Mission Week #71

February 13,  2012

Hello!

Well, we received our transfer calls on Saturday afternoon. One of my favorite ZL perks is that we get called in the afternoon and I dont have to wait until the night. I was expecting the APs to call but President's name showed up on the phone so I knew something was up. There was a bunch of changes with ZLs and to my surprise, I found out that I would be staying here in Orem. My new companion will be Elder Williams and he is from Oregon. He has been out a transfer less than me. I dont know him too well but I have met him at zone conferences and stuff. 

This week we had significant problems with idol worship. Normally it is just the Virgin de Guadelupe but we have a lady who worships la Santa Muerte. The only prior knowledge I had of the Santa Muerte was that it is pretty big in Mexico, especially with the drug trafficking people. They have a church and everything. The subject came up in the lesson as we were just starting and Elder Cordova asked what the little statue on the table was. She responded that it was the Santa Muerte then went off about how she prays to her and she gives her money. Crazy. The next day we were teaching a lady who has been pretty accepting about the Restoration but it was pretty clear she had some special feelings for the Virgin. She has a big picture of Maria that lights up and everything outside her front door. So, we went over the 10 commandments. We talked about how there was only 1 God then we moved onto the second one about not having idols and how we arent supposed to pray to them. She was just kind of nodding her head in agreement until we mentioned how praying to her Idols of Maria wouldnt exactly be in line with that commandment. She got really defensive and closed the Bible she was reading from and walked over and handed it to us. Obviously we respect Mary for her role as the Mother of Christ but these people take it to far some times. 

The investigator who made the most progress this week was Carlos. An older guy from Mexico who lives with his son and daughter in law. During one of our lessons this week he told us that about a week before we showed up he prayed that God would give him guidance in his life. He said that he felt that we were that guidance. It is always nice to be told that you were the answer to someones prayer. About a month ago it was about 8:30 on a Sunday night and we couldnt think of anyone else to visit. We prayed and then remembered about a small apartment we had knocked on before but nobody had been there.  We went and Carlos invited us in. He was kind of skeptical at first but has been doing well. He came to church yesterday and he looks good. Cool story right? 

This week I interviewed a UVU student for baptism that is from Kenya. Him and three friends were just looking on the internet trying to decide where to go to college and ended up here. One of his friends already got baptized a couple months ago. It is amazing to see how people end up here from all over the world. 

Well, I think that is it. I hope you are all doing awesome. 

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week #70

February 6,2010

Hello again. It feels like I was just sitting at the computer writing but it has already been a week...

 

Tuesday we had ZLC. It was fun to see everyone and talk about the needs of the mission. The most exciting part is presenting the zone plans of action. There are some very creative elders and everyone came up with great ideas for February. I sent home a copy of ours so you can see it when it arrives in the mail. Many missions around the world will have new mission presidents this July. I think all of them are called but they just havent been assigned missions yet. Three mission presidents and their wives came and sat in on our ZLC. The wives had lots of questions.

 

Wednesday we had interviews with Presidente Pitts. My interviews with him are always short. The great thing about interviews is that Sister Pitts brings food for us too.

 

Friday I got a call from the mission office. Sister Langford asked if I wanted to go out to lunch with Taylor the next day. Of course, I said yes. It was fun to see him and nice to meet Annie. They are a great couple!

 

We went to the bank last week and my comp was getting a check cashed and the worker was asking him where he was from and he asked where she was from. She said Florida so I went over and joined the conversation. She said she was from Orlando, and so did I, and she asked if I knew Sister Clark who was stake young womens president. Small world right? Her name was Jerusha Alava.

 

This morning we went with Hno and Hna Gonzales to the church to do some service cleaning it. They need food and the branch president said they needed to do some type of service before they could have a food order.

 

I have a feeling that my emails are getting shorter every week....I cant think of what to write anymore.

We get transfer calls on Saturday. I will be very surprised if I do not leave. When I sat down for my interview with President he said, "Well, you have been in the area for awhile." Also, every area has been 3 transfers and this is number 3 here. I already have a good guess of where I am going and who my comp will be but I dont want to jinx myself. 

 

I hope you are all doing great!

 

Love, Elder Clark 

Mission Week #69

January 31,  2012

Hi!

 

Fast 18 Months right? Last week was great. It was all a blur and went super fast...but great.

 

Zone Conference on Tuesday went well. It was wierd to be up on the stand next to President conducting. There are lots of new missionaries and many people gave their "final testimonies" at the end of the meeting.

 

Saturday was an awesome day. Manuel was excited and his baptism went well. Elder Datwyler got to baptize him and it was fun to see his excitement/nervousness for his first baptismal experience.

 

The investigators are doing well. Brother Gonzales is mad at some of the branch leadership so that isnt good but thankfully he is still moving foward. We were talking about his baptism and naming the people from the branch who would be there and as we named some people he stopped us and said "Im not doing it if he is there." Sometimes spanish branches seem like they come straight out of novelas.

