Dear familia marvelouso(sp?),

This week has been real good. Were working hard, Were seeing random
little miracles, Were having fun, and Were learning. And I feel good
:) And I'm a Mormon.

So we had an exchange with the Zone Leaders. The exchange with them is
fun because they are Spanish and so I got to practicé mi espanol. I
love trying to testify in Spanish because I end up saying super simple
terms and simple truths that I know. I want to get that simple in my
own language. Because the Gospel is really simple. We believe that
through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience
to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

Also on this exchange I almost got in a fight... This guy got mad that
he turned a corner and neither of us saw each other and he flipped out
like I was trying to bump him. He was angry. I stared at him kinda
weirdly... Like I was just confused at why he was angry. He was like
"Are we doing this right now as he was taking his backpack off...
Swearing and everything. I just stood there like what the heck. Then he
started taking off his backpack and walking towards me and this
Jamaican dude and My Zone Leader dude chased him off... Kinda weird. I
was still standing there kinda shocked at why he was so angry...
People be mad angry. He was still cussing at me and my comp as he ran
away. Hahaha He wasn't really that tough looking anyways...

So we got fed a lot this week by members! It was super super good! I
loved the food. One of the houses I ate at is a friend of mine at
SVU's family. Then I don't know. Just a fun week. The members here are
impressive. They are so faithful in the midst of so much darkness and
confusion. They stand out! So do you if you are faithful!

I'm seriously enjoying talking more and more to people. It's not
always an easy thing but the more I've done it the more I've loved it.
No matter what the response is.

Love you guys. Keep up the good work.
Love,
Elder Clark

Pic #1: We obtained a couch... I carried part of it to our apartment
on my head. Felt like a Cabo Verdean...
Pic #2: Got a New York Mountain Dew. Dad thought you might enjoy that...
Pic #3: On Monday last week we cooked food. A lot of it... That tin
foil thang was hunky.
Pic #4: Guy with a green beard and a parrot on the bus... Welcome to New York.

Hey Family and bigger family!

This week was a great week! Super fun!

For one day this week I had a priest-aged young man from Virginia come
on a mini mission with me! It was the greatest! I swear they are
lookin younger and younger... Ha but he did well and it was just fun
to have he excitement of a fresh missionary! With Elder M
training for the last 2 weeks, the whole district and area has
increased in excitement!

I also had my last presidents interview before the departing
interview... That was kinda sad... But it's always a good opportunity
to talk to President Calderwood. He leads this mission with optimism
and love. He seeks revelation and obtains the Lords will for this
mission very effectively because of his humility. He is incredible and
I'm grateful to be called here with him.

On Saturday we had the game night that we spent so long handing out
fliers and preparing for. We had very few people show up which was
kind of sad. But we had a group of 5 18 yr old friends come (two of
which we met at 7-eleven on 7/11/14). They are super cool and it has
been really fun to get to know them! They all met from playing
handball together and they've been best friends ever since. 2 of them
came to church on Sunday and they seemed to enjoy it! I hope to be
able to teach them all! They have Books of Mormon though so hopefully
they will read it! Actually also one of the friends is an inactive
member we came to find out! But anyways they are all super cool and
accepting of people so it has been very fun getting to know them.
Apparantly they ROCK at handball though... Were probably going to try
to play with them this week.

We also had a pretty good experience with watching the Lords will
happen. Ha :) we had planned to visit some less active families and on
the way to visit one we were able to talk to this guy who just had a
full knee replacement who we can probably start teaching now! (Yay!)
and then we went to knock on this less active lady's door. She opened
with this smile and was like "I saw you guys and I had been yelling at
you but you didn't hear me! Then you were talking to that guy for so
long I didn't want to interrupt you, but then The Lord heard my
prayers for a spiritual uplift and send you to my door. Ha it was
super cool. :) I believe that if we are in the right place at the
right time by standing in holy places (physically and spiritually) we
will be able to see the Lords will happen. The Lords will always will
work together for our good and others good. It is a way of humility
and charity.

Right now I am just trying to learn all that I can to prepare me for
life... Haha :) I've been working on getting in a pattern of
repentance. It has really helped me. I feel so much more confidence
and strength from simply improving my prayers to be more focused and
then asking for forgiveness and strength in improving. When The Lord
is our strength we cannot be defeated.

I Love Our Savior Jesus Christ. I mean that. I hope you know that and
come to know Him. It is a happier way.
And I love you!
Love,
Elder Tyler Clark

Hello Everyone!

Gotta say first of all sorry for not writing last week. It was a weird Preparation day...  I went out to Plainview to say hi to John(awesome) and then we had a BBQ with a member and then we took a trip to Brooklyn and we ended up missing our turn and going over the Bridge into manhattan.

