Monday, July 29, 2013

Dear Family!
So I don't have much time but here ya go!

That referral we received last week ended up being this AWESOME guy named R from Haiti who we met with 3 times and we have a baptismal date with him on August 18th. He is really progressing well and then also we have a few other people we are trying to work with that are doing well.

Biggest story for this week other than that is that we were out on the street doing a talent sweep showing our talents to the world and talking to people about the gospel basically saying that we are real people and we need to work together as children of God. So during that we had a guy who drunk came up to us and started preaching to us but not in a bashing manner at all and he was saying that the world is waiting on us and that we are God's people and kings and priests. That was really cool but then he said a prayer with us and he started crying. it was a thing where we all held hands in a circle of prayer ahha that happens a lot here. It was great.

We are working hard and really seeing a good amount of blessings of success. I love you guys so much!
Have a BEAUTIFUL week!
Love,
Elder Clark

Monday, July 22, 2013

Hi!

This week has been a bummer for teaching appointments however we were able to stop by F and K for our appointment to find out that F was asleep but K invited us to eat with them! That was really fun and nice of her. We had given F a blessing and she said that since then his condition had been improving and with restless leg syndrome he had slept well the past few nights so that is awesome.

But then also we knocked a lot of doors this week and after knocking all those doors and such the only person we found literally walked up to us and fearlessed us. He is another very good potential we talked to him for about an hour and a half about the church and he agreed with everything we said. That was cool because hes a bible scholar too!

Then later in the week we were able to meet with a referral from other elders with a guy who said he wants to participate in our musical fireside we are holding. So that will be cool he might end up making a rhythm on guitar with us making lyrics! I have high hopes for a good turnout with that!

A said he was going to be able to come to church and he or F or G or A or R didn't show up! That was a bummer especially because there was a baptism with the ward yesterday... oh well hopefully next week...

But also this week i went on exchanges with another one of my favorite missionaries named Elder Perry and we drove by perry street so I said we should knock it and so we did! Nobody at first on Perry St was nice so that was depressing but then as we were walking away a lady walked out of a house and we decided to talk to her and she became a very very solid potential for the Zone Leaders so that was really cool. Her name was J.


Something that I found really cool about this week is that we had worked really hard doing all that we could to find people to teach. The blessing didn't come in that time doing all we could but it came after we had done all that we could. I think that is definitely a good representation of the Atonement and the meaning of Grace. Grace isn't just making up the difference though grace is Jesus Christ helping us to get as far as we can go and then he carries us the rest of the way.


We also just received a wonderful referral for tonight who might end up being baptised soon it sounds like. we will see! But i will let you know next week!

Love you!
Elder Clark

Monday, July 15, 2013

This week. Well it was a pretty good week!

The most recent news has been that Elder W got transfered out of my district and my new district leader is Elder H! he is one of my favorite missionaries and he is from my MTC district!

We have been doing a lot of finding people to teach recently. But even though we are finding people... we are not finding people in our own area. ha 90% of the people we have found have been referrals to other missionaries :( and :) that the work is progressing! However we did receive one referral this week who we contacted and we were able to teach him and his wife and they hopefully will be able to progress! They are a blessing that is for sure.

Once again we had a reallly reallllly awesome Gospel Principles class! It was really amazing because we had someone come who wasn't a member but came with a member and she basically felt the spirit really really strongly! It was really cool because the lesson was on fasting and it turned into one of the most spiritual sunday school classes i have ever been to. and that's saying a lot because of my great teachers growing up. It was amazing how much they just took the lesson away and gospel conversation took over and filled the room with the spirit. She is soooo prepared to hear the gospel it is amazing. She is going to be taught by the sister missionaries and she said she was so spiritually fulfilled that she will definitely be there next sunday.

I have a testimony of testimonies and the effect of simple testimonies. They are the most powerful. If you listen to the testimonies of the General Authorities who knock our socks off with the spirit and listen to the words they are saying... you will realize that they are simple truths. It is the spirit that brings the power so why can't we bear testimony of simple truths and have the same spiritual power? We can. Every member is a missionary and every testimony can make a difference in a brother or sisters eternity. But don't do it as a duty do it as an act of love.

So to explain the pictures... the mug is for the plaque if you want to use that one... idk... but then the house is a parable we made when we were tracting about how the house could be a beautiful thing but it stood still and didn't get worked on until the paint all came off and satans twine of bushes slowly tied it up and overcame it. but the atonement of Jesus Christ works as the paint and the shears so thats why i am sad!  haha then there is a pic of us at a park :)

So I love you all! Have a beautiful week! It was fun to hear about all those experiences within the last two weeks! Keep it up please :)
Have fun and Love ya!


