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