Mission Week #43

Sent: Mon, Aug 1, 2011 1:23 pm
Subject: Otra Semana

Hola,

 

We had another good week.

 

We met with Uribes again. I basically told them... Well, you know everything and you are ready so are you willing to make the changes necessary to be able to be baptized and have more blessings in your family? They said they are willing to do it. We talked about all of the blessings they have already received as they have made little changes in their lives and the additional blessings they can enjoy. A couple weeks the priesthood lesson in church was on the importance of prayer. Hno. Uribe raised his hand and explained how much closer his family has been since they began to pray every night as a family. It was awesome from my perspective to see how he was applying the things we have been teaching and is able to recognize how it is helping his family.

 

We finished up teaching Wilbur this week and he came to church yesterday so everything is looking good for his baptism this week. He has been very golden ever since the first time we started meeting with him. I don't know if I mentioned this but he works as a mechanic for a stake president so that definitely helps.

 

On Tuesday we were driving back from an appointment with Wilbur and we drove past a house we had visited before but they never had answered. For some reason I felt like we should go there so we flipped around, knocked, and met this guy named Roberto from Peru. Elder Santos had taught him over a year ago but he had moved. He seems pretty open and was very grateful that we stopped by. The same kind of thing happened on Saturday. There was a house we had visited in Myton like a month ago but since then nobody was ever home. We went back and met a guy named Sebastian, also from Peru. He was just sitting on his porch when we drove up. As we left he thanked us for coming and said he was kind of lonely and hoping someone would come.

 

The Vasquezs were busy all week with family but made it to church yesterday. I think it was a good experience for Hna. Vasquez because during Gospel Principles class a lady shared her testimony about how she took the lessons in Costa Rica as a ten year old and was the only one of her family to join the church and still is the only member as a 30 year old. She now is married and has a couple kids and is still going strong in the church.

 

Yesterday President called and asked me to speak at the zone conference we are having next week. Elder Malm of the 70 will be there. I thought I would be free since I spoke at the last one but oh well. For some reason it is being held on Monday so I wont be emailing until Tuesday. We will be driving down in the van Sunday night and staying in the mission home.

 

Well, it sounds like everything is going well at home. Staying nice and busy. One year down, one to go.

 

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week #42

Sent: Mon, Jul 18, 2011 1:40 pm
Subject: Una Semana Excelente

Hello,

Last week was awesome! Saturday we had Gabe and Erika's baptism. The Branch auxiliaries are just getting started and Gabe became the first young mens member. The young mens president is an awesome fellow shipper and baptized Gabe and Elder Meakin baptized Erika. Their dad gave the opening prayer, their aunt gave the closing prayer, and their mom gave her testimony. They should be getting baptized next month. There were a lot of investigators there and it helped them see what a baptism is like and feel of the Spirit there.

Thursday we met with Wilbur again. He is the man! He read 3 Nefi 11 and prayed and felt his answer. We were on exchanges and I was the only one who could speak Spanish so it was weird but it was a great lesson. We taught about the plan of salvation and I asked him what he thought God wanted him to do in his life. He said...i don't know, tell me. We opened up to 2 Nefi 31 where it talks about the commandment to repent and be baptized. I gave him the invitation and he accepted. It was awesome to see his faith and willingness to follow God. Right after that we saw Fernando and had a similar lesson. He also accepted the invitation to be baptized.

The next day we saw Hector. Did I talk about him? He is one of 3 guys from Chile in Roosevelt. The other 2 are members. It was our first real sit down lesson with him and he had questions about baptism. We were on a roll so we invited him to be baptized too. He accepted.

The fam Vasquez is doing awesome. They now have a date for next month as well. They said they weren't sure still if they feel ready but 2 of the kids said they are good to go at the baptism. The fam Uribe's family is coming to visit in a couple weeks so we are hesitantly planning a marriage for then.

The area is doing great! I am excited to be here while all of this is happening. We got transfer calls on Saturday night. Elder Meakin is going to Sharon Park, my first area and I will be getting a new companion from the MTC. I am glad this time the "hijo" will be coming to a more successful area. We head down to Provo tomorrow in the afternoon and have dinner and a trainers meeting at the Pitt's house. We are going to sleep there and we get to go to the temple in the morning. I should get to know the new companion well with a 3 hour car ride back to Roosevelt!

Have a great week! 

