Hi Mother Dearly Beloved! And Family and Everyone!

So I just feel good right now. Thank you Holy Ghost! The holy ghost gives you glimpses of your eternal happiness. I don't know where I got that from but its true! :) And Silly Mom missionary work is not just for us 20 year old kids! It's mostly for members! Sure we may be the backbone of missionary work but members are like the heart and soul!! Member referrals and member fellowshippers truly are what makes people comfortable and makes them stay comfortable. If they just had the missionaries the work would be trouble! When a ward reaches out to them as a ward family it is a night and day difference in the hearts of the investigators and the opinion towards the church! N (investigator w/ baptismal date) told us that nobody talks in the catholic church and that she went to church for 15 years consistantly and no-one knew her name. So sad. It's nothing against the catholic church or any church but it just makes me grateful that we have ward families and we truly are blessed to understand that we are all children of God! 

I got the opportunity this week to go street ball contacting twice with some of the Children! So fun! But oh my gosh we were so not smart and we did it half an hour before our dinner appointment the other day and so we were EXTREMELY sweaty.... It's humid... were in white shirts, black slacks and ties... and black nametags (its gotta make some difference right?) ;) But it was funny because we had to use these napkins that we bought for a barbeque that we did with two couples to wipe our faces, pits and all with in a quick dryoff session. But then after we had cooled off, we walked outside and into their house and we were almost as sweaty when we got in the door... I felt way bad being that way for dinner but its whatever... Their house was a little toasty as well so that didn't quite help it.. haha but he is a convert and he was called to be a bishop five years later and he was like really? and he prayed about it and asked for a sign and he opened his scriptures and he turned to "seek ye first the kingdom of God" and then he closed it and reopened it and it went there again. So cool! I love hearing these peoples stories! They fed us ponset (not ponse sorry haha) the phillipino pasta stuff... Its really good though! I love new york pizza as well... Greasiest most wonderful pizza ever. It's all about Pronto's pizza!  Oh and its weird how much rain we get here.... I don't understand... It has thunderstormed like 2-3 days in the last week. Then there was a tornado north of us! So weird! And then its really hot the rest of the time... This was my last week in the transfer... 1 of 17 done! Crazy! I'm so excited to HR tomorrow (she comes in from MTC) and talk about what she is feeling right now because it feels like forever ago when I was scared to death of being and serving and talking to people in New York on my first day here... It's so weird that she is just now getting here... I feel adjusted already... But then again I'm adjusted to Staten Island missionary work... Not quite for Bushwick or any crazy place like that... haha :)

Also our District Leader D (knows Michael, he went to Timpview) is getting transfered out and I think they are putting another set of English Missionaries on Staten because we have some areas that we just don't even work much because we don't have time really... We are pretty busy so it will be nice to be able to focus on a specific area and investigators because our list of people to worry about is growing... haha but we LOVE them all!!!! :) And I know that C and I are staying here but the Elder R and his new companion are going to live in the other Staten Pad(apartment) I know because they have already moved! It's so sad I am going to miss them... But anyways its going to be weird having another set of missionaries in the ward! They are probably going to be the Zone Leaders because the Zone Leaders are getting Blinded Out(mission term when both are leaving... blinding in is when two new missionaries get put in an area neither knows)! But Golly Jeepers things are crazy around here! Haha :) President Calderwood did all the transfers all by himself! Usually the AP's help out a lot if not do most of it! So weird! It will be a fun transfer meeting seeing what goes on tomorrow.

Also I thought it was funny that we went up to knock this door the other day and this was about to walk out basically wearing a bikini and a veil type dress thing and she was scared and said "oh my gosh! I was about to go to the beach and all of a sudden two se... handsome men show up at my door step looking all nice!" haha then Crabtree accidentally said "well we would love to come over sometime (insert my palm to my own forhead here) I mean we are missionaries we would love to talk to you about Christ" hahahah I almost died... But she is a Greek Orthodox (i didn't even know it existed anymore haha) so she didn't even take a card... lame right?

I finally had a straight up like I imagined New York accent for a dinner appointment! They had a Baubecue and she had her mother, and her 42 year old son and she called her mother "ma" like she wase a little girl but shese older! It was hilarious oh my gosh I loved their accents... They called the hot Dooahgs Franks and everything! Born and raised New Yourkens! So great! we got caught at there house during what was supposed to be a bad storm with 60 mph winds and everything!

Also I kinda spent too much on food... I only had like $1.88 left on my mission card... I hope that taught me my lesson of budgeting... I feel like it did because I will do SOOOOO much better this next month... but I was blessed so much with this... It was a really cool experience for me because I was thinking that I was going to have to just eat Eggo waffles and oatmeal for the next 2 weeks because I still had some of that... But I was super blessed to have a dinner appt that night at the B (by the way it was probably the most delicious pasta I've ever had) and they have a tradition of giving missionaries 2 bags and letting us bombard their pantry... Talk about blessings! I got saved this time by pure tender mercy but I will work to not need that next time... haha :)

Oh and can you please please please please update me on my friends and their mission calls? I still don't know where Tanner and Taylor are going or Shawn Gandola... I just got a letter from Keri that talked about how they are all leaving soon and it was just a tease to not know where! haha but I guess patience is something I need to work on haha :)

A has been having a lot of trouble with her husbandand then also a recent convert B has no respect from her parents so she is trying to move out so if you could pray for them that would be great! Thanks!

Mom... thanks for teaching me how to paint... We painted a less active members bathroom on saturday and it was sad to see how bad other missionaries did on that before us... haha :)

I gave a talk on sunday and I felt like I did really well because they actually laughed at the joke that I said towards the end of the talk so I guess they didn't fall asleep haha :) We have been told to focus on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I have really seen blessings because of it. I love that it outlines basically the purpose for life. What we need to do in this life is given directly from Jesus Christ and through living his example we can become like him! As we become like him and repent often our will changes and comes closer to the will of Christ whose will is one with the will of the Father! We someday shall be one with Christ as we continue to use the Gospel in our lives! Thats our goal! It is sooooo amazing! I hope you realize that I know that this is true with alllllllll of my heart! I love you all! I must exit the computer because i have 4 minutes on my timer! I love you!!!!! :)

Love,

Elder Clark