Letter #6

Hello family!  Sorry for that other email the computers are having alot of difficulties today!

Well I have much to tell you this week.  First of all I need to tell you when you send me dear elders put an x befor you put Marianna because there is a Meagan Clark here so our Dear Elders are getting kind of mixed up because they sort them by first name.  That would be great if you could put a 0 or an x and then my normal address.

Second of all I realized that in a couple of weeks is the big clark family reunion! I am getting camping withdrawals here but I do want to say that I really want on eof those cool clark t shirts so if you could send me one I would Just LOVE that!!! 

Ok this week has been so great! It has been very spiriutaly uplifiting because we have had some great lessons and also some great deviotionals. We had Brother Zimmerman as a sub and he gave us some encouragement.  I said that if we were here all by ourselves we would just be so shocked at all that we ahd learned, but since we are surrounded by so many other missionaries all we can really think about is all of the rest of the things that we have to learn! so he just advized us to take a second and just be grateful that we have come so far in such a short time!  That is what I have been trying to do this week.  Take a second each day and just be grateful for all of the things that I have to be grateful for.  The list really is endless.  We had a group lesson with the othere district in our zone and I was like wow I really have come so far as I listened to them speak.  Now I just have to keep pushing myself to get better as I only have three more weeks left here at the MTC!! How crazy is that. I can't even beleive it, the time here has gone by so quickyly.  I think I am more nervous now to leave the MTC and go into the field than I was leaaving home and coming here.

Last Wednesday our distric got the opportunitie to host the new missionaries.  It was so cool!  I remember when I just got here and the sister missionary that helped me was so great.  I was so grateful for here encouragement and for telling me some of the things that I had to look forward here at the MTC.  I got to host two girls.  One was from Rexburg.  They were both very nice.  One was already fluent in Spanish so I was slightly jealou sof here.  The cool thing is we get to do it again this wednesday.  There are 100 new sisters coming in this week! Can you even beleive that!  100!!!! There are alot of elders coming in as well.  The MTC is going to be packed.  I am so glaed I got here at a slow time as I acclamated to the atmosphere here.  I really can tell that the numbers a re increasing.  This wednesday the new mission presidents are coming in for training. I will be able to meet with my new mission president and talk with him with all the other missionaries that are going to Ventura.  We will also get to here from an apostle this Friday!  I had a dream the other night that President Monson was coming so we will see:) I am excited that I get to be here doing the new mission presidents meetings because it is going to be a really cool experience.  I hope I get to see some apostles.  My testimony is ever increasing of the importance of having a prophet and that he really does have his authroity from God.  I have started to read our search for Happiness. What a classic!  We also were able to listen to a talk that elder Holland gave here at the MTC called The Miracle of a Mission.  He talked about how he thinks of his mission every day.  I was wondering what all of your thoughts on your missions were? I know you all think missions are important but do you think of y ours every day?  Just a question that I would love to here the answer from all of you:)  I also learned some great new study skills.  I have been finding that my studies are stlightly scattered.  We had a sub that helped us figure out a system of asking simple questions that investigators might ask about different principles and just searching Preach my Gospel and the scriptures and our mission library.  The scriputures hold So much wisdom! I am astounded at the treasures that I find in the scriputures each day.  They are such a blessing in our lives.

I am glad to here that Father's day was good.  I love that Jed and Amanda got dad an itunes card.  I would just suggest the song that dad looked up right after I got my call.  something about a road to Ventura.  I sure you all would just love listening to that often and thinking of me!!  Mom also said that you have foregone the annual half marathon for the temple to temple relay. I am sad I can't be there for this because last year it was so much fun.  I can just imagine you all driving by who ever is running at the time and just cheering for them.  I also love that you will be running with a bunch of college students!! Is it from the idaho falls to the Rexburg this year.  Last year we ran to idaho falls.  If the finsih line is the Rexburg temple I wish the person running the last leg much luck because that heal is a MONSTER!!!  Once again you must take pictures and send them to me!  I got some pictures from Tania this week of the blessing.  Klara is so precious and I was showing everyone I could how beautful she is.  My companions were amazed that mom made such a beautiful dress for her.  I loved the simple style of it!  I have heard that you all have horseback riding on the mind and also that you got kittens!  How fun!  I also wanted to tell you that soon we will be receiving our flight plans.  I am pretty sure it will be on July 11 that we will fly out.  I will be able to call you so don't plan anything way exciting so that I can talk to everyone!  Tania said that they will fly into Salt lake that day but usually we fly out early.  I will email again and I will tell when I will have time to call.  I am excited about that day when I get to call!!!!  I learned some cool things about our mission the other day.  there are about 50 sisters and about 10 that are going to speak spanish.  there are many branches but the places that have spanish wards are bakersfeild and I think Santa Barbara.  One of my comps has a friend that went there that gave us some info.  Well I just want to leave you with one last thought.

