Letter #30

Well it really isn't looking very much like christmas for reals, but it is getting slightly cold.  But I am not complaining:)  This week went by really, really fast and I was able to have a couple of sweet experiences.  I honestly can't believe it is already December.  I was thinking that this time last year I was getting my papers to be sent in and wondering where I would be going.  I don't even know what happened this year. I sure hope I have been doing the things the Lord wants me to do!  So for the stories of the week!!

First, we started teaching this older couple.  I have decided it is one of my dreams to baptize an older couple because they are so set in there ways, so if I could help them change then that would just be awesome.  Anyway, we talked to them about the Book of Mormon and how it can bring us peace in this life.  As we were finishing, the man, started talking and said that we looked peaceful and happy and he wanted to have that in his life.  That really brought joy to me because a lot of times we wonder as we declare to people if they can see that we are representatives of Christ, if they can see something in us that is different.  It was cool to see that one person saw something different in us that day.  We gave them a Book of Mormon and invited them to read it.  I sure hope that do!!  So we had kind of a sad experience this week to.  So we had this investigator.  He is the live in boyfriend of one of the members in  the unit.  We love going over there because they love the missionaries.  Well he just hasn't been progressing at all, not reading, not really praying about Joseph Smith.  So we decided that even though it was going to be hard we were going to have to drop him as an investigator and tell him that we can make an appointment when he comes to church.  Well the lesson turned out to be good.  We talked about agency and how it was his choice to follow the promptings of the Spirit and that we couldn't come over and make appointments any more.  So as a back up story, all the people that told me I wouldn't cry because of Spanish lied to me.  I of course shed a little tear as a bore my testimony to him.  And he started crying to! It was kind of like breaking up with someone.  I couldn't believe he was actually crying, i didn't think he was going to take it that hard.  So that was saturday and on Sunday we talked to Ingrid his girlfriend, she said that when we left he said that we broke his heart.  So we have been wondering if we did the right thing.  I know we did.  we tried to explain that we were hurting more then helping us because we were teaching him the truth and he was having many experiences but was rejecting it.  I know one day he will understand why we had to do that, he will understand when he gets baptized which I know that one day he will.  

Well those are somethings that happened this week.  This week we have a Christmas Devotional and I am playing a piano solo.  I am pretty nervous, but will be praying that I will do ok:)  I hope that everyone has a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!! Take a few minutes and remember why we celebrate Christmas and bring a little Christmas cheer to the people around you.  I love you all so much!!

LES QUIERO!!

Hermana Clark

Letter #29

Well first off I am SO EXCITED for you all to be in the stake presidency of the 7th stake.  That was my Stake!! President Mendenhall was my stake presidency and I was in the 35th ward.  I just know you are going to love that so much.  That is so crazy for me to think of you two sitting there and getting to know all of the college kids.  Mom you are going to be a great relief society advisor and I am sure dad you will have such a great time getting to know those college students.  I always loved seeing the Heiners in my ward.  You are going to have to tell me what ward you are in and what apartment complexes you cover.  Maybe now that they changed the stakes and everything it will be different but that is just so exciting!!  I can utterly not believe that Christmas is so close!  It is raining today so that's not the funnest.  Today my companion got a package and it had a Christmas present in for her so now we have a present under our little christmas tree.

So this week was pretty crazy and wonderful!  We had our unit Christmas party.  We ate dinner which was so good.  There was Turkey, rice and beans (of course), salad, the most delicious punch ever, and chocolate flan (a traditional mexican dessert) everything was so good, and then we had a piñata.  They made me and my companion sing a little song before we left.  It was wonderful and so fun to get pictures of everyone.  I kind of have a feeling that my time here is getting short so I am trying to take lots of pictures.  It is so funny, the members all know that once the camera comes out, someone is going to be leaving.  I don't know if you all got the feeling that you would be leaving.  IT makes me sad because the work here is definitely progressing.  One of the couples is planning a wedding in a couple of weeks so she will be able to be baptized with her daughter in January.  It has been so fun to see that family progress.  This next week we are going to be having a little Christmas program and a little gift exchange.  I am excited for that, it should be fun to get together with a few of the zones.  

So a cool thing that happened last week...we had been teaching this girl that lived with one of our members.  She has a really sad story, she was being abused by her boyfriend who was actually in jail for abusing her.  She was pregnant with his baby, but she lost the baby.  We visited her in the hospital, and she was really progressing.  Saying prayers and reading in the Book of Mormon.  One day we went over and she had moved.  IT was really sad.  We tried to call her but her phone was disconnected.  So we would ask about her but no one really knew where she was.  Well the other night we were walking around Las Casitas and we heard this man yelling at us through his car window.  We just kept walking because sometimes creepy spanish men say things to us but we just ignore it.  But he just kept doing it and so we turned around and this girl starts running towards us.  Well it was Ashley!! The girl we had been teaching.  She got accepted to a 6 month program to help her get over the abuse and everything.  She seemed to be doing really well.  The person she was with came over to tell us thank you for helping Ashley through some of those trying times. It was such a sweet experience.  Even though she wasn't baptized it was good to know that we helped her through some hard times which helped her get into this program.  We got her address so now you know I will be writing her!

Well I hope that everyone is doing wonderful!!! Stay warm:)

Les AMO!

Hermana Clark

Letter #28

Well this week has been pretty crazy!  We had some interesting experiences and some sad experiences to.  We had to drop one of our investigators.  It was sad but she just wasn't ready to accept the gospel yet.  This last week we had some fun activities.  Here they put on a play type thing of the birth of Jesus Christ. All the youth participate and they do it out side on the lawn of the church.  It brings some nonmembers into the church and so it makes some good opportunities for the missionaries.  On saturday we had the ward party.  The party was for both the Spanish unit and the English ward.  Two men in the ward did a skit of the 12 days of Christmas using raw chickens.  It was pretty hilarious but the whole time I was thinking to myself that all of the Spanish people here are thinking Americans are so ridiculous.  It was fun though and is always fun to be with the ward.  We are having a party just for the spanish unit this Saturday which I am very excited for.  Hopefully we can get some investigators there.  We had one of our investigators at church yesterday and he seemed to have enjoyed it.      We just worked a lot this week trying to find knew people and trying to help the people we are teaching progress.  Oh and we also had Zone conference this week, which of course was AWESOME!  We got new phones and they installed these little things in our car that are supposed to monitor our speed and how fast we stop and stuff.  It was kind of funny because me and my companion had been talking about how president probably has tracking devices and on his iPad he sees a little dot for all the cars and they beep when we brake the speed limit or if we leave our area or something. Then at Zone Conference he told us about this little box that is connected to some type of satellite and is supposedly going to talk to us when we go to fast and stuff.  My comp and I just looked at each other as he was telling us this.  We must have gotten revelation or something:)  We learned a lot about how our purpose as missionaries is to help people to come to christ, but we can help them higher than we are.  Therefore we have to come unto him our selves. President Castro talked about how our goal is to be like Jesus Christ and we have to have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End, and grace is what helps us through all of these steps to refine us and help us become like Christ.  One thing he said that really hit me was that he said as missionaries we are the closest thing to Christ as our the people will see in this life.  That blew me away, and really made me think.  I really am a representative of Jesus Christ, and when the people see me, do they see Christ, can they feel his love.  There is that scripture in Alma 5 that asks us if we have received his image in our countenance.  Really to become like Christ is everyones goal, and as we take the proper steps we become like Christ.  We fall and we have weaknesses but the grace of God is what makes it possible for us to really reach this goal.  I have so many things that I have to change about myself to reach that, but it is comforting that God doesn't expect us to be perfect in an instant, it is a process, day by day, minute by minute.  It is especially applicable at this time of the year when we can think about what we can change about ourselves to help us receive Christ in our countenance for the upcoming year.  

Well I hope you all have a good week and take some time to think about Christ and what he did for us.  

So the place where we do most of our tracking is awesome! There are SO many lights!  Some of them even have music playing outside.  It is so interesting how they don't like have any money but yet they have all of these elaborate house decorations.  The other night my comp and I saw this group of people.  one person was carrying a statue of the Virgen Maria in a glass box, there was like 20 people following her with candles and chanting.  Oh the traditions of the world.  I couldn't even believe my eyes.  People always say that they don't worship the Virgen Maria, I am pretty sure walking around with her with candles and chanting is worshipping!  Hispanic people just love her and actually think she is the mother of all of us.  Oh the lies of Satan!  We are doing our best to spread the gospel and let people know that worshipping her is definitely not ok!