 

Last week I may have mentioned a Castillo family that we found. We went back last night and to our surprise there was a rejection note on the door. They were nice about it but said they would not like us to come back.

 

Today so far we went to one of our ward mission leaders house and he gave us hair cuts and we also went to the Chevy dealership where another one of our ward mission leaders works and we detailed our car with him. I think we are going to play lazer tag next.

 

Tomorrow is ZLC. Our zone plan of action is pretty simple but it looks good. I'll send a copy home.

 

I hope you are all doing great!

 

Love, Elder Clark  

 

Mission Week #68

January 23, 2012


Hello again!

I dont really have much time to write. We have zone conference tomorrow and we are conducting it and have to finish some final stuff off.  

Last week was awesome though. It has been fun to have a new missionary with us. We started teaching lots of new people . A lady named Ofelia, a young couple from Peru and El Salvador, and another young couple from Mexico and Argentina. Also, a girl moved from LA and is living with one of the families in the branch and we started visiting her. 

Manuel passed his interview on Friday and came to church yesterday so he is set to be baptized Saturday. 

Sundays are super busy for us. We have stake correlation meetings at 8 and at 9 then a sacrament at 11 and then we stay for the 3 hours at the branch from 1 to 4. Followed by another stake correlation meeting at 4:15. 

We finally had snow! There is ice all over the place now but it was cool to see everything in white.

This week is going to be super busy. Like I said we have zone conference tomorrow and then the rest of the week we will be working a lot on the zone plan of action. We are not quite sure yet what we will do.

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week #67

January 17th, 2012

Hello!

 

As you can tell, I didnt write yesterday due to the holiday. We had a fun P day yesterday. I talked to President on Saturday and he said we might be getting a visa waiter companion and then the APs called us Sunday and confirmed. So, yesterday morning we went to the mission office and picked up Elder Datwyler, who is waiting on a visa to Barcelona, Spain. He is from Logan. Directly after that we went to Nickel City and played laser tag, a great first thing to do right after stepping out of the MTC. It is fun to be with a young one again. 

 

Of course the highlight of the week was the sightings at BYU. I had a feeling that I was going to see someone. As we were crossing the parking lot walking in I saw a Florida liscence plate on a car. Sister Bravato stepped out and we took a couple pictures. We were there to interview an investigator for the BYU Elders and as we were walking around the library looking for them I saw Bennet on the computer. I went and sat next to him and after a couple seconds he realized who I was. He texted Christian and he ran over. It was great to see them all!

 

Last week went well. I dont really remember how much I have talked about each of the investigators we are teaching.....but hopefully I have mentioned Manuel. He is 28 and from Mexico. He dad is less active and he was going to get baptized 7 years ago in Mexico but moved here. We have been seeing him for like 3 weeks and it was cool when we invited him to be baptized because the day that we set was exactly 7 years from his date he had in Mexico. He got pretty sick and wasnt able to make it to church this week but he is pretty set to be baptized the 27th. When we went over the baptismal interview questions and asked about the "beliefs" he had, he kept saying "I dont believe, I know."

 

For like two months we have been trying to visit the sister of a couple hnas in the ward and wednesday we were finally able to meet. In the end we just set up a dinner. If there is food, people generally show up. Her name is Veronica and she is a single mom. We saw her again Friday and again last night is she is progressing well.

 

The Gonzales family is about the same. Hno said he is ready to take the step but just wants to wait for his wife.

 

I submitted the scholarship application to BYU this week. It was weird doing it from BYU.

 

There are two Japanese missionaries in the mission and they are both in our district. One sister and an Elder. It is awesome when we are in district meeting and there are outbursts of Spanish, Japanese, and English all at the same time.

 

I think that is it for this week.

 

Love, Elder Clark

 

Mission Week #66

Hello!

 

Last week was good. We werent going to go to transfers but the other Elders in the district didnt find a ride so we took them. It was good to see everyone but super weird to see so many people leaving. Elder Santos went home along with a lot of other people I knew. After we went to Cafe Rio.

Last week was one of those weeks where it seemed like everyone just gave us tons of food and I was stuffed all the time. Wednesday, the day of transfers, was the worst. We visited some less actives from Peru around 3 that afternoon and they gave us tomales and a huge plate of rice and chicken. Then, at 5 we had a big carne asada dinner. Then, at 8, some of our investigators brought out Mexican tomales and I felt like I was going to explode after all that.

 

Thursday I did an exchange with the BYU Elders which was pretty fun. The missionary I was with is from Fort Lauderdale but his family recently moved to Orlando. It is amazing to see how some people end up at BYU and they dont even know why they came but they end up getting baptized. A couple weeks ago a kid from Africa got baptized who didnt have any connections to Utah but just applied to a bunch of colleges in the states and only got accepted to BYU. These people are great examples. A lot of them dont have family support but know its the right thing to do. During the exchange I interviewed a guy whose family is against it but got baptized this week. Also, we taught a girl from Iowa who is ready but her parents said they were going to stop paying for everything. It was amazing to see her faith as she talked about even though her parents arent supportive she knows its the right thing to do.