As you all start to go campling and spend more time outside.  The other night we were in our classroom having a lesson.  We had just taught and were so tired.  We noticed that the sunset outside was beautiful.  So we literally ran downstairs and up to the front of the MTC to see the sunset.  the sky was orange and purple set next the mount timp.  It was so beautiful.  My teacher asked us to pionder on the beauty of the earth and realize who created the earth.  No one could ever have fcreated some so beautfil and wonderful than Jesus Christ.  So I would ask you as you go outside and spend time out doors, take a second and just look around you.  Look at the beautiful world that we have been blessed with.  The beauty and magnificance of the world testifies of Jesus Christ!  He is our savior and He lives, and He loves each of us individually.  I have felt His individual love for me this week has he has lifted me through some times where I have really struggled.  I know that he will do the same for everyone.  I love you all so much and wish that I could just bundle up all the great experiences I am having and send them to you, but I am afraid that won't be possible.  Just know that I think of you each and everyday and pray that you are all well.  Know that the Lord is helping me and is answering my questions through the people that associate with here!! The church is true.

 

Te AMO!!

Hermana Clark

Letter #5

Hello Family!

What a great week it has been!! It feels like just yesterday I was emailing you all and telling you about the week I had. this last week just flew by. We had our last TRC in english and this week we will be making the big switch to spanish in the TRC.  I'm really not way stressed about it because we have been teaching our teachers in Spanish for the last couple of weeks.  Speaking of my teachers being investigators I have got some updates for you all on Guillermo and Raul.  It was the coolest experience this week with Guillermo.  We talked him about faith, repentance, and baptism, and asked if he would pray to know if God wanted him to get baptised.  We met with him a few days later and asked him how is prayers were going.  He said that he had decided he wants to get baptised.  I am sure my teacher was just laughing hysterically at us all because we got SO excited and our faces just lit up.  Even though Guillermo is not even a real person I just felt joy that he was getting baptized and had made that decision.  Now we are teaching him about all of the commandments such as the word of wisdom and tithing.  I'm not so excited about the chastity lesson but I'm sure it will go great.  Raul our other investigator wasn't really working out so our teacher changed the strategy.  Now our teacher will act as my companion and we will be teaching my other two companions.  It's kind of confusing to explain but he is basically trying to help us know how it will be to be in a lesson with someone who is more fluent.  I'm excited to see how it works out.  The fun thing is is that I have to make up my own investigator and decide how the think about God and why they let the missionaries into thier home.  I think it will change my perspective of missionary work and I am pretty excited for that.  this last week we had a semi funnyt experience with Guillermo.  Before we began the lesson we started with a prayer and as my companion taught him about baptism she asked if he would pray right there to know if that is something the Lord wanted him to do.  In his prayer he was like we are praying again.  It might not really sound funny but I thought it was pretty funny.  Especially because Guillermo is my teacher.  Another funny thing I learned is a joke and it is just a knee slapper.  here it is.  Que hace el pez?  (what does a fish do)  Answer...Nada!!!! hahahahaha (translation a fish swims, nadar means to swim, but nada means nothing in a different context)  It took my whole district probably about five minutes to actually understand and realize how funny the joke was.  It is now my favorite joke of all time.