Well I hope all the Christmas parties go well.  I love you all!!

Les quiero MUSHISISIMO!

Hermana Clark

Letter #27

Hola mi querida Familia!

This week has been pretty good.  First of all I just wanted to tell you what the weather is like here so you can be slightly jealous, 65 degrees and climbing.  It is So beautiful!  Perfect weather, so currently I'm not missing the snow and cold to much, but we will see what i say christmas and I wake up to my first christmas without snow!!  It sounds like you all had a wonderful thanksgiving and enjoyed your time.  For Thanksgiving this year we ate with the family that we live with.  It was so delicious and was good because it didn't take tons of time out of our day to eat, and we got to do the traditional go around the table and say what we are grateful for!  Another fun thing that we did was we made those hand turkeys.  You know when you paint your fingers different colors and your palm brown and then make a turkey, well we kind of did that only we used markers because we have no paint.  then we wrote little notes on the turkeys and put tape on them, knocked on the peoples doors and then ran away.  Pretty sure the majority of the people either saw us or new that it was us, it was still fun though because it was something different and fun.  I have so much to be grateful.  I was thinking about how I am grateful for Spanish and that I have the opportunity to learn it. because with learning the language I have learned to love the culture and the people so much.  I was think about how a few months ago I didn't know these people that have grown to be apart of my everyday life.  They are the kindest and sweetest people ever!  Yesterday our unit was combined with the english ward and my companion had to translate!  I was just counting my blessings that I didn't have to translate. I just know I would never be able to do that!  All the members complimented her though so I just know she did a good job.  

This next week I am looking forward to Zone Conference!!  I am so excited.  After the last Zone Conference I just remembered being so rejuvinated and ready to work.  So I am excited for that.  We also found out some good news yesterday.  There is a couple in the unit that isn't married because they were waiting for there divorces to be finalized in Mexico.  So they are living together and only one is a member but the other is basically a member just lacks the whole being baptized thing.  So supposedly this month was supposed to be the month when the divorce was finalized.  They said they wanted there marriage to be a surprise and they were only going to tell the bishop, so yesterday the bishop told us that we needed to start teaching her (trust points for us because we were already starting to teacher her:)  I don't know if that made a lot of sense, simply, I hope they are going to get married this month so that we can baptize her and they both can be worthy!!!  THey are the sweetest family and they have two of the cutest little girls!  This week we also had another cool experience.  We have been teaching this lady Magdalena.  One of our appointment fell through and so we went to visit her and she invited us in.  We taught her the restoration.  As we recounted the first vision tears came to her eyes.  It was so sweet and wonderful!  That was the second time where something had touched her enough that she started crying...which is something that I can totally relate with:)  In case you were wondering how the crying thing is going, it definitely magically didn't leave because I am speaking spanish, but it is definitely easier to control, yet another reason why I am grateful for Spanish!!

Well It has been good to remember some of the miracles that have happened this week.  I hope that you are all doing well and having a wonderful Christmas season.

And I have Some VERY IMPORTANT NEWS!!!! The mission office address has changed so you need to send all of my mail to this address!!

California Ventura Mission

3301 West Gonzales Road

Oxnard, CA 93036

Please address everything to this address so that I can keep getting that mail, which I love so much!!!

Les Quiero!!

Hermana Clark

Letter #26

Hola familia!  

Well this week was a week!  It definitely didn't go by as fast as the others have gone so I guess that is both a good and not so goo thing.  The week has been good.  We knocked a lot this week and yesterday it rained so we were just walking around with our umbrellas and trying to stay dry!  It was good though because we figured people would be more likely to let us in if we look like we are freezing.  I can't really complain though.  We always have good weather.  

So this week we had a really powerful lesson with Jesus.  He is the "spouse" of one of our members.  I think I have talked about him before. Anyone we were talking to him and were talking about the spirit and everything.  So then we invited him to be baptized.  As my companion was inviting him I felt the spirit so strong.  It was like my heart was on fire.  She asked him and for a split second I thought he was going to say yes.  This is a guy who has known and talked with missionaries off and on since 2005. However, he didn't except the invitation.  I know he felt the spirit though, I honestly don't know how he denied the spirit because it was so strong.  The first words that came out of his mouth were WOW, then he went back to his normal, I was already baptized in the catholic church thing.  We are still working with them and trying to get him to the church.  We have a lot of activities coming up for Christmas though so hopefully he will come to one of those.  

We have been working in Las casitas a lot lately just knocking and trying to talk to everyone everyday.  But something we have noticed is these little "chamacos" (spanish for street urchin:) walking around and me and my companion are pretty sure they are dealing drugs.  Our suspicions were confirmed this week as we were walking around and saw this white red head standing on the sidewalk.  He was definitely an outsider and was from Westlake which is a really wealthy area.  So I wonder what a rich white kids was doing in Las Casitas...hmmmm we tried to talk to him but he wasn't very interested, very nice though. 

So This week for thanksgiving we will be eating with the family we live with.  We actually didn't have anyone to eat with until this morning and Sister Davis invited us to join in with them and there family!  

I am excited and realize that I have so much to be grateful for!  Missionary work is taxing but I am so grateful for the experiences I am having.  I am SO grateful for all of the support from everyone at home.  I love you all and hope that you have a good thanksgiving!!

Les Amo!

Hermana Clark

Letter #25

Buenos Dias Familia!

Well this week literally flew by.  We had a good week but we dropped a lot of our investigators.  Usually what happens is that we contact someone, talk about our message and hopefully say a prayer with them and set up another appointment.  Then they are considered a "new investigator".  Doing that has been different because it isn't how my trainer worked but I like it because we have days filled with appointments.  A lot of the time the people aren't home but we can usually meet someone that lives in there house or something.  So once we have gone by the people a few times and they don't show any more interest we "drop" them.  Meaning we put there name in the area book, but don't go by anymore, until we fill like we need to, or other missionaries come to the area.  So this week was a drop week since the last couple of weeks we have just been contacting and meeting tons of people.  So it was kind of sad because we dropped some people that had baptismal dates.  So basically, not the most successful week according to numbers, but we found some people that seem slightly solid.  The family that we have been teaching still seems interested and I always enjoy going over there and teaching them.  It is definitely going to take patience, but they are reading the Book of Mormon and praying as a family, so I have faith that they will have a change of heart.  

Yesterday we had a lesson with one of our investigators.  His name is Jesus and he is dating/living with a member.  They literally are the nicest couple and I love going over there.  My companion loves soccer so the last couple of times that we went over they told us they are going to get us some jerseys.  So last night they brought down these jerseys and said they are going to put our names and numbers on the back.  They are so wonderful and I am excited to have an authentic mexican jersey to bring home.  

This past week we also had something sad happened.  We went over to one of our investigators houses and found out she had moved.  We had kind of expected it because her living situation wasn't the best, but it was still sad because she hasn't called us and her phone isn't working so we don't know where she is to send the missionaries over.  She really needed the gospel.  I think I will always wonder about her and what happened with her.  

Yesterday was fast sunday and it was wonderful!  We had this cute little old man get up and bare his testimony.  He is swedish and has learned spanish from reading preach my gospel and reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish.  So he gets up and relates the gospel to a chicken and how a little chick in the egg will die if someone opens the egg for it.  They have to peck through and do it themselves to gain the strength to live.  It's like that with the gospel, we can't make people get baptized or live the commandments, they have to do it themselves to gain the strength to endure to the end.  I though it was such a good analogy with missionary work.  Sometimes I wish I could just make people understand the importance of it, but we can't, we have to teach them and invite them and they have to do the changes themselves.

Next week is transfers.  I am pretty sure I will be staying her in Newberry Park with Hermana Tippetts, at least that is what I hope.  she has taught me so much about missionary work.  

Well I love it here, it is definitely getting colder though, I have had to wear a jacket the last couple of nights, still I just have to think it could be ALOT colder!  I can't believe it's already November!

Les Amo Muchisisismo!!

Hermana Clark

Letter #26

Hola Familia!!!

