Turbo Charged

The week of El Dia de Turkey (a lot of Hispanics call it that) has come to end, how sad, but now we can prepare for Navidad!

For thanksgiving dinner, a member took us out to the buffet Golden Corral, apparently there are a lot of people that don't like to cook on Thanksgiving, because there were a lot of other people too. Other than that, our Turkey Day wasn't very different. We even got to stay in our apartment for 2 extra ours and plan for the coming week!

On Friday, and got to go work in Buford again with Elder Henson. I was there only 6 weeks ago, so it still feels like my area a little bit. The best thing that happened on exchange was I helped them find a less active they didn't know about. When I fist got to the area, we tried to visit this less active member, but to no avail, and we thought she didn't want anything to do with us, so we kind of just let it go. Well, 4 months later, Elder Cram and Henson knocked on the door not knowing it was a member, and she told she was Pentecostal, but let them in and talked for a little but. When I went back, after having heard she said she was Pentecostal, and asked her "You're a member right?" and she responded, "How do you know?" 1 point for the missionaries. :)

We've been teaching a young 15 year old joven that has excepted to be baptized. The odds, however, seem against her. She lives in a with 3 families that all our Catholic that don't have interest in our message. We're praying that it will all turn alright, and Miracles do happen. :)

Ojala que tenga un buen semana.

Elder Clark  

Trials are mandatory, suffering is optional

Hola! Como estan todos?

Everybody has some weeks that go by that a whole doesn't happen. There are just some weeks where you work real hard, and not very much happens. Well, this last week was one of those. But that's OK!  No reason to quit when the going gets tough. Even when things are hard, there are still always good things that happen.

One of the best things this week was hearing that one of less active members now has a testimony of the Book of Mormon. That family has progressed a lot. They went from not really understanding the church to gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon in 4 weeks. Now we just them to actually come to church, and everything will be just peachy!

We've finally also found another less active member that we've been looking for for the past 5 weeks. They have a lot of potential because her husband and most of her kids aren't members. Over time, as they feel the spirit, they'll all come back to church. The Spirit is really the one that converts. I've seen it over and over again that the Spirit is what changes people. What we say, what the scriptures say, will not change people, but the Spirit does.

Gracias a todos :)

Elder Clark

The Mormons are coming!

Bueno!

 

The weeks are sure flying by now. Everybody is telling me I'm old and going home soon, which is not true, but its makes me a little sad to think I only have 7 months left. :(

 

Anyways, we've been finding new people to teach this week, which is always good in missionary work. Our top investigator is still doing awesome. He didn't wan't to commit to a date for baptism, but is still progressing. His one problem is he works every Sunday and he doesn't really want to change jobs. We're going to help him understand the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy, and as he continues to feel the Spirit as he reads and prays, I know he'll find a way to come to church. 

 

This week, we had Zone Conference, and it was probably one of the best I've been to. All zone conferenes are awesome, but we were really Spiritually fed in this one. The Stake President came and talked about the difference between praying and "Calling upon the name of the Lord." Calling upon the name of the Lord is praying with sincerity, with intent, with necessity. He talked about how everybody, especialy missionaries, need to pray like that always, since we are doing his work. He told us if we have to push and force the work to progress, we're not doing it right and calling upon the name of the Lord, but when the work moves it self along, that's how we can know thing we're doing it right. He also talked about how he had never met anybody that regreted keeping the commandments, but he has met hundreds of people who regret not living the commandments. Yeah, they're hard to live, but when you obey them, and obey them for the right reason, you're happy. :)

 

President Wolfert Talked about a scripture in D&C says the Lord is able to do His own work. Well, thats pretty obvious, and we can see it today. We see today that the "Mormons" have been getting a lot of attention. We had a candidate that was running for President that was in the National spot light for months. There is a musical, "The Book of Mormon Musical" that is showing around the U.S. that makes fun of the Church, but has many people more interested in our beliefs. President told us about how the play is gonig to move to London soon, and the the play produces have put adds that take up the whole side of the 2 story busses that say "The Mormons are coming." The Lord is helping us get more attention. In the middle of all that attention, President Monson lowers the age limit, increasing the number of missionaires that can serve. Before April, we will have 11,000 more missionaries in the field increasing the number of 58,000 already serving to almost 70,000. These are exciting times to be a Mormon, and to be a missionary. 

 

Thanks everybody!

 

Elder Clark

 I work Elder Rallison really hard. After planning, he barely has enough energy to eat a small pack of skittles then he's out on the couch .

Zone Conference was like a family reunion, because I got to be with both of my sons.

Como un Jefe

Buenas tardes! 

Well, this week we found somebody had an incredible first lesson with somebody somebody! To bad they're not Hispanic, so we had to give them to the English missionaries. Anyways, we were walking through the projects (government housing) and this lady was like "Come halla at me about the Mormons," and I told her that we didn't want to holler at her, bu that we would love to share our message. She had a lot of good questions about our beliefs, and said we could come back. We finally taught her this week, and she seems so ready. She said she was looking for a good foundation for her family, and we promised her that we had what she was looking for. She easily accepted to read the Book of Mormon, come to church, and be baptized, so we hope she can continue to progress. I lot of people seem like they're interested and willing, but end up skipping appointments and ignoring phone calls, but I don't think she is one of them.