However I feel really blessed right now because Heavenly Father is helping me to learn the importance of being diligent and he is teaching me how to trust in him to get the power and giving me power to be diligent.

I definitely have a testimony of diligence in scripture study as I have said before but it really makes a difference in the way our day goes and how happy we end up. There will never be happier times in your life than those times that you keep the commandments that you receive. Truly "it doesn't matter what you know" it only matters that you put your trust in Heavenly Father. In order to be directed, gain a greater relationship with our Heavenly Father, and be happy we have to rely on the spirit. It's no different than what the Prophet has to do. I don't care who you are because we are all children of Heavenly Father and we all need to rely on the spirit.

So Elder M is training and him and his brand spankin new companions fire is lighting our whole area on fire. It's awesome. Yay for Jeffy this next transfer! Funnel the energy bro! :) We did get 7-11 on 7-11. That was fun. I did a lil bit of teaching but a lot of talking to people. We also were able to get in contact with some sweet less active families that we will now start to work with! Things are just going really well here and I am having fun with it.

So this week we have been doing millions of flier handouts for our volleyball activity happening Thursday. I'm super pumped for that! I'm sure I told you but our Branch President is awesome. I really love this area. It's super fun and I really enjoy talking to people. They are simply fun to talk to because you never know what to expect.

You guys are awesome. Love you tons! Go get em!
Love,
Elder Tyler Clark

Hello!

This week has been super super miraculous. We have been working hard
but we've been getting more blessings than what we have even worked
for! There have been some awesome people jumping into our lives! So
many great people that are easy to love and literally asking to
improve their relationship with Heavenly Father.

We have had a family stop us on the street and they turned out to be
members from Guyana that just moved here a month ago and didn't know
where the church was. They are super awesome. I'm excited to see them
again. This week was also good because we were able to contact quite a
few people that we had been trying for so long to contact.

The biggest thing that has jumped out to me this week is the fact that
we are all the same. in the way that we all can't do anything or
change or anything without the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The path is
the same for everyone, it is to have faith, repent, be baptized(and
partake of the sacrament) under the right authority, receive the Gift
of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. This is how we change for
the better. If we apply this to specific things in our lives we will
be able to overcome trials and weaknesses through Christ. It doesn't
matter who you are or what you believe. The truth is always truth
whether you believe it or not. No matter about all the different
religions that are out there...

One of the people we are trying to meet with came to church for a
second time and the Gospel Principles class was on baptism. He is
originally Hindu. After the class he asked me "does everyone need to
get baptized?" I explained yes and asked him if he would like to and
he said that he really would like to get baptized. Super cool.

There are a lot of different nationalities in my area. But every
single one of these people before their works in this world began knew
the truth. They chose the truth. And they are all leaders of the
truth. Our job is to help them retrieve or remember this knowledge
they once had and based their entire choice to come into mortal life
on.

I know that the truth is that Jesus Christ Lives. He is real and
really loves us. The path or Doctrine of Christ is of ETERNAL value.
It is Gods plan for Eternal Progression unto perfection. I know
without any doubt that what I have stated here is true. It has blessed
me and will continue to bless me. May it bless you.

Love,
Elder Tyler Clark

ear Eryone!

This week has been mad awesome! I got to go to the temple and I got to
talk to a lot of awesome people. Some pretty ghetto people and some
super cool people. A lot of the ghetto peeps are super cool though.
They are really respectful of us. They say stuff like "you guys are so
godly" and then they walk into their liquor store or corner store to
buy junk that's against the word of wisdom or light a cig or
something... Haha but people are awesome!

I feel like so many people are trapped because of the lifestyle they
have chosen to live. It's super hard... It's not easy for them to get
out but especially when they don't do anything about it!

We have to act in order to have our faith be made perfect and also in
order to receive the blessings of the Atonement.

We had a super sweet meeting with President Sanchez and we set some
goals and made some super sweet plans to bring to pass miracles of
bringing people closer to Christ! Were going to have monthly
activities as a branch and monthly missionary activities also. Maybe a
few movie nights or something. We will also do some game nights and
some life size Jenga and fun stuff like that! We are going to start
working a lot closer with the members and I'm pretty pumped to do
that! I love the members and I need to love them more! Member visits
are huge!

In regards to missionary work done... We have done a lot of lookups
but not much success with that. We have also done a lot of talking to
people and not too much with that yet. However I think we will be able
to start teaching this one Hindu guy! So that's pretty cool! I love
being surrounded by and talking to people of many different cultures!
It makes for good conversations and a lot to learn!

