Hi Family and home and friends....

WOW. So if you didn't know... I have to come home for some surgery regarding the fact that I tore my meniscus and ACL and Doc says I need surgery and so I must be home for that... But hey! I'm singing along to "I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me" So that is pretty cool but I am going to miss the Mission and New York SOOOO MUCH! I am going to try as hard as I can to get back to the mission ASAP. I also know that for some reason whether for me to learn or something else I am supposed to be home. God has a better plan for my life than I do I know that. It is true and we need to trust in his plans sometimes even though they may go against our own.

So this last week... A lot of service has happened but i was only able to go for one day to work the desk because after that Elder L and I went on cripple exchanges because he has to rest his badly sprained foot and so I have been in his pad in Jamaica Queens with a sweet view of the area... I lost a lot in chess... cooked some good food... taught each other the first lesson and talked a lot about life and the mission. Ya so that is the extent of my existence in the mission right now... Except during proselyting time has been awesome! On Saturday we were able to meet with this family of 9 children whose mother I fearlessed about 5 weeks ago. The family LOVED us and so I am really excited for the other missionaries who get to teach them... and for them to come closer to Christ! They were surprised as heck to hear about our standards as missionaries and such and said we were like more than human. like superpeople haha that was fun to hear. But we are far from perfect... we just live in a world where morality and righteousness is the minority. That is hard... but we can find strength through Jesus Christ and having our faith in him who can do all things. We will feel alone at times but we are never alone. We just can't tell with our mortal eyes. It sounds like a fairytale but it is more true than the temporal view of life our eyes give us. We need to trust in it. God never leaves us alone and he always answers our sincere prayers.

That's probably my last short letter from the mission-field for awhile. I wish you all a God Bless! A Pase Bondye! a Bondye Beni ou! a MWEN RENMEN OU! and a I LOVE YOU!!!!

Love,
Elder Clark!!!

Hello Everyone!

So today... is a good day! This week was GREAT! I again have loved being able to do some service in the Rockaways and in Mastic Beach! I also have repented and changed my view for NYPD... I now like a lot of them a lot because they are doing a lot for the people here. I never would have said that when I was in Staten Island... hahaha! I talked to this NYPD guy who's name is Clarke and he said maybe in a few years you'll be worthy to add the E on your name hahahah I thought that was funny! but they are like giving police escorts to our busses going out to our other areas of service and such! They are working hard on helping traffic in the area, they have been sooooooo kind and respectful to us and worked together well with us to do the greater good. It really is cool how much the community has come together here... People are giving soooo much to help out and there are sooooo many places where people can get free food, blankets, clothes, and then us and a few other smaller groups are the manual labor help in the area. I wish we could do this to everyone that got affected but there is simply too much to be done and too little of us there... even with the thousand+ volunteers...

I am getting an MRI tomorrow (tuesday) and then we will see whats up with that! Because of my knee that decided it didn't want to be healthy, I didn't do too much service in the last week. For the work that I have done though my giant knee brace with its sturdy beams has been enough to hold it in place.... ha so that's been good but I have loved being able to man the Mormon Helping Hands station where people come to ask for help and I have been assigning people to go to different houses and such. It's been fun to in a sense coordinate some of the work and have SOOOOOO many people come up to the desk just to say thank you for all that we have done. It is really remarkable what is going on here. Being at the desk I have been able to see allllllll of the many volunteers come in and I have helped the Asistant to the President in organizing where to send people. It is amazing how many people have come. From Boston, Pennsylvania, New York State, New Jersey, Connecticut and just all over! So many bus loads of people have come to serve in the Rockaways and they are all wearing the yellow jerseys! Go Stripling Workers! As President calls us. Seriously over 1000 people have come in to help in almost every day... our mission is only 200... It's amazing! We had 270 work orders yesterday and we were in groups of 10 and we ran out of orders... we had to send groups to specific areas to find people to help... So cool!

Creole. It's been really fun recently because we have started to visit our new investigators in Bayshore area that speak creole and I have been able to practice my speaking actually a lot more than before! I'm really excited to learn a lot of Creole! I want to be able to hold a regular conversation before I leave the Creole program... I prayed to be able to understand people a little bit better two days ago and it has just been going 150% better than before. I can actually get the just of what people are saying now and I am excited to learn a lot more words so that I can start to understand it! I am not too bad at getting what I want to say out I don't think but I probably will be humbled more. Heavenly Father is great at helping me to become who he and I want me to be. I just need to trust in him more! So ya it's fun to speak Creole to Elder J and make him laugh.

 I have been blessed with a better perspective right now. It was through that answer of turning what seemingly is a mountain into an anthill! We can do that will all problems in our lives. As long as we focus on what is most important. Prioritize and the Atonement can fix all that is unfair about life. But WE are the ones that need to change! We always think it is the other persons fault but we always have agency! When we choose to humble ourselves we in return are blessed with joy and peace during times of difficulty. Which turns them into anthills!

It's really fun doing all this hands on work. I'm learning a lot about demolition and about how people build their houses and why they do certain things and how to do handywork! We have been using these sleds that you are supposed to put deer on and use it to truck up the debri out of houses. It's brilliant! haha and we are all learning how to be the most efficient in our demolition and such! It's fun to be able to see us getting better at what we are doing. Us missionaries now just blow through jobs that seemingly should take a long time. I hope that stays with me for after the mission. But man I am tired at the end of the day... It's really hard some nights to force myself to proselyte even though my eyes and body say no... But hey it's all good!

Anyways I love you all SO much! Thanks for being so great! Be faithful it's always worth it! Even if it doesn't seem like it now... but that is just satan putting the idea of temporary in your head! Always strive to think Eternal.

Love,
Elder Clark

Dear Fanmi(family in creole),
Mwen Renmen yo! I Love y'all!

So these last few days have been amazing for me. I finally received answers to my prayers about how I need to only worry about eternal things. That is ALL we need to worry about in this life! If we find ourselves worrying about temporal things we need to STOP! Just think about eternal things and when we have our eternal perspective our cares and trials seem like grains of sand! That's what my mission president kept saying is we need to not only not turn anthills into mountains but to take what is seemingly the mountains in our life and turn them into anthills.Our lives don't need the extra worries but they do need the extra perspective of love and joy for-ev-er!!! Just like Sandlot! I am so grateful that we have the ability to do this through a knowledge of the plan of a truly caring Father in Heaven who created all this for us! Look at nature! Slow down! Look at the beauty of life! Enjoy the presence of your family! Enjoy the blessings that come from obedience to God's commandments! The commandments are gifts if we use them as such!

Service has been the GREATEST experience! I am sorry that y'all can't be here to help... But I know that as you pray and search for opportunities to serve that they will come! Just look for them! want to have a good day? better day? best day? Serve someone else and help them to have a good day! Help them to know of beauty, charity, love, and joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to not only give them a fish but teach them how to fish! Help a brotha out!