As for work in the Hispanic community, we're still looking. We're were supposed to have a lesson last week with that young father I talked about, but it got moved to today tonight. He's so awesome. We called him last night to remind him, and when he told him it was the missionaries, he got super excited and loud all of a sudden. He's been reading the Book of Mormon at work when he has the chance to, so everything so far looks awesome. 

Elder Rallison is really not a greeny at all. He has gotten into the swing of things really fast, and we'll get him his first baptism here in no time. I do have a funny story about him this week. We were leaving the apartment, and he said he felt like he had something in his shoe. He took it off, and found a live cockroach in it. It was crawling around his foot. He handled it pretty well, and he doesn't keep his shoes on the floor anymore. 

I hope every has a good week free of cockroaches,

Elder Clark 

You like getting the mail? We like to do that to!

Welcome one and all.

Well, this week was another week full of tracting and teaching new people. The hard part about missionary work is not finding people to teach, because many people will let you teach them. The hard part is finding people who will accept the Gospel and not lose interest after the first lesson. At least Elder Rallison has gotten a lot of practice teaching the Restoration. Even with his limited time studying Spanish, he could teach the whole lesson by himself for 30 minutes. He is definitely going to speak Spanish better than I do.

Yesterday, on Sunday, we got to help a member move. I know, on Sunday. In Spanish branches, its almost like anything goes. (no, not really) They just live in such different circumstances than we long time USA folks are used to. I really do love the people though.

We've found a couple of people with a lot of potential, and we'll be having our second lessons with them this week. One of them, a young father, surprised us with his life story. We went over just to check if he was able to get work off so he could go to church on Sunday, and he ended up telling us about how terrible his past was, what he did wrong and what happened to him. I couldn't believe we were talking to a man that used to do all of that, because now he's just like a big teddy bear, humble and kind, looking for the truth. I know people can really change, can be happier, can get rid of their guilt, shame, sins, can overcome trials, all through Jesus Christ as we follow him.

Another great example of that is Patricia, who got baptized 2 weeks ago. Her Son got baptized this last Sunday, and she gave a short talk at the baptism. She shared how she had been searching for the truth for 6 years, and how the Gospel answered questions that nobody else could answer, and how much happier she was now that she found the truth. I'm not able to visit her anymore in person, but from what I've seen at church and heard from Elder Cram and Elder Henson, she is so much happier. Following Gospel really does bring miracles, not the least of which is it makes us happy.

Hasta la proxima semana

Elder Clark

 Ford knew that Elder Rallison was coming to Georgia

Patricia's son, Ezequiel, in white

The 5 minute lecture

I'm pleased to report that I am still alive and well.

Elder Rallison has no fear at all of talking to people, even in Spanish. I was so scared when I first started, but he'll just talk without any problems. Amazingly, he has avoided having any extremely funny or awkward new missionary experiences. What a lucky guy. He did get to help somebody move for the first time on his mission though last Saturday. Just one of hundreds of delightful experiences of carrying washing machines and dryers up 2 flights of stairs while on his mission. :)

We've had a lot more success this week than last week in finding people that will let us come back. We still haven't gotten in twice with anybody yet, except for with one part member/less active family. We also found, thanks to the help of a member, a less active member that hadn't come to church in a few years. We invited them to church this past Sunday, and they came! We also set a record on Sunday of handing out 5 copies of the Book of Mormon in 3 hours. Its all because Elder Rallison has the greenie fire. I wonder sometimes if we give them out to easily, but everyone we give it to says they'll read it, and that is what we want them to do with it, so I guess not.


Scripture time: Proverbs 28:25
He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat.


Lesson: Those of us skinny people out there, we are clearly not trusting in the lord enough.

I'm thankful to be able to be a member and missionary of the restored Church of Jesus Christ, and I love sharing that with others.

Thanks everybody!

Elder Clark

Mini Mexico

Hello to one and to all from Gainesville, Georgia, the poultry capital of the world. I know, very exciting. Its actually really good for us, because there are a few giant chicken processing plants here, and most of the workers are Hispanic. I've never seen so many Hispanics in one city before. There are trailer parks galore with hundreds of people to talk to everywhere! We'll never run out of places to knock doors, which is is pretty much what we've done these last few days.

My new companion, Elder Rallison, has been taking all the door knocking well. He's from Salt Lake City, and has the best spanish out of any new missionary I've ever heard. He speaks way better than I did when I was new. He told me the trick was that while he was in the MTC, he tried to talk the whole time in Spanish like you're supposed to, but nobody actually does. Elder Rallison's MTc companion, Elder Henson, is actually being trained by Elder Cram, so they're in the same branch. They both bore their testimonies on Sunday at Church, and Elder Rallison's Spanish blew Elder Henson's Spanish out of the water. I'm proud of my new companion. :) Everybody says we're like twins, not in the fact that we look like and are both tall, but personality and behavior. So that basically means we're both awkward.

For those of you who aren't counting how long out I've been out, today I hit 16 months.

On Sunday, Patricia got baptized. It was definitely a super quick turn around. On Tuesday, the day before I left for Gainesville, we invited her to be baptized, and she said she would. Then we invited to be baptized this last weekend, and she accepted. Elder Cram's new companion, Elder Henson, got to baptize her, his very first Sunday in Georgia.

We're still trying to find people to teach, but with the number of doors we're knocking, we'll find people.

Espero que disfrutan su semana!

Elder Clark

Patricia in white! Her kids would not look at the camera in any of the photo's. Elder Rallison is farthest away from me, and Elder Henson is the one in white.