So that's my update for this week! Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Much love and much to love!

Love,
Elder Tyler Clark

Hello!

This week. Well...
We have been doing a lot of walking... So that's been good for
me/hard/fun. Annie asked me about how my 6 months to sexy is last week
sooo I'm glad I'm walking and I've done a lil bit more working out ;)
haha But we are playing knock out in the mornings and that has been
real good! So back on track... Well I truly am loving this area. But I
need to start getting to know more members. The ones I know are
awesome and they all seem awesome but I just don't know them yet! But
our Branch Presidency is amazing. They are super fun and really good
people.

So yesterday being Father's Day apparently they thought we as
missionaries were fathers... Ha just kidding it was just really nice
to get a red velvet mini cake/ muffin. (Too big to be a muffin, too
small to be a cake) ha that was sweet. Literally. Ha don't ya miss my
stupid jokes??

This week in regards to missionary work... We contacted a lot of
people and we did a street sweep talking about the Book of Mormon that
I gave out a couple and a now we have a few more potential
investigators but nothing huge yet. I do enjoy testifying of the Book
of Mormon and the church though. Because the ability to receive
revelation is awesome and sooooo needed in each of our lives. I also
know that if we seek revelation we shall find. Or rather it shall be
given to us.

SOOO also Elder S. Gifford Nielsen came and saw and conquered our
hearts! The guy is awesome! He is called of The Lord and he boldly
proclaimed truth! It was awesome and powerful and he singled me out a
few times asking me questions. Haha but it was really awesome! I did
tell him about Jacob, Andrew, and Jon but I think he was just rushed.
Ha ees alright though. I learned a lot from his visit though. Mainly
it just got me pumped to do better and be better! So that was sweet!

A crazy Brooklyn guy this week came up to us and the sisters and told
this sister that I had a crush on her and he paired my comp off with
the other sister... He's like you'll thank me later for breaking the
ice. Haha so that's been interesting... Don't worry! Not crushing! I
am focused!

Also... People really love the World Cup here. It's awesome.

Love you all!
Keep up the good work!
Love,
Elder Tyler Clark

Dear Eryone!

This week has been mad awesome! I got to go to the temple and I got to
talk to a lot of awesome people. Some pretty ghetto people and some
super cool people. A lot of the ghetto peeps are super cool though.
They are really respectful of us. They say stuff like "you guys are so
godly" and then they walk into their liquor store or corner store to
buy junk that's against the word of wisdom or light a cig or
something... Haha but people are awesome!

I feel like so many people are trapped because of the lifestyle they
have chosen to live. It's super hard... It's not easy for them to get
out but especially when they don't do anything about it!

We have to act in order to have our faith be made perfect and also in
order to receive the blessings of the Atonement.

We had a super sweet meeting with President Sanchez and we set some
goals and made some super sweet plans to bring to pass miracles of
bringing people closer to Christ! Were going to have monthly
activities as a branch and monthly missionary activities also. Maybe a
few movie nights or something. We will also do some game nights and
some life size Jenga and fun stuff like that! We are going to start
working a lot closer with the members and I'm pretty pumped to do
that! I love the members and I need to love them more! Member visits
are huge!

In regards to missionary work done... We have done a lot of lookups
but not much success with that. We have also done a lot of talking to
people and not too much with that yet. However I think we will be able
to start teaching this one Hindu guy! So that's pretty cool! I love
being surrounded by and talking to people of many different cultures!
It makes for good conversations and a lot to learn!

So that's my update for this week! Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Much love and much to love!

Love,
Elder Tyler Clark

 Today at 6:07 AM
So... I'm now in Richmond Hill Queens! Ya buddy!

Despite my kinda joking attitude when I first got here that I have to
walk so much more, that it's super loud, and simply that it's not Long
Island... I am loving it here!

I have really enjoyed this chance I have to be serving almost an extra
chunk of mission right now! My group has now gone home! All of my
buddies in the mission are leaving and it's sad! But it will be
interesting being the oldest missionary in the mission (total time
wise) for the next 4 months... Until I get home... Haha but because
this time is extra in a way I feel like it's a blessing so I have
decided and am already working harder and being less in my comfort
zone then before! Because there's no growth in the comfort zone and no
comfort in the growth zone! I'm hoping to really focus on my
companionship and myself personally improving! I know that when we
focus on lifting ourselves spiritually, we lift others spiritually
also! It brightens up the place! :)

SOOO... People spawn differently than LI here... I'll be completely
honest with that... There are some super cool people like our branch
president... And there are a lot of people you meet in the street that
must've had crazy lives! But it's super fun to hear/learn from them!