Well this week flew by just like the rest of the weeks have done.  We have seen a lot of really cool miracles this week and I am excited to tell you all about some of them.  First off I just have to say how excited i am.  Today was transfers and I am so glad to say I will be staying with Hermana Tippetts!!  We have been getting along so well and really felt like we would be staying together but sometimes President does crazy things!  First of all just so you know how much alike we are, the other day in planning we were talking about a less active that has some issues with keeping all of the commandments.  My companion was like, I have been thinking about her and I have decided she is kind of like one of those underground pimples that you get, you have to like work around it and give it some time until you can pop it!  I was laughing so hard because it was the perfect analogy for this less active.  So we are going to work with her and then get to the commandments that she really needs help with and then just be brave and call her to repentance. It kind of made my week:)

So the other week we tracked into this guy on a random street and he seemed very interested, so we went back for our follow up appointment and he was there.  We taught him about the Book of Mormon.  He was telling us about how he has always wondering if life had more of a purpose than working and eating and sleeping, basically what the purpose of life was.  He said that he needed peace and that he wasn't really happy.  I was so happy that I could be there to share the Book of Mormon with him.  I told him with complete confidence that the Book of Mormon could answer his questions about the purpose of life and that it could bring him REAL happiness and REAL peace!  We were just standing there on the doorstep and as I listened I was just so confident in my answer to him that the Book of Mormon could help him in his life.  I think through the last few months my testimony in the Book of Mormon has grown the most out of anything, so I hope and pray that you are all reading every day! Another experience that happened with the Book of Mormon this week.  My old companion and I found this older lady named Magdalena.  We weren't able to catch her at home after our first appointment and hrma Tippetts and I almost just dropped her but we decided to go by one more time and set up an appointment.  She was there and we once again shared the Book of Mormon with her.  We read in the introduction which is what we read with a lot of people about how we can read when Christ came to the America's and ministered to the people here, how we can learn about the plan of salvation, and receive more peace.  We asked her if anything caught her attention and she just started to cry.  She said she had always wondered why Christ had never come here if he had so much love.  I know the spirit was testifying to her in that moment of how true it really was.  It was a sweet experience and in that moment I realized what a gift I have had in my life to always have the knowledge that God really does love all of his children and he is going to minister to us all.  We really are so blessed to have the Book of Mormon in our lives and the only true church.

Well I hope everyone is doing good getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I am getting so excited for it, and you can be expecting a BOMB Christmas card from me and my companion!  I love you!!

Hermana Clark

Letter #24

Hola Familia!!

Como Estan??  Well this week has been pretty good.  The weeks go by So fast!  It feels like just yesterday that I was writing you.  I was thinking this morning about my first week in the mission field.  I am pretty sure it was the LONGEST week of my life.  I think the fact that I couldn't understand anyone, I was in a new place, and it finally hit me that I was a missionary and was going to have to preach the gospel to everyone, really hit me that week.  Every week just goes by faster and faster.  It's kind of like a train how it goes slowly to start and then speeds up faster and faster as it goes on.  That is kind of how I am feeling.  No worries though I still have ALOT of time to learn and grow. 

So this week have I got a story for you all!! This week we decided to go by a former and we knocked on his door, turns out he doesn't live there anymore.  So we talked to the lady that lived there.  She let us make an appointment with her, so we went back.  We talked to her about the Book of Mormon.  She seemed receptive.  So we have ended and were going to say a prayer.  Then one of the men that lives there walked in.  We asked him to sit down and say a prayer with us and if we could sing a song for them.  He accepted the invitation.  So we sang "Asombro me Da"  in English "I Stand All Amazed".  We sang the song and looked up and the guy, Filodalfo, had tears in his eyes.  So we set up a return appointment with him.  That is always scary because you never know if you are actually going to find them again.  So we went for our appointment and he was there!!!  We were talking to him, trying to get to know him.  Then he is like I just have always wondered, what is the purpose of life.  It took me a second to process the significance of what he said, and then I specifically remember thinking, did he really just ask us that question.  i looked over at my companion and her eyes were just so wide and I am pretty sure she was asking herself the same thing.  So we talked to him about the Book of Mormon and told him that he could find the answer to that question in that Book.  The spirit was So strong from the very beginning.  We told him we would mark the chapter where Christ comes to the Americas and give him a Book of Mormon.  He was very excited about it and accepted the invitation to read and pray.  It was funny because we were like, we would like to mark a chapter and give this book to you and he was like Please do that!  We walked away and were just speechless.  There were just no words to explain what had just happened!  One of the signs of someone being elect is if they are asking questions and he had a lot of questions. That was one of the times I wish there was a camera to video our faces when he asked us what the purpose of life was.  So we of course set up another appointment.  It was the coolest thing.

It was interesting to experience this because it came after a letter from Mom asking me if I had had any really spiritual experiences yet.  As I talked to my companion we talked about all of these cool missionary stories that we here from everyone, all of these miracles that happen that missionaries get to see.  As we talked about it though, the thing is that we see the AMAZING miracles everyday.  They might not be to the fact that we see someone and they ask us if they can be baptized, they can be small miracles.  In the case of Filodalfo it was a miracle that we chose that former to go visit, that the person at the door set up an appointment with us, that our lesson lasted long enough so that he could be there for the end and the song.  Just a whole chain of miracles.  So to answer moms question of if I have had any really magnificent experiences I guess you could say all the miracles I get to see are pretty miraculous and wonderful.  Not gonna lie it is seeing those small miracles that helps me through the hard rejections and hours of knocking.  I feel your support and I am so grateful for it!! Have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!  My companion and I will probably be knocking doors tonight.  That is going to be fun when people try to give us candy and we try to give them a Book of Mormon:0     

I love you all!!

Hermana Clark

Letter #23

Hola Familia!

This week has gone by so fast!  i feel like just yesterday I was writing you all and telling you about my crazy week last week.  I have some awesome news this week.  So we started teaching this family and they seemed pretty interested.  they were there for there second appointment and we read the first chapter in the Book of Mormon and then we invited them to church.  We thought we were going to have to do some convincing but instead the dad was like ya ofcourse we will come.  So on Sunday we are waiting outside of the church and I am thinking there not going to come and then out of the corner of my eye I see the mom.  The whole family came!!!!  They have to kids one is eight and the other is six,  So we had sacrament and then we  asked if they would stay for the other meetings.  At first they said that they wouldn't be able to, but then one of our members came over and told them what would be happening and so they decided to stay.  We took the kids to primary and then the parents were in Sunday School.  It was soooo wonderful!!  I just hope they had a wonderful experience and will have the desire to keep learning and to keep coming to church.  They are just the sweetest little family. This week we have seen a lot of miracles with finding people.  I think it is interesting because people just don't realize what a miracle it is that we have found them.  The other day we were walking in Las casitas and this guy was just standing on the sidewalk waiting (for us of course!)  We started to talk to him and asked him if he had talked to missionaries.  He proceeded to tell us that he has been baptized and that he used to go to church but has since gone less active.  What a miracle!! I random person on the street and he is a member.  He wouldn't tell us his address but we have his phone number.  Then the other day we talked to this lady and she wasn't interested we left the area for lunch and then came back and started to knock and the FIRST door we knocked was the same lady.  Do you think the Lord is trying to tell her something? I think yes.  She still wasn't willing to listen though.  Oh well, people have there agency and she had two very good opportunities that day.  It is just a testimony to me that the Lord really is guiding us.  Sometimes it feels stressful because we need to rely so much on the spirit but really we just try to do what we are supposed, try to be good missionaries, and the Lord guides us!

So now for some funny stories of the week!  I have so many of these with Hermana Tippetts, I think the crazy experiences just follow her wherever she goes.  So last night we were talking to this guy about the Book of Mormon.  My companion was in the middle of bearing her testimony of the Book of Mormon and all of the sudden we here this dog start growling and barking, I freaked out of course and Hermana Tippetts screamed at the top of her lungs,  The dog was actually quite far away from us, but still it was scary.  I had the HARDEST time controlling my laughter during the rest of the contact. We still got a follow up appointment even with that disaster.  I still laugh when I think about it!  Another odd thing that has been happening is that I have seen so many drunk men around.  The last couple days have just been crazy and I am getting better at knowing if people are drunk.  When we know they are we just say that we will come back when they haven't been drinking.  It's interesting because when people see us they feel ashamed, they know that they shouldn't be doing it.  

The thing that I am really learning out here is that Heavenly Father really answers prayers.  The sad thing is that we don't always realize that it is an answer.  We are teaching some people that really are praying for guidance and they tell us about there experiences and we are just blown away at the strong answers they are getting, but still they don't realize it is an answer.  SO this week my invitation to you is to recognize the little answers to our prayers everyday.  Sometimes they are small and almost unnoticeable but the answers are there!  Missionary work is wonderful.  California is AWESOME!!  It has actually been feeling like fall here the last couple of days:)  I hope everyones week is wonderful.  

Les Amo!

Hermana Clark

Letter #22

Hola Familia!