So in this last week or so we have still been doing a lot of service and we had 2 days of proselyting. We were able to teach a couple lessons so that was good. Yesterday we went into this house that was the worst I have seen. They had 4 fridges full of NASTY molded food and their whole ceiling and all the walls were full with mold... Not to get prideful but I am getting really good at busting doors off of fridges with crowbars... (its actually really easy and everyone and their dog and their dog's dying great grandmother can do it so it's not something cool like I make it sound) You bet I wore my mask when I went in there... There was still an inch or so or delicious sewage water on the ground and sooo much sheetrock and a lot of random old things in there... It was scary... But helping them was wonderful! He was a really old holocaust survivor(1 of 2 survivors in his family of 32) that had a wonderful perspective on life about how he would just keep on living even though so much was taken away. He still was happy. People like him inspire me. Then we had a person that told us that she could not describe the impression we had made on her heart. and that she feels we are all angels and she hopes to somehow share her love and appreciation for the love we have showed to her. then we had a very very spiritual prayer with her. There have been soooo many great experiences where we are so blessed to be instruments in the hands of God here. I was able to speak to a girl in the YSA branch about going on a mission and the spirit right then testified to her that she should go and so she decided then to go! That was AWESOME for me to sit back and watch! I love seeing it in peoples eyes when the spirit is testifying to them! I felt like a hero also yesterday when there was a lot of traffic and this one girls car broke down so I got out and pushed it into this parking lot and people were honking and waving I'm guessing because I still had my yellow mormon helping hands jersey on and a few others contagiously got out also and came to help! They each individually thanked me for the service that they had seen us do in Rockaway and I explained how we were missionaries and one of them said "and you love to serve people" and I agreed. I loved being able to stand as a witness of Jesus Christ at that time. It truly is an amazing opportunity I have to be an official representative of the Church and of Jesus Christ and of his living prophets.

It snowed this past week quite a bit! That was fun! I was able to proselyte in the snow and such! It was also fun to help shovel the driveway and our neighbors driveway! It was cold though... we also almost got stuck in it like 5 times... I had to push just once though... we slid around a little bit too (no I was not driving haha) attached is the day after picture in westbury! We are there ALL the time! and usually there are a lot more people outside but it seems as though haitiens and mexicans don't like the cold! Not like Haiti or Mexico!

Jeffy is a B-O-S-S!!!!! Man I'm so lucky to have him as my little brother and to have him be loving and nice to me even though he now has the genius and the Strength to throw me over the car as grandpa always would say! haha I am sooo excited for him to go on a mission and be as the army of Helamen! He will do wonders on a mission! Especially with his ability to think so much out of the box and have genius ideas I feel as though the spirit will tell him to do some very different, fun, weird, and possibly difficult things to bring to pass his purpose of helping others to come unto Christ! I am just so excited to hear where he is going to go! Truly Jeffrey's genius and personality will be soooooooooo great on a mission I can't even begin to tell you.

Man now that I think about it... Riley will be wonderful because of his love for people, kindness, fun personality, and organization. Kyle will be wonderful for a similar reason that jeffy and Ri will of loving people and being able to think outside the box as well, Austin will just have so much fun on a mission people will be attracted to his glow... I think I have our family figured out ;)

I truly know that I am called to serve and not a robot but ME! That is what is wonderful! so many people have so many different personalities to offer into the mission field but that's the thing... They ALLLLL are needed there! I know my companion Elder J is needed because of his conviction and his boldness! That is really important in missionary work! I am not as good at being bold but I know that I can help people feel loved and that is important as well! It is really fun to teach after you learn how to teach true doctrine as yourself and not as someone that you might see on the PMG the district videos. Don't get me wrong they are wonderful but the most important part is that you teach the doctrine that will help their needs in a way that you can connect with them. When you do, the spirit will too! (Fun lil Rhyme)

Sounds like Riley had a great season... I loved those clips thanks papa sweet sauce! Being in Far Rockaway and Massapequa for service has been fun also because there are a lot of native new yokas theh! haha they are great, good fun speaking to them.

And Kyle can't shave or grow up he's not old enough! Also, that sincerity of love that he has is amazing... He just LOVES life! It's a great blessing!

Poor Austin has to taste that gross stuff for the upper end Endoscopy... Dis gus ting. but hey he's a man he can handle it! I'll keep praying for him!

Well I love you ALL soooooo much!!
Have a wonderful day! Everyday!
Love,
Elder Clark

 

Dear all!

I hope you know that I am still happy!

So we went to church on Sunday at this ward in Lynbrook because the Stake Center doesn't have power and has a few broken windows from a fallen tree. It was really cool because there are 3 languages there... Creole, English, and Spanish! So the hymns are sang in English, Spanish, and French(because Haitians only know how to read french not creole because that is how they are taught in school in Haiti) then we went to do a mission-wide service project at Far Rockaway... Man that place was destroyed so much as well! Basements and such were FILLED COMPLETELY with nasty water and do you wanna hear something weird? One of the most slippery things during the cleanup in the basements and flooded floors is when there are soaked books on the ground... Thank Goodness I haven't fallen yet... But it is so much fun doing all of this work and seeing the light and excitement in peoples faces when we work hard and get a lot of things done for them in an hour that would have taken them a few days... I LOVE THIS SERVICE SOOOOOO MUCH!!! It is the most efficient type of missionary work that we can do also. These peoples hearts are opened. We helped a Jewish household yesterday which, nothing against the faith, is very very very very rare. We were also able to impress the family by how much we respected their religion. Just wonders are being done here. President Calderwood had spoken of something big that was going to happen with the missionary work this transfer, but he did not know what. I love Priesthood Authority! It is so comforting to people to see our yellow army(yellow Mormon helping hands shirts and jerseys) come to serve. Sooooo many people have asked us about our religion and about who we are and expressed their appreciation for our work and kindness! Probably so many people that would have rejected us on the spot or slammed their door in our face under normal conditions! This may or may not help Elder J and my pool too much seeing that our area didn't get that destroyed but the other English Elders in Plainview have Massapequa and down by the bay which was destroyed so we already have been able to serve some very solid potential investigators there. But golly the work is hard physically... working from morning til dark ripping out walls and carpet and carrying furniture and garbage cans full of wet drywall and such out! I am excited to be buff! hahaha just kidding but seriously. ha

So President Calderwood mentioned that we would probably be doing this service from morning until 5 or 6 then we will go proselyte everyday Tuesday-Sunday possibly for the next few months! So this will be such a great amazing and exciting opportunity for me to serve. So many missionaries are soooo excited because they know how to work and they see the joy in it. It will be a growing experience for all those who are not so used to heavy-labor. Elder L and I are very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very excited. To say the least. This is like a dream come true because we get to serve people and then teach them the Gospel! AWWWWW its so great! So I think this is going to be really hard for some other missionaries though because a lot of missionaries have been thrown off their missionary feeling and schedule and they are becoming lazy. Eees not good! This will be hard for them! But as for me! Naaaah Playa I'm chill as the still will of Jill's fill. That doesn't make any sense so don't read it.

I love how organized the church is though. It truly is amazing what we can do as a Community of Charitable people! Like a quarter of those who were doing service on Sunday were not missionaries(out of around 200!) Which is crazy because that was a missionary gathering but members wanted to join in! Then this person who is on like some emergency preparedness calling in the church brought soooooo many missionaries (including us) enough gas to fill our tanks! Cool because there is still a major shortage of gas in Long Island....... I guess he went to Pennsylvania to fill up all the tanks that he could rally up and put them in his truck bed!

So it is starting to get cold here! Mwen ap santi fret!(I am feeling cold) Konsenan Kreyol... Mwen ap aprann senp la bagay yo tre dousmann men seten. (About Creole... I am learning the simple things very slowly but surely) I am sooo excited to learn more! I now have my creole name tag... I hope I actually learn the language(like to understand what they are saying) so that I can feel semi comfortable wearing it instead of when people call and I have to say "Padon mwen paske mwen pa pale kreyol. men mwen ap eseye aprann." (forgive me because I do not speak creole. but I am trying to learn) or I just give the phone to elder j... haha either way I can't understand people because they slur their words and put them together as much as the ghetto fellow's in the city do for english. So that makes learning difficult! Se Difiklite! (It's a trial!)