So yesterday we had a really cool experience.  President Monsons daughter came and spoke in the Releif Society.  She testified of a living prophet and really prophets in general.  she told us some details about president Monson and showed some pictures of their family.  It was such a cool experience.  One thing she said that I really would like to implement into my own life is that even from a young age he was quick to observe.  I think that we can see that in the many stories that he tells of his child hood.  Quick to observe!  That means quick to listen to the spirit and as you do listen to the spirit and act on it, the spirit will prompt you more.  We are the tools that the Lord uses to answer others prayers.  I hope that in some way I can be an answer to atleast one persons prayer.  We also learned that he loves to fish and that he like to watch Perry Mason.  when she said that I just thought of Grandma Zollinger.  I remember one time I called mom and she was with grandma watching Perry Mason.  Isn't it a crazy thought to think of the prophet sitting down and watching TV.  Also she said he enjoys the antique road show!  I just laughed at that because I just remember dad turning on antique roadshow and watching it.  I think that is cool to think that the prophet is the mouthpeice of our Heavanly Father, yet is still is a realy person.  This past week I have really gained a testimony of the importance of a living prophet.  I think that that is something that I didn't really get the importance of before I came on my mission.  A living prophet is what sets our religion apart from all others.  We have the authority to perform the saving ordinances on the earth such as baptism! Oh what a great church this is. 

This week the oldest district in our zone left so my district is now the oldest in our zone! CRAZY THOUGHT!! I still have not had to speak in sacrament meeting but I feel that my time is coming!  My spanish is getting better and I am learning new words everyday.  I still get slightly overwhelmed when I speak and realize I need to be speaking in subjunctive, or conjugating a verb for some other subject.  It is crazy, but I am counting my blessings as I realize how much help I have been receiving so many blessings.  Also that I don't have to learn a new alphabet!

That is so cool that you were able to hear an apostle at stake conference!  It also sounds like there are so many wonderful summer activites going on.  It is hard for me to beleive that there are actually lives being lived outside the compound of the MTC:)  I am now officialy half way done here and that is both exciting yet totally scary!  I just have this feeling that when I get out into the feild I'm going to go to a lesson and I am going to be thinking to myself, this is not the language I learned in the MTC!

I have been slightly sick this week with a cold and a sore throat but I am on the mend.  We aren't aloud to shake hands or hug here at the MTC right now because the NORA virus?? not really sure what it is, is spreading around BYU campus so they don't want anyone at the MTC to get it.  I guess it is super conatgious.  All the teachers here attend school at BYU so there are bringing it to the MTC.  Hopefully the bug doesn't catch here and we will all stay healthy.

Well family I'm sorry this letter is a big jumble of thoughts.  Just know that I love you and think of you each day.  The church is true!!:)

I love you all,

Hermana Clark

Letter #4

Well family it has been an INTERESTING WEEK!!

Everyone that wrote me last week all said something about the little breakdown I had last week.  It really wasn't that big of a deal and it is to be expected as it is kind of spiritually and mentally drainging here at times.  thankfully I have some great companions and I received some great words of encouragement from everyone!  This week really went by so quickly,

I do need to tell you all of funny story.  My companions and I were teaching Guillermo and we had a great lesson.  we taught about faith baptism and repentance.  It went so well and we even committed him to get baptized, we'll see if it really holds up!  :) Well we were closing and I asked if we could end with a prayer by me.  Well in Spanish there are the words por and para, in my  mind they are basically the same and so I was trying to say by me and said por me which means for me, instead of para me.  My teacher quickly corrected me and told me what I had acutally said and what it meant,  It was pretty funny and I am sure it is only one of MANY embarassing mistakes I will make in mixing up my words.  Still on the Spanish subject this sunday was fast sunday.  Fast sundays are different here because instead of having priesthood and releif society we have a mission conference wich is basically a stake conference.  then we have fast sunday where we have the opportunity to bear our testimonies.  I went into it thinking there is no way that I am standing up in front of my zone and bearing my testimony in Spanish.  THEN...my Branch president whips out his list of everyone who is in the branch and starts marking off the names of who got up and did it.  SO I was freaking out and hurried and formulated some sentences that slightly made sense.  So I went to get up and just my luck one of the elders in front of me stood up and didn't see me, so I went and sat back down.  Then when he was done everyone knew that I was going to get up so I had to now! I got up and was shaking so bad I'm surprised I even got any words out.  I was able to say that I know that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith restored the gospel, and that families are eternal through the atonement of Jesus Christ.  It's hard to believe I can say all those things in Spanish isn't it!!  I was actually pretty proud of myself.  so yes the Spanish is coming along and as a district we are trying to speak more and more spanish as the days progress outside of class.  One of our teachers told us the other day that by October 1  (of this year!) we will not have to translate to English in our brains when speaking and listening, we didn't beleive him so we asked our other teacher.  He told us that that was totally doable.  We all just started busting up laughing because it seems SO crazy.  I think we really can't believe it because we just started to learn subjunctive.  It is the crazy tense that in english we don't have to conjugate verbs for but in english we do.  We also learned about passive voice.  This is probably the most confusing thing ever.  We had a sub the day we learned it and he tried to explain it by using the sentence, The door is shut, and the door is shut.  Isn't it obvious that those EXACTLY THE SAME sentences mean COMPLETLEY different things??? I know not obvious at all and our class is still utterly confused about the whole passive voice things.  It's interesting how my grammar in english is getting better through learning Spanish because you have to know what tense you are speaking in and all the order of everything.  It's crazy but I can feel my self progressing and so that gives me hope.  The funniest thing is that we go into lessons and our teachers are like you have to listen to the investigator.  That is the most important thing because we want to be able to tailor our lesson to the investigator's needs and not just do some memorized thing.  My thought is, how can I really listen if I don't really understand what they are saying??!! I understand about 70% of everything they say but the other times I am like turning to my companion and saying what did he just say?? Our teachers are way nice about it thought and they are just awesome teachers!!! 