This week has been so crazy!  I feel like with my new companion we just experience the craziest things.  First of all we started teaching this family.  We have only had one lesson with them but I am very hopeful for them.  The greatest thing about it was that we were discussine Book of Mormon and then had to kind of review the restoration to make it a little more clear how we got the Book of Mormon.  So we were talking about prophets and about how God has always called prophets.  then they asked the Golden question, Why don't we have a prophet today then!  I am just sure my face just lit up.  We were like we do have prophets!!!!  It was really cool and we were able to say a kneeling prayer with them before we met them.  Our next lesson is in a couple of days with them, so we will see how that goes.  So the other funny thing that happened was the other night.  We stopped a guy on the street and were talking with him and then we were saying a prayer.  As we were saying a prayer we started hearing this wailing and moaning.  After the prayer we were looked around there was this man roaming through the streets moaning.  IT was quite the interesting experience! 

Now this is the biggest news of the week....we got a new car!!! In the mission they switch out the cars when they get to 50,000 miles.  So our car had reached its limit and so the car coordinator called us and told us we could come get it.  In our excitement we cleaned and were on our way to ventura.  We were almost to ventura when my companion noticed the brake light on and then that the brakes weren't working.  So we got off and called the mission office.  they told us to look at the emergency...so we had driven all the way from Thousand Oaks to Ventura with the emergency brake was partially on!!!! We got out and the wheels were just so smelly.  Thankfully nothing happened and we didn't ruin the car.  We thought for sure that the office was going to say you cannot be trusted with a new car heres and bus pass back to your area, when you get there go buy some bikes!!! That did not happen though and now we have a bran spanken new Toyota Corolla.  It had about 8 miles on it when we got it, and it still has the new car smell:)

This week has been great and I love being a missionary!

Les Amo,

Hermana Clark

Letter #21

hola!!

First of all I can't beleive it actually snowed!  It is like summer here, so in my mind it's like january.  the only thing that helps me know it is the fall is that some people put pumpkins outside their houses.  California is just another world:) 

Well the picture is of me and my new companion.  she is ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!! She is from Las Vegas and is so hard working and I can just tell we are going to be great friends!  She also is very good at Spanish and helps me alot with pronunciation and also is a great teacher so I have just learned so much this last week!  

So we had some cool things happen to us this week!

First, we met this guy on the street and he was just walking pushing a stroller he seemed like he was on his way and wouldn't stop to talk to us so we asked if we could walk and talk.  so we just walked and gave him the restoration lesson.  We then asked if we could say a prayer to him right there on the busy street.  He was very willing and it was just great that he was willing to do it right on the busy street.  that was kind of a miracle.  We teach when we find and find when we teach:)  

Second. We were knocking in this place called las casitas.  It is just full of spanish people.  We knocked on this door and came to find out that the lady living there was investigating the church in Bakersfield and actually had found the church here and had come on sunday but then she only saw white people which makes sense because we are just in the releif society room.  so we are now teaching her.  she didn't come on sunday but i have high hopes for her.

Third,.  We were once agian knocking in Las casitas.  We knocked on this door and a guy answered.  He was like I always see you knocking but you never knock on my door.  We found out he is actually a less active.  we asked him about the Book of Mormon and if he is still reading it.  He expressed that it is kind of boring and he just couldn't get into it.  We were then like well have you read the part where ammon cuts off mens arms, or when Moroni rips his coat off and is the leader of this giant army and they go fight for there families?  He was like I must not have read that part.  So we have plans to mark some very exciting parts in the book of Mormon and give them to hiim to read.  He was very nice to us and so we are going to go there and try to get him reactivated.  

Those are just of the few interesting experiences we have had this week.  Sunday was slightly dissappointed because we only had one investigator come to church and it wasn't Roger and the recent converts didn't come.  So that was sad but we invited lots of people and they chose not to come.  Next week:) 

I'm sorry that my email's are getting a little bit shorter but our email time got cut short today!Just  know that I love you all so much! The church is so true!

Love 

Hermana Clark 

Letter #20

Hola Familia!

Well This week has just been so interesting.  First of all I have got to tell you the good news that WE HAD AN INVESTIGATOR COME TO GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! It was so surprising.  We were out in the foyer and taking pictures and then I just saw Roger looking slightly lost.  He had said he was going to come but you just never know.  Anyway it was the first session in the morning and I am pretty sure that Every single talk was just for him. A few weeks ago he had some questions about polygamy and he just wouldn't beleive us about the fact that we do not do poygamy anymore.  So then Elder Ballard got up and was just so powerful with his talk about the fact that we are not associated with the churches practiced polygamy.  Also the talk on the Book of Mormon was just awesome.  Really the whole thing was awesome.  I think my favorite talke was President Uchdorf's talk.  It was just so great. So now it is challenge time!  My invitation to you all is when you get the conference ensign to read all of the talks before the next conference in May. The words of the prophet and apostles are so important we need to remember what they have said.  IT isn't enough to just here it once, we need to study there words.

 

We got transfer call this morning.  I will be staying in Newberry Park and my follow trainer will be Sister Tippets.  My trainer was Hermana Tippets follow up trainer so in mission lingo my brother is also my dad:) haha i'm excited.  I have met her a couple of times and she seems pretty great.  It's good that she know the area to because I was slightly stressed out about the whole being the only one knowing the people and the area.  Now it's not such a stresser. 

 

Well that is about all of the exciting news this week :)  I love you all!!

LES AMO!

Hermana Clark

 

Letter #19

Hola Familia!

This week has been just great!  This week one of our goals was to let all of the members, less actives,and investigators know about general conference.  We wrote up a little flyer with the times of the meetings, a scripture about the importance of listening to the prophet, and also a quote from the previous conference.  We have been handing them out all week!  We didn't want anyone to be able to say they didn't know about it two weeks in advance!  I hope that we have a big showing at the church.  We especially want our investigator Esperanza to come to it.  She didn't come to church yesterday, but we are hoping she will come to atleast one session.  We have a lesson with her tonight.  She is at an interesting point because she has a desire to read more of the Book of Mormon, and she has been to the church and felt of the spirit here, now its just at the point of whether she realizes what she needs to do because of those truths.  We will see what happens.  This week we also ate alot with the members.  Usually we only have about two days a week to eat with members, but this week everyday was full!  IT was fun to meet with them and some of them have family members who are on missions.  A couple of them expressed how they love to do things for the missionaries because it makes them feel like they are helping there missionaries.  I just loved that!  So now you know, if you ever feed the missionaries, you can just think of the people who are here feeding me:) 

This past weekend we had the General Releif Society Broadcast!  I hope ALL of you went!! (well all of you releif society members)  IT was so wonderful!  We had two members from the spanish unit come.  That wasn't alot but we were happy with just two.  President Uchdorf's talk was absolutely wonderful.  I especailly loved the fourth point of knowing the why's about the gospel.  I think that is especially aplicable to missionary work.  Sometimes we lose sight of the why of everything.  Why am I doing all of this to see so much rejection, why am I in this crazy state of Calirfonia with people I don't know questioning my testimony everyday, why am I spending a year and a half away from my family?? These are just a few of the why's that might go through your mind, but you realize that the reason is the gospel.  I am here because I have been called, and I take the rejection because I know that some people WILL listen and the will except the gospel and their lives will be changed through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am here because this is what I chose to do and every day I see small little miracles that make me realize that the gospel is true and the hand of the Lord is in each moment of my life.  I loved his analogy of the forget me not and I know that if we will remember to not forget the Lord, He will never forget us.  I enjoyed all the talks so much and as we were driving home I said to my companion that if I thought it was good in Spanish, then it must have been really good in English:) So I can't wait to get the Ensign and read them!!

I hope all of you are getting ready to listen to conference!  I am so excited.  We are so blessed to have a prophet who leads and guides our church.  I'm sure you have some fun plans.  I was thinking the other day how last conference we had that fun get together at the cabin with everyone, and that I ate an oyster:) What is everyone's plan for this conference weekend??

I love you all so much! 

Les Amo

Hermana Clark

Letter #18

Hola Familia! Como Estan?

Well this week has been pretty interesting and something very exciting happened!  We had an investigator at CHURCH!! We invited her last Monday and she said she would come but some people are slightly flaky so we didn't know if she would come for sure for sure, so we waited outside of the church for her and then we saw her drive up!  She even brought her little granddaughter.  This Sunday was different than normal.  We had to meet with the English branch because we got a new bishopric.  So the spanish unit had to wear headphones and listen to a translation by the group leader.  I was so nervous that she wasn't going to like that they had to wear headphones and everything.  I just hope she felt the spirit.  She has been studying with the Jehovah's witnesses for a few years but hasn't been baptized yet.  So I am just praying that she felt something unique and special.  she also came to Sunday School and the Spanish members were just so sweet and welcoming to her.  We have a lesson with her tonight and so we will see what she thought about the whole thing.  I think that the Jehovah's witnesses don't take the sacrament everySunday so I think that was probably very different but that it was ok. 

