"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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)