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