We are getting ready for general Conference!  We have made a paper with a scripture about listening to prophets and also a quote from Presdient Monson with the times of general conference.  We will be going around and giving them to less actives and investigators to invite them to General Conference!!  I am so excited for it.  We have Erika, the lady that was just bapitzed, that has never heard the prophet.  She is so excited and I am so excited to be able to share this experience with her!  I never realized what a foreign and wonderful thing it is to have a living prophet and the fact that we get to listen to him speak to us every six months!  I hope that you are all preparing and getting ready to just soak in everything.  I don't know if you have read the first article in the Ensign this month that tells the story about the man who was sharing the fact that we have general conference and get to listen to a prophet.  The friend asked what was the latest words from their prophet and he couldn't remember.  I know that I have been in this category so often.  We listen to conference and then it passes and we tend to forget.  I want to challenge you all (me included!!) to really listen and then when we get the ensign with the talks to study them.  These are the words of the prophets, they are so important.  I was realizing the significance of it because this is what I do all day, tell people that we have a prophet and he receives revelation from God to lead and guide us.  IT is kind of a big deal:)  Also I am so excited for women's conference this weekend.  I have been looking forward to it all month!  One positive it is being catered by Cafe Rio!  YIPEE:)  I would love to hear everyones thoughts on general conference and what you learned.

Well family, I hope that you are all doing good.  I love you all so much.  Keep me updated on all the clark happenings!

Les Amo!!!

Hermana Clark

Letter #17

Hola Familia!
This past week has flown by and i can't beleive it is the middle of
September.  I had an interesting experience this week.  I went on an
exchange.  This last transfer we got a companionship of traveling
sisters so they travel around to all of the areas and two splits.  I
was excited but very nervous because someone was coming here and I was
going to have to know the area.  Thankfully she had already been to
the area and new mostly where the streets were.  It was interesting to
see her style.  It was much different than my current companions.  It
made me realize how just because people have different styles of
missionary work it doesn't mean one is a better missionary than the
other.  I am starting to find my style and the way I think about
missionary work.  It was a really cool experience.  It also made me
realize that I need to start paying attention more to the area because
I know my companion will be leaving me in a few weeks! :(  It's weire
because here they use street names where as I am just used to using
landmarks when I give directions.  I am learning how to use a map
quite well though!
Another cool thing that happened this week was that we had training
and president's interviews.  President Castro is just wonderful and I
love being able to talk to him about the work.  He is also very
encouraging and it was good to know that we have about the same amount
of experience in the mission field so we are learning together.
This week in the scriptures i have been reading towards the end of
alma all about the wars and the great captian Moroni.  I LOVE chapter
47 when Moroni raises the title of liberty!  It just gets your blood
pumping when he raises it and all of the people start running towards
him and are so ready and willing to enter into a covenant with the
Lord!  I hope you are all reading your scriptures every day.  They are
so powerful and SO true!
Well I love you all and I hope all is well in the family:)
Les Amo!
Hermana Clark

Letter #16

Hello Family!
How is every one doing?? The work is so interesting here!  We spend out time knocking, knocking and knocking.  Its weird that it is September.  It is weird because it doesn't feel like fall.  The leaves are starting to change colors a little but the heat is just started to be bearable.  The past few weeks have been about 100 degrees or more, but it is starting to be around eighty or so.  I feel like it is going to be weird to have a fall without some freak blizzard.  Mom has been asking me for the past few weeks how we get around.  Well we definitely have a car.  We cover a whole stake so our area is pretty big.  We have a limited amount of miles so alot of times we will just park somewhere and walk around.  Spanish people usually congregate in one area so if we find someone we just knock all around to see if there are any other Spanish people.  Since school has started here we haven't had to move anyone this week. So for service we decided to do some sidewalk chalk.  I got a letter from Tia the other day with a picture of how they taught Lehi's dream with chalk in someones driveway so me and my companion decided that it would be a fun activity to write a scripture down or draw the plan of salvation or something so on saturday on the sidewalk next to the church we wrote a question of the soul and then mormon.org both in Spanish and English. I am hoping that someone will see it and visit mormon.org.  Speaking of mormon.org you should ALL go visit it and make a profile.  It is such a good website and it such a cool missionary tool.  There has been a big push for mormon.org in the church.  The family that was just baptized came to church yesterday!  YIPPEEEEE!!!! They haven't come for the past few weeks.  I don't think it is because there faith is lacking or anything, there lives are really crazy because they are trying to find another place to live because there living situation isn't very good.  WE teach them in the church now for our lessons. They are such a wonderful family! I got some pictures from Tania this past week!  Thank you so much Tania!!! It was so fun for me to see everyone together having so much fun. One thing that happened this past week that was really cool was that we had a sisters conference.  All of the sisters in the mission got together.  Kind of like a zone conference, but just sisters.  I was able to see my MTC companion and talk for her for a few minutes.  We had a great time and it was fun to see all the sisters and talke with them.  There is only about 20 in our whole mission and about 10 that speak spanish.  That is crazy considering our mission is pretty big! We had another really cool experience this past week.  One of the families in the unit wanted to take us out to dinner because this is my companions last transfer.  The mom, Ingrid, is the sweetest lady. She is always smiling and ALWAYS laughing.  It always lifts my spirits to talk to her and her family.  The only problem is she is not living the law of chastity and is living with her boyfriend.  He is making small steps of progress and wants to go back to mexica and that is the reason why he won't marry her.  Anyway they have the cutest little girl and I was able to play with her the other day.  I wish I could express how much I love this family and wish that they would just get married!  Ingrid has a daughter that has a few kids and also is not married.  It is so surprising to me the problem we have in the unit with people not living the law of chastity.  They just all need to get married!! Well i hope that everything is going well.  I am grateful for all of the support that I am getting from everyone.  I love you all:)

 Les Amo
 Hermana Clark

there is one more thing that I wanted to tell you.  My companion wil
be coming up to Rexburg in the winter.  I really want her to come see
you and visit you so you can meet her and just love her as much as I
do!  So i'm going to give her something to bring to you so she has a
reason and it won't be awkward.  I will be giving her our number so if
a Katy Burch calls answer and set up a time to meet.  Is there
something you would like me to send??  Well I love you!

Letter #15

Hola Familia!!
Well This week we have had some fun times!  Lots of knocking and lots
of talking to less active members.  Last week we had this experience
with one of our less actives.  It kind of made my heart hurt a little
bit.  His name is Manuel Marin.  He was only baptized of few months
ago, yes ONLY a few MONTHS ago!! Unbelievable.  We have been going over
and telling how important is to keep the commandments and to come to
church.  Finally this week he was totally truthful with us.  He told
us that he basically got baptized because a family member told him
that the missionaries would stop coming over so much if he got
baptized.  He just doesn't want any responsibility.  The problem is
that his life is so much better now than it was he doesn't realize the
importance of keeping all of the commandments and enduring to the end.
As I was listening to this I just couldn't believe it.  It is sad to
me that he doesn't understand the importance of the covenant he made
with his Heavanly Father.  We told him we will continue to visit him.
It's better now because we really know how he feels so hopefully we
can help him understand the importance of keeping ALL of the
commandments and coming to church every Sunday and not just when he
feels like it.
We had a really good lesson with one of our investigators.  I am
pretty sure he was slightly tipsy but he was surprisingly interested
in the The Book of Mormon.  The funny thing about this guy is that he
thinks I don't understand any Spanish.  Which I don't understand most
but I am getting to the point where I can understand the main point of
what people are saying.  So He kept being like do you understand me?
I would always knod my head and say yes of course I understand you!:)
Then I would talk and he would be like oh my goodness you know so much
Spanish.  He was surprised at how much I knew.  My companion would
talk some and then he would be like no I want Her (me) to talk because
he was just amazed.  We cleared up the fact that he thought the Book
of Mormon was only about Joseph Smith.  He didn't understand where
Nephi came from because you never read about him in the Bible.  He
seemed really interested and he read the whole first chapter.  I am
just praying that he will keep on reading!  It was such an enjoyable
lesson and I feel like it was good because it made  me realize that I
am progressing in the language and that people can understand what I
am saying.
Now for the picture explanation.  I officialy had my first In and Out
experience!  It was mighty delicous.  I remember going when we went to
pick Bret up from his mission.  I feel like I didn't understand the
delicousness of it all way back then:)  Animal style is where its at
all the way!
Well that is about all of the interesting things that happened this
week.  I hope all is going well at home.  Have fun at school and
remember the people of California in your prayers:)
Les Amo!!
Hermana Clark

Letter #14

Hello!