But let me tell you. God is so close to us. We may not see because our eyes aren't open. When we choose to open our eyes we will see. Look for the tender mercies in your life and I promise no matter how hard life gets we can be happy because we can know that Eternity in Joy is worth this blink of an eye on earth. Keep up the good work please and I promise you will see that to be true!!!

Love you!!!
Love,
Lanmou,
Elder Clark

It is nuts what is going on here... I don't know if you have seen any pics or anything but trees are down everywhere! Anywhere close to the ocean has been flooded up to 5 feet in houses... There are a ton of walls that came down and a lot of houses burnt down and just madness. But there is a perfect opportunity to serve. I have loved being able to help out it is sooooo much fun! Especially because the missionaries have been going in packs to serve and we are Mormon Helping Hands in ACTION!!! It is wonderful and so many of these people are so thankful it is truly amazing! People have been prepared for us by the hurricane.

I was able to be dumb to some kind animals! I mean kind to dumb animals! Because during the hurricane we had Elders come stay with us and we were playing phase 10 and we heard noises out the window... We thought it was just wind whistle because the wind was NUTS but it was just 3 little tiny kittens... they were down in the bushes and the mother was nowhere to be found and it was a hurricane outside! So we took them in and saved their lives. Blessed are we! Haha that was cool though to be able to feed them milk through ear syringe we bought and play with them til the storm passed. We felt like kitten heroes(which is not quite as cool as I make it out to be) and Elder A wanted to keep them and eat them. Ha I'm just kidding because they eat cat in Haiti i guess. He loves it.

So we have been doing sooooo much service! We have been ripping peoples wet carpet out, bucketing water out of basements and main floors even, lifting wet furniture out of houses, carrying peoples fallen trees away, just doing whatever people have needed and it has been such a blast and it brings people soooo many smiles so that makes all of it worth it! We haven't really taught any lessons all week but mostly because people still don't have power in a lot of places... You don't even know how hard it is to find food. Haha so many stores closed... Also no gas can really get here... People are lined up at gas stations to fill their gas containers for their generators, cars are lined up to get their $20 limit of gas for like 3 blocks behind the gas stations, the few that are open anyways. It is just a very interesting time right now.

Story huh?... welll we went to do service at this less Actives house by the bay that got very very flooded and that was perfect because she was the perfect person to take the kittens off of our hands and we ripped off all of their carpet and took it outside to the curb and they were sooooo so grateful and they hadn't responded to phone calls or anything before but now they are going to let the missionaries come visit and they are taking us out to dinner and they truly feel as though we were sent by God to help them...

Another lady we ripped out wet carpet for was almost crying the whole time and she was super super impressed with us and how we worked without accepting money and she also said that she knows that God sent us to her and she very possibly will be an investigator. I received a prompting to go back to her and say a prayer with her as everyone was leaving and that was amazing. She was ecstatic to say a prayer with us! I was blessed to be able to say it and everyone in that circle felt the spirit. She was so close to tears and she thanked us sooo much and hugged Elder v (my Zone Leader who came back to her with me) and I. I felt sooooo much love for her flowing through me. We are all children of God and we all need that charity! You receive blessings of joy and love from it and so seek to share your love through charity!

So ya that is the update for now! I miss you all and love you!

I know for a fact that the Lord prepares all of us to become like him through the Atonement of Christ! This life and every trial in it is an experience for us to learn and change. We get to choose eternal life in the way we handle situations we are faced with in life. We are not alone and we will receive help when we ask for it. Whether the help is lifting the burden right away or helping us to get through it, it is sooooo vital for us to turn to the Lord and NOT let Satan control us by choosing his ways! God has a way prepared for us! Lets use it!

The Gospel is not just RULES for our lives they are ways that we can receive more joy and more agency and more love! God is dying to give us blessings if we choose to receive them! Blessings aren't always what we think we want but they are always what God knows we need. We are in training to become like Christ. Think of Christ's responsibility.

Families are CENTRAL. Focus on families and bringing them to the knowledge of the Gospel and your life will be lived without regrets.

Love,
Elder Clark

Dear Children. Of God. Haha :)

I love you and everything about you! BE HAPPY! This is a happy time! I don't care what time it is but it is now a happy time. and later a happy time. and for eternity a happy time! Happiness comes when we are coming unto Christ! Letting him fix our broken hearts to make us whole!
So good news... Elder Q and I are good friends now! Yay for prayer! When you need help... pray in faith and do all you can to help yourself! :) God wants to help us help ourselves he doesn't want to help us without our effort because we won't grow. He does what will make us grow! Soooooo transfer calls were on Saturday... Crazy how fast time goes.... The end of my 3rd 6 week transfer in the mission. There are 17 transfers in an English speaking mission. I am STAYING here in Plainview! so is my companion and so are the other two elders. It's crazy that no one is leaving! I guess God decided he would like us to baptize people here and we needed to do it!... haha so ya that's the new news. President also said that he is going to keep people in there areas for about 6 months at a time because he wants us to grow really good relationships with members so that they can trust you with their referrals! It's smart because of how valuable member referrals are. They are amazing. In my mission so far I have had 3 member referrals that have all turned into baptisms (they were ultra prepared though nothing really to do with me). Tells you how important members are in missionary work! So be EXAMPLES! Be willing to share your precious jewel of knowledge of God's plan for us with your friends who need it! (By the way that's everyone... even members... no pressure... ;) )

Holy Smokes what to do in life... Hard Question. GOOD LUCK  with that question.  I am glad that all I have to worry about right now is focusing on the Salvation of others... That is FUN to worry about... EWWW for the future of deciding what to do.... That is scary but I am excited to find out what to do and raise an eternal family. More bringing to pass the immortality and Eternal Life of man. Fulfilling our purpose here :) But either way life is short. The most important thing is families. :)

Man I love basketball... It would have been so fun to try to play highschool... Haha now that I am actually playing smart it is a lot of fun! But man I am sooooo happy about Kyle and his practice and work in tennis! Next Andy Roddick? Why not!!! He's Kyle Clark!!!!! He can do anything!!!! hahaha :)

And that is sweet about Austin's pick! Man that's sooo cool! Hopefully the kid didn't hurt his fist! And also his 6th place!!!!! Wow that is crazy awesome!!! Dang... I don't like running. cross country kinda made me happy while not at the same time. I like chasing a ball.

Shoot Riley loves injuries huh? Well jeepers he is so good that he can be the best at sports with the injuries!!!! That is sad though..  Hopefully it gets better soon!

Man It sounds like with Jeffrey doing great in Rugby and getting faster that I'm the only one in the fam right now who isn't beasting it up in sports!!! Haha well I did play basketball today... So I guess I can put some Clark influence out here ;)

So anyways... This will be a really exciting fresh start for us and I know that we will be blessed for our work. Hopefully that blessing comes in the form of success with bringing people unto Christ! That is my purpose out here!

This past week has been hard because we have had 8 or 9 set up teaching appointments with a lot of solid people and all of them either weren't there, cancelled on us, or we couldn't teach without getting a male member to teach with us. So we taught 3 whopping lessons this week. So Sad. but anyways this next week we will most likely be blessed to teach a lot more! We are still working hard and I know we will be blessed for it! I hope you can feel blessings at home. I pray for you ALL all the time. We are still freaky fearlessing and I have to get 2 peoples information today to fill up my Potential Investigators section of my planner for this transfer! Hopefully that will happen! I am sooo much happier now that I have learned to lose myself and talk to everyone... my first two transfers there were a lot of people and putting both together I filled about half of my Potential Investigators section... Now I just need to fill up my Investigators section! then I will work on helping them accept and use Christ's Atonement through gaining Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End! Well I will work on that anyways ;) haha but that's what my goal is in my mission... if I can do that I will be happy and feel accomplished. :)

We have almost no investigators close to baptism yet... but we will find them. they will be baptised. they can't run or hide. We know they're here. They can't change their fate. ok just kidding that's getting into Satan's plan. I can't change their fate but they can't help but to accept Christ in there life! in the way that he wants us to!  Yay BURNING PLAINS! Baptise with water and fire! then let that fire burn within you forever! As you do you will be on fire in life and Eternity! All the Glory be to God! :) Immortality and Eternal Life or Exaltation awaits! Choose Eternal Life!