 

Saturday we had a super busy day. A single mom called us from the branch and asked us to come over because she needed to talk. She has a teenage son and is worried about him. It is crazy how because we have a tag on people look up to us and expect us to be able to help them with anything. I felt pretty inadequate as she was telling us about her problems. After that we had an intense visit with some investigators. They both want to get baptized but the girlfriend doesnt want to get married with the boyfriend (she said it directly to his face....). They were both crying. It is kind of sad because they have some big problems but they struggle to do the simple things which would help them so much. So, we did parent counseling and marriage counseling in one night. Also, on the way home one of the ward counselors called and said they didnt have speakers for yesterday.

 

Considering the lack of preparation the talk went well. I talked a little about Daniel Clark, the first member in the Clark family, who got baptized in England and missionary work in general. After that we also taught the Gospel principles class.

 

The picture attached is of Saturday's dinner. Serviche and other stuff with a Peruvian family. Raw fish. Also, we had octapus. I hope you are proud of me.

 

I hope you have a great week!

 

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week #65

Happy New Year!

 

Saturday we got transfer calls and I am..................staying. So the pattern continues. Every area has been 3 transfers. The calls are becoming very predictable. We had a good new years. Like three weeks ago when we were at a leadership meeting we gave suggestions for possible new years eve movies to watch as a district. Mostly everyone suggested movies that we didnt think would be approved. However, it seems as if President may be getting a little soft because he approved Thor. So we had a district activity from 5 to 10 and watched Thor, which I enjoyed, then we came home. We had permission to stay up until 12 and sleep in until 8, but I went to bed at around 11.

 

Not too many investigators came to church yesterday, even though it now starts later. The family of the Branch President is back in town so I am off piano duty (his daughter plays).

 

The Gonzales family is continuing to progress well. Hna Gonzales hadnt prayed specifically until last week. We had discussed what we could do to help her remember to do it and we decided to write on a piece of paper and give it to them to put it in a place where they would see it frequently. When we followed up on how their prayers were doing Hno was proud to tell us that he had placed the note on the tv and that when his wife went to watch her novelas she was reminded to pray. She is feeling good about everything and read the Book of Mormon and the Bible for an hour straight one day. She also fasted on her own. They both should be ready in the upcoming weeks.

 

We started teaching a young couple this week, Rigo and Sonya. One of our Stake Presidents called us with a referral and instead of finding the referral we found Rigo and his wife who are neighbors of the referral. They had a baby recently and seem very open. It was awesome because they are in a tiny apartment hidden behind commercial buildings.

 

It has been amazing weather all week. A little cold but sunny and clear. I wonder if it will ever snow....Well, I hope you all have an awesome week!

 

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week #64

December 26, 2011 9:04:13 PM GMT+03:00

Hello!

 

It was great to talk to you all yesterday. I think we covered everything so I cant think of anything to say..........

 

The investigators are doing well for the most part. The Gonzalez family came to church. We had a good lesson with them and overviewed the restoration. They said they are beginning to see their prayers answered. Earlier during the week some members had called and asked if we could think of anyone who could use a Christmas tree. The Gonzalez family didnt have one so we thought of them and brought it with us to the lesson. They were pumped.

 

Have I mentioned Mery and Mauricio? Mery is baptized, Mauricio is getting ready. The small problem is that Mauricio is married to someone else in Mexico. This always seems to happen with the good people.

 

Well, have fun being together!

 

Love, Elder Clark 

Mission Week #63

Feliz Navidad

December 19, 2011 9:43:29 PM GMT+03:00

Hello!

 

I cant believe Christmas is this week! The month has flown by.

 

The highlight of the week was Carmen's baptism. We had good support from the ward and the gonzalez family came to watch. Elder Cordova baptized her and I confirmed her yesterday.

 

Some sad news is that Manuel had to move back to Chicago. He had come here and was living with one of his daughters but wasnt able to find a steady job so he had to go back... He should get baptized there though and hopefully with his wife too.

 

This week was super busy. We had a leadership meeting all day Tuesday. The training we gave went well. I went on exchanges with the 2 district leaders of the zone on wednesday and thursday. Wednesday was with Elder Rodriquez who covers the UVU area. They cover like 30 singles wards. It was wierd to knock doors at student housing places. Thursday was with Elder Allan of Scotland. It was fun to be on a bike for a day in his area. However, I am glad to have a car. Especially today due to the snow.

Yesterday Jose Alonso of the 70 showed up at our sacrament meeting. I didnt recognize him at first and he was sitting on the stand right in front of me. (I was playing the piano). He gave a great talk at conference in October and it was cool to hear him speak in Spanish.

 

We have received countless invitations for Christmas. We are going with a Peruvian family and then a Chilean family on Christmas Eve. Then, on Sunday morning we are going to the home of the high councilman over missionary work in Julie's stake. He invited us back in October.

 

I am excited to talk on Sunday! 3:00 would be great.

 

Love, Elder Clark