I've learned that doing this work is going to take all my efforts to lose myself in the work and that is what will make me successful. Because in order to get people to teach I need to talk to people and in order to get people to talk to I have to open my mouth and talk! And in order to do that I have to completely lose myself and not be nervous to talk to people about something I hold so near and dear. But holy smokes I thougth the MTC had humbled me... I didn't know what humbling was... Already I feel like i am in the middle of a new country with a work to do which is almost impossible to do alone. Thank goodness for prayer and being able to rely on the spirit to help me because I have been able to be in the right place at the right time for a number of times where I have been able to have a few come up to me and say, "hey I was baptised in yo church like 5 years ago and I've been getting back in my old ways and I don't like the bad luck that has happened can yall come teach me?" in the broken ghetto english. Which by the way no joke has been a struggle for me because half of the people we talk to I can't even understand most of what they say... it's pretty rediculous... I have had elder A translate their english for me on a number of instances. But maybe by the time half my mission goes by I will be able to understand them. This is sooooooo much different than I had ever imagined! I totally thought I had missionary work down in the mtc but truly people here and the background here is nuts! I got here and felt like calhoun "this isn't the language I learned in the MTC" and "these people sure don't look like those on the west coast" and "why does my small apartment in the middle of staten Island cost around 2000 dollars a month... Crazy right? I wish I could send you some pictures but however I am at the library and the computer wont allow me... so hopefully I can find a way to get you some... By the way this part of new york is not anything like the manhattan I had thought it was going to be... It is ghetto and black and very colorful and barred and intense... but don't worry we are protected as missionaries and I have felt it and I know for sure that I will be okay! Mom don't worry please just get lost in the work of raising your wonderful children and it will go by fast. Oh and it was thunderstorming earlier today... but now its sunny... weird right? and it was definitely a flashback to kansas thunderstorms these last few days because they are nuts and it has great lightning shows with getting soaked by being in the rain for literally 2 seconds. What is cool is that people respect us here. Most don't want to hear the message but they would never really try to steal anything or mug us or anything. That hasn't happened in a couple years and the area that it happened in is closed down and surrounding areas have to be in by 8. That would stink. So the only hard part about obediance is we tend to go to bed a little bit later than 1030 because we are so busy teaching and traffic takes so much longer that we have gotten back past 930 half of the nights and it takes us forever to plan because we are so busy. but it is always for a good reason! And I love love love being this busy because I know that this is the Lord's time and not mine. Life as a missionary is hard but good! The spirit is so great and anytime we teach it is there. It's awesome. Hopefully we will be able to get a few more investigators to commit to baptism in the next coming weeks. we have another baptism on july 29th but I didn't have much to do with that either... A's a boss missionary and he is helpful because both of us have a common goal of working on obediance. And thank goodness for planners otherwise we would forget everything. we already have had to cancel a few people because of delays and such but again it is only because we are so busy so that's good! And members like us... they feed us almost every night if we don't have to cancel on them... So ya things are great! Difficult, but great! I'm having the time of my life! It can be hard but then I realize how happy I possibly can be because I have the spirit with me and I end up being extremely happy and loving the fact that I am on a mission. Thanks for everything again I love you!

Love,

Elder Clark