So this week I... Had to deal with the rental car... Last few trips
with my half sized car... I was able to fearless a person in English,
Spanish, and creole in the last few days... Taught somebody from
Guyana... talked to a lot of different Spanish cultures... Carried a
cinderblock 13 blocks... Tried to help a lady get her bed out of her
house... didn't work... Ate some great Jamaican food... Brought random
people from the street to our branch BBQ... Played some volleyball
there... In the parking lot... Played some ukelele hymns in some
lessons :) legs got super tired... Slept really well! Got hot... Had a
few "only in New York" moments... Almost walked into the background of
them filming Special Victims Unit of Law and Order... They filmed it
pretty close to our church building which is kinda close to our pad!
Talked to a lot of drunk people... I ride the subway constantly now!
The J and Z train... Hence where JayZ got his name...how neat is that?
That's Pretty Neat... Ate some pretty prime sandwich from a
cornerstore while talking to a pretty cool yet a little (K a lot)
ghetto lady from Brooklyn... Also we have part of Brooklyn and Queens
in our area so I've officially served in Staten Island, Brooklyn,
Queens, and Long Island :) Super cool! Loverly! Been Preached to in
the subway by a Subway preacher! He was actually super good! He was
talking about what it means to be a real Christian by loving each
other. He'll be a great member of the church one day! Found dollar
slice pizza place! We bargained with him to get a sample of the
breakfast pizza if we spread the word! I am pretty happy with the last
week. It was fun and adventurous... Had a scare... Thought there was
an invisible subway train screeching it's breaks right in front of
me... Ended up being a bus from underneath the station... I felt
rediculous looking around going "what the freak is happening?!" I'm
serving in the same district as one of Amy's friends elder L... I'm also super close with elder C. My companion is
a champ! He is good with memory and organization so that is super
nice! Especially when I'm roaming around queens not knowing which way
is up... But my closet is organized and I feel like I'm a lot more
mentally organized then what I was... Hey the sun is getting to me...
I may get a nice farmers and white shirt tan line... Maybe a watch tan
also... Idk... It'll be fun!

How Missionary Work Blesses Lives...

Well first of all... Any missionary work that anyone does is giving
others the opportunity to grow in their faith, knowledge, and truly to
come closer and build their relationship with their Heavenly Father,
thus preparing to enter in his presence after this life.

On the mission... Our purpose is:
"To invite others to come into Christ, by helping them receive the
restored gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement,
repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and
enduring to the end"

We declare repentance. We are inviting people to repent or change the
way they are and were in order to help them improve, get on the path,
and have the spirit with them. The spirit is what blesses us with joy,
it is what blesses us with love, it is what blesses us with peace and
comfort, and it is what blesses us with direction. Only when we have
the spirit with us are we entitled to these eternal feelings.

So missionary work is blessing others in that way. By inviting them,
It gives them the agency to choose joy now and in eternity, instead of
them being damned(stopped in progression) because they don't know
where to go, or even instead of them getting in worse and worse
standings with The Lord. It is giving them the opportunity to change
and follow Heavenly Father, who will help us fulfill the purpose or
measure of our creation to become like the Savior. It gives them the
decision to change through the Atonement of Jesus Christ by obedience
to the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Doctrine of Christ) or laws and
ordinances of the Gospel.

Doing this edifies us as the missionary and them also of course. This
is the way God has set the world up. The whole vision of Heavenly
Father is done by the small and simple things, by simple (sometimes
small... Like in my case... Not Jeff's) and imperfect beings... Our
responsibility is to "lift where we stand" by love and concern for our
fellow men around us. If we all let our light shine and do so in the
area we are, collectively and naturally we will raise the
enlightenment of all around us throughout the world.

Missionary Work seems to be a scary phrase... But missionary work is
simply the spirit of charity or love towards one another. If we love
our neighbor as ourselves we will desire that they are happy. We know
that the most complete joy comes from living the Gospel, so intern we
will somehow and in some way invite them to follow the Gospel. One
simple invitation could mean eternal happiness for one of Gods
children... It's worth it! It's worth the fear! If you do it out of
love and humility with confidence in the testimony you have, you
cannot fail. Whether they accept or reject it will only do them and
you good.

Hey eryone!

This week... Well the best part of this week was when an investigator
that had walked into the church and I was blessed to help out a little
bit to point her in the right direction was able to get baptized!!!
I've been so excited for her! She's super pumped to get confirmed next
week! I keep loving and loving baptism more and more... It's a huge
blessing for us to be able to access the cleansing/redeeming power of
the Atonement! I'm trying to learn more about the enabling power as
well! But I'm grateful for it!