Ohhhhh man just coming back to NY will be the coolest thing ever! I'm excited to hopefully be able to make a trip or two during my Southern Virginia years! :) That'll be great! But it'll be even better with the fam if we ever get the chance to go... We are a busy family... I understand if we never get to go! There'll be a lot of mission areas in the family coming up here sooner than we think.

Anyways I love you all! Good luck with your journeys to become like Christ! I know you can do it through the Atonement!

Love,
Elder Clark

pics

Dear Motherly Dearest and my wonderful Eternal Family! whether under the Clark name or not!

I am reporting to you from this wonderful place I call Hicksville... because thats literally the towns name haha :) but anyways I am doing really well! The Atonement goes on! It's just something I am blessed to get to learn is how to (finally) humble myself and just only love. Contention = bad. haha :) Love = GREAT = Gift of God when we obey his commandments!

I love sharing about God's wonderful plan for us because it is soooo perfect! It's insanely organized!!! I can't believe how amazing it is that God brings to pass his eternal purposes through his imperfect Children who learn to rely on Christ and use the Atonement to change themselves in order to obey God's commandments! It is soooooo simple yet soooooo profound! Isn't it amazing that he has a perfect knowledge of alll things and he does EXACTLY what will make us happiest! That's why its soooo crucial for us to say "not my will but thy will be done" because as we do we will be able to receive the most blessings and we will be able to see how much better for us God's way is than our own thoughts and ideas about how things should be... He strengthens us by having us strengthen others! He is the perfect CEO of this amazing Earth Company! He trains us so that the only thing he has to do is pay us with blessings and we do all the work to learn and grow and gain experience and strengthen and lift each other for HIS glory so that someday we can all be like him and hopefully receive our own Celestial Glory!!! How amazing is that! It is not a popularity contest in this workforce either! WE ARE ALL BROTHERS AND SISTERS! Thank goodness the founding fathers had inspiration from on high to create this country where that is the basis. Equality. We all are on our journey through life to become the best that we can be! Time doesn't go any faster for any of us than another! We just need to make the most out of it! Until we are blessed to be like God through the wonderful Atonement of Christ! It makes us soooo important and GREAT! However without that Atonement we are nothing. Isn't it great! Haha we NEED Christ in our life otherwise there is no point. we are unclean and can't progress.

So anyways we have been working hard to find those prepared to hear the Gospel and it is soooo much fun to talk to soooo many people! We are fearlessing a lot! Really it is fun to see positive results in the work here because of it! We are finding a lot of people to teach but still no baptisms yet... those that are close and interested are held back by work hours... sad news... but hopefully that will change!

It is sooo fun to be a missionary though... I love looking at the Elder Clark on my name tag... sometimes I laugh because of how fast it has gone... My life is short... This mission will be even shorter... I can't believe how fast it has gone anyways... There's no way I feel old enough to be a missionary and then when I'm married I gaurantee there will be no way I feel old enough to be married... Then there will be no way that I am old enough to have a High School Kid! And then time will go so fast that I will be dead thinking theres no way I am old enough to be dead... Time will just go that fast! haha and all that matters is that we stick to God's plan for us! Nothing else does! EES GREAT I LOVE IT!! Then comes Eternal Happiness in the Celestial Kingdom hopefully!

We have also faced a lot of rejection in the last week.... Man... people these days... don't understand their purpose to life... but anyways we got cussed out hardcore yesterday about how we are stupid because we believe in a cult started by a farmer that got gold from a stupid hill (that is extremely edited) hahaha but guess what... IM SOOOO HAPPYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! Those things don't matter. The fact that I know eternal truths and I truly receive blessings of joy because of obedience is the greatest thing in the world! YAY! Happy are we! Happy are WE! Soldiers in the army! :) YEEEEHAAAA!!! Spanish time YIIIIIIIIIJAAAA!!! Haha anyways... I hope life is going well for all within the sound of this email... I love you all!!! :) choose to be happy! Choose Eternal Life! The time is NOW to make a decision! As for you and your house you will serve.... THE LORD!!!!!!! :)

Love,

Elder Tyler Joseph Clark

Dear Mother Dear! and all others within the sound of this email! I love you! Love your neighbors! Love all because Love = Joy (elder l says hi) hes a stud missionary I'm happy to be in the same district as him and if your wondering he wrote that in. Say hi as you please. haha :)

I'm happy you got Sister N's letter! Did you get the picture as well she sent? I hope! :) Yes she is sooooo awesome! She is a huge blessing! She was baptised just before I got here and she quit everything cold turkey! She got to do baptism's with Elder J and I a few days before she wrote you! :) It was a great experience!

Aren't the revelation's of a Wonderful Modern Day Prophet amazing! That was inspired! It makes me think that the time is nigh at hand! This is going to increase missionary work in number and efficiency! I can't wait to be like a year older than people in a few months hahaha it will be weird! What will be crazy is if people like Sarina or Annie or Momi or any other girls my age end up coming on a mission now?! That'd be sooo great! Sister Missionaries are awesome! They are good for missionary work! Women are just great in general. I guess that's why I like them. haha :)

About voting... I definitely would but I don't really know anything... I don't know what is going on but I don't know what to do... maybe just mail it to me... I'll mail it back! Idk!

That is soooo cool about Kyle though!!! He is so smart! Knowledge is super important and building your intelligence in school will only increase your ability to spiritually learn! Knowledge of spiritual things is a gift from God! Feast upon it!

Yay for Aunt Karen! Good thing the judgement bar of God isn't like chip timing that... Oooooh you missed the celestial kingdom by one cup of coffee! Haha I am sooo happy we have a knowledge of how it can be a pleasing bar as stated so wonderfully in conference! I loved conference sooooo much!!!! I don't know if I told you but Elder Shayne Bowen spoke to us the other week and it was really really good! He is amazing!

 Haha I am typically being a missionary right now... Don't worry my jokes wont always be related to scripture... I think anyways... hahahaha :) I am a happy Scriptural Geek! YAY! :)

I don't know about getting to the temple much! We will see! I have gone more than most people go in such a short amount of time! Blessings! Yay! I hope sooooo bad to get to see my friends sealed!!!! It will be an amazing experience if I do!

Tell Dad to stop complaining his knee is not nearly as big as Sadies! Hahahahaha I'm joking. Dad you are soooo humble and selfless! I love having that example for me. I need to follow it! Flanks so much for it!

Oh man! The work is soooooo exciting right now! Field is white already to harvest! I love speaking to those who Heavenly Father has blessed to be prepared and willing to listen! I love seeing how he uses us to accomplish his purpose in turn making us one with him. Becoming as he is. The Abrahamic Covenant is an amazing thing to be able to take part in and through it we have a promise of Eternal Life! Yay for faithful fathers that came before us!

Austin best be gettin better because golly the sports star is important for the athletic ability of this country!

Riles... Can you please know that you're the best foosba playa in awl da worl! hahaha Clark we need you.

