Mission Week 3

Hello!

Emailing isn't quite as good as talking face to face but that was fun to see you! Since then, we have been pretty busy. Friday night there was a stake activity called "La noche de Hispanidad." It was in the gym and most of the Hispanic countries were represented with food and some of the members performed dances from their various countries. It was awesome to enjoy parts of all the different cultures and to meet more people. Alejandra's whole family came and I spent a lot of the time talking to their oldest son Kevin who is 11. It seemed like they all had a great time. I think we went to something similar a couple years ago with the Harts and that was where Blake owned the stage with his guitar.

Saturday I attended my first baptismal service as a missionary. It was for Hugo, the 16 year old we have been teaching and Manuel, who is about 25 has been investigating the church for over 7 years. I never taught Manuel but it's pretty sweet how we ended up baptizing him. Last week during our weekly planning session we were setting goals and for our baptismal goal we were only going to put 1 but decided to put 2 in hopes of something out of the blue. From what E. Santos has said I guess it happens somewhat often that people just call the missionaries and say they want to get baptized and that happened to us Wednesday. Manuel called us and said he wanted to get baptized. Since he's had all the lessons he just had to have the interview so he had that then he was baptized Saturday...pretty sweet!

Sunday's seem like the busiest day of the week. We have to wake up early so that we can be at the Sharon Park ward council at 7. The bishop of that ward is awesome and he's one of the people who comes and plays soccer some mornings with us at 6. Elder Santos and I then go to the Timpanogas ward that starts at 9 so we usually have some time to try and arrange last minute rides and give last minute church invitations. This week two members picked up Alejandra's family and they all got there a couple minutes after it started except the grandma who works Sunday mornings. They were worried about not having church clothes or the money to buy them but we told them everyone would be accepting and the ward was really friendly to them all. Alejandra has 4 kids (11, 6, 4, and 2) and the 6 and 4 year old girls love primary. The primary president asked us to go in for like 5 minutes and talk about what missionaries do so that was fun. Later last night we went out teaching with Hugo. He was pretty nervous but I think it was great for him. We taught some good lessons and one in particular was with three teenagers from Guatemala who we found last week.

Not much other news....everything is great here in Orem!

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week 2

Hello!

It's been another exciting week here in Utah. On Wednesday we had zone conference and Elder Gaverret of the 70 was there with us. It was great to listen to him and have the chance to meet more of the missionaries. We have been staying pretty busy. Hugo, the 16 year old we have been teaching was going to get baptized on Saturday but his family couldnt come so it got moved to this upcoming Saturday. The family of Alejandra, Mario (her husband), Jaun (Mario's brother), Marta (Alejandra's mom), and Kevin (their oldest son), are all doing well.

Yesterday being my first time attending our ward because of conference gave me a good taste of what Sundays will be like the next 2 years. Our area covers five stakes and two spanish wards. Since there are three of us, Elder Santos and I dropped off Elder Hudson at one of the wards then we went to the other one. Alejandra's family was supposed to be picked up by a member but about 15 minutes before church started the member showed up without the family. He said he didnt have room in his car so he couldnt take them. We tried to call them but they didnt answer their phone. We stepped out to call them again about 15 minutes into the meeting and Mario answered and said he and Jaun were walking the 2 miles with two of his daughters to church. Alejandra looks like she's 8 months pregnant so she couldnt come but those four made it about 45 minutes into the meeting. All the ward members were very nice in greeting them after sacrament. Also, right after sacrament the Primary President somewhat frantically walked up to E. Santos and I and asked if one of us could play the piano because they were preparing for the Primary program and the normal pianist wasnt there. At this point I had to smile because for the last 10 years you have been telling me this would happen, but yes, I played the piano for most of the next 2 hours periodically walking back and forth to see how Mario and Jaun were doing in Gospel Principles.

For dinner yesterday we had two dinner appointments so I was dropped off at one family's house and E. Hudson and E. Santos went to eat at another members house. The appointment I went to was with a young American family that had set up a dinner for some potential investigators but they cancelled so it was just me, the husband and the wife, and their two little kids. It was nice to have some American food. Every night we have a meal with a member and so far everything has been pretty good. On Saturday we went to an Investigators house for lunch and had some sushi stuff. Nothing like eyeball soup but hey, for me eating sushi was quite the accomplishment.

Not too much else to say... 2 or 3 times a week we have been going to the church at 6 to play indoor soccer with the bishop, his son, and 4 or 5 other kids from the high school team of the bishop's son. They are all pretty good and even the bishop has some skills. This morning while we were shopping someone gave us money again. We were just walking down an aisle and he put a 50 in our cart. We told him we had money already to pay for our stuff but he insisted. That is the fun thing about being in Utah. When we go into the grocery store a lot of the the workers stop and shake our hands and say hi.. everyone is really nice in general.

