Mother Dearest, Papa Sweet Sauce, Fambam Clark n Fambam friends!

Hey! So this week has been pretty good except we haven't been able to meet with anyone... People cancelling and we had President interviews and a lot of meetings and such so that was alright.

However! We did get to do service for this lady who still had a tree down from the hurricane and we helped her with that and she asked me a lot of questions about our church and I told her how I felt and I gave her a book of mormon! She said she is going to read it! I hope that will go somewhere! But we shall see! Dang agency of others ;)  haha but
ya she was actually pretty interested! It was cool to see her be able to trust us because she has had a lot of problems with a bad divorce and she is very untrusting of people throwing blame around and such. It was cool to see how last week I was incharge of giving a workshop(lesson) on listening in District Meeting and applying what I learned from that about the importance of it I think is one thing that got her to trust us. The Lord works in Awesome ways!

But anyways this Sunday we are doing a 5th of May break the fast pot luck Plan of Salvation walk through with members bearing their testimony of the principles in the Doctrine of Christ and the missionaries talking about the three kingdoms of glory so I am pretty excited for that! Hopefully members will bring their friends to church... That would be great! Then next week on Saturday we are putting a barbeque together that should be a lot of fun! As I told you we are planning and making a lot of activities happen with the ward to give them opportunities to invite friends to things...

My leg is feeling pretty good! I haven't jogged yet but I feel like its moving along pretty nicely! I peppered with some members and the sister missionaries on saturday with a volleyball and it is doing well still! I love sports.. Its hard for me to watch others play... It will be especially hard when I can actually play basketball but I can't because I told mission president I wouldn't...

So nugget from personal study this past week...
I have been reading in the beginning chapters in 3 Nephi and I have learned that we in a sense have two battles to face... We have outer enemies as the Gadiantan robbers trying to tempt or destroy us in whom we have to bring all our faith and energy together to destroy and then we have our inner battle of pride that so badly wants to destroy us. The Nephites had just killed off the Gadiantan robbers and when a couple years of peace went by they started to get prideful again and lost almost everything! If we, during times of peace when the trials have slowed, choose to not be progressive and improve ourselves we literally will go backwards. We need to never seize in our efforts to use to tools of the Gospel in our lives in order for us to not get trapped in Satans awful grip! On the upside we will continue to receive blessings as we strive to become like Christ through his Atonement! Choose ye this day whom ye will serve!

Love,
Elder Clark

Dear Everybody,

Hi! I am again loving it out here! It's amazing how much obedience plays a factor in our lives. That is something that is being stressed over and over again and I'm starting to realize how important it is. Obedience is what brings power. Obedience to God's commandments is all we need to do in our life. That is what is most important.

Anyways,
Today I will be going to Graffiti Park and I will hopefully send you pictures of that next week!

The work here has been going really well we had another person walk into the church this week and start talking to us about how he has always been a catholic but because of the emphasis that Mitt Romney has put on families he wants to be a mormon now. Thats pretty neat :)

I am so excited we are doing a lot of activities coming up and they will be amazing missionary tools. I believe that when people just come in contact with members it does more to spark peoples interest than two random black nametags running around on bikes. Let your light so shine especially now as the time is speeding up before the second coming! People will notice the spirit about faithful members more and more as the time goes on and the worlds trials will only enhance that difference. Your light can and will make more difference than you realize!

So I am having so much fun here! Elder Weber is a crack up. He always teases me about something and I feel at home! haha :) But we are getting along great and he is seriously improving himself a lot and I feel like he will continue to do so and because of that and hopefully if I can keep up with his improvement, we will be blessed for it. The thing is that when we are obedient we should not fear and we definitely can and should call upon the blessings of Heaven. Heavenly Father wants to bless us but it is almost never in the same way that we think. He knows us better don't worry.

So its been fun to meet a lot of people! There is a guy who ate dinner with us named jack and he has an eye patch and sister m calls him one eyed jack. He is awesome though and cooked us some delicious ham. Yesterday Elder Weber and I went with a less active husband to observe the damage and repairs done from hurricane sandy. It was really cool to see how much people have done since the storm! People just move on!

I have gotten to hit some tennis balls (don't worry im being really careful) with one of the sister missionaries these last two P-days which has been tight. Then I helped her and another elder who have played a little bit with their swings and such! So fun being a coach...

We had an amazing lesson on Sunday with two recent converts who both testified of the 180 flip they have experienced since obtaining the knowledge and blessings of the Gospel. Their situation hasn't changed but their level of joy has launched. I think people don't realize truly how much peace, love, joy, and comfort is available to us as we get closer to Christ.

I love you all! Wish and pray for blessings for all of you!

Love,
Elder Clark

Hi Mom and Dad and Family and Family that are friends and friends!