Kyle.... Man youre great! Keep up the smiley fun and life will good! Keep up the love and eternity will be good too!

Just so you know.... if you are putting this on the blog or anything please put this in...

To any of those who are considering missionary service and to all really haha:

Let me tell you of the amazing joys of missionary service. You learn. You love. You grow. There is nothing more amazing about missionary work than the blessings that come from it! Missionary work sets our hearts in the right place to be prompted by the spirit in love for God's children. It is an amazing and once in a lifetime opportunity for personal growth, organization, spirituality, and joy. The work in the Glory of our Father is the greatest joy that can come to us as children of God. A decision to serve a mission is a very important decision. A mission is the hardest thing that I have ever experienced in my mortal life. However the difficulty, the blessings of it completely outweigh the troubles. You will feel yourself grow to the person that Christ see's you as. Through selfless service and diligence in obedience you will be able to feel the blessings of Heaven truly surround you. This is a blessed work. But just as the general authority states, It is work. Challenges will come. No doubt. But overcoming those challenges will make you rely on Christ in turn growing in faith and maturity. As this happens you become the best that you can be. Thank goodness for trials that shape and refine us as we rely on the Savior! When you serve, you are able to feel of God's love for people which in turn shares that love with you. Love = Joy. The Eternal Joy of the Father is through the immortality and eternal life(exaltation) of our fellow brothers and sisters. Missionary work is a blessing and promised blessings come from those who take part in it. Whether be it on a mission or not. Every member is indeed a missionary. When you make your decision, you need to remember that God knows you better than you know yourself. I mean that in the sense that his path is the one we need to take, not always by our own plans. His paths will lead us to Eternal Happiness in the best possible way available to us. In saying this I want you to know that through sincerity of prayer and open hearts to follow God's plan for us we can receive a spiritual witness of God's individual plan for us. We do not know what lies in the road ahead but God does. Consider this as you diligently seek your answer. Also I want you to know that I love you and God Loves you. Because of the spirits you render and the faith that you have been blessed with you are precious. You are important to the Kingdom of Heaven. I do not know specifics but I do know that as you find yourself through becoming as the Savior, through his Atonement, you will be able to find of your spiritual blessings. Develop them for they are blessings given specifically to you to develop and help build Zion. You are necessary so make sure you are there.

Love,
A Happy Missionary

Thanks soooo much Eryone for the love and all! Again I hope all is well and I will be excited to see yall in less than 20 months... Can you believe that? It seems so short!

Kick some in life. for eternity.
Love,
Elder Clark

motherly Dear! :)
I love New York. Oh man! It is the greatest! Really expensive so chances are I'm not living here... but traveling when I can afford? YES! This is such a great experience!

Jeffy is so great! Tell him I love him! Thanksgiving will be so fun! I'll be there in spirit and in love! :) Oh my gosh I am so excited for him to recieve his temple endowment(power) and get set apart(authority) to do as preach my Gospel explains to "teach with power and authority" in the Land where God's children are waiting for him. He will help people realize that he has what they are looking for! So many people are looking for it even if they don't know it. Another Elder Clark in the family will be sooo powerful for the family. Jeffrey will do soooooo well as well! He will have such a great experience! I can't wait to see him and have the Son's of Mosiah feeling with him! I can already feel the power in which that will be. It is amazing and that power is eternal.

I really truly feel of your love right now it helps me sooo much to continue working and to be doing the work of the Lord! It's an amazing work! Our mission president has been helping us work smarter by going to places where families might be! We had Elder S come speak to us and he spoke of how there are thousands of families in the area prepared to hear the gospel so we are focusing on finding families to teach! We are doing this by, as mission president states, "Going to places where families will be like high school football games, parks, any area activities" and things like that! Oh man it is so smart! He is inspired directly from God! He trusts us soooo much! I love to have that because I know that as we do these things with the purpose and drive to find families who are prepared by God to hear the Gospel we will be able to find them. This is truth. Sesi se verite. - Haitien Creole for "this is truth" haha I'm trying to learn!

So truly the work is going well! We have been blessed by the Lord! C is such a wonderful man. He bore his testimony yesterday at church(his second week there!) We haven't even finished teaching him the restoration! But he spoke about how Elder Clark and J knocked on his door and changed his life! That was one of the most rewarding things I have ever heard! I love him! K didn't go because of school work but she still is looking forward to baptism I believe. I am sooo excited to teach more people! I have hope that through Grace and Mercy we will be able to find more people to receive the wonderful news!

I got to go to the temple on Saturday with a recent convert here (who I also love!) named F! She has a great story of how she wouldn't even meet with the missionaries(they'd have lesson's over the phone even!) and then she came to church and loved it and she quit smoking and drinking tea and drinking 2 weeks later cold turkey to be baptised at the end of last transfer! She is wonderful and it was a great experience to go to the temple with her. When we taught her about temple work she said first "am I going to have to get my hair wet?" Then I explained more and she said "I know it's true. It is so much better than the belief in death then straight to hell. This sound's more like the loving Christ I know" Oh my gosh it was so cool! So ya then after that we went and had lunch in Central Park and I felt like spiderman. hahah just kidding but there were sooooo many people it was a missionaries dream! Elder J and I fearlessed sooooooo many people and gave out so many cards it was sooo fun! I also talked to this journalist who is probably going to write a story on Mormonism now! I'm hoping he still does! He asked me all about what I thought of Mitt Romney and the mormon moment and then also a lot more things! He also asked me of Garments so that was fun to answer... hahaha I'm hoping he also doesn't write anything from the internet but instead from like mormon.org or other missionaries thats what I told him is that the best place to go for info was there... but we will see! ya that was a good day!

Thanks for the talks! I love them! I hope that was a good experience going to all of those Farewells! Let the Work Press On!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S GLORIOUS!

I love you all sooooooooooooo much! thanks for everything!
Love,
Elder Clark

Dear My Favorite people in the world! All of them! Whoever is reading this! ;)

Family first though sorry ;) THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! I loved loved loved eating those chocolate covered almonds... i mean getting everything in that package! I love the pens the shirt the jacket the picture the love you send the CD's the EVERYTHING! The letters are amazing! MMMMMMMMMHMMMMM they are! :)

Ri I'm glad I will notice the 5 lbs you have gained in my two year journey! You look great winking in your picture! Did you take that photograph?

Kyle, Your picture was awesome! I love your rip roarin snakly screw ball shot! That spins around! I look great as a 10 pt ;) I like my hooves the best! Good luck with tennis and soccer man! Just do whatever you have the most fun with! If you can't decide on one then maybe keep doing both?

Austin, Great great goal man! Super good shot! And why am I so little and you so huge? Are you trying to tell me something?

Elder Claaaaak Kenchy! HI! Thanks for sending all this stuff! :) I love hearing the stowees! Haha Elder Jean doesn't say R's either so he calls me Elder Claak as well because in Creole they say a lot of R's as W's. It is so fun to learn some creole! Word of the day is "Lanmou" (pronounced Laa(nasalized)moo) meaning Love!