 

Ok first of all I cannot even explain the joy in my heart right now because I just received the news that not only did Kera put her papers in but she has got her mission call!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!!! I am just so excited for her and I just love that we can both be serving together:) Will you send me her MTC address?? I had a dream the other night that she was going to North Carolina, so that was kind of close. 

Well we had transfer class this morning.  It was such a rush.  I was so scared that either me or my companion were going to get transfered. But we are still her:)  Only one elder in our district got transfered so we are just going to have a grand ol time this transfer.  I can't beleive it has already been one transfer. It went by really fast.  I also can't beleive that Arleigh and Tyrell are officialy hitched.  It's kind of weird to think about but I am so happy for them! 

 

Well this past week has been interesting.  My companion has received some interesting news this week and I am just trying to be good support for her. She found out her grandma had passed away suddenly.  It reminded me of when I found out Grandma Clark had passed away.  It was such a sad time but at the same time it was so comforting to know that we have the gospel and we know where she is.  Also this week I have been thinking alot about our family.  I am just so grateful for you all and the support thatI receive from everyone.  It makes life here easier knowing that I have my family prayig for me and cheering me on!  So thank you for being there for me and being wonderful examples to me in living the gospel.  I love you all so much.

 

This past week it seems that we have just been dropped by all of our investigators.  I get that just gives us time to find many more people.  We calculated our numbers for the transfer last night and we declared the Gospel to 376 people, and that is not counting the people that we tried to talk to.  So I am getting better at talking to people.  It seems like the people that I think will just reject us tend to listen.  Those feelings of fear and shyness don't come from our Heavanly Father because he wants us to talk to all of His children. 

Now let me explain the picture. We have started to go to a class everymoring at the church to do kickboxing.  It is SO much fun.  It is me and my companion and two other sets of elders.  The other day we did yoga so me and my companion decided it would be fun to show how we can read our scriptures while doing these crazy moves.  We took these pictures this morning and are going to make him a collage as a thank you.  So scenario for you, imagine me doing all kinds of crazy yoga moves with a glass table very close by.  Needless to say I was doing something crazy and ofcourse almost broke the table so I thought I would include that!

 

Well I hope everyone is doing great and loving life!  We have so much to be grateful for!  This morning I was reading in Mosiah 18 where Alma is teaching at the waters of Mormon.  What an experience that would be to be teaching those people and having them just Desire to be baptized and enter into those covenants!  What an experience.  There are so many people in the world that don't understand the importance of covenants.  We talked with a less active and he finally told us the truth how he only got baptized because a family member told him that if he got baptized the missionaries would stop coming over so often.  My heart hurts for him because he has made these covenants but doesn't realize the significance.  We told him we are still going to come over and talk to him though.  Hopefully one day he will understand.  On the other hand, as I sat in church today and looked around at our little unit I just felt so happy.  They are pretty much all converts to the church and have totally changed there lives around to live the way God wants them to.  I have no doubt that the Lord will help us find the people that are ready to accept the gospel. 

I love you all!  Good luck with the marathon:)

Hermana Clark

Letter #13

Hola!

What a week it has been.  This week I hit my three month mark.  I kind of couldn't beleive it.  Time is such an interesting concept.  This week was interesting because became partailly ill.  We weren't able to go to church yesterday or work on Saturday because we were afraid of spreading her germs.  So while she was suffering I revamped the area book.  The area book is something I didn't even know exsited before I got here and it is a very important thing.  We are just waiting for them to give us all Ipads and have some awesoem area book app.  So what I did was took all of the potentials and rewrote them so that they were all in the same street for each page.  It was quite the task and I think if I would have known how long it was going to take me, and how bad my hand was going to hurt I would not have started it.  But about six hours later I finished!  It needed to be done and now it is alot easier to look for potentials.   I also made some things to help in teaching, A cup demonstration for the first lesson and some drawings for teaching the plan of salvation.  I am now sure that I don't like it when my companions are sick because we can't do anything, but it was good for her to rest so that we can really hit the pavement hard this week.  We have ALOT of knocking to do:) YIPPEE  It is always kind of scary approaching those doors because you just never know who is going to answer! Each day we come home with new experiences.

So this week I was reading in 2 Nephi.  Once I got past the Isaiah chapters I was ready to actually be able to understand something.  I was reading in chapter 29.  It talks all about why we need the Book of Mormon.  How God loves all his children so why wouldn't he give revelation to them all. IT just makes so much sense, but people just don't get it.  I just wish I could just read that chapter to everyone who says the bible is all we need and it is all scripture that we will ever have.  THat is so false.  The Book of Mormon is written so plainly and is much easier to read than the Bible.  I was also reading in Our Search for Happiness.  If you haven't read it you definituely should because it is wonderful.  Elder Ballard has written this book so plainly and simply to understand some simple doctrines of the gospel.  I feel my testimony has grown so much this week in the Book of Mormon.  It is so powerful.  That is one thing we have started to do as a companionship.  We picked 5 different scriptures to use while contacting people.  The great thing about that is that the scriptures can't mess up there Spanish and they carry the spirit so strongly.  Hopefully we can find more people this week as we actually read with them rather than just telling them about the Book of Mormon and how it is another testament of Christ.

This past week we had zone conference.  It was wonderful but it caused me alot of unwanted stress because I had to go up twice in front of all the elders and bear my testimony.  I just thought some miraculour occurence would happen and my tear ducts would just close while I am serving a mission but that just isn't possible!  Zone conference was great.  I learned so much and felt rejuvinated to go out and talk to more people.  It has been slightly hard for me to overcome my shyness and just walk up to random people and start talking to them abou the gospel.  and sometimes when we just get rejected all day I have to think to my self that it is there choice whether or not to listen. We give them the opportunity  to learn about the restored gospel and they have the choice to accept it or not.  Then at zone conference I learned that I also have a choice whether or not to speak up and go talk to people, if I don't then they miss out on there choice to except it.  Just a litle thought.  The same goes for everyone, not just people serving missions.  Don't be afraid to share the gospel with your nonmember friends.  You never know who's heart will be open and will be ready to except such a wonderful thing as the gospel.

I am loving my mission.  I know that the savior knows all and he is there for us whenever we need him.

Les amo mucho!

Hermana Clark

Letter #12

Hola Familia!

What a week it has been here in California and it sounds like you have had a whirld wind of a week for you all to.  First of all Happy Birthday to Emma, Sophie, and Madelynn.  I feel like they are going to be so big when I get back it is going to be crazy.  It also sounds like you have had a lot of fun in West Yellowstone.  How fun!

This week has been so crazy.  We haven't been teaching a ton of lessons so we have had a lot of time to just go around and knock doors.  This area is one of the wealthier areas so we try to find high concentrations of hispanic people.  We have yet to find something that we already don't know about it.  So naturally since we have been talking to lots of random people we have had some interesting experiences.  Yesterday took the cake.  We talked to a guy who i'm pretty sure was on some type of drug, but everyone needs to hear the gospel.  He proceded to ask us if we beleived in magic, aliens, and love.  He told us he was a street prophet, he said he was homeless but had a house in agourra, and a camp in the woods, and he said that he new ten times more then us about life, as we walked away he told us he was Arros the God of love. The whole time he was talking I was just couldn't beleive it was actually happening and my companion and I decided that sometimes we just want to be able to take pictures of conversations.  I feel that that is just one of many interesting conversations to come.  We also found a guy yesterday that wanted to buy a Book of Mormon from us.  We read a scripture to him and it really touched him.  He spoke english so we had to go back to the car and get him an English one and then we had to refer him to the Elders.  Hopefully they can find him again, and hopefully he will actaully read!  It is so interesting how the people we talk to want to listen and want to learn but aren't willing to read the Book of Mormon.  This is just so frustrating because if they would only read they would know the gospel is true.  They can't know unless they read.  It is just that simple. 