We had a super cool lady named Rosa we have been in contact with from
Dominican Republic that only speaks Spanish come to church Sunday and
she LOVED how she felt but was really sad that she couldn't understand
anything... So we told her we would help her learn English and she was
soooooo excited about that that she grabbed both of our arms and
walked through the hallway going "I'm so happy! My teachers! English!"
That was right after she learned the word 'Saturday'. We had been
wanting to start an English class anyways but she helped give us
another reason for it! We had a miracle Korean girl from our ward come
back from her mission to Argentina! She bore her testimony in Spanish
and Rosa cried. It was awesome!

So this is the last week of this transfer and I'm not excited for
things to change... Hopefully they don't!!! I love our district!
Transfers.......... Why..... Oh well! Hopefully whatever happens i
will love it! Come what May and love it right?!?!

So were still going to he beach out on Fire Island for P-Days...
That's fun... Got some volleyball and beach soccer in yesterday! So
fun!

I got a sweet rental car... Which most of you know about haha :) it's
a cute lil car. :)

So personal progression update...
I have been blessed recently in the last week or so to have help from
Heavenly Father to remember what I need to and check off the things I
needed to on my to-do list. We have been working on studies and I know
that studying consistently and well will bring the spirit fast. It
pulls your day together in a oneness... It provides a solid foundation
for the day. It brings stability that we need to not go insane!! So
that's my positive update!

Thanks for all you guys do! Thanks so much for the birthday package!
The other Elders have been loving it(haha you know how it goes ;) )
And I didn't tell you but I have been loving the ukelele!!! I'm about
to learn some sweet missionary songs from an RM (Served in England,
Chinese speaking!!) but I have been so excited about it! District
Meeting at its finest! I also started a lesson with a song last week
and it was awesome... I'm looking to do that more now! Music brings
the spirit so well! Shall be the best!

Love ya tons!
Love,
Elder Tyler Clark

Hey family!! So a lot has gone on in the last few weeks and at the
same time not much different! It's been hard for me for the last
little bit for some reason to be obedient! I have not enjoyed the
struggle but I have been working on it and slowly it's improving! It's
hard because right when I got super excited to work for my last 6
months Satan had gotten pumped as well! So I'm working to overcome and
improve!

However at the same as that has been happening... I have felt so much
assurance and comfort in becoming who I need to be to stay strong when
I get home, to eventually provide spiritually and physically for a
family, and then even more eventually to return home to Heavenly
Father. I have a lot of confidence in my future regardless of my
current weaknesses. And hey who knows whether those weaknesses will
still show themselves in my future or not but either way it will all
work out. Heavenly Father takes care of each of us physically as we
strive to take care of ourselves spiritually. :) Seriously though the
comfort has been really really nice.

Interesting News... During Presidents interviews... My companionship
became the go-to companionship for teaching YSA males that the sisters
would need help with... So I just became a YSA Branch missionary
again! Yay! And it was cool because last week a lady came to church
saying that she had been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon
for 2 months and she felt like it was right and she was super pumped
on life :) and then this past Sunday... There were 2 guys that came in
interested to learn more! One because he's dating a member, and
another because a girl in the ward brought him. They are both super
cool and I'm excited to have lessons with them!

It's pretty fun to teach... Especially when it runs super smoothly and
When it's a learning experience all around. A lot of times I
understand things better after I teach it. So I enjoy digging deeper
and deeper into the Doctrine of Christ as I teach!

I went to the beach yesterday and got sunburnt... It stings a lil
bit... We also played rugby... That was fun again! We decided that
whether you scored or got scored on... It was a nice tri/try. So no
matter what... All the missionaries will say "nice try!" on both teams
ha :) it's kinda fun knowing enough about rugby to teach them all!

I've been learning to love the members here a lot more. It will be
hard to leave Plainview! But it's weird to think that this is the
longest I have stayed in one area! This is finishing 5 transfers here
(so 7-1/2 months about) and who knows! Maybe I'll end up dying
(leaving for home) here! I hope so! That would put me at 1 year in
Plainview! If not... I hope to make my next area the BEST area ever!
Can you believe that after this one I have 3 transfers left... Yikes

Thanks for all your support and prayers. It really means a lot to me!
Love you all!
Elder Clark

It has been a crazy week. I lost the phone on Tuesday (I didn't even notice because Elder Wood never let me carry the phone haha). So Elder James and I had fun being stuck without a phone for a couple of days. We found it on Thursday though!!!!!! I had dropped it in our Ward Mission Leader's car. He searched the car over and over before then and couldn't find it, but when Elder James and I prayed we both felt like it was in his car. We went there to look, and I remembered there was a box of wire sitting next to me where I may have dropped the phone. Sure enough, there was a really small opening in the box and somehow the phone fell right into it. That was pretty crazy. But I'm telling you, the Lord cares about the little things too, even the dumb mindless things I do haha.