Mother Dear, Thank you sooo much for the kindness and love you send and the spirit you send as well! I love to hear about your cool fence and everything and about your positive attitude! :)

Zacky, I shall be sending you a letter but I hope you know you are soooo great and I love you! :) Take care of Annie for me ok? ;)

Oh my goodness Mother and such, I love the people here so much already! This is a great great ward! So we faced a lot of rejection the first week here but this last week we have been extremely blessed! Truly it is amazing how much of a change from the week before it is. So on tuesday we knocked a lot of doors and we ran into an amazing guy named C(57 yrs old, shorter yet a little bigger, super jolly nice guy)! So he among all those who rejected our message totally said "is this gonna be worth my time?" of course we explained how it would and he said "alright let's hear what you have to say" So then we talked to him a little bit at the door and it was great and we set up an appointment for wednesday, he was like "Well I'm not normally a pushover but something you said must have clicked because I want to see what you have to say" So we taught him and he talked a lot about how important family was to him and how he has been blessed with a good attitude because he just got a knee replacement and Dad I told him about how your knee's are very unexistant and terrible and so he gave me a card and said his doctor was amazing so I can send it to you if you would like :) It's a good souvenir either way... haha but then he came to church sunday and loved it and people fellowshipped him like crazy, it was the primary program and he was really impressed with the children and how some of them really glowed and were into it. He participated a lot in class and that all went well and I was scared at first because for priesthood we talked about the Word of Wisdom and we hadn't taught him that yet but he ate it up! He really enjoyed it and agreed with everything! He wanted to say the closing prayer for class! Haha so he has been a blessing in my life and I love him! Also we were knocking on this former investigators house and this Haitien lady(K 20ish years old) answered but kind of shied away from us and barely cracked open the door but then when Elder J was writing on a card for the Former he asked if she was interested in hearing our message and she said "yes come in!" without hesitating! So we taught her the Restoration in English and Elder J  clarified in Creole and so she also came to church late even after her car was about to be broken because of no oil (I guess I'm not the only one in the world ;)) and then she loved church and she talked to Elder J in Creole about how she really wanted to be baptized so that is super awesome! I have been fearlessing more than ever here! I love being able to talk to people! We have been able to find quite a bunch of solid potential investigators from jumping out of the car to talk to people, walking around in neighborhoods and such! It is so wonderful! I love it so much! I have also had to fearless a lot of spanish people here and so I am soooo happy I learned enough in high school to communicate with them some! :)

I'm so excited for Kyle with Hunters safety! Lots of family bonding times to come with that! Austin... good luck on yours man! :)
Oh man I'm happy to hear that Kyle is doing so well in soccer and that it is soooo important for him to support Riley because that is really cool and it is a testamony to how family oriented you and Dad are! You guys are great! And

Kyle can't grow. It's not ok for him to be taller than me when I get back.... Which is very very possible. Oh man!

Well I am also glad Austin is doing well as well!

Thats too weird about Taylor and Tanner though... They aren't old enough to go on missions! Neither am I! this is proposterous!  Everyone who can best be goin on a mission! The mission is the greatest thing for you and your purpose of life! you grow more on a mission than you do during your entire life I would argue! I have learned more in these last 4 months(crazy almost exactly 4 months... 6 days less) than I had probably during my whole schooling career! Just because the knowledge I gain here counts. It is learning to truly rely on the Lord! It has taught me how to not be scared of talking to people! I talk to soooo many people a day I would be scared to say hi to before my mission! It's crazy! I learned organization! HUGE leap in my life because I never had it before... Sorry Mother ;)...

Ohhhh Dad you are soooo funny! Don't let them hang you! You have some rights in this country! :) HAHA well it was really fun to see Mike and truly it didn't interfere with the work at all! I just feel like it worked out perfectly because he said hi (while I was talking to a really good potential but thats okay) and took a few pics told me the Church was true and left! Haha it was fun though so No big deal! I won't condemn you... whoever has no sin let him cast the first stone right?! ;)
Tell Riley that he belongs on a college team and to leave the Varsity team... He is too good for them... He should call up the NY Jets or someone... they would probably take him as soon as he has confidence in it! Golly Jeepers! But I am soooooo happy he is having fun! Hopefully he continues to be an amazing example to them! If he does some will become interested in the church. It is a given with the impact Riley has. Maybe not now but sometime!

I love youoooouuuoouuuououuuu!!!!! I heard from the Zone Leaders they have my package so thanks in advance when I get it in like half an hour!

Love you all to Eternity and beyond!!
Elder Clark

sept 17

Dear Riley and Kyle ------ I am soooo excited about you reading the Book of Mormon! It will honestly be one of the greatest blessings in your life as you diligently study it and apply the precepts of it in your life! "A man can get nearer to God by applying it's precepts than any other book" (Joseph Smith) This book will make a difference in your life and your growth in becoming as Christ is.

Sooooo the news... Brace yourself... Drumroll please... My new area is Plainview, New York! It is pretty far out on Long Island! My new companion is named Elder G  He is a GREAT missionary and he is from Haiti! It is really cool because this area is a Zebra pool meaning that we teach both Haitien Creole and English investigators! I am trying at the moment to learn some Creole to get up to possible communication with some of these people! :) It's fun! Sac Pase?!(whats up) Haha but other than that and the purpose of missionaries thats about all I know! Me Cone JeziKri se suvino! I know that Jesus Christ is our savior! Spelling i am unsure about also... haha but ya so thats my new news! I am living in a house... I live in the upstairs of 46 Willoughby, Hicksville, NY 11801 :) It is just Elder G and I living here. Yes it was extremely hard to leave my first area Staten Island. I LOVED the people there soooooo much! However I am loving my new wards here! We and one other companionship are serving over the Plainview ward and the YSA ward here so that means I am at church for 6-1/2 hours! Whew! But I'm doin okay after trial #1 :) So people also got a hoot of how the new missionaries in the ward were Elder Lewis and Clark! haha :) I hope I get to be companions with him to carry that name on. And hes great :) Also what is weird about here is that we play volleyball under permission of the mission president from 9-11:30 on wednesday nights with the YSA ward! Woah that got me tired the first time... haha

I am so glad Gramps surgery went well! And the awesome blessing as well! :) I love to hear that! I hope that you told him I love him...

Oh man it joys me to hear of Jeffreys success! He is the man! A stud! A beast! A haas! All the above :) I'm glad to hear of Riley beasting it as well. Kyle beasting it as well. Austin beasting it as well. Man. I would be happy being the annoying housefly on the backs of this beastly family! haha :) I love you all so much!

Ya about visits from people mother please don't hesitate to tell them its probably not the best idea... just because I am trying to use my full 2 years out here to do what I am called to do. Truly I don't think it would be the best use of my time to meet with people even though I know how fun it would be. I hope not to offend because I hope people know how much I love them and that I would love to meet them any other time in my life however this is the only two years I get... I need to act now. Also it is basically against the rules and in my effort to be obedient I don't like creating gray areas.

But Mother thank you soooooo much for all of the things you have done to get me here. I can't thank you, Dad or my Heavenly Father enough! I am so happy to be here. I would do this again in half of a heartbeat.

I'm happy to hear that Kyle will probably take some lessons from Alexa! She is great! :) Tell her hi from me! And tell her thanks for spreading the love of the wonderful sport!

Anyways about the work here... we are fearlessing a lot! Thats really fun! I have been able to fearless in English and Spanish and I'm excited to add a new asset of Creole! :) We also knock a lot of doors! So that is fun! Except for everyone being extremely unreceptive and rejective and sometimes very disrespectful but let the work go on! :) Haha people can have their pride...

I love you all!! :) Thanks for all that you do for me! Remember that the Lord is always on your side as you turn to his side! :) He loves you and wants to help you! This is true and if you don't know it test it! I love my opportunity to stand as a representative of Jesus Christ and Declare the Love of God to His Children! :)

I LOVE YOU!

sept 10

Mother and Family!