Mom was asking all about my living quarters.  We just live in a room in a members house.  We have our own bathroom and they have provided us with a fridge which is a blessing.  We don't eat with them but we eat in their kitchen.  It is a couple whos kids are all out of the house.  They are so cute. They just chill in the house all day.  She knits all day, and they things she makes are BEAUTIFUL!  And the husband studies the gospel all day.  He always shares with us the interesting things he is learning.  It really is a great experience living with members because they are always interested to hear our stories and how our investigators are doing.  It is funny for me to because I always think of the elders in Ashton and wonder what it would be like to live with him.  I'm sure that would just be a great time.

Our days are interesting here but some interesting things are that we have started to have an English class for the members in the ward, and hopefully they will start to invite there friends:) We really have no idea how to teach English but as we have started to realize how odd English is.  We have funny things.  One of othe ladies asked what, "you are ever so welcome" means.  She understood, your welcome, but why add the ever so.  I though to myself that is a really good question!  So we will see how it all goes.  We are also teaching a Book of Mormon class. We actually found an investigator our of having this class.  It is really cool to take time and read it slowly.  We just started from the begininning and are reading it and talking about how we can learn from them and apply them.  I love the Book of Mormon.  It has so many great things and I hope that you are all reading from it every day!!! We try to get our members and investigators to realize it's important but I really wonder how many members of the church read it everyday.

Well family I must be off.  We are going to try to do a craft today and make Book of Mormon t shirts using spaghetti and spray paint.  We will see how it turns out and I will give you all the details of how it turns out. I hope that the baptism goes well and know that I love you all and think about how your doing every day:)

Les Quiero!

Hermana Clark

Letter #11

Well family I cannot beleive I have finished another week out in the field.  It has been an interesting week and I am excited to tell you all about the baptism we had this week.  you meight be wondering why You are not viewing a picture of the baptism.  Well being myself in all the hubub of the day, I TOTALLY FORGOT my camera.  If you can even beleive it, which I am sure you can because I forget everything:)  thankgoodness my companion had a camera and so I will be sending a copy of it with a letter. 

The baptism went so great.  We were really worried about the water temperature of the font because I feel like every convert we ask abou there baptism, the first thing they say is something about the water temperature.  We had one of the ward missionarier fill it up for us.  We spent all day going around and reminding people that we had a bapitsm this week.  We got a wonderful turnout!  President Castro and his whole family came.  that was just wonderful.  We also had a members husband come who has never been to church.  We also had another of our investigators there.  It all went off with out any problem accept for when the bishop got up and welcomed them, there was a sudden burst of clapping which our investigator started. haha it was funny but it all calmed down.  AFter wards we had some food that the members ahd brought.  Complete with a tamale.  It was cute because all the women went into the kitchen and started serving everyone there portion rather than just setting out al of the food and us getting it ourself.  My companion said that is a very hispanic thing so I better just get used to it.  They got confirmed on Sunday.  It is hard to explain the feelings of witnessing two people be baptized that I am sure a few months ago new nothing about the restored gospel.  they are going to be a strong family, and now we are working towards them going to the temple.  I will still be here when that happens and I will be able to go through with them:) 

This week we didn't have alot of lessons so we tried to do our best to find service opportunities.  the Lord always provides and we found out a member was moving.  We went over to help the elders.  We moved a man and his two daughters move from a small little apartment to another small apartment, but that had the most beautiful view!  It was fun to be able to help him. And with four extra hands I think we helped the job move a little quicker.

Now you are probably wondering what the picture of my eyes is.  Don't worry I am fine I just though you would all like to see i picutre of me how I am looking today.  I got up yesterday and my eye is just huge.  It's just the bottom lid.  IT 's so weird and it isn't that noticable but I really wonder what people think of my puffy eye. 

So funny story.  My companion and I were tracting this week in this community called Las Casitas (small house).  We spend tons of time ther because there are alot of Spanish people.  The hard thing about finding people here is that we really try to find spanish people so we try to find places where alot of them live.  Anyway, we are at las casitas and we knock on this door.  The lady is really nice.  She doesn't beleive in God, but she does beleive in energy and basically carma.  Eventually she tells us she is wicken.  I fell like I have heard all about wickens but never talked to one.  Instead of bleiving in heavan she basically beleives in nervana or becoming one with nature and 7 levels of reincaration.  She basically thinks that one day she will become a tree!  I was so flabbergasted.  She talked about how if she thinks logically she just can't see that there is a God.  I just feel that this is crazy.  Everything testifies of Christ.  I left that little chat with a renewed sense of divine nature.  How we will die and we will be resurrected and we will have the knowledge with us that we have gained on this earth. 

Well family mytime of writing has come to an end once again.  I hope all goes well with Dallin's baptism this week!  I'm so sad that I will miss it.  My understand more everyday about the importance of baptism.  He is making a very wise decision:)  I love and miss you all.  Have a wonderful week!!!

Hermana Clark

Letter #10

Hola Familia!

Wow this week FLEW by.  I nhave some great stories to share with you all.  First story.  My first experience of being pooped on happened this week.  My companion and I were just walking along going knocking doors and I looked down and I bird had pooped right on my shirt!  I couldn't even beleive it.  IT was just a little poop but still pretty gross.  It reminded me of when we were camping up at warm river and that bird just splattered our campsite and I got the brunt of it.  I guess birds just are attracted to me or something. 

This week we had our first Book of Mormon. We are doing this to try to get members to bring their friends.  We had all kinds of great things(one of my pictures shows our set up).  We had a map to show where it was written as opposed to the bible.  One person showed up.  He is one of our investigators! It was such a cool experience.  We read the introduction with him and asked him to read the first chapter of 1 Nephi.  He then proceeded to tell us he would read the whole first book.  We have an appointment with him tomorrow so we will see how his reading went!  I hope it goes well:)  As we talked about the Book of Mormon and explained the story it was just a witness to me that the Book of Mormon really is true!  It just is!  This week we also had the opportunity to go to Ventura with two of our investigators this week to have their interview with the mission president for their baptisimal interview!  yep you read correctly we are having a baptism this very week on Wednesday!  It is a husband and wife.  They have to of the cutest little girls.  It is interesting because she speaks Spanish and he speaks Englsih so our lessons are half and half saying things in Spanish and English.  I havenoticed that alot here, that people marry people who don't speak the same language.  I know.  I guess they know enough to comunicate but it is just odd to me because they really don't understand eachother one hundred percent. 

Now here is a story for you all!  So me and my companion don't get fed alot by the members so we are always really excited when It happens.  Well the family didn't have time so they gave us some money.  We went to this deli and walked in and heared someone say "sisters".  We turned around because people knowing who we are rarely happens.  He offered to pay for our meal.  He kind of had to talk us into letting him pay for us, and so we decided and he didn't even get anything.  Apparantely he had just seen us thought I should pay for there food.  My companion and I thanked him profusely.  It was such a blessing and we thought to ourselves how we must be doing something right for getting so blessed.  That gave me comfort. 

Well mom asked me for some info on my companion.  She is wonderful and I love her.  We are very similar in the way we think.  Her dad is actually from Rexburg so she is familiar with Idaho.  She is from Spokane and she only has like two and a half months left on her mission.  I will probably be her last companion.  She speaks good spanish and is always will to answer all of my questions on, oh how would I say this and such.  We live with a family in the ward.  They are an older couple and have no kids at home. We actually had to move last P-Day because the people we were living with had there son coming home off of a mission.  We have a really big area here.  We don't even have a branch it is just called the Spanish Unit.  Yesterday there were probably about 20 people or so.  I play the hymns and my companions leads.  Yesterday I had to play a hymn that is only in spanish.  I had no idea how it went and neither did Hermana Burch, so I just followed the loudest singer who seemed like she knew what she was singing.  I wish you all could come and see this unit.  the people are SO wonderful, happy, and welcoming.  The one thing they are not so good at is singing, but they don't care, they still just sing and do as good as they can.  Yesterday I had my first try of Elado Loco.  It is corn on the cob slathered in mayonniase and parmesan cheese and chili powder.  It was surprisingy delicous and I am planning on making them for you when I get back!  They are from guatemala and apparantley there they put like ketchup and all kinds of things on them, hence the name Elado LOCO!  haha it was so fun. 

Well family my time is up.  I love writing these because I get to remember all of the good experiences I am having.  I also feel like I missed and on some HUGE news.  I had no idea Earl and Kathryn were going on a mission!!! Where are they going??

And now for a little spiritual thought from my studies this morning.  2 Nephi 4.  It is a wonderful chapter and one that I have never really payed attention to in the past.  I feel bad saying that because we should pay attention to all the scriptures.  I especially like the last four verses or so.  I now our Heavanly Father answers our prayers, and I think an even more comforting thought is that he is LISTENING!  Not just randomly sending us blessings but listening to our words and our hearts.  The church is true and whenever we have a question the scriputres have the answer.  Have a wonderful week and I love you all!