Well our devo this week was really great.  We learned about the difference between doing and becoming.  It was interesting to me to think that there are so many things I have to DO before I can actually BECOME a missionary!  I can't just make this giant leap to being the missionary i hope to be.  It is going to take small steps.

We also learned about the imporatance of the scriptures in our lives!  Are you all reading the Book of Mormon?? You should be! It is such a great book.  I have started to read it and as I read I think of how that verse could help someone and the questions that it could ask.  It has helped me and I have found some real pearls!  We also learned about 3 Nephi and what an important book it is in the scriptures! How long has it been since you have read it?? Well read it again!!  It is the book where we learn about Christ's visit to the Americas and the many ways he blessed the people at that time!  We can never stop learning from the Book of Mormon, it is that great! 

I sang in the choir this week for the devotional.  It seems like last Tuesday was years ago!  It was a wonderful experience and I plan on doing it every week.  I feel like I talk about the singing missionaries every week but I had the coolest experience yesterday.  We sang Called to Serve as the opening hymn but we did it differently.  The first verse we sang softly and the verse after that a little bit louder until we were standing and just singing our hearts out!  Just imagine it, thousand of missionaries standing and singing Called to Serve as loud as we coul!  It was so cool:)  We also learned yesterday from our Branch President that the amount of Spanish speaking missioaries is going to double by the beginning of July.  Right now there are like 450 now and there will be about a thousand in the beginning of July! That is so crazy to me.  The Lord really is focusing his work on the Spanish people.  What a blessing it is going to be in my life to have served a mission in this time when missionary work is just booming!  A speaker this week said that this is the best time to be serving a mission.  We watched the Joseph Smith Movie again last night.  The first missionaries went to England and baptized thousands.  What a change there is now.  The Hispanic people are being prepared by the Lord to receive this wonderful message!!!

Well, family, I am doing great and loving the MTC.  It is much different than I ever thought it would be but an experience that is changing me for the better!  I love this gospel with all of my heart and I am SO excited to be able to share it with the people of California.  I feel I already have a place for them in my heart.  I know that with the help of the Lord I can learn the gospel principles and be able to teach them simply to people who are ready to receive this wonderful message.  I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ,  I know that he transplated the Book of Mormon and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  We can learn so much from it's teachings!  I know that the Lord is aware of us and that He listens to every single prayer and that he answers them.  I love you all so much and the next time you make a smore cook up an extra one for me (I have just been craving a good campfire and a gooey smore lately:)

Love you all and have a wonderful week!!

Hermana Clark

Letter #3

Dear Family!

I cannot beleive that I have completed my third week here at the MTC and am starting on my fourth week.  This week has been an interesting one and not gonna lie I had a slight brake down but all is well now and I am doing SO great:) My attitude of what a missionary is has changed drastically and I am now focusing less on all the things that I think I should be learning and focus on what the Lord needs me to learn for my investigators.  This last week we gave a few lessons in Spanish and I have started to try to say my prayers in spanish.  It ends up being more of a Spanglish type of language but the Lord knows that I am trying and I know he will bless me. 