We also have seen a lot of success teaching! Almost all of our investigators right now are pretty solid, and we are teaching almost 10 people again! What a blessing. The ward is really taking off too. I am excited for things happening here.

Elder James is from Mill Creek, UT, right by Sandy!!!! He went to Skyline high, and was a wrestler and football player. Just to give you an idea of how awesome he is, he was 180 pounds and played CENTER in football. Like the man who throws the ball between his legs for those of you who went to public school. He is such a man that they wanted him to hit fat guys and protect the quarterback. So let's just say we have gotten some pretty good workouts in this week.

One of our new investigators is a retired high school football coach, so I don't think we will have a problem relating to him haha.

I don't have much to say, only that if you vote for me all of your wildest dreams will come true. Thank you.

<3 Elder Clark the younger

So times flying and it's really weird... If I had not gone home for
surgery I would have been going home this next transfer(meaning in 5
weeks)! I don't even know what to think! But I'm blown away!! All my
peeps are leaving and that's sad. Hopefully I can connect more with
the younger generation also :) That way I'm not just lost in time :)

Happy Late Easter! That's better than no happy Easter I guess ;) ha
but my Easter was fabulous :) I went to John and Amy's for dinner and
stayed there for awhile and we had a great time :) Amy cooked an
amazing meal that had like 500 courses... That's what it felt like
anyways! Haha I ate way WAYYYY too much but hey I was just preparing
for the crazy P-day I had yesterday. We went down to Montauk again! We
left at 3:20 am and drove the two hours there and took some nice beach
photos and skipped some rocks, the we had some good ol' Mcdonalds 2
for 3 breakfast sandwiches and drove the two hours back real quick :)
then of course the logical thing to do after something like that was
to not sleep and play rugby for a couple hours... Haha it was fun but
now I'm tired. Probably will be for the rest of my mission... Yay
life!

But I'm given the energy that I need when I'm obedient. I've seen that
over and over again. My life is directed according to my worthiness.
When I am working towards mine and others salvation... I am happy...
When I'm not working (aka reading, praying, improving, changing) I'm
not as happy. Trials don't have to determine our happiness, we do. And
how? "they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the
great Mediator of all men" (2 Nephi 2:27) then "ye should consider on
the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of
God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and
spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received
into heaven" (Mosiah 2:41) ... Hmmm... Sounds nice. It's a blessing
given "by obedience to the laws and ordinances in the Gospel"
(Articles of Faith 3). :) so DO IT! And help others to do it! That's
an invitation to you by Jesus Christ himself and by many many
representatives of Him. :)

Thank you so much for the package!!! I have been LOVING IT! And
hating it because operation fit in pants is partially on hold as I eat
my candies ;) Apparantly Riles is the only one that cares about my
health... You shoulda let him send a banana ;) haha jk :)  thank you! Love you mucho!
Love,
Elder Clark

Hello, :)

So I just went to the temple for my year and 6 month mark trip...
(DIS-GUS-TING) That means I have one more to go... That's the one that
happens the week before I'm home. It's the beginning of all my "lasts"
in the mission. But it's a new fresh start to hit my "first"s! I'm
pretty pumped! I had a little bit of a rough patch this week but I
found strength again through relying on Christ.

Wow I'm super tired... Ha but aren't we all??! Haha :)

I'm super excited for conference though! It's amazing how much focus
there has been on the Hastening of the Work in our ward, stake, and
world really haha :) we had an awesome ward council yesterday with
bishop focusing almost completely on the work of salvation. We were
able to present this new thing were starting that has all the people
that we are working with, all the members, and their needs and info on
them on a google doc. This is shared with all the members of the ward
council and we are able to have a little bit better coordination with
the ward and Bishop told the ward counsel that he is trying to figure
out how to get the missionaries and members more involved with each
other. So that is super super awesome! I'm excited about it!

So we spend some time last week working on that. However we have been
able to meet a lot of new people and the people we are teaching and
coming closer to Christ so that brings me to this state of PURE JOY!
:D:D

A buddy of mine now who was an investigator for the YSA sister
missionaries in my district got baptized yesterday. That was really
really powerful. He said "Because of this baptism, I have felt an
inner peace that I have never felt before". I truly have become a fan
of the ordinance of Baptism done in the Power of God for the remission
of sins. It's a really special opportunity to access the Atonement of
Jesus Christ and become clean, new, refreshed, and start our new life
of commitment to Christ! It is such a simple and sacred act that does
us all so much good. I want to urge you to continue following the
gospel of Jesus Christ by having faith, repenting, making and keeping
covenants forever. This is what brings promised blessings and allows
you to stand in the presence of Heavenly Father and love it.

