

The best thing this week that happened this week was that I got to talk to my Family, but I won't bore you with details of that.

Elder Dudley and I have decided to go our own seperate ways nows. No, we don't hate each other, but in an effort to talk to more people, if somebody walks by while we're talknig to somebody else, I'll leave Elder Dudley stranded talking in Spanish and I'll got talk to somebody else. The best part is he likes it when I leave him stranded, it makes him forge through the wilderness of Spanish.

Our most top investigator still wants to keep a baptism a secret (just like his cousin did) and wont commit to a specific date, but everybody he's gonig to get baptized soon, so its not even really a secret at all, but thats ok.

Recently, we have a surplus of people wanting a copy of the Book of Mormon so they can read it and pray about it to know for thereselves that its true. I don't know what got into people, but I'm not complaining. We're trying to the flood the earth with the Book of Mormon anyways, and It appears as if the tide is starting to rise.

Well, this has been another incredibly short report from Elder Clark. I hope you have enjoyed it.

Thanks everybody

Elder Clark


NOTE FROM LISA:
We had a wonderful, though too short, 45 minute Skype visit with Jordan on Sunday. He looks great and has a great attitude. He is still Jordan, only even better.

We'll share a couple of other things he talked about Sunday since his letter is very short.

Jordan says the mission cars have "mean little black boxes" in them that gather data on their driving. (apparently a few missions have these) It knows the speed limit of all the streets they drive on and verbally tells them to slow down if they are going too fast. It also measures the G-force so if they are taking turns too fast they are also reprimanded. The car driver has an identification card that he has to slide into the box, so it knows who is driving.

Jordan said that his companion has him out running 4 miles a day. That is not a typical activity for Jordan, and he said he probably won't continue it after they are no longer companions, but it is good for him. Elder Dudley also had Jordan guard a soccer goal while he kicked balls at the goal and Jordan said he actually liked doing that.

He says at their meals with families he gets lots of beans, tortillas and a variety of meats and that he really likes the food. He is trying hard to be moderate in his food intake...getting enough to eat but not overeat.

He says he is known among the other missionaries for his particularly enthusiastic way of saying "perfect".

He says he doesn't feel homesick but in order to spare our feelings he said he does miss us.

That's all I can think of for now.

Que paso?

Nada

Hi everybody!

Yet again, another good week gone by.

We had 2 awesome things happen on Saturday. The first was we went to a complex for an appointment we had. (we had actually schedualed it just an hour before) Well, the appointment wasn't there. But we know what to do when that happens, we look for a little miracle! President Wolfert has told us that when an appointment falls through, the Lord knows right where we are, and we are there for reason. Maybe the appointment was never supposed to happen, but we are where the Lord wants us, so we look for somebody we talk to, the very first person we see, or maybe the next door we knock on. In this case, it the first person we saw. She was way open to listen to us, she accepted to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and had a lot of questiones for us. As we started to walk away, I heard her made a comment to a guy that was changing her tire about how slow he was going, so I offered to help. Let me tell you, I can change a tire as good as I can play the piano, but it gave Elder Dudley and oppurtunity to answer more of the Lady's questions. To bad she doesn't speak Spanish, so we had to give to the English Elders.

Second awesome thing was at a dinner at a member's house, which was actually a Birthday party. Hispanic birthdays have to have 3 things, carne asada, the whole extended family and friends, and tres leches. So we were there with the whole family, and the Brother of the member told us that he had watched the example of his brother for 12 years, and how the last night, he hadn't been able to sleep until 4 am. At 4, he had a feeling, like a life changing feeling, that he needed to follow God. Talk about the Spirit preapring the hearts of the children of men. The other missionaries in our branch are going to teach him, but its still awesome.

Friday, we took our recent convert Gaspar proslyting with us, and taught his mom to. Gaspar has a really powerful testimony, and it was awesome when he shared it with his mom.

Other than that, this week we worked with pretty much every less active that we know, and we've seen a lot of progress with a lot of people there.

I hope you all have a fantastic week. I know I will.

Elder Clark

the picture is of of district before transfers,

 

Back row: me, Elder Bealer, Elder Wasden, Elder Hunsaker, Elder Cram

 

Front row: Elder Gamino, Elder Spear, Elder Dudley