Well this week I had a wonderful experience that I would like to share with you all.  Here at the MTC you have a devotional every Sunday and Tuesday night.  It is always a surprise who it is.  This last Tuesday there was a rumor going around that an apostle would be here.  We got in to the room where we all meet as missionaries, which is quite the experience in itself.  It is SO cool to be surrounded by missionaries who have such a desire to share the gospel.  We also sing a few songs before the meetings start and that is so COOL!  Anyways, so we headed in for the devotional and we new it was someone big because they weren't showing the picture on the screen like they usually do.  So we sang a couple of songs and then in walks the speaker....Elder Russel M. Nelson!!  I have a love for this apostle!  He spoke at the dedication of the BYU I Center and I just remember loving his talk so I was so excited to be able to here from him again.  Him and his wife spoke some wonderful words of inspiration!  There were so many things that he spoke on but one of the things that he said really hit me.  He talked about how we will teach people and these people will accept the gospel.  We will always have a special bond with these people that we teach and they will remember us forever.  I guess I had never really thought about how helping one person come unto Christ can impact generations of people.  These people will probably always remember the missionaries that came and taught their ancestors the gospel.  President Nelson's wife also spoke.  She talked about obedience (this is a reocurring topic at the MTC)  One of the quotes I loved from her was that Obedience brings Blessings, exact obedience brings Miracles.  After the Devotional we have a district meeting and each member of our distric stands up and says what they enjoyed from the talk, and then bears there testimony.  We had a member of the branch presidency go after all of us missioanries because we still had some time.  He brought up this quote about being obedient and added to it that some people NEED miracles.  I love that he said that because as missionaries we want to do everything we can to help people come unto christ.   The way we can really do this is to be exactly obedient so that when we teach people and we can experience miracles!! OH man it was so good.  I wish I could just tape record all the great talks we here and send them to you all. 

Now I would like to share some interesting facts with you all about the MTC.  First fact, I have decided that Tongan is the craziest language on the planet.  There are many tongans here and whenever they speak I just have to stop and listen because it's like all the words are just jumbled together, it's just crazy!  Fact number two, Everyone here at the MTC has a service assignment each week.  My zone is on Friday in the morning, So we have had to clean the stairs in our building each saturday.  We were kind of complaing about it because it is slightly boring, however, our attitudes have changed drastically.  There were some sisters cleaning our bathroom today and this girl walked out with a bag with a giant hairball in it!  I am now counting my blessings that I will probably never have to clean a bathroom or clean the showers here at the MTC.  Fact 3. my companions are wonderful.  I am now in a threesome and it is a really cool experience, and we get along really great!  Fact 4, my district could possibly the funniest district here at the MTC.  There is an elder that reminds me of Jed.  He is so funny.  I would say that most of my time here is spent studying, the other small percent is spent laughing!  The Lord has truly blessed me because it just feels like I get to spend everyday ALL day with my really good friends.  Well that is about the end of my facts, sorry if they were boring but I thought you would want to know some more details about my life here at the MTC.  Overall it is a great experience.  thanks for the wonderful letters that you all keep sending me.  I know you all write them on Sunday becuase I get a giant stack of letters on Wednesday, It makes me feel so great, but makes my district slightly jealous:)  Know that I love you all and am learning so much. 

Love ya!

Hermana Clark

Letter #2

Hello Family! 

It is time for email number two!  Man has it been a crazy week.  I have learned so much this week.  First off I want to tell you all about my experience at TRC this week.  the TRC is where the missionaries go once a week to teach a lesson.  People from BYU volunteer to be investigators.  My companion and I prepared lesson number one and were ready to go.  We did three contacts in SPANISH!! Crazy but we did it:)  So your last contact becomes the person that you are going to teach.  You then have ten minutes to adjust your message and then you show up and teach them.  You never know if they are members or real investigators.  We taught migues and Rosa.  They were wonderful.  We taught them about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  It was wonderful to finally be able to teach a lesson.  It went so well.  By the end of the lesson the lady was crying.  We know that they were already members but that just goes to show that whether you are a member or not or whether you already have a testimony in Joseph Smith and the scriptures you can never really get tired of having the spirit witness the truth of it to you again and agian.  It was a wonderful experience.  Now for my other teaching experiences.  As part of the new curriculum hear the teachers that we have act as progressing investigators.  They essentially make up a character and then we come in and teach them.  It is a great experience because our teachers make it kind of difficult.  Our first lesson in Spanish was this last week and man was it nerve racking.  I am getting to the point where I can understand alo t of things but I am still struggling with speaking it.  I know that I will continue to progress though.