Love, Elder Clark 

Mission Week #40

Sent: Tue, Jul 5, 2011 11:36 am
Subject: Fourth of July

Hola,

Our 4th of July was pretty sweet here. We met Sunday night around 6 here in Roosevelt with the Missionaries from Vernal. The AP's came and picked us up and we made the long trip to Provo. Each companionship stayed with a family in President Pitt's home ward. We stayed in a really nice home up above the Provo Temple with an older couple. We got there around 9, had some ice cream, then went to sleep. They drove us to the parade in the morning. We all congregated at the high school but they dropped us off a block away because they wanted annual spot. Walking though the crowd to the school was just a prelude of what was to come. "The missionaries!!!"  was heard left and right. It was fun to see the whole mission together. Elder Ramires says thanks for the socks. After awhile of standing around we joined the parade. We starting singing "Called to Serve." It was really one of the most awesome, crazy things ever. Every other participant in the parade got nice applause but we got yelling standing ovations for an hour. I then understood why president told us many times to stay humble. All the kids were screaming and wanted high 5's. It must be how a rock star feels to be every day. I don't think they get that kind of treatment in Spain, or anywhere else. About 5 minutes in I saw the Cosgraves and we had a 10 second conversation.  After it was over we got in the van and headed out. We had pizza on the way. President drove this time and I was in the front seat so I was pleasured with listening to him tell stories and answer deep doctrine questions most of the ride home. We had a district activity from 5-9 and we got to watch Mega Mind and Tron. It was nice to have some relax time.

Last week went well. Saturday we did service working in the yard with the Fam. Uribe and Vasquez. We came back for dinner and had an amazing carne asada dinner.

We are teaching this lady named Flor. She is like 30 and her husband who is inactive is like 60...... pretty wierd. She is very Christian but things are going good so far. Our last lesson was on the Godhead. That is one of the most difficult things to teach to a creed believing Christian. All of these creeds have got most of Christianity confused. We talked about how when Jesus was one the Earth he frequently used the phrase "My Father who is in heaven.." and how when he was in Gethsemane he wouldn't pray to himself asking himself to remove the bitter cup, but in the end we just explained that a testimony of the Book of Mormon would let her know if everything we are teaching is true. She seems pretty sincere so hopefully she just prays and asks. It really is not that difficult of an equation.

I am glad you are enjoying time together. Those are the best times!

Love you!  Elder Clark

Mission Week #39

Sent: Mon, Jun 27, 2011 1:42 pm

Hello,

It is very sad to hear of the passing of Grandpa Clark. I had just finished reading the email from mom when President Pitts called and talked to me. I'm glad the email was titled "Open First." It is weird being so out of the loop for something like this. I am grateful that we were able to go and see him and spend some time with him before I went into the MTC.

We had a pretty busy week here. We drove down to Provo Monday night and stayed at the mission home. We had a little devotional with President. He always seems to have some sort of amazing scriptures or deep doctrine. The next morning we had zone conference. There was a theme scripture (DC 109:22) and everyone is supposed to prepare a talk then President just picks 4 people to speak. I was number 3. I was kind of thinking I would get called because I hadn't yet. I just talked on taking the name of Christ upon us.

We did service with some old people on Wednesday. While we were working we heard a weird noise that turned out to be a woodchuck hiding under a trailer, trying not to be eaten by two dogs. In the end, he was unsuccessful because my companion aided the dogs and poked the woodchuck with a stick. It was quite the event.

Sindi (Cindy) got baptized Saturday. Elder Santos served here when he started his mission and evidently had taught her dad so he got permission to come to the baptism. The Branch President, President Spencer, did the baptism. It was a great experience after not having one for awhile.

The Fam. Urive and Fam. Vasquez  are progressing well but also had a death in the family last week. On Friday we were teaching the Urives and Hno. Urive told us how is mom wasnt doing to well and the next day she passed away. That is Hna. Vasquez's mom. They were sad at church but the branch members were good to them.

Wednesday we went to the Temple and Cafe Rio after. Two of my favorite places. The Vernal temple is really small but awesome nonetheless.

I love you all, keep me posted,

Elder Clark

Mission Week #38

Sent: Mon, Jun 20, 2011 1:38 pm
Subject: Otra Semana

Hello again!

We had a great week here. Yesterday went very well. We started out going to Bridgeland and translating. I translated for two ladies who must not have been aware that we were translating because they spoke incredibly fast. One in particular shared like 3 poems which had old English and obscure vocab. Oh well. I just gave a general summary of what was going on. There is usually never investigators there but one guy randomly showed up which is always a nice surprise. Right after that we headed to the branch.

 l don't remember what people I mentioned last week so here is basically the people we are teaching...

Cindy- she is like 20 and from Guatemala. She has her baptismal interview tonight and her baptism is planned for Saturday!

Familia Urive- Mom and Dad and 3 kids. Erika and Gabe are 11 and 13 and then they have a 10 year old named Erik who has Downs Syndrome. They are all awesome. The mom and dad aren't quite sure if they want to get married but the kids have a date for early next month. They have been coming to church for almost 2 months now.

Familia Vasquez- We are teaching the mom, and her three kids Adrian (16), Alex (14), and Areli (9). They are family to the Urives and have been coming to church for 3 weeks now.

Fernando- He is like 30 and is living with and has a little kid with an inactive. Every time we leave a reading assignment he goes through and underlines everything then when we ask if he read he responds by telling us about the entire chapter.

Those are the progressing people but theres also some new people who have potential.

