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