Each day here goes by so quickly because we are in class for six hours and then the rest of our time is filled with gym time and study time.  I love personal study and I have really started to study about the atonement.  It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful it is to learn about the atonement and really apply it to our lives.

Well funny story for you all.  Today was the second time the fire alarm has gone of in my dorm building.  I think that sisters have a hard time using the microwaves and they start things on fire. 

Jed and Dad had asked about how sundays are here and so here it is.  They are dreadful!!!  Not really but kind of.  Heres is my sunday schedule.  You wake up and have an hour of personal study and then head to breakfast.  We then go to Releif society for an hour.  Releif society consists of all the sisters in the MTC and it is basically a devotional.  After releif society you go and have district meeting which is basically sunday school but a companionship in your district gives the lesson.  Then you go to lunch.  They try to make lunch really nice here because it is sunday.  Then you go to sacrament meeting.  Most of the meeting is in spanish so this is why it is not that enjoyable for me as of now because I usually don't really understand what everyone is saying.  It is also nerve racking because you might get called on to give a talk.  Each sunday one of the branchleaders gives a talk and that is how you figure out the topic for the next week.  You then take that topic and write a five minute talk...no big deal it's just five minutes you say...well it has to be complletely IN SPANISH!!! AHHHH so everyone in the zone prepares a talk and then you don't find out who has to give a talk until the conductor announces who they are.  Nerve wracking, I think YES!! I just pray I will never get called on.  AFter sacrament we go on a temple walk.  That is probably the greates part of the day because you are surrounded my other missionaries and you are at the temple in the fresh air.  After the temple walk you head back to your class room.  This is study time.  Not gonna lie it takes some whell power to just sit down and study for a couple of hours.  We do take some time to get to know everyone in the zone and have a good laugh.  Then you head to dinner.  After dinner it is time for devotional.  Last week we had Presiden't Hinckley's son here to speak.  You never know who the speaker will be.  I am just crossing my fingers that atleast one apostle will come here before I leave!  The devo's are always really great.  Somethin that I th ink is cool is that before the meeting begins the missionaries sing as kind of an introdcution.  It is so cool to here missionaries sining together usually about missionary work!  It is also a great sight to see so many missionaries so ready and willing to serve the lord.  After the devotional is over they show different movies around the MTC campus.  Last night we watched the Joseph Smith movie.  It has been changed since the last time I watched it.  If you havent' seen it lately I would urge you to see it!  It was changed from the origional so it is geared more towards investigators.  Lucy Mack is kind of a narrarotr and takes you through Joseph''s life.  It is wondeful!! We watch leagacy last week.  I never realized how incredibly cheesy it is, but it  is still so good to just sit back and relax on sunday nights.  Sunday's are interesting day for me becasue it is the day I miss you all the most.  I just think of everyone coming to mom and dad's and having dinner and just hanging out.  However, even though i do miss you all I know that this is the PLACE TO BE!! The MTC really is great.  After the movie it is time to go to bed:)  I hope that was enough info for you on my sunday activities!!

Another new thing that has gone on this week is that I am now in a trio of sisters.  One of the sisters in our districts was very advanced so she moved to the intermediate class.  It has been interesting dealing with lessons and having three sisters, I know that we will figure out how each of us thinks though.  Here at the MTC we have two different teachers.  My teachers are AWESOME!!  They are wonderful at teaching the gospel and also encouraging us that we will be able to tlearn the language and that we are doing great.  I am so grateful for them each day for answering all of my many questions.  Our district continues to grow closer.  It is so weird that I have only know these people for not very long but yet we are so close.  I know that the lord has blessed me with great elders in my district and also great companions!! 