Les Amo

Hermana Clark

The First Week in the Field

Hola Familia!

Wow I don't think I have ever had such a long week in my entire life!  Missionary work is a lot different than I thought it would be.  That is probably a good people.  Here in California there is SO many interesting people to talk to.  They are usually really nice when objecting us, and others just want to get into big debates.  I really don't understand what people are saying to me so that might be a good thing.  I have been having a hard time staying motivated as I have been really struggling with having the courage to just go up to someone and tell them that we have a prophet today and the Book of Mormon! It is hard for me but we do TONS of declarations a day and so I am getting better at it little by little.  There are a lot of different religions here.  We found one guy that was pentacostal.  He proceeded to tell us that we looked very pretty because we were modest.  He was very nice and I was just like there are some interesting people here.  Well I am in a place called newberry park.  Part of our area is in LA county.  So that lets you know how close I am to LA.  It is a BEAUTIFUL AREA! The weather is really nice because we are about five miles from the coast.  That regulates the weather really well.  There are lots of palm trees and lots of bushes that have the prettiest flowers.  We are surrounded by some pretty big hills so that is good because it reminds me of home and all the mountains.  My companion is wonderful!  She is a very good example and she helps me with my spanish.  We try to only speak Spanish outside of the house.  That is helping me.  She is so good, she always knows what to say to people and how to catch there interest.  The work here is kind of slow because it is one of the areas in our mission that has money.  We just try all day to find neighborhoods that have spanish people.  There are quite a few.  We just try to find the poeple that speak spanish because we don't give any lessons in English.  We just give lessons in Spanish.  We are teaching an investigator, mom dad and two cute little kids.  they have a baptisimal date in about a week and a half.  They have ahd others so we are hoping it all works out.  Erica is the moms name.  She is so sweet and wonderful!  She surprises me with her comments and her knowledge in the gospel already.  Her husband has been struggling keeping the word of Wisdom, but he is doing good now so hopefully there is no slip ups.  The thing is here there is a high rate of baptism but people are just not coming back to church.  We do alot of trying to contact less actives, but they are just never home, or they are conveniently ignoring our knocking.  I have already had many of those experiences where people are home and you can like hear them talking but they don't answer the door, also people give us addresses that never exist.  HAHA it is just so funny to me, just tell us you are not interested.  We are just trying to give everyone the chance of hearing the gospel.  Also I have noticed usually when we are knocking streets because we have a less active or potential investigator on that street, usually the scariest house is the one that lets us in, or the one that has the person that we are looking for.  

Well family I am doing great and I am so grateful for the package of memories that i received the day I got here, and the letter full of WONDERFUL pictures.  It was the perfect welcome to California package.  I LOVE that you sent me a yellowstone shirt and I have been eating the swedish fish, it makes me feel like I had a part of the fun:)

I love you all, keep praying for me to learn this language.  I think it's going to have to take a miracle!  

Hermana Clark

Letter #8

Hola familia!!

This is officially my last email from the MTC! I GOT MY FLIGHT PLANS THIS WEEK!!! My whole district had a little party in the mail room when we realized that we only had about 12 days left at the MTC.  We have about 7 now.  Crazy to think.  So here is the run down I will be calling home at around 7 45 and then again because I have a lay over in Dallas at like 11 so I will call again.  I am SOOO excited to talk to you and here about all of the fun festivites that have been happening over the past couple of weeks.  It sounds like the reunion has been one big PARTY! I have sure missed warm river as I go out and it is so warm outside.  I just think, Oh to be floating the river right now!  Really that is just a passing thought and then I get back to doing and thinking the gospel.  It really is great and I am really enjoying my self here.  This past week was just wonderful.  My whole district had a slight freak out moment thinking that we didn't have very much time left at the MTC but our teacher sensed it and took us through some activites that calmed some of our nerves.  I really just love my teachers.  They have been such a blessing in my life.  They probably will never know How much they have impacted my life in such a big way. 

This week for the fourth of July the MTC put on a little program.  We had a speaker friday night and then a little program.  They made a powere point with all of the different missions there are in the world and then people began to cheer for where they are from and mostly where they will be serving.  The tongans got a little carried away when there country showed up on the map but it was so cool to think that alot of them are converts to the gospel.  It was so cool here and see everyone so excited to go serve and find people to bring them closer to Christ.  We were then able to go outside and watch the fireworks from the staduim of fire concert.  It was SO COOL!  It made me miss the fireworks at the rodeo, but one of my dreams was fulfilled.  they actually had fireworks shaped like things.  There were hearts and also a few smiley faces.  My companions thought it was so wierd that I had never seen one before but then they remembered I was from little Idaho so they understood. hehehe We actually got to stay up late so we were kind of living on the wild side.  We had fast sunday on sunday and we got to hear some great talkes about staying on the stragith and narrow path and alos about how important Christ was in the plan of salvation.  Without him and his mercy we could never hope to return to live with our father in heavan again.  I love and am so grateful for my savior Jesus Christ.  Each day I come to a better understanding of who he is and I pray the I can walk in his path.

Yesterday we had a great treat and had Elder oaks daughter come play the violin for us.  Jenny oaks baker is her name and she is like world renowned.  Here violin playing was AMAZING!  I was awed at the beauty of here music and also the spirit that I felt from the music.  You don{t even have to have words to feel the spirit touch your heart.  that gives me comfort as I realize that people will be depending on me to give them the most important message they will ever here in my broken spanish. It is a scary thought, but I have to do it because that is where the Lord has sent me.  so I am studying and preparing the best that I know how to. 

This past week we found out that we will be hosting again.  that is FOUR weeks in a row.  I am excited though becuase that means I can host Whitney.  If you see her,  Tell here I will be waiting to see her beautiful face and I will be her host!  We also have to do some other thing next week to welcome the new missionaries.  We have to miss class so that is such a bummer but I'm sure there are hidden blessings.  I'm trying to have a good attitude about missing that much class. 

So now for a funny story for everyone.  Last week I was talking to my companions and I was telling them about a time we went on a bike ride and Max drove his bike right in the borrow pit.  They stopped me and said, what in the world is a borrow pit.  I then tried to explain it to them.  So naturally the conversation moved to all of the weird words that I use and they don{t.  For example, jockey box, snow machine!  I couldn't beleive they were so flabergasted with these words.  they thoght a snow machine was a snowblower and they didn{t even know what a jockey box was.  I understand that they probably aren't used everywhere but I still thought it was funny.  so after this discovery I ofcourse had to go ask the other districts in our zone what words they use for things.  Every single person from Idaho, there is like three, automaticaclly said jockey box.  I loved that it was just an Idaho thing.  Needless to say, now my nickname here as gone from clarkbar to jockybox.  I hope that this story brightens your day because it sure has made me laugh over the last couple of weeks. 

I loved the cow booklet that you sent me!  It was such a great surprise.  My whole district looked at it and loved that there was a whole book on cows.  One of my companions was disgusted that there was actually a picture of a cow having a baby, but I just explained to here that it was part of life and she will have a baby one day so she needs to except it.  One of the Elders from my district actually is from by Twin Falls.  He knows Thales and Bonnie because he was big into wrestling.  His dad has a dairy so he especially loved the book. 

I fell like I have just told you everythinga bout the MTC that there is to know!  It is a pretty great place but I am excited to leave and enter the field, even though when I think about it my stomach drops to the floor and I feel slightly sick.  However, I am praying for a good trainer, and also for the help of the Lord at this time in my life.  It has been so crazy how fast time is going, but I am loving every minute of this journey that I am on.

Yesterday our teacher met us on the temple walk and introduced us to his wife.  She was cute and it was good to see someone outside of the MTC to realize that there really is life going on without us.

Yo se que la iglesia es verdadero.  Yo se que Jose Smit restaurado el Evangelio a traves de la autoridad de Dios.  Yo se que JesuCristo Expió por nuestros pecados.  Yo se que JesuCriso es me Salvador a que el me sabe individualmente.  Yo veo su mano in mi vida cada dia.  El nos ama mucho!  Yo amo este iglesia con todo de me corazon!  Yo se que a traves de la Expiacion de Jesucristo nuestro familia puede junto para siempre!  Este es me testimonio.

I love you all so much!  Never forget that the Saviors hand is outstretched and he is just waiting for us to ask for his help.  One of my new favorite scriptures Isaiah 41 10 It´s a great one, look it up:)

I love you!

Hermana Clark