A member of the YSA ward here bore his testimony yesterday also and he
mentioned that God's side of the covenants is always helping us to
keep our side of the covenant. That's amazing if we think about it. We
are doing nothing to "repay" God but we are doing everything to bring
about his purpose to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of
US, His children.

Love you all! Thanks for all that you do! Go out and do whatever your
promptings say!

Love,
Elder Tyler Clark

This week we drove the sisters crazy by having to drive them
everywhere because their car was in the shop. We had a sweet Zone
conference this week also and it's was really powerful! I loved the
analogy of 'the spyglass' which is a short story book thing that one
of our APs shared :) it is amazing because it talked about how much
the right perspective can change.

This is about a king who is sad about how his kingdom is doing so bad.
Then this guy comes around and makes a deal to show him why it's not
successful. He then gives him a spyglass in which he sees the future
possibilities of the kingdom. In seeing this, he shows the villagers
and tells them about it intern getting them excited and hopeful. This
then later translates into his Kingdom flourishing as he had seen in
the eyeglass. It is a powerful story and a very very good lesson for
us.

As we look at our faults and our weaknesses and our trials we will
become as them, less than who we are, but as we look with an eye of
faith and hope seeing the eternal perspective within ourselves we see
truly as God sees us. That is who we can become. It only takes this
vision, this eye of optimistic opportunity for good. This is exciting
and true. This is how God wants us to feel. He truly loves us for who
we are as his children. He will take care of his children. Always.

Things are really good here. I thought today was going to be my worst
day on the mission because I just wasn't doing well and time went to
fast and I felt like I got nothing done and it's cold and then to top
it off we got in a nice fender bender which I caused... I wasn't
driving but I was messing around and it caused it. Ya I felt awful.
However after writing this email to you, thinking about this
perspective, prayer, and taking care of what I needed to with the
accident report I truly have hope for a better today! It will be
awesome! I'm about to go do some GREAT work of The Lord! The day is
young!

Love you guys!

Elder Clark!

y hey heeeyyyyyy!

How are you all doing? I'm doing great if y'all were wondering! :) Ya
sorry this email is coming late we got caught up a little bit
yesterday... But anyways! I LOVE YOU! I guess I just wanted to say
that.

I got a SUPERCOOL new companion! His name is Elder M! He is a
stud of all studs. I'm really excited for this transfer because we can
have a lot of influence. Mostly because we both know why we are here
and are willing to work at why we are here. The blessings of obedience
and diligence :) My new companion is from Haiti :) Soooo guess what???
We get to teach/ Re-open the area in Creole! Yay for my little
knowledge of creole! I've been trying to pick it up again a little bit
:) for some reason I think I understand more than I did before... So
that's pretty cool :) Who knew I'd be right back in it again!

We have actually been teaching quite a bit more. It has been really
fun because we have a lot more people to teach than before. A lot of
miracles are happening in our ward and area! I know that Christ is
hastening the work by sending us people to invite to Christ :) We were
in the library this week planning to put together a PowerPoint about
how The Lord is Hastening his work and ironically a guy walked up to
us and said "hey you're the elders from the Mormon church" and he told
us he read an article in the New York Times about there being more
sister missionaries out on a mission. (Then talking to the sister
missionaries in my district who are the newly called 3rd companionship
of sister training leaders for the mission) We now will hopefully get
to meet with him. Get the point?? The Lord is hastening his work. No
ifs ands or buts. You can choose to be a part of it or not! I'm not
saying you have to be called to it as a full time missionary, but even
hastening the Work of Salvation in yourself will be a major part.
Start with yourself and Refine/Build by sharing. Maybe also sharing
will build yourself! Whatever you do, do something good. :) If you do
so, you will be happy. :) that's in the book of 1st Clark 2:3 :)

Let me just say that unplanned and planned miracles are happening! :)

Wow. So that's the update on Elder Clark the elder.... Love you guys!
:) Thanks for EVERYTHING that I don't appreciate enough. Ha :)

LOVE,
ELDER TYLER CLARK :)

Hey Everyone!

So this week was a pretty good week teaching wise! We had a lot of
appointments and a couple with new people which is awesome! :) The YSA
sisters in my district had a baptism on Sunday and that was my first
baptismal interview that I have conducted! So that's kind of cool! A
little scary but also not because it just means you have to follow the
spirit. But anyways the baptism went really well!