Hope everything is great on the oak shore drive,

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week 1

Hola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been quite an exciting week so I guess I'll just start from the beginning.....

Wednesday morning the AP's picked us up at the MTC and we made the 5 minute journey over to the Mission office. We met some of the senior missionaries then went to meet President and Sister Pitts. We sang Called to Serve on their doorstop then they came out to greet us. Immediately Sister Pitts mentioned how she had met mom before. We had breakfast there and a little orientation from the Pres. and then went to a chapel directly across the street from the MTC to have interviews and meet our trainers. It was quite the intense hour as we had some more orientation and waited for our trainers. We sat in a room and all the new missionaries were on one side and all the trainers sat on one side and one by one Pres. called a trainer up and the trainer would say who they would be training and the area they would be serving in. I definitely think I have the best trainer! His name is Elder Santos and he is from Ecuador. He's the only member in his family was joined the church when he was 16. He was a foreign exchange student last year in Idaho so he's pretty much fluent in English. Also, Elder Hudson, who is waiting for a visa to go to Spain is with us so we are a Trio. I am serving in the Sharon Park area (bikes), which is great! Its in Orem and although Julie's house is out of our area, Its only a short bike ride away.

Wednesday after meeting my companions we went to where we live. Its the basement of a members house and they are very nice people. I got a little time to unpack then we were off to my first dinner appointment. It was at a family's house from Santiago Chile so there was a connection there. We had some rice and chicken and thankfully nothing too spicy or scary. After that we went to the church building for a ward activity they have every Wednesday night from 6-7. Its basically a large family home evening and my first missionary action was giving the spiritual thought at that. Next we went to visit some investigators. It was pretty difficult picking up what they were saying but I recognized words here and there. Every Wednesday from 8-9 the ward plays soccer and with a member we went and picked up Hugo who is 16 and has a baptismal date for the 9th. It was pretty fun but Im still a little cautious with my knee.

Thursday I got to do some shopping during lunch time since I didnt have any food and the rumor was fulfilled about people giving us money. We were at the store for about 2 minutes when an older lady walked up to us and handed us a $20. She said she had served two missions and loves missionaries. Later that night I met the most amazing family ever. Elder Santos had talked to one of the people in the family before but we returned and there was four other people there at the house along with some other kids. They were more focused and listened more intently than Ive ever seen anyone before. We taught them for awhile then made the long ride home. Elder Santos did triathlons in Ecuador and is insane on a bike. My legs have never been so sore but its great! One of the bike tires went flat so we had to go get a new one and we went to Park's. If you can remember, that's where Jake Mayfield worked and where we rented ski's a couple times. Its pretty unique being a missionary in the same place where Ive been so many times but its fun. Someone honks and waves at us about every ten seconds.

We watched conference at the members house above us and they were very nice. It was definitely easier to focus as a missionary. Last night we went back to the family I met on thursday and all five of the adults agreed to be baptized. A member had invited them over for breakfast and conference and they said they had enjoyed it. The members are awesome here. Today while we were shopping a lady walked up and said if we ever need anything hemmed she would do it for free. A couple times people have just stopped us and told us about people who they think would be interested in getting taught.

Thus, its been a great first week! Thanks for everything!

Love, Elder Clark

If you write to the mission office address there is a office sister who will just forward it to our house so thats the easiest thing for mail:

UTAH PROVO MISSION
2520 University Ave # 100
Provo, UT 84604

MTC Week 7

Hola!

   I cant believe this is the last email I'll be sending from the MTC! The time has flown by and I'm excited to enter the field. This last week has probably been my favorite during my time here. Saturday night was our TRC and we had an amazing volunteer investigator. He was about 25 and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. It went really well and after as we were leaving he gave us big hugs and talked to us about how he had a sister pass away 8 months ago and how he needed to hear our lesson because it reaffirmed his testimony of the Plan of Salvation. It was awesome to teach someone and have it influence them. Every week we've had to prepare talks in case we get called to give one and this week I got called up! After the sacrament whoever is conducting the meeting stands up and announces what 2 missionaries will be talking that day. Sunday it was an hermana in my district and I and the topic was the Plan of Salvation. It was only 5 or 6 minutes but it felt alright speaking in Spanish. Usually I wouldn't worry about giving it in Spanish but a member of the MTC presidency was visiting our meeting and he knew Spanish...thus, a little more pressure but it went well.
   My official travel plans include: walking to the front desk at 6:30 on Wednesday morning and getting picked up in a van. Quite extravagant if I say so myself. 7 Members of my district leave Monday, and my comp. leaves Tuesday so I'll have a day to join in with some other Elders in my zone. I cant wait! One week from today! Thanks for the letters!

Love, Elder Clark