I also wanted to inform you that you are doing spledidly on your letter writing!!! Last week on wednesday I got a whole stack of letters.  I am currently beating the district in receiving letters so lets keep it up family!!:)  I still have not yet received a picture of my new neice Klara Tlustek and I await the day that it happens because we all know how great Bethany is at taking picutres and printing them off.  I do understand thoug seeing as now she has three children! 

I am so grateful for the gospel and for all of the MANY blessing that i have seen in my life in the past couple of weeks.  The church is true! :) 

I love you all and thanks for your support and many prayers

LOve

Hermana Clark (I just love the sound of that:

Letter #1

Dear Family,

 

Mom the email from you was so great but I do have to say I wish it were longer! What is everyone up to?? I need to here about everyone's lives and what they are up to!! How is Sam doing and how is everyone else?  I have decided you all need to set aside a time on Sunday to write your favorite missionary in the whole world, me of course! Getting mail here is like the greatest thing.  It is kind of like Christmas morning.  I am sure that you know how it feels to get mail.  It just brightens my day :) 

The MTC is pretty great.  I will not sugar coat it and say it is the greatest thing ever and that I am loving every second because that would just not be the truth.  It is hard and every day I get a little more over whelmed with everything I have to learn, but I have been very comforted by the Lord and I know that because He has given me the commandment to go on this mission in Spanish that he will qualify me to learn the language and learn everything that I need to teach people.  Even with the hard times, I really have enjoyed it here.  I have never felt so close to the Lord and I am depending on Him each day to help me to know what to study and to help me remember all that I have previously studied. 

In my district there are four sisters.  My companion is Hermana Hulme (the L is silent)  and she is also going to my m ission.  The two other sisters are going to spokane Washington.  They are wonderful people and they are helping me so much!  We are becoming great friends.  I am also becoming great friends with my district.  I am learning spanish slowly but surely.  I can say a simple prayer and bear a simple testimony.  Definitley I am learning alot but It is going to take some hard work to learn this language.  I can't beleive that I have been here for 6 days!  It is funny because it feels like it has gone by so fast but Yet is seems like ten years ago I said goodbye to mom and dad!! I have been receiving some wonderful letters and they have just made my week.  Each letter I am sure I have read more than two times and I am sure I will keep reading them over and over.  I wanted to let you all know about dearelder.com.  It is a website that you can log on to and type letters and then they print them off here at the MTC and we get them the same day they are written.  The greatest thing is that it is free!! So if you ever get a spare moment go ahead and sit down to dear elder and jot down a letter.  Even the smallest letter is so great!!

Well I wanted to share with you something that I have learned from the scriptures this week.  The Brother of Jared is quickly becoming my favorite scripture story.  In chapter 6 it talks about how they built there boats and were headed on there way to the promised land.  The waters were pushing the boat under the waves, but as the people kept praying the winds and waves, with the help of the Lord, were continually moving towards there destination of the promised land.  I feel like I am the boat right now.  Even though the MTC is difficult I need it because it makes me rely on the Lord that much more.  I know that through every experience I have here I am getting closer to him and I know that I will be able to teach the people of Ventura like He wants me to!!!  That might be a jumbled mess but that chapter has really helped me this week!!

Well family my time is running out! Know that I am doing so WONDERFUL!!! Each day I am learning more and more about the gospel.  I miss everyone but I am surprisingly not homesick and I know that this is a blessing!!  The Church is TRUE!!!!!

 

Love

Hermana Clark

Days

Recently I have been thinking about all of the changes that are about to change in my life! School is coming to an end and that means that rather than my stress level dropping when I don't have to worry about homework I have to worry about the fact that I am leaving everything I have ever know for a year and a half. Scary?? I think YES. So here is an update on the days that I am currently counting down to.
4 days until I go to Jr. Miss in Ashton
9 days til I my state literacy exam
14 days until finals start
28 days til I leave for Indiana and Kentucky (I am SO excited!)
47 days til I speak in church, and it's mother day, So it's extra nerve wracking!
50 days til I enter the MTC!!!! AHHHH my stomach turned over as I wrote that:\
Yep, these are the things that I have to look forward to. These things are slightly scary, yet slightly exciting. This next little while will be filled with preparation for my adventure!