Oh man! Eirik is the man! I miss him! If you get the chance will you tell him that I love him and that he is going to be a stud Gangsta for the Lord. I love Eirik. I love to hear about his talk and Brandon crying and everything! I love seeing and hearing about eternal families! They are all around us and it is such a joyful thing! :)

So anyways... I love to hear about the love you gain for people on missions; It is true... I cried in happiness yesterday because of my excitement for N who got baptised by her husband (now pretty much activated) for D and A and their amazing changes that have been able to happen through the Atonement, for both of those couples and the amazing chance that they have to become sealed in the temple in a year! Then I cried out of excitement for C and her baptism and A and the changes and happy lifestyle that she has adopted. Then for G and his mission and how he just recieved the Melchizedek Priesthood and confirmed D and A This is what the mission is about. It is my favorite thing in the world to see God's will and purpose happen right before my eyes! I have been blessed in this area to see so many people change! If this were my whole mission's success it would be all worth it.(typical I know but TRUE!)

My heart is literally full from all the love I have been able to feel for God's children! Which makes me sad... because I am being transfered... I don't know where until transfer meeting tomorrow(tuesday)... but I am really really sad to leave Staten Island but I am really excited because God's children aren't only in Staten Island... They are all over the place! so I know that I will be able to love my next area as well.

I'm glad to hear that the brothers of my mother are doing well! I miss them. However lifes all good in the hood! They will just keep on living life and loving life! I'm glad to hear riley has a friend... hahah jk I know riley has at least 1! :) And tell Austin to keep on kicking! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger ;) haha maybe don't take that advice... just Listen to your mother! :) best advice ever sorry for not always listening to you... I'll work on that when I get home :) Also glad to hear kyle sweeped away some of the soon to be scored goals! Way to be bro! :)
Thanks for teaching me how to work! :) and Riley would be beastin up the football field. what a stud! STUUUUUUUDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!

My comp... I will be changing comps in like a day... but Elder C is a stud and he is half black and we get along really well and he is very funny and we do a lot of service and looking up people and laughing and making jokes and putting personality in our teaching and focusing on baptism's and stuff! I got to know quite a lot of members really well! We obviously have some favorite members we like and our ward in staten english is just over 100 that show up almost every sunday... It is really nice. How far I go everyday? We probably average around 30 miles driving but we generally only go off of staten like once a week... I don't use the ferry. We have a car that we always take and we only use the ferry when we go to manhatten for a temple trip or something. very rare though..

So ya thats all folks... I love you all though! :)
Love,
Elder Clark

Dear Wonderful fam!

Thank you for all that you do! You're super!

I live on 71 Rhine Ave... Second Floor :) but don't have anyone send anything there... I could get transfered on the 11th! But I don't know... We will see! My area is the northwest part of Staten Island right now and our pad is not quite in our area... but it's close! Anyways! the work here is super fun! I have been learning more and more how to fearless people! I'm excited for a walking area so that I can fearless like all day!!! I love talking to people! And I love seeing myself become better at talking simply and non-nervously! Hopefully that pattern still continues! :) So anyways we have been doing a lot of looking people up and talking to people because most of our people to worry about either are getting baptised, dropped, baptised, or gone for some reason... So we don't have a lot of people to teach! Were trying hard to get more! It's been really fun though and this mission is a HUGE learning process! :) It is the best ever! I'm excited to keep learning! So sorry I don't have much time :( But I want you to know that sharing your testimony strengthens yours and it will help you to feel the everlasting joy that comes from the spirit! I have learned that the spirit truly makes me excited! I can't believe my whole life I didn't recognize it... But it definitely makes me so happy! I love learning! Make sure you and the family has time to study the scriptures together! Talk about it and write any impressions that you get! I still love teaching people and it is really fun to do "Preach My Gospel Lightning Round"'s! they are a super fun 5 minute practice teaching thing our mission president showed us so we have been learning how to teach a little bit better :) I have also realized that the spirit is the most important thing in teaching... Anyways... I am eating plenty plenty plenty of breakfast! Enough lunch! Enough dinner and when we eat at members houses a lot of dinner! But a and b couldn't come to church on sunday because she was sick and he needed to take care of their baby girl (c she is the awesomest baby! :) Super cute and really smart already! I love that family! G and D are pretty much going on missions and getting married right after! It's crazy! But I love them both! I need to leave! Super sadly but ask if you have any questions! :) Thanks for all the love! I will write more next time and I'm really excited to hear that everyone is doing so well! Blessings of the Gospel! :) I love you!

Elder Clark

Dear Mother Dear y mi familia!

Thanks for sending your love through the air and through prayer! I feel it! :) So things are going really well! We are blessed! A and B just got married on saturday and baptised on sunday! It is crazy go nuts! They are some of the coolest people ever! They will totally be strong members! They will raise their family in righteousness and have the happily ever after everyone looks for! That is what is in store for all of us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Families are FOREVER! I love saying that and thinking about it because I love our family so much! We have been blessed to have such a happy family!

So this week has been extremely busy with planning and setting up everything for the wedding and baptism! It was a stressful but blessed experience! But luckily and by tender mercies it actually went pretty well! Elder A and I were bridesmaids... I mean Groomsmen or whatever ;) And other than that we only had to sit and enjoy the amazing spirit of it! I guess I was DJ also... But we were in charge of everything... I mean EVERYTHING! It was a good experience I am definitely a wedding planner now... Leave it to me and A!

It is crazy how fast this time has gone... I have less than two more weeks before the end of this transfer! YAY for 2/17ths of my mission! ;)  That is the good news and the bad news... Times flying by and I can't stop it! I can't believe it! So good news! Remember C? She moved her baptismal date up to the 9th of September so that she could make sure that Elder A and I could be there! Because weirdly enough one of us could get transfered but hopefully not! We also have D planned for the 9th! YAY! We have been blessed again! Hopefully they all stay strong! They should though! I don't think either of them are sketchy... C is extremely strong and has been for a long time and then D is strong a lot because of E; with this new job will be able to come to church! So he hopefully will be able to baptize her! That will be super awesome and special if he can! I love these people! I love Staten Island... It'll be hard to ever leave here... Leaving the mission is going to be a hard hard experience let me tell you that in advance. :)

So remember how I thought I was going spanish speaking? Well I have this big desire to learn spanish so I am learning a lot from my buddy Elder F! I have learned Nuestro Objectivo y Tratare Aprender mas! :) I have a pretty good fearless ready in spanish! I'm practicing! :) I really am learning a lot and it is fun! I kinda want to go to a zebra area (where they teach all investigators whether spanish or english) just to try it out!

Before I forget can you give me Erin and Bryan Lindleys address because I accidentally through away their address... I need it... They sent me an AMAZING watch and I NEED to thank them! :)

So I have this goal to not be afraid to talk to anyone ever! It's a work in progress but I believe I am improving! Someday! through the atonement I will humble myself and be good at it! :) I love the spirit! I have never been a happier person than the times on my mission where I have the spirit with me and where I am doing God's work like I should and being obedient! If I truly learn that it will make for a jolly ol' mission! ;)

Mom, How is preschool going?

I miss you all! But just so you know LOVE MULTIPLIES! Youre ability to love never ends there are no limits!! Eternal Truth rat ther! :) I love you!

Look to your patriarchal blessings for advice! I love you! when you meet someone who can't smile give them one of yours!(Quote from our AP Elder M(he was my Zone Leader)) :) Just be happy! There are a lot of blessings that come from it! :)

Also, there is some exciting news on the spreading of the Gospel Worldwide! 4 Elders came to our mission who are waiting for their visa to head to Turkey! They will be the first four missionaries in a Muslim country! :) Super cool! They must be stud missionaries to because 2 of them are being trained by the AP's themselves! I fearlessed four kids speaking Uru(sp unknown) who have been here less than 4 years from Pakistan! That was cool!