Elder Clark

Monday, July 8, 2013






July 8

HELLO OVER THERE!

Hooray for Jeffy I mean ELDER CLARK!!!! That is so cool. Man he is so awesome! He will do so many good things to the good place of Japan(north carolina).

I am grateful for his testimony. It is amazing how much simple obedience helps us to gain an unshaken testimony of the Gospel. Specifically it is the Lords plan for all of us and only through using all the principles and ordinances of the Gospel can we have immortality and eternal life.

This week has been really good! Elder M and I have walked a lot this last week. Basically anytime when we run out of daily car miles we just go down to the pad, park, and walk main street fearlessing people for however long we have left during the day. There was even a day that we did not use our car. thats where the two pictures came from is our walking times... haha i like walking a lot!

Shoot it is really fun to have Elder M as a companion because we are very very obedient. This week we had 3 lessons that we taught to random people! That hasn't happened very often... but it did this week! We are finding a lot of people to teach but they are almost all in other missionaries areas... so we give a lot of referrals. Hopefully we will be able to have the tender mercies of finding people or families who are pure in heart and ready to accept the gospel.

A last week left for the military but yesterday he actually called me! It was so fun to talk to him! He was so excited that there was an LDS church on the base and everything! but ya his phone is now gone for 2 months at least...

We finally were able to meet with B also! His wife just got out of the Hospital from a full knee replacement and we were able to go give her a blessing that I feel like truly brought the spirit into their lives. I wonder if she will actually join our lessons now? That's what I am hoping!

I have to go but I love you all!
Love,
Elder Clark




Hello!!!

So this week has been great! I was able to meet my new companion Elder M before transfer meeting and he said something I didn't understand from the best two years meaning my new companion or something like that... haha It is so great though how much fire he has! That is what I had prayed for! He kinda has opposite personality of me but we get along pretty well and he is a great missionary. It is fun! We are working really hard to be obedient. It is working pretty well! He is from Boise, Idaho and he has 5 younger brothers... hahaha so similar except he is 6'3" and I am 4'3"(according to a funny 11 year old girl in our ward named Paris)

This past week we decided we should go fearless people at a park and we drove by this one like three times trying to find a different park we never found. But there was one person there swinging on the swings that we decided to talk to. And so it came to pass(ya bad joke i know) that we recognized her and it was N the crazy yet fun recent convert in the ward. She then asked us if we wanted to come over to her house to teach her. On the way there she said she had a revelation that if Elder C (my trainer) had not had been the missionary to convert her then Elder M and I would have been the Lords backup plan from that prompting to speak to her! So then she told us that we weren't going to teach her but instead we were going to go hand out all the book of mormons we had. That was 32... we handed all of them out... maybe not the most effective form of missionary work but it was really fun! We had a few people who were genuinely interested and it was helpful for Elder M haha :) So ya I'm really happy right now. We are doing work. hardcore.

We now have 6 missionaries in the Bay Shore Ward and Elder W is still my district leader who is companions with my friend Elder L from Las Vegas! Also! Our mission for the first time has 10 Zones! We just added a new Zone! So my district moved from zone 8 to zone 9! The missionary work is definitely progressing here in New York! I hope to help out with that more in these next few transfers!

Something cool that happened yesterday was that Elder M and I were praying about how to better help the missionary work in our area and the spirit spoke to me and said "Do your best and I will do the rest". Later that day in Gospel principles class, Sister Hamblin's new comp Sister Kapisi from Hawaii said "if we do our best Christ will do the rest" basically the exact same quote. It was really amazing the spirit just poured into that room. That is my quote of the week! I'm sure I told you that I somehow received an etch-a-sketch that I write quotes of the week on each week... well ya so its been etched. We also were able to go help Bishop out on Fire-Island(island off the southern coast of Bay Shore. I love that place but I hate how many mosquito's are there. I got eaten alive...

This week was really sad to say goodbye to Sister S and her kids (moving to Houston) and then today we said bye to A (Reporting for Military) but also before I said goodbye to Sister B I gave her your phone numbers and such so if you want to meet up for dinner or something if you ever have time that'd be cool(moving to Roseville or somewhere close). They are a great family. Her husband is working at the hospital in Citrus Heights or something like that i don't remember... I also told them to call you if they were in need or anything...

I am learning my area fast now though because I am driving and we are doing things the old fashioned way... A map! hahahaha I've gotten lost only like 3 times haha but I will learn it soon enough!

I love you!
Elder Clark