This week has been pretty good! Our district is planning and setting a lot of ward activities in place for members and for investigators! It will be a blast and I honestly believe that it will help strengthen the members of the ward and it will be a great way for them to bring their friends and introduce them to the gospel! I learned something about missionary work this week that I feel is very important especially with the way that President Calderwood is running this mission. I learned that in order to strengthen our investigators you need to strengthen the missionary, and in order to strengthen the recent convert you need to strengthen the ward. In order for real growth to occur in an area where people are truly coming into the Gospel of Jesus Christ to receive all the blessings therein we need to strengthen ourselves and others. The members of the ward are so crucial to that. Hometeaching, visiting teaching, fellowshipping, inviting people to follow God's plan, and being examples of love are simply what we need to do to prepare our wards for the trials and struggles that will come as the gap between the righteous and unrighteous deepens.

Elder W and I are becoming pretty good friends! He is hilarious... He teases me sometimes so I feel like home haha :) It is so weird though that he now has less than 8 months left and I have just less than 18 left! Hahaha but it is so great I love the mission as you might have been able to tell...

We had somebody call us two weeks ago asking if he could come visit our church. He is Haitian and his name is J. He came yesterday and that was really exciting! I had to basically teach the lesson in Gospel Principles unprepared too so that was a new challenge haha but I guess it went okay because J said he liked church and he is going to come back next week! Hopefully we can meet with him this week. Other than that we taught A this week and did a lot of service again... This ward is awesome though we have 5 Dinner Appts this week! That is so nuts the new sister missionary in our ward is getting spoiled at the beginning... I have a few families out here that are basically like my family... The Mercado family, the Shoenbeck family, and the Daly family. Our Correlator is this awesome convert guy who grew up in the projects in Brooklyn and went to the military and he is hilarious. There is a lot of strength in this small yet normal size for east coast ward. There is a great great member named D who was baptized when he was 12 and both of his parents died I believe and he stood up and bore his testimony about the strength that Jesus Christ has given him to continue and how he knows that he wouldn't have made it to this point if it weren't for Christ. He is an inspirational 18 year old who people could easily judge as a regular ghetto black kid wanting to be in the NBA.

Anyways, a lot of the lessons and meetings and such have been focused on obedience. I have learned that obedience is so important and it is the reason why we are able to receive blessings, progress, and it is basically the purpose for our life. We are here to learn obedience and the sooner we realize that the more joyful our life will be despite all that is bad and dull in the world. So this week just find one more way to be obedient to one of God's commandments and work to repent or change that in your life.

So I must leave but I love you all and hope things are going well! Have a blessed day!

Love,
Elder Clark

Sooooo HELLO AGAIN!!!

I'm so happy to be back on my mission again. I again know that what I am doing is right and it is God's work to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of His children.

The news! I am on Long Island in the Bay Shore English pool with my companion Elder W! You may recognize the name because he is the same Elder who was in my district in Plainview and shaved a yamaca(sp?) into Elder As head... haha we are having a lot of fun together! We get along great and we are both trying to work ourselves into a more meaningful mission. I am in a district with two sisters! They call that a dating district here however I assure you I am not dating haha :) It's crazy how many sister missionaries are coming on missions... So cool... But my mission in two transfers(3 months) is expected to have 50% elders and 50% sisters when we reach around 250 missionaries.

I have told many of you but for those who haven't heard from me, I want you to know that God knew what he was doing when he brought me home. I needed to be home for a lot of amazing reasons and I consider it a tender mercy to be able to be home at that time. However, now I am blessed to be back in New York! I missed this place because I love the people here. (Period)

So as you can imagine I have been very green-like new so fresh... I have now in the first week called myself Tyler 4-5 times now, forgot a belt twice, forgot my backpack, got up to workout on Sunday, almost forgot my nametag, forgot my planner, and many other fun greenie mistakes... ya I guess that's what I get for being home for 4 months. But oh my gosh it was so fun to see President Calderwood at the airport and then some of my mission buddies and then I got to pick up the new missionaries with President and the AP's which was cool and I also picked up my buddy and fellow ACL tearer Elder N! we went on top of the Brooklyner(tallest building in my mission) and ate New York pizza and such! So that took the place of the Jamaica Queens street sweep... kinda a bummer but that was really cool too! Less frightening more peaceful and inviting I feel like... haha and then one of the sister missionaries there with me is now in my district! And we are supposed to go home at the same time I think! Which is weird as heck... (BTW I think that's October 1st, 2014) So ya it has been fun! I study for my math final when Elder W aka lil webbie and webstar is balling it up playing basketball and already I am gaining a pretty good relationship with the members here!

Isn't it amazing how much importance the Apostles put on family and obedience! The two things that Satan has chosen not to have and sooooo badly wants to destroy! It's completely true though that if we focus on eternal families and obedience to God's laws then we will be protected! We WILL receive the blessings of the highest kingdom in Heaven! If we follow those things Satan will have no power over us and the power of God will be with us.

So ya that is the news for now! I love you all and more importantly Heavenly Father loves you all and there is always hope!
Love,
Elder Tyler Clark