Love,

Elder Clark

Hi Mother Dear!
Update on the Work...

D and T are getting married on Saturday and baptised on Sunday! YAYYYYY!! They are soooo awesome and they will be friends for ETERNITY! I love them so much oh my goodness I can't wait for them to get sealed... But anyways I never thought that i would be a wedding planner... ahhaha we are doing a lot to prepare for that... and bishop is marrying them.

A is honestly one of the funniest people on this earth. She is this big black lady who is getting baptised finally on Sept 9th. It was really funny hearing her rant on about how she loves to cook for us because she says "I'm fat (grabbing her stomach) and we fat people like to eat, we always eatin, mmm so gooo(d implied)" and also when she talks about how she is the best at domino's and how she can't lose. Oh gosh she is awesome. She always calls me "Brotha Clark"

B is still doing really well and she is on set to be baptised in november because that's when P (her hubby; Less Active Member)'s job gets a lighter load but she might be able to move it up because he just got two offers at these sweet job's... (he's extremely smart and he used to make smart houses)

So ya those are the baptismal dates were working with but I still hope that D will have a spiritual witness that he needs to get baptised real soon... hes a dry mormon basically... But I'm sure I told you he is one of my favorite people ever! He is a funny as heck Dominican guy... We connect really well though so he is gonna be an eternity long friend as well. Especially when he finally gets baptised.

We have been playing Monopoly Deal after were done planning at nights and that's a really fun game :)

Oh also I got pulled over the other day... did I ever tell you how much I hate(using bible terms for love less ;)) NYPD cops? They are reeediculous... They always turn on their lights just to get through traffic or a red light and then turn them off... they just don't appeal to me because they think they are above the law... (also I'm sure not all are this way just some) But anyways I got pulled over when I was going the speed limit on a 25 mph street and three cops surrounded my car... They basically just played off a serious faced "license and registration" then I said "what did I do?" He said "excuse me?!" and I said "okay" and gave him them but he was asking is this your car and then I told him we were missionaries and he asked for proof that we were missionaries and I had left my ministerial card at the pad and he look at me then looked at the papers and said these are expired and looked at the next ones and then he basically threw them back in the car and said "get outta here and get your brake light fixed" I was unhappy with the way that went... haha but whatever...

Things here are still going really well though and I STILL AM IN LOVE WITH MY MISSION AND NEW YORK!!! i can't wait to bring family or friends! It will be a blast! I have this really really great desire to go home and be soooooo much better! To be a better person! I'm excited to plan for everyday and be more prioritized after my mission and have higher standards! I'm telling you this because I need everyone to hold me to this! :)

I'm trying to think if I have any other things to tell you... It's easy when you ask me questions! I have a lot of stories I just also have a terr-ee-blay memory... haha So let me know if you have any questions! I love you Mom, Dad, Jeffy, Riley, Kyle, and Austin!! Youre the best! Family is soooo important so remember that! I am super excited to learn and grow with you guys for eternity! (sounds like a heck of an eternity!) Remember that the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families. Basic but powerful.

I love you!
Elder Clark

Oh my gosh Mom and Family that sounds like it has been soooooo much fun! I want to meet these Japanese girls! :) I'm glad that went well and that Riley didn't sleep through the whole time haha :) That is so cool! Thanks for the updates on the friends :) Good to hear! OOOOOhhhhhhh! I'm so so so so glad Kyle is doing training with Chris! I'm sure they are having a blast! Tell Chris he needs to come to church with you guys since he never came with me... haha and tell him to write me or give me his address ok? :)

 

Haha funny funny those olympic athletes are the real deal! No lil wanna be good Elder Clark C-word(parc spelled backwards) But thanks again for the olympic update/final scores and stuff! Thats cool I will definitely have to watch more of it in 4 years! haha :) I'm blessed to not have a huge interest though... It's kind of interesting how even with playing street ball with people before my mission sounded like the most fun I'd have on my mission and now that I'm on my mission I truly wouldn't even care if I did that at all or not! It's way weird but I know it is good! Because I still love the work soooo much!

 

Good (ummm excuse me) GREAT news! There is one of my favorite members A who is in our ward who has this couple staying with him and they are getting married on the 25th of this month and baptized on the 26th! sooooooooooooooooooo exciting! They have been ultra ultra ultra prepared and they will forever be best friends with me! They are definitely going to be strong in the church and everything! I am soooooo pumped! I can't wait for them to be sealed in the temple! I love teaching people about the plan of salvation and the restoration and the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I just love love love teaching! It brings me greater joy than basically anything... I just get so excited to teach prepared people the messages because it is the most exciting news ever! And so many don't know it and don't want to know it! THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND! Gally!

 

But anyways I don't have much time very very sadly but I got to go to the temple on Saturday! That was super sweet! I got to baptise Elder C and Confirm A for his grandfather! That was the coolest thing ever! :) AHHH the Gospel is so good!

 

One thing struck me really really hard this week and I LOVE IT! It's about our purpose for life... I have never looked at it this way at all but I was blessed by the spirit to gain some knowledge and perspective! First of all I have told you about how God's purpose, our purpose, and our purpose as missionaries are all the Doctrine of Christ(Gospel) and I understood it pretty well I thought until I learned this... I listened to a talk on Grace by Brad Wilcox(i think...) and it is amazing I recommend it! But I gained the knowledge that what God's purpose is, is to make us the best that we can become! He wants us to be as perfect and christlike as we possibly can! that is the whole reason for the Plan of Salvation; so we can progress and become the best us we can be! It is through the Doctrine/Gospel of Jesus Christ that we do so! It is not so much as a checklist of "oh did you get baptised? Confirmed? Sealed? Did you stay worthy? Oh I am sorry to tell you that you missed it by 2 points(thats from Wilcox rephrased)" This life is a time for refining, It is a lifelong process of using the Atonement to perfect us! Christ is begging us to use him and his sacrifice to make us better! There is no room to let Satan control your guilty thoughts to make you feel unworthy! It is so important that we understand as soon as we have sinned or made any mistake, Christ is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited to let us use his Atonement to completely change and turn us into the best we can be! That's what this is all about and that is why the church is organized in the way it is, the reason that everything happens in life and in the church, and everything is based on the truth of necessity and excitement to progress! So never ever get down on yourselves! Just progress! that is honestly where the most love and fun and joy happens! Don't get caught up in the things of the world because even if you or I died this instant or supposedly lost everything beforehand, that is of no matter. We need to be focused on building the Kingdom of God and not Building our earthly tower! Soon enough that tower along with our mortality will break! But progress and becoming Christlike will never sieze! :) I love you all sooooooo much! I want you to know I am not a perfect missionary by any means as you could all imagine and I will never ever claim to be, however I am sooooooo happpy to have gained more knowledge and love for the work to keep me working and busy on becoming like Christ! If I can help a few others on my mission other than myself, how great would be my joy but a mission honestly is designed so that progress can be made at a higher and more eternally powerful pace so that is what I look forward to for the rest of my mission (however selfish that may be) But I know that in this process we are meant to help others in the process as well! It is a glorious and amazing plan! So keep on it! Remember the little things such as prayer, prayer in repentence, Sacrament, reading scriptures, and all the primary answers because they as well are meant to make us more Christlike! So many great tools to chisel us into a beautiful statue! :) Keep up the good work I love you all! Thanks for sending me on this mission! I hope you feel the blessings for it! And Thank you for teaching me how to serve and work hard. You did well!  I love you all! Cheers!

 

Love,

 

Elder Clark