So at the branch we had 10 people come and it went well. Adrian, Erik, Elder Meakin, and I sat together during sacrament on a smaller row next to the rest of their families and Erik was being really funny. At one point he got up and gave Elder Meakin a huge hug, wrapping his hands around his neck. Elder Meakin got pretty red and the Branch President was laughing from the stand. Every 3rd Sunday they have a pot luck dinner thing and it was very good. The Hispanics love to bring food.

After Cindy's interview tonight we are heading to Provo then sleeping at the Mission Home. I think the AP's are driving a van up here.

Sounds like things are going well at home. Should be pretty busy the next couple of months. The time seems to go faster everyday- See ya!

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week #37

Sent: Mon, Jun 13, 2011 1:11 pm
Subject: ROOSEVELT

Hello from Eastern Utah. This is quite the place over here.

I guess I will start with the departure from Santaquin. I had my last dinner with the Pereiras. They were late getting back from Provo so instead of making something they brought us Cafe Rio burritos. Usually I would be disappointed not to have the food of Hna Pereira but we all know how good Cafe Rio is.  The church is building a video set to make a bunch a projects in Elberta and we stopped by there Tuesday to check it out. It is pretty amazing.

Wednesday was transfers. I feel like I pretty much know the majority of the missionaries now so it is always fun to see everyone. Something needed to be fixed on the truck so now we have a Corolla instead. We stopped through Heber on the way out East for some lunch and continued the journey. I think it took somewhere between 2.5 and 3 hours. My companion is pretty cool. He's from Maryland and been out 6 weeks less than me. His physical stature reminds me of Mr. Incredible off the movie. He did not get along with his last companion so he said he is pleased to be with me.

There are 3 incidents that I would say describe the nature of the area.

1. We were walking out of our dinner Thursday and when we got to the car this extremely drunk lady appeared out of nowhere and was wobbling all over the place and fell down in the front yard of a house across the street. She was the most drunk. She communicated that it was her dad's house she was trying to get to so we helped her in.

2. There are lots of people riding their horses all over. One was multi-tasking. Drinking beer and riding his horse.

3. When we were getting the directions for our dinner Saturday the directions were something like the following: "Turn left at the butcher shop. Go three miles and turn left when you see a large group of horses. Turn right when you see the field with the hay being harvested. Our house is on top of the hill." We ended up not being able to find it right away so the guy came and and met us on the main road with his 4-wheeler. It ended up being a good dinner after all.

The area we cover is gigantic. We cover one branch and a group. The group meets with an English ward and we are thinking about disbanding it because there is only one couple that goes and they would be fine being in the ward. The couple that goes puts on headphones and gets the translation from the not so professional translators who happen to be me and my companion. Some time you should try listening to a fast-speaking speaker in church give a talk and try repeating what they say. It is hard enough without changing the language. It was a pretty fun experience to do it for the first time though.

The branch is pretty small too. It was a great first week though because 11 investigators were there. It was amazing. There are a lot of good things going on in the area.

Today I think we are going golfing. It is free and we also have a free gym we can go to in the mornings. Pretty sweet.

Well, have an excellent week!

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week #36

Sent: Mon, Jun 6, 2011 1:11 pm
Subject: TRANSFERS

Hola,

We got the calls Saturday night and I am going to.............................Roosevelt!  Hello Eastern Utah. I am not sure if there are Spanish missionaries in Vernal so I think I going to the farthest place possible from where I am now. My companion's name is Elder Meakin. I think he has been out about the same time as me...not really sure. Also, I think the area has a truck so that's a plus. Evidently there are lots of Native Americans who do not like it when there are mistaken for hispanics and are easily offended by that. That is about all I have heard about the area.

As I think I have mentioned we have been doing weekly service out in Mosida with a Senior missionary couple for a while. We go out every Tuesday and have lunch then do service. We have gotten pretty close to them the last little while. They are leaving this week so last week they had a good bye lunch and we did service after. Thursday we helped a family in Goshen move. They happen to be moving to Riverton Wyoming. If I am not mistaken that is where Dad was born. I think Goshen and Riverton must be similar towns.

I don't know if I talked about one of our new investigators, Manuela, last email. We found here like two weeks ago in some more hidden apartments in Genola. There was a "ESTE HOGAR ES CATOLICO" sign which almost stopped us from knocking due to prior experience with knocking on doors with the same sign. She was nice though and we had a good lesson. We always give people pamphlets and at the end of the pamphlets there are questions with blanks to fill them in. I kind of forgot there were questions at the back though because no one has ever done them before but as were were talking with Manuela the next lesson she showed how she had answered all the questions and asked us about all the parts she didnt quite get. Seems to be some potential there.

Last night I said good bye to some familes. Pedro's mom was the best. When we shook hands as we were walking out she held it for like 2 minutes and started crying and stuff. Good lady.

Well, it should be an exciting next week. Sounds like things are pretty busy at home!

Con Amor, Elder Clark