But we had transfer calls this past week and Elder B in my district
(who played for the state of Arizonas rugby team before the mission)
got called as a district leader. Then we were told that he was
leaving, and sister van Langen is going home (because it's her time to
go! haha). So that was the only changes up until Sunday morning...
When we got a phone call from the Zone Leaders saying that a last
minute change had happened and that my companion Elder P was
leaving... I was so sad. Still am :( but hey that's transfers for ya
:) So that's the latest with us!

So on Tuesday I'll find out who my new companion is and where my last
companion is going and with who. I truly care a lot about him so I
hope things are good for him! :)

So things are good here. I'm still LOVING the mission. I am super
excited because even though I still am making mistakes... I'm on the
right path to be where I want to be. Both physically and spiritually.
I know that it isn't how fast you go that matters, but it's that you
GO in the right direction! :)

Love you all!

Elder Tyler Clark!

Hey Wonderful people that I love!

I'm sorry I didn't email ya last week :( But this week I can tell ya what happened! I'll tell ya what happened! Miracles happened! Milagros! Everywhere! So we had a great great two weeks! Ever since we had interviews with president and our district just upped our level in work and unity with the ward! We talked a lot about setting goals and about purifying our works to allow Heavenly Father the opportunity to bless us! We started working just a little bit harder with just a little bit more fire and suddenly our work has been doubled because the solid people to teach have doubled!

We had a day with 3 lessons on it scheduled last week! That's almost as many as we get in a week. We taught all of them and all of them went BEAUTIFULLY. Heavenly Father has been blessing us. H (an investigator who just got back from china) accepted to be baptized on the 8th of March. Then we had an AMAZING and unbelievable change of heart in an investigator who made the decision to get baptized! She has so much hope and light now it is amazing. The sisters investigator who has been investigating awhile, whom they had worked so hard to help recognize the testimony he had turned around and said he wants to get baptized on Sunday. We met with bishop and he gave us great instruction on how to help the work progress. We met with 2 less active members who have made the decision to make getting to the temple their goal! 3 people our district has been working with from Plainview went to do temple baptisms on Saturday. I'm smiling often because of the righteous choices of my New York friends. :)

We then had an amazing ward counsel meeting and stake president spoke to us about love. This again re-emphasized the importance of love. He made a comment that love between each individual is literally what holds the world together. In the New Testament it says "on this hangs all the law and the prophets" talking about love. He said that it should be the purpose and reason for everything we do in life and it very well should be. We need to have the kind of love for people like when we first fall in love, where we look past any faults and would do anything for that person. This really hit me and gave me another reality check! Made me ask myself if I really do love the people I serve. I want to tell you that I do, however there is so much more love for me to grow. I need to love them enough to be bold with power and authority to help, I need to love them enough to improve myself to benefit them, I need to love them enough to make even large sacrifices to make them feel of the love and joy of Christ.

This is the kind of love I want to have. It will take an eternity to learn to be that charitable but I hope to work towards it. So I'll start on that path by starting with who I already love so much! By telling you that
I LOVE YOU!

Love,
Elder Clark

P.S. Are you ready to love today??

So this past week has been busy! We shoveled A LOT of snow... We
played football in the snow... We helped an investigator of ours pack
everything up and move to Florida. (She has a lot of stuff) Needless
to say I was over there for quite some time these past few days!
However! We acquired their couch and a lot of food! It was in our
kitchen but we made room for it in the study room. All other
missionaries might end up being jealous now... Oh well... It came with
a price... Both my companion and I are sick :( Life Happens. But
that's alright! I'll be fine :)

I also did karaoke with the Martinez family (awesome family in my
ward!)... They told me about their karaoke tradition with missionaries
over a year ago when I was here and I left for home before I ever got
to do it! So that was fun!

We saw a sweet blessing from going out to work when we didn't want
to... It was awesome. We went to look up some people I had taught
before and after knocking on one door we decided to knock on the
neighbors... First door... Got inside and talked to for a good while!
So sweet! Second door... Got inside again!! Elder H in my
district ended up teaching them in Spanish! It just worked out
perfectly!! That doesn't happen very often... In my whole mission it's
probably less than 25 doors that I've been invited into! And that
night we had it back to back!!! Crazy cool!

I feel like I'm getting to know the members pretty well which is
awesome! That's what separates my favorite areas from my less favorite
(yet still favorite)! So that's good! I hope to make Plainview a more
favorite.

Another cool thing is I know it was revelation for me to be here.
Despite me being sad to leave Rego Park! I needed to be here. It's an
awesome opportunity! Thanks for all the support